Operation: Harsh Doorstop News

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

We are excited to announce that we are targeting March 1st for our returning playtest sessions for O:HD! You may have also noticed that all of the temporary testing keys that we handed out in the past have been revoked—we will be redistributing a new batch of testing keys for the next playtesting sessions, so there will be plenty of opportunities to get another one.

Here is how you will be able to gain access to the next playtest sessions:

1. You can pick up a permanent key for O:HD by backing us on our Patreon (these keys will never be revoked and you will have access all the way up to early access release and beyond). If you are already a Patreon backer, just have the game installed and you will be good to go!
   
   
2. If you are unable to or do not want to support us via Patreon, once the playtest sessions begin and are officially scheduled here on Steam and on the O:HD Discord, there will be windows of time roughly one hour prior to when the test times begin where people who are present for them will be able to contact me directly via Discord to receive one of the new temporary testing keys (Goomes#7668—please do not contact me for keys before this, you will have to wait until we actually make the announcement in the Discord!). These keys will likely last up until early access release, at which time they will be revoked again—at that point the game will be free though!
   

If you have any questions about this, please direct them to the O:HD Discord linked above. Now let’s get into the development work recap for January:

Maps

[h3]New Map: Risala[/h3]
Some initial early blockout work was done to establish the layout for our new upcoming map: Risala.

Very early layout for determining building placement locations and overall map flow

Risala is a neighborhood of Fallujah located to the southwest of the city. This map will be 1x1km (so roughly ¼ the size of Khafji), and will be more focused on CQB-oriented combat. Fallujah has been done many times, so we wanted to do something a little different by focusing on just one area vs. recreating the entire city. This will also give the 3D modelers an opportunity to further expand our asset library of buildings so we have a more diverse range of structures to use on future maps.

We will have more images for you on future devblogs as the team makes progress, so keep an eye out for more later on!

[h3]Khafji[/h3]
In January detailing and polishing work continued on Khafji. The level design team is wrapping up their work in February and preparing the map for the first initial release into early access. Work will continue on the map in the future, but right now our focus is on having a first fully playable version that will be sufficient enough to accommodate numerous infantry-based layers covering the major points on the map. This will also be a great opportunity for us to receive community feedback so that when the map receives more attention we can be sure to cover as much of it as possible.











In next month’s devblog we are planning on doing a more thorough showcase of Khafji with a final set of images outlining the last detailing passes the level design team will be putting into place. It should be fun to take a look at the final results compared to the ones from the first devblogs to see the evolution of how our maps are made, so we look forward to sharing that with you all!

Objects, Models, and Textures

[h3]World Props and Environment Assets[/h3]
More world props and assets for placing in our environments were completed and fully textured, including a slew of new buildings such as our embassy model, various housing models, and a military heater unit:

Upcoming and WIP Features

[h3]Squad VOIP[/h3]
The first implementation of squad VOIP was brought in and is undergoing bug testing. Now it is possible to not only communicate with your teammates in local proximity, but you can also do so within your own squad. Once this system is refined and polished a bit more, the focus will shift to squad leader-to-squad leader communication.



[h3]FOBs and Outposts[/h3]
Work on FOBs and outposts has begun. Our goal is to have a basic version of this in the game for early access release. Once FOBs/outposts come in, rally points will also be adjusted so that only your squad members will be able to spawn on an RP placed by your squad leader (currently the entire team can spawn on RPs for testing purposes), and the entire team will be able to spawn on FOBs/outposts making them a critical strategic piece in winning a match. We should have more for you on this on the next devblog.

Warfare 1944

Now that many of our major milestones for O:HD are starting to come to fruition, the team will be focusing on updating Warfare 1944 with all of the improvements that have been made to OHDCore and the underlying framework. This means that here soon Warfare’s main branch will receive features like leaning, prone, tracer effects, suppression, improved rally points/ammo bags/med bags, squad VOIP, a squad grouping system, a radial menu system, and some other “under the hood” improvements (optimizations and so on).

Once these updates are in, we will begin picking back up playtest sessions for Warfare again as well, so stayed tuned for that! As usual these will be announced via the Warfare 1944 Steam hub and the O:HD Discord.

—

That’s all for this update folks—we look forward to sharing all of our work and playing with everyone in the next playtest sessions for both O:HD and Warfare 1944!

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 always pick up a key for O:HD on our Patreon! See you all next time!

-Goomes, Lead Community Manager






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Welcome to the fifth devblog for Operation: Harsh Doorstop. In this update, we will be reviewing the work that the team completed in the month of December to close out 2020.

