Intel Report

Hey, folks!

As you’re aware, we’re deep into developing V1.1.0, so this is just a quick report to fill you in on a couple of things. Firstly:

Version 1.1.0 (including Chapter 1) releases November 12

That’s two weeks from today!

We’re all working hard to wrap up the new V1.1.0 update nicely, but the bulk is in there: a new Operations hotspot (Persian Gulf) with 3 new missions, our first campaign-specific Ready Rooms, several updates for the AI (including idle animations, hostage and HVT behaviors etc.), shoulder-tapping, miscellaneous animation improvements, audio tweaks, new weapons and attachments, face paint and more.

🔗 See Intel Report #033 for details and previews if you haven't already.

So there you have it — November 12 is when you’ll be getting your hands on all of that.

Now, for possibly even bigger news…

GROUND BRANCH is making the move to UE5

That’s right: GROUND BRANCH is finally being migrated to Unreal Engine 5.8, the latest version of Epic’s UE5.

💡 GROUND BRANCH in UE5 is a near-future endeavor. Version 1.1.0 will still be released in UE4 on November 12.

UE4 has been visually showing its age for a while, and plugins have been dropping support for it. Newer versions are UE5-only, and UE5 natively supports many of the features we’ve been using plugins for — in some cases, we’ve even been backporting them to UE4. With all of that in mind, we decided it was time to finally make the jump. In addition to allowing us to work a little more efficiently, it should make the game more future-proof and do the art team’s work a little more justice.

We’ll get into more details in the future. For now, rest assured that we have a dedicated team working in parallel on the migration process, which does not conflict with our regular development in UE4.27.

Anyway, here are a few teasers for how things are shaping up inside UE5. Most of these previews are fairly low-resolution and low-FPS, but they should give you an idea of the upgrade in lighting and atmosphere, as well as the prospect of weather effects:

And that’s all we have time for today! We’ll see you on November 12.

Hello!

After a period of hotfixes, we have since moved on to work on release V1.1.0 — which includes Chapter 1 of the Operations campaign, as well as several other updates to AI, animations, items and more that we’ll be discussing today.

📅 GROUND BRANCH V1.1.0 is slated to release by the end of October.

💡 All planned updates will, of course, be 100% free for GROUND BRANCH owners.

Read on and your curiosity shall be quenched. But first, a quick notice:

🍂 Steam Autumn Sale: 20% OFF

GROUND BRANCH will be 20% OFF on the Steam Autumn Sale, starting in just a few days on October 1st (Thursday). Take the opportunity to give the game a try if you haven’t yet, grab an extra copy to gift a friend, or convince your non-GB buddies to finally squad up.

Alright, on to the dev blog now!

New personnel to get animations up to spec

For V1.1.0, our characters will be receiving an upgrade to clean up a lot of the lingering animation issues, lay the foundation for bringing our characters to life a little further, and hook up new animations that require some technical expertise and dedicated personnel. To reach that goal, we have brought onboard two specialists:

Norberto Aguilera is a technical animator, 3D rigger and animator specializing in character rigging, motion capture cleanup, hand-keyed animation, and real-time simulation, with experience in titles from Six Days in Fallujah to Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2. In addition to hooking up a new character rig — with cleaner and improved deformation — Norberto has been focusing on hooking up facial rigging to add facial expressions and mouth movement to our characters, as well as cloth simulation (to have clothing react to the wind in certain maps and during vehicle insertions).

Giacomo “Jack” Della Corte is the self-taught creator of the Universal Locomotion plugin system for Unreal Engine, with plenty of experience hooking up and blending animations in-engine. He has been busy cleaning up animation transitions and mesh deformations, hooking up the vaulting and mantling system, implementing a procedural weapon rotation and horizontal tilt for weapon handling, enhancing IK (inverse kinematics) and control rig setups, and more. Jack will also be in charge of implementing cleaner strafing animations (that have already been captured by lead animator Mike) and polishing up the weapon collision system.

Below are some examples of what the boys have been up to. Here’s Norberto testing the newly implemented facial rig (often with disturbing results):

And here’s the new face rig in action, playing a sample animation using one of our characters — notice the eye blinking and other subtle facial movements:

Jack has been cleaning up a lot of animations, such as the arm “snapping” at the end of reloads:

He’s also hooking up vaulting and climbing for various heights of obstacles. It’s not quite perfect, but it’s getting there:

We hope to have most of their work in your game soon. Until then, let’s all welcome Norberto and Jack!

