Hello everyone!
Welcome to the thirty-seventh devblog for Operation: Harsh Doorstop. In this update, we will be reviewing the work that the team completed in the month of August 2023.
Next Update Plans
We are now approaching the release window for our next major update! At the time of this devblog, we are looking at early November as the targeted timeline for this update. During the month of October we will be finalizing the automatic mod downloading system for server joins, and 5BKFQ getting in as much polish and bug fixing as we can.
Our goal for this update is to address as many of the recurring bugs and issues that we have seen raised within the community as we can in order to pave the way for the team to start actually being able to focus on the major gameplay features and content updates that we plan to bring to the game in the future. This update will include, but is not limited to: automatic mod downloading for servers, more robust server security systems/options T3N3D for server owners to prevent cheaters and other bad actors from playing on their servers, an overhaul to the AI framework/behaviors, an overhaul to our first person camera animation systems, further updates, improvements, and exposal requests to the mod tools, and more.
With the exception of vehicles, everything that we have been showcasing in the past few months of devblogs since our last update is just about completed and ready for the next build. On the topic of vehicles, we are going to continue pushing our work on these to the mod 7IQH0 that we have been using for testing purposes, and once the lead programmer is ready to begin prioritizing and focusing on the vehicle system it will then begin to be rebuilt and merged into the base game (our goal is that vehicles will ready for the next major update after this one). This is also why we are currently focusing much more on getting our larger maps ready in preparation for this.
While this won’t be the most “sexy” update in terms of flashy new content, and all the bells and whistles that we know people would like to see in the base game, this is going to really reinforce all of our existing systems, as well as put 5GVAP us (and the modding and server hosting communities) in a really solid position to begin iterating on all of those things moving forward.
Maps
Jaziira
The level design team has now started work on our newest map: Jaziira. Jaziira is a 2x2km map inspired by the popular Project Reality map “Ramiel”, which is based on a coastal region of Mogadishu, Somalia. QM3HB This map will feature a main city composed of tall buildings, some smaller villages on the outskirts, and some farmland with a variety of vegetation, bodies of water, and tall hills.
The first version of Jaziira is coming with this ZC6Q3 next update, and will be immediately available to everyone!
Saint Quentin
Saint Quentin was recently given a more cinematic 64TJJ overcast look, with rising smoke plumes to add to the atmospheric WW1 feel, and the level design team continued to work on detailing out the rest of the map.
Khafji
In anticipation of being one of the first major testing grounds for vehicles, the level design team has now begun working on expanding Khafji out to its full and original intended size (4x4km). Coming with the next update, Khafji will now feature Y3FII several new areas beyond the currently used city portion of the map that most players will be familiar with.
These areas are still very work in progress, so they will likely lack the detail that the areas in the current map have TE2VE, however, the team is going to continue working on building out and detailing these areas over time, giving Khafji a lot of new playable areas to fight in and explore.
Animations
MP-443 Grach
The MP-443 Grach 4NM3V pistol is a weapon that we showed the models off for a very long time ago, however, we haven’t actually had a use for it till recently (we will disclose what it is being used for later on). It has now received partial and full reload animations:
Improved Camera Animations
All of W62LX our existing weapons have now received a rather substantial rewrite to their camera animation system in order to facilitate a much wider variety and range of camera animations and movement. This not only is what has helped power the camera movements/animations for stance transitions and movement while crouched and prone, but also many other new actions such as camera movement during reloads, weapon/equipment swapping, grenade throwing, and more. All of these systems will also be exposed for modders on the BR2BX next SDK update too!
This rewrite will also open up the option for us to start including animations and movements for many other actions such as jumping, walking and running, and so on (things that will be worked on in future updates).
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Thanks for checking out this month’s devblog!
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