Squad v1.0 Released!

Welcome, Squaddies,

Today marks a memorable day as we at Offworld Industries celebrate the release of Squad. It’s been a long journey through Early Access, but it wouldn’t have been possible without our dedicated community helping shape what Squad has become and where it will go.

Before we get to the good stuff, take the time to watch our Launch Trailer, showcasing just a slice of the Squad experience.

Alongside our 1.0 launch, we also bring to you a new faction, the Middle Eastern Alliance. A new battleground for you to utilize them on, in the form of Fallujah, and experience Squad how it was always intended to be played, in glorious 50v50 combat.

New Feature: 100 Player Servers

Take combat to the next level in Squad as you traverse vast environments with your unit. With an increased player count, expect danger around every corner and bolster your ranks to combat the opposition.

New Map: Fallujah

Take to the streets of Fallujah, the latest map to join Squad and one of our most dense city environments to date.

New Faction: Middle Eastern Alliance

With a new map, it only seems right to bring in a new Faction to call it home. Welcome the Middle Eastern Alliance, your local combatants helping to clear out the Insurgents.

Gameplay Features

Server Player Population Increase

• Increased the maximum player capacity of servers to 100 players (+1 slot for Reserve Slots).

Founders Steam Inventory Weapon Skins Return

• Added support for Squad Kickstarter Founder’s to have access to their Founder’s weapon skins.
• Added support for Squad Kickstarter Founder’s uniform patches.
• Added support for Squad Kickstarter Company Clan Backer’s uniform unit patches.
• Updated the Kickstarter Founders M4 Desert textures.
• To view and enable your Founder’s Weapon Skins, Go to Settings Menu -> Steam Inventory to view your weapon skins and enable/disable them in the menu.
• This menu will also allow you to enable and disable your Squad founder’s uniform patch.
• If you encounter any technical issues with this feature, we ask that you contact us via the support button on joinsquad.com and then click ‘submit a request’ in the top right corner.
• If you were part of the Company Clan Backer level, we will be contacting you or your Company Clan Leader within the next month with information about how to get your clan’s custom uniform unit patch up and running in Squad. All Company Clan Leader backers will initially have a “Squad Legion” Company Clan unit uniform patch to showcase that they were a Company Clan backer. After your Company Clan Leader has received and responded to our information request, you will be able to enable and disable your custom unit patch in the same In-Game Settings Menu -> Steam Inventory

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FOB Bleed-out System Visual Improvements

• Added visual FX sparks to indicate that a FOB Radio is in bleed out state.
• Added color coding to FOB health level bar. Blue - operational, Yellow - disabled due to health level, Red - Bleeding.
• Added circular indicator around FOB status icon (top-left corner), that shows how long FOB is bleeding out already.
• Updated FOB Radio so Soldiers can no longer dig enemy FOBs that are in bleed out state.
• Synced FOB visual state with bleed out state. Now the FOB Radio will enter the last stage (Unbuilt) when it starts to bleed out, and will get back to the next stage (Half-built) only when it has been repaired out of bleed out state.

Fireteam Improvements

• Fireteam Leaders can now place Fortifications. This is intended to allow this role to become more of a junior leadership role, allowing the Squad Leader to disseminate more tasks to their FTL’s, to take some pressure off of SL role while also allowing FTL to get familiar with leadership taskings.

Game Modes

• Track Attack Game Mode
• Added a new Game Mode named Track Attack.
• This is a small scale 4 player vs 4 player vehicle-based deathmatch mode designed for fast tournaments. This straightforward deathmatch mode will pit 2 vehicle crews to fight another 2 vehicle crews in a battle to the death.
• This game mode will be featured in an upcoming Track Attack Event.
• 10-minute rounds, with a single capturable objective, whichever team can destroy both enemy vehicle crews first (or capture the objective), win the round.
• Added 4 Map Layers for Track Attack Mode:
• Al Basrah TA v1 - featuring BFV Infantry Fighting Vehicle combat.
• Narva TA v1 - featuring BTR82A Armored Personnel Carrier combat.
• Tallil Outskirts TA v1 - featuring M1A2 Main Battle Tank combat.
• Yehorivka TA v1 - featuring T72B3 Main Battle Tank combat.