A new hotspot is coming to Operations

Operations mode — where you launch campaign missions from — will be receiving a new hotspot: the Persian Gulf.

The Persian Gulf hotspot includes 3 missions, set in maps Tanker, Rig and Docks, the latter of which is undergoing a small update for mission-specific purposes:

As mentioned in previous posts, each new hotspot from V1.1.0 onwards will have its own unique Ready Room. For the Northwest Pakistan hotspot (released in V1.0), you’ll be getting briefed and geared up in a temporary operations center set up inside a local residence:

For the upcoming Persian Gulf hotspot, you’ll be deploying from a section inside an aircraft carrier with most of the same amenities you’d expect from other Ready Rooms:

💡 We originally planned for friendly AI to be ready for Chapter 1 (V1.1.0), but it will need a little longer in the oven. Until then, Operations will remain playable as a solo operator (Offline Mode or Online Mode) or with other players in co-op (Online Mode).

AI developments: civilians, HVTs and enemies

Civilian AI

To support specific requirements of our new Persian Gulf hotspot, our programming and animation teams got to creating civilian AI with its own behavior trees and animations.

Civilians will wander the level until they notice a threat, at which point they break off, run for the nearest alarm panel and press it, then run for cover. Once alerted, they head for predetermined hiding spots and claim one, so several civilians don’t pile into the same spot.

Alarm panels are a new actor that both AI and players can interact with. Raising the alarm fires a proper gameplay event, allowing missions and game modes to react to it.

💡 More basic civilian AI (without the alarm mechanic) may be added to choice maps and game modes in the future.

New HVT archetype (capture mechanic)

We have implemented an unarmed high-value target (HVT) that spawns guarded by its own AI squad. Once every guard in that squad is down, the HVT surrenders and kneels. A player can then walk up and take them into custody, at which point it joins that player’s team and takes squad commands (Fall In, Move To, Take Cover, Hold) similarly to a freed hostage.

While still guarded, the HVT hides like a civilian when it spots a threat, and gives up its hiding spot the moment it surrenders — so it surrenders wherever it happened to be hiding rather than snapping back to a fixed position. A new stand-to-kneel transition blends into the looping surrender pose instead of popping straight into the kneel.

💡 Captured HVTs are also flagged as no-target, so enemy AI target selection ignores them once they have joined the players' team.

💡 Escorted characters in V1.1.0 wil also mirror the stance and speed of the player actually escorting them. This fixes them mirroring every player's stance and failing to close the gap to their escort.

AI grenades, idling and visibility

Whether AI can throw grenades is being made a world setting, so it can be tuned or disabled per map. It is currently disabled on Rig and Tanker, where grenade use was dominating close-quarters fights and common-sense would dictate explosions are a no-no because of all the flammables everywhere.

Guards and patrolling AI now idle in place with animation instead of standing frozen at the end of a route, driven by a new looping idle ability and behavior tree node. All of Mike’s mocap for idle animations will finally be in the limelight and add a little more naturalness to our AI — at least until the first bullet is fired.

The per-skill-level muzzle flash setting existed previously but nothing ever read it, so AI weapons always flashed. It is now hooked up and applied, meaning how visible AI fire is can be tuned by AI skill level.

Under the hood

We have reworked how AI processes incoming sound signals internally (Kythera audio signal rework), which is groundwork for more consistent reactions to gunfire and other noise. We have also removed a batch of AI settings that were dead code and no longer driving anything.

New faction reveal: Pájaro Negro Cartel

Pau has once again supplied us with brand-new custom models to replace our older marketplace enemy assets.

Today we’re showcasing our latest faction overhaul — Mexican cartel Pájaro Negro (Spanish for black bird). PJN are the largest cartel in the state of Chihuahua, holding several seats of power in the local government. While we won’t go into too much detail just yet on their significance in Operations, we think these visual teasers should be enough to drum up interest.

💡 As is the case for all new enemy assets, these were created to allow a good degree of mixing and matching parts — heads, upper and lower bodies — in addition to head and face accessories.

