***Official Squad Thread***
- Thread starter Xcept1
- Start date
ALPHA 14 PATCH NOTES
Hey squaddies,
Bet you didn’t expect to see Alpha 14 so soon! We’ve been working hard to get patches out more quickly and the results are paying off. Speaking off, let’s check out the latest bounty of changes:
ALPHA 14 CHANGELOG
SYSTEMS
OVERHAULED THE PLAYER RAGDOLL SYSTEM
The ragdoll system has been updated to improve the overall look when a soldier goes into the ragdoll state, such as when incapacitated or run over by a vehicle. Soldiers getting hit by vehicles should look more realistic, and there should be less twitching of corpses in most cases. However, as this is still a work in progress, there may still be an occasional visual glitch.
UPGRADED UNREAL ENGINE VERSION TO 4.21.2
This upgrade introduces a variety of hotfixes implemented to the version implemented in Alpha 13. A full list of engine fixes can be found here.
GAME MODES
ADDED TERRITORY CONTROL GAME MODE
This new game mode has two teams facing off to capture contiguous hex tiles across a map and will continue to evolve through the next few versions of Squad. Territory Control consists of a grid of hexagonal regions, which function like capture zones, anchored by a “key territory” hex for each team as the base of their grid. If a group of hexes is disconnected from this key territory, or the territory itself is contested, a team will need to recapture it before claiming any new territories. The status of a hex is hidden by the fog of war until a team controls an adjacent hex, cloaking enemy movements until conflict erupts.
This new game mode is in the early stages of development and will be evolving through the next few versions.
A few key rules for gameplay:
ADDED M3 MAAWS CARL GUSTAF
The M3 MAAWS (or Multi-Role Anti-Armor Anti-Personnel Weapon System) is the American adoption of the 84mm Carl Gustaf recoilless rifle developed in Sweden shortly after World War 2. The M3 can fire a variety of different ammunition, making it a very diverse weapon system. The optic mounted on the weapon system can either be used to calculate drop in 100m increments or be directly zeroed to the desired range. The M3 can fire High Explosive Anti Tank, Heavy Tandem HEAT, and Smoke rounds. This has replaced the AT4 as the US Army Heavy Anti Tank weapon.
ADDED AK74 BAYONET
Russian Ground Forces will now receive the AK74 Bayonet, which replaces the older AKM bayonet model.
INFANTRY GAMEPLAY
FV4034 CHALLENGER 2 MAIN BATTLE TANK.
The FV4034 Challenger 2 is the main battle tank of the British Army and holds a crew of 4 (Driver, Gunner, Commander, and Loader). This tank sports a stabilized 120mm rifled main gun capable of firing armor-piercing SABOT rounds, High Explosive, and Smoke rounds. In addition to its main cannon, the tank also has a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun and smoke launchers for self-defense. The commander has access to a high-powered optical periscope featuring hunter-killer functionality with the gunner. The loader’s position has a Remote Weapon Station with a 7.62mm GPMG slewed to it, allowing for additional anti-personnel firepower should the need arise.
BMP-1 INFANTRY FIGHTING VEHICLE.
This Soviet-made IFV was developed in the 1960s and is now featured in Militia and Insurgent arsenals. This vehicle seats 3 crew (Driver, Gunner, and Commander) and can hold up to 8 passengers, plus 4 riding on top. Putting public transit to shame, this vehicle has a 73mm smoothbore cannon capable of firing projectiles similar to that of the SPG9 recoilless rifle. As such it has access to High Explosive Anti-Tank and Fragmentation rounds for its main gun, as well as a PKT coaxial machine gun. An additional Malyutka-P missile adds a slow, but devastating wire-guided option for enemy armor.
VEHICLE GAMEPLAY
SKORPO
Nestled in between the massive fjords of Western Norway, the tranquil village of Uskedalen and the island of Skorpo are seen as a key strategic battleground to gain control of the North Sea passages. Narrow, windy roads and dark tunnels follow the coastline and are treacherous bottlenecks for any mechanized force. Keeping your supply lines open is also difficult given there not being much room to maneuver. Utilizing the varying elevation of the landscape and hidden forest roads will yield many advantages, but be aware that the enemy might also have the same idea.
Skorpo will feature AAS, RAAS, Invasion, Skirmish, and the brand new Territory Control game modes.
