Jun 1, 2018

Squad - Black Lives Matter | ACAB

(For the media rich version of this post, please visit http://www.joinsquad.com)

Hey Squaddies,

Welcome to June! With the Alpha 11 patch released, we're back in the trenches hard at work on the next batch of updates for you. We're not the only ones that have been hard at work, though: the Post Scriptum weekend playtests have begun and, by all reports, your participation was invaluable! Check out this footage captured by Khaos during the first weekend:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/sj7C4cSixI4

Back in modern combat news, we've got some more details on game modes, systems, and some new weapons platforms for you. On with the Recap!

Systems

Mode: Randomised AAS

http://media.joinsquad.com/2018/June/MayRecap2018/raas_1.jpg

A massive improvement we're making to the AAS mode is the introduction of a randomised system for flag layouts. This will allow our designers to heavily consolidate the multitude of map layers we currently have in-game (which are difficult to manage and QA), while also giving variety in the capture chains depending on the map and designer's intent.

https://media.joinsquad.com/2018/June/MayRecap2018/raas_2.jpg

For example, a map could be tuned such that the first flags from the main base are always the same, but as the chain goes on, there is more variety to the second or third flags in the chain. Or it could all consolidate back into one middle flag. This will give our designers a more powerful tool in creating more variety per round for much less stress.

Vehicle Component Damage System

https://gfycat.com/ifr/InformalAllAmurminnow

Stage 2 of our improvements to our vehicle damage model is the ability to damage individual components on vehicles, both externally and internally. The final goal of this will be to greatly lessen the ability for weapons to outright destroy vehicles and focus more on disabling key components like movement (disabling the engine), mobility (taking out wheels or tracks), turret traverse functions, or weapons functions.

Critical hit locations can also be implemented. Examples include ammunition compartments, rewarding accurate gunnery. Our intent is also to help balance the currently extremely strong anti-tank weaponry by preventing them from delivering the killing blow every time.

Turret Stabilization

https://gfycat.com/ifr/PoorIllinformedFerret

One feature we're working on that features heavily for a lot of modern turrets is a stabilisation system that allows the user to focus on a particular direction for the main gun with a keypress, then the turret will attempt to stabilise the gun by counteracting the movements of the vehicle.

https://gfycat.com/ifr/ImpossibleBeautifulBeagle

This will help greatly in allowing such vehicles to fire on the move, improving the pace and style of vehicular combat and giving it a different flavour to the World War 2 style of, "stop, shoot, & move." This system is still in its early prototyping stage, but we find it a necessary component in preparation to introduce main battle tanks to the game.

Modding 2.0 - Mods for Linux Servers

Over the last few weeks, a lot of quality of life work has been done on Modding 2.0. First thing: mods are now WAY smaller than they used to be! "Operation Silver," a popular modded Squad map, went from 3.3gb down to 1.03gb when cooked against the Modding 2.0 framework. Another big thing that people have been asking for is also done - Mods for Linux! With Modding 2.0 mods will now just run on Linux servers; you will no longer need have a Windows Server to a run Modded server.

Art and Environment

FV432 APC

https://media.joinsquad.com/2018/June/MayRecap2018/fv432.jpg

Currently in the works, we have an addition to the British vehicle arsenal in the form of the FV432 Armored Personnel Carrier. Having undergone a series of upgrades on top of an older model, it will give the British a vehicle that is more than capable of ferrying more troops around the battlefield, but without the stand-off capabilities of the FV510 IFV.

M1A1 Abrams

http://media.joinsquad.com/2018/June/MayRecap2018/abrams1.jpg

We've teased you with this iconic beast of American military might for a while now, but we are entering a phase where the systems we are developing for vehicles will feed into how best we can represent the capabilities of main battle tanks. While we accidentally leek'ed an in-game version to you a little prematurely, let that be a sign that we're getting closer to making the tank dream a reality.

https://media.joinsquad.com/2018/June/MayRecap2018/abrams2.jpg

These vehicles come equipped with a 120mm smoothbore cannon firing anti-tank sabot rounds or high-explosive ammunition, making it the most formidable opponent on the battlefield when it comes to raw firepower.

https://media.joinsquad.com/2018/June/MayRecap2018/abrams3.jpg

T72B3

https://media.joinsquad.com/2018/June/MayRecap2018/t72b3_1.jpg

Also in the works is the answer to the American Abrams: the Russian T72B3 series of main battle tanks. Packing a larger gun and considerably lighter than the Abrams, this tank is one of the more widely produced and exported tanks since the 1970s.

