This update focuses on fixing a number of bugs in the current public version. As always thank you to everyone who reports bugs and sends us suggestions on game improvements. As you can see, it's a huge help!

 

User Made Map (UMM) Changes

• The game no longer reads .metadata files from the UserMadeMaps folder. Instead, a new ini file -- AASteamUGCManager.ini -- stores the list of Item Ids to run on a server. For each map the server should host, add a new line:ServerSubscribedItems=(IdString=<ItemId>)The <ItemId> is the same as the PublishFileId in the map's .metadata file, or can be found at the end of the URL when looking at the map in the Steam Workshop (e.g. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=%3cItemId>).
• To emphasize, the UserMadeMaps folder is no longer used on the server (and putting maps there without realizing this could cause errors when starting a server), the game no longer recognizes maps in the UserMadeMaps folder.
• Server providers no longer have to open a separate port to support sending the list of hosted UMMs to clients.
• Fixed issue where the map download progress bar wouldn't update until you downloaded the last map.
• Fixed issue where the map download progress dialog would hang if there were a large number of maps to be downloaded.
• Servers will now ignore maps that have been removed from the Steam Workshop (they'll be removed from the vote/rotation/admin-map-switch list).
• [DEV]Philbax has created a new and improved guide to hosting UMMs on a server: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=656041282

Server Browser

• Server browser is now available via the ESC menu during an active game
• Adjusted field alignment in the server info widget
• Server Browser: Fixed an issue where stopping a refresh didn't actually stop behind-the-scenes queries , causing you to be unable to refresh servers until the query fully completed.

Server Settings

• Implemented a server setting to disable automatic reload on an empty magazine; set bDefaultDisableAutoReload to true
• C4 secure server setting has been removed along with all related functionally
• Vote-kick has been disabled on Official Servers

Teamspeak

• Teamspeak port is properly replicated to all clients from the server if the default port was changed
• For server admins, the Teamspeak port may now be overridden via commandline argument "voipport" (e.g. "-voipport=1234")

UI/HUD

• A kill feed icon is now displayed when a player dies from the out-of-bounds volume
• Text fields within the UI (such as on the Crosshair menu) will no longer capture text chat commands
• Scoreboard colors and objectives on the minimap update correctly when team colors are changed on the nameplate menu
• Fixed an issue where text chat messages would sometimes not appear
• Fixed an issue where some HUD messages would not always be cleared if they were up at the end of a round
• The Last Man Standing message functionality should now be correct for all circumstances; it now appears when you are the last "active" player
• Fixed an issue where the anti-aliasing video setting was not respecting the Restore Defaults button
• Fixed an issue where warmup mode could put spectators into an incorrect UI state
• The Weapon menu now displays the correct skin for all reward levels
• Fixed an issue where multiple VOIP icons could become stuck on screen when a player joins a team from spectator while using VOIP

Objectives

• Dropping the flag or C4 on moving objects such as the radar dish on Coldfront will no longer result in the objective sinking into the object
• Defusing an armed C4 objective now counts towards the Objectives Completed stat
• Bomb icon on the objective status widget is now colored correctly

DEMOREC

• Fixed a crash that often occurred when using the demorec rewind function
• When reviewing a demorec from a spectator's point of view the name of the player being spectated now updates properly

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

• Various fixes for the door actors in the editor - door preview meshes no longer block projectiles, new doors correctly generate a preview mesh and various cleanup for better usability
• Players no longer drop weapons when failing to switch teams
• Shooting a teammate who is the target of a takedown no longer counts as friendly fire
• Players can now pick-up weapons while they have a pistol or grenade equipped
• The achievements Seasoned Warrior and Be All You Can Be were being awarded incorrectly; correct numbers are now in place
• Fixed an issue where the game could pull an incorrect soldier name when changing soldier accounts
• Fix for out-of-bounds audio continuing past the end of the round under some circumstances
• Fixed an issue where some stats from a match could be duplicated
• Fixed an issue where some non-weapon kills were incorrectly reported as M4 kills
• Added a check to the vault & mantle system to insure enough overhead space is available prior to attempting to vault or mantle
• The fire mode button is now disabled when spectating others
• Tweaked the posture transition code to prevent the player's view from clipping into objects
• Fixed issue where shotgun and M67 shoothouse scores were frequently not saved to the backend correctly.
• Greatly improved resolution of weapon sway, making a notable improvement when using high-powered scopes.

