Inspired by the Project Reality modification for Battlefield 2, the game will place its players in a realistic environment and encourage them to work together. Doing so tends to be an excellent way to build an immersive and visceral combat atmosphere. To those familiar with PC shooters, the best way to describe this would be as a middle ground between the Battlefield and Arma series.

Built from the ground up in the Unreal Engine 4, Squad pits teams of up to 50 players against each other in white knuckle modern day combined-arms combat scenarios, with both conventional and unconventional forces. The players dictate how the scenarios unfold with base-building and interactive environments, intuitive squad command and management tools and large-scale warfare where strategy and leadership are just as important as a quick trigger finger.

The battlefield of Squad is built around organized teams using both the environment and the assets available within the ga6me to wage a tactical battle against an opposing team. From role organization to base building to vehicle mechanics, teamwork amplifies the effectiveness of the tools at your disposal. Supported by intuitive positional VOIP and navigation systems players will be able to maintain situational awareness and seamlessly interact with others. Dedicated chain of command channels and localized voice will be an effective tool for communication and organization.

Offworld Industries announced that Squad is leaving Alpha and entering Beta with the next major update. Beta 17 marks a significant milestone for the Offworld team and introduces the Commander, one of the final components needed before Squad’s official 1.0 release. The new content is now playable on the Squad public test server.

Commanders are voted into the role by their squadmates and come equipped with specialized assets to support their team. As a Commander, players can call in artillery bombardments or airstrikes against enemy forces and utilize their abilities to lend a helping hand to other squad leaders in need. Effective Commanders are the pinnacle of teamwork and coordination which can play a vital role in the squad's effectiveness in the field. 

Also included in Beta 17 is a much-requested Vehicle Emergency Accident Recovery system. This system will allow players to right flipped vehicles, making it a great addition for squadmates who are accident-prone while driving. Other updates include improved helicopter controls, passenger velocity inheritance when exiting vehicles and more.

Commander Role added

The intent for this role is to keep intel flowing between the various Squads, and in ideal circumstances, Commanders can create a dynamic plan for the entire team to follow. We envision that this role can be played in a variety of styles.

• Commander role is voluntary and requires a vote to elect.
• Commander abilities are on timers. These may vary for release, so please send us your feedback!
• Conventional Faction Commanders have access to a UAV that can be used for remote reconnaissance. 
• Conventional Faction Commanders have access to 155mm Artillery barrage, in a creeping pattern or a static pattern focused on one location. Conventional Artillery fires two “ranging” shots before the main barrage.
• Conventional Commanders have access to an aircraft based Gun or Rocket strike.
• Unconventional MIL & INS Commanders have access to a Handheld Drone, a more versatile UAV.
• Unconventional Commanders have access to a static Heavy Mortar barrage. Heavy Mortars are less accurate, have less splash damage, and less penetrating power, but do not have any “ranging” shots required by conventional artillery. 
• Commander abilities have cooldown timers. (Timers reset if a new commander is selected.) Note: Timers are subject to change during testing.
• Conventional Factions Commanders must be within the radius of a fully built HAB use their abilities.
• Unconventional Factions Commanders must be within the radius of a HAB or near any friendly vehicle to use their abilities.

Infantry Gameplay

• Added a stamina penalty for leaning, with stamina loss over time when moving as well as using it in bursts. Note: Further improvements to the leaning system and ways to prevent its abuse are in development for a future update.
• Added stance based stamina regeneration. Stamina will now regenerate faster while crouched and stationary; fastest while prone and stationary.
• Updated leaning to have different movement speeds. (Crouched movement speed is halved while leaning).
• Improved the prone lean trace blocking to help decrease the chances that a player can see through the world on steep hills. Further work is in progress.

Vehicle Gameplay

• Added vehicle velocity inheritance to players ejecting from vehicles in motion. If a player ejects past a certain velocity, the player will ragdoll and take damage upon impacting the ground.
• Updated all vehicles to use a new and improved Speed Dependent Gearbox system . Instead of shifting gears at engine RPM ratios gear shifting now happens based on vehicle speed. This will make sure vehicles are always in the best gear driving uphill.
• Updated Helicopters to have a subtle camera shake during active flight. Camera shake intensity is based on RPMs of the engine.
• Updated Helicopters so that they can now be steered for a short while after disabling the engine.
• Adjusted Helicopter collective sensitivity.

Misc

• Added the ability to join another server via the server browser while currently in a server or in the local training range.
• Added the ability to queue up to another server while currently in a server or in local training range – HUD will show a small queue widget to let the player know their current queue status.

Deployables Gameplay

• Updated Insurgent HAB static to be larger with a new interior layout, to help eliminate players spawning on top. Spawning on top is still an occasional issue and will be fixed in a future update.
• Fixed collisions on the ZU23 and Mortars to now collide properly with vehicles and vehicle physics bodies.

User Interface

• Added a toggle on the command screen to collapse the squad list, so the map can now be displayed in fullscreen glory – especially useful for Commanders.
• Added a toggle to deployment and command screen (chat bubble toggle) to turn on/off text chat (also accessible in UI options).
• Removed [GAMENOTIFICATION] showing up in server messages.

Known Issues

• Helicopter Tail Rotor component currently can only take damage from collisions with ground, statics and other vehicles. Projectile damage to tail rotors will come in a future update.
• Helicopters have various handling tweaks, damage values and small bugs that will be addressed in a future update.
• Clients frequently crash at the end of a round, upon map switch due to a UE4 Particle Crash bug upon seamless map travel. Actively pursuing a fix for this crash.
• When clients get a crash to desktop and the Crash Reporter appears, pressing “Send and Restart Squad” will restart Squad without EAC, which will prevent players from joining most public servers. The workaround, for the time being, is to press “Send and Close”. A proper fix for this issue is under investigation.
• Occasional client crashes in various circumstances. Detailed crash reports help us fix things faster and we truly appreciate those that have filled out and sent crash reports.
• Players will occasionally spawn without full ammo on their first spawn on a server. This occurs if a player was in the match during the map switch but did not spawn in during the staging phase. Actively investigating a fix for this bug.
• Occasionally a player will not spawn at a Rally Point, this often happens when numerous players are spawning in at the exact same time. Actively investigating a fix for this bug.
• Server performance may periodically dip when a server has a high population and high load. We are continuously working to improve server performance and optimization.
• Occasionally Self-bandaging fails. Actively investigating a fix for this issue.
• The CP Icon (Capture Point / Flag) will sometimes not show up on a client’s HUD in the RAAS game mode. This is likely related to RAAS “Lanes”. Investigating a fix for this issue.
• Insurgent HAB still has a spawning issue where there’s a chance the player will spawn on top of the model instead of inside it. Actively investigating a fix for this bug.
• ATGM projectiles desync for other players that are not the gunner, however, what the gunner sees should be the true synced projectile. This is an inherent problem, and the solution will be in the long term.
• Vehicles parking brake will get stuck “On” if a player exits the vehicle while holding the parking brake (Default Spacebar). When encountering a vehicle that appears healthy but is not able to move, try hitting Spacebar to turn the parking brake “Off’. Investigating a fix for this issue.
• “Alt-tabbing” out of Squad during a loading screen will freeze the client. The recommended solution, for now, is to run in “Borderless” mode.
• Ammo rack component (on IFVs and Tanks) takes a very long time to repair.
• Audio module for Squad is initialized at the game start. If a player does not have a microphone plugged in at launch, or accidentally unplug their microphone and then plug it back in, Squad will need to be restarted to get the microphone to work again.
• SFX bug while Firing in full auto.If the player presses the fire button for a short period of time, the sound effect gives the impression that you fired more rounds then you actually did.
• Localization for most language translations is currently out of date. Our plan is to push a full localization pass when we are much closer to full release and are locking down all the text that will need to be translated for the game.
• Local/Offline Bug with Vehicles: When playing offline on Jensen’s Range, Tracks, Wheels, and other components are not destructible while on the Jensen’s Range in Local play.
• Local/Offline Bug with Weapon damages: When playing offline on Jensen’s Range, Weapon damages with both Infantry and Vehicle weapons are not accurately replicated.
• Local/Offline Bug with Scoped Emplacements: When playing offline on Jensen’s Range,if a player exits an Emplacement while looking through the scope, the Scope will remain on the Player’s HUD until they get back in the Emplacement and then Scope out.

Squad seeks to establish a culture of camaraderie that is unparalleled in competitive multiplayer shooters. This is a game where you can work together and coordinate with your team: players from around the world, often that you just met.

Squad will support up to 100 players in competitive multiplayer. This broad scope serves to immerse the player into a rich battle environment filled with challenges and opportunities. With teams of sufficient size, some players can perform supporting roles while leaving enough front-line combatants to provide fun and challenging gameplay across the full expanse of the battlefield.

A wide variety of support vehicles and aircraft will be included. Tanks and close support helicopters will spearhead a team’s assault into enemy lines while transport helicopters and APCs will provide much needed logistics and transportation support.

Commanders and squad leaders will be given the ability to shape the battlefield through construction of defensive and offensive fortifications as well as control of battlefield planning and supplemental combined arms assets. Coupled with this, spawn dynamics will be affected by occupation of territories and level of supply each objective is receiving. Organized control of the battlefield will ensure a properly supported supply structure and pave the way for a strategic victory.

It’s all about teamwork.

Key Features:

• Massive Online 50 vs 50 Squad-Based Combined Arms Warfare
• Large scale maps up to 8km^2. (currently working with 2km and 4km maps)
• Organic and Emergent Gameplay, this won’t be a linear shooter
• Maps based on Geographic Information System satellite data of real world locales
• True First Person (aka ‘body awareness’) character models, there won’t be walking gunheads here. High quality models and complex animations systems.
• Built in Voice Over IP using the best codecs available, with attenuated localized, intra-squad radio, and inter-squad command radio communications.
• Simulated damage models and simulated ballistics
• NO grinding rewards system and no dress up dolls
• Showcase Deployables and Base Building which no other military FPS has.
• Real world current time period armaments using highly accurate modelling
• Teamwork oriented gameplay that doesn't require a clan or private server to fully realize the potential of the gameplay.
• The creation, defense, destruction and resupply of chained spawn positions in an overlapping and always fluid emergent chessboard designed in our maps.
• A very open development team with excellent community communication, and preparations in progress for mod support near retail release.
• Essentially an "everything" game. Infantry/Logistics/Air Combat/CAS/Armor Warfare

Squad is currently available on Steam Early Access for $39.99