https://media.joinsquad.com/2018/June/MayRecap2018/t72b3_2.jpg

This particular asset has been in production for a fair while now, and is the first asset constructed from a 3D scan reference. There are still a number of missing components like the machine gun mount, but rest assured once it makes it in-game it will certainly make a huge impact.

https://media.joinsquad.com/2018/June/MayRecap2018/t72b3_3.jpg

http://media.joinsquad.com/2018/June/MayRecap2018/t72b3_4.jpg

9M133 Kornet ATGM

https://media.joinsquad.com/2018/June/MayRecap2018/kornet.jpg

To compliment the BGM-71 TOW missile released in the previous alpha version, we have the Russian equivalent in the 9M133 "Kornet" in production. It is equivalent in power to the TOW in that it will be able to defeat heavy armor, however, it uses a laser beam to guide the missile while in flight.

Belaya Update

https://media.joinsquad.com/2018/June/MayRecap2018/belaya1.jpg

Belaya has been undergoing a bit of an upgrade since it was released in Alpha 10 back in February. Some changes include lessening the snow coverage, more foliage adding more concealment when maneuvering between flags, and also roughening the terrain to give more opportunities for cover when crossing ground.

http://media.joinsquad.com/2018/June/MayRecap2018/belaya_pass_minimap.jpg

https://media.joinsquad.com/2018/June/MayRecap2018/belaya2.jpg

https://media.joinsquad.com/2018/June/MayRecap2018/belaya3.jpg

https://media.joinsquad.com/2018/June/MayRecap2018/belaya4.jpg

Sign Off

We can't wait to get Randomised AAS into the hands of testers, but we might be a little more excited about that Abrams hitting the field. So how about it, Squaddies, what are you most looking forward to in-game? Hit the discussion link below and let us know. Thanks for reading the Recap!

Offworld Out.

May 16, 2018

Modding 2.0 Update, #1

Squad - Black Lives Matter | ACAB

Hey Squaddies!

(For the media-rich version of this post, please visit http://www.joinsquad.com.)

It's time for a quick Modding 2.0 development update! Progress has been going well since the initial modding release, so we figured it was time to show off some of what's coming up next.

First off, the Modding SDK UI has been completely redone (by an actual designer this time!). With their help and a fresh copy of the PSD of the new SDK UI, we went straight into implementing the update. It turned out like this!

https://media.joinsquad.com/2018/May/moddingupdate/modupdate1.png

As you can tell, the tabs on the left the UI for the Modding SDK have all been moved to one window. No more multiple tabs on the top bar!

https://media.joinsquad.com/2018/May/moddingupdate/modupdate2.png

Every action you need for modding is now in one convenient window.

Sharing Mods

We've scratched the old Steam Uploader and wrote a whole new one from scratch. (This one gives more errors than "Something went wrong."). We've also removed the need to have to pick an "Output Directory" when you are cooking your mod. By default, the system will now pick a valid path for you!

We've also removed the need to have to click both the "Package" and "Upload" button. If you just click upload now it will perform the "Package" too. The "Package" button now is exclusively for people who don't want to upload their mod to the Steam Workshop.

https://media.joinsquad.com/2018/May/moddingupdate/modupdate3.png

Editing Mods

https://media.joinsquad.com/2018/May/moddingupdate/modupdate4.png

You are now able to edit your mod's information through the UI after creation. No more having to go through your modinfo info file and change all of the information and hoping you don't break anything!

This new UI is probably 90% done. All the work that is left to do is small but important: fixing button sizes, handling really long strings, handling edge cases, etc. This should definitely come out with Modding 2.0, or maybe even earlier!

Modding SDK Internals

SMI Files

Modinfo.smi files have been destroyed and replaced with your <YourModName>.mi files. No need to worry though, as soon as you load your mod in the Modding 2.0 SDK, your mod's SMI file will be upgraded to the new format.

The main reason for switching file formats is Modding 2.0 doesn't require nearly as much data to be stored locally as the previous method.

Steam Workshop Images

Your mod's Steam Workshop preview image now lives inside of your mod's project folder. This was changed to prevent this reference being lost and then not knowing why you can not upload to the Steam Workshop.

