'83 - Quality-of-Life Patch #1

12 May 2026Developer post

Source: Steam Community (opens in a new tab)

Today we're excited to release our first post Early Access launch Quality-of-Life patch, including hundreds of bug fixes, changes and improvements to nearly all aspects of the game. Patch notes are available below, but first a quick message from the team in regards to bots and why we're not planning to add them to '83.

Bots

Let's talk about bots,

We've read your feedback about them, both in favour and against the addition of bots to ‘83.

Our stance has always been that we're not going to add bots, and today we want to talk about why it's not straightforward from a technical perspective, and why there's no quick solution to add them.

Bots need defined navigation for each map and variant, which is a tremendous amount of work to complete even if we had bots available.

Creating AI bots is difficult especially when you want to make them capable of perceiving of a player and then engage players fairly without feeling like terminators. Any bot has to be integrated into directly into our core game systems to build out systems which tells bots how to see or hear players, define what the bot should do when it sees and how to "forget" that player is there, when to shoot and when to reload etc.

Players in '83 also have to occupy a squad and a role, so the bot needs to know how to do this and whilst they can all be simple riflemen they still need to allocate to a squad correctly.

All of this takes a lot of development time and effort and can still cause a lot more bugs and crashes and ultimately without a lot of iteration, the output can be pretty terrible: bots that instantly know where you are; will shoot at you instantly with high accuracy; can chase you to the ends of the earth etc.

In short, bots aren’t a switch we can flip, and right now our time is best spent improving the core player experience.

Quality of Life Patch #1 - Changelog

TL;DR Changes

A whole host of animation improvements; especially 3P anims with equipment items and particularly featuring MP5SD ‘slap reload’ (Thanks Jonathan)

Scope visuals and performance improved for M21 and SVD across a range of GPU settings

Extensive changes to UI readability and function

Players can join Steam friends

Addition of static commander radios at key points on maps

Numerous gameplay tweaks and balance adjustments across all maps; especially Fulda-NATO

Fixed players occasionally being booted to other servers on server travel

Multiple VFX and audio adjustments to increase immersion

Tank and vehicle damage rebalance/adjustments

Extensive adjustments to improve GPU fidelity and performance for low settings

Hundreds of art bugs fixed (clipping, floating, textures, metrics etc.)

Gameplay

Fixed joining via Steam friends not working

Fixed weapon blocking often blocking you from firing in times when you shouldn't be getting blocked

Stopped commander ability line strikes (creeping barrage etc.) from being seemingly adjustable (the UI would move, but the barrage wouldn't)

Commander fuel resource reduction to 200 in Assault maps – recharge at 35 per minute

Fixed commander abilities seeming stuck on becoming commander (seeing valid strike marks) but still having to wait on a new mark in order to actually call a strike (for example, p1 is commander, leaves a mark, p2 takes over, sees p1's mark but still has to wait on a new mark to unlock the abilities)

Fix for "suicide" damage type not being used as it should be. Properly resolves killfeed bug, as well as being ready to correctly handle stats down the road.

Made dead grenade kills award the killer of the dead owner. If a player dies while holding an armed grenade, the killer of the player is awarded the kill/teamkill for any deaths their dropped grenade cause.

Reorganises the deny build messages for spawn beacons/commander table to prioritize telling you about objective/spawn beacon distances being the deny reason before geo/blocking stuff. This saves wandering around randomly trying to find a good spot for the item whilst too close to obj etc.

Refactored fade in/out logic for widgets

Fix for team switch showing a blank white box kill icon

Made server browser remember user's sort mode

Fixed server browser sort order flipping when changing menus. Made player count descending default sort mode.

Commander’s reinforcements ability message will now show the correct number of players spawned.

