Hey squaddies!

We’re calling you in for some fire support on this one! The public is now being deployed to your Squad – Public Testing client and features the new Commander role. That role comes with some cool new tools and, perhaps more importantly, a big bit of BOOM. While we’re still working on the file set of patch notes, we did want to include a partial list of changes to help you test. Be sure to let us know what you think!

Public Test Notes

Systems

Commander Role added

We’re introducing a new leadership role that is focused on planning and keeping the team on task. The intent for this role is to keep intel flowing between the various Squads, and in ideal circumstances, Commanders can create a dynamic plan for the entire team to follow. We envision that this role can be played in a variety of styles.

Commander role is voluntary and requires a vote to elect.

Commander abilities are on timers. These may vary for release, so please send us your feedback!

Conventional Faction Commanders have access to a UAV that can be used for remote reconnaissance.

Conventional Faction Commanders have access to 155mm Artillery barrage, in a creeping pattern or a static pattern focused on one location. Conventional Artillery fires two “ranging” shots before the main barrage.

Conventional Commanders have access to an aircraft based Gun or Rocket strike.

Unconventional MIL & INS Commanders have access to a Handheld Drone, a more versatile UAV.

Unconventional Commanders have access to a static Heavy Mortar barrage. Heavy Mortars are less accurate, have less splash damage, and less penetrating power, but do not have any “ranging” shots required by conventional artillery.

Commander abilities have cooldown timers. (Timers reset if a new commander is selected.) Note: Timers are subject to change during testing.

Conventional Factions Commanders must be within the radius of a fully built HAB use their abilities.

Unconventional Factions Commanders must be within the radius of a HAB or near any friendly vehicle to use their abilities.

Infantry Gameplay

Added a stamina penalty for leaning, with stamina loss over time when moving as well as using it in bursts. Note: Further improvements to the leaning system and ways to prevent its abuse are in development for a future update.

Added stance based stamina regeneration. Stamina will now regenerate faster while crouched and stationary; fastest while prone and stationary.

Updated leaning to have different movement speeds. (Crouched movement speed is halved while leaning).

Improved the prone lean trace blocking to help decrease the chances that a player can see through the world on steep hills. Further work is in progress.

Vehicle Gameplay

Added vehicle velocity inheritance to players ejecting from vehicles in motion. If a player ejects past a certain velocity, the player will ragdoll and take damage upon impacting the ground.

Updated all vehicles to use a new and improved Speed Dependent Gearbox system . Instead of shifting gears at engine RPM ratios gear shifting now happens based on vehicle speed. This will make sure vehicles are always in the best gear driving uphill.

Updated Helicopters to have a subtle camera shake during active flight. Camera shake intensity is based on RPMs of the engine.

Updated Helicopters so that they can now be steered for a short while after disabling the engine.

Adjusted Helicopter collective sensitivity.

Misc

Added the ability to join another server via the server browser while currently in a server or in the local training range.

Added the ability to queue up to another server while currently in a server or in local training range – HUD will show a small queue widget to let the player know their current queue status.

Deployables Gameplay

Updated Insurgent HAB static to be larger with a new interior layout, to help eliminate players spawning on top. Spawning on top is still an occasional issue and will be fixed in a future update.

Fixed collisions on the ZU23 and Mortars to now collide properly with vehicles and vehicle physics bodies.

User Interface

Added a toggle on the command screen to collapse the squad list, so the map can now be displayed in fullscreen glory – especially useful for Commanders.

Added a toggle to deployment and command screen (chat bubble toggle) to turn on/off text chat (also accessible in UI options).

Removed [GAMENOTIFICATION] showing up in server messages.

Known Issues

Helicopter Tail Rotor component currently can only take damage from collisions with ground, statics and other vehicles. Projectile damage to tail rotors will come in a future update.

Helicopters have various handling tweaks, damage values and small bugs that will be addressed in a future update.

Clients frequently crash at the end of a round, upon map switch due to a UE4 Particle Crash bug upon seamless map travel. Actively pursuing a fix for this crash.

When clients get a crash to desktop and the Crash Reporter appears, pressing “Send and Restart Squad” will restart Squad without EAC, which will prevent players from joining most public servers. The workaround, for the time being, is to press “Send and Close”. A proper fix for this issue is under investigation.

Occasional client crashes in various circumstances. Detailed crash reports help us fix things faster and we truly appreciate those that have filled out and sent crash reports.

Players will occasionally spawn without full ammo on their first spawn on a server. This occurs if a player was in the match during the map switch but did not spawn in during the staging phase. Actively investigating a fix for this bug.

Occasionally a player will not spawn at a Rally Point, this often happens when numerous players are spawning in at the exact same time. Actively investigating a fix for this bug.

Server performance may periodically dip when a server has a high population and high load. We are continuously working to improve server performance and optimization.

Occasionally Self-bandaging fails. Actively investigating a fix for this issue.

The CP Icon (Capture Point / Flag) will sometimes not show up on a client’s HUD in the RAAS game mode. This is likely related to RAAS “Lanes”. Investigating a fix for this issue.

Insurgent HAB still has a spawning issue where there’s a chance the player will spawn on top of the model instead of inside it. Actively investigating a fix for this bug.

ATGM projectiles desync for other players that are not the gunner, however, what the gunner sees should be the true synced projectile. This is an inherent problem, and the solution will be in the long term.

Vehicles parking brake will get stuck “On” if a player exits the vehicle while holding the parking brake (Default Spacebar). When encountering a vehicle that appears healthy but is not able to move, try hitting Spacebar to turn the parking brake “Off’. Investigating a fix for this issue.

“Alt-tabbing” out of Squad during a loading screen will freeze the client. The recommended solution, for now, is to run in “Borderless” mode.

Ammo rack component (on IFVs and Tanks) takes a very long time to repair.

Audio module for Squad is initialized at the game start. If a player does not have a microphone plugged in at launch, or accidentally unplug their microphone and then plug it back in, Squad will need to be restarted to get the microphone to work again.

SFX bug while Firing in full auto.If the player presses the fire button for a short period of time, the sound effect gives the impression that you fired more rounds then you actually did.

Localization for most language translations is currently out of date. Our plan is to push a full localization pass when we are much closer to full release and are locking down all the text that will need to be translated for the game.

Local/Offline Bug with Vehicles: When playing offline on Jensen’s Range, Tracks, Wheels, and other components are not destructible while on the Jensen’s Range in Local play.

Local/Offline Bug with Weapon damages: When playing offline on Jensen’s Range, Weapon damages with both Infantry and Vehicle weapons are not accurately replicated.

Local/Offline Bug with Scoped Emplacements: When playing offline on Jensen’s Range,if a player exits an Emplacement while looking through the scope, the Scope will remain on the Player’s HUD until they get back in the Emplacement and then Scope out.

November 15 Update

Tweaked cooldowns. (e.g., 10 min handheld drone battery life.)

Attempted fix to a server crash.

UI tweaks.

UAV health and collision damage tweaks.

Commander squads are no longer automatically locked.

Added information that the Commander’s life is worth 5 tickets on ticket legend

Fixed negative scores for team 2.

Markers menu blocking the input when placing markers on minimap.

Layer fixes.

Added more markers to FTL.

Fixed missing 30mm HE impact effects.

Fixed smoke disappearing effects, more fixes to dust blending.

Tweaked message for tail rotor collision

There are, of course, bound to be some more bugs being a test release… which is precisely where you come in! Be sure to let us know what you think in the forums, or drop by Discord to give us some feedback!

Happy hunting, squaddies.

Offworld out.