GROUND BRANCH News

We've just pushed a new Community Test update to update a few things and hopefully iron out the last few showstoppers before the official V1034 release.

Before we go over the changes, you might be happy to read that…

[h2]GROUND BRANCH is on the Steam Spring Sale[/h2]
Until March 21st @ 10am PST, you can grab a copy (and indeed as many copies as you want) of GROUND BRANCH with a sweet 30% discount. You know the drill: spread the word and maybe even get a few extra keys to get yourself and your gaming buds in on the action just in time for the new update and the inevitable uptick in player numbers.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/16900/GROUND_BRANCH/

Valve takes a 30% cut from sales on their store, so if you have a PayPal account and would love us to get the full cut from your purchase, head over to our official store and use code Spring2024 at the checkout to apply the same 30% discount! You'll get a key to redeem at the Steam Store and be ready to play in no time.

💵 Please note that our store operates in USD only, so this might not be a great deal if you're paying in a different currency as we use regional pricing on Steam.

[hr][/hr]
With that out of the way, patch notes start right after the beta instructions below:

Originally posted by instructions

[h3]❓ How to join the Community Test beta branch[/h3]

• Right-click GROUND BRANCH in your Steam Library and select Properties…
• Click 'BETAS' on the left-hand list menu
  
• Select 'communitytest - Community testing branch' from the drop-down menu
  (no password required)

Steam will begin downloading the files for the testing branch. Patching may take a while.

[h3]🐞 Where to report bugs[/h3]
You can report bugs and issues using any of these methods:

• The in-game Bugs & Issues screen (press Esc once in-game and look along the top menu)
  
• The Steam forums: steamcommunity.com/app/16900/discussions/
• The #bug-reports channel on the official GROUND BRANCH™ Discord

Your reports help us locate and fix issues faster, so keep them coming!

🚧 These issues are known to still be present:

• Hostage Rescue has a few new quirks with the hostage sack, hostage leading functionality and flex cuffs, which we are currently working to fix for the final release
  
• Enemy AI may be unresponsive/idle/stuck in various contexts — if you see it, please make note of whether it was online (dedicated server? Listen server?) or offline, which game mode was being played, as well as map and location etc.
  
• Weapon movement, poses and animations in general are still being put back together after the prone overhaul — please bear with us
  
• The prone stance does not conform to terrain angle
  
• AI bots are not fully functional in Deathmatch
  

[hr][/hr]



[h2]Maps[/h2]

• Fixed audio issues in City, Arena and Arena, Paintball and The Farm
  

[h3]747[/h3]

• Reworked the spiral staircases for better AI flow
  
• Various lighting and bug fixes
  
• Generator should now stop sound when shot out
  

[h3]Depot[/h3]

• Cleaned up a few missions with navigation/collision validator
  
• Fixed some navmesh issues
  

[h3]Docks[/h3]

• Smoothed out collision on a few staircases
  

[h3]City[/h3]

• Various lighting and bug fixes
  
• News helicopter respond to being shot again
  
• Fixed collision issues for crouching with some of the scaffolding
  

[h3]Compound[/h3]

• Fixed bulletproof curtains
  

[h3]The Farm[/h3]

• Painted out leaves coming through shooting range floor
  

[h3]Paintball[/h3]

• Cleaned up collision on mesh causing some issues
  
• Fixed up wrong minimap
  

[h3]Rig[/h3]

• Did a pass on all missions with collision/navmesh validator
  
• Fixed out-of-level exploit in Deck 3 missions (Deathmatch, Team Elimination)
  
• Changed material on vending machine so it looked better in dark areas
  

[h3]Run Down[/h3]

• Various collision, LOD and lighting bugs fixed
  

[h3]Small Town[/h3]

• Fixed stretched UVs on a rock
  
• Expanded nav bounds and cleaned up navmesh
  
• Fixed up various missions, hopefully clearing AI traffic jam on C building upper floor
  
• Cleaned up collision on cinderblock piles
  
• Fixed virtual texture rock blending
  
• Rebuilt navmesh
  

[h3]Tanker[/h3]

• Various collision, LOD and lighting bugs fixed
  

[h3]Creek[/h3]

• Removed problematic ladder outside of green barn
  

[h2]AI[/h2]

• Reduced AI agent height for nav mesh generation to 185 cm (opens up more places to navmesh)
  
• Reworked dead body callouts: now a dead body will only ever trigger one call out in total
  
• Subsequent discoveries by other AI will not trigger additional callouts (they will still go investigate and go into combat ready mode, e.g. draw their weapon)
  
• Fixed up bugs with AI failing to reload
  
• Team handling fixed up in new Kythera AI systems
  
• Rejigged AI character/controller setup
  
• Changes to how AI processes multiple audio signals to avoid prioritizing far away gunshots over close-up footsteps
  
• Fixed DebugFreeze not working for AI
  

[h2]Animation[/h2]

• Fixed hover foot (one leg lifted off ground)
  
• Added generic item lean animations
  
• Added prone grenade unequip animation
  
• Rejig of animation instance systems (to make it easier to layer animations)
  
• New equipment locomotion
  
• Adding a generic Item move set and with aims
  
• Fixed M110 fire selector animations
  
• Updated PMM-related (pistol) animations to be additive and bring them in line with the rest of the handgun animations
  
• Updated PMM compressed to match the base handgun
  
• Added sprint check to SDASS and M24 to prevent working the action if fired while sprinting
  
• Updated rig to prevent aiming-through-hand issue
  
• Hooked up lean poses (updated a number of animations designed to be used in this layer to be based on generic item base pose instead of rifle base pose)
  
• Updated rig to prevent sights being offset when prone (especially an issue with handgun)
  
• Switched base reload prone animations for AR-15 and handguns to use non-prone versions
  
• Breaching Charge attachment fixed (was at 90 degrees to door)
  
• Fix to allow montage originating from server to be forced to owning client (should make detonator and breaching charge animations play properly in multiplayer)
  
• A lot of big under-the-hood changes to correctly support animations for all items in all stances
  

[h2]Gameplay and systems[/h2]

