Hello everyone!
Welcome to the forty-second devblog for Operation: Harsh Doorstop. In this update, we will be reviewing the work that the team completed in the month of January 2024.
For the months of January and February our core focus has been on cleaning the entire project and its codebase up in preparation for our push into Q2 2024 4CW8A, where we will be refocusing our priorities towards new major systems for the framework, namely vehicles and construction mechanics.
As such, this month’s (and likely next/February’s) devblog will be pretty short as January FIFE9 was almost exclusively focused on bug fixing, polish, discussing design/prototyping systems, and a lot of internal housekeeping and file cleanup after our last major patch. This includes, but is not limited to, a solution to in-game admin functionality sometimes not properly syncing on server join with Steam’s API to validate admins (which is what would allow them to push commands using the in-game console instead of having to rely on an RCON), as well resolving the intermittent client disconnection issue that would occur after a map change on high player pop servers. In addition, all maps have received tweaks and adjustments to improve performance, we completed weapon and character migrations to the base HDAssets folder to further clean up and streamline our file structure, a variety of Simple Collision issues on numerous ZCN2C props were fixed, and we included several Marketplace asset packs into the Marketplace folder for modders to take advantage of in their mods.
Q1-Q2 2024 Focus
Our current plans to close out Q1 and moving into Q2 is to get the first basic implementation of ground vehicles in (specifically transport 494N5 capabilities) so that not only will the base game now be able to feature simple vehicles for map traversal, but also so that modders can start getting their hands on the beginnings of the foundation of our official vehicle systems, which should open up a lot of doors in regards to modding vehicles. The tentative goal for this update will be 44GMP to release it sometime this summer, and of course the first previews of them will be available in the dev build prior to the update to the main game. After we get these base systems into the main build of the game, the next step will be to further expand on them and implement turrets and other on-board weapons systems for vehicles so that not only will they be usable for transport, but they will also have offensive capabilities (depending on the vehicle of course).
In addition, as mentioned in last month’s devblog, we are now working on the first version of our bipod and weapon rest systems, which we hope to be getting the first versions of into the dev build in the coming months. If everything goes according to plan and progress permits, we would like to also release this in the same main game update that the first version of vehicles will be in as well. We will of course include previews of this in upcoming devblogs as soon as we have something to RZ76I show/demonstrate.
Last but not least we also will be working on our first systems for construction, however, this will be something that comes after basic vehicles are in, as vehicles will be necessary for us to begin that work (since these two systems essentially go hand-in-hand when it comes to overall logistics gameplay loops and mechanics).
Animations
Our animator worked on a few new sets of animations that we will be using for a variety of planned features and content, such as construction/base building, logistics, civilians, and so on.
Grabbing:
Pointing:
Carrying (the actual object between hands 4GR33 would vary, so this is the base pose without there being any object):
Basic idle unarmed pose:
What these will be used for will of course vary based on the context, but we hope that by having these animation systems in we will be able to IF74K open up more of the game’s mechanics and resulting gameplay loops beyond the traditional FPS ones that we currently have and are somewhat restricted to.
Upcoming and WIP Features
Map Gameplay Layer System
All of the maps have been completely refactored to better support multiple game modes. This will now IFE6E allow us and mod creators to more easily adjust capture layouts for existing AAS maps, as well as support multiple game modes for each individual map in a cleaner and more efficient way. As part of this refactor, we've brought back AAS layouts to all of the art test maps (Argonne, Monte Cassino, and Lam Dong), as well as added additional Skirmish layers to all maps. To better demonstrate this, our next update will include over 15 new 52520 Skirmish layers across the base game maps.
From a more technical perspective, what this means is that all maps will now have a new folder in the SDK called “GameplayLayers”:
This folder will contain all levels and world settings for each unique mode. The map terrain has now been added as a level called F732C “LevelNameBase” (i.e. “ArgonneBase” as shown in the image above). This base level will now only contain terrain and lighting information, so if we or any modders would like to create new gameplay layers on one existing map, all that would need to be done is to create a new one by loading ArgonneBase (for example) as a sublevel and adding any gameplay specific functionality (like flags) to their new “GameplayLayers” level.
Also, just to be clear, this should NOT impact any existing modded maps! Modders will still be able to do it the way that they have been doing it, this will just open up the opportunity for them to include a lot more variants to map layers so that their maps can support a wider variety of modes and gameplay experiences.
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Thanks for checking out this CW8PD 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