Jul 23, 2019

Squad - Black Lives Matter | ACAB

Hey squaddies!

We’re happy to announce an upcoming free weekend to celebrate the release of Modding 2.0! From July 25th, 10 AM PDT through July 28th, 1 PM PDT.

Squad will be 50% off, so those of you that have been telling us that you missed the Steam sale have another shot at a bargain too.

Modding Weekend Trailer

As part of the festivities, we’ll be highlighting these top-notch examples of what Squad modders can do. Look for them in the server browser with the rest of the licensed servers:

The Mods

Canadian Armed Forces MOD
by The CAFMOD Team

Defend the Dome
by Headshot13Vegas
and Archangel from
~!THUNDERDOME!~

Elvedalen
by Hangrath

Harju
by wunda

Helicopter Mod
by Heedicalking

Panjshir
by PuffDragon

Squad Ops
by The Squad Ops Mod Team

SquadZ
by Smed

Troopers
by Loki

We’ll also have some surprises along the way!

For Players

Alpha 15 Video Patch Notes

The above patch notes cover some of the most recent changes in Squad that are handy for new players and veterans alike!

One big part of Modding 2.0 is the ability to download mods while in-game. If you’re not sure if your favorite server is running a specific mod, go ahead and join — if they are, you’ll be prompted to install that mod by the game.

You can subscribe to mods through the Steam Workshop as usual, of course.

Should you want to uninstall a mod, you’ll want to visit the Workshop and “Unsubscribe” from that mod.

Helpful Resources

What is Squad? Video

We’ve also got some basics to help start you off right!

With the launch of Alpha 15, we’ve included the first set of Squad tutorials! Be sure to access those via the main menu, unless you prefer a true trial by fire.

Questions about gameplay, vehicles, and how to play Squad can often be answered by the Squad Wiki.

If it’s not there, someone in the Official Community Discord server will surely know!

If you’re a Redditor, you’ll want to join the subreddit: r/JoinSquad.

Feel free to browse our forums for discussions, tips, and squadmates.

Be sure to see what our creative partners are up to as well. They’ve each been selected because they put a unique, entertaining spin on the world of Squad and you might even learn some tips!

Common issues can usually be addressed through the Squad support website, but we have a dedicated support team standing by to answer your emails: http://support@joinsquad.com

For Server Owners

Yup! You can run mods on your licensed server! If you use any of the above mods, you will appear as part of the default server list. (i.e., not a Custom Server.) There will also be an icon next to the server name to denote that it’s running modifications.

Naturally, this won’t impact the part of your agreement about running mods on a licensed server.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to reach us in the OWI Hosting Discord or email us at http://support@joinsquad.com

Jul 23, 2019

Alpha 15.1 Released

Squad - Black Lives Matter | ACAB

Hey squaddies,

We’re rolling out a patch that has a variety of fixes for issues that cropped up in Alpha 15. There are some gameplay tweaks in there too, so be sure to read the entire patch notes below!

Alpha 15.1 Changelog

Maps

Belaya: Updated Minimap
Belaya: Fixed wheat crop fixes so they aren’t red.
Belaya: Fixed bridge on the western part of the map having collision issues.
Fools Road: Fixed terrain to prevent players from hiding under the surrounding terrain
Mestia: Fixed railroad duplicates and spacing.
Skorpo: Fixed rain effects.
Tallil: Fixed collisions on several buildings
Yehorivka: Fixed bridge southwest of Lower Petrivka collision issues.
Yehorivka: Fixed collision on new crops and smaller foliage that was preventing leaning.

Map Layers

Al Basrah TC_v2: Removed 3 hexes that were unused in the river.
Fool’s Road and Gorodok: Fixed deployable ghosts colored yellow instead of green.
Kohat TC v1: Fixed Staging timer.
Kohat RAAS v3: Fixed missing ammo crates in INS main.
Logar Valley & Sumari: Fixed Staging Phase Pain Volume. (No comment on going to 11.)
Narva TCv2: Fixed Reversed hexes and Anchor points.
Skorpo Skirmish v1: Fixed Main Supply Zone for US.
Skorpo AAS v1: Fixed map boundary around the US Main.
Tallil TC_v1: Fixed HUD name.
Tallil Skirmish v1: Fixed a Spawn point that was outside the staging zone.

