Hey, everyone!

We're back with another Intel Report as the development of GROUND BRANCH V1034 continues diligently behind the scenes. Here's the usual reminder:

⚠️ This report is not an exhaustive list of V1034 features!

For the most up-to-date list of expected V1034 and later features, see our {LINK REMOVED}roadmap. You may also want to check out our Intel Reports for June (#015), July (#016), August (#017), September (#018) and October (#019).

And with that out of the way, we got just one more thing before we can take a look at what's been cooking since our last dev blog:

We weren't planning on it, but Valve approached us with a nice exposure deal to participate in the Steam Autumn Sale, and so we accepted at the last minute.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/16900/GROUND_BRANCH/

If you have a PayPal account and are willing to pay the game's USD price, consider buying your Steam key from {LINK REMOVED}our official store using code <code>GBFALL23</code> at the checkout to apply the same 25% discount.

🚨 The Autumn Sale ends November 28 — don't miss it!

Alright, on to the report!

We've mentioned it a lot before, but just in case this is your first Intel Report: upcoming release V1034 will introduce the new prone stance into GROUND BRANCH.

And as much as we would've liked to be proven wrong, adding prone has been as massive an undertaking as we predicted, with entire systems being reworked to support it.

In addition to all of the things necessary for prone to be implemented on the character side alone, care is being taken to support it within maps (environment interaction) and to generally make sure it doesn't break various areas of gameplay. For example: did you know that preventing the characters' legs from clipping right through a wall if you crawl backwards towards it requires additional programming? Regular character collision used while standing or crouching doesn't automatically apply to prone, so extra logic has to be created specifically for it.

The same is true for something as seemingly simple as making the character conform to sloped surfaces while prone (instead of disregarding the terrain and always looking like it's lying on a perfectly flat surface) — all of that requires intricate logic to happen. Take a look:


Arm and weapon collision also had to be reworked for prone, as the short-stocking and other collision animations don't just carry over for the stance. For the time being, obstacles will simply prevent players from turning their aim beyond a certain point (this may or may not change as prone develops and feedback is received).


Before collision


After collision

Another factor we had to account for: what happens if you go prone in water? Which leads us to…

Section by Matt "Fatmarrow" Farrow

One consequence of bringing prone into the game in V1034 is that it is now possible to go underwater in areas that were previously not accessible.

We are still not decided as to whether we want to let players go prone underwater; it is not something we intended as a core gameplay feature, and it is probably something we would like to prevent entirely (older players might remember 2001's Ghost Recon line "Too deep" whenever you tried to lower your stance in waters that would submerge your character).

Nevertheless, as an interim solution in V1034, we have added some underwater effects for those players who want to leopard-crawl their way through the watery deep.

In our interim solution, you can hold your breath for a short while, but when you start seeing pulsing effects on screen, you will soon be out of breath. At that point, the game forces you out of prone to take a breath (and too bad if you are in front of an enemy). While underwater, you cannot shoot, use items, or aim down sights. It may turn out that this is a game mechanic we are happy to keep, but until then, have a go and see what you think. See below for a demonstration of the new underwater effects in Creek (as well as a demonstration of the new smooth time of day transitions).

💡 Even if we end up preventing players from going underwater, the effects will be useful for non-gameplay camera purposes such as Spectator Mode and screenshots.

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Though prone is currently highly functional — in the sense that the foundation is there and it allows all essential actions (moving, shooting, aiming, reloading, switching items) — there's still plenty to fix and refine, even if we're not expecting to release a fully fleshed out iteration straight away.

New enemy AI systems continue to be developed, with existing features also having to be rebuilt within the new Kythera AI middleware. This month, we'll be focusing on more sight detection.

Take a look at this first video:


In the video above, a character walks into the cone of vision of an AI bot, quickly raising its Alertness Level from "Idle" (Alertness = 0) to "Suspicious" (Alertness > 0). Once Alertness reaches 1.0, the bot goes into the full "Alert" state and is instructed to engage the enemy.

When the character is no longer visible, the AI goes into a "Cautious" mode and is instructed to start searching for the target after a short period of time. (This, of course, is just the basic behavior, which will be expanded over time.)

💡 Why are there 2 cones of vision?

• The wider cone (gray) is the actual visual perception cone for the AI: any enemy activity picked up within it will raise alertness.
  
• The smaller cone (red) is used for target selection: targets within this cone will be engaged according to priority — more on that in a future report.

But how does visibility work? Well, target visibility is determined by various factors such as:

• Distance: the closer to the target, the faster the AI will identify it
  
• Angle: targets that are in the primary cone of vision (red) will raise suspicion more quickly than targets in the secondary cone (gray)
  
• Time of day: broad daylight makes detection easier by increasing the range/length of the cone, while nighttime makes it shorter
  
• Light sources: proximity to artificial light sources can make targets more easily detectable

To illustrate the last two points (time of day and light sources), here are two quick demos:


In the demo above, the player character is outside of the AI's cone of vision for nighttime. As time of day is changed to daytime, the cone expands and the player is now within the AI's visual range.

But nighttime isn't the only factor to consider:


Above, the player is initially invisible to the AI. As the character steps into the light, however, you will notice how the Alertness value quickly increases until the AI is alerted and starts engaging.

💡 Please note that these videos and visualizations are merely for demonstration purposes and don't necessarily represent final AI detection behaviors or values.

💡 For earlier AI-related news and demos including grenade usage, shooting out of windows, cover system and world interactions, make sure you've checked out Intel Reports #017, #018 and #019.

Although we have basic light detection in the game currently (in V1033), these systems had to be rebuilt with the move to the new AI middleware. They should hopefully be more consistent and efficient than the current implementation, as well as better integrated with other AI behaviors.

Section by Matt "Fatmarrow" Farrow

We have now implemented what we call a Time of Day alarm system in order to implement an appropriately timed call to prayer in the Compound map.

Islamic prayers are not synchronized with hours of the day, but are aligned relative to astronomical phenomena like sunrise, midday and sunset. Luckily, we have already established an internal system which maps a "standard day" to an actual day of the year, where hour 6 is designated sunrise and hour 18 is designated sunset (this system is what already allows you to use shorthand like "sunrise" instead of a specific time of day). Of course, the times of sunrise and sunset depend on the date and latitude, but this is also taken into account in the system.

For example, the Fajr prayer (the first of the day) takes place at the first light of dawn. Through trial and error, we determined that a "standard" hour of 5.5 or so (a little bit before the standard sunrise at 6:00am) reasonably satisfies this criterion. In the Compound level itself, a blueprint plays a call to prayer sound effect on receiving an alarm event from the time of day system.

