Build Update

After a few weeks in the Community Test beta branch, we’re thrilled to announce that GROUND BRANCH Version 1035 is now live on the main branch of your Steam install!

As extensively previewed and discussed over the past months, V1035 features many improvements to GB, from art upgrades and a revamped customization UI all the way to a campaign mission demo that offers a “vertical slice” of the experience we’re aiming for: a mission with a briefing and intel details, multiple objectives (including assassination and demolitions) and AI companions — all accessible via a brand-new interface from which players will be able to play many more missions in the future.

Launch Sale: GROUND BRANCH is 10% OFF!

To celebrate the launch of V1035, GROUND BRANCH will be on sale with a 10% discount for 1 week. Enjoy!

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Without further ado, let’s go over the release notes for V1035.

💡 For a more comprehensive and technical list of changes since V1034, see the patch notes for CT Update #01, CT Update #02 and CT Update #03.

⛔ WARNING: OUTDATED MODS
Please note that mods from V1034 may crash or otherwise cause issues on your V1035 GROUND BRANCH client, as well as V1035 servers. We recommend that you disable all mods until they are updated to V1035.

Release notes

Gameplay Ability System (GAS)

As explained in our Intel Reports on the road to this release, most of the systems in GROUND BRANCH were rebuilt with GAS — the Gameplay Ability System. While this has caused unfortunate delays, we’re now over the bump with a more flexible and performant system that offers better control over the complex interplay between characters, inventory, animation and game events.

💡 Due to virtually every system of the game having been converted to GAS, a few bugs may remain undiscovered or unfixed in areas that previously worked. We'll be listing all known issues at the end of this post. No show-stopping bugs should be present, and we aim to fix all remaining GAS-related bugs in upcoming point releases (V1035.X).

Operations menu and campaign mission demo

When you first launch V1035, you might notice the new Operations option on the main menu — right below Training. This option will take you to our new interface for viewing and selecting campaign missions (to be included and expanded in the future) via hotspots around the globe. This is also where you’ll find our first campaign mission demo — “Silent Reach” — set on map Depot.

As the video shows, the new interface features a world map for hotspot selection featuring news items, a background briefing for available hotspots, a mission-specific briefing with intel details and images, and of course the mission objectives.

💡 The menu also tracks mission progress for both single player and co-op.

This new demo represents a first pass on campaign missions — it is meant as a “vertical slice” of our projected gameplay experience, featuring AI teammates (admittedly very basic ones at this point) that can receive various types of orders, as well as multiple objectives (including demolitions, scouting/searching and high-value target assassination) and even a simple cutscene at the end (which can be skipped in single player or by the online host).

• The mission demo can be played either with 3 AI teammates, or up to 3 Steam friends.
• The mission demo normally acts like a session launched from the Host Game menu, and the Invite menu (Esc › top menu) can be used to invite players via Steam.
• If a human player enters a round with you, no friendly AI characters will be spawned!
• From that point onwards, even if all other players leave, your game will be considered a co-op game for the purpose of “scoring” and no AI teammates will ever spawn.
• Single player and co-op have separate completion statistics that are tracked.

Controlling your AI team

Although the friendly AI and its control interface are still rudimentary, your teammates can be ordered to:

• Fall In — Orders your team to regroup with and/or follow you. This is their default movement setting.
• Hold — Crouch and hold position.
• Move & Clear — Move to where you’re currently pointing and take out any threats.
• Take Cover — Find nearby cover and crouch next to it.
• Go Loud — Take out any hostile contacts on sight. This is their default fire discipline setting.
• Go Silent — Do not engage unless spotted or shot at. The team will call out any contacts.
• Breach — Not functional yet.

💡 To issue orders to your AI teammates, use Mouse Thumb Button 1 or K. These defaults can be changed in Settings › Controls › Keybinds › Other (at the bottom of the list).

New item customization UI

The user interface (UI) for item customization has received a particularly big overhaul.

