Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront News

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Hello everyone, here we are with a fresh update.
This time we want to tell you about something completely different, something very important in every game: animations.

As suggested by the community, we need to do something about the animations, as they are extremely important for immersion.
That is how we see the subject. It’s the reason why we are developing all- new animations for human models. We don’t want to keep animations for humans from the older game; everything has to go! We will make a start with this for EA and complete it in the full version development cycle and beyond.

The translation of “we want better animations” is that we want to

• Make soldiers look organic in their motion.
  
• Make animations fluent so they don’t break up or look buggy, eg. moving their hands about at Mach 3 when they loop or switch animations,
  
• Prevent soldiers from starting oscillations of animation strings that makes them look like they are ‘dancing the samba’.
  
• Make soldiers look realistic when they are idle - they will squat down to get some rest, switch their weapon from one hand to the other, look around every now and again (facing forward ALL the time is not how a soldier is instructed to behave, situational awareness for the AI will now be better).
  
• Give humans realistic movement limitations. In previous games released for ‘Gem2’ game engine, soldiers INSTANTLY rotate and shoot at the enemy without aiming.
  In GoH, the swivelling of head/ hip/ arm/ legs takes time, soldiers are no longer instant turn- and- shoot machines.
  
• Introduce AI reaction time (current setup is 0.2-0.5 seconds for the soldiers to analyze and “react” to sudden events).
  
• Make soldiers have custom animations for boarding or unloading of vehicles, so they move around the vehicle much more naturally.
  

It’s obviously nice to know what you want, but let’s complete this thought with what we really do not want to see:

• Robotic-looking animations and weird postures
  
• Soldiers that look like statues pointing their rifles in general directions all the time
  
• The cliché that for a strategy game ‘a basic set of animations will do’
  
• Soldiers disappearing in the middle of nowhere as they enter vehicles because they use a generic boarding animation that does not match the hatch/ door positions of the vehicle, so the animation finishes halfway outside the tank as the soldiers vanish.
  

We’re quite sure you will have seen these odd things in some games; in due time we will make them become a thing of the past….



Animations and behaviour have quite an impact on gameplay; besides the fact that we will make sure the animations look better, obviously, gameplay will improve considerably on a number of counts.

For vehicles we have strong improvements in the pipeline, too.
We are working to have custom animations for every individual vehicle (in the full version, not in EA), something that has rarely been done in any game before. This is a very long process, which will take years to complete, so a lot of animation work will be done post-release. We want to make soldiers synchronize seamlessly with the motion of vehicle doors/hatches and avoid “floating” soldiers or the like. One cosmetic feature we are working on are animations for boarding vehicles. Soldiers will holster/ unholster their weapons, ready to go for a drive when they board a vehicle, or ready go into action immediately after getting out.

For soldiers we will have a more natural reaction to changes in every situation; players will need to adjust to different reaction times. Your troops need to react + turn + aim at the target before shooting. Having one soldier taking care of your flank might not be enough to stop a sneaking raid. You will be able to discover a sneaking raid earlier than before, due to soldiers looking around every now and again to observe the surroundings will make it much harder for you to sneak past them.

These are very ambitious plans, and we want to become even more ambitious if we have the resources for it from our publisher; however, it takes a lot of time to make animations look good and we have to do a lot of them, so we won’t be finished any time soon.

Note that the less aimbot-like characteristics, swivelling times for human rotations, and other features spoken previously in devblogs, such as progressive aiming (zeroing), all knit together to create a slower-paced but more realistic gameplay style. In this slower environment there is more time for the player to emphasize the use of the features of our game engine that make it so unique: Scavenging inventories, resupplying your guns, having a look around; And in the case of Gates of Hell: Completing secret objectives.

So here is a small collection of animations we’re working on. NOTE: all of this is work in progress in alpha/ beta stage and will be subject of improvement:
https://youtu.be/a1KttCjW6Tk
With this video there are 2 footnotes:
1) Weapon animations for infantry do not move weapon mechanisms as of now. We will very soon address this problem and come back to you in the next blog with the results of our work.

