Development Blog #23 [June 2022]
Hello Drakelings!
Welcome to the twenty-third devblog for Operation: Harsh Doorstop. In this update, we will be reviewing the work that the team completed in the month of June 2022.
The team is still plugging away at a lot of core/foundational tasks, and I don’t have any special information or plans to share this month before getting into our recap of June (check out our last few devblogs for our broader early access release plans), so let’s just jump right into it:
Expansions
[h3]Operation: Overlord[/h3]
The character modelers finished the Wehrmacht (Germany) uniforms, complete with rolled and unrolled sleeve variants:
In addition, work 0F3EF continued in the 1st Infantry Division (US) uniforms:
Maps
[h3]Tan Binh[/h3]
Tan Binh has transitioned from a blockout phase to a detailing phase where the level designers are actually working on filling out the map with all of the relevant foliage and buildings that they will need:
Objects, Models, and Textures
[h3]World Props and Environment Assets[/h3]
One of our environment artists spent last month creating a first iteration of systems to make modular buildings for our upcoming Normandy-based maps:
These buildings are completely modular, built to keep draw calls and memory costs down while still maintaining many potential variations, and they are utilizing several tileable textures and trim sheets (in fact >90% of these YNV0M buildings are made up of just 3 trim sheets). In addition, there will be enterable and non-enterable variants of all of these buildings.
Upcoming and WIP Features
[h3]Bots/AI[/h3]
The AI programmer has now begun his implementation of limiting AI vision so that they will no longer be able to see through smoke and foliage. In addition, the AI will now target more areas of the body to see and shoot, such as the head, arms, and legs. As some of you may have noticed with the current version of AI, if you are crouched behind a window or above the ground floor of a building they will oftentimes not actually see you, as they are searching for the very center/middle of your body (which in these scenarios would be obscured). This is due to the fact that every player has an invisible pill-shaped capsule that surrounds them, and the very center of this capsule is actually what the AI looks for (so if the center of your body is behind cover, despite your head being fully exposed, you would effectively be completely invisible to them)—now, with this update, they will target much more than just the center, meaning players should no longer be able to exploit this limitation. Last but not least, he will also be working on mechanics that will make it so the AI will continue to fire on last known locations for a period of time if they lose line of sight, so players will not be able to do things like pop in and out of cover and/or concealment to instantly trigger whether or not the AI see them. He is already making decent progress on these changes, and so far our initial tests seem to be working quite well.
Additionally, many of the lingering bugs that were present with the AI grouping systems/behaviors have been ironed out. The lead programmer also included support for static navmesh generation for smaller maps, or maps that don't utilize nav invokers. In those cases, the navmesh would be dynamically generated 8BRCW around Player Characters and CPs only—this should help with AI navigation when we want them to always pick the shortest path to their destination ahead of time (as well as for performance reasons).
[h3]Vaulting and Mantling[/h3]
Currently, vaulting and mantling is being researched by our lead programmer so that he can determine how to best incorporate these features into our framework. As shown off in the past couple of devblogs we already have some blockout animations created to be utilized in the first iteration of these systems, so once the lead programmer feels confident in his approach for implementation we should have some actual WIP gameplay demonstrations to show off (hopefully by the next devblog).
[h3]Suppression Overhaul[/h3]
I don’t have much to share with you all on this just yet, but we are currently also working on a complete overhaul to the suppression system. The one that is in game right now was never really meant to be final, and as such has been a placeholder system. We are hoping to implement a system for suppression that allows for a more “realistic” approach while also providing an avenue for effective suppression that will factor into gameplay in a meaningful way that relies on teamwork and cohesion to successfully achieve. Once we have more progress on this we will make sure to give everyone a proper demonstration/breakdown to see how it will work.
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Thank you for checking out the devblog this month! Let us know in the comments if you managed to get the key that I hid above.
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 and grab a Multiplayer Playtest key don’t forget you can do so on our Patreon! See you all next time!
-Goomes, Lead Community Manager
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