Mar 15, 2024

Dev Journal #2 - Setting and playable races

Space Prison - Lau_Rad

Hey inmates,

In today’s post, we'll explore further three key aspects of the game: the setting of the Space Prison itself, the playable races within it, and the crimes you committed.

The Space Prison setting

Space Prison is not your average hellhole. It's an experimental penitentiary located on a space station, housing the most notorious criminals from across the galaxy. Imagine being locked up—truly guilty or not—in a huge metal can with inhumane living conditions, vicious alien creatures, tough convicts, and sadistic guards. Will you survive? Will you rise in the gang hierarchy, or have the will to attempt a daring escape? Only one person has managed to pull that out before. Supposedly.

The game features a colorful cast of criminals, each with their own personal quest chain; survival mechanics like crafting and building up your prison cell; turn-based brawls for setting up arguments and a bunch of roguelite elements. But why a Space Prison, you may ask. Four years ago, when we sat at a drawing board, we already knew what kind of games we wanted to make. We strive to make distinct titles—games that offer an experience and atmosphere that no other games do. We didn’t want to make another fantasy RPG or Souls-like. From all the ideas we had, Space Prison was an obvious choice—its distinct setting, mechanics, and art style make it a unique and fun experience.

And for rest? Well, we’ll keep the mystery so you can enjoy it yourself!

The playable races

In Space Prison, you can choose from three distinct races, each with its own background, abilities, and playstyle. We needed them to differ so strongly that it would be easy to assign various skills, perks, and stats to them. Why three races? Because three is the magic number! In all seriousness, if you get locked in Space Prison, you will see that in the game we have over a dozen various alien races. We selected the three that we believe to be the most distinct and appealing as playable races.

The races were definitely the team’s joint effort. They were born with the vision of our art team, who designed them visually. When we had these distinct and interesting looking races, then our narration and design team took them under their care to make them distinct from each other and other races we have in the game. We added their backgrounds and set them apart for different playstyles. What’s very important to us, we didn’t want any race (or sex for that matter) to define any of the characters. That’s why, even though they have distinct backgrounds, you can see that all of them have equal chances to become any type of criminal they want.
We're very interested in finding out which alien races you will like the most. Although I must admit that “muscle alien ladies” already have an impressive fanbase.

Now, without further ado, let’s take a look at these big baddies:

Ferath

Feraths are on the verge of extinction after a gene mutation entwined a life-threatening disease with the chromosome Y. There are few male individuals left in the universe, and they are imprisoned on Ferra (their origin planet) and forced to reproduce as much as possible with selected female Ferraths, to produce more boys. They are known for having one horn, fur on their torsos and hands, and a large tail. Some of them believe that their predecessors were the infamous, intergalactic Yetis, but the theory has never been confirmed.

Nex

Nex are cyborgs from the Nexus galaxy that are actively looking for their Inventor and answers regarding the ‘how’ and ‘why’ they were created. They undergo physical transformations to imitate their prophet, who rejected a biological body for a cybernetic one. Her reasons for doing that are unknown, because there is scarcely any knowledge left from the time she lived. Nex have cellular bodies merged with artificial parts. They modify their organisms and use various enhancements to reach individual goals. The enhancements are fueled by a special substance - one that is very efficient, however very scarce in the Nexus galaxy.

Human

Ah, the good ol’ typical biped mammal that we all are! The human race has finally reached technological advancement, allowing them to travel between different galaxies in the universe. When they had first crawled out of the Milky Way, they started to rapidly expand their territory and appear all over the universe. Thus, some alien races began to think of them as lower evolutionary species, hardly resilient on their own, but stronger in packs.

The crimes

In Space Prison, every character has their own criminal background, determining their skills and challenges.

Smuggler

Smugglers are experts in the art of concealment. They are skilled in hiding contraband and avoiding inspections, however they are sometimes too slow on their feet.

Secret Pockets - You start your sentence with one contraband item smuggled in
Slow Reflexes - Takes 50% more damage from hazards

Assassin

Assassins believe their bodies are living weapons. They rely on the momentum of their movements to kill their targets. Unsurprisingly, this way of life comes with a grim outlook on the world.

Deadly Maneuvers - After Moving: Next Attack +30% damage, Duration: Infinite
Fatalist - Hope Gain: Decreased by -20%

Saboteur

Saboteurs use rats and other goons to wreak havoc on their targets. They believe in strength in numbers and that life is expandable. As a result, freelancers charge them higher fees.

