Operation: Harsh Doorstop News

Welcome to the nineteenth devblog for Operation: Harsh Doorstop. In this update, we will be reviewing the work that the team completed in the month of February 2022.

First up, I would like to reiterate the plans for the singleplayer demo that we have coming up: on March 30th a singleplayer demo will become available for everyone to download (completely free). To clarify (since this seems to be a point of confusion for some people) this will be SINGLEPLAYER only, NOT multiplayer—this means you will be able to do everything that you could in the normal game, just with bots only. The demo will include all of the maps, factions, weapons, and so on. No, this is NOT the release into early access (this also seems to be a point of confusion for some people), this is just a demo—we are still very much in a pre-alpha/prototype phase of the game, and we have a lot of work to do before we start thinking about an early access release.

Don’t forget you can still sign up for the multiplayer playtest sessions on the Steam page for O:HD, but please keep in mind that we have not begun accepting anybody into this yet. Once the demo comes out, we will be revisiting our internal roadmap and path towards these playtest sessions, and we will keep everyone posted on how that will work. At the time of writing this devblog, we have just passed 70,000 signups.

In addition to the singleplayer demo release, we will also be doing a major update to the modding tools/SDK around the same time. YES, mods will work with the singleplayer demo! This will be a great time for people who have been modding the game already, or that have been thinking about getting into modding to download the SDK and start/pick back up on projects that they may have already been working on.

[h3]Post Demo Release Plans[/h3]
Once the singleplayer demo is released, we have a few large plans/milestones that we will be shifting our focus to:

1. Optimization/Bug Fixing/Polish Phase: We will be spending some much needed time fixing up some of the outstanding bugs and optimization issues that have been accumulating over the past year or so. While the team has been working on getting the singleplayer demo prepared, we have had a QA team in the background going through the game with a fine tooth comb and logging all of the bugs and issues that they could find in JIRA. This will put us in a great place moving forward, as it will further stabilize and solidify the foundation upon which the whole framework and game are built.
   
2. Warfare 1944: Yes, that’s right, the time has finally come to give Warfare a major update to catch it up to speed with the work that we have done on OHDcore. This will include large features like bots/AI and all of the other major and critical work that has been done to the underlying framework in this time. This does not mean that work on O:HD will stop. We understand that some people believe Warfare has been abandoned, but we assure you it has not—we are still moving forward with exactly the same plan and setup that we have had since day 1: nothing has really changed since the first reveal stream that Bluedrake did back in 2020, or that we have discussed on Warfare devblogs in the past. We know things have taken longer than some people think they should, however, we are doing the best that we can with the resources that we have at our disposal. Sometimes these things just take longer than initially anticipated, and there is not a whole lot we can do about that at this point in time. We appreciated those of you who have been patient and stuck with us throughout this process.
   
3. Preparing Next Features and Planning for the Multiplayer Playtests: Once the singleplayer demo is released, we will be moving on to figure out what the next major features and content that we will work on are. Bots/AI will for certain be a huge focus for us, and we have a lot of plans for expanding and improving what they are capable of doing, so you can expect to see work continue there in full force. Other major features that we have discussed in the past that we could potentially shift to working on include, but are not limited to, vehicles, a medical system overhaul, weapon customization, character customization, and more.
   
   In addition, as mentioned above, we will also be revisiting our plan towards starting our larger multiplayer playtest sessions. There are still a few things that we want to complete pertaining to servers, admin tools, hosting options, and so on before we start accepting people into those, but it should be a great time once we start. We will keep everyone posted on our post-demo plans as soon as we have more information!
   

Expansions

[h3]Character Model Variations[/h3]
Character variations for all of the classes/kits across all of the current factions in the game/expansions are now completed!



They are all still awaiting implementation, however, they should be in for the singleplayer demo. This (on top of the voice lines) will add a nice amount of variety to help spice up gameplay sessions, and will be a great holdover until we have a more proper character customization system in place.