Soviet tank labelled as T-64B, not T64-B

Scoreboard can now consistently be used while the map is open, and have it return to the map without breaking. Enabling the cursor on the scoreboard should also no longer cause the map cursor to activate in the background

Some HUD opacity improvements:

Changed the default value for HUD toggle to be "off" (or lower opacity state) instead of "on"

HUD will now always appear at full opacity on spawn, and then fade out again to the player's settings after 2 seconds

The spawn point HUD indicator is no longer on permanently and respects the "weapon state" opacity slider value. It appears briefly whenever the state of the spawn point changes, and it also appears whenever the flashing reminder triggers

Reduced the time it takes to start fading the inventory widget after spawning, and reduced the duration of the fade

Some fixes for escape key behaviour. The following behaviours are rectified:

Escape on team/role select menus closes the menu if the player has a team and role, otherwise it opens the escape menu if they do not

Escape while scoreboard is open correctly closes the scoreboard and opens the escape menu without getting stuck in a broken state

Escape on spawn menu correctly hides the spawn menu and opens the escape menu. Escape again to close the escape menu returns to the spawn select screen

Escape on the Round End and Match End screens now opens the escape menu

Escape menu can now be opened while dead

Spawn menu no longer forces the escape menu closed

Escape on regular overhead map closes the map and opens the escape menu. On close menu, OH map remains closed

Escape key is no longer ignored if the player has clicked the OH map and given it focus, above behaviour now always occurs correctly

Escape key is no longer ignored on the escape menu until the menu is clicked, you can toggle the menu open and closed with successive Escape key presses to your heart's content

Escape on commander menu correctly closes the commander menu and opens the escape menu

Escape key in main menu now closes sub menus when they are open, and if none are, will take the player back to the PLAY menu instead

Escape key while rebinding keys cancels that bind attempt correctly

Added popup for when there is no server available. Added a searching indicator to show when searching for servers. Adjusted column width of server/player numbers to avoid overlap.

Fixed commander UI state not clearing when you become the other team’s commander upon round swap in Assault mode

Fix for player icons being hidden when world icons are set to invisible on the HUD.

Made the objective icons on the edge of the screen respect the objective opacity slider instead of the world icons one.

Fix for WP smoke showing a bleed kill icon, and also for not showing the killer

Tank paper doll HUD widget refactor - enables the view cone to attach to specific seat position instead of always being centred. Made a couple of resizing and colour adjustments at the same time.

Visual update to vehicle "change seat" widget. No longer a floating white progress bar, it is much clearer about what it is doing. New change vehicle seat icon.

Fix for context sensitive pings not updating the name of the targeted item if moving from one target to another without a gap in between

VOIP: Fix for mute button in scoreboard sometimes not working

Small VOIP talkers widget visual tweaks

Font replacement for "Connecting" screen

Font update for ping list rows

Visual update for ping widgets

Fix for squad colour selection settings panels not initialising properly when joining a server. Additional fix to make selected squad colour populate correctly in settings menu while in a match

Temporarily disabled tooltip from loadout items on loadout screen

Refactored friend death icons on OH map, hides them after 5 seconds

Animation

Binocs/Compass

Nato Binocs 3P hands fixed

Fixed Hand Being Seen when jumping ADS with Binocular

Compass Sprint 3P Anims Added

Compass Nato 3P Equip/Holster

M21

Fixed M21 1P Reload half stage

Škorpion

Fixed Škorpion Prone 1P Tactical reload camera

Škorpion tactical reloads 1P/3P

Fixes for Škorpion camera in Prone Ammo check

MP5SD

MP5SD new Reload anims (Thanks to Jonathan Ferguson)

MP5SD removed 3P floating magazine

M72

M72 Law new Transitions

M72 parts stays hidden when Unequipped

M3A1 Grease Gun

M3A1 bolt pull back on initial equip

General

Polished Hand IK's

Remove Idle Movement from 1P Crouch and Prone

Art

Scopes

Disabled Tonemapper and exposure from scene capture PIP scope rendering so as not to conflict with main tonemapper/exposure.

Fixed PIP scope shimmering

Optimised m21 PIP (picture in picture) scope rendering to 5x times faster, SVD PIP scope rendering 2X faster

GPU Performance

Increased Pixel Programmable Distance from 9000 to 13000 for big Pine, and from 4000 to 5000 to small pine

Fixed pixel programmable bottleneck on Fjord foliage

Fixed all pixel programmable trees on Woodpecker

Fixed overhead from masked material on meshes

Raised minimum nanite cache size to stop objects disappearing on low settings in the cooked build.

Disabled radio from using LOD's since it only needs to be nanite. This is to fix it disappearing at a distance for low settings

Enabled Nanite on many assets that were missing it. For Translucent objects disappearing generated 5 LODS on each. Fix for Low settings

Set pixel programmable distance in Woodpecker, and re baked min/max texture for Woodpecker landscape, boosting performance

Foliage values changed on maps to reduce pixel programmable vertices being drawn.