💡 The system can also be rigged to work with "normal" or "actual" hours, for example to have a bell sound every hour.

One reason for this deep dive is to point out one of many features that modders will soon be able to use to help them bring their own maps and props to life (though map mods will not be available just yet, as we are focusing on weapon mods in V1034). There is an eclectic but relatively extensive library of features that will be available to player-authored blueprints. In due course, we will provide documentation to assist with this.




With the introduction of playable female characters, V1034 needs basic call-outs for the Comms Menu (default G). Here's a quick look:

🔊 Audio reverb is also being updated. Whereas in V1033 the reverb is essentially binary, accounting only for whether you're "outdoors", in a "large room" or in a "small room" — with no in-betweens — in V1034 reverb should dynamically adapt to the size and layout of rooms.

Section by Matt "Fatmarrow" Farrow

You know how it goes. You play Intel Retrieval for the first time. Excitedly, you search the laptop and then you hot-foot it to extraction. But why is the round not ending? The laptop, of course, is where you left it, and not with you at extraction. It is a GROUND BRANCH rite of passage, but it isn't all that fun.

So in V1034, we'll try having players pick up the laptop automatically after searching it. There was some concern about players being "locked" into the pickup animation, but in practice it is not really a great inconvenience or vulnerability. You can say a fond goodbye to the "did I remember to pick up the laptop?" meta game.

It turns out that making country flag patches was a bit of a minefield.

Rather than be forced to make what might be construed as political decisions regarding which country flags/patches to include (or not), we have decided to limit the official selection of flag patches only to those that represent the countries of our development team.

The good news is that the process of making and sharing modded patches will soon be streamlined via Steam Workshop, so we anticipate that the community will step in to fill the gap if there is demand.

In this month's bugfix corner, we have a few doozies that will be in V1034:

• Fixed reticle not updating when scope magnification levels are changed by the player while not in ADS (aim down sight) mode.
  
• Fixed lights being blown out when shooting poles and other parts of light fixtures rather than the bulbs or light strips themselves (a particular issue on Small Town and Depot, for example), and some new VFX has been added for lights shot out while off, and also to add some visual feedback when multiple shots are required to take out a light (for example the large floodlights in Depot).
  
• Tweaked various outfit and gear skins to:
  
  
  • No longer mismatch with other items of the same skin (especially camos)
    
  • Have better consistency in camo pattern scaling
    
  • Tone down excessive brightness (most noticeable in desert patterns/colors)
• Breaching Charges can no longer be placed or detonated while the player is "frozen" (e.g. at round start).

Though we wanted to have a full V1034 release before the end of the year, difficulties with the implementation of prone have thrown the proverbial wrench into those plans, as is probably clear at this point. So we're settling for releasing the public testing version of the update by then.

As much as we don't like giving out ETAs: we'll be aiming to start the public testing on December 19 — about three and a half weeks from today.

So hang in there and pray to the gaming gods that we get as much as possible in order by that date.

We have a testing branch to put out, so next time you hear from us, it should be a Build Update rather than another Intel Report.

Enjoy the weekend, and as always: thank you for your continued support of this project. We'll see you next time!

We know. We said we wouldn't do it again until the game's actual release, or at least that we weren't planning to.

But believe it or not, Valve begged us to do it. They said, "the Tactical Shooter section of the sale won't be complete without GROUND BRANCH. Please." And then, folks, the begging turned into veiled threats of shadowbanning the game in the Steam store. When they eventually threatened to release Half-Life 3 as a mobile game, we finally succumbed.

(This is mostly a joke. Valve, please let us stay.)


https://store.steampowered.com/app/16900/GROUND_BRANCH/


Anyway, you read that right: after 8 long months at full price, GROUND BRANCH is on sale again — a sweet 25% OFF until November 28. And since we're getting closer and closer to another major update (expect a new Intel Report this week!), this is as good a time as any to jump aboard the tactical realism train and start giving it a whirl before V1034 drops.

🧡 Consider buying from the GROUNDBRANCH.com store!

Please consider grabbing your discount key straight from our website so we get the full cut of the sale! Head over to the {LINK REMOVED}GB Store and use code GBFALL23 at the checkout.

➤ Please note our store requires a PayPal account and is US dollar-only, so there's no regional pricing.

So there you go! Whether or not you already own GROUND BRANCH, remember to let your friends know about the sale and maybe even consider buying an extra copy or two to gift them. We're near the holiday season, after all 🎁

Oh, hey! Hi.

Welcome to another Intel Report! This month we're bringing you previews for upcoming release V1034 and beyond, as well as other development news. But first, the usual disclaimer:

⚠️ This report is not an exhaustive list of V1034 features!

For the most up-to-date list of expected V1034 and later features, see our {LINK REMOVED}roadmap. You may also want to check out our Intel Reports for June (#015), July (#016), August (#017) and September (#018).

Due to personal lives clashing with work (such as 3 members of the team being in the process of moving places) this report might be a little thinner than previous months in the eye candy department, but we’ll try to make up for it with previews for things that won’t be in the game until V1035 and later.

Alright, let’s get going.

With female characters being included in V1034, we needed at least one female voice recorded and processed for the "commo rose"-style pre-recorded messages (accessible with the G key). But because writing and recording lines is all one big intertwined process (and because we want new voices sooner rather than later) we decided to go the full length.

Hence our announcement, a couple months ago, that we were looking for talented voice actors.

And thanks to our followers and the awesome voice actor community who helped spread the word, we were able to find and cast a roster of 18 (!) voice actors, male and female, in four different languages: most of them English (US), but also Russian, Spanish (Mexican) and Arabic. In case that isn't obvious, we'll not only be replacing the current enemy voice lines; we'll be replacing them with native language voice lines for 3–4 different OPFOR factions, each with 2–3 different actors.

Here are some samples:


Lines for the player and the team will consist of 3 different voices for male operators, another 3 voices for female operators, and one for the team handler — a CIA lady back at the TOC (tactical operations center) keeping tabs on the mission and communicating with the ground unit in real time.

💡 Should we expect new voices in V1034?
The main goal for V1034 — as far as voice lines go — is implementing the female counterpart for the existing pre-recorded voice messages. As a stretch goal, Zack will process one of the new male voices to replace the existing ones.

As of this writing, about a third of the actors have been recorded. It's a lot of work ahead, but we're super excited about the results so far! We look forward to hearing them in-game and sharing the footage with you as soon as we have it.

