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SQUAD 8.2.1 HOTFIX NOTES

[h2]ATTN Squaddies![/h2]

Hotfix 8.2.1 contains multiple fixes for some issues that appeared after the 8.2 release. Thank you to everyone who reported these issues!



  • Fixed MGS vehicles costing 30 tickets when they should only cost 10.
  • Fixed CAF Leopard MBT engine component sticking through the armor mesh on the rear of the vehicle.
  • Kohat Toi RAAS v1 - Fixed an issue with the south main base with certain helicopters blowing up on spawn on the center helipad.
  • Fixed issue where all non-automatic rifleman roles using M27 IAR had 12 magazines instead of 7
  • Fixed USMC M39 EMR Marksman Rifle reticle being too pixelated at higher magnification levels.


[h3]OFFWORLD OUT![/h3]

Squad - v8.2 Release Notes

Welcome, Squaddies, to the 8.2 Patch notes! Today we are going to show off a lot of balancing changes to multiple Factions, some new weapons coming in the patch, as well as the long-awaited feature, the Friends List!



[h3]New Weapons[/h3]
USMC M39 EMR
Replaces the M38 rifle for USMC marksman:



WPMC AUG rifle
Replaces M4 Simon Offense + M150 on WPMC rifleman 08. It used to appear on a single layer as the F88 for the Australian faction but has been absent since voting was introduced.

USA M110 Suppressed
Replaces the non-suppressed M110 on the USA marksman role for Light Infantry & Air Assault Battlegroups.

INS Mosin Carbine
Appears on a new raider role variant for Insurgents. It was previously in the game and removed.






[h3]Balance Updates[/h3]
We have made some changes to improve the balance and viability of key factions and maps:
  • Reduced the number of PMV RWS from 2 to 1 on ADF Combined Arms Battlegroup.
  • Increased number of ASLAV IFVs from 3 to 4 on ADF Mechanized Battlegroup.
  • Replaced 2x PMV with 2x PMV RWS on ADF Mechanized Battlegroup.
  • Reduced number of Coyote recon vehicles from 2 to 1 on CAF Armored Battlegroup.
  • Reduced number of BMP1AM from 3 to 2 on RGF Armored Battlegroup.
  • Removed 2x ZBD04A and added 1x ZSL10 on PLA Armored Battlegroup.
  • Increased number of ACV-15 M2 from 1 to 2 on TLF Armored Battlegroup.
  • Increased number of ACV-15 MG3 from 1 to 2 on TLF Armored Battlegroup.
  • Replaced 2x PARS III M2 with 2x PARS III IFV on TLF Combined Arms Battlegroup.
  • Reduced number of M7A3 from 2 to 1 on USA Armored Battlegroup.
  • Removed 1x LAV-25, and added 2x AAVP to USMC Armored Battlegroup.
  • Increased number of LAV-25 IFVs from 3 to 4 on USMC Motorized Battlegroup.
  • Reduced number of ZBD05 IFVs from 2 to 1 on PLANMC Combined Arms Battlegroup.
  • Increased number of ZTD05 MGS from 3 to 4 on PLANMC Combined Arms Battlegroup.
  • Added 2x CSK HJ8 to PLANMC Armored Battlegroup.
  • Increased the number of wheeled IFVs that spawn in for ADF, CAF, and USMC Combined Arms Battlegroups from 2 to 3.
  • Updated MEA Combined Arms Battlegroup to spawn with 2 BRDM scout cars instead of 1.
  • Replaced the 2x Ural ZU23 with Technical ZU23 on Insurgent Motorized Battlegroup.
  • Added 2x Technical BMP to Insurgent Motorized Battlegroup.
  • Increased respawn delay for main battle tanks from 15 minutes to 20 minutes on all mechanized battlegroups, except for TLF (remaining at a 15-minute delay), IMF, and INS (remaining at a 10-minute delay).
  • Reduced spawn time for transport helicopter from 10 minutes to 6 minutes on all Air Assault Battlegroups.
  • Adjusted CAF Leopard 2A6M MBT ammo rack location, now located in the rear of the vehicle and the size has been reduced to make it less vulnerable.
  • Updated the USA M113A3 M2 and M113A3 Mk19 desert variants to randomly spawn in with cage armor 50% of the time.
  • Reduced total supply capacity from 3000 to 2000 on the TLF BMC logistics truck.
  • Removed FOB mortars from WPMC battlegroups and added 2 mortar technicals to each battlegroup.
  • Updated PLA & PLAAGF woodland camouflage with the newer “Starry Sky” camouflage pattern. The previous woodland camouflage will still appear as a winter camouflage on the Goose Bay map. The PLANMC will continue to use its blue camouflage.
  • Updated CAF AR 01 role to use a C9A2 with CQB-length barrel and foregrip.
  • Updated USMC marksman 01 role to use an M39 EMR instead of an M38 on all USMC battlegroups except for light infantry.
  • Updated USMC roles to no longer use the M27 IAR. SL 02 now uses M4 + foregrip, AR 01 now uses an M249 PIP with iron sights.
  • Updated USMC Light Infantry Battlegroup to represent a more modern USMC setup.

