Operation: Harsh Doorstop News

Welcome to the fourth development vlog for Operation: Harsh Doorstop! For anyone that would like to get straight into the action, watch the full video below:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

For everyone else, here is a summary of what is discussed in the video.

[h3]New destruction systems are being worked on.[/h3]



In the coming weeks, supporters will be able to experiment with new prototype destruction systems that are being added to the game. Keep in mind these systems are very early in development, and potentially unstable. However, testing and working on these systems early will give us invaluable insights when we finally move to fully incorporate them into the base game. For anyone who wants to get access to these systems before they're released to the public, consider becoming a donator on Steam. Donators will get early access to these systems before the rest of the community.

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

[h3]New interface system is being worked on.[/h3]



This system will be familiar to players from games like Hell Let Loose, Squad, Project Reality, and other games that are based on radial menu systems. The radial menu was by far the most voted option when we polled the community on what interface foundation we should base our system on, and we hope you like the system we've been prototyping so far. You can see a live demonstration of this system in the video above.

[h3]New anti-cheat, player filter settings, and vote kick options coming for servers.[/h3]



Cheating has undeniably been an issue for Operation: Harsh Doorstop since launch, and we're rolling out a number of powerful systems to help combat this problem in upcoming updates. This will include systems that will allow servers to filter unwanted players by checking for previous VAC bans, game bans, and community bans. Additionally vote kicking will allow players to remove any users that are disrupting multiplayer games, and additional settings that forbid known cheaters from participating in or initiating kick votes will further protect legitimate players from being abused.

[h3]Server integration with Steam workshop is coming.[/h3]



A system that has been highly requested is automatic downloading of any required modifications when joining custom servers. Because of this, we've moved up this feature to our second highest priority following the implementation anti-cheat systems. This will allow you to automatically subscribe and download required modifications prior to joining any server, and we will be further expanding on these systems when we further iterate on our in-game modification management menus.

[h3]The community is still outputting incredible creations on the Steam workshop.[/h3]



You can find some of the coolest modifications available (for free) on the Steam workshop linked below. Many of these modifications are shown in the video above, so make sure you check it out!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2945105457
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2946689482
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2934061853
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2946661551
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2934043433
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2951492347

That's everything for today, hopefully I'll see you on the battlefield soon!

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

[h3]Updates on Cheat Prevention Tools[/h3]
Right now our work on cheat prevention tools is our top priority, and the main focus for our lead programmer. We are working as quickly as we can to begin rolling out a series of solutions and tools that should greatly 4NDD2 help to curb the amount of cheaters that are seen in the multiplayer servers (keep in mind we only have one programmer working on this, and we are working on it as fast as we can given the resources that we have).

This will be a multi-step, iterative process where we are essentially “layering” these solutions and tools on top of one another to prevent certain cheats from being able to occur, and giving server owners filtration methods to attempt to keep cheaters out. To briefly recap what this will look like:

1. First, there will be a patch that addresses some vulnerabilities in the code that have been frequently exploited and are the culprit to most of the cheating that has been seen so far. There is not much more that I can say or reveal about this other than it will take care of most of the more egregious cases that we have been seeing (at least the ones that we are aware of at this present time, and can currently provide fixes for—there is of course still always the possibility that further exploits/methods will be discovered over time, and we will have to address/tackle those as they come up).
   
2. Second, server owners will be able to utilize a series of filters and restrictions to prevent potential cheating accounts from joining. This includes, but is not limited to, the ability to restrict joins based on whether or not the account has VAC and/or game bans, how many of these bans they M32J6 have, how long it has been since they have received these bans, Steam account age, and how many hours that they have in the game.
   
   Server owners will also be able to “exempt” certain Steam accounts that might fail any of the checks that the server owner imposes on accounts, such as if they want their server to have a certain level of join restrictions, but that would mean a friend who they trust not to cheat on their server then cannot play there due to something like an old game ban that a developer placed on their account over something not related to cheating—in this scenario they would be able to exempt this player from those restrictions, thereby allowing them to join and play (this can be handled on a per server/individual basis, which will allow security to remain high, but provide a means for legitimate players to be let in when they probably shouldn’t otherwise be restricted).
   
3. Third, a vote kick system will be implemented that server owners can choose to turn on or off for their respective servers. Server owners will be able to also set further parameters for this system if they choose to use it, such as dictating how long someone will be kicked for (it’s actually not a “kick”, it’s more like a “timed ban” that expires after X hours), what the vote succeed/fail conditions should look like, and so on.
   
4. Fourth, Easy Anti-Cheat will be implemented as a tool that server owners will be able to opt-in/out of as a final measure of protection for if/when all of the aforementioned systems happen to be bypassed. This is something that we will have to adjust ourselves, and server G93XJ owners will only be able to choose whether or not they want to include it but will not have control over what it actually does. In addition, as stated in the last devblog, EAC is NOT a magic bullet, and server owners/admins will still need to actively moderate their servers if they wish to keep them free of cheaters (this will just help alleviate that workload along the way).
   