Due to other tasks that required his attention, programmer Chris (not to be confused with Kris) has been bashing a variety of things into shape this month, but has still found time to keep working on the AI. He's back on that full-time this week.

Over the last few weeks, Chris has implemented what he's calling world events: stuff that is happening in the game world that should arouse the AI's suspicion and trigger certain reactions. For now, he has created two event types: one is dead bodies, which the AI should eventually check on and take appropriate measures, such as alerting other AI actors; the other is power switches being shut off, which will eventually trigger enemies to go check the relevant switches and turn them back on if uninterrupted.

Though these world events only add the underlying logic and basic behavior so far (as in, bots will simply move to the appropriate actors), they represent the foundation for the fleshed-out behavior, which will of course be accompanied by appropriate animations and voice lines.

💡 Among the other things Chris has been busy with are: compiling a list of build steps for mod kit distribution alongside Callum, keeping the development builds up and running as John moves the server around Ohio, tackling some graphic setting requirements from Nvidia, and adding motion vectors to various UI elements. Don't worry: most of us don't know what any of that means either. But the point stands — man's been busy.

Section by Matt "Fatmarrow" Farrow

So far we haven't said much about the new modding features coming in v1034, but this month we'll take a deepish dive into the new modding system helmed by programmer Callum.

Up to now, modding in GROUND BRANCH has been a rather unofficial affair, requiring players to manually place (and in some cases replace) files inside the game directory. Some kinds of mods, like missions and game modes, are essentially server-side only, but other kinds of mods like patches and asset replacements have required manual installation of the mod in both the server and clients. This has been quite a hassle. But soon, all this will change!


In V1034, we will start using the Steam Workshop as a repository and delivery system for mods. This is a tried and tested system, popular with modders, and the automatic background updating of mods is a key feature that should greatly enhance user experience. Getting content set up in GROUND BRANCH is rather complicated — not least because we are still developing some core systems — so we are going to introduce different kinds of modded content in subsequent updates. That way, we can hopefully get everything right before unleashing a modding free-for-all.

We'll be kicking it off with one or two weapon mods to show you how it's done. In the first example, behold! The VSS Vintorez.


What you see in the following screenshot from the Customize Operator screen is the modded VSS appearing seamlessly in the list of rifles, janky icon and all. To get this rifle in-game, you go to the Workshop, find the mod, and click the Subscribe button. And that's it. The mod will be downloaded in the background, and the next time you run the game, the gun will be there.


So how will you make weapon mods? The answer is the GROUND BRANCH SDK (Software Development Kit), which is effectively a customized version of the Unreal Editor including some basic GROUND BRANCH bits and pieces.


We will in due course be providing tutorials and so on to explain the process in detail, but essentially you import your gun model into the editor, create a weapon blueprint, set it up with various properties (such as magazine type, display name, and so on), and then use the in-editor modding tools to create a mod and upload it to your personal Workshop account.

🔫 Since handguns are setup fairly differently from long guns, we'll also include a mystery pistol as a mod example.

Kris and Mike continue to implement the new prone stance, which we have started previewing in the last couple months.

Since then, they have added item switching and reloading while prone, transitions between prone and other stances, as well as a proper rotating-in-place motion (instead of characters spinning on their pelvises). There's still plenty of jank to clean up, but it's almost fully functional from a gameplay perspective.

Here's how the more presentable actions are looking at the moment:


In the video, you may notice how aiming from side-to-side while in the prone position has a limited angle. Once the threshold is reached on either side, moving the mouse will free-look a little further to the sides until that limit is also reached.

If you need to aim or look beyond those thresholds, you must reposition your character by holding one of the movement keys. In a previous iteration, the rotation would kick in automatically once the threshold was reached, which we realized felt dodgy as you were never sure at what point you would stop aiming/looking and get locked into the repositioning motion.

The amount of rotation applied to each repositioning is currently only about 30 degrees, which is likely to be increased to a wider angle somewhere in the 45- to 90-degree range — or whatever testing determines to be best.

💡 Animations and control schemes are all subject to change, so let us know how you feel about all of the above. You'll get to try it out yourself soon enough.

Section by Kris

As of V1033, animation updates are performed on multiple threads, but much of the logic relating to animations was still on the game thread. This is being addressed in V1034, with as much logic as possible being moved to a custom animation proxy, allowing it to be run outside of the game thread.

At the same time, we're ensuring that the animation graph conforms to what the engine calls the Animation Fast Path. (For those of you familiar with UE4 — or just morbidly curious — you can read more here.)

Both of these changes should lead to improved performance, especially for offline play and listen servers (the ones hosted locally via the Host Game option).

Section by Matt "Fatmarrow" Farrow

Servers will get another boost in V1034, with a few more options added to the Admin Panel to make things easier for admins and players alike:

• A server setting has been added for the default ready countdown time, which is used unless overridden by the MapList.ini parameters. Up to V1033, if you wanted to vary the default countdown time, you had to add a parameter to every entry in the map list. We know you have better things to do with your time.
  
• If a dedicated server is started up without a defined MapList.ini file, a basic one is generated and the server continues from there. Previously, dedicated servers would hang on startup until a MapList.ini was manually added to the ServerConfig folder.
  
• There's been a big pass on server restart options: you can now set a dedicated server to restart at (or at least near) a particular time of day, and it is now possible to configure the shutdown configuration via the Server Preferences menu.
  
• We have added a big red button and a console command to allow admins to reboot server from within the game. Sorry that took so long, admin folks.
  
• The majority of voting settings, previously editable only via the Vote.ini configuration file, have now been added to the server settings admin menu.
  
• There is a new AllowVotesWhenAdminPresent voting setting; if it is "false" then no votes can be started (except by admins) when an admin is online on the server.
  
• There is a new DelayVoteFromRoundStart voting setting; if "true", then the server will not allow votes to be called during the round until this many minutes have elapsed.

Updated Server Preferences screen

Clicking a server on the Server Browser will reveal additional information like a list of players and active mods

We may be able to squeeze a few more server quality of life features into V1034 (we are looking to improve the kick/ban process, for example), but we hope that whatever features do make it into the update will help to bring calm and relaxation to overworked server admins. Namaste.

Press F to pay respects to these V1033 bugs (which will be gone in V1034):

• The debug camera (ToggleDebugCamera in console) will no longer spawn a mysterious stranger in the player list, also preventing new rounds from launching properly afterwards.
  
