We have another update for the Community Test beta branch, where we're testing upcoming release V1034 of GROUND BRANCH. First time hearing about it? We got you covered:

❓ How to join the Community Test beta branch

• Right-click GROUND BRANCH in your Steam Library and select Properties…
  
• Click 'BETAS' on the left-hand list menu
  
• Select 'communitytest - Community testing branch' from the drop-down menu
  (no password required)

Steam will begin downloading the files for the testing branch. Patching may take a while.

🐞 Where to report bugs

You can report bugs and issues using any of these methods:

• The in-game Bugs & Issues screen (press Esc once in-game and look along the top menu)
  
• The Steam forums: https://steamcommunity.com/app/16900/discussions/
  
• The #bug-reports channel on the official GROUND BRANCH™ Discord

Your reports help us locate and fix issues faster, so keep them coming!

🚧 These issues are known to still be present:

• Enemy AI may be unresponsive/idle/stuck in various contexts — if you see it, please make note of whether it was online (dedicated server? Listen server?) or offline, which game mode was being played, as well as map and location etc.

  ⚠️ Bots are particularly prone to getting stuck in doorways; we're actively working on fixing/improving this issue.

• Changing directions (WASD) with a primary weapon equipped will cause visible "hitches" in the weapon movement
  
• Weapon movement, poses and animations in general are still being put back together after the prone overhaul — please bear with us
  
• Leaning is bound to feel particularly strange, due to the combo of new poses and the ongoing animation work (all WIP)
  
• Walking or running with a primary weapon equipped causes the character's right foot to "hover" before it actually touches the ground
  
• The prone stance does not conform to terrain angle
  
• Aiming (ADS) with a pistol while crouched is offset to the right
  
• Character and weapon collision while prone is pretty finicky! Let us know how it all feels to you
  
• The Tablet (map) is currently offset to the bottom while crouched, and unusable while prone
  
• Various combinations of hairstyles and headgear items have visible clipping or overall jankiness
  
• The SA58 OSW does not have correct reload animations hooked up

Upon launching the game, a dialog should now pop-up for players to choose between DX11 (the default option) or DX12, with a checkbox to always use your choice (and not ask again).

We recommend players to try both options and see if there are differences in performance. If you can, report back to us with your results and system specs!

⚠️ You may need to restart Steam to see this option.

⚠️ DX12 may cause the game to crash upon exiting.

• Stopped AI auto-spawning at AI spawn points when levels load
  
• Fixed a bug where AI would have too much accuracy for the first shot
  
• Made sure to shoot 100% accurate when the AI intends to miss a shot
  
• Fixed an issue where Veteran AI would be unresponsive
  
• AI settings reaction time will always be above 0 (override INI settings if necessary), otherwise it will break
  
• Tweaked accuracy settings for AI for all difficulty levels
  
• Tweaked time it takes for AI to aim at their target
  
• Fixed a bug where AI in status Idle could go back to unarmed after engaging an enemy/hearing a gunshot
  
• Increased and/or added random delays for various AI actions so they don't happen at the exact same time for multiple AI
  
• Fixed an issue where AI could go back to unarmed after witnessing another being killed right next to it
  
• Added randomization to movement when losing sight of target, now either walks, jogs or sprints (sprint has lowest probability)

• Cleaned up some more fit/clipping issues with hairstyles, beards and the Ghillie Hood (still work to do)
  
• Ball Cap (Reverse) now uses regular Head (Center) patch selection rather than callsign patch
  
• Minor color tweaks to black Hiking Boots skin

• Fixed Galil ARM missing third-person sounds
  
• Rearranged main menu music to be a better loop
  
• Bombs in Defuse game mode now have beeping sound

• Minor cleanup on loading screen elements:
  
  
  • Server names should no longer overrun game tips (needs testing for edge cases)
    
  • After-Action Review (AAR) insertion upon going back to main menu should no longer have a white border around it

• Changed PhysMat type for Creek embankment meshes to fix footsteps sounding like wood board flooring
  
• Fixed missing friendly name tags in Ready Room and (when selected) play area

---

First and foremost, we'd like to thank all testers for putting up with an unholy amount of bugs to help us get GROUND BRANCH V1034 in shape for the release. Your feedback, reports and patience are all greatly appreciated!