    • Crewmen roles unchanged.
    • Pilot roles unchanged.
    • Only 1 SL role variant making use of M27 IAR without bipod, and M17 pistol.
    • Only 1 rifleman role variant making use of M27 IAR without bipod.
    • Medic 01 role unchanged.
    • Medic 02 role makes use of M27 IAR without bipod, and M17 pistol.
    • AR 01 makes use of M27 IAR ironsights + bipod, and M17 pistol.
    • AR 02 makes use of M27 IAR + bipod, and M17 pistol.
    • Grenadier 01 makes use of M27 IAR without bipod, and M320 grenade launcher.
    • Only 1 LAT role variant making use of M27 IAR without bipod, and AT4 launcher.
    • Marksman role makes use of M38 DMR, and M17 pistol.
    • Heavy Grenadier role appears in the ‘specialist’ role category making use of M27 IAR without bipod, and the MGL grenade launcher. Only 2 are available per team. The MGL is still using the TLF texture, and will be updated in the future.
    • Machinegunner role unchanged.
    • Only 1 HAT role variant making use of M27 IAR without bipod, and the M3 MAAWS launcher.
    • Engineer role unchanged.
    • M1151 vehicles replaced with MATV variants using the same weapons systems.
    • Increased the number of TOW vehicles from 2 to 3.
    • Removed tank spawn.
    • These light infantry battlegroup roles will appear on Jensen's Range along with the standard roles from other USMC battlegroups.
  • Updated RGF Light Infantry and Support Battlegroups to have access to build up to two ZU23 AA gun emplacements on FOBs.
  • Updated the USA Grenadier role to use the standalone M320 grenade launcher instead of an underslung grenade launcher.
  • Updated WPMC Rifleman 08 role to use an AUG rifle instead of M4 Simon Offense with M150.
  • Updated WPMC LAT 02 role to use M16 Wormpool with M150 instead of M4 Simon Offense with M150.
  • Updated the following MEA roles to use a KLT (Iranian copy of the AKMS rifle) instead of a G3A3: Squad Leader 01, Rifleman 01, Medic 01, LAT 01.
  • Added an additional rifleman role to MEA making use of a G3A3 + foregrip.
  • Added a second marksman role to MEA which uses the SVD. This role is available in the direct combat category, similar to BAF's second marksman role.
  • Updated MEA Automatic Rifleman 01 role to use the RPK instead of a G3A3 with drum magazine. Their Automatic Rifleman 02 role continues to use the G3A3 with drum magazine and ZF1 scope.
  • Added a marksman role to the USA faction making use of a suppressed M110 rifle. This role replaces the standard marksman role in the Light Infantry and Air Assault Battlegroups. Both roles will appear on Jensens Range.
  • Added a HAT role to all TLF battlegroups making use of the RPG-7 with tandem rounds. The TLF Air Assault battlegroup continues using their Carl Gustav HAT role with extra availability. Both HAT roles will appear on Jensens Range.
  • Updated TLF Machinegunner 01 to use PKM instead of MG3.
  • Added a Marksman role to VDV Air Assault and Amphibious Assault Battlegroups using an AS VAL + PSO-1 scope. This role will also appear on Jensen’s Range.
  • Added 2x RGO grenades to VDV scout role.
  • Renamed the “Insurgent Forces” faction to “Middle Eastern Insurgents” and updated/added several roles and role variants:

