Dec 12, 2023

Squad - OWI_Icare

This update introduces the Turkish Land Forces faction, a new set of emotes, and a new weapon skin system:

Turkish Land Forces (TLF)

The Turkish Land Forces join Squad as a capable, Independent faction that fields strong infantry, and good vehicles. They boast a mix of domestically produced, Soviet, and Western equipment and although some of their vehicles are older, they make up for it with highly capable infantry. The infantry has access to an extra grenadier role, including one equipped with the MGL, a powerful semi-automatic grenade launcher, a raider role equipped with a modern submachine gun, and can field more light anti-tank weapons than other factions but lack a dedicated heavy anti-tank role.

Weapons

SOR 109T Submachine Gun

MPT-76 Rifle
KNT-76 Marksman Rifle
AK40-GL Underslung Grenade Launcher
PMT-76 Medium Machine Gun
MG3 - Iron Sights Variant
MKE MGL Grenade Launcher
HAR-66 Light Anti-Tank Weapon
SOR-9 Pistol
Optics

o A940 1-4x Optic
o KESKIN Marksman Optic
o HNA Red Dot Optic

Vehicles

BMC 185-09B Truck
Cobra II MRAP
ACV-15 Tracked APC/IFV
PARS III Wheel APC/IFV
M60T MBT
UH1H Helicopter

Kit Roles

Squad Leader (3 variants)
Medic (2 variants)
Rifleman (3 variants)
Light Anti-Tank (3 variants)
Automatic Rifleman
Jandarma
Marksman
Machine Gunner
Crewman (+ Squad Leader Crewman)
Pilot (+ Squad Leader Pilot)
Engineer

TLF Gameplay Layers

Al Basrah
• Invasion v9 - TLF vs INS

Anvil
• RAAS v5 - TLF vs RGF

Black Coast
• Invasion v6 - TLF vs RGF
• RAAS v6 - TLF vs PLA
• Seed v2 - TLF vs VDV

Chora
• AAS v7 - TLF vs MEA

Fallujah
• Invasion v7 - TLF vs INS
• RAAS v8 - TLF vs INS
• Seed v2 - TLF vs MEA

Gorodok
• Invasion v4 - TLF vs IMF
• RAAS v13 - TLF vs VDV

Kohat
• Invasion v5 - TLF vs INS
• RAAS v5 - TLF vs IMF
• RAAS v11 - TLF vs RGF

Lashkar
• Invasion v5 TLF vs PLA

Logar
• AAS v4 - TLF vs IMF

Mutaha
• Invasion v5 - TLF vs MEA
• RAAS v8 - TLF vs USA

Sumari
• RAAS v3 - TLF vs INS
• Seed v4 - TLF vs USA

Tallil Outskirts
• Invasion v6 - TLF vs MEA
• RAAS v9 - TLF vs PLA

Yehorivka
• Invasion v5 - TLF vs RGF
• RAAS v15 TLF vs VDV

Weapon Skins

Weapon skins are cosmetic items grounded in reality that don’t impact gameplay.
Skins can be equipped only by certain factions and are biome-restricted to keep gameplay authentic.
These items can be equipped on the Customize screen, which can be accessed from the Main Menu.

Woodland Warfare Pack ($4.99 USD)

Contains three cosmetic items for use on Woodland maps

Rainforest - Factory camo for the QBZ95-1 Assault Rifle and the QBZ95B-1 Carbine (PLA and PLANMC)
Shade - Spray paint for the M4A1 and M4 Carbine (USA and USMC)
Tree Line - Trusty camo paint for the AK74M Assault Rifle (RGF)

Desert Warfare Pack ($4.99 USD)

Contains three cosmetic items for use on Desert maps

Gobi - Special camo order for the QBZ95-1 Assault Rifle and QBZ95B-1 Carbine (PLA and PLANMC)
Black & Tan - Classic color scheme for the M4A1 and M4 Carbine (USA and USMC)
Dust - Slightly worn camo paint for the AK-74M Assault Rifle (RGF)

Legacy Weapon Skins
Updated existing founder and reward weapon skins to use the new skin system:

Moved legacy skins from the Steam Inventory section in Settings to the new Weapon Skins tab on the Customize screen
Legacy skins don’t have biome restrictions as they didn’t before
Added some of the existing skins to new factions that are thematically appropriat

eo RPG7 Veteran can now be used by VDV faction
o RPG7v2 Veteran can now be used by VDV, MEA, and the new TLF faction

Emotes

Added a new emote pack:

Stand Off Pack ($3.99 USD)

Cut Throat (Gesture)
Fist Pump (Gesture)
Finger Guns (Emote)
Can’t See Me (Gesture)
Stop (Gesture)

System & Gameplay Updates

Integrated Epic Online Services

We have replaced all Steam backend calls with Epic Online Services backend calls.
This will still use your Steam account to authenticate to the backend as was done previously.