Here’s the rundown:

• Weapon and attachment categories are now selected via checkboxes, which now also allow filtering Headgear and Top types (more categories can be added to other slots as required!).
• Right-clicking the checkboxes allows multiple categories to be selected. If no categories are selected, all items will be displayed.
• Scrolling through attachments should be much faster, as sights are now grouped into subcategories (Accessory, Iron Sights, Red Dot and Scopes) and more items are shown simultaneously.
• Attachments that have more than one skin are now grouped together, with skins being selected via a drop-down menu — this reduces menu clutter considerably.
• Platforms and belts can now also be equipped with pouches of different skins than the parent item, selectable from similar drop-downs.

💡 Magazines and belt boxes can no longer be removed from weapons in the customization screen — only replaced with different options.

Other UI changes

• The Tablet has had a small visual update, particularly in the Roster section: callsigns and player names are now both shown simultaneously, and team elements are more cleanly organized.
• Spin boxes, where you can drag a slider or manually enter a value, have been updated so that arrows on either side now make sensible adjustments to the number. The slider has also been made less sensitive to small misclicks.
• Combo boxes (aka drop-down menus) will now close the menu when clicked a second time, as would be expected, without having to click off of them or selecting an option.
• Text chat (default T and Y) has received a small visual update for legibility, and will now only allow the character limit (128 characters) to be input. It also has a new little slide-in animation.
• Global text chat now includes a visual indicator for when the author of the message is a server admin or game host.
• The Roster screen (Esc) also now includes indicators for admins or hosts, as applicable.
• The Modding menus (mod lists in particular) have had a UI pass and should be a little nicer to use.
• A lot of the pre-existing UI has had another design pass, as is customary: icons were added and updated, and various elements were tweaked for better contrast, alignments, legibility, flavor, and consistency across menus.

Gameplay changes

Mag check

Mag checks have been overhauled — the days of re-inserting a magazine that you know is empty are gone.

Hold the Reload key to keep the mag out as long as desired. While holding the Reload key, tap it once for a retention reload or double-tap to dump the old magazine.

High and Low Ready

Changing weapon positions can now be interrupted before the transition is complete. Players can also start firing before the weapon is fully in the Ready position (it only needs to be close enough).

Ladders

Ladders now require an interaction press (default F) to exit the ladder, to prevent accidentally presenting yourself as a target at the top (by triggering the climbing animation before you’re ready).

Ladders also have a bigger interaction radius now, so you don’t have to be as close before being able to start a climb.

Enemy AI options

Enemy counts can now be randomized “a little” or “a lot” in the quick mission modes (Terrorist Hunt, Defuse and Intel Retrieval) using a new mission setting on the Ops Board. Higher enemy counts will be randomized more than smaller counts, hence the non-numerically specific options. The 50 AI limit won’t be exceeded.

Day vs. night spawns for the enemy AI should also create further gameplay variation depending on the time of day.

Ballistics

Ballistics have received a moderate update: while most of it was under-the-hood, you should notice a bigger difference in bullet drop and travel time between different rounds at medium/long ranges.

Damage was also slightly modified in the process, but should be largely unchanged.

💡 Please note this is not our health and armor update yet!

Water and movement

Water volumes now impact player movement depending on how deep you are in the water.

Object interaction

Interactions with laptops (for Intel Retrieval and Uplink) have been improved, and a “magic hand” animation was added for such interactions.

New inventory items

The following items and skins have been added to GROUND BRANCH:

Primary weapons

New assault rifle:  AK-103 Alpha

A modernized AKM with plenty of aftermarket accessory rails.

Ammunition: 7.62×39MM
Feed system: 30-round magazines
Fire modes: Semi / Full

New assault rifle:  G36K Custom

A modified G36K carbine with accessory rails and a custom stock.

Ammunition: 5.56 NATO
Feed system: 30-round magazines
Fire modes: Semi / Full

New assault rifle:  AUG A3

A modernized version of the classic bullpup assault rifle. The built-in scope is replaced with a “flat-top” accessory rail, and a small offset rail is also present on the right side.

Ammunition: 5.56 NATO
Feed system: 30-round magazines
Fire modes: Semi / Full

New assault rifle:  LVAW

An AR-15-pattern carbine with an integrated suppressor firing subsonic .300 BLK rounds, this weapon was designed to take over the MP5SD‘s role. Its name is an acronym for Low Visibility Assault Weapon.

