Exfil's Public Testing build 0438-CL2840 rewrites AI smoke grenade tactics
Exfil's Public Testing branch has moved to build 0438-CL2840. Its new feature is a rewrite of AI smoke grenade handling, alongside tweaks and fixes for helicopters, intel, hostage rescue, loadouts, and map visibility.
AI smoke grenade rewrite: sight, aim, and danger zones
- Smoke between you and an enemy blocks their view and aim.
- If you are inside smoke, you get a concealment bonus, making you harder to detect and hit.
- It is not a perfect shield: AI can still shoot at you, just like a