Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades News

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[h2]GREETINGS![/h2]

The time has come, after a long(er than we anticipated) wait, the latest HUGE update for H3VR is complete.

The Institution Update expands and refines H3VR’s tactical roguelite game mode, Take & Hold, with new enemies and hazards, a new Tournament-focused character, and its most challenging level yet: Institution. Institution is about realizing what I’d always imagined back when first making Take & Hold. It’s everything I find most compelling about a virtual space. Grand in scale. Simultaneously oppressive and alienating but also somehow cozy? All-consuming. Self-awarely synthetic but hyper-tangible. The environment itself is my main character.

This update also includes our latest Take & Hold character: Tournament Toby. Build with feedback from our Competitive Scene, it's Take & Hold at its most merciless.

The mode itself has gotten a number of major refinements, from rebuilt Equipment stations, powerups that behave better physics-wise, tuning to patrols, a rebuilt scoring rubric that more richly reflects ways one can play excellently, and just a top to bottom coat of polish on things.

With a level this big, I'm sure that there'll be a significant post-release tuning phase, as we fix various things, tweak progressions, difficulty, cover volume, and add further quality of life changes. We look forward to tweaking things over the coming weeks with you all!

Well enough rambling for now. Get in their and play! We'll see you all soon.

Have a WONDERFUL weekend.
-Anton


[h3]MOD USERS:[/h3]
Please not that this update makes BIG changes to Take & Hold's codebase. If you run Take & Hold Tweaker, or any other mod that touches the mode, you MUST go update it now, or disable your current modlist, or the mode will SUPER break. Check out the H3VR discord modding channels if you need help finding the very latest versions!


[h2]Update 111 Full Changelog:[/h2]
[h3]Additions:[/h3]

• Added New Level for Take & Hold: Institution
  
• Added New Take & Hold Character: Tournament Toby
  
• Added New TNH Encryption Types: Polymorphic, Cascading, Orthogonal & Refractive
  
• Added New TNH Enemy Type: Constructs (Floater, Blister, Iris, Sentinel and ???)
  
• Added Main Menu Warnings for Controllers not being on or working
  
• Added Main Menu Warnings for Windows 11 Optimizations for Windowed games not being enabled
  
• Added New Firearm: P210-1 (9x19mm)
  
• Added New Firearm: P210-5 (9x19mm) (Target Shooting Variant)
  
• Added New Firearm: P210-6 (22lr) (Training Variant)
  
• Added New Firearm: AG42B [6.5x55m]
  
• Added New Cartridge: 6.5x55mm Swedish in Ball, FMH, Tracer & AP
  
• Added New Stripper Clip: 6.5x55mm 5-round
  
• Added New Ammo Subtypes: M903SLAP and M965SLAPT to .50bmg
  
• Added New Firearm: AG42B [6.5x55m]
  
• Added New Cartridge: 6.5x55mm Swedish in Ball, FMH, Tracer & AP
  
• Added New Stripper Clip: 6.5x55mm 5-round
  
• Added New Ammo Subtypes: M903SLAP and M965SLAPT to .50bmg
  
• Added New Firearm: B1301 (12 gauge)
  
• Added New Firearm: Sawnoff-16 (16 gauge)
  
• Added New Firearm: OutbackDouble (20 gauge)
  
• Added New Firearm: Tulyak (23x75mmR)
  
• Added New Attachments: CompactFlashlight 1 & 2, Scout Flashlight
  
• Added New Ammo Subtypes for 16g and 20g shell: Cannonball, Flechette, No.2, No.4, Flare, Triple Hit
  
• Added New Ammo Subtypes for 12g Short: No.4, Slug, Freedomfetti
  
• Added New Ammo Subtypes for 23x75mmR: Shrap-25
  
• Added Floater, Iris and Blister Constructs to Sosig Spawner
  
• Added New Prop Set: Squarrel and Exploding Squarrel
  
• Added New Destructible Prop Set: Squarrels (Normal, Explosive, Mustard, Toxic, Hot Dog, Cryo)
  
• Added New Destructible Prop Set: Gas Cuboids (Small, Large)
  
• [TnH] Added New System for Sosig ‘Alertness’ in TnH that impacts scoring. 1 second unimpaired in Skirmish State with the player will trigger ‘alert’. This will cause a transition to an ‘Alert Phase’ in the upcoming Take & Hold map while in the Take Phase as well.
  
