Hey soldiers!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IctFOaEsRE8
Alpha 11 has arrived! We can think of no better way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. With Alpha 11, we are continuing to increase the depth of vehicle gameplay, as well as expanding content for infantry. No doubt some expert squads will take advantage of combined arms tactics. Do read up on the changelog while you download!
Alpha Version 11 is now available via Steam. Please always clear your game cache in the game settings on every new build!
Full Changelog
Gameplay
- British Armed Forces have been added. They are a high-tech Blue Force faction with a unique bullpup-style primary weapon, and heavily reliant on armored transport to move around the battlefield. Expect to see them make an appearance on a few of the classic maps and also the newly released Kamdesh.
- Dramatically reduced the ticket bleed on the middle flags and increased the ticket win/loss when an actual flag area is captured or lost. Neutral flag include a ticket gain for your team. There will still continue to be a "mercy" ticket bleed on the end flags.
- Tweaked stamina costs for jumping, vaulting, and climbing.
- Settle sway time has been reduced by half on all weapons.
- Recoil animation for semi-auto fire has been slightly reduced for greater target tracking.
- LMG and MMG camera shake has been slightly reduced.
- Horizontal recoil patterns on several weapons have been reduced (tightened).
- Additional weapon recoil and sway values have been tweaked.
- Time to ADS on all weapons have been adjusted. Generally, iron sights are faster than all other forms of sighting systems.
- Non-ADS fire animation timing while the weapon is lowered or in a low ready position (such as MGs) has been increased in 3p to provide better visual feedback.
- Prone to crouch and standing animation speed has been increased by approximately 30%.
- Freelook recentering speed has been increased to be more fluid.
Systems
- Unregistered soldier and weapon based components when unused reducing the physics and rendering costs for these components.
- Reduced the amount of network ticking needed on weapons, soldiers, and vehicles.
- Reduced a number of unneeded processes when updating animation on the soldiers.
- Improved accuracy on detecting when to update the soldier movement component.
- Soldier bodies now despawn from the game world when the owning player respawns, greatly cleaning up the number of expensive dead bodies on the field. (Main bases now require a 30 second spawn time to ensure that the killer has a chance to verify the kill)
- Rewrote the burning system for performance and simplicity. Vehicle burning now starts burning at a preset threshold instead of relying on temperature calculations. This means that a vehicle will catch fire if the vehicle is really close to destruction; and will shortly burn out and explode.
- Rewrote how vehicle flipping is calculated.
- Ragdoll overlap calculations are now cheaper.
- Updated the map widget for cheaper visibility calculations.
- Optimized spiky and expensive UI widgets, and reduced the amount of processing needed for a number of UI widgets.
- Distance Field Shadows - Shadows and Lighting will look much much better now with distance field shadows enabled, as a graphics option in the settings menu.
- Added Filtered Sharpening to the post-processing graphics pass. This should help with the issues relating to blurry visuals at range.
- Vehicle Armor Locational Damage
- All vehicles now have more defined armor values IE: an APC will have more armor on its front, less on its sides, and very vulnerable in the back. This first take will loosely reflect more closely real-world characteristics, as well as create more depth to the AT role.
- All bullets will now have a chance to visually and audibly ricochet depending on angle fired, and weapons with tracer rounds will visibly show the ricochets trajectory path. Projectiles that do
ricochet don't actually deal damage but instead are a visual indicator that the projectile did not penetrate the surface or armor.
- Vehicle ground effects (eg. dust being blown around as you drive) have been re-enabled and visually upgraded since its previous implementation.
Roles and Weapons
- Insurgent Soldier models have been completely redone. A large variety of civilian and paramilitary styles have been added to make the faction look a little more versatile visually.
- New Role: Crewman. This role is necessary for crewing APCs and IFVs in the driver and gunner seats. This role is equipped lightly for the express purpose of self-defense. A Squad Leader Crewman Kit has been added, also.
