Hey soldiers!

Pull up a chair, get your headset ready, and turn off your phone — we’ve got Squad going on this weekend!


5:30 PM PT (0030, 3/5 UTC)
Squad Ops: SOTT Basic


11:00 AM PT (1800 UTC)
[RIP] Rusty in Places vs. The World

11:30 AM PT (1830 UTC)
Squad Charity League: GRSW vs. La Trexieme

6:00 PM PT (0100, 4/5 UTC)
SCL: Doc’s Office vs. Speaking in Tongues


11:00 AM PT (1800 UTC)
SCL: Mumblerines vs. One Nation Under

11:00 AM PT (1800 UTC)
SCL: FAOB vs. Bella’s Battleground

11:30 AM PT (1830 UTC)
SCL: RvN+ProG vs. Rogue Battalion

11:30 AM PT (1830 UTC)
Squad Ops: Two Step Snake

5:30 PM PT (0030, 5/5 UTC)
Squad Ops: Operation Shockwave

6:00 PM PT (0100, 5/5 UTC)
SCL: Alt-FUC vs. Scorch

Bonus Fact: The Battle of Coral Sea, the first time aircraft carriers engaged each other in battle, began on this date in 1942.


11:00 AM PT (1800 UTC)
SCL: North American Comp vs. Legio X

2:00 PM PT (2100 UTC)
SCL: [AoN]+[Ops] vs. Fear and Terror


Enjoy your weekend, squaddies. If you’re able to do so, consider donating to Squad Charity League to support St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital!

Would you like to see your event here? Let us know.

Patch notes looking a little long? We've got just the thing: video patch notes!

We wanted to highlight some of the big changes landing in Alpha 13, especially with those monster patch notes.

Head over to our Youtube channel to see what's changed!

Be sure to check out the full notes for a detailed list of changes.

Hey soldiers!

The Alpha 13 changelog has landed! One thing though: it was so large, we couldn’t fit all of it into a Steam post. Below is an abridged version of changes meant to convey the major points of the update. Be sure to visit our website for the complete list of changes.

Some key highlights include updating to Unreal Engine 4.21, new vehicles, new weapons, and new game modes. Read on for more!

Please note, you will need to uninstall mods to prevent crashing.





Destructible Tracks and Wheels

Tracks and Wheels are now fully destroyable which enables players to inflict more granular damage to vehicles. For wheels, depending on the vehicle, they can be taken down by small arms fire, while tracks and APC wheels require .50 cal or greater. With each wheel that gets destroyed, more friction is applied, reducing the vehicle’s maximum top speed. The destroyed wheel’s rim still functions at reduced drive effectiveness. In addition, the vehicle will lean over as the supporting wheel is now gone. With tracks, as each gets destroyed, drive input from that track no longer functions. That means that if both tracks get destroyed, the vehicle is completely immobilized.

Combat Engineer Role

We’re introducing a new specialist role focused on demolitions, sabotage, and construction. The previous infantry deployables that were associated with some Riflemen roles to the Combat Engineer role, as well as outfitting them with anti-tank mines, and small demolition charges. The intent for this role is to perform quick demolitions on deployables and light vehicles, as well as ambushing vehicles and enforcing set no-go zones with their anti-tank mines. Combat Engineers can also build and destroy deployables faster compared to other roles.

For the Militia and Insurgents, the role that the Scout previously played will now be given to the ‘Sapper’. In addition to the normal combat engineer loadout and abilities, Sappers will be able to lay IEDs and decoy rocks. Note: Scout role will return in a future update with new inventory items.


Destruction Mode Added



This the initial release of a new objective-based cache hunt game mode where Attackers have to destroy caches in multiple phases. Layers can have either 2 or 3 phases with 2 caches in each phase. There is a 3-minute delay between each phase to minimize rushing potential.

Cache locations are randomized within specified zones, requiring attacking teams to search the zone to locate the objective before destroying it.

Attackers get a 50 ticket bonus for each objective destroyed, as well as the round timer being extended. Defenders get a -10 Ticket penalty upon objective loss.

Defenders win the round if the Attackers do not complete all phases within the time limit, or run out of tickets.

Expect continued balancing and tweaks for future Destruction-layers based on gameplay feedback.

Invasion Mode Updated

• Each flag capture now gives +100 for attackers.
  
• Starting tickets tweaked on several layers, expect continued ticket balancing for Invasion layers based on gameplay feedback.
  
• Reduced the max number of Capture Points on Invasion layers to 6.
  
• Added a variant of Invasion where the flag path is randomized, dubbed “Random Invasion” to some Invasion layers.

Insurgency Mode Updated

• Objective Cache destruction gets 50 tickets for the attacking side, -10 for the defending side.
  
• Attacking team starts with 200 tickets, and 600 for the Defending team.
  
• Caches now also can be destroyed by Combat Engineer’s explosives.
  
• Spawning on Caches is now disabled after 5 minutes since Cache spawn.

AAS/RAAS Ticked Bleed Updated

Ticket bleed has been added back to all AAS and RAAS gameplay layers. This should give back a little more incentive to push to the next enemy point.

Why it was removed?