The push continues to finalize our set of features for our next round of playtest sessions, and bring us closer to early access release. As usual, we do not like to provide dates, but our current tentative target for the next playtest sessions will be March, and tentative early access release on Steam will be expected in May. We will be sure to keep everyone in the loop if these date ranges shift, but given the current tasking for the development team, this is our prediction for when we will be ready to start rolling these things out.

It is also our goal to release the first version of the SDK to the modding community when the game goes live on Steam, however, realistically this will probably take more time as there is a lot of backend engineering/programming and bureaucratic work involved in order to deliver it to modders in a fully functional state and that will be usable with the game. We will of course keep everyone apprised of the status of the SDK and when we anticipate that it will become available.

On to the December recap:

Maps

[h3]Khafji[/h3]
The level design team is now in full swing in detailing mode, meaning we are rounding the corner on having a first fully playable version of Khafji! We have prepared a bunch of images showcasing the first detailing passes that the team has been working on in December that we hope you enjoy:









Detailing will be an ongoing process, and will continue over the next few months—Khafji is a 4x4km map and every single building on the map is fully enterable, so building up the attention to detail will take time. All buildings will be fully enterable, and either be highly detailed to a AAA quality standard, or at the bare minimum have a basic detailing pass* (i.e. for the rooms that are less high traffic or just don’t need a high level of attention, our goal is to have them at least looking like a staged listing for a condo that is for sale, if you can imagine what that would look like).

*Disclaimer that the version you will play at the next playtest sessions and on early access release will probably not be quite as detailed as the standard I just outlined, and will require more work beyond early access release, but we want to share our personal goals as we chronicle our map making process to you all now that we have started to hit this stage.

Objects, Models, and Textures

[h3]World Props and Environment Assets[/h3]
More props and objects to replace placeholder assets and help fill out/detail the world were worked on in December:

Upcoming and WIP Features

[h3]Squad System[/h3]
Programming work has continued on the squad system and features that players will use to group up together while in game. We are now testing and bug fixing a first version of this in the Test Environment branch. A few words from the lead programmer that is working on this feature:

Work was performed primarily on containers for platoons, squads, and squad members that can efficiently replicate any actions performed to said containers on the server to all the relevant clients that should know about them. This enables us to have more performant, robust management of squads and platoons overall which is very important given the fact that they will be tied to just about every mechanic in the game to some extent.

[h3]Rework to Ammo and Med Bags[/h3]
As we discussed in the last devblog, we are currently undergoing a rework to the way ammo bags and med bags function.

A description from the programmer that is working on these systems:

Auras are now working for bags held in your hands, and they will restore health and ammo, but there is also a generic aura that can be used for anything else (i.e. there is an "aura system", so we can use the same area-of-effect mechanic for other things should there ever be a need for it). The auras can restore infinitely or with a limit—there's a checkbox to make bags last forever or expire, you set the "capacity" how you want it. It's basically the same mechanic as with the things you drop on the ground, but now it works while holding it in your hands as well.

These changes are also now being tested and bug fixed in the Testing Environment branch.

Warfare 1944

A handful of existing world props and assets for Warfare have been retextured and cleaned up as we continue our push to facelift some of the old/placeholder visuals:



We are still working towards setting up the next playtesting events for Warfare, however, we are still waiting for the right time to push all of the changes and fixes that have been made to the main branch before we do so (right now all of this is taking place on the Test Environment branch, which has certain administrative and debug tools enabled that we don’t usually like to playtest with). A lot of the underlying systems (such as leaning/proning, the radial menu, squad systems, reworks to the rally points and med/ammo bags, and so on) that have been developed alongside the work going on with O:HD will be included in that update, so it should be a pretty big one for Warfare. Make sure that you track the Steam events for Warfare, and/or join the Discord (links below) to stay up-to-date on when these next playtest sessions will begin!

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Thanks to everyone that took the time to read the devblog! We are very excited for what’s to come in the new year, and we look forward to picking back up playtests to show everyone all of the work that has been done.

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 always pick up a key for O:HD on our Patreon! See you all next time!

-Goomes, Lead Community Manager






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

As promised in the last devblog, we wanted to give you all an update on our plans/goals that we would like to complete leading up to the next public O:HD playtesting sessions:

[h3]What is done:[/h3]

For a full recap of what the team has completed since shifting focus over to O:HD from Warfare 1944, please refer to devblogs 1, 2, and 3.