MAP UPDATES
Hey squaddies,
Bet you didn’t expect to see Alpha 14 so soon! We’ve been working hard to get patches out more quickly and the results are paying off. Speaking off, let’s check out the latest bounty of changes:
ALPHA 14 CHANGELOG
SYSTEMS
OVERHAULED THE PLAYER RAGDOLL SYSTEM
The ragdoll system has been updated to improve the overall look when a soldier goes into the ragdoll state, such as when incapacitated or run over by a vehicle. Soldiers getting hit by vehicles should look more realistic, and there should be less twitching of corpses in most cases. However, as this is still a work in progress, there may still be an occasional visual glitch.
UPGRADED UNREAL ENGINE VERSION TO 4.21.2
This upgrade introduces a variety of hotfixes implemented to the version implemented in Alpha 13. A full list of engine fixes can be found here.
GAME MODES
ADDED TERRITORY CONTROL GAME MODE
This new game mode has two teams facing off to capture contiguous hex tiles across a map and will continue to evolve through the next few versions of Squad. Territory Control consists of a grid of hexagonal regions, which function like capture zones, anchored by a “key territory” hex for each team as the base of their grid. If a group of hexes is disconnected from this key territory, or the territory itself is contested, a team will need to recapture it before claiming any new territories. The status of a hex is hidden by the fog of war until a team controls an adjacent hex, cloaking enemy movements until conflict erupts.
This new game mode is in the early stages of development and will be evolving through the next few versions.
A few key rules for gameplay:
- A neutral hex requires one player to capture. A contested hex must be neutralized and captured by at least three players.
- An enemy hex takes 40 seconds to neutralized and a neutral hex takes 40 seconds to capture.
- Capturing a hex unlocks all adjacent (bordering) hex zones for capture.
- Bleed: For every two hex zones captured beyond owning 60% of all hexes, the enemy will start bleeding 1 ticket per minute with a maximum of 5 tickets per minute for 10+ hexes captured beyond 60%.
- When a team captures 95% of all hexes, that team instantly wins.
- Losing all tickets will cause a team to lose the round.
- Defenders will win with a time-out even if they have fewer tickets than the Attackers. For the Attackers to win, they will need to either completely drain the Defenders tickets or fully capture all flags in the map.
- Tweaked starting tickets: 150 for attackers and 600/700/800 for defenders on corresponding 4/5/6 flag layouts
ADDED M3 MAAWS CARL GUSTAF
The M3 MAAWS (or Multi-Role Anti-Armor Anti-Personnel Weapon System) is the American adoption of the 84mm Carl Gustaf recoilless rifle developed in Sweden shortly after World War 2. The M3 can fire a variety of different ammunition, making it a very diverse weapon system. The optic mounted on the weapon system can either be used to calculate drop in 100m increments or be directly zeroed to the desired range. The M3 can fire High Explosive Anti Tank, Heavy Tandem HEAT, and Smoke rounds. This has replaced the AT4 as the US Army Heavy Anti Tank weapon.
ADDED AK74 BAYONET
Russian Ground Forces will now receive the AK74 Bayonet, which replaces the older AKM bayonet model.
INFANTRY GAMEPLAY
- Major overhaul of the M4 weapon series, updating it visually to modern art standards and details.
- Improving ladder sight mount on the M4 M203, making it easier to aim with the ladder sight and giving it more ranging options.
- Added a non-functioning cosmetic PEQ-15 laser module to all US Army primary weapons.
- Added deployable bipods to the US Army M110 marksman rifle and the British L129A1 sharpshooter rifle.
- Buffed British AT4 variant’s penetration capability to 600mm RHA, British are now using the ILAW High Penetration variant.
- Debuffed the US AT4’s penetration capability to 420mm RHA, assigned it as a secondary US Army LAT.
- Fixed zeroing text appearing incorrectly as 300m on the SA80 SUSATs (should be 100m)
- Tweaked the sight picture for the RPG29, making it easier to aim with.
- Fixed M72A7 LAW using incorrect ADS fire animation.
- Fixed some US Army Squad Leader roles not having tracers on their M4s.
FV4034 CHALLENGER 2 MAIN BATTLE TANK.