[h3]Operation: Invictus[/h3]
The modeling team created a G36 (primarily for use in the Invictus expansion but of course this can ultimately be used anywhere):



Some stylized shots of the new PMC and Insurgent character model variations showing them in more detail:



Miscellaneous gear that we showed off in past devblogs and have since been completed (and some new stuff):

Maps

[h3]Monte Cassino[/h3]
Monte Cassino received a major visual, landscape, and foliage overhaul:



A wind effect was also included on this map:



[h3]Khafji[/h3]
Khafji received more hard cover and further detailing to some of the more sparse areas on the map:



[h3]Lam Dong[/h3]
Lam Dong also received updates to foliage, hard cover, and lighting overall:



[h3]Risala[/h3]
Risala also received a similar treatment as the other maps—more foliage, hard cover, detailing, and so on:



[h3]Training Grounds[/h3]
Training Grounds got a small update to its lighting:

Objects, Models, and Textures

[h3]Scope Picture[/h3]
Some improvements were made to the overall look of the magnified optics/scopes (such as adding in a slight chromatic aberration effect to the outer ring of the picture):



There are still some outstanding bugs and performance issues with the scopes, but overall they should be quite smooth and clear.

[h3]Bullet Casings[/h3]
All of the models of the bullet casings for the various calibers we currently have in the game were completed:

4.6x30mm, 8×50mmR Lebel, 9×18mm Makarov, 0ARD9-ACEAX-K98DD, and .30 Carbine

Upcoming and WIP Features

[h3]Bots/AI[/h3]
In February, the AI programmer primarily worked on the first iteration for the voiceover callouts for the bots. There are a few types of callouts that they will do now: contact/lost contact, reloading, under suppression, and being hit. We also have a few mechanics in place to make sure that the bots don't talk too much or out of context. As usual, this feature is still very early/WIP, and we have a lot more planned for it including, but not limited to, expanding the pool of possible voice lines for them to choose from (i.e. from different voice actors), further improving on their call out relevance and making sure they use proper dialogue in the right scenarios, and so on.

[h3]Vehicles[/h3]
A simple infantry vehicle implementation was worked on:



Vehicles are still very WIP, and these models are mainly blockout/placeholder and will be replaced with higher quality assets in the future. This is mainly in preparation for a larger push into a proper implementation of vehicles in the future.

[h3]UI Overhaul[/h3]
Work continued on the UI overhaul, and we are getting very close to completing this first pass of UI updates. The lead programmer finished up the in-game HUD UI with the newer text and voice chat designs, and finished the first iteration of the multiplayer server browser in the main menu:

Whoa! 2 people online! 0GNMF-K625H-H3IJ2

—

Thank you to everyone who took the time to read the devblog—we look forward to releasing the singleplayer demo to everyone soon!

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 don’t forget you can do so on our Patreon! See you all next time!

-Goomes, Lead Community Manager





Website
Discord
Youtube
Twitter




Twitter
Discord
Website

Welcome to the eighteenth devblog for Operation: Harsh Doorstop. In this update, we will be reviewing the work that the team completed in the month of January 2022.

To start, I wanted to give everyone a quick update on the status of the singleplayer demo, and the multiplayer playtests that are coming up:

The team is still cranking away and pushing towards getting these out into people’s hands so they can start playing and checking out the game. Unfortunately, some of the tasks that are being worked on are taking a bit longer than anticipated, namely all of the UI overhaul work that is happening—this task requires a significant amount of programming work: not only are new systems being built and changed to, but the programmer is taking this opportunity to also refactor and update a lot of the older underlying systems that go into this, which will lead to a more robust and polished experience across the board.

Our current singleplayer demo release roadmap is as follows:

1. We want to finish the main menu UI. This will not only include a complete revamp to the aesthetic of how it looks, but also include things like functions to allow people to start matches with bots without the use of console commands, change more keybinds (finally), lay the foundation for a more robust server browser and filter system, and so on.
   
2. We will be implementing character class variations that the character modeling team has been working on (see below). This will allow for some more variety on the battlefield, so you won’t be looking at carbon copy clones of the same character model all the time. This should also hold us over until we implement a more in-depth character customization system that will allow players to have more control over how their characters look.
   
