Squad

“We've intercepted new transmissions. Ready to receive!”

Listen up Squaddies. The Steam Autumn Sale is here! From September 29th - 10 AM PT (GMT-7) until Ocotber 6th - 10 AM PT (GMT-7), save 60% off on Squad! Now is a great time to join Squad, as we have just launched our Unreal Engine 5 update, and have the Ukrainian Ground Forces coming soon as our next Faction!

Join the Squad Discord here, to discuss all things Squad.

Offworld Out.

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

Continue reading...

 

Hello Squaddies,

Today, we have a short update for you for our 9.0.3 hotfix rolling out this morning.

Bug Fixes

• 
  Fixed a crash that can happen mid-game after the player changes the settings.
  
  
• 
  Fixed a crash related to triggering emotes with an invalid player ID.
  
  
• 
  Fixed a crash in the world icon subsystem that happened more likely a bit after approaching instruction signs in tutorials.
  
  
• 
  Fixed the issue where players could place SZ-1 explosives on certain parts of the Scout's recon drone.
  

Map Updates & Bug Fixes

General

• 
  Reduced memory usage on foliage-heavy maps.
  

Al Basrah

• 
  Fixed missing orchards in the northeast corner of the map.
  

Goose Bay

• 
  Fixed a bug that caused blue artefacts to appear on grass.
  

Gorodok

• 
  Fixed various foliage assets blocking grenade and explosion damage.
  

Sanxian Islands

• 
  Fixed missing wooden dock meshes at one of the Sanxian Main Bases.
  

Yehorivka

• 
  Fixed a bug that caused a lake to float in mid-air.
  

Mod SDK Update

• 
  9.0.3. Mod SDK is now available on the Public Testing Branch. Note that we will be archiving and sunsetting the latest UE4 Mod SDK next week, so please make sure to back-up your files.
  

Offworld out!

Continue reading...

 

Welcome to Squad!

Squad is free to play this weekend from September 11, 10AM PT to September 15, 10AM PT. That's right, enlist now and get in the action for free this weekend with this deep, tactical FPS shooter that provides authentic combat experiences through teamwork, communication, and realistic combat. We recently released Update 9.0, a significant update moving Squad from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5. You can read all about the update by checking out the patch notes here.


Squad will also be 60% off during this time, so grab your buddies and join the fight now in Squad!


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

Graphics Settings Guide

For all new players joining us this weekend or returning players booting up Squad with Update 9.0, here is a graphics settings guide to help you get into Squad and play. You can also check out the Update 9.0 FAQ, which we'll keep updating with frequently asked questions by the community.

Note, please keep these in mind with Update 9.0:

• 
  DX11 is not supported.
  
  
• 
  Make sure you have at least 6GB of VRAM.
  
  
• 
  Update your GPU drivers and Windows to the latest version.
  

SETTINGS

We strongly recommend that you tweak your graphics settings after updating to Update 9.0, as our upgrade from UE4 to UE5 has changed how those settings work. Visually, the “Medium” setting in UE5 provides higher quality than the “Epic” setting on UE4. The "High" and "Epic" settings on UE5 fully utilize the power of the modern GPU generation and are not recommended for previous GPU generations.

• 
  Use the Defaults button to run the benchmark.
  
  
• 
  Tweak your upscaler resolution.
  
  
• 
  Lower demanding settings such as Global Illumination Quality and Shadows.
  
  • 
    Alternatively, start from Low settings and work your way up.
    
• 
  If you are using Frame Gen, please keep these in mind:
  
  • 
    Intel Frame Gen is supported from GTX 10XX and newer.
    
    
  • 
    AMD Frame Gen is supported from RTX 20XX and newer.
    
    
  • 
    Nvidia Frame Gen is supported from RTX 40XX and newer.
    

NOTE

• 
  On the first launch, textures might temporarily be low quality to prevent hitching.
  
  
• 
  Wake Simulation is currently not recommended, as it causes PiP scope issues.
  

RETURNING PLAYERS

• 
  Save your settings and clear your cache.
  
  
• 
  Unsubscribe from all Squad workshop mods.
  
  
• 
  Consider lowering your settings: in UE5, Medium settings provide higher quality than Epic on UE4.
  

Continue reading...

 

Hello Squaddies!

Another small Hofix for you today. This is a client side only hotfix, so servers will not be affected!

General Fixes

• 
  Fixed a crash in the world icon subsystem that happened on map travel
  

• 
  Fixed a crash in the world icon subsystem that happened during regular gameplay
  

That's it! See you out there!

Continue reading...

 

Hello Squaddies,


Today we have a short update for you for our 9.0.2 hotfix


System & Gameplay Updates

• 
  Added a pop-up that advises to update GPU driver when on a known unstable driver version
  

Bug Fixes

• 
  Fixed a crash in the world icon subsystem that happened more likely a bit after approaching instruction signs in tutorials
  
  
• 
  Fixed a crash related to vehicle physics
  
  
• 
  Fixed TLF 4th Armored Brigade battlegroup having too many MBTs when on defense
  
  
• 
  Fixed several skirmish layers where too many vehicles were spawning in
  

Map Updates & Bug Fixes

Manicouagan

• 
  RAAS v2 - Fixed CRF not being available
  

See you out there!