    • 6 SL variants:
      • AMD-65
      • PPSH + stick magazines
      • PM md. 63
      • M16A2
      • FAL
      • AKS-74 + 1P29
    • 3 medic variants:
      • AMD-65
      • FAL
      • M16A2
    • 7 rifleman variants:
      • AKM
      • M16A2
      • FAL
      • Mosin Nagant
      • G3A3
      • AKS-74 + 1P29
      • SKS + PU
    • 3 LAT variants:
      • FAL + HEAT rifle grenades
      • AKMS w/ RPG-7
      • AKS-74 + 1P29 w/ RPG-7
    • 3 raider variants:
      • PPSH + drum magazines w/ 2 frag grenades, 2 AT grenades
      • AKM + drum magazines w/ 2 frag grenades, 2 AT grenades
      • Mosin Carbine, vz61 Skorpion w/ 4 frag grenades, 4 AT grenades
    • 2 grenadier variants:
      • AKM + GP25
      • FAL + fragmentation rifle grenades
    • 2 marksman variants:
      • M16A2 + 3x scope
      • SVD
    • 2 HAT variants:
      • AKMS w/ RPG-7
      • SKS w/ RPG-29
    • 2 sapper variants:
      • PPSH
      • AKMS
    • 2 machine gunner variants:
      • PKM
      • MG3
    • The sniper role is unchanged.
    • Automatic rifleman roles are unchanged but are now in the ‘fire support’ roles category.
    • The crewman roles are unchanged (but the SL crewman now has AKMS instead of vz61).
  • Added REDFOR Alliance (RGF and VDV) battlegroups as voting options for all Sanxian Islands layers.
  • Adjusted Seed Game Mode to limit the following deployables to a max of 5 per FOB: Sandbag Wall + Firing Port, Ammobox, Hesco Wall, Oil Barrel Wall, Dirt Crate Wall + Firing Ports.
  • Adjusted Seed Game Mode to remove the IMF deployables: Camo Nettings, Hull Down, Observation Tower, and Hedge Hog Tank Trap.
  • Adjusted the number of tickets gained when capturing a flag on invasion from 130 to 125.
  • Completed standardization of Invasion layers:

    • All invasion layers will now have 5 flag layouts.
    • The first 2-3 objectives are generally closer together to reduce instances where attackers need to maneuver the entire team and set up new FOBs to attack the next point unless it's across more open terrain. Also attempted to reduce instances where areas of thick concealment or urban areas lie between the first flags, which generally bog down attackers and cost them high amounts of tickets to clear. The 4th and 5th objectives will generally be more challenging to attack.
    • Most invasion layers will no longer have forward vehicle spawns for defenders and will only have infantry spawns closer to the first objective.
    • Some invasion layers will now have multiple potential lanes to increase replayability.

[h3]Gunplay Adjustments[/h3]
We have made some changes to Squad’s gunplay with the following goals in mind:
  • Make weapons feel more responsive overall.
  • Reduce punishment in the form of weapon destabilization that players receive after movement.
  • Create more standardized weapon archetypes, which will lead to distinct playstyles for players to master.
  • Improve the effectiveness of machine guns when not bipoded.
  • Improve the control of sub machineguns at short distances making them more ideal for close quarters and flanking.
Medium Machineguns (M240 family, PK family, MG3, QJY-88)
  • Reworked M240 family recoil & sway to be more controllable, particularly in prone and bipod stances.
  • Standardized hipfire to be more controllable than it was previously.
  • Standardized ADS move speed, equip movement speed, and reload movement speed to be 40% of normal movement speed.
  • Standardized per-stance ADS times to be between 0.3 to 0.75 seconds depending on stance and optic. Bipod ADS time is always 0.3 seconds.
  • Slightly increased the amount of suppression that medium machine guns can output.
  • Standardized the time it takes to stabilize weapons to be faster than it was previously, but will now be very slow compared to other weapon types.
  • Increased the time it takes before the weapon is automatically put into the 'lowered' position from 0.15 to 30 seconds.
Light Machineguns (M249 family, RPD)
  • Improved MOA on M249 family from 12 to 6.
  • Standardized Hipfire to be more controllable.
  • Standardized ADS move speed, equip movement speed, and reload movement speed to be 40% to 50% of normal movement speed depending on optic.
  • Standardized per-stance ADS times to be between 0.3 to 0.55 seconds depending on stance and optic. Bipod ADS time is always 0.3 seconds.
  • Standardized the time it takes to stabilize the weapon to be faster than it was previously, but will be slow compared to other weapon types.
Battle Rifle / Marksman Rifle / Bolt-Action Rifle (C14, FAL, G3, KNT-76, M110, M14, Mosin, MPT-76, QBU-88, SV-98M, SVD)
  • Added new camera shake effects to make these weapons feel more powerful when shooting them.
  • Removed the heavy recoil curve that was present on most battle rifles and replaced it with a standard recoil curve.
  • Reworked recoil configurations for G3, FAL, M110, and MPT-76 rifles to be more controllable.
  • Standardized ADS move speed, equip movement speed, and reload movement speed to be 50% to 60% of normal movement speed depending on optic.
  • Standardized per-stance ADS times to be between 0.3 to 0.55 seconds depending on stance and optic. Bipod ADS time is always 0.3 seconds.
  • The time it takes to stabilize a weapon has been standardized to be faster than it was previously. It will now be faster than machine guns but slower than rifles.
  • Slightly reduced the damage on the G3 damage curve, now that these weapons are easier to control, they will less frequently cause one-hit kills but still cause high damage that will require immediate bandaging to survive.
  • Battle rifles with foregrips now provide a small benefit to control recoil.
Automatic Rifles (M27 IAR, RPK family, G3A3 w/ drum, QJB95-1)
  • Reworked recoil configuration of RPK family of weapons.
  • Standardized ADS move speed, equip movement speed, and reload movement speed to be 60% to 70% of normal movement speed depending on optic.
  • Standardized per-stance ADS times to be between 0.3 to 0.45 seconds depending on stance and optic. Bipod ADS time is always 0.3 seconds.
  • The time it takes to stabilize a weapon has been standardized to be faster than it was previously. It will now be faster than machine guns but slower than rifles.
Rifles (M4 family, AK family, L85 family, EF88 family, SKS family, QBZ95-1 family)
  • Reworked recoil configuration of AKM family of weapons.
  • Standardized ADS move speed, equip movement speed, and reload movement speed to be 60% to 70% of normal movement speed depending on optic.
  • Standardized per-stance ADS times to be between 0.3 to 0.45 seconds depending on rifle length, stance and optic. Bipod ADS time is always 0.3 seconds.
  • The time it takes to stabilize a weapon has been standardized to be faster than it was previously. It will now be the fastest weapon type to stabilize other than sub-machine guns and pistols.
  • Reworked configurations for M4 Simon Offense to perform better in close quarters but weaker at range than other rifles.
  • Rifles with foregrips now provide a small benefit to control recoil.
Sub Machineguns (MP5 family, SAR-109T, PPSH, Vz61)
  • Standardized recoil and sway configurations to make these highly controllable weapons.
  • Standardized ADS move speed, equip movement speed, and reload movement speed to be 90% of normal speed.
  • Standardized per-stance ADS times to be 0.2 seconds.
  • The time it takes to stabilize the weapon has been standardized to be faster than it was previously. It will now be the fastest weapon type to stabilize other than pistols.
Pistols
  • Reworked sway to be more controllable.
  • Standardized ADS move speed, equip movement speed, and reload movement speed to be 100% of normal movement speed.
  • Standardized per-stance ADS times to be 0.2 seconds.
  • Standardized the time it takes to stabilize the weapon to be faster than it was previously, it will now be the fastest weapon type to stabilize.