Give all your rats additional combat slots
Fodders Hire Price: Increased by 50%

Thief

Driven by greed and the prospect of easy money, they employ their talents to steal credits and valuable artifacts. People know not to trust them with their possessions, that is why it’s hard for them to form any kind of business relations.

Meticulous - Has 100% chance of double loot from Loot Boxes
Relation Gain: -10%

Con Artist

Con Artists are criminals who make their living out of deception. They know how to put up a facade in front of others, but are less resilient to physical harm.

Relation Gain: +20%
Feeble: Damage +20%

Each crime offers unique bonuses and challenges, allowing you to choose the kind of criminal you want to be and customize your experience in the Space Prison.

With Space Prison, we want to create a thrilling blend of survival, strategy, and storytelling in a unique setting. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to develop Space Prison (and the Early Access release is fast approaching already)!

See you behind bars!
Wooden Alien Team

Mar 15, 2024

BATTLEFIELD 2042 - UPDATE #7.0.0

Battlefield™ 2042 - TOTALfps

Welcome to Season 7: Turning Point!

Season 7 brings the battle for Earth’s most valuable resource to the Atacama Desert in Chile. Aligned with a new enemy, the Thousand Petals Coalition, Eastern forces launch an assault on the desert mining town of El Alicanto, to seize control of a massive subterranean water reservoir vital to Western and US forces.

We truly cannot wait to see all of your clips and reactions to Haven when Season 7 arrives, and stay tuned in the future to learn more about what has changed with Stadium, arriving in a later season update.

See you on the Battlefield!

//The Battlefield Team

What’s new in Season 7?

Here is an overview of the new content, alongside highlights for changes and improvements:

New Maps

Haven
Haven, is the return of urban warfare that features a mixture of infantry and vehicle combat set in familiar territory, the Atacama Desert.

This map has been inspired by great favorites from Battlefield’s long history, including Arica Harbor (Bad Company 2), Strike At Karkand (Battlefield 2), and Amiens (Battlefield 1).

If you’d like to learn more about our new map check out our dedicated Haven blog, where we dive deeper into the construction of the map.

Stadium - Arriving later in Season 7

Stadium, an area from Hourglass, will be making its return as a standalone map; this highly requested location from the community has been significantly reworked and adapted for intense, infantry-only close-quarter battles. Stay tuned for more details on the work that has taken place with Stadium, as we get closer to its launch later in Season 7.

New Weapons: AK 5C, SCZ-3 & DFR Strife LMG
It’s time to step up and load up with this season’s new additions to Battlefield 2042’s arsenal.

AK 5C - This assault rifle offers an excellent balance of firepower and accuracy, making it the perfect partner for close-quarters combat.
SCZ-3 - This deadly submachine gun is a devastating option for close-quarters combat that stings, especially when equipped with a drum magazine to give you even more time before your next reload.
DFR Strife LMG – Get the best of both worlds. Equip the DFR Strife with belt-fed ammo, giving you an LMG’s magazine size and suppressive quality, while retaining the mobility of an Assault Rifle.
The DFR Strife LMG will debut in a later update during Season 7: Turning Point.

New Gadget - Predator SRAW
A classic staple from Battlefield’s history returns. This anti-vehicle launcher’s wire-guided missile will help you disable and eliminate both land and air vehicles.

New Vehicle XFAD-4 Draugr
Keep your eyes on the sky with this cutting-edge remote-controlled aerial bomber featuring advanced precision-guided ordinance – including EMP bombs and air-to-ground weaponry.
The XFAD-4 Draugr will come in a later update during Season 7: Turning Point.

New Battle Pass
You’ll need to be fearless and do whatever it takes to come out on top. A new Battle Pass featuring powerful weapons and useful gadgets will help you gain an edge in battle where every advantage is a necessary one while this season’s cosmetics will let you intimidate foes.

Quality of Life Improvements

Visual Weapon Recoil Improvements for all weapons, providing more visual impact and immersion when aiming down sights.
Headshot Multiplier Rebalancing for all Weapon Archetypes such as SMGs, LMGs and Assault Rifles.
Infantry and Vehicle Rebalancing for Vehicles such as the Wildcat and providing further Class Identity to Engineers.
Body Armor Improvements, Sidearm Rebalancing, Casper Drone alterations and more.

