GROUND BRANCH News

Patch #18 is now live on the Community Test beta branch!

[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.

[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!

[h2]Patch notes[/h2]

• Changed vote kick to not include player calling the vote
  
• Compound: potential fix for shimmering grass, and stopped poplar trees being weird
  
• Tanker: initial art consistency and improvement pass
  
• Removed Volumetric Scattering from several interior lights in Power Station, Rig, Run Down, Small Town and The Farm for performance reasons
  
• Fixed overly dark truck material in Run Down
  
• Fixed certain wooden fences not colliding with weapons in Depot
• Removed debug AI cover points in The Farm
• Reduced tac light illumination range to minimize performance impact
  
• Fixed bug that caused late joiners to be assigned the least populated insertion points rather than the most populated ones
  
• Added Lua script call OnWeaponAddedToInventory() so that game modes or mutators can detect when a particular player has picked up a weapon (or been assigned it in a loadout)
  
• Added a call to assign team element numbers when player teams are changed, so that standard callsigns (based on element number) will hopefully update when players are switched teams
  
• Fixed bug in WeaponRestriction mutator that wouldn't update the loadout if Breaching Charges were disabled
  
• Updated Hostage Rescue:
  
  
  • If the hostage player picks up a weapon, they become fair game for the Defenders (to prevent exploit where hostage becomes an unkillable terminator)
    
  • Added post-spawn check in Hostage Rescue to teleport hostage to hostage spawn if for some reason the spawn failed
    
  • Removed close proximity intimidation for hostages (should stop intimidation of hostages pinned behind a defender)
    
• Updated scopes (magnified sights) to stop dynamically scaling the render texture size if DLSS is enabled, and disabled PIP resolution scaling based on FOV
  
• Added "requires restart" dialog to Bloom Quality settings
  
• Made advanced Temporal Anti-Aliasing (TAA) settings accessible again in Settings › Video
  
• Ongoing UI style and consistency pass on several menus, buttons, prompts and dialogs (still WIP)
  
• Fixed up the match system and match info board a bit, and made match info visible again on listen servers (servers created via Host Game option)
  
• Fixed team wins being counted double in game modes with team scoring (DTAS and Hostage Rescue)
  
• Initialized ZooKeeper and map voting when a listen server is started (for the map voting to work properly on the match info board the first time the server is run)
  
• Added game mode localization/lookup to the match info board vote buttons
  
• Changed the localization/lookup for game mode names on the match info board to use a different system that should work better on dedicated servers
  

Patch #17 is now live on the Community Test beta branch!

A lot of work has been done on AI using ladders and doors, but please bear with us because it's a work in progress and the ladders in particular are not quite there yet.

Compound has received an optimization pass including foliage. Please keep in mind that the foliage may look off when anti-aliasing is disabled or set to FXAA. A fix is being worked on.

[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 new testing branch.

[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!

[h2]Patch notes[/h2]

• Fixed City Hostage Rescue mission being incorrectly listed as co-op
  
• Compound: significant performance optimization pass:
  
  
  • Improved appearance and efficiency of all foliage (WIP; will not work well with FXAA or no anti-aliasing)
    
  • Improved visuals and efficiency of the vista/backdrop
    
  • Sharpened up lots of textures
    
  • Improved the appearance of foliage and grass using custom normal maps — stops dark faces when grass is shadowed, removes need for subsurface lighting
    
  • Improved look of grass when looking down or high sun angle
    
  • Switched to a better looking simple wind material function, less glittery, looks more natural
    
  • Deleted lots of unused assets, foliage types, textures etc. relating to Compound
    
• Fix for glass in City being overly bright in night vision
  
• Updated doors and ladders to fix bugs, tweak settings and add new features improving AI usage (WIP)
  
• Stopped the player being able to run/jog if "Always Run" is set while playing as hostage
  
• Added missing collision to hookah model
  
• Updated double doors to use mirror opening, so both doors open at once
  
• Updated 747, Creek and City doors and ladders
  
• Cleaned up doors/ladders/navmesh for better AI usage on Depot, Docks, Power Station, Rig, Small Town, Storage Facility, Tanker and The Farm (also added navmesh to The Farm so AI should work better if you place it there in a custom mission)
  