AAS / RAAS / Invasion / TC Ticket Changes

• Updated AAS and RAAS Ticket Gain and Loss for Flag Capture to -20 and +50. This change is intended to slightly increase game length for rounds that have a lot of back and forth around the capture zone lattice.
• Increased Invasion tickets for Attackers to 200.
• Increased Territory Control starting tickets to 450/450.

Optimization / Stabilization

Relative Net Update Frequency Optimisation

• Updated our Net Update Frequency to have a greater impact on server performance optimization. The intention here is to save time on the GetRelativeUpdateFrequency call in the replication process on the server. When this is enabled, less time should be spent in "Get Relative Update Frequency Time" on the CPU.

Other Optimisation Improvements

• Added NetConnection checks to help with unnecessary log spam.
• Disabled driver freelook replication on BRDM2, BTR80, FV510 and M1126, as it's not necessary for these vehicles.
• Fixed UnmutePlayer causing RPC messages with perf drops.
• Fixed Ragdoll ticking on server causing perf drops.
• Fixed Map Markers causing server log spam.

Infantry

• Added the following Kit Roles for the new MEA Faction:
• Riflemen 1 (Irons) - G3A3 + Irons
• Riflemen 2 (Aimdot) - G3A3 + Z Point
• Riflemen 3 (Scope) - G3A3 + ZF1 Scope
• Squad Leader 1 - G3A4 Tracer + Irons
• Squad Leader 2 - G3A4 Tracer + Z Point
• Combat Medic 1 - G3A3 Tracer + Irons
• Combat Medic 2 - G3A3 + ZF1 Scope
• Automatic Rifleman 1 (Irons) - G3A3 Drum + Irons
• Automatic Rifleman 2 (Scope) - G3A3 Drum + ZF1 Scope
• Light Anti Tank 1 (Irons) - G3KA4 + Irons and RPG7v2
• Light Anti Tank 2 (Scope) - G3KA4 + ZF Scope and RPG26
• Grenadier - G3A3 +HK79 + ZF1 Scope
• Marksman - G3SG1 + Optic
• Machine Gunner - MG3 + ELCAN Scope
• Heavy Anti Tank - HK51 + Z-Point and RPG29 + 1p38 Scope
• Combat Engineer - G3KA4 + Z-Point.
• Crewmen/Pilot - HK51 + Irons
• Updated the RUS 1P78 Scope to have Increased zoom by ~8%. This affects the AK74M, PKP, and RPK variants. The new 1P78 Scope will now have slightly greater zoom in line with other conventional factions like the USA/GB ACOG Scope.
• Updated 1P78 to now be mapped to input sensitivity scaling for 4x scopes. Affects AK74M, PKP, and RPK variants.
• Updated 3rd person Soldier animation when Aiming Down Sights (ADS) to include left eye closing pose, only if the Soldier has tilted their head.
• Updated the GB L85A2 + ACOG to have increased zoom to match USA M4 + ACOG. The GB L85A2 + ACOG will now use the correct 4x zoom sensitivity scaling.
• Updated the Combat Engineer's deployable razor wire to remove an exploitable collision and increased its damage.
• Fixed RPG26 Ammo rearm costing 40 ammo. Now at 30 ammo points).
• Fixed RPG7 FRAG and HEAT costing only 10 ammo. Should each cost 30 ammo now.
• Fixed Insurgent Hair changing colour in direct lighting.
• Fixed some incorrect settings on M72 LAW and M203 smoke.
• Fixed GB Soldier’s left arm breaking when reloading a pistol.
• Fixed volume issues with SKS and L129A1 3p firing sounds on low Audio Settings.
• Fixed M3 Carl G mutual weapon animations transitioning between different ammo types.
• Fixed L22A2 weapons having their muzzle flashes away from the barrel.
• Fixed an issue with USA Soldiers having a broken left wrist when sprinting with the chonky M203.
• Fixed CAF pilot and pilot SLs having really dark and tanned hands.
• Fixed Combat Engineer's deployable Razor wire and Sandbags missing the UI build indicator tooltip.
• Fixed misaligned PKP 1p78 optic alignment with center screen.
• Fixed slight misalignment (1-2 pixel) on the AK74 GP25 Optic and RPK74M Optic.
• Fixed an issue with soldier right foot damage modifier not having correct value, taking more damage than intended.

