Attention Squaddies,

Squad Hotfix 4.1 is now live! It focuses on fixing a few issues that came with the PLA faction, some drought on a few maps (water refusing to appear), and an update of the SDK to 4.1.

Check out all the list of changes below:

• Fixed a server crash related to EOS
  
• Fixed a client crash related to EOS
  
• Removed the shovel from the PLA squad lead crewman kit
  
• Fixed an issue where the gunner would be kicked out of the ZSL10 if the vehicle entered the water
  
• Fixed an issue where drivers of the ZBL08 and ZSL10 could be killed by explosive rounds hitting the front side of the vehicle
  
• Fixed an issue with turret armor values on the ZTZ99AFixed an issue with un-ready weapon animations for the DZJ08 and PF98Fixed a small visual issue relating to how PLA soldiers react to lighting

Harju

• Fixed an issue where the Russian forward HAB could spawn in a glitched location on Seed v1Mutaha
  
• Fixed an issue where water was not appearing as intended in certain areas

Tallil

• Fixed an issue where water was not appearing as intended in certain areas

Sumari

• Fixed an issue where the Seed v3 layer was incorrectly being displayed as Seed v1 across several UI elements
  
• Fixed an issue where emplacements were available to both teams on Seed v3SDK

Updates & Bug Fixes

• Updated mod SDK to v4.1
  
• We were not able to address an issue regarding mods using custom playercontroller on modded servers. Non-modded servers are not affected by the issue.
  Currently the issue is causing player disconnect and a server crash when the server changes playercontrollers in a map switch. To avoid this server crash, server owners need to make sure that their map rotation all uses the same playercontroller, whether that be the default one or the same custom one.

Squad will be updating its game engine next year and the team wants to playtest it on a full server to help identify any unforeseen issues that we may need to address before that happens. As such we are holding a playtest this Saturday December 10th at 19:00 UTC / 11:00 PST.

The main goal of this is to get 100 players active on a server.

We would like all players that are able to to jump into the game at that time on the Squad - Public Testing game that's below Squad in Steam.*




A successfully attended public playtest will go a long way to improving the update's success when it's launched in 2023, and help us discover issues that would be frustrating if we did not see them early. We ask all players who can to join us on Saturday December 10th at 19:00 UTC / 11:00 PST on the Squad - Public Testing game to road test this future engine upgrade.

Tell your friends - tell your neighbours, tell anyone you know who plays Squad and get them on!
Thank you all for the continued support of Squad!

* If you have previously been playing on a Beta please ensure that you're not on a Beta build for this but just the standard Squad - Public Testing app.

Attention Squaddies,

Squad 4.0 - Red Star Rising is now live and ready to be downloaded! For all the details about the new content and fixes, head to our Release Notes.

We would love to hear your thoughts on the update and get feedback on any new issues you might encounter, so please share with us directly in our Technical Issues Report thread in the forums.

At ease,

The update 4.0 will see the introduction of the new People’s Liberation Army (PLA) faction, including mainland China’s land, sea, and air forces. This includes new combined arms faction features: seven new vehicles, fifteen unique weapons & deployables, and a JH7A rocket strike Commander ability. In addition we have included a number of fixes and quality of life improvements into the update as well.

• Added a new faction, the People’s Liberation Army

• QJY88 General Purpose Machine Gun
  
• QBU88 Marksman Rifle
  
• QSZ92 Pistol
  
• DJZ-08 Light Anti-Tank Rocket Launcher
  
• PF-98 Heavy Anti-Tank Rocket Launcher
  
• Commander Ability: JH7A Close Air Support Rocket Strike
  
• QBZ95-1 Rifles
  
  • QJB-95-1 Automatic Rifle
    
  • QBZ-95B-1 Carbine
    
  • QLG-10 Underbarrel Grenade Launcher
    

• PP87 Mortar Emplacement
  
• QJZ-89 Heavy Machine Gun Emplacement
  
• HJ8 ATGM Emplacement
  
• Type86P Hand Frag Grenade
  
• Type 72 Anti-Tank Mine
  
• DSF161 Smoke Grenade
  
• WJQ-308 Entrenching Tool
  
• QNL-95 Knife
  
• Type95 Binoculars

• Rifleman (3 variants)
  
• Automatic Rifleman (2 variants)
  
• Marksman
  
• Light Anti-Tank (2 variants)
  
• Heavy Anti-Tank
  
• Machine Gunner
  
• Grenadier
  
• Combat Engineer
  
• Medic (2 variants)
  
