Operation: Harsh Doorstop News

Welcome to the fortieth devblog for Operation: Harsh Doorstop. In this update, we will be reviewing the work that the team completed in the month of November 2023.

[h3]Post-Update Plans[/h3]
This past Wednesday we released our first major update since early access, and so far it appears everything has been going pretty smoothly with that. This update included a whole slew of new changes and fixes, and a number 4RC0X of new major backend features, such as automatic mod downloading on server join (making it so all you have to do is boot up the game and join a server without any guesswork as to what mods you will need). If you would like to view the complete list of updates and changes, please check out the Update v0.13.0.0 Changelog.

Over the next couple of months, our top priority will be monitoring the game and fixing any remaining critical bugs/issues that we can find, as well as doing some much needed polish and optimization 3H7CB work that we didn’t have the time to get in for this last update (and potentially push a hotfix or two). Once these steps are done, our plan is to move on to the first official implementation of our vehicle framework, and then from there base building/construction for the creation of FOBs and bases should be next.

Maps

[h3]Carentan[/h3]
The level design team added on to the main village area of Carentan, towards the center of the map, including QVR4W parts of the main square and outskirts of the town.


[h3]Jaziira[/h3]
In November the final touches were put on the first version 46R4B of Jaziira to get it ready for the update. For the next steps on this map, our level designs will be working towards detailing and polishing up the rest of the city portion of the map to get it up to the same detail levels as the current layout features so that we can start adding in more layers and areas of the map KZVPG to fight in.

Animations

[h3]Stamina-Based Sway[/h3]
Our technical animator added a basic sway animation to the weapons that becomes more and more intense the lower your stamina goes to encourage players to manage their stamina better, and favor taking and holding positions D6KPL over running and gunning. While this system is very basic right now and doesn’t impact gameplay a tremendous amount, it will be a precursor/base foundation to a more advanced system we will be adding and tying more elements of the gameplay into in the future (such as our medical overhaul).



[h3]Walking Cycles[/h3]
He also revisited the ADS walking cycles to make them better fit with the rest of the animation overhaul that we have been 4W326 working on, and to also make it a bit harder to aim and shoot on the move.



[h3]Prone Movement Improvements[/h3]
Lastly, he has also been refactoring the prone animation graph, which should result in a much more improved blending result between JNCHW crawling animations and seamless direction reversals.

Objects, Models, and Textures

[h3]More New/Updated Weapons[/h3]
There were a few more weapon ZLJI7 additions that I forgot to include in one of the last devblogs:

CMMG Endeavor, an SKS 5PGBG w/ a PU scope (replacing the PSO variant), an improved version of the M4A1 w/ M203 launcher to replace the existing one in the PMC faction, an AKM, an earlier variant of the M1919 BAR for use w/ the WW1 faction, and a Mauser 1914 (currently using 29PG2 the Makarov animations and it will require its own set later on, so these might not be totally proper right now)

—

Thanks for checking out this month’s devblog. Happy holidays everyone, and 243CG have a great New Year!

Make sure to join the O:HD Discord, and be sure to follow our Steam announcements to track updates. See you all next time!

-Goomes, Lead Community Manager

Website
Discord
Youtube
Twitter

[h2]Administration[/h2]

• Added player voting system with votekick feature
  
• Added player filtration/access control system, allowing server owners to deny player entry based on a variety of criteria such as VAC/Game ban count or date issued, account age, and playtime hours.
  

[h2]Animations[/h2]

• New Prone Animations
  
• New Stance Transition Animations
  
• Weapon-World Collision
  
• Weapon Sway
  
• Fixed issue where FP camera could get stuck off screen (part way through a camera animation) if there was a network correction while the player was in the middle of a vault
  
• Fixed issue where a player's leaning state, from the perspective of other players, could go out of sync on the server
  

[h2]Audio[/h2]

• Replaced far sounds with better-quality sounds
  
• Reduced footstep sounds by 20%
  
• Decreased volume on all Close Echo sounds as they were overpowering the main gunshot
  
• Adjusted ricochet, suppression, and bullet crack sounds, making them louder
  

[h2]Buildings[/h2]

• Added many new props, replaced placeholder assets
  
• Added lights to all enterable buildings, set low culling distances for better performance
  
• Set lights to not cast dynamic shadows for better performance
  

[h2]Characters[/h2]

• Rebaked all character LODs, adjusted LOD materials to blend better as you move away from other characters
  
