CTE Update #009: V1032 Testing #3

CTE Update
🆔 GROUND BRANCH CTE
Build ID: 7948164 (Client) / 7948168 (Dedicated Server)
Download size: 471 MB (Client) / 89 MB (Dedicated Server)
⚠️ NOTICE
These release notes are for the V1032 testing build currently available in the GROUND BRANCH CTE (Community Test Environment) Steam app — not to be confused with the actual (and upcoming) V1032 release for the regular GROUND BRANCH app.
🚨 CLEAR YOUR OLD FILES
To avoid input and asset conflicts, delete all files/folders located in both of the following locations (copy-paste the path into your File Explorer address bar and hit Enter):

1. %LOCALAPPDATA%\GroundBranch\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor
2. Documents\GroundBranch

As we mentioned on Twitter, we have been squashing bugs all holiday season to get some of the most pressing CTE issues ironed out before the new year.

Here’s the list of fixes and additions for today’s GROUND BRANCH CTE patch:

Gameplay and customization
  • Tweaked leaning to be a lot more useful again. It’s a stop-gap solution until we get the rigging/animations figured out properly.
  • Fixed M16A4 not having fire mode selection and mag check capability.
  • Fixed unlimited shotgun reloads.
  • Reoriented dropped item interaction boxes.
  • Adjusted recoil and rate of fire for G3A3 and FAL closer to real-life values.
  • Updated Micro T-2 red dot sight with new models.
  • Added plain button-up shirt with 5 skin choices (icon pending; currently shares plaid shirt icon).
  • Fixed/tweaked various character asset skins and textures.
  • Fixed arm mask clipping too much on some long-sleeve tops.
Maps and game modes
  • Prevented people spawning crazy inter-dimensional AI and players (sorry to spoil the fun).
  • Fixed collision issues on Storage Facility.
  • Fixed lots of lights popping on/off on Run Down.
  • Added light switch boxes to Compound.
  • Fixed Team Elimination game mode.
  • Fixed bad extraction points on Storage Facility’s creek (Intel Retrieval).
  • No more rogue Russian gear-wearing bot on Small Town (Intel Retrieval).
  • Intel Retrieval now logs laptop name as well as number so you can find it in the mission editor.
  • Greatly reduced the number of dead bodies sticking around in respawn modes.
Audio
  • Added radio syncing beep audio cues on round start and end.
  • Audio work and fixes done on various maps and weapons.
  • Added crouching SFX.
  • Ambient sounds and sound fixes on Storage Facility.
  • Possible fix for VOIP issue where player input signal is too quiet (may have caused VOIP to be too loud!).
  • Increased sound occlusion for the Ready Room’s shooting range.
Graphics, performance and online replication
  • Performance pass on inventory textures (downsized, optimized).
  • Graphical performance passes on Rig and Compound.
  • Tweaked graphics settings (Low/Medium/High/Epic etc.) to try and get those working better.
  • Updated doors to fix long-standing replication bug (doors have different states on client and server).
  • Tentative fix for PiP scopes making areas too bright.
  • Tweaked lighting across all maps to improve consistency and nighttime lighting — highlights and shadows should now be less harsh, generally.
  • Disabled eye adaptation.
  • Fixed various clipping issues.
  • Default lens reflection texture changed to better placeholder before it loads in properly.
  • Redid laser dots so all lasers have big bright IR dots in NVG (still a WIP).
  • Changed alternative respawn behavior in Team Elimination from always respawning next to a teammate (“Always Teammate Respawn” option) to always respawning back at the insertion point (“No Teammate Respawn”).

When is V1032 stable coming?

We are only 3–4 days away from the new year — meaning the stable release for V1032 will not be here before 2022 as we need this build to get a decent testing period to make sure the fixes work and that nothing else broke in the process. There’s plenty more polishing we’d like to do too.

With that being said, with a little luck the official release is not likely to take more than a few weeks. So keep an eye out for game-breakers and fingers crossed!

This has been CTE UPDATE #009!
Thanks for testing V1032 and reporting all those bugs!

To those of you who celebrate it, we hope you enjoyed the holidays. And to all of you supporting and playing GROUND BRANCH: we could not be more grateful. Thank you so much for sticking with us through another year.

Till the next update, and we'll see you in 2022!