Vehicles

• Added the following Vehicles for the new MEA Faction:
• Logistics / Transport Truck - Ural4320 (new MEA textures)
• Light Attack Vehicle - Simir Jeep with MG3, Kord, Kornet and Logistics variants.
• Light Attack Vehicle - BRDM2 with S8 Rockets
• APC - MTLBM 6MA with S8 Rockets
• APC - MTLBM VMK (new MEA textures)
• IFV - BMP2 (new MEA textures)
• Main Battle Tank - T72S (new MEA textures)
• Main Battle Tank - T62 (new MEA textures)
• Transport Helicopter - MI17 (new MEA textures)
• Added an icon for the Vehicle Parking/Hand brake for drivers to visually know when the handbrake is active. When the Parking brake (Default key spacebar) is applied while exiting the vehicle, the parking brake will be locked “On” upon exit. Now when a player returns to enter the vehicle, the parking brake icon will let the player know the vehicle's parking brake is engaged.
• Updated Helicopters and Drones to no longer destroy Rallypoint’s by proximity.
• Updated RUS Tigr-M RWS UI to have a repositioned stabilization indicator. When stabilization is enabled it should say "СТАБ ВЫКЛ" and when it is disabled it should say "СТАБ ВКЛ".
• Updated RUS Tigr-M to have less blue in the window glass colour.
• Updated S5 rockets to have a 20 meter minimum arming distance, including new impact SFX and VFX when they impact below the minimum arming distance.
• Decreased default Map Boundary kill time for helicopters from 35 to 25 seconds.
• Fixed an issue when piloting a helicopter, where a client side performance hitch would cause the helicopter to slide/jolt into a random direction suddenly.
• Fixed an issue where a Helicopter pilot’s client side FPS would impact the helicopters max speeds.
• Fixed MI-8/MI-17 tail rotor’s LOD mesh so it appears in the correct health state at all viewing distances.
• Fixed RUS Tigr-M’s turret stabilization indicator. An indicator (in cyrlillic) will now appear on the gunner’s UI to indicate turret stabilizer on/off status.
• Fixed RUS Tigr-M not having a change fire rate tooltip on the Vehicle Keybind HUD menu.
• Fixed T72B3 and T72AV using incorrect shell ejection on cannon fire (now has a smaller, stubbier shell casing).
• Fixed SPG9 at the back of the Insurgent Armoured Technical not being anchored to the pole.
• Fixed M1126 tire slip sound issues when reversing.
• Fixed RUS BMP2 allowing CO actions while nearby it.
• Fixed the S5 small rockets having the wrong impact sounds.
• Fixed the Vehicle Cleanup feature missing on the CAF MSVS Truck.

Deployables

• Updated initial HAB mesh to now include construction planks to indicate the build location of HAB.
• Fixed volume issues with all mortars on Low Audio Setting.
• Fixed Dshk 3p mid firing sfx sounding like autocannon distant sfx on Low Audio Setting.

User Interface

• Updated Main Menu background map, now featuring the MEA faction and a cutout segment of Fallujah.
• Updated Training Main Menu Selection to have an MEA flag for Jensen’s Range v3.
• Updated Vehicle Supply Radial UI with an indicator to show the combined supply pool total limit.
• Fixed numerical entry failing to apply to Command Voice Balance and Squad Voice Balance sliders.
• Updated spacers on VOIP UI Settings menu to make differentiating sliders easier.
• Updated name of “Only Apply Balance To Leaders” to “Only Apply Balance While Leading” for clarity.
• Updated tooltips for most VOIP audio settings options for better clarity.
• Updated Loading Screen, removing the line about Squad being in Beta.

