Squad 44 News

Deck the point with guns and bunkers,
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!

2020, what a year it has been, a year that has tested us all, but it is also a year that has shown that we can stick together even through what may seem like the worst of times.

We here at Periscope Games want to thank all of our players who have been there for us in 2020 and we hope that you will be there again in 2021. And of course, we want to wish everyone a very happy holiday and a great new year.

Onwards to the announcements to round off our year, we start with a very nice announcement for those who have been eyeing Post Scriptum or other OWI titles.



It's that time of the year again. The Steam Winter Sale is here and Offworld Industries is having a grand sale for the holiday with sales on all its titles. Post Scriptum is 25% off, with Beyond The Wire at 20% off and Squad at 25% off.


https://store.steampowered.com/app/736220/Post_Scriptum/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1058650/Beyond_The_Wire/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/393380/Squad/




It's also time for the development team at Periscope Games to get some well-needed rest for the holiday, we will be away from the 23rd of December until the 4th of January.

We are super excited for what 2021 will bring and we can't wait to return in January, well-rested, a clear mind and a strong development roadmap that we announced earlier in December.





As we announced in our development roadmap update, a 4th Chapter is coming and we can now reveal that it will take Post Scriptum to the Battle of the Bulge during December 1944 - February 1945.

It will join us as part of a large update to Post Scriptum, our schedule for 2021 is already pretty packed so while we cannot give any dates, we are going to share a couple of images from a map many already knew was coming.




Sincerely,
Periscope Games


[h2]JOIN THE DISCUSSION ON DISCORD[/h2]

You can find our Official Community Resource Google Drive with all layer information, ticket costs, spawn commands and more here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Bc0iNcgZP_wYzKQIuLAWTnkv3SwVCbCL?usp=sharing

Greetings!

We have a smaller update for you with a couple of fixes before the holiday. This will be the last update for Post Scriptum in 2020.

Additionally Post Scriptum, Beyond The Wire & Squad will all be on Sale for the Steam Winter Sale which starts tonight at 7 PM CET.

[h3]Changelog v2.1.1137.460[/h3]
Fixes:

• Fixed an issue where server would ignore password check.
  
• Fixed emplacements showing the red vehicle hull.
  
• Fixed Stug III A missing armoured spawner icon.
  
• Fixed Stug III A missing from KillDeathRuleset.
  
• Fixed Best terrain issues being off in C3-5-6.
  
• Fixed Arnhem Geo issues at I1-1-1
  
• Fixed FOB being buildable in Redzone on RAAS.
  
• Fixed hedgehogs not being completely destroyable by explosives.
  
• Fixed floating fence on the railroad on Driel.
  
• Fixed Fence in I-6-3-9 not being passable by vehicles in Oosterbeek.
  
• Fixed Stug III A dust effect being offset.
  
• Fixed French & German ammo crate in wrong mains on Stonne S02.
  

Sincerely,
Periscope Games


[h2]JOIN THE DISCUSSION ON DISCORD[/h2]

You can find our Official Community Resource Google Drive with all layer information, ticket costs, spawn commands and more here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Bc0iNcgZP_wYzKQIuLAWTnkv3SwVCbCL?usp=sharing

Greetings!

Since our last update, that added the first iteration of modding support to Post Scriptum we've been hard at work getting the second iteration of modding support to our players.

The second iteration of our modding system includes new user features to make it easier for players to get in and play with mods. Currently, you are required to subscribe to mods before joining a server, it's also not possible to tell when a server is or isn't modded.

All of these issues have been addressed and you can now join and download mods directly from the server browser. You will get a pop-up notification telling you that you are missing some mods and you get the option to download all required mods to join the server.



We have also added some new browser UI Icons and filters to help you quickly check if a server is modded or not. The filter will allow you to toggle between seeing modded servers or only vanilla servers that are running no mods.

A wrench icon will also show in the browser whenever a server is identified to be running with modded content, this helps you know if a server is modded from a glance.



