Squad News

Attention Squaddies,

Squad Hotfix 4.1 is now live! It focuses on fixing a few issues that came with the PLA faction, some drought on a few maps (water refusing to appear), and an update of the SDK to 4.1.

Check out all the list of changes below:

[h2]General Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed a server crash related to EOS
  
• Fixed a client crash related to EOS
  
• Removed the shovel from the PLA squad lead crewman kit
  
• Fixed an issue where the gunner would be kicked out of the ZSL10 if the vehicle entered the water
  
• Fixed an issue where drivers of the ZBL08 and ZSL10 could be killed by explosive rounds hitting the front side of the vehicle
  
• Fixed an issue with turret armor values on the ZTZ99AFixed an issue with un-ready weapon animations for the DZJ08 and PF98Fixed a small visual issue relating to how PLA soldiers react to lighting
  

[h2]Map Updates & Bug Fixes[/h2]

Harju

• Fixed an issue where the Russian forward HAB could spawn in a glitched location on Seed v1Mutaha
  
• Fixed an issue where water was not appearing as intended in certain areas
  

Tallil

• Fixed an issue where water was not appearing as intended in certain areas
  

Sumari

• Fixed an issue where the Seed v3 layer was incorrectly being displayed as Seed v1 across several UI elements
  
• Fixed an issue where emplacements were available to both teams on Seed v3SDK
  

Updates & Bug Fixes

• Updated mod SDK to v4.1
  
• We were not able to address an issue regarding mods using custom playercontroller on modded servers. Non-modded servers are not affected by the issue.
  Currently the issue is causing player disconnect and a server crash when the server changes playercontrollers in a map switch. To avoid this server crash, server owners need to make sure that their map rotation all uses the same playercontroller, whether that be the default one or the same custom one.
  

Squad will be updating its game engine next year and the team wants to playtest it on a full server to help identify any unforeseen issues that we may need to address before that happens. As such we are holding a playtest this Saturday December 10th at 19:00 UTC / 11:00 PST.

The main goal of this is to get 100 players active on a server.

We would like all players that are able to to jump into the game at that time on the Squad - Public Testing game that's below Squad in Steam.*




A successfully attended public playtest will go a long way to improving the update's success when it's launched in 2023, and help us discover issues that would be frustrating if we did not see them early. We ask all players who can to join us on Saturday December 10th at 19:00 UTC / 11:00 PST on the Squad - Public Testing game to road test this future engine upgrade.

Tell your friends - tell your neighbours, tell anyone you know who plays Squad and get them on!
Thank you all for the continued support of Squad!

* If you have previously been playing on a Beta please ensure that you're not on a Beta build for this but just the standard Squad - Public Testing app.

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Attention Squaddies,

Squad 4.0 - Red Star Rising is now live and ready to be downloaded! For all the details about the new content and fixes, head to our Release Notes.

We would love to hear your thoughts on the update and get feedback on any new issues you might encounter, so please share with us directly in our Technical Issues Report thread in the forums.

At ease,

The update 4.0 will see the introduction of the new People’s Liberation Army (PLA) faction, including mainland China’s land, sea, and air forces. This includes new combined arms faction features: seven new vehicles, fifteen unique weapons & deployables, and a JH7A rocket strike Commander ability. In addition we have included a number of fixes and quality of life improvements into the update as well.

• Added a new faction, the People’s Liberation Army
  

[h2]New Weapons[/h2]

• QJY88 General Purpose Machine Gun
  
• QBU88 Marksman Rifle
  
• QSZ92 Pistol
  
• DJZ-08 Light Anti-Tank Rocket Launcher
  
• PF-98 Heavy Anti-Tank Rocket Launcher
  
• Commander Ability: JH7A Close Air Support Rocket Strike
  
• QBZ95-1 Rifles
  
  
  
  • QJB-95-1 Automatic Rifle
    
  • QBZ-95B-1 Carbine
    
  • QLG-10 Underbarrel Grenade Launcher
    

[h2]Utilities, Deployables, and Emplacements[/h2]

• PP87 Mortar Emplacement
  
• QJZ-89 Heavy Machine Gun Emplacement
  
• HJ8 ATGM Emplacement
  
• Type86P Hand Frag Grenade
  
• Type 72 Anti-Tank Mine
  
• DSF161 Smoke Grenade
  
• WJQ-308 Entrenching Tool
  
• QNL-95 Knife
  
• Type95 Binoculars
  

[h2]Kit Roles[/h2]

• Rifleman (3 variants)
  
• Automatic Rifleman (2 variants)
  
• Marksman
  
• Light Anti-Tank (2 variants)
  