• Big pass on collision to simplify and debug
  
• Updated various vehicles to ensure sections that are shown or hidden use block-all or no-collision collision profiles instead of just enabling/disabling collision
  
• Stopped names appearing for enemies in Deathmatch
  
• A lot of under-the-hood game mode script fixes
  
• Added further restrictions to interacting while prone (should now be impossible for all actors)
  
• Bug fixes to laptop blueprint
  
• Added anti-spam checks to leaning, running and sprinting to remove some speed hacks
  
• Sprint blending times and effects changed
  
• Fixed server roster player list lag
  
• Fixed up DTAS, Hostage Rescue, Team Elimination and Uplink game modes to improve handling of AI kills and killers
  
• Internal tweaks and fixes relating to arm changes and gender identification of assets
  
• Disabled warning about missing eyebrows if none were defined so that they can be used with AI without causing log spam
  
• Character updated to change handling of head types/genders
  
• Cleared all meshes using character physics asset that do not need to — which is most of them
  
• Changed bomb explosion (Defuse) to fade to black after explosion
  
• Improved logging for failed kit loads
  
• Updated handling of failed kits to allow replacing child items and skins
  
• Disabled Ray Tracing in config to fix crash on exiting in DX12 mode
  
• Updated Tablet to use alternate new method to fill screen (instead of FOV and POV change, it will shift the tablet up to fill the screen — doesn't care if prone, crouched, standing or leaning) (WIP — hands may be visible, especially in prone etc.)
  
• Fixed volunteer function in Hostage Rescue
  
• Fixed flag placement issues in DTAS
  
• Tentative fixes for Hostage Rescue issues: should stop leading hostage when leader goes prone, and now clears BeingLeadAsHostage gameplay tag when cuffs are unequipped (should stop movement getting blocked in various ways) or when leading is otherwise stopped
  
• New restriction added so you can't use objects if underwater (may be a redundant check)
  
• Added new ServerExecute command, usable by superadmins only (to run console commands remotely on the server)
  
• Fixed picking up item in left hand attempting to keep it equipped in left hand instead of putting it away
  

[h2]Character and inventory[/h2]

• Added entries for backup skin substitutions
  
• Cleaned up a few hairstyles that were still showing the scalp with Ball Cap and Beanie
  
• Updated dump pouch and radio assets to properly set their skin
  
• Changed skins for main menu guys
  
• SA58 OSW now supports suppressor
  
• Back-end changes to improve handling of restricted skins and kit validation
  
• Added LODs and adjusted existing LODs for player heads, beards, hair and a few weapons and weapon attachments
  
• Converted eyelashes to static meshes for efficiency
  
• Big change under the hood to change internal kit handling to be always monolithic: keeps kit data consistent no matter what is parsing it, and removes issues caused by presets or item builds being deleted
  
• Added dialogs for handling kit validation issues and converting all user kits
  
• Removed unneeded failed kit validation widgets
  
• Cleared physics assets from all hairstyles
  
• General inventory tweaks/fixes
  
• Fixed goggles being too bright compared to other character assets
  
• Added new arm meshes in place of masking system
  
• Cleared simple collision from MP5 stocks that were in wrong orientation
  
• Removed physics from all balaclava versions of heads
  
• Cleaned up new head/balaclava meshes
  
• Fixed arm mesh poking through with male rolled sleeves and gloves
  
• Cleaned up some weighting on the male heads that make them poke through some shirts
  
• Changed arms to remove reliance on mesh updating to choose skin
  
• Cleaned up more issues with heads intersecting various shirts
  

[h2]Audio[/h2]

• City Bank audio fix (slight reverb adjustment)
  
• Rundown tail fix
  
• Small reverb change, small bug fixes
  
• Fixed portals and occlusion issues
  
• Fixed missing ADS sound effects
  
• Fixed drop audio not playing for weapons
  
• Fixed missing Galil ARM third-person sounds
  
• Added missing voice lines in female character Comms Menu (G key)
  

[h2]VFX[/h2]

• Big pass on checking emitters are parented to existing emitter assets.
  
• Distance culling set to 50 m for distant impacts
  
• Created 10 new blood spatter decals
  
• VFX emitter cleanup
  

[h2]UI[/h2]

• Tweaks to Customize Operator screen colors
  
• A few text changes to Customize Operator screen messages
  
• Visual update to "Game Paused" overlay
  
• Dialog boxes now have a fade-in and fade-out animation
  
• Updated loading screen hints: cleaned up appearance, edited existing hints for clarity and formatting, and added a new hint
  
• Updated visuals for color picker pop-up in Settings > HUD (is now limited to color wheel, e.g. hue selection)
  
• Fixed color picker buttons being slightly rectangular rather than perfect squares
  
• Minor copy edit and rearranging of Settings > HUD
  
• Fixed inconsistent padding between columns in Setting > Gameplay
  
• Updated wording and formatting for F4/F6 dialog prompts
  
• Updated mag check HUD: repositioned red cross and changed icon color (to red) for "no ammo"
  
• Minor update to hover effects in Keybinds column (Settings > Controls)
  
• Increased width of all setting selections: drop-downs, sliders, spinboxes etc. to allow for longer text strings, finer control in sliders, and close the gap between selections and their descriptions
  
• Added a few more settings tooltips
  
• Slightly more descriptive text in Sight Priority options
  
• Updated credits
  
• Made highlight for various tabs/buttons more evident
  
• Updated icon/swatch for Brown and Olive Drab skin selections
  
• Updated DLSS tooltips to hopefully display correctly for RTX 40-series when in DX12 mode and minor changes to copy as well
  
• Updated DLSS setting text and tooltips
  
• Various minor style, copy and formatting tweaks
  

[hr][/hr]
[h3]As always, thank you for testing and providing feedback![/h3]
See you next time!

[hr][/hr]

From March 14th to 21st @ 10am Pacific, you can grab a copy (and indeed as many copies as you want) of GROUND BRANCH with a sweet 30% discount.

You know the drill: spread the word and maybe even get a few extra keys to get yourself and your gaming buds in on the action just in time for the new update and the inevitable uptick in player numbers.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/16900/GROUND_BRANCH/

[hr][/hr]
[h2]🤍 Consider buying directly from our store![/h2]
Valve takes a 30% cut from sales on their store, so if you have a PayPal account and would love us to get the full cut from your purchase, head over to our official store and use code Spring2024 at the checkout to apply the same 30% discount!