• Crewman
  
• Pilot
  
• Unarmed

• ZBD-04A Tracked IFV
  
• ZTZ99A Battle Tank
  
• Z8G Transport Helicopter
  
• CTM131 Logistics Truck
  
• ZSL-10 Wheeled APC (with open-top QJZ89 HMG turret)
  
  • Variant: CTM131 Transport Truck (with open-top QJY88 GPMG)
    
  • Variant: CTM131 Transport Truck (with open-top QJZ89 HMG)
    
• CSK131 Mengshi Jeep
  
  • Variant: CSK131 Mengshi Jeep (with HJ8 ATGM)
    
  • Variant: CSK131 Mengshi Jeep (with open-top QJY88 GPMG)
    
  • Variant: CSK131 Mengshi Jeep (with open-top QJZ89 HMG)
    
  • Variant: CSK131 Mengshi Jeep (with remote-controlled QJZ89 HMG)
    
• ZBL-08 Wheeled IFV
  
  • Variant: ZBL-08 Wheeled IFV (with HJ73C ATGM)
    

• Jensen’s Range [vs AUS]
  
• Pacific Proving Grounds [vs USMC]
  
• Harju
  
  • RAAS v6 vs USA
    
  • Invasion v5 vs GB
    
• Yehorivka
  
  • RAAS v13 vs USA
    
• Goose Bay
  
  • RAAS v4 vs CAF
    
  • Invasion v5 vs CAF
    
• Fallujah
  
  • Invasion v6 vs MEA
    
  • RAAS v7 vs USMC
    
• Sumari
  
  • Seed v3 vs USA
    
  • Skirmish v1 vs USA
    
• Narva
  
  • RAAS v6 vs GB
    
• Gorodok
  
  • RAAS v12 vs USA
    
• Tallil
  
  • RAAS v8 vs GB
    
  • Invasion v5 vs MEA
    
• Mutaha
  
  • RAAS v7 vs RUS
    
• Lashkar
  
  • Invasion v4 vs USA
    
• Al Basrah
  
  • Invasion v8 vs INS
    
• Kohat
  
  • RAAS v10 vs AUS
    
  • Invasion v4 vs USMC
    
  • AAS v1 vs USA
    
• Chora
  
  • RAAS v5 vs USA
    
  • AAS v6 vs USA
    
• Logar
  
  • AAS v1 vs USA
    
• Kokan
  
  • AAS v1 vs USA
    

• Updated ATGM System - Once a vehicle has launched the maximum allotted number of anti-tank guided missiles, firing another will cause the oldest currently deployed missile to lose guidance and crash
  
• While sprinting, attempting to bandage yourself will now immediately cancel your sprint and start the self-bandaging action
  
• Updated the map legend with unique icons for armed transport trucks and APCs with open-top turrets
  
• Removed several unnecessary hard references that were negatively impacting performance
  
• Made improvements to anti-cheat software
  
• Improved the appearance of sprinting from a third-person perspective

• Fixed a client crash related to grenades
  
• Fixed a client crash related to the WorldSettings parameter
  
• Fixed an issue where the USMC flag was not appearing on the server browser menu
  
• Fixed an issue where the AUS MRH90 Helicopter was missing its vehicle reset options
  
• Fixed an issue where players could shoot through the floor of certain houses
  
• Fixed an issue where players would automatically switch to their rifle after planting an anti-tank mine
  
• Fixed a rare issue where players could become invulnerable to damage after using the admin camera feature in a certain way
  
• Fixed a rare issue where players could be disconnected from their server after pushing a helicopter from the tail
  
• Fixed several issues with water sound effects
  
• Fixed various performance issues regarding oceans and water intensity
  
• Fixed an issue where frag grenades were not doing appropriate damage in the tutorial
  
• Fixed a minor visual issue where clouds of smoke could sometimes stick to vehicles instead of behaving normally
  
• Fixed several issues with vehicle sound effects
  
• Fixed a visual issue with the top hatches of BMP-2 desert vehicles
  
• Fixed several issues relating to graphics settings, including one in which certain settings would reset upon exiting the game
  
• Fixed an issue where toggle lean options were not behaving properly
  
• Fixed several small visual and collision issues relating to indirect fire shelters
  
• Fixed a server crash related to CAF

• General
  
  • Fixed an issue where players could shoot vehicle-mounted guns inside of the main base on certain layers
    
• Harju
  
  • Fixed a collision issue at the WundaMart side entrance
    
  • Fixed various visual issues involving floating and incorrectly placed assets
    
  • Fixed inconsistencies regarding the name of the Forest Industrial flag across layers
    
