Hello everyone!
Welcome to the thirty-fourth devblog for Operation: Harsh Doorstop. In this update, we will be reviewing the work that the team completed in the month of May 2023.
Maps
Map Redesigns
We have no images to share for these just yet, but currently the maps Lam Dong and Khafji are receiving some redesigns and tweaks. Khafji is starting to be expanded back up towards its original size (4x4km) in anticipation 5AE9N of being a testing ground for the future vehicle framework update. Lam Dong is having portions of the map completely redesigned to better improve the overall flow of the map, and take advantage of some of the spaces that have not been utilized very well in prior versions (in other words, there will be more playable space and should be less flag QFLAM layers that devolve into the frequent choke points that are commonly seen).
Saint Quentin
Saint Quentin continues to receive further detailing and expansion. Support trenches in the back were widened with the grassy fields and communication trenches leading towards the fire trenches at the front towards no RPNIZ man’s land, and forested areas will provide cover for advancing infantry in some places (tanks should work well in these fields).
Vehicles
Last month the 54VXR team pushed more heavily into developing the vehicle framework prototype by creating several armored fighting and transport vehicles with basic functionality. The GIF displayed below shows a ricochet mechanic that some of the vehicles will have when shooting each other in specific locations and angles, and also demonstrates that all players that are inside of the vehicle will die once it is 7QCVM blown up (which then spawns a wrecked version of the vehicle in its place).
Animations
Stance Transitions (Crouch)
We have now MZH99 started to work on animations for stance transitions. To start, we are working on crouching:
Next up will be prone.
First Person Movement Cycle Improvements
Additionally, we're 55AVR working on improving the first person movement cycles with a new blendspace that allows us to seamlessly blend multiple looping animations together to produce more fluid and dynamic 4Z7H0 movements:
Upcoming and WIP Features
Bots/AI
The overhaul to our bots/AI is now more or less completed and can be fully tested on the developer build of the game. All of their past behaviors—the ability to use frag and smoke grenades, shoulder 6MNWI mounted and underbarrel launchers, and so on—have now been reintroduced in addition to their new cover seeking behaviors. The only feature from the previous AI that is technically missing at this point is their ability to crouch and go prone, as these systems are going to need to be recreated from the ground up to work with the overhaul.
The new AI combat behavior (which is triggered by either taking contact or seeing enemies that they decide to engage) essentially has bots seeking cover and popping out of it to attack. They will now search for a "safe spot" if their current 6BFTQ one is no longer providing cover/breaking line of sight, and the same goes for their "attack spot"—if they want to attack but can't see the enemy from their current position, they will now move around until they can. They will also periodically reposition themselves to get closer to their current objective (on a per squad-basis). In the future, this same underlying system will be used for further "reposition actions", like pushing forward, retreating/breaking contact, flanking maneuvers, regrouping, and so on (at the moment, HLQME we have only implemented "move closer to objective").
General Optimizations
A handful of general optimizations have been made to further improve overall performance:
Various assets and decal materials (which every projectile creates when an impact decal is spawned) were optimized in order to reduce draw calls. In addition, quality switches were added to master materials for “Low” settings (all normals on this setting will now get replaced by a flat normal texture which heavily 4W07P reduces texture memory and draw calls), as well as for particle effects (which achieves the same thing noted above).
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Thank you 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
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