- New Weapon: L85A2 Rifle. This is the mainstay British Army service rifle, a 5.56mm bullpup configuration rifle capable of semi and automatic fire. Depending on the role, the rifle is equipped with either iron sights, 4x SUSAT sight (zeroing out to 600m) or 4x ACOG (built in BDC reticle). Some roles also have a folding foregrip/bipod combination attached as well.
- New Weapon: L86A2 LSW Rifle. This weapon is a unique cross between a designated marksman rifle and a light machine gun. While it doesn't have the same level of stopping power as a 7.62mm DMR, its ability to put down accurate automatic fire makes up for its shortcomings. This is run on the squad-level Marksman role.
- New Weapon: L129A1 Sharpshooter Rifle. A 7.62mm Designated Marksman Rifle, equipped with a 6x ACOG with an excellent field of view. This is available as the team-wide Marksman role for the British.
- New Weapon: AG36 Grenade Launcher. A 40mm Grenade Launcher attached to the L85A2 rifle, available on the British Grenadier role. Its side-mounted ladder sight goes up to 350m, and its spring loaded barrel allows for faster loading.
- New Weapon: L110A1 Minimi. The British adaptation of the FN Minimi platform, much like the M249 SAW. It comes with a collapsible skeleton stock and can be equipped with a 4x SUSAT optic.
- New Weapon: L7A2 GPMG. The British adaptation of the FN MAG platform, very similar to the M240B weapon system used by the Americans.
- New Weapon: L131a1 Glock Service Pistol. This recently adopted pistol is a high capacity 9mm handgun that is a reliable sidearm for British officers and support roles.
- New Weapon: AT4. The AT4 is an 84-mm unguided, portable, single-shot recoilless smoothbore weapon. This weapon does a modest (33%) more damage than the M72A7 LAW, and is available on all US and British Heavy Anti-Tank roles, as an interim weapon while we work on much heavier anti-tank options.
- New Weapon: PKP. The Russian Forces PKP is the modernized cousin of the PKM. Complete with a mount for optics, this Russian weapon will make their machine gunners even more fearsome. Russian Machine Gunners have their PKPs equipped with a 1p78 optic.
- New Weapon Variant: AK74M 1p63 "Obzor" Collimator Sight. The Russian Forces have a collimator sight option now on their rifleman and supplementary combat roles, allowing for quicker target acquisition in CQB.
- New Weapon Variant: AK74 1p29 Optic Sight. The Militia and Insurgent Forces have a slightly older sight option replacing the modern 1p78 sight. It is the older style trilux sight with an upside down obelisk reticle, zeroing capability out to 400m and also a built-in stadiametric rangefinder.
- The US Army Machine Gunner's M240B is now equipped with an M145 optic.
- All factions have now been given knife training and knives, for those times when you may need a stealth kill option.
- IED and AT Mine changes, Insurgents and Militia are now able to place up to 3 IEDs in the world at a time, and 6 AT mines in the world at a time. They can still only carry 1 of each of these items at a time, so they will need to rearm to place more.
- Light AT roles now only have 1 shot available for their anti-tank weapons. A full 9-man squad will still have access to 2 of these roles.
- Heavy AT roles have been added to the British, US Army and Russian factions to aid in destroying vehicles. 2 Kits available per team. 1 per squad. 4 squad members needed to access the kit. US and GB have the new AT4 weapon system as a placeholder for HAT for the time being. RU has a placeholder RPG-7 Tandem warhead.
- Resupply costs have been updated to the following: 25 Ammo Points: Medic, Rifleman, Crewman, Medic, Officer; 50 Ammo Points: Grenadier, AR, MG, Marksman; 100 Ammo Points: LAT, Sapper, US/GB HAT; 150 Ammo Points: Rus/Mil/Ins HAT
- Tweaked first person weapon origin positions for all weapons.
- Tweaked weapon fire sounds for the AK74, AKM, M4, G3 series, and ZU-23 AA Gun
- Improved the look of the M68 Aimpoint's dot, raising its co-witness to 1/3rd. (Putting the dot above the front sight post.)
- Widened rear sight apertures on the AK74, AKM and RPK series, making it easier to acquire a target when sighting with these weapons.