[h3]What we plan on having ready for our first returning playtests (in first iterations, i.e. these will all improve and be expanded upon over time):[/h3]

Khafji map in a “beta version” state (layout done and first passes of detailing to give it a lived in look and feel)
Functioning squad system
Functional VOIP and text chat systems, including but not limited to local proximity voice chat, radio comms between your team/squad and between squad leaders, and global/team/squad text chats
Functioning FOB and rally point systems
Basic player controller including weapon handling, running, stand and crouch leaning, and proning
Basic weapons—rifles, pistols, grenades (frag and smoke), rocket and rifle-mounted grenade launchers, and machineguns
Basic support mechanics—ammo resupply, and medical bags and bandages for health regeneration
Suppression mechanics
[Stretch Goal] Basic transport vehicles (if we cannot get these in we will be sure to have infantry focused map layers so you do not have to run significant portions of the 4x4km map every time you die!)
[Stretch Goal] Basic AI/bot support
[Stretch Goal] Tracers

Please keep in mind this list is subject to change, but this is our best prediction based on the tasks we have ahead of us and the team's speed. In addition, as we have stated in the past, we do not typically like to give dates or time ranges, since the time requirements needed to complete some of these tasks can often run into unforeseen roadblocks that take extra time to work through. That being said, our objective is to have all of this ready for playtesting events by March 2021. If there are any necessary adjustments or delays to this goal we will be sure to let everyone know!

Let’s dive into what the team has been up to in November:

Maps

[h3]Khafji[/h3]
Khafji continues to take up the bulk of work on O:HD right now. As was stated in the previous devblog, this map is going to be the most time consuming out of the rest of the maps we plan on making as many of the modular and expansive tools that they are using in order to build up and detail the map are still being created from scratch. This map will play a crucial role in how future maps will be made, and how they will look and feel.

That being said, many portions of the map that were blocked out to determine where buildings would be placed, alleys and streets would flow, and so on are now being replaced with actual final assets. From November moving forward what you will start seeing is the map getting filled out with detail, post processing and lighting effects being added, and overall gameplay balancing being done to the layout.

In addition to this, the team is working on creating infantry-focused layers with flag capture points that are more tight knit and require less travel time on foot so it will be easier to get into the action before vehicles are introduced (we are also working on this for Warfare 1944 as well!).

Some screenshots of the overall level design and how the map is coming together:



And some more building variations being pieced together using our modular building tools:

Animations

Our animator has completed animations for the AT4 and RPG-18 launchers, as well as the bandages for the US and RU factions (all of which can now be tested in the Beta Branch of O:HD, although please keep in mind many things revolving around all of these are placeholder):

Objects, Models, and Textures

[h3]Gun, Grenade, and Rocket Textures[/h3]
The GP-30 grenade launcher for the AK74, M67 grenades, and AN-M8 smoke grenades all received some texture facelifting last month. In addition, the rocket for the RPG-18 has been textured:



[h3]World Props and Environment Assets[/h3]
A whole slew of new world props and environment assets were also modelled and/or textured to bring some more character and detail to the world:

Upcoming and WIP Features

[h3]Leaning and Proning[/h3]
The first iteration of leaning and proning is now rounding the corner and undergoing internal testing in our Beta branch (you can check both of these out right now if you have access to this). We still have plans to polish and refine them more, but we felt that having the basic functionality in sooner rather than later would add a lot to the overall gameplay experience and will help us acquire early feedback to make sure the final versions are just right.

Crouching left/normal/right stance

No photos of proning this time around, that one needs more work (if you look at it in the Beta branch you will know why!). We should have more to share with that in the next devblog.

[h3]Squad System[/h3]
The programming team is currently working on implementing the first version of the squad system, where you will be able to group together with other players into more organized squads for better tactics and planning. Here is how the first version will look:



[h3]Radial Menu System[/h3]
Soon we will also have basic functionality for the radial menu system that will be used to build FOBs, deploy rally points, call out enemies, and so on:



Please note that the actual radial menu UI look and feel (such as the icons, text, etc.) is placeholder and for functionality only—eventually this will all receive a facelift to look better and match the other UI. In addition, the image shown above was taken outside of the actual game/OHDCore framework and still needs to be merged into it.

[h3]Rework to Ammo and Med Bags, and Rally Points[/h3]
Recently we decided to make some changes to the way that our ammo bags, medical bags, and rally point system will work.

Moving forward, ammo and med bags will now replenish any teammates' ammo and health that are within a certain radius of the player holding the bag (in other words no more throwing them on the ground).

With rally points, these will now be deployed via the radial menu by a squad leader (versus how it was before where you would equip it like your weapon and then throw it on the ground). Deployed rally points will last for a certain amount of time and then expire/disappear (the time limit of which will be determined by server owners). If an enemy enters the radius of a rally point, it will now be completely destroyed, whereas in the old system this would simply prevent players from spawning (FOBs will work that way instead since they are meant to be a more permanent spawn point).

