Highlights

• The new Prone stance is accessible via the Z key (default)
• Players can also change stances by binding the new Stance Up and Stance Down keybinds
• First pass on new enemy AI — we have rebuilt the AI from the ground up and it is neither fully tested nor feature-complete, so please bear with us as we collect feedback and iterate during this testing period
• Six female characters can now be selected under the Appearance tab
• A few hairstyles are now available for all characters, along with a shorter beard for male characters

Known issues

• Enemy AI may be unresponsive/idle/stuck in various contexts — if you see it, please make note of whether it was online (dedicated server? Listen server?) or offline, which game mode was being played, as well as map and location etc. (this may be an issue with legacy mission setups rather than the AI, so let's figure it out)
• Changing directions (WASD) with a primary weapon equipped will cause visible "hitches" in the weapon movement
• Weapon movement, poses and animations in general are still being put back together after the prone overhaul — please bear with us
• Leaning is bound to feel particularly strange, due to the combo of new poses and the ongoing animation work (all WIP)
• Walking or running with a primary weapon equipped causes the character's right foot to "hover" before it actually touches the ground
• Prone does not conform to terrain angle
• Aiming (ADS) with a pistol while crouched is offset to the right
• Character and weapon collision while prone is pretty finicky! Let us know how it all feels to you
• The Tablet (map) is currently offset to the bottom while crouched, and unusable while prone
• Various combinations of hairstyles and headgear items have visible clipping or overall jankiness
• The Galil ARM and SA58 OSW are lacking bolt/ejection and charging handle movements (in the weapon themselves)
• The default Galil ARM and SA58 OSW builds are missing a magazine
• The SA58 OSW does not have the correct reload animations hooked up

Patch notes

Maps

City

• Major overhaul at street level (new enterable central buildings, enterable peripheral buildings and a large new bank section)
• Missions rejigged to conform to and take advantage of new features
• Cleaned up a lot of collision issues

Compound

• Calls to prayer added using new Time of Day alarm system

Creek

• Fixed specular value on creek embankment material so it better matches the ground
• Reworked terrain and collisions to reduce possibility of getting stuck on trees

Depot

• Optimized grass meshes
• Switched guard tower at main gate to the mirrored version
• Added some cover plates to top platform area of Depot guard towers (gives more cover to that area for AI and players)
• Tweaked grass wind settings
• Increased draw distances for log foliage and some door frames

Power Station

• Added light blocker mesh to stop sunlight coming into Power Station tunnel when sunlight is at very low light angle

Rig

• Added the vista from Tanker
• Fixed some poor tiling on the legs/superstructure
• Texture sharpening
• Replaced all industrial doors with new ones, improved opening directions, yaws and clutter around them for better movement
• Fixed some inverted or bad normal maps
• Replaced wood interior doors with newer version
• Replaced roll up doors with newer version
• Converted glass blueprints to Depot style
• Some PFX optimizing
• Material tweaks
• Optimized light settings
• Improved bloom and light shaft settings, same as Depot
• Fixed DFAO bleeding on some interior wall meshes
• Reduced complexity of derrick railings
• A few material tweaks
• Set some small props to Projectile collision profile
• Sun light optimization

Small Town

• Consistency and cosmetic overhaul

Storage Facility

• Fixed some props and decals hidden in walls
• Fixed some reflection captures that were in the void
• Tweaked signage
• Material tweaks
• Fixed inverted phone

The Farm

• Consistency and cosmetic update
• Extended distance of some foliage and added a bit of unevenness to the Farm shooting range terrain to help with foliage culling leaving the terrain bare at distances

Tanker

• Added new life raft pods, tweaked draw distances for large meshes
• Cleaned up collision with Tanker internal staircase railings

Weapons and attachments

New weapons

• Galil ARM
• SA58 OSW

Updated weapons

• MPX (new model)
• FAL (new model)
• Adding back in old metal AKM mag due to popular request
• Fixed bad normals on FAL magazine
• Fixed bad setting for metallic texture on 1P78 Kashtan sight that made it black in shadow

Optics and attachments

• SRS model and textures updated
• AN/PEQ-15 lasers now emit from the correct apertures depending on type selected (visible/IR)
• Laser beam point light effect reworked slightly