You'll get a GROUND BRANCH key to redeem at the Steam Store and be ready to play in no time.

💵 Please note that our store operates in USD only, so this might not be a great deal if you're paying in a different currency as we use regional pricing on Steam.

[hr][/hr]
Enjoy the sale!

Folks,

Today's update was planned for yesterday — Valentine's Day — but ended up being delayed by a few nasty bugs. We're mentioning that because we had a nice themed intro for it and don't wanna let it go to waste. So instead of coming up with a new intro, we're simply all going to pretend it did come out yesterday. Alternatively, you may pretend today is still Valentine's Day:

Surprise that special someone with this hand-picked special changelist of features making up a beautiful, romantic GROUND BRANCH Valentine’s Day update for the Community Test beta branch! No refunds after two hours! 💖

Thank you for indulging us.

New to Community Test? Here's how it works:

[h3]❓ How to join the Community Test beta branch[/h3]

• Right-click GROUND BRANCH in your Steam Library and select Properties…
• Click 'BETAS' on the left-hand list menu
  
• Select 'communitytest - Community testing branch' from the drop-down menu
  (no password required)

Steam will begin downloading the files for the testing branch. Patching may take a while.

[h3]🐞 Where to report bugs[/h3]
You can report bugs and issues using any of these methods:

• The in-game Bugs & Issues screen (press Esc once in-game and look along the top menu)
  
• The Steam forums: steamcommunity.com/app/16900/discussions/
• The #bug-reports channel on the official GROUND BRANCH™ Discord

Your reports help us locate and fix issues faster, so keep them coming!

🚧 These issues are known to still be present:

• The Breaching Charge is currently deployed at a 90-degree angle
  
• Bullets may be being blocked in odd places by a certain type of volume — please report in with the map and location if you come across it!
  
• When connecting to servers, the loading screen displays the "Returning to Main Menu" text
  
• Enemy AI may be unresponsive/idle/stuck in various contexts — if you see it, please make note of whether it was online (dedicated server? Listen server?) or offline, which game mode was being played, as well as map and location etc.

  ⚠️ Bots are particularly prone to getting stuck in doorways; we're actively working on fixing/improving this issue.

• Weapon movement, poses and animations in general are still being put back together after the prone overhaul — please bear with us
  
• Walking or running with a primary weapon equipped causes the character's right foot to "hover" before it actually touches the ground
  
• The prone stance does not conform to terrain angle
  
• Character and weapon collision while prone is pretty finicky! Let us know how it all feels to you
  
• Various combinations of hairstyles and headgear items have visible clipping or overall jankiness
  
• AI bots are not functional in Deathmatch
  

[hr][/hr]



[h2]Maps and missions[/h2]

• Various culling, collision, navmesh and navlink fixes for Depot, Tanker, City, Creek, Storage Facility, Rundown, Rig and Power Station
• Made the roof windows in Depot enterable again
  
• Added a few navmesh blockers to Depot to stop AI from getting stuck
  
• Fixed bank stairwell door in City not closing properly
  
• Added window frames to open window holes in Creek buildings to stop people getting stuck when trying to mantle through them
  
• Fixed bug where players were getting stuck on containers in Storage Facility lower area after vaulting over railing
  
• Added small step to side areas of Storage Facility tunnel entrance (helps AI navigate space better and cleaner movement for player)
  
• Fix for one of the Compound outside doors hitting a mesh and not fully opening
  
• Fixed up some bugs in DTAS game mode script
  
• Fixed bug in Defuse where bomb stopped going off
  
• Amended error text in Lua guard macros, to cover the extra possibility that a UObject became invalid and turned into a nil reference
  

[h2]Animation[/h2]

• Fixed leaning with handgun and move forward and left or right causing hands to go all odd
  
• Fixed crouched handgun ADS being offset in certain situations (e.g. leaning)
  
• First pass hooking up prone poses for Binoculars, Breaching Charge (and detonator), grenades and Tablet
• Fixed and updated hand pose for holding grenades
  
• Hooked up Breaching Charge and detonator use animations

  ⚠️ Known issue: the charge model is currently deployed at a 90-degree angle.

[h2]Inventory and customization[/h2]

• Fixed incorrect female belt variations being used with Tactical Shirt items
  
• Fixed Helmet (MICH) chin strap not working correctly for Male 06
  
• Fixed up issues with Headset asset
  
• Created a version of the Headset mesh for use with Fleece Beanie
• Adjusted Fleece Beanie to fit better with Balaclava
• Fixed mesh splitting on female Jeans
• Added female untucked short versions of belts
  
• Cleaned up various clipping issues with female clothing
  
• Fixed Male 03 helmet chin straps not set properly
  
• Fixed issue with rounds not showing in Galil ARM magazines when mag-checking
  

[h2]UI[/h2]

• Updated splash screen (Default Controls) with newer version of the controls scheme graphic
  
• Updated some dialog boxes with an optional "Dot not show again" checkbox
  
• Added option to reset opted-out dialogs in Settings › HUD
  
• Small visual update to After Action Review (AAR) screen
  
• Swapped order of Combat Stats and Mission Summary tabs in AAR
  
• Visual pass on Server Browser: mod column (column icon and [MOD] tag) and expanded server info tab
  
• Server Browser now carried out mandatory mod sync when joining dedicated server
  
• Visual pass on bind overlays
  
• Cleaned up dialog box widget
  
• NoTimer round stage (Training modes) no longer displays time text at top of screen (also does not show time remaining on Tablet)
  
• Updated Invite Friends menu (is now styled similar to a dialog box)
  
• Fixed mission list duplicating when revisiting mission selection screen
  
• Added new icon (wrench) for Modding button in Admin Panel menu
  
• Updated Credits screen
  

[h3]Customize Operator screen[/h3]

• Added "loading" message before the character and assets are all loaded
  
• Fixed padding and did a small visual pass on skin icon selection
  
• Related work to reduce hitching and improve handling of default item builds
  
• Added yellow custom build display for item slots in overall screen (was previously limited to inside menus)
  