Cooking Mods

As mentioned above, you no longer need to pick a package location. The Modding 2.0 cooking system will by default pick a good path for you. The first place it tries is your mod's project folder. Sometimes this doesn't work due to various issues (No space available, The pathname is too long, etc...), so cooking will continue to walk up the Squad folder structure until it finds a valid path. If it can't find a valid path (which is unlikely), you can still specify a cooking directory.
https://media.joinsquad.com/2018/May/moddingupdate/modupdate5.png

In-Game Mod Downloads

Finally! This what you've all been waiting for, right? We're happy to report that progress is going well on getting in-game downloads working. This is proving to be a much larger task than originally thought, but steady progress is happening!

As you can see in the GIF, mods can now be downloaded while the game in running with no problems. This test case is performed during the game is booting up, since we are doing a lot of CPU heavy stuff then:

https://streamable.com/s/qlmb3/sygner

Current Work

Currently, work is focused on getting the mods that are being downloaded while the game is running to be recognized by the game. This is quite a bit of work and will be taking up most of my time for the rest of the month, as the engine is not set up to accept PAK files mounted in the middle of the game.

Offworld Out.

May 3, 2018

Alpha 11

Squad - Black Lives Matter | ACAB

Hey soldiers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IctFOaEsRE8

Alpha 11 has arrived! We can think of no better way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. With Alpha 11, we are continuing to increase the depth of vehicle gameplay, as well as expanding content for infantry. No doubt some expert squads will take advantage of combined arms tactics. Do read up on the changelog while you download!

Alpha Version 11 is now available via Steam. Please always clear your game cache in the game settings on every new build!

Full Changelog

Gameplay

British Armed Forces have been added. They are a high-tech Blue Force faction with a unique bullpup-style primary weapon, and heavily reliant on armored transport to move around the
battlefield. Expect to see them make an appearance on a few of the classic maps and also the newly released Kamdesh.
Dramatically reduced the ticket bleed on the middle flags and increased the ticket win/loss when an actual flag area is captured or lost. Neutral flag include a ticket gain for your team. There
will still continue to be a "mercy" ticket bleed on the end flags.
Tweaked stamina costs for jumping, vaulting, and climbing.
Settle sway time has been reduced by half on all weapons.
Recoil animation for semi-auto fire has been slightly reduced for greater target tracking.
LMG and MMG camera shake has been slightly reduced.
Horizontal recoil patterns on several weapons have been reduced (tightened).
Additional weapon recoil and sway values have been tweaked.
Time to ADS on all weapons have been adjusted. Generally, iron sights are faster than all other forms of sighting systems.
Non-ADS fire animation timing while the weapon is lowered or in a low ready position (such as MGs) has been increased in 3p to provide better visual feedback.
Prone to crouch and standing animation speed has been increased by approximately 30%.
Freelook recentering speed has been increased to be more fluid.

Systems

Unregistered soldier and weapon based components when unused reducing the physics and rendering costs for these components.
Reduced the amount of network ticking needed on weapons, soldiers, and vehicles.
Reduced a number of unneeded processes when updating animation on the soldiers.
Improved accuracy on detecting when to update the soldier movement component.
Soldier bodies now despawn from the game world when the owning player respawns, greatly cleaning up the number of expensive dead bodies on the field. (Main bases now require a 30 second spawn time
to ensure that the killer has a chance to verify the kill)
Rewrote the burning system for performance and simplicity. Vehicle burning now starts burning at a preset threshold instead of relying on temperature calculations. This means that a vehicle will
catch fire if the vehicle is really close to destruction; and will shortly burn out and explode.
Rewrote how vehicle flipping is calculated.
Ragdoll overlap calculations are now cheaper.
Updated the map widget for cheaper visibility calculations.
Optimized spiky and expensive UI widgets, and reduced the amount of processing needed for a number of UI widgets.
Distance Field Shadows - Shadows and Lighting will look much much better now with distance field shadows enabled, as a graphics option in the settings menu.
Added Filtered Sharpening to the post-processing graphics pass. This should help with the issues relating to blurry visuals at range.
Vehicle Armor Locational Damage
- All vehicles now have more defined armor values IE: an APC will have more armor on its front, less on its sides, and very vulnerable in the back. This first take
  will loosely reflect more closely real-world characteristics, as well as create more depth to the AT role.
All bullets will now have a chance to visually and audibly ricochet depending on angle fired, and weapons with tracer rounds will visibly show the ricochets trajectory path. Projectiles that do
ricochet don't actually deal damage but instead are a visual indicator that the projectile did not penetrate the surface or armor.
Vehicle ground effects (eg. dust being blown around as you drive) have been re-enabled and visually upgraded since its previous implementation.