Min/Max Textures baked and assigned to all maps as fallbacks for VHFM

RVT Size rebalance with smaller page sizes for lower end GPUs

Rebuild min/max RVT world height for Fjord (Landscape optimisation)

Fixed OH map texture generation bottleneck

Character Art

Updated Hand Textures

Updated Mesh of SpecOps Gear with correct UV set, so holster material looks right

Fixed skin material on preview character

Fixed losing your shadow when getting in and out of buttoned tank seats General Art
Set stump and trunk materials to opaque, instead of masked

Fixed some missing impact decals

Fix decals not showing on jeeps

Adjustments to WP smoke and 155mm arty explosion VFX

Adjusted VFX for penetrating shots and ricochets

Fixed material for metal penetrating shots and ricochets

Adjusted VFX for bullet impacts on metal surfaces (includes armour)

Fixed disappearing meshes for lockers and other invisible props

Level Art
Fjord

Relocated multiple floating trees

Filled up the hole in cliffs near waterfall with boulders to prevent players from falling into hole and getting stuck

Fixed bad texture mapping on certain assets

Deleted out of place clipping dirt piles in storm drain

Fixed various assets clipping in the Fish Farm

Fixed disappearing foliage in town hall, removed non nanite trees

Removed Russian language newspapers from inside village houses, town hall and from bench by the dock

Disabled static radio from using LODs. This is to fix it disappearing at a distance.

Removed concrete Jersey barrier splines and replaced them with hand-placed static meshes

Fixed fact that floor decals were not showing up in game.

Fixed collision on pipes near sawmill

Scaled in the wall piece to fix walls Z-fighting and clipping through cross walls in warehouse.

Fixed bad texture seam on top of air units in bunker

Fixed panels on water storage tanks appearing black near the bunker water filtration area

Moved the AC units up and placed blocking volumes around them to prevent players from vaulting on them

Placed a blocking volume around the cabinet to prevent players from using it to vault through the wall and get stuck

Removed the “out of bounds” box around the NATO base building to fix “return to combat area” warning happening where it should not.

In warehouse removed fan from the table to stop screen jittering from occurring when player jumps on table

In bunker WF area moved the cement bags and added some extra ones to fill the hole so players cannot get stuck here now

Moved floating truck near warehouse

Capped off ends of bridge near sawmill [c7-4]

Moved truck near sawmill back so tires aren’t clipping with the floor

Fixed multiple issues with assets clipping on the fuel depot roof

In village, moved bench away from under window for navigation and moved concrete wall so it’s not clipping with the steps.

Changed the collision on all stairs to be a flat ramp instead of individual boxes for each step to help make navigation easier Bunker & [H3-2]

Fixed foliage clipping issues & floating assets in lumber yard

Moved prop vehicle down so it’s not floating [H4-1]

Fixed misaligned boundary walls around cemetery

Fixed gap in seawall mesh near Warehouse

Fixed Harbour computer desk down so there’s more room to stand on the desk without getting stuck in the ceiling

Fixed bug where player clips with tanks after vaulting near electric meter at PACT Base [E7-4]

Fixed bug where player clips with wooden wall after vaulting on wash basin inside building near Harbour [G7-4]

Removed pointless rails in front of Harbour

Prevented Player clipping through the wall after vaulting on Sofa at Power Station [G5-7]

Removed invisible collision at Harbour [G7-7]

Added thickness to the tunnel wall pieces to fix light leaking problem

Fixed player passing through railings after vaulting on wooden crates at Warehouse [H4-6]

Fixed shoreline to prevent jagged and improper shadows in water near warehouse at [H6-7]

Fixed tree Clipping Through Wooden Hut Near Village [G4-4]

Changed colour of leaves on ground to match other trees/plants in area of town hall.

Fixed player clipping while going through the iron pipe near Sawmill [C6-8]

Fixed water splash vfx caused by wrong phys mat on bookshelf in Power Station [G5-6]

Changed the physical material to ‘fence metal’ to fix bullet impact probs on fence around building site.

Enabled nanite on signs in NATO base to prevent distance culling.

Tidied up boundary wall assets near warehouse and village

Fixed stretched blurry rock textures in landscape at [E7-3]

Fixed players clipping inside building after vaulting on chairs near it at NATO Base [I2-2]

Scaled the tarpaulin assets down so in harbour so they’re flatter and less clunky.