In past ticket bleed was too powerful, and also was triggering on the central flags, resulting in King of the Hill style of gameplay, and also incentivizing players to rush from the start to the central objective that was providing a ticket bleed bonus. In the end, it led to the repetitive gameplay experience, rounds were played in almost exactly the same way, which clearly wasn’t our goal & intention.

In addition, ticket bleed was not a very transparent mechanic, as it didn’t have any UI representation. We are reintroducing ticket bleed mechanics into AAS/RAAS game modes, with improvements, based on our previous experience:



Ticket bleed indication was added into UI.

The enemy team will start bleeding tickets if you will successfully capture at least one objective on the enemy side of the flag lattice. For each objective on the enemy part of the map, controlled by your team, the enemy will lose 1 ticket per minute.

On map layers with an odd number of objectives, central objectives are considered a middle ground, and therefore do not trigger ticket bleed, to avoid causing King of the Hill fight for it. On such layers, your team will need to capture at least one more flag past central, for the enemy to start bleeding tickets.

For map layers with even number of objectives, your team will need to capture more than half of them to trigger ticket bleed on the enemy team.
In the case of “double-neutral” stalemate situation, all ticket bleed mechanics will be paused until the stalemate is resolved.

A12 mercy bleed has not changed in A13: if one team manages to successfully capture all flags on the map, the opposing team will suffer a catastrophic ticket bleed of 60 tickets per minute to bring about the end of the round more quickly.

RAAS (Random AAS) Updated

The Fog of War has been added to all RAAS layers. Under the Fog of War, the first Capture Point is known and the next point is revealed once your team has fully captured the current objective. We believe this should help mechanically increase variability in gameplay, especially at the beginning of a round, as well as help differentiate between Random AAS and standard AAS.

Additionally, Random AAS now has Lanes added to all RAAS_V1 Map Layers. RAAS Lanes break up the Capture Zones into 2 or 3 lanes per layer. Each Lane will have 5 to 8 Capture Zone groups. Each Capture Zone group still has only 1 CP selected per round out of a potential up to 5 Capture Zones.

In A12 we have layers with Capture Zones that can be quite distant across the map, which can cause transportation problems and extended round times. RAAS Lanes will help group up the flow of each Capture Zone to be relatively close to each other, allowing a more natural flow to gameplay.

Skirmish Mode Updated

Capture Zones capture tickets changed to +20 / -20 ticket gain/loss. (+10 tickets for the first-time capture.)
Added new Skirmish layers for Belaya, Basrah & Mestia.


Squad Leader Buddy Rally Point

Added the ability for Squad Leaders to place rally points remotely next to other Squad’s Rally Points. This request is only available when the Squad Leader is dead. This is intended to allow Squads to have the flexibility to reinforce friendly Squads separate to FOBs. This is experimental.

Removal of the Revive Insta-death Penalty Timer

When a player is sent to incapacitated state, they will now not be put into the Insta-death state if they reach 0 HP within a certain time of being revived. Previously (Alpha 12), if an incapacitated player was revived, then sent to 0 HP within one minute of being revived, they were sent to the Death screen with no chance of reviving. In Alpha 13, players can now be revived regardless of the duration since the last revival.

We noticed this Insta-death mechanic was a very common occurrence and distracted players from the gameplay flow. As a result, we have decided to change the mechanic with the goal of creating a more enjoyable experience that is not overpowering. We believe the abundance of area effect weapons, limiting bandages from non-Medic kits, as well as the penalties and low health resulting from reviving from an incapacitated state will prevent the changes from having an adverse effect.

We hope this new change has a positive effect on game flow and proximity-based teamwork within squads, as well as the team at large.

• Increased non-ADS standing movement speeds by 10%.
  
• Adjusted 3P animation for movement speed.
  
• Tweaked how ADS movement speeds work, so no matter which direction you go now you move at the same speed.
  
• Shortened acceleration and deceleration speeds to make player movement a bit more responsive.
  
• Increased visual ‘z-axis’ recoil animation, increasing the visual kick back towards the camera.
  
• Increased Prone Sprint stamina cost from 16 to 24 – prone player can still quickly get into a ditch or cover, but cannot be used to quickly traverse vast areas.
  
• Decreased Player Bleed Rate from 0.5 HP per second to 0.3 HP per second. This will Increase the time to bleed out so the player has more time before death prior to bandaging

• Added the Vz61. Škorpion Machine Pistol. The Škorpion is a select-fire, straight blowback weapon that operates from a closed bolt for additional accuracy, while still maintaining a very high rate of fire. Its extremely compact nature (even with the extended wire stock) makes this machine pistol a favorite as a personal defense weapon for vehicle crews. This weapon will be issued to Militia and Insurgent crewmen, as well as the Insurgent LAT kit.
  Added the M15 Anti-Tank Mine. The M-15 Anti-Tank blast mine is an American design originating in World War 2 and is activated via a mechanical pressure switch. When sufficient downward pressure is applied, it will activate the fuze and trigger detonation. Containing about 10.3kg of Composition B explosive, the M15 is capable inflicting mobility kills on heavy armor or dealing critical damage to lighter vehicles. This will be available to the US Army and British Combat Engineers.
  
