Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront News

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Hi everyone, we have a special update for you.
For the first time, we want you to take a look at something other than vehicles, weapons and explosions; this one is about natural elements in Gates of Hell and how we plan for “the nature of things” to be 100% new. Remember, Gates of Hell is aimed at total realism and we don’t think anyone will ever feel the need to make a “realism mod” for it, because that would suggest that GoH does not follow the historical truth.
On to the story; in this update, we want to show you a different side to realism.
So we invite you to “stop and smell the flowers” in this issue, and have a look at trees, shrubberies, grass, forest and the like.

“We want a shrubbery” (The knights who say “Ni”)

Check these Panzergrenadiere; they are using the forest to remain hidden while approaching tanks passing by in the background. Notice how the screenshot shows plenty of trees but you can still see what's in front of you. As a result of this key decision in game design you can use all of the forest areas in GoH without too much vision penalty.
Another design feature is the number of different kinds of trees, which will be much larger than in any game you know. Also, we will only use trees that are particular to the countries we have maps for. Trees that are typically found in one country are not always present in another and we want it to look right. Currently we already have well over 100 different tree models ready.

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HD link Not every treeline is a closed row of one single species of tree, just like it is in real life

Many games will offer you pretty good- looking trees in the game’s levels and in the in- game editor (which will also be featured Gates of Hell). In other games, the total number of different tree shapes will be limited and the kind of trees and bushes is not necessarily fitting for the environment.
For GoH maps, however, because they are based on real places and real history, we have also researched the natural look of the places we modeled. We made 3d models for the right kinds of bushes and trees for these maps.

HD link Not every forest has pine trees, and not every tree in the forest is healthy.



HD link We want creeks and small streams of water to look realistic. As in real life, the water level is not always at its maximum and instead a river bed may look more or less dry.

HD link This seashore was modeled after the real thing. Note the wooden wave breakers on the floodline.


Another important element in our landscaping is realism. We make maps based on real places and real stories. Having played other games where famous battles are portrayed in a map that is (at best) a caricature of the real place, you know that many map features have been put in to add cover, block lines of fire or whatever.
Not so in Gates of Hell; we want to show you what really happened during WWII. On our maps, you will find a really natural look. We can even challenge you to have a look at the real place in google maps/ google earth, you will see that our maps look like the real thing. Have a look at these screenies from our Vistula Spit map and see there is a road that runs straight through the forest, parallel to the beach. The side roads have different shapes every time. At one point, the forest slowly merges into a dune landscape. It would be easiest to make a forest with any old kind of road, which has a very clear- cut end where the dunes start. But we do not want it to be clear- cut, we want it to look real.

What else will be new:

• We have introduced tree/ wood splintering
  
• We have introduced trees that can’t be pushed over by tanks due to their sheer size, acting as natural obstacles - But they can be blown to pieces by artillery instead.

HD link Forest slowly merging into dunes

So you see, we are working on a game that has massive immersion potential. Any modders will be able to work with oodles of material and, depending on the modder’s abilities (and willingness to spend time in the editor), you will see some nice variation everywhere.

Did you know?

• The university of Helsinki published a comprehensive study of the environmental history of WW2.
  
• According to BioScience, September 2008 / Vol. 58 No. 8, “Landscape-scale research has documented immediate battlefield effects as well as indirect impacts of war across landscapes. Water-filled bomb craters from the Battle of Britain were rapidly colonized by nearly 40 species of native plants and invertebrates (Warwick 1949).”
  
• According to ScienceDaily, “Bombing raids by Allied forces during WWII sent shockwaves through Earth's atmosphere big enough to weaken the electrified upper atmosphere (the ionosphere) above the UK, 1,000 km away.”

That’s it for the moment. Do you like what you see? Let us know in the forums, thanks!

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Hi everyone,

we hope you had a safe start to the new year!
Now that 2019 has started, and the dust from our previous announcement has settled, it’s time to show you what we have developed in the past weeks.
We had a second and third look at 300+ beta tester applications and took all of the associated process steps.
We have notified everyone who applied for the beta test via e-mail.
As you probably remember, we can start the beta only after important software changes are made. However, progress is good.