• Operator Sosig outfits added to Spectator Panel
  
• Added New Destructible Set: Cryo Squylinders (Large and Small)
  

[h3]Changes:[/h3]

• TNH Object Constructor Reroll system replaced with purchasable Category Unlocks
  
• Rebuilt Ammo Spawner Panel for Take & Hold entirely, and build ammo type cost system for it
  
• Rebuilt Recycler and Mag Duplicator stations
  
• Changed Take & Hold Scoring rubric
  
• Altered progression of nearly all T&H characters
  
• Modified the Run Progressions of Pretty much every Take & Hold character
  
• Altered the Starting Token amounts of a few Take & Hold characters
  
• Tweaked flashlight behavior
  
• Fixed cylinder collision geometry on Bodyguard38. It should be much easier to load now
  
• R700 Magazine round clipping fixed
  
• FAL 10,20,30rnd Magazine round clipping fixed
  
• Fixed Geo holes in SVT-40
  
• Fixed edgecase round clipping issue in Frontier model B
  
• Fixed INSANE edgecase that can only occur when loading the OTS38 at light speed (Jesus Spanners)
  
• Fixed incorrect trigger placement for ejector fro B600
  
• [TNH] Fixed Sosigs being counted as Melee kills for the player in situations where they’re not
  
• [Sosig] Fixed incorrect IFF transmission on damage events that occur through armor
  
• [Sosig] Fixed player IFF event handling when damaging a Sosig via collision damage while holding it
  
• [Sosig] Fixed incorrect filtering of ‘last damaged by class’ events in Sosig damage tree causing errant melee kill tracking
  
• Replaced Cartridge Models for: 12 gauge, 12 gauge Short, 16 gauge, 20 gauge, 12 gauge Belted, 23x75mmR
  
• Flashlight range and intensity increased to make them more useful. FOV slightly reduced.
  
• Flashlight shadows are enabled by default. If this incurs unacceptable perf hit, please disable shadows in your quality options
  
• 1911 Pistol family sound set replaced
  
• [TNH] Updated and changed materials and collision in Atrium hold room in Institution Preview Scene
  
• [TnH] Tweaked Main menu spacing and added space for more characters
  
• Added New Platform Controller Detection: Quest 3 Controllers.
  
• Added New Control Option: Controller Display Mode Override
  
• [TnH] Hold Wave Leader Sosigs are now only active one at a time, essentially as ‘raid bosses’
  
• [TnH] Changed Scoring Rubric to Emphasize Kill Score & Kill Style Scoring a bit more
  
• Sosig M79, Sosig RG6 and Sosig Frag Grenade explosions have been reduced in peak damage output to prevent them from commonly 1-hit killing the player.
  
• Scalpel Drum Magazine changed to default to carrying 00 Buck instead of SWAG-12 to prevent it circumventing TNH ammo limitations
  

[h3]Fixes:[/h3]

• Made PP91 less terrible to load
  
• Fixed geo gap in Sosig gun GSeries
  
• Made TNH Lobby menu actually remember the last level you had selected (if possible)
  
• Fixed physics bound and penetrability of the health pickups
  
• Fixed Score display to show seed and holds actually completed
  
• Intermediate rounds are now properly set to manually chamberable (no idea why this was ever not the case)
  
• Fixed Override Token Collision, it should no longer glitch into things
  
• Dampened Muzzle Effect Brightness
  
• FINALLY fixed issue of flashlights hyper-illuminating muzzle smoke
  
• Fixed cylinder collision geometry on Bodyguard38. It should be much easier to load now
  
• Fixed cylinder collision geometry on Bodyguard38. It should be much easier to load now
  
• R700 Magazine round clipping fixed
  
• FAL 10,20,30rnd Magazine round clipping fixed
  
• Fixed Geo holes in SVT-40
  
• Fixed edgecase round clipping issue in Frontier model B
  
• Fixed INSANE edgecase that can only occur when loading the OTS38 at light speed (Jesus Spanners)
  