• Heavy Anti-Tank
  
• Machine Gunner
  
• Grenadier
  
• Combat Engineer
  
• Medic (2 variants)
  
• Crewman
  
• Pilot
  
• Unarmed
  

[h2]Vehicles[/h2]

• ZBD-04A Tracked IFV
  
• ZTZ99A Battle Tank
  
• Z8G Transport Helicopter
  
• CTM131 Logistics Truck
  
• ZSL-10 Wheeled APC (with open-top QJZ89 HMG turret)
  
  
  
  • Variant: CTM131 Transport Truck (with open-top QJY88 GPMG)
    
  • Variant: CTM131 Transport Truck (with open-top QJZ89 HMG)
    
• CSK131 Mengshi Jeep
  
  
  
  • Variant: CSK131 Mengshi Jeep (with HJ8 ATGM)
    
  • Variant: CSK131 Mengshi Jeep (with open-top QJY88 GPMG)
    
  • Variant: CSK131 Mengshi Jeep (with open-top QJZ89 HMG)
    
  • Variant: CSK131 Mengshi Jeep (with remote-controlled QJZ89 HMG)
    
• ZBL-08 Wheeled IFV
  
  
  
  • Variant: ZBL-08 Wheeled IFV (with HJ73C ATGM)
    

[h2]PLA Map Layers[/h2]

• Jensen’s Range [vs AUS]
  
• Pacific Proving Grounds [vs USMC]
  
• Harju
  
  
  
  • RAAS v6 vs USA
    
  • Invasion v5 vs GB
    
• Yehorivka
  
  
  
  • RAAS v13 vs USA
    
• Goose Bay
  
  
  
  • RAAS v4 vs CAF
    
  • Invasion v5 vs CAF
    
• Fallujah
  
  
  
  • Invasion v6 vs MEA
    
  • RAAS v7 vs USMC
    
• Sumari
  
  
  
  • Seed v3 vs USA
    
  • Skirmish v1 vs USA
    
• Narva
  
  
  
  • RAAS v6 vs GB
    
• Gorodok
  
  
  
  • RAAS v12 vs USA
    
• Tallil
  
  
  
  • RAAS v8 vs GB
    
  • Invasion v5 vs MEA
    
• Mutaha
  
  
  
  • RAAS v7 vs RUS
    
• Lashkar
  
  
  
  • Invasion v4 vs USA
    
• Al Basrah
  
  
  
  • Invasion v8 vs INS
    
• Kohat
  
  
  
  • RAAS v10 vs AUS
    
  • Invasion v4 vs USMC
    
  • AAS v1 vs USA
    
• Chora
  
  
  
  • RAAS v5 vs USA
    
  • AAS v6 vs USA
    
• Logar
  
  
  
  • AAS v1 vs USA
    
• Kokan
  
  
  
  • AAS v1 vs USA
    

[h2]System & Gameplay Updates[/h2]

• Updated ATGM System - Once a vehicle has launched the maximum allotted number of anti-tank guided missiles, firing another will cause the oldest currently deployed missile to lose guidance and crash
  
• While sprinting, attempting to bandage yourself will now immediately cancel your sprint and start the self-bandaging action
  
• Updated the map legend with unique icons for armed transport trucks and APCs with open-top turrets
  
• Removed several unnecessary hard references that were negatively impacting performance
  
• Made improvements to anti-cheat software
  
• Improved the appearance of sprinting from a third-person perspective
  

[h2]General Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed a client crash related to grenades
  
• Fixed a client crash related to the WorldSettings parameter
  
• Fixed an issue where the USMC flag was not appearing on the server browser menu
  
• Fixed an issue where the AUS MRH90 Helicopter was missing its vehicle reset options
  
• Fixed an issue where players could shoot through the floor of certain houses
  
• Fixed an issue where players would automatically switch to their rifle after planting an anti-tank mine
  
• Fixed a rare issue where players could become invulnerable to damage after using the admin camera feature in a certain way
  
• Fixed a rare issue where players could be disconnected from their server after pushing a helicopter from the tail
  
• Fixed several issues with water sound effects
  
• Fixed various performance issues regarding oceans and water intensity
  
• Fixed an issue where frag grenades were not doing appropriate damage in the tutorial
  
• Fixed a minor visual issue where clouds of smoke could sometimes stick to vehicles instead of behaving normally
  
• Fixed several issues with vehicle sound effects
  
• Fixed a visual issue with the top hatches of BMP-2 desert vehicles
  
• Fixed several issues relating to graphics settings, including one in which certain settings would reset upon exiting the game
  