Here are some in-game examples using some of the upcoming enemy idle poses:

Letting sounds pass through broken windows

Quick one from the sound department: audio portals are being added to all breakable windows, meaning they will no longer isolate sounds once shot out. Instead, they will correctly let SFX “travel through” as if the window were open. This is an incredibly tedious task given the number of windows on a whole bunch of maps, but Zack is on the job.

Face paint on the way

In V1.1.0 you’ll be able to add face paint to your characters.

Pau has gone full-spectrum artist for this task, first creating smears and smudges on actual paper with his fingers. He then digitalized the results and turned them into Photoshop brushes:

Using these brushes, Pau started developing the look of each face paint style and eventually created fully tileable swatches that John got to hook up in the UE4 editor.

To select a face paint style, you’ll simply have to click the new skin selection button in the corner of the Appearance tab and pick one from the menu:

💡 The face paint selection includes skins Jungle, Sand, Solid, Urban and Woodland.

New hardware coming to the armory

A custom U100 MK3 will be available under the Light Machine Gun category in V1.1.0.

Firing 5.56 NATO rounds from a 100-round drum magazine, the U100 MK3 is technically a heavy-barrel automatic rifle designed for the SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon) role.

It is fitted with a long accessory rail on top — with plenty of room for optics, plus a LAM or light — as well as a bottom rail for grips and other attachments you might want to add.

💡 Other weapons and accessories are also inbound in V1.1.0, including several new optics, a new LAM (Laser Aiming Module), and a certain bolt-action rifle — all Russian-made. Leave your guesses in the comments!

This has been Intel Report #033!

As always, thanks for keeping up with GROUND BRANCH — your support and interest in the game is what keeps us going.

A final reminder that we’re planning on getting V1.1.0 out by the end of October, so stay tuned. We’re unsure whether we’ll manage another dev blog before the release, but it’s not off the cards.

Whatever happens, we’ll see you on the next one!

Hey everyone,

Welcome back to another Intel Report. We know it’s been a minute, but the silence has been the sound of heads-down work. And this time we’re not just pulling back the curtain on a few previews. We’ve got a lot to discuss about the future of GROUND BRANCH.

After years of development, and a whole lot of invaluable feedback from you, we’re proud to announce that GROUND BRANCH V1.0 launches on July 16, 2026.

Yes, you read that right. We have a date.

This is the most significant milestone in the game’s history. V1.0 officially replaces the “V1036” label and brings improvements across AI, environments, visuals, animations, inventory, player interaction and overall immersion on the strongest foundation GROUND BRANCH has ever stood on.

So before we get into the roadmap and what comes next, let’s go over what you’ll actually be deploying with on day one.

What’s in V1.0

V1.0 is the culmination of everything we’ve been teasing across our Intel Reports, brought together into one release and polished for both solo and co-op play. Here’s the rundown on the latest developments since Intel Report #031, plus some important highlights.

The campaign returns: Operations and the Prologue

Many of you will remember Operations, the campaign structure we first demoed back in V1034. It was pulled temporarily for some much-needed retooling, and it’s making its return for V1.0. This isn’t a simple re-release of the “Silent Reach” demo, however. We’re introducing the Prologue, set in the new Northwest Pakistan hotspot, where you’ll play two new missions set two years before the main events of the campaign — a gentle on-ramp into the Operations gameplay loop.

The bigger shift: the story is now a central focus. Where the original vision had standalone hotspots with little connective tissue, we’ve put serious time into building a real narrative — a proper storyline with grounded characters and situations. We brought writer Scott Hamm aboard to set the stage and key characters, while our own Travis Rose continues to unfold the plot and develop the factions and operations.

💡  The Prologue also introduces a character who'll play a role in events further down the campaign.

💡  Expect the return of full briefings — this time with voice-overs — plus persistent progression.

For now, Operations will be available in lone-wolf and co-op only, with a proper friendly-AI system planned for Chapter 1 (more on chapters soon). As we keep refining the core mechanics, we’ll circle back and bring these early missions up to their best.

Outpost joins the map selection

A brand-new environment is almost done, and it’s the setting for the second mission of our Prologue: Outpost.

Set in the mountains of northwest Pakistan, Outpost is built around an old fort perched on a ridge right along the Afghan border. Inside the stone walls you’ll find interconnected buildings, plenty of vantage points and tight passageways. Outside them, rugged terrain and sparse shrubs are about all the cover you’ll get crossing a large, exposed perimeter.