• Fixed incorrect trigger placement for ejector fro B600
  
• [TNH] Fixed Sosigs being counted as Melee kills for the player in situations where they’re not
  
• [Sosig] Fixed incorrect IFF transmission on damage events that occur through armor
  
• [Sosig] Fixed player IFF event handling when damaging a Sosig via collision damage while holding it
  
• [Sosig] Fixed incorrect filtering of ‘last damaged by class’ events in Sosig damage tree causing errant melee kill tracking
  
• Fixed missing/hidden bolt on SVT-40
  
• Fixed Whizzbangadinger no longer correctly generating state from destructible objects
  
• Fixed Palmed spacing on a number of ammo types
  
• Fixed top rail collision on Spas-15 Tactical
  
• Fixed ammo metadata for AmagII
  
• Fixed incorrect texture application for 50bmg AP/API rounds
  
• Fixed Math error that was causing regeneration anti-buff applied to Sosigs to near insta-kill them.
  
• Fixed Clipping issue on Deagle44 Magazine
  
• Fixed incorrect Pose Posture for Tulyak
  
• Fixed issue where player Status Effects were not clearing upon death.
  
• Fixed ForceCasingDespawn option being turned on in the Grillhouse 2Story scene
  
• Fixed incorrect Metadata ids for Cryo Squilliders
  
• Fixed metadata error for Wiener Squarrel
  
• Fixed incorrect fired collision sound for some 84mm ammo
  
• Fixed chamber proxy scaling that was causing clipping for RG6
  
• Fixed Missing tags on Fal Tactical, P762, M1Shorty16
  
• Fixed IPSICK spawning with extra picatinny sight
  
• Fixed odd issues with Smoke Grenades
  

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Howdy folks!

Have an incremental Experimental Build for you folks this week. It's a little light because... well we've already done 3 other hotfix builds during the week, as we're trying to iterate on the competitive character as fast as possible.

Anywho, deets on the update and what we're up to in the devlog. (Does anyone actually read this summaries? I never actually know).

Have a wonderful weekend!

-Anton


[h3]TO PLAY THE NEW BUILD FOLLOW THESE STEPS:[/h3]

• Right click H3 in Steam
  
• Go to Properties
  
• Click Betas
  
• Click The Dropdown
  
• Select Experimental!
  

[h2]Full Changelog - Update 111e8[/h2]
[h3]Additions:[/h3]

• Added New Platform Controller Detection: Quest 3 Controllers.
  
• Added New Control Option: Controller Display Mode Override
  

[h3]Changes:[/h3]

• [TnH] Hold Wave Leader Sosigs are now only active one at a time, essentially as ‘raid bosses’
  
• [TnH] Changed Scoring Rubric to Emphasize Kill Score & Kill Style Scoring a bit more
  
• Sosig M79, Sosig RG6 and Sosig Frag Grenade explosions have been reduced in peak damage output to prevent them from commonly 1-hit killing the player.
  
• Scalpel Drum Magazine changed to default to carrying 00 Buck instead of SWAG-12 to prevent it circumventing TNH ammo limitations
  

[h3]Changes To Tournament Toby:[/h3]

• Changed Hold 5 enemy sequencing to have Heavy Operators only for Squad Leaders, ensuring there is only ever one of them.
  
• Tweaked Spawn Cadences for Holds 4 & 5
  

[h3]Fixes:[/h3]

• Fixed incorrect Metadata ids for Cryo Squilliders
  
• Fixed metadata error for Wiener Squarrel
  
• Fixed incorrect fired collision sound for some 84mm ammo
  
• Fixed chamber proxy scaling that was causing clipping for RG6
  
• Fixed Missing tags on Fal Tactical, P762, M1Shorty16
  
• Fixed IPSICK spawning with extra picatinny sight
  
• Fixed odd issues with Smoke Grenades
  

[h3]Known Issues:[/h3]

• Game crashes on close for many users (This is a SteamVR bug they need to fix)
  
• Note that Virtual Desktop functions via the old Oculus PC SDK and cannot actually detect and pass through information about specific controller types. Thus people playing with Quest 3
  

Howdy Everyone!