We'd also like to extend a massive thank you to everyone who has helped keep our ambitious little project afloat by purchasing copies, keeping servers running, discussing the game, leaving comments and feedback, engaging in the community, creating content or simply enjoying the game alone or with friends. We couldn't keep it going without your support.

Lastly, we'll be easing up on the work hours during the holidays, so you won't be seeing any new updates until the New Year (unless we get an unexpected showstopper, at least).

And on that note… Happy holidays from everyone at BlackFoot Studios! We'll see you in 2024.

---

Here's Update #02 for the Community Test beta branch!

To all testers and reporters so far: thank you so much for the feedback! Keep it coming!

❓ How to join the Community Test beta branch

• Right-click GROUND BRANCH in your Steam Library and select Properties…
  
• Click 'BETAS' on the left-hand list menu
  
• Select 'communitytest - Community testing branch' from the drop-down menu
  (no password required)

Steam will begin downloading the files for the testing branch. Patching may take a while.

🐞 Where to report bugs

You can report bugs and issues using any of these methods:

• The in-game Bugs & Issues screen (press Esc once in-game and look along the top menu)
  
• The Steam forums: https://steamcommunity.com/app/16900/discussions/
  
• The #bug-reports channel on the official GROUND BRANCH™ Discord

Your reports help us locate and fix issues faster, so keep them coming!

🚧 These issues are known to still be present from Update #01:

• Enemy AI may be unresponsive/idle/stuck in various contexts — if you see it, please make note of whether it was online (dedicated server? Listen server?) or offline, which game mode was being played, as well as map and location etc.

  ⚠️ Bots are particularly prone to getting stuck in doorways; we're actively working on fixing/improving this issue.

• Changing directions (WASD) with a primary weapon equipped will cause visible "hitches" in the weapon movement
  
• Weapon movement, poses and animations in general are still being put back together after the prone overhaul — please bear with us
  
• Leaning is bound to feel particularly strange, due to the combo of new poses and the ongoing animation work (all WIP)
  
• Walking or running with a primary weapon equipped causes the character's right foot to "hover" before it actually touches the ground
  
• The prone stance does not conform to terrain angle
  
• Aiming (ADS) with a pistol while crouched is offset to the right
  
• Character and weapon collision while prone is pretty finicky! Let us know how it all feels to you
  
• The Tablet (map) is currently offset to the bottom while crouched, and unusable while prone
  
• Various combinations of hairstyles and headgear items have visible clipping or overall jankiness
  
• The SA58 OSW does not have correct reload animations hooked up

We've had some issues getting the dedicated servers working with the first Community Test build. Hopefully the problems have been solved, but you should try using the updated steamcmd line below (adjusted as necessary for your setup):

As soon as this build is out, we will try working with server operators to get this fixed.

• Fixed a bug where AI would turn instantly when visually detecting players:
  
  
  • Now respects ReactionTime set in AISettings before firing, and has a turn rate limiter
    
  • Added ReactionTime delay to audio bark when hearing a gunshot, so that they do not react immediately
• Tweaked perception for suppression: AI should be a bit more reactive towards fire in their direction
  
• Fixed a bug where the AI wouldn't turn properly towards the player when sprinting to cover
  
• Fixed a bug where the aim for the AI would be off when the player character was prone and rotating their upper body (AimTarget for AI is now based on bone position)
  
• AI visual perception now scales with stance (minimum when prone), movement (increases when players are moving / running / sprinting) and the time and loudness of the last firearm discharge
  
• Slightly increased AI visual detection range
  
• Decreased primary and secondary visual detection cones by 10 degrees
  
• Decreased influence of secondary cone
  
• Increased AI noise detection range
  
• Increased AI noise detection uncertainty (they will be less sure of where shots are being fired from)
  
• Increased randomization in AI shooting cadence to avoid the repetitive 1 shot › 1 second pause › 1 shot pattern
  
• Updated behavior for investigating noise and last known target position for guard AI:
  
  
  • Guard AI will no longer leave their guard point, but remain in proximity
    
  • Guard AI will usually check (look around) when they perceive something, but will not go investigate

• Gave Male 06 his eyeballs back
  
• Fixed bugged MPX reload that had floating mags
  
• Updated Galil ARM:
  
  
  • Fixed missing weapon animations (bolt movement, ejection etc.)
    
