We’re back with another Intel Report featuring another round of sneak peeks and details for our major upcoming release GROUND BRANCH V1035. This month, among other news, we’ll be taking a look at our initial work on full-fledged missions.
💡 Keep in mind this report is not an exhaustive list of V1035 features. For an overview of expected changes and additions, refer to our roadmap.
New Discord modding channels
If you’re a member of our official Discord server, you may have noticed that earlier today we opened up some new modding channels.
Now that the GROUND BRANCH Mod Kit has been officially released for a while, it seemed like a good time to unleash these new channels on unsuspecting modders. Prowlaz, our Community Manager, kindly put these together for you a while ago, and Bob/AT has helped put some words together for them.
Thank you, Prowlaz and Bob!
Operations: paving the way for full-fledged missions
Though GROUND BRANCH won’t have a traditional campaign with an overarching story, it was always meant to have “proper” missions featuring backstories, briefings, multiple objectives and, for single player, AI teammates.
Our unorthodox campaign format combines short sequences of story in the form of “hotspots”: areas of geopolitical interest in different parts of the world where missions will be carried out. Each hotspot in v1.0 may feature anywhere from one to a handful of missions — with room to expand over the game’s life — and our new project manager Travis has been spearheading the process to determine where in the world these hotspots are, and what the story behind them is going to be.
More complex missions require more complex logic than our current game modes have, and our hotspots need an interface to navigate them, which is why Fatmarrow and Scopey have taken on the task of bringing these ideas to life on the programming and UI fronts. As much as we adore the underlying code which supports this stuff, luckily (for you) we have a working preview of the UI to give you an idea of where we’re headed:
Does that mean V1035 will have missions?
Kind of! We’re working hard to get one such mission done for V1035. This mission, set in Eastern Ukraine (on map Depot), will serve as a sample or demo — or a vertical slice, if you’re into marketing — of what we ultimately want the core of the GROUND BRANCH experience to be.
Though it won’t feature all the elements that our full-fledged missions are expected to offer, the demo mission should be a much closer representation of our goal than the “quick mission” game modes currently available in Lone Wolf and co-op.
💡 If you're curious about what the demo mission will entail, take another closer look at the video as the mission background and objectives aren't expected to change much.
💡 An Oman hotspot isn't planned at this time; it was added for UI showcase purposes only.
We are hoping to support both single player (with AI teammates) and co-op for the demo mission, but everything is subject to change depending on how development goes.
Demo mission support
As hinted earlier, the sample mission has created demand in various areas in order to support and properly convey the objectives and background we’re proposing for it.
In addition to UI, another demand was making the village area of Depot appear “lived-in” in order to reflect the presence of stationed troops. Will has taken up that job, adding camping gear, communications equipment, vehicles and other details to the area:
To add more flavor and variety, John has also reworked the Depot faction to better fit our concept of Russian PMC. If you’re as sick of that one guy in light tan and black as we are, you’ll probably appreciate the change:
The demo mission will also require planting explosives and being able to scout a location, both of which aren’t fully defined in terms of mechanics but are already under development. For the explosives, we’re currently going with the M4 SLAM:
Setting up the M4 SLAM to work in-game is no small task: in addition to the model, it requires animations, particle effects, gameplay abilities and other work that is all underway.
Game dev is a G.A.S.
We’ve shown you the shiny topside and now it’s time to take a little look under the hood at some of the upcoming changes in V1035.
Historically, we had painted ourselves into a bit of a corner with some of our animation and game systems, as complexity was gradually layered on top of complexity. The result was that it was getting harder and harder to introduce new systems (*leers at prone*) and to make existing ones work together more seamlessly.
Therefore, with no small amount of trepidation, we shook up a ton of underlying systems and put them back together again with the new Gameplay Ability System (GAS).
💡 If you're interested in the technical details, click here for more details on the Unreal Engine GAS implementation from Epic.
It is a bit of a conceptual reworking of the game logic into self-contained gameplay abilities rather than having custom logic scattered throughout the code base. It means that once everything is set up, a single player action may, for example, fire off a single gameplay ability, and then it just… takes care of itself. In practical terms, once we get over the initial bump of the internal reorganization, we should be able to put into the game the remainder of the planned gameplay systems without the huge headache we would’ve had if we had needed to integrate all the new stuff into the old code base. There also seem to be some performance improvements, which is nice.
If you’re not an Unreal Engine nerd like us, let’s put this another way: this change should be the last big hurdle before we drive our GROUND BRANCH car at irresponsible speeds towards v1.0.
AI
AI continues to be developed, though the implementation of GAS has delayed our ability to showcase it. Still, Chris has managed to capture a quick video of one of the new AI abilities: detecting not just the source of flashlights, but their projected light as well. Take a look:
This change should make it particularly important to maintain light discipline, so be extra sure you’ve packed your night vision goggles and AN/PEQ-15 for those night ops.