Roles and Weapons

Insurgent Soldier models have been completely redone. A large variety of civilian and paramilitary styles have been added to make the faction look a little more versatile visually.
New Role: Crewman. This role is necessary for crewing APCs and IFVs in the driver and gunner seats. This role is equipped lightly for the express purpose of self-defense. A Squad Leader Crewman Kit has been added, also.
New Weapon: L85A2 Rifle. This is the mainstay British Army service rifle, a 5.56mm bullpup configuration rifle capable of semi and automatic fire. Depending on the role, the rifle is equipped with
either iron sights, 4x SUSAT sight (zeroing out to 600m) or 4x ACOG (built in BDC reticle). Some roles also have a folding foregrip/bipod combination attached as well.
New Weapon: L86A2 LSW Rifle. This weapon is a unique cross between a designated marksman rifle and a light machine gun. While it doesn't have the same level of stopping power as a 7.62mm DMR, its
ability to put down accurate automatic fire makes up for its shortcomings. This is run on the squad-level Marksman role.
New Weapon: L129A1 Sharpshooter Rifle. A 7.62mm Designated Marksman Rifle, equipped with a 6x ACOG with an excellent field of view. This is available as the team-wide Marksman role for the British.
New Weapon: AG36 Grenade Launcher. A 40mm Grenade Launcher attached to the L85A2 rifle, available on the British Grenadier role. Its side-mounted ladder sight goes up to 350m, and its spring loaded
barrel allows for faster loading.
New Weapon: L110A1 Minimi. The British adaptation of the FN Minimi platform, much like the M249 SAW. It comes with a collapsible skeleton stock and can be equipped with a 4x SUSAT optic.
New Weapon: L7A2 GPMG. The British adaptation of the FN MAG platform, very similar to the M240B weapon system used by the Americans.
New Weapon: L131a1 Glock Service Pistol. This recently adopted pistol is a high capacity 9mm handgun that is a reliable sidearm for British officers and support roles.
New Weapon: AT4. The AT4 is an 84-mm unguided, portable, single-shot recoilless smoothbore weapon. This weapon does a modest (33%) more damage than the M72A7 LAW, and is available on all US and
British Heavy Anti-Tank roles, as an interim weapon while we work on much heavier anti-tank options.
New Weapon: PKP. The Russian Forces PKP is the modernized cousin of the PKM. Complete with a mount for optics, this Russian weapon will make their machine gunners even more fearsome. Russian
Machine Gunners have their PKPs equipped with a 1p78 optic.
New Weapon Variant: AK74M 1p63 "Obzor" Collimator Sight. The Russian Forces have a collimator sight option now on their rifleman and supplementary combat roles, allowing for quicker target
acquisition in CQB.
New Weapon Variant: AK74 1p29 Optic Sight. The Militia and Insurgent Forces have a slightly older sight option replacing the modern 1p78 sight. It is the older style trilux sight with an upside
down obelisk reticle, zeroing capability out to 400m and also a built-in stadiametric rangefinder.
The US Army Machine Gunner's M240B is now equipped with an M145 optic.
All factions have now been given knife training and knives, for those times when you may need a stealth kill option.
IED and AT Mine changes, Insurgents and Militia are now able to place up to 3 IEDs in the world at a time, and 6 AT mines in the world at a time. They can still only carry 1 of each of
these items at a time, so they will need to rearm to place more.
Light AT roles now only have 1 shot available for their anti-tank weapons. A full 9-man squad will still have access to 2 of these roles.
Heavy AT roles have been added to the British, US Army and Russian factions to aid in destroying vehicles. 2 Kits available per team. 1 per squad. 4 squad members needed to access the kit. US and
GB have the new AT4 weapon system as a placeholder for HAT for the time being. RU has a placeholder RPG-7 Tandem warhead.
Resupply costs have been updated to the following: 25 Ammo Points: Medic, Rifleman, Crewman, Medic, Officer; 50 Ammo Points: Grenadier, AR, MG, Marksman; 100 Ammo Points: LAT, Sapper, US/GB
HAT; 150 Ammo Points: Rus/Mil/Ins HAT
Tweaked first person weapon origin positions for all weapons.
Tweaked weapon fire sounds for the AK74, AKM, M4, G3 series, and ZU-23 AA Gun
Improved the look of the M68 Aimpoint's dot, raising its co-witness to 1/3rd. (Putting the dot above the front sight post.)
Widened rear sight apertures on the AK74, AKM and RPK series, making it easier to acquire a target when sighting with these weapons.
Tweaked the look of the lowered pose when crouched.
Tweaked reticle on the M145 ACOG sight, making the chevron much smaller, and adding a small red dot under the chevron to indicate where a shot would land at 200m.