Customization

• Created male and female subtypes of clothing
• New Flannel Shirt style (previous version renamed to "Light Flannel")
• Some pouches removed on rigs and vests to accommodate new radio asset
• Updated/cleaned up a lot of inaccurate color schemes for various tops and pants
• Changed cap and reverse cap to have callsign at the back
• All country patches removed except those representing dev team countries (US, Australia, Brazil, UK, Germany, Canada and Spain)
• New patches added:
[list]
• Blackbeard
• Too Deep
• Tertia Optio B
• United States B (R)
• United States B (L)
• United States IR (R)
• United States IR (R)
• US–UK Friendship Flag
• SCOPetrol
• Ram Airways

AI

• Migrated from Unreal AI system to Kythera AI middleware (huge change)
• Main updates in behavior:
[list]
• New target acquisition based on engagement time and distance
• New perception system, with different cone of visions that take lighting and time of day into account
• Basic suppression (firing at last known location)
• Crouching and going prone when no cover is available nearby
• Holding fire when another bot is in the line of fire
• Replaced pathfinding/navmesh system with Kythera solution, including ORCA avoidance
• Scouting out of windows

Character and controls

• Added female characters (new heads and clothing assets)
• Morph targets added to create female variations of existing kit
• Various under-the-hood changes to integrate with new Kythera AI systems
• Hair styles added for both male and female models, with different options according to head type and gender
• Updated eyelash meshes created and added for all characters
• Radio and PTT module added to relevant platforms
• New beard style (short/spotty)
• New prone action mapped to Z key by default
• Stance Up / Stance Down keybinds now available, as an alternative stance control scheme to move between standing, crouched and prone (uses only two keys)

Graphics

• New headcam-style camera for Spectator Mode and Debug (Ctrl + Up arrow)
• Updated DLSS and Streamline plugins
• Underwater effects added to all water volumes which can be entered by going prone or looking down while crouched, depending on depth
• Added various new branch, log and tree assets
• New colorblind graphics settings, including colorblind correction modes and custom reticle and laser colors
• Main menu max FPS is now capped to value of new MainMenuFPS config variable (default 60 FPS)
• Spectator Mode night vision now cycles through green and white phosphor settings (previously only green)
• Replaced static normal texture for callsign patches with a procedurally generated normal, to make the letters stand out (literally)
• Added specular and AO (ambient occlusion) into the patch decal chain, to remove AO and to set a constant specular value on body patches (previously there was some speckle in shadow caused by underlying AO)
• Small pass on tracers (visuals and onset)
• Callsign patches now added to the back of helmets (or to the back of the NVG counterweight, if equipped)
• Specular AO mode enabled
• Brought the post-processing on the UE4 debug camera into line with the normal character post-processing
• Changed AA samples to 16, since it was causing issues/artifacts with DLSS SR
• Reworked handling of DLSS FG when in main menu and when the game is starting
• DLSS FG (Frame Generation) will be turned off in the main menu, only be enabled when game starts
• Added smooth Time of Day transitions for TimeOfDay console command
• Big pass on consistency and values of colors and brightness of inventory/outfit items (let us know if you catch any inconsistencies!)
• Changed default resolution from 1280x800 to 1920x1080 (may need some further work for Steam Deck)
• Various tooltips converted to GB standard
• Fuse boxes, DTAS flags and other gameplay props set to never distance cull

Animation

• Introduction of prone posture and transitions
• Overhaul of all movement animations and poses
• New animations for body and head recoil (reacting to weapon recoil)
• Updated MK17 animations with polish pass
• Updated M24 character animations so they were mesh additive
• New mag check animations
• Prone death animations
• Created SA58 OSW animations
• Created Galil ARM animations
• Polished FAL animations

VFX

• Overhaul of all bullet impact and other VFX
• Reworked smoke materials, especially with regard to ambient lighting
• Smoke grenades tweaked to last longer and to have different smoke propagation
• New muzzle flashes: suppressed, flash hider, and AK-specific FX created
• New shell ejection smoke FX
• Added color control for the muzzle flash smoke elements
• Adjusted the M67 Frag dirt explosion
• Reworked Breaching Charge and door explosion effects
• New blood impact effects
• New manhole/steam FX in City
• Bug system added to various lights (bugs circle lights at night)
• Dynamic light system now uses separate VFX for shooting out the light when on vs off
• New footstep FX
• Set physical materials for a large number of materials that were missing one
• Lights can now be blown out by grenade explosions
• Created FX for light fixture destruction