Environments

• Optimized material elements on the Playground set.

Modding

• Added a vanilla asset validator for cooked mods, this should help with multi-mod compatibility.
• Added mod versioning system. Will only allow mods that match the game's version to be loaded, to avoid unnecessary crashes.
• Added Mod Versioning support.
• Added support in Modding SDK for unpublished vanilla asset verification.

Misc Fixes

• Improved UI on the new volume and ducking options in Audio menu. Fixed numerical entry failing to apply to Command Voice Balance and Squad Voice Balance sliders. Added tooltips.
• Improved the VOIP from “cutting off” at the end of transmission.
• Fixed an issue with Server Admin ban functionality.
• Fixed an issue with the RUS Tigr creating log spam which could affect performance.
• Fixed an issue with the Music Player causing a client crash in certain situations.

Maps

• Updated the MapRotation.cfg with all available map layers for v1.0.

Al Basrah

• Fixed material assignment on a merged city block.
• Smoothed the terrain at the INS/MEA main base to prevent flipping vehicles.
• Fixed a floating road.
• Fixed terrain to hide a gap under a wall.

Belaya

• CAF Belaya RAAS v2 - team 2 switched from MIL to RUS.

Fallujah

• Fallujah is our newest battlefield for Squad. Based on the real war-torn Iraqi city, this map will offer a combination of vertical, urban fighting and walled, residential combat. Expect one of the most immersive environments yet, where teamwork and communication will be key to victory. The following layers will be available upon launch (more to be created as Fallujah has a huge variety of terrain and Points of Interest:
• Fallujah AAS v1 -
• Fallujah AAS v2 -
• Fallujah Insurgency v1 -
• Fallujah Invasion v1 -
• Fallujah Invasion v2 -
• Fallujah Invasion v3 -
• Fallujah RAAS v1 -
• Fallujah RAAS v2 -
• Fallujah RAAS v3 -
• Fallujah Skirmish v1 -
• Fallujah Skirmish v2 -
• Fallujah TC v1 -
• Fallujah TC v2 -

Fool's Road

• Updated Fools Road to new refactored landscape renderer.
• Updated Fools Road evening lighting to use lighting BP.
• Adjusted Spruce tree SSS values to match evening lighting.
• CAF Fool's Road RAAS v1 - team 2 switched from MIL to RUS.

Gorodok

• Fixed floating grass.
• CAF Gorodok AAS v1 - Fixed RUS MI8 + RUS Helipad set to wrong team.

Jensen’s Range

• Jensen's Range v3 - replaced USA with MEA.

Kohat

• Improved collision on rocks to prevent players from clipping inside.
• Kohat AAS v2 - Increased Logi Truck count to the standard 3 per team.

Lashkar Valley

• Added Lashkar Valley to have Discord rich presence support.
• Updated credits on main base signs.
• Optimized tricount regarding foliage culling distances.
• Fixed terrain holes, missing walls, misplaced rock cliff, and portable toilet texture.
• Fixed AO artifacts on a large portion of merged compounds.
• Fixed ambient wind volume issues.
• Fixed the rain rendering through scopes when ADS.
• Lashkar Valley AAS v1 - Added an additional FV510 for GB.

Mestia

• Fixed the graffiti material on the Crucible Towers showing through smoke.
• CAF Mestia RAAS v1 - team 2 switched from MIL to RUS.

Manic-5 (CAF)

• CAF Manic-5 Invasion v2 - Fixed LUVA1’s spawning flipped over at CAF initial forward spawn.
• Fixed bad rock faces and some floating rocks on CAF Manic-5.