• Fixed an issue where toggle lean options were not behaving properly
  
• Fixed several small visual and collision issues relating to indirect fire shelters
  
• Fixed a server crash related to CAF
  

[h2]Map Updates & Bug Fixes[/h2]

• General
  
  
  
  • Fixed an issue where players could shoot vehicle-mounted guns inside of the main base on certain layers
    
• Harju
  
  
  
  • Fixed a collision issue at the WundaMart side entrance
    
  • Fixed various visual issues involving floating and incorrectly placed assets
    
  • Fixed inconsistencies regarding the name of the Forest Industrial flag across layers
    
  • Fixed an issue where the MTLB would spawn outside of the main base on RAAS v2
    
  • Fixed a hole in the ground near the missile silo
    
  • Fixed an issue where the RUS forward spawn would occasionally spawn players in the air on Invasion v1
    
  • Fixed an issue where the CAF staging phase barrier was preventing access to ammo crates on Skirmish v2
    
  • Fixed an issue where some deployables were incorrectly being blocked by water
    
  • Fixed incorrect Finnish spelling on Invasion v1
    
  • The “Bog” flag on RAAS v3, v4, v5, and v6 is now called “Marsh”
    
• Fallujah
  
  
  
  • Fixed an issue where certain INS vehicles were too far out of range to be supplied at the main base on Invasion v2
    
• Narva
  
  
  
  • Fixed an issue where the RAAS v5 layer was incorrectly labeled
    
  • Fixed an issue where a HAB could not be built near the Marina cap zone due to problems with the water level
    
• Al Basrah
  
  
  
  • Fixed an issue where rocks and foliage appeared to float in certain areas on AAS v1
    
  • Fixed an issue where the river could stop appearing in certain situations
    

[h2]SDK Updates & Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Updated mod SDK to v4.0
  
• Updated mod versioning to v4.0. This requires mods to be re-cooked with the v4.0 SDK—any mods using the v3.4 SDK will be incompatible with v4.0.
  

As many in the Squad community will know that Harju, the game’s newest map, began as a player created project! Working under the username Wunda Offworld hired its designer Jason Liberty and brought him onboard. With the official release of Harju we sat down to talk with Liberty and  asked him to provide us with some of their insight about the conceptualization and evolution of Harju from its first moment as a community map to its latest full integration in Squad.

What was your overall approach to designing the map, what did you want to accomplish with it? Jason/Wunda: Work on Harju was started shortly after Squad Alpha 12 which added Main Battle Tanks. I wanted to create a map that would be well adapted for Squad’s newest equipment but also future proofed for the helicopters that were to be added later in 2019. This had another future payoff seeing that Harju has become a good fit for the amphibious adaptation we see today.

How do you think the map stands out in contrast to other maps of Squad? Jason/Wunda: Foliage is what sets Harju apart from Squad’s existing map library. Vehicles and infantry have to play to their strengths in a different way then most other maps. Firefights slow down and teamwork excels when you're moving with your squad to clear forests on approach to your objective. Logistics vehicles can't go to any location they want to by just driving offroad. A higher encouragement to utilize road networks may sway a squad leader to try amphibious or helicopter based insertions. 

Can you describe the work that was done on Harju to ensure that it could be released as an official map for Squad? Jason/Wunda: Harju’s last workshop release, while a step forward for the map, still had many gaps that needed to be filled. A large amount of effort was spent refining or completely rebuilding locations to a higher quality standard and more importantly to work well with newly added amphibious gameplay. To put it into perspective I logged 950 hours working on Harju up to its last workshop release and an additional 1,400 hours getting it to the official release. It was a lot of work and in the end I’ve spent more time on just Harju than I have 1,200 hours in-game playing Squad! 

What do you think the biggest improvement is on Harju from the Steam Workshop version that you worked on to its latest incarnation now in Squad? Jason/Wunda: The largest improvement can be seen in the large scale map flow. Rounds play out far better now that the map has been filled with more locations to fight in. Many locations were also changed to fit amphibious attacks opening a massive number of opportunities in layer design for our core game modes. 

What made you choose Finland as a location for the map? Any personal attachment to it? Jason/Wunda: Finland as a setting isn’t far from locations we've already featured in Squad. The closest of those being Narva in Estonia and Skorpo in Norway. Since I’m a Level Designer and not a 3D Artist using existing Squad assets was critical. Finland does differ from those locations in its terrain and foliage which is where I focused on making the map unique. I also knew from the start that I wanted to build a map on the water during Autumn. Looking at reference photos from Finland during that time of year really reminded me of where I grew up in the northeastern United States. It felt easy building a place that felt so familiar to me.