Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront News

Community members! As we promised in our August 1st announcement, we’ll be looking at development in general and some of the Liberation campaign development, and tell you a bit about the background.
On another note, we have another free game update inbound, for which we will run an open beta; keep reading!


The Liberation of Europe didn’t stop on D- Day, when the US, Britain and Canada landed in Normandy; what came after was just as significant. That’s why we designed Liberation to see some of the important yet lesser known battles that took place long after D-Day, and Liberation will give you plenty of that.
The SP campaigns, with a grand total of 16 missions, will take you through battles that were fought during the entire liberation of Europe in 1944- 45. In addition, to give the player more of a storytelling experience, these missions follow some pretty famous fighting units.

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The SP campaign has a different approach than usual in two ways.
First of all, we have focused on particular fighting units, with 2 units in each campaign.
The second difference is the fact that we have integrated the skirmishes in the US SP campaign storyline.
As our Store page mentions, the US campaign focuses on the 2nd Rangers and the 3rd armored division. As you may know, the 2nd Rangers did much more than take Pointe du Hoc on D-Day; they fought in Belgium and Germany as well. The 3rd armored division arrived in France a few weeks after D-DAY, and started making history immediately.

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On the German side, the SP campaign follows the 3rd Fallschirmjäger division, which arrived in Normandy 4 days after D- Day, and 116th Panzer division. Both of these units were in the thick of it after D-Day and both fought until the end.
The 4 skirmishes for the US faction will be integrated in the SP campaign, filling in the spaces in the linear storytelling. Basically this will give the player a 10 mission storyline.


As we have stated before, we have the support of ww2armor.org. Thanks to them, we have accumulated an enormous database that includes every detail of almost every vehicle that was involved in the liberation of Europe; this greatly helped us in the production of 3d models.
We will be adding German vehicles as well, and for those we used other sources and actual vehicles for our research. Basically, that means business as usual for us, however the contribution that ww2armor made is exceptional. Progress has been very good as a result; here are some screenshots to give you an impression on what we have. Remember; this is just a small fraction!

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We are very happy to announce the next free quality of life update will be available for everyone in a short open beta! We did a summary of the contents of the update in our previous devblog post. You can find out through the open beta; if you’d like to try it, right- click on your game in the library, go to properties, then betas, and select the open beta option. Let us know what you think about the update!
We published the changelog as usual, you can find it HERE.

Any questions you might still have are best asked in the official GoH Discord server.



The open beta for the update will run for a few days, after which it will go live.
We’ll be keeping you posted about what’s happening and what we’re producing. In our next series of blogs we will dive into subjects like history, the integration of Liberation into the game, and much more.

That’s it for now, thanks for your time and see you on the battlefield!

Community members! Welcome to the first development update since the announcement of the Liberation DLC. In this edition we’ll tell you about our planned updates.





We plan to bring you an update soon, bringing multiple quality of life improvements and bugfixes. We have dealt with some bugs that caused crashes, we improved some systems, and improved the overall quality and immersion of the game. We also added some new infrastructure to support the upcoming Liberation DLC.

In terms of bug fixes, we addressed some situations that caused crashes and desynchronization in multiplayer. We have also improved performance when playing conquest.
Besides that, a lot of singleplayer missions got improved. We also added an experimental setting to reduce vehicles and cannons getting stuck on cliff edges and trenches.

We added some new features: Hosts can kick players during the loading screen, and we made vehicles able to aim while reloading, to better keep track of their targets (especially useful for anti-aircraft guns). We added the option of “Region” selection in conquest, to be able to select eastern or western fronts in the future. Modders can use this to make as many regions as they choose.

Other quality of life improvements: We repositioned some important buttons like the “lock ammo type” to be more accessible, we improved close quarters infantry responsiveness, and fixed some funny little things like cannons having an engine on/off button which doesn’t apply to them.

Some balancing improvements include repositioning of some flags and spawns on a number of PvP maps as well as other gamemode and unit tweaks with the very appreciated help from our competitive PvP community and our testers.

The change-log is very long as usual; we will publish the whole list of changes when the update is ready to be released.


As is tradition, we’ve always released a very large free update, rich with content, at the time of each new DLC release. This time, it will be no different. Content Update 5 will be a very juicy one, as it will introduce a lot of innovative stuff.