When can I play?
Update 7.0.0 deploys between 09:00 and 10:00 UTC on Tuesday, March 19. Season 7: Turning Point* and its Battle Pass progression starts at 12:00 UTC on the same day.

With the deployment of the 7.0.0 Update, 24/7 playlists for Haven will immediately be available on both Conquest and Breakthrough.

Stay Informed
Follow us on Reddit and @Battlefield to stay informed on the latest news, and on @BattlefieldComm for the rollout of updates and other live service changes.

Tune in
Check out the Inside Battlefield Podcast if you’d like to listen to the team talking about the new content!

AREAS OF FOCUS

DEV NOTE: State of Weapons for Season 7

Season 7 brings changes and improvements that will permeate across the whole weapon arsenal in different ways. Season 7 includes a shift in META balance between weapon categories and raising the lowest time-to-kill to a healthier level, to a revamp of the visual recoil system to liven up the shooting experience alongside many more balance improvements.

Visual Weapon Recoil Improvements
As mentioned on BattlefieldComm at the start of this month, your weapons are about to feel more impactful on a visual level with Season 7.

We wanted weapons to feel more unique and powerful when it comes to firing them, as such we have made changes to how visual recoil is handled within the game and tuned them to the vision for each weapon.

It's an effort to create a more vivid firing experience, which will provide more visual emphasis on the weight and power of a weapon as you fire whilst aiming down sights.

Of course, this visual improvement will not compromise your aiming experience, as our main goal is always to provide you with fluid, reliable and high-quality gunplay. Feeling and controlling recoil while bursting will be more intuitive and visually rewarding without affecting your accuracy in artificial ways.

In this first iteration, we have implemented different archetypes and tried to have as many different handling characteristics as possible, pushing the system to make the most of it and we will tune and polish wherever necessary to give you the best possible experience.

Headshot Multiplier Rebalancing
One of the other big updates coming in Season 7 is a rebalance of the headshot damage multipliers. These changes will bring a rebalancing of our weapon categories, particularly SMGs, Assault Rifles and LMGs, and how they perform at different ranges.
We are compressing the headshot multipliers, which results in the characteristics of these weapons mattering more and with this change we anticipate seeing a better equilibrium between them when it comes to usage rates and competitiveness.

As an example of these changes, with the above red line, the RM-68 is using High-Power Ammo with the old 2.15x Headshot Multiplier from Update 6.4. The difference in optimal TTK at close range is shown here, versus the same RM-68 build now showing the updated multipliers in blue and PP-29 in yellow.

SMGs
This weapon category will now benefit from a 1.55x headshot multiplier. They are now stronger in Close Quarter Combat and at performing headshots due to the higher multiplier and improvements to their Aim Down Sight movement speeds. Their optimal efficiency will stand toe-to-toe against ARs when it comes to pure firepower under 30-50m with the same potential 3-headshot-kill range.

It needs to be pointed out that the PP-29 has received less improvements this update, since it was already a high performer and belongs to a different archetype than most other SMGs. This weapon will still benefit from the headshot multiplier changes. On the other hand, Vault SMGs have also received extra improvements to their bullet velocity.

Even with this increased headshot multiplier, SMGs should not outperform other weapon categories at longer ranges due to damage drop-off, bullet velocity and accuracy.

ARs
Assault Rifles will now benefit from a 1.9x headshot multiplier. This means that, in general, they will no longer have a 2-headshot-kill range in Close Quarter Combat and instead require 3 headshots. Which we anticipate is going to be less likely to take place within a single full-auto burst due to the nature of recoil and dispersion.

This change will raise the lowest possible TTK in that Close Quarter Combat area, which was previously too low and leading to frustration by our players, as well as putting too much balance in favor of Assault Rifles. However in most cases it will not affect their performance at mid or long range, where the archetype of Assault Rifles naturally sit.

LMGs
LMG’s will now benefit from a 1.9x headshot multiplier. Similar to above, this now removes a 2-headshot-kill scenario across the roster and addresses instances of extremely low TTK.

This will drive LMGs away from Close Quarters Combat and more into the mid and long range, but will remain at a similar power level when compared to Assault Rifles. In addition, dispersion has been slightly reduced for the following Vault Weapons: M240B, M60E4 and Type 88.

And there are many more changes taking place across several weapons and archetypes, which you can find out by scrolling down.