• Added [MOD] tag to item slots/selections
  
• Updated MK25 pistol icon to make grip panel area less dark
  
• Fixed hidden hair casting shadow on UI character view
  

[h3]Mission Editor[/h3]

• Added Time of Day (TOD) widget
  
• Made double-click outline window use the standard focus (F) routine rather than a second custom bit of code
  
• Reworking to change pawn type and fix right-drag related error
  
• Made a few dialogs hidable (e.g. select script, load mission file, save mission file)
  

[h2]VFX[/h2]

• Optimization pass on VFX for the bullet impacts
  
• Fixed the respawning particle issue
  
• Continuing pass over the bullet impact scalability settings and culling settings
  
• Fix for the smoke flickering when viewed through PIP scopes
  
• Making a pass on scalability settings for bullet impacts (lots to improve)
  
• Reparented emitters with missing parents to sync culling settings
  

[h2]AI[/h2]

• Upgraded Kythera AI middleware to new version (1.3.3) (may fix some bugs, but WIP)
  
• Fixed the AI aim bug, where enemy bots could not see the head of player characters — this caused situations such as leaning out of cover and not being spotted
  

[h2]Bug fixes and miscellaneous[/h2]

• Added tentative fix for IsValidLowLevel crash on game exit
  
• Lots of work on mods under the hood (especially with regard to dedicated servers)
  
• Reduction in log spam overall (and added some more for good luck)
  
• Reworked a lot of under-the-hood stuff, including inventory and asset handling, validators, overlays and more
  
• Tentative fix for stuttering and "Maximum number of UObjects exceeded" crash on dedicated servers 🥳
  
• Rejigged base character class and item class in terms of how they handle inventory (in particular removed some limitations on skin inheritance, and streamlined asset loading)
  
• Fixed up occasional disconnects between TOD set in mission launch screens and TOD set in the Ready Room
• Updated Debug menu to add new commands
  
• Opting out with F4 now increases Deaths stat
  
• Updated HUD to support adding non-chat messages to center, upper and lower message managers (allowed changing Ready Room and Spectator messages from engine messages to far more visible center-screen, preventing the mistake of trying to hit F4 or F6 again)
  

[hr][/hr]
[h3]As always, thank you for testing and providing feedback![/h3]
See you next time!

[hr][/hr]

We've been working hard on GROUND BRANCH V1034, and today we got another Community Test update for you!

Patch notes after the usual instructions:

[h3]❓ How to join the Community Test beta branch[/h3]

• Right-click GROUND BRANCH in your Steam Library and select Properties…
• Click 'BETAS' on the left-hand list menu
  
• Select 'communitytest - Community testing branch' from the drop-down menu
  (no password required)

Steam will begin downloading the files for the testing branch. Patching may take a while.

[h3]🐞 Where to report bugs[/h3]
You can report bugs and issues using any of these methods:

• The in-game Bugs & Issues screen (press Esc once in-game and look along the top menu)
  
• The Steam forums: steamcommunity.com/app/16900/discussions/
• The #bug-reports channel on the official GROUND BRANCH™ Discord

Your reports help us locate and fix issues faster, so keep them coming!

🚧 These issues are known to still be present:

• Recoil is currently unclamped, meaning sustained automatic fire will eventually clip weapons into the character; this also affects weapon sway in low stamina
  
• Enemy AI may be unresponsive/idle/stuck in various contexts — if you see it, please make note of whether it was online (dedicated server? Listen server?) or offline, which game mode was being played, as well as map and location etc.

  ⚠️ Bots are particularly prone to getting stuck in doorways; we're actively working on fixing/improving this issue.

• Weapon movement, poses and animations in general are still being put back together after the prone overhaul — please bear with us
  
• Walking or running with a primary weapon equipped causes the character's right foot to "hover" before it actually touches the ground
  
• The prone stance does not conform to terrain angle
  
• Aiming (ADS) is offset with pistols while crouch-leaning (particularly to the left)
  
• Character and weapon collision while prone is pretty finicky! Let us know how it all feels to you
  
• The Tablet (map) is currently offset to the bottom while crouched, and unusable while prone
  
• Various combinations of hairstyles and headgear items have visible clipping or overall jankiness
  
• AI bots are still not hooked up to the Deathmatch game mode
  

[hr][/hr]


[h2]Maps and missions[/h2]

[h3]747[/h3]

• Updated all relevant 747 missions with new collision and patrol point checking
  
• Fixed issue with light portal flickering light in 747 cargo hold
  
• Fixed various collision issues
  
• Fixed some other lighting issues
  
• Replaced fan in terminal office with new style fan that can be shot out and powered up and down by the local power box
  
• Cleaned up navmesh
  

[h3]Arena and Arena 2[/h3]

• Updated missions with collision checker
  
• Cleaned up navmesh
  

[h3]City[/h3]

• Made pole lights leading down to subway actual lights that are on/off and destructible
  
• Made bollard lights destructible
  
• Added proper destroyed light meshes to outdoor lights
  
• Fixed various collision issues and culling bugs
  
• Fixed up all missions (except Last Man Standing) with the new actor collision checking feature of validation scripts
  
• Cleaned up some geo collision that was way too big, and fixed some other geo and collision bugs
  
• Fixed some lighting issues
  
• Changed some wall pictures in City bank
  
• News helicopter updated to fly a little smoother, and animations added for hover and evasion
  
• Cleaned up navmesh
  

[h3]Compound[/h3]

• Updated nearly all missions with new collision and patrol checker
  
• Fixed invisible wall collision under staircase in unfinished building
  
• Cleaned up navmesh
  

[h3]Creek[/h3]

• Various collision and culling bugs fixed
  
• Cleaned up navmesh
  

[h3]Depot[/h3]

• Fixed mesh culling and collision issues
  
• Fixed over-penetration of bullets through some metal objects
  
• Fixed incorrect normals on rocks
  
• Cleaned up navmesh
  

[h3]Docks[/h3]

• Fixed up missions (except Last Man Standing) using new actor collision checking feature of validation scripts
  