Ammunition: .300 BLK
Feed system: 30-round magazines
Fire modes: Semi / Full

New assault rifles:  AS Val  and  ASM Val

These are integrally suppressed Soviet assault rifles firing subsonic rounds. In addition to the classic AS, the modernized ASM version (pictured) is available with accessory rails on top of the receiver and around the suppressor.

Ammunition: 9×39MM
Feed system: 10- or 20-round magazines
Fire modes: Semi / Full

New sniper rifle:  VSS Vintorez  and  VSSM Vintorez

These are “sniper rifle” versions of the AS assault rifles (above) fitted with fixed, precision-oriented buttstocks. Similarly, the “M” version (pictured) is modernized with a new stock and accessory rails.

Ammunition: 9×39MM
Feed system: 10- or 20-round magazines
Fire modes: Semi / Full

Secondary weapons

New pistol:  MK24 CAP

This compact semi-automatic pistol firing .45 ACP rounds from 10- or 12-round magazines has been added to the armory.

Accessories and equipment

New pistol attachment:  DBAL-PL

The DBAL-PL provides a combined spotlight and laser beam for pistols, both visible and infrared (IR); in accordance with the design of the real-life device, the laser and light can only be toggled in unison.

New scope:  PSO-1M2-1

The PSO-1M2-1 is a version of the PSO-1M2 available only for the AS/VSS series of weapons with a specifically designed reticle.

New red dot sight:  OKP-7

The original OKP-7 sight, which is mounted via side dovetail rail, is now available for AK platforms.

New red dot sight:  Kobra EKP-8-02

A side-mounted version of the Kobra sight is now also available for AK platforms.

New red dot sight:  MRO (Raised)

A version of the MRO with a raised mount is now available.

New IR strobe:  MS2000

The MS2000 IR strobe makes a return (a new model for it is also on our list). It is functionally identical to the Manta model. Available in 3 pouch colors: Black, Tan and OD.

New equipment:  M4 SLAM

The M4 SLAM explosive charge makes its first appearance in v1035, but for now only as a set-piece in the campaign mission demo (Main Menu › Operations). The charge is automatically carried into the mission, so there’s no need to add it to your loadout. Likewise, there is no need to equip a detonator.

To place the charge, find a suitable spot on either mission target — indicated by a glowing red mesh — and follow the prompts.

💡 If you choose manual detonation, make sure to trigger the explosion from a safe distance or spot!

💡 The M4 SLAM may eventually be made available as a motion-detecting vehicle mine or manually-detonated explosive.

New equipment:  Chemlight

Chemlights are now available. They’re useful for marking positions and providing limited illumination.

To drop a chemlight on the ground, select it from Equipment (default 4) and press Fire/Throw (default Left Mouse Button).

💡 Your character will automatically spawn with 10 chemlights — there's no need to add them to your loadout.

💡 Chemlights will match the color of your current team element (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie or Delta).

Clothing and gear

New top:  Softshell Jacket  and  Softshell Jacket (Hood)

The Softshell Jacket can now be selected for your Top slot. It comes in two versions — one regular and one with the hood exposed — and 4 different skins: Gray, OCP, AOR-1 and AOR-2.

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, this item is a breathable, stretchable, water-repellant and windproof garment.

New masks:  Balaclava A/B/C/D

The regular Balaclava (eyes exposed only) was remade and renamed Balaclava A.

We’ve also added variants Balaclava B (eyes and nose exposed) and Balaclava C (eyes, nose and mouth exposed), which are essentially different ways of wearing the same balaclava, as well as a separate “three-hole” model called Balaclava D.

💡 Balaclavas will hide your Facial Hair selection even if the mouth area is exposed. This will be addressed in a later update.

New pouches:  12x 12ga 00 Buck  and  7.62 NATO (FMJ)

Pouches for loose cartridges — currently shotgun shells (12-gauge 00 buckshot) and M24 sniper rifle rounds (7.62 NATO) — can now be manually placed on your platform and belt.

