One year ago, we dropped our last Blog update. Usually we post a update at least every 6 month! We had a major Issue with multiple broken Word Press Updates or Plugins and had to secure every single page, before we could set up our website newly – lots of additional work for a mod made in our free time… But we kept our fans up to date in our Discord with monthly posts and working insights, so if you want to be more in the loop, join our Discord.
Anyways: We resolved our issues, so let’s get started with our latest Mod content update!

• Team changes 2024
• General Faction Progress
• Vehicle Progress – Turn Key Ready
• Infantry Weapons Progress – Lock & Loaded
• Leveldesign Progress – Fulda Gap 3.0
• Playtest Sneak Peak – Narva+ & BW-Faction
• We are looking for talent!
• How to support us

Team Changes 2024

As per usual, i want to provide you with the naturally occuring changes in our volunteer team for your information:

• Art0mis – He will pause his contributions work related until ca. Q4 of 2024
• SaberRider – Must take special care of a family member now. But he will stay around as mod veteran and he will finish the G22A2
• MrChulo – is on his way to become a real world pilot and sadly has no time currently for modding our heavy lift helicopter. We are looking for new talent for Chinook and co!
• SomeKevin – Sadly cant finish the Wiesel TOW for private reasons, but he set an incredible high bar for whoever comes after him with the asset.
• InovationSR – Back at the M113 Panzermörser, after RL topics and advancing his Brazilian faction
• ArchRevenant is now being called HoboTactical and continues to supply us with AAA level weapons sounds
• CptBrotzeit – pauses his contribution for some time to deal with RL issues, after a intense phase of modding. We estimate his comeback as active contributor somewhere down the road in Q4 of 2024 or maybe Q1 of 2025.
• LieutenantK (me) is active in support of environmental Art Design and Leveldesign again in 2024
• New: PhetvieWonder – is working on interim characters, media and especially our release trailer
• New: CoMa – A former OWI contractor and the creator of SQUAD vanilla Fools Road and Yehorivka, now leading our Fulda Gap Leveldesign efforts (more about that further down at “Leveldesign progress” incl. clearing up our mystery post)
• New: Slanji – young but very dedicated Animator
• New: Wirbelwind – He is supporting us with creative solutions for our unique commander assets

Video above: Wirbelwind’s first try with a MLRS air burst strike

Faction Progress Overview

We proudly present to you our updated vehicle and infantry weapons setup! New to our V1 are a Laser Range finder, the MG4 and the G22A2 bolt action sniper rifle. The Boxer IFV is showing promising progress and might join our V1 setup with a V1.X update sooner than expected. The work on Dingo 2 and Wiesel 2 is somewhat stalling currently and possibly might come with bespoke V1.X update a bit later, if we can’t find 3D artists on a short notice. But as you might guess, we won’t let you wait too long now with first public playtests for the faction! We also introduced the status “Playable” to all weapons and vehicles which are already implemented and ready for playtesting. More on these topics in the respective chapters below. Let’s dig in!

New Interim Character Models

We proudly present to you our new interim character models, made possible by our new artist PhetvieWonder. We ran into a couple of issues with our old characters in terms of what is called weight painting and we wheren’t happy with the the kit available. Lynx started to make a new IDZ plate carrier based on references provided by advisors and some of our community members (you are the BEST!). Until the new character equipment is finished, we decided to adapt existing player models from the Brits / Australians and combined it with our unique assets, such as helmet, faces, P8 weapons holsters, Flecktarn camouflage and so on. These chars might not be the most accurate depiction of Bundeswehr equipment for now, but they work – meaning we can provide a proper game experience with the upcoming series of closed and open playtests.

We gave specific roles, varying faces and equipment loadouts, to somewhat reflect their real world duties in a Bundeswehr combat team, incl. sidearms, magazine pouches, specialized weapons such as the Panzerfaust in carrying position and so on. Our unique female pilot character, made by our pal HolyLordJesus is part of the team already. We think it is soon time to decide on character names, which you provided in plenty already!