Removed bad collision from rood aircon unit and made it custom collision that fits the visual to prevent player floating issues on roof at [G7-7]

Fixed Sun drying racks clipping in ground near PACT Base [B9-5]

Fixed Pile of Wooden Logs clipping into the rock near Village at [G4-1]

Placed some stacked crates plus a blocking volume to prevent player getting stuck between watch tower and building at NATO base [H2-8]

Fixed logs floating at Sawmil [D7-7]

Fixed Player clipping through railings while vaulting near PACT Base [E6-6]

Reduced the amount of damage on the sawmill roof so there's less gaps and fixed bad texture stretching on this asset.

Fixed various clipping issues with rock wall near bunker

Added collision to cable ducting in underground area of fuel tanks

Fixed overlapping wall geometry at [G3-9]

Blended ground texture, scaled in steps, added a stone post to cap end of rock wall near Power station [G6-G7]

Fixed Tree clipping thru vehicle near Warehouse [I4-3]

Fixed Incomplete Texture of road near PACT Base [A9-8]

Fixed gap in rocks where player gets stuck at [F7-9]

Removed the sofa and centered the chairs and tables to fix potential illegal spacing issues when vaulting through windows in [G3-7]

Fixed physical material on car assets in [D7-5]

Fixed player getting blocked by invisible collision under bridge near Fish Farm at [C8-5]

Fixed ends of industrial pipes levitating above the ground surface near Harbour at [G7-2]

Large amount of set dressing of NATO base.

Fixed getting 'Return To Combat Area' warning after vaulting several assets at NATO Base [I2-2]

Moved cable drum props so they’re not clipping each other and other assets [E7-7]

Fixed incomplete end of the road guardrails near Village at [H2-5]

Fixed trim of boatyard building being black/missing missing [H3-8]

Fixed gap in dock floor [H8-6]

Fixed fence clipping thru wall at [H3-1]

Fixed collision on sawmill roof to prevent floating players in the corners

Added new guard rail end pieces to missing areas in various locations

Fix for ground fog in Bunker rooms - lowered the ground fog + general intensity of ground fog

Moved cable drum prop so it’s not clipping with barrier at [E7-8]

Moved the concrete barriers a bit so they aren’t clipping with the oil barrels at [F7-1]

Fixed Wooden fences levitating near PACT Base [C8-2]

Fixed Wooden fence levitating on an inclined road near Sawmill at [D6-6]

Fixed redundant mantle prompt problem that appeared on stairs leading to capture point A-VILLAGE [H3-1]

Set nanite fallback relative error to zero on power pylons to prevent LOD popping

Completed end of the road guardrails Power Station at [G7-4][F5-9]

Fixed bad blending issue on stone wall at [G6-7]

Fixed ends of highway guard rails at [H2-5]

Fixed Incomplete Ends of iron railings of bridges near Fuel at [E7-3]

Made new custom collision for sand pile that matches the visual mesh closer to prevent player from floating above it at [F7-5]

Waterfalls added to Norway Assault levels for Nato and Pact

Removed odd looking rocks here and made a new wall piece that does not have a tunnel hole in it. Prevents Staircase asset clipping into rock wall near Harbour at [G8-4]

Moved and scaled stone wall pieces to fix a gap in the flooring visible near PACT base at [C8-3]

Fixed Front wheels of car clipping into the ground near Fish farm [C8-5]

Fixed boundary wall asset levitating near warehouse at [H6-7]

Fixed untextured conveyor belt in fish farm

Fixed player seeing thru gap in wall near Power Station [G6-7]

Removed 1 carpet to fix double carpet issue in the house near the Village at [H2-6]

Changed collision preset from block all dynamics to block all for big pine trees

Fixed small part of car being detached and levitating near Power Station [G5-4]

Woodpecker

Removed floating tree at [G4-2]

Fixed landscape sculpt on trenches and re-rolled procedural landscape to prevent prone landscape clipping at Outpost Bravo [G6-6]

Fixed tree levitating above the muddy ground surface at Outpost Bravo [G6-6]

Fixed Incomplete Ends of iron railings of both sides of bridges near Village At [F6-6] and [F7-7]