• US, RU, PMC, Insurgent, USMC, and NVA characters have new additions, backpacks removed, new faces, and material optimizations
  
• Fixed death timer handle reset that was preventing death animations from playing, if configured
  

[h2]Cleanup[/h2]

• Fixed misspelling of Wehrmacht assets
  
• Removed several Textures, Meshes, Materials, and Blueprints that were no longer being used
  
• Updated M203GL Launcher
  
• Moved all buildings, props, and blueprints out of the Operation folders and into HDAssets
  

[h2]Credits[/h2]

• Added several Developer, Contributor, and Supporter names to the credits list
  

[h2]DLC Maps[/h2]

• Replaced Ultra Dynamic Sky lighting with new Lighting system
  
• All DLC maps are still Work In Progress, performance varies
  

[h2]Gameplay[/h2]

• Major improvements to AI, including new mechanics for dynamic cover and more cautious advancement on objectives
  
• Re-enabled collision between players
  
• Adjusted movement speeds
  
• Implemented "interaction sphere" for dropped kits, making them easier to interact with and to pick up off the ground.
  
• Resolved an issue with players talking over voip that were not able to be heard if there were several players talking simultaneously
  
• Tuned removal behavior of shot tracking to enhance server stability
  
• Implement prone "hold" input behavior for crouch toggle on gamepad
  

[h2]Game Servers/Multiplayer[/h2]

• Additional security improvements and enhancements
  
• Added server auto-mod download feature where joining clients will download the mods deemed necessary by the server before loading into the map
  
• Introduced the ability for mod authors to mark select modifications as "server-only" and not required for clients to download
  
• Omit non-essential server tags from GameTags section to prevent overflow
  
• Enabled steam rich presence, allowing for server connection info to be provided via the "Game Info" dialog for steam friends currently in a server
  
• Allow for players to join a server through a steam game invite or off of a friend directly
  

[h2]Lighting[/h2]

• Updated lighting BP with an updated v2 version
  
• Removed lighting levels that were using Ultra Dynamic Sky lighting
  
• Imported new v2 lighting templates
  
• Updated all maps with new Lighting v2 templates
  
• Created new cube maps for all maps and lighting scenarios
  

[h2]Maps[/h2]

• Rebuilt all HLODs without Normal maps, reducing overall texture memory
  
• Instanced several props used on buildings to reduce draw calls
  
• Replaced several meshes with merged versions to reduce draw calls
  
• Added new lighting levels with a new lighting system
  
• Removed several merged walls and replaced them with individual meshes, reducing draw calls
  
• Reduced landscape material shader complexity on all maps, helps performance on Low and Medium Quality settings
  
• Resolved issue with bots not spawning on some map configurations with capture points whose radius extends beyond the allowed boundaries of the nav mesh or are affected by a nav modifier
  

[h2]Khafji[/h2]

• Increased playable area from its current 1km area to 4km
  
• Added more capture routes for AAS
  
• Added more props, cover, and buildings
  
• Replaced Ultra Dynamic Sky with new Lighting Setup
  

[h2]Risala[/h2]

• Replaced several buildings and assets with optimized assets to improve performance
  
• Increased the ratio of non-enterable buildings versus enterable buildings for better performance
  
• Replaced the Embassy building, and made that area into a cargo container area
  
• Replaced Ultra Dynamic Sky with new Lighting Setup
  

[h2]Argonne[/h2]

• Added background foliage to the outside play area
  
• Replaced several merged meshes with their individual meshes to reduce tri count and draw calls
  
• Added foliage color variation
  
• Improved landscape roughness and specular settings
  
• Replaced Ultra Dynamic Sky with new Lighting Setup
  

[h2]Montecassino[/h2]

• Replaced merged sections of the monastery with their individual modular meshes for better performance
  
• Added interior lights to the monastery
  
• Added more cover and firing positions to the interior of the monastery
  
• Added foliage to the background mountains
  
• Reduced landscape shader complexity for better performance on Low and Medium settings
  
• Replaced Ultra Dynamic Sky with new Lighting Setup
  

[h2]Lam Dong[/h2]

• Replaced large water plane with smaller water plane meshes
  
• Improved overall foliage quality on Jungle foliage
  
• Optimized collisions on all the Jungle Huts
  
• Added the ability to climb the Watch Towers
  
• Replaced Ultra Dynamic Sky with new Lighting Setup
  

[h2]Jaziira[/h2]