Outpost joins Airbase (747 remake), Hospital (Rundown remake), Border and Creek (overhaul) as the additions for V1.0’s map selection.

💡  Expect high-wind audio ambience that can mask your footsteps — and very lethal, long sightlines if you get caught in the open.

💡  At launch, Outpost is tied to the second Prologue mission only. It won't be available in quick missions or other modes just yet, but broader access is of course planned for a post-launch update.

Smarter, deadlier enemy AI

Our enemies have had substantial work done to their logic, and we continue to work under the hood to improve their overall decision making in combat. We’ve got Chris and Zachary locked in a room with the behavior trees working on the following:

• Aim point now depends on skill level and visibility: By default, AI aim for the pelvis bone. However, if the body is behind cover and only the head is visible, the AI will switch to targeting the head instead of losing the target entirely. Higher skilled AI will aim for the chest or head by default.
• Perception range and reaction speed have been adjusted: Maximum view distance increased from 100 meters to 200 meters. The rate at which the AI’s alertness builds has also been tweaked so that AI will avoid the old scenario of staring at a player and not reacting.
• Suppression and damage response: The AI now react to being shot in an unaware state. Being hit sets a suppression value and location, causing flee behavior to trigger even when the AI cannot see or hear the attacker. This means if you miss that lethal shot the chances of the AI running to cover before you can finish the job.
• Defender AI behavior added: Enemies in guard mode are now “defenders” tethered to their assigned guard point. They cannot move outside a set radius but will turn toward sounds, allowing them to hear you approaching and respond rather than standing frozen with their back turned. On maps like Hospital, previously RunDown, this means enemies hold their rooms and avoid lining up like a train to their death.
• Guard point logic improved: AI now claim only one guard point at a time. If all guard points in a group are taken, remaining AI idle gracefully. Guard points are released whenever the AI changes state.
• Morale and death awareness systems added: When AI witness another enemy die, they experience suppression and a morale drop. This means your combat actions have more of an effect on the overall enemy’s decision trees.
• Retreat and flee behavior now depends on skill level: Higher-skilled AI stay in cover longer before breaking away from contact. Overall, enemies feel more resilient.
• Under the hood: Behavior tree nodes are being moved from Blueprint to C++ for better performance and reliability.

Take a look at this quick demo on the overhauled Creek against enemies on “Trained” difficulty (hit reactions and the armor system are also visible):

💡 As mentioned in previous reports, all our enemy factions will also feature entirely new models and textures, as well as native-language voice lines.

Extrapolating on Extraction

In our last blog, we introduced the new quick mission Extraction, our PvE counterpart to the Hostage Rescue multiplayer mode. This week we’d like to go into more detail on how this mode plays, how it will be worked on in the future, and the underlying changes to AI to make some features also apply to HVTs (high-value targets) in our campaign.

In Extraction, players take on the role of the rescue team while the enemy AI hold onto a friendly hostage. The hostage is guarded by 2 captors — enemy AI whose sole purpose is to keep tabs on the prisoner. As the captor witnesses and hears combat, they will become agitated, depleting their morale meter as they go on. This meter does not refill and, if fully depleted, will result in an execution. (A demo of this behavior was previewed in Intel Report #031.)

💡 The maximum number of hostages per map will be expanded in the future.

Interacting with the hostage is currently handled through our command wheel: to free and begin leading them, simply follow the interaction prompt. While being led with the “Follow Me” command, the hostage will mirror the player’s speed and stance. When ordered to “Move To” they will always run to the position, while ordering them to “Take Cover” will send them to the nearest viable cover to crouch and hold. In co-op scenarios, the hostage will respect the last player to interact with them, allowing players to quickly take control in a situation where you end up in contact with the enemy.

Extraction has some changes from our other quick missions that are important to note. For one, the amount of enemies on the map has to be a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 30. This is for balancing purposes and gives us headroom in the future for civilian and hostage AI expansions.

We hope you look forward to giving it a try and sharing your feedback come release!

A new door interaction system

CQB is the heart of GROUND BRANCH, and V1.0 brings a smoother, more responsive door system without giving up an ounce of the realism you expect.

As covered last report, doors are getting locked-door support and the ability to breach them open with explosive charges or shots to the handle. Since then we’ve worked out a better door handling animation and set up simulated physics with the doors which will react to being pushed by characters.

