Hey all, this week we're bringing out a whole host of refinements and changes to the core of Super Squad!

• Combat Mode – Focusing in on the fight, our new combat mode lets skill and decision making shine!
  
• Reloading – Infinite ammo, but with a limited clip...
  
• Domination Redesign – Crystals, Crystals, Crystals...
  
• AI Refinements – Bots are now more like people, they miss and get distracted, but scale to their difficulty to the average match rank.
  
• Sound Overhaul – Get in game and have a listen, can't really describe sound in the patch notes.
  
• Bug Fixes and Balance Changes – A whole host of bug fixes and balance changes to the game!
  

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: Keybindings may have reset due to addition of mechanics, please check them when going into game!

You're welcome to join our Discord to help give us feedback! Make sure to let us know what you think of all the changes as that's the best way to have your input on the game.

Now, let’s take a look at the changes in more detail:

Combat Mode:

We’ve added a “combat mode” into the game which refines battles inside of Super Squad making it feel more structured, weighty, and tactical. Combat mode is triggered when you take damage, shoot, or use an ability, but we’ll get more into it down below.
Specifics:

• A Trooper’s movement speed while out of Combat is faster than their old speed, making getting around the maps and reacting to the enemy feel that much snappier.
  
• When inside of combat a Trooper’s movement speed is 40% slower than their new base movement speed, adding to the skill of dodging and weaving through shots while going into a fight!
  
• Combat mode is triggered by using an ability, shooting, or taking damage, but dodging does not cause you to enter Combat Mode. It’s all about deciding how and when to engage in the build up to a fight.
  
• When inside of combat mode the camera zooms in a slightly, focusing a player in on the fight and immediate dangers around them.
  
• Combat Mode lasts until a player doesn’t shoot, use an ability, or take damage for 1 second.
  

Reloading:

We’re excited to bring a new feature to Super Squad that we feel adds so much to the pacing and vibe of the game – Reloading.
Each Trooper now has a maximum number of shots they can fire off before they automatically reload. You can also reload at any time (including during abilities) by pressing the G key, so dipping out and finding some cover to reload is always an option.
Each Trooper takes 1.2 seconds to fully complete a reload, but can be shortened by hitting a “perfect reload” window. If you hit LMB or the G Key inside a small blue coloured window (central 20% of reload time) while reloading, you cut off the remaining time to maximise how quickly you can dish out damage.

Default Key Bindings
The default keys set in game at the moment are abilities on Q, E, R, and F with your reload on G. Half the studio have kept it this way, and half have changed their abilities to 1, 2, 3, and 4 with reload being on the R key.
It’s all rebindable in the options screen, apart from LMB and the bound reload key being used to quick reload.

Domination Redesign:

Mysterious crystals are breaking through the map, tearing apart the battleground underneath the Trooper’s feet! As the world around them crumbles and changes, the Troopers must capture these crystals and kill enemies to gain 100 shards before the enemy team - or face being left behind in a collapsing reality…

Specifics:

We’re revamping domination’s scoring condition, crunching our old “VP” numbers, and revamping the way that defences work in the game!
Now, instead of increasing your VP by capturing points and killing enemies, Domination is centered on collecting SHARDS of reality around the map. If the shard is blue, you or your team can pick it up; if it’s red then only the enemy team can bank it. Killing an enemy and/or capturing and holding a point drops Shards which must be picked up to go towards your score. If an enemy team hasn't picked up their shards and a point is neutralised, then they're destroyed and lost forever... The first team to 100 shards wins the game!
In-game store currency has also been rebranded as Energy.
We’ve changed how defences work. Now players can buy them while running around the map. This is done through the Energy (the in-game Store currency) that players use to buy passives and actives, so more tactical decisions need to be made on how and where you’re spending your Energy!

Tweaks and Changes:

• We’ve taken out gaining score from destroying defences as they’re no longer tied to our capture points.
  
• You also no longer gain points from neutralising a crystal, so stay in the zone and make sure to cap it!
  
• Numbers have been crunched by around 10x.
  
• Now you have to actively gain score through picking up shards, rather than passively gaining score.
  
• There is no more grouped respawning, so now every player has their own respawn timer. This stops the feeling of someone dying and then immediately coming to contest a point.
  
• Capture Times have been reduced from 30 seconds to 15.
  
• The Underbelly and Urban Battleground maps are getting some longer term tweaks and changes, so they won't be in this patch, but will be coming back soon with a fresh coat of paint...
  

AI Refinements:

The bots have had a revamp to their behaviour patterns and priorities. Now they’re less objective focused and more combat focused – they’ll still play the field and try and capture points, but if someone meets them along their way they’ll get distracted and try to take them out before going to complete their mission.
We’ve also added accuracy to the AI abilities, like they have always had on their guns, so they will sometimes miss while trying to hit you – just like players.
As the bots now have accuracy on both their weapons and abilities, we're using these stats to scale the difficulty of bots dependent on the average match rank!

Sound Overhaul:

There’s been a sound overhaul to the game, from menu music to music when you start to regen your health– it’s a bit difficult to explain sound, so have a game and hear the difference!
Make sure to check your volume sliders before you go into game, there are some big sounds in there…

Trooper Rotation

Damage Dealers:

- Flintlock, the suave pirate who can never get enough booty
- Scorch, the gadget loving pyromaniac from the Military

Tank:

- Our two-part tank pairing, Fang and Trigger. Trigger doesn't think of himself as an attack dog, he's just playing Fetch.

Healer:

- Our angelic champion Eve is here to save her allies and condemn her enemies.

Support:

- Supreme Overlord Nebular, who dominates the battlefield from afar, letting his allies do the grunt work.

Balance Changes:

Passives:

One Two:

Damage nerfed from 125 to 110
Cooldown Nerfed from 12 seconds to 15

Berserker’s Rage:

Damage Buff nerfed from 15% to 10
Cooldown nerfed from 20 seconds to 24

Stun, what Stun?

Shield total nerfed from 300 to 220

Battle Medic:

Damage buff nerfed from 50% to 35

Actives:

Who Needs a Healer?

Self-slow nerfed from 25% to 50

Trooper Changes:

Sarge:

• Ammo Count: 30
  
• Cluster Grenade: Time between initial explosion and outer explosion nerfed from 0.5s to 0.75
  

Crow:

• Ammo Count: 6
  
• Raven’s Mark: Damage increase nerfed from 20% to 15
  

Skull Crusher:

• Ammo Count: 17
  
• Gun: Damage buffed from 26 to 29
  
• Anchor’s Away: Initial damage nerfed from 100 to 90
  
• Anchor’s Away: Secondary Damage nerfed from 135 to 110
  

Nebular:

• Ammo Count: 13
  
• Gun: Damage nerfed from 49 to 44
  
• Focus: Damage nerfed from 200 to 160
  

Scorch:

• Ammo Count: 12
  
• Rain of Fire: Ground duration nerfed from 12 seconds to 6
  
• Deploy Turret: Bullet damage changed from 8 to 16
  
• Deploy Turret: Bullets per second changed from 6 to 3
  
• Deploy Turret: Health nerfed from 700 to 500
  
• Bomb Drone: Damage nerfed from 225 to 200
  

Florp:

• Ammo Count: 14
  
• Splosion: Healing nerfed from 200 to 160
  
• Splosion: Damage nerfed from 200 to 160
  
• Splosion: Cooldown buffed from 11 seconds to 10
  
• Transfusion: Lifesteal nerfed from 35 to 25%
  

Tharlin:

• Ammo Count: 6
  

Fang:

• Ammo Count: 10
  
• Gun: Damage nerfed from 65 to 60
  
• Fetch: Damage nerfed from 125 to 100
  

Flintlock:

• Ammo Count: 13
  

Glorgan:

• Ammo Count: 10
  
• Overcharge: Damage nerfed from 175 to 150
  
• Overcharge: Heal nerfed from 18 to 15%
  

Xandark:

• Ammo Count: 15
  
• Dodges: Total dodge count nerfed from 3 to 2
  

Eve:

• Ammo Count: 13
  

Pan:

• Ammo Count: 15
  

Bug Fixes:

• Various Fixes around maps which allowed player to glitch through the floor.
  
• Fixed an issue where Tharlin’s Minor Inconvenience ability would deploy around a Trooper as if he had hit a wall or other object in a level.
  
• Fixed an issue where Fang’s Fetch ability would hit walls or mortars even if they weren’t deployed yet.
  
• Potential fix for an issue where Flintlock’s Mysterious Liquid ability would deploy on the floor and no one would be able to interact with it.
  
• Potential fix for sound crackling.
  
• Fix for the Scorch’s Rain of Fire not leaving the map correctly.
  
• Fix for knockback abilities being able to force players underneath scenery or partially into the floor.
  
• Fix for Scorch’s friendly Rain of Fire refreshing the DoT effect from an enemy Rain of Fire.
  
• Fixed inconsistencies on displaying accolade stats (Damage, Tanking, Healing, Assists) at the end of a match.
  
• Fixed an issue where Sarge’s grenades from his Cluster Grenade ability would all detonate at the initial impact location, but sometimes show the outer explosions without dealing damage in the secondary explosion locations.
  
• Fixed an issue where you could fire shots and deal damage to enemy Troopers inside of their base.
  
• Potential fix for not being able to use the ESC key while in settings to come out of them.
  
• Fixed a bug where you could teleport back into spawn.
  
• Fixed an issue where you could get on top of objects with the Support Store ability Teleport Station.
  
• Fixed an issue where you could be killed after the game ended from DoT effects.
  
• Fixed an issue where bomb drone would go through forcefields and walls if chasing a target.
  
• Fixed an issue where Trigger would avoid Mines and AoE when pathing back to Fang after using the Menacing Bark or Fetch abilities.
  
• Fixed an issue where you could place “deployable” abilities into spawn once you’d left it.
  
• Fixed an issue where Scorch's turret seemed to sometimes fire 2 projectiles.
  

Known Issues:

• If you finish or get past the movement section of the tutorial, go back to the main menu, and then play through the tutorial again it won't load correctly and will think you're on the camera movement section. If you exit out and reload the tutorial it will work fine.
  
• During the movement section of the tutorial you won't be moved to the center of the pads correctly. You will after the shooting objective of the tutorial.
  
• By pressing the ` key (next to 1 on qwerty keyboards) you will enter an Ai testing mode. This has no in game benefits for players, but we’re running dev builds so we can debug the game. If you do this your camera can get disconnected from your character. If you do this in base you can get stuck in base.
  
• Some players are experiencing random crashes. Some of these have been fixed, but there may be more. If you experience this then join the discord and send over your log files to BadFox_Eddie. You can ask him how to get your log files and he'll help!
  
• Borderless/Windowed/Fullscreen don't seem to be setting properly, working on a fix.
  
• We've had one instance of Trooper's spawning with the incorrect UI, we're keeping an eye out for this, but haven't had any additional instances of the bug.
  
• Sometimes when adding players to a party their names are not be visible. They are in your party and is just a visibility bug.
  
• Occasionally you can get stuck on a map loading screen while going through map select.
  
• When loading into a game Sarge can sometimes be visually selected in squad select, even though you're on random.
  

Steam ID: 10066272
Epic ID: 12303

To view this go to Steam > Library > Right Click Super Squad > Properties > Updates

It's at the bottom of the small pop-up window and is a way for you to ensure that your game is fully updated and able to play.