This essentially fixes an issue in V1034 and earlier where ammo for these weapons could only be carried with the modular “Primary Ammo” pouch.

Skins

• Various attachments have received a new FDE skin.
• Vertical Grip B has a new Olive Drab skin (in addition to FDE).
• The T-Shirt has a new GROUND BRANCH logo skin.
• AOR-2 was added for  Helmet (HC/Cover)  and  Helmet (AF/Cover).

Enemy AI and assets

Hostile AI (and in relevant respects, also friendly AI) have had a number of tune-ups and other improvements and changes:

New AI behaviors and systems

• AI may now throw frag grenades at players in some cases.
• AI that feel under pressure may throw a smoke grenade to cover a retreat.
• AI will now see and investigate flashlight beams and laser pointers (WIP).
• AI can be blinded temporarily by flashlights pointed at their faces at close range (WIP).
• AI have new idle animations, which can be explicitly selected for idle AI by a mission designer if desired. It is intended to expand the range of idle animations over time.
• AI movement overall has had various tweaks and changes.
• A widespread AI rout/flee will be initiated by certain game events, like covering fire from a helicopter during the campaign mission exfil sequence.
• The AI patrol route system has had an overhaul, so patrolling AI should be more unpredictable and cover their routes more thoroughly.
• Enemy AI spawn points now have optional day and night states, so some missions will have different distributions of enemy AI depending on the time of day.
• A number of single player missions (including Compound, Depot and others) have been updated to incorporate these new day and night spawns. In Compound, for example, you are much less likely to see enemy AI patrolling fields during the night, and more likely to see idle enemy AI in houses. (There is a new “Sleep AI” state available, but it is not currently implemented. In the future, we envisage having AI sleeping in beds. At least until you start making some noise…)
• The HVT (high-value target) in the mission demo is the first of a series of new AI archetypes — a type of AI with its own set of rules — which will populate missions for more variety and specialized behaviors from V1036 onwards.

New AI visuals and audio

• Some existing factions (e.g. Russian PMC) have been adjusted and expanded with more kit variety, and whole new factions have been added, including Western PMC, Insurgent and Cartel. Some original factions (such as Riot) have been retained and tweaked for now, but may in due course be retired or replaced.
• Idle animations were added to enemy AI, conferring a generally more natural feel before bullets start flying.
• New enemy faction voice lines have been brought into the game. Currently we have a whole new set of lines for the new Cartel faction, and a new set of lines for the Russian PMC faction. These are in Mexican Spanish and in Russian, respectively, adding a little more authenticity and flavor to the game. (Other factions will receive their new voice lines in V1036.)

New and updated maps

V1035 features one entirely new map, one full map remake and a couple of significant map updates.

Ranch

Ranch makes its debut in V1035. The map is situated near the US border in Mexico, and is home to a notorious cartel leader.

The expansive estate includes a garage, stables and various other outbuildings, in addition to a sprawling house complex. It is a fairly large and open map, so move carefully!

💡 A whole new set of quick missions has been created for Ranch. PvP missions covering the whole map are tailored more towards full server loads (8v8). The map is a good fit for DTAS, since spawns should be relatively random, and most areas are well-covered from most other areas of the map.

Power Station

Power Station was remade from the ground up for V1035. Though the overall layout is fairly similar, it has been expanded considerably and offers more complexity.

The map is now set in the Libyan desert, with a ferocious civil war taking place in the distance. There are new outbuildings, lots more cover around the place, and a whole new cafeteria complex to explore and get sniped from.

💡 Power Station quick missions have been entirely redone for the updated map. Some new variants have been created.

Depot

Depot has had some changes in lots of places to make it fit in better with the narrative and gameplay of the new campaign mission, and also just to look nicer. You will now find military and camping equipment in various parts of the map — with a focus on the village and compound areas.

Small Town

Small Town has had a little face lift to add a little more character and variety to buildings. Foliage was also updated to offer a little less coverage and look more properly scaled.

It should otherwise play similarly, with the exception of a few new points of cover and concealment.

Art and visual updates

V1035 features a number of updates to art and visuals, from individual models to environments.