  • Fixed an issue where the MTLB would spawn outside of the main base on RAAS v2
    
  • Fixed a hole in the ground near the missile silo
    
  • Fixed an issue where the RUS forward spawn would occasionally spawn players in the air on Invasion v1
    
  • Fixed an issue where the CAF staging phase barrier was preventing access to ammo crates on Skirmish v2
    
  • Fixed an issue where some deployables were incorrectly being blocked by water
    
  • Fixed incorrect Finnish spelling on Invasion v1
    
  • The “Bog” flag on RAAS v3, v4, v5, and v6 is now called “Marsh”
    
• Fallujah
  
  • Fixed an issue where certain INS vehicles were too far out of range to be supplied at the main base on Invasion v2
    
• Narva
  
  • Fixed an issue where the RAAS v5 layer was incorrectly labeled
    
  • Fixed an issue where a HAB could not be built near the Marina cap zone due to problems with the water level
    
• Al Basrah
  
  • Fixed an issue where rocks and foliage appeared to float in certain areas on AAS v1
    
  • Fixed an issue where the river could stop appearing in certain situations
    

• Updated mod SDK to v4.0
  
• Updated mod versioning to v4.0. This requires mods to be re-cooked with the v4.0 SDK—any mods using the v3.4 SDK will be incompatible with v4.0.

As many in the Squad community will know that Harju, the game’s newest map, began as a player created project! Working under the username Wunda Offworld hired its designer Jason Liberty and brought him onboard. With the official release of Harju we sat down to talk with Liberty and  asked him to provide us with some of their insight about the conceptualization and evolution of Harju from its first moment as a community map to its latest full integration in Squad.

What was your overall approach to designing the map, what did you want to accomplish with it?
Jason/Wunda: Work on Harju was started shortly after Squad Alpha 12 which added Main Battle Tanks. I wanted to create a map that would be well adapted for Squad’s newest equipment but also future proofed for the helicopters that were to be added later in 2019. This had another future payoff seeing that Harju has become a good fit for the amphibious adaptation we see today.

How do you think the map stands out in contrast to other maps of Squad?
Jason/Wunda: Foliage is what sets Harju apart from Squad’s existing map library. Vehicles and infantry have to play to their strengths in a different way then most other maps. Firefights slow down and teamwork excels when you're moving with your squad to clear forests on approach to your objective. Logistics vehicles can't go to any location they want to by just driving offroad. A higher encouragement to utilize road networks may sway a squad leader to try amphibious or helicopter based insertions. 

Can you describe the work that was done on Harju to ensure that it could be released as an official map for Squad?
Jason/Wunda: Harju’s last workshop release, while a step forward for the map, still had many gaps that needed to be filled. A large amount of effort was spent refining or completely rebuilding locations to a higher quality standard and more importantly to work well with newly added amphibious gameplay. To put it into perspective I logged 950 hours working on Harju up to its last workshop release and an additional 1,400 hours getting it to the official release. It was a lot of work and in the end I’ve spent more time on just Harju than I have 1,200 hours in-game playing Squad! 

What do you think the biggest improvement is on Harju from the Steam Workshop version that you worked on to its latest incarnation now in Squad?
Jason/Wunda: The largest improvement can be seen in the large scale map flow. Rounds play out far better now that the map has been filled with more locations to fight in. Many locations were also changed to fit amphibious attacks opening a massive number of opportunities in layer design for our core game modes. 

What made you choose Finland as a location for the map? Any personal attachment to it?
Jason/Wunda: Finland as a setting isn’t far from locations we've already featured in Squad. The closest of those being Narva in Estonia and Skorpo in Norway. Since I’m a Level Designer and not a 3D Artist using existing Squad assets was critical. Finland does differ from those locations in its terrain and foliage which is where I focused on making the map unique. I also knew from the start that I wanted to build a map on the water during Autumn. Looking at reference photos from Finland during that time of year really reminded me of where I grew up in the northeastern United States. It felt easy building a place that felt so familiar to me.  

Attention  Squaddies,

Today we are proud to announce Update 4.0 - Red Star Rising, a major milestone for Squad that will see the addition of our 10th playable faction, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). We know that you have been expecting them to join the fray for a while now and we are excited to see you soon get to play them!

The PLA will be added to Squad with update 4.0 on December 7th, 2022.



The People’s Liberation Army, originally called the Red Army, encompasses mainland China’s land, sea, and air forces and is the largest military force in the world today. In Squad, this new combined arms faction features seven new vehicles, fifteen unique weapons & deployables, and a devastating bombing run Commander ability. We are also expanding our localization efforts with the addition of Simplified Chinese.