💡 The same ability will be applied to lasers.
Audio
Zack has been working on a lot of stuff: the ambient audio (or soundscape) for new map Ranch, sound effects for the G36K Custom, AUG A3, MK24 and other weapons, and of course the voice lines for 2 of the OPFOR factions: the Mexican Cartel and the Russian PMC mentioned earlier. Here’s a sample of the voices — courtesy of Zack and the very talented voice actors we had the pleasure of working with:
Along with the new AI animations (previewed in our last Intel Report) and the new enemy character assets shown earlier, we’re hoping to breathe a little more life into our enemy AI soon.
Zack is also improving spatial audio by setting up a system where large objects will now block, diffract and occlude sounds. So, for instance, a large container will now act similarly to a wall when it comes to sound — so a character behind it will no longer simply sound like they’re just a few steps away from you with nothing in between. The video below has a little demo of the Ranch soundscape, as well as a little before/after of the spatial audio change to give you a better idea:
Masking out the night vision
One of the most common bug reports we get is that infrared signature — that is, IR lasers and illuminators — doesn’t show up through the AN/PVS-22 UNS clip-on night vision scope, which probably seems like a trivial issue to fix when you consider that it works as expected when looking through any of the night vision goggles in the game.
The issue is that the NVG is a full-screen post-process effect, whereas the AN/PVS-22 UNS uses a different, more basic effect compatible with the picture-in-picture (PiP) method that the scopes in GROUND BRANCH use. It’s easy enough to tell the full-screen post-process effect to show IR signature, but not feasible to do so for the basic PiP effect. That leaves us with just one option: “masking out” the full-screen NVG post-process effect to only show up in a designated area of the world, in our case the lens of the PVS-22.
Because it’s a relatively harmless bug with a fairly large amount of work required to fix it, we let it sit for a while longer than we would’ve liked. But for V1035, we put some time aside to finally work it out. Here’s a quick and dirty capture straight from the editor just to illustrate the method:
Visuals are all pending, so don’t worry about how flat it looks — it’s just a prototype!
If you’re wondering why we’re illustrating with the NVG rather than the PVS-22, that is because the same method can be used to restrict the NVG effect only to the portion of the screen corresponding to the NVG’s tubes — leaving the surroundings clear for you to see with normal vision, instead of covered in black. Pretty cool, right?
This has been Intel Report #022!
We appreciate you taking the time to read our little dev blog. Got any questions or suggestions? Leave them in the comments and get the discussion going.
As always, thank you for your continued patience and support as we chisel away at your favorite tactical shooter. See you next time!
Today we’re releasing Patch V1034.6 with a few important fixes, and at the same time we’re also officially releasing the long-anticipated GROUND BRANCH Mod Kit: a Software Development Kit (SDK) that allows modders to create a whole new world of mods using a specially extended version of the Unreal Engine 4 editor.
Read on for more information on the Mod Kit and modding in general, or scroll further down for the patch notes.
(If some of the information in this post looks familiar, that is because it is partly drawn from our last Build Update. We felt that it would be useful to have it all in the same place now that the Mod Kit is out, so here it is again!)
GROUND BRANCH Mod Kit now available!
The GROUND BRANCH Mod Kit is finally released! We are very grateful to Epic for providing support to get the Mod Kit up and running on their Epic Games Launcher.
Ready to start modding GROUND BRANCH? First step is to fire up your Epic Games Launcher (https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/download) and search for GROUND BRANCH Mod Kit in the store. When you find something like this, add and install it:
This will take a bit of time to install, but the SDK is not as large as others that you may be familiar with, as we have created a super-lean installation containing only what you need to make your mods.
💡 In V1034.6, we are focusing on weapon mods only, including magazines and suppressors. These are the only types of mods you can make in the SDK — or at least the only types that we are officially supporting for now. This is because we want to make sure that we get everything right before expanding support to other mod types.
When you launch the Mod Kit, you will be presented by a default editor view much like this:
This is where the magic happens, mainly via these four new buttons:
Now, it should be said that the SDK is intended for experienced modders who are already familiar with the Unreal Engine 4 editor. There are a plethora of tutorials and courses available online and for free if you wish to get up to speed on Unreal Engine 4.
👾 A good place to get help while modding is our Discord — more specifically, the #gb-modding channel.
Your fellow modders may also be able to assist you, but please bear in mind that we are not able to provide official support for general use of the Unreal Engine editor — though we will do our best to help people grapple with interfacing with specific GROUND BRANCH systems.
To this end, we have now provided…
The GROUND BRANCH Modding Wiki
Either click the Open Wiki button in the Mod Kit, or navigate to https://wiki.groundbranch.com/en/modding to view the GROUND BRANCH Modding Wiki. Here we have attempted to document the information that you will need on the GROUND BRANCH side to be able to create your new weapon mods.
(However, as noted above, a working knowledge of the Unreal Engine 4 and editor is an essential prerequisite to using the Mod Kit.)