Updates to lighting, fog and other map-related changes

An art and optimization pass was done in several maps. Here are the main changes:

• The “time span” system has had an update, whereby dawn and dusk extend much longer into the day, providing more satisfactory transitions into and out of night.
• Fog in-scattering color and other properties have been added to the palette of environmental customizations for our level designers to use, leading to more characterful lighting. Depot, for example, has had a big lighting tweak.
• Lots of assets and foliage have been updated with new models and materials.
• New use of HLOD (hierarchical level of detail) optimizations in various maps to improve graphical performance.
• Grass blades have been upgraded with more natural wind movement on Depot, Storage Facility, Ranch, Small Town and The Farm.

Updated inventory assets

A number of inventory items have been updated with new models, textures and/or art fixes.

• Field Jacket — This new model replaces the old ACU Coat and its very unpopular popped collar with a more conventional style and upgraded texturing. It is available in all the same skins and styles as the previous model, with the addition of tucked-in variants.
• AN/PVS-31A — The old dual-tube night vision goggles have been replaced with the more appropriate AN/PVS-31A. Functionality and versions (GP for green phosphor and WP for white phosphor) remain unchanged.
• M110  and  M110K1 — Both sniper rifles have received entirely new models and textures.
• MK25 — This pistol has received a brand-new model and fresh high-res textures by Cody Cudmore (aka ParallaxGameStudios).
• MK17 CQC  and  MK17 DMR — Another Cody creation, both rifles were upgraded with improved and higher-res texturing. Various shading issues and incorrect materials for the FDE magazine were fixed, and the DMR variant has also received a new aftermarket buttstock for variety.
• UMP45 — New model and textures.
• MPX SBR — New model and textures.
• MP7A1 — New model and textures.
• 1P78 Kashtan — New model and textures.
• OKP-7 (Rail) — New model and textures. We’ve added (Rail) to the name suffix to differentiate it from the new (AK-only) side-mounted OKP-7.
• Kobra EKP-18-1 — New model and textures. See Inventory additions for new Kobra sight (EKP-8-02).
• MRO — New model and textures.
• Tac Light (X300) — New model and textures. Now also available in FDE skin.

Tech and VFX

The various new items of kit mentioned above have all had relevant particle effects created and implemented. In other developments:

• The NVG system has had another tweak, and now IR lasers are finally visible through the  AN/PVS-22 UNS  night vision scope. IR illuminators are a work in progress — unfortunately they cannot be realized with the same method.
• There are new effects for underwater grenade explosions and smoke.
• The new campaign mission demo cutscenes also feature a variety of new special effects — no spoilers!
• The Power Station remake includes a lot of new VFX assets for the distance effects.

Animations

Various animations have been updated and some new ones have been hooked up. Main changes include updated animations for the MP7A1, MP5 series, G3A3, UMP45, M110 / M110K1, PMM and AR-15-pattern rifles (M16A4, M4A1, MK18, HK416D and variants).

All new weapons and items (listed earlier) have of course also received new animations.

Miscellaneous animation updates

• New mo-cap and other animations done — and some existing animations cleaned up — for enemy AI.
• Mag-check-into-reload animations for all magazine-fed weapons.
• Completed and/or polished ragdoll death animations for stand, crouch and prone positions.
• Added missing shotgun animations.

Audio

The more significant changes in audio — not listed elsewhere — include:

• Ranch has had a lot of work put in to set up environmental sound effects. This level of attention to detail will be rolled out across other maps in due course.
• Depot has had an environmental sound overhaul, and new sound effects for the new cutscenes.
• Walk footsteps should now be properly audible — previously the clothing rustle was the only sound playing.
• Attenuation changes on all surface types for walk/run/sprint footsteps. This should make other enemies footsteps more present in the mix and fade out naturally instead of cutting off.
• First person player footsteps have been lowered in the mix.

💡 There has been some backend work on the audio — for instance, to upgrade to a version of the Wwise middleware that no longer requires the manual pre-loading of sound banks.