• Tweaked Anti-Tank mine damage. It now requires 1 Anti-Tank mine to destroy light vehicles outright like technicals and bikes. MATV and Logistics Trucks will be heavily damaged and have their wheels destroyed. APCs will take severe damage and have their wheels/tracks blown, while Tanks will have their tracks destroyed and moderate damage taken.
  Increased Land Mines max deployed in world limit at one time to 10 (previously 3) per role.
  
• Added an audible “trigger” sound and a slight detonation delay when a vehicle drives over the mine to provide better mine feedback to players. (Knowing is half the battle.)
  
  
  
  
• Added the SA80 Bayonet for all British roles, replacing the placeholder M9 Bayonet.
  
• Added varied set of Timed Explosives. Set with a 30-second fuse, these explosives are designed to destroy emplacements, deployables, and tech structures like HABs and FOB Radios. These explosives can also be used to sabotage vehicles by destroying tracks and wheels, destroy vehicle wrecks, as well as other planted explosives like Mines and IEDs. Explosives can be defused by your shovel before they explode. These explosives are available to Combat Engineers and Sappers.
  
• Increased IED max deployed in world limit at one time to 5 (previously 3) per role.
  
• Updated IEDs to now play a very audible chiptune ringtone before exploding.
  
• Updated Phone detonators so they can no longer be triggered if there is no active IED in the field.
  
• Increased random delay duration for IEDs from 2-4 to 3-6 seconds.
  
• Land mines, explosives, and IEDs are no longer blocked from being deployed on other deployables.
  
• Decoy rocks now cover a much larger area and no longer collide with mines and IEDs. You can use multiple rocks now to form a relatively inconspicuous rock pile hiding any IED or mines under it.
  
• Tightened the deviation on the RPG-7 and RPG-7V2 rockets, making them more accurate at longer ranges.
  
• Tweaked the 1p78 Optic reticle so the reticle is more usable against distant targets up to 400m.
  
• Added a “Surrender” role-play kit that has no weapons, that can be requested via Ammo Crates and Vehicles. They have the ability to put their hands up with Right Mouse Button.
  
• Added a unique animation and sound for when shovels are destroying a deployable or defusing explosives vs. building them.
  
• Tweaked shovel destroy damage to be less effective than building
  
• Shifted L85A2 iron-sights ADS position slightly further away from the camera.
  
• Reduced minimum arming time on the 40mm UGL smoke grenades dramatically.
  
• Increased smoke size of the 40mm UGL smoke grenades.
  
• Reduced time to switch between primary weapon and loaded HE 40mm UGL by excluding the UGL loading & unloading animations from the process.

T-62 Main Battle Tank

• 3-man crew and carrying capacity for 4 riders for Militia and Insurgents.
  
• T-62 fires armor penetrating sabot, high explosive anti-tank and fragmentation rounds, in addition to its coaxial 7.62x54mmR PKT machine gun. While this armament might not perform as well as its more modern counterparts, still do not underestimate its ability to deal death at range. The commander seat has access to a simple cupola mounted periscope with high magnification optics.

BRDM-2 Spandrel

• Anti-tank guided missile variant of the BRDM-2 scout car for Russian, Insurgent, and Militia forces.
  
• Armed with five wire-guided ‘Konkurs’ missiles which can be fired in relatively quick succession, dealing a devastating amount of damage against heavy armor at range.
  
• Vehicles strengths are mobility combined with its anti-tank firepower, making it a potent battlefield tool, weaknesses are its light armor, so it won’t fare well in head-on engagements against enemy Armor or AT Infantry.

MATV TOW Variant

• Basically a TOW with wheels for US Forces.
  
• The same level of mobility and armor as a conventional MATV.
  
• Carries 5 spare TOW missiles.
  
• Definitely packs a punch, but light on protection.

Technical UB32 (Rocket Artillery) Updated

• Changed the location of the Gunner camera to be on the rocket pod.
  
• Added an angle indicator.
  
• Added a very small amount of yaw adjustment.
  
• Updated the gunner seat to always preserve the angle orientation of the rocket pod even if the gunner leaves the seat.
  
• Reduced the minimum arming distance on the S5 rockets a very close range.

BTR-82A & BTR-80 Updated

Our observations showed that standard APC of Russian Ground Forces currently had too low of a survivability rate in engagements with enemy armor. One reason we suspect is the lower level of armor and how that interacts armor penetration system works. Most of the time BTR have no chance to escape unexpected frontal engagement due to the fact that it suffers heavy damage on the engine due to the penetration of high caliber rounds to the engine.

• Removed all main cannon overheating on the FV510.
  
• Increased 120mm HEAT splash radius to 25 meters (from 21 meters)
  
• Increased 125mm HEAT splash radius to 21 meters (from 17 meters)
  
• Increased 125mm FRAG splash radius to 35 meters (from 30 meters)
  
• Decreased rate of fire of the FV510 coaxial machine gun.
  
• Tweaked Insurgent Technical skins to use less conspicuous paint jobs (no more red)
  
• Increased hull strength for Armored Technicals and Ural 375 ZSU by 25%.
  
• Increased armor thickness by 33% on all open turret shields (including DshK shield), and Armored Technical armor, making them more resistant to 7.62mm fire.
  
• Added armoured glass material to MATV, BRDM-2, BTR-80 and all open top turret windows, making them resistant up to 7.62mm rounds.
  