Before we hand things over to the Vehicles Team to share what they’ve been changing for Season 7: Turning Point, we wanted to thank you for your continued feedback in regards to weapons.

Keep it coming and we’ll continue to tune and polish where possible in future updates!

// Battlefield Weapons Team.

DEV NOTE: State of Vehicles for Season 7

Alongside the work that our Weapons Team is doing across weapons, we are also making changes to how Infantry and Vehicles interact with each other in Season 7: Turning Point!

We’re aware that Ground Vehicles currently face too many threats both from infantry and other vehicles, and due to this it automatically encourages defensive gameplay which takes place from a large distance.

It has always been our aim to encourage and empower vehicles so that they feel able to engage with objectives and be alongside their fellow infantry team mates as such with this update we are aiming to lessen the amount of threats towards ground vehicles in order to give them breathing room, while also ensuring that infantry are capable of engaging too.

To achieve this, we are increasing the time before a vehicle can be hacked, and we are also removing the EMP functionality from Casper’s OV-P Recon Drone, going forward this will now be focused more towards spotting infantry and vehicles.

We’ve continued our work with the Gadgets Team to lower the amount of C5 from 3 to 2 on Assault and Recon Classes, while Engineers will have access to 3 C5. Anti-tank mines will now take 2 seconds to activate upon being placed, so they can no longer be used in the same fashion as C5.

All of these changes are about alleviating some of the active fire that vehicles are undergoing through the course of a match, however to offset these changes we are increasing the cooldown of flares to encourage a more aggressive downtime window which contributes to healthier air and ground balance.

The engagement between the Wildcat and our Air Vehicles is not where we want it to be and can often result in very lopsided gameplay loops for either side, in order to help with this we are lowering the range of the main default cannon which will create a window of opportunity.

We are removing the lock-on that exists on the Y-axis, as well as removing the 40MM Cannon on the Wildcat in order to fully commit this vehicle towards ground to air duty.

First-Person Sensitivity on Ground Turret Vehicles
Up to this point we had aggressive sensitivity constraints on aiming systems on our ground vehicles in order to make sure players cannot necessarily turn the turret at very high
speed and there was always a catch up phase for the turret to match your input unless the player was zooming in with these vehicles' primary cannons.

With this update, we are changing that. You will now have a similar experience to zooming, when driving around unzoomed. This sensitivity rate can be changed within the options menu. Please note that there will still be a threshold to prevent extreme cases of sensitivity. We have also increased the turret speed on all ground turreted vehicles to complement this change, except the EMKV-TOR.

One final note…
Finally, there are many more changes taking place around vehicle play within our changelog below.

We wanted to indicate that these changes are aimed at reshaping how Infantry and Vehicles interact with each other. They are not aimed at giving one side an advantage over the other, but balancing so that they can coexist and if you want to counter one or the other you can do so successfully.

As part of the necessary balance changes that are taking place with this season, we are now in a position to provide further emphasis on the Engineer class as being the main anti-vehicle role. As such, in an upcoming update we’ll be increasing the available RPG, Recoilless and all other era-equivalents by 1. As well as in a later update, revisiting the System Repair balance and Irish APS changes. Crawfords trait will also benefit from these changes in a future update.

Naturally, we’ll continue to assess feedback following all of these changes and act accordingly, thank you for your continued feedback and we’ll see you on the Battlefield!

// Battlefield Vehicles Team

CHANGELOG

Progression

Players will now get “Squad Wipe XP” after successfully killing the last remaining member of an enemy squad.

Maps and Modes

Spearhead

Fixed an issue causing the zipline next to the D1 objective to be invisible.
Fixed an issue causing players to be able to go under the map. No more digging too deep, you never know what waits down there.

Redacted

Fixed an issue causing a spawn point not working as intended under certain circumstances.

Exposure

Fixed an issue that could cause no vehicles to be shown in the call menu while vehicles were available.

Hourglass

Fixed a rare issue where players could not spawn vehicles.

Kaleidoscope

Fixed an issue where players could spawn out of bounds when deploying with a vehicle.

Battlefield Portal

Squad Spectator Modifier: Fixed an issue causing the Squad deploy to appear as available when the squad mate is outside of the combat arena.
Fixed an issue where the SPAS-12 could have achieved too high a rate of fire in semi-automatic mode.
Fixed several headshot multipliers on 1942 weapons, Thompson, Sten, STG 44, P38, and M2 Carbine.
Improved reliability and responsiveness when firing the BC2 Mortar

AI Soldiers

Fixed an issue that could cause the AI Soldiers to not properly switch between gunner seats under certain circumstances.
Fixed an issue causing AI Soldiers to get stuck under certain circumstances on Exposure.
Fixed an issue that could cause AI Soldiers to become stuck on a Capture Point on Battle of the Bulge.