  • Hooked up correct Galil animations (reloads etc.)
    

    ⚠️ Still missing reload sounds

    ⚠️ Still missing gunshot SFX for other players (online)

  • Created default build (fixes missing magazine in default build)
• Reverted Join from friend invite (mod version) to original (should fix Host Game connection issues)
  
• Added calls to clear character camera effects when switching character (e.g. returning to Ready Room) or when using the Customize Operator menu, so that hopefully headcam and NVG effects don’t transfer over when players die or change loadouts
  
• More fixes for hair and headgear fits

• Added Prone, Stance Up and Stance Down to the Controller keybind list (Settings › Controls)
  
• Bound Prone to [Face Button Right] + [Right Shoulder Button] as default
  
• Cleaned up appearance of Controller keybind list to match that of Keyboard/Mouse

• Increased bird flock height by 3 meters
  
• Dirt footstep effects: decreased sprite size, adjusted lifetime, and made the effect more subtle

⚠️ There have been new Community Test updates since this release. See our Events page.

Welcome to the public testing for GROUND BRANCH V1034!

In our last Intel Report, we established today (December 19th) as a hard deadline to push the V1034 release into testing. And so here it is — with all the new stuff, which includes a lot of very broken stuff that we'll be fixing on our way to the stable release with your help.

Please keep in mind that a lot of things are expected to be broken, which is kind of the point of public testing: the more people breaking things and reporting them, the faster the issues are discovered and the easier it is for us to prioritize fixes and changes.

❓ How to join the Community Test beta branch

• Right-click GROUND BRANCH in your Steam Library and select Properties…
  
• Click 'BETAS' on the left-hand list menu
  
• Select 'communitytest - Community testing branch' from the drop-down menu
  (no password required)

Steam will begin downloading the files for the testing branch. Patching may take a while.

🐞 Where to report bugs

You can report bugs and issues using any of these methods:

• The in-game Bugs & Issues screen (press Esc once in-game and look along the top menu)
  
• The Steam forums: https://steamcommunity.com/app/16900/discussions/
  
• The #bug-reports channel on the official GROUND BRANCH™ Discord

Your reports help us locate and fix issues faster, so keep them coming!

All done? Alright, this is what to look out for:



Major changes and additions:

• The new Prone stance is accessible via the Z key (default)
  
• Players can also change stances by binding the new Stance Up and Stance Down keybinds
  
• First pass on new enemy AI — we have rebuilt the AI from the ground up and it is neither fully tested nor feature-complete, so please bear with us as we collect feedback and iterate during this testing period
  
• Six female characters can now be selected under the Appearance tab
  
• A few hairstyles are now available for all characters, along with a shorter beard for male characters

⚠️ Weapon modding is still set for addition in the final V1034 release, but it is not currently available in the public testing.

⚠️ As mentioned previously, the new AI is far from final and will continue to be worked on over several updates.

Things you can report, but may not need to:

• Enemy AI may be unresponsive/idle/stuck in various contexts — if you see it, please make note of whether it was online (dedicated server? Listen server?) or offline, which game mode was being played, as well as map and location etc. (this may be an issue with legacy mission setups rather than the AI, so let's figure it out)
  
• Changing directions (WASD) with a primary weapon equipped will cause visible "hitches" in the weapon movement
  
• Weapon movement, poses and animations in general are still being put back together after the prone overhaul — please bear with us
  
• Leaning is bound to feel particularly strange, due to the combo of new poses and the ongoing animation work (all WIP)
  
• Walking or running with a primary weapon equipped causes the character's right foot to "hover" before it actually touches the ground
  
• Prone does not conform to terrain angle
  
• Aiming (ADS) with a pistol while crouched is offset to the right
  
• Character and weapon collision while prone is pretty finicky! Let us know how it all feels to you
  
• The Tablet (map) is currently offset to the bottom while crouched, and unusable while prone
  