This update focuses on fixing a number of bugs in the current public version. As always thank you to everyone who reports bugs and sends us suggestions on game improvements. As you can see, it's a huge help!

 

User Made Map (UMM) Changes

• The game no longer reads .metadata files from the UserMadeMaps folder. Instead, a new ini file -- AASteamUGCManager.ini -- stores the list of Item Ids to run on a server. For each map the server should host, add a new line:ServerSubscribedItems=(IdString=<ItemId>)The <ItemId> is the same as the PublishFileId in the map's .metadata file, or can be found at the end of the URL when looking at the map in the Steam Workshop (e.g. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=%3cItemId>).
• To emphasize, the UserMadeMaps folder is no longer used on the server (and putting maps there without realizing this could cause errors when starting a server), the game no longer recognizes maps in the UserMadeMaps folder.
• Server providers no longer have to open a separate port to support sending the list of hosted UMMs to clients.
• Fixed issue where the map download progress bar wouldn't update until you downloaded the last map.
• Fixed issue where the map download progress dialog would hang if there were a large number of maps to be downloaded.
• Servers will now ignore maps that have been removed from the Steam Workshop (they'll be removed from the vote/rotation/admin-map-switch list).
• [DEV]Philbax has created a new and improved guide to hosting UMMs on a server: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=656041282

Server Browser

• Server browser is now available via the ESC menu during an active game
• Adjusted field alignment in the server info widget
• Server Browser: Fixed an issue where stopping a refresh didn't actually stop behind-the-scenes queries , causing you to be unable to refresh servers until the query fully completed.

Server Settings

• Implemented a server setting to disable automatic reload on an empty magazine; set bDefaultDisableAutoReload to true
• C4 secure server setting has been removed along with all related functionally
• Vote-kick has been disabled on Official Servers

Teamspeak

• Teamspeak port is properly replicated to all clients from the server if the default port was changed
• For server admins, the Teamspeak port may now be overridden via commandline argument "voipport" (e.g. "-voipport=1234")

UI/HUD

• A kill feed icon is now displayed when a player dies from the out-of-bounds volume
• Text fields within the UI (such as on the Crosshair menu) will no longer capture text chat commands
• Scoreboard colors and objectives on the minimap update correctly when team colors are changed on the nameplate menu
• Fixed an issue where text chat messages would sometimes not appear
• Fixed an issue where some HUD messages would not always be cleared if they were up at the end of a round
• The Last Man Standing message functionality should now be correct for all circumstances; it now appears when you are the last "active" player
• Fixed an issue where the anti-aliasing video setting was not respecting the Restore Defaults button
• Fixed an issue where warmup mode could put spectators into an incorrect UI state
• The Weapon menu now displays the correct skin for all reward levels
• Fixed an issue where multiple VOIP icons could become stuck on screen when a player joins a team from spectator while using VOIP

Objectives

• Dropping the flag or C4 on moving objects such as the radar dish on Coldfront will no longer result in the objective sinking into the object
• Defusing an armed C4 objective now counts towards the Objectives Completed stat
• Bomb icon on the objective status widget is now colored correctly

DEMOREC

• Fixed a crash that often occurred when using the demorec rewind function
• When reviewing a demorec from a spectator's point of view the name of the player being spectated now updates properly

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

• Various fixes for the door actors in the editor - door preview meshes no longer block projectiles, new doors correctly generate a preview mesh and various cleanup for better usability
• Players no longer drop weapons when failing to switch teams
• Shooting a teammate who is the target of a takedown no longer counts as friendly fire
• Players can now pick-up weapons while they have a pistol or grenade equipped
• The achievements Seasoned Warrior and Be All You Can Be were being awarded incorrectly; correct numbers are now in place
• Fixed an issue where the game could pull an incorrect soldier name when changing soldier accounts
• Fix for out-of-bounds audio continuing past the end of the round under some circumstances
• Fixed an issue where some stats from a match could be duplicated
• Fixed an issue where some non-weapon kills were incorrectly reported as M4 kills
• Added a check to the vault & mantle system to insure enough overhead space is available prior to attempting to vault or mantle
• The fire mode button is now disabled when spectating others
• Tweaked the posture transition code to prevent the player's view from clipping into objects
• Fixed issue where shotgun and M67 shoothouse scores were frequently not saved to the backend correctly.
• Greatly improved resolution of weapon sway, making a notable improvement when using high-powered scopes.