On to the title subject of this update. As we promised in our dev update at the start of october we want to show you our BM-13 Katyusha in this edition.
As far as artillery goes, the BM-13 is an iconic weapon that can’t be omitted from our game for obvious reasons.
Let’s go back to its origins first. Where did this weapon come from?


The origin of rocket launchers as artillery dates back to the 15th century, when Leonardo da Vinci designed his version of a multi- barreled field gun. Rocketry as a scientific field got really popular in the modern era after World War One, and in the 1930s the military started to be interested in this new technology. In the summer of 1938 an idea by general Kotskov was being worked out secretly. It was inspired by ideas of Giuseppe Marco Fiesci, but this time using the RS-132 rocket which had been developed for use by aircraft. The rocket would have been used as an air to air weapon against bombers, similar to the German R4M 'Orkan' that appeared later during the war.

Several prototypes were built using ZIS-6 trucks. Configurations varied from 14 to 48 rockets per vehicle, the RS-132 rocket being adapted and re- named M-13.
In 1941, a smaller aerial rocket (RS-82) was also adapted for use on the ground and this one was used on a wide variety of vehicles as well, such as the T-40 and T-60 (BM-8-24), 36 and 48 rockets (BM-8-36 and 48) and the BM-8-72.

M-13-16 (RS-132) on a ZIS-6 and M-8-24 (RS-82) on a T-40


The new weapon was to be used in new special divisions - they were named as “guards mortar units” (as secret), as these were considered the right choice to keep the weapon secret. It’s military designation remained secret until WW2 ended so nobody knew it was officially called the BM-13; as a result, Soviet troops called it “Katyusha” after a popular song about a girl, and the German troops called it “Stalin’s organ”.

The first time the Katyusha was used was in 1941 at the town of Orsha. The seven BM-13’s that were deployed fired at the town’s market place and caused panic and many casualties.
The appearance of this weapon was a great shock to the Germans, some German infantry reports called it the most fearsome asset in the Soviet arsenal.

This wintery Katyusha (BM-13N) just opened fire.

On many occasions, Katyusha’s were a big factor on the battlefield. No wonder! Whereas one needed just four BM-13 launchers to fire 4.35 tons of HE into a 400,000-square-metre (4,300,000 sq ft) impact zone, no less than 72 conventional artillery guns would be required to achieve the same. The comparatively slow reload meant however that Katyusha barrages were not conceived to deliver continuous fire like conventional artillery. The Katyusha excelled at delivering a very dense saturation barrage over an area in a very short amount of time to stun the enemy: perfect just before an assault.


In Gates of Hell this one is obviously a must- have! The one we show you here is a very common variant of the BM-13. It’s the one that was built on a Studebaker truck. The salvo it fires is 16 rockets; 8 below and 8 on top of the launch rack. The official designation of this specific configuration is the BM-13N as it’s on lend-lease truck.
Here’s some screenies of it; remember, it’s still work in progress:

HD Link The gunner rides along

HD Link This battery has deployed and is firing

HD Link Transit to the front

We plan to add a number of katyusha systems, fitting for the different war stages. In addition to the BM-13N shown here, the BM-8-36 mounted on a ZIS-6 platform will be a devastating early war carpet bomber. As the war progressed, the T-60 became outdated and was converted to mount the RS-82 rockets too, resulting in the familiar BM-8-24. Towards the late war the monstrous 310mm BM-31-12 will make an appearance, paving the way to Berlin.

These rocket platforms are modeled to be as inaccurate as they were in real life, but unlike the German Nebelwerfer types, accuracy is not as important when you can unleash such a massive battery of rockets.

Well, do you like our new artillery asset? Let us know in the forums! Meanwhile, let us know which rocket-propelled piece you’d like to see next for the third part of the ‘It’s not rocket science’ series. Thanks!

Did you know?

• At the end of WW2, 518 batteries of all kinds of rocket launchers were in use in the Soviet army
  
• The maximum range of the BM-13 was just over 8.700m (9.500 yd.)
  A special long range version of the rocket achieved 11.800m (12.900 yd.)
  
• Countries around the world have continued to build and operate Katyusha-like systems well into the 21st century
  

Well, that’s it for the moment folks. Thank you very much for your support, please let us know what you think of our Katyusha and don’t forget to like & share!