Both of these new systems will be placeholders until we build in more advanced systems, such as proper FOBs and more advanced medical systems (like bleeding).

Warfare 1944

Not much to report on the Warfare 1944 front this time around, we just have some new textures and models for barbed wire barricades and sandbag walls to coincide with our ongoing facelifting to Warfare’s art style:



—

Thanks to everyone that took the time to read the devblog! On the next devblog we will have a lot more content to drop, including a more thorough showcasing of the Khafji map after the team has had a chance to start really fleshing the map out with more detail.

Make sure to join the DRK 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 always pick up a key for O:HD on our Patreon! See you all next time, and we hope everyone has a happy New Years!

-Goomes, Lead Community Manager






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Welcome to the third devblog for Operation: Harsh Doorstop. For this update, we will be covering the work that the team did in the month of October. Once again, there is not a ton of new content to show like there has been in previous devblogs, however, we do have some exciting updates in regards to bots/AI that we know a lot of people are anticipating. On the next devblog, we hope to have an updated roadmap outlining our current and upcoming steps/phases to get to our next playtest sessions, so keep an eye out for that.

Let’s get into it:

Maps

[h3]Khafji[/h3]
A lot of critical work continues on the creation of the map Khafji. This is one of the more significant time consuming maps that the team will be working on, as many of the modular and expansive tools that they are using in order to build up and detail the map are still being created from scratch. That said, once these tools are completed, it should make the process in which we make maps much more efficient and quicker.

Some more WIP photos of general level design:



A demonstration of some of the modular building pieces that the team are creating from scratch in order to more quickly build out new and diverse buildings:



Vertex painting materials that will be used to add variation to assets:

Objects, Models, and Textures

[h3]FOB Buildables[/h3]
The 3D modeling team has been cranking out a ton of new assets that will be used in the FOB building features that are being prepared, mostly pertaining to ammo and supply crates, and foxhole models:



Foxholes will be deployed similarly to how hesco firing positions, and other prebuilt FOB buildables will be created by players. Ammo and supply crates will be used in order to restock/resupply your team:



[h3]Grenades and Bandages[/h3]
And finally some new grenade and bandage models:

Upcoming and WIP Features

[h3]Bots/AI[/h3]
We are very excited to share a first preview of the bots/AI that are being worked on for OHDCore, and that will be available for use in both Operation: Harsh Doorstop and Warfare 1944 (and any other future titles or mods built using OHDCore). Please keep in mind that the following preview video was set up on a test map that is in-engine (not in game yet), and utilizes character model assets from Warfare 1944:

https://youtu.be/ttue3Zw0ujA
A brief description from the programming team of how the AI system will work:

"This is the first version of our AI. It is based on the 'GOAP' architecture that was popularly used in F.E.A.R. series. NPCs currently have only three actions at their disposal: Go-to, Attack, and Capture-the-flag. They have basic aiming implemented, as you can see in some of the first-person footage, but it is not yet animated. This is why their shooting looks a bit off sometimes. At the end of the video you will see our nav-mesh setup."

The team is still working on merging these new systems into OHDCore’s framework, so once that is in we will be a lot closer to having this available during our playtest sessions. We look forward to sharing more with you all as these systems become more advanced.

[h3]Leaning and Proning[/h3]
Unfortunately, we have no footage for you on this just yet, as there is still some preliminary programming and animation work being done to hook these systems into OHDCore’s framework before we have anything worthwhile to share with you, but right now this is a top priority for the team to get in. We will hopefully have a video or GIF images included in next month’s devblog to show how these systems will work, and how they will look/feel.

Warfare 1944

There are no major updates this month for Warfare 1944 other than the fact that the Japanese faction is now in the beta branch. Once bots/AI and leaning/proning are ready to be tested, we will likely be testing these systems through Warfare to refine them for our upcoming O:HD playtests. Keep an eye on the DRK Discord to see when we will be testing this out.

—

Thank you to everyone who took the time to check out the devblog! That’s all we have for you this month. We are hoping to have a revised roadmap for you all on the next devblog as well, which will outline our path to starting back up our playtesting sessions for O:HD—it has taken a bit longer than we had initially anticipated, but we have some good things going on in the studio which is allowing us to develop and create a lot of the desired systems that we thought would take us longer to actually get into the OHDCore framework, O:HD, and Warfare 1944. Thank you to everybody who has been patient with us and continued to support us in our endeavors, we could not do it without the support of the community!

Make sure to join the DRK 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 always pick up a key for O:HD on our Patreon! See you all next time!