Vehicles

All APCs and IFVs now require you to procure a Crewman Role in order to operate the driver and gunner seats. These roles can be sourced from ammo crates, or are spawnable as such.
Most vehicles now have the capability to carry spare ammunition to which ground infantry can resupply their ammunition from. These ammunition points can be sourced from Main Base and FOBs, much
like ammo points on Logistics vehicles. To that end, these vehicles can now be used to ferry ammunition to and from FOBs if need be.
Insurgents will now have access to some technicals with Improvised Armor. These vehicles generally sacrifice speed, driver visibility and handling for much greater resistance to shrapnel and small
arms fire, up to 7.62mm NATO.
A new British logistics and transport truck. This modern left-hand drive vehicle is similar in carrying capacity to its Russian and American counterparts. It is on a 3-minute respawn timer,
and is worth 6 tickets. The passenger transport variant holds 18 soldiers, while the logistics variant holds 4 passengers and 2000 combined supplies.
FV510, a new British Infantry Fighting Vehicle. The FV510 is a heavily armored IFV that can carry up to 9 passengers, as well as having a driver/gunner crew. It sports a 30mm autocannon, a slow
firing clip-fed cannon that fires high-velocity 30mm rounds in armor-piercing sabot and high explosive. In addition, a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun and smoke launchers. It is on a 10-minute spawn
timer and is worth 28 tickets.
M2A3 IFV, a new Infantry Fighting Vehicle for the US Army. Bridging the gap between Armored Personnel Carrier and Main Battle Tank, IFVs can transport a small group of infantry while also providing
considerable fire support against both infantry and enemy armor. It holds 7 passengers, along with a driver and gunner. The M2A3 is the most heavily armed vehicle in the game, with a 25mm chaingun,
firing armor-piercing sabot and high explosive rounds, as well as a turret-mounted TOW launcher with 2 TOW wire-guided missiles ready to fire. In addition, a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun and smoke
launchers for creating smokescreens. It is on a 15-minute spawn timer and is worth 37 tickets.
Dramatically reduced the effectiveness of radial damage from rockets to medium to heavy armor vehicles.
Completely overhauled the look of the CROWS weapon system on the MATV and M1126. To this, we added an ammunition tracker, rangefinder, turret orientation indicator and 3 levels of zoom.

Deployables

The TOW missile is a wire-guided missile that follows the target commands via a very long wire attached to the launcher. The player can effectively steer the missile while in flight onto target,
and it is extremely effective against stationary or slow-moving targets.
Optics have been added onto the emplaced Russian NSV, British and American M2 Brownings and both emplaced and mobile versions of the SPG-9 Kopye. Both the M2 Browning and SPG9 have completely
functional reticles that allow for precise shooting at range. We recommend having some trigger time on the range with these to understand how the reticles are used.
Emplacements are now damageable by calibers greater than and including 12.7mm/.50cal. The intent is that they will cease to function after sustaining a light to moderate amount of damage, requiring
repairs to it in order to bring it back to a working state.
Razor wire has been made more damaging by slowing down the player much more when caught in it, as well as making it completely impassable. Razor wire that is shorter and lower to the ground can
still be jumped over though with a big enough run-up.