We are pleased to announce our second user made map contest! Contestants will have approximately three months to create a map following the ‘Concrete Jungle' theme. At the end of the contest period we will be selecting three winners whose maps will be featured in the game.

What is the deadline for entry?
There are two dates you should know: Monday, May 16, 2016 and Monday, July 4, 2016.

May 16th will be a preview event that we hold halfway through the competition. This is a time for the community and developers to see what you have up to this point and to provide feedback. Think of this as an Alpha Test for your map. The goal is to provide you with useful feedback while you still have enough time to make changes. This deadline is OPTIONAL. You can still enter the contest if you don’t submit anything by this deadline, but that means you will lose a huge opportunity for feedback from the community.

July 4th is the deadline for submissions in to the competition. Whatever is submitted to the workshop on this date is what will be judged. Deadlines for both of these dates (May 16 and July 4) are 9am CST.

What do I get if I win?
We will take your map and incorporate it in to the full game! We will polish up your map including: addressing collision and anchoring issues, fixing bugs, providing proper minimaps, updating ambient audio (if necessary) and updating art assets for key areas of the map (if necessary). Once we have completed this polish pass we will make your map official by adding it in to the game and placing it in the default map rotation.

How will the three winners be determined?
Winners will be selected by the development team. We will be judging maps on the following criteria.

Theme: Only maps which meet the Concrete Jungle theme will be considered for this contest. To meet this theme, the map must place a heavy focus on urban environments and engagements. City streets, rooftops, and moving from building to building are great examples of gameplay experiences that fit within this theme. If we feel your map is not meeting this criteria, we will provide that feedback as part of our May 16th review, assuming you make a submission by that deadline.

Character: Does that map have characteristics, either in environment or gameplay, that make it stand out from the competition? A map with character that can be easily remembered will earn favor with the judges.

Fun: Is the map fun to play? At the end of the day, this is the goal all maps strive to meet. If the map isn’t enjoyable to play then it doesn’t have much chance to win.

Completeness: How close is the map to being shippable? We are looking for maps that just need a bit of polish before we release them. The closer you can get your map to shippable quality the more favorably it will be viewed by the judges.

So, to boil it down, we are looking for fun maps that are on theme. Maps meeting that criteria with strong character and solid construction have a great chance at winning this competition.

For good examples of what a 'winning map' looks like, check out our winners from the Great Outdoors contest.

Are there any other restrictions I should know about?
We are looking for BDX maps for this competition. Your map should play well on a 6v6 server using our default server settings.

How do I get the map creation tools?
The America’s Army: Proving Grounds Editor can be downloaded as DLC for the game through Steam.

An overview of the editor can be found here: http://www.americasarmy.com/aapg/mission-editor

How do I submit my map to the competition?
Publish your map to Steam and then post the url to your map’s workshop page here: Map Submission Thread

Tell me more about this May 16th deadline…
All maps that have been submitted (Map Submission Thread) by 9am CST on May 16th will be added to a collection. That map collection will then be run on a number of official servers for a week. During this time, players can play your maps and provide feedback either through your map’s Workshop page or though provided feedback areas on the forums.

Eligibility
Anyone who is not a developer at Army Game Studio is eligible for this contest.

Originality
Recreations of existing maps from other games will not be accepted. Recreations of existing America's Army maps (pre-AAPG) are allowed, with a few minor caveats. These maps must do something original with the existing space. Don't just reskin the old bsp/meshes and call it a day, do something to make the map your own. These maps, like all other map submissions in the contest, must fully embrace the Concrete Jungle theme.

We are pleased to announce our second user made map contest! Contestants will have approximately three months to create a map following the ‘Concrete Jungle' theme. At the end of the contest period we will be selecting three winners whose maps will be featured in the game.