New player locomotion

Mike has been busy. We’re completely overhauling the player movement set with fresh motion capture. Standing and crouched movement — walking, jogging, sprinting, strafing — is all being replaced, and the difference in fluidity is night and day. Take a look at these previews:

💡 Running (default Shift) now uses a more stable stride animation, allowing for dynamic room clearing that looks and feels much better.

We’ve retuned the speeds across every stance and reworked weapon handling to use more natural movement wobble and aiming sway patterns in place of the stiffer movement currently in V1035.

Bark at the moon

Returning in v1.0 is the moon phase feature that used to be part of our Advanced Time Menu. We’ve made it easier than ever to understand and control this system.

In quick missions you can now choose the moon phase directly from the Mission Parameters menu, giving you granular control of how bright or dark you want your nights to be.

💡 The moon now appropriately casts a shadow. Hiding in the shadows cast by the moon further conceals your position, making you nearly invisible to the enemy.

With a full moon, most of the map is illuminated — you are more exposed to the enemy in this state:

With a waxing crescent (below) or darker moon phases, you will be more concealed to the enemy, but your NVG will require an IR illuminator (available on the AN/PEQ-15 or similar modded attachment) to help illuminate dark spaces.

💡 We are currently experimenting with lowering the overall visibility of the enemy at night compared to previous versions. We hope this helps you feel like an extra spooky operator.

Gameplay, inventory, visuals and quality-of-life upgrades

As previewed in our recent reports, lots of other updates are taking place in most areas of the game. To recap and add a few points:

• Several maps have had art updates to clean them up in preparation for release. One such map — Rig — has had some work done by Will. These include material and texture improvements, updates to the ballast tanks/leg interior, an optimization pass, adding railing covers, lighting and atmospherics, and adjusting the color palette to try and aid navigation.
• The new armor system will give players enhanced survivability at the expense of stamina and a further challenge in multiplayer encounters, while hit reactions add another layer of immersion and complexity to combat by making it more difficult to return fire if targeted first.
• In the locker room, players will have access to new gear (rugby shirts, fingerless gloves, rig/armor combos, kneepads, drop-leg holster…), weapons (RPK, M500, MK3…), attachments (new rail panels, grips) and new character appearance options (new hair and beard styles) to add even more operator and loadout variety.
• A large number of textures and models have also been reworked for better visuals and lighting in our character and inventory assets.
• We’ve raised the overall volume and increased the attenuation of footsteps and player foley. We’ve set them to be higher in the mix for now to address player feedback that they find it too hard to hear the enemy’s movements.
• As amusing as the flying ragdolls were, they’ve sadly been fixed. It was fun while it lasted.
• Replication of certain VFX like gun smoke and spent casings in PiP scopes will no longer render at a blown up scale on the maps. If you’ve ever seen a large 2D texture pop up in the sky and wondered “what was that?”… wonder no more!
• The VOIP crash which used to cause player’s audio to complete disappear is resolved.
• We have gone through all our missions and cleaned up invalid enemy spawns from the great migration to C++.

What V1.0 actually means

Hitting V1.0 does not mean the end of development.

V1.0 is the milestone that says GROUND BRANCH has fulfilled its core promise — a fully functional, stable, content-rich tactical shooter with a campaign framework and mod support. Hitting that mark doesn’t close the book; it opens the next chapter. A great deal of what’s coming next is already mapped out — and that’s a roadmap of planned additions, not a list of things we’re scrambling to finish.

The road beyond V1.0

GROUND BRANCH V1.0 is the start of a process that runs all the way through the rest of 2026 and into 2027. Here’s where we’re headed.

💡 Though we're working extra hard to meet this schedule, please note that these dates are tentative.

July 2026: V1.0.0

Launch. Everything above, plus the base for multiplayer.

Summer 2026 → Winter 2026/2027: the campaign chapters

Following launch, we’ll roll out three new campaign chapters across updates V1.1.0, V1.1.1 and V1.1.2. Each chapter adds a new hotspot with 3–4 new missions, and every release keeps bringing new features, improvements and fixes alongside the story content.

💡 Every new hotspot also gets its own dedicated Ready Room, themed after the area.

V1.2.0: the Multiplayer Update

After Chapter 3 lands with V1.1.2, we’re planning a dedicated Multiplayer Update (V1.2.0) with a set of improvements, shipping alongside the new Mod Kit (SDK) updates for maps and missions.