2) The bayonet attack features a voice callout, re-used from old resources. We are looking for Russian voice actors to re- record the remaining 33% of the Soviet faction. Interested? Apply here: http://barbed-wire.eu/join/



We intend to include quite a number of new infantry animations in the EA package, and a fair number of fully-finished vehicle infantry animations. After EA it evolves into the full release (6-12 months after day one of EA), and we will continue to produce new sets of animations.

One possible extension of our plans would be weapon-based animations for each individual firearm, or a group of them; for instance, reloading the Sten gun with the sideways-facing magazine should not play the same animation as reloading an MP40; likewise, reloading a belt-fed MG-42 shouldn’t look the same as replacing a DP-27 pan-shaped magazine. Whether we manage to complete this or not depends on how well received the changes are, and we would be achieving these features with joint efforts with our publisher Best Way.

As you can see, the ambition is there; we are pushing like hell! Which brings us to the question: are you the animator which can help us speed up the process? Check out the vacancy on our website.

• The Sten gun was prone to clip the little finger of the soldier firing it, if the firing action made the top of the little finger slip into the slot on the side of the body where the cocking knob ran.
  
• The magazine of the Sten gun was a direct copy of the German Erma MP38 magazine.
  
• Soviet troops, especially behind enemy lines, enjoyed utilising german ‘Schmeissers’ for their low weight and controllable bursts. On the other hand, German frontline soldiers often looked for Soviet PPsH submachine guns, which very rarely jammed.
  

That is it for the moment. Tell us what you think; are we on the right track?

Hi everyone, here we are with some new stuff we want to show you, and also we have an announcement to make. Things are getting closer and closer to being finished and the excitement is going up slowly but surely.

First, let’s have a look at a specific piece of weaponry: the Nebelwerfer 41. Let’s start with a bit of history.
“Nebelwerfer” is the generic German name for this type of weapon. Some sources state that the name was given to it because it’s rockets created dense smoke trails that could be seen for miles. This is not true; it’s because of the original (main) task of laying smoke screens that these specialist units had. In the campaign in France for instance, successful Nebelwerfer smokescreens blinded enemy artillery observers on several occasions when German troops were crossing rivers or attacking sections of the Maginot Line.

Before 1941, the “Werfertruppe” had two models of the 10 cm Nebelwerfer at their disposal (the 35 and the 40). The collection was expanded by a new model in the summer of 1941, which was not a 10cm but a 15cm “Werfer”, which was named Nebelwerfer 41 in accordance with the then current naming convention in the German army.
It was intended for firing 2 types of rockets; smoke and HE. Eventually, the units were used almost exclusively to fire HE rockets.
There were 5 regiments of rocket artillery when operation Barbarossa started, “Werferregiment” 51, 52, 53 and 54 and the “Werfer- Lehr- Regiment”. These served in close support, right at the front line. They provided a dense bombardment and were quite effective; German army commanders liked the weapon very much. Notable battles where the Nebelwerfer played a role were the battle at the Stalin line and the Perekop isthmus, both in 1941. Its characteristic loud noise made British & American soldiers call it “Moaning Minnie” when they opposed them in Africa and Italy.
The Nebelwerfer 41 stayed in production until the war’s end.




In Gates of Hell we will have a completely new Nebelwerfer 41 for you.
What’s new about this one?
Well, as you know by now, the rockets used for this weapon left dense smoke trails that could be seen far beyond the normal line of sight. This will also be true in GoH.
Also, it will feature a support at the front to stabilize the Werfer before it can be fired.
It’s crew will duck & cover their ears when the weapon is being fired, to avoid going deaf with the astonishingly loud noise.

This is how it looks (by the way, everything you see in our blogs and on facebook & VK is work in progress):

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Note: WiP alert! The flame effects and the animations are due to GIF limitations and do not represent the actual in- game effects.

For historically correct game design purposes we researched how the rockets (Wurfgranate 41) were designed and manufactured.
Two features of this design are different compared to the soviet rocket equivalent - the Katyusha’s M-13. Having found that stabilization fins were no option, the rockets were designed with tilted nozzles that made the rocket spin as it travelled, offering gyroscopic stability, similar to the rifling in gun barrels. Another difference is that the explosive was at the back of the (31,8 Kg/ 70 Lb.) rocket, whereas Soviet rockets had the explosive load at the front.
The result was that the Nebelwerfer rocket was more accurate and had a more effective shockwave. However, the BM-13 fired way more rockets (16 vs. 6) per salvo.