You will see that the Quick Create system, available since V1034.4, is documented in detail here.
The GROUND BRANCH Lua Library reference has now moved to the Wiki, at https://wiki.groundbranch.com/en/modding/lua-api. This is now the definitive version, and has already been updated for GROUND BRANCH V1034.5.
Stay tuned in future GROUND BRANCH updates for an expansion of the modding system to encompass all kinds of mods eventually, via the Mod Kit and Quick Create system
💘 We are extremely grateful to Bob/AT for his help in setting up and maintaining the Wiki (and thanks also to Callum for doing a lot of the setup).
The GROUND BRANCH Steam Workshop
Our Steam Workshop opened up a couple updates ago, mostly for new Quick Create patch mods, but have also included weapon mods since V1034.5, when some lingering issues with respect to modded game modes, missions, localization and AI loadouts were also ironed out.
We are very grateful to YourComrade, ModernLancer, mr munkee and others for their help kicking the tires on the new Mod Kit stuff while making some kickass new custom weapons in the process. We hope you enjoy trying out their creations as much as we have.
🔧 Get moddin’
If you’d like to jump into the brave new world of modded weapons, here is a selection of some of the great mods that our test crew have come up with while helping us test the Mod Kit:
If you search for mods in the workshop using the Weapon tag, you will now find these and many more (including hopefully many more still to come). Have fun, y’all.
🥇 We are also very grateful to Bob/AT and tjl9987612 for their help with the game mode and mission side of things. Many modding bugs have been squished thanks to them.
Patch notes
And now for details of the V1034.6 patch, which fixes a few lingering issues:
We have a fix for mods not syncing properly when joining a listen server (the Host Game option). If accepting a game invite from outside GROUND BRANCH, you should now get the normal Mod Sync window before proceeding to join the game. If anything goes wrong and you are stuck in limbo, try accepting another invite or else press Esc to return to the main menu. Do let us know if you continue to experience difficulty with joining hosted games.
Updated NVIDIA DLSS plugin to version 3.7. This new version should reduce ghosting artifacts when using DLSS (Settings › Video › NVIDIA® DLSS Super Resolution) and possibly fix crashes in older GPUs.
Fixed pistol holster not automatically being re-equipped when a pistol is equipped in the Customize Operator screen. This issue prevented pistols from being holstered.
As mentioned, the official GROUND BRANCH Mod Kit is now available via Epic Games Launcher with appropriate integrations into the game.
And that’s a wrap on Build Update #053 and V1034!
Barring any big issues, we do not expect to release any further updates for GROUND BRANCH V1034. Turning to the next big update, V1035, we will continue our series of Intel Reports to keep you up to date on progress, and at some point (hopefully not too far into the future) the Community Test branch will open back up, with the main V1035 release in due course.
As always, thank you for your continued support and feedback. Enjoy modding and stay frosty!
It’s been a busy year, but our Intel Reports are finally back for the big V1035 update cycle. Like last time, we’ll try to publish these reports monthly until community testing begins so you get an idea of how development is going, as well as a little taste of what’s to come.
💡 Keep in mind this report is not an exhaustive list of V1035 features. For an overview of expected changes and additions, refer to our roadmap.
Quick disclaimer before we get to it:
MicroProse Publisher Sale: Save 30% on GROUND BRANCH on Steam
Our publisher MicroProse is running a sale on Steam including all of its games — among which, of course, is GROUND BRANCH. This discount matches our Summer Sale offer, so if you missed that one, here’s your second chance!
The publisher sale runs until September 2nd.
🕹️ If you're a fan of simulators and real-time strategy — including classic 1990s gems — it's worth checking out MicroProse's Steam catalog for all the discounted titles. They have other genres too!
Miscellanews
Welcome, Travis!
Travis Rose, who you might know from our community moderation team as consecrated2718, has been working with us for a while in a Quality Assurance (QA) role, helping us keep the bug database in order and organizing testing sessions. He has since taken on more responsibilities within BlackFoot Studios, assisting the team in managing tasks, keeping the roadmap updated, and helping define the scope and scheduling of releases.
We are happy to announce Travis is now officially a Project Manager for GROUND BRANCH, which should no doubt be a relaxing and straightforward job. Welcome aboard, Travis!
Thank you, Callum!
In case you missed our last Build Update (for Patch V1034.5): Callum Coombes, one of our programmers, has moved on from GROUND BRANCH to pursue development of his own games full-time. We were lucky to have him as long as we did, as Callum has taken the GROUND BRANCH Mod Kit from a concept to a finished product, unphased by the near-total absence of documentation and official support from Epic Games.
Callum, we salute you! Good luck in your future projects.
🕹️ Are you into VR games? Then be sure to check out Callum's game Space Docker VR!