UI & HUD

Fixed an issue causing the stats displayed on the left side of the scoreboard to show inaccurate data.
Fixed an issue that could cause UI elements to not correctly spawn after dying and causing players to be stuck in the deploy screen under rare circumstances.
Fixed an issue where weapon icons would not load properly in the pre-round lobby.

Gadgets

Fixed an issue where the Recon Drone could exit map boundaries.

Vehicles

Lowered explosion damage of Jet Anti Vehicle Rocket Pods to Ground Armored Vehicles by 15%. This change does not affect Transport Vehicles.
Increased the damage Air Vehicles receive when colliding with certain objects.
Increased flare reload time from 12 to 14 seconds.
Increased the damage regular bullets deal to Light Air Vehicles.
Improved instances of Anti-Vehicle Rocket Pods not registering damage to other vehicles
Increased the time before a vehicle can be hacked again from 10 to 12.5 seconds
Increased turret sensitivity on all turreted vehicles except the EMKV-TOR

EBAA Wildcat

Increased engine power on low speeds to allow for better acceleration and more power climbing uphill.
Increased Turret HP from 250 to 550.
Removed 40mm cannon to fully commit this vehicle to anti-air capabilities.
Lowered default cannon range from 700m to 550m.
Lowered delay for turret recovery from 10 to 5 seconds.
Lowered duration of turret recovery from 10 to 8 seconds.

Audio

Minor sound fixes when downed and hearing a Dozer shield bash an ally

Specialists & Gadgets

Vertical spotting distance of T-UGS has been decreased.
Lowered the amount of C5 the Assault and Recon class can carry from 3 to 2.
Casper’s OV-P Recon Drone will no longer be able to EMP Hack.
Anti-Tank Mines now take 2 seconds before they activate and detect vehicles.
Incendiary Grenades thrown through smoke will no longer be disabled if they haven’t yet started burning.
Fixed an issue that would make the UI icon for SOFLAM lock-on disappear too early, even while the lock-on was still valid.
EOD Bot can now kill enemies that are using Crawford’s Mounted Vulcan. Nowhere left to hide!
Fixed instances of projectile inaccuracies when using the RPG-7V2 against fast moving vehicles.

Weapons

Updated Visual Recoil on Primary AOW Weapons
Headshot damage multipliers have been updates for SMGs, Assault Rifles, and LMGs
SMG: 1.25x -> 1.55x
Assault Rifle: 2.15x -> 1.9x
LMG: 2x -> 1.9x
Increased move speed during ADS by:
10% for K30, MP9, P90 and AC9
5% for PP-2000 and PBX
Improved hip fire accuracy for P90, K30, MP9, AC9 and AKS-74u
To bring dispersion reset when bursting in line with other SMGs it is now a bit faster for AC9 and P90.
Bullet speed increase for AKS74u, P90 and PP-2000
Bullet speed decreased for PP-29 by ~10% (520 to 450)
Dispersion reduced by 10% for M240B, M60E4 and Type 88
M5A3 dispersion has received some changes in the way it’s calculated and biased within the dispersion circle. It will result in approximately 10% better accuracy, most noticeably when dispersion is high.
Reduced CQC damage for LMGs and ARs from 28 to 26, to reduce the occurrence of 2-headshot-kills. This affects SFAR-M GL, AK-24, LCMG, RPT-31, M60E4, M240B, AC-42, RM68, GEW-46, ACW-R
Fixed clipping when using the Fusion Holo sight on M44
Minor third person animation fixes when reloading LCMG
Iron Sights realigned for MP9, PP-2000, AM40, PKP and VHX
Improved location of scope glint for multiple scopes and weapons
Fixed minor issues in collection screen for Vault sidearms when selecting extended magazines
Fixed pros and cons of Close Combat / Extended magazines for: G57, L9CZ, M93R and MP433
Fixed an issue where recoil penalty was not active when using NTW-50’s High-Power ammunition
Fixed an issue where going into ADS with the T4 Thermal scope could affect Reload / Low ammo / No ammo prompts
Made the firing modes information in the Collection screen more consistent
Fixed instances of clipping in third person on the VHX-D3 when using different ammo types
Improved lock-on when a soldier gets in the line of sight - lock-on acquisition will be less affected by it
Fixed pros for several suppressors in Collection screen
Fixed a issue where enemy Laser Sights could cause the screen to turn black when pointed directly towards the player
Fixed Muzzle Flash being present when using Suppressors on Shotguns and certain ammo combinations