Apart from that, we have made several gameplay fixes and improvements. We will continue to make more fixes as we move towards the Christmas holiday, but this is likely to be the last big update of the year.

[h3]Changelog v2.1.1126.430[/h3]

Modding:
• Added support for downloading mods while joining a server.
  
• Added new vanilla games only browser filter & icons for modded servers.
  
• Replaced default loading screen with a version for modded servers.
  
• Added a functioning Workshop button to the Main Menu.
  
  Main Menu:
• Added a winter holiday-themed main menu.
  
  Vehicles:
• Added Stug III A to Chapter 2 Deck. (See community resources)
  
• Fixed missing Hotchkiss H35 & W15TCC driver animations.
  
• Fixed APX 47mm being named 37mm in the Logistics deployable menu.
  
• Fixed Panzer 38(t) being named "Panzer 38T" on the training range spawner.
  
• Added 10 Smoke rounds to Stug III A & 2 Extra APCBC rounds.
  
• Added M1919A4 UI Icon and added it to the Emplaced M1919, Sherman M4A3, M5 Stuart, M24 & M8 Greyhound in the Coax & Hull gunner position.
  
  Gameplay:
• Added rifleman class with Berthier M1916 to the French.
  
• Replaced the Sten with the M1A1 Carbine for the 1st Airborne & Polish Radioman.
  
• Replaced the Lee Enfield with the Sten for the 1st Airborne & Polish Light Mortar.
  
• Adjusted German main base protection on Utah Invasion 02.
  
• Fixed US & Axis grenade launcher having a fire-mode toggle.
  
• Fixed Armoured layer not using Panzer III Commander.
  
  Fixes:
• Fixed several floating or misaligned objects on Utah Beach.
  
• Fixed several floating or misaligned objects on Carentan.
  
• Fixed character position on US Mortar for 4th Infantry.
  
• Fixed texture issue on Best church tower.
  
• Fixed VillagehouseD shader missing at distance.
  
• Fixed floating boxes in Arnhem Train Station.
  
• Fixed Armoured Gamemode loading screen.
  
• Fixed broken brick wall meshes on Heelsum.
  
• Renamed M1919A4 and A6 ammo type to .30 Cal.
  
• Replaced Red Cross with Green Cross on the medical tent.
  
• Renamed the Vickers Heavy MG to Vickers Mk. 1
  
• Removed completely black untextured Stug prop on Veghel.
  

Sincerely,
Periscope Games


[h2]JOIN THE DISCUSSION ON DISCORD[/h2]

You can find our Official Community Resource Google Drive with all layer information, ticket costs, spawn commands and more here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Bc0iNcgZP_wYzKQIuLAWTnkv3SwVCbCL?usp=sharing

Greetings!

This patch should enable basic functionality for downloading and running mods on a server.

How to Download Mod to Server:
https://squad.gamepedia.com/Uploading_a_mod_to_a_dedicated_server

Post Scriptum AppID: 736220

You will need to change out the AppID with Post Scriptum's. Alternatively, you can find a guide on our discord. The link to which is at the bottom of the post.

[h3]Changelog v2.1.1088.314[/h3]

• Fixed servers being unable to start with mods.
  
• Made some more minor fixes to Utah geo.

Sincerely,
Periscope Games


[h2]JOIN THE DISCUSSION ON DISCORD[/h2]

[h3]Roadmap 2021[/h3]

[h3]Post Scriptum SDK, Workshop & Mods![/h3]
After almost 2 and a half years since Post Scriptum released, we have finally reached one of if not the biggest milestone in the history of our development.

It’s with great pleasure and pride that we can announce the release of the Post Scriptum SDK and with this modding is here. We cannot wait to see what people will do with these new modding tools.

The SDK is completely free to download and will be available on the Epic Games Launcher.

[h3]GET THE SDK HERE[/h3]
But let’s step back really quickly and take this from the very beginning. What even is this SDK?