3. We are going to polish up many of the animations that need attention after the animation overhaul that we did a few months ago. As most of you have likely noticed, there are some funky animations that look weird or are just straight up broken as a result of moving to the new animation system (which is largely due to using animations that were initially created on the old system, but that don’t integrate well with the new systems). There will probably still be a few funky ones, but we hope to tackle the major issues here soon.
   
4. We will be implementing the first iteration of voice callouts for the bots. Soon, bots will start to make callouts when they see an enemy, get shot at, get hit, reload their guns, and so on. This will take some time to get right, but having a basic first version should help a lot with adding more flavor and variety to the gameplay experience.
   

When all is said and done, we anticipate that these tasks will be completed sometime around the end of February or early-to-mid March. We know a lot of people are excited and wanting to get in as soon as possible, but we want to make sure that we get all of these things done so that everyone has as solid an experience as possible in these early stages. The team is working as fast as possible to complete everything, so hopefully we will have the demo and playtests out to people here very soon!

Moving on to January’s recap:

Expansions

[h3]Operation: Invictus[/h3]
The character model team made a few new variations of the PMC and Insurgent factions:



There are several more variants that they are working on as well in addition to these that we will show off next month. For instance, some of the PMCs will be receiving a new jacket, as well as a new headset:



Progress was made on a M240B model that will be used in Invictus, and will of course be available in our library of weapons at large for use in any other expansions:



[h3]Operation: Harsh Doorstop[/h3]
More character variations were made for the US and Russian soldier models:



[h3]Operation: Rolling Stone[/h3]
And even more for the US and NVA factions:



All of the factions for each expansion have more variations being worked on as well, so we should have more to show on next month’s update.

Maps

[h3]Lam Dong[/h3]
The level design team incorporated new time of day and weather layers to Lam Dong, as well as rearranged some of the foliage, added hard cover to various spots across the map, and cleaned up/polished certain areas overall:



[h3]Khafji[/h3]
Khafji also received new time of day and weather effect layers:



[h3]Argonne[/h3]
Argonne also received a couple of variations of weather effects:

Animations

One of our animators has been working on a much needed overhaul to our third person walking animations:

Various third person animations for primary and secondary weapon movement in different directions

In addition, the weapon animator made a few new animations and redid a bunch of existing ones:




New M16A2 and AK74 reloads, RPG-7, and various grenade animations redone

Objects, Models, and Textures

[h3]World Props and Environment Assets[/h3]
Monte Cassino’s foliage was completely overhauled and redone:



The US base on Lam Dong was facelifted and received a bunch of new props to detail it:



A blockout Humvee was created for upcoming vehicle work and testing:



Please note that this is just a blockout model, and it intentionally leaves out a lot of detailing while the team works on the mechanics behind the scenes. We will be creating a more proper model once these initial phases are completed.

Upcoming and WIP Features

[h3]Particle Effects[/h3]
New blood splatter and hit impact effects were created:



The blood spray is a bit exaggerated, however, we felt that this will work out fine as it effectively doubles as a hit indicator at distance without having to add any annoying UI elements to tell you when you hit someone.

We also finally did away with the annoying default UE4 hit sound effects!

[h3]Night Vision Prototype[/h3]
A member on the team also began experimenting with night vision goggles/effects in his free time:



[h3]UI Overhaul[/h3]
The in-game UI overhaul has now more or less been completed:



We will continue tweaking and working on other features that we want to integrate into this over time, but the main parts are now done and functional.

Work also continued on prototyping an in-game contextual interaction system:



Please note that all of the images shown above are from a side project that the UI team is working on, and none of the design/aesthetics of the menus, icons, and so on are final. We are still experimenting a lot with how we want this to look and function before actually diving into creating a system in-game (plus the programming team is tied up working on other things right now).

As mentioned in a prior devblog, we obviously take a lot of inspiration from the interaction system from the popular ACE mod for Arma 3, as well as SWAT 4’s interaction menus. Our goal is to create a system that can blend into the world in a way that is not obstructive, is highly functional, and has the ability to account for a wide and deep range of potential scenarios in as intuitive a way as possible.