Vehicles

Fixed doubled overheating speed on 30mm HE weapons.
Fixed bug that caused Spandrel to be able to launch multiple rockets in rapid succession (Salvo-fire).
Increased damage for Konkurs ATGM (Spandrel & BMP-2) up to the level of other ATGM systems, up to 1800 from the initial 1200.
Increased rearm cost for Spandrel to 400 ammo points per rocket, increased from 200.
Increased rearm time for Spandrel to 30 secs per rocket, increased from instant rearm.
Increased delay between consecutive shots for Spandrel to 7.5 seconds, increased from 5 seconds.

User Interface

Territory Control: Replaced Shield icons with Anchor-like icons.
Territory Control: Fixed ticket bleed values not displaying for clients
Fixed incorrect requirement for INS, MIL, and Radio Tooltips when deploying via Radial Menu.

Miscellaneous Fixes

Fixed the glass material on vehicles showing through fog, especially at a distance.
Optimized 25mm and 30mm HE impact VFX.

Known Issues

Occasionally the landscape renderer will not load correctly resulting in black foliage on a map. A fix is being investigated.
Client crash on map switch.
Players will occasionally spawn without ammunition on their first spawn on a server. (This occurs if you were in the match during map travel but did not spawn during the staging phase.)
Occasionally a player will not spawn at Rally Point when numerous players are spawning in at the same time.
Occasionally client crashes in various circumstances: we’re still looking into the crash reports. Detailed crash reports help us fix this and we appreciate those that have filled out and sent crash reports.
Server performance may periodically dip when a server has a high population and high load. We’ll continue to work on performance and optimizations.
Occasionally Self-bandaging fails. Actively investigating the cause.
Mouse widgets (e.g. enter a vehicle, comm rose) can stop responding to clicks. A workaround is opening and closing the deploy screen.
Capture Zone (Flag) Icon will not show on a client’s HUD sometimes.
ATGM projectiles desync for other players that are not gunner, however, what the gunner sees should be the true synced projectile.
Certain effects do not blend correctly with fog on some layers.
HAB Spawn is disabled if FOB Radio is unshovelled below 75%, currently other forms of damage to the FOB Radio (such as explosives) do not disable HAB Spawn. (Under active development.)
De-shovelling a friendly FOB Radio costs 10 tickets. (Fix in progress.)
Local/Offline Bug with Vehicles: When playing offline on Jensen’s Range, Tracks, Wheels, and other components are not destructible while on the Jensen’s Range in Local play.
Local/Offline Bug with Weapon damages: When playing offline on Jensen’s Range, Weapon damages with both Infantry and Vehicle weapons are not accurately replicated.
Territory Control Bug: there is no UI indicator for showing cutoff enemy hexes (hexes that are not linked to the anchor point). Friendly cutoff hexes are showing correctly though.

Offworld out.

Jul 16, 2019

Alpha 15 Released

Squad - Black Lives Matter | ACAB

Hey squaddies!

Alpha 15 is freshly deployed and ready for action. If you haven’t auto-downloaded the update, why not check out the patch video while it downloads?

Yep: they’re finally coming! The first iteration of tutorials! Here’s to all the squad leaders who braved the Summer Sale. Oh, and let’s not forget the 550RPM death machine that is the BMP-2.

Read on for the full list of changes:

Alpha 15 Patch Notes

Systems

Added an Infantry Tutorial orientated at teaching new players the basic ropes of Squad.
Added an Interface Tutorial that teaches the Deployment interface in a first-time event capacity.
Added the ability to load and unload supplies via the Vehicle Interaction Radial Menu. This allows players to load and unload supplies via one common menu now, from any seat or outside of the vehicle. This also allows multiple players to unload the vehicle faster than if it was just one player. Increased rate of loading/unloading to 100 points every 0.5 seconds, making the process a little less slow.
You will not be able to load or unload supplies from a vehicle while it is moving.
Removed old Left Click/Right Click system for loading and unloading supplies.
Removed Voice Command system temporarily pending further internal development.

Game Modes

Territory Control: Increased hex capture times from 40 seconds to 45 seconds.
Territory Control: Added a more dynamic ticket bleed system.
Territory Control: Added TC Layers to all maps.
New RAAS layers added to Belaya, Chora, Fools Road, Gorodok, Kamdesh, Kohat, Kokan, Skorpo, Sumari, and Yehorivka.
Invasion – added more Random Invasion layers.