[h3]Friends List[/h3]
We have added a friends list to the Squad main menu. This should make joining your friends’ servers easier. This is our first iteration of this feature, and we expect to see it grow into something more in the future!
  • Updated WPMC Loach Helicopters to use new "Scout" and "Light CAS" map icons, which more accurately depict their vehicle roles.
  • Admin's can now cycle between different local voice chat modes:
    • Hear only friendlies. Only heard by friendlies.
    • Hear everyone. Only heard by friendlies. (New Default)
    • Hear everyone. Heard by everyone.
    • Hear everyone. Only heard by enemies.

[h3]General Bug Fixes[/h3]
  • Fixed an issue with the WPMC Loach Helicopter bouncing soldiers away when they attempted to get close to the front, rear, and sides of the vehicle.
  • Fixed WPMC Loach Helicopter emergency recovery "Push" being too strong.
  • Fixed a bug where the M134 minigun on the WPMC Loach CAS Helicopter appeared to be pristine even when wrecked.
  • Fixed an issue with the WPMC CPV M139 minigun impact VFX.
  • Fixed an issue with the WPMC M16 Wormpool rifle family text description listing the weapons using 3-round burst fire mode instead of auto.
  • Fixed the alignment on the WPMC M16 Wormpool with Meupold Scope.
  • Added correct firing sounds for C6 CROW for the CAF TAPV vehicle.
  • Fixed an issue with the USMC/WPMC M27 IAR ABD HK416 Rifles not allowing a +1 round in chamber.
  • Fixed a visual bug with the USMC AAVP-7A1 APC.
  • Fixed an issue with the IMF UB32 Emplacement using the mortar map icon instead of its own unique icon.
  • Fixed WPMC AK-101 PushCo Rifle where players middle finger on the right hand was clipping into the trigger guard.
  • Fixed an issue that WPMC Crewman and Pilot kits had more mags for MP5A3 than they should have.
  • Fixed WPMC AK101 PushCo Rifle to now use a 5.56mm mag (was using a 5.45mm mag previously).
  • Made specific attenuation adjustments to vehicle exterior engine sounds. Volume now decreases quicker further out, but is still just as audible as before.
  • Increased FOB Radio audio attenuation radius to be heard at 50 meters.
  • Fixed potentially inconsistent armor hit damage in rare edge cases.
  • Fixed VDV Armored Battlegroup having access to build ATGM emplacements when defending.
  • Fixed RGF Motorized Battlegroup having access to build ATGM emplacements when defending.
  • Fixed BAF L85A2 Classic + SUSAT to use the correct name in HUD and Kit Role Select Menu.