Let’s not beat around the bush. It’s not the kind of thing we want to tell you, but owing to a number of major factors we will need to postpone EA.
In this update, we will explain why.
There are several reasons; an important one is that we have raised the bar on content in the day 1 release, having decided that the number of missions in EA should be higher, after we intensified the specifications for the development of singleplayer missions.
In addition, our publisher BestWay is continuously developing vastly improved versions of the game engine for the different platforms. BestWay is currently engaged with all their resources in the development of Soldiers: Arena.
For Gates of Hell, it means we will not start the closed beta test until the publisher’s updates to the engine have been completed, because testing without the software upgrades means we would have to go through all the tests again after the update.

So what do these facts mean for our development and release?


• We will be delivering a more stable game on a more powerful platform, at the cost of starting the beta test later than expected.
  
• You will enjoy having much more singleplayer content on day one of the release.
  
• EA will be postponed to mid 2019

We see the community growing, and since a lot of time has passed since we announced this game, it is time to make a clear statement and remind everyone about what we want to achieve with it.
It has been developed totally independently. We are developing Gates of Hell on the Gem 2 engine and technologies that Best Way has provided to us, but we don’t have any relationship to MOW franchise. Best Way helps us to develop and publish our game. We build at the highest possible quality level within technology constraints and this results in a greatly extended development time. We are crafting Gates of Hell with historical settings and realism as the supporting pillars, aimed to give you atmospheric battles with a strong singleplayer component. As you can this project is merely by concept already very different from what's out there.

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• It’s historically accurate.
  Some examples: correct engine sounds, correct 3d models and paint schemes, correct animations, correct hitboxes, correct equipment limitations, correct ballistics, etc.
  
  
• Includes maps of real places and missions built on real history. For each mission, we put in a tremendous research effort, trying to get historical and geographical details right, whilst attempting to achieve enjoyable gameplay and within the constraints of the game engine.
  
  
• Mission duration is longer, for instance there are resupply times and logistic issues to be considered. Tactical decisions must be considered with greater depth, for mistakes will not be forgiven. Knowledge of WWII strategy and tactics will give you an edge in this game.
  
  
• Emphasis is placed on atmosphere, sense of place and immersion. You will not see graphical elements that downgrade the view of things. Effects and sounds are designed to enhance the visual and acoustic experience.
  
  
• Multiplayer combat will be cooperative-based and asymmetric unlike most RTS games. Maps to play as PvP can be considered closer to a single player mission, with historical setups on both sides where terrain, unit line- ups and strategic advantages are not necessarily balanced. The only “balanced” term is in the victory conditions, so both sides are likewise able to achieve victory, within their completely different situations in terms of numbers, momentum or situation.
  

Did you know?

• During internal testing, one of the feedback points was about the T-34 which was performing badly in a hilly section of the map, because it did not have enough gun depression compared to the enemy Panzers when fighting through the hills and valleys. This is another historical detail which comes into play when considering your tactics in GoH. “It’s not a bug, it’s historically correct”.
  
  
• Our team of 20+ develop this game in their spare time.
  

Well, that’s it for now. As you will understand, we would rather have given you other news. However, we think it’s a blessing in disguise for we will now be able to bring you a game that will be more stable and new, the EA being a bigger package than planned. We are confident we can achieve our planned ideas.

We want to thank the community for its valuable contribution in 2018, and we wish you a happy end to the year and a healthy start to the new one. We will be back with more in 2019!

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Hi everyone, it is time for an update!
First, we would like to thank everyone who applied for the beta test. Subscription for the beta was closed as of 01-dec-2018. We will be sending all of the applicants a message in the next 2 weeks.
Meanwhile, We have been working on new scenarios and lots of other stuff. One of the things that we would like to show you is typical of what we want for Gates of Hell, in terms of scenario building and realism; a truly hellish and epic battle.

This battle took place in the autumn of 1941 and marked the farthest point of advance of the Germans during “Operation Typhoon”. We have a super realistic map and scenario for you. But before we show you anything, let’s go back to the freezing cold of 1941 and set the scene.


Near the town of Volokolamsk, close to Moscow, fighting develops near the end of october.
This will be the decisive part of operation Typhoon; the Germans must reach Moscow or get stuck in the gruesome winter weather without reaching the main goal of operation Barbarossa.