One of the key features that we are working on for this system is the ability to have an essentially limitless amount of nested menus that are easy to navigate so that it can be used in any number of scenarios. While this likely will not be relevant to the base O:HD experience, we want it to be capable of going further for modders that might want it to do so (much like other systems and features we work on). Potential scenarios where you might see this being used would be on modded life/RP-style servers where more menu options for interacting with objects in the world will be necessary, or more hardcore milsim communities that want to add extra layers of depth to their respective community’s experience, or anything in between. This will be an important part of our goal in creating a robust mod tool kit for the community to get creative and make some really cool mods for everyone to enjoy.

[h3]Bots/AI[/h3]
The AI programmer did some improvements to the bot’s combat behavior by further refining the issue of them constantly mag dumping their weapons, they should now switch to other weapons when they run out of ammo, and they should also occasionally use grenades. Improvements were also made to their navigation logic, so they should have better movement/pathing and run into walls less often.

In addition, work began on implementing the first voice lines/callouts for the bots. As stated earlier, bots will start to make callouts when they see an enemy, get shot at, get hit, reload their guns, and so on.

[h3]Audio Updates[/h3]
More sounds have been swapped out and replaced, as we continue our audio overhaul. As stated in last month’s devblog we will be preparing a more thorough showcase once more sounds are in and configured, so nothing to share for that this time around, although if you have access to the game you can go and experience them yourself now. Please keep in mind that while the audio is in such a transitory state, there will likely be many sounds that will sound off, too loud/quiet, and so on.

—

That’s it for January, thank you for taking the time to check the devblog out! We look forward to getting the singleplayer demo out as soon as possible, as well as getting the multiplayer playtest sessions underway. We will keep everyone posted when we have more concrete timelines/dates for those.

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 don’t forget you can do so on our Patreon! See you all next time!

-Goomes, Lead Community Manager





Website
Discord
Youtube
Twitter




Twitter
Discord
Website

Welcome to the seventeenth devblog for Operation: Harsh Doorstop. In this update, we will be reviewing the work that the team completed in the month of December 2021.

It has been a crazy year for O:HD! There have been many updates, and a significant amount of work that has gone into the game during this time—if you would like to go back and look at how the game has developed/progressed over the last 12 months, here are links to all of 2021’s devblogs for easy reference:

January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December (we are here)

Before getting into the content/game updates, I want to share some updates on the upcoming multiplayer playtest sessions, the singleplayer demo, and what our plans are for 2022:

For the multiplayer playtests there is going to be a slight delay, as the team is still working on some upgrades and features that we want to have in before we start opening up the floodgates and letting people in (at the time of this devblog we are getting very close to 50,000 signups). We are now targeting early-to-mid February for this, so not a huge delay, but it will be a necessary one to ensure that the playtests go as smoothly as possible, and people enjoy their experience. The singleplayer demo will be released prior to the multiplayer playtest sessions. We are also working with a few server hosting companies so that people who would like to launch their own servers during the playtests will have global options to do so as well.

To better represent what our goals are for 2022, we have prepared a graphic outlining the 3 phases that we are planning leading up to early access release:



The existing roadmap that we have shared in the past is still relevant in regards to features and remaining work that we would like to accomplish before getting to Phase III. You can find that posted in the November 2021 devblog (linked above).

Expansions

[h3]Operation: Invictus[/h3]
In December several of our existing weapons were either replaced (in the case of a marketplace M4A1 that was being used as a placeholder), recreated in anticipation for upcoming prototyping of the weapon customization system (the AK-74 Warfighter), and facelifted from their existing models (the original AK-74):


Colt M4A1 created to replace the marketplace asset that was being used as a placeholder. Also featuring a Micro T-1 red dot on a Scalarworks mount

AK-74 Warfighter recreated to be used in an upcoming prototype of our weapon customization system

The original AK-74 was facelifted

Work was also completed on the RPG-7 model that was shown off last month, all that is left before this is implemented are animations and audio:



[h3]Operation: Harsh Doorstop[/h3]
The character modeling team made significant progress on creating a number of soldier variations for the Gulf War US faction currently being used on the map Khafji:



These are mostly going to be placeholders to add some variety to the soldier models so everyone doesn’t look the same, and should hold us over until we get the character customization system in, where players will have much more control over how they want their characters to look. We will be creating variants for most if not all of the factions, so there is more to come soon.