Mutaha

• Added Mutaha to have Discord rich presence support.

Narva

• Optimized the chimney smoke present at the Narva Power plant.
• Narva AAS v3 - Swapped temp spawning MTLBM 6MA with BTR82A for RUS.
• Narva Invasion v2 - Added an additional temporary FV510 for GB.

Tallil Outskirts

• Tallil Invasion v1 - Moved RUS Temporary Initial Spawn point near south hwy bridge away from both first potential objectives, to give less advantage to RUS at the start of the round.
• Added Tallil AAS v2 - USA vs MEA.

Tutorials

• Updated the Infantry Tutorial to give on-screen help tips during the Logi Truck supply loading segment.
• Updated the final segment in the Infantry Tutorial to end after C4 detonation (Player no longer has to wait for the FOB Bleed-out mechanic).

Known Issues

• Occasional Player (Client) crashes in various circumstances. Detailed crash reports help us fix things faster, and we truly appreciate those that have filled out and sent in crash reports.
• The AK-74M +1P78 Rifle’s scope zeroing starts to become offset and work incorrectly past 400m. The issue starts at ~400m - in order to hit a soldier at 400m you need to aim at his head, not the torso. Affects all kits with AK74M with the 1P78 + RPK-74M + 1P78. Does not affect PKP + 1P78 Scope. This will be fixed in a future update.
• The GB L85A2 L123A2 + ACOG Rifle’s scope zeroing starts to become offset and work incorrectly past 300+ meters. This will be fixed in a future update.
• A UI issue occurs when the FOB Radio enters the “bleedout” state. A red circle around the FOB icon is the indicator for when FOB will be fully destroyed / bleedout. However if you are not in the 300m “build” range of the FOB Radio when it enters the “Bleedout” state, the timer will incorrectly be correctly displayed/synced and will appear to start from the moment you have entered the 300m radius. This will be fixed in a future update.
• Player (Client) occasional 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.
• Commander – When the commander changes to the UAV camera, he cannot hear local audio anymore, even though he still sees local audio transmissions in the bottom left corner. Others can still hear him when he talks. Additionally, when leaving the UAV camera, he hears all of the local audio broadcasts at the same time, originating from the point where they were initially transmitted from – even if the person doing the transmission has moved afterward. Will be addressed in a future update.
• Helicopters have various handling and Client/Server hitch issues and small bugs that are being actively developed and will be addressed in future updates.
• Vehicle Reset Feature does not currently work with Helicopters.
• Vehicle Reset Feature can freeze a vehicle in the air if used too close to a tree.
• Occasionally a player does not spawn at a Rally Point or HAB. This often happens when numerous players are spawning in at the same time — This will be addressed in a future update.
• 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.
• ATGM projectiles desync for other players that are not the gunner, however, what the gunner sees should be the actual synced projectile. This is an inherent problem, and the solution is currently in long term development.
• Vehicles parking brake gets 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’ — This will be addressed in a future update.
• “Alt-tabbing” out of Squad during a loading screen freezes the client. The recommended solution, for now, is to run Squad in the “Borderless” mode. This can be changed in Settings -> Graphics.
• 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 needs to be restarted to get the microphone to work again — This will require an engine upgrade to be addressed.
• SFX bug while Firing in full auto. If the player presses the fire button for a short period, the sound effect gives the impression that you fired more rounds then you did — This will require an overhaul to the SFX system for weapons.
• Localization for most language translations is currently out of date. We plan to push a full localization pass in a future release as we lock down the text that needs to be translated for the game.

Local/Offline Issues & Bugs (these currently have a lower priority):

• Local/Offline Bug with Commander – Insurgent / Militia Handheld Drone does not move in local. Local/Offline issues currently have a lower priority.
• Local/Offline Bug with Commander – UAV hovers in one position instead of moving along the flight path in local.
• Local/Offline Bug with Commander – CAS does not do damage in local.
• 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 remains on the Player’s HUD until they get back in the Emplacement and then Scope out.