It is time for another Intel Report as we continue to develop V1035 of GROUND BRANCH.
As always, we have worked hard over this past month to design, code and fix all kinds of things, a lot of which we've previewed in our most recent series of dev blogs starting in August of last year (go make sure you haven't missed any!).
Our focus this month has shifted more towards polishing things up, fixing up our bulging backlogs of bugs, and getting ready for the devtest stage of V1035. We are about to commence a limited internal devtest, and we hope to soon expand that to a public devtest build in which you can all participate (more on that when we have it!).
As important as this work is, it does not make for terribly interesting screenshots, videos, recaps, or deep dives, but we have a little bit of new content to show you. Thank you again for bearing with us as we get things fully in order for the new release.
We'll then round off with a quick highlights reel from the past V1035 Intel Reports.
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???? Keep in mind this and previous reports are not an exhaustive list of V1035 features. For an overview of expected changes and additions, please refer to our roadmap.
Quick news
Randomize enemy count
In V1035, the main co-op game modes (Terrorist Hunt, Intel Retrieval and Defuse) will offer players a choice to randomize the enemy count:
The new setting will be accessible via the Ops Board in the Ready Room, as usual for game mode options
The randomization option is now a regular mission setting for the above-mentioned three co-op game modes. It can be set on the Ops Board and prior to launching a mission, like other mission settings.
Three different randomization options are available:
- No — Disables the setting, so the amount of enemies you can encounter in the mission will match exactly the number of enemies set in "Expected enemy resistance".
- A little — Adds a possible variance of up to ±3 enemies (i.e. your expected enemy resistance, plus or minus 3 enemies).
- A lot — Adds a possible variance of up to ±6 enemies (i.e. your expected enemy resistance, plus or minus 6 enemies).
Campaign/mission UI progress
As shown in Intel Report #022, we have been steadily working on the UI to support campaign missions (you can see our first preview here).
We have since upgraded the looks slightly, and put further work into how the mission details will be displayed. It is all a work in progress, but we have recorded another little preview for you to check out the progress:
[previewyoutube=dhVjYSL4DMA;full][/previewyoutube]
As the video shows, progress (both as a % and a progress bar) is tracked for each hotspot as well as each mission within. Due to missions being playable in single player (offline) or co-op (online), progress is displayed for each mode separately.
Once a hotspot is selected, a background briefing — the overall situation in the hotspot — is displayed. Hovering a mission will preview the mission briefing and objectives.
After selecting a mission, players will then be able to again read the full briefing and objectives under the Mission Details tab, as well as browse a few other tabs that contain a mix of operational info and some flavor: Environment (weather and terrain), Human Factors (enemy forces, alertness level and civilians), and Intel Assets. The latter is essentially a gallery of intel images, including an interactive "tactical overview" map marked with objectives, key locations and the source of the various intel images. Pointing at most of these markers will cause a tooltip with further information to pop up.
Once in the Ready Room, the same elements seen in the Tactical Overview map are available on the Ops Board
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???? The mission briefing screen will likely also be home to where you select and equip your team in the future. For the V1035 demo mission, your team will be pre-selected and equipped.
Once players have reviewed everything, they can launch the mission by clicking Deploy (Offline Mode) or Deploy (Online Mode). So how exactly does each mode work?
Offline Mode is recommended for those strictly interested in playing a mission like a regular single player game. You will be able to play alongside AI-controlled teammates and the game can be paused at any time. If you do not have a working internet connection, campaign missions will still be playable in this mode!
In Online Mode, players can play either with the AI-controlled teammates or with up to a certain number of players* who can join using the normal Host Game invite system. A mix of other players and AI-controlled teammates is not possible, and pausing the game will not be possible in either case.
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???? Team size in the V1035 demo mission will be capped to 4 operators: the player + 3 AI teammates, or 4 players. Future missions — though not all of them necessary — will likely allow more personnel.
As is true for all we share in our dev blogs, most of what you see is in active development and subject to change.
