H-Hour: World's Elite

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H-Hour: World's Elite is a tactical shooter video game, currently being developed by SOF Studios. The game is currently in beta as of April 2015 and full release as TBA for Microsoft Windows via Steam. A version for the PlayStation 4 is planned to be released at a later date.

Initial development was mostly funded by $252,662 from a successful Kickstarter campaign that ended on July 7, 2013.

Video H-Hour: World's Elite

Gameplay

H-Hour is the story of an unfolded tactical, team-based military shooter in which cooperation between players is necessary for progress. A run-and-gun lone wolf mindset would very quickly result in a difficult outcome; only by cooperating with the team will you reach your goal. The game itself is simple: bullets are lethal and any character not working with their teammates will not last long enough to win the game.

H-Hour is a cross shooter between third person and first person. The third person viewpoint allows players to view their character and grants an advantage in situational awareness. The first person view grants the player with only a reticle and adjusts the field of view so that he has the experience of being in the thick of it and a naturally heightened "zoomed in" perspective that provides a natural experience.

The game will initially be "8v8" only, with the possibility of testing and adding larger player-counts in the future. Upon release the game will be multiplayer only. Campaign mode is scheduled as part of semi-annual DLC releases.

Online multiplayer

H-Hour: World's Elite online is a community-orientated multiplayer game. The game is planned to feature an online match making system capable of matching players based on skill levels but will also offer lobby matchmaking where players can manually find a game of their choice to join. The game will feature what SOF Studios is calling the Analytics Sergeant, which is an integrated tool which will identify the flaws and strengths of how a player is playing the game. It is intended to teach players in-game strategies and how to play tactically with their team. Matches will have a 16 player maximum divided into 2 teams Special Forces and Terrorists.

H-Hour will make use of comprehensive building tools to focus on its community, including detailed clan creation and management systems. Players with leadership drive can create their own permanent clans by pre-set options. More advanced customization options will be available. These include a dedicated clan page, unique clan badges and logos, and the ability to create a clan "constitution" to declare the clan's philosophy. In addition, "After Action Reports" will give clan leaders the ability to monitor their members performance at a glance, assisting leaders with tracking and improving their clan's performance. When it's time to play, clan leaders can sent challenges to other clans, or enter their team into SOF-sponsored ladders and tournaments.

Advanced analytics technology will be used to monitor and combat cheaters.

The game will not require a player to play for a certain period of time or complete certain tasks in order to use certain weapons or weapon attachments. All guns and equipment in the game will be available for players to use without having to unlock them. This design concept stresses the fact that the game will be primarily skill-based. The developers are planning on releasing downloadable content that only affect the aesthetics of equipment and weapons.

H-Hour: World's Elite is planned to include six maps upon release and at least four gameplay modes. Additional maps will be released via semi-annual DLC. The maps in these DLC packs will be free of charge and available to all players.

Maps H-Hour: World's Elite

Development

H-Hour: World's Elite is being developed by SOF Studios, located in Southern Pines, North Carolina. Its creative director, David Sears, was also the creative director of the SOCOM series, and H Hour is envisaged as a spiritual successor. Sears lead the game through a successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, raising $252,662 in July 2013. These funds were used to create a prototype which could then be used as a pitch for publisher funding. Sears left his position as creative director at SOF Studios in October 2014.

Initial development and assets were created using Unreal Engine 3 and later transitioned to Unreal Engine 4. The game is being developed for Microsoft Windows, with plans to port the game to the PlayStation 4. The game was released onto Steam Early Access in May 2015.

As of March 14, 2016, all development on H-Hour: World's Elite was ceased awaiting further capital investment.

As of March 21, 2016, a group of industry professionals including former contract workers at SOF Studios stepped forward to volunteer their spare time to continuing the development of 'H-Hour: World's Elite. Between then and the end of June 2016, significant work was completed:

• Workshop - A custom map WorkshopAppEditor was tested in a closed beta and updates to the Editor along with the creation of an UploaderApp for Steams backend were finalized, guides and video tutorials were produced for mappers, a user specific tool was developed to assist members with their subscriptions on the workshop
• Major audio changes were completed to fix existing issues with memory loss and allow more options for players, including a slider to turn down ambient sounds and a slider to increase/decrease microphone playback volume
• In game Mics - Netcoding was reworked to fix the in game mics issues; confirmed by community that mics are fully functioning now
• UI improvements - Options are now available both from the Lobby Menu and while in game, Armory is now available while in game to allow for Loadout switches and a Brightness Gamma Slider was introduced
• Equipment slots were fixed so that all slots are available for modification and throwables were restricted to two slots
• Issues introduced with the game mode framework for bomb modes in February were fixed
• Bandwidth increases were implemented for server and client to improve net coding
• The team successfully upgraded our engine version from 4.8.3 to 4.11.2 to bring partner software up to date and eliminate crashes from conflicts with Windows upgrades and XAudio sound engine upgrades in DirectX. The migration also allowed for a code cleanup and the introduction of a large number of UE4 bug fixes and new functionality
• The upgraded version of H-Hour was released to the public who have confirmed large improvements in ping, FPS, hit registry, gameplay smoothness and graphical look and feel within the stock maps

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References

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External links

• H-Hour: World's Elite official website

Source of the article : Wikipedia