What is the deadline for entry?
There are two dates you should know: Monday, May 16, 2016 and Monday, July 4, 2016.

May 16th will be a preview event that we hold halfway through the competition. This is a time for the community and developers to see what you have up to this point and to provide feedback. Think of this as an Alpha Test for your map. The goal is to provide you with useful feedback while you still have enough time to make changes. This deadline is OPTIONAL. You can still enter the contest if you don’t submit anything by this deadline, but that means you will lose a huge opportunity for feedback from the community.

July 4th is the deadline for submissions in to the competition. Whatever is submitted to the workshop on this date is what will be judged. Deadlines for both of these dates (May 16 and July 4) are 9am CST.

What do I get if I win?
We will take your map and incorporate it in to the full game! We will polish up your map including: addressing collision and anchoring issues, fixing bugs, providing proper minimaps, updating ambient audio (if necessary) and updating art assets for key areas of the map (if necessary). Once we have completed this polish pass we will make your map official by adding it in to the game and placing it in the default map rotation.

How will the three winners be determined?
Winners will be selected by the development team. We will be judging maps on the following criteria.

Theme: Only maps which meet the Concrete Jungle theme will be considered for this contest. To meet this theme, the map must place a heavy focus on urban environments and engagements. City streets, rooftops, and moving from building to building are great examples of gameplay experiences that fit within this theme. If we feel your map is not meeting this criteria, we will provide that feedback as part of our May 16th review, assuming you make a submission by that deadline.

Character: Does that map have characteristics, either in environment or gameplay, that make it stand out from the competition? A map with character that can be easily remembered will earn favor with the judges.

Fun: Is the map fun to play? At the end of the day, this is the goal all maps strive to meet. If the map isn’t enjoyable to play then it doesn’t have much chance to win.

Completeness: How close is the map to being shippable? We are looking for maps that just need a bit of polish before we release them. The closer you can get your map to shippable quality the more favorably it will be viewed by the judges.

So, to boil it down, we are looking for fun maps that are on theme. Maps meeting that criteria with strong character and solid construction have a great chance at winning this competition.

For good examples of what a 'winning map' looks like, check out our winners from the Great Outdoors contest.

Are there any other restrictions I should know about?
We are looking for BDX maps for this competition. Your map should play well on a 6v6 server using our default server settings.

How do I get the map creation tools?
The America’s Army: Proving Grounds Editor can be downloaded as DLC for the game through Steam.

An overview of the editor can be found here: http://www.americasarmy.com/aapg/mission-editor

How do I submit my map to the competition?
Publish your map to Steam and then post the url to your map’s workshop page here: Map Submission Thread

Tell me more about this May 16th deadline…
All maps that have been submitted (Map Submission Thread) by 9am CST on May 16th will be added to a collection. That map collection will then be run on a number of official servers for a week. During this time, players can play your maps and provide feedback either through your map’s Workshop page or though provided feedback areas on the forums.

Eligibility
Anyone who is not a developer at Army Game Studio is eligible for this contest.

Originality
Recreations of existing maps from other games will not be accepted. Recreations of existing America's Army maps (pre-AAPG) are allowed, with a few minor caveats. These maps must do something original with the existing space. Don't just reskin the old bsp/meshes and call it a day, do something to make the map your own. These maps, like all other map submissions in the contest, must fully embrace the Concrete Jungle theme.

It's that time again! We plan on starting up the next UMM Contest soon, so let's figure out what the theme of the contest will be. Our theme options this time were heavily influenced by your discussions in the thread we started up a couple weeks ago. We took some of the ideas that seemed popular there and cleaned them up a bit to provide a bit more flexibility for the contestants. The three theme options we have decided on are:

Concrete Jungle
This theme brings the fight to a more urban environment. Players can expect to be breaching rooms, taking rooftops, and navigating crowded streets in these maps.

Stronghold
This theme is perfect for Attack/Defend style gameplay. Players will be forming plans and working together to breach in to highly defensible compounds.

Stormy Weather
This theme puts players in harsh conditions and brutal elements. Players can expect their visibility and map awareness to be hampered while the try to handle both the enemy and mother natures.

So there are our three options for this contest! Voting will remain open until Monday March 28 at 9am CST. Once that deadline passes we will take the theme with the most votes and fully incorporate it into the next contest. Please continue to read below for a few more caveats.