Mapping

New Map: Kamdesh Highlands: A new Afghan themed map has been added to the game. This map is set in the far east part of Afghanistan, sparsely populated and mountainous, the area has a number of
roads crisscrossed, connecting small hamlets.
Kohat Toi Expansion: Kohat has been expanded to increase gameplay variability and increase Gameplay layer options. In addition to opening up the playable zones, a lot of surrounding dressing has
been added to the map edges to make you really impart the sense of a large world around you. Finally, the lighting has been completely redone from scratch to give a greater sense of distance when
looking off into the edges of the map.
Gorodok visual improvements: foliage should be thicker, draw farther and look better, all while being more optimized. Rock demons have been largely eliminated.
Fixed a number of terrain and static glitching bugs relating to the Train Depot area on Narva

We also have added a lot of new layers to existing maps with radically different flag layouts, the addition of the British and expanding the implementation of the Invasion-style game mode

Al Basrah Invasion_v1 (Overhauled)
Al Basrah Invasion_v2 S (New)
Belaya: Relevant layers with Train Tunnel flags are now able to be capped from outdoor areas.
Belaya AAS_v2 (New)
Belaya AAS_v3 (New)
Fools Road AAS_v1: Ammo Hill is a requirement in the lattice.
Fools Road AAS_v4 (Overhauled)
Gorodok AAS_v1 (Overhauled)
Gorodok AAS_v2 (Overhauled)
Gorodok AAS_v3 GB vs RU (New)
Gorodok AAS_v4 US vs RU (New)
Gorodok Invasion_v2 (New)
Kohat AAS_v1 (Overhauled)
Kohat AAS_v2 (Overhauled)
Kohat Invasion_v1 (Overhauled)
Yehorivka_AAS_v3 (New)

User Interface

Name Tag UI updated. Name Tags have been updated both on the 3D HUD and on the map, giving you more intel on friendly locations while also being more contextual. You can see what roles they have
now via the name tags.
The Squad Leader's position is always visible on the 3D HUD.
Players who are incapacitated now appear in grey on the 3D HUD.
When seeing a vehicle, only the driver is now shown, clearing a lot of the clutter.
Added squad numbers to the vehicle icons on the map, showing which squads currently have a claim on that vehicle.
Improved Speedometer. Added a new and improved Speedometer for all drivers. It now shows the amount of torque, what gear you are in, your land speed, your maximum possible top speed and also how
much your vehicle is tilted in either direction.
Added a search bar to the server browser.
Added a 'Screenshot Mode' which hides the main in-game UI. This is accessible through the main menu in the bottom right.
Added a back-button to the main menu, which backs you out to the main screen.
Added separate mouse sensitivity sliders for soldiers and vehicles. (Further iteration will be done on this system.)
Fixed map icon clipping when the icon is close to the map border.

Audio

Added inside/outside sound mixes for vehicles. For example, being inside an armored vehicle, you will no longer hear outside ambient sounds and the loud sounds are being muffled. Also, impact sounds to vehicles sounds different when sitting inside with a much more pronounced type of sound.
Added new and adjusted volumes of weapon firing distant sounds.
Added bolt and trigger sounds for handheld and HMG weapons.
Added vehicle FX sounds for tyres and tank threads on various surfaces including rolling and sliding.
Beefed up attenuation for engine sounds on various vehicles. You will be able to hear the engines further away.
Added ADS sounds for handheld weapons.

Bug Fixes

Fixed a clipping bug on the spawn menu where it was cutting off the bottom of the role list.
Adjusted the PKM's first-person view so the handle doesn't block your view.
Optimised a large amount of bullet hit and vehicle-based effects.
Third person jogging animations have been cleaned up and tweaked.
Fixed sound cutting out on the M4 when firing in Three Round Burst.
Fixed being able to change stances while deployed in bipod.
Fixed sprinting while low stamina looking awkward in third-person.
Optimised the blur effect on ADS.
Fixed feet sliding while moving in crouch in third-person.
Remove menu when pressing Tilde ~ for console or when pressing Shift-P for admin camera. This will stop you getting stuck in the main menu and unintentionally being able to move.
Fixed third person sprinting animations for some weapons causing their left wrist to break.
Fixed an unintentional value for settle sway on the M4 platform.
Several bug fixes related gameplay layers.

Miscellaneous

Localisation for the following languages has been updated and added: Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese,
Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Simplified & Traditional Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish and Ukrainian.
Added a server option for whether or not APCs and IFVs require a crewman.

And that's it! What are you waiting for, soldier? Get out there and kick some butt!

Offworld Out.

Apr 3, 2018

March 2018 Recap

Squad - Gatzby

(Note: For the media rich version of this post, click here.)

Hey Squaddies,

Welcome to the March Recap, Squaddies! It's been a busy month at home and abroad as some of the developers attended GDC, and others welcomed the Air Assault winners to Vancouver! We're happy to report they kicked some mocap butt. The rest of you can kick back, enjoy some Squad, and enjoy the fruits of March.