Speaking of Mod Kit
As explained earlier this month in Build Update #052, the official Mod Kit, though ready to release — at least as far as we were concerned — has found some snags in Epic’s approval process. The application had to be rebuilt in a different interface, and from that point on Epic engineers became more involved in assessing further requirements.
Long story short: we’re still working on checking all the boxes to get the approval for publishing, which should hopefully happen in the next few weeks. Fingers crossed!
💡 For more information on the current state of modding (including the Modding Wiki and several weapon mods you can download right now), see Build Update #052.
V1035 news
And now for what you’re really here for: V1035 previews.
Round Ranch
The Ranch map, first mentioned about a year ago, is one of the earliest pieces in V1035, having been taken on by environmental artists Elliot and Will. Though their part of the job — the art — has been done for a while, maps require a good amount of setup work from other members of the team whose plates were full with V1034 and subsequent patches. And while the setup is still underway, we’re happy to be able to give you a sneak peek — without spoiling too much:
As some of you have guessed, Ranch is set somewhere near the Mexico–US border and will have players go up against members of a drug cartel.
💡 Elliot has since moved on to an exciting new map (provisionally called "Checkpoint"), while Will has been busy with a massive overhaul of Power Station. Both maps will launch in V1036, expected to release sometime next year.
New character assets
GROUND BRANCH V1035 will be bringing a handful of new character assets to the inventory, including a new and updated field jacket, a softshell jacket, and four new balaclava styles. Let’s take a look.
New Field Jacket: remaking the ACU Coat
Our original ACU Coat was never a very popular item, having been modeled with its mandarin collar up and closed — a wearing style that is challenging to find in any reference photo from real-life deployments. The style frustrated some players looking for authenticity and those looking for a more BDU-style field shirt or jacket, which are almost exclusively worn with the collar folded down.
With that issue in mind (coupled with a few others we’ll detail in a bit), we decided to order an updated model from our trusty freelance artist Pau Peñalver. Here’s a comparison:
Another issue with the old model was that each variant — regular and rolled-sleeves — used its own texture set, which is sub-optimal in terms of performance as well as maintenance (for instance, when we want to tweak skins and materials on our end it’s twice as much work).
Lastly, the shoulder pockets had little pull tabs that prevented velcro patches from being applied to the appropriate area: the pocket’s flap. Due to the patches using a decal system, any patch applied will conform (and deform) according to the underlying geometry, meaning they need to be applied to more-or-less flat surfaces — which the pull tab did not allow. To illustrate:
While we were at it, we also asked Pau to include tucked-in variants. Here are all the versions we ended up with:
In order to reflect other clothing items using more generic names, the updated ACU Coat is being renamed Field Jacket. It will be available in the same colors and patterns as the old model.
💡 As a bonus, we've also set it up to use a system that more accurately simulates the seams of the garment by interrupting and/or changing the direction of camo patterns.
Softshell Jacket
Another asset we ordered from Pau is the Softshell Jacket, based on the second generation (aka Block I) of the “Level 5” softshell jacket that is part of the seven-layer Protective Combat Uniform (PCU) system. A breathable, stretchable, water-repellant and windproof garment, the Level 5 jacket is the most widely used and versatile PCU item.
The Softshell Jacket is coming in two versions: a regular one with the hood retracted into the collar, and another one with the hood out. It also features velcro on the shoulder pockets for patches, as well as four different skins: Gray, OCP, AOR-1 and AOR-2.
New balaclava styles
The new balaclavas created by Pau last year are also confirmed for V1035. Though we do not yet have them fully set up to mask out the correct areas of the head for each style, the four variants below will be available in the same colors as the old V1034 balaclava model:
New weapons
V1035 will feature a varied host of new weapons, from bullpup to specialized suppressed rifles. If you’re among those who find GROUND BRANCH’s arsenal too focused on AR-15 and AK platforms, V1035 should mitigate that a little. Here’s what is being added:
AUG A3
The AUG A3 is a bullpup assault rifle chambered in 5.56 mm NATO. It is a modernized variant of the AUG featuring a top Picatinny rail (instead of the built-in optical sight), as well as a small accessory rail mounted at a 45-degree angle on the right-hand side.
Mike has a few AUG reload animation previews right here.
💡 The AUG A1 is likely to be added in a later update.
💡 The AUG will also serve as a template to facilitate the modding of other bullpup weapons into GROUND BRANCH.
G36K Custom
Our first G36K will be a custom model featuring aftermarket parts including a low-profile top rail, a quad-rail handguard, and an adjustable stock.
For a preview of G36K reload animations straight from Mike, click here.
💡 A "factory" variant of the G36K (with the classic carry handle + optics combo) will be added in a future update.
LVAW
The LVAW (Low Visibility Assault Weapon) is a specialist variant of the MCX series of rifles adopted by JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command). It was developed as a rifle-caliber substitute for the MP5SD submachine gun, with superior ergonomics, range, accuracy and lethality while being just as quiet.