Modding

The GROUND BRANCH Mod Kit has been updated for V1035 and is now in the hands of modders for testing, but there are some remaining issues that will need to be fixed in a point release.

In particular, things like custom magazines and custom ammo may not be fully functional at this point, but otherwise mods from V1034 should be good to go to be recreated in the new Mod Kit.

There are some new details that need to be handled to update mods and we do not have the documentation ready just yet, but we’ll be working on that shortly.

Some more modding and Mission Editor information for the enthusiasts:

• There are no new modding types planned per se for V1035, as we will need to focus on getting the existing systems back up and running as they should. However, some groundwork has been laid in V1035 for more flexible systems for modding weapons and kit, and so on.
• It is not intended that campaign missions will be moddable — not just yet, anyway. However, you can explore some of the new tools in the Mission Editor for campaigns. Click the Campaign tab at the top-right after starting the editor to view. The new mission objective system is relatively open-ended, and new objective types can be added using a single Lua script (and any in-game assets that may be needed).
• New controls have been added to the server mod list menu to facilitate bulk operations such as adding all active local mods to the server list, and clearing a whole list. A new gameplay setting (in Modding) allows the local mod list to be used automatically as the server mod list in a listen server (the Host Game option).
• The selection of AI loadouts and mission meshes have been overhauled with quicker picker dialogs. The range of mission meshes has been increased.
• Modding menus have had a quality-of-life pass. There is, for example, a new gameplay setting to use local mod lists for listen servers, instead of having to make a separate server list (although that process is also streamlined).

Known issues

These are issues we were not able to fix yet, but that we considered not worth holding off the release for. They will hopefully be fixed in a point release relatively soon:

• DX12 and DLSS + overlays may cause a crash-to-desktop (CTD) during gameplay (this is on NVIDIA 40-series graphics cards — use DX11 if experiencing multiple crashes).
• Prone movement is currently limited to the “walk” crawl speed; fast crawling (default hold Shift) is currently not working.
• The friendly AI and its control system are not fully iterated: AI teammates are known to not always react appropriately to their surroundings, get in the way of players, bunch up and so on.
• Characters may be sent flying when killed, seemingly at random.
• Dead characters may also replicate impact animations when living characters are hit.
• The enemy AI’s detection of player lasers is a work-in-progress (WIP) and may have some rough edges.
• Modded listen servers should now be joinable in-game without any issues (fixes big V1034 bug), but it may not work yet when joining from outside the game (aka a “cold start”).
• Dynamic Take and Secure (DTAS) isn’t fully functional in that the flag model does not spawn in the flag carrier’s hand and can’t be manually placed; it should be fully functional otherwise.
• Clicking the gear icon ⚙️ to customize a different item than your currently equipped one may apply the former item’s textures onto the new item.
• Chemlights do not yet have the correct colors in PvP modes — the desired effect is blue and red (depending on the team).
• Music will stop when the player enters the Admin Panel.
• Multiplayer bots are currently broken.
• Hostage Rescue is not available as it is still in the process of being converted to the new Gameplay Ability System (GAS).
• Weapon mods and other asset mods made with the V1034 Mod Kit will likely not work until they can be updated with the V1035 Mod Kit. Missions, game modes and other non-asset mods may also need updating for V1035. In the future we might filter by build version, but in the meantime you can search for “V1035” tags in the Steam Workshop, or “1035” in the mod title/text.
• The hammer of some pistols have an incorrect rotation applied, which may cause clipping with the body.

This has been Build Update #054!

Thank you for reading the release notes for V1035. And if you participated in the Community Test, have an extra “thank you” for your help getting this release out!

We hope you enjoy this release, and stay tuned for our point releases to wrap it all up nicely.

Hey, everyone!

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.

The GROUND BRANCH Mission Editor guide has also moved to the Wiki, at https://wiki.groundbranch.com/en/modding/mission-editor. Again, this is now the definitive version.

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:

• Scorpion EVO 3 by YourComrade
• URGI M4 by ModernLancer
• P226-XFIVE Legion by mr munkee
• DD MK18 by ModernLancer
• SPAS-12 by YourComrade

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!

Hey, everyone!

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)

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

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

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!