Continue reading...

 

Welcome to Update 9.0's Frequently Asked Questions! We've put together answers from the dev team to some of the most frequently asked questions we've started to see coming from the community. If you missed it, we released Update 9.0 this past week, moving from Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) to Unreal Engine 5 (UE5), with a whole list of changes to Squad. You can read all of the patch notes here.


Note that the below does not encapsulate every question we've seen bubbling up from the community—some require more input from other members of the dev team, and some are still being investigated. We will continue to update this FAQ in the coming weeks, as Update 9.0 is a major, major update to Squad.


If you have further questions, hop onto our Discord and provide feedback and bug reports! You can join the Squad Community server here.


Now, without further ado, let's get started with Update 9.0's FAQ!


What steps do I need to take before loading up the update?

• 
  Make sure you update your graphics driver to the latest version.
  
  
• 
  Make sure you update Windows to the latest version.
  
  
• 
  Please clear your cache if you are updating from the UE4 version of Squad to the UE5 update.
  

How do I clear the cache?

• 
  We highly recommend that all users updating from the UE4 version of the game to UE5 to clear their cache.
  
  
• 
  To fully clear Squad’s game cache outside of the game, locate INSTALLDRIVE:\\Users\\USERNAME\\AppData\\Local\\SquadGame and delete the ‘Saved’ folder.
  

I have issues launching the game (or with an infinite load issue). What are some steps I can take to help resolve these issues?

• 
  Please remove all mods before launching this update for the first time. Some Squad mods have yet to be updated and released for UE5, and if they are still pointing to the UE4 versions, the game will not load.
  

Does my hardware meet the minimum requirements for this update?

• 
  Please refer to the updated specs for Update 9.0 on the store page here.
  

What is the minimum VRAM required to play Squad?

• 
  The minimum required GPU to play Squad is a GTX 1060 or RX 580 with at least 6GB of VRAM.
  

Does the UE5 / 9.0 Update support Linux?

• 
  Squad doesn’t have a native Linux build, but can be played through Proton. The challenge with Proton is anti-cheat. EAC has Linux support, and we do our best to integrate the latest updates as needed. Sometimes, we miss a step there as we don’t usually test on Linux clients, so we appreciate the Linux gaming community reporting any issues. The best place to provide feedback and bug reports is on the Squad Community Discord.
  

Does the UE5 / 9.0 Update support DX11?

• 
  No, DX11 is no longer supported in Update 9.0 and onwards because it does not support Shader Model 6, which our new rendering features rely on.
  

Should I use the same graphics settings I used in UE4 Squad in UE5?

• 
  Several settings categories have been added, removed or changed with Update 9.0. Almost all of them do things differently to some extent. Visually, “medium” settings in UE5 are better than “epic” was on UE4. The high and epic settings on UE5 are meant to fully utilize the power of modern GPU generations released in the last couple of years. They may be some performance issues with older hardware. The “defaults” button runs a benchmarking algorithm on your GPU to determine sensible defaults for your hardware. This should be used as a starting point.
  

What are some settings I can tweak to improve performance for my machine?

• 
  We strongly recommend that you tweak your graphics settings after updating to Update 9.0, as our upgrade from UE4 to UE5 has changed how those settings work. Visually, the “Medium” setting in UE5 provides higher quality than the “Epic” setting on UE4. The "High" and "Epic" settings on UE5 fully utilize the power of the modern GPU generation and are not recommended for previous GPU generations.
  
  
• 
  Please use the “Defaults” button in the Graphics Settings menu as a starting point. It will run a benchmarking algorithm on your current GPU to determine recommended defaults for your hardware. From there, you can tweak your upscaler resolution settings to get better quality vs performance. Finally, you can further tweak settings if desired by lowering demanding settings like Shadows and Global Illumination Quality.
  

Does the new UE5 update use Lumen?

• 
  No, we do not currently use Lumen. We use a custom solution that allows us to have a more performant version of Global Illumination, while still meeting the visual goals of the game.
  

How do I fix textures not loading and/or popping?

• 
  Textures being temporarily low quality, especially noticeable on VFX for the first time they are playing, is a compromise we have taken for now. A goal with UE5 was to reduce hitching. We found that some hitches were caused by some effects having very high-resolution textures that were getting loaded. We made that loading spread over time and not stall the game anymore. As a result, there is visual degradation in the beginning. This will get resolved as we optimize the VFX.
  

I’m noticing that there are sometimes long load times on first launch. What is causing this issue?

• 
  The game now pre-compiles shaders on load to avoid hitching while playing. This is most significant when loading into the first map and won’t be needed after. Shaders are stored locally. They will only get recompiled when the GPU driver gets updated. All regular load times are reduced compared to UE4.
  

Help! My issue isn’t listed here. Where can I go to report my issue or get support?

• 
  Please join our Squad Community Discord, and you can provide feedback HERE or bug reports HERE.
  

Continue reading...