Integrated the Nvidia DLSS plugin as an upscaling option in the settings menu
Players who press their VOIP key without an audio device connected will now see a "no input device" notification
Adjusted all LAT minimum arming distance to 15 meters
Adjusted all HAT minimum arming distance to 20 meters
Helicopter pilots will no longer be affected by suppression
Added a weapon punch animation when changing magnification on variable magnification optics. This will momentarily throw off the sights when adjusting the magnification
Increased the land speed of PLANMC ZBD05 chassis vehicles
Updated BMD wheels and BTR-D chassis to feel better with speed turning and reduce the nose dips at top speeds.

General Bug Fixes
- Fixed a rare client crash related to taking damage
- Fixed a rare client crash related to stamina debuffs on modded clients
- Fixed an exploit related to server security
- Fixed an issue that could allow non-admins to use announcement features
- Fixed a bug that could cause players to get stuck on an infinite loading screen (“running man”) after joining a match on a modded server
- Fixed a bug that could cause players to get stuck on an infinite loading screen (“running man”) after joining a server and selecting a team
- Did an optimization pass of our textures to reduce VRAM usage. This should improve performance and reduce visual issues, especially on GPUs with less VRAM.
- Fixed a bug that prevented players from using their mic after changing audio input devices or reconnecting a previously used audio input device
- Fixed a bug that could cause the view through a picture-in-picture scope to render at a very low pixelated resolution
- Corrected the zeroing on the QBZ95-1 scoped grenadier variant
- Corrected the zeroing on the DZJ08
- Corrected the zeroing on the F89 Minimi + Specter
- Fixed a bug that could cause part of the BAF Elcan LDS scope to appear to detach when aiming down sights
- Fixed several small issues that could prevent players from crouching after interacting with menus
- Fixed a bug that caused the equipped weapon to sway while using freelook
- The soldier sensitivity slider now correctly impacts both weapon and screen movement
- Suppression now works as intended for players in vehicles and emplacements
- Improved the muzzle flash effect for vehicles with infantry weapons on them
- Fixed a bug that allowed anti-tank rifles to be fired before fully aiming down the sights
- The Z-point reticle will no longer break after players change their FOV setting to 120
- Fixed a bug that caused the AS-VAL to sound louder in single-fire mode than in auto-fire mode
- The “falling” gun animation no longer plays when the player gets stuck between two objects
- Fixed a bug that could cause the “falling” animation to continue playing after a player has landed
- Fixed a bug that could cause the soldier to appear to “disappear” momentarily when climbing high walls
- Fixed a bug that could cause the soldier’s hand to appear to clip into the FN FAL Rifle (grenade variant) on certain FOV settings
- Fixed a bug that caused the eye cup of the M3 MAAWS to clip into the camera while aiming down sights
- Fixed a bug that caused the US Army medical bag to appear brighter than the rest of the soldier’s uniform
- Fixed a bug that could the camera to get stuck inside the soldier character model when exiting Admin Cam
- Fixed an animation issue that could occur when exiting vehicles
- Fixed a bug that could cause the camera to zoom out farther than players should be able to see if a player spammed their ADS input
- Smoke from Commander Barrage Abilities no longer flickers
- Made improvements to memory usage related to changing maps
- Fixed a bug that could occasionally cause helicopter instrument panels to be blank when in the pilot’s seat
- Fixed a bug that allowed players to zoom out and dramatically adjust their weapon’s orientation by spamming lean inputs
- Fixed a bug that could prevent players from drowning if they had already drowned and been revived earlier in the match
- Players will no longer get stuck after exiting the commander seat of the ZTZ99A MBT
- Players will no longer get stuck after spamming the “swap seat” key in a vehicle
- Fixed a bug that allowed players to reload and shoot the main turret of the Sprut, BMD1, BMD4, and ZTD05 while the ammo rack was cooking.
- Fixed a bug that caused the SFX and damage values of the BTR-D PKM APC to be the same as the BTR-D KORD APC instead of its unique values
- Fixed a bug that caused the veteran weapon skin to appear incorrectly when using the IMF HAT role
- Underbarrel grenade launchers no longer have a visible round in the chamber
- Improved the appearance of the ZiS-3 Field Gun Emplacement
- Filters no longer apply to the Favorites or Recents server browser pages
- Players in seats four and five of the BRDM-2 Armored Car will no longer be able to see outside of the viewport while driving on uneven terrain
- The RGF Kornet ATGM emplacement is no longer indestructible
- Exiting the Customize menu via the escape key while not connected to a server no longer brings up the “quit game” prompt
- Fixed a bug that prevented vehicles destroyed by IEDs from being removed from the map and respawning
- Fixed a bug that could cause helicopter passengers to appear to float in the air after being damaged
Map Updates & Bug Fixes

Al Basrah
• Invasion v8 - All RHIB boats are now reachable from the dock

Belaya
• Fixed a bug that prevented IMF-specific fortifications from being placed on Belaya map layers