• Updated Glass Material on all Trucks and Technicals, responding to gun-fire with the proper glass effect.
  
• Added a camera-spring effect to the driver, making the driving experience more immersive.
  
• Added turret turning sounds to all open top and closed armored turrets.
  Reverted back to the proper model of CROWS turret on the M1126 APCs
  
• Added open-top turret and CROW MATV variants equipped with M240B.
  
• Added M1126 APC variant equipped with CROW M240B.
  
• Removed majority of post-processing colour effects on all turret optics.
  
• Added a no-penetration protection panel to the far side of all APC, IFV and Tank engine components. For example, this means you won’t be able to disable the engine in the rear by shooting the vehicle from the front, and vice versa.
  
• Increased percentage which vehicle repair tools can repair engines from 50% to 100% for Light Vehicles, up to 80% for APCs or higher.
  
• Updated all vehicle engines to absorb a large amount of damage after a projectile has penetrated through it.
  
• Adjusted Environment Physmats for vehicle tires and tracks - sand, snow, dirt, grass, wet asphalt all have less severe penalty for impeding driving

• Updated HAB deployment rules specific to the Insurgent Faction. Insurgent team can now build 2 seperate HAB’s at each FOB Radio, this gives an advantage of more plentiful spawn locations for Insurgents.
  
• Increased mortar HE splash damage & range from 15m to 22m.
  
• Improved mortar explosion effects on sand and snow.
  
• Added ability to rotate deployables while in placement mode by holding the lean keys (or the left and right arrow keys).
  
• Updated deployables to have looser placement bounds, so things like razor wire can connect into each other easier, without having gaps.
  Increased width of razor wire deployable to match that of the sandbags.
  
• Tweaked visuals and look of the deployable Ladder, adding a metal variant for the US Army, British and Russians.
  
• Reworked the look of the Vehicle Repair Depot, giving a unique depot to the Russians and Militia/Insurgents. Added a running generator with audio to the depot, to lightly discourage players from camping right next to the repair depot all the time.
  
• Updated tracking on the Russian-style ATGMs (Kornet, Konkurs, Refleks) to be tighter.
  
• Decreased deviation on the SPG-9 HEAT and Frag rockets.
  
• Tightened the spiral trajectory on the Kornet ATGMs, making them easier to handle.
  
• Increased the amount of rounds you can fire from the ZU-23 before it overheats.
  
• Increased interactable radius on emplacements to make them easier to enter.
  
• Increased penetration power of TOW & Kornet ATGMs, to increase effectiveness of those weapons against highly armored targets at certain angles of attack.

Map "Pings" Removal

We have removed the Map Pinging feature that squadmates could use to send their Squad Leader a ping by right-clicking on the map. This feature was not the intended route we wanted for player communication and we did feel this was not the right approach for squad comms. We may re-evaluate this and try something different, such as limited use of enemy map markers for FTLs, for example.

Fireteam Leader Marker Rangefinder Removal

The FTL markers will have their rangefinding function removed. We felt that this rangefinding feature became the most prominent reason why Squad Leaders were assigning Fireteams rather than their intended purpose. (To organize the squad to use effective fire and maneuver tactics.) Often the squad leader would only assign one unit to a Fireteam (commonly the LAT/HAT/UGL/Marksman), and in fact, squadmates in those roles would ask/demand for them to be assigned that role without ever taking any leadership role responsibility.

This change will likely lessen the amount of long-range mobility kills on tracked vehicles, so armored vehicles will be encouraged to engage targets at longer ranges. Experienced LAT users with excellent eyeballing/map reading/binocular ranging skillsets will be encouraged due to this change. Teamwork within squads to triangulate positions of enemy armor with the help of recon/spotters should also become more prevalent with this change.

From our perspective, the main negative impact of removing the FTL rangefinder will be for the mortar operators. Mortar effectiveness increased with the FTL rangefinding feature in A12, but squad communication decreased. Mortars will still be quite deadly, however, even more so with the HE radius increased.

More effective use of the mortar will likely come when used in a small purposeful squad with the squad leader placing markers the SL Marker on targets. (The SL Marker still retains a rangefinder.) External Mortar Calc apps may still be used to be very effective at pinpoint target accuracy.

In a future update, we would like to implement additional functionality for the “Fire Mission: Mortar” request marker that a Squad Leader can place on the map. When occupying a Mortar Tube, all friendly “Fire Mission: Mortar” icons would show their bearing and range on the Mortar players compass. We also have a few other ideas to increase Mortar useability in lieu of the FTL Marker, which could include allowing Mortar Tube operators to place their own single “Fire Mission: Mortar” map marker, allowing them to gauge range even without requiring a marker from their squad leader.

Additionally, we would also like to add a rangefinder to a handheld binoculars item for the Squad Leader kit. This may be connected to other gameplay elements and may be subject to change.

• Updated Tallil Outskirts to v2. Changes mostly focused on increasing infantry survivability and the ability to move between flags. These changes include: adding more detail microvariations to terrain in open areas, adding villages along the river, adding fighting positions and tunnels at the Iraqi Destroyed Hangars, including more rocks and wadis, and adding a new air traffic control complex between the runways.
  