The SDK or “Software Development Kit” is what allows for our community to create and upload their own modifications for Post Scriptum to the Steam Workshop where all users can download and play with those creations.

We already have several of our community members who have committed to bringing their own mods like one-life mods, realism mods or even full chapters of their own, including the Eastern Front, Africa, Crete & Pointe du Hoc. We cannot wait to see what other things users will be creating once they get their hands on the SDK.

Mosin-Nagant by the Bloody Fall modding team. Discord: https://discord.gg/BmtkqJW

Alongside the SDK we are also bringing the first iteration of our Steam Workshop to players, this allows for players to download and run custom mods for the game, the implementation right now is still quite basic and we aim to make the process much more user-friendly somewhere down the line, this includes things such as downloading mods while joining a server rather than needing to be subscribed to them prior to joining.

Beretta M1934 by the Chapter Merucry modding team. Discord: https://discord.gg/b5S8gTs

The other things we plan to do is to make it easier for players to enjoy modding and inform them when a server is modded, what mods it’s running and other information that can be useful for our players.

For our server hosters out there the experience of downloading, running and managing mods isn’t entirely user friendly but we are looking at options to make this much easier and manageable for those who host servers.

A.15 Cruiser Tank Mk. VI by the Shifting Sands modding team. Discord: https://discord.gg/mUeAqJS

[h3]Post Scriptum SDK & You[/h3]
Moving onto the technical side of things, we want to briefly talk about what you can and cannot do with the SDK as we have seen a lot of confusion amongst many of our community members as to how you can use the SDK and what limitations it has.

Let’s start off with the very basic limitations which are that for many reasons the SDK has no access to the Post Scriptum source code, this means that it will not be possible to modify the base game, make new functionalities available or anything else that requires C++ or source code access. This is because we have to protect our game from exploitation and to protect our intellectual property.

So beyond coding and source code Unreal Engine 4 offers some powerful tools and we have seen amazing creations that don’t require any source code access, for example, Chapter Z which featured our Contagion zombie mode was made in such a way that it could be done entirely without needing the source code of our game. It’s actually available on the workshop for download.

From a legal standpoint, a lot of questions have been raised around the use of assets or pieces of our game and what users can do, we can definitely understand that and as a baseline, you can pick apart and mess with any assets or parts of our game as you see fit. But you cannot export and/or reverse engineer stuff with the intent to use it outside of our SDK, this violates our EULA and we reserve all rights to remove your access to Post Scriptum.

[h3]Updated Roadmap & 2021[/h3]
While the year 2020 hasn’t been great to any of us, at least it has brought people much closer together while also being so far away. The game industry has seen a boom in the activity and for developers like us, this is great as it means so many more people get to experience video games who might otherwise haven’t.

As 2020 comes to a close and 2021 approaches it’s time for us to start thinking ahead with the development of Post Scriptum. We have a brand new roadmap and many more plans for the game going into the next year.



What are these plans you may ask? Let’s break it down.

The final parts of 2020 and early start of 2021 will include a lot of Quality of Life improvements, like optimization, bug fixes, layer variety & gameplay improvements. In the period of December 2020 and February 2021, we will put this on the top of our priority list so that those annoying bugs can be squashed before we move ahead with other plans.

The next big stop is the Vehicle Overhaul which will see our current vehicle system be completely reworked from scratch so that it is as flexible and as good as it can be. We have long been bothered by how our vehicles and tanks perform compared to the infantry gameplay and this overhaul should fix these issues once and for all. We are going to speak much more on this once we have a little more to show.

The last big plan for 2021 is Chapter 4. Yes, you've got that right we’re doing another one! So where does it take place this time? While we can’t quite commit to where the location will be this time, but it’s going to get pretty chilly. Like the Vehicle Overhaul, we’re going to speak more on this as we move into 2021.


Sincerely,
Periscope Games


[h2]JOIN THE DISCUSSION ON DISCORD[/h2]