A special shout out to the pros at Animatrik for hosting us at their top-notch motion capture facility. Our veterans have never felt sexier than when donning Mocap Formal.

AAS Ticket Bleed Tweaks

We're doing a number of different changes to AAS in order to promote a more varied style of play and to positively incentivize flag capture. These include dramatically reducing the ticket bleed on the middle flags, as well as increasing the ticket win/loss when an actual flag area is captured or lost. Neutral flag captures will now also include a ticket gain for your team. There will still continue to be a very heavy "mercy" ticket bleed on the end flags.

Our intention with these changes are to increase tactical variability and creating the dynamics for a more open-ended approach to strategy. The neutral flag ticket gain should still retain the incentive to capture middle flags quickly for your team, to deny the enemy team that initial ticket advantage.

These changes are in the testing phase and ticket values may fluctuate and are subject to feedback from community gameplay testing sessions.

Alpha 10.2 Bug Fixes

A number of key bugs have been identified and are addressed in the latest hotfix, including these 3 big ones:

Spawn over-run mechanic for FOBs has not been working correctly since the v10 release. When enemy players get within close range to a FOB, the spawn times for that FOB should increase. This is based on the ratio of friendly to enemy players in the radius. We shall be monitoring these changes, expect more tweaks coming to this area, as the spawn massacres around compromised FOBs is not the intended gameplay outcome. We value your feedback here and welcome more discussion on the topic of FOB spawning.
Squad kit roles that were being force-switched has been corrected. When squad members left a squad, kit roles were being force switched if the squad dropped below the min players for that kit requirement. This has been modified so that it will only force switch a player upon respawn. A less pervasive method to protect against players exploiting kit requirements has been implemented.
An exploit that enabled players to load Logistics Trucks with additional supplies above the 2000 limit has been fixed.

Name Tag and Squad Leader 3D HUD UI Upgrades

We know name tags have been a hotly debated topic, especially when it comes to them showing up when you don't want them to (e.g, blocking your vision when there are many incapacitated players in the area, or when there are many players inside a vehicle, etc). We feel name tags are necessary for team/squad cohesion and situational awareness. Our goal is to make them as unobtrusive as possible while giving players the necessary fluid contextual situational awareness.

We have reduced the number of Name Tags shown on the 3D HUD. It will now display only one name tag at a time (the one you are directly looking at). We have also tightened up the viewing angle for the name tag appear.

We understand that players have a large variety of different display setups and may want to customize the UI. We have added 2 new slider bars in the options, one to adjust the name tag opacity and one to adjust the name tag size. There is also an on/off toggle for 3D HUD name tags (Default is on), and an on/off toggle for 3D HUD kit role icons. (Default is off.)

The Squad Leader Icon on the 3D HUD has now been simplified. The SL icon is an important passive tool that allows for instinctive cohesion and spatial awareness of a squad, especially when it comes to newer players joining the squad. The SL Icon will now be displayed on the 3D HUD persistently, but it will fade when the SL is out of range.

Map Screen UI Upgrades

The Map screen will have a new feature: players inside a vehicle will have their name tags displayed when mousing over the vehicle. The nametags of all players inside the vehicle will be listed according to seat position, as well as the squad # and kit role of each player.

Additionally, the Map screen will also have a new indicator for vehicles showing the squad number of the driver. The new indicator will be discreetly displayed next to the vehicles map icon. This enables Squad Leaders to better assess the battle situation on the map quickly and efficiently.

British Forces Update

The British have undergone more work and polish since we have shown them initially in January. They are from a gameplay point of view, almost ready, and will feature a unique array of small arms to make their infantry a considerable threat on the battlefield.

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Improved Vehicle Damage Model

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One massive upgrade we're doing to our vehicle damage model is the development of a localised damage system and the ability for us to model different armor thicknesses and angle of attacks in order to determine the effectiveness of projectiles against armor. Currently, all vehicles have a very simple health system that does not respect the location or angle of a hit, making anti-tank and vehicle play undesirably shallow.

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One example is the Stryker, where with this new system its frontal armor is completely impenetrable by 14.5mm rounds whereas its side and rear armor are more vulnerable. Another important upgrade is to include the angle of the projectile to the armor when calculating the penetrating capability.

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For example, hitting the armor on an angle means more material thickness the projectile must go through, which determines whether penetration is made or not.