• Eyewear will apply the appropriate skin that has been selected inside the character customization. In V1033, eyewear defaults to black once you leave the customization screen.
  
• This isn't a bug as such, but we have changed the mid-round spawning process to spawn you in without any freeze, and with your weapon already positioned at the Ready position (pointed forward). Hopefully this will reduce the number of "bullshit spawns" in Deathmatch and other respawn modes, where you get insta-killed before you can shoot back. OK, that will still happen, but it's going to be more your fault now.
  
• In fact, we're removing the janky, synchronized weapon drawing from round/mission starts altogether.

Regular contractor Pau Peñalver has been working on a lot of small tweaks and upgrades to assets.

Although the new items won't be available until after V1034 due to time constraints, we thought it would be cool to give you a little preview of some of them:

💡 Friendly reminder: these are special artist renders; they do not represent how assets will look in-game with dynamic lighting and other real-time restrictions.

As you can see, we'll be expanding the face-wear selection with a neck gaiter/face scarf, 3 variants of the single-hole balaclava, and a three-hole balaclava.

Female operators will also be able to wear a traditional head cover, which can be had either with or without the pattern seen above.

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We hope you’ve enjoyed these previews — we’ll probably have another batch for you next month — and as always, thank you for keeping up with the development of GROUND BRANCH! Your support, feedback and patience are greatly appreciated.

Take it easy, everyone!

Folks,

It's been a month since our last dev blog, and we once again take a quick break from working on GROUND BRANCH V1034 to give you a generous glimpse into development over the last few weeks. This is Intel Report #018, and today we'll be jumping straight into it.

⚠️ This report is not an exhaustive list of V1034 features!

For the most up-to-date list of expected V1034 and later features, see our {LINK REMOVED}roadmap. You may also want to check out our Intel Reports for June (#015), July (#016) and and August (#017).

One of the most anticipated areas of development in V1034, enemy AI continues to be built on by programmer Chris with more realistic and varied behaviors. Today we'll be taking a look at the new target acquisition system, as well as two new abilities: looking and shooting from windows and grenade throwing.

In a way, programming AI bots sometimes involves more removing than adding. As a crude example, once you program a bot to visually detect the player, the bot will do just that — it doesn't matter if it's bright or dark, if there is foliage in the way, or even if the model is looking in the right direction. You need to actively program the bot to account for things like environment brightness, different types of visual obstacles, and field of view — essentially "removing" its über-detection abilities — so that it better emulates human vision.

💡 The first pass on the AI light detection system currently in V1033 is a good example of the above.

Getting 180-no-scoped by a bot 200 meters away has a similar root cause: once you tell the bot to point and shoot at the player, it'll act like a sentry laser cannon until you add further programming to nerf it to a human level. Though the current release of GROUND BRANCH (V1033) has a configurable period where bots will intentionally miss shots as a way to give players a better chance to react (the Deliberate Miss Time, which varies with difficulty level), once that period is over they're very unlikely to miss.

The new target acquisition system aims (no pun intended) to mitigate this issue by defining an "accuracy plane" — an area where shots may randomly land — around the target player/character. Over time, as long as bots maintain contact, the accuracy plane reduces in size until any shot fired will definitely hit the player.


The system is being built with flexibility in mind, allowing for different sizes of the accuracy plane (as well as different amounts of time for it to collapse) depending on difficulty level and other conditions that will be expanded on, such as distance, movement and weapon type.

If you bought GROUND BRANCH or are considering it, chances are you're looking for a challenge — it's just no fun when most of the challenge comes from superhuman accuracy. And since we're working on improving that aspect of the game, it's only fair that we also bump up areas where the AI's abilities fall short to provide a challenge that feels realistic.

In addition to better cover usage and contextual stances (such as going prone when too far from cover), bots are also being programmed to use grenades. We asked Chris to do a little dive into the detail on this, because some of you tell us you like the detail:

The targeting system for the grenade throwing works different than for bullets, since they travel more slowly and are thrown in a pronounced arc. The grenade is thrown by the AI with a specific velocity. To make sure it lands at the desired target location, we have to take into account the horizontal distance and the vertical distance, e.g. when the target is standing on a hill. To determine at which velocity the grenade needs to be thrown to hit the target, kinematic equations need to be solved. To make this problem a bit easier, we say that the grenade will always be thrown at an angle of 45 degrees.

The equations below are used to determine the necessary velocity (v) to throw a grenade at 45 degrees so as to hit the target location. Implementing this formula into the game now lets the AI throw a grenade at the player:


Yes, you're still reading the GROUND BRANCH dev blog

We know 99% of you skipped the math entirely, so here's what you're really here for (minus the animations — they still need to be hooked up!):

GB PLAYER: pls improve AI?
GB TANGO: *throws frag*
GB PLAYER: not like th--🪦

V1034 will also give the enemy AI the ability to contextually look and shoot out of windows.

You might be thinking that enemies are already sometimes positioned by windows and will shoot out of them in V1033, and you would be right. The difference is that, in this upcoming release, any enemy that happens to be indoors can run up to a window to check outside if they hear something, and then shoot out of it if they spot a target. Whereas in V1033, window bots would be specifically positioned by windows and set to a "guard" state, while other bots would simply rush outside in search of players. Here's a quick demo:

🪟 Window usage by the AI will present a unique challenge once bullets start flying, as any window might be hosting an enemy ready to take you down.

In addition to being visually updated, optional tracers will be added to enemy shots at lower difficulty levels to help identify the source of incoming fire. The system allows us to easily set the color and frequency of AI tracers.

Here's a quick WIP demo with yellow/orange tracers every 3–4 shots:

💡 As with most AI settings, the use of tracers will be player-configurable.

Charles is also updating the bullet impact VFX for various surface types, as seen in the video below:



Just as the title says, callsign patches will now be applied to the rear of all headgear that has an adequate spot for it. At this time, that includes all helmets and the NVG Head Mount.

This is an idea we had been mulling over, suggested a few times by players (and most recently by {LINK REMOVED}Discord member Otoramaru). One cool feature is that the patch will automatically apply to the NVG counterweight pouch if NVG are attached:



This addition is sure to be of great help when stacking up and regrouping, as identifying your teammates can be tricky with no HUD.

❓ Should the rear velcro of the Ball Cap also host a callsign patch? How about the big velcro on the Ball Cap (Reverse), since it's worn backwards? Useful? Goofy? Let us know what you think in the comments or anywhere in the community.

While we're talking patches, we're happy to announce that the normal maps for the arm and chest patches are getting fixed. They're still decals, but the normals help add a little bit of depth as currently seen on the headgear.



