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Onward News

Hotfix 1.9.3 is now available

Hello Onward Players!

We have started the year refreshed and hit the ground running by addressing some major pain points the community was experiencing after the 1.9 update. Please see the change log below for what is included in this patch:

[h2]Change Log:[/h2]
  • Improvements made to increase server stability
  • Improvements made to game stability and reduced the amount of game crashes
  • Fixed bug that would cause players to crash when grabbing object from another player
  • Fix a desync issue with round starting timer that was allowing Quest users to start sooner than PC users
  • Fix for bug where custom content ambient sound effects would carry over into other areas of the game
  • Fixed issue that could cause lobbies to crash (especially when playing modes like Co-op)
  • Updated messaging so when you load into an invalid/corrupted custom map, a message will now be shown when you are booted to the main menu


[h2]Known Issues:[/h2]
  • Weapon recoil may cause the player character to let go of their weapon with their offhand if the player’s hands are already at the edge of the maximum grab distance
  • Players cannot manually activate an equipped laser sight on the P90 because the charging handle grab area interferes with the activation zone. It can still be activated when two hands grip the weapons using the left trigger.
  • Users are not able to see the Vote kick UI after they load into active gameplay and initiate a vote kick. The UI will appear in the next round.
  • Letting a Quest 2 host player's headset go idle before other players join the lobby causes helmets to not properly equip and the UI to not proceed to the loadout screen. Once the idle headset is active, function returns to normal.

December Sitrep

Hello Onward Community,

December is bringing 2022 to a close and we are happy to look back and see all the work the team has been able to accomplish this year and how all that hard work will help us make even more improvements and open the door for new additions in 2023.

The game got a lot of much needed improvements and additions to help the longevity of development and set the game up to have new content and fixes come in next year. This month, in the Devs’ Desk, we wanted to showcase all the additions and improvements that went into Onward this year. What isn’t included in the list is the hundreds of bugs that were fixed through the year. If you are curious about all the individual details that went into the game, you can always read the details from the previous patch notes.

The community also had some great additions inside and out of the game this year. From intense competitive matches, fun custom maps, to fun videos and fan art. Check out the Community Center for some of our favorite clips and events that happened this year.

Our office will be closed from December 22nd - January 2nd (including support). The team will be taking this time to recharge so we can return and hit the ground running in 2023. Expect more info about the new 1.10 content once we return.

[h2]From the Devs’ Desks:[/h2]
The major focus for the year was improving our backend systems to give us the ability to continue to expand the game and improve the game’s foundation. Some of the systems had not been worked on since the game first launched in 2016. This investment helps give us the ability to add new features and content and allows current systems to be improved on.

[h3]Onward 2022 Wrap-Up[/h3]
New Features Added
  • Gunstock Calibration
  • Friends joining matches directly via invite
  • In-Game player reporting
Gameplay Improvements
  • Loadout Points Rebalance
  • Updates to Free Roam Gameplay
  • Improvements to the server browser
  • Improved player ragdoll when downed or dying


System Improvements
  • Weapon Refactor
  • New Voice Chat system including auto reconnect feature
  • Rebuilt custom maps infrastructure for community map makers
  • New hosting infrastructure for the game


[h2]Community Center:[/h2]
A total of 32 new custom maps were added to the game this year! The community map makers have been hard at work offering a variety of new themes and environments for players to experience. If you are interested in learning how to make maps or connect with the people that do, make sure to check out our custom map creators section in the official Discord.

The competitive Esports organization VRML had a booming season this year. 1,527 players, making up 116 teams, competed this year. That’s 846 intense matches of PVP. Check out some of the highlights from this season on their YouTube channel. Their next season is starting soon, if you are interested in joining, make sure to check out the details here.

The VR Charity group ran two Onward charity tournaments this year raising over $7,500 for some great causes like Breast Cancer research and StackUp for Veterans. If you are interested in joining the community for future charity events check out their Discord

Thank you for all the great matches, feedback, and support you show the game and the team. We are looking forward to everything we are going to bring to you in 2023.

Happy Holidays from everyone at DPI!

November Sitrep

Hello Onward Community!

Thank you all for your patience while we worked hard on getting hotfixes out after the release of 1.9. While settling into our new hosting service a number of issues came up that needed to be addressed based on the new backend work that was done. The bugs that emerged related to the amount of traffic and volume of games being made. These types of bugs are something our QA team couldn’t have caught or replicated before the launch. We tackled the bugs as quickly as we could and got fixes out quickly to get you back to fighting the good fight. Bugs that you may have experienced that have been fixed since the release of 1.9 are as follows:

Fixes released a few hours after release:
  • Lobbies not populating in server browser
  • Player names not showing in lobbies
  • Multiplayer lobbies not being accessible
Fixes released in 1.9.1:
  • Fixed a bug in the Workshop UI
  • Private lobbies will now correctly open to public
  • Corrected issues related to players receiving unexpected error messages
Fixes released in 1.9.2:
  • Fixed a stability issue where users would be kicked to the main menu when selecting a custom map after another user leaves the lobby during a map vote
  • Fixed an issue where magazines and other pick-upables were not properly destroyed leading them to accumulate over rounds, leading to client disconnects and preventing players from joining the lobby

If you are still experiencing any of the above issues, please make sure you uninstall and reinstall the game and are on the latest version of the game (1.9.2). The new server infrastructure made it much easier for the team to deploy hotfixes. Update 1.9 gave us the ability to address things quickly and this improvement will continue to help improve our development process. We continue to work to resolve issues related to the 1.9 release, such as the “Error 7” error message and players being kicked back to the main menu during gameplay. We are hoping to have these resolved soon.