For that goal, the LVAW features a large thread-on suppressor (meant to be always on) and fires a subsonic load of .300 AAC Blackout (.300 BLK), an intermediate cartridge with the same overall dimensions as 5.56 mm NATO — meaning it can use the same magazines.
The LVAW model was created by the amazing Bakr Asaad, who has also modeled our custom M1911 and a number of other assets
Many of you have requested a modernized AK in 7.62×39 mm, and the AK-103 with Zenitco furniture will be arriving in V1035 to deliver it. Think of it as a tacticool AKM.
MK24 CAP
The MK24 CAP (Combat Assault Pistol) is a variant of the HK45CT compact pistol adopted by the US Navy. It fires .45 ACP rounds from a 10- or 12-round magazine.
Our MK24 was created by the very talented Cody Cudmore, whose models can be found throughout GROUND BRANCH’s arsenal
Like most pistols in GROUND BRANCH, the MK24 features an under-barrel accessory rail and a threaded barrel for suppressors.
AI
We’re working on all relevant fronts to deliver a considerable upgrade to how AI looks, sounds and fights in V1035. While much of V1034 was spent porting the existing AI logic over to the new Kythera AI system — leaving little room for big changes — V1035 will begin more noticeably expanding and improving the feel of our AI.
And since no decent AI lives on code and logic alone, animator Mike and sound designer Zack are joining Chris’ efforts to add much-needed life to our bots, with a first pass on more natural poses and movements, as well as entirely new voice lines.
Animations
AI that moves robotically will feel robotic no matter how human-like it might be under the hood. Which is why we’re starting to add AI-specific animations in V1035: to better convey the different AI states, as well as visually set OPFOR factions apart from players. This will be an ongoing process, but Mike has already rendered a handful of WIP examples for us to check out:
Voice lines
As detailed in Intel Report #019, last year we recorded 18 voice actors in four different languages: US English, Russian, Spanish Mexican and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA).
Zack has processed and mixed all of the Russian and Spanish Mexican lines, meaning we should have enough material to start shaping up both the Russian PMC and Mexican cartel factions. We’ll be sharing a preview in next month’s Intel Report.
Behaviors
The AI in V1035 isn’t getting updated on the outside only; existing behaviors are to be improved, and new behaviors added. Things like grenade-throwing (which didn’t make V1034), better self-preservation (including fleeing from grenades), being blinded/stunned by flashlights, and spotting not just the source of player lights but also the projected lights themselves… are all currently planned for the big release. Go Chris!
This has been Intel Report #021!
Thank you for taking the time to read our little dev blog. Any comments, questions or suggestions? Leave them below and get the discussion going.
As always: thank you for your support, and we’ll see you next time!
The Summer Sale is here, and GROUND BRANCH is 30% OFF until July 11 @10am Pacific:
But wait!
If you have a PayPal account and would like to support us further, please consider buying your key directly from our website — that way we receive the full cut of the sale. Use code SUMMER2024 at the checkout and you’ll get the same 30% discount:
Upon purchasing, you’ll receive a key to redeem on Steam (if you’re unsure how to do that, click here).
Please note you’ll need a PayPal account, and that our store is limited to US dollar (USD) sales. If you’re in a different region, you may still prefer buying from Steam as it uses regional pricing.
Thank you for your patience and support while we worked on the latest update for GROUND BRANCH V1034. Though this has been a tough testing and debugging season thanks to major system changes — particularly AI and animations — the official release is now among us!
🗒️ For a detailed list of changes, please see our patch notes for the V1034 Community Test releases over the last few months here.
For the non-masochists among us, keep reading as we have a more readable summary of the main changes to the game since our last main release (V1033). But first:
⛔ IMPORTANT: Clearing your old files is recommended!
If you are coming from V1033 or have not downloaded a Community Test build in a while, you need to delete all contents in the following locations (copy-paste these paths into your File Explorer address bar):
1️⃣ %LOCALAPPDATA%\GroundBranch\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor
2️⃣ Documents\GroundBranch
Not doing so may cause various asset and input issues in your game.
Highlights
DX12 mode and DLSS 3 Frame Generation
Once you’ve updated to V1034 and launched GROUND BRANCH, you’ll be greeted with a new pop-up dialog that lets you choose between running the game in either DX11 (the default option we’ve always had) or DX12 mode (previously available only via the -dx12 launch parameter).
DX12 (DirectX 12) mode is required to use the new NVIDIA DLSS 3 Frame Generation video setting, which users of GeForce RTX 40-series GPUs will benefit from in terms of framerates. If you’re one such user, here’s how to enable it:
Launch GROUND BRANCH in DX12 mode
Go to Settings ► Video
Under the “Video” section, look for NVIDIA DLSS 3 Frame Generation and select “On” from the dropdown menu
Apply the new settings
💡 Users of different graphics cards may experience improved performance from running GROUND BRANCH in DX12 mode, regardless of the DLSS 3 Frame Generation setting. We recommend everyone to try it out and see how their system reacts.