- Tweaked the look of the lowered pose when crouched.
- Tweaked reticle on the M145 ACOG sight, making the chevron much smaller, and adding a small red dot under the chevron to indicate where a shot would land at 200m.
Vehicles
- All APCs and IFVs now require you to procure a Crewman Role in order to operate the driver and gunner seats. These roles can be sourced from ammo crates, or are spawnable as such.
- Most vehicles now have the capability to carry spare ammunition to which ground infantry can resupply their ammunition from. These ammunition points can be sourced from Main Base and FOBs, much like ammo points on Logistics vehicles. To that end, these vehicles can now be used to ferry ammunition to and from FOBs if need be.
- Insurgents will now have access to some technicals with Improvised Armor. These vehicles generally sacrifice speed, driver visibility and handling for much greater resistance to shrapnel and small arms fire, up to 7.62mm NATO.
- A new British logistics and transport truck. This modern left-hand drive vehicle is similar in carrying capacity to its Russian and American counterparts. It is on a 3-minute respawn timer, and is worth 6 tickets. The passenger transport variant holds 18 soldiers, while the logistics variant holds 4 passengers and 2000 combined supplies.
- FV510, a new British Infantry Fighting Vehicle. The FV510 is a heavily armored IFV that can carry up to 9 passengers, as well as having a driver/gunner crew. It sports a 30mm autocannon, a slow firing clip-fed cannon that fires high-velocity 30mm rounds in armor-piercing sabot and high explosive. In addition, a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun and smoke launchers. It is on a 10-minute spawn timer and is worth 28 tickets.
- M2A3 IFV, a new Infantry Fighting Vehicle for the US Army. Bridging the gap between Armored Personnel Carrier and Main Battle Tank, IFVs can transport a small group of infantry while also providing considerable fire support against both infantry and enemy armor. It holds 7 passengers, along with a driver and gunner. The M2A3 is the most heavily armed vehicle in the game, with a 25mm chaingun, firing armor-piercing sabot and high explosive rounds, as well as a turret-mounted TOW launcher with 2 TOW wire-guided missiles ready to fire. In addition, a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun and smoke launchers for creating smokescreens. It is on a 15-minute spawn timer and is worth 37 tickets.
- Dramatically reduced the effectiveness of radial damage from rockets to medium to heavy armor vehicles.
- Completely overhauled the look of the CROWS weapon system on the MATV and M1126. To this, we added an ammunition tracker, rangefinder, turret orientation indicator and 3 levels of zoom.
Deployables
- The TOW missile is a wire-guided missile that follows the target commands via a very long wire attached to the launcher. The player can effectively steer the missile while in flight onto target, and it is extremely effective against stationary or slow-moving targets.
- Optics have been added onto the emplaced Russian NSV, British and American M2 Brownings and both emplaced and mobile versions of the SPG-9 Kopye. Both the M2 Browning and SPG9 have completely functional reticles that allow for precise shooting at range. We recommend having some trigger time on the range with these to understand how the reticles are used.
- Emplacements are now damageable by calibers greater than and including 12.7mm/.50cal. The intent is that they will cease to function after sustaining a light to moderate amount of damage, requiring repairs to it in order to bring it back to a working state.
- Razor wire has been made more damaging by slowing down the player much more when caught in it, as well as making it completely impassable. Razor wire that is shorter and lower to the ground can still be jumped over though with a big enough run-up.
Mapping
- New Map: Kamdesh Highlands: A new Afghan themed map has been added to the game. This map is set in the far east part of Afghanistan, sparsely populated and mountainous, the area has a number of roads crisscrossed, connecting small hamlets.
- Kohat Toi Expansion: Kohat has been expanded to increase gameplay variability and increase Gameplay layer options. In addition to opening up the playable zones, a lot of surrounding dressing has been added to the map edges to make you really impart the sense of a large world around you. Finally, the lighting has been completely redone from scratch to give a greater sense of distance when looking off into the edges of the map.