Infantry Gameplay

Increased RPG7 HEAT penetration capability from 320mm RHA to 400mm RHA.
Increased RPG26 penetration capability from 320mm RHA to 440mm RHA.
Set all LAT rockets (British High Penetration AT4 included) to have a minimum arming distance of 25m.
Set all HAT rockets and ATGMs to have a minimum arming distance of 40m.
Added a visual effect and audio for when a UGL grenade or rocket impacts a surface before being armed, helping give feedback to the player that the target was too close.
Fixed British High Penetration AT4 variant not dealing more penetration and damage compared to its US Army counterpart.
Fixed the RPG7 Fragmentation round doing way more penetration than intended.
Decreased damage value of the US Army AT-4 (from 1400 to 1248).
Increased damage value of the M3 Carl Gustav HEAT round (from 960 to 1248).
Updated Militia kits to have less SKS rifles and more AK74 rifles.
Set all LAT kits to have 2 smoke grenades.
Added binoculars to all HAT kits that do not have rifle scopes.
Added binoculars to RU LAT kits that do not have rifle scopes.
Fixed 50m sight alignment on the L85A2 AG36 Grenade Launcher.
Fixed snapping in movement while going from Prone to Standing while you have your bipod deployed.
Fixed a bug where weapon accuracy parameters like sway and recoil are being reset by switching weapons.
Fixed a bug where it consumes a field dressing when bandaging already bandaged soldiers.

Vehicle Gameplay

Added the BMP-2 Infantry Fighting Vehicle. This is a second-generation Russian IFV, succeeding the BMP-1 from the 1980s. The BMP-2 has a 3-man crew and can hold up to 7 passengers. It is armed with a 30mm auto-cannon firing AP or HE ammunition at a blistering 550 rounds per minute. It comes with a turret-mounted Konkurs ATGM for dealing with heavily armored threats. Additionally, it has a standard PKT 7.62mm coaxial machine gun and smoke grenade launchers for smokescreening.
Added the BMP-1 ZU-23 Anti-Air Variant. This variant basically replaces the turret on the BMP-1 with an external, manually operated ZU-23 Anti-Air Autocannon.

Made vehicle radial menu accessible even if the vehicle is not claimed by your squad or you’re not a crewman if the vehicle is on your team.
Tweaked vehicle claiming system numbers:
- 2 vehicles require 2 squad members
- 3 vehicles require 4 squad members
- 4 vehicles require 6 squad members.
Fixed an issue where vehicle ATGMs were not dealing damage beyond 500m.
Increased armor on the Challenger 2’s lower glacis to 300mm RHA.
Fixed a bug where the BMP-1 was not getting destroyed by ammo-cookoff.
Increased the amount of time to get into a truck or light vehicle from 0.75 seconds to 1 second.
Fixed firing sounds on the BMP-1’s coaxial machine gun.
Fixed Uparmored FV510 for missing an ammo compartment.
Improved handling on the MT-LB series vehicles.
Fixed issue that allowed BMP-1 to bypass reloading time near Vehicle Repair Depot.
Fixed modifier for HAT damage type on the BMP-1 (and BMP-2). For example, it will go down to 10% HP (and start burning) after getting hit by a TOW missile.
Resized and moved ammo rack component on BMP-1 & BMP-2 to be fully covered by the engine and no-penetration block to help minimize probability for vehicles to get cooked off by enemy fire from the front.
Enabled all unarmored vehicles (technicals, trucks etc) to receive indirect (AoE splash) fragmentation damage.

Deployables Gameplay

FOB Radios will disable spawning on HAB’s if the Radio has been damaged and its health has fallen below 75%.
All HASCO related deployables have had their visuals updated.
Mortar damage against deployable structures was increased.
Combat Engineer/Sapper Timed Explosives Does 80% damage to FOB Radio now instead of 100%

User Interface

Re-Added Spawn Confirmation. This should reduce the chances of accidentally spawning in when you are trying to see the wait timers for each spawn location.
Added a global notification for when objectives are either met or lost. (E.g. Flag neutralizations, captures, cache objective destroyed, etc.)
Added a dynamic list of vehicles that are on the currently played map layer. The list is accessible as a button next to the map legends.
Added a Favorites filter in the Server Browser.
Added British Army, Insurgent, Russian Army, and Irregular Militia victory jingle.
Added 10 second delay before incap player can use Medic Callout button and increased the Medic Callout interval from every 5 seconds to every 30 seconds.
Improved the look of the Vehicle Repair Tooltip. If you have a Vehicle Repair Toolkit, the tooltip allows you to see how badly each individual component is damaged similar to the HUD when in a vehicle driver seat.
Reordered the items in the Key Bindings Window to be more logical.
Fixed Invasion Game Mode flags not having lock icons when they are actually not able to be recaptured by the defending side.
Grouped kit role request into its own sub-menu in the Vehicle Interaction Radial Menu.
Reordered Role variants to have Ironsight variants first, then Red-Dots then Optics.
Fixed Medic, LAT, and HAT kits showing up as unavailable (Red) in Role Loadout and Role Quick Select menu when they actually are available.
Changed label on the Deployment Menu for Team Selection to “Teams / Game Mode Info”.
Changed magazine image to show up as grey as opposed to jet black when empty for visibility when in vehicles.
Removed old First Time Event help prompts.
Modding UI changes.