AC-42

Dispersion has been reduced for the first burst, but dispersion reset has been tweaked so that it doesn't fully reset between bursts when firing at close to maximum RPM. When firing in controlled bursts and compensation for recoil, it will be possible to hit with higher accuracy over longer ranges. It now behaves closer to other burst firing weapons and should provide a good boost to usability in all ranges.
Damage curve tweaked:
Reduced damage from 26 to 25 for 0-30m (for High Power, Standard Issue, and Subsonic ammo)
Standard Issue: damage reduced 22 -> 20 between 50-75m
Subsonic: damage increased 18 -> 20 between 50-75m
High-Power: damage increased 18 -> 19 for 100-149m and 15 -> 17 for 150m+
G57
Damage reduced from 28 to 24 between 0-30m (Close Combat ammo) and 0-20m (Subsonic)

MP28

Damage reduced from 28 to 24 between 30 and 74 meters

PF51

Hip Fire accuracy +30%, ADS accuracy -15%

M93R

Hip Fire accuracy +30%

12M Auto

Tweaks have been made to the Shortened Barrel attachment. When it’s equipped, pellet dispersion will increase by 25% horizontally, reducing its effectiveness at range and 1-on-1 engagements

Body Armor:

The Body Armor gadget will now add extra protection against buckshot and flechette ammo. This effect will only apply when the projectiles hit the torso, and not the limbs or head

AP ammo:
Base damage on GVT was too low and has been increased across the board:
0-29m: 35 -> 60
30 - 49m: 28 -> 60
50 - 150+m: 28 -> 35

Scope glint removed from 4x scopes:

All scopes with magnification 6x and above will still have glint

RPT-31:
LS-1 Laser and STNR Laser beam VFX alignment improved

M416:
Fixed an issue that could cause suppressor to disappear when activating certain underbarrel attachments

SPAS-12:
Fixed the amount of shells reloaded

Avancys:
Fixed the icon for T4 Thermal attachment

P90
Rate of fire in single fire mode was too low and has been fixed

PP-2000
Fixed magazine size shown in Collection Screen

*REQUIRES BATTLEFIELD 2042 (SOLD SEPARATELY) & ALL GAME UPDATES.

This announcement may change as we listen to community feedback and continue developing and evolving our Live Service & Content. We will always strive to keep our community as informed as possible.

Mar 15, 2024

V1034 Community Test: Update #07 feat. Spring Sale (-30%)

GROUND BRANCH - Scopey

We've just pushed a new Community Test update to update a few things and hopefully iron out the last few showstoppers before the official V1034 release.

Before we go over the changes, you might be happy to read that…

GROUND BRANCH is on the Steam Spring Sale

Until March 21st @ 10am PST, you can grab a copy (and indeed as many copies as you want) of GROUND BRANCH with a sweet 30% discount. You know the drill: spread the word and maybe even get a few extra keys to get yourself and your gaming buds in on the action just in time for the new update and the inevitable uptick in player numbers.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/16900/GROUND_BRANCH/

Valve takes a 30% cut from sales on their store, so if you have a PayPal account and would love us to get the full cut from your purchase, head over to {LINK REMOVED} and use code Spring2024 at the checkout to apply the same 30% discount! You'll get a key to redeem at the Steam Store and be ready to play in no time.

💵 Please note that our store operates in USD only, so this might not be a great deal if you're paying in a different currency as we use regional pricing on Steam.

With that out of the way, patch notes start right after the beta instructions below:

❓ How to join the Community Test beta branch
Right-click GROUND BRANCH in your Steam Library and select Properties…
Click 'BETAS' on the left-hand list menu
Select 'communitytest - Community testing branch' from the drop-down menu
(no password required)
Steam will begin downloading the files for the testing branch. Patching may take a while.

🐞 Where to report bugs
You can report bugs and issues using any of these methods:
The in-game Bugs & Issues screen (press Esc once in-game and look along the top menu)
The Steam forums: https://steamcommunity.com/app/16900/discussions/
The #bug-reports channel on the official GROUND BRANCH™ Discord
Your reports help us locate and fix issues faster, so keep them coming!