No vote option for AA Map Remakes?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!
We know a number of you would like to do a remakes contests. Instead of having a contest focused on remakes, we would rather pick a cool theme and then allow remakes to appear if the work out for that given theme. In the next contest we WILL be allowing AA Remakes to be submitted.

Let's focus on BDX maps this time around
The other condition we will be having in the upcoming contest is the maps must be BDX size. Again, we feel this is a good restriction, but not interesting enough to serve as a theme in its own right.



EDIT: The vote has ended! Concrete Jungle is the winning theme. Stand by for more news on the contest.

It's that time again! We plan on starting up the next UMM Contest soon, so let's figure out what the theme of the contest will be. Our theme options this time were heavily influenced by your discussions in the thread we started up a couple weeks ago. We took some of the ideas that seemed popular there and cleaned them up a bit to provide a bit more flexibility for the contestants. The three theme options we have decided on are:

Concrete Jungle
This theme brings the fight to a more urban environment. Players can expect to be breaching rooms, taking rooftops, and navigating crowded streets in these maps.

Stronghold
This theme is perfect for Attack/Defend style gameplay. Players will be forming plans and working together to breach in to highly defensible compounds.

Stormy Weather
This theme puts players in harsh conditions and brutal elements. Players can expect their visibility and map awareness to be hampered while the try to handle both the enemy and mother natures.

So there are our three options for this contest! Voting will remain open until Monday March 28 at 9am CST. Once that deadline passes we will take the theme with the most votes and fully incorporate it into the next contest. Please continue to read below for a few more caveats.

No vote option for AA Map Remakes?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!
We know a number of you would like to do a remakes contests. Instead of having a contest focused on remakes, we would rather pick a cool theme and then allow remakes to appear if the work out for that given theme. In the next contest we WILL be allowing AA Remakes to be submitted.

Let's focus on BDX maps this time around
The other condition we will be having in the upcoming contest is the maps must be BDX size. Again, we feel this is a good restriction, but not interesting enough to serve as a theme in its own right.



EDIT: The vote has ended! Concrete Jungle is the winning theme. Stand by for more news on the contest.

• Eagle Eye correctly requires a single long distance head shot
  
• Fixed an issue where M24 challenge coins (Hawkeyes, etc.) were reported as M249 coins
  
• Last Man Standing correctly appears due to the next to last player leaving a team
  
• Fixed several loading screen typos

• Eagle Eye correctly requires a single long distance head shot
  
• Fixed an issue where M24 challenge coins (Hawkeyes, etc.) were reported as M249 coins
  
• Last Man Standing correctly appears due to the next to last player leaving a team
  
• Fixed several loading screen typos

The latest update to America's Army: Proving Grounds includes a brand new map, Homestead! Homestead is a FLO map with a C4 OBJ type. We've made some great improvements to the server browser adding back in right click functionality to see more in depth server information. New server admin options are in this update as well. The Challenge Coin system has been revamped, and we've added in Steam Trading Cards. Check out the details below for more info. New Map - Homestead

• Homestead centers around a makeshift communications outpost in a heavily forested region of Czervenia. Use the dense foliage around the map to carefully approach the objective areas while also keeping an eye out for enemy combatants patrolling through the vegetation

 HUD/UI

• New menu added to customize friendly and enemy nameplate colors
• Brief animation added when opening/closing text chat
• Colors on the victory banner match the rest of the HUD
• Fixed issue where roles were sometimes not properly reset upon side swap
• The "Last Man Standing" message now appears whenever you are the last player up on your team; revive status of downed teammates is no longer considered
• The Demorec spectator no longer appears in voting lists as an eligible player
• Enemy spotted no longer update if the spotted player moves; the spot remains fixed to the initial spot location
• Buttons on the settings menu now properly highlight with mouseovers

 Server Browser

• Right click menu added when selecting a server
• Players may view server info to see a list of players on the server

 Server Settings

• Implemented a server setting to disabled supported fire (bDefaultForbidAnchoring)
• Implemented a server setting to disable to the minimap dot for nearby enemies that have recently fired (bAllowEnemyFireMapDot)
• Keyboard shortcuts added to the of main menu and ESC menu (Use first letter of the command, i.e. hit 'O' for Online on main menu, 'R' for Resume on esc menu, etc.)