If you're wondering about that US/UK Friendship Flag patch, that's one of a set of new patches that will be coming to V1034. They'll also include:

• Czech Republic
  
• Greece
  
• Estonia
  
• Ireland
  
• Lithuania
  
• Macedonia
  
• Switzerland

• Bolivia
  
• Chile
  
• Colombia
  
• Cuba
  
• Peru
  
• Venezuela

• Algeria
  
• Egypt
  
• Iran
  
• Jordan
  
• Libya
  
• Morocco
  
• Saudi Arabia
  
• Syria
  
• Uganda

• Thailand
  
• Vietnam

We might also include these in-game brand patches as examples for modded patches:

• Ramjet
  
• SCOPETROL

Map work continues behind the scenes, with John having recently started changes and additions to City that we hope to be able to showcase soon.

As teased in earlier reports, The Farm has received a small makeover — most notably in the outdoor range area — with a visual tie-in to Small Town. Here are a couple sneak peeks:


Tracer goes PEW

💡 In other map-related news, Hideout has been pushed back to V1035 to be better fleshed out, while new map Ranch (also V1035) continues to be carefully crafted by Elliot.

Here are some smaller new features and bug fixes that will be coming to V1034:

• Pressing N for Night Vision in Spectator Mode will cycle through green and white phosphor modes (thanks to Special Ed Forces for the suggestion!)
  
• Fix for the quick Resurrect admin option not working
  
• ResurrectAtMe and SuperKick (for kicking admins) options added to quick admin menu

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Thanks for keeping up with GROUND BRANCH! We hope you enjoyed going through these news and previews, and we'll see you on the next one in about a month.

Cheers!

Hello there!

Another month or so has gone by, which means it's time for Intel Report #017 to hit you with more dev news and previews for GROUND BRANCH V1034!

We've put a little time aside from development to let you know what's going on in the team, as well as showcase features — big and small — that are expected to drop before the end of the year. Chief among them are the first iterations of both the AI overhaul and the new prone stance, but there's plenty more to be excited about.

So let's get to it.

⚠️ This report is not an exhaustive list of V1034 features!

For the most up-to-date list of expected V1034 and later features, see our {LINK REMOVED}roadmap. You may also want to check out our Intel Reports for June (#015) and July (#016).

About a month ago, musician and sound designer Venus Theory did a YouTube stream where he composed and added music to various parts of GROUND BRANCH.



We were impressed with the result, so we reached out. You probably know where this is going already, but Venus Theory is now officially creating the soundtrack for the game — and we're all really excited to hear what he comes up with. Welcome to the team, Cameron! That's Venus Theory's real name. We keep it casual in here.

In other audio-related news, sound designer Zack is casting voice actors for various roles. If you happen to be an experienced voice actor with the following characteristics:

• Native speaker of English (American accent, male or female), Russian, Arabic or Spanish (male only)
  
• Age range 25–45

You can apply here.

💡 Music and new voice lines are not likely to be ready until V1035 or later.

Here's what Zack has been up to:

• Revamped environmental audio for all levels
  
• Updated weapons audio mix
  
• Further improved the spatial audio for all levels
  
• Designed and implemented audio for closing and putting away the laptop
  
• Created sound effects for the power box (light switch): electric hum when on + lever activation
  
• Designed and implemented the audio for the Galil ARM
  
• Finalized things needed for the ability to mod audio using Wwise

💡 Zack will be moving on soon to design audio for prone movement. Speaking of which…

Implementation of the new prone stance is going well, and we're at a point where it's fairly functional in-game. Here's a quick look:



If you're wondering why we're not showing more, it's because the rest is either broken or not yet gameplay-ready: things like transitioning into and out of prone, reloads and changing weapons/items are either pending implementation (the animations are ready, but not programmed to the character yet) or still need more work to function correctly.

But we're getting there!

💡 Always worth remembering that the initial implementation of any new feature is supposed to lay the groundwork for it, with improvements coming over time. Which is a way to say we're not sure exactly how polished prone will be when it releases, but it'll keep getting iterated on as we go.

Chris' work on the AI overhaul continues, and today we'll be taking a look at the cover system.

We're now using middleware Kythera AI's built-in cover generation system, which allows us to create different types of cover points. Here's what we have set up:

• Full cover: These designate points of cover that allow the AI to stand behind and either lean or step out to return fire. Shown as red and green rails in the video.
  
• Pop-up cover: Designate points where the AI can take cover by crouching behind and popping up to shoot. Shown as blue rails in the video.

https://youtu.be/wVQO67Z5Gxc

When an AI actor detects an enemy, a cover query is run. Different cover points are checked and evaluated (gray, red, orange and green cylinders and circles in the screenshots below) based on factors like distance to the enemy, whether the cover is available or reserved to another AI actor, and the relative angle to the enemy.

We've circled the gray cover points in yellow to make them easier to spot


The best cover is then selected and reserved for that specific AI actor to engage the enemy. In scenarios where cover is rare or already taken by another AI actor (e.g. an open field), we use Utility AI in conjunction with behavior trees. Utility AI calculates scores for various actions, enabling the AI to dynamically choose the most suitable action based on the current environment and context.

This ensures the AI can make more human-like decisions based on factors such as the proximity of the next cover spot. Depending on the situation, the AI can opt to flee, crouch, or go prone.

💡 We'll demo some more AI development in the next report!

Particle effects continue to be upgraded, and we feel like Charles' update to the breaching charge explosion deserves a highlight. This is all work-in-progress and subject to change (performance, performance) but check out how much the lingering smoke adds to the effect:



Charles has also been working on grenade explosion impacts for different surfaces (e.g. concrete vs. dirt), light fixture shot impacts, as well as polishing and fixing various other effects.

Following up on the radio pouch, all vest platforms (with the exception of the Ballistic Vest) have been set up with an accompanying push-to-talk (PTT) system.


It's a small thing that took a little too long to figure out and get done, but the whole radio setup really helps bring loadouts together visually. Worth it.

💡 Oh, right — we also got a checkers plaid pattern done for a more authentic flannel shirt look.

Programmer Callum has done amazing work turning the GROUND BRANCH SDK (essentially a heavily customized version of the Unreal Engine 4 editor with native GROUND BRANCH mod support) into reality, including liaising with Zack to get Wwise mod support working. If you've ever tried to mod sounds using Wwise before, you'll understand that this is a significant achievement!