UI, UX, settings and accessibility
The user interface and general user experience have received a number of updates in V1034, with multiple new options introduced. Here are some of the main changes to look out for:
Pressing Esc during single player sessions will now pause the game
Added a headcam-style camera to Spectator Mode, also accessible as a debug camera (Ctrl+↑)
The portion of the Gameplay settings dedicated to on-screen elements has been split into the new HUD menu
Colorblindness settings have been added to Settings ► Video (Advanced)
The Server Browser now features an expanded info box (listing players per team, as well as active mods) when a server is clicked
The Ops Board in the Ready Room now has a ↻ button to re-randomize objectives and insertion points
Players can now volunteer for game mode-specific roles — such as the hostage (Hostage Rescue) or flag carrier (DTAS) — by clicking the Volunteer button next to their name in the Session Roster
Servers can now allow friendly name tags in-game: these only appear when the player is pointing at a teammate from within a certain range; you can disable this feature for yourself in Settings ► HUD
Callsign patches will now be displayed on the back of Headgear items
The Mission Editor was updated, and validators now check for collision and navmesh issues
Skin selection now features standardized swatch-like icons, especially useful for previewing camo patterns
Server administration
More comprehensive server admin options/settings, including the option to restart a server in-game and to schedule server restarts for particular times of day
Server admins can now lock (disable) the Ready Room test shooting range
General fixes and improvements
A plethora of optimizations to various maps and game systems
Cleaned up various UI elements to improve readability, formatting and consistency
A load of bug fixes, including not being able to change the enemy count via Ops Board
AI
We have now made the switch to the Kythera AI middleware, replacing the stock Unreal Engine 4 AI system. We had paused AI development in a less-than-ideal state for a few updates in anticipation of this change, but luckily nobody noticed or brought it up ever.
Kythera is not a complete AI solution, but a tool that allows us to implement AI in more flexible and effective ways. We still had to do a whole ton of work behind the scenes to get everything working properly, and a lot of work remains as we’ll explain further.
💡 Thanks in particular to Chris, who has cemented his reputation as our official AI guy, and to Kythera for working closely with us and helping iron out the odd AI wrinkle.
You will notice a wide variety of changes in how the AI behaves. Overall, the AI should now be more “life-like” and more challenging in some aspects, but without having as much of an aimbot feel to them. AI senses (sight and hearing) have been continually tweaked, and benefit from improved pathing and more sophisticated actions: AI will return fire and take cover as before, but they may now crouch and go prone in certain contexts (e.g. lack of nearby cover), use suppressive fire to keep players pinned down, form spontaneous squads, hold close to guard points (as close as mission designers specify), react to dead bodies, and use a few more call-outs.
At lower difficulty levels, AI will now also fire tracers — with higher frequency at lower skill levels — and have more frequent muzzle flash effects to help less hardcore players figure out where they’re being shot from.
Stance and movement should also have a greater impact on detection, so be sure to move slowly and keep a low profile if you’re trying to be sneaky.
Missions have also been given a once-over to check specifically for collision and navmesh issues, so the AI should now flow around maps more easily in existing missions.
💡 One important aspect of AI presentation still missing is more varied animations, as the lack of specific motions to convey all the different AI behaviors makes bots retain a lot of their "roboticness". The lack of natural "idle" animations also contributes to this.
We'll of course continue to iterate on that an other aspects of AI as things progress, including providing friendly AI support (that is, AI teammates) as well as more sophisticated and natural-looking enemy AI.
New voice lines are also recorded and waiting to be implemented in a future update cycle.
Prone and animation overhaul
Prone (a.k.a. lying on the ground) has been on our to-do list for a while, but we didn’t want to do it until we could do it right™. After another extensive and necessary under-the-hood overhaul to support the new stance, it is now in and working thanks to the combined efforts of Kris and Mike.
There are still some kinks to work out, but even so, we think we have created a solid base to build upon. Here’s how it currently works:
To toggle between your current stance and prone, hit the Prone key (default Z)
Going prone while sprinting will perform a dive
Pressing Jump while prone will immediately switch to standing, regardless of your stance before going prone
Once prone, you will not be able to aim beyond a limited horizontal arc, while vertical aiming will be limited by the ground at the bottom and a fairly modest upwards angle
Pressing any movement key while looking/aiming off to either side will rotate your character in place to align their lower body with their upper body
You can crawl in all directions by using your movement keys. You can crawl faster by holding the Run key (default Shift)
While prone, the limited aiming angles require rotating your character to cover different areas
By assigning keys to the new Stance Up and Stance Down keybinds, you may also use an alternative control scheme that sequences between Standing ↔ Crouched ↔ Prone instead of transitioning directly to/from prone.
Keep in mind!
❌ Going prone will interrupt certain actions, such as reloading — if you hit the dirt while reloading, make sure you have a magazine in the well and a round in the chamber!