💡 The Mod Kit will not be receiving updates until then.

That’s the shape of it: continued, planned expansion  of our gameplay, campaign chapters, the multiplayer update and Mod Kit, ongoing AI work, more maps, weapons and gear, and steady quality-of-life passes. We’ll have more detail to share on each of these in the months ahead.

Thank you

GROUND BRANCH wouldn’t be where it is without the dedication, feedback and support of this community. Every report, every discussion, every suggestion, every play session has helped shape the game into what it’s about to become.

On behalf of the entire team — thank you for being on this journey with us.

We look forward to deploying with you on July 16. See you on the ground.

This has been Intel Report #032!

As always, thanks for keeping up with GROUND BRANCH. Stay safe, and have a great rest of your week!

Hey there!

As the release draws nearer, we’re bringing you our final Intel Report for V1036. Historically, we’ve always released one build version at a time with a public test prior to pushing it to the main branch. However, this time we’d like to do things a bit differently: first off, we are internally past the V1036 build, completing our roadmap back in the beginning of this month. While we continue to polish the build internally, we began work on V1037 on the road to GROUND BRANCH V1.0.

Today we’ll be taking a closer look at more recent developments on the door lock and armor systems, the new Extraction mode, a couple of environmental overhauls, and miscellaneous visual upgrades for our characters. We’ll also be checking out the new MK3 pistol — a specialized handgun for stealth operations.

It’s been longer than usual since our last post, so we’ve made sure this one was a little meatier. Let’s get to it, shall we?

Armor system now functional

We gave you a quick peek at the early days of development for the armor system in Intel Report #029, explaining how we’re planning on having both “soft armor” (used in helmets and conventional body armor like our Bulletproof Vest) and “hard armor” (ballistic plates that go inside plate carriers such as the JPC or MPC) represented in the game.

We’ve also explained how armor will be able to take a certain amount of damage — depending on caliber, angle, location and number of shots etc. — before it is rendered useless.

With all of that in mind, we had to put it all together as a functional system in-game, and also come up with some type of user interface (UI) to display this information to players. Though the UI for displaying and adding armor in the customization screen is still being worked on, the in-game HUD is already in and working, as is the armor functionality itself for the most part.

The armor HUD is located right next to the Stance Indicator, in the bottom-right corner of the screen, and is comprised of a helmet icon (if a helmet is equipped), a body armor icon (if a bulletproof vest is equipped), and a group of plate icons (if a plate carrier with armor inserts is equipped):

💡 Minimal HUD enthusiasts will be able to hide the armor HUD in Settings › HUD › Show Armor.

Each icon has 3 possible statuses: intact (white), damaged (yellow and cracked), and broken (red and slashed across). Here they are in action:

And that’s what we have for you so far on the armor system! We hope to get the customization interface and other details rounded out in the upcoming weeks.

Also operational: door lock system

New to our upcoming release is the door lock system.

In our last post we told you about how regular doors will be breachable by destroying the door handle, while reinforced doors will require a breaching charge of some kind.

The logic for randomizing locked doors was done, but the door interactions were still in development. In this little demo below, we’re showcasing the actual interactions — shooting out the handle of a regular door vs. planting a breaching charge on a reinforced door — including the first version of the door interaction animation (currently using a generic “pick-up” animation), and even a sneak peek of the new locomotion and sway:

It’s a work in progress and we’re still figuring some things out but it’s all coming together, folks.

Extraction mode: creating AI captor and hostage logic

A new game mode coming to our next version, Extraction is what we’re dubbing the PvE version of Hostage Rescue.

Developing this mode has been a challenge due to the fact that an AI-controlled hostage requires a considerate amount of new logic and content to be created, from the hostage himself to the AI captor behavior. Chris has been tasked with these systems, with Mike providing new animations for the scenario.

Here’s one example of the current version in action:

So what is going on here? A hidden threat level for the captors raises in a similar way to alertness/detection: making noise, showing oneself and killing enemies in sight of the captors will increase the threat level.

As you probably guessed, once the threat level reaches the maximum threshold, captors will attempt to execute the hostage. Currently, there’s a 1-second grace period. Here’s how it goes down if you’re not fast enough:

Once freed, hostages can be controlled in the same fashion as the friendly AI in V1034, following orders such as “Fall In”, “Move To”, “Hold” and so on.