• Various combinations of hairstyles and headgear items have visible clipping or overall jankiness
  
• The Galil ARM and SA58 OSW are lacking bolt/ejection and charging handle movements (in the weapon themselves)
  
• The default Galil ARM and SA58 OSW builds are missing a magazine
  
• The SA58 OSW does not have the correct reload animations hooked up

Here's the full list of changes in this build:

• Major overhaul at street level (new enterable central buildings, enterable peripheral buildings and a large new bank section)
  
• Missions rejigged to conform to and take advantage of new features
  
• Cleaned up a lot of collision issues

• Calls to prayer added using new Time of Day alarm system

• Fixed specular value on creek embankment material so it better matches the ground
  
• Reworked terrain and collisions to reduce possibility of getting stuck on trees

• Optimized grass meshes
  
• Switched guard tower at main gate to the mirrored version
  
• Added some cover plates to top platform area of Depot guard towers (gives more cover to that area for AI and players)
  
• Tweaked grass wind settings
  
• Increased draw distances for log foliage and some door frames

• Added light blocker mesh to stop sunlight coming into Power Station tunnel when sunlight is at very low light angle

• Added the vista from Tanker
  
• Fixed some poor tiling on the legs/superstructure
  
• Texture sharpening
  
• Replaced all industrial doors with new ones, improved opening directions, yaws and clutter around them for better movement
  
• Fixed some inverted or bad normal maps
  
• Replaced wood interior doors with newer version
  
• Replaced roll up doors with newer version
  
• Converted glass blueprints to Depot style
  
• Some PFX optimizing
  
• Material tweaks
  
• Optimized light settings
  
• Improved bloom and light shaft settings, same as Depot
  
• Fixed DFAO bleeding on some interior wall meshes
  
• Reduced complexity of derrick railings
  
• A few material tweaks
  
• Set some small props to Projectile collision profile
  
• Sun light optimization

• Consistency and cosmetic overhaul

• Fixed some props and decals hidden in walls
  
• Fixed some reflection captures that were in the void
  
• Tweaked signage
  
• Material tweaks
  
• Fixed inverted phone

• Consistency and cosmetic update
  
• Extended distance of some foliage and added a bit of unevenness to the Farm shooting range terrain to help with foliage culling leaving the terrain bare at distances

• Added new life raft pods, tweaked draw distances for large meshes
  
• Cleaned up collision with Tanker internal staircase railings

• Galil ARM
  
• SA58 OSW

• MPX (new model)
  
• FAL (new model)
  
• Adding back in old metal AKM mag due to popular request
  
• Fixed bad normals on FAL magazine
  
• Fixed bad setting for metallic texture on 1P78 Kashtan sight that made it black in shadow

• SRS model and textures updated
  
• AN/PEQ-15 lasers now emit from the correct apertures depending on type selected (visible/IR)
  
• Laser beam point light effect reworked slightly

• Created male and female subtypes of clothing
  
• New Flannel Shirt style (previous version renamed to "Light Flannel")
  
• Some pouches removed on rigs and vests to accommodate new radio asset
  
• Updated/cleaned up a lot of inaccurate color schemes for various tops and pants
  
• Changed cap and reverse cap to have callsign at the back
  
• All country patches removed except those representing dev team countries (US, Australia, Brazil, UK, Germany, Canada and Spain)
  
• New patches added:
  
  
  • Blackbeard
    
  • Too Deep
    
  • Tertia Optio B
    
  • United States B (R)
    
  • United States B (L)
    
  • United States IR (R)
    
  • United States IR (R)
    
  • US–UK Friendship Flag
    
  • SCOPetrol
    
  • Ram Airways

• Migrated from Unreal AI system to Kythera AI middleware (huge change)
  
• Main updates in behavior:
  
  
  • New target acquisition based on engagement time and distance
    
  • New perception system, with different cone of visions that take lighting and time of day into account
    
  • Basic suppression (firing at last known location)
    
  • Crouching and going prone when no cover is available nearby
    
  • Holding fire when another bot is in the line of fire
    
  • Replaced pathfinding/navmesh system with Kythera solution, including ORCA avoidance
    