[h3]Map Updates[/h3]
General
Fixed some faction vehicle layouts for Seed and Skirmish maps.

Anvil Skirmish v1 - Fixed a bug where WPMC was not an option during voting.

Mutaha RAAS v2 - Fixed an issue with Team Two’s middle helipad destroying Helicopters directly after spawning.
Invasion v1 - Fixed Quad bikes not spawning in attackers base.

Pacific Proving Grounds
AAS v1 - Fixed mercy bleed instantly ending the round after last capture point taken.

Sanxian Islands Invasion v1 - Fixed an issue with USMC helicopter spawning in sideways.
[h3]Localization[/h3]
  • Reverted localization for capture point names back to English to ensure consistency for players from different regions playing on the same server.
  • In order to better facilitate player communication we reverted layer names to English.
  • In order to better facilitate player communication we reverted game mode names to English in all languages (except Chinese).

[h3]Known Issues[/h3]
We are currently not aware of any new known issues created with this update. If you happen to come across something that you would like to report, please use the Community Discord and we will update this thread accordingly.

This concludes our debrief for the 8.2 Squad Release Notes! Stay tuned to our Steam forums for all our upcoming comms!

[h2]Offworld Out![/h2]

Nominate Squad for the Steam Awards

Listen up Squaddies. With the Steam Autumn Sale kicking off today, the 2024 Steam Awards nominations are underway. We hope you'll consider nominating Squad for the Labor of Love Award.

Squad is the epitome of a labor of love, evolving from its humble beginnings as the mod Project Reality.

Over the years, countless passionate developers have poured their heart and soul into Squad, guiding it from its initial Early Access release in 2015 to its official launch in 2020.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
In 2024, we released 5 major updates, including the following:


We’ve also recently announced that Squad is making the leap to Unreal Engine 5! This migration will empower us to leverage cutting-edge tools and features, ensuring that Squad continues to look and feel as exceptional as ever in the years to come.

Our community reflects the same unwavering dedication to Squad that drives our development team. Nominating us for the Steam Award for Labor of Love would be an incredible honor, not just for us, but for the entire community that has supported and lifted Squad to where it is today.



If you haven't picked up Squad yet, you can join your soon-to-be fellow squaddies for 50% off during the Steam Autumn Sale.

[h2]Offworld out.[/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/393380/Squad/

Save 50% off Squad

[h2]“We've intercepted new transmissions. Ready to receive!”[/h2]

Listen up Squaddies. We're taking part in the Steam Autumn Sale from November 27 - December 4, and you can get your friends and soon-to-be fellow squaddies in for 50% off. You heard right. The game's on sale from now until the Steam Autumn Sale ends.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
You can also check out our most recent DevBlog here, where we show a sneak peek at our upcoming work in UE5 for Squad!

[h2]Offworld Out.[/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/393380/Squad/

Devblog - The Journey to UE5 #1

[h3]Hello Squaddies, and welcome to the first installment of our Devblog “The Journey to Unreal Engine 5”.[/h3]

As you might guess from the title, this is our official announcement that Unreal Engine 5 is coming to Squad! We have been cooking this for a little while now, and it will need to stay in the oven until we are happy with it! But today, we would like to show off some of what we have been doing and talk to some of our Dev team about what they are working on with their teams!

Let’s look at today's topics:

  • Worlds Team - Al Basrah
  • Factions
  • Vehicles
  • AA & CAS
  • Quality Assurance Testing
  • Optimization and Performance
  • New Tools and Features
  • Risks and Challenges

But before we get into the topics, here’s a word from our Project Lead, Howitzer!

Howitzer: "Hi all. I wanted to put a short foreword in this Devblog to talk about what we are hoping to accomplish with the Unreal Engine 5 migration. We want this transition to help secure the game's sustainability far into the future. As Epic updates its engine, new advanced features become available that we want to be capable of using. The closer we are to the latest engine version, the easier it will be for us to use new tech, should we need it."

"One of the biggest challenges so far with our UE5 migration has been the new physics engine. It's a huge programming effort, with Design needing to set up all our vehicles again, mostly individually! We are also implementing new sound tech, so all our weapon audio is being set up and retested currently. It’s all very exciting, but time-consuming work."

"This is going to set us up for the future, giving us a new foundation, if you will, for the future of Squad to take off from. A foundation that has been years in the making."