💡 The work done for Extraction amounts to more than just a standalone game mode — it will also be used for any campaign missions featuring hostages or prisoners that players can rescue or take into custody.

A peek into the new Ready Room

As part of a broader upgrade to training map The Farm, we have remade the Ready Room from the ground up. This facelift is part of our attempt to bring the overall visual identity and quality together.

The Ready Room is now cannonically located inside one of Camp Peary’s warehouses, and though the general layout remains similar, pretty much everything is brand-new. Here are the locker areas for the new Blue and Red sides:

💡 We wanted to make sure the new Blue and Red rooms feel unique and make it easier for players to tell which room they are in, hence the different styles.

Shooting ranges have now been set up with proper firing lanes, which also allow players to change the target’s distance:

The room flow has also been simplified to allow players to quickly see both room entrances from the spawn — we don’t wanna spoil that bit just yet, however.

Here’s a bonus shot of the Ops Room on Blue side:

Creek overhaul

As mentioned previously, wilderness map Creek has undergone a small overhaul.

In addition to generally polishing the map’s visuals (terrain, textures, assets etc.), Will established several goals for the rework: (1) raise the mine entrance area to a more level plateau in order to create a more defined area, (2) re-arrange buildings and landmark structures in a more inviting way while also better outlining their footprint, (3) make pathways a bit more obvious to improve navigation, and (4) replace the large ruins with European architecture with a more fitting structure, as well as making the surrounding area feel more like an abandoned settlement.

The map remains a fortified militia camp — just with nicer visuals and a more cohesive theme throughout.

💡 Set somewhere in the American south, Creek was originally devised as a PvP map by John but was later also set up for quick missions (PvE).

Now set west of a road with patrol cars blocking the north and south ends, players will be free to come up with their own lore for this map.

💡 Creek will not be part of the campaign, hence the less significant rework.

We hope you’ll enjoy this overhaul as much as we are!

MK3 integrally suppressed pistol

One interesting new piece of equipment coming to V1037 is the MK3 — an integrally suppressed pistol.

Chambered in .22 LR, the MK3 is considerably underpowered compared to 9 mm or .45 handguns. And with its single-file magazine, the capacity isn’t great either: only 10+1 rounds. So what’s the point of this gun? Well, its integrated suppressor is built to fire those underpowered rounds extremely quietly, making it an excellent tool for taking out sentries and doing other clandestine stuff without alerting every enemy in the area.

Pretty cool, huh?

💡 With its top-mounted rail, the MK3 is also one of the few pistols in the game that can attach a red dot sight. Neat!

Character visual upgrades and more

As part of a general cleanup of various materials for V1036, Will has taken a little time to enable and tweak subsurface scattering for our characters’ skins, as well as adding specular highlights to the eyeballs. Take a look at these comparisons:

He has also dialed in other values to make skin less reflective overall, while vastly improving how hair (and facial hair) is rendered:

Notice how the facial hair actually reflects the light now, appearing to have color and depth:

Another small tweak — this one courtesy of Pau — involved giving the player characters a slightly more determined/focused eye expression, toning down the wide-eyed effect. Some characters required a more noticeable adjustment than others, as this GIF shows:

Pau has also set new hair colors for each specific character, giving them some more personality and variety. Take a look at the new shades — and peep some of the new styles while you’re at it:

This has been Intel Report #031!

As always, thank you for keeping up with GROUND BRANCH’s development! We hope the scale of news and previews in this one makes up for the longer wait time.

See you on the next one!

Hello!

We’re back with another Intel Report filled with dev news and sneak peeks for our upcoming release GROUND BRANCH V1036.

Today we’ll go over some details on new game systems and mechanics — including AI — as well as another map reveal, some brand-new character art for a new enemy faction, and finally some more player customization options. Let’s get to it.

Upcoming systems and mechanics

Though we aren’t able to do a proper visual showcase of these updates just yet, we thought it would be nice to take the time to talk about some of the changes and additions currently being worked on by our programmers for game systems and mechanics.

Here are some recent developments on the coding front:

AI

In V1036, we’ll be bringing significant improvements to enemy AI beyond new art assets.

