Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront News

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.

Link

• 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!

Link

HD Link
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.

HD Link

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.

HD link

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):

HD Link

HD Link

HD Link

HD Link

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.

HD Link
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.

HD Link

HD Link
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.

HD Link
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!

HD Link

HD Link
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.

HD Link
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.

HD Link

HD Link
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?

[List]
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/
[/List]