• Added several “Medium”-sized RAAS, AAS, and Invasion layers. These layers to assist with populating servers (seeding) or to increase variety in map rotations.

• Fixed exploit where all Open Turret Vehicles being able to rearm from FOBs and have infinite mags
  
• Fixed Anti-Tank projectile not dealing damage if the shooting player dies before the projectile hits its target. In certain circumstances (when an AT player fully dies before the AT projectile hits its target), the AT projectile did no damage. This has been fixed and will now do damage even if the player was killed.
  
• Fixed Mortar Bug. In certain circumstances (when a player leaves a mortar before the projectile lands), the mortar did no damage.
  
• Fixed hidden Flag Capture UI while inside a Vehicle – this now correctly displays the Flag status
  
• Fixed unable to vault temporarily after packing up your ammo bag.
  
• Fixed pressing number 5 key results in changing your primary weapon fire mode instead of switching to your field dressing.
  
• Fixed a bug where the SPG-9 needed to be ‘reloaded’ twice before it would be ready to fire.
  
• Fixed the double mesh bug on the SPG-9.
  
• Fixed zeroing on the SPG-9 fragmentation rocket.
  
• Fixed US Crewmen soldiers having incorrect bullet impact effects.
  
• Fixed mines being able to be placed so deep into some bridge statics that they disappear completely.
  
• Fixed zeroing on the RPG7v2 Tandem and the RPG-29.
  
• Fixed effect impacts on flesh and sandbags to make them more visible.
  
• Optimized large smoke column effects on Tallil and Jensen’s Range.
  
• Fixed grenade spoon ejections not being properly visible when you throw grenades.
  
• Fixed Soviet Binoculars having sway while the other binoculars do not.
  
• Fixed markers being set offset to the crosshair on all Binoculars.
  
• Fixed Insurgent MTLB having green colored turret/wreck.
  
• Fixed missing turning animations when using the phone detonator and vehicle repair tools.
  
• Fixed “Kit Role Selected No Longer Available” notification spam when changing teams. When a selected kit role is unavailable, the kit will now default back to Rifleman Iron Sights and give that player the appropriate notification message.
  
• Fixed clipping that occurs when using the Music Player.
  
• Fixed open-top turrets not returning to origin during a reload.
  
• Fixed rigging on the L85A2 AG36 ACOG rifle.
  
• Fixed vehicle components like Engines and Ammo racks being damaged by melee or small caliber weapons.
  
• Fixed Fireteam markers being seen from enemy Squad.
  
• Fixed Emplaced Kornet having larger than normal bullet collisions, causing players to be very hard to shoot off.
  
• Fixed Insurgent SL Crewman having wrong first person mesh.
  
• Fixed vehicle occupants being counted towards HAB blocking mechanic.

Unfortunately, the Unreal Engine 4.21 upgrade changed the way localization is managed. As a consequence, a lot of the translations have been broken going into Alpha 13. Our plan to address this is to actually push a full localization pass to a later date in the year when we are much closer to full release and are locking down all the text that will need to be translated for the game.


RCON functionality for Linux server is temporarily non-functional in Alpha 13. This is a known issue and we’ll continue to work to resolve this. We apologize for any inconvenience.


Due to significant updates to our Unreal Engine implementation (4.16 -> 4.21) and modding framework, existing mods will need to be uninstalled. Mods will need to be recooked to ensure compatibility with Modding 2.0 — more information will be made available soon.


We may have a contender for our longest patch notes yet. Congratulations on making it to the end! Now get out there and get playing! We’ll see you on the battlefield, squaddies. Alpha 14 when?!

Hey soldiers!

Another week is nearly in the bag and we’re definitely dreaming of the weekend. No weekend is complete without a little Squad action, though, so let’s see what’s going on!


11:30 AM PT (1830 UTC)
Squad Community Cup: FGB vs. LegioX

3:30 PM PT (2230 UTC)
Squad Ops: SOTT Advanced


11:00 AM PT (1800 UTC)
[RIP] Rusty in Places vs. The World

Bonus Fact: On this date in 1986, the Chernobyl Disaster occurred.


3:00 AM PT (1000 UTC)
SWC Redux Mini Tourney: Oceania vs. Europe

11:30 AM PT (1830 UTC)
Squad Ops: Operation Green Acres

5:30 PM PT (0030 UTC, 28/4)
Squad Ops: Operation Iron Kilt

6:00 PM PT (0100 UTC, 28/4)
SWC Redux Mini Tourney: Oceania vs. North America


11:00 AM PT (1800 UTC)
SWC Redux Mini Tourney: Europe vs. North America

11:00 AM PT (1800 UTC)
(EASY) Sunday Funday

5:30 PM PT (0030 UTC, 22/4)
Squad Ops: Hardcore Mode Testing


A big congratulations to the South African Border War mod team for their first Alpha test! Boresight Gaming has video from the event available here.

Would you like to see your event here? Let us know!

Hey soldiers!

Weekend looking a little hazy? Maybe we can clear up some of your plans with the weekend roundup! Let’s see what’s going on in Squad.

5:30 PM PT (0030 UTC, 19/4 )
Squad Ops: SOTT Basic

Bonus Fact: The first issue of Stars and Stripes, the newspaper for U.S.A. armed forces, was published on this date in 1942.