Black Coast
• Invasion v4 - All RHIB boats are now reachable from the dock

Jensen’s Range
• BAF-IMF - Fixed a bug that caused the pre-placed M2HB emplacement to appear with an identical M2HB stacked on top of it
• CAF-INS - Fixed a bug that caused LUV-A1 vehicles to spawn upside-down

Tallil Outskirts
• RAAS_v3 - The USA's M1A2 tank will now correctly spawn after the spawn timer finishes

Pacific Proving Grounds
• USMC-PLA - Fixed a bug that caused the ammo crate at F7-3-9 to be unusable
• USMC-RGF - Fixed a bug that caused the ammo crate at F7-3-2 to be unusable

Mod SDK Update
- Updated the mod SDK to v7.0
- Updated mod versioning to v7.0. This means that all mods will need to be re-cooked with the v7.0 SDK to be compatible with the updated version of the game.
Known Issues
- We are aware of an issue that allows players to “aim down sights” while equipped with a melee weapon. While we work on a fix for the issue, please be aware of this and consider it if you run into any issues while holding a melee weapon. Some features like the emote and interaction wheels are not accessible when aimed down sights, so keep that in mind.
- The “Find Match” feature is not currently working. We are working on a fix for this that we will provide in an update soon after the release of v7.0.
- Occasionally, a server that is not live may appear in the server browser. This is specific to servers that are running in a Windows environment and have been restarted recently. It resolves itself in a couple of minutes. The issue is not present when a server is run in a Linux environment.
- When using DLSS with Frame Generation Enabled, the stat fps command will not show the correct FPS. This is due to how stat fps works by relying on the amount of frames being requested by the CPU. The Nvidia Overlay will show actual FPS. We have a fix for this slated for a future release.

Nov 29, 2023

Weapon Skins Spotlight

Squad - OWI_Icare

Attention Squaddies,

With the next release of Squad, we will be introducing something new and exciting that we are happy to share with you now! Alongside the Turkish Land Forces, usual improvements and bug fixes, we are adding a new form of content to Squad with the introduction of Weapon Skins!

Weapon Skins will give you the opportunity to personalize your weapon, adding a special texture to it. We have taken great care to make them feel authentic and fit seamlessly with the aesthetic of Squad.

As we have done in the past with the introduction of Emotes, Weapon Skins will help us fund further development of Squad. Rest assured that there is plenty of free content on the horizon for Squad, but paid content helps us support our game and sustain our growth into 2024 and beyond. We have very exciting things coming into the new year that we cannot wait to share with you! Now let’s go over the specifics!

Weapon Skins

In an effort to keep the game as realistic as possible and to show skins in the proper conditions (desert skins in desert, forest skins in forest, etc), Weapon Skins can be equipped to specific weapons, are faction-locked, and dependent on biome. This means that not all skins will display all the time and will show when a certain set of conditions are met.

Specific Weapons: weapon skin packs include weapon skins for specific weapons and their variants. Once you equip a skin, it will display on all kits that are using this weapon.
Faction-Locked: Weapon skins are tied to specific weapons. In consequence, only the factions that have access to the weapon will be able to apply the skin.
Biome Dependent: A weapon skin will only appear in the environment it was made for. A desert weapon skin will only be visible on desert maps, for instance.

Legacy Weapon Skins

In the past we have already used Weapon Skins for a variety of different things like tournaments, events, and Kickstarter Founders rewards. This was built off the Steam Inventory system. We have moved away from it and have now built our own internal system to handle Weapon Skins. For those of you with legacy skins, you will find your old skins in the customize menu alongside the new skins. These legacy skins don’t have biome restrictions as they didn’t before, and we have added them to a few new factions that are thematically appropriate.

Using Weapon Skins

Similar to Emotes, Weapon Skins can be purchased as packs. The packs can be previewed directly in the in-game Store and purchased on Steam. Once you have acquired a skin it will be available in your Customize screen which can be accessed from the Main Menu. Once in the Customize screen you can select which skin you wish to equip by simply clicking on it. It will display a preview of the skin as well to help you make a choice. A checkmark on the skin will also inform you of which one you currently have equipped.

Once you are in-game, and all the conditions are met, you will be able to look at your new skin. To help you look at your weapon’s new look, we have also added a new gesture for everyone to use for free, the Weapon Inspection. This gesture won’t be visible to other players, only you will see your soldier trigger it.

On the next release of Squad we will have two new Weapon Skin packs for you to buy. Both the Woodland Camo Pack and the Desert Camo Pack will be available for 4.99 USD upon release. Prices may vary depending on regional currencies. Take a look at the exhaustive list below to know the content of each pack.