• Our new official 2km² map set in Somalia
  
• One full layout, ready to play for the update. The rest of the map will continue to be worked on for the coming updates and the addition of vehicles in the future with larger routes
  

[h2]Materials[/h2]

• Optimized bullet impact decal materials, reducing draw calls and texture memory
  
• Added "Quality Switch" to all master materials for Diffuse, Normal, and ORM, this will reduce texture memory on Low and Medium Quality settings
  
• Quality switch applies to landscape, props, effects, and foliage as well
  

[h2]SDK[/h2]

• Added setting to allow for pak files to be compressed during mod packaging to help cut down on the file size of larger mods
  
• Added PBR Validator Tool, which helps set all materials and textures within the PBR range
  
• Fixed some cases of packaging error "Package X is set to NeverCook, but something is trying to cook it!" that would occur if the mod had references to engine content
  
• The editor will now load straight into the HarshDoorstop uproject automatically if the user launches the editor by running UE4Editor.exe directly
  
• Enabled EQS Editor setting
  
• Added BP static: SetCastStaticShadow
• Updated description of "No Recoil" setting to better clarify that it removes a weapon's configured cone of fire in addition to removing any recoil
  

[h2]User Settings[/h2]

• Exposure value used by Low, and Medium settings adjusted, levels should not be dark or pitch black anymore
  
• Disable mouse smoothing setting by default
  
• Added "Vote Yes" and "Vote No" keybindings, used for player voting system
  
• Added keybinding for "Chat History" with the default key set to 'Forward Slash' instead of 'F12'
  

[h2]VFX[/h2]

• Reduced emitter delay on the smoke grenades, start time reduced from 11 seconds to 3 seconds
  
• Added fourth LOD to smoke grenades and increased the distance they cull out
  
• Increased the duration of the suppression effect
  

[h2]Weapons[/h2]

• Adjusted all weapon materials for new lighting
  
• Removed tracers on all weapons except for Squad Leaders, and Machine Gunners
  
• ADS, Braced Aim, Recoil, and Camera Shake have been adjusted on all weapons
  
• Optic material has been optimized, reducing frame drop
  
• Fixed bone damage multipliers that were improperly set
  
• Various fixes to client weapon clip ammo jitter and desync, resulting in reloads not working among other issues
  
• Fixed issue involving weapons with fast fire rates that would sometimes drop the player's inputs to fire the weapon if the fire button was released and subsequently held down in quick succession
  
• Fixed crash from unsafe call to stop weapon fire during GC when exiting the game
  
• Fixed issue involving single-load weapons (ones with a dry reload function) ending up with a partial ammo clip after a combination of dry and partial reloads
  
• Resolved issue with ammo capacity totals counting the clip ammo from ammo clips loaded into other guns in inventory that accept the same ammo clip type
  
• Adjusted ammo bag and medical bag are slower to heal, however, they replenish more HP per tick
  
• Bandages heal for less HP
  
• Full top-to-bottom review and adjustment of every single weapon in-game
  
• Faction Kits reviewed and adjusted
  
• Grenade throw distances adjusted
  

[h2]Known Bugs[/h2]

• Jaziira, shell casings cull too early when ejected from the weapon
  
• Khafji needs more improvements to increase performance
  
• Arms glitching while switching between weapons
  
• Grenade explosion, one of the explosion effects has a flickering flipbook texture
  

Welcome to the thirty-ninth devblog for Operation: Harsh Doorstop. In this update, we will be reviewing the work that the team completed in the month of October 2023.

[h3]Next Update Plans (continued)[/h3]
To start I want to give another brief update/reminder that our planned release window for this next update will be next month, sometime in mid-December. We will announce a more precise date when 4TFHI we get a bit closer to it, but that is the planned timeline. The team plans on initiating a work lockdown in the beginning of December (approximately 1 week from the release of this devblog), at which time the update will be finalized for release, patch notes will be made, any finishing touches will be worked on, and so on.

Maps

[h3]Carentan[/h3]
The level design team continues working on detailing and building out Carentan for the Operation: WWHB5 Overlord expansion:



[h3]Jaziira[/h3]
A lot of work went into Jaziira 5VZK6 to get the first route ready for the update, and many props, walls, foliage, landscape work and more were introduced and polished up. After the update in December, we plan on doing further passes on this map to incorporate more routes, more details, 577PL and so on.