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We also plan to have the impact effects and audio reflect whether penetration has occurred and you are actually doing damage to an armored target.This is the beginning of a deeper system that will be later expanded into damaging critical internal systems on vehicles, such as engines. In addition damage on separate components like tracks, wheels, and turrets.

BGM-71 TOW Guided Anti-Tank Missile Launcher

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As part of upping our anti-tank defenses, we are introducing the addition of anti-tank guided missile systems for all conventional forces. Initially, we will be implementing the BGM-71 TOW missile launcher for all factions while the artwork for the 9M133 Kornet ATGM is still being done, but this should provide a very good analogue for the kind of anti-tank capability FOBs will be able to deploy going into the future.

The TOW missile is a wire-guided missile that follows the target commands via a very long wire attached to the launcher. The player can effectively steer the missile while in flight onto target, and it is extremely effective against stationary or slow-moving targets.

Weapon Emplacement Optics Upgrade

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In an effort to improve the fire support capabilities of FOBs, optics have been added onto the emplaced Russian NSV, British & American M2 Brownings and both emplaced and mobile versions of the SPG9 Kopye. Both the M2 Browning and SPG9 have completely functional reticles that allow for precise shooting at range. The intention is to make these weapons even more of a threat and further allow a FOB to lock down an area.

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Update: Kamdesh Highlands

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We managed to pull our mappers out of the SDK for a few minutes to see what the latest updates are looking like on Kamdesh and they sure have done us proud.

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We expect fighting from building to building to be fierce, much like the terrain surrounding the point. Squaddies should be ready to practice their bounding cover tactics if they expect to survive.

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The road in is rarely the road out, but with armor thickness coming in the near future, you might survive a few seconds longer. Be on your guard for anti-tank support!

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Update: Kohat Expansion

As you may know, we've been taking some time to go back and fix up some of the old favorites. This time around, we're looking at the Kohat Expansion, which is building on the fantastic work the environmental team has already laid down.

In addition to opening up the playable zones, a lot of surrounding dressing has been added to the map edges to make you really impart the sense of a large world around you. The beautiful lighting is sure to be used as an excuse for taking a few stray rounds from the enemy.

Stack-Up.org Air Assault

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A while back, we had
the opportunity to invite a few veterans from the community to join http://www.stack-up.org and the Squad team for a mocap session!Our winners were in Vancouver, British Columbia over a recent weekend at Animatrik.

We're just getting some of the pictures and video in, so stay tuned for a full-fledged article in the near future. In the meantime, a huge thanks to the winners AND Stack-Up for making a once-in-a-lifetime event possible. Bonus points for making sure it goes down in gaming history!

Stay sharp out there, Squaddies: April is upon us and has a reputation for being tricky!We'll see you in the next recap and on the battlefield!

Did you see something you want to talk about? Something you want to see next month? Sound off to your next favorite squad leader in the Squad Community Discord. Until next time, squaddies.

Offworld Out.

Apr 3, 2018

March 2018 Recap

Squad - Black Lives Matter | ACAB

AAS Ticket Bleed Tweaks

Alpha 10.2 Bug Fixes

A number of key bugs have been identified and are addressed in the latest hotfix, including these 3 big ones:

Spawn over-run mechanic for FOBs has not been working correctly since the v10 release. When enemy players get within close range to a FOB, the spawn times for that FOB should increase. This is based on the ratio of friendly to enemy players in the radius. We shall be monitoring these changes, expect more tweaks coming to this area, as the spawn massacres around compromised FOBs is not the intended gameplay outcome. We value your feedback here and welcome more discussion on the topic of FOB spawning.
Squad kit roles that were being force-switched has been corrected. When squad members left a squad, kit roles were being force switched if the squad dropped below the min players for that kit requirement. This has been modified so that it will only force switch a player upon respawn. A less pervasive method to protect against players exploiting kit requirements has been implemented.
An exploit that enabled players to load Logistics Trucks with additional supplies above the 2000 limit has been fixed.

Name Tag and Squad Leader 3D HUD UI Upgrades

Map Screen UI Upgrades

British Forces Update

Improved Vehicle Damage Model

BGM-71 TOW Guided Anti-Tank Missile Launcher

Weapon Emplacement Optics Upgrade

Update: Kamdesh Highlands

Update: Kohat Expansion

Stack-Up.org Air Assault

Offworld Out.