• Cleaned up less than optimal collision on a few assets
  
• Filled in empty buildings/trailers
  
• Added glass windows to the construction trailers
  
• Cleaned up collision on a few of the metal staircases
  
• Made red light on electronics box destructible
  
• Cleaned up navmesh
  

[h3]Power Station[/h3]

• Cleaned up navmesh
  

[h3]Rundown[/h3]

• Various collision and culling bugs fixed
  
• Cleaned up navmesh
  

[h3]Small Town[/h3]

• Fixed up various missions using new mission collision checker and patrol route checker
  
• Nav link tweaks for ladder
  
• Added pillars to basement and removed cinder blocks
  
• Fixed misaligned Humvee windshield
  
• Rebuilt navmesh
  
• Mini graphical overhaul:
  
  
  • Fixed some foliage meshes using billboard as base LOD on lower foliage settings
    
  • Adjusted billboard distances, generally pushed them back further
    
  • Wind/sway tweaks
    
  • Color correction and improvements in mask clipping and materials
    
  • Improved vista forest material/visuals
    
  • Fixed crossfade billboards not correctly disabling when toggled off
    
  • Added support for virtual texture blending with landscape, rocks and embankments
    
  • Landscape material work, adding some wet muddy areas
    
  • Fern color correction
    
  • Added leaves mesh scattering to dead leaves landscape layers
    
  • Added some cinderblock scatter
    
  • Increased bounds of a few floor pieces in B building (potential fix for disappearing floor)
    
  • Remade bullet hole decals, higher res and cheaper
    
  • Landscape material displacement tweaks
    

[h3]Storage Facility[/h3]

• Fixed various collision issues
  
• Fixed incorrect normals on rocks
  

[h3]Tanker[/h3]

• Fixed various collision issues
  

[h3]The Farm[/h3]

• Potential fix for flickering billboard trees
  
• Slight foliage color tweaks
  
• Landscape material/textures improvements
  
• Added leaves grass layer
  
• Hornbeam trees: fixed roughness not coming through correctly
  
• Other material tweaks and corrections
  
• Improved 747 fuselage material so it has a bit more detail up close
  
• A bit of landscape painting
  
• Pushed blocking volumes in water a bit further out
  
• Reduced intensity of water waves
  

[h2]Inventory and assets[/h2]

• Fixed heads becoming detached from player if a single skeletal mesh fails to load
  
• Updated hostage sack to add or remove overlay based on view target status instead of player being locally controlled or not (makes sack visible in third person)
  
• Standardized fixed iron sight alignment for the AKM and Wz.88 for consistent behavior
  
• Trimmed female head meshes in the neck/shoulder area to reduce mesh clipping in some postures/animations
  
• Reworked helmet chinstrap morph targets and added new ones for female heads
  
• Realtime Virtual Texture (RVT) incorporated into various maps/landscape materials (for nicer blends between props and landscape)
  
• Mini overhaul of master materials
  
• Fixed broken wrist mesh for "Riot" enemy type
  
• Switched MARPAT Desert skin on the Helmet (HC) to AOR-1
  
• New skins:
  
  
  • Gun Belt: M81
    
  • Ball Cap: DCP, AOR-1 and M81
    
  • Boonie Hat: UCP
    
  • Helmet (HC): AOR-2
    

[h2]Animation[/h2]

• Corrected directional animation blend times to fix hitch when changing directions
  
• First pass on prone and crouch death animations
  
• Adding correct notifies for mag check
  
• Updated character and weapon animations for AK-type rifles
  
• Added new hand poses for the new AK models
  
• Fixed Galil ARM mag check
  
• Fixed wrong position on AK-type fire selector
  
• Updated pose for leaning
  
• Created specific flex-cuffs poses
  
• Updated hostage sack to apply as a mesh
  
• Sway and canting rotation are now applied separately (only applies Z aspect of sight offset while not engaging the sight - fixes issues with firearm being more centered then usual, especially when using canted sight)
  
• Added new drop-down animation to the AI characters
  

[h2]AI[/h2]

• Enabled feature to auto-generate drop-down nav links (uses vaulting animations as a placeholder for now)
  
• Fix for AI tracking the player when just losing sight of him, now shoots at the last known location rather than at the current player position
  
• Updated noise investigation behavior for Guard AI — who will now investigate noise more in the direction that the noise is coming from instead of a more general "scan" behavior
  
• Tweaked AI difficulty, increasing the gap between highest and lowest level to create more variance
  
• Increased memory time for the AI, so they will search longer for lost targets
  
• Added search pattern BT so on lost target they search randomly — the longer they search, the bigger the radius gets
  
• Updated the weights used for more passive/aggressive behavior; generally speaking, Guard AI are now more likely to behave passively (seeking cover, going prone etc.), while Patrol AI will be more aggressive (running, sprinting towards the player instead of seeking cover etc.)
  
• Updated and re-enabled custom AI settings in Lone Wolf and Host Game screens
  

[h2]Gameplay and bug fixes[/h2]

• Fixed dead bodies not being cleaned up in between rounds
  
• Made it so you can go prone under the Ural style trucks in various maps
  
• Stopped massive log spam caused by inventory tags being updated before assets have finished loading
  
• Added Time of Day (TOD) statuses to BP_SkylightOverrideVolume, so it can apply fading or desaturation at specific times of day only
  
• Added actor collision checking to mission validation Lua scripts
  
• Added new actor.IsColliding() lua library function, which determines if the actor is more or less colliding with map assets
  
• Small improvements to mission validation scripts
  
• Defuse game mode now prints to log the actual bomb actor name as well as the selected bomb zone
  
• Added stamina and sway effects for:
  
  
  • Going to prone
    
  • Getting up from prone
    
  • Going from crouched to standing
    
  • Leaning
• Fixed bugged water collision
  
• Modding admin UI update (WIP) and quite a few modding changes behind the scenes
  
• Fixed smoke effects blocking Use/Interact prompts (to be replaced by better fix later)
  
• Fixed Deathmatch loadout issue
  
• Fixed UseFriendlyNameTags entry in DefaultGameRules array in DefaultZooKeeper.ini (should be true, was read as false)
  