The FV4034 Challenger 2 is the main battle tank of the British Army and holds a crew of 4 (Driver, Gunner, Commander, and Loader). This tank sports a stabilized 120mm rifled main gun capable of firing armor-piercing SABOT rounds, High Explosive, and Smoke rounds. In addition to its main cannon, the tank also has a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun and smoke launchers for self-defense. The commander has access to a high-powered optical periscope featuring hunter-killer functionality with the gunner. The loader’s position has a Remote Weapon Station with a 7.62mm GPMG slewed to it, allowing for additional anti-personnel firepower should the need arise.
BMP-1 INFANTRY FIGHTING VEHICLE.
This Soviet-made IFV was developed in the 1960s and is now featured in Militia and Insurgent arsenals. This vehicle seats 3 crew (Driver, Gunner, and Commander) and can hold up to 8 passengers, plus 4 riding on top. Putting public transit to shame, this vehicle has a 73mm smoothbore cannon capable of firing projectiles similar to that of the SPG9 recoilless rifle. As such it has access to High Explosive Anti-Tank and Fragmentation rounds for its main gun, as well as a PKT coaxial machine gun. An additional Malyutka-P missile adds a slow, but devastating wire-guided option for enemy armor.
VEHICLE GAMEPLAY
- Added Loaders Cupola station to the T62 tank. This is a manually operated DsHK mounted onto an anti-aircraft style mount which allows for 360 traverse and high angle engagements and gives the T62 tank additional firepower by adding another station for the crew to go into.
- Updated T72B3’s commander cupola station artwork.
- Adjusted M2 Bradley, FV432, FV510, MTLB, T62, T72B3, and M1A2 Abrams front and rear wheel suspension to make it less likely to get stuck.
- Fixed physics collision shapes on some vehicles that caused them to get easily stuck on terrain or objects.
- Tweaked default physmat friction values which were way too high and therefore causing vehicles to get stuck more easily.
- Fixed T62 tank’s engine throttle being a bit inconsistent.
- Fixed MTLB Insurgent variant track collision location being in the wrong place.
- Added a range card to the Rocket Artillery Technical gunner HUD.
- Added bullet drop compensator to the reticle for the BTR80/BRDM2’s KPVT machine gun and MTLB 6MB/BTR82A’s 30mm 2A72 cannon.
- Fixed players that got shot off from gunner seat of the ZU23 AA Truck not being able to be revived.
- All emplacement weapons now retain their rotations when the player has exited them. This includes mortars as well.
- Added a short introduction animation with voice-over upon joining a team.
- Added an end of round card showing team ticket scores that includes music and voice-over to smooth the transition going from the end of the game to the scoreboard.
- Added the first iteration of a voice command radial menu that allows players to give simple voice-over call-outs. At the moment, only American English is available but more voices will be added in later.
- Added a “Medic” voice command call button for when you’re incapacitated on the ground.
- Added a progress bar for when you are building deployables and repairing vehicles.
- Added a key help list for players in a vehicle to show the available keys and features that are in that particular vehicle seat.
- Added Game Mode help cards upon joining a server.
SKORPO
Nestled in between the massive fjords of Western Norway, the tranquil village of Uskedalen and the island of Skorpo are seen as a key strategic battleground to gain control of the North Sea passages. Narrow, windy roads and dark tunnels follow the coastline and are treacherous bottlenecks for any mechanized force. Keeping your supply lines open is also difficult given there not being much room to maneuver. Utilizing the varying elevation of the landscape and hidden forest roads will yield many advantages, but be aware that the enemy might also have the same idea.
Skorpo will feature AAS, RAAS, Invasion, Skirmish, and the brand new Territory Control game modes.
MAP UPDATES
- Chora: gameplay improvements for vehicles, including widening the driving lanes and bridges, widening holes in walls, removing some frustrating obstacles, adding rock cover in open areas, and smoothing some of the roughest bumps in the terrain.
- Kokan: Updated foliage.
- Fixed collisions on several map objects and rocks to prevent exploits.
- Re-attached power lines on numerous maps.
- Fixed some buildings on Narva that changed color at distance; a few more still to fix.
- Fixed interiors on Sumari so objects have correct materials displayed.
- Added new RAAS layers to Kohat Toi (RAASv2 and RAASv3).
- Fixed Logar Insurgency v1 wrong location of INS main base flag.
- Fixed Logar Insurgency v1 Night having the wrong team for INS protection zone.
- Fixed Belaya AAS and Invasion layers RU vehicles at RU main to spawn flipped or upside down.
- Fixed Tallil Invasion v2 having East/West Khidir named incorrectly.