Lastly, new authentic Bundeswehr rank patches are coming for our interim character models and the final versions, courtesy by our 2D Art veteran KnoblauchKnut:

Updated Unit Insignia

When it comes to our faction subdivisions, OWI introduced a new system which demands even more new unit for us to create, so more is coming here in the near future. Before we knew what OWI would come up with, we already made unit Insignia’s, including our Seebrigade (marine infantry brigade). We update this specific emblem, to better reflect the character of a marine infantry unit. Looking sharp!

Vehicle Progress

Dingo 2 MRAP

The Dingo 2 MRAP is one of our oldest vehicle projects and currently is going through a complete remodel. While Tobi provided a solid base model with many great details, we decided to update it to the technical standard of our newer vehicles. MrChulo did a great job in adding new details to the 3D model and crisp textures to the exterior. Since MrChulo is currently very busy in becoming a real world pilot, we are now looking for a new artist to finish the interior of the Dingo 2 (more about that at the end of the Blog).

M2QCB Browning Heavy Machine Gun

Our FLW200 remote weapons station, used on the Boxer GTK, the Dingo 2 and the upcoming amphibious Fuchs APC, is already in operation on the Boxer GTK with a working real life representation of the original RWS screen of a FLW operator. The cherry on top for us, is newly recorded weapons sounds by our sound engineer HoboTactical. Because of a extensive recording setup including dozens of microphones at various distances of the weapon, you will be able to hear accurate sound representations even at a far distance – something many AAA titles are not able to provide! This was also possible, because of your donations, for which we are very grateful. You can find out more about these unique weapons sounds in this blog section “Infantry Weapons Progress”, since HoboTactical didn’t stop here.

M113 Panzermörser

The Panzermörser is back! After he paused his contribution for our Mod out of personal reasons and because he did massive work on his Brazilian Mod, InovationSR is back with new progress. He is currently working on the interior textures and he finished some mortar related equipment, meaning we might see the Panzermörser with our V1 release. At least we hope it will happen, because we love this very detailed model!

Boxer Infantry Fighting Vehicle / Boxer Heavy Weapons Carrier

My personal favorite (i am a former Jäger and Panzergrenadier of the Bundeswehr): The Boxer IFV made significant progress. The Lance 2 turret has been finished by Lenni. We are now in the process of reworking the topdeck of the hull, to accommodate the turret accordingly. In the meantime, the Bundeswehr officially announced the acquisition of this exact model as “Schwerer Waffenträger Infanterie” (Heavy Weapons Carrier Infantry / HWC) for the Jäger troops, which form the core of the German infantry and is currently being reformed into a medium heavy fighting force as a sort of expeditionary force for UN duties and for supporting NATO partners with fast moving brigades.
Our gamble paid off, since we only knew about these things through our private contacts to the troops and there was a chance of it not happening, since the Boxer IFV with remote operated Puma turret (RCT30) is about to be available too. Lucky for us, this deal was already made, when Australia accepted the Boxer as it’s main stay some time ago. This also means, the Boxer IFV could be available for the Aussie faction as Boxer CRV, if OWI takes an interest here. The real life Version can only carry 4 fully equipped dismounts, since it’s manned turret basket uses too much space internally. Until our own Boxer IFV with RCT30 turret is available, we squeeze more players into it than would be recommended by official guidelines and make space for 3 crew + 6 dismounts in the mean time. So you better lose some of that pixel fat fast! Once our Puma IFV can lend his turret, this version will be reduced to 4 dismounts again and called Boxer HWC instead. Until then, it will serve as our IFV main stay.

Vehicle Camouflage Progress

Finally, we can show some amazing progress with moving hessian vehicle camouflage, provided by our CptBrotzeit. We hope to equip several vehicles with this kind of wood land camouflage, once we got it on point with the Leopard 2A6M. This will help to set it a part from the Canadian Leopard even more.