Known issues

🚧 These issues are known to still be present:

Hostage Rescue has a few new quirks with the hostage sack, hostage leading functionality and flex cuffs, which we are currently working to fix for the final release
Enemy AI may be unresponsive/idle/stuck in various contexts — if you see it, please make note of whether it was online (dedicated server? Listen server?) or offline, which game mode was being played, as well as map and location etc.
Weapon movement, poses and animations in general are still being put back together after the prone overhaul — please bear with us
The prone stance does not conform to terrain angle
AI bots are not fully functional in Deathmatch

Patch notes

Maps

Fixed audio issues in City, Arena and Arena, Paintball and The Farm

747

Reworked the spiral staircases for better AI flow
Various lighting and bug fixes
Generator should now stop sound when shot out

Depot

Cleaned up a few missions with navigation/collision validator
Fixed some navmesh issues

Docks

Smoothed out collision on a few staircases

City

Various lighting and bug fixes
News helicopter respond to being shot again
Fixed collision issues for crouching with some of the scaffolding

Compound

Fixed bulletproof curtains

The Farm

Painted out leaves coming through shooting range floor

Paintball

Cleaned up collision on mesh causing some issues
Fixed up wrong minimap

Rig

Did a pass on all missions with collision/navmesh validator
Fixed out-of-level exploit in Deck 3 missions (Deathmatch, Team Elimination)
Changed material on vending machine so it looked better in dark areas

Run Down

Various collision, LOD and lighting bugs fixed

Small Town

Fixed stretched UVs on a rock
Expanded nav bounds and cleaned up navmesh
Fixed up various missions, hopefully clearing AI traffic jam on C building upper floor
Cleaned up collision on cinderblock piles
Fixed virtual texture rock blending
Rebuilt navmesh

Tanker

Various collision, LOD and lighting bugs fixed

Creek

Removed problematic ladder outside of green barn

Reduced AI agent height for nav mesh generation to 185 cm (opens up more places to navmesh)
Reworked dead body callouts: now a dead body will only ever trigger one call out in total
Subsequent discoveries by other AI will not trigger additional callouts (they will still go investigate and go into combat ready mode, e.g. draw their weapon)
Fixed up bugs with AI failing to reload
Team handling fixed up in new Kythera AI systems
Rejigged AI character/controller setup
Changes to how AI processes multiple audio signals to avoid prioritizing far away gunshots over close-up footsteps
Fixed DebugFreeze not working for AI

Animation

Fixed hover foot (one leg lifted off ground)
Added generic item lean animations
Added prone grenade unequip animation
Rejig of animation instance systems (to make it easier to layer animations)
New equipment locomotion
Adding a generic Item move set and with aims
Fixed M110 fire selector animations
Updated PMM-related (pistol) animations to be additive and bring them in line with the rest of the handgun animations
Updated PMM compressed to match the base handgun
Added sprint check to SDASS and M24 to prevent working the action if fired while sprinting
Updated rig to prevent aiming-through-hand issue
Hooked up lean poses (updated a number of animations designed to be used in this layer to be based on generic item base pose instead of rifle base pose)
Updated rig to prevent sights being offset when prone (especially an issue with handgun)
Switched base reload prone animations for AR-15 and handguns to use non-prone versions
Breaching Charge attachment fixed (was at 90 degrees to door)
Fix to allow montage originating from server to be forced to owning client (should make detonator and breaching charge animations play properly in multiplayer)
A lot of big under-the-hood changes to correctly support animations for all items in all stances