We have changed the doctrine system to be more consistent and dynamic. Now, your doctrine choice will also affect the infantry squads available to you. We have expanded the list of squads to add further historical accuracy, diversity and meaning to each doctrine role. We rebalanced doctrine units and added new ones. We hired some of the best competitive players into our team, to give us a first-hand perspective on what changes would be appropriate. You can expect this to arrive in Content Update 5.


Some recent community-made screenshots:


By Sause Media


By TwoTone88


By ВовсеНе Шая


By Anderkav




[h2]Sound Overhaul [/h2]
The sound overhaul in the last community update was a resounding success. We are very happy with the reception, and we are working to continue the sound overhaul. We don’t know if the next package of sound overhaul will be ready for Content Update 5, as it is a lot of work.

[h2]Animations[/h2]
Technology has advanced a lot in the last 5 years, and our experience with motion capture in the past has allowed us to step up and improve our capabilities: We have invested in a new state-of-the-art motion capture infrastructure, which will allow our team to create the highest quality animations for any type of game in the future. We’ve begun working on creating new animations which will improve the feel of the game further. The process is ongoing, there are over one thousand animations in the game, so at this point we cannot say how much of the new animations will be part of content update 5, and if we will release them gradually or in one go.

Also, we are planning on remaking the Soviet, German and Finnish uniforms, headwear & body equipment. Due to the level of quality and optimization set by the Liberation DLC's USA faction; we seek to bring the rest of the uniforms and equipment up to the same standard, as well as adding a plethora of new human-related content and additions. This will be a comprehensive overhaul of the current human uniforms in-game; the idea here is to give mod creators and mission makers a large amount of high-quality uniforms and headwear, to which they can mix, combine and create new humanskins & breeds with for whatever they desire. These remake plans are for the long term and will not be part of content update 5, but we wanted to give you a heads up about the plans in combination with the new animations.




We hope that Content Update 5 gives you lots of fun, there will be a lot waiting for you whether you are interested in the new western front DLC or not. There will also be plenty of novel stuff coming in future free updates. It is our intention to celebrate the ever growing community and keep improving the game.

Please remember to wishlist Liberation and get ready to roll!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2447590/Call_to_Arms__Gates_of_Hell_Liberation/

• One of our most popular media outlets is our official VKontakte page
• You can read about our development standards on our website
• Our Liberation Teaser was uploaded from Pointe du Hoc, France, on june 6th, 2023

That’s it for now, thanks for your time and see you on the battlefield!

”Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force: You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you.”

We proudly announce the Western Front is coming to Call to Arms - Gates of Hell!

https://youtu.be/bT1zARVS-oA

Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Liberation will take you through the most immersive depiction ever made for a RTS game. The single player campaigns focus on four legendary western front units: the “Liberation” campaign has the 2nd Rangers and the 3rd Armored Division on the US side, and “Festung Europa” has 3rd Fallschirmjäger division and 116th Panzer division on the German side.
From scaling the steep cliff at Pointe du Hoc to the armored clash at Cologne cathedral, every detail has been thoroughly recreated. Here’s a few screenies to feast your eyes:

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[h2]Development & content[/h2]
For the development of the US faction, we have had (and still have) fantastic support from the historians and passionate volunteers at WW2 Armor in Florida, USA. They have already been instrumental in many ways; the devil is in the detail they say - and thanks to ww2 armor we have every detail covered.

The Liberation DLC adds the US faction and a number of German vehicles to the game. It contains over 150 vehicles, 500 human models, 50 weapons and new unique support units such as burst fire artillery, or the legendary Red Ball Express.
New German vehicles also add to the depth of the game, and the players will be able to enjoy a new Wehrmacht late war doctrine in multiplayer with the new units.
Liberation will include 20 western front multiplayer maps, 25 western front conquest maps, and an incredible assortment of over 500 Western European assets for the editor.
We are making upwards of 50 buildings, hundreds of environment objects and huge improvements to vegetation visuals. It will be the biggest leap in visual quality and the biggest release of fresh new content for the editor in the history of the GEM engine games.

As you will see, the visuals in Liberation are a big leap forward. We have created photorealistic and high quality graphics that will stand the test of time, making the third and first person gameplay experience more immersive than ever before.

