Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront News

New Panther D - HD Link

Dear community members,

The next open beta phase is about to be launched. This is phase 2 of the Call to Arms - Gates of Hell project open beta.

You can still join the open beta by the way, it’s available on our Steam Store page!

You can join in 2 clicks

As we said before, Phase 2 consists of the multiplayer (PvP and PvE) with the upgraded netcode, and we will launch conquest during the weekend too.

Aside from the new areas which now open for testing, we have done significant upgrades to the visuals, sounds and performed a huge number of improvements over the content previously available in phase 1. Such novelties include many new units and models, new uniforms for better 3rd person visuals, and tons of new features, including many of those that the community requested such as increased squad selection sizes.

We are on the final stretch finishing the new soundscape, having finished work on weapon sounds and performing a global QA pass. We are confident it offers you an authentic and immersive sound experience.

Phase 2 of the open beta contains 6 multiplayer maps (full release will contain 20) and will contain 5 conquest maps (full release will contain more than 15!).

New uniforms - HD Link

As usual we include the relevant part of the changelog:

• Enabled multiplayer access for 6 maps, only mid- war period and standard game settings.
  
• Improved netcode
  
• New vehicles, humanskins, weapons
  
• Improved HDR and shader optimization
  
• Improved multiple animations
  
• Improved in-game interface
  
• Improved sounds and sound mix
  
• Increased squad selection size
  
• New special effects
  
• New fog/ un-fog timer logic for vehicles per class
  
• Added human tank gun skill and vehicle veterancy
  
• Many fixes and quality of life improvements
  
• Redesigned tank ranges and support gun mechanics, more about it here

Like with the last update, there’s no action required from you, dependent on your Steam settings.
We hope you will enjoy this phase, which combines phases 2 and 3 as we have previously announced.

Meanwhile, join us on our Discord server, the best place for quick answers to any questions you might have.
Good luck & have fun!

Hello people!

It is the 9th of May and this is a special date in remembrance of the end of WWII in Europe and it is a worthy date to announce our plans.

We will be starting phase 2 during the next week. Release will follow closely after.

Remember Phase 2 will consist of one week of multiplayer testing, followed by the weekend for conquest (dynamic campaign) testing.

What took us so long you may ask? Well, the most important factor was the lengthy netcode upgrades. The netcode redesign was aimed to support bigger battles and users with worse connectivity. It took way longer than expected, because we added many new features which hadn't been previously synced through the servers. The netcode is now being fleshed out in its first version. Remember this is a test, so we had to finish this first before we could ask you to test the new code.

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Conquest (dynamic campaign) also went through some important upgrades. We added features like minefields and redesigned systems such as the way in which the bots field their troops. We are now at a stage where the conquest can be tested and can therefore proceed.

We have great plans for conquest, from historical calendars to new game modes and dynamics. This is a huge investment over time and we will continuously upgrade it and evolve it. How far we can go will depend on the success of the game, as we must also focus our attention to creating new nations and new theatres after the release!

You can expect the release approximately one or two weeks or so after the end of phase 2, it will depend on how much feedback we have to process.

Thanks for staying with us, happy victory day, and see you soon!

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Hi everyone, we have some progress to tell you about.
We are currently in the final stage of preparation for the next phase. It will consist of a multiplayer test with limited content. The date is to be announced. It will give you a single war stage and a set of maps, and this phase will run for exactly one week. During the week, we will add conquest mode.
Conquest will be available for the closing weekend only. After the weekend, the open beta will end officially.
We will then take your feedback, use it for the quick final polish and prepare Call to Arms: Gates of Hell for release!

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Call to Arms: Gates of Hell is a project in which we have always been in close touch with the community, and the community has given us tremendous support and feedback over the years.
Therefore, the fact that phase 1 of the OBT gave us valuable feedback was no surprise. We were curious how you would comment on the different aspects of gameplay and the associated new dynamics, besides finding glitches.

