OWI Publish their summary of 2022
As 2022 nears its end it is a good time for us to reflect on Squad’s past year. 2022 was a positive year for us, a busy one in terms of content released for Squad. We shifted our development rhythm to deliver smaller but more consistent updates. Yet we also released three new factions this year with the Australian Army, the American Marine Forces, and lastly the People’s Liberation Army joining the battle! On top of that we released two new maps as well, Black Coast, Harju, while revamping older maps with the addition of navigable waters.
The year began rocky with the v2.12 launch causing many players framerate issues. Thankfully we were able to address these issues quickly with a Hotfix that was developed with support from our players who were able to help us test potential solutions until we found the right one! The update improved the visuals of Squad, but we know that we have to continue to improve performance and optimization and we will continue to do so in 2023. The internal creation of a dedicated performance monitoring team will help us move further into this direction as we keep building the future of Squad.
April brought with it Squad 2.15 (LINK URL) and our friends from Down Under, the Aussies, with the arrival of the Australian Army. In terms of other innovation, 2.15 came with several reworked systems and other improvements, notably new FOB fortifications like the Observation Tower, Tire Fire, and added one way visible camo nettings to many of the existing fortifications to improve the static defender survivability. These new deployables and changes offered a better payoff in relation to time spent to build and supply the FOB, making it more viable and enjoyable to dig in and defend. We also updated the flag capture rates to now scale based on the number of friendlies/enemies on the flag and encourage capture teamplay.
Following up in May was Squad 2.16 (LINK URL) introducing the new Seeding Mode to help servers build to a higher player count after starting up for the day by offering faster-paced gameplay on smaller map layers, with forward spawn points that help players get in the fight quicker. This allows servers to transition smoothly from the Seeding Phase to the standard Squad gameplay of Live Phase.
In June we hit big with Squad 3.0 (LINK URL) and the introduction of the American marine forces, the addition of the Black Coast map and the rework of many older maps to take full advantage of the new navigable water system and modify vehicle and soldier behaviors to react accordingly when moving into and across water. With the addition of amphibious capability into the game we extended by a large the tactical options available to players and the variety of gameplay! The update also came with many fixes and tweaks, along with a slew of new weapons and vehicles for players to try.
From July we soldiered on and released regular smaller scale updates monthly: Squad 3.2 (LINK URL), 3.3 (LINK URL), 3.4 (LINK URL), and 3.5 (LINK URL), leading all the way to December. Each update focused on some fine tuning of weapons, kits, vehicles and of course, game performance and many bug fixes. These updates brought other improvements as well, such as the improved UI for Squad Leader, an update to the Vehicle Recovery System to allow helicopters and some other vehicles to be reset, or the addition of Harju in 3.4! We also added gradually more new vehicles, for a total of an extra 8 new vehicles added to existing factions. And let’s not forget that sneaky CAS helicopter that found its way in for a brief time (looking at you 3.3)!
Finally this brings us to December and Squad 4.0 (LINK URL) and the long awaited introduction of the People’s Liberation Army into Squad. We are very excited to see the player response to our newest faction. The PLA bring with them interesting tools in their kit unique to their faction, like the new Z8 troop transport helicopter, or the new NLAW and its range finder.