- Fixed Gorodok having a couple of floating metal beams on the train.
- Fixed some shipping containers on Logar switching colors as you moved nearer or further away from them.
- Adjusted Belaya AASv1 tickets to 300/300 (from 250/250).
- Kamdesh Invasion v3 set defenders to 700 tickets.
- Kokan AAS_v1, AAS_v2 and RAAS_v1 updated tickets to 250/250.
- Logar AAS_v1 and RAAS_v1 updated tickets to 250/250.
- Mestia AAS_v1, AAS_v2 and RAAS_v1 set tickets to 250/250.
- Sumari AAS_v2, AAS_v3 and RAAS_v1 increased tickets 250/250.
- Tallil Outskirts RAAS_v3 set to 250/250 tickets.
- Added BMP1 to the following layers:
- AlBasrah_Invasion_v1
- AlBasrah_Invasion_v2
- AlBasrah_RAAS_v1
- Belaya_AAS_v3
- FoolsRoad_AAS_v4
- FoolsRoad_AAS_v5
- FoolsRoad_RAAS_v1
- Gorodok_Invasion_v2
- Jensens_Range_v1
- Jensens_Range_v2
- Jensens_Range_v3
- Mestia_RAAS_v1
- Kamdesh_Insurgency_v2
- Kamdesh_Invasion_v2
- Kohat_Insurgency_v1
- Kohat_Invasion_v1
- Kohat_Invasion_v2
- Skorpo_Invasion_v1
- Sumari_Insurgency_v1
- Tallil_Outskirts_AAS_v3
- Tallil_Outskirts_Invasion_v2
- Yehorivka_Invasion_v1
- Added FV4032 (Challenger) to the following layers:
- AlBasrah_Invasion_v2
- Belaya_AAS_v3
- Belaya_Invasion_v3
- FoolsRoad_AAS_v5
- Gorodok_AAS_v3
- Gorodok_RAAS_v2
- Jensens_Range_v1
- Kamdesh_Invasion_v2
- Kamdesh_RAAS_v2
- Narva_Invasion_v2
- Tallil_Outskirts_RAAS_v4
- Yehorivka_AAS_v3
- Yehorivka_Invasion_v3
- Fixed mortar, UGL grenades and rocket projectiles not dealing damage if the shooter was killed after launching the projectile.
- Optimized certain aspects of the vehicle code dealing with closed turrets.
- Optimized the way HUD UI is drawn and updated.
- Fixed Insurgent/Militia Vehicle Repair station mesh having an overlapped US/GB repair station mesh on it
- Fixed ambient smoke columns stopping emission of smoke randomly.
- Fixed C4 explosions not displaying when detonated on asphalt and gravel.
- Fixed a client crash when launching the Shooting Range.
- Tracks, Wheels, and other components are not destructible while on a local server running Jensen’s Range.
You currently can only hear the new voice commands from the enemy side if you are close to them. I just don't see a point in it. No other comms in the game are able to be heard by the enemy team so I'm not sure why these are currently.
That would just force people to stop using in-game comms and use 3rd party apps like Discord etc. Won't happen.
Voip being made audible to all players was tried in PR and it was awful. Most people stopped using voice comms in game entirely and just used 3rd party apps for their own squad chat. It was a complete break down in comms unfortunately.
Enjoy the weekend though. I'm Squadless until Sunday night
Enjoy the weekend though. I'm Squadless until Sunday night
@shankly1985 I'll fire that over to the wizards at OWI. I tried last night to do it myself with custom binds but no joy.
You definitely deleted the right cache folder? I know we recently changed from "Squad" to "Squadgame" to maybe you deleted the old folder? There's a "SquadUAT" there too for the public testing branch.
Tried both with no change, unfortunately - believe it or not, both screenshots were taken on the Epic preset...
Did some googling' and people were suggesting changing everything to Epic then back again, tried it both mid-round and changing/ restarting the game but no dice
Tempted to go with the good old nuke/ reinstall option at this point.
I believe a few fixes have been pushed for the end of round crashes (for the next patch)
I've not heard anything personally. Are they wanting to run mods on it?
Talking of mods....
SQUAD SDK UPDATED
It’s here! It’s here!
The Squad Editor has been updated. This means modders can start bringing their mods back online! A client-side patch will be released at a later date to update support for players.