We took your feedback about improving the logic for tank combat, and decided it should be overhauled. The result includes revised ranges at a gun-by-gun basis, adhering to how effective at longer ranges some guns were compared to each other. We also made sure that different projectiles for the same gun have longer or shorter ranges, depending on how they performed in real life.
We have redesigned our penetration curves to depict the frequent fights (Most WWII fights happened at 700-1200m). At the usual engagement distances in the game, the penetration values will be closer to those, so that the tank vs tank combat relates better to the WWII experiences.

While doing so, we have also taken steps to help reduce and limit farshooting and other exploits which could become a problem in competitive multiplayer.
Long story short; your feedback has been used to improve balance and historical use of each type of cannon, while keeping it as realistic as we can within our game’s design philosophy.


We have made an important design choice with heavy assault guns as well. We're keeping them as direct fire weapons, because that is how they were used in real life.
There is a widespread misconception that support tanks have longer ranges and operate in an indirect manner, but at the same time they used to have a flatter trajectory and accuracy, like direct-fire weapons. The result is that units like the KV-2 or StuH 42 are long range weaponry with ranges superior to that of the big AT guns. In reality, these vehicles were used as direct fire weapons only (there are exceptions like the SU152, which could do both direct and indirect fire).

Therefore, we have re-assigned these kinds of units to fulfill the direct fire role.
In reality, they were used at shorter ranges than other specialised AT guns, and this is how we will implement them in CtA: GoH. New units have been established to cover the gaps left behind by the support gun redesign.

In the future we'd like to add a switch to change between direct and indirect fire for some units. We could improvise it now but we’d rather do it in a proper manner later. It should not just change the gun's characteristics, but also third person behaviour, and AI should be able to change it too depending on range of engagement.


Our Gates of Hell soundscape is reaching the final stages of completion, and recently all small arms sounds were upgraded to the release quality. We took the opportunity to take in some of the feedback about sounds which you guys posted in our Discord server and added other improvements of our own which we decided to add for the immersion factor. For example, in third person you will now hear the bolts sliding, casings being dropped and it will feel like a more engulfing experience.

Subscribers of the open beta will also have noticed additional improvements since the latest update, including matching explosion sounds to the length and feel of the actual effect, added built-in sounds to the human animations (crouching, drinking, etc) and there are more details planned in this regard.

We hope to deliver a project of extraordinary audio quality and consistency. We raise the bar every day, so there will also be sound improvements after the release as we see fit.


We keep updating the game with new and improved models; we’re working on optimization, we’re improving missions and much, much more.

Here is a good example: our new Panther D in the works.

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We also included the 122 mm M1931/37 (A-19) cannon. This Soviet cannon, which although a howitzer-type artillery, had very good anti-tank ballistics and will certainly become a worthy contender to the Tiger’s armour from long range:

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In preparation for the upcoming multiplayer test, we’ve recorded a PvP match with some of the testers. Remember, bots will also be available for everyone during the test and you can host PvE battles as well.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

• We recommend subscribing to the youtube channels we display on our own channel for the near future
  
• Before release, we will start a “meta game” mini-game using our Discord server
• After release, we will start a “mod of the month” competition

That’s it for now, thanks for stopping by and good luck in the open beta!

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Hi everyone, here’s a short update on the beta.
It’s been great to see how people are enjoying CtA: Gates of Hell so far.
We have been working hard to process all the feedback we have received in the past weeks; time to implement a couple of changes.


We’ve worked our rear ends off to sift through all of the reports and clean out some bugs, and now it’s time for you to see the results. This is the changelog for the update that is about to be pushed:

• Added back the 1st soviet campaign mission.
  
• Added mining section at the end of training 2.
  
• Added realistic burst mechanics for weapons (shot amount, delays, zeroing,..). Now weapons adhere to documented practical rates of fire.
  
• Added many new FX, from diesel exhausts to massive HE impacts on objects.
  
• Added new animations.
  