  • Scouting out of windows
• AI loadouts updated to take account of new kit and disappearing pouches
  
• At lower skill levels, AI fire tracers with increasing frequency and have more frequent muzzle flash effects

• Added female characters (new heads and clothing assets)
  
• Morph targets added to create female variations of existing kit
  
• Various under-the-hood changes to integrate with new Kythera AI systems
  
• Hair styles added for both male and female models, with different options according to head type and gender
  
• Updated eyelash meshes created and added for all characters
  
• Radio and PTT module added to relevant platforms
  
• New beard style (short/spotty)
  
• New prone action mapped to Z key by default
  
• Stance Up / Stance Down keybinds now available, as an alternative stance control scheme to move between standing, crouched and prone (uses only two keys)

• New headcam-style camera for Spectator Mode and Debug (Ctrl + Up arrow)
  
• Updated DLSS and Streamline plugins
  
• Underwater effects added to all water volumes which can be entered by going prone or looking down while crouched, depending on depth
  
• Added various new branch, log and tree assets
  
• New colorblind graphics settings, including colorblind correction modes and custom reticle and laser colors
  
• Main menu max FPS is now capped to value of new MainMenuFPS config variable (default 60 FPS)
  
• Spectator Mode night vision now cycles through green and white phosphor settings (previously only green)
  
• Replaced static normal texture for callsign patches with a procedurally generated normal, to make the letters stand out (literally)
  
• Added specular and AO (ambient occlusion) into the patch decal chain, to remove AO and to set a constant specular value on body patches (previously there was some speckle in shadow caused by underlying AO)
  
• Small pass on tracers (visuals and onset)
  
• Callsign patches now added to the back of helmets (or to the back of the NVG counterweight, if equipped)
  
• Specular AO mode enabled
  
• Brought the post-processing on the UE4 debug camera into line with the normal character post-processing
  
• Changed AA samples to 16, since it was causing issues/artifacts with DLSS SR
  
• Reworked handling of DLSS FG when in main menu and when the game is starting
  
• DLSS FG (Frame Generation) will be turned off in the main menu, only be enabled when game starts
  
• Added smooth Time of Day transitions for TimeOfDay console command
  
• Big pass on consistency and values of colors and brightness of inventory/outfit items (let us know if you catch any inconsistencies!)
  
• Changed default resolution from 1280x800 to 1920x1080 (may need some further work for Steam Deck)
  
• Various tooltips converted to GB standard
  
• Fuse boxes, DTAS flags and other gameplay props set to never distance cull

• Introduction of prone posture and transitions
  
• Overhaul of all movement animations and poses
  
• New animations for body and head recoil (reacting to weapon recoil)
  
• Updated MK17 animations with polish pass
  
• Updated M24 character animations so they were mesh additive
  
• New mag check animations
  
• Prone death animations
  
• Created SA58 OSW animations
  
• Created Galil ARM animations
  
• Polished FAL animations

• Overhaul of all bullet impact and other VFX
  
• Reworked smoke materials, especially with regard to ambient lighting
  
• Smoke grenades tweaked to last longer and to have different smoke propagation
  
• New muzzle flashes: suppressed, flash hider, and AK-specific FX created
  
• New shell ejection smoke FX
  
• Added color control for the muzzle flash smoke elements
  
• Adjusted the M67 Frag dirt explosion
  
• Reworked Breaching Charge and door explosion effects
  
• New blood impact effects
  
• New manhole/steam FX in City
  
• Bug system added to various lights (bugs circle lights at night)
  
• Dynamic light system now uses separate VFX for shooting out the light when on vs off
  
• New footstep FX
  
• Set physical materials for a large number of materials that were missing one
  
• Lights can now be blown out by grenade explosions
  
• Created FX for light fixture destruction

• Added server-configurable door to block off firing range in Ready Room
  
• Server browser and dedicated servers updated to transfer new information relating to mods and player names
  
• Server browser now displays a list of players and a list of mods that are active on all servers
  
• Enabled some engine anti-cheat settings
  
• Added AllowVotesWhenAdminPresent property (if FALSE then no votes can be started, except by admins, when an admin is online)
  
• Added server setting for ready countdown time (default 45 seconds), which is used unless overridden by the map list
  
• If a dedicated server is started up without a map list, a basic one is generated (previously dedicated servers would just hang until restarted with a maplist.ini added)
  
• New rules (e.g. DisplayFriendlyNameTags) are now added and are editable if not already present (e.g. because using a legacy Server.ini file)
  
• Added server restart settings to admin/server settings widget
  
• Added new ServerRestart admin console command, which is by default only enabled for admins, and causes the immediate restart of the server.
  
