Bellum Beta Build #746

Everything since Build 741: a helmet knockout and ricochet rework, a mortar polish pass, population gates for recon and mortars, B-TAK map fixes and several crash fixes.

Changes

Gunplay & Damage

• Helmet hits no longer almost always knock you out. Knockout chance now depends on the impact and how far the helmet deforms: about 39% for a rifle round to the helmet at 50 m (was 96-98%).
• Ricochets are physical: rounds only glance off at shallow angles that depend on the surface, and never off bodies. Hits that used to bounce off at steep angles now penetrate.
• Thermobaric rounds (VGM-93, TBG-7V, GTB-7S) deal their damage right away and hit each target once.

Mortars

• Mortar HE retuned: steeper blast falloff and a distinct fragment pattern per round. The M224 round is now named M720A1.
• Holding the M224 blocks medical (H), gear checks, emotes, crossloading and lean. Manning a 2B25 or Type 63 blocks stance changes and item switching.
• A loaded M224 must be fired before you can move off it. The warning now reads “Mortar must be fired before dismount.” on a proper HUD plate.
• Placing a 2B25 or Type 63 now puts you straight on the gun with no rifle draw animation in between.
• 2B25: the fire prompt no longer overlaps the pickup prompt. After a drop-fire there is a 0.55 s delay, during which the mortar can’t be packed up.
• New 2B25 firing sound, less ringing shell handling sounds, range-card clicks, and 2B25 shells have their own incoming whistle.
• Finish pass on all three mortars: Type 63 20% darker, 2B25 10% darker, and the baseplates now match their tubes.

Squads & Loadouts

• Recon roles unlock at 20 players on your team, mortar roles at 30. Players already in a seat keep it if the team shrinks.
• The Patrol Base can only be placed outside the AO (fixed).
• Linked belts come out of the gun capped at 100 rounds.
• The new boonie and baseball hats now appear on 11 roles (US recon and Russian roles).
• The debrief roster gives Platoon HQ its own column, so the mortar team no longer pushes the roster into the win conditions.

B-TAK & Watch

• Hold Alt to show your cursor to teammates within 10 m.
• New TRP control point with a server-assigned number. Fireteam leaders can place hostile markers.
• FIXED: Other squads’ leaders draw as NATO boxes with their callsign and a recon or mortar icon, on the B-TAK and the deployment map.
• FIXED: The watch map now shows other squads’ squad and fireteam leaders.
• Player arrows now point the right way, other players move smoothly, and downed players fade.
• FIXED: The intel discovery ring around an enemy cache shows on the B-TAK.
• Map markers update in place when someone changes seat instead of all being rebuilt.
• Tsavo satellite map refreshed.

Maps & Graphics

• Compasses match map north on Highlands, Kambori and Tsavo.
• Torches no longer flicker, and they cost less to render.
• Geometry detail now follows View Distance quality: Epic unchanged, High, Medium and Low lighter for performance.

Spectator & Admin Camera

• The event log names the weapon when it has no icon, and the timeline shows the downs each team inflicted.
• The score banner no longer shifts as the clock changes.

Fixes

• Fixed a client crash on the deploy screen (seen on Build 743).
• Fixed two server crashes and a join-time crash in the spawn checks, plus a crash on shutdown.
• SATYR slots past the 18th player no longer show LOCKED.
• Waking up or being revived no longer flips your rifle to full auto.
• Rejoining players keep their name in the kill feed and combat log and stay one row in the debrief and after-action report.
• Overlapping vote kicks stay separate, and Yes votes for the right player.
• Mortar kills and downs now appear in the kill feed and event log.
• A grenade launcher round that fails to penetrate no longer releases its fragments twice.
• After packing up the M224, your rifle animates correctly and the M224 stays in your inventory when you switch weapons.
• Packing up an M224 with a round loaded no longer breaks the pack-up.
• Used mortar backpacks no longer stay visible on your back.
• Cleaned up the assistant loading animations for the M224 and Type 63.
• Fixed a misplaced AO spawn.
• FSR frame generation no longer hooks into the display when it is turned off.