Operation Valor News

[h3]Saturday Developer Play Session w/ Giveaways[/h3]
We are having a Developer Play Session this Saturday (11th of November) starting at 12 PM PST / 3 PM EST / 9 PM CET and it will go for several hours.

During the play session we will be doing giveaways on our Twitch!

[h3]November 9th Changelog[/h3] You can find the changelog for this patch here!

[h3]Looking forward[/h3]
Recently we've been splitting our time between fixing bugs, adding new UI features, and optimizing the first time user experience (see our change to servers in the changelog). We've been getting closer and closer to having our 4th map Caul where we want it. Our level designer and 3D artist have been crushing it. We are still aiming for the very very end of November to release the map.

As far as AI / bot improvements go, we've been pretty open about this in Discord, streams, etc. When we first implemented AI, due to scope reasons, we made all the AI just play as riflemen and there wasn't the ability for AI to play as different classes. With all the energy and love we've received from the community, we're now fired up to add the functionality for AI to play different classes. This is a biggish task as we don't have the functionality in yet. We will have to do this iteratively. Meaning... we will start with the Support class most likely, get it working properly and behaving, and then move onto another class. Our goal is to get the AI to at least play Squad Leader, Medic, Support, and Riflemen. Roles that can really improve the experience. We have a pretty clear idea how we will make the AI play Squad Leader which should really enhance the experience - especially when there are no Squad Leaders.

Again, this is a very big task and it will be done iteratively so we ask you all to be a little patient. Once we get the Support class in and it's behavior's polished that will be a huge milestone for us. I don't want to give you a timeline and get your hopes up but we are really hoping and trying to have this in before the December holidays (at least Support and Medic).

There are some other stuff we have planned to put into the game as well but I'll keep that for another day.

Stop by our Discord. We have a solid LFG - looking for group now that are coordinating when they play and it's only getting bigger, slowly, but it is getting bigger!

Thanks for reading and I'll see you this Saturday at 12 PM PST for our Play Session!

A major mechanic we just implemented for servers is:

We will only be having servers up for one region during set times throughout the day. Europe servers will be active for 12 hours and then NA servers will be active for the other 12 hours. This is to help keep the population from splitting. For the time being, we have removed region selector. This should help so players don't join an empty server in one region, while another region has players.

Adjustments

• Adjusted text chat to include 150 characters with word wrapping now so you can enter longer messages
  
• Adjusted the Support class icon to be flipped so it's easier to tell the Riflemen class apart from the Support class.
  
• Adjusted Support Class for both teams:
  

• Black Foxes now has 60 x 5 magazines
  
• United Militia now has 100 x 3 magazines
  
• Reduced reload time for the m249 from 7 seconds to 4 seconds to balance this change.

Added

• Added UI to show your squad members all the time and what classes they are playing. This UI will only be hidden when you are in a vehicle.
  
• Added UI on the scoreboard to show the classes of all your teammates.
  
• Added hint text to show that " Y " enables the chat
  

Fixed

• Fixed teambalance being broken so it didn't actually work (team balance difference is currently set to " 1 " player difference between the two teams)
  
• Fixed a bug where AI would run into rocks on Kalinsk
  
• Fixed shovel audio not playing when the camera was zoomed all the way out.
  
• Fixed issue causing players to get a loss if they were spectating a game and it ended.
  
• Fixed an issue where the spectator camera shakes in freelook (known bug - this sometimes will be triggered if you are spectating a player and they die).
  
• Fixed vehicle colors being the wrong color for team vs. squad
  
• Fixed material on the anti tank star buildable
  

Fixed AI not spawning on Kalinsk due to our new AI behavior where they can vault up and down certain geometry.

This is an iterative process so AI won't be able to vault up and down everything, but over time we can add areas they will be able to.

[h2]Speedrun Shoothouse Competition[/h2]
We are holding a Speedrun competition for the Live Fire portion of our Shoothouse from November 1st to November 8th.

The top 10 Speedrun scores will get a special badge in game while the top 3 Speedrun scores will get a special banner in game! All you have to do is join our discord and make sure to submit your results after each Live Fire run in the Shoothouse. The shoothouse AI positions have been updated so... good luck!

Times are updated live in our Speedrun Leaderboard in Discord!

[h2]Patch + Play Session[/h2]
We JUST released another patch updating adding new functionality to AI, adjustments, and fixes. You can read more about the patch notes here.

Also!

We will be having another play session this Saturday at 12 PM PDT. This play session will be community driven so be sure to drop by discord and join in!

[h2]November 1st Changelog[/h2] Adjustments

• Adjusted matchmaking to be very fast given the current population of the game. This will need to be adjusted when we grow a little, but for now, queueing should happen within 60 seconds (usually ~45 seconds).
  
• Adjusted match preparation time to start sooner so players are not waiting as long.
  
• Adjusted the "buildable detected" feature from 60 seconds to 10 seconds. Enemy buildables will now disappear from the map after 10 seconds of you no longer have vision of the buildable. This is to help balance buildables being destroyed by mortars so easily and deconstructed so easily.
  
• Adjusted all refill areas on all maps for vehicles
  
• Adjusted the shovel digging sound so it can only be heard when very close (on screen). This was a riduculously large range (too large) and made it very easy to find people building.
  
• Reworked AI prioritization - you should not see AI pull their syringe out as much anymore until they are directly near the person they are trying to revive. There are also many other small changes we made to make AI behave a little better.
  
• Adjusted mortar for balance:
  

• Deadzone changed from 50 to 35
  
• Shooting range changed from 400 to 350
  
• Shooting delay changed from 5 to 3 seconds
  
• Projectile speed changed from 50 to 70
  
• Heat speed changed from 0.4 to 0.3
  
• Cool down speed changed from 0.34 to 0.26
  
• Cool down after last shot changed from 6 to 8 seconds
  
• Spawn mortar impact after 4 seconds
  
• Adjusted size of mortar shell UI to display damage area correctly

Added

• Added feature where AI will vault over buildables, we will slowly be adding areas around the map that AI can vault up and down, please let us know if you see specific areas where this can be added and we can add them! :)
  
• Added feature where AI stand still for 1.5 seconds after being revived to help medics heal them
  
• Added feature where AI will stand still when being healed by a medic
  
• Added feature where AI (maximum 2 per team) will help construct friendly buildables or destroyed enemy buildables. AI will prioritize attacking enemies or objectives over constructing/deconstructing. AI will not construct a buildable that is being deconstructed by a teammate.
  
• Players now get points from destroying a rally point
  
• Added 15 second cooldown on rally point
  
• Reduced the time duration the building would show on the map after being discovered from 60 seconds to 10 seconds to help with buildables being destroyed so quickly
  

Fixed

• Fixed issue where AI would shoot at a target even if they could not hit the target
  
• Fixed crash related to FOB
  
• Fixed potential crash related to players changing teams
  
• Fixed objective indicators for Black Foxes being inconsistent
  
• Fixed issue with various colliders around the maps (more will be fixed in the next patch but please keep posting any weird issues around the maps!)
  
• Fixed issue where AI were not aiming accurately at enemies at a large height difference (if you see areas where they miss a lot, please post in the bug report section of our discord!).
  
• Fixed objective captured text not displaying properly when contested sometimes
  
• Fixed capture points being collected when a player was downed
  
• Fixed leaderboard not showing losses or deaths
  
• Fixed leaderboard sorting (WLR and KDR are still not working yet)
  
• Fixed building placement error priority