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The rasputitsa may have been a slowing factor, but now German forces launch an attack on Volokolamsk, which is being defended by the Soviet 316th Rifle Division. This is a crucial fight; if the defenders fail, the Germans will be able to reach nearby Moscow virtually unopposed. The stakes are high, but supplies are low.
The Soviets do everything to stop the German advance. The Germans, from their side, are pushing like hell in an attempt to take Moscow; they desperately need quick results. They can only use one road and they know it. The defenders know it, too.


So here you are, commanding the last men of the 316th Rifle Division that retreated from Volokolamsk. It just started snowing. Civilians have toiled through the ice cold day to build defensive positions. They have now gone and it’s time for you to man the trenches.
But you have to do it NOW! Tank sounds up ahead are getting louder. Tell your men: not a single step back!

HD Link Soviet defense plan


At the break of day, the first artillery barrage destroys the Soviet dummy AT guns. Then, the first combined tank/ infantry attack takes place.
Russian artillery rains down on the attack, but Stukas force the artillery crews to withdraw and take cover.
The German tanks are being stopped by the 316th’s AT guns and AT rifles, and they withdraw as well.
A second German artillery bombardment begins; this time it hits the trenches, killing the majority of Soviet soldiers.
The few survivors are now the only ones left to fend off the attack, which they barely do.

HD Link HD Link The 316th moves into position during the night and digs in.


HD Link HD Link Then the Germans arrive and storm their position. The 316th fights back.


In real life, Volokolamsk fell on October 27th 1941 and the 316th were forced to fall back to the east of the town. The division’s 1075th rifle regiment set up defences at Dubosekovo railroad station. On the morning of 16th November they were attacked by the German 2nd Panzer Division, and by 10am the German forces had control of the villages of Petelino and Nelidovo. It is reported that they managed to destroy "some" tanks and suffered over 100 casualties.
The 316th had some 130 men left, who were also ordered to dig trenches at the Dubosekovo railway station. The only anti- tank weapons they had left were a few light AT guns and molotov cocktails. For a few days, they were at work digging trenches and setting up dummy AT guns and emplacements with the help of locals; they hoped that these would fool the enemy recon aircraft and draw a lot of fire. This would turn out to be true.
The first German attack came and went; German artillery bombed the defenses and a second attack was launched; by this time, there were only 28 men left to fight off this local attack. Only a few survived. The Germans held Volokolamsk for a while but in the end, operation Typhoon failed here because on december 20th the Soviet 331st rifle division drove the Germans out of Volokolamsk during the great winter offensive, which had started on december 5th.


Panfilov's Men are described in Wikipedia as “a group of soldiers from the Red Army's 316th Rifle Division who took part in the defense of Moscow during World War II. According to official Soviet history, they were all killed in action on 16 November 1941, after destroying 18 German tanks and stopping the enemy attack on Volokolamsk. The Twenty-Eight were collectively endowed with the title Hero of the Soviet Union.”
So far, so good! This is one of those stories we must base our scenario on, right?
Not really. After the war it turned out that the story was a fabrication. It was impossible to tell what the 28 men had really achieved, since only 2 German tanks were reported destroyed that day. Worse still, one of the survivors was taken prisoner but escaped, and later volunteered for the German local militia in his home town to escape deportation.

Looking at the battle and the outcome, it has to be said that the 316th put up a truly fierce and heroic defence at Volokolamsk - Panfilov or no Panfilov.

Did you know?

• Many Soviet and German medal registers survived the war. Because of that, medals that are found post- war in some cases can help identify the original owner.
  
• In the original German planning for Barbarossa, the capture of Moscow was supposed to happen within 4 months after the start, so before the end of october.
  
• Some sources state that British Matilda tanks were used in the defense of Volokolamsk.
  
• One week after the Volokolamsk battle, the big Soviet winter counteroffensive started. It used troops which had been moved away from the east, after soviet intelligence confirmed that the Japanese had decided not to attack Russia, and that the attack on Pearl Harbor was imminent.
  

That’s it for this update. We will have another one for you soon! Meanwhile, let us know what you think and please like & share, thanks.

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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?