• Fixed up Ready Room range door not replicating properly
  
• Optimized tracing for interaction, Ready Room name and in-game player names
  
• Changed PhysMat for dirt to not allow bullet penetration
  
• Added gameplaystatics.TraceVisible() lua library function for doing a simple visible trace between two specified locations
  
• Added gameplaystatics.GetPatrolRouteLinkedActors() lua library function for getting a list of linked patrol route actors
  
• Added full patrol route checking in all PvE validation functions, including a new visible trace to make sure the route is not blocked (as a first approximation check at least)
  
• Minor bug fixes to Team Elimination in relation to fixed spawn missions (Arenas, Paintball) and displaying insertion points in dependence to whether auto-balance is enabled
  
• Removed AI spawn checking from Deathmatch validate script (since opponents are bots now)
  
• Added various new validations and checks for firearm blueprints (in anticipation of modding opening up)
  
• Changed various firearm-related assets to fix issues with sight replication and sights used by non-controlled characters
  
• Updated arm sway values on Main Menu guys to prevent them getting tired
  
• Various crash fixes relating to pointers missing a UPROPERTY() macro
  
• Fixed issue where the light custom collision box was set to not effect navmesh
  
• Restricted Focus Zoom to primary and secondary weapons only (no longer usable with Binoculars, grenades etc.)
  
• Updated modding manager to grab installed mod list from subscribed mods instead of scanning locally (mods soon to come!)
  

[h2]Sound[/h2]

• Removed unused Wwise node that may have been setting voice to male all the time
  
• Fixed AI bark spatialization
  
• Minor tweaks to AI attenuation
  
• Fixed missing suppressor tails
  
• Slightly adjusted footstep audio and some attenuations
  
• Fixed power box audio bug
  
• Added Ready Room ambient music
  
• Fixed audio in City rooms
  
• Loading screen mutes sound until fading away (should stop short burst of sound when joining a map)
  

[h2]VFX[/h2]

• Re-enabled eye adaptation on the VFX material (was causing smoke effects to glow in low-light and under night vision when disabled)
  
• Changed surface link for electronics to use metal bullet-hole decal (was previously using a paper decal) — fixes odd impacts on e.g. power boxes
  
• Fixed up flashbang, frags, big bomb (Defuse) and breaching charges so they won't cause deafness or prolonged visual effects (e.g. for headcam)
  

[h2]UI[/h2]

• Updated skin icons (the triangle/square swatches for item colors or camo patterns)
  
• Updated weapon customization UI to not show the "Muzzle" attachment category when no muzzle device is available for the weapon
  
• Created custom UI for customizing Galil ARM
  
• Progress on Modding menu
  
• Admin modding UI now added to modding menu (from Main Menu)
  
• Tweaked drop-down arrow in mission property array widget to be more visible in mission editor
  
• Added W, E, R controls to the outline widget (as well as main window) in mission editor
  
• New map thumbnails for Small Town, City and The Farm
  
• Loading screens rejigged
  
• Hint widget adjusted to stop shifting/resizing during load
  
• In Spectator Mode, HUD no longer shows distance prompts if camera style is headcam
  
• HUD now correctly hides Next/Previous Player prompt when player is following another character
  
• Partial visual update for Admin Panel (mainly Skin Restrictions menu)
  

[hr][/hr]
[h3]As always, thanks for testing and providing feedback![/h3]
Until the next build, folks.

[hr][/hr]

Happy new year, everyone! We hope 2024 has been treating you well so far.

As GROUND BRANCH V1034 continues to be diligently tested by all of you lovely people in the Community Test beta branch, we continue to fix and tweak things to get the update in shape for the official release.

If this is your first time hearing about all of this stuff, here's how to get in on the testing:

[h3]❓ How to join the Community Test beta branch[/h3]

• Right-click GROUND BRANCH in your Steam Library and select Properties…
• Click 'BETAS' on the left-hand list menu
  
• Select 'communitytest - Community testing branch' from the drop-down menu
  (no password required)

Steam will begin downloading the files for the testing branch. Patching may take a while.

[h3]🐞 Where to report bugs[/h3]
You can report bugs and issues using any of these methods:

• The in-game Bugs & Issues screen (press Esc once in-game and look along the top menu)
  
• The Steam forums: steamcommunity.com/app/16900/discussions/
• The #bug-reports channel on the official GROUND BRANCH™ Discord

Your reports help us locate and fix issues faster, so keep them coming!

🚧 These issues are known to still be present:

• Enemy AI may be unresponsive/idle/stuck in various contexts — if you see it, please make note of whether it was online (dedicated server? Listen server?) or offline, which game mode was being played, as well as map and location etc.

  ⚠️ Bots are particularly prone to getting stuck in doorways; we're actively working on fixing/improving this issue.

• Changing directions (WASD) with a primary weapon equipped will cause visible "hitches" in the weapon movement
  
• Weapon movement, poses and animations in general are still being put back together after the prone overhaul — please bear with us
  
• Leaning is bound to feel particularly strange, due to the combo of new poses and the ongoing animation work (all WIP)
  
• Walking or running with a primary weapon equipped causes the character's right foot to "hover" before it actually touches the ground
  
• The prone stance does not conform to terrain angle
  
• Aiming (ADS) with a pistol while crouched is offset (when leaning left)
  
• Character and weapon collision while prone is pretty finicky! Let us know how it all feels to you
  
• The Tablet (map) is currently offset to the bottom while crouched, and unusable while prone
  
• Various combinations of hairstyles and headgear items have visible clipping or overall jankiness
  
• AI bots are still not hooked up to the Deathmatch game mode.
  