 

Hello Squaddies,


Today we have released the 9.0.1 Hotfix for Squad. Here are the issues that were addressed. We are aware that there are other issues ongoing, and we will continue to work towards resolving those as soon as we can.


System & Gameplay Updates

• 
  Adjusted some vehicle turrets' minimum depression angle, allowing them to aim farther downwards
  
  

Bug Fixes

• 
  Fixed missing movement sounds for new "jog/walk" left + right animations
  
  
• 
  Reworked AT launcher reloading to address reload bugs, please report any remaining issues
  
  
• 
  Fixed using the Second Tour Pack’s M4/M4A1 Field Mod skin on an M4/M4A1 with an M68 scope attached resulting in a ring in the scope while in ADS
  
  
• 
  Fixed the music player and Infantry Tutorial buttons missing from the Main Menu
  
  
• 
  Fixed unusable scope on CAF HAT's Carl Gustav when using HE rounds
  
  
• 
  Fixed a crash when switching to Low quality mode while using TSR for AA or upscaling
  
  
• 
  Fixed an “array out of bounds” client crash
  
  
• 
  Fixed Skirmish layers allowing players to vote for broken RGF and USA Light Infantry battlegroups
  
  
• 
  Fixed commendation rank increases not immediately showing up on round end scoreboard - an animation will not play to show the rank increase
  
  
• 
  Fixed the right tracks on the CAF M113A3 not animating
  
  
• 
  Fixed clipping into terrain after vaulting onto front tire of a Minsk bike
  
  
• 
  Fixed CRF M1151 wreck using the wrong texture
  
  
• 
  Fixed tracked vehicles playing "gravel" SFX at match start, and occasionally when stopped
  
  
• 
  Fixed AT mine placement ghost sometimes flickering red while trying to place mine
  
  
• 
  Fixed reflex sights being blurry / noisy when using upscaling
  
  
• 
  Fixed various visual issues with reflex sight lenses when looking at smoke, high contrast scenes, or dim scenes
  
  
• 
  Fixed some reflex sights being washed out and hard to see in bright conditions and overly bright in dark conditions
  
  
• 
  Fixed some issues with shadows in picture-in-picture (PiP) scopes
  
  
• 
  Fixed the M1126 M240 Woodland APC allowing weapons with lower penetration than Armor Penetrating rounds (such as autocannon Fragmentation rounds) to damage the vehicle
  
  
• 
  Improved auto exposure behaviour when entering / exiting ADS with a PiP scope
  
  
• 
  Fixed several CRF vehicles using the wrong wreck model / texture
  
  
• 
  Fixed USMC LAT/Medic/Rifleman weapon name not showing up in Deployment Screen
  
  
• 
  Fixed Mi-17 Helicopter becoming invisible when viewed from up close, from specific angles
  
  
• 
  Fixed Lee Enfield Iron Sight Bolt Action Rifle zeroing not being correct for 200m, 300m, 400m
  
  
• 
  Removed the Sapper role commendation. All Sapper commendations now count toward the Engineer
  
  
• 
  Fixed the GFI UH-1H Helicopter having the wrong wreck texture
  
  
• 
  Fixed GFI's M1151 variants showing the USA/USMC wreck when destroyed
  
  
• 
  Fixed GFI soldier berets, helmets and rally points showing the old MEA logo
  
  
• 
  Fixed BAF LPPV RWS + FV432 L37A2 RWS gunners missing some reticle elements when zoomed in
  
  
• 
  Fixed some hitbox issues on M1A1 and M1A2 MBT tracks
  
  
• 
  Fixed the GFI Combined Arms battlegroup having 2 BMP-2 spawns rather than 1, as intended
  
  
• 
  Fixed Minsk bikes being pushed too far when using the "push" functionality (under vehicle reset), and Quad bikes missing this functionality
  
  
• 
  Fixed vehicles that can fire multiple ATGMs as part of one “magazine” (eg. Spandrel, ZBL08) only being able to resupply their ATGM ammunition when all shots have been fired; can now resupply ATGM ammunition regardless of number of shots left
  
  
• 
  Fixed USMC Light Infantry SL having no weapon name on the deployment screen
  
  
• 
  Fixed a bug where the WPMC M1117, CPV, and modern technical showed broken textures when using 'dark black' vehicle paint
  
  
• 
  Fixed CAF LUV A1 Transport and Logi vehicles missing the “push” functionality
  
  
• 
  Fixed PLANMC Raider having the wrong weapon icon on Deployment Screen
  
  
• 
  Fixed CAF LAV C6 RWS Desert variant using wrong hull decoration
  
  
• 
  Fixed cables clipping windshield on the Simir car
  
  
• 
  Fixed commendation ranks displaying incorrectly in Chinese and French
  
  
• 
  Fixed multiple translation issues
  
  
• 
  Fixed some vehicle turrets being able to damage their own vehicle
  
  

Map Updates & Bug Fixes

Anvil

• 
  Fixed an exploitable wall section
  

Al Basrah

• 
  Seed v2 - Added bots to seeding layer
  

Chora

• 
  Fixed landscape filling in under bridges
  

Fallujah

• 
  Skirmish v1 + v2 - Fixed a bug where the main bases for both teams were missing ammo crates
  

Goose Bay

• 
  Fixed the underwater effect appearing on land in certain locations
  
  
• 
  Frozen lakes on the map now show proper reflection captures
  

Harju

• 
  Fixed missing grass tiles and broken collision on certain types of trees
  
  

Known Issues

• 
  Missing tint on PiP scopes
  

Continue reading...