Infantry Weapons Progress

G36A3 Assault Rifle with AG36 UBGL

Our G36A3 with AG36 under barrel grenade launcher is now playable! After we presented to you the finished 3D model, we proudly present to you in game footage of testing it. Our animator Slanji and Art0mis finished this step of the process together and it looks fantastic. While ranging, one can especially enjoy different perspectives on the double optics on top of the rail.

Panzerfaust 3

Our Panzerfaust 3 with various different warheads moved from “Gameready” model to “Playable” too! We dialed in realistic damage models to the AT warheads and as a speciality, we added wall penetrating HE damage to the Bunkerfaust – a first for infantry weapons in SQUAD! A great job done by Art0mis, for integrating these functions into the Unreal Engine. The HE damage value of the Bunkerfaust is slightly below that of a 125 mm FRAG shell, the AT damage of the same round will be on par with a RPG7 HEAT (so it is not completely useless against vehicles). We are looking forward to see you creating new tactical approaches for assaulting fortified positions with it! It will be available as one of the two HAT kit roles. Of course the ranging of the sight picture has been adapted for SQUAD physics, so you can actually hit what you want to hit.

Terrapin X Laser Range Finder

The new kid on the infantry weapons block is no weapon, but it will change how the marksman and sniper roles are being played. The Terrapin X is the new and more compact Bundeswehr laser range finder. Saber Rider decided to do it as a training item for himself and we figured it turned out too good to just leave it in a digital portfolio, so here we are – no more “can i have a mark on this SL???!”. Markers can be used for their intended tactical purposes finally, while the marksman role becomes more valuable for the Squad. It is now possible to deny open areas effectively by a independently operating cover troop, staffed by MG’s and a marksman, giving them accurate ranging information’s. Or you send your anti tank troop hunting for scrap metal, with a marksman covering them from infantry and giving them fast range estimates. Of course your first hit capability with your DMR will improve too (hopefully). Together with the working double optics on the HK G28E2, we believe the marksman role can be of better service to it’s Squad than before.

G3A3 Designated Marksman Rifle No.1

Speaking of marksman, our HK G3A3 DMR is nearly finished, but already implemented. What is left to do, is a tiny bit of texture for the newly added cheek weld. Our CptBrotzeit added a new rail, a Bipod, a foregrip, a cheekweld and a new zoom scope to the vanilla G3 of SQUAD. We did it, because when we started the modification, we didn’t knew our G28 will be available this fast. It would be a shame to not use this work, wouldn’t it? Since the G3 DMR is still being used by the Bundeswehr, we decided to offer the Marksman role a alternative to its modern predecessor. This one is for the eccentric HK G3 lovers in our community. But hey: Select fire only for this one!

HK G28 Designated Marksman Rifle No.2

The HK G28E2 from Saber Rider, a weapon, i personally tested a bit more than necessary. Is it the stylish brown tan? The massive zoom scope with working red dot on top? The new crisp weapon sounds, made by HoboTactical? The smooth animations by Slanji? A bit of everything? Most likely. Do i love this specific weapon? Maybe (:D)… Will you love it? Most definitely i assume.

AI G22A2 Sniper Rifle

So you thought this couldn’t get any better for the precision shooter type of gamers? You are wrong. Very very wrong. Saber Rider did a complete rework of Kirushas first G22A2 model, using fresh high resolution references. He outdid himself here, in my humble opinion. He not only provided us with a extremely detailed bolt mechanic with bullet chamber, he also made a foldable stock with cheek weld for Slanji to animate in the upcoming deployment animations. We can’t wait to see this piece of art with finished textures, Bipod and a new STEINER zoom scope on top.

Picture above from here, for demonstration purposes.