Maps

[h3]Omaha Beach[/h3]
The level design team has begun working on the Omaha Beach map for Operation: Overlord.

This will also note a key change in the WW2 content for the foreseeable future—currently, Monte Cassino is the primary map where our WW2 content is being showcased, however, we determined that it would be more appropriate to have the Operation: Overlord expansion actually reflect more accurate battles from the real world operation. As a result, the immediate plan for the map content moving forward for WW2 and Overlord will be Omaha Beach, then we will be moving on to tackle Carentan. In addition, the US and German character models will be updated to more accurately portray what the soldiers would have looked like at the time for this operation. Last but not least, Monte Cassino will be shelved as a showcase map for the time being, and will likely be something we return to later on as a separate Operation expansion.

Here are some very early blockout shots of Omaha Beach:



The level design team has been making good progress, so we should have a decent amount to showcase for next month.

[h3]Risala[/h3]
Risala has continued to receive detailing and polishing, and many of the new buildings and environment props that were shown off in the last devblog have started to be added into the map.



It is now also possible to play on Risala using the time and weather variants of the map that were shown in last month’s devblog (these sublayers will be determined whenever you load the map, so there is a chance that it will be different each time—this is likely something we will start introducing on other maps as well to add some variety and change up the experience when you replay maps).

Animations

The following animations are either brand new, or have received updates/been facelifted (in the case of guns that are already in-game or ones we have shown in past devblogs). Just for the sake of clarity, some of these animations were completed prior to December (going back as far as October), and I am just including them now to catch up as I did not receive them until recently.

AS VAL, DS Arms SA58 FAL, SVD/Dragunov, MP5, Barrett M82, DP-28, M1919A2 Browning Machine Gun, M60E3, RPD, M79 Grenade Launcher, PKM, MG42, RPG-18, AT4, Madsen, and Chauchat

Objects, Models, and Textures

[h3]World Props and Environment Assets[/h3]
More props and building updates were worked on for our desert environments:









[h3]Bullet Casings[/h3]
Last month one of the 3D modelers began working on individual bullet casings for the various calibers that all of the guns are using:

7.62x51mm NATO, 9×19mm Parabellum, .45 ACP, 7.92×57mm Mauser, .30-06 Springfield

Upcoming and WIP Features

[h3]Particle Effects[/h3]
One of our VFX artists began reworking a bunch of the particle effects, such as the muzzle effects, and dirt impact effects:



Revamping the particle effects will be an ongoing task, so you can expect to see many improvements here in the coming weeks and months.

[h3]Audio Updates[/h3]
At long last we are beginning to work with an audio engineer that we recently onboarded to start sourcing, replacing, and working on our audio. This will be a long term task that is going to take time, but you should start to notice some differences in a lot of the in-game sounds here soon.

We will be preparing a more thorough showcase once more sounds are in and configured, so nothing to share for that this time around, although if you have access to the game you can go and experience them yourself now. Please keep in mind that while the audio is in such a transitory state, there will likely be many sounds that will sound off, too loud/quiet, and so on.

[h3]Bots/AI[/h3]
The bots/AI received some minor quality of life improvements to how they attack enemies (they should no longer only mag dump all of their ammo), and how often they go into a crouch or prone stance while under fire/receiving damage.

—

Thanks for checking out the December devblog! 2021 was a great year, and we can’t wait to see how 2022 pans out for O:HD. Thank you to all of the Patreon backers who have supported us along the way, we couldn’t have made the progress that we have made in the past year without you!

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 don’t forget you can do so on our Patreon! See you all next time!

-Goomes, Lead Community Manager





Website
Discord
Youtube
Twitter




Twitter
Discord
Website

Welcome to the sixteenth devblog for Operation: Harsh Doorstop. In this update, we will be reviewing the work that the team completed in the month of November 2021. Happy holidays to everyone from the team!