Fixed Stack of pipes levitating above ground surface near Substation at [C6-9]

Fixed Player levitating above multiple sandpiles due to invisible collision near Substation at [C6-9]

Moved assets into packed level actor for performance in lumberyard

Created various packed level actors for Farm, Village and Nato Outpost Bravo – all performance improving

Fixed Bushes clipping through wooden fence near Lumber yard [F8-3]

Moved non nanite assets outside packed level actor

Fixed disappearing windows on all closed buildings and other disappearing assets on Low gfx settings

Removed foliage from floors of various buildings

Fixed barn shutters

Fixed barn window collision

Fixed Substation and Train station having metallic platforms that are invisible at low graphics for Foliage

Set dressed an empty shed in the village

Moved multiple clipping trees

Fixed player getting stuck between rocks in several places

Fixed rock collision in multiple places

Fixed rotated glass panel of several closed buildings

Fixed pond flickering material

Fixed Clipping assets in Train station

Fixed Sawmill roof collision

Removed multiple duplicated assets

Fixed player getting stuck in multiple locations in Command Center

Fulda Gap

General navigation pass moved trucks to allow space for tanks in more locations

Smoothed landscape to decrease occurrence of jagged terrain

Fixed stone boundary wall geometry overlapping with house wall near NATO Village [E4-2]

Fixed Player getting stuck between truck and wall at PACT Base [H9-1]

Moved floating leaves from NATO barracks

Regenerated procedural landscape near tunnel by Old Station

Fixed wooden crates levitating above the surface at PACT base [H9-1]

Regenerated vegetation for multiple fixes

Tidied up poster textures in PACT homebase

Audio

Fixed multiple cases of 1p audio playing 3p unspatialised

New explosion audio assets for artillery strikes

Fix for M653 using 1p animations and therefore playing unspatialised reload audio. Modified the attenuation used for this to make sounds below 100 UE units always play in stereo, which causes soundbanks for other affected weapons to be checked out as well.

Fixed up Škorpion reload/ammo check to have tighter sync.

Events and Wwise audio app set up for squad accept/reject order

Improved spatialisation on tanks.

Added proper M240 coax machine gun 1p/3p to M60A3 tank.

Tweaked tank engine and track attenuations so that they're clearly heard and spatialised by players.

Updated tail content on M60 machine gunner weapon - changed how reverb is handled at a design stage.

Solution for 3p unspatialised reload on Makarov, M60 and RPK.

Fixed issues with tank vehicle states killing ambient audio for players outside of tanks

Designed and implemented 1p and 3p reload audio for M67MAW

Increased announcer volume

Increased volume of objective state change audio stingers

Objective enter/exit audio louder.

Objective enter/exit audio louder.

Increased volume of 1p character foley

Increased volume of player footsteps

MP5 slap audio support 1p/3p

Slight increase to volume of other players' battlechatter

Tweaks to attenuations on some items in Fulda ambience. Various other minor mix changes

Minor change to some ambient emitter attenuations on Fjord.

Separated out reload foley audio on tanks to better handle the 1p/3p differentiation

Vehicles

Adjusted M60A3 and T-64B tank reload speeds (M60A3 is using dead ‘bot loader’ reload speed, which currently is non-functional as we don't have a bot loader component)

Fixed players in jeeps not getting damaged by grenades

Rebalance adjustment to tank health pools and to component damage multipliers

Rebalanced HEP/HESH damage

Balance bullet penetrations on vehicles for all jeeps and explosive projectiles – generally jeeps are now less ‘bullet sponge-y’

Code

Fixed vehicle spawn timer issue

Fixed server crash when commander ability timers finish with no valid commander (like map switching) cleaned up the pending ability code

Fixed an issue where players could get thrown into the wrong servers when travelling maps.

Optimised client-side projectile collision

Disable tick of wetness component on dedicated server – minor network optimisation

Update end of round Round Time when time has been added in the assault game mode, preventing negative round times showing.

Quick join option more selective in servers chosen.

Fix for occasional crash during ragdoll physics

Fix for occasional crash when playing shell impact sound

Multiple crash fixes

Fix for not being able to control your spectator camera after switching to the role

Fixed commander/SL build message getting stuck if you died with the message up then respawned to non-SL

Stop vehicles moving beyond match end

Fix for command post destruction/reminder voice lines continuing to play after a team swap

Prevented preview mannequin being completely regenerated when loadout screen opened.