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[h2]Roadmap[/h2]
We intend to release Liberation as soon as possible, but we haven’t set a date yet. We will keep you posted of course. We can also confirm that when the time comes, we will be releasing free Content Update 5 alongside Liberation, adding a lot of new units to the base game and raising the quality of the visuals of many of the game’s assets to match the new standard as set by the Liberation DLC.

Barring any catastrophic or disrupting events, release will take place later this year.
Our next devblogs will fully list the contents and in some of them we will tell you a bit more about the historical events that are the backstory to our single player campaign.
In the meantime, catch any scoops on our Discord server.

So, we invite you to wishlist Liberation today; check the store page now and hit that wishlist button!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2447590/Call_to_Arms__Gates_of_Hell_Liberation/

• The ww2armor organisation has a website, a YouTube channel and a Facebook page
• How ww2armor supports us can be found on our website
• We have fan page on VKontakte
• To join our Discord, you can click the image below

As you may have noticed, the summer sale is on right now. That means you can get Call to Arms - Gates of Hell at a huge discount once more!
You have time until July 13th 10 AM Pacific to take advantage of the offer.

In the meantime, we're preparing the store page for the "Liberation" DLC. This will come with a devblog outlining the contents, so stay tuned for more.
We recently announced the "Liberation" DLC by uploading a teaser at Pointe du Hoc while we were visiting and examining the battlegrounds. Check it out:

https://youtu.be/LP9xtwWZbM0

Thanks for stopping by; we'll end with the suggestion that this is a good time to ping your friends and tell them about this ridiculous discount!

Dear community members! Right now, you can get GoH at a very nice discount, and we have just published the next game update!
This update will bring many improvements to the game, as we have shown in the past few devblogs; we’ll go over some of the more important changes in a minute, after you’ve hit that link to check the discount you could get right now!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/400750/Call_to_Arms__Gates_of_Hell_Ostfront/

[h2]More QoL changes[/h2]
Because we’ve already detailed the changes in devblogs 129 and 130, we’ll not repeat everything. Here are the changes we think have the most influence;

[h3]Lock/Unlock ammo switching[/h3]
With this new convenient button, you may now allow or forbid your cannons and tanks from switching to different ammo types on their own. That way, you can keep your AT guns pre-loaded with armor piercing shells, make your tanks only use their best ammo against key enemy units, or keep your autocannons frying enemy infantry with HE.

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[h3]Conquest[/h3]
We have overhauled the difficulty option in
conquest so it modifies the lethality and survivability of the units, so that it works in a similar fashion to singleplayer. Then, we introduced a new option: Economy, which scales the amount of troops you will face and how challenging it will be to evolve your army. We added new support units, new mechanics.

[h3]Domination and multiplayer balancing[/h3] Domination has received an awesome makeover to make it more balanced and more dynamic. Developed with close support from our testers, we’ve brought it to the next level. In addition, we have made multiple tweaks to the game’s balancing to make it more competitive in the higher levels and more fun for everybody.

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[h3]Continuous bot evolution[/h3]
We have improved the AI bots that you face in multiplayer and in conquest. They will be much smarter and counter your units much more effectively, but they will also scale their difficulty better ranging from easy to hardcore, to give everyone their preferred experience, and make it more pleasant for those who want an easier time fighting the AI.

[h3]Performance upgrade and graphical improvements[/h3]
Enjoy a smoother and better looking experience, as well as increased rendering distances, improved visual damage on vehicles like ricochet marks or molten metal, better selection sprites and much more. The game has never looked better!

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[h3]Ukrainian and Polish localization[/h3]
With great support from the community we added these two languages to the game to keep supporting our loyal fanbase.

We will publish a detailed changelog like we always do. All of our changelogs can be found in the same place on STEAM.

[h2]What’s next?[/h2]
The next devblog is not far away. In that devblog we will bring you up to speed with current development as usual, to fill you in on any further planned changes and improvements to the game. However, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. In the meantime, enjoy the game update and tell all your friends about the sale!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/400750/Call_to_Arms__Gates_of_Hell_Ostfront/

That’s it for today, thanks for stopping by and see you on the battlefield!