Servers and multiplayer

• Added server-configurable door to block off firing range in Ready Room
• Server browser and dedicated servers updated to transfer new information relating to mods and player names
• Server browser now displays a list of players and a list of mods that are active on all servers
• Enabled some engine anti-cheat settings
• Added AllowVotesWhenAdminPresent property (if FALSE then no votes can be started, except by admins, when an admin is online)
• Added server setting for ready countdown time (default 45 seconds), which is used unless overridden by the map list
• If a dedicated server is started up without a map list, a basic one is generated (previously dedicated servers would just hang until restarted with a maplist.ini added)
• New rules (e.g. DisplayFriendlyNameTags) are now added and are editable if not already present (e.g. because using a legacy Server.ini file)
• Added server restart settings to admin/server settings widget
• Added new ServerRestart admin console command, which is by default only enabled for admins, and causes the immediate restart of the server.
• Added shutdown options to Server.ini in ServerConfig, including new "shutdown at hour of day" option (previously servers only restarted after specified length of time)
• Added vote settings to server settings admin menu
• Added VoteDelayFromRoundStart setting to vote.ini — votes not allowed until X minutes of play have elapsed

Game modes and gameplay

• Added Randomize Objectives feature to Ops Board and to game modes (OnRandomiseObjectives)
• Added pause feature (in single-player only) when in game menu is accessed
• Added player volunteer feature to game modes and server roster (players and admins can set a "volunteer" flag that can be read by a game mode to determine who to pick for a random role such as flag carrier or hostage)
• Changed mission setting process in UpdateMissionSettingsTable() in GBGameMode to only set (and thus record as changed) mission settings that were actually changed
• Intel Retrieval, Terrorist Hunt, Team Elimination and Uplink updated to incorporate Randomize Objectives feature
• Flashbangs do not always stun if they are more than 0.5 meter above player's eyes (to prevent bangs through floors)
• Fixed bomb mission actors, and added Lua callbacks for when bomb takes damage from projectiles and grenades, and a test mode in which shooting a bomb causes immediate detonation
• Rejigged/repurposed old PVE “Defuse” game mode, intended as mod example. Added missions for Small Town, City and Rundown
• New short range friendly name tags (if server rule UsesFriendlyNameTags is TRUE)
• Teamkill warnings for the team killer should now display every time it happens
• Team balancing code moved into Lua library and added to Team Elimination and Uplink modes
• Team Elimination, Uplink and Hostage Rescue modes are changed so that if auto balance is off, defender spawns are shown in the ready room (otherwise they are obscured until round start)
• NVG automatically flips up now when equipping tablet, and automatically flips back down when tablet is put away
• Pathable news helicopter added to City map (flees when shot at)
• Passing a nil AI class reference to ai.GetControllers now returns default AI controller class
• Added new Rig Hostage Rescue (Living Quarters) mission
• Created new door sign component and added it to doors in Rig crew quarters area for easier call-outs
• Changed spawning behavior so that if spawning mid-round, there is no player freeze and gun starts in (mid) ready (* isn’t it ADS now?)
• Added time of day alarm system, optionally providing events based on astronomical time (e.g. sunset, midday, sunset) rather than hours
• Changed mission editor to send player back to ready room after edits
• Underwater mode added, in which weapons cannot be fired or brought to ADS, and breathing is limited, forcing the player out of prone when breath runs out; if the player cannot move out of the water, they will quickly take drowning damage
• Hackable laptop now auto-equips after hack (to avoid accidentally leaving behind in intel retrieval, etc.)
• Added Player Stance property to PlayerStart mission actor, so players can spawn in either upright or crouched
• New library calls available to game modes to kill or damage players, and to spawn an effect at a player
• Female characters who become hostages in Hostage Rescue are made male during captivity (because some of you are weirdos)
• Added double-click-to-zoom-to-actor functionality in the actor list in the mission editor
• Improved validation for TH missions by alphabetically sorting the list of guard point names in the event of a discrepancy with number of guarding squads (may also automate finding odd one out)