One remark about development balance; what we see here is a German piece of artillery. But this rocket science series of blogs is not over yet! Our Studebaker-mounted Katyusha rocket systems are moving to texturing stage. We plan to have them suited up for the next rocket artillery update.
Having said that, you can see we are busy putting these rocket launchers in the game. So how can we be sure that will they work? By testing, of course.



We are gearing up for the beta and so we need testers.
Since we are a small studio, it would be very unwise to take hundreds of testers on board; we would simply be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of feedback.
We think the beta can be successful if we have a very strict selection of about 15 testers.
Probably the most important asset for a tester is the ability to explain issues to the devs, and our internal communications are always in English. We’re really sorry for those who come from many countries and who do not speak English, but we must prioritise efficiency at work.

Overall, this is what we look for in our beta testers:

Hi everyone, it’s time for an update and here we are.

There are lots of things being developed in parallel, some things more interesting to write about than others; so we picked something that will be available in early access, and describe how we made it and what it will look like.


The struggle at the Vistula spit happened right at the end of the war, after a campaign that had seen unbelievably bitter fighting under extreme conditions, with staggering loss of life on both sides.

The Vistula spit and the Curonian spit are sandbank formations that are emblematic for the geography of the Baltic coast between Gdańsk (Danzig) and Klaipėda (Memel). As German units became cut off from the rest of the German Army (which was retreating towards the Oder during the Soviet offensive of january 1945) two pockets of resistance emerged around Königsberg (Kaliningrad) to the east and Danzig to the West, only linked by the Vistula spit after Soviet troops reached the Vistula lagoon at Heiligenbeil.

The situation became similar to the Courland pocket further east: the bulk of the Red Army was focused on breaking the Oder-Line and reaching Berlin, while efforts were made to contain and slowly destroy the German pockets. For the Germans “holding at all cost” had become the usual official mantra, and the evacuation by sea of civilians, wounded and valuable equipment didn’t mean the position would be abandoned. The evacuations took place mostly by ship and were supported by the Kriegsmarine. Many civilians and soldiers were evacuated in the extreme cold, and evacuations continued during spring. After the major ports of Königsberg and Danzig had been lost the only real alternatives for evacuation by ship were the small ports of Pillau and Hela.

Civilians and soldiers line up to be evacuated in Pillau, 1945.

A tank ditch was dug across the peninsula north of Pillau to defend the city. What seem to be the remains of the defensive line can still be seen today; copy/ paste the coordinates (54.719827, 19.945084) into google maps to find it. The Lochstädt (Lochstedt) castle was the pivotal defense point of the German defenses north of Pillau in april 1945, it was defended by guns of the 18. Flak-Division and fell after heavy fighting on the 23rd of april. Pillau itself fell on the 25th of april.

Part of a German situation map, indicating Pillau had a “fortress command”

After the fall of Pillau, remnants of the German 4th Army - various surviving units and civilians - fled across the Pillau Strait.
Soviet troops of the 11th Guards Army pushed hard to pursue the fleeing Germans, harassing them with aircraft and building a pontoon to cross the strait. At the same time soviet troops used boats to land on both sides of the Spit to cut off retreating German troops. The main landing took place on the 27th April and was supposed to be a synchronized attack on both sides of the Spit, but the timing was off and Germans troops managed to push the Soviet troops back.

German infantry held blocking positions along the Spit, the northernmost part held by the 28. Jäger Division made up of remnants of the LV. Army Corps, while the remnants of the 5th Panzer Division and the “Grossdeutschland” Panzer Division served as mobile counterattack forces with the very few vehicles that were still operational.
Wounded soldiers, civilians from Pomerania and East Prussia and all sort of support units were now stuck on the Spit. The fighting continued until the 8th of May, the day the German troops on the Spit surrendered (2. Army on the nearby Hel-Peninsula surrendered only the next day).


The mission in Gates of Hell will be set in the aftermath of the fall of Pillau, during the gruelling last days of the war in Europe. Desperate German units trying to hold on and Soviet troops determined to end the war once and for all clash in the spring weather of 1945.