11:00 AM PT (1800 UTC)
[RIP] Rusty in Places vs. The World

11:00 AM PT (1800 UTC)
Official Squad Showdown (OSS) Finals: RvN vs. LegioX, Game 2

11:30 AM PT (1830 UTC)
Squad Ops: Operation Sidestep

3:30 PM PT (2230 UTC)
Squad Ops: SOTT Leadership Theory

5:30 PM PT (0030 UTC, 21.4)
Squad Ops: Operation Reaper (Night Op)

11:00 AM PT (1800 UTC)
OSS Finals: RvN vs. LegioX, Game 3

5:30 PM PT (0030 UTC, 22/4)
Squad Ops: Hardcore Mode Testing


The Squad Community Cup kicks off on Monday, April 23, and will feature games all week. Be sure to visit our calendar for more information.

Would you like to see your event here? Let us know!

Hey soldiers!

Welcome back to The Wrench! Whether you’re springing ahead or falling back, the modding community is spanning the sphere globe in this edition. Big things are coming up, but them not being totally finished yet doesn’t mean we can’t continue working on our mods, so get ready to see what everyone is working on!

Join us on the Community Modding Discord where you can join discussions and meet the modding community. It’s a great place to share your ideas and passions with like-minded people that will happily help you create something awesome.




With last month being an outlier, SPECTR_Eternal has been contributing steadily to the Wrench, so we’re happy to welcome him back with new screenshots about his map in progress: Iron Dawn. The map features Russian snowy landscape, filled with not-so-secret military installations, grassy fields, and some awesome underground facilities. We’re looking forward to the frozen vastness contrasted with the closeness of the military installations.








Checking in with the wonders from Downunder yields another update on the work they have been doing lately for their Australian faction modification. Currently, most work is related to the character and the secondary map, while weapons are finalized and implemented. Can’t wait to get our hands on that new hardware!





If you want to help out, or simply keep updated, check out their Discord here.




Steady progress is being made on the SADF faction mod. Springbok_ZA has been working away on vehicles and the main rifles lately, progress easily seen in these screenshots. Next to last month’s Casspir. some variants of the Ratel, Eland. and the Rhino have been added to the line up as well as the license-produced South African Galil variants.






Troopers Mod Teaser

Loki and the Troopers team are happy to announce a brand new game mode: Escort! That was tested and refined with the help of the community, Escort is all about supporting various narrative objectives with your Trooper ground support squads. But what’s better than a new game mode? TWO new game modes!

In Control mode, you must fight through hordes of enemies to reach a control point and hold that for a certain amount of time. Upon entering the control point waves will begin to attack! You didn’t wanna live forever, did you?


SWC Mod Video

Numerous changes have been introduced to this competitive mod lately, especially regarding game modes and game behavior. They have also worked on more maps, including a reduxed version of the classic Operation First Light. The new edition has received an expansion on the east side, a complete retexture, and a lighting update. The design goal for SWCMod is slightly different gameplay compared to vanilla Squad especially in regards to speed and lethality.

For more detailed information and progress as well as discussion, you can check out their Discord.








A faction that has been a little quieter the last few months have shaken off the winter doldrums to share some updates on equipment and weapons. Let’s welcome back the FDFMod team with some media of their radio, as well as their Finnish PKM modification. For the future they are planning on publishing a more in-depth “state of the mod” status update in the near future, so stay tuned!






Operation Stopgap takes place in a fictional location in Syria and aims to deliver great urban combat around the city center and some more points of interest. Making really good use of the multitude of Middle Eastern assets you can decide to either play on the US or the Russian side.





That’s quite some things people are working on, we can’t wait to see everything in-game. If you already know you’ll be in for May, simply submit your mod.

Hey squaddies!

The time has come! We’re proud to announce the very first Alpha 13 Public Test. Now, since this is a fairly complex patch, there are a few things you should know before the download completes and you visit the Custom Server tab.

First, there will be bugs, including known crashes. This is the first public testing build. We need you to make sure you use the crash reporter to send us logs. (Press “Send and Close” when it appears.)

Secondly, the test may end at any time depending on how things go. This is also the reason there are no community servers If all goes well, we’ll expand testing to include more servers.

Thirdly, your feedback is crucial. Please share your thoughts in Discord, on the forums, on reddit, or anywhere you can get it to us!

Fourthly, the patch isn’t done. This is a work in progress that will continue to be optimized and change, especially with your help.

Those are the major points, folks — if you can handle those, it’s time to get your A13 on. If you need a little more detail, we’ve included some patch notes below.


1. Open up your Steam client

2. Click on LIBRARY -> Games

3. Type ‘Squad’ in the search bar.

4. Click on Squad – Public Testing and then on ‘Install’

5. After the installation is complete launch the game

Simply navigate to the Custom Servers tab after that to find a server!

Note: You may need to clear your cache if you’ve had a previous test installed.