❌ Most actions (shooting, reloading, changing items etc.) will interrupt movement while prone, and you cannot start crawling while these actions are being performed.
❌ While prone, you're also unable to perform most world interactions, such as opening doors, deploying breaching charges or interacting with mission objectives.
❌ You will not be able to go prone if there's not enough room for your character's full body length.
Other changes in animations
Characters now react to weapon recoil against their upper body when firing
Death animations have been created for crouched and prone stances
Death animations from the standing position received some polish as well
Leaning now uses actual poses that look more natural
The Breaching Charge now has an animation for setting up the charge on doors, as well as for triggering the detonator
Switching weapons got a polish pass
Improved animations and hand poses for AK-type rifles
Hand poses in general — such as how your character holds grenades — were also slightly updated
Lastly, animations and poses were created for the new and updated weapons (we’ll get to those!)
🐞 Your character's support (left) arm will bend in unnatural ways when moving while holding various primary weapons with no foregrip equipped. This is due to the animation rework and will be fixed in a point release.
Focus Zoom
Another notable addition to gameplay is the Focus Zoom ability. As the name suggests, it allows you to zoom in on your sight picture, giving reticles and targets more pixels to work with on your screen and making ranged shots a better experience.
Focus Zoom is bound to Hold Ctrl by default (same key as Steady Aim) but can be changed in Settings ► Controls.
💡 Keep in mind that the Focus Zoom function will disengage if you move, or if you move your weapon too fast.
Customization and inventory updates
We are very pleased to welcome playable female characters to the Ready Room, in the spirit of the classic Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six games that inspired GROUND BRANCH.
The addition also encouraged us to finally get some hairstyles implemented, and so we did. Here’s what’s new:
7 new characters (Females 01–06 and Male 06), selectable under the APPEARANCE tab
4 male hairstyles (Crew Cut A, Crew Cut B, Caesar Cut and Long Cut) under the new HAIR tab
4 female hairstyles (Straight Bun, Textured Bun and Buzzcut) under the new HAIR tab
1 new beard style (Short Beard) under the FACIAL HAIR tab
💡 Additional hairstyles and customization options (such as hair color) will follow in future updates.
New and updated skins
In addition to a big revision of gear and outfit skins to look more authentic and consistent, a handful of new skins were also created for the following items:
Tactical Pants Coyote Brown
Ball Cap / Ball Cap (Reverse) DCP AOR-1 M81
Boonie Hat / Boonie Hat (Folded) UCP
Helmet (HC) OCP AOR-1 AOR-2
Headset Foliage Green
A new version of the Flannel Shirt with the popular “Buffalo plaid” pattern was also added in 8 different colors.
💡 The old pattern shirt is still available — we renamed it Light Flannel Shirt.
🏳️ In case you missed the Intel Report and discussion: most country flag patches have been removed. More details in this post.
New weapons
SA58 OSW (top) and Galil ARM (bottom)
As is tradition in our main releases, V1034 introduces a few new blasters to the armory:
SA58 OSW battle rifle (Battle Rifle / DMR / Sniper Rifle category)
This modernized, highly compact version of the FAL battle rifle features multiple accessory rails. Magazine capacity is 20 rounds of 7.62 mm NATO ammunition. Can be fitted with a suppressor.
Galil ARM automatic rifle (Machine Gun category)
A 5.56 mm NATO rifle created for the squad automatic weapon role, the Galil ARM can fit either 35- or 50-round magazines.
FAL battle rifle (Battle Rifle / DMR / Sniper Rifle category)
The FAL with wooden furniture (based on the very rare FAL G-series) last seen in V1033 as the FAL (Vintage) is now replaced with a more appropriate and far more common variant fitted with a polymer stock and handguard. It still fires 7.62 mm NATO ammunition from a 20-round magazine.
💡 The MPX 9 mm submachine gun has also been updated with a new model.
Radio (cosmetic)
A radio pouch and PTT (push-to-talk) module are now a fixed part of most Platform items in the game, with the exception of the Ballistic Vest. While mostly a cosmetic addition that helps build up the characters visually and get players more immersed, the radio pouch has taken the place of a customizable pouch slot in some platforms — so keep that in mind when re-creating your builds. The presence of the radio system on your character has otherwise no gameplay effect.
Modding
Official GROUND BRANCH modding is… coming. Callum has put in a lot of work to create an SDK (Software Development Kit) for the game, and a lot of the internals of the game have been rejigged to facilitate the use of third-party mods via Steam Workshop.
We still have some hoops to jump through before we can officially release the SDK, but that should be sorted soon and allow the release in a V1034 point release (patch).
💡 Initial SDK release will include the ability to add new weapons, with further modding coming later.