Woodland Camo Pack
4.99 USD

This pack contains 3 weapon skins for woodland maps:

Shade - M4A1 and M4 Carbines (USA and USMC)
Tree Line - AK74M Assault Rifle (RGF)
Rainforest - QBZ95-1 Assault Rifle and QBZ95B-1 Carbine (PLA and PLANMC)

Desert Camo Pack
4.99 USD

This pack contains 3 weapon skins for desert maps:

Black & Tan - M4A1 and M4 Carbines (USA and USMC)
Dust - AK74M Assault Rifle (RGF)
Gobi - QBZ95-1 Assault Rifle and QBZ95B-1 Carbine (PLA and PLANMC)

Thank you for your on-going support as we continue improving Squad by creating new content, features, and other improvements for you to enjoy.

Sep 26, 2023

Squad Update V6.0 Release Notes

Squad - OWI_Astraea

Infantry Combat Overhaul

The infantry combat overhaul intends to create the most fun, immersive, authentic, and teamwork-oriented infantry combat experience possible. The goals are to:

Increase the amount of teamwork needed to win a fight.
Create more meaningful tradeoffs between different factions, weapon types, and optic types.
Keep the game fun while making it more approachable for new and existing players.
Mitigate the amount of punishment newer players experience in combat while learning the game.

Features

These patch notes will not list the exhaustive changes that we have made to each of the following areas, so please see the original infantry combat overhaul blog posts (LINK 1/LINK 2) for more detailed information about the changes:

Suppression

The suppression effect has been completely reworked to become more immersive and to enable the use of suppressive fire to become a valuable tactical tool for overcoming the enemy in combat. More powerful weapons will create a more intense and longer-lasting suppression effect. The suppression effect itself will reduce the ability of a player to be effective in combat, encouraging them to reposition themselves or seek cover.
Newer players can stress less about knowing exactly where the enemy are and instead provide meaningful suppressing fire to fix the enemy in place so that others can flank or maneuver on them.

Picture-in-Picture Scopes

Picture-in-Picture (or PiP) scopes have been added to the game, this is a more authentic way of representing magnified optics in a game. Instead of your whole screen being zoomed in when aiming through a magnified scope, only the area inside of the scope will be zoomed in. The field of view (space that the optic takes up on the player’s screen) for different optics will follow real-life measurements in most cases.

Gunplay Changes

Gunplay overall has been adjusted to create more fun, immersive, and authentic team-oriented infantry combat. The ability for a single player to affect the outcome of a firefight has been mitigated; effective communication and teamwork should overcome lone individual fighters in the majority of cases. All weapons have been adjusted and the weapons available to some factions have also been adjusted. Adjustments after release will be an ongoing effort to ensure we strike the correct balance.
Different types of weapons and optics will now have much more meaningful trade-offs, magnified optics will not be the best choice in every situation.
In the majority of situations, players who are in a bad position relative to the enemy are more likely to be wounded or suppressed, and less likely to be instantly killed, giving them meaningful moments to be able to react to incoming fire and making combat less punishing overall.

Infantry Movement Changes

Character movement has undergone changes to encourage greater communication and coordination between infantry and other infantry, as well as between infantry and vehicles.
Overcoming tall obstacles will be more challenging for individual infantry players than before, work together with your teammates to buddy-boost over taller objects and plan your movements through urban areas more deliberately.
Vaulting over obstacles is now triggered only when also holding the “Move Forward” key. Otherwise the character will instead attempt to climb on top of the obstacle. This is intended to give you more control over your actions in combat and help prevent accidental vaults causing deadly falls.

Additional System & Gameplay Updates

Added proximity indicators to the squad list:
- These are dots that appear alongside the names of squad and fireteam members within your local voice chat range. The color of the dot represents how far away from you they are (bright white for 0-25 meters and grey for 25-50 meters)
Vehicles that can hold ammunition will now show a 3D ammo icon so that you can identify them more easily
Updated several CAF faction reload animations to be more true-to-life
Nametags will now only appear when there is a direct line of sight between you and your teammate
Temporarily added a “Scope Image Clarity” option to the Settings menu. You can use this setting to choose whether to prioritize clarity or anti-aliasing while using scopes. You can learn more about why this setting is being introduced in the “Known Issues” section below