• This is our first public test of A-13.
• Games will be hosted on our servers in the Custom Servers tab, no community servers (yet).
• We’ll run this test for a limited period of time, and may shut it down abruptly if it’s not providing value.
• The purpose of this public test is to receive early feedback from you on the gameplay in A-13. As we approach releasing A-13 this feedback is valuable in reducing the delay between public testing and release.
• We are by no means done with optimization for A-13, but we feel the game is reasonably playable at the moment, enough to get a satisfying play session with minimal hindrances, and to experience the spirit of A-13’s changes in a meaningful way.
• There’s a known crash during map change. We’re tracking this and additional crash reports will help us nail it. If you get the crash reporter dialog, please choose “Send and Close.”
• VOIP issues occur when the player talking Txing is in an emplacement or vehicle, causing distortion of voice. In our internal testing we found this issue wasn’t a huge problem in general play. It’ll be fixed in 3 weeks(™).
• Please join in, have fun, get an early look at what A-13 will deliver on. Then share your experiences with each other and with us, give us (constructive!) feedback, so we can make smart decisions on what remains to be done before we ship this mother.
• A more in-depth list of the changes made in A-13, and the context behind them, is coming next week from Design Squad.

A full list of gameplay changes is available here. A little light reading for your download.

Hey soldiers!

The weekend approaches! Let’s greet it the best way we can: armed to the teeth. Prepare your tactics by checking out some of the great matches and events going on this weekend.


5:30 PM PT (0030 UTC, 12/4 )
Squad Ops: SOTT Advanced

Bonus Fact: The ill-fated Apollo 13 mission launched today in 1970.

12:30 PM PT (1930 UTC)
Blood Bound SquadZ Mod Night

5:30 PM PT (0030 UTC, 13/4 )
Squad Ops: Operation Country Mile

6:00 PM PT (0100 UTC, 13/4 )
Avalon Company Troopers Mod Night

11:30 AM PT (1830 UTC)
Squad Ops: Operation Grit

2:30 PM PT (2130 UTC)
Squad Ops: SOTT Basic

2:00 AM PT (0900 UTC)
SWC: Unity+OC vs Productive Game

11:00 AM PT (1800 UTC)
SWC: FAOB vs Source of Quality Directives

5:30 PM PT (0030 UTC, 15/4)
Squad Ops: Operation Silent Serpent

See you next Thursday, squaddies. Enjoy your weekend!

Hey squaddies!

It’s time for another update on Modding 2.0! (You can find the last one here if you missed it.) If all goes well, the next update will be installed via Steam. Seeing as a lot of development has happened since our last post, let’s hear from Zak Strange, modding developer extraordinaire.


As you guys heard in the Next Phase article, Squad has been undergoing a massive engine upgrade upgrading 5 versions (Almost 2 years of engine revisions! Hello UE 4.21!). This effects modding massively, as a few major engines changes occurred requiring the changes to the way we download files from Steam.

PAK files, the basic format for modding files, had to be completely rewritten for the mod cooking process. Mods from engine version 4.16 were completely broken by the update and can not be used in 4.21. Because of that, we had to prepare an additional fix that stops old mods from being loaded anymore.

All of these issues, including some we’re not quite ready to reveal yet, turned this into a much larger project than we anticipated — there has been a TON of required tweaking and modifying a to the Modding 2.0 code to make it compliant with the updated engine.


Cooking is the process of taking your modification content in Editor and turning it into a format that we can load in the version of the game that you load on Steam. With 4.21 (and just because it needed to be) the cooking process for mods was completely redone. With the rewrite came a few things:

PAK files are all now HASH’d so you can’t join a server with a different version of the mod than the server is running. Because of the way mods are distributed, there can be issues Steam pushing patches, and running a different version of the mod than the server is running can easily cause crashes.

Not only that, but PAK files are also now all compressed! We turned this on for one version of the SDK, and it seemed to work well with no issues. (Besides the cooking process taking longer.) Testing shows that most mods are 40-60% smaller with compression implemented.

Another change is that mods don’t require versions depending on the platform configuration anymore. In layman’s terms, Windows and WindowsServer are the now the same thing from the mod’s perspective, so you will only have one set of PAK files instead of two. Unless…

Mods can now be cooked for Linux as well. Although there is some additional configuration required, this is very easy for modders to set up on their development PCs. Pre-Cook, we check if the Cross-Compile toolchain is installed and if it is we can cook for Linux as well.


Sometime in the middle of Modding 2.0 development, I realized that it would make much more sense if all of the modding operations happened alongside the game on another thread. So, I went about doing just that. With the threading came the (much needed) rewrite of the uploader and the downloader.

The Steam Uploader is way better now; no longer will you get an “Unknown error has occurred.” We have a new uploading process where we are able to get back much better debug info than before. The whole Editor also does not “hang” when you are uploading to the Steam Workshop anymore!

Additionally, the Downloader can now be invoked at any time during the game process with minimal impact on performance — all downloading work is done on this thread which then sends a notification back to the main thread once the mod is ready to use. The main thread will then do one small operation to refresh the map list for one frame.

All of this threading work was done to make Modding 2.0 integrate seamlessly into Squad with minimal impact on the player experience.


We’ve been listening to your feedback and we know that there are a few things you want exposed to make your modding lives easier. With the release of the Alpha 13 SDK, we have some things coming for you.