The caliber is .300 Winchester Magnum, which technically is a 7,62 mm caliber bullet, similar to the one used as NATO standard in the G3 or G28, but practically it has a much bigger punch due to a greater powder charge, providing high accuracy on ranges up to 1.000 m. It will come with AP damage, similar to a .cal 50 round, making it useful against lightly armored vehicles. Theoretically it should be able to penetrate armored glass in SQUAD, but we have to wait for the practical trials and playtests with the finished weapon. Again, we hope to make Snipers a tad bit more useful this way, since they should support their team against more than just infantry threats with this highly specialized weapon. The decision wether to provide one or two Sniper roles is not fixed yet and is connected to the various subdivisions we still need to define. Optimally, the heavy “Panzergrenadier” cavalry shouldn’t have them, while the infantry subdivisions should receive the role for tactical reasons. We will look into this topic after this Blog update has been published. What is clear for us already, is the fact Sniper + Marksman teams with their laser range finders should be able to deny access to a wide open area against infantry and lightly armored vehicles, opening up new tactical possibilities for Squadleaders and commanders. And of course, it should be hell of a fun for the ones wielding this much of long range power.

MP7 Sub Machine Gun / Personal Defence Weapon

Now we are going from high precision to “spray and pray” high volume machine guns, beginning with our playable MP7. With our last Blog update, we already presented to you the Gameready 3D model with quite sharp graphics, made by Lenni (3D) and Scout (2D).

Our field recordist and sound engineer HoboTactical provided us another video of his recording sessions with the HK MP7 (Note: Video sound of the GoPro, not the final mixed gameready version):

And the final in game product, with animations from Slanji and the mixed sounds from HoboTactical. Another finished and playable weapon for the coming Bundeswehr faction for SQUAD!

HK MG4 Light Machine Gun

As a surprise, we present to you the finished 3D model as “white model” for the HK MG4, made by our weapons smith Art0mis! The weapon will supplement our V1 weapons layout as a light machine gun or LMG for the auto rifle man role. It will come with the same working double optics as our G36A3, providing the necessary flexibility for fast switches between far and close targets.

Our HoboTactical couldn’t wait for the finished model and already recorded the MG4 weapons sounds. Who could blame him? Also it is incredible fun to shoot MG’s in general… Expect the MG4 with a V1.X update somewhere at the end of this year or beginning of next year, since Art0mis is a bit busy for some time with working overseas soon.

Unique Support by the Defence Industry

Shoutout to Accuracy International, STEINER Optics, Heckler & Koch and others for officially allowing us the use of their brand logos for the Mod. This adds another level of authenticity to our art. Thank you for your support! We will keep their representatives in the loop, since they immediately became fans of our project too upon asking.

Leveldesign Progress

Friends, we have a good and a bad message here. First the bad message: Fulda Gap 2.0 (the second iteration of our map project) was plagued by a couple of issues, which made it very difficult to work with it. We posted several times about these issues in our Discord and forums, hoping to get help from other modders and OWI itself. We eventually figured out some of the issues (cudos to CptBrotzeit and CoMa), but eventually took the decision to try and see if they would go away with a fresh remake of the map. Since we started the map projects, the SQUAD vanilla core experienced a series of deep changes and we tested things on our own, which in combination with some limitations by the Unreal Engine 4 created a difficult situation by time.
The good news: It did help a lot. We are able to deploy the map for testing on a bi-weekly basis now, which helps us tremendously with finding bugs and testing performance on life servers, before we organize playtests with you. Fulda Gap 2.0 ended, welcome Fulda Gap 3.0! Here is a little goodbye picture series as a tribute to all the work done on it by the level design team, especially CptBrotzeit, Mqxl and myself, with a few gameplay scenes made by PhetvieWonder:

What are the implications of Fulda Gap 3.0?

Part of the reason we had trouble with Fulda Gap 2.0 were Runtime Action shenanigans with 8×8 km maps in UE4 and the tiling of our map (subdivisions), which allowed us simultaneous working on various areas of the map, synchronized through a file management program. We took these complexities out of the process, by reducing the playable area to 6×6 km and by not re-introducing the tiling technology. This means we lost a couple hundred of hours of work (yeah, that hurt…), but we are finally able to focus on creating content and interesting environments again vs trouble shooting and finding workarounds. We need to thank CoMa for bringing in his professional experience as full time level designer and for doing a ton of work to get us back to speed in a short amount of time!
The re-scaling of the map from 10×10 km on a 8×8 km UE4 map to a real world 6×6 km map gave us a new experience of vastness on a SQUAD map, which we never saw before this way – it just feels more real. We chose 6×6 km vs 4×4 km, since it was important for us to provide enough room for simulating combined arms maneuver warfare with the SQUAD engine. We wanted to provide you with space for more than the same 3 possible lanes on a map. Possibilities to flank, sneak, hide, snipe, retreat or fly around. Room for shoot and scoot for the artillery, space to move undetected for infantry formations for new attack approaches. Vast and hilly highlands provide ample space for armored warfare.