General Bug Fixes

Players in a server’s queue will no longer get stuck in the queue when the server changes maps
When projectiles pass through walls, they will now have appropriate exit VFX
Aiming down sights with the AK-74M’s GP-25 grenade launcher while your FOV is set to 120 will no longer cause the gun to clip into your viewpoint
Binoculars now behave correctly when FOV is set to 120
Corrected the appearance of the ADF Crewman/Pilot icon on the deployment screen
Fixed a bug that allowed vehicles with blown-out tires to drive over AT mines without detonating them
Fixed a bug that could cause players to encounter an infinite running soldier animation after joining the server
Fixed a bug that could cause the barrel and scope of sniper rifles to momentarily become invisible if a user collapsed a bipod while aiming down sights
Fixed a bug that could cause the deployment loading screen to appear incorrectly
Fixed a bug that could prevent players from damaging vehicles with emplacements in certain situations when playing on Jensen’s Range locally (not online)
Fixed a bug that could prevent players from switching to certain seats in a vehicle even when they were unoccupied
Fixed a bug that could prevent the IMF RKG3 AT Grenade’s SFX and VFX from playing - after destroying hedgehog traps or the second state of barbed wire
Fixed a bug that prevented the salute emote from playing when used by a player on the ADF or BAF team
Fixed a client crash related to WorldSettings
Fixed a client crash that could occur while loading into the main menu after starting the game
Fixed a minor visual issue impacting the glasses and visors of BAF soldiers
Fixed an issue that could allow the third-person camera to clip through certain walls during emotes
Fixed an issue that could cause occasional waves of server log spam when having multiple clients connected
Helicopter control settings for Pitch, Roll, and Yaw are no longer reset each time the game is started
Players can now exit HMG bunkers as intended
Players will no longer become stuck inside the vehicle after attempting to exit the LAV, BMP1/BMP2, AAVPW, MT-LB, BFV, or M1126 vehicles in places where the vehicle’s exit points are obstructed
The ADF EF88 Ironsight Rifle can now be zeroed reliably
The emote wheel description for the Push Ups emote has been updated to reflect that it cannot be used while standing
Water shields on amphibious vehicles are no longer deployed automatically upon vehicle spawn-in and will reliably deploy and retract properly when entering and exiting the water
When a player using a recruit kit joins a squad and uses VoIP, the VoIP widget will now correctly display a recruit role icon next to their username

Map Updates & Bug Fixes

Anvil

RAAS v4 - Replaced the BMD-1M with the BMD-4M for the VDV faction
RAAS v4 - Replaced the PMV Mag58 3x with PMV RWS for the ADF faction

Black Coast

AAS v1 - Replaced the BMD-1M with the BMD-4M for the VDV faction
AAS v1 - Replaced the 2x Kamaz Logi with 2x BTR-DG Logi for the VDV faction
AAS v1 - Added 1x LAV-25 for the USMC faction
RAAS v1 - Removed the BMD-1M from the VDV faction on this layer

Goose Bay

RAAS v1 - Removed the BMD-1M from the VDV faction on this layer

Manicouagan

RAAS v10 - Reduced the number of BTR-MDMs from 2 to 1 for the VDV faction
RAAS v10 - Removed the BMD-1M from the VDV faction on this layer
RAAS v11 - Reduced the number of BTR-MDMs from 2 to 1
RAAS v11 - Reduced the number of MATV M2s from 2 to 1
RAAS v12 - Reduced the number of BTR-MDMs from 2 to 1
RAAS v12 - Removed the M1151 M2 Open Door vehicle from the USMC faction on this layer

Mutaha

RAAS v4 - Replaced the M113 TLAV with the TAPV for the CAF faction
RAAS v4 - Replaced the Sprut-SDM1 with a T72B3 on a 10min initial delay
RAAS v4 - Removed the BMD-1M from the layer

Narva

RAAS v2 - One helicopter with a 10-minute initial spawn delay has been added for each team
Destruction v1 - Fixed a bug that could cause objectives and objective caches to spawn floating above the floor in certain areas

Pacific Proving Grounds

Made various visual improvements to terrain.
Added missing map boundaries
Seed v1 - The PLANMC team can no longer place infinite HASCO bunkers for free. The team must also now abide by the three-player requirement.
PLANMC-VDV Training - The Sprut-SDM1 and ZTD05 vehicles are no longer missing from this layer
PLANMC-VDV Training - Fixed a bug that prevented RHIBs from spawning at the dock

Skorpo

RAAS v5 - Replaced the BMD-1M with the BMD-4M for a total of 2x BMD-4M for the VDV faction
RAAS v5 - Increased the number of Leopard 2A6Ms (on 15min initial spawn delays) from 1 to 2 for the CAF faction

Yehorivka

RAAS v2 - Removed the T72B3 tank from the VDV faction on this layer
RAAS v2 - Swapped the M1126 CROWS M240 with the M1126 CROWS M2 for 4x M1126 CROWS M2 total for the USA faction
RAAS v2 - Swapped 1x MATV M2 with 1x MATV CROWS M2 for the USA faction
RAAS v2- Reduced the number of UH60s from 2 to 1 for the USA faction
RAAS v10 - Updated the vehicle layout for both teams:

RAAS v10 BAF:

1x HX60 Transport (6min)
2x HX60 Logi
1x FV432
1x FV432 RWS
1x FV107
1x FV510
2x FV510UA
1x FV4034 (10min)
1x SA330 (10min)

RAAS v10 VDV:

1x BTR-D PKM (6min)
2x BTR-DG Logi
2x Tigr KORD
2x BMD-4M
1x Sprut-SDM1
3x Mi8
RAAS v11 - Removed the BMD-1M from the VDV faction on this layer
RAAS v11 - Removed the Sprut-SDM1 from the VDV faction on this layer

Known Issues

We are aware of an issue that can cause the view seen through a picture-in-picture scope to be blurred for players using anti-aliasing or FSR. The severity of the blur is impacted by the FSR and resolution settings being used, so it may not look the same for each player who encounters it. The cause of this issue is very complex but we are hard at work to address the issue.To mitigate this issue in the meantime, we’ve implemented a “Scope Image Clarity” option in the Settings menu.