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The geography of the area is unique and very different from the plains, cities and snowy battlefields of the Soviet Union. Instead the spit is heavily forested, giving great cover for infantry to hide from the ever watchful eyes of the Soviet air force. And of course sand, a lot of it (it’s coarse and rough and irritating obviously). This interesting mix of terrain is why we chose to look at this battle for Gates of Hell.

The mission we’re designing for the map will rely on these geographical features and the context of the last days of the war unfolding to provide an engaging fight for the player. The map can be roughly described as being composed of three distinctive areas that blend into each other: the shore on the baltic sea, the forest, and the dunes on the vistula lagoon shore.

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The baltic shoreline is thin and offers little cover. An improvised road follows the shoreline: the only north-south road on the spit was quickly congested by the military traffic and especially civilians but also military units used the sandy shore as an alternative road. This worked well during the winter when the sand was firm from the cold but when spring came around the loose sand became the last resting place for more than one German vehicle.

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Most of the spit is covered with pine forest. The sandy and mossy ground offers little resistance to tracks and so the only road going through the forest was of strategic importance. The almost straight road offers little cover, so beware if you want to rush your tank down that road, anti-tank crews and panzerfausts are lurking in the forest!

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In the forest itself, German troops are seeking refuge from the constant Soviet air presence; here they can fortify. For Soviet soldiers it will be no simple task to drive them out, it will be a bloody forest fight.

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Then the forest and the dunes on the eastern side of the spit start to blend. Sand and greenery mix and create a playground for infantry ambushes. Flanking attacks to outmaneuver the fortified forest positions will have to come through here.

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The dunes are open terrain, suited for long range fighting. Here tanks can deploy all their firepower, although the bumpy, sandy terrain doesn't make for an easy ride. The wavy dunes also provide great cover for sneaky infantry attacks. But beware, from above the mighty Soviet air force is always watching - and who knows what danger might come sailing in from the lagoon?

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Before and after the surrender, food was in short supply. Even though potatoes were available, these were not handed out immediately because they were needed for planting new crops.
In the last weeks of the war, German light FLAK units were almost exclusively used in ground battles, for which they had to conserve ammunition; with the Luftwaffe already incapacitated, the VVS (Soviet air force) not only had complete mastery of the air, but the FLAK also stopped shooting at its aircraft.
The side streets of Pillau were littered with big piles of equipment in those last weeks. Soldiers were told to leave behind their guns, gas mask drums etc. to save space on the evacuating ships.
The Teutonic Order built the castle at Lochstädt. You can still visit the ruins of the castle today. In Pillau itself you can find a war museum as well.
We post regular WiP screenshots on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/gatesofhellgame/
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Hi everyone, here we are with a development update! The last update was quite general; this time we want to present something really specific. In fact, what we want to show you is a historical scenario we’ve been working on: the battle of Tikhvin.



In October 1941, the defenses of Leningrad appear to be impenetrable to the German attackers. Instead of attacking frontally, German high command decides to concentrate its efforts against the city’s supply lines. The focal point is the railway line linking Leningrad to the eastern regions supplying the Road of Life, and the offensive will target it’s largest railway node: the town of Tikhvin. After a devastating aerial bombardment, disabling most of the infrastructure, the German forces advance on the Volkhov sector to conquer the town and cut the supply line to Leningrad.

When the Germans reach the outskirts of the town on the 8th of November a blinding snowstorm starts, slowing the attackers and concealing the enemy positions. The few Soviet guns still present in the area fire at the panzers at point blank range, and the Germans have a hard time breaking through the Soviet lines. The fighting stops when Soviet troops retreat. Afterwards, Soviet High Command organises a counter offensive with fresh reinforcements and latest version T-34s.

Because this battle was unique at the time, we felt it deserves a place in Gates of Hell. For this scenario we even built a very special vehicle; completely historical of course.





The mission starts after the German attack on Tikhvin. Soviet aero sleds are commanded to recon the area in preparation for the Soviet counterattack. The Germans are establishing logistics and defenses of their own, which makes the perfect scene for sabotage and observation operations.

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The player [soviet] will have to fight his way through the German rear and jeopardise the supply columns and other vital strategic assets. There is room for plenty of secondary tactics to be employed, from sabotaging communication lines to denying the enemy a chance to call for reinforcements and preventing partisan executions. We have modelled the logistics and communication setups as accurately as possible.