This sneak peak video from our first internal team playtest on Fulda Gap 3.0 provides you with a impression of the distances (ignore the random German commentary by CoMa). This tank on tank shot was taken on a distance of ca. 2 km, hill to hill. What also becomes clear here: OWI where are thermals? We NEED them now, because finding tanks or infantry on these vast areas becomes a real hard task. But the subsequent further slow down of the gameplay and the higher requirement for team coordination might be well liked by many players who liked the recent gameplay mechanic changes by OWI.

Dense forests, high grown corn and wheat fields or half hidden and bush overgrown creek beds allow infantry and light armored vehicles to move safer routes, hidden from armored highland warfare. We made sure to provide “Holzwege” and “Waldwege” (forest roads), bigger vehicles will have trouble moving through in a fast way. Villages and towns will provide strongholds, while fortified with trench lines and bunkers in the near future. For now, we are focusing on creating a “vanilla” base map version, so we may playtest Fulda Gap 3.0 as fast as possible with our hord of playtesters, while later adding more detailed points of interest on the go. The re-scaling also allowed us to automatically deploy roads, dirt roads and especially micro terrain, which safed us a ton of work. Advances in available satellite data allowed us to use a new high terrain resolution of 1x1m vs 5x5m with Fulda Gap 2.0. This means way way way way less work for us, in making the whole map interesting. You will find slopes, hills, terrain dents, mountains, creeks and other real world features where they exist in real life now! We can now focus on points of interests, such as villages and human built structures like the Autobahn or trench systems.

How is the Performance of Fulda Gap 3.0?

Our Zillbach village and it’s surroundings will provide a first playtest layer on a roughly 3×3 km playable area. You will still be able to fight through our previously uniquely made building assets, such as our barn’s or Fachwerk houses! This part of our Fulda Gap 2.0 work is not lost luckily!
Performance wise, we got it optimized to +75 FPS for 20 series Nvidea GPUs and +130 FPS with 30 series GPU’s on medium settings. This includes a map, fully covered in forested areas with hundreds of thousands of trees, with volumetric weather effects and day light changes! Of course these values will change a bit, with the amount of semi urban areas we are about to add and with 100 players wrecking havoc, but it is a great start already.

When will we able to finally play Fulda Gap?

We can’t say when the full map will be finished with certainty (it will most likely take us another 2 years to detail two dozens of unique villages, towns and POI’s), but we will allow you to experience these changes for example quarterly or even more often, depending on our progress. At a certain point of time, we will permanently publish the map with the first AAS flag layer for you to enjoy as much as you want. This might happen next year (after our V1 faction release hopefully this year), depending on how well the closed playtests will go. But surely we won’t make you wait for another 2 years to play this unique map! Once we are happy with the status of Fulda Gap 3.0 in terms of re-populating important areas around Zillbach, we will host playtests. Closed playtests might already happen with relative short notice, but again, this depends on the progress of the leveldesign team in the following weeks.

Playtest Sneak Peak

With this short picture series i want to give you a sneak peak into playtest footage on CptBrotzeits Narva+ Flooded, with destructible bridges our trenches and our pre V1 faction (here with the old character models). Turns out the trench modules work very well for their purpose. They provided great cover from armored fire for defending infantry, on a otherwise exposed open position on a hill. We learned a ton about balancing our armour values and saw how the double optics and the bunkerfaust didn’t change the game too much (we played against vanilla russian armed forces with bad or no scopes). A great success in this regard! Thank you again to all 70 attending playtesters.

We are searching for talent!

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How to support us

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