Maps

Substantially improved performance on Kohat Toi River Valley, Tallil Outskirts, and Gorodok maps. Other maps, including Skorpo and Yehorivka, are being optimized and will continue to receive improvements in upcoming releases.
Visually updated Gorodok and Yehorivka.
Improved collisions on Tallil’s residential buildings and improved performance.
Updated foliage and landscape on Gorodok for improved, blended appearance.
Fools Road lighting & foliage updated.
Fixed Sumari staging zones to prevent players from jumping over. Don’t be AWOL, squaddie.
Changed collision on traffic signs so they don’t stop vehicles anymore.

Map Optimizations and Improvements

Kohat, Tallil, and Gorodok received substantial optimizations and some visual improvements to increase performance and to bring the visual quality of our maps up to our standards. This includes new assets replacing old ones, as well as some different methods being used on our landscapes.

Gorodok

System Specs:

Mobo: Asus Maximus VIII Ranger Intel Z170
CPU: Intel i7 6700K @ 4.5GHz
GPU: Asus ROG Strix GTX 1080
RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX, 3000MHz
SSD: 512GB Samsung SM951 M.2 PCI-e (C:)
Resolution: 3840×2160. Disabled AA, High Settings

Main Comparison

Interactive Demo

In some areas of Gorodok we’ve managed to drop the number of Triangles by approximately 5m, Draw Calls by about 2k, and for GPU timings we’ve gone from ~20ms to ~14ms, totaling up to an increase of nearly 16 FPS on this particular system and configuration. These are substantial numbers and bring the map down towards our new standards derived from research and investigations related to Squad-specific maps.

While there are some guidelines and tips out there for creating well-optimized scenes, Squad is an entirely different kind of beast when it comes to levels in Unreal Engine 4, so we had to dig deep and come up with some numbers that suit our game.

Please note that the numbers you see on your systems and configurations will vary, but overall everyone should be seeing some gains in one form or another.

Layer Usage

Interactive Demo

This layer usage comparison shows the number of landscape layers used per component. We have seen some performance problems surface on components that had 8 or more layers in the past, so we decided that our new landscape shaders would have to contain fewer layers. This combined with removing minimally used layers, unused layers, and consolidating some layers into one allowed us to increase performance on the landscape. As you can see, we got the numbers down from 13/12/11 to 6/5/4 on the majority of components.

Layer Density

Interactive Demo

Here is a snippet of some of the changes we did across these maps:

Adjusted Landscape Components

After analysis, we found that some of our older landscapes weren’t as optimized in terms of their technical set up. We experimented with different values and found some that work well visually, retain the landscape silhouette and, most importantly, improve performance by reducing the number of draw calls required by our landscapes.

Adjusted Landscape LODs

The new landscape components allowed us to revise and improve the way our landscapes LOD down, this is something we managed to unify throughout the 3 maps and can apply to other maps.

Adjusted AO settings

Ambient Occlusion can become extremely expensive, especially at higher resolutions. We did some research and managed to standardise our AO settings across our maps, drastically improving performance at the higher resolutions. This is something that isn’t as noticeable unless you play at 1440p and above – but it’s a great change for all.

Created new Landscape Shaders

These new landscape shaders are cheaper for performance costs and they have been more streamlined as well as improved in visual quality. This will allow us to roll out upgrades much more easily and ensure we have consistency across different shaders which makes maintenance a lot faster and straightforward.

Removed unused Landscape Shader layers

New shaders also allowed us to analyse and reduce the number of layers we use on our landscape. After research and investigations, we found a sweet spot for the number of layers that allow flexibility for our Level Designers and Environment Artists but also ensured that we do not create a large performance impact. As a point of reference, there have been parts on maps like Fool’s Road and Yehorivka that drop players’ FPS and these have been confirmed to be a result of too many layers used on one component, increasing layer density.

Implemented Atmospheric Fog

This is a big step in preparation for helicopters as our old Exponential Height Fog was only visible at lower heights and ground level. Additionally, a fog that isn’t limited by height and is more physically accurate allows us to play with better lighting and colours, bringing more life into our levels.