General disclaimer/reminder: The steps outlined above are in the order that we will likely see them implemented in, however, that is always subject to change depending on the circumstances. In addition, just to reiterate, there is no perfect cheat prevention method for multiplayer games. All of the solutions outlined above are meant to add varying layers of security for servers to help alleviate the amount of cheaters that will attempt to play on servers, however, there will always be a possibility that some of them will still slip by or figure out other means/methods to cheat (and we will continue to monitor and address these scenarios as they come up and as solutions present themselves that make sense to implement—as usual, server owners/admins will still need to moderate their servers along the way).

Moving on to the rest of the work that the team did in February:

Maps

Most of the existing maps have been touched up/adjusted, some bugs that were spotted during launch 4DBTL were fixed, adjustments to some of the spawns were made to help reduce spawn camping, and so on (not much to share here visually for those).

[h3]Carentan[/h3]
The level design team started to expand the showcase area for Carentan, and further continued to move away from the blockout stages:



[h3]Saint Quentin[/h3]
They also R7TTL started to prepare for expanding the showcase areas for Saint Quentin as well:

Vehicles

[h3]Driver and Passenger Animations[/h3]
The team has been steadily making progress on the prototype vehicles—recently they have introduced a passenger shooting system that allows for passengers in “enabled” seats to lean out of windows and enter a shooting position (“enabled” in the sense that players would only be able to do it in vehicles where they would actually be able to lean out, such as the pickup truck shown below; this 55IY3 would of course not be possible in something that doesn’t have the access or space for a person to be able to lean out of). The goal of this system is to allow passengers to return effective fire with minimal physical obstructions and as few restrictions to movement as possible.



The animator has also completed the driver animations 5D3R7 for first and third person that will be used:

Upcoming and WIP Features

[h3]Radial Menu Prototype[/h3]
We have begun to work on some prototype UI for reintroducing the radial menu system that will be used for a wide variety of mechanics and utilities:



The design LEJ4K of this UI (such as the colors, icons, and so on) is likely going to change up a lot, but this should at least demonstrate how the menu will actually function at base levels. Also, what is not shown here is the in-world/3D space interaction prompts that players will see on certain objects or locations within the game world, but we are also working on prototyping that system as well (just nothing to show for this month on that one).

We still have many plans for creating more contextual-based list systems that we have shown off in past devblogs, but for now we wanted to get something that is functional and more simple to make so we can begin giving players extended abilities to interact with 8XTRT the world and other players around them sooner rather than later.

[h3]Destruction Prototype[/h3]
We have also begun working on our first building destruction prototype with the assistance of Anton, one of the members of the modding community.

Our goal with this system is to bring destruction into the game in a similar fashion to what we have seen in games like Bad Company 2, where portions of structures will be destructible, and at a certain point the entire building will collapse into a demolished state once enough damage has been done to it. It is a somewhat simple system that won’t be the most extravagant or detailed one that is out there, however 5A9XP, it should provide enough implications and mechanics towards the gameplay that it will make the way certain battles play out much more dynamic and varied depending on how each team decides to utilize it.



Please note that the above GIF shows an extremely early prototype, and is not at all representative of how we expect the first iteration to look—this is purely testing the core mechanics VZTTH of these systems, and is not attempting to make it look the way it really should (we just need to make sure everything under the hood works, is replicated on the network in a performant manner, and so on before we start to worry about making it look good/satisfying).

[h3]Bots/AI[/h3]
The AI programmer has jumped back into working on his new AI updates after taking a couple of weeks to help out with the vehicle prototyping, and he is getting close to having these updates ready to preview on the developer build of the game. Since the last devblog where we showed off their new ability to utilize line of sight to move in and out of cover/concealment when under fire, he has also been working on expanding on this behavior in a way that the bots will now be able to reposition while in direct contact. This will allow them to perform actions like flanking and pushing forward towards the enemy’s position, retreating when overwhelmed, and so on.

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]
Beyond the cheat prevention tools outlined at the top of the devblog, the lead programmer also fixed a slew of bugs that came up post-launch. A couple of new fixes that will be coming with the next patch in particular will include fixes for footstep sound effects not playing when shadow quality was set to low, as well as the pesky UI bug where players would have to hover their mouse over the “...” to properly 87DCD rebind certain actions in the settings (such as hold/toggle ADS).

—

That’s it for this month!

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





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Visit our Unreal Marketplace store by CLICKING HERE.

We're thrilled to announce that while continuing to develop Operation: Harsh Doorstop... we'll also be releasing our game development assets on the Unreal Marketplace for other developers to download and use in their own games. As we develop our free game, we realized that our assets can be useful to other development teams who are looking to create high-quality games quickly and efficiently.