[hr][/hr]


[h2]Maps and missions[/h2]

[h3]Ready Room (RR)[/h3]

• Added a few scenery assets to the RR
  
• Fixed occasional issue with unusually dark RR
  

[h3]747[/h3]

• New Defuse mission
  

[h3]City[/h3]

• Lowered and reduced thickness of bank windows to better allow players to fire out of them
  
• Added new Terrorist Hunt (Bank) variant
  
• Base Hostage Rescue mission split into separate (Central) and (Bank) variants
  
• Set up ceiling fans in City:
  
  • They now turn on/off in accordance to power boxes and are now destructible
    
  • Added smooth start up and power down
    
• Fixed collision issue around bank windows
  
• Skylight override volumes tweaked and updated to use the new desaturation system (so that e.g. the inside of the bank is not tinted orange at night)
  

[h3]Compound[/h3]

• Added Defuse mission
  
• Fixed up ceiling fans to power boxes
  
• Fixed a few props that were being culled out too quickly and creating "invisible" walls you can't shoot through
  
• Updated doors on Compound for better AI navigation
  

[h3]Creek[/h3]

• Added Defuse mission
  

[h3]Depot[/h3]

• Added Defuse mission (Compound variant)
  
• Fixing various reported bugs
  
• Fixed up all Depot PvE missions in respect of compound tower that was rotated/moved
  
• Disabled subsurface scattering on ferns to potentially stop them glowing when using NVGs
  
• Fixed some culling issues
  

[h3]Docks[/h3]

• Added Defuse mission
  
• Fixed up a load of missing physical materials (determines footstep sounds and bullet impact VFX)
  

[h3]Power Station[/h3]

• Added Defuse mission
  
• Made it so you can crawl under all electrical equipment
  

[h3]Rig[/h3]

• Added new Defuse and Defuse (Decks 3 and 4) missions
  
• Fixed up some issues with AI on Deck 4 in Terrorist Hunt missions
  

[h3]Small Town[/h3]

• Removed unnecessary collision from smaller foliage instances
  
• Changed tags on Defuse mission to make more readable zone names
  
• Removed leftover blocking volume
  
• Fixed small collision issue where players could get stuck between rocks
  
• Rearranged low sandbags on building A ledges for better prone sniping
  
• Set all rock collision to use "Complex as Simple" method, improving collision when prone
  
• Fixed two lights in building D that used a different kind of light fixture for their broken state
  
• Adjusted nav link for ladder on where AI could get stuck
  

[h3]Storage Facility[/h3]

• New Defuse mission
  
• Fixed a bunch of missing PhysMats in materials
  
• Cleaned up collision with Ural truck to allow crawling under it
  
• All tunnel lights are now connected to a power box
  

[h3]Tanker[/h3]

• Converted arcade machines to turn off when power is off and be affected by blast damage
  

[h2]AI[/h2]

• Added clamp to ReactionTimeBase AI setting
  
• Adapted old AI vision blocker in smoke grenades to conform closer to the bounds of the current smoke effects
  
• Reduced the number of maximum Kythera nav mesh tiles to be regenerated at any given time by half
  
• Rejig of foliage collision and AI detection (now easier to hide in foliage and more consistent AI response to foliage)
  
• Fixed crash relating to pathfinding
  
• Updated nav mesh for Compound
• Updating cover generation parameters to be a bit less restrictive
  
• First pass on new system for AI visibility blockers in Small Town foliage
  

  ⚠️ We're particularly interested in feedback for this. Sneak around the Small Town bushes and let us know if the AI appears to react "authentically" in terms of visual detection.

• Removed Kythera component from main menu characters so they don’t initialise the Kythera systems
  
• Updated how AI interacts with doors (now uses input based navigation through door instead of nav mesh)
  
• Kythera nav mesh is no longer forced to regenerate when doors are opened or closed (getting rid of the hitch)
  
• Updated Kythera nav meshes for various maps
  
• Changed suppression handling of AI: now the AI will take cover from the general shot direction way more often and try not to stand in the open as much
  
• Fixed an issue where Guard AI would leave their post and go a long way to investigate a dead body
  
• Fixed an issue where dead bodies could be "newly discovered" by the same AI multiple times
  
• Adjusted GBKytTargetSelector so it includes dead bodies
  
• Updated SpatialQueries asset to make cover point generation less restrictive so that the AI takes cover in more situations
  
• Updated footstep hearing
  
• Added visibility and hearing multipliers to GBWorldSettings, so AI perception can be tuned per-map
  
  
  • Increased visual and audio detection by 50% in City, Compound and 747
  • Decreased visual and audio detection by 25% in Small Town and Rig
• Tweaked AI vision, increased default vision range, lowered primary FOV, increased secondary FOV weight
  
• Fixed an issue where AI would go back to unarmed state after being suppressed
  
• Nav mesh work on Compound, updated door navlink locations to avoid AI getting stuck
  
• Updated barks for different AI states
  

[h2]Game mode/gameplay[/h2]

• First pass on focus zoom feature: slight zoom-in effect when in ADS while holding the Focus Zoom key (bound to LCtrl by default)
  

  [h3]⚠️ Experimental feature![/h3]
  If it's not bound to LCtrl by default, bind it under Settings > Controls > Keybinds > Focus Zoom)

  • Aim sensitivity scales appropriately when focus zoomed
    
  • Focus zoom disengages when player or player head moves significantly
    
  • Additional vignette effect when zoomed (stacks with Hold Breath vignette)
    
• Changed Defuse game mode to display bomb group names on Ops Board
• Added new DefuseValidate Lua script
  
• Fixed up some Defuse missions after using the aforesaid validation function
  
• Minor tweak to IntelRetrieval and TerroristHunt validation functions to provide better dumps of guard point/squad mismatches
  
• Created new PoweredItem blueprint (BP) class as a mirror image of the LightFixture BP class, but for things that aren't lights (e.g. ceiling fans). This ties into time of day and Light Zone Controllers so that power boxes turn them on and off, and they can be powered or not at particular times of day
  
• Improved collision checks for doors
  
• Improved collision checks for players to ignore volumes (fixes lean being preventing due to audio volumes, etc.)
  
• Stopped firearm firing when going to and from prone
  
• F4 and F6 now prompt player to confirm intention to leave game before taking effect
  
• Fixed use of timer.Clear(self, name of timer) instead of timer.Clear(name of timer) in various Lua game modes
  
• Rejigged kit restriction detection and handling
  
• Misc updates to Lua game mode libraries:
  
  
  • In general, for indicating an error state in functions supposed to return tables, they now return an empty table rather than nil
    
  • Created actor.GetOverlappingPlayers() to remove need to use GetOverlaps() and specify GBCharacter class.
    