Since we are now in a better place with our backend and the game stability, our focus for the next update is new content. We have some exciting new features that we are working on. Check out the Devs’ Desks for the latest on the new stuff coming to Onward.

[h2]From the Devs’ Desks:[/h2]
[h3]New Map[/h3]
Work continues on the Iraqi map we teased in our May sitrep, which given its unique layout has necessitated some extra time in development and will not be coming in update 1.10. Instead, expect to see a totally new and yet to be revealed map in our next update. This unannounced map has come together very nicely in recent playtesting, and we're excited to reveal more about it soon. As for the details, we don't have anything to share yet other than the fact that Volk is up to no good and you should keep your eyes peeled on our social media for more info.

Twitter: @OnwardTheGame
Instagram: @onwardthegame
Facebook: /OnwardTheGame

[h3]New Weapons[/h3]
We are working on not just one, but TWO more weapons. More information on the weapons will be released as information becomes available.

[h3]Updated Animations[/h3]
This is the first major animation update which will be rolled out since the game launched. We’ve long wanted to address the animations and have certainly heard your wishes regarding updating our character animations for Onward. Starting off you will see big improvements visually to all the AI animations. We’ve even added new crouching and death animations, as well as smoothed out the directional movement of the NPCs .

[h3]Adding Regional Support[/h3]
Many people believe that Onward uses “peer to peer” networking, but this is not the case: it is server / client with one user being designated the “master client”. That is the person with the star by their name, and they get more authority in the lobby, but they are not actually hosting the lobby. Until now, all Onward lobbies have been hosted in the US East region, even if the “master client” was in another region. This means that if a player was not in the eastern United States, they would experience laggier gameplay or latency. With our new backend we now have the ability to offer regional support. You will now get to pick from a list of available lobby regions to create your lobbies in, and gameplay will feel more consistent for people in those regions. Lobbies from every region will be shown in the lobby browser together, but you can filter for specific regions. Lobbies you create or quick join into will use your “preferred region” which is set from the settings screen. On launch of the update, we will have the following regions: US East, US West, Europe, and Asia.

[h2]Community Center:[/h2]
We have resolved the issue of the map creator's name not showing on the customs map menu. New instructions for custom map makers have been posted in our discord so the map creator can link their names to the maps in game. You should start to see the names of the map creator appear in the workshop soon.

In addition, we have a new map in the workshop for you to check out.

Chinatown Day submitted by Bluega (For PC)
“Volk have placed a bomb in central Chinatown. Civilians have been evacuated. The terrorists must be eliminated or the bomb defused.”

When 1.9 launched the rating for the custom maps were reset. If you enjoy a custom map, don’t forget to go back to the workshop and rate it. It helps the custom map creators understand what maps players enjoy and provide valuable information when new maps are being created. It also helps players see what maps other players have and when those maps are downloaded by other players, those maps are more likely to show up during map voting in matches.

We hope you are looking forward to all the new content being developed for Onward! Don’t forget to follow our social media to keep up to date on news and information between Sitreps.

Keep your head on a swivel.

Hotfix 1.9.2 is now available!



Hello Onward Players!

Last week we released patch 1.9.1 to address a number of high priority issues. At the time we were aware that some issues remained, particularly related to lobby stability, which caused players to be kicked back to the main menu. Today we release hotfix 1.9.2 to address these issues. The patch is available now and should download for you automatically.

Change Log
  • Fixed a stability issue where users would be kicked to the main menu when selecting a custom map after another user leaves the lobby during a map vote
  • Fixed an issue where magazines and other pick-upables were not properly destroyed leading them to accumulate over rounds, leading to client disconnects and preventing players from joining the lobby


Known Issues
  • Weapon recoil may cause the player character to let go of their weapon with their offhand if the player’s hands are already at the edge of the maximum grab distance
  • In the Workshop, some subscribed maps always require an update to the map after refreshing the Workshop page

Hotfix 1.9.1 Has Been Released

Hello Onward Players,

We hope you are continuing to enjoy the features like the improved audio and reporting system that came with 1.9. Given the amount of work and changes that were done to the back end of the game, we were happy with the overall stability of the update. Once players did start to report problems related to things like lobby visibility and access or player names not being visible, the change to our new host gave us the ability to quickly identify the causes and jump into action to resolve some of the issues within a matter of hours.

There are still a couple of lingering bugs that were discovered and quickly fixed, however these require a game update in order to resolve them. We are releasing hotfix 1.9.1 to address those issues reported. Below in the change log is the details of what issues were fixed.

Independent of this hotfix we are looking into lobby stability issues you’ve reported to us over the past week, some of which seem to affect the co-op lobbies in particular. Until we are able to address these issues a workaround for some of the issues is to start new lobbies regularly, and for co-op lobbies in particular, playing with a lower number of bots.

[h2]Change Log:[/h2]
  • Fixed a bug that would cause the Workshop UI to disappear unless the player scrolled the page
  • Private lobbies will now correctly open to public using the “Set to public” button in the back of the tent
  • Corrected issues related to players receiving unexpected error messages when creating or joining games



[h2]Known Issues:[/h2]
  • Weapon recoil may cause the player character to let go of their weapon with their offhand if the player’s hands are already at the edge of the maximum grab distance
  • Players are kicked to the main menu when selecting a custom map after another player leaves the lobby during a map vote
  • Lobby crashes happen after a large number of magazines are discarded. To avoid this, while this is being worked on, it is advised that you regularly start fresh lobbies when playing co-op especially with high bot counts
  • In the Workshop, some subscribed maps always require an update to the map after refreshing the Workshop page
  • Error code 7 notifications being given as a result of the game taking too long to respond to the server