There are two options to choose from:

Prioritize Clarity in Scopes: This setting makes the image sharper but may also produce visual artifacts and cannot be used with FSR. This works by temporarily disabling anti-aliasing when aiming with a scope, meaning that players using this option may encounter jagged edges while aiming. This is the option that is enabled by default and is ideal for players who want to prioritize a clear and accurate view through their scopes.

Prioritize Anti-Aliasing in Scopes: This setting smooths jagged edges, reduces visual artifacts, and makes it possible to use FSR, but may result in the blurry image described above. This option is ideal for players who want to prioritize anti-aliasing and FSR or who are not bothered by the level of blur they are experiencing.Feel free to give both options a try to see what works best for you. We appreciate your understanding and patience as we work to get this resolved as quickly as possible.

We are also aware that nametags do not appear when looking through a picture-in-picture scope. This is a temporary mitigation for a problem we found during development. Nametags appeared to be offset from their intended location while looking through picture-in-picture scopes. We have decided to remove them for now and will update you on any further adjustments to the nametag system in the future.

Mod SDK

Updated mod SDK to v6.0.
Updated mod versioning to v6.0. This requires mods to be re-cooked with the v6.0 SDK in order to be compatible with the updated version of the game.
Weapon sway configs in “Weapon Static Info” will be overwritten when the new SDK arrives. Remember to copy these values over to your new version.
The walk speed multiplier while reloading and using items previously lived in the “Mutable Soldier”, but now it is controlled on a per-weapon basis. See “Walk Speed Multiplier” in “Weapon Static Info”. Changes made to the parameter in “Mutable Soldier” will be lost.
The three parameters which together controlled ADS time have been consolidated into a single parameter in “Weapon Static Info”, adjustable per-stance. “StandLocBlendTime” was preserved but is not functional, so you can refer to this value to see what your pre-ICO weapon ADS time was.
Added Gameplay Events Subsystem: This allows modders to easily bind events to common gameplay actions like reloading, aiming, and firing, without needing a reference to the soldier or player controller. We aim to add more bindable events in the future.
Added Generic Punch System: This allows modders to use curves to rotate or translate the weapon and/or camera in response to gameplay events. This system is already being refactored, so feel free to experiment with it for now, please note that the input structs and blueprint nodes will change in the following SDK release.

Please Note: Updating to Squad v6.0 will force your cache to clear, resetting the game settings to their default values. Remember that you can use the "saved keybind preset" feature to save and load custom keybinds so you don’t have to set them up again when clearing your cache.

Offworld Out.

Sep 23, 2023

Squad Developer Q&A – September

Squad - OWI_Astraea

“Communications inbound. Ready to receive!”

Thanks Squaddies for taking part in the latest Squad Q&A, where you, the players, get to ask the developers who made Squad all about the game! We were extremely excited with the number of responses to our call for questions. We have taken the time to select fourteen (14) questions to answer.

Aiding in answering the questions are four members of our development team

CANNON - Senior Producer - Squad
SgtRoss - Director of Community
BaronVonBoyce - Lead Game Designer - Squad
OWI_Patrick - Lead Programmer - Squad

If your question was not answered this time around please feel free to ask it again next time.

"Hang on. We have additional comms incoming!"

In addition to this Q&A Offworld is seeking fellow Squaddies to help shape Squads future. We would appreciate any and all to take the time to fill out our Questionnaire form! [[url=https://bit.ly/Squad-Questionnaire]LINK[/url]]

With that we want to thank all of our Squaddies for their participation. To not delay any further let's get into these questions!

Community

Question: Can we expect a new updated roadmap? - Klav

Answer: We've been diligently developing Squad according to our internal roadmap and working on delivering the promises made with the old roadmap over the past two years. However, as our development priorities evolve, we want to avoid the risk of running into issues with a new public roadmap and the expectations it sets and disappointing our community. Our goal is to ensure that the community feels engaged and involved. To achieve this, we're actively exploring alternatives to a public roadmap, which may include emphasizing other aspects like dev blogs, public testing or behind-the-scenes sneak peeks. - CANNON

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Question: Will we get more communication with the dev team? Potentially reintroducing dev streams? It was a great way to stay connected with the community. - Mr.Phileo

Answer: We have recently changed our community leadership and want to take a more active role. Increasing transparency and communication is our goal as a community team. We want to continue growing inclusive communities that share our experiences together. Dev streams, Q&As, and more public play-testing at an earlier stage of development are some ways we plan to do that. - SgtRoss