Here are some of the new weapons, vehicles and abilities that the PLA brings onto the field:

• New Commander Feature — Call in a tactical bombing run using the PLA’s signature JH-7A Flying Leopard aircraft
  
• New Vehicles — ZBL-08 Wheeled APC, ZTZ-99A Main Battle Tank, ZBD-04A Infantry Fighting Vehicle, and more
  
• New Weapons/Deployables — PP87 Deployable Mortar, QJZ-89 Heavy Machine Gun, HJ-8 Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM) Emplacement, QBU-88 Marksman Rifle, QJY-88 Machine Gun, and more

Update 4.0 will come with fully detailed release notes where we will go more in depth about the new features and specifics to the PLA, so stay tuned as we release more information as we get closer to the release date.



We hope that you are as excited and impatient as we are for this new major release, only a few weeks to wait until Christmas comes early! We’d like to thank all of you for your continuous support and encouragement, and let’s take Squad to the next level together!

At ease,
Offworld out.

Attention Squaddies,

We have deployed hotfix 3.5 to address the unintentional player kicks issue and some fixes that needed to be implemented to the Harju map. Please notify us if you encounter new issues on Squad 3.5 in our Technical Report Thread.

Thank you so much for your patience and support, they mean so much to us!

• Fixed an issue where players were being kicked from servers unintentionally

Fallujah

• Fixed an issue where players could not use a certain sewer entrance as intended.

Harju

• Fixed an issue where the Truck Stop capture point would spawn in the air on RAAS v1, preventing players from capturing it.
  
• Fixed an issue where the repair stations in the CAF main base on Invasion v4 would float in the air and block the road.
  
• Fixed an issue where the logistics hub flag was in the wrong capture cluster on RAAS v3 and v4.Fixed an issue with flag layout on RAAS v5.
  
• Fixed an issue where certain fortifications would not cost anything on multiple Harju map layers.
  
• Fixed an issue where the USMC carrier was sitting too low in the water on Invasion v1.Fixed an issue where the USMC western helicopter pad would not repair damaged helicopters on Invasion v1.

Attention Squaddies,

Update 3.4 for Squad is ready and can be downloaded! To know about all the latest changes that are coming with this update head on to our Release Notes blog.

If you find any technical issues or bugs that might have come with the new update please report them in the Technical Issues Forum Thread. Thank you so much for all your support, it is invaluable to us and helps us make Squad a better game!

At ease,
– Offworld Industries

Hello Squaddies! 

The v3.4 update will focus on small bug fixes and gameplay improvements on many fronts, including soldier kits, weapons, turrets, vehicles and buildings among others. We also persevere in our efforts of optimizations to the game, going over its various maps once again. Finally, the addition of the map Harju will add a war theater in Sweden for you all to experience again or anew!


Added a new map, Harju:

After the fighting in Narva, opposition forces have begun raiding towns on the southern coastline of Finland. A NATO carrier group is deploying to back local defense forces to repel the invasion.

Harju will release with the following layers:

• AAS
  
  • v1: USMC / RUS
    
  • v2: USA / RUS
    
• Invasion 
  
  • v1: USMC / RUS
    
  • v2: RUS / MIL
    
  • v3: GB / MIL
    
  • v4: CAF / RUS
    
• RAAS 
  
  • v1: USMC / RUS
    
  • v2: GB/ RUS
    
  • v3: USA / RUS
    
  • v4: CAF / RUS
    
  • v5: RUS / MIL
    
• Skirmish
  
  • v1: USMC / RUS
    
  • v2: CAF/ RUS
    
• Seed
  
  • v1: USMC / RUS
    

• The Chat HUD now clears older messages once it has faded out so that only new ones appear when the Chat HUD reappears.
  
• Players will now take damage underwater within the main base protection zone. This will prevent players from becoming stuck underwater indefinitely.
  
• Adjusted the ammo cost on 40mm HE grenades for Grenadier kits to 7 ammo points (was 10).
  
• Improved general water performance

• Fixed an issue where under certain circumstances one could have infinite rally points.
  
• Fixed a crash relating to the map marker manager
  
• Fixed a crash relating to vehicles
  
• Fixed an issue where an inappropriately large amount of force would occasionally be applied to the Minsk while pushing it.
  
• Fixed a crash that would occasionally occur at match’s end
  
• Fixed an issue where the woodland USMC M1151 CROWS variant turret was unable to be repaired by a hand repair kit.
  