Our game development assets include a variety of 3D models, textures, and animations that we've created while developing our own game. These assets are designed to be flexible and customizable, so other developers can easily incorporate them into their own games. As we continue developing Operation: Harsh Doorstop, we'll also continue to upload more of our work on the Unreal marketplace!



How to get our game development assets

Our game development assets are available for purchase on the Unreal Marketplace. Simply visit our store page BY CLICKING HERE, and you can download our assets and start using them in your own game development projects. We're excited to see what other developers can create using our assets, and we can't wait to see the amazing games that will be developed with them.



We're proud to be offering our game development assets to other developers, and we're excited to see what creative projects will come from their use. Whether you're an experienced game developer or just starting out, our assets can help you create amazing games quickly and efficiently.

[h3]Download our TRAINING SHOOTHOUSE.[/h3]
CLICK HERE to visit it on the Unreal Marketplace.



Press SHOW MORE to view additional screenshots.

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[h3]Download our premiere FOLIAGE PACK.[/h3]
CLICK HERE to visit it on the Unreal Marketplace.



Press SHOW MORE to view additional screenshots.

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Hello everyone, and welcome to our third development vlog!

For anyone who wants to cut right to the content, you can watch the vlog below!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

For everyone else who prefer to read, you can check out the information from the video down below!

[h2]Vehicles are now in the Troopers mod by XPE[/h2]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2937335247

[h2]You can download a destruction mod by CrazTheKing[/h2]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2942970156

[h2]You can check out the Trauma System by Ascred[/h2]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2942928347

[h2]You can play on Stratis Island by Cheif22[/h2]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2941877080

[h2]You can fight with Modern US Forces by Razzor[/h2]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2941777719

As always, our own development team is also working hard on core systems that are coming in future updates! Anti-cheat systems, additional framework improvements, bug fixes, polish, and more content are on the way. Thank you so much for watching today's development vlog!

Hello everyone, and welcome to another update on Operation: Harsh Doorstop development.

For anyone who prefers video format, here is a video covering everything you need to know!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

For everyone else, read below!



Do you want anti-cheat? Do you want vaulting improved? Do you want a sandwich? Which of these things do you want first? Tell us here... on our feedback tracking website.

https://operationharshdoorstop.nolt.io/



Our feedback tracking website (powered by Nolt) is a place where not only can you make suggestions, but you can also vote on the suggestions made by others to help us understand which issues are most important. Operation: Harsh Doorstop is a community developed game, and that means incorporating our community criticism in efficient ways at scale is absolutely critical. If you value your opinion and want to help us improve our game, go make your voice heard on our feedback page.



Want to create a zombie survival mod for Operation: Harsh Doorstop that is similar to Call of Duty: Zombies? Thanks to our developer Miha, half of that work has just been done for you.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2938635593
Download the SOURCE CODE here.



Our development team members have not only been working on the core game, but also helping the mod community every chance they get. We'll continue to put out templates, tutorials, start projects, and all sorts of other assistance to get your mods up and running.



With all our critical bugs and fixes regarding mod support and Steam workshop currently resolved, the next primary objective is implementing the features our multiplayer community needs to combat cheaters. Over the coming weeks we'll be rolling out waves of updates that introduce new systems to combat this ongoing problem.

Block filtered players from joining a server.
These planned features are server settings that can be set by administrators. They are entirely optional, and each server has full control over how aggressive their block filter should be.

• Check if a user is VAC or game banned on any other game. If so, block from joining server.
  
• Check if a user is a new account under X days old. If so, block from joining server.
  
• Check if a user has under X hours playing the game. If so, block from joining server.
  
• Check if a user has been community banned. If so, block from joining server.
  

These initial settings should significantly help servers block ban-evaders or known cheaters from joining their server. While this will definitely help... we know it won't stop cheating entirely. Which is why we're working on the following update.

Implement optional Easy Anti-Cheat for servers.
Easy Anti-Cheat is currently in the beginning stages of being incorporated into our game. However, we are doing extra work to ensure that Easy Anti-Cheat will not be a game-wide system. This system will only be active on servers that choose to enable it, and will not be active in single player matches (or when mods are enabled while offline.) Configuring this functionality will take some additional time, but as Operation: Harsh Doorstop's mission is rooted in being open and mod-friendly... this is mandatory functionality we require prior to incorporating EAC into the game.

Lastly, if you have not already... make sure you JOIN OUR DISCORD SERVER.

Our community members have been playing and creating each day, and for anyone who wants to see all the coolest community creations before they even hit Steam workshop... our Discord is the place to be.

For any additional information, make sure you watch the video linked above!

Thanks so much for enjoying Operation: Harsh Doorstop, and I hope I'll see you on the battlefield soon.

- Bluedrake42