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Question: Is there a reason why each Infantry Combat Overhaul playtest only lasts half a week and is not left up until the next playtest session drops? - Peanut 01^5

Answer: With playtesting, we found it crucial to conduct playtests in a structured manner, allowing us to create an iteration loop essential to our development cycle. By temporarily taking down playtests, we close the loop of receiving feedback and grant our design team the time to consume and process the community feedback meticulously. Allowing us to make well-informed adjustments before launching the next round of playtests. Additionally, the approach provides safeguards in preventing player burnout, ensuring we can achieve consistent attendance for subsequent playtests. Having a dedicated player base for each test ensures we continue to receive valuable and stable feedback during different testing phases. Enhancing the overall quality and refinement of the overhaul and our game. - BaronVonBoyce

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Question: In regards to mods and mod makers. Does the team have any plans for increased communication, support, and integration of Squad mods/makers into the base game. Or is the team satisfied with the current state of modding with a few minor tweaks in mind? - Jaster

Answer: Yes, modding is still very important to our studio and Squad, and we are always trying to find ways to improve not just the modding experience but our own design team's experience. Creating mods uses a similar workflow to when we design new maps or features, but we just have direct access to the source code and the programming team behind it. While we are not currently ready to publicly share details of our plans regarding modding, we can definitely say we are not satisfied with the current state of the Mod SDK, the difficulty using our tools, and the high bar of entry when it comes to modding our game and are actively looking to improve it. - OWI_Patrick

Development

Question: Besides the Infantry Combat Overhaul, what else is Offworld looking to do to make the game more immersive? For example, is there an interest in an armor/helmet protection system or interactive doors and props on the maps? - Pedro B

Answer: We would love to add more environmental interaction, such as destruction. The main issue Squad currently runs is the need for performant tooling to do this in a live environment, which currently restricts us to prefabricated destruction setups in our environments. The need to replicate the destruction to all players would also add stress to servers affecting performance. - OWI_Patrick

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Question: How would you balance the Infantry vs. Vehicle combat when implementing the Infantry Combat Overhaul? Will suppression be adjusted as well as will the damage of Light and Heavy Anti-tank weapons look to be changed? - Vector.Kamarov

Answer: In terms of infantry versus vehicle balance, we anticipate that vehicles will gain increased potency, especially with the introduction of an effective suppression mechanic. It's important to clarify that our intention is not to replicate the dynamics observed in the live version of the game, as we found that particular balance to be unsatisfactory. With the upcoming Infantry Combat Overhaul update, we don't have any plans to make fundamental alterations to infantry versus vehicle combat, except for potential adjustments to some faction's roles and load-outs. While we do have conceptual ideas for the future of vehicle combat in Squad, we'll take a prudent approach by reassessing the situation after the ICO release, we want to ensure that vehicles don't become excessively powerful, and we'll make any necessary adjustments to maintain the desired balance as we move forward. - BaronVonBoyce

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Question: With the new combat overhaul and changes to suppression mechanics, are there any plans to change gun sounds to more closely reflect their real-life counterparts? Machine guns specifically seem to lack power compared to other weapons. - Acepalm

Answer: Other than regular iterations on particular sound effects. There are no plans at the current time to make any mass changes to the weapon sounds. Part of this is due to the limitations we have with the custom sound system that Squad has used for many years. However, we are working on shifting to a different audio system that will let us bypass these limitations and deliver more impactful audio. - OWI_Patrick and BaronVonBoyce

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Question: In the Infantry Combat Overhaul dev blog announcement, Offworld stated that they have strayed from Squad’s original vision. Are there more aspects of the game that need to be overhauled to return the game to its original vision? - Josefig

Answer: Yes, in the Infantry Combat Overhaul dev blog announcement, we acknowledged that more aspects of the game need to be overhauled to return Squad to its original vision. Apart from the combat systems, several key areas are being addressed to enhance the gaming experience. First and foremost, there will be a reworking of the first-time user experience to ensure that new players can seamlessly dive into the game and understand its mechanics. Additionally, there are plans to implement an in-game system to reward good sportsmanship, effective communicators, and experienced mentors, fostering a positive and cooperative community, as well as recognition for veteran players. Beyond that, the development team intends to rework anti-tank guided missiles to improve their functionality and balance, ensuring a more immersive combat experience. Helicopters are also slated for a revamp to enhance their gameplay dynamics and performance. Finally, certain game modes will undergo changes to align them with the game's original vision, providing players with a more cohesive and engaging gameplay experience. These comprehensive efforts demonstrate our commitment to restoring Squad to its intended vision by addressing multiple facets of the game. - BaronVonBoyce

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Question: Are there any plans to work on the game’s optimization in the near future? - MistahGG

Answer: There are! We have spent a few months looking at Virtual RAM (VRAM) usage and asset Level of Detail (LODs). Configuring both of them properly for every asset and texture in the game. This will be released with the November update. While it’s tough to say what performance gains we will get from these changes, it will certainly help overall performance across the board.