• Fixed an issue where the woodland USMC M1151 CROWS variant turret was incorrectly set to pass damage to the vehicle
  
• Fixed a crash relating to smoke grenades
  
• Fixed a problem with Militia role icons
  
• Fixed an issue where player shadows were bleeding through walls on low shadow settings
  
• Fixed an issue where LAT and Medic kits were showing incorrect role counts
  
• Fixed an issue where USMC logis were missing their smoke pop sound
  
• Fixed woodland sandbags being used on a desert MEA deployable
  
• Fixed an issue where Zu-23 vehicle turrets had a gratuitous amount of ammo.
  
• Fixed an issue where viewports would "flood" inappropriately
  
• Fixed a crash that rarely occurred after changing the graphics settings on the main menu
  
• Fixed an issue where an INS/MIL player could not detonate an IED if they had also placed an ammo bag on the map.
  
• Fixed an issue where USMC M1A1 turret armor values were mismatched
  
• Fixed an issue with the Minsk's anti-flip system
  
• Fixed an issue where wake plates had no impact VFX for any projectiles
  
• Fixed an issue where vehicles could not be damaged after exiting the main base
  
• Contact shadows are now forced “on” for Low and Medium shadow quality.
  
• Color grading settings will now remain consistent after restarting
  
• Fixed an issue where default settings were not being applied universally
  
• Fixed an issue where the anisotropic slider wasn’t working properly
  
• Fixed an issue where ambient occlusion wasn’t being updated properly
  
• Optimized memory usage by changing the way CO support action referenced  objects (models, textures, sounds, effects, etc) are not loaded into memory when not used by any team
  
• Optimized memory usage of the widget displaying hints on controls when in the vehicle
  
• Optimized memory usage of all handheld deployable items by removing a reference to an IED which was causing the IED-related assets to be always loaded 
  
  • Fixed an issue with the squad list not appearing centered at lower resolutions
    
  • Fixed an issue where player status icons on the squad list were stretched horizontally instead of scaling at a fixed aspect ratio
    
  • Fixed an issue where the “Leave Squad” button would be pushed to the bottom of the screen when the player’s squad is large.
    
  • Fixed an issue with the scroll bar in the squad list not functioning properly.
    

• General
  
  • Improved optimization of some buildings
    
• Black Coast
  
  • Improved lighting on the USS Essex
    
  • Fixed an issue where the MIL main base had no logi resupply area near the beach where MIL boats spawn on Invasion v4
    
  • Fixed a gameplay issue with an exploitable collision on the rooftop of the Coal Tipple Building.
    
  • Fixed an issue where players could fall through the terrain at a certain location
    
• Fallujah
  
  • Fixed an issue where water splash VFX would appear inappropriately.
    
  • Various optimizations
    
• Mestia
  
  • Fixed an issue with MEA not always spawning every vehicle at the start of a round on Skirmish v1
    
• Manic-5
  
  • Fixed an issue with CAF main not always spawning every vehicle at the start of a round on RAAS v1
    
• Narva
  
  • Fixed an issue with the RUS T72B3 MBT not spawning at main on Destruction v1
    
  • Improved water levels in some buildings in RAAS v5
    
• Tallil
  
  • Fixed an issue with INS Minsk bikes never spawning on Seed v2
    
  • Fixed an issue where USMC were able to deploy emplacements on Seed v1
    
• Skorpo
  
  • Fixed an issue where the Militia temporary spawn was not working at grid 010-5-4 on Invasion v4.
    
  • Removed CAS Helicopter from Invasion v3
    
  • Fixed an issue where attackers do not see the staging phase UI on Invasion v3 and Invasion v4
    
  • Fixed an issue with lighting where a beam of light appeared to come from the ocean on Invasion v3
    
• Sumari
  
  • Fixed an issue with INS main not spawning all Minsk bikes at start of a round on Seed v2
    
• Yehorivka
  
  • Fixed an issue where not all vehicles would spawn at RUS main at the start of a round on RAAS v11
    

• Fixed an issue where Black Coast layers were missing from the server layer rotation configuration

• Updated mod SDK to v3.4
  
• Updated mod versioning to v3.4. This requires mods to be re-cooked with the v3.4 SDK—any mods using the v3.3 SDK will be incompatible with v3.4.

Attention Squaddies,

Update Squad 3.4 lands on November 9th! It will focus on small bug fixes, improvements of gameplay, and optimizations to the game. However keep your eyes peeled for our new map reveal trailer coming up really soon!

With this update we continue to improve the playing experience of Squad and hope to hear your feedback on the changes when they go live!

Next week we will publish the complete Release Notes for you to check and learn all the latest additions that made it to the game in 3.4.


At ease,