LINK TO THE PATCHNOTES HERE

-- Copy and pasted patch notes below --

Hello Squaddies!

Welcome to Update 10.5.2!

Update 10.5.2 is an update focused around solely around Suppression and its features as well as some additional changes to our bullet SFXs mainly the snap/crack bullet pass-by sound.

Looking to connect with fellow Squadmates, share feedback or stay up to date with the latest Squad news? Join the Squad Community Discord!

• Completely reworked Suppression visual effects. 
• Adjusted Suppression accumulation and decay rates. 
• The amount of Suppression dealt by each weapon and projectile has been re-balanced.
• The amount of VFX, sway, and other effects dealt for each tier of suppression has also been re-balanced.
• Suppression now prevents holding your breath to stabilize the weapon, but does not prevent zooming in.
• When using the hold breath ability to steady aim and zoom in, running out of breath will now only cancel the weapon stabilization, not the camera zoom. 
• Improved bullet snap/crack pass-by sound effects. Snap and crack transition fade distance is synchronized with each caliber's suppression radius.

For a more in-depth breakdown on what has changed please check out the Suppression Blog we released.

SDK Specific Changes:

• Added separate Max Suppression Threshold limits in Suppression Info assets for passbys and explosives, so that passbys do not trigger effects which should be reserved for explosives (as balanced in v10.5.2, Suppression values above 300% are reserved for explosives).
• Suppression Info configs have been expanded and been made more configurable. There are many more preset configs to choose from, so make sure you assign the right config to your weapon or projectile. 
• Added the ability to modify weapon sway speed by Suppression level, percentage of stamina consumed, and whether the player is moving. This is configured in Weapon Static Info under Sway and in the Soldier Blueprint under Suppression. 
• Removed the old Suppression Sway system found in SuppressionInfo. It has been replaced by a Suppression Sway curve found in SQSoldier, driven by the soldier's Suppression Percentage. This ensures all suppression effects and handling changes are driven by one input.
• Added a maximum angle off parameter in BP_MutableSoldier, controlling the maximum angle by which a shot can miss and still deliver suppression.
• Camera Effects can now implement multiple Unreal Post Process Effect Stacks each with separate Blend values. This allows you to control each blend through script and still get reliable blending with other post process volumes in the world or in other Camera Effects. See Additional Effects array.
• Added a few optional levers to the Suppression system which can be enabled by mods: Experimental flinch on first shot (in Mutable Soldier), and an option to implement pinhole-style suppression blur (in Suppression Preset configs and M_SuppressionBlur)

 

SDK Fixes for Suppression:

• Fixed a bug where Suppression Sway would be reset to 0 on switching weapons.
• Fixed a bug where Suppression Sway from passbys could not be disabled. 
• Fixed bots not always delivering the correct amount of suppression.
• Fixed a bug where Suppression Sway did not respect Closeness Factor scaling curves
• Fixed a bug where Suppression Sway would be reset if a projectile with a lower maximum suppression followed a shot with a higher maximum. 
• Fixed a bug where Passby Suppression would not respect the Closeness Factor Scaling Curve if the shot was a close-range hitscan.
• Fixed an issue where some Suppression effects would not scale correctly if a power to distance curve was used in the SuppressionInfo asset. 
• Fixed a bug causing some post process effects to render incorrectly.
  • Fixed a bug preventing several post process effects from being modifiable by anything but the Suppression Camera Effect handler. As part of this change, Suppression Preset configs have been reworked and custom Suppression configs will need to be updated.

-- End of patchnotes --

Squad is Updating tomorrow, August 12th

Patch notes are slated to release alongside the update, so exact details will be revealed in time

What is known, is that this patch will be primarily introducing changes to the suppression system. Main keypoints listed in the blog post are paraphrased below

Link to the blog post here

- Suppression blur has been removed, now replaced with a blackened vignette around the screen edges. Older players of squad here will recognize this as similar to the original visual effects for suppression had in the pre-ICO days. This change was made in response to players feeling that their vision was often too obscured by suppression, and in some cases, even nauseating. The vignette offers the same effect as blur in the form of obscuring peripheral vision, but maintaining visual clarity at the center of the screen, allowing a player to better percieve what theyre immediately looking at.

- Suppression effects fade faster when youre not actively under fire; Breaking off from the immediate line of fire will clear your suppression effects faster

- Your suppression "hitbox", as ill put it, has been tightened up. This will mean that you wont be suppressed as often by rounds that arent posing a threat to you, such as strays flying overhead or landing nearby

- Weapon sway is increased when under the effects of heavy suppression (i.e machine guns and explosions)

- Some weapons suppress better than others now. The different weapon types ingame now have their own suppression strengths.