There's a bit more work required to get everything properly integrated into the game, but we're still hoping for a V1034 debut for weapon mod creation using the SDK.

💡 Other kinds of modding (including whole map mods) will follow when we've got everything polished up more.

Fatmarrow has put together a new Hostage Rescue mission for Rig (with thanks to Prowlaz and Trav of UN1T for playtesting and suggestions), bringing your favorite PvP chaos to another maritime location. The action is centered around the living quarters area on Deck 3.

To better support Hostage Rescue, some changes were made to the living quarters area:

• Created door signage to make navigation and callouts easier
  
• Added power boxes so you can shut the lights off and make infiltrations more interesting/terrifying

But you can pause single player, or at least you should. GROUND BRANCH V1034 will finally freeze time and halt all action when you hit [Esc], so you can take a break from getting your ass kicked at any time during a Lone Wolf mission.

Night vision goggles — whether the AN/PVS-15 or the GPNVG-18 — have been setup to automatically be flipped up when the Tablet is equipped, so you can read the screen elements (particularly colors) better. They'll be flipped back down when you put the Tablet away. More than just a little usability upgrade, this also fixes the conflict between the FOV shifts present in both the NVG overlay and the Tablet viewing.

We've added a news helicopter to City that hovers around and maneuvers away if shot at. It's using placeholder animation for now, but here's the basic implementation:

https://youtu.be/UYDYz2ylSCU

💡 The underlying system implemented for the news helicopter may help with insertions (player and possibly AI) in the future.

V1034 will also be fixing a few smaller issues, including:

• Limiting FPS in the main menu to prevent system fans revving up
  
• Fixing IR Strobes flashing when NVG is turned off
  
• Improving the NVG overlay bounce effect to be less dependent of FPS (which caused it to gradually cover up the screen at lower framerates)

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As always, thank you for reading and sticking with us through another update cycle. We'll see you next month with more news and sneak peeks!

💡 What are you most excited about V1034? Leave a comment and let us know!

As always, thank you for supporting GROUND BRANCH. We'll see you again next month!

Greetings, tactical realism aficionados.

We're a week into July, and it's about time we put out a new Intel Report for you with fresh dev news and more sneak peeks for upcoming release V1034 of GROUND BRANCH.

⚠️ This report is not an exhaustive list of V1034 features!

For the most up-to-date list of expected V1034 and later features, see our {LINK REMOVED}roadmap.
You may also want to check out last month's Intel Report #15 (June).

One of V1034's most notable features will be the first iteration of the highly anticipated prone stance, in which characters drop to the ground on their stomachs and move around by crawling.

Lead programmer Kris and animator Mike have spent a lot of time and effort navigating the considerable complexities of GROUND BRANCH’s true first person system, and the prone system is now ready for a little showcasing.

The media below is all very much work-in-progress/first pass, but here are a few shots straight from Kris:

Folks, it's real

And here are some quick and dirty captures of one of the pistol reload animations while prone:




The prone stance will offer the lowest profile, making you harder to spot and a smaller target in most situations, while also boosting weapon accuracy by providing the most stable of all three basic shooting stances (standing and crouched being the other two).

Here's the result of Mike sacrificing his IRL knees in the name of science hardcore vidya during last month's mocap session:



Though it comes with a stealth and accuracy bonus, prone is also the slowest stance — not just to move around, but also to perform actions such as reloading, changing weapons and equipment, and looking/aiming around. For reference, the prone pistol reloads above are roughly one second slower than the standing/crouched variant.

More upgrades to the animations will include equipping and stowing additional primary weapons on and off the character's back:


We're not disclosing too much at this time, but John has a smaller map project going called "Hideout". Here are some sneak peeks:


Any ideas about the possible setting or theme? Drop 'em in the comments!

In each update, we try to include some quality-of-life changes to make your gaming life a little easier — often based on community feedback. When it comes to mission setup, we have two new features coming to V1034 so far:

In game modes with randomized insertion/extraction points, search areas, hotspots etc., you can now click the 🔄 button on the Ops Board to "re-roll" them.

Don't like the choice of hotspot in your Terrorist Hunt game, or the search areas in Intel Retrieval? Not a fan of the Team Elimination spawns for the next round? Just click the button on the Ops Board (either in Lone Wolf or as a server admin) and see if you like the new picks better.

Feeling like you become the hostage way too often? Ugh. Do you want to place the flag in DTAS, but never get the chance? We feel your pain. That's why we're introducing a "volunteer" button to the Roster menu.

Simply click the button, and you'll be volunteering for any special role associated with the game mode. Only volunteers will then be considered for the special role. If no player volunteers, then the role is picked at random like before (though in all cases, game modes always try not to pick the same player in a row).

💡 Server admins will also be able to, well, "volunteer" other players. Is that a thing? Volunteering other people? *opens new browser tab*

A quality-of-life update of a slightly different kind is provided by a couple of new Advanced Video options.

We have received reports that the default red reticle, red laser dots, and the red search area and hotspot markers are very hard to see for people with color blindness (especially in the case of deuteranopia, which affects about 6% of males). In response, we're implementing two different schemes to try to assist people with color blindness of different types (and other visual impairments, hopefully).


Firstly, it is now possible to change the color of reticles, lasers, and search/hotspot markers to one of a range of different colors that different types and severities of color blindness may be more sensitive to (and thus have an easier time seeing).

Secondly, we have implemented a number of different extreme look-up tables to attempt to "correct" colors into a palette that is more visible for people with different types of color blindness. This may also shift the default red color of the reticles, lasers, and so on.

We hope that these measures provide at least some alleviation and/or aid for people with different types of visual impairment. We will of course keep an open mind as to other measures we could put in to assist with visual impairments, and we welcome your feedback.

💡 When color blindness corrections are active, a warning message is displayed on screen so that hopefully anyone seeing footage of it will not be confused as to why the colors have gone a bit awry.

The composition below shows the color correction schemes that are possible:

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Speaking of quality of life, we have also managed to fix two very special bugs that you have no doubt grown to know and love:

• Being unable to set the enemy AI count ("Expected resistance") on the Ops Board
  
• Moving option sliders adding one (1) to the number that you wanted

Sorry we let those slip through, everyone.

Head and body cams are all the rage these days, and since we always wanted to make it a Spectator Mode camera, we're going ahead and adding a spectator helmet cam perspective in V1034. It may or may not eventually replace the regular first-person spectator camera, depending on feedback and practical implications.