[h3]Worlds Team[/h3]

Ceeg: "So what made the team decide that Al Basrah was the map to introduce with UE5?"

Zeno: "It was one of our oldest maps with extremely outdated visual quality, yet also one of the most played maps, a pretty consistent favourite in Invasion. This is why we chose to revitalize it with the latest production pipelines and current quality standards. We also wanted a “Classic” Squad map to showcase the strengths of the new UE5 workflow and features, which acts as a proof of concept for how we want to make Squad maps moving forward."



Ceeg: "I know the players want to know… Were all the previews of Al Basrah in UE5? Did you do that deliberately to see if anyone would notice?"

Zeno: "Ha! Yes they were. All of the preview images and videos that have been released since we showcased the Al Basrah remake a couple of months ago have been from inside the UE5 engine. We were conscious that we still had not announced UE5 at the time, so we tried showcasing the current state of the map that we could have achieved in UE4. But in the future you will be able to see how far we have been able to progress the map in UE5. And it is looking amazing!"

[h3]Factions[/h3]

Ceeg: "So, Factions have been working on some updates to the INS faction; tell me a little about that!"

Fuzzhead "Right! So, the Factions team has been working on a number of things for UE5, but no major independent content will be included from us. However, we are working on redesigning the INS Factions models and textures! This will be mainly to facilitate the creation of purchasable weapon skins for their kits. These weapons are very old assets and currently don't meet the minimum standard to use the model with our weapon skin system, hence why they are getting the rework."

"Our designers are also hard at work on the UE5 Vehicle Handling, which I think you got to see in the Live Stream on Remembrance Day."

Ceeg: "So are the vehicles using a different system than before in UE4?"

Fuzzhead: "Vehicles in current live Squad use UE4 PhysX as a middleware for physics simulation. This is an aging physics engine and Epic chose to no longer support this for UE5. We are now using the native “Chaos” physics which is new in UE5 and developed by Epic. We are evaluating other middleware options as well, to ensure we have a robust system in place to meet the demanding needs of Squad. The main differences between PhysX and Chaos is that our engineering team has more control over the simulation, which allows us to take advantage of more granular details, which is particularly helpful when it comes to designing tracked vehicles."

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Ceeg: "Has it been difficult to update all the vehicles? Maybe you could walk us through some of the processes behind changing one class of vehicles or one vehicle?"

Fuzzhead: "Our engineering team has been working for a long time to ensure Chaos physics meets the needs of Squad, and carries all the necessary features of PhysX, while purging the quirks that can sometimes make Squad vehicles behave in strange ways. The road has been long but we are starting to see some good results now. In the first UE5 builds, our vehicles sat on the ground, sad, lonely and unable to move (no physics). Our engineers have been bringing as many parameters as possible into Chaos, and adding new parameters to help designers create more robust vehicles. They have moved many of the variables that used to live on the blueprint before, onto a vehicle config data asset. These variables include values for the Engine, Transmission, Wheel setup, etc. Designers start with some baseline values, loosely based on the UE4/PhysX values, then tune accordingly. Lots of testing in PIE (Play In Editor) occurs in this process to ensure each vehicle behaves as intended. Common issues arise during this process, and improvements and fixes are implemented. Here’s an example of a vehicle config, specifically the M1A2, and some of its variables."

[h3]AA & CAS[/h3]

Ceeg: "Before we get to the questions, I know I wanted to ask you both about the timeline for AA & CAS extras that are coming to UE5. What are we able to share with everyone today?"

Crush Depth: "Well, first, the goal with AA & CAS is to have it come in an update some time AFTER the initial migration to UE5. So MANPADS and additional CAS helicopters will be added at some point after the launch. That's our current plan, at least."

Ceeg: "What is AA going to look like in UE5? Will there be a Class available to each faction that gets Anti Air kits?"

Crush Depth: "Shoulder-fired MANPADS will be available to most factions as part of a new soldier role. Other factions will forgo the mobility of MANPADS and instead build fixed FOB emplacements which any player can fire powerful missiles from, similar to how emplaced ATGMs work now."

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Ceeg: "Will the factions that get MANPADS all have their own unique launchers?"

Crush Depth: "Some factions will share launchers, but we will do our best to ensure there is a wide variety of launchers and variants so that every faction is using an authentic system. We also aim to include some unique pieces of hardware which don't play like the others, to introduce some interesting gameplay twists and faction asymmetry where it makes sense to."

Ceeg: "Was it easier to create the feature in UE5 instead of UE4? Why or why not?"

Censer: "To be honest, it has been mostly the same. UE5 has some nice quality of life things like code hot reloading that makes iteration faster, but that has been about it. We just felt it was time to making the skies of Squad not as safe as they are currently!"