To start things off, Bluedrake42 recently did a podcast with our good friend Controlled Pairs Gaming in which they talked a lot about the philosophies, principles, concepts, and motivations for making O:HD. You can find it across all of Controlled Pair’s podcast platforms: Spotify | Anchor | Apple | Google. This is a great listen if you want to learn more about what O:HD is, and what our plans are moving forward, whether you are just now learning about our project, or have been watching for awhile and just want to keep up to date and learn more. Also, if you aren’t already, make sure you are following Controlled Pairs on all of his platforms and channels for excellent tactical shooter and milsim content!

Next up, we have another updated and more simplistic roadmap to share:



Most of the milestones and features/content planned in the last roadmap we showed back in devblog #14 have not changed that much (or at all)—as usual we will continue to revisit this timeline based on development progress, and when the team gets around to starting/finishing some of these tasks. As the roadmap states, all timelines are always subject to change, and our ability to accomplish these milestones are of course dependent on our available manpower, budget, and resources. That being said, we are continually getting closer to envisioning where we want O:HD to be by the time we hit our early access release window and actually feel it is the right time to go live.

[h3]Upcoming Playtest Sessions[/h3]
We also want to make an updated announcement in regards to the upcoming planned playtest sessions—we are still on track for targeting a mid-to-late January window for the next big public playtest sessions of O:HD. As of the time of writing this devblog, we have just shy of 37,000 people who have signed up to participate (and growing). Once we start admitting the people who have signed up on the Steam store page, we will likely do it in waves since there is such a high volume of signups, and we will scale up server availability as is needed—how we handle admitting players is still a topic of discussion internally, and we will make this more clear as we get closer to the day that we start opening this up. Steam’s playtest system picks people who signed up at random, so if you would like a chance to participate make sure that you go to the Steam store page and sign up!

That being said, this would be a great time for those in the community who have been thinking about setting up their own servers to start experimenting with this! We will make sure that server files are available to obtain if you intend on hosting from a dedicated machine, and we are also in talks with several server hosting companies that will be able to offer server hosting solutions as well. We will make sure to put out more information on this once we lock down what the plan and options will be. Also, it’s already possible to mod the game and have servers that run mods, so this is also a great opportunity for those that have been thinking about using the SDK to put something custom together to play with their communities (want to change the recoil? Adjust the damage model? Replace the factions on a map? Alter the level to play another way or use an entirely custom/new map? Hosting a unique server the way you want will entirely be possible for this event!).

[h3]Singleplayer Demo[/h3]
Last but not least, we also have a special surprise: we are planning on releasing a singleplayer demo of O:HD to coincide with the opening of the public playtests! If for some reason you do not wind up getting chosen for the multiplayer playtest, or you don’t get chosen right away, we are going to make this demo available to everybody at the same time so that you can still download and experiment with the game (you just won’t be able to join servers, but you will still be able to spawn/fight bots and check out all of the weapons and maps; disclaimer that mods might not wind up working on this build, but that is still TBD).

Moving on to the November recap:

Expansions

[h3]Operation: Invictus[/h3]
The 3D modelers have been hard at work remaking and creating new weapon assets to be used in Invictus and other expansions. They are also starting to produce individual parts that will be used in our prototyping/concepting phases of weapon customization, as we plan for and design how those systems will work:
Concept of a modified AKM, and all of its individual parts—this is just an example of the sort of customization that we would like to make possible. Parts featured in order of appearance: Valday 1P87 holographic sight, Zenit B-30 w/ B-31 rail combo, Zenit Perst-4 visible/IR laser system, FAB Defense PDC dust cover, Zenit RK-2 foregrip, Zenit PT-1 stock, Magpul MOE AK pistol grip, and a Bakelite 7.62x39mm magazine

More parts not featured on the above build:

Aimpoint Micro T-1 red dot sight on a Unity Tactical FAST Micro Mount

PUFGUN 3040 and XTech Tactical MAG47 7.62x39mm magazines, and a Zenit RK-3 pistol grip

The IWI Galil ACE GEN II was made:



The AKM has also been updated/redone:



Work in progress RPG-7:



[h3]Operation: Harsh Doorstop[/h3]
A boonie hat was made for the US forces on the Khafji/Gulf War era map:



This faction will be the first to receive some character variety between the classes, so not everyone will look the same. We will slowly be going back and updating the factions to make similar passes as a holdover until we figure out how we want to do more thorough character customization. Next devblog we should have some more images of the altered characters, as good progress was made here during December.