Here's programmer Matt "Fatmarrow" Farrow testing his creation on The Farm's shoothouse:


In V1034, we're finally adding a radio pouch to all vest platforms. VOIP radio is a default feature in regular play, so the radio pouch is a fixed, non-removable item — though the former aspect isn't necessarily set in stone.


It's a small cosmetic update, but it adds some flavor to setups.

Grenade effects continue to be iterated on, and VFX artist Charles got to a nice spot with the frags.

Notice how the version below even has some small flying debris bouncing off the ground:


Cal, one of our programmers, has been making good progress on the GROUND BRANCH SDK and Steam Workshop integration.

He's already got a functioning test mod into Steam Workshop, and servers and clients will soon be able to download mod updates automatically from the Workshop. We are planning to stagger the development of the SDK so as not to delay updates: V1034 should see the addition of weapon mods, while maps and other kinds of modding will follow in later releases.

This should be exciting news to all modders and modding enthusiasts out there who have been having to hack their mods into GROUND BRANCH for a while now.

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If you made it this far, give yourself a pat on the back and know that we do have favorites.

Don't forget to check out last month's report if you haven't already, and maybe check out our {LINK REMOVED}Discord community if you're not in there yet.

As always, thank you for supporting GROUND BRANCH. We'll see you again next month!

Patch 1033.3 is a stability/performance update for V1033.

We've done some cleanup that should result in a few crash fixes, as well as more stable framerates (less stuttering, mainly).

That's it!

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{LINK REMOVED}Discord / {LINK REMOVED}Steam Community Hub / {LINK REMOVED}Reddit / Twitter / Instagram / Facebook

Hey, everyone!

The Dev Blog is back with Intel Report #015, where we cover the first news for upcoming release V1034, as well as other dev team-related updates.

Let’s get straight to it.

We’re officially welcoming Elliot Burgess — a level designer and environmental artist with credits including Rising Storm 2: Vietnam and more recently Ready or Not — into the BlackFoot Studios team!

💡 Elliot is currently busy with early work on a new map called Ranch. If you have any guesses, drop it in the comments.

The first implementation of female characters, which have long been in the works, is fully confirmed to be in upcoming release V1034.

🚺 Some might recall that tactical shooter trailblazers Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon featured female operators all the way back in 1998 and 2001, respectively, and we are proud to maintain this tradition.

Because female characters are directly derived from the male counterparts, a lot of things remain to be re-fitted and may look janky, but we’re getting there.

As previously mentioned on the Steam forums and our Discord, there will be no significant gameplay benefits or drawbacks based on the sex of the character.

Our female operators wouldn’t be complete without some more authentic hairstyle options than a shaved head, so we’re finally bringing in a few ‘dos that will add an extra layer of customization — as well as some much needed variety — to all characters.

Here are a few samples:




Hairstyles would be a relatively simple thing to implement if it weren’t for all the headgear options: anything that isn’t a close buzzcut can cause clipping with hats, headsets and even helmets. The clipping requires various areas of different hairstyles to be “masked out” and programmed to be hidden only when combined with certain headgear items.

All of that takes a considerable amount of time, which is why we’re unsure just how many (or which) hairstyles will make it into V1034. But rest assured that they will all be making their way into the game eventually!

In addition to the existing 5 male characters and the previously showcased 5 female characters, contractor Pau Peñalver has created 2 new characters that will also be featured in V1034. Both were inspired by typically Middle Eastern and Mediterranean features:




Up until V1033, recoil animation was restricted to the weapon itself kicking back and up, with some minor secondary arm movement derived only from the hands being attached to it.

For V1034, our animator Mike is upgrading recoil with more secondary movements, which now include the head and upper body reacting to the kick.

💡 This iteration simply adds secondary animations: the actual recoil and underlying system will be upgraded at a later point to both look and feel more realistic.

This first pass will add 5 types or levels of recoil that correspond to: handguns have a 9 mm and a .45 recoil, most primary weapons have a “light”, “medium” and “heavy” recoil depending on caliber, and both machine guns have unique recoils — with the PKM being closer to the “heavy” recoil, and the MK46 to the “medium” one.

🏃 Motion capture

This week, Mike is also recording motion capture (mocap) for prone, weapon transitions (e.g. changing from primary to secondary and vice-versa), a new sprint, and some other assorted movements that are all expected to make V1034. Fingers crossed!

VFX artist Charles has spent the last couple of months refining the particles for muzzle effects, in special smoke and flash, while also adding some smaller details here and there. Muzzles will also generate more unique particles based on what type of weapon and muzzle device is being used.

🌫️ Next stop for Charles is smoke grenades.

We can confirm two new weapons for V1034 so far: the Galil ARM squad automatic weapon (5.56 NATO, 35-round magazine) and the SA58 OSW battle rifle (7.62 NATO, 20-round magazine).



Our partners have also built a new (and more typical) FAL, which will be replacing both the placeholder FAL Tactical (which was standing in for the SA58 OSW) and the FAL Vintage (a stand-in for a more old-school FAL).

New FAL model, seen here with optional top rail attachment

We also have an AUG A1 in its early stages. We wanted to offer modders a template for a bullpup weapon, and though bullpups aren’t very common in modern battlefields, the AUG is one of the more common types out there.

❌ The AUG A1 will not be in V1034, as Mike's to-do list is very much packed already — meaning no time to animate it. We just thought you'd like to know it's on the way.

Another classic GROUND BRANCH map has received a makeover by environment artist Will Bullen: MOUT training site Small Town.

This is less of a major overhaul (à la Depot) and more of a visual update to get it more in line with newer maps. It also officially establishes the map as a training site, linking it visually with The Farm.

💡 The layout for V1034's Small Town remains mostly unchanged.

Per community request, server admins will be able to disable the Ready Room’s shooting range in V1034. Enabling this server option will add a locked gate to the entrance:



Enemy AI has been moved over to the Kythera AI middleware, with immediate upgrades in both pathfinding and cover usage. We’ll be showing more once things are less under-the-hood and more visible to the player.

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As always, we’re incredibly grateful for everyone’s continued support through GROUND BRANCH’s development. We’ll keep working hard on the update.

We’ll have a new report for you next month, so stay tuned. See ya then!

We wanted to get out a quick hotfix for a few gameplay issues introduced in the V1033.2 release from a few days ago.

CONTROLLER SUPPORT

• created controllers icons for Gamepad_LeftX, Gamepad_LeftY, Gamepad_RightX & Gamepad_RightY
  
• updated DefaultInput.ini
  
  • ensured controller shift and ctrl modifiers are bound.
    