Ceeg: "So right now, what are the AA & CAS team working on?"

Censer: "We are currently working on playtesting our prototypes with the CPT members, making sure we are hitting our design goals for the feature."

Crush Depth: "The testing is mainly focused on refining the featureset, and analyzing how the new gameplay affects the flow of 100-player matches. With each playtesting cycle we test our assumptions, look for dominant strategies and exploits, and iterate quickly. Our CPT group have been integral in helping us with this, and continue to be!"



[h3]Quality Assurance Testing[/h3]

Ceeg: "We all know that QA takes time on any project, but what have been some of the most time-consuming things that the team has been working on for UE5?"

Karm: "One thing that has been taking a lot of time is the swap to a new (vehicle) physics system. There is a lot of work left to be done on the development side, and each iteration needs to be tested. Another thing is that an engine upgrade means that the entire game needs to be tested, because things can break anywhere. Obviously, after 10+ years of development, that’s a very large amount of stuff! Like Crush said, the Closed Player Test group has been great at helping us in our Bi-Weekly (sometimes weekly) tests. The larger groups of people playing frequently allows us to find the issues and document what needs to be done much faster than us relying on finding them on our own!"

Ceeg: "Are there any tools in UE5 that make your job any easier?"

Karm: "Nothing NEW, but the tools are significantly improved for us to be able to provide more in-depth investigations into performance. I think Patrick will be able to tell you more about that though!"

[h3]Optimization and Performance[/h3]

Ceeg: "You’re going to get technical with me, aren’t you?"

Patrick: "Yep! Buckle in."

Ceeg: "So you and your team came back to Squad to help with Optimization. Tell me a bit about what that has looked like for you and the team."

Patrick: "Well, we’ve known that Squad has had some performance issues, and in the past we’ve just had to patch things in place due to time constraints and different feature priorities. This has led, over time, to things being done in non-optimal ways. This is commonly known as Tech Debt. The first thing my team did was to have an Unreal Insights profile taken on our minimum spec machine and my team went over that for about 2 weeks, documenting all the issues we found, and what was costly. Once we had that list of problem items, we dug into each one briefly to get an understanding of the scope of fixing them. Once everything was said and done, we had around 43 pages of notes documenting the various performance issues with Squad. However, having a list of issues is just the start, we also needed to come up with a technical plan on how to deal with these issues, some of them are quite heavily involved. While we’re a small team of 6 people (including me), we’ve split up the work accordingly and have already made some decent headway into the performance issues that Squad has had with various systems for years."

Ceeg: "So with this 43-page document, how do you intend on prioritizing different aspects of the optimization process?"

Patrick: "Generally, we’re targeting the more costly items first, for example animations, which are quite costly for a lot of reasons. Part of our solution is taking advantage of the Thread Safe animation update that was introduced in UE5, and ensuring we don’t have any wacky bugs. As a further step, we only toss things on another thread, in general, if the work would be done faster on another thread. We’ve found a few cases where it was spending more time considering putting work on other threads, than it would be to just do the work in the first place.Performance issues that are more involved, for example UI issues, are not quite as easy to address, even if they are costly. To circumvent these kinds of issues, we’ve dialed more into the Significance Manager in order to help adjust client side performance."

Ceeg: "Is Squad likely to receive optimization to issues that have persisted from UE4, or will this all be fixing issues with UE5?"

Patrick: "Our goal is to optimize Squad itself. Certain engine features UE5 introduced helps us in that, but the engine itself isn’t necessarily the problem, it’s our code. We are being careful to not fully lean into some of the heavier systems that UE5 brings, at least without a solid plan in place. That said, we are experimenting with some UE5 features, such as utilizing Iris, Epic’s new replication system, which uses Delta change based replication rather than iterating over all actors to determine what needs to be replicated. We’re still in the early stages of testing that, as quite a bit of Squad code has to change in order to make sure we don’t colossally break things!"

"I have a whole list of things we have already worked on to share:"