• Updated "Advanced AI Settings" menu: fixed elements running over/into each other and improved overall layout
  
• Minor UI style and consistency pass on various dialogs and buttons
  
• Started UI pass on Time/Weather Settings menu
  
• Restored minimap to Compound (map was missing on Ops Board and Tablet)
  
• Fixed some light portal and mesh culling issues in Run Down
• Fixed missing rust normal map in oil rig material when puddles are disabled
  
• Restrained players (Hostage Rescue) can no longer pick up items
  
• Fixed voting timeouts for passed and failed votes not being taken into account (defaults of 60 and 180 seconds used regardless), and greatly reduced minimum timeouts (for ease of testing and to give people what they want)
  
• Rebuilt cover points in all maps
  
• Hide vote widgets after votes ended (hopefully to fix votes hanging around when done)
  
• Changed default reticle brightness setting to change range (is now 0–4 rather than 0–5, so removed "None" as option) and added "Automatic" setting (corresponding to most recent change where brightness is determined based on time of day)
  

Patch #16 is now live on the Community Test beta branch!

[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
  

Steam will begin downloading the files for the new testing branch.

[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!

[h2]Patch notes[/h2]

• Fixed DLAA not enabling
  
• Fixed IsDLAAEnabled in AA widget (causing it to not enable it through console)
  
• Hostage Rescue (PvP) mode now available on Compound, Docks, Power Station, 747 (Plane Interior), Creek, City, City (Subway) and Tanker
• Fixed bug where spectate option was not shown on Ops Board for DTAS and Hostage Rescue game modes
  
• Miscellaneous tweaks and bug fixes to Hostage Rescue game mode and validation script
  
• Replaced pallet stacks in Docks with merged assets and rebuilt AI paths/cover
• Lighting optimizations on Power Station
  
• Turned off cover point debugging accidentally left enabled in City map
  
• Spectator Mode overlay hopefully fixed now
  
• Updated mount for PMII 5–25x scope: replaced railed scope ring caps with non-railed caps (this is still a temporary mount)
  

Patch #15 is now live on the Community Test beta branch!

[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
  

Steam will begin downloading the files for the new testing branch.

[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!

[h2]Patch notes[/h2]

• Fixed door in Small Town's building A opening too far
  
• Fixed glowing foliage piece used mainly in Small Town
  
• Some small lighting optimizations on Small Town
  
• Fixed a few meshes in Storage Facility culling out too early
  
• Reduced specular value on IR Strobe clear plastic section to make it less visible in the dark
  
• Updated default character appearance/loadout to look better and be more rounded in terms of equipment
  
• Updated PMII 5–25x scope model (will temporarily use the same Burris mount as LPVOs)
  
• Updated DLSS/DLAA/AA settings:
  
  
  • DLAA is now under "Anti-Aliasing (AA)" in Settings › Video
    
  • Using DLSS will now correctly disable other AA methods
    
  • Removed "Ultra Quality" DLSS option
    
• UI/art pass on Customize Patches dialog (WIP)
  
• Hostage Rescue tweaking/fixing:
  
  
  • Added Restrict Defenders option to hostage rescue game mode: if set to "Yes", then defenders are blocked from leaving spawn building during setup time. Otherwise, they can move to other buildings from the start (albeit with spawn protection effects during the transition)
    
  • Improved handling of switch between Building Assault and Hostage Rescue
    
  • Hostage Rescue won't kick in until there are 5 players now (or 3 if "Force Hostage Rescue" is enabled)
    
  • Added basic AI to Building Assault for when there is a single player on the server
    
  • Added validation script for Hostage Rescue missions
    
  • Hostage Rescue now available on Run Down and Depot (Compound)
  • Set default for "Force Hostage Rescue" to "No"
    
  • Changed defender setup time in Building Assault from 5 seconds to 10
    
  • Added location markers in Hostage Rescue to show possible hostage starting locations
    
  • Tweaked scoring
    
• Some small lighting optimizations on Rig
• Fixed some glowing glass materials
  
• Cleaned up some pallet stacks in Docks for better collision (and merged for performance as well)
  
• Added 6 more skins for both Boonie Hat styles: M81, DCU, AOR-1, AOR-2, Tiger Stripe and Desert Tiger
  
• Slight tweak to Helmet (HC) velcro color
  

Patch #14 is now live on the Community Test beta branch!

