Development Blog #12 [July 2021]
Hello Drakelings!
Welcome to the twelfth devblog for Operation: Harsh Doorstop. In this update, we will be reviewing the work that the team completed in the month of July 2021.
Seeing as this is the twelfth devblog, this marks one whole year of monthly devblog updates! As such, here are links to all of the past devblogs for quick reference in case you want to go back and look at the entire year’s worth of work:
2020 July-August September October November December
2021 January February March April May June July - Current devblog
I want to take this opportunity to also repost our tentative roadmap to Steam early access release, so that we can get a snapshot of roughly where we are in relation to this:
Source development kit is supposed to be SOFTWARE development kit (this is a typo)At the time of this devblog, everything in the top row is available and/or in the game in a basic/first iteration state, with the exception of the construction update, which is still being prototyped and has taken a backseat to work on the mod support update now that the SDK is out.
Oh yeah, did I mention… THE SDK IS OUT!
If you want to get your hands on it and start experimenting with modding, you can download it here. As mentioned above, the mod support/content loading systems are not available just yet, but we wanted to get the SDK/modding tools out into the community’s hands as soon as possible so that modders could start familiarizing themselves with the tools, and potentially start building up their projects in anticipation for Steam Workshop support, and other content distribution methods. We hope that when O:HD drops into early access that there will be a variety of mod content already available for people to use day 1! Please do keep in mind that the SDK is still a WIP, so if you do run into any issues, or can’t do something that you want to do, visit us in the O:HD Discord and let us know—the more feedback we get the better!
We have also hit another major milestone internally: passing 1,000 supporters on the Patreon—a big THANK YOU to all of the support and everyone’s belief in the project, it goes a very long way!
Now let’s get into the updates done in July:
Expansions
[h3]Operation: Invictus[/h3]
We have another round of the “Three Shot Burst” developer interviews prepared by the ISMC team:
Interview with John, a.k.a. Temptor, developer for Operation: Invictus
Operation: Invictus is the flagship expansion for the upcoming title Operation: Harsh Doorstop. It is the newest project created by the original devs of the ISMC mod.
1. What gives you the most inspiration when creating original models?
Looking at other artist's work is a massive inspiration - their techniques of sculpting and texturing fascinate me. War movies and documentaries are another big source of inspiration - to see how combatants and operators carry themselves or how a particular piece of gear sits on their body helps me to think of deep, realistic details, and helps me anticipate how they move. More abstractly, music is a major source of inspiration and motivation - and a personal necessity. I'll find inspiration with Killswitch Engage or The Contortionist.
2. What advice would you offer to someone who's interested in getting into character modeling, and potentially working on a game/mod in the future?
First, start small. Learn the fundamentals. It takes patience but will help in the long run. Second, don't go it alone. There are many like-minded people who are beginning their journey too. Join one of the many 3D modeling/3D sculpting discord groups with people willing to help and critique. Thirdly, do not give up. There were times in the beginning where I wanted to quit because it was too hard and I wasn't confident I could do it. I'm so grateful I pushed through that. Stick with it and you'll grow an understanding of the process and make massive strides forward. You'll be glad you didn't give up! And lastly, always have fun doing it!
3. You're a drummer. What are your three favorite drum beats from any song ever?
This is a hard one but if I have to choose my three favorite beats, in no particular order: The Meters "Cissy Strut", Team Sleep "Your Skull is Red" and Led Zeppelin "Fool in the Rain" because John Bonham.
Bio: John, a.k.a. Temptor, is a 3D artist and modeler for Operation: Invictus. He does most of his work in Blender, Zbrush, and Substance Painter. As a percussionist, when he's not crafting characters, he's listening to or making his own music. He loves ocean fishing with his friends, and mentoring his 5 year old nephew who wants to learn 3D art.
Here is some of the new content for Operation: Invictus that the ISMC team worked on last month:
AK-74 Warfighter
HK417A2 w/ Schmidt and Bender PM II optic
SKS w/ PSO-1 optic
CMMG MK300 Endeavor
Another HK417A2 variant w/ a 13” barrel vs. the scoped version shown above, which is a 20” barrel
[h3]Operation: Overlord[/h3]
Major progress was made on the character models for Overlord that are being developed to replace the placeholder models we were using:
US Paratrooper
German Paratrooper (Fallschirmjäger)
Maps
[h3]Risala[/h3]
Risala received further polish, detailing, and optimization work:
Risala also received a facelift to the map UI:
[h3]Argonne[/h3]
Argonne also received further polish, detailing, and optimization work:
Argonne also received an update to the map UI:
[h3]Monte Cassino[/h3]
Last month a lot of work went into further detailing the Abbey for Monte Cassino, as well as more polish, detailing, and optimization passes:
Monte Cassino also received a new map UI:
[h3]Khafji[/h3]
Khafji received an updated map UI:
[h3]Lam Dong[/h3]
And last but not least, Lam Dong also received a new image for the map UI:
Animations
A batch of animations were completed for new weapons, and variants of past weapons:
AK-74 Warfighter, HK417A2, Chauchat, Madsen, grenadier variants for the M1 Garand and Kar98k, and a Walther P38 pistolObjects, Models, and Textures
[h3]World Props and Environment Assets[/h3]
A series of world props and environment assets were created for Operation: Overlord and Michael:
Farmhouse buildings
Pillbox bunker asset
Miscellaneous props and assets[h3]Foliage[/h3]
New foliage assets were created for future maps that will be made in Western Europe:
New trees were also made for more Mediterranean themed maps:
Upcoming and WIP Features
[h3]Optics[/h3]
We now have a first iteration/basic implementation of optics in the game. Work has begun on bringing more optic variants to many of the weapons using this system as well, so expect to start seeing more variations of weapons that you’ll be able to use with them.
Schmidt and Bender PM II on the HK417A2, and a PSO-1 on the SKSEventually we plan on looking into doing picture-in-picture (PiP) optics, and having the option for players to use whichever they prefer, but for now the goal is regular optics that have a nice, large and clear sight picture. PiP optics are very taxing on performance, and require a lot more background work to get working properly, so we will get to that later after we have this first initial implementation feeling solid.
[h3]Bots/AI[/h3]
More work has continued on bots and AI (mostly background coding work). Soon, the bots will be able to split up and have some move to attack the next flag, and some hang back to defend the last flag. Improvements and enhancements to their behavior will always be happening as well—we have a lot of plans for what we would like for the bots/AI to do.
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I hope you enjoyed this month’s devblog, and we look forward to sharing more with you next month. A big thank you once again to all of the Patreon backers!
Make sure to join the O:HD Discord, and/or follow our Steam announcements to track updates, and if you would like to support us early on in development you can do so through our Patreon! See you all next time!
-Goomes, Lead Community Manager
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