  • Audio Optimizations
    • Animation Notify Play Sound improvements
      We have found that the engine will create an audio component each time a notify wants to be played, or any sound is played from a non-audio component. This is costly, and our solution is to have a lightweight audio system that can play sounds without having to worry about updating the location of the component each frame.
  • Physics Optimizations
    • Physics Syncing
      We have noticed that the engine needs to sync Physics quite often, but it doesn’t appear to have any gameplay impacts from our disabling of it on Starship Troopers: Extermination. We’re still in the investigation stage of this and are waiting for the final bits of the new Vehicle system to be finalized.
    • Vehicles
      The Squad team have written an entirely new system for how vehicles interact with physics, directly off of Chaos itself, bypassing Unreal’s default vehicle classes entirely. This has caused our vehicles to be far more performant, but has exposed several performance issues related to Chaos itself that we’re still investigating.
  • Tick Audit
    • Ticks happen every frame of the game. Since we’re targeting 60 FPS, this gives us a frame budget of 16.6667ms of frame time per second in order to hit that. This is mainly on the Game and Render threads that we need to worry about.
    • This audit is mainly targeting going through all of our game code and blueprints and checking to see if something is ticking. If it is ticking, then we look into why, and if it doesn’t need to tick, then we rewrite that code and dependent code to not rely on a tick. This usually means migrating it to an event based update approach rather than checking something on tick.
    • A specific example of this is the “SoldierHasShovel” check, which was firing on tick. Now that boolean is set when a player equips or unequips a shovel. There are hundreds of these kind of examples throughout the entire code base and fixing them all is not a small task. This is also known as “Death by a thousand cuts”.
  • UI Optimizations
    • Unreal uses a system called Unreal Motion Graphics, or UMG for short. As with any kind of system, it’s easy to do non-performant things and not realize it until some time later. One big culprit of this is Canvas panels, which cause loads of performance overhead, and at most a game should only have 1 per level if possible.
    • Additionally, there’s other optimizations that can be done with UI, similar to the tick audit above, where we have stuff in the UI getting updated very frequently, despite not needing to.
    • A fix we’ve already done seems silly, but our main menu button was ticking every frame, even when not visible. While it’s not costly and is easy to fix, there’s also quite a few of these kinds of things littered throughout the UI in Squad.
    • Underneath UMG is Unreal's actual UI system, Slate. Slate itself has performance issues. Thankfully, we solved some of these issues on Starship Troopers: Extermination and will be bringing over as many of these fixes as possible for Squad.
  • Performance Pass
    • This is a catch-all for systems that are costly for various reasons and need to be optimized as a whole.
    • As mentioned above, Animation fits into this category.
    • Here’s a brief list of what we’ve worked on so far:
      • VOIP Optimizations - Fixed various issues with VOIP, such as array iteration, registry calls on Windows, etc
      • Animation Optimizations - Move animation updates to separate threads
      • Replication Optimizations - Investigating Iris and improvements
      • Character Movement Component - Move to multi-threaded solution, we did this on Troopers and it worked fairly well.
      • Object Pooling - Spawning actors is expensive, having a “pool” of already spawned actors that we can swap in and out to bypass this performance hit will save quite a bit of performance each frame.
Ceeg: "Thanks Patrick! I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say we are all excited to see what you and the team will continue to find and work on!"

[h3]New Tools and Features[/h3]

Dynamic time of day and randomized weather

Zeno: "We are working towards a full rework of how lighting works in UE5. This includes the addition of a new progressive time of day and weather system, that allows us to accurately simulate the real passage of time. One of the most striking features of this system is the addition of dynamic and ever changing weather conditions, so just because you are starting with a nice sunny day, does not mean it will stay like that throughout a whole round of gameplay. We are still working on the details of how this will be fully integrated, but our vision is a dynamic world, where players will need to adapt to what nature throws at them and use it to their advantage."

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Nanite and Virtual Shadow Maps (VSM)

Zeno: "These 2 features are one of the most striking features of UE5, and will allow us to have much more flexibility in how we create our levels. For players, the visual changes will be noticeable as much higher quality of assets at distance, by both improving Levels of Detail (LODs) as well as letting us drastically increase drawdistance. VSM will also do the same, but for shadows. Where you before might have noticed a drastic decline in shadow quality at distance, as well as shadows disappearing for certain objects, VSM allows us to render very high quality shadows out to extreme distances, as well as sharper, more detailed shadows up close."


[Nanite Foliage Conversion example]

[h3]Our Risks and Challenges[/h3]

As a team, we have been assessing and managing the challenges of Unreal Engine 5 from before many of them even arose. We knew this upgrade would be time-consuming, taking away time and content from our current live game. And we knew that if we really wanted it to succeed, we would be taking a hit on the previous release timeline we had planned for Squad in 2025. So, it’s an investment that we are excited to share more of in the coming weeks and months. It won’t be rushed, and we will be inviting you all to come test Unreal Engine 5 Squad with us when the time comes.

This is the end of our first Devblog on the migration to Unreal Engine 5. We plan on releasing more of these as the months go by to let you all know of our current progress, but it will likely be into 2025 before you hear more from us regarding Unreal Engine 5.

Special thanks to Oat Bread and Katt from the CPT, whose screenshots were used in today's Devblog!

Until next time.

[h2]Offworld out![/h2]