Removed auto spawn logic if only one available spawn

Fixed aiming down sights not correctly clearing spawn protection

Level Design

As-Fjord NATO

Gameplay balance work from NATO homebase towards Warehouse and from Warehouse towards Power Station

Added extra cover, trees, rocks, sculpted landscape, adjusted spawn protection and objective Trigger Volumes

Added static radios

Balancing work to make Obj A (Warehouse) more accessible to the attackers

Adjusted blocking volume in NATO home base building

Adjusted several window frames to allow vaulting

Fixed broken ladder for Harbor offices for both NATO & Pact assault maps

Removed a section of handrail on Harbor main building

Removed floating grass and dead vegetation from sewer tunnel and bunker entrance

Adjusted landscape and assets placement around Village

Adjusted cliffs near the dam to avoid players climbing over them

Adjusted bridge and landscape near Power Station

Adjusted landscape painting to remove some floating branches

Landscape adjustments to remove trees from roads Landscape painting to remove grass from concrete or asphalt roads Raised bridge near east waterfall a few centimetres to fix a bad landscape intersection

Slightly raised the window shutters to allow vaulting

Added concrete barriers to block holes under the bridge

Aligned ladders with hatch and removed extra ladder from one of the maps

Regenerated vegetation for Fjord

As-Fjord Pact

Adjusted spawn points and no fire volumes

Added extra trees to provide additional cover

Adjusted landscape a bit to invalidate some camping spots

Added static radios

Adjusted window frames to allow vaulting

Small adjustments to Fuel Depot trigger volume to stop players being able to hold/take the objective from outside the main wall

Removed floating grass and dead vegetation from sewer tunnel and bunker entrance

Vegetation adjustments to remove trees from roads

Landscape painting to remove grass from concrete or asphalt roads

Raised bridge near east waterfall a few centimetres to fix a bad landscape intersection

Slightly raised the window shutters to allow vaulting

Aligned ladders with hatches

As-Woodpecker Nato

Additional foliage has been included near by the Nato Home side.

Static radios have been setup on Woodpecker Nato

NATO no fire volume spawn protection adjusted.

Additional foliage has been added, East of Lumberyard.

Additional cover added in the mast space.

Terrain adjusted to provide attackers with some distance from defenders setup.

OOB volume in closed off building in ammo depot has been updated.

As-Woodpecker Pact

Static radios have been placed on the map.

OOB volume in closed off building in ammo depot has been updated.

As-Fulda Gap Nato:

Landscape changes to improve map layout readability

Vegetation & hard cover updates to block defender exploitable sniping spots + make them more visible from those positions (ridges, roofs, perch points)

Attacker-oriented infantry only paths and LOS breakers added

Spawn distance tuning and cover for insertion near capture points

Attacker-oriented spawn protection and spawn placement updates

More space for attacker arty strikes

Stage time award & ticket count updated

Increase of size of the access area around capture points for attackers (to cut off reinforcements, place more effective spawn beacons, occupy strategic positions for tank support)

Adjusted tank/tanker spawns and polished guidance for NATO tank

Removed problematic trench near NATO tank spawn

Added commander radios for NATO at: initial spawn & NATO observation and for PACT at: Border Village, Logging Camp, Sawmill & Border Control

Added ladders to PACT guard towers near border village and base

As-Fulda Gap Pact:

Stage time award & ticket count update

Team role balancing

Chokepoint adjustments

Reworked area near defender spawns at B (Old Train Station)

Added commander radios for NATO at: Ridge, Supply Dump, Train Station and for PACT at: Farm, Village Church

Tank navigation improvements

FL-Fulda Gap

Added commander radios for NATO at: Radar Station, Train Station, Border Control, NATO observation and for PACT at: Border Village, Sawmill, Farm, NATO Outpost

Tank navigation improvements

Added ladders to PACT guard towers near Border Village and PACT base

Fl-Fjord

Added concrete barriers to block the holes under the bridge

Fl-Woodpecker

Players blocked from jumping over the fence near the OOB areas of Woodpecker.

Additional foliage has been included near by the NATO Home Base.

Cover in the Lumberyard adjusted. Bushes and trees adjusted to prevent awkward lines of sight. Additional line of sight blockers in the form of rocks.