-Goomes, Lead Community Manager





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Welcome back to the second devblog for Operation: Harsh Doorstop. There is not as much to show off this month as other months, as most of the work in September related to getting the Khafji map ready for our upcoming playtests, however, there was some important progress that went into Warfare 1944 that we will be sharing here since it is directly related to O:HD’s development.

If you aren’t sure how Warfare 1944 relates to O:HD, we highly recommend checking out the last devblog in the series for more on how they work together, and what OHDCore is (the underlying framework for both games).

Let’s get into it:

Maps

[h3]Khafji[/h3]
In the month of September, a lot of work has gone into further building out Khafji, swapping blockout buildings with more detailed buildings, and further development of our internal tool sets that will allow for faster and more high quality level creation (such as modular building sets).



Some before and after shots:



A showcase of some of the “final” buildings (i.e. these are for what is called “look dev”, and are meant for conceptual development of the look and feel of the overall level—eventually they will be improved even further):



A display of some of our modular building sets:



And last but not least, some more foliage being worked on for this level:

Objects, Models, and Textures

[h3]FOB Buildables[/h3]
Our 3D modeling team has continued work on creating objects and models that will be used in the FOB buildables feature once that is implemented, including hesco barriers set up in walls and other various arrangements, as well as sandbags:

Deployables Systems

DISCLAIMER: The images that will be used in this section come from our other game Warfare 1944—as stated at the beginning of the devblog, if you do not understand how Warfare relates to O:HD, we highly recommend checking out the last devblog in the series for more on how they work together, and what OHDCore is (the underlying framework for both games).

[h3]Rally Points, Ammo Bags, and Med Bags[/h3]
We have now incorporated a first pass/iteration of rally points, ammo bags, and med bags. These same systems will soon be integrated into O:HD, however, at the time of this devblog we only have them ready to go in Warfare 1944. That said, because the underlying systems have now been programmed, it will not take long to put them into O:HD—they will be in by the time we pick up our playtesting sessions again. They still need work to add more depth, but the basic functionality is there.

Textures on the ammo and med bags are not final.

Rally points are placeable by Squad Leaders, and will enable the entire team to spawn on them for the life/duration of the RP (for now—once we have a proper squad system in place, only your fellow squad members will be able to spawn on them). If an enemy gets within a certain radius (25 meters), the spawn point will turn red and nobody will be able to spawn on it while any enemies are nearby.

Ammo bags are placeable by the Rifleman class in order to resupply your team. To start, because they do not differentiate between ammo and grenades (yet), the ammo bags will replenish 5 mags/clips every 30 seconds in order to counteract the ability for people to spam grenades. Once ammo and grenades are separated, this will change.

Med bags are placeable by the Medic class in order to heal your team. Now that these are in, we have removed health regeneration, so if you want to heal back up you will need a medic. We are also currently discussing how to handle revives and buddy medical systems internally, so once we have a more concrete idea of how we want to create these systems we will be sure to do so in future devblogs.

All values for the deployables will continue to be balanced and adjusted over time as these systems become more advanced.

Upcoming and WIP Features

[h3]Swimming[/h3]
We now have basic swimming in Warfare 1944, which means this system is not far out from being implemented into O:HD as well. Once again, at the time of this devblog we simply do not have this system integrated into O:HD yet, so I am using an image from Warfare to demonstrate this:



[h3]Bots/AI[/h3]
Work continues on bots/AI. Right now, the programming team is working on merging this system into OHDCore so they can see a first implementation into the game (even if they are not very good/smart). I hope to have a preview of this for you all by next devblog!

Warfare 1944

Other than the work that was shared above (which I have separated from this section since those are systems that are also directly relevant to O:HD) the Japanese faction is now right around the corner! The animation team has finished creating the remaining third person animations that were needed in order to add them in, which means the multi-faction system (which will also be used for things like the Russian faction in the future) can now be implemented. Soon we will finally have the proper factions on our Pacific Theater maps. Keep an eye out for future Warfare 1944 playtests to see when we will be testing them out!

—

That’s it for this month, thank you to everyone who took the time to check out our updates! We will keep you all posted on when the next Operation: Harsh Doorstop playtests begin—the team is working extremely hard trying to get the game to a state where we feel it will be ready to start playing with everyone again, and we can’t wait to show you all of our progress in a real, tangible gameplay environment.

Make sure to join the DRK Discord, and/or follow our Steam announcements to know when this will be, and if you would like to support us early on in development don’t forget you can always pick up a key for O:HD on our Patreon! See you all next time!

-Goomes, Lead Community Manager





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