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The player will have to micro-control his small squad and keep key members alive - resembling the classic gameplay of the original games of the series. Despite the numerical inferiority, two factors are strongly in favor of the player: the element of surprise and the crucial use of NKL-26s. While the Germans struggle to cross the deep snow, your aerosleds will be speeding on the surface, and the Germans won’t know what hit them.
With this setup, we want to bring something new to the table and ensure each mission is unique and has something special and new.

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The Soviets eventually took back the town on December 8th, making Tikhvin the first place where a Soviet counteroffensive actually repelled the Germans. In doing so, they reopened the supply line to Leningrad, albeit for a very short period of time. The Leningrad blockade was one of the most cruel events of WWII. Through our game, we wish to pay tribute to the soldiers and civilians who endured the brutal struggle. In the future we plan to develop new scenarios depicting the ‘Road of Life’ and other key events where the Soviets faced Army Group North.

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That’s the battle of Tikhvin for now. In the background we are working on a lot more scenarios such as Mount Elbrus (check the screenshots on Facebook and VK) and the battle of Tula (around Kondrovo), and we will make sure there is a good score of scenarios when we announce the EA later this year.
Do you like what you see? Let us know!

Did you know?

• A few days after the Germans captured Tikhvin, the temperature fell off to -40°c. At this temperature, any contact with metallic objects immediately burns the skin. Because of this, both armies were forced to halt operations as men were dying of cold and most equipment was frozen.
• From the end of 1941 to February 1942 the only food available in Leningrad was a ration of 125 grams of bread per day, which contained more than 50% sawdust and other inedible materials.
• In 1942, the Soviet army tried to break the Leningrad siege for the third time. The plan was called the Sinyavino Offensive and for the first time involved major forces. The Germans had also been preparing an offensive in the same month and the same region, called Operation Nordlicht (Northern Light). They were both unaware of the enemy’s plans. This offensive also saw the first involvement of Tiger tanks, although technical failures and swampy terrain prevented them from actively taking part in the fights.

Hello everybody, today's news is one of our job ads, which we wanted to share with you! Please spread it to those who might be interested! Our next content dev blog will follow shortly in the next 2 weeks! See you in the comments!

LOCATION: REMOTE WORK
LEVEL: EXPERIENCED
DEPARTMENT: LEVEL DESIGN
PAYMENT: AFTER RELEASE

As a Level Designer at BWS, you are responsible for providing immersive, high quality maps:

• You will recreate the battlefields of WWII with stunning historical accuracy and immersion, based on research and verified sources, including correct map sizes/scales, extracting hightmaps and being able to pinpoint locations of different objects/environments such as houses, landscape elements, flora, etc. While said work is planned, you will also take care of producing project documents to note down important information before you go hands-on.
  
• You will be coordinating your work with the mapping team as well as your team lead to increase your skills, to develop new mapping techniques and to share innovative ideas with everybody, in a continued ongoing process.
  
• You will regularly developing test areas in the GEM editor to find the best mapping and design techniques before you adapt the result into the final project.
  
• The process of creation of a map is long: You will be an active member of our team, driven by passion and willing to run the required miles to fulfill our self set targets and standards.
  

• You are skilled in level design and you understand basic art principles.
  
• You got solid experiences with the GEM Editor and you are able to work with all its tools (highmapping, colour tool, polygon edit etc.).
  
• You are committed to learn and use Discord (communication means), Git (version controlling & every mapper can see everybody's work) and Trello (organisation).
  
• You are open minded (also for feedback/critics), willing to work in an international team.
  
• You are fluent in english so you are able to communicate with us.
  

We are an international, innovative and homegrown team born out of dedicated enthusiasts - our target? We strive to build an RTS that unlike all others, puts both historical value and atmosphere upfront to deliver a product that both an immersive game and a loyal portrayal of WWII. Thus, we are looking for people who share our passion. We grew up watching the classic war films, reading the books and travelling to the places where modern history was forever shaped. Is this your cup of tea? Then please get in touch with us now, right here.

Note: When sending us your application, please make sure to attach your CV and references from your mentioned work, as pictures or Steam Workshop/Youtube Links. (References are required to evaluate your skills in level design).

We look forward to receive your application!