Fixed LODs on Static Meshes

These general fixes provided a huge boost in performance in dense areas such as the villages in Tallil. On the system above it brought up the numbers from ~30 FPS to 60 FPS on High Settings.

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

Fixed rocket engine motor effects still playing after the rocket has exploded.
Fixed missing hat on one of the Insurgent soldiers as it LOD transitioned.
Fixed first person mesh oddities when exiting Admin Cam.
Attempted fix for ragdoll issues caused by origin rebasing
Fixed a bug where you bandage gets consumed after you patch already patched soldier.
Fixed couple of server and client crashes.

Known Issues

ATGMs projectile desync for other players that are not gunner, however, what the gunner sees should be the true synced projectile.
Certain effects do not blend with fog on some layers.

Sign Off

As always, a huge thanks to all of you who helped tests this one and get it ready to roll. Enjoy the BMP-2, comrades! Alpha 16 when?

Jul 11, 2019

Now Testing Alpha 15

Squad - Black Lives Matter | ACAB

Hey squaddies!

We’re taking Alpha 15 into testing and that means we need you! The update will be rolling out to the Squad – Public Testing Client shortly. You won’t need a password, simply install the testing app. (Note: It is a full, second Squad install — be sure you have enough space!)

The test does not have a set duration at this time — we’ll be running it as long as we need to collect as much data as possible.

Below is an abridged list of changes to get you up and running. A complete Alpha 15 changelog will accompany the full release.

Alpha 15 Pre-Release Changelog

Servers

As this is a pre-release test, we’ll be hosting a couple of servers ourselves. For the time being, servers will be limited to Offworld Industries hosted machines:

2 in Montreal, Canada
2 in Örebro, Sweden

Server #1 on each location is running newly optimized maps. (Yehorivka, Gorodok, Tallil, Kohat)

Server #2 on each location is running TC layers of all current existing maps.

If at any point the servers should crash, please contact [M] Nordic Socialist#5510 on our Community Discord server.

Systems

Added an Infantry Tutorial orientated putting players through basic.
Added an Interface Tutorial that teaches the Deployment interface.
Added the ability to load and unload supplies via the Vehicle Interaction Radial Menu. This allows players to load and unload supplies from a stationary vehicle via one common menu now, from inside or outside of the vehicle. This allows multiplayer players to coordinate resupplying.
Removed Left Click/Right Click system for loading and unloading supplies.
Removed Voice Command system temporarily pending further internal development.

Vehicle Gameplay

Added the BMP-2 Infantry Fighting Vehicle.
Tweaked vehicle claiming system numbers
- 2 vehicles require 2 squad members
- 3 vehicles require 4 squad members,
- 4 vehicles require 6 squad members.

Deployables Gameplay

FOB Radios will disable spawning on HAB’s if the Radio’s been damaged and its health has fallen below 75%.
All HESCO related deployables have had their visuals updated.

Maps

Substantially improved performance on Kohat Toi River Valley, Tallil Outskirts, and Gorodok maps.
Visually updated Gorodok.
Improved collisions on Tallil’s residential buildings and improved performance.
Updated foliage and landscape on Gorodok for improved, blended appearance.
Fools Road lighting & foliage updated.

User Interface

Re-Added Spawn Confirmation.
Fixed some kits appearing unavailable.
Modding UI updates.
Added 10-second delay before an incapacitated player can use Medic Callout button, and increased the Medic Callout interval from every 5 seconds to every 30 seconds.

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

Fixed rocket engine motor effects still playing after the rocket has exploded.
Fixed missing hat on one of the Insurgent soldiers as it LOD transitioned.
Fixed first person mesh oddities when exiting Admin Cam.
Fixed issue where vehicle ATGMs weren’t dealing damage after 500m+
Attempted fix for ragdoll issues caused by origin rebasing
Fixed a bug where you bandage gets consumed after you patch already patched soldier
Fixed couple of server and client crashes

Known Issues

ATGMs projectile desync for proxies (other clients that are not gunner)
Unable to switch seats inside a vehicle after opening and closing the ‘F’ menu
Vehicle icons disappear from the mini-map after some distance
Missing bullet impact effects on Yehorivka’s landscape
Enemy’s Faction theme may play and display their flag in Deployment Menu after team change

Sign-off

Have fun out there, squaddies! Be sure to let us know if you encounter bugs, oddities, or just have some feedback for us.

Offworld out.