  • ensured default controller bindings that use modifiers only use the shift and ctrl modifiers by defaults.
• updated widgets related to key and controller binding
  
  • added input events to catch mouse, gamepad left stick and face button down key events.
    
  • now be possible to bind to mouseX/Y, left stick X/Y and A button again.
    
  • ensured "Unbound" is displayed instead of "None" for a key that is not bound.
    
  • updated bind overlays to set the existing key so that cancelling out shows a valid key instead of unbound.
    
  • updated game pad bind overlay to hide modifiers that are not currently bound to a button.
    
  • added "X to cancel" message when binding buttons.
    
  • added warning dialogue that pops up if a controller modifier is cleared while still in use.

GAMEPLAY

• fixed bad laptop on aircraft stairs in SE apron in 747 Intel Retrieval
  
• added warning to kit restrictions UI to inform users that skins may additionally be permitted for fallback items defined in default loadout .kit files
  
• updated text for kit restrictions warning about default loadout files
  
• rejigged admin kit restrictions widget again to fix some text and change tooltip to GB version

As always, please let us know if and when issues arise and thank you for your continued support!

BUILD UPDATE #044: Patch V1033.2
Patch V1033.2 is now available, and (barring any subsequent hotfixes if needed) we anticipate that this is the last update for 1033. We've squashed lots of bugs, made tweaks in a lot of areas, and put things generally in order until the next update. Apologies if we didn't get round to fixing everything, but we will have another pass in V1034.

We are now turning our attention full-time to version 1034, which will have some exciting new features. See the #roadmap for more details (subject to change, as always). We will be in touch about that in due course!

⛔ IMPORTANT: Clear your old config files

If you are coming from V1032, have not played V1033 in a while, or are having issues with settings/graphics/audio, you need to delete all contents in the following locations (copy-paste these paths into your File Explorer address bar and hit Enter):

1. %LOCALAPPDATA%\GroundBranch\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor
   
2. Documents\GroundBranch

⚠️ Not doing so will cause various asset and input issues in your game, and may impact performance.

MAPS

• 747
  - Small optimization combining meshes in 747 interior
  - Updated audio volumes
  - Cleaned up a lot of Distance Field visual junk in 747 (plane interior)
  - Added skylight adjustment volumes to plane for more consistent interior lighting (night vs day)
  - Fixed issue with Power Station generator light not working with attached switch
  
• City
  - Fixed City subway light switch not working
  - Fixed double window pane
  
• Enabled 'Affect Translucent Lighting' in lights for better vfx illumination
  
• Docks
  - Fixed issue in Intel Retrieval where sometimes only 8 spawns would be available
  
• Storage Facility
  - Fixed missing collision exploit
  
• Tanker
  - Fixed issue in Intel Retrieval where only 8 spawns were available

GAMEPLAY/SYSTEMS

• Added fallback system for kit restrictions (shirt, pants and footwear now need a fallback skin defined)
  
• Rejigged inventory management system to fix some bugs and make inventory setting smoother internally
  
• Thrown grenades no longer block doors once they stop moving
  
• Replaced loading screen system with more robust and hopefully more bug-free system
  
• Internal changes relating to pouch handling to make more robust and to handle skins more consistently
  
• Removed a lot of debug logging

GRAPHICS

• Changed foliage.MinLOD to prevent trees from only showing the flat billboard up close, regardless of setting
  
• Fixed improper texture setting in base vehicle glass material
  
• Fixed front wheel that was inverted on Ural truck
  
• Rejigged the skylight override system (used in Storage Facility, Rundown and 747) for more consistent lighting results

INVENTORY / ANIMATION

• Removed erroneous dump pouches from various .kit files
  
• Fixed MK17 rate of fire (from 750 to 600)
  
• Fixed magnifier not being placable in front of an iron sight
  
• Updated logic regarding red dots and front sights posts (some red dots will work if they are similar in height to the front sight post)
  
• Fixed SVD bolt not animating properly
  
• Fixed bullets showing through magazines
  
• Default item builds (weapons, vests, etc) updated across the board
  
• Fixed M24 looping ejection FX
  
• Fixed M24 floating shells during reload / bolt rack
  
• Fixed shadow not showing up for NVG mount
  
• Fixed some bad json syntax in default loadouts

CONTROLS

• Created dedicated keybind/hotkey for the IR Illuminator (AN/PEQ-15): default key is 8, but we recommend setting it to a mouse button if available
  
• Ensured that all Keyboard/Mouse keybinds were also available under the Controller tab (Settings › Controls)
  
• Fixed hard coded bindings to controller modifiers
  
• Fixed bad controller modifier action names
  
• Fixed missing controller icons for left/right stick movements

UI

• Added UI to indicate to players when kit restrictions have invalidated parts of their loadout
  
• More info on kit restrictions displayed in character editor
  
• Minor UI cleanup/style pass (location/time/night conditions section in TOD dialog, restricted items dialog content)
  
• Added legend to inventory bar to inform players of how to close it (RMB), and minor style tweaks
  
• Updated controls screen:
  - Added IR Illuminator keybind
  - Minor text tweaks to a few keybinds for extra info/clarity (e.g. reticle brightness also controlling illuminator mode)
  - Added gamepad binds for actions that were only listed under KB/M
  - Increased size of keybind icons
  - Added minimum height to bind entries to prevent the lack of an icon from collapsing the height
  - Changed color and style of the "None" entry
  
• Repositioned spectator overlay options to be a little higher on the screen so it's harder to miss
  
• Added/updated mission selection thumbnails for most maps
  
• Attempting to change a local player element via the server player list should also work for admins in all cases
  
• New entry in credits for Rangda (Additional Media)
  
• Changed default MaxChatMessages from 12 to 10 and default ChatDisplayTime from 15 to 10

VFX

• Muzzle particle effects (smoke, casings, etc) switched to Niagara system and tweaked some more
  
• Updated non-9mm based firearms to either use 45ACP or 556 as their shell impact type
  
• Made sunlight and moonlight affect translucent lighting, for better smoke and other vfx lighting
  
• Disabled the emitters for the muzzle shockwave (which kicks up secondary dust)
  
• Stun effect reworked, hopefully also fixing audio issues

SOUND

• Some native UE4 sound calls moved to wwise
  
• Updated reverb for weapons
  
• Fixed missing scope zoom sound
  
• Tentative bug fixes relating to audio bank manager
  
• Miscellaneous minor audio tweaks
  
• Tweaked footsteps
  
• Fixed missing weapons bank for Farm

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