Before we jump into this we are well aware of the issues that have arisen in the newest Closed Pre-Alpha build relating to performance and server stability and were busy trying to troubleshoot the new additions we have made and seeing where the problems lie. We want to thank our community for being so patient with us and sticking by us as we negotiate the hurdles that arise from routine game development.

It has been really busy in Development-Land over July, especially with the Closed Pre-Alpha finally being put out into the wild. However a lot of stuff does go unnoticed, and this recap is the perfect place to take stock on whats been happening behind the scenes. Without any further ado!

Systems

Progress on the UI, Squad leading tools and navigation

Fixed Spawning Bug that prevents you from spawning under certain conditions

Added ShowNextMap console command for all players

Adjusted Voice Attenuation, making local voices easier to hear from further away

Player scores are now updated. Score additions related to kills are only shown after the player dies

Added a method to do full auto looping. This should reduce the stuttering when firing.

Added a notification to the killing player (and admins) when a player is teamkilled.

Added Prone (First pass, many animation issues)

Added a new splash screen

Fixed a bug where you could ride grenades into the air

Fixed an issue where bullets would collide with the gun and fail to fire.

Fixed a server performance issue related to bullet creation

Crouch is now taken into account with stamina regeneration.

Updated the FOB exclusion zone (minimum distance between FOB placement warning) fail reason to be more clear.

Added a new flag capture widget for new flags.

Players can no longer join teams if it would make the team unbalanced

Character movement has been updated to have more weight and momentum

Added an Ironsights M4 Rifleman Kit Role for the US Army.

Slightly tweaked bone damage modifiers. Weapons should perform a little better now.

Smoke Grenade effect starts quicker

Updated tree LODs to decrease the popping on midrange systems

Updated the medic icon to not fall off the screen when healing

Added an indication for how much health a player has when healing

Grenades are now resupplied from the ammo box

Barbed Wire deployables now cause damage if you run into them

Corrected many physical materials on multiple surfaces, which should lead to less dirt explosions coming off of metal surfaces

Adjusted dynamic lighting to have better profiles

Fixed many incorrect object collisions

Enabled distance shadows on all maps

Art

Progress on the original Russian Army Soldier Model

Completed Texture on the Insurgent Technical

Completed Texture on the Ural 375D Truck

Completed High Poly additions on a large number of AK and RPK variants including the AK-74M, AKM, AKS-74U and AMD-65.

Added the Light Anti-Tank Kit to the US Army and the M72A7 LAW

Added trash piles and more flavour environment props

Added end caps to the bridge railings on the bridge on Kohat

Mapping

Added a new map layer system that allows for the creation of multiple flag layouts and even lighting conditions

Added Kohat Sunrise, a new AAS Map set in a unique part of Kohat

Added Kohat Conquest, an experimental Conquest style map

Added Ambient Sounds to Kohat

Detail passes on Logar, Kohat and Forest

More Progress on the terrain and layout of Fools Road

We hope all our higher tier backers are enjoying the Closed Pre Alpha and getting some game-time over the weekend. Well be putting out regular weekly updates directly relating to new builds around the middle of the week, so stay tuned to the front page and the forums!

Before we sign off we want to show off another awesome community video by backer Rusty, this time explaining what the heart of Squad is all about.

Offworld out.