Audio

• Implemented new dynamic reverb system that accounts for the size and layout of indoor areas
• New main menu music and stingers from Venus Theory
• Depot audio level updated
• Updated City level audio, added idle vehicle sounds as well as ambient city sounds such as sirens and horns
• Updated level audio for Depot, Creek, Run Down, Power Station
• Resynced reload audio for AKs, ARs, FALs, G3A3, M1014, MK14 EBR and handguns
• Added dynamic window audio and fixed missing audio
• New sounds for news helicopter (City)
• Implemented power box interaction and electrical hum
• Music manager subsystem added
• Created underwater filter and set up water foley sounds
• Female characters now have a female voice playing in the Comms Menu (G)
• Acoustic portals now open and close and the correct time
• Stray acoustic portals are now autodetected by coincident doors

UI

• Renaming of various settings names and other UI elements
• Ready Room locker hints hopefully less confusing now
• Server, game mode and mission details added to the Esc menu
• Swapped Rotate and Pan camera actions when click-dragging in Customize Operator screen (for character and for items)
• Added is-modded and has-kit-restrictions filters for server list
• Split up Gameplay settings into an additional screen (HUD)
• New stance icon for Prone and related UI changes and additions
• Holding down Ctrl will hide UI elements in Customize Operator screen
• UI pass on admin server settings menu (mainly prettifying names)
• Reduced opacity of AI hotspot marker
• Tweaked mission editor UI a bit to make key shortcuts work in more cases and to fix minor UI issues
• Added match info screen to loading screen
• Hid advanced AI settings button (new AI settings need to be dialed in first during testing)
• Added some new loading screen tips

Bug fixes

• GetShadowIndex() == 0 silent crash fixed
• Capsule shadows should be handled better by character items
• Fixed bug where sometimes dragging spinbox (e.g. in mission settings) would result in a value 1 more than expected
• Fixed the ‘T count’ bug where you can't change the terrorist count on the Ops Board (may also fix other related bugs in custom modes and similar)
• Fixed up NVG, Binoculars and Rangefinder to remove overlay if not in first-person view
• Fixed incorrect velocity settings for 7.62×39 mm (AKM) round
• Fixed broken laptop placements in City, Docks, and other maps
• Tweaked the autobalance code to NOT balance teams with only 1 player playing if the ideal team size difference is 0 (i.e. symmetric game modes like Team Elimination that aren't attacker/defender-based)
• Fixed IR strobes still flashing after NVG turned off
• Fixed NVG overlay remaining sometimes after removing NVG
• Tablet screen is now blurry again (consistent with overall NVG effects)
• IR strobes reduced in intensity
• Reworked NVG bounce algorithm (causing lens misalignment) to be more FPS-invariant
• Improved the logging when an item fails to spawn
• Body patches now have working normal maps (depth/texture)
• Hostage run exploit patched
• Fix for laptops causing collision when not active
• Rangefinder NV mode fixed up a bit
• Fixed resurrect command not working via admin menu, and added missing SuperKick and ResurrectAtMe options
• Activating debug camera now destroys associated player state so no more phantom players appearing in roster and stopping SP games from starting
• Fixed Tablet missing a dropped item class, causing issues with picking up
• Updated grenade code in relation to inconsistent throw location
• Fix for eyewear items not taking on proper skin when leaving character editor
• Changed default player freeze on round start to last until end of pre round wait period rather than for the pre round wait duration (in case players spawn in late)
• Fixed no validation for bad ASCII characters when setting name in character editor
• Fixed Patches dialog not preventing background clicks
• Custom collision component added to dynamic lighting blueprint to fix problem with (e.g.) shooting a pole breaking the attached light
• Fixed reticles not changing size when zoom is changed while not ADS
• Placement of Breaching Charges prevented while 'frozen'
• Use of detonator for breach charge prevented while 'frozen'
• Fixed out-of-level exploit in Rig Top Deck Deathmatch, Last Man Standing and Team Elimination missions (stairs East of shack 5)
• Tentatively fixed bots running out of cargo door in 747 Terrorist Hunt (Interior)
• Big pass on collision in Creek to try to eliminate instances of getting stuck on trees
• North-facing doors now register a close event properly
• Fix for equipment and weapon attachments showing shadows when "Use Simple Character Shadows" is set in settings