Gameplay and systems

Big pass on collision to simplify and debug
Updated various vehicles to ensure sections that are shown or hidden use block-all or no-collision collision profiles instead of just enabling/disabling collision
Stopped names appearing for enemies in Deathmatch
A lot of under-the-hood game mode script fixes
Added further restrictions to interacting while prone (should now be impossible for all actors)
Bug fixes to laptop blueprint
Added anti-spam checks to leaning, running and sprinting to remove some speed hacks
Sprint blending times and effects changed
Fixed server roster player list lag
Fixed up DTAS, Hostage Rescue, Team Elimination and Uplink game modes to improve handling of AI kills and killers
Internal tweaks and fixes relating to arm changes and gender identification of assets
Disabled warning about missing eyebrows if none were defined so that they can be used with AI without causing log spam
Character updated to change handling of head types/genders
Cleared all meshes using character physics asset that do not need to — which is most of them
Changed bomb explosion (Defuse) to fade to black after explosion
Improved logging for failed kit loads
Updated handling of failed kits to allow replacing child items and skins
Disabled Ray Tracing in config to fix crash on exiting in DX12 mode
Updated Tablet to use alternate new method to fill screen (instead of FOV and POV change, it will shift the tablet up to fill the screen — doesn't care if prone, crouched, standing or leaning) (WIP — hands may be visible, especially in prone etc.)
Fixed volunteer function in Hostage Rescue
Fixed flag placement issues in DTAS
Tentative fixes for Hostage Rescue issues: should stop leading hostage when leader goes prone, and now clears BeingLeadAsHostage gameplay tag when cuffs are unequipped (should stop movement getting blocked in various ways) or when leading is otherwise stopped
New restriction added so you can't use objects if underwater (may be a redundant check)
Added new ServerExecute command, usable by superadmins only (to run console commands remotely on the server)
Fixed picking up item in left hand attempting to keep it equipped in left hand instead of putting it away

Character and inventory

Added entries for backup skin substitutions
Cleaned up a few hairstyles that were still showing the scalp with Ball Cap and Beanie
Updated dump pouch and radio assets to properly set their skin
Changed skins for main menu guys
SA58 OSW now supports suppressor
Back-end changes to improve handling of restricted skins and kit validation
Added LODs and adjusted existing LODs for player heads, beards, hair and a few weapons and weapon attachments
Converted eyelashes to static meshes for efficiency
Big change under the hood to change internal kit handling to be always monolithic: keeps kit data consistent no matter what is parsing it, and removes issues caused by presets or item builds being deleted
Added dialogs for handling kit validation issues and converting all user kits
Removed unneeded failed kit validation widgets
Cleared physics assets from all hairstyles
General inventory tweaks/fixes
Fixed goggles being too bright compared to other character assets
Added new arm meshes in place of masking system
Cleared simple collision from MP5 stocks that were in wrong orientation
Removed physics from all balaclava versions of heads
Cleaned up new head/balaclava meshes
Fixed arm mesh poking through with male rolled sleeves and gloves
Cleaned up some weighting on the male heads that make them poke through some shirts
Changed arms to remove reliance on mesh updating to choose skin
Cleaned up more issues with heads intersecting various shirts

Audio

City Bank audio fix (slight reverb adjustment)
Rundown tail fix
Small reverb change, small bug fixes
Fixed portals and occlusion issues
Fixed missing ADS sound effects
Fixed drop audio not playing for weapons
Fixed missing Galil ARM third-person sounds
Added missing voice lines in female character Comms Menu (G key)

VFX

Big pass on checking emitters are parented to existing emitter assets.
Distance culling set to 50 m for distant impacts
Created 10 new blood spatter decals
VFX emitter cleanup

Tweaks to Customize Operator screen colors
A few text changes to Customize Operator screen messages
Visual update to "Game Paused" overlay
Dialog boxes now have a fade-in and fade-out animation
Updated loading screen hints: cleaned up appearance, edited existing hints for clarity and formatting, and added a new hint
Updated visuals for color picker pop-up in Settings > HUD (is now limited to color wheel, e.g. hue selection)
Fixed color picker buttons being slightly rectangular rather than perfect squares
Minor copy edit and rearranging of Settings > HUD
Fixed inconsistent padding between columns in Setting > Gameplay
Updated wording and formatting for F4/F6 dialog prompts
Updated mag check HUD: repositioned red cross and changed icon color (to red) for "no ammo"
Minor update to hover effects in Keybinds column (Settings > Controls)
Increased width of all setting selections: drop-downs, sliders, spinboxes etc. to allow for longer text strings, finer control in sliders, and close the gap between selections and their descriptions
Added a few more settings tooltips
Slightly more descriptive text in Sight Priority options
Updated credits
Made highlight for various tabs/buttons more evident
Updated icon/swatch for Brown and Olive Drab skin selections
Updated DLSS tooltips to hopefully display correctly for RTX 40-series when in DX12 mode and minor changes to copy as well
Updated DLSS setting text and tooltips
Various minor style, copy and formatting tweaks

As always, thank you for testing and providing feedback!

See you next time!