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Unreal Engine 4-powered Squad Will Get Two Game Modes, New Inventory System & Dozens Of New Features

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Offworld Industries announced today that it will release a new major update for its Unreal Engine 4-powered tactical shooter, Squad, later today. Offworld Industries has been working on adding new features, game modes and weapons, but also making the current experience smoother and much more enjoyable.

The Closed Alpha version 2 of Squad will be available through the Pre-Alpha portal for download to all the game’s founders.

Squad is the long-anticipated standalone spiritual successor to the massively popular BF2:Project Reality Mod that is powered by Epic’s Unreal Engine 4.

The new closed alpha 2.0 version of Squad will go live on Thursday 29th 11pm PST/Friday 30th 6AM GMT.

And here is the massive changelog for Squad’s Closed Alpha 2.0 version:

New Game Mode – Insurgency

The Project Reality classic is back!
Two Insurgent Weapons Caches spawn at the start of each round. The US Army forces must take out insurgents to gain Intelligence and get hints to where the caches are located. As each Cache is overrun and destroyed, another one spawns in a random location on the map.
US Army Squad Leaders have an Incendiary grenade to destroy the Caches, the US team needs to destroy a total of 5 Caches to win. The Insurgents must drain the US Army team’s tickets or wait out the clock to win.

New Game Mode – Territory Control

A New Gamemode focusing on pure defence & offence depending on the side. Insurgents have a number of territories at the start that they have to defend. The points are not meant to be captured in any particular order. If the US capture a territory, it cannot be recaptured. US has a time limit to capture all the territories. Some territories have a spawn point that can be captured.

New Scope and Attachment System

All the scopes have been redone, improving their sight picture and alignment. New attachment system allows us to attach several accessories and optics at the same time. Some variants of the M4 now have a foregrip.
  • ACOG reticle is now fully usable with ranging and bullet drop.
  • The SVD has its PSO-1 scope back. Reticle is not 1:1 with real life yet.
  • Known Issue: There is a small jitter when viewing through the scope while standing on the edges of the map.

Improved Inventory

  • Added an Inventory element to the HUD, showing which item you have selected and what is selected in each item group.
  • Multiple items per slot. Pressing the slot button multiple times cycles through the items in that slot (For example, Smoke Grenade Colors can be cycled through)
  • Re-grouped items into more logical groupings. The player can now find items in the same spot in the inventory across classes

Improved weapon handling

  • Weapon sway now behaves differently depending on stance (Bipod weapons have reduced sway when prone)
  • Weapon recoil can now be affected by stance (Bipod weapons now have considerably less recoil when prone)
  • Focus sway reduction is now dependent on weapon and stance
  • Weapons now have proper working ballistic flight mechanics
  • Weapons now have MOA deviation depending on weapon and bullet quality
  • Weapon sway is now different when not aiming down sights
  • Full recoil overhaul on all weapons. Weapon config and load out now affects the weapons recoil behavior.
  • Slight damage and falloff tweaks on existing and new weapons.
  • Fixed a bug where weapons would have no bullet drop under 500 meters.
  • Medic bag and field dressings tweaked.
  • When entering ADS mode your sights now stay aligned.

New HUD Items

  • Added a small information blurb at the start of each gamemode, explaining the rules and how to win
  • Added an Inventory widget, showing which item you have selected
  • Improved the Ammo widget with a better design to improve its readability
  • Added a game timer
  • Added a medic icon to medics on the map
  • Improved the Flag and FOB capture widgets
  • Compass has been scaled up and modified for easier readability

New Kit Role Items

  • Added 5 new AK variants to playable kits: AKM, AKMS, AKS-74U, AMD-65 and PM md. 63. (All with placeholder textures).
  • Remade existing RPK model. (Has placeholder texture)
  • Incendiary grenades for US Squad Leaders on insurgency maps. (Note that you drop this grenade for greater precision – you can only throw it a few meters)
  • M249 now has an CompM4 Aimpoint.
  • Added RDG-2 smoke grenade, replacing the M18 smoke grenade on the Insurgents.

Kit Role changes

  • All Insurgent kits now have pistols. The US side remains unchanged to reflect a more realistic load-out. Insurgent Fighter kits now have the AKM/AKMS instead of the AK-74 as standard. The AK-74 is still available as a limited kit in squads. Limited to 3.
  • AKM or AKMS will be randomly chosen to give aesthetic diversity. They are functionally the same at this point in time.
  • Insurgent Cell leader and Medic kits now have unique AKs so you can more easily identify the roles in the squad. Cell leader has PM md. 63 and the medic has AMD-65.
  • RPG Gunner now has the AKS-74U.
  • US Squad Leader kit now has the Aimpoint CompM4 on his M4 again, as well as a front grip to help identify him.
  • US Medic now has a foregrip on his M4 to help identify him
  • Grenadiers for both factions now have UGL launched smoke grenades in both white, blue and red colors.
  • Insurgent Marksman kit now has the SVD with the PSO-1, additionally he also has a set of binoculars.

Improved Main Menu

  • Server Browser now shows Map, Gamemode, and whether or not the server is out of date.
  • Improved feedback when you are kicked from a server, or if the master server goes down.
  • Renamed ‘Deploy Now’ to ‘Start Local’ to better describe what it does.
  • Added a FOV Slider.
  • Added Toggle ADS/Lean
  • Added Credits, Founders will soon be added
  • Added two new main menu music tracks from Scott Tobin

Improved Maps

  • Kohat Performance and Visual Improvements
  • Logar Valley Performance and Visual Improvements
  • Added Police Station static object
  • Added Mosque static object

Improved Audio

  • New weapon fire sound improvements for AK series, SVD and new distant fire sounds.
  • New projectile flyby sounds.
  • Added injury sounds like death screams.
  • Added reverb effects to almost every static building
  • Added more construction sounds for deployables.
  • Added explosion debris sounds for grenades and rockets.
  • Improvements to footstep sounds.
  • Added per-state sounds and effects for Deployable construction

Misc Changes

  • Added support for special events
  • Added in Founders Skins for the AK, M4, and RPG-7. These will be tied to your Steam Inventory in the future, but for now they are assigned randomly each time you get a new kit (spawning or ammo box)
  • Added “Kick from Squad” ability and “Give Squad Leader” ability for the Squad Leader,
  • Added right click on the “My Squad” list on the player and follow the right click menu buttons.
  • Added support for multiple permission levels for server admin access
  • Improved spawn points and FOB capture radius
  • Improved the Admin Observer Cams controls and features
  • Reduced the bleed out rate when incapacitated and bandaged.
  • Fixed the Go-Pro camera position in filming mode
  • Improved performance of stamina calculations
  • Added Credits in the main menu, Founders will soon be added
  • Added the ability for admins to assign squad leaders and kick squad members from a squad
  • Shoveling a radio now adds or removes capture progress on the FOB.
  • Shovels can now destroy deployables with right-click
  • Fixed server heartbeat timeouts
  • Added ability to deshovel FOBs to help with the capture tickets