I've been working away ingesting your feedback on Tournament Toby, and tweaking things to de-emphasize the impact of random weapons being good/terrible from a pool, to even out the difficulty between runs.

This means that this balance hotfix technically makes things easier, but in a way that I feel lessens frustration. Some challenge will be mixed back in on the Encryption/Construct front soon tho, so you shouldn't assume that every once of these hotfixes will move things homogenously in the direction of ease.

Many thanks to the H3 discord folks for doing live testing and feedback cycles on this!

Cheers,
-Anton

[h2]Balance Changelog 2[/h2]
[h3]Changes:[/h3]

• Weapons that fire .410 have been reclassified as the power level of ‘pistol’ in metadata, as their total energy output places them in that class. This will prevent them from spawning in Take & Hold in contexts where a ‘shotgun power’ weapon should spawn.
  
• Orthogonal Encryption movement speed increased
  
• Polymorphic Encryption Physics material tweaked to prevent overpen
  

[h3]Changes To Tournament Toby:[/h3]

• Bolt Action Pool now excludes Obrez weapons and pistol caliber bolt actions
  
• Break action Shotgun Pool now only contains 2 shot weapons
  
• Light Operator Sosig health and stagger resist lowered
  
• Medium Operator Sosig health and stagger resist lowered
  
• Light and Medium Operator Bleed constants changed
  
• Heavy Operator Sosig Turning Speed GREATLY reduced.
  
• Heavy Operator Sosig Suppression Resistance increased.
  
• Operator NODs changed to 2, 3 and 4 element to correspond to Light, Medium, Heavy for faster identification
  
• Operator NOD physics material changed to something more penetrable
  
• Operator Medium Sosig Gasmask collision rebuilt so that visor is now plastic physic material
  

[h3]Fixes:[/h3]

• Fixed Agile, Polymorphic and Orthogonal Encryption from being able to move through laser grid
  

Howdy Everyone!

Thanks a TON to all the folks who've jumped into the first WIP Competitive Take & Hold character and have gotten properly STOMPED by it. There's a lot to dial in to find the right ratio of hard-to-fun, but we're kicking off the changes NOW while we still have some weekend to play, to try to get the curve of equipment availability and threat introduction better.

There will be a MUCH more comprehensive update this coming friday that will address things like health and armor durability of the Sosigs, some of their perceptual stats, stunning behavior, as well as some of their weapons (like their grenades).

Thanks as always for your patience while we get this all dialed in. It is super DUPER appreciated.

Have a WONDERFUL rest of your weekend!
-Anton

[h2]Balance Changelog 1:[/h2]
[h3]Primary Goals:[/h3]

• Have more appropriate introduction of harder sosigs across the 5 hold sequence
  
• Encourage secondary/tertiary weapon usage as well as usage of utility through cost reductions.
  
• Encourage more varied loadout combos of weapon usage
  

[h3]General[/h3]

• Character now starts with 5 tokens
  
• Encryption sequence temporarily changed to step around bug where Cascading Encryption can’t be completed (this will be fixed in next week’s build)
  

[h3]Sosig Spawning:[/h3]

• Hold 1 Enemy spawn cadence slowed from 20 to 25 seconds
  
• Hold 2 and 3 Sosig Types changed to be smoother difficulty curve
  
• Max population in Hold 1 and Hold 2 Wave 1 changed from 4 to 3
  
• Hold wave warmup times changed from 6 to 7 seconds
  
• Hold 4 max population changed from 6 to 5
  

[h3]Hold 1 Pools:[/h3]

• Anti material pistol pool cost dropped from 3 to 2
  
• Derringer Table Removed
  

[h3]Hold 3 Pools:[/h3]

• DA Revolver cost dropped from 2 to 1
  
• Semi Auto Pistol cost dropped from 3 to 2
  
• Semi Auto Pistol Carbine cost dropped from 4 to 3
  
• Semi Auto Tube Shotgun cost dropped from 3 to 2
  

[h3]Hold 4 Pools:[/h3]