If you’re just getting started, be sure to join the Modding Hub Discord. It’s a great place to get your questions answered by the community and OWI alike!
Our Blueprint Developer Renn has prepared a quick introduction to some of the changes.
He’s currently producing a follow-up video to help folks with the update, fixing bugs, and redeploying with the new Editor version. Stay tuned for that as soon as it’s ready. =)
Update: It’s ready!
I think there's been a bit of confusion and some wrong information being said about the 10 admin rule for a licensed server. There simply needs to be 10 active admins on the admin list for the server. There doesn't need to be an admin on 24/7.
I'm keeping an eye on them too. Hopefully we will see some good benchmarks at the end of the week. My 4790k is still going strong but the mobo has dead ram slots so instead of sorting that out I've been waiting for these new Ryzens. Squad suffers with my old and slow DDR3 8gb haha!
I'll be super butt-hurt if they do!
I couldn't wait much longer...I ordered in a new case/fans for my new build and ended up sticking my old cpu and mobo in it. Couldn't have it just looking at me all empty!
Ordered a 3900x today so will let you know asap!
I've been super busy with a house move and a new job so I've been slacking lately.
ALPHA 15 RELEASED
Hey squaddies!
Alpha 15 is freshly deployed and ready for action. If you haven’t auto-downloaded the update, head over to your Steam client and get started! While you’re waiting, check out the latest patch video:
Yep: they’re finally coming! The first iteration of tutorials! Here’s to all the squad leaders who braved the Summer Sale. Oh, and let’s not forget the 550RPM death machine that is the BMP-2. Read on for the full list of changes:
ALPHA 15 PATCH NOTES
SYSTEMS
GAME MODES
INFANTRY GAMEPLAY
Kohat, Tallil, and Gorodok received substantial optimizations and some visual improvements to increase performance and to bring the visual quality of our maps up to our standards. This includes new assets replacing old ones, as well as some different methods being used on our landscapes.
GORODOK
System Specs:
INTERACTIVE DEMO
In some areas of Gorodok we’ve managed to drop the number of Triangles by approximately 5m, Draw Calls by about 2k, and for GPU timings we’ve gone from ~20ms to ~14ms, totaling up to an increase of nearly 16 FPS on this particular system and configuration. These are substantial numbers and bring the map down towards our new standards derived from research and investigations related to Squad-specific maps.
While there are some guidelines and tips out there for creating well-optimized scenes, Squad is an entirely different kind of beast when it comes to levels in Unreal Engine 4, so we had to dig deep and come up with some numbers that suit our game.
Please note that the numbers you see on your systems and configurations will vary, but overall everyone should be seeing some gains in one form or another.
LAYER USAGE
INTERACTIVE DEMO
This layer usage comparison shows the number of landscape layers used per component. We have seen some performance problems surface on components that had 8 or more layers in the past, so we decided that our new landscape shaders would have to contain fewer layers. This combined with removing minimally used layers, unused layers, and consolidating some layers into one allowed us to increase performance on the landscape. As you can see, we got the numbers down from 13/12/11 to 6/5/4 on the majority of components.
LAYER DENSITY
INTERACTIVE DEMO
Here is a snippet of some of the changes we did across these maps:
Adjusted Landscape Components
After analysis, we found that some of our older landscapes weren’t as optimised in terms of their technical set up. We experimented with different values and found some that work well visually, retain the landscape silhouette and, most importantly, improve performance by reducing the number of draw calls required by our landscapes.
Adjusted Landscape LODs
The new landscape components allowed us to revise and improve the way our landscapes LOD down, this is something we managed to unify throughout the 3 maps and can apply to other maps.
Adjusted AO settings
Ambient Occlusion can become extremely expensive, especially at higher resolutions. We did some research and managed to standardise our AO settings across our maps, drastically improving performance at the higher resolutions. This is something that isn’t as noticeable unless you play at 1440p and above – but it’s a great change for all.
Created new Landscape Shaders
These new landscape shaders are cheaper for performance costs and they have been more streamlined as well as improved in visual quality. This will allow us to roll out upgrades much more easily and ensure we have consistency across different shaders which makes maintenance a lot faster and straightforward.
Removed unused Landscape Shader layers
New shaders also allowed us to analyse and reduce the number of layers we use on our landscape. After research and investigations, we found a sweet spot for the number of layers that allow flexibility for our Level Designers and Environment Artists but also ensured that we do not create a large performance impact. As a point of reference, there have been parts on maps like Fool’s Road and Yehorivka that drop players’ FPS and these have been confirmed to be a result of too many layers used on one component, increasing layer density.