  • Updated player.Kill() to bypass any and all damage reduction/prevention, and to prevent use in the Ready Room
    
  • Updated vector.VectorNew() to ensure it returns nil value if supplied with incompatibility values rather than returning NaN
    
  • Hooked up ai.Create in AI Lua library
    
• Fixed news helicopter not appearing in City in multiplayer
  
• Added restrictions to stop Use/Interact actions while prone, to prevent hostages being lead by someone prone, and to stop hostages going prone
  
• Bug fixes to a few game modes
  
• Skylight override volumes extended so as to permit desaturation of skylight lower hemisphere color
  

[h2]Graphics[/h2]

• Removed Use Simple Character Shadows video setting as it offered negligible performance gain and caused various rendering issues when not in direct sunlight
  

[h2]Inventory[/h2]

• Adjusted rear sight of FAL a bit forward
  
• Added missing top rail to FAL
  
• New item skins:
  
  
  • Headset: Foliage Green
    
  • Helmet (HC) (non-cover version): OCP and MARPAT Desert
    
  • Tactical Pants: Coyote Brown
    
• Tweaked hue of MARPAT Desert camo pattern
  
• Minor color tweaks to existing headset skins
  
• Reworked channels in Helmet (HC)'s color mask to allow camo pattern on the helmet shell
  
• Updated existing Helmet (HC) skins to account for the above channel changes
  
• Cleaned up Combat Pants and Combat Shirt skins:
  
  
  • Made whole zipper "area" of the shirts' collar use the same color as the actual zipper teeth
    
  • Fixed knee pad and stretch material inconsistencies between different skins of the Combat Pants
    
  • Fixed various overly bright colors (especially shoulder velcros on Combat Shirt)
    
  • Changed Khaki skins to a more authentic version
    
• General color correction on various skins
  
• Tweaked MARPAT Woodland pattern hue to be slightly more red (affects all skins that have it)
  

[h2]General fixes[/h2]

• Fixed bombs having 00:00 displays after round reset
  
• Adapted bomb timer display to cope with 2-hour long rounds (you crazy guys)
  
• Improved interaction with doors having multiple components, e.g. doors with glass elements in City
  
• Added visualization of movement radius for Guard Point in mission editor (when selected)
  
• Set Big Bomb and DTAS flag to receive all lighting channels (problem was dark bombs in some parts of maps), and also for the new hazard sticker on the power boxes
  
• Fixed visual texture bug with Male 03 arms
  
• When opening doors, UE4 navmesh is no longer being updated
  
• Stopped missions without a valid map being displayed in mission selection list (e.g. Ranch)
  
• Converted 747 generator cable spline mesh into static mesh to remove warnings and fix collision
  
• Fixed extra long ceiling fan and cleaned up placement based on new mesh
  
• Fixed up lighting groups on Compound and Storage Facility (to fix lights that did not turn off when power turned off)
  
• Fixed missing geo on bottom of flatbed truck
  
• Also made flatbed truck into a blueprint that allows parked supports to be extended or not
  
• Fixed light poles in Small Town not casting a shadow
  
• Updated GBSightComponent to stop updating when player is using DebugCamera or similar command
  
• Updated master hair blueprint to improve hair bun handling: fixes issue where hair bun is added, then hair mesh is updated to a version that does not include a hair bun socket
  
• Changed handling of sound banks in Laptop and Big Bomb (may or may not fix crash issue)
  
• Various map bug fixes for 747, City, Storage Facility, Depot, Rig and Power Station
  

[h2]Server/online[/h2]

• Made kit restriction UI/ZK stuff save to GroundBranch\Defaults for standalone and listen server and to ServerConfig if dedicated server
  
• Added SERVER_SHUTDOWN_TIME_MAX check back into CheckServerShutdown() (restores absolute 48-hour uptime limit)
  

[h2]Animation[/h2]

• Zeroed out the rotation on handgun aims (partially fixes crouched pistol offset when aiming; left lean is known to still be offset)
  
• Fixed issues with PKM or MK46 not showing tray opening animations until equipped again
  
• Fixed being able to go prone mid-air
  
• Updated SVD to add support for locked back bolt etc. to match up with reload animations (work in progress)
  
• Work on crouch lean offsets (work in progress)
  
• Corrected sight-to-eye curve values for crouched handgun animations
  

[h2]VFX[/h2]

• Created and implemented new smoke grenade VFX textures (better coverage, especially at ground level)
  
• Decreased spark color alpha value (brightness intensity) to address a bug report
  
• Fix for smoke hanging around after round reset
  
• Light destruction adjustments: the red sparks should no longer happen (strange smoke behavior a work in progress)
  
• Adjustments to the size/life of the light destruction sparks
  

[h2]Sound[/h2]

• Minor audio level bug fixes
  
• Partial fix for bullet cracks
  
• Changed sound location for big bomb from bottom of the barrel to the top (fixes some issues with bomb beeps being in the wrong spatial volume)
  
• Reduced complexity of acoustic portal handling in doors (possible FPS spike mitigation)
  
• Adjusted the rate of fade from one room to the next, and adjusted the check interval rate for portals
  
• Setup reload audio for Galil ARM and SA58 OSW
• Adjusted some missing tails and reverbs
  

[h2]UI[/h2]

• Created and assigned proper minimap (Ops Board and Tablet) textures for The Farm, Arena, Arena 2 and Paintball
• Visual cleanup and other minor visual tweaks to Watch App (wristwatch face features)
  
• Added keybinds for spectator night vision and headcam in Settings > Controls
  
• Very minor font/formatting update to bomb LED screen
  
• Added key shortcuts for translate, rotate and scale gizmos (W, E, R) in the mission editor
  
• Fixed corruption of mission actor names when loading a new mission in the mission editor
  
• Hid GuardPointType field in mission editor (not used in V1034)
  
• Fixed some UI bugs in mission editor
  
• Fixed incorrect version number on HUD
  
• Player blips put back on the Ops Board in training game modes, e.g. The Farm
  
• Custom properties (tint and scale) applied to player blips on Ops Board when in training or unknown mode
  

[hr][/hr]
[h3]As always, thanks for testing and providing feedback![/h3]
Until the next build, folks.

[hr][/hr]