Maps

[h3]Risala[/h3]
Risala has continued to receive detailing passes, specifically new rocks and some crop fields have been added:



In addition to these updates, the level designers have been experimenting with some new lighting layers for alternate scenarios of the map that will take place during different times and/or weather conditions:

Sandstorm and dawn scenarios

[h3]Argonne[/h3]
Argonne received some new and updated foliage:

Objects, Models, and Textures

[h3]World Props and Environment Assets[/h3]
Work continued on the updated art and optimization pass to our desert environments:



Dioramas with detailed light perspectives:



More miscellaneous world props and environment assets:

Modular cliffs, a door and window variants, a satellite dish, planter boxes, utility poles, carpets (rolled/unrolled), a dumpster, and bollards

Upcoming and WIP Features

[h3]UI Overhaul[/h3]

A major overhaul to the user interface and user experience of the game is currently underway. This will not only make changes to the in-game HUD/UI, but also all of the game menus. Right now, the programmer is working on initial/base implementation while the art and UI teams are finalizing a design/theme for it. We first showed this off in devblog #14, and we have a few more previews to share from November of some of the in-game UI concepts/prototypes:

Multiple variations of the in-game HUD testing out fonts, icons, sizing, placement on screen or in world, etc.—please keep in mind these are subject to change/be altered and are not fully representative of what the final HUD will look like

Here is a concept of the in-game contextual interaction menu that we will be creating (i.e. walking up to a door and being able to interact with it and perform multiple actions):



As you can probably tell, we had two major inspirations for this menu: ACE mod for Arma 3, and SWAT 4. The goal that we hope to achieve is making an interaction system that blends into the world in a useful and contextual manner so that your persistent on screen HUD can be kept as functionally minimalistic and immersive as possible, while your capability to manipulate and interact with the world around you stays intact when you need it most. This system probably won’t come till later on (after the initial UI overhaul), but this should hopefully shed some more light on how we plan on handling world interaction and information delivery while in-game.

[h3]Animation Overhaul[/h3]
Last month the lead programmer integrated the procedural animation work into the mainline of the code, and he did a lot of additional work on replicating the weapon states of remote clients for the purpose of weapon animations (i.e. another player's weapon appears empty from the third person perspective if they are out of ammo).

At this point, the animation overhaul is more or less complete, and we have also revisited the majority of the weapons to adjust their recoil, camera shake effects, braced aim/point shooting positions, ADS camera offset, and more. As usual, this is still something we are testing and will be rebalancing overtime as needed, so please give us your feedback in the Discord if you feel certain guns may feel off, should perform another way, and so on.

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Thanks for taking the time to check out our update for November! Once again, be sure to check out and give your support to Controlled Pairs Gaming on YouTube, and all of his podcast platforms—Pairs makes some of the best tactical shooter and milsim content on YouTube, so if you aren’t already subscribed to him you should be!

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 don’t forget you can do so on our Patreon! See you all next time!

-Goomes, Lead Community Manager





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Welcome to the fifteenth devblog for Operation: Harsh Doorstop. In this update, we will be reviewing the work that the team completed in the month of October 2021.

Not a whole lot to go over this month, as most of what was worked on was behind the scenes with the programming team, so this will be a smaller devblog. That said, as of this devblog we have just implemented the very first iteration of the animation overhaul into the Test Environment build of the game, so if you would like to check it out, boot into that version. Please keep in mind that this system is extremely work-in-progress, and what you are going to see as of this first iteration is nowhere near final—a lot has been broken, since many things need to be hooked back up into this new system in order to be functional again (which is part of the team’s main focus in the coming weeks). I will include more information about this system towards the end of the devblog, as this is a pretty major overhaul to the OHDcore framework, and many of the features that are in/planned to be in will be depending on this system.

