Release Notes for Squad v2.12 Playtest Saturday October 2nd and Sunday October 3rd, 2021

OWI_Wedge

Hey Squaddies! 

These playtests are a chance to play and provide feedback on the upcoming changes to Squad in the v2.12 Update. We deeply appreciate everyone taking the time to jump in and test out our upcoming release. Your efforts help us improve the quality of Squad for everyone! 

While the playtest and the forthcoming v2.12 Update include more changes than just those summarized below, we are focusing on these because these are what we most require player feedback on. Please pay particular attention to these listed changes while playing in the playtests and while providing feedback afterwards. On Monday our team will be sending out a feedback survey so please keep your eyes open for that in the coming days! 

Shadows Overhaul

In efforts to both increase the visual experience of playing Squad, and to level the playing field between players playing on low vs high settings, the team has spent a significant amount of time on what we refer to as the ‘Shadows Overhaul’.

• Complete rework of Squad’s approach to dynamic shadows. Standard and Far Shadows have been replaced with highly optimized Cascade Shadow Maps. Please provide feedback for this new Far Shadows system and how you find that it performs during your gameplay.
• Updated Shadows now render out to 1km on most maps at all graphics settings. In addition to improving the visual fidelity at all settings, this also ensures that Low settings no longer give a significant competitive advantage for spotting targets.

Updated Graphics Settings Menu

• Overhauled the graphics scalability settings for Shadows and Ambient Occlusion.
• Please note that the quality/performance tradeoffs for Shadows and Ambient occlusion at any given setting have changed substantially. You may want to raise or lower your Shadows and Ambient Occlusion graphics settings from what you used before this update.
• Added a Shader Quality graphics settings section. Currently these primarily affect the complexity of the Landscape. This is intended to give low end hardware more performance options. 
• Added a new Tessellation option. When enabled, certain landscapes and objects will get extra geometric micro detail up close, such as 3D puddles.

Improved visibility of Muzzle Flashes

• Improved the visibility of muzzle flashes to help make spotting enemies less difficult. This was considered necessary to offset the lighting and foliage changes, which can make spotting enemies more difficult. The design intent is to allow for camouflage and cautious movement to be effective, but without excessively inhibiting the player’s situational awareness once a firefight begins. 

System & Gameplay Updates

•  Updated point capture speed to scale by the number of players. 
• Capture speed will be shortened if one team has significantly more players in the point, relative to the other team. Scaling starts when one team has an advantage of at least 4 players, which will provide a 1.1x speed multiplier. This increases to 1.2x with 5 and 1.3x with 6, up to a maximum of 1.5x. 
• This allows a 120s AAS flag to be captured in as little as 80s. 
• Initial Neutral flags have an additional 1.3x speed multiplier.
• Designer’s Note: The Intent with this change is to add more depth and variety to capture mechanics, to encourage more strategic options especially during the early stages in a round and also during “Double Neutral” scenarios. 
• Overhauled the way Fall Damage is calculated. 
• Falls from great heights are no longer survivable. The maximum survivable fall height is approximately 2 stories. 
• Fall damage is now applied as a percentage of remaining health. This means players don’t have to guess if they have enough health to survive a fall. For example, falling from X height while at full health will reduce HP by 20%, from 100 to 80. The same fall at 10 HP will still only reduce HP by 20%, which in this case would be from 10 to 8. 
• Designer’s Note: The primary purpose of this change was to allow us to configure a much more realistic fall damage curve. The old system was a balancing act between finding values which felt good at both low and high HP. This resulted in players being able to survive extreme multi-story falls if they started at full health.
• This change, along with Better Buddy Boost and Stamina tweaks, is the first in a set of more realistic locomotion and traversal tweaks which are currently under development.
• Updated the “Buddy Boost” feature to be easier to use, which allows a soldier to climb on top of another soldier to boost over a wall. 
• Removed the force which previously prevented players from standing on each other’s heads. 
• Limited to only one player being able to stand on another at a time, so it will not be possible to create a giant tower of players. 
• It is only possible to stand on top of stationary players who are not in a prone position.
• The rotation of the “boostee” is not affected by where the “booster” is looking. 
• Designers Note: The intention with this change is to reward players who move and work together to overcome obstacles, encouraging and rewarding player’s to move in closer proximity and work as a Squad rather than as individuals. Further tweaks in the future are planned, to tweak the way obstacle navigation flow will work, with the intention of increasing the positive reinforcement from proximity based teamwork.
• Updated soldier stamina to no longer regenerate during vaulting and climbing. Soldier stamina regeneration will be paused until these actions complete.

Map Updates / Bug Fixes

• Yehorivka Overhaul
• Added new landscape shader.
• Added new landscape textures.
• Added various mini POIs across the map.
• Added POI between mogiliovo and Kropy
• Added various types of cover to various central locations
• Added all new lighting.
• Added new road texture.
• Updated minimap with intent to make height more readable, also now features trees.
• Updated grass to be thicker.
• Increased undergrowth in forested areas.
• Improved the micro terrain across the entire landscape.
• Expanded the road network north west of Mogiliovo.
• Expanded the road network around Kropy and Zolata.
• Expanded Novo Ridgeline.
• Updated lower Mogiliovo.
• Gorodok Overhaul
• Added new landscape shader & landscape textures. This new revised landscape should appear more natural, with a minor increase in micro terrain.
• Added road connection between Niva Upper and Train Bridge.
• Added a small amount of mini POI’s.
• Added a new road connection between the Bunker and Train Bridge OP.
• Added new road texture.
• Added various flooded fields
• Updated grass to be thicker.
• Increased undergrowth in forested areas.
• Updated the following POI's: Hilltop Bunk Ruins, Train Bridge, Gas Station, Soloninki Ruins, River Fortification. 
• Updated landscape to be rockier across the entire landscape.
• Updated the minimap with intent to make height more readable, minimap also now features trees.

OWI_Wedge

Hello Squaddies! 

If you were one of our fantastic participants at that public playtest on either October 2nd or October 3rd, thank you for your support and hard work. 

We have one final task from the playtest to complete, and that is a feedback survey. If you participated in the public playtest, go to https://forms.gle/GFBgE1TMHNNqmTLbA and give us your thoughts. For those that did not, stay tuned to our channels for your chance to participate next time, and we’ll see you on the field. 

- OWI