Hey squaddies!

As we mentioned on Friday, the time has become to test Alpha 16! Please note: Choppers are in their first release and will continue to be developed with the help of your feedback! Expect some bugs, rough edges, and some antics, to be sure.

Abridged A16 Notes

Systems

Added Helicopters. Helicopters are an exciting new system of transport that brings about a new dimension to the battlefield, literally. Each conventional faction will get access to medium-lift helicopters capable of transporting troops and supplies. Helicopters are piloted by special Pilot roles much like how heavy vehicles require dedicated Crewmen.

Added Helicopter Tutorial. Helicopters require a degree of skill and practice in order to operate effectively, so we’ve provided a tutorial that takes you through the basics of piloting, the interface, and even a special time trial challenge course! (Complete with rings!)

Added a Soft-Boundary system for all layers that feature helicopters. This new boundary system is improved in that it gives the player a warning to turn back to the battle area before they are killed by the system. Different tolerances are set depending on whether the player is on foot, in a ground vehicle, or in a helicopter, making helicopter travel far less punishing than if they were to immediately crash into an invisible wall.

Vehicles

Added the MI-8 “Hip” to the Russian Ground Forces. This is a medium-lift helicopter capable of carrying up to 9 passengers, not including the pilot, copilot, and 2 crew-chiefs (door gunners). It is armed with 2 door mounted PKP machine guns for self-defense and can carry up to 1500 points of supplies.

Added the UH-60M “Grouse” for the US Army and British Army. This medium-lift helicopter can carry up to 9 passengers, not including pilot, copilot, and 2 crew-chiefs. It is armed with 2 window-mounted M240H machine guns, suitable for some light degree of protection. It carries up to 1000 points of supplies.

Disabled all vehicle engines being able to be turned on during the staging phase.

Fixed FV432 APC being stuck in 1st Gear at all times.

Deployables Gameplay

Shoveling down friendly radios no longer cost tickets.

Fixed Radio health not blocking spawning when damaged by anything except destruction by shovel.

Maps

New map: Mutaha. Although this region seems idyllic and pastoral at first glance, it has become a contested area between Syria and Iraq due to its highway access and naturally irrigated farmland. The locals have long abandoned their houses and shops, but the war-town streets are anything but quiet as ground forces push to secure this crossroads in the desert. Initial map layers include AAS, Invasion, RAAS, Territory Control, and Skirmish.

Added Helicopters to Gorodok, Kohat Toi, Tallil Outskirts and Yehorivka map layers.

All map layers that have helicopters now include main bases with helipads that can repair and resupply helicopters.

Narva optimizations.

Known Issues

There are a few known issues with the helicopter flight model right now. They will be fixed as development proceeds. They include:

Gunner view occasionally flipping upside down. (Presumably, these gunners have gazed into the Sphere too long.)

Possible to see through fog in some occasions.

Vehicle engine sound delayed after getting out of the vehicle and the engine shutdown playing upon ignition.

Collective is maintained when the tail rotor is disabled. (Cartwheels!)

Some textures may fail to render or appear black.

September 26 Update

We’ve released a small patch to the test client. It includes:

Fixed Mi-8 passengers ejecting mid-air

Hand-held Smoke grenades now develop smoke quicker, increased smoke cloud volume which lasts longer

Fixed Bradley driver being vulnerable to main cannons and radial damage

Added ambient sounds to Mutaha

September 27th Update

Mutaha RAAS_v1: enabled ticket bleed.

Mutaha: Further environment asset fixes.

Gorodok: Fixed apartment buildings missing exterior meshes.

Fixed issue with wrong impact FX and sounds for tank shells.

Fixed health bar background on the helicopters and vehicles being too hard to see, setting it to a grey.

Increased turn momentum to alleviate unrealistically quick left/right zigzag movement, most notable when sprinting.

Fixed Pilot and Lead Pilot icons missing from the Icon Legend.

Fix commander chat saying DIRECT when using ALL.

Tweaks to the helicopter flight model.

Added a line on the helicopter control panel to indicate how much collective allows you to hover.

September 30th Update

Added ground friction to helicopters. (Further tweaks will continue to be implemented for the optimal ground friction experience.)

Tweaked soldier momentum to be more controlled when turning, but still less sharp when zig-zagging compared to A15.

Fixed commander seats and turrets occasionally being deep space exploration vessels.

Fixed certain effects piercing through fog.

Fixed helicopter spawns on Yehorivka AAS v2.

Fixed black foliage on Fool’s Road.

Tweaked tracer effects to improve performance.

Stopped occasional jittering on some vehicles. Caffeine jitters remain isolated to developers.

October 4 Update

Added ground friction to helicopters.

Added shake and sounds effects to hard helicopter landings.

Fixed the direction of spin when a helicopter loses its rotor.

Lightly tweaked collective input sensitivity.

Fixed helicopters being able to fly inside enemy base protection zones.

Tweaked helicopter startup sounds.

Fixed a bug/exploit that allowed infinite loading/unloading of supplies.

Fixed Bradley driver taking splash damage.

Map fixes Kokan AAS v1, Kohat RAAS v3, Al Basrah TC v2, Kokan TC v1, Narva, Mutaha, and Yehorivka.

Map optimizations: Mutaha and Yehorivka.

Fixed T-72 autoloader sound playing in other vehicles.

Ask Us Anything

We’ll be holding an AMA on the JoinSquad subreddit on Friday (September 27), starting at 1 pm PDT. Want to know more about dead-dead? Curious about what it takes to lead an indie game to release? Want to know how Fuzzhead keeps his hair looking so awesome? Be sure to drop in and get the answers!

Head over to the r/JoinSquad subreddit to get subscribed.

TwitchCon

Are you headed to TwitchCon on September 27th? Come visit the Offworld Industries crew at Booth #1963! We’ll have folks there all weekend to answer your questions, as well as discuss Squad and OWI technologies in general. Be sure to check your swag bags too. =) You can always join us in Discord in the meantime as well!

Offworld out.