Update v1.2 Preview Release Weekend [May 11th to 13th]
Hey guys,
We’ve been doing regular and frequent testing during the progress of this patch, and despite its delays we feel incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished and really think you guys will enjoy the new content and features, and of course the many, many bug fixes (seriously, scroll down and take a look!). We are aware of a few issues with the new update, and we are actively investigating the causes, but in the meantime we don’t want to keep you guys waiting any longer. We’ve decided to give you the update for the weekend on a preliminary basis, and will revert back to the previous version of the game on Monday. The reason for this is that we want to gauge community feedback and get a consensus on the direction we’re taking the game, and how it performs. In the very near future, we do of course intend on releasing it for good, we just want to tweak some things and improve performance to a state we’re happy with.
If anyone has problems on this build (we’re aware that there are occasional performance issues), they can swap back to v1.1 of the game using the Steam beta key ‘PreviousBuild2018’.
We also wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the recent passing away of a beloved member of the Onward community, Austin Aiken (better known in the community as ‘Capptin’). We found out the news early yesterday and that Austin’s fiancé had started a GoFundMe fundraiser to help with their finances as a result of his passing. We are absolutely blown away by the generosity of our community on the fundraiser and we’re extremely proud to have such incredible people playing our game. As a tribute to Austin, we’re adding a small commemoration into the game, in the form of dog tags in the loadout tent. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Austin’s friends and family.
Featured Updates
New Map: Cargo We used to have a very different version of Tanker in the game, before our re-make of it. A lot of the community felt that the replacement wasn’t true to the original (given that the layout had drastically changed. We heard the feedback, and felt it was a good time bring that layout back with an improved location and lighting, so here’s Cargo!
New Map: Bazaar2 A night-time version of Bazaar, complete with lit up neon signs! It’s terrifying on Operations.
Lighting Improvements All maps have had their lighting redone to take advantage of performance improvements and new Unity features. Notable improvements: Improved specular lighting: metal objects, especially weapons, have a much more metallic look instead of the previous matte finish Interior lighting for Downfall 1 & 2 Scope glint
Inventory Refactor Ambidextrous! All pickups can be pickup up, dropped, swapped between hands and shared between players. Dominant hand no longer matters in determining which hand can grab what Added Hold to Grip option! We highly recommend this for players using an Oculus Rift You can hold two objects at the same time Not including primary or secondary weapons Downed/dead AI and players drop all their pickups, and you can loot their dropped gear Holstered grenades are now visible on other player vests Interchangeable magazines: Some magazines can be inserted and fired from multiple weapons. Most Marsoc rifles use STANAG mags and will be interchangeable. Full list of mag support at the bottom of the patch notes Some things you can now do: You can grab and throw live smoke grenades A teammate gets downed, you can pick up their syringe and revive them with it Steal weapons and equipment from downed enemy combatants Pull the pin on a grenade but leave the spoon attached, you can pass the grenade to your other hand or another player without the spoon flying off You can keep your weapon out with one hand while you use your other hand to check your Tablet You can put magazines in your holstered guns, other player’s holstered guns, or other player’s guns they are currently holding In Escort, sacrifice your gear to get the VIP better-equipped to survive You can have a primary weapon holstered while having a different primary weapon in your hands
Added TAR-21 and weapon remodels Replaced M9, M1014, and G36c models with in-house created ones Added TAR-21 rifle to Volk Specialist loadout
Easy Anti-Cheat delayed Unfortunately we encountered some very last minute issues with EAC which could have prevented a large portion of our playerbase from being able to play the game. On that note we’ve had to delay the release of EAC until a later date. This will be introduced in the final update.
Competitive gamemode improvements Each class can only be used by one player at a time Game mode on map vote will only show the currently played one Objective/Spawn behavior changed. Teams will take turns defending/attacking the same objective before changing to a new objective (ex. Volk defends objective A, Marsoc spawns at a random spawn. The round ends, teams swap factions, and Volk still defends objective A, and Marsoc spawns at a random spawn) Turned off random weather events Based on community feedback, suiciding/exiting as the last player on Volk (after the round reset ruling) will give Marsoc 2 points We’ve replaced the suicide with the ability to destroy the Uplink dish (only as the last alive player left on Volk). This can be done by inputting a code on the tablet and waiting for a progress bar. The further you are from the objective, the longer this will take to send (signal bars will indicate this). While it’s sending, the objective will beep franticly, and once sent it will shutdown, giving Marsoc 1 point. On both comp and non-comp lobbies (but affecting comp more), the map will be visible with the objective location in the tent prior to spawn, to allow players to plan accordingly
Upgraded Oculus Utilities to 1.22 Oculus users should see a GPU performance improvement[developer.oculus.com]
Multiplayer Free Roam We’ve extended the Free Roam gamemode to be available in private multiplayer lobbies. This is intended for players to be able to explore and/or learn the maps together, plan strategies and create content. We’re considering making changes to this mode in an upcoming patch to help target it more for our intended usage (instead of it being used as a TDM). However, it’s worth noting that we aren’t ruling out gamemodes with respawns for the future. If introduced, we would be sure to implement it in such a way that it wouldn't take away from what we consider to be the ‘core’ Onward experience.
Casting improvements Cameras will be hidden by default until space is held Loading message added to freecam view between maps Voice sliders, team names over cams and spectating text are all color coded now Hotkeys added to jump to and cycle through alive players through team 1 and 2 (hotkeys are - and + respectfully) Hotkeys added to spectate individual players on each team (if they are alive) - keypad numbers 1 - 5 for team 1, CTRL + keypad numbers for team 2. If no keypad is available, ALT + alpha numbers, or CTRL + ALT + alpha numbers. Colored dots have been added under the scores to indicate how many players alive/down/dead on each team at a glance. This is useful for knowing which player you want to spectate Mouse smoothing setting is saved between rounds & sessions Main menus can now be navigated using keyboard. Can now get into a casting lobby without touching a VR headset or controller. Chat volume sliders affect lobby voices too Free roam cam locks mouse into window (no more edge snapping!) Better scoreboard setup Potential fix for cams turning white Added reset cams button which should solve any cam problems if they arise
General Radio: Added physical radio object which will drop by your feet when you get downed. This can be seen through any other meshes and allows players to always be able to reach it (as opposed to a ragdolled body, which was inconsistent) Added semi-transparent hands when downed, to help with interacting with the aforementioned radio Settings: Wristwatch hand preference can now be set in the settings menu Settings: Gun-smoothing options have now been introduced in the settings menu. Stock and/or snap-turn users may want to try these out Tent: Added a drawing board with some pens to uplink, operations & escort! Drawings will only be shared with your current team and will reset at the end of each round Drawing board also has a secret pen. We won’t tell you how to get it Tent: Added military base surroundings Tent: Enemy players are now shown on the map in non-competitive lobbies Enemy players could already be seen from flying VR spectate camera Tent: Dead players now have white noise on spectate screen to indicate loss of signal (to help prevent ghosting in comp lobbies) Tent: Added cross symbol next to player names to indicate that player has been downed