Animations

[h3]Jumping and Landing[/h3]
Our technical animator has been working on getting the 2GETF last few core systems ready for the next update, including a new camera effects/animation system for jumping, falling, and landing. All of these smaller subsystems work together to achieve a more polished feel to the animations, RTDYQ which should help make our overall movement feel less “floaty”, which is a common piece of feedback that we tend to see.



[h3]Vaulting Improvements[/h3]
In addition, he has also revisited the vaulting 4C0B2 animations to further polish them up, and as a part of that process vaulting animations have also been given their own camera animations, which will enhance the overall physicality/feeling of those actions.

Upcoming and WIP Features

[h3]Movement and Stamina-Based Sway[/h3]
The team is also currently working on a basic first implementation of movement and stamina-based weapon sway, which we will show in the next devblog. What this basically entails however is that 563QA there will now be more substantial weapon sway when you are in ADS and moving, as well as when you exhaust your running and jumping stamina bars, and then go into ADS (the severity of which will increase the lower your stamina bars are).

[h3]Movement Changes[/h3]
We have also incorporated some rather substantial movement changes as well. Overall, movement in general has been slowed down—things like the basic jog movement, movement while in ADS and while leaning, prone movement, and so on have all been slowed down. On the flip side of this, in order to alleviate CG0R6 any issues that might come with this in regards to how long it takes to traverse the map and move from objective to objective, we have kept the overall stamina speed roughly the same, and we gave players a larger stamina pool in order to run for further distances without having to stop. When compared side-to-side with the main build, it should take approximately just as long (if not faster) to travel between objectives.

With these changes, we are hoping to accomplish two things: first, movement while in close quarters environments, or just generally attempting to fight around positions that players are holding, should feel a lot better and more controllable; second, your time to objective should be unaffected, if not made even better, as you now have more stamina to take advantage of to get there (this is only temporary, however, as we do intend on reducing the amount of stamina that players have once we start incorporating vehicles). This should make fighting on specific locations more enjoyable overall and feel more in line with the gameplay style that we would like to go for 3Q7L2 with the base game without hindering players too much due to some of the larger map sizes and travel times.

[h3]Suppression Changes[/h3]
While the suppression system is still largely the same in regards to effects and overall functionality, the actual length of effects, camera shake, and so on have been made a bit more exaggerated to make suppressing fire a little more effective. This shouldn’t completely hinder players to the point where they cannot effectively return fire, but it should make accurate return fire more challenging overall to accomplish. This is something that we are still experimenting with, and have plans to do a full blown overhaul on in the future, but in general our intent is to always make sure that combat reasonably maintains high lethality, makes the types of weapons and weapon systems being used have a purpose/relevance, retains player agency/control, and allows for there to be a skill gap in place.

[h3]Balancing Changes[/h3]
A myriad of balancing changes have also been made to some of the kit items, such as ammo and med bags, bandages, grenades, and so on:

• Ammo Bags: Ammo bags now take longer to replenish ammo. This is still a very placeholder system that doesn’t provide the greatest depth, but this should help a bit with grenade and rocket ECYKA spam that we have seen occur. Not much more that we can do with these for now with the current systems, but this should be a positive change overall for balance purposes.
  
• Med Bags: Med bags now take slightly longer to give health, however, the amount of health that they provide per heal is higher, which means the Medic classes should now be more viable and effective, as it takes less time for them to fully heal teammates, and bandages overall are less effective (see below).
  
• Bandages: Bandages now heal for less per bandage, but players get more of them. This will make healing a more time consuming event (no more ripping a bandage and instantly getting back most of your health), and players are encouraged to focus on establishing solid fighting positions, maintaining hard cover, and working together more as a team in order to tip the odds in their favor 38CVM during firefights. Just like the ammo and med bags, this is still a very placeholder system, and will ultimately be replaced with a complete medical system overhaul.
  
• Grenades: Grenades now cannot be thrown as far, and the overall blast radius has been reduced. In the past it has been too easy to just lob a couple of grenades into a general area and completely nuke everything in and around it, so this should help tamp down on these instances from occurring, as grenades will need more strategic placement in order to be used effectively.
  

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That’s it for this month, thanks for reading!

Make sure to join the O:HD Discord, and be sure to follow our Steam announcements to track updates. See you all next time!

-Goomes, Lead Community Manager

Website
Discord
Youtube
Twitter

[h2]Nominate Operation: Harsh Doorstop in the "Best Game You Suck At" category![/h2]

This is an absolutely surreal moment for us. We've been working on Operation: Harsh Doorstop for years, and to now be nominated for a Steam award is an absolute life achievement. As many of you know, we still have a long road ahead of us, but we're incredibly excited about what is coming next. In a few mere weeks we'll be launching the biggest update to our game that we've ever launched, and we still have much more planned after that.