 Challenge Coins

• Challenge coins (Hawkeyes, Deadeyes, etc.) now display the weapon used
• It is now possible to get the same challenge coin in a round with different weapons (i.e. if you get three M4 kills and three M9 kills you receive a Hawkeye for each)
• Players may now earn challenge coins with enemy weapons

 Server Management

• Shutting down a server via HAS no longer causes game and launcher crashes
• Banned players may no longer join a server and use VOIP for a few moments before being kicked

 Trading Cards

• Steam trading cards have been added
• Unlock 6 different cards, 10 profile backgrounds, 5 emoticons, and a profile badge

 Miscellaneous

• Damage memory for kill assists look back 30 seconds (previously was 15 seconds)
• Fixed various typos in loading screen text
• Floating bottles on Breach no longer float
• Fall damage is disabled while the match is paused by an admin
• When using the SwitchLevel command in single player an invalid map name no longer results in a crash
• Adjusted culling distance on several objects on Watchdog
• Fixed several small collision issues on the Hospital family of maps
• Fixed a spot on Checkout where a player could get outside the play space
• "World Boundary Volume" has been added to the editor for map makers to use
• Banned players can no longer use VOIP while attempting to connect to a server

The latest update to America's Army: Proving Grounds includes a brand new map, Homestead! Homestead is a FLO map with a C4 OBJ type. We've made some great improvements to the server browser adding back in right click functionality to see more in depth server information. New server admin options are in this update as well. The Challenge Coin system has been revamped, and we've added in Steam Trading Cards. Check out the details below for more info. New Map - Homestead

• Homestead centers around a makeshift communications outpost in a heavily forested region of Czervenia. Use the dense foliage around the map to carefully approach the objective areas while also keeping an eye out for enemy combatants patrolling through the vegetation

 HUD/UI

• New menu added to customize friendly and enemy nameplate colors
• Brief animation added when opening/closing text chat
• Colors on the victory banner match the rest of the HUD
• Fixed issue where roles were sometimes not properly reset upon side swap
• The "Last Man Standing" message now appears whenever you are the last player up on your team; revive status of downed teammates is no longer considered
• The Demorec spectator no longer appears in voting lists as an eligible player
• Enemy spotted no longer update if the spotted player moves; the spot remains fixed to the initial spot location
• Buttons on the settings menu now properly highlight with mouseovers

 Server Browser

• Right click menu added when selecting a server
• Players may view server info to see a list of players on the server

 Server Settings

• Implemented a server setting to disabled supported fire (bDefaultForbidAnchoring)
• Implemented a server setting to disable to the minimap dot for nearby enemies that have recently fired (bAllowEnemyFireMapDot)
• Keyboard shortcuts added to the of main menu and ESC menu (Use first letter of the command, i.e. hit 'O' for Online on main menu, 'R' for Resume on esc menu, etc.)

 Challenge Coins

• Challenge coins (Hawkeyes, Deadeyes, etc.) now display the weapon used
• It is now possible to get the same challenge coin in a round with different weapons (i.e. if you get three M4 kills and three M9 kills you receive a Hawkeye for each)
• Players may now earn challenge coins with enemy weapons

 Server Management

• Shutting down a server via HAS no longer causes game and launcher crashes
• Banned players may no longer join a server and use VOIP for a few moments before being kicked

 Trading Cards

• Steam trading cards have been added
• Unlock 6 different cards, 10 profile backgrounds, 5 emoticons, and a profile badge

 Miscellaneous

• Damage memory for kill assists look back 30 seconds (previously was 15 seconds)
• Fixed various typos in loading screen text
• Floating bottles on Breach no longer float
• Fall damage is disabled while the match is paused by an admin
• When using the SwitchLevel command in single player an invalid map name no longer results in a crash
• Adjusted culling distance on several objects on Watchdog
• Fixed several small collision issues on the Hospital family of maps
• Fixed a spot on Checkout where a player could get outside the play space
• "World Boundary Volume" has been added to the editor for map makers to use
• Banned players can no longer use VOIP while attempting to connect to a server