Onward News

We have just released a hotfix for #OnwardVR 1.8.7. The hotfix fixes a problem where if you’re playing on custom maps the game could become unresponsive.

We intend to release another patch in the next couple of weeks to address more issues, ahead of the 1.8.8 update release. We’ll post a sitrep with the details later this week.

The fix is available now, and will download automatically to your device. Stay frosty!

We are wrapping up our A Winter Onwardland contest by announcing the winners for the map creation portion. The community submitted some really fun maps. Thank you to everyone who submitted entries. Lots of creative style throughout them all.

As a refresher: we are announcing winners in three categories today: cross-platform, PC and Quest! The overall winner will receive their choice of an RTX 3090 or an AMD 5950X processor with a high-end motherboard, whereas the best PC and Quest maps will be rewarded with the author’s choice of an RTX 3080 or an AMD 5900X with a high-end motherboard.

Without further ado, the winners are…..

Cross Platform
Sommet - Submitted by Weidz

What some of the judges had to say:
Tribly: Sommet is impressive from when you first spawn in the cable car looking out over the mountains, to sneaking around in the caves and back rooms. Everything felt hand crafted from the observatory at the top of the mountain, all the way down to the map on the tablet. From the museum, to the kitchen, the wine/cheese cellar, every area felt unique which makes learning the map and orienting yourself much easier.
Eritheis: I liked that the map had different distinct areas. All of them were interesting and made me want to explore to see what else could be found. Having the different areas being so different from each other made it easier to figure out where I was on the map too.

PCVR
Panda Towers - Submitted by Monorchid

What some of the judges had to say:
SyrinS0ng: This is a unique design style we haven’t seen yet. Set on the rooftops of a large building with skyscrapers all around you. You have to weave through different obstacles to find your enemies and need top communication to navigate though this map.
WH1SKEY: An enjoyable map that adds verticality to Onward. The battles that engage on this map make any angle action packed and really puts a player's tactics to the test.


Oculus Quest
Frostbite - Submitted by Evolution

What some of the judges had to say:
SyrinS0ng: As soon as I spawned in I felt immersed in the location. I could feel the cold fog around me. The rooms were great to explore and lots of area throughout to get some team tactics going.
KasperVld: I enjoyed the verticality in this map quite a lot: the fact that your opponents can be hiding behind any hill makes for a slower paced, nerve wrecking match. Never let your guard down, and always keep your gun pointing up.


Congratulations to the winners! All of the maps that were entered are available for you to download and play on. Go check them out! If you are interested in custom map building, check out our discord for more information and chat with fellow map makers.

Map Contest Entries available for Play:
Arctic / Arctic Night (PC & Quest) - Heclak
Ashes In The Snow (PC & Quest) - Stahr
Cerbere Landing (PC) - Justin
Dumpster Fire (PC & Quest) - 04
Hotham Day (Quest) - DaveSparhawk
Ice (PC & Quest) - Koiz
J-Street (PC) - GiantRobot
North Pole (PC) - WhiteFang
Trench - At Christmas (PC) - Winston
Wilderness (PC & Quest) - Monorchid

Hello Everyone!

Happy 2021! We are stepping into a new year and have a lot of opportunities and things to look forward to. Onward keeps moving…. well… ONWARD! This month’s Sitrep is a little lighter on development updates than usual due to the holiday season, but we still have some news to share.

Earlier this month we released Update 1.8.7. We have received lots of feedback from the community, we are listening to it all and we hear you. We are happy that you are enjoying the audio improvements and the updated Snowpeak map. With all improvements come some bugs and rest assured, we will be addressing things in 1.8.8.

1.8.8 will be coming out a little quicker than our usual patch releases as a maintenance release to address some ongoing issues and make some adjustments from 1.8.7 based on community feedback. Fixes that will be addressed include significantly reducing the occurrence of broken lobbies, which often cause issues such as voice chat issues, lobby lockups, rounds not assigning points correctly. Additional Audio improvements based around voice chat are also in the works. Fixing an issue allowing players to sometimes see through smoke emitted by smoke grenades and a fix for the infamous “jiggle peek” are on our provisional list as well. We also continue to work on a couple of large new features which are due to release over the next couple of months. Be on the lookout for more details as the patches get closer.

Downpour Interactive continues to grow as a company and we have been adding to the team to keep up with the game design, improvements, and the future of the game. You have already been introduced to our new Community Manager Korine (SyrinSong) earlier this month, and now we would also like to introduce a new Programmer, Ben, and Level Designer, Joe who many of you may know under his nickname Snooper Fax. They have been a great addition to the team here at DPI. We would also like to announce some changes to people you know and have interacted with in the community. Daan (MrDeath) will shift his focus from Community Management over to level design and Kasper (KasperVld) will be taking up the role of Producer while still keeping an eye on community tasks and supporting Korine where needed.

We have wrapped up our Community Contest and judging for the custom maps has begun! We will be announcing the winners in the upcoming weeks. If you missed the announcements for the Fan Art and Video winners, check out our social media accounts.

In addition, for our community we have posted a new Support area to our website with an FAQ section to help with common questions that people may have about playing or any suggestions/reports that need to be sent to us.

To stay up to date on the latest news between Sitreps, make sure to follow our social media accounts and join the Official Onward discord.

Stay Frosty!

Hello everyone!

We are pleased to announce that the time for the 1.8.7 update is now! This update is primarily focused on audio upgrades and the re-release of the Snowpeak map, but also contains a lot of bug fixes and general improvements. The full change log is posted below.

Our audio improvements comprise amongst many other things gunshots that are more consistent in their quality, more immersive and directional footsteps, higher quality voice chat, more immersive environmental sound, and more consistency between the volumes of different sources. Two new features for audio are the ability to independently adjust the volume of gunshots and voices, and audio mixing presets to select.

Enjoy those updated audio sounds while playing again on the re-released Snowpeak map (day and night versions available!) and hear the crunch of the snow under your feet as you tactically sneak around on the ice to get that perfect shot in as you notice the other team coming your way. Snowpeak features long distance engagement and close quarter combat options. This map will test your skills in stealth and tactical abilities.

Smoke grenades have also been reworked. They have changed to spherical from the previous comic spray to allow them to be used in a more predictable way which benefits gameplay. Full screen tint will be more accurately bound to the area of the smoke, and is harder to see through. We have also fixed an issue where AI wasn’t affected by smoke grenades and could ‘see’ players as usual. Finally and perhaps most importantly scopes no longer fully tint when looking at smoke grenades, allowing you to see players in front of the smoke through scopes once more.

For all other changes, refer to the full change list below. Update 1.8.7 is available now and will download automatically. Enjoy!

For all the details check out our blog post.
https://www.onwardthegame.com/devblog/

Thank you to everyone who entered our Winter contest in the fan art and videos sections! All submissions were great and this was a hard one to judge. We appreciate the hard work and creativity you’ve put into these masterpieces. Today we’re announcing the winners in the first two categories: Artwork and Videos, while those working on their custom maps still have just over a week to finish their entries.

The winner in the artwork category is … *drumroll* …. Ovoideum!
This gorgeous art piece is done in a Japanese block art style. It has so many Onward references in the details, everytime we look we seem to find more. We already ordered a print to have put up in Dante’s office!



Our winner for the best fan video is a long time active community member: nin10doVR

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His video really brings home the feel of team playing with a catchy music tune. It’s a reminder of how during the pandemic Onward has given us an opportunity to play online with our friends and offer us some community and social interaction while we can’t go out.



We will also be posting our runners up and other entries on our social media accounts throughout the coming weeks. Keep a lookout and thank you again for all the great entries.