Implemented Atmospheric Fog
This is a big step in preparation for helicopters as our old Exponential Height Fog was only visible at lower heights and ground level. Additionally, a fog that isn’t limited by height and is more physically accurate allows us to play with better lighting and colours, bringing more life into our levels.
Fixed LODs on Static Meshes
These general fixes provided a huge boost in performance in dense areas such as the villages in Tallil. On the system above it brought up the numbers from ~30 FPS to 60 FPS on High Settings.
MISCELLANEOUS BUG FIXES
KNOWN ISSUES
ALPHA 15 RELEASED
Hey squaddies!
Alpha 15 is freshly deployed and ready for action. If you haven’t auto-downloaded the update, head over to your Steam client and get started! While you’re waiting, check out the latest patch video:
Yep: they’re finally coming! The first iteration of tutorials! Here’s to all the squad leaders who braved the Summer Sale. Oh, and let’s not forget the 550RPM death machine that is the BMP-2. Read on for the full list of changes:
ALPHA 15 PATCH NOTES
SYSTEMS
- Added an Infantry Tutorial orientated at teaching new players the basic ropes of Squad.
- Added an Interface Tutorial that teaches the Deployment interface in a first-time event capacity.
- Added the ability to load and unload supplies via the Vehicle Interaction Radial Menu. This allows players to load and unload supplies via one common menu now, from any seat or outside of the vehicle. This also allows multiple players to unload the vehicle faster than if it was just one player. Increased rate of loading/unloading to 100 points every 0.5 seconds, making the process a little less slow.
- You will not be able to load or unload supplies from a vehicle while it is moving.
- Removed old Left Click/Right Click system for loading and unloading supplies.
- Removed Voice Command system temporarily pending further internal development.
GAME MODES
- Territory Control: Increased hex capture times from 40 seconds to 45 seconds.
- Territory Control: Added a more dynamic ticket bleed system.
- Territory Control: Added TC Layers to all maps.
- New RAAS layers added to Belaya, Chora, Fools Road, Gorodok, Kamdesh, Kohat, Kokan, Skorpo, Sumari, and Yehorivka.
- Invasion – added more Random Invasion layers.
INFANTRY GAMEPLAY
- Increased RPG7 HEAT penetration capability from 320mm RHA to 400mm RHA.
- Increased RPG26 penetration capability from 320mm RHA to 440mm RHA.
- Set all LAT rockets (British High Penetration AT4 included) to have a minimum arming distance of 25m.
- Set all HAT rockets and ATGMs to have a minimum arming distance of 40m.
- Added a visual effect and audio for when a UGL grenade or rocket impacts a surface before being armed, helping give feedback to the player that the target was too close.
- Fixed British High Penetration AT4 variant not dealing more penetration and damage compared to its US Army counterpart.
- Fixed the RPG7 Fragmentation round doing way more penetration than intended.
- Decreased damage value of the US Army AT-4 (from 1400 to 1248).
- Increased damage value of the M3 Carl Gustav HEAT round (from 960 to 1248).
- Updated Militia kits to have less SKS rifles and more AK74 rifles.
- Set all LAT kits to have 2 smoke grenades.
- Added binoculars to all HAT kits that do not have rifle scopes.
- Added binoculars to RU LAT kits that do not have rifle scopes.
- Fixed 50m sight alignment on the L85A2 AG36 Grenade Launcher.
- Fixed snapping in movement while going from Prone to Standing while you have your bipod deployed.
- Fixed a bug where weapon accuracy parameters like sway and recoil are being reset by switching weapons.
- Fixed a bug where it consumes a field dressing when bandaging already bandaged soldiers.
- Added the BMP-2 Infantry Fighting Vehicle. This is a second-generation Russian IFV, succeeding the BMP-1 from the 1980s. The BMP-2 has a 3-man crew and can hold up to 7 passengers. It is armed with a 30mm auto-cannon firing AP or HE ammunition at a blistering 550 rounds per minute. It comes with a turret-mounted Konkurs ATGM for dealing with heavily armored threats. Additionally, it has a standard PKT 7.62mm coaxial machine gun and smoke grenade launchers for smokescreening.