On to the October recap:

Expansions

[h3]Operation: Invictus[/h3]
The Emissary Development Group Handstop & Witt Machine Big Body Tu-Tu-Three models that were shown off in the last devblog have been completed:



The character artists also put more work into the Eastern European militia model:

Maps

The level designers continued to experiment with lighting on Risala, Khafji, and Monte Cassino:

[h3]Risala[/h3]


[h3]Khafji[/h3]
In the photo above with the arches, you can see a new sand particle effect that the level designers are starting to mess with and add to Khafji as well

[h3]Monte Cassino[/h3]

Objects, Models, and Textures

[h3]World Props and Environment Assets[/h3]
Last month the environment artists worked on an updated art and optimization pass to our desert environments:



Soon, the team will begin doing another art pass on these maps to add more detail and make the environments look more war torn and lived in. They are also focusing on optimization along the way since they will be redoing many buildings, which allows them to do things like reduce draw calls and improve overall performance.



This is an example of our new work flow for this art pass. Buildings will now feature a layered material composed of multiple materials that will allow us to add detail across the buildings in a more flexible way. We are not currently doing this on the buildings you see now. The current building’s purpose has always been to be placeholder while the level designers and environment artists hone in on a more finalized map creation and art direction work flow, so it has been much easier for them to use more basic buildings while so many other elements of the maps are still in flux/constantly changing.

Some more images of props that were created for this scene:

Upcoming and WIP Features

[h3]Animation Overhaul[/h3]
The new animation overhaul that I mentioned at the start of the devblog is now in the Test Environment. Once again, this system is extremely work-in-progress, and what you are going to see as of this first iteration is nowhere near final—a lot has been broken, since many things need to be hooked back up into this new system in order to be functional again (which is part of the team’s main focus in the coming weeks).

This system is going to allow us to do many things to improve the gunplay, the overall player controller, and open up greater potential for many other systems and features that we are planning on adding. This includes, but is not limited to: completely procedurally generated animation blending (which allows us to do things like reloading while in ADS), vaulting and mantling implementation, bipodding and weapon resting, support for weapon customization (so we can do things like make it so the hand stays with a foregrip if it’s moved up and down the rail without needing to add in new animations, for example), alternate optics (such as being able to use a scope plus a canted optic), and so on and so forth. In addition, this system also reduces the amount of animations required per set for any given weapon/item that will be utilizing this system, which means that not only will our animators be able to become more efficient with the volume of animations they produce (which means weapons can get set up and ready for gameplay sooner), but it also means that modders will technically also be required to do less to set up a weapon for any mods they are making, thereby making it easier to create more modding content overall.

We cannot stress enough how major this update is, and all of the doors that it is opening up for us to be able to pursue a lot of features that we and many others want to see—we can’t wait to get this system fully fleshed out and configured/polished up, so that we can start working on all of these other features.

[h3]Bots/AI[/h3]
More work was done to the bot AI last month. Now, all bots can join and create squads, spawn at rally points and FOBs, and they will sprint, crouch, and go prone depending on whatever scenario they are in (such as getting shot at). In addition, a number of parameters were exposed in the SDK so that modders have some more options to tweak the bots to their liking.

Next up, the AI programmer will be polishing up existing systems, and putting some more focus into expanding the tactics and strategies that the bots will be able to implement in certain scenarios (such as bounding/peeling, flanking, and so on). There will be a lot to do here, so this probably will not happen right away, but now that a lot of these baseline systems are implemented and in a playable state, it will be easier for the AI programmer to start focusing on enhancing the PvE experience further.

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That’s all for this month. I apologize for getting this devblog out late in the month—October-December tend to be extremely busy for us, so it has been hard to find the time to get to this when I had hoped to. I will try to get the next one out sooner, and we should have a lot more content to show off next month as well!

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 don’t forget you can do so on our Patreon! See you all next time!

-Goomes, Lead Community Manager




Website
Discord
Youtube
Twitter




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