Additionally, this year, we upgraded to Unreal Engine 4.27, which came with some tangential improvements to performance, but at a detriment to other areas. We’ve spent time this year optimizing things a bit behind the scenes, such as patching times and some low-hanging fruit in terms of performance. The primary focus this year was addressing server performance to get it to pre-engine upgrade levels. This proved quite difficult as there aren’t a lot of tools available for testing server performance, especially at Squad’s scale. To solve that particular problem, we had to develop a scale testing infrastructure in which we could diagnose the problem in the first place. Thankfully, we were able to find a solution and have observed that server performance is on par to what it was in the previous engine version and more stable across the board.

Beyond addressing server performance, we've made significant strides in enhancing the gaming experience on lower-end systems. We've successfully integrated AMD Fidelity Super Resolution 2 (FSR) to provide a quick performance boost. Furthermore, we're actively working on integrating DLSS and XeSS to offer even more performance options to our players.

As mentioned earlier, we are also diligently tackling VRAM-related issues, particularly concerning texture streaming and optimizing our textures for better performance. In addition, we've undertaken various optimizations to reduce overall memory usage. We've devoted considerable effort to untangling complex memory reference chains that had accumulated over the years. For instance, we identified a case where loading a faction triggered the simultaneous loading of all vehicles and weapons associated with that faction. This resulted in excessive memory utilization, which was largely unnecessary and has since been rectified.

Support for DirectX12 has also been added, which has delivered a substantial performance boost on graphics cards that are compatible with it. However, we acknowledge that it doesn't offer significant benefits for those using graphics cards that do not support it. Our commitment to optimization remains steadfast, and we will continuously work on improving performance in future updates. Our goal is to incorporate at least some minor level of optimization in each update. - OWI_Patrick and CANNON

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Question: Will you keep updating the game for the next 2 years? - ThaDucks

Answer: No plans on stopping. Offworld still believes in Squad and it’s future, so we plan on continuing to develop and improve Squad. We might change our development cadence as we determine what works for the team. We’ve learned a lot about cadence over the course of 2023, and we want to put that into effect going forward in 2024 and the future. - CANNON

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Question: Are there any plans to add new factions? - HardentSergent

Answer: Yes! Factions are still in development, so stay tuned into the radio feeds Squaddies. We don’t have anything major we can share at the moment. But we want to let the community know that we have seen a lot of faction requests, and it is good to know we share similar ideas with the community. Although we cannot reveal the faction, we’d like to provide a very small sneak peek into what will be coming to Squad in the future. - CANNON

Gameplay

Question: What are the studios thoughts on adding team-balance mechanics to Squad? - Derf

Answer: Implementing a team-balancing system in Squad presents unique challenges due to the sandbox nature of the game, where player contributions to victory often go beyond what's tracked in a traditional scoring system. This complexity makes it challenging to assess and balance teams solely based on in-game metrics. Additionally, we're aware that it's already a bit challenging for players to coordinate and play on the same team as their friends in Squad.

To address this issue, we have plans to introduce a 'friends list' feature in the near future, making it easier for players to join their friends. Therefore, introducing team-scrambling mechanics could potentially undermine this effort.

It's worth noting that community servers have devised their own team-scrambling solutions when necessary, and we want to respect their discretion in managing team balance within their communities. - BaronVonBoyce

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Question: Are there any plans to bring back the gritty nature of Squad via map atmosphere? In 2017 Squad had a lot more variety in terms of lighting. - ZackTactical34

Answer: Our current focus in level design revolves around optimizing our workflow to streamline development. While we're excited about introducing more evocative and atmospheric lighting scenarios into our levels, our primary goal is to enhance efficiency. We aim to delve into an investigative phase to thoroughly study and standardize lighting scenarios, ensuring perfect alignment with gameplay requirements, optimization considerations, and aesthetic goals for any given level design project in Squad. This approach will allow us to seamlessly incorporate atmospheric lighting setups in the future, enhancing the overall player experience without compromising performance and aesthetics. - BaronVonBoyce

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Question: Are you planning to revise or rework the tutorial anytime soon? If so, how and why? - Tank20k

Answer: We're currently in the brainstorming phase for a new tutorial aimed at enhancing the initial player experience. Although it's not on our immediate internal roadmap, we have a clear intention to implement a tutorial system in Squad tailored to help players understand the specific roles within the game, like LAT/HAT tutorials. Our goal is to provide players with the essential information they need before diving into their first match. While we can't make any promises at this point, we are considering offering a small reward as an incentive for players who invest their time in learning the game. - CANNON

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That's all the questions we have for this Q&A session! Thanks again to all the Squaddies that participated even if we did not get around to your question. Your interest in Squad and its development we greatly appreciate. If you missed your chance to ask a question this time around, Keep a close watch on our Twitter and Facebook, where we always announce our latest rounds of Q&A.

Offworld Out.