- Added the BMP-1 ZU-23 Anti-Air Variant. This variant basically replaces the turret on the BMP-1 with an external, manually operated ZU-23 Anti-Air Autocannon.
- Made vehicle radial menu accessible even if the vehicle is not claimed by your squad or you’re not a crewman if the vehicle is on your team.
- Tweaked vehicle claiming system numbers:
- 2 vehicles require 2 squad members
- 3 vehicles require 4 squad members
- 4 vehicles require 6 squad members.
- Fixed an issue where vehicle ATGMs were not dealing damage beyond 500m.
- Increased armor on the Challenger 2’s lower glacis to 300mm RHA.
- Fixed a bug where the BMP-1 was not getting destroyed by ammo-cookoff.
- Increased the amount of time to get into a truck or light vehicle from 0.75 seconds to 1 second.
- Fixed firing sounds on the BMP-1’s coaxial machine gun.
- Fixed Uparmored FV510 for missing an ammo compartment.
- Improved handling on the MT-LB series vehicles.
- Fixed issue that allowed BMP-1 to bypass reloading time near Vehicle Repair Depot.
- Fixed modifier for HAT damage type on the BMP-1 (and BMP-2). For example, it will go down to 10% HP (and start burning) after getting hit by a TOW missile.
- Resized and moved ammo rack component on BMP-1 & BMP-2 to be fully covered by the engine and no-penetration block to help minimize probability for vehicles to get cooked off by enemy fire from the front.
- Enabled all unarmored vehicles (technicals, trucks etc) to receive indirect (AoE splash) fragmentation damage.
- Mortars have been granted the ability to damage armored vehicles on direct or very close (<1.5m) hits. Unarmored vehicles now also take damage from indirect mortar hits. (Fragmentation damage.)
- FOB Radios will disable spawning on HAB’s if the Radio has been damaged and its health has fallen below 75%.
- All HASCO related deployables have had their visuals updated.
- Mortar damage against deployable structures was increased.
- Re-Added Spawn Confirmation. This should reduce the chances of accidentally spawning in when you are trying to see the wait timers for each spawn location.
- Added a global notification for when objectives are either met or lost. (E.g. Flag neutralizations, captures, cache objective destroyed, etc.)
- Added a dynamic list of vehicles that are on the currently played map layer. The list is accessible as a button next to the map legends.
- Added a Favorites filter in the Server Browser.
- Added British Army, Insurgent, Russian Army, and Irregular Militia victory jingle.
- Added 10 second delay before incap player can use Medic Callout button and increased the Medic Callout interval from every 5 seconds to every 30 seconds.
- Improved the look of the Vehicle Repair Tooltip. If you have a Vehicle Repair Toolkit, the tooltip allows you to see how badly each individual component is damaged similar to the HUD when in a vehicle driver seat.
- Reordered the items in the Key Bindings Window to be more logical.
- Fixed Invasion Game Mode flags not having lock icons when they are actually not able to be recaptured by the defending side.
- Grouped kit role request into its own sub-menu in the Vehicle Interaction Radial Menu.
- Reordered Role variants to have Ironsight variants first, then Red-Dots then Optics.
- Fixed Medic, LAT, and HAT kits showing up as unavailable (Red) in Role Loadout and Role Quick Select menu when they actually are available.
- Changed label on the Deployment Menu for Team Selection to “Teams / Game Mode Info”.
- Changed magazine image to show up as grey as opposed to jet black when empty for visibility when in vehicles.
- Removed old First Time Event help prompts.
- Modding UI changes.
- Substantially improved performance on Kohat Toi River Valley, Tallil Outskirts, and Gorodok maps. Other maps, including Skorpo and Yehorivka, are being optimized and will continue to receive improvements in upcoming releases.
- Visually updated Gorodok and Yehorivka.
- Improved collisions on Tallil’s residential buildings and improved performance.
- Updated foliage and landscape on Gorodok for improved, blended appearance.
- Fools Road lighting & foliage updated.
- Fixed Sumari staging zones to prevent players from jumping over. Don’t be AWOL, squaddie.
- Changed collision on traffic signs so they don’t stop vehicles anymore.
Kohat, Tallil, and Gorodok received substantial optimizations and some visual improvements to increase performance and to bring the visual quality of our maps up to our standards. This includes new assets replacing old ones, as well as some different methods being used on our landscapes.