💡 New dev team member Zachary Ledbetter is working on our enemy AI while Chris pivots over to focus on the friendly AI and Extraction (aka PvE Hostage Rescue — more on that soon!).

A key consideration in the design of our locked doors was to avoid players getting completely stuck on a map. Even if a player runs out of breaching tools, they can still shoot at the handle of regular doors with a regular firearm to break through, and buildings with reinforced doors will always allow at least one unlocked door to enter/exit from if no breaching charges or other explosives are available.

Our door system will allow mission designers to either set locked doors manually, or use a system to randomly lock a specified number of doors. Here’s a quick visualization in which the system is being told to lock 5 doors of a total of 10:

💡 We will continue to test and prototype the door system with our AI and tester feedback to the find the optimal amount of doors locked for our missions.

Remaking Rundown

Those of you following GROUND BRANCH for a while know that we’ve been overhauling John’s original maps over the years to update visuals, improve or expand layouts, and thematically integrate them with the campaign stories that are being worked on behind the scenes.

In our last Intel Report we showcased Airbase, a full remake of the 747 map, now set in Libya. This week we’re revealing Hospital, a complete rework of CQB favorite Rundown that is being helmed by level artist Elliot.

📋 A derelict Soviet-era hospital just over the Russian border now serves as a command center for PMCs.

The design philosophy behind the Rundown update was all about improving the close-quarters battle experience, while giving players a more organic and intuitive structure to fight through. To achieve that, we’ve opened up the exterior a bit to create more space and angles from which players can approach the central building — which has itself been transformed from an abandoned school into a deactivated hospital.

The first step in that transformation was moving away from the overused asset pack that so many games rely on for Soviet-style structures, so we built our own from the ground up. The surroundings now better reflect the campaign’s location and tie into the story far more cohesively than before.

The basement has been expanded into a fully fleshed-out play space, complete with multiple entry and exit points. Up top, the roof has been reworked into a viable defensive position, giving teams a solid foothold to hold and fight from. To help players keep their bearings, each floor now features a consistent wall paint scheme that makes it easier to tell what level you’re on. Elliot also introduced a clear visual distinction between the front and back of the building, making callouts and communication much more effective.

We’ve also given the garage some love — it now includes a playable second and third level, complete with windows that offer firing angles to defend the structure or provide overwatch for teammates pushing toward the hospital.

💡 Creek is also receiving an overhaul that we'll showcase in a future Intel Report (there's a small sneak peek further below!).

New enemy character assets

Another set of character assets that Pau has been working on more recently is a Western PMC faction, which will be known in the story as Citadel Research Group.

📋 Citadel Research Group is a risk management company that specializes in maritime security in and around the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf. We will learn more about them in Operations mode.

As explained in Intel Report #029, Pau has been creating character assets for the enemy mobs over the last year (see the full post here for more details and previews). Much like the MENA faction from our last report, these assets can be mixed-and-matched to create more variety.

For these assets, we have also created a number of accessories that can be used to add visual interest to loadouts, like the carabiner, radio PTT and knife seen above.

💡 One idea we have for the future (post-V1036) is allowing players to add these types of small accessories as cosmetics to customize their platforms (helmets and vests).

Since a handful of these assets are unspecific (as in unmarked with the “Citadel” logo), they are also being used to compose a more generic militia faction that will be replacing the old “Riot” assets in non-campaign maps like City, Creek and Small Town. Here’s an example on the overhauled Creek map:

More customization

Though our next release is far from focused on cosmetics, character customization is always welcome in GROUND BRANCH and V1036 will be sure to deliver quite a few new items to the menu, ranging from character appearance to outfit variants.

Without getting into specifics too much (we like to keep a healthy level of suspense), we’ll be adding new hair and facial hair styles, kneepad variants for most pants, a new shirt type, a drop-leg holster, running shoes, fingerless gloves, and the neck gaiter, among other things. These conceptual shots by Rangda showcase some of the new cosmetics (and a few additions that aren’t purely cosmetic) in a sensual — but still classy — fashion:

💡 GROUND BRANCH V1036 will feature more than enough new weapons and attachments to keep the armory interesting as well. Stay tuned!

This has been Intel Report #030!

As always, thanks for making it to the end of the post and keeping up with GROUND BRANCH. We hope you enjoyed this dev blog, and we’ll have another one for you soon enough.

We’ll go back to getting this thing done now. Until next time!