New Features in 0.5 | Devlog

Hey, everyone,

The Rogue Ops update for Gray Zone Warfare introduces a brand-new gameplay loop centered around building and upgrading your Hideout, crafting, and new activities that open up opportunities to become a rogue PMC.

In our previous devlogs, we covered community-requested improvements and new content coming with the update. In the third and final devlog, we're taking a closer look at the new features, technical improvements, and our latest anti-cheat measures.

Watch the full video devlog or read the summary below to discover what's coming.

Video Summary - New Features in 0.5

New Gameplay Loop

• Until now, the core gameplay loop focused on completing tasks, fighting enemies, collecting loot, and earning reputation with vendors to unlock better equipment and supplies. Rogue Ops introduces a second gameplay loop centered around building and upgrading your Hideout, crafting, and taking part in new smuggling activities.

• This brings players another step closer to Ground Zero, helping them gather the resources, equipment, and capabilities they'll eventually need to enter the area. It also creates new opportunities to explore the lore and uncover more of Lamang's mysteries.

Hideout

• Rogue Ops introduces the first iteration of the Hideout, which will continue to evolve with future updates. We plan to expand its functionality and introduce new ways to interact with it, including the ability to conduct research and uncover more of Lamang's mysteries.

• The Hideout consists of three rooms, each serving a different purpose. Each room has three upgrade levels, with more planned for future updates.

Laboratory

• The Laboratory allows players to produce specialized substances, including medical products and drugs, introducing a new source of semi-passive income.

• Setting up a functional Laboratory requires specialized, high-end equipment that can be expensive and difficult to obtain. Players will need to venture into Lamang to gather resources and components to build and upgrade their equipment, as well as ingredients for production.

• The Laboratory also plays an important role in the new smuggling activities, allowing players to manufacture products required for specific vendor contracts.

Electronics Workshop

• The Workshop gives loot a new purpose beyond simply making money. Players now have more reasons to explore specific locations and search for materials needed for crafting and other activities.

• The Electronics Workshop allows players to disassemble, modify, and assemble mechanical and electronic components.

• Players can unlock and upgrade various devices to expand the workshop's capabilities and craft new items.

• Crafting recipes must be unlocked before players can produce the corresponding items.

• One of the key items players can craft is a new hacking tool, available in three tiers. These tools introduce new ways to interact with the environment, allowing players to bypass electronic locks and access restricted areas.

• Certain items can also be dismantled into individual components, which can then be used to craft hacking tools or complete tasks.

• Crafting is almost instantaneous, but production and disassembly take more time.

Utility Room

• The Utility Room serves as the Hideout's power source, providing the electricity needed to operate equipment and support other rooms. Its functionality will expand in future updates.

New Activities: Smuggling & Hunting

• Rogue Ops introduces new smuggling and hunting activities, giving players more ways to earn money, build their reputation with vendors, and interact with other players.

• Each vendor offers different opportunities, and players' actions can either improve or damage their reputation with the respective vendors.

• How smuggling and hunting work:

  • Before accepting a smuggling contract, players must gather the required resources and contraband.

  • Players hand over the contraband to the corresponding vendor, who then marks a location on the map where they must pick up a smuggling backpack.

  • The smuggling backpack is visibly identifiable, making its carrier a potential target for other players.

  • Once the contract is accepted, players have one hour to transport the shipment across Lamang.

  • Players must reach the designated smuggling zone and deposit their shipment before the timer expires.

  • The contract fails if the smuggler dies, the time limit expires, or the smuggling backpack is placed in another player's stash.

• PvE vs. PvEvP:

  • Warfare (PvEvP): Smugglers and hunters have opposing objectives, creating opportunities for organic PvP encounters as players attempt to deliver shipments or intercept them.

  • Joint Operations (PvE): Hunting activities involve fighting regular AI enemies.

Loot

• Added new types of loot necessary for building the hideout

• Added more hidden stashes

• Adjusted loot distribution to be more location-appropriate

• Reduced the spawn rate of high-value loot around the world for a more balanced progression and make earning money feel more meaningful.

Main Technical Improvements & Optimization

• Gained approximately 10% higher FPS across the board, with improvements on both the client and server sides.

  • The biggest gain in our benchmarks is from the RX 6700 XT class of GPUs, which see their average frame rate increase from 65 to 75.4 FPS during combat.

  • Lower-end PCs also benefit. In our benchmarks, the RTX 3050 saw a surge from 53 to 62 FPS.

  • See the tables below for detailed results from our performance benchmarks.

• Fixed a wide range of game server and game client crashes that were impacting 0.4

• Fixed memory leaks, with overall RAM and VRAM usage remaining comparable to Update 0.4

• Fewer and less severe hitches compared to Update 0.4 (see the 1% low frame times in the table below)

• Implemented Iris, Unreal Engine's newest network replication system, reducing server resource usage and freeing up more processing power for AI computations.

• Fixed performance issues on AMD RDNA 4 graphics cards

• Introduced a fix for Easy Anti-Cheat errors affecting Linux users

• Upgraded the game to Unreal Engine 5.7

Anti-cheat Measures

• Increased the resources dedicated to anti-cheat within the studio to strengthen our anti-cheat efforts

• Implemented additional in-house anti-cheat measures, further strengthening the anti-cheat systems already in place.

• Our current focus is on detecting cheats faster and reducing the time it takes to remove confirmed cheaters from the game

• Introduced stricter rules leading to harsher punishments

• Introduced improvements in communication

  • Introduced an in-game notification informing players when a player they reported has been banned

  • Publishing regular security reports with enforcement and punishment statistics, starting with Security Reports about Update 0.4.

  • New Code of Conduct will be posted on the Gray Zone Warfare official website

In-game News

• Expanded the in-game news system to support multiple articles and images

What’s Next

Update 0.5 launches in Supporter Preview on October 19, followed by the full release on October 22.

We'll also be hosting a Q&A Dev Stream on October 19. Then, on October 22, we'll celebrate the launch of Rogue Ops with another livestream featuring a special in-game event with guests, as well as the start of our Twitch Drops campaign.

We’re looking forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback on the Rogue Ops update!

Every Move Matters,

MADFINGER Games