- Gorodok visual improvements: foliage should be thicker, draw farther and look better, all while being more optimized. Rock demons have been largely eliminated.
- Fixed a number of terrain and static glitching bugs relating to the Train Depot area on Narva
We also have added a lot of new layers to existing maps with radically different flag layouts, the addition of the British and expanding the implementation of the Invasion-style game mode
- Al Basrah Invasion_v1 (Overhauled)
- Al Basrah Invasion_v2 S (New)
- Belaya: Relevant layers with Train Tunnel flags are now able to be capped from outdoor areas.
- Belaya AAS_v2 (New)
- Belaya AAS_v3 (New)
- Fools Road AAS_v1: Ammo Hill is a requirement in the lattice.
- Fools Road AAS_v4 (Overhauled)
- Gorodok AAS_v1 (Overhauled)
- Gorodok AAS_v2 (Overhauled)
- Gorodok AAS_v3 GB vs RU (New)
- Gorodok AAS_v4 US vs RU (New)
- Gorodok Invasion_v2 (New)
- Kohat AAS_v1 (Overhauled)
- Kohat AAS_v2 (Overhauled)
- Kohat Invasion_v1 (Overhauled)
- Yehorivka_AAS_v3 (New)
User Interface
- Name Tag UI updated. Name Tags have been updated both on the 3D HUD and on the map, giving you more intel on friendly locations while also being more contextual. You can see what roles they have now via the name tags.
- The Squad Leader's position is always visible on the 3D HUD.
- Players who are incapacitated now appear in grey on the 3D HUD.
- When seeing a vehicle, only the driver is now shown, clearing a lot of the clutter.
- Added squad numbers to the vehicle icons on the map, showing which squads currently have a claim on that vehicle.
- Improved Speedometer. Added a new and improved Speedometer for all drivers. It now shows the amount of torque, what gear you are in, your land speed, your maximum possible top speed and also how much your vehicle is tilted in either direction.
- Added a search bar to the server browser.
- Added a 'Screenshot Mode' which hides the main in-game UI. This is accessible through the main menu in the bottom right.
- Added a back-button to the main menu, which backs you out to the main screen.
- Added separate mouse sensitivity sliders for soldiers and vehicles. (Further iteration will be done on this system.)
- Fixed map icon clipping when the icon is close to the map border.
Audio
- Added inside/outside sound mixes for vehicles. For example, being inside an armored vehicle, you will no longer hear outside ambient sounds and the loud sounds are being muffled. Also, impact sounds to vehicles sounds different when sitting inside with a much more pronounced type of sound.
- Added new and adjusted volumes of weapon firing distant sounds.
- Added bolt and trigger sounds for handheld and HMG weapons.
- Added vehicle FX sounds for tyres and tank threads on various surfaces including rolling and sliding.
- Beefed up attenuation for engine sounds on various vehicles. You will be able to hear the engines further away.
- Added ADS sounds for handheld weapons.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a clipping bug on the spawn menu where it was cutting off the bottom of the role list.
- Adjusted the PKM's first-person view so the handle doesn't block your view.
- Optimised a large amount of bullet hit and vehicle-based effects.
- Third person jogging animations have been cleaned up and tweaked.
- Fixed sound cutting out on the M4 when firing in Three Round Burst.
- Fixed being able to change stances while deployed in bipod.
- Fixed sprinting while low stamina looking awkward in third-person.
- Optimised the blur effect on ADS.
- Fixed feet sliding while moving in crouch in third-person.
- Remove menu when pressing Tilde ~ for console or when pressing Shift-P for admin camera. This will stop you getting stuck in the main menu and unintentionally being able to move.
- Fixed third person sprinting animations for some weapons causing their left wrist to break.
- Fixed an unintentional value for settle sway on the M4 platform.
- Several bug fixes related gameplay layers.
Miscellaneous
- Localisation for the following languages has been updated and added: Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Simplified & Traditional Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish and Ukrainian.
- Added a server option for whether or not APCs and IFVs require a crewman.
And that's it! What are you waiting for, soldier? Get out there and kick some butt!