GORODOK
System Specs:
- Mobo: Asus Maximus VIII Ranger Intel Z170
- CPU: Intel i7 6700K @ 4.5GHz
- GPU: Asus ROG Strix GTX 1080
- RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX, 3000MHz
- SSD: 512GB Samsung SM951 M.2 PCI-e (C
- Resolution: 3840×2160. Disabled AA, High Settings
INTERACTIVE DEMO
In some areas of Gorodok we’ve managed to drop the number of Triangles by approximately 5m, Draw Calls by about 2k, and for GPU timings we’ve gone from ~20ms to ~14ms, totaling up to an increase of nearly 16 FPS on this particular system and configuration. These are substantial numbers and bring the map down towards our new standards derived from research and investigations related to Squad-specific maps.
While there are some guidelines and tips out there for creating well-optimized scenes, Squad is an entirely different kind of beast when it comes to levels in Unreal Engine 4, so we had to dig deep and come up with some numbers that suit our game.
Please note that the numbers you see on your systems and configurations will vary, but overall everyone should be seeing some gains in one form or another.
LAYER USAGE
INTERACTIVE DEMO
This layer usage comparison shows the number of landscape layers used per component. We have seen some performance problems surface on components that had 8 or more layers in the past, so we decided that our new landscape shaders would have to contain fewer layers. This combined with removing minimally used layers, unused layers, and consolidating some layers into one allowed us to increase performance on the landscape. As you can see, we got the numbers down from 13/12/11 to 6/5/4 on the majority of components.
LAYER DENSITY
INTERACTIVE DEMO
Here is a snippet of some of the changes we did across these maps:
Adjusted Landscape Components
After analysis, we found that some of our older landscapes weren’t as optimised in terms of their technical set up. We experimented with different values and found some that work well visually, retain the landscape silhouette and, most importantly, improve performance by reducing the number of draw calls required by our landscapes.
Adjusted Landscape LODs
The new landscape components allowed us to revise and improve the way our landscapes LOD down, this is something we managed to unify throughout the 3 maps and can apply to other maps.
Adjusted AO settings
Ambient Occlusion can become extremely expensive, especially at higher resolutions. We did some research and managed to standardise our AO settings across our maps, drastically improving performance at the higher resolutions. This is something that isn’t as noticeable unless you play at 1440p and above – but it’s a great change for all.
Created new Landscape Shaders
These new landscape shaders are cheaper for performance costs and they have been more streamlined as well as improved in visual quality. This will allow us to roll out upgrades much more easily and ensure we have consistency across different shaders which makes maintenance a lot faster and straightforward.
Removed unused Landscape Shader layers
New shaders also allowed us to analyse and reduce the number of layers we use on our landscape. After research and investigations, we found a sweet spot for the number of layers that allow flexibility for our Level Designers and Environment Artists but also ensured that we do not create a large performance impact. As a point of reference, there have been parts on maps like Fool’s Road and Yehorivka that drop players’ FPS and these have been confirmed to be a result of too many layers used on one component, increasing layer density.
Implemented Atmospheric Fog
This is a big step in preparation for helicopters as our old Exponential Height Fog was only visible at lower heights and ground level. Additionally, a fog that isn’t limited by height and is more physically accurate allows us to play with better lighting and colours, bringing more life into our levels.
Fixed LODs on Static Meshes
These general fixes provided a huge boost in performance in dense areas such as the villages in Tallil. On the system above it brought up the numbers from ~30 FPS to 60 FPS on High Settings.
MISCELLANEOUS BUG FIXES
- Fixed rocket engine motor effects still playing after the rocket has exploded.
- Fixed missing hat on one of the Insurgent soldiers as it LOD transitioned.
- Fixed first person mesh oddities when exiting Admin Cam.
- Attempted fix for ragdoll issues caused by origin rebasing
- Fixed a bug where you bandage gets consumed after you patch already patched soldier.
- Fixed couple of server and client crashes.
KNOWN ISSUES
- ATGMs projectile desync for other players that are not gunner, however, what the gunner sees should be the true synced projectile.
- Certain effects do not blend with fog on some layers.
We tried headshots from all weapons resulted in "dead dead" a long, long time ago and it just wasn't fun at all. I can see the mechanics going back to how they used to be. Large calibre weapons and explosions would result in dead dead but small arms you still had the possibility to revive. Death timer or something similar needs to come back also.