Our team is dedicated and full of loyal members who dedicate their time to building our ultimate vision together. A completely free, community developed, tactical shooter for the entire world to enjoy. If you also believe in that vision, please consider supporting our nomination by voting for us in the 2023 Steam Awards!

[h2]You can also become a supporter for 10% OFF during the ENTIRE STEAM AWARDS EVENT![/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/29860/Operation_Harsh_Doorstop__Complete_Pack_10_OFF/

[h2]This means that you can also GET ALL OUR PARTNER BUNDLES FOR 10% OFF TOO![/h2]
This includes our official partners like Battlebit, World of Guns, Zero Hour, and more!

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/31347/Battlebit__Operation_Harsh_Doorstop/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/31004/Zero_Hour__Operation_Harsh_Doorstop_30_OFF/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/32906/World_of_Guns_Full_Access_50_OFF/

Trust me when I say, this is still only the beginning. Huge things are coming. Just wait.

- Bluedrake42
OHDCorp CEO

Welcome to the thirty-eighth devblog for Operation: Harsh Doorstop. In this update, we will be reviewing the work that the team completed in the month of September 2023.

[h3]Next Update Plans (continued)[/h3]
In the last devblog, we discussed the target release window for this next update being in early November, however, upon further discussion with the team and after reviewing some of the tasks that we wanted to finish for this update 4TQBM we decided that it would be better to take the extra time and push this window back a bit further. We are now looking at sometime in late November to mid-December. We want to get this update out to everyone as soon as possible, but we also want to make sure that we aren’t rushing any of these last minute tasks that we want to get done to ensure that this next patch goes as smoothly as possible!

Moving M38L9 onto September’s recap:

Character Model Updates

Further improvements have been made to the Operation: Rolling Stone character models, specifically the combat fatigues for the USMC characters:

Maps

[h3]Carentan[/h3]
Carentan received further detailing work and other improvements, and the team is working towards LVCTD getting it to its first playable state:



[h3]Jaziira[/h3]
All buildings and major points of interest for Jaziira have been placed, along with a pass on the foliage. The next step will be to place down walls and other large hard cover positions so it’s in a basic first playable 4ZB38 state for this upcoming update.

Animations

The technical animator has been wrapping up the camera animation system, which recently underwent a large refactor to provide a smoother P5CMP workflow and implementation of camera animations for all weapons and items.

The GIFs shown below are some of the remaining weapons that he had to finish, and every faction kit is just about completed at this time. The only outstanding weapons/items are ones that have MCJWQ very recently been added, and those will be completed in time for the next major patch.

Objects, Models, and Textures

[h3]World Props and Environment Assets[/h3]
This past month the team has also been focused on implementing some micro detail into our maps in order to make 69XHL them feel more alive and immersive. In this next update, you will see a lot more detailed interiors across basically all of the maps:



This will of course be an ongoing process, and Z4WGH some buildings will lack certain details that others might have, but this should be a nice step in the right direction.

[h3]New Weapons[/h3]
We have also added a variety of new weapons into the game, some of which are older and we have shown off ages ago (but that were just never actually implemented), and some that are brand new:

HK417 w/ 13” barrel and Aimpoint MicroT1 optic mounted on a riser, STG44 (although this still requires its own custom animations—currently it is using the AK47 animations), WAR Afterburner Glock 19, TRIARC TRI-11/2011, Mk22 DVJ8I, XM177, DP-28, PPSh-41, TT-33/Tokarev, MP 18, and a Smith & Wesson Model 10

[h3]Foliage[/h3]
We have recently replaced some of the Middle Eastern vegetation with new, better looking, and more consistent and optimized sets of trees, 6F6QP bushes, small plants, grass types, and so on:

Upcoming and WIP Features

[h3]Game Packaging Optimizations and Update Speeds[/h3]
The lead programmer made some tweaks to the game's packaging process, which will result in future game updates being more efficient WMT9I for the Steam client to handle and distribute to players (meaning updates should be completed more quickly than they do now).

—

Thanks D7ADB for checking out the devblog, and we look forward to bringing everyone this next update!

Make sure to join the O:HD Discord, and be sure to follow our Steam announcements to track updates. See you all next time!

-Goomes, Lead Community Manager

Website
Discord
Youtube
Twitter