• Machine Pistol cost dropped from 2 to 1
  
• SMG cost dropped from 3 to 2
  
• Single Shot Grenade Launcher cost dropped from 3/2 to 2/1
  

[h3]Hold 5 Pools:[/h3]

• Anti-Materiel Rifle cost dropped from 5 to 3
  
• High Power Ordnance dropped from 4/2 to 2/1
  
• Battle Rifle Auto dropped from 5 to 4
  

[h3]Powerup Pools:[/h3]

• Non-healing Powerups will now only appear from Hold 3 and onward (making grenades more common in Hold 2)
  

[h3]Locomotion Tools:[/h3]

• Grapple pool removed
  
• GrappleGun cost dropped from 4 to 1
  

[h3]Weapon Pool Changes:[/h3]

• Pistol pool now has a minimum ammo amount of 9 (was not restricted before)
  
• Semi Auto Tube Shotgun minimum capacity is not 5 (no more BFB)
  
• Semi Auto Pistol Carbine Pool (Hold 3) has a min/max capacity of 20-30 rounds
  
• Semi Auto Rifle Carbine Pool (Hold 3) has a min/max capacity of 10 rounds
  
• IntermediateCombatRifle Pool (Hold 4) has a min/max capacity of 30 rounds
  
• MachinePistol Pool (Hold 4) has a minimum capacity of 20 rounds
  
• Mag Fed Shotgun Pool (Hold 4) has a minimum capacity of 8 rounds
  
• SMG Pool (Hold 4) has a min/max capacity of 30-40 rounds
  
• BattleRifle Auto pool (Hold 5) has a min/max capacity of 20-30 rounds
  

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Howdy All!

Have an exciting Experimental Build for y'all this week. Namely the rough draft of the new Competitive Take & Hold character, that's been co-designed with some of the folks in the Take & Hold Competitive scene known as First2Wurst. This is the game at it's most brutally demanding, is likely WAY too hard right now, but it's our starting point for making what is essentially the ultimate challenge for the mode, as 'normal' Take & Hold has gotten just too gosh darn easy for some folks.

Beyond that, the scoring rubric for Take & Hold has been completely rebuilt, for all characters, and is designed to produce a more interesting range of scores based on how well you do, whether your priveledge aggressive play or stealthy play. Once we move out of Experimental global scoring will be re-enabled.

Lastly, a bunch of the foundation went in for testing this week, of Sosig 'alertness' which will be the foundation for some unique mechanics in the coming Institution level. Make sure to watch the devlog above if you'd like to know more!

Anywho, hope y'all have a WONDERFUL weekend and I'll cya here as always next week.

Peace,
Anton

[h3]TO PLAY THE NEW BUILD FOLLOW THESE STEPS:[/h3]

• Right click H3 in Steam
  
• Go to Properties
  
• Click Betas
  
• Click The Dropdown
  
• Select Experimental!
  

[h2]Full Changelog - Update 111e7[/h2]
[h3]Additions:[/h3]

• [TnH] Added New Take & Hold Character (WIP): Tournament Toby
  
• [TnH] Added New System for Sosig ‘Alertness’ in TnH that impacts scoring. 1 second unimpaired in Skirmish State with the player will trigger ‘alert’. This will cause a transition to an ‘Alert Phase’ in the upcoming Take & Hold map while in the Take Phase as well.
  
• Operator Sosig outfits added to Spectator Panel
  
• Added New Destructible Set: Cryo Squylinders (Large and Small)
  

[h3]Changes:[/h3]

• [TnH] Replaced Item Spawner in native and modded Take & Hold scenes with modern one (note this will require mod frameworks to update first)
  
• [TnH] Completely Rewrote Scoring Rubric for Take & Hold, and inflated scores so that new high scores will tend to supplant old ones when played, especially on maximum difficulty.
  
• [TnH] Tweaked Main menu spacing and added space for more characters
  
• Reworked destruction logic and texture for Gas Cuboids and Renamed them to Squylinders (thanks community!)
  

[h3]Fixes:[/h3]

• Fixed some random Squylinders bugs.
  

[h3]Known Issues:[/h3]

• Game Crashes on Close on many systems. THIS IS A STEAMVR BUG. I'm waiting on the fix to hit the main branch.