Mission Editor updates
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✒️ This month, Matt "Fatmarrow" Farrow gives us a deep dive on new features for the Mission Editor.
As hinted earlier, not all the changes we have made in V1035 will be visible or apparent to players — in fact, there has been quite a lot of work going on behind the scenes in nearly every area of the game.
One aspect we will return to is the Mission Editor, which is used to set up the spawn points, objectives, guard points, patrol routes, and more for every mission in the game (including the new campaign missions). Back in the November report, we looked at changes to AI spawn points and the new day/night spawn system. We also looked at some fixes to the navblock system. This month we will very briefly look at a few other changes behind the scenes.
Mission meshes
Mission meshes have had a little do-over, and should now place flush to the ground when dropped into a map (let's definitely file this under "quality-of-life"). In place of another drop-down with a very long list to scroll through, there is now another new "picker" dialog for quickly trying out and picking mission meshes:
As you can see, the list of available meshes has been expanded again — for our purposes. The aim of mission meshes is not to be an impromptu level design tool, though of course we must salute the creativity of mission modders and the works they have created with this tool. Hang tight and we will have proper map modding through the mod kit soon.
Campaign missions
We have also developed some new systems specifically for the new campaign missions. These are currently only functional for our in-game content, but it may be that these can be repurposed eventually for "regular" game modes and/or for modded game modes and missions.
New mission objective actor in use in our V1035 campaign mission demo
The new Campaign tab in the Mission Editor, showing details of the V1035 campaign mission demo
Here we can see the new mission image editor for the new campaign missions. We are not presently providing the facility for modders to make campaign missions (easily, at least), but at some point this might be available for more general use:
And here we can see the new map annotation tool in the Mission Editor. Yet again, this is not going to be immediately available for modders, but it may be that this system can be rolled out more widely in the future:
The combination of new mission objectives and the new campaign mission features allows for a more interactive player map. In time, the Tablet map may include more of this sort of interaction.
Quick demo run on the new Power Station
As a way to showcase the Power Station remake, as well as new enemy meshes and other details you might catch, we've put together a quick gameplay edit of a co-op run for your enjoyment.
[previewyoutube=lHhotoYkYfI;full][/previewyoutube]
Intel Recap
Let's now take a look at some of the highlights from this past Intel Report cycle.
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Intel Report #021 (August 2024) [link]
We showed off Ranch for the first time, and showcased some new gear and a range of new weapons.
Intel Report #022 (September 2024) [link]
We revealed some updates to Depot for the campaign mission demo, previewed new AI loadouts, gave details on the new SLAM charge, and also aincluded some samples of the new OPFOR voice lines.
[previewyoutube=lfolIZLu8Q8;full][/previewyoutube]
Intel Report #023 (October 2024) [link]
We previewed the new Power Station map remake, showed you the new mag check animations, and went into more detail on various new mission objectives in the campaign mission demo.
[previewyoutube=dWjIfoynxzQ;full][/previewyoutube]
[previewyoutube=JVcm_wx41vE;full][/previewyoutube]
Intel Report #024 (November 2024) [link]
We detailed the new day/night spawn system, fixes to the navblock system, teased some more new weapons and the chemlights, and revealed the DBAL-PL attachment for pistols.
[previewyoutube=r0HvicFbfN0;full][/previewyoutube]
Intel Report #025 (December 2024 / January 2025) [link]
The new item customization UI was on display, we absolutely fascinated you with details about AI patrol nodes, revealed some map lighting and color tweaks, and shared some Ranch co-op footage.
[previewyoutube=4ZbiXT0Z1Nk;full][/previewyoutube]
[previewyoutube=V_0csG3gcBo;full][/previewyoutube]
This has been Intel Report #026!
We hope you have enjoyed this rummage through the tactical memory box of past Intel Reports, and will soon join us in testing V1035 of GROUND BRANCH.
As usual, thank you so much for keeping an eye on GROUND BRANCH and reading through today's post.
See you next time!