• SteamID exposure
• BanPlayer and KickPlayer function exposed
• Setup the SQProjectileSpawner with an automated weapon blueprint, interfaces, customizable collision volumes, and various settings to allow mortar fire, arcing pre-set animated turrets, seek and destroy turrets, ammo control and line of sight control.
• Exposed Healing function and Health
• SQCameraManager Boolean variable added for ignoring the map start camera
• Added IsReloading to WeaponAnimInstance for possible use in modding
• Added bIsWeaponFiring to weapon anim instance for possible use in modding

Special thanks to Renn and KaB for implementing these changes. They’ve been a huge help in getting Modding 2.0 built!


Thanks, Zak! Still looking for more information on Modding 2.0? Don’t forget to check out the Modding 2.0 Q&A we did a few months back. Until next time, we’ll see you on the custom server list.

Hey squaddies! This month’s recap is a little different, as we wanted to bring you the latest from our new producer! Phil’s been with us for just a short time and hasn’t had a chance to introduce himself yet, but we’re absolutely thrilled to have him aboard. He’s got the experience we need to make Squad the best it can be. So, without further ado, let’s hear from the man himself:

Hey folks, I’m Phil, and I recently joined OWI as Producer on Squad. This is my introduction to you, the players.

I’ve joined OWI at an exciting time – I’ve done several tours of duty on military shooters, and in a crowded genre, I see Squad as something remarkable. Squad’s emphasis on team play, strategy and tactics leap right out at me as the core of what I love about online gaming. The heritage of the game’s development, growing from a popular BF2 mod into something with the potential to be genre-defining, as well as driving forward modding to be a platform for inspiring, and expressing your own ideas (and my own ideas!) to each other, to us, and to the world.

Here at OWI HQ, there’s a real buzz around what’s coming up, and I know you all are on the edge of your seats hoping for some big announcements.

For the most part, I’m going to leave those in the capable hands of our community and marketing folks. The most valuable insights I think you’ll be most interested in from me are related to why everything’s not ready RIGHT NOW DAMMIT, how we’re moving forward with development generally, and when to expect stuff.

Right now we have A-13 in heavy testing. Content-wise there’s a lot of work gone into this, a collaboration of everyone on the team’s best efforts, some of it since before A-12. It’s all waiting patiently in the departure lounge for boarding to begin. As an early access game, it’s within our remit to put out releases that have in-progress features, test content, and some fairly rough edges. As we took on some unexpectedly heavy lifting for A-13 (notably upgrading Unreal Engine from 4.16 to 4.21) it’s taking some time for the dust to settle after effectively pulling out the old rug and laying some much nicer carpet in its place. We’re just about done moving all the furniture back in and are trying to remember where we left our keys. Specifically, we’ve got this going on:

• The leap in Unreal Version number has given our creative minds more fancy tools to play with (which is good) but some of them required changes to a large number of our assets, scripts, and code (which is bad..).
• Server-side Performance – Some of the code we’d added previously to interface with Unreal’s network stack, whilst still working, is no longer optimal in its transport method, as stuff under the hood on Unreal’s end works differently now. This is manifesting as nasty server-side lag spikes during play and is not in line with our basic quality standards for an early access release. We’re working on several different angles of optimization here at the moment.
• Game Stability – Right now we’re about as stable as a one-legged elderly pirate, and as such a lot of time was spent making the game stable.
• VOIP – Our signature VOIP system has been hitting some hitches after the upgrade, with playtesters experiencing odd attenuation issues with local voice, voice lag and other such delights have been the toppings in our Unreal upgrade sandwich. It’s a lot to digest.

It’s all good though, we’re making excellent progress and learning a lot about Unreal’s innards in the process and preparing us for the future.

I’m putting in place a few new ways of working for our team. These processes have the intention to reduce and avoid this kind of release black-hole going forward, whilst allowing us to make more frequent, regular updates as we charge towards our exit from early access.

An important part of getting out of early access is QA. Our QA Squad is our front line, charging down bugs and taking names. Our more frequent community playtests are valuable to get a snapshot of how the game plays under real-world conditions, and often highlights issues we wouldn’t have found by regular means. Going forward QA are to be the gatekeepers of releases, making sure key criteria are met before we taxi to the runway. Those are a varied and changing list based on our current development context, and stability is a fundamental quality bar that will be pushed higher with each release.

OWI’s community and marketing operatives were deployed for an incursion at PAX East, which they executed with military precision. Our volunteer squad, recruited from your numbers, brought their A-game representing our work and introducing new players to Squad with a bespoke map designed for the event.

In terms of actual work, we’re very much committed to our primary goals of:

• A meaningful helicopter experience to add to the tactical and strategic level of play
• Optimization of the client and server to ensure immersive, visceral play
• Modding 2.0
• 100 player games, with supporting content.
• Commander role, and his good friends Mr. Airstrike, Ms. Artillery and Dr. UAV.

This work is going to be delivered iteratively over the coming months, and improvements should be expected as progressive gains with each update. Our focus will shift to the most important areas where necessary, so some of your wishes may take a couple of releases to grant, but our goal is to update regularly with a predictable cadence, and not push out dates seemingly indefinitely. As with any change, we might not get it quite right the first time when A-14 comes along, but we’ll get into the swing of it.

I was originally planning to do an April Fools Joke here, but that work is about 3 weeks away. Until then, see you on the scoreboard.

Love and kisses,

Phil