[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
  

Steam will begin downloading the files for the new testing branch.

[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!

[h2]Patch notes[/h2]

• First public test release of Hostage Rescue PvP game mode (see accompanying notes below)
  
• Tentative crash fix involving M4- and HK416-series animations
  
• Optimized material usage on Run Down architecture meshes
  
• Set lots of cull distances, merged various meshes in non-playable areas and reduced material usage on more architecture meshes
  
• Tentative crash fix involving VOIP
  
• Bug fixes for resurrect function
  
• New admin resatme function to resurrect at the invoking player's position
  
• Dedicated servers now load the localization CSVs again (fixes format commands like "X killed Y" in Deathmatch)
  
• Fixed MOUT acronym definition in Small Town description
  
• Added new Lua library call player.HasGameplayTag() to allow Lua script to check if a character has a GameplayTag set
  
• Fixed vote change map problem (overlay was visible that shouldn't have been)
  
• Further small tweaks to TAA settings
  
• Made sure lights in spawn areas for Arena maps are on for all TOD
  
• Turned off cast shadows on various smaller meshes
  
• Removed light array from Small Town light switches (gets rid of log warnings)
  
• Updated City: parse on nav mesh with new tool for adding nav mesh modifier(s), corrected collision on some misc static meshes e.g. skipping rope
  

[h2]Hostage Rescue (PvP): Rules of Engagement[/h2]
This patch introduces new PvP game mode Hostage Rescue!

It is currently only setup for Small Town, but as we test and refine it, it will be expanded to more maps. Keep in mind that larger player counts may not work particularly well in Small Town.

Here are the rules:

[h3]Hostage Rescue — Game Rules[/h3]
A random player of the attacking team has been taken hostage in one of the buildings, selected at random by the game mode. The defenders' movements are restricted to within that building, unless the hostage escapes it. The hostage player is hooded and cuffed, limiting their vision and world interactions.

Defenders can lead the hostage around the building or simply hold them in place by holding the Interact key (default F). They can also intimidate the hostage into silence by pointing a gun at them, but you will need two defenders to both lead/hold and intimidate the hostage at the same time.

Attackers can select any insertion point and will have to find the building where the hostage is being held — possibly with the assistance of the hostage making some noise with the Talk (VOIP) key (default V) — and then breach the building and rescue the hostage. If the hostage has their cuffs released by the attackers, they will regain a full range of movement and team communication (i.e. radio and text chat).

[h3]Win conditions[/h3]
ATTACKERS
To win the round, at least one attacker must escort the hostage to any of the available extraction points. Alternatively, attackers will win if the defending team is eliminated.

DEFENDERS
To win the round, the defending team must eliminate all attackers, or survive the assault until the time runs out.

› Any team that kills the hostage will instantly lose the match. Careful with those frags, people.

[h3]Building Assault[/h3]
If there are not enough players to start a Hostage Rescue round (default 3), then the stripped-down Building Assault mode will start, in which the defenders are still restricted to a building, but there is no hostage and the teams must simply eliminate each other. The gloves are off in this mode!

• Admins can force the Building Assault mode, similarly to how Fox Hunt can be forced in DTAS.
  
• Building Assault currently requires at least 2 players. Like DTAS/Fox Hunt, it is envisaged to spawn in an AI bot if only one player joins a round, but this has not yet been implemented.
  

[h3]Players and balancing[/h3]

• We recommend 5–7 players minimum for a more satisfying Hostage Rescue experience.
  
• Hostage Rescue uses quite aggressive auto-balancing to maintain fair teams, so make sure both your Red and Blue team kits are up to date.
  
• Auto-balancing can be customized to be less aggressive if you don't mind uneven teams.
  

We kindly ask that testers give this new mode some special attention if possible, as we are interested to know what works and what doesn't — whether it's bugs or the game's rules and mechanics.

So keep the feedback and reports coming. We're very grateful for them!