• Added shutdown options to Server.ini in ServerConfig, including new "shutdown at hour of day" option (previously servers only restarted after specified length of time)
  
• Added vote settings to server settings admin menu
  
• Added VoteDelayFromRoundStart setting to vote.ini — votes not allowed until X minutes of play have elapsed

• Added Randomize Objectives feature to Ops Board and to game modes (OnRandomiseObjectives)
  
• Added pause feature (in single-player only) when in game menu is accessed
  
• Added player volunteer feature to game modes and server roster (players and admins can set a "volunteer" flag that can be read by a game mode to determine who to pick for a random role such as flag carrier or hostage)
  
• Changed mission setting process in UpdateMissionSettingsTable() in GBGameMode to only set (and thus record as changed) mission settings that were actually changed
  
• Intel Retrieval, Terrorist Hunt, Team Elimination and Uplink updated to incorporate Randomize Objectives feature
  
• Flashbangs do not always stun if they are more than 0.5 meter above player's eyes (to prevent bangs through floors)
  
• Fixed bomb mission actors, and added Lua callbacks for when bomb takes damage from projectiles and grenades, and a test mode in which shooting a bomb causes immediate detonation
  
• Rejigged/repurposed old PVE “Defuse” game mode, intended as mod example. Added missions for Small Town, City and Rundown
  
• New short range friendly name tags (if server rule UsesFriendlyNameTags is TRUE)
  
• Teamkill warnings for the team killer should now display every time it happens
  
• Team balancing code moved into Lua library and added to Team Elimination and Uplink modes
  
• Team Elimination, Uplink and Hostage Rescue modes are changed so that if auto balance is off, defender spawns are shown in the ready room (otherwise they are obscured until round start)
  
• NVG automatically flips up now when equipping tablet, and automatically flips back down when tablet is put away
  
• Pathable news helicopter added to City map (flees when shot at)
  
• Passing a nil AI class reference to ai.GetControllers now returns default AI controller class
  
• Added new Rig Hostage Rescue (Living Quarters) mission
  
• Created new door sign component and added it to doors in Rig crew quarters area for easier call-outs
  
• Changed spawning behavior so that if spawning mid-round, there is no player freeze and gun starts in (mid) ready (* isn’t it ADS now?)
  
• Added time of day alarm system, optionally providing events based on astronomical time (e.g. sunset, midday, sunset) rather than hours
  
• Changed mission editor to send player back to ready room after edits
  
• Underwater mode added, in which weapons cannot be fired or brought to ADS, and breathing is limited, forcing the player out of prone when breath runs out; if the player cannot move out of the water, they will quickly take drowning damage
  
• Hackable laptop now auto-equips after hack (to avoid accidentally leaving behind in intel retrieval, etc.)
  
• Added Player Stance property to PlayerStart mission actor, so players can spawn in either upright or crouched
  
• New library calls available to game modes to kill or damage players, and to spawn an effect at a player
  
• Female characters who become hostages in Hostage Rescue are made male during captivity (because some of you are weirdos)
  
• Added double-click-to-zoom-to-actor functionality in the actor list in the mission editor
  
• Improved validation for TH missions by alphabetically sorting the list of guard point names in the event of a discrepancy with number of guarding squads (may also automate finding odd one out)

• Implemented new dynamic reverb system that accounts for the size and layout of indoor areas
  
• New main menu music and stingers from Venus Theory
  
• Depot audio level updated
  
• Updated City level audio, added idle vehicle sounds as well as ambient city sounds such as sirens and horns
  
• Updated level audio for Depot, Creek, Run Down, Power Station
  
• Resynced reload audio for AKs, ARs, FALs, G3A3, M1014, MK14 EBR and handguns
  
• Added dynamic window audio and fixed missing audio
  
• New sounds for news helicopter (City)
  