 

Hello Squaddies,


September is upon us, which means 9.0 is coming very soon. I’m back with a few updates, a sneak peek, and something exciting we’ve been working on.


SQ-SITREP.

Let's talk about 9.0. Over the past months, many of you joined our playtests, shared feedback, and helped us shape this release. Thanks to your efforts, 9.0 has become the most thoroughly tested update in Squad's history. Together, we've uncovered and resolved long-standing issues and strengthened the game's foundation during this huge engine upgrade milestone.


We know there will always be more to refine and improve, but our goal is to give you 9.0 imminently so everyone can finally experience the game we're building together.

We're excited to get it in your hands, establish a new solid baseline for Squad, and continue shaping the game for the future.

Here's what you'll find added into 9.0:

• 
  Commendations system
  
  
• 
  Ground Forces of Iran
  
  
• 
  Unreal 5.5 integration (with a lot of performance optimization work)
  

Looking beyond launch, we're excited to share that we will start prototyping the new Territory Control Rework soon and hope to start playtesting it early next year. More progress on UX updates continues as well. For 9.0, there will be some Main Menu updates, and for 10.0 later this year, we plan to improve the Store / Customization pages. The party system is also well underway.

BATTLEFIELD BRIEFING.

Before I wrap up, I want to talk about something that isn’t yet on the showcase. A brand new co-op PvE gamemode we have been working on.

It was conceptualized and prototyped at Offworld's 2024 Company Summit. We give our teams a week to prototype bold ideas or work on things they might not normally have time to–a week of innovation and exploration.

A small team created a PvE mission in Fallujah. The objective was to destroy three ammo caches in a compound with one Squad against AI bots.


We discovered something special - a familiar Squad experience with teamwork, tension, and tactical play - without the head-to-head pressure of PvP.


It opened the door to something new: a way to expand Squad, while staying true to its core.


PvE has the potential to:

• 
  Provide a different experience for players who enjoy the Squad's teamwork but prefer PvE play over PvP.
  
  
• 
  Create opportunities for modders and mission makers to expand scenarios in fresh directions.
  
  
• 
  Welcome new players into Squad in a more approachable way.
  

This mode is different from our traditional 50v50 PvP, and we believe the best way to shape it is together with you. So stay tuned for public playtests, devblogs, and more detailed information.

To finish off, here are some screenshots from the Eastern European Biome rework. It’s coming along quite nicely!

Thanks, Squaddies!


- Howitzer

Continue reading...

 

Hello Squaddies,


We’d like to take a moment to address an issue with the server browser that many of you saw over the weekend.

We've been monitoring this spoofing issue for some time. While our original plan was to address it after the release of 9.0, recent events made it clear that we need to act sooner. Work on 9.0 continues, but we've also shifted resources to work closely with the community to deliver a fix for this problem in the next update.

We will also be posting August’s Letter from the Squad Leader later this week giving some more general updates.

See you in the next one!


Thanks, Squaddies!


\[O] Howitzer

Continue reading...

 

“Attention Squadies, announcement incoming!”

Listen up, Squaddies. Offworld's hit the big 1-0 and is celebrating with a publisher sale from July 31st to August 3rd. Get Squad, Squad 44, Starship Troopers: Extermination, and Beyond the Wire for 50% off. That's right, all of Offworld's titles are 50% off to celebrate our 10th Anniversary!

This is a big year for Squad, as we are working towards moving the game into Unreal Engine 5. Read the latest Letter From The Squad Leader HERE, and join the Squad Discord to discuss all things Squad.

Offworld Out.

───

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

Continue reading...

 

Hello Squaddies,


July is almost over! This time around, I have a SITREP and a Battlefield Briefing. We’ll cover a lot, and I’m excited to expand these letters over time.

SQ-SITREP.

Following feedback from the "final" 9.0 Unreal Engine 5 playtest, I released an update last week outlining our plan to revise release timelines. In this Letter from the Squad Leader (LFTSL), I will cover where we are at with that and the general plan.

Including v9.0, we had 4+ releases planned for this year, yet we have only released one hotfix. July is almost over, and as always, the end of the year will be upon us sooner than we think. Now that we are rethinking the 9.0 timeline, what does this mean for the releases later this year? We have merged some of the smaller updates we had planned after 9.0, leaving us with two major releases before the end of the year, with v9.0 and v10.0. Each contains large pieces of content, features, and improvements. This new plan gives the team two solid releases to focus on and allows some room between v9.0 and v10.0 if we need to hotfix.