• Basic rifles (M4, AK) have much weaker suppression, taking several shots, and likely several other riflemen, to achieve effective suppression on a specific target through concentrated fire
• Battle rifles (FAL, G3) have stronger suppression than basic rifles, so concentrated fire from this weapons is more effective
• Machine guns have the strongest suppression, with a much larger "suppression hitbox", and increasing the suppression effect on a target much faster than other weapons. This gives them the ability to saturate a wide area with suppressing fire
• Snipers and marksmen can instantly suppress individual targets with "near misses", giving them an extra support ability for suppressing specific individual targets

- Changes to holding shift to stabilize. Two major changes here

• When you become suppressed, stabilizing with the shift key becomes disabled. This means that while you are suppressed, it becomes impossible to cancel out your weapon sway until the suppression effect fades away. This change seems intended to make snap shotting more difficult while youre under incoming fire
• As a counter balance, you now can hold shift indefinitely for a focus zoom on your sights/optic. This is seperate from stabilizing your weapon, as that will run out shortly if you hold shift for too long. However, the focus zoom will remain

- Bullet audio changes. Incoming rounds that will be able to apply suppression effects will have a characteristic snapping sound, compared to rounds that arent close enough. This offers an audio que to help communicate whether the shots landing nearby are a threat to your or not.

Exact details of these changes will be revealed tomorrow when the update drops. I will be sure to post the details of the patch notes on here when theyre available, provided someone else doesnt do so first.

Link to patchnotes here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/393380/view/704396144568960474

Patch keynotes:

-10.5 is a fairly small update, primarily addressing the co-op PvE mode

• New missions have been added to the PvE mode
• The late april fools "SPHERE" mission is removed, allegedly for "assessment" 🤔
• Bots now take cover behind vehicles properly, and will avoid them when driving
• PvE objective tools added to the modding SDK
• Bug fixes, primarily for PvE coop, handful for some other issues
• New updated models for the following AK rifles, cleaning up and refeshing their ingame appearances
• The RPK-74M, AK-74M and AKS-74u
• New AK family skin and emote pack, titled "Silva". This pack features Plum bakelite furniture for the following listed AK variants in game, and can be used across the listed factions that have these AK variants in their arsenal
• - AKM & AKMS: GFI, IMF, MEI 
• - AK-74M: IMF, RGF
• - AKS-74U: AFU, IMF, MEI, RGF, VDV
• - RPK: AFU, GFI, IMF, MEI
• - RPK-74: AFU, IMF, VDV
• - RPK-74M: RGF, VDV
• New emote, part of the "Silva" pack, with the emote titled "Field rest". Its a slav squat emote, cheeki breeki

We got a patch coming up today, according to this post

Exact details are pending a release, which historically becomes available on average around 2pm EST. Will update this post when those become available

From what is known, its primarily a bug fixing and fireteam patch, so nothing particularly flashy or exciting, but worth a heads up nonetheless.

No relation to the recent suppression playtest, as far as I am aware

There will be a public playtest held this upcoming Saturday, June 13, and is slated to occur at 2:00pm EST (every time zone link conversion here)

Building off of the positive reception to the gunplay changes introduced in update 10.4, this playtest will be featuring the latest prototype design for suppression changes being made.

The new suppression model builds off of the stated keypoints

- Removed suppression blur

- Blur replaced with black vignette around the screen

- Different weapons now have different suppression values, with machine guns specified to have the stronger suppression output, compared to rifles

- When suppressed, the ability to stabilize your weapon by holding shift will be disabled

Wasnt sure if many people had taken notice of it, so I've opted to make a gif out of it

The recent progress reports mentioned that suppression was being worked on again, as a follow up to the 10.4 gunplay and stamina changes we recently got. This particular example is pulled from the "looking ahead" video, although it also appears in the most recent "whats next" video too

The gif depicts one of the testing clips of the current prototype the devs are working with. The prototype does not exhibit the same blur that current live squad does, and instead is using a vignette instead, with the colors sliding into monochrome as the incoming fire intensifies. Some here may find this approach to be similar to the suppression style we've seen in pre ICO squad

Ultimately, this is just a prototype, and with many things in game development, may be subject to significant change. There may be other characteristics that are not public yet, so one must take this with a grain of salt.

But let’s invite some discussion on it nonetheless, since its possible we may see these suppression changes pushed out either this summer, or possibly in the fall season.