• Added new cursors.
  
• Added sandbag fortifications to vehicles.
  
• Improved gun ranges, accuracies and penetration curves, making farshooting unfeasible.+
  
• Improved training 1.
  
• Improved third person views.
  
• Improved numerous existing animations.
  
• Improved numerous sounds.
  
• Improved shellholes (visual improvements and realistic sizes).
  
• Improved LODing.
  
• Improved interface.
  
• Improved support tanks and standardised them with a direct-fire game logic.
  
• Increased damage taken on soldiers, particularly soldier’s arms.
  
• Increased MG effectiveness at long range.
  
• Increased AT grenades damage, able to break hull of medium and heavy tanks in one grenade, if the explosive charge is strong enough to breach the armor.
  
• Decreased MG accuracy for humans when standing and kneeling.
  
• Decreased regen rate of supply trucks.
  
• Decreased flame particle gravity. Lower/flatter trajectory for flamethrower weapons.
  
• Decreased ammo carried in nebelwerfers from 60 to 30 (more inline with bm13_studebaker).
  
• Decreased slightly human run speeds to make them slower than the mechanised counterparts.
  
• Decreased heat required to set wood buildings on fire.
  
• Decreased durability for tankette tanks with just MG's (t27, panzer1, etc).
  
• Fixed crash on save game.
  
• Fixed crash when currentSelection is gone when a button command comes.
  
• Fixed crash if closing a game while in TPC.
  
• Fixed that now grenade trajectory is not locked as the grenade is being thrown.
  
• Fixed that reload and bolting animations no longer stop/delay: move, change stance or any other orders given by player.
  
• Fixed numerous issues of 3d models, and their game logic.
  
• Fixed some vehicle glitches / suspension / X models / armour
  
• Fixed numerous quality of life issues.
  
• Fixed numerous localization entries.
  
• Fixed some scripts in missions.
  
• Fixed some performance issues.

Depending on your personal settings, your beta game will update automatically, no action from your side is required if you’re already in the open beta.

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So now you know a part of what we’ve been up to. Of course, we are also preparing open beta phase 2. As we said, there will be some news pretty soon, so be sure to catch the news the minute phase 2 is ready. Your best bet to be the first to hear about it is to be on our official Discord server, you can find it HERE.
On Discord, we will be entertaining you with our screenshot competition and a meta game (which will be exclusive to our Discord) for some extra entertainment.


If you want to try our open beta, you still can! Simply subscribe on our store page by hitting the button like in the image below.




That’s it for the moment, let us know what you think in the comments & enjoy the improvements!

Hello everyone, hope you’re all having fun with the beta so far! It’s been a massive success and we got some very useful feedback from you.
We said we would do an update too; here it is, but please keep in mind this is not the start of phase 2.


We are about to update the Open Beta soon and here is what is coming with it:

• The 1st German Campaign Mission: “The Big Prize” which replaces “Absolute Zero”.
  
• Numerous fixes to reported issues
  
• Overhauled the soundscape
  
• A number of new features, including a major new addition we mentioned in last week’s devblog: You can now toggle direct control between the Classic and Third Person modes instantly at any moment. We are sure many of you will enjoy this new feature, so let us explain what this means.

In Gates of Hell, third person mode retains the Fog of War and keeps weapon damages at the same values and similar accuracies as when you are in classic direct control mode. It merely changes the position of the camera for the player. The one gameplay change it does make, is remove the range limitation on weapons. We are working to balance this by reducing weapon accuracy and reducing shell penetration values beyond their intended ranges. In multiplayer, game hosts will have the option to choose which modes can be used, choosing to allow the hybrid system or to restrict it to one of the modes.

The mode toggle in your controls

Beta subscription is still open, if you want to have a good look at Call to Arms: Gates of Hell, subscribe today on our Store page!



If you take part in the test, you should know that for now, only the english version is available. Full localization will be included in the release version, in several languages.

That’s it for now, enjoy the update!