All this shifting around will give us a few more opportunities for Public Tests with Unreal Engine 5, allowing us time to iron out the creases with this engine update. We will keep everyone updated on timelines in the next LFTSL in August.

SQ-BATTLEFIELD BRIEFING.

So… In the last Letter, I mentioned I’d touch a bit more on other things we have in development outside Unreal Engine 5 and v9.0. There have been several public-facing roadmaps in Squads' history, and we’d like to try something like this again, with a few changes.

External factors change roadmaps all the time (like what just happened with v9.0), so rather than a concrete roadmap with dates and months, we will be presenting more of a “development showcase” (shoutout to Discord member IBIS for the suggestion). The “Next Update” section, believe it or not, will cover things coming in the next update! These are things we are more certain of showing up in the next update. The middle section, “In Progress”, will cover things we are actively working on, but we will not cover what release they are planned for, as that might change over time. The final section, "Planning," outlines concepts, with most currently in the early planning & testing stage. The items in this section are generally long-term plans and are not slated for the near future.


We will provide periodic updates and discussions regarding the showcase as its contents become more definite or items are added or removed.

With an overview of the showcase complete, let's delve into some specific items. Ukraine's active player base is tied for the third and fourth largest. So, I’d like to announce that the Armed Forces of Ukraine will join Squads' lineup of factions later this year! Our Worlds team has also been working on updating and remastering our Eastern European Biome assets. This includes things like foliage, props, and buildings for that biome.

Another item on the showcase is Commendations. This feature is very close to being finished. The Commendations system is a socially-driven progression system in which players gain the ability to give a 'commendation' to another player, giving them agency to recognize them for being good at playing their role, or being a good leader, teacher, or teammate.

As players receive commendations, they will progress down a track relevant to the type of commendation they've received, allowing them to unlock better versions of the commendation icons.

This icon will appear next to their name on in-game scoreboards, in-game HUDs, and anywhere that a role icon would normally appear. We will harness these icons as part of the first-time user experience and encourage newer players to seek out experienced players who other players have recognized as good leaders or teachers to mitigate the possibility of having a negative first-time experience in the game.

So that wraps up this LFTSL. We’re all excited to start talking more about what we are working on and showing off things when possible. Expect to see more pretty much every month going forward.

See you in the next one!

\[O] Howitzer

Continue reading...

 

Hello Squaddies,


As some of you may know, we just finished up what we initially believed would be our final 9.0 Unreal 5 public playtest. Based on earlier results and performance improvements, it felt like a strong candidate for release. However, the transition from 5.3 to 5.5 uncovered new challenges that hadn’t appeared in previous tests. We’ve since taken time to review a lot of valuable feedback from the community, and it’s clear there are still areas to improve. As a result, we have decided to regroup and rethink our plans for the 9.0 release.


So, what happens now? We are actively assessing and planning our next steps for 9.0 and how its release impacts the rest of the year. We will be posting another Letter from the Squad Leader mid next week to give everyone a general update on where we landed and what to expect.


I wanted to thank everyone for giving their honest and open feedback. Your input continues to shape the path forward and is deeply valued by the entire team. Thank you for continuing to support us through this transition to Unreal 5.

Like I mentioned before, expect to see more information about our next steps next week. Closed playtesting will continue to take place (More info here http://discord.gg/testsquad) as well as more “final final” public playtests.

Thanks, Squaddies!

\[O] Howitzer

Continue reading...

 

Listen up, Squaddies!

Unreal Engine 5 Public Playtest #5 is coming this Friday, July 11th 11:00am PDT!

THIS WILL BE OUR FINAL PUBLIC TEST FOR UNREAL ENGINE 5.

Here’s what to expect:

You will need to download a special Playtesting Branch of Squad, that has already been released, with access to Servers on Friday around 11am PDT. There will be multiple servers being hosted by Community names that you will know and recognize! Feel free to play wherever you like, but servers will open and close to accommodate the population needs! The general public will not be given access to the Server hosting branch for testing. There is a special Squad Testing Discord that is open to the public. Please be aware that all the normal Squad Community server rules apply in this server as well. Please refer to the onboarding channels for help if you need it!

We have included some known issues in this post, but anything that you come up against can be reported in the previously mentioned Discord Server for testing. Testing will run over the weekend and end on Monday July 14th 11:00AM PDT, and then the UE5 Servers will be taken down. We are also hoping you can take the time to fill out a survey for us, answering some questions about your experience during testing. This will be available IN GAME, in the News Box on the main menu. We will send out a reminder of this later on as well, as it will be accessible through Discord too.

The Important Stuff


In place of a change log this week, we have some information to update you on regarding PiP (Picture in Picture) scopes, from \[O] Norby!


"We have a new implementation for the pip scopes. Why is the pip rendering such a big challenge? For high magnification optics like in Squad we need to render two scenes for the different magnification levels. Rendering creates load on the CPU, which is issuing the render commands and on the GPU. In the worst case it cuts the frame rate in half.

Our goal is to have the same frame rate in pip mode as outside of pip. For that we need to address both bottlenecks. For the GPU the most efficient way to gain performance is rendering less pixels. We can do that for the outside scene, since there is a blur effect applied anyway.