Map and mission updates
The classic Small Town map has been extensively overhauled by Will, who returns to the team after a brief hiatus
The Farm has had cosmetic updates to bring it into consistency with (and indeed proximity to) Small Town — canonically establishing both maps as part of the same training complex in Camp Peary
City was extended with a fun new bank area and a few other new enterable buildings
Lots of other maps have had touch-ups and plenty of bug fixes here and there
We are also laying the groundwork for more interactive and interesting maps and missions. For example, Compound now has a call to prayer at (approximately) correct astronomically-based times of day. City is now overseen by a nosey news helicopter that can be scared away with sprays of gunfire. And now that players can crawl underwater in prone, Creek and various other maps have been outfitted with brand new underwater effects.
🐞 The animation for City's helicopter bailing out may not be playing correct. We're looking into it.
Missions have also been tweaked, bug-fixed, and in some cases new missions have been added. Rig now sports a new Hostage Rescue mission set in the accommodation block, for example, and new mission variants for Hostage Rescue and Terrorist Hunt have been created for City.
💡 With the new AI and prone capability, even existing missions may play quite differently from V1033 — give them a try!
New game mode: Defuse (Lone Wolf / Online Co-Op)
V1034 launches with the return of the Defuse game mode, now also available in co-op.
In Defuse, you’ll race against the clock to defuse a number of explosives around the mission area, guarded of course by AI enemies.
The default amount of explosives to defuse is 2, with the default timer at 15 minutes and a default defuse time of 10 seconds per bomb. These can all be customized via Ops Board before deploying.
To defuse a bomb, look at the LED display and hold Use/Interact (default F) when the prompt appears. You should see a progress bar filling up in LED display.
Throw a careless grenade or shoot wildly at the bombs and you may find yourself making a lot of new friends.
💡 The Extraction game mode — essentially a PvE version of Hostage Rescue — is slated for a V1034 point release (a small update or patch), building on the new AI and animation work. Stay tuned for updates on this as well.
A small change to Intel Retrieval
While we’re talking game modes, the laptop in Intel Retrieval is now automatically grabbed and put away after finishing the search — just a little streamlining to make things less redundant and frustrating.
🐞 Due to changes in underlying systems, Hostage Rescue is in a work-in-progress (WIP) state, with some bugs remaining in relation to leading and restrained behaviors. However, the core gameplay should still work (including the new Volunteer function).
Audio updates
In addition to all of the sound work done to support prone movement, the new weapons and female voice lines (via Comms Menu), audio was also updated in these areas:
Soundtrack
As announced in Intel Report #017, we have partnered up with composer and sound designer Venus Theory, who is authoring the soundtrack for GROUND BRANCH. This release already features a few of his tracks in the main menu, transition screens, and the Ready Room. We’re excited to hear your thoughts on them!
Environmental audio
Optimized audio occlusion and diffraction when inside buildings
Indoor audio now reacts to whether a door is open or closed (this can now be expanded to account for the material of the room/building)
Fixed missing ambient sounds for all maps
Updated attenuation for various distances to provide more spatial awareness and distance for varying sounds
🐞 When playing online, The Farm does not play audio for various actions. We have been unable to fix this so far, but are working on it.
Event SFX
Power boxes now have a distinctive electric “hum” when active, and will also play a sound when switching the lever on/off
🐞 In some cases, the hum will not play at the start of an online round.
Added localized beeping and explosion SFX for Defuse’s bombs, as well as sound effects for closing and putting away Intel Retrieval’s laptop
Implemented and fine-tuned news helicopter audio and attenuation (City)
Mixing
Updated overall mix for gunshots, reloads, character foley and environment:
Character movement (e.g. footsteps) now sounds quieter and more balanced in the mix
Reloads are less sharp and overpowering compared to other sounds
Gunshots are slightly less loud in general, with suppressed gunshots now also being slightly quieter than their unsuppressed counterparts
Weapon sounds now have more room reverb compared to the environmental audio and character movement
VFX
Visual effects have been generally reworked in V1034:
Blood splatter on surfaces has been re-introduced, with new decals created
Grenade effects and bullet impacts
New particles for smokescreen and frag explosions were created
New material-based bullet impacts were added
Various props and materials not displaying correct bullet impacts were fixed
Muzzle and weapon effects
Muzzle flash and smoke have all been updated, and a shockwave effect was added
Ejection ports now also generate smoke when shooting
Light fixture effects
Outdoor light fixtures now attract bugs at night
Shooting out lights now generates sparkle particles
Most light fixtures now have a proper “destroyed” version when shot out
Frag explosion
Light bugs
Light destruction
This has been Build Update #047!
By the time you’re done reading this, we’re already fixing pending issues and on the lookout for reports like a pack of airport security dogs.
We’ll most likely push the first patch (V1034.1) in about a week, so give this build a good kick in the tires and let us know if you find any bugs we haven’t mentioned.
As always, thank you for reading and continuing to play, follow and support GROUND BRANCH. See you on the next one!
Coyote Brown
DCP 
AOR-1 
M81
UCP
OCP 
AOR-2
Foliage Green
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