• Implemented power box interaction and electrical hum
  
• Music manager subsystem added
  
• Created underwater filter and set up water foley sounds
  
• Female characters now have a female voice playing in the Comms Menu (G)
  
• Acoustic portals now open and close and the correct time
  
• Stray acoustic portals are now autodetected by coincident doors

• Renaming of various settings names and other UI elements
  
• Ready Room locker hints hopefully less confusing now
  
• Server, game mode and mission details added to the Esc menu
  
• Swapped Rotate and Pan camera actions when click-dragging in Customize Operator screen (for character and for items)
  
• Added is-modded and has-kit-restrictions filters for server list
  
• Split up Gameplay settings into an additional screen (HUD)
  
• New stance icon for Prone and related UI changes and additions
  
• Holding down Ctrl will hide UI elements in Customize Operator screen
  
• UI pass on admin server settings menu (mainly prettifying names)
  
• Reduced opacity of AI hotspot marker
  
• Tweaked mission editor UI a bit to make key shortcuts work in more cases and to fix minor UI issues
  
• Added match info screen to loading screen
  
• Hid advanced AI settings button (new AI settings need to be dialed in first during testing)
  
• Added some new loading screen tips

• GetShadowIndex() == 0 silent crash fixed
  
• Capsule shadows should be handled better by character items
  
• Fixed bug where sometimes dragging spinbox (e.g. in mission settings) would result in a value 1 more than expected
  
• Fixed the ‘T count’ bug where you can't change the terrorist count on the Ops Board (may also fix other related bugs in custom modes and similar)
  
• Fixed up NVG, Binoculars and Rangefinder to remove overlay if not in first-person view
  
• Fixed incorrect velocity settings for 7.62×39 mm (AKM) round
  
• Fixed broken laptop placements in City, Docks, and other maps
  
• Tweaked the autobalance code to NOT balance teams with only 1 player playing if the ideal team size difference is 0 (i.e. symmetric game modes like Team Elimination that aren't attacker/defender-based)
  
• Fixed IR strobes still flashing after NVG turned off
  
• Fixed NVG overlay remaining sometimes after removing NVG
  
• Tablet screen is now blurry again (consistent with overall NVG effects)
  
• IR strobes reduced in intensity
  
• Reworked NVG bounce algorithm (causing lens misalignment) to be more FPS-invariant
  
• Improved the logging when an item fails to spawn
  
• Body patches now have working normal maps (depth/texture)
  
• Hostage run exploit patched
  
• Fix for laptops causing collision when not active
  
• Rangefinder NV mode fixed up a bit
  
• Fixed resurrect command not working via admin menu, and added missing SuperKick and ResurrectAtMe options
  
• Activating debug camera now destroys associated player state so no more phantom players appearing in roster and stopping SP games from starting
  
• Fixed Tablet missing a dropped item class, causing issues with picking up
  
• Updated grenade code in relation to inconsistent throw location
  
• Fix for eyewear items not taking on proper skin when leaving character editor
  
• Changed default player freeze on round start to last until end of pre round wait period rather than for the pre round wait duration (in case players spawn in late)
  
• Fixed no validation for bad ASCII characters when setting name in character editor
  
• Fixed Patches dialog not preventing background clicks
  
• Custom collision component added to dynamic lighting blueprint to fix problem with (e.g.) shooting a pole breaking the attached light
  
• Fixed reticles not changing size when zoom is changed while not ADS
  
• Placement of Breaching Charges prevented while 'frozen'
  
• Use of detonator for breach charge prevented while 'frozen'
  
• Fixed out-of-level exploit in Rig Top Deck Deathmatch, Last Man Standing and Team Elimination missions (stairs East of shack 5)
  
• Tentatively fixed bots running out of cargo door in 747 Terrorist Hunt (Interior)
  
• Big pass on collision in Creek to try to eliminate instances of getting stuck on trees
  
• North-facing doors now register a close event properly
  
• Fix for equipment and weapon attachments showing shadows when "Use Simple Character Shadows" is set in settings

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.

---

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.

---

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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