For the render thread we have the benefit that we're always looking in the same direction with both views. This allows us to do optimizations similar to VR to reuse resources for both views.

The biggest challenge with this is handling the transition of render states smoothly. We pre-allocate resources when kits are switched and are spreading some of the transitions over multiple frames to reduce hitching."

-Norby


We did add a bunch of fixes that came in since the last playtest, but we will be saving those for the Patch Notes of the 9.0 release, once it arrives. We are aware of a few persisting bugs, including some hitching during ADS animations, some black frames inside PiP scopes, and an issue where a portion of the PiP screen can get duplicated.


Join the discussion in Discord, and we hope to see you over the weekend!


OFFWORLD OUT

Continue reading...

 

ATTN Squaddies!,


Today we are releasing a Hotfix for both Player facing and Server side. This update is intending on resolving a PING issue that Servers were experiencing that caused servers to seem like they had a ping of 9999! You will need to update your game in order to play. That's all for today! Stay tuned for more news on the UE5 release in the coming weeks!


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

OFFWORLD OUT!

Continue reading...

 

“We've intercepted new transmissions. Ready to receive!”

Listen up Squaddies. The Steam Summer Sale is here! From June 26th - 10 AM PT (GMT-7) until July 10th - 10 AM PT (GMT-7), save 60% off on Squad! Now is a great time to join Squad, as we are currently working towards our most significant update yet, moving Squad to Unreal Engine 5!

Check out our upcoming UE5 Update Devblog HERE, and join the Squad Discord to discuss all things Squad.

Offworld Out.

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

Continue reading...

 

ATTN Squaddies!

Today we are releasing a small Client side update to our Anti-cheat. This will not affect servers, but you will need to update your game in order to play.


That's all for today! Stay tuned for more news on the UE5 release in the coming weeks!

OFFWORLD OUT!

Continue reading...

 

Hello Squaddies,


Howtizer here. We released a few “Letter from the Squad Leader” posts last year but I haven’t done one in a while. It’s also something that I did for the newsletter, I will now make this its own blog post the whole community gets access to instead of it trickling out through the newsletter. It will be semi-regular (once a month or two) to keep you, the community, up to date with everything that’s going on on the Squad team.

Usually I’d split things out into 2 segments, the "Sitrep," focusing on short-term plans, and the "Battlefield Briefing," focusing on medium to long-term plans, but for now I will skip the Battlefield Briefing to cover the Sitrep in more detail.

SQ-SITREP.


Where we are at…

We’re still working on UE5. Surprise!! As most of you already know, we are hard at work upgrading Squad to Unreal Engine 5. A lot of the team have been working on this for a long time, some since the last engine upgrade (4.27) we did 2 years ago, but most of the team shifted focus toward the end of last year, which is why you haven’t seen an update in a while. All the sub teams on Squad have had their hands in this Engine upgrade, as well as many people outside the Squad team at Offworld. It’s been a whole company effort.


4 open playtests have taken place over the last 2 months, and countless other closed tests before then and we are reaching that point where we feel confident in releasing it soon to gather feedback from the entire playerbase and move onto other things we have in our plans (more information on that in a future post). We want to make sure we deliver a solid engine update that improves most peoples experiences, and sets up Squad for another 10 years of development and kick ass content. So in the next section, I’ll talk about what to expect over the next month or so.

What to expect in the next few months…

There will be a few more public tests of Unreal 5 to help us test a few more improvements we’d like to make, as well as the release of the Mod SDK leaving modders some time to update their mods to Unreal 5. Some of this work includes more optimization efforts for PiP scopes, server performance improvements, and some serious testing of Unreal Engine 5.5 (5.5 has a lot of refinements from Epic that will help lower end PC Performance).


That’s all for now… In the next letter, we will cover a bit more about some of the challenges we have faced upgrading to Unreal 5 and talk about some future roadmap items… It’s been a long journey, but we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We are aiming to release v9.0 Summer 2025. We will not be releasing before the Steam Summer Sale. So expect to see v9.0 at some point after that.


Thanks, Squaddies!


- Howitzer

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Listen up, Squaddies!

Unreal Engine 5 Public Playtest #5 is coming this Friday, June 13, at 11:00 AM PDT! Here’s what to expect:

You will need to download a special Public Playtesting Branch of Squad (View -> Hidden Games -> Right-Click on Squad - Public Playtesting and Install), with access to Servers on Friday opening up at 11AM PDT. There will be multiple servers being hosted by Community names that you will know and recognize! Feel free to play wherever you like, but servers will open and close to accommodate the population needs. The general public will not be given access to the Server hosting branch for testing.

A special Squad Testing Discord that has now been opened to the public. Please be aware that all the normal Squad Community server rules also apply in this server. Please refer to the onboarding channels for help if you need it!

We also want to mention that this is a WORK IN PROGRESS build of Unreal Engine 5, and is still in active development. That means you are likely to come up against bugs, or features that don’t work/feel the same way as the current 8.2 version of Squad. We have included some known issues in this post, but anything that you come up against can be reported in the previously mentioned Discord Server for testing.

Testing will run over the weekend from June 13 to June 16, and then the UE5 Servers will be taken down.

The Important Stuff

This time the build will be based on Unreal 5.5 in combination with a large amount of bug fixes that was intended for the 9.0 UE5 release:

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  Large amount of medium/high priority bugfixes and improvements.
  
  
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  Unreal Engine version 5.5 upgrade.
  
  
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  Crash fixes.
  

How will this affect the game?

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  Better and more stable performance for low end CPU/GPU hardware (and all other hardware).
  
  
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  Improved stability for the game.
  
  
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  Less bugs that would negatively affect how enjoyable the gameplay would be.
  

Known issues:

• 
  Double suppression effect when being shot at might still occur. A fix is being worked on but not ready for this weekend.
  
  
• 
  "1 FPS" bug might still be present, causing extreme performance drop for an extended period of time in specific conditions (work has been made to prevent this).
  
  
• 
  Sun glare in certain lighting conditions might become unrealistically bright.
  
  
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  Certain UI issues relating to vehicle weapons might still be present.
  
  
• 
  Possible performance issues using PIP Scopes while using FSR. We are aware of the issue and have a fix in place, but it did not make it into this playtest build.
  

We hope you can all help spread the word about this playtest, especially to friends who have had issues with performance in previous playtests, as we are eager to receive feedback on how old and low-end hardware is performing on this updated engine version of the game.

Please join us this weekend on testing out UE5.5, and as always, we want to hear from you so please submit your feedback!

OFFWORLD OUT

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Welcome back to The Wrench! Here we show off the latest in Squad modding.

What follows are updates sent to us by the people behind the mods themselves: their words, images, and amazing work!

(some entries have been edited for length and clarity)

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BAF (Brazilian Armed Forces) Mod by Smoking Snakes

The BAF mod team aims to bring the Brazilian Army to squad in form of multiple unique vehicles, weapons and playable maps. Been under development since 2021 it is set for release in late 2025.

Featuring 5 unique vehicles, 11 unique weapons, 4 unique deployables, and 2 Unique Commander Assets.

Links:
Discord link: https://discord.gg/mgpqE3SxEY

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Rassvet by Steez & Ruben

A complete re-imagining of OPFL (Operation First Light) featuring new biomes, reworked POI's, expanded and improved terrain, enhanced realtime lighting and dynamic time of day support, set in Eastern Europe.

Rassvet has seen a lot of progress this year with large central POI's like the Lumber Yard being added as well as older POI's like Storage Depot and Nilrem Village getting additional detail passes to bring the up to parity with newer work on the map and art.

The playable area is now bigger than the original OPFL and has been playtested extensively. While still not complete, it's perfectly playable with a variety of layers, including SuperMod layers.

Links:
Discord: https://discord.gg/XCbb7bmDQY
Steam workshop:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2995310287

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Southeast Asian Rebels by Rookheim

The Southeast Asian Rebels mod is a modest faction and map mod aiming to add an unconventional force to the East Asia theatre. This includes Sanxian Islands, but also the modded map Liareng Islands as well as other future projects.
Originally a coalition of a number of different ethnic militias, popular defence forces and political groups, SEAR forces have now accrued decades of combat experience and grown into almost a pseudo-conventional force. Now, as great powers turn their gaze to the larger asia-pacific front, SEAR take up arms once more in defence of their homeland.

My experience is rather limited so I'm doing what I can with what I got
If you would like help out in any manner feel free to reach out to me (Rookheim) on Discord!

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Hrodna Border by rell0776

Located south of the strategic Suwalki Gap along the cross border route between Bialystok and Grodno/Hrodna, Hrodna Border features a fictionalized vision of the border crossing and its surroundings. This map brings new flavor to the Eastern European collection of maps in Squad, featuring many small villages, a large town, a rail line, a border crossing, a LNG terminal, dilapidated abandoned bunkers from the old Soviet WW2 era Molotov Line, and much much more.

Hrodna intends to be a throwback to what made Squad maps so great and is a love letter to my favorite game. The map strives to strike a balance between Armor and Infantry gameplay, balanced RAAS lanes that aren't predictable but still funnel the match into concise areas of the map, and in other iterations of Squad plenty of terrain to play around providing a balance between long and close range combat and facilitating larger scale maneuvers.

Links:
Workshop Link:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3436010829

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King Of The Hill by Carnage
(Author disclaimer: this mod was made by one of Squad’s developers, Carnage!)

King Of The Hill is the first ever persistent economy mod in Squad. In this game mode (inspired by ARMA 3) You fight as military contractors from around the world over a highly contested zone for $$$ and XP Rewards. Players can level up, purchase and unlock new weaponry, vehicles, skins, and perks, and your progress carries over between matches.

We have linked our mod with our KOTH servers to other communities, so your saves not only persist from match to match, but between Linked Economy Servers too!

The mod is very early but there is a bright vision ahead to bring seasonal content and events with our partnering communities. We are hoping to hear from more communities looking to play and run the mod!

Links:
KOTH Discord: https://discord.gg/kingofthehill
Workshop Link:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3443779816

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Trinca Ferro/Arena Brasil

A representation of Brazilian crime, police and criminal factions, with more than 6 new factions and 6 maps focused on Brazil and its favelas. In addition to dozens of new weapons and vehicles.

Links:
Workshop Link:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3159021895

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Steel Division

Steel Division is a Special Forces mod with reduced ICO with custom features like NVG's, Thermals, Cross VOIP, FPV Drones, Attack Helicopters, MANPADS, C-130 Para-drops and more. With 8 fully fledged custom factions the mod is jam packed with content.

Links:
Discord: https://discord.gg/steeldivision
Workshop Link:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2432926361

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Swiss Armed Faction

The Swiss Armed Forces mod is not yet finished, but it will represent a wide range of elements from our alpine nation's army.

The Swiss army employs a militia system. Many men and women have fond memories of serving. Squad offers us the perfect canvas, rekindling the passion and comradery that make the Swiss Army great.

The Swiss army has changed a lot through the years, just like any other military. However, many aspects are rigid. Roughly 60% of Swiss territory is mountainous, placing infantry at a distinct advantage in conflict. On the other hand, it is clear that the other 40% of terrain is relatively flat, which means that heavier equipment like (*APCs, Tanks, IFVs, etc.*) has an increased workload in these areas.
Switzerland is also known for its abundance of man-made bunkers, creating never-before-seen combat scenarios for Squad.

Our membership stands at 4. We're making progress, but it's slow because we're developing this modification in our spare time. We know we piqued your interest in this mod. If you want to check out our progress or talk to us, join our Discord!

Links:
Discord Link: https://discord.gg/cQVhxSW9am

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Bundeswehr Mod

The team is focused on bringing the German Armed Forces "Bundeswehr" to Squad, including unique weapons, vehicles, character models, new game mechanics, custom-recorded weapons sounds, custom-made level props and the German Map "Fulda Gap". In addition to what you can see in their last Blog, you get to see a sneak peak into the new Puma IFV model and the also new "Auto Zeroing" mechanic for German combat vehicles, such as the Leopard 2A6M and the Boxer IFV. A new series of Blog updates is due to be published soon, as well another round of Beta playtests! (We say thank you to everyone who was part of our previous B1 Playtest event with over 5.000 downloads of our Beta phase mod in 6 days). The Bundeswehr Mod for SQUAD is currently looking for experienced UE4/UE5 level designers and level prop artists for their Fulda Gap project. Check out the recruitment channel in their Discord if you bring what they need!

Links:
Blog: https://bwmod.com/2024/08/19/progress-update-no-9/
Discord Link https://discord.gg/y9pQvr7e

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Thanks to everyone who submitted!
What mod are you excited to try? Let us know in the comments!

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Listen up, Squaddies!

Unreal Engine 5 Public Playtest #4 is coming this Friday, May 30, 2025 11:00 AM PDT!
Here’s what to expect:

You will need to download a special Playtesting Branch of Squad, that will be released ASAP, with access to Servers on Friday around 11am PDT.

There will be multiple servers being hosted by Community names that you will know and recognize! Feel free to play wherever you like, but servers will open and close to accommodate the population needs! The general public will not be given access to the Server hosting branch for testing.

There is a special Squad Testing Discord that has now been opened to the public. Please be aware that all the normal Squad Community server rules apply in this server as well. Please refer to the onboarding channels for help if you need it!

We want to also mention that this is a WORK IN PROGRESS build of Unreal Engine 5, and is still in active development. That means you are likely to come up against bugs, or features that don’t work/feel the same way as the current 8.2 version of Squad. We have included some known issues in this post, but anything that you come up against can be reported in the previously mentioned Discord Server for testing.

Testing will run over the weekend from May 30th to June 2nd, and then the UE5 Servers will be taken down.

We are also hoping you can take the time to fill out a survey for us, answering some questions about your experience during testing. This will be available IN GAME, in the News Box on the main menu. We will send out a reminder of this later on as well.

The Important Stuff

In place of a change log this week, I would simply like to let you know what exactly we are looking for in our test results!

• There is currently an issue where a massive freeze happens during a match, that can seem to affect just one person, or multiple people at the same time. We are calling it the 1FPS issue. We have created a build that has better tracking specifically for this issue, so that we can try to pin down the problem and resolve it.
  
• We have added more Server performance optimizations that we would like to test, including an interesting tool for Server Hosters that should allow them to Multi-Thread Vehicle animations, significantly reducing the impact that vehicles have on server side performance.
  
• We have implemented an introductory option for replacing Picture in Picture (PiP) scopes for players with lower end computers, or anyone that feels the significant drop in FPS when using a PiP scope. This setting will be available for anyone to enable in the settings menu.

We did add a bunch of fixes that came in since the last playtest, but the above information is what we would love to focus on for this weekend. So if you have time, please come join us and submit your feedback! We will have a working Feedback Form (confirmed working this time, sorry about last week), and the Testing Discord is still active for those of you wanting to join the discussion over there!

OFFWORLD OUT

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