- Intel Report #033: Chapter 1 News & Previews - 29 September 2026
Hello! After a period of hotfixes, we have since moved on to work on release V1.1.0 — which includes Chapter 1 of the Operations campaign, as well as several other updates to AI, animations, items and more that we'll be discussing today. 📅 GROUND BRANCH V1.1.0 is slated to release by the end of October.💡 All planned updates will, of course, be 100% free for GROUND BRANCH owners. Read on and your curiosity shall be quenched. But first, a quick notice: 🍂 Steam Autumn Sale: 20% OFF GROUND BRANCH will be 20% OFF on the Steam Autumn Sale, starting in just a few days on October 1st (Thursday). Take the opportunity to give the game a try if you haven't yet, grab an extra copy to gift a friend, or convince your non-GB buddies to finally squad up. Alright, on to the dev blog now! New personnel to get animations up to spec For V1.1.0, our characters will be receiving an upgrade to clean up a l…
- Build Update #068: V1.0 Hotfix 3 - 25 August 2026
Here’s another little hotfix to continue our pass on performance and general bug-fixing: Rebalanced AI difficulty settings (Untrained through Veteran) to offer a better experience.Adjusted sway, recovery, and exhaustion systems to work together. Players should see a noticeable improvement in weapon sway when not jumping or sprinting.Further optimizations for map Outpost.Set default value for PIP Scope Resolution Scale (Settings › Video › Advanced › Textures) to 0.5.Fixed Docter II and RMR sights not aligning properly on MK3 pistol.Adjusted character mesh LOD levels to improve performance.Tweaked differences between low, medium, and high shadow quality to improve performance at lower settings.Disabled volumetric fog in all levels — this will return as a dedicated setting.Fixed blocking volume in Compound‘s main house 1st floor kitchen preventing AI from behaving as expected.Retooled the…
- Build Update #067: V1.0 Hotfix 2.5 - 31 July 2026
Just a small patch to address some more issues: Reverted change to VOIP settings causing audio to cut out. Fixed IR lasers and illuminators being turned off for clients on listen servers (Host Game) when the host toggles NVG off. Fixed selector/magazine audio muting after looking at watch. Changed blend times between Check Watch and Fire Mode (fire selector switch) animations. 💡 This patch does not include the tweaks to AI behaviors and settings mentioned in Hotfix 2 just yet.
- Build Update #066: V1.0 Hotfix 2 - 30 July 2026
Hey, everyone. We got another hotfix for ya — keep the feedback and reports coming! ✅ Some players have reported improved performance (particularly with PiP scopes) by verifying their game files. If you're unsure how to do that, follow these instructions. Patch notes Hooked up new volume control setting (Settings › Audio) — the Dialogue slider allows controlling the volume for radio calls from NPCs such as Hawk and Forge. Increased size of target zone for door handle breaching (more generous area for shooting it out). Updated soft armor (Body Armor and combos) to allow penetration by rifle rounds on first strike. Following our temporary workaround last patch, light and laser attachments now remain ON when you swap to another item in your inventory. They can still be turned off afterwards. Fixed reticle on the Docter II red dot sight sitting too high in the glass (just about touching the…
- Build Update #065: V1.0 Hotfix 1 - 23 July 2026
We just released a hotfix patch to address some of the more urgent issues in the launch build. Patch notes General We've severely reduced the game's installed disk size from nearly 100 GB to 39.4 GB. Packaging settings were changed and some texture work was done to trim it down. Temporarily removed the launch prompt where DX12 could be selected.*️⃣ This was done because DX12 mode was causing the game to crash. Implemented new controller (gamepad) configuration. Fixed crash related to Kythera AI plugin. 💡 The texture work may improve performance on some systems.*️⃣ DX12 can still be used by right-clicking GROUND BRANCH > Properties… and adding the argument below to the text input box under "Launch Options": -dx12 Please use DX12 at your own discretion as it can cause the game to crash. Gameplay Reduced maximum weapon sway by around 30%. Fixed issue where lights and lasers could not be t…
- GROUND BRANCH V1.0 Now Available! - 16 July 2026
Folks, GROUND BRANCH V1.0 is here. In addition to the campaign's Prologue chapter — featuring 2 new Operations — this release includes a substantial enemy AI rework, the new armor system, a door overhaul, an updated map selection (2 brand-new maps, 2 ground-up remakes, a map overhaul and a few other map upgrades), the Extraction game mode, an update to character locomotion and other animations, a range of new weapons and gear, selectable moon phases, various upgrades to visuals and audio, a whole lot of bug and crash fixes, and more. All of which was built on a refactored foundation for increased stability and expandability. 💡 MAKE SURE TO CHECK OUT INTEL REPORT #032 IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY! As detailed in our last dev blog, this is the beginning of the post-launch road. Each subsequent release on the roadmap will keep building on this foundation with new campaign missions, features, up…
- Intel Report #032: Road to… V1.0! - 30 June 2026
Hey everyone, Welcome back to another Intel Report. We know it's been a minute, but the silence has been the sound of heads-down work. And this time we're not just pulling back the curtain on a few previews. We've got a lot to discuss about the future of GROUND BRANCH. After years of development, and a whole lot of invaluable feedback from you, we're proud to announce that GROUND BRANCH V1.0 launches on July 16, 2026. Yes, you read that right. We have a date. This is the most significant milestone in the game's history. V1.0 officially replaces the "V1036" label and brings improvements across AI, environments, visuals, animations, inventory, player interaction and overall immersion on the strongest foundation GROUND BRANCH has ever stood on. So before we get into the roadmap and what comes next, let's go over what you'll actually be deploying with on day one. What's in V1.0 V1.0 is the…
- Intel Report #031: Road to V1036 (Pt. 3) - 16 April 2026
Hey there! As the release draws nearer, we're bringing you our final Intel Report for V1036. Historically, we've always released one build version at a time with a public test prior to pushing it to the main branch. However, this time we'd like to do things a bit differently: first off, we are internally past the V1036 build, completing our roadmap back in the beginning of this month. While we continue to polish the build internally, we began work on V1037 on the road to GROUND BRANCH V1.0. Today we'll be taking a closer look at more recent developments on the door lock and armor systems, the new Extraction mode, a couple of environmental overhauls, and miscellaneous visual upgrades for our characters. We'll also be checking out the new MK3 pistol — a specialized handgun for stealth operations. It's been longer than usual since our last post, so we've made sure this one was a little mea…
- Build Update #063: New V1035.2 Hotfix - 18 March 2026
This is a small patch to address various issues introduced in V1035. Fixed T-posing after picking up a shotgun shell from the groundFixes for AI hearing, smoke, and flee logicTheir hearing has been restored, which fixes an issue with them not reacting to gunshots in some scenariosAI will no longer freeze on the smoke logic tree which can cause an issue where they get stuck with a grenade outTheir morale meter has been tweaked to properly flee again when the morale is depletedUpdated navmesh for Creek and Tanker mapsUpdated AI grenade cooldown period to be longer between grenadesUpdated AI grenade logic to improve visibility trace prior to throwAdded DedicatedServer.bat back in, so new dedicated server installs should workSkylight override has had a first pass to help restore the darkness underground in Storage Facility (further revisions will take place in the next major update)Updated…
- Intel Report #030: Road to V1036 (Pt. 2) - 12 March 2026
Hello! We're back with another Intel Report filled with dev news and sneak peeks for our upcoming release GROUND BRANCH V1036. Today we'll go over some details on new game systems and mechanics — including AI — as well as another map reveal, some brand-new character art for a new enemy faction, and finally some more player customization options. Let's get to it. Upcoming systems and mechanics Though we aren't able to do a proper visual showcase of these updates just yet, we thought it would be nice to take the time to talk about some of the changes and additions currently being worked on by our programmers for game systems and mechanics. Here are some recent developments on the coding front: AI In V1036, we'll be bringing significant improvements to enemy AI beyond new art assets. 💡 New dev team member Zachary Ledbetter is working on our enemy AI while Chris pivots over to focus on the…
- Intel Report #029: Road to V1036 (Pt. 1) - 19 February 2026
Hello, everyone! We're back with our Intel Reports, this time as we make our way to GROUND BRANCH V1036. On the road to our next major release we'll be trying to do these dev blogs more often, as our schedules permit. We don't want to take too much time away from development, and these posts can be a lot of work. So, in order for them to happen more frequently, we'll have to keep them a little shorter (which we assume is okay with most of you anyway). With that out of the way, let's get right into it. Pau Peñalver officially joins the team We're happy to finally announce that artist Pau Peñalver, who has been blessing our Intel Reports for years with his amazing character art, has been officially integrated into the GB dev team! What started as a freelance contract to build our clothing, equipment, and model skins has evolved into a full-time role. He is now focused on updating our camp…
- Build Update #062: V1035.2 Hotfix - 5 February 2026
Last week's patch V1035.2 released with more than a few issues, so we're addressing as many as possible in this hotfix.UI/UXRestored accessibility settings for Color Blindness Mode and Replace Key Reds With (Settings › Video › Advanced › Accessibility).Fixed front-left rails on the M110K1's handguard having their slots flipped, causing attachments to mount inwards.Restored ability to edit callsign in Lone Wolf.Removed logic for "Use Standard" callsign, which used Team Elements as reference — feature was rarely unused and used Lua logic, so we opted to scrap it (at least for now).Hooked up the F8 key shortcut to the Admin Panel again.Updated the logic for the Hide HUD function while spectating (H key) to take into account whether the player was alive or dead and avoid an issue where the H key fails to hide HUD due to being tied to hand signals.Various small changes to UI text, formatting…
- Build Update #061: Patch V1035.2 - 29 January 2026
After a major refactoring that required rebuilding a massive portion of GROUND BRANCH's systems and interfaces, patch V1035.2 is finally here! The big refactoring Though this update doesn't bring in a whole lot of shiny new features (the bulk of the work involved migrating existing features from Lua language to C++ and UE4 Blueprint) it gets us one step closer to our final goal on a more solid foundation. 💡 For a more in-depth look into the Lua refactoring, check out Intel Report #027. Though the main advantage of the refactoring is future iteration, you might notice improved stability and performance here and there in this version. We'll go over the main impacts, pros and cons in the following subsections. What does this mean for modding? Non-Lua mods will not be affected Once updated to V1035.2, most mods (e.g. item mods) should continue to work as before. Lua-based game modes and mi…
- Changing of the Guard Sale: 15% OFF! - 20 November 2025
We have a 15% discount running for a week (until November 26) to go along with yesterday's news. https://store.steampowered.com/app/16900/GROUND_BRANCH/ Don't miss it!
- Intel Report #028: Changing of the Guard - 20 November 2025
Hello everyone, thank you for joining us for another Intel Report! Today’s topic is a bit different than usual. As you may have seen here, GROUND BRANCH has moved ownership from BlackFoot Studios to MicroProse. The team behind GB fully moved over alongside John — BlackFoot Studios owner and GROUND BRANCH creator — who took an advisory role and helped us finish V1035. This transition involved many moving parts, including changing over hardware infrastructure, licensing, and software ownership to MicroProse. During this time, our heads have been down, with the team focused with onboarding new developers and preparing our base code for a greater expansion of GROUND BRANCH’s future. Recent developments When we last spoke, we mentioned that we’ve been working on the transition from Lua to C++ and Blueprint. The decision came from the desire to increase the scope of our game’s campaign and to…
- Intel Report #027: Interpatch News - 23 October 2025
Hey, everyone. Our last contact has been a while ago, in Build Update #060, when we released Patch V1035.1. Although we usually reserve our Intel Reports for longer periods of quiet between major releases, Patch V1035.2 is taking a lot longer than initially anticipated, and we thought it was important to give everyone a quick heads-up on what’s going on behind the scenes. 🙌 Before we get into more detail, rest assured that GROUND BRANCH continues to be developed normally by the same folks you already know and love/hate, plus a few new faces! We're simply having to do some more refactoring to ensure longevity and consistency in our systems. With that out of the way, let’s get into it. A necessary shift: from Lua to C++ and UE4 Blueprint As we continue development, we’ve made another difficult but crucial decision to refactor the game’s core logic—including all game modes/missions as wel…
- Build Update #060: Patch V1035.1 - 31 July 2025
We're back with another Build Update — this time for our first point release: patch V1035.1! This patch introduces a few new features (such as a Check Watch function, hand signals and modded skins), as well as various bug fixes and even some small visual upgrades. Keep reading for the full scoop, and don't forget to let us know what you think! 💡 Patch V1035.2 is also planned for the near future. Patch notes Performance and stability We have identified and fixed a number of memory leak issues which would create an increasing impact on performance (and possibly online replication) over time: Fixed memory leaks related to inventory items that were not being unloaded on level change Fixed some vehicle blueprints that were leaking memory after level change (they were set to replicate unnecessarily) Fixed leak caused by regenerating navmeshes with our door-swinging logic in Kythera AI 🚧 The…
- SUMMER SALE: Save 15% on GROUND BRANCH - 26 June 2025
It's time for another Summer Sale, and GROUND BRANCH is 15% OFF until July 10 @10am Pacific: Enjoy the sale, everyone!
- Build Update #059: V1035 Hotfix #5 - 17 June 2025
Just a quick update to fix up the in-game bug reporter and a handful of other minor issues.Patch notesFixed in-game bug reporter (Report Bug screen) failing to submitThis was caused by a domain change in our bug tracker, which required the URL to be updated accordingly. Sorry, folks!Added network logging to investigate potential server performance issuesUpdated bomb location in northern container on Depot to be accessible in Defuse game modeFixed DLSS Super Resolution drop-down menu being duplicated when returning to the Settings menuUpdated UMP45's model and animation assets to fix iron sights Have a great rest of the week!
- Build Update #058: V1035 Hotfix #4 - 12 June 2025
Hey, everyone! We have another V1035 hotfix for you, including fixes for City crashes and sound issues, Intel Retrieval bugs, and the "bum rush" feature (where the last remaining enemy AI rush the player in Terrorist Hunt) not working. We have also added a new SVD variant, hooked up the AOR-2 pouches and more. Keep reading for the full scoop.Patch notesGameplayPut in a temporary workaround in Intel Retrieval to make laptops pick-upable without hacking (may have some alignment issues causing the laptop to appear in odd places near the expected placement, such as under a box instead of on it); other modes such as Uplink may still have issues (work in progress)Improved equipment-switching logic relating to restoring the correct previously equipped left/right item when re-equipping (work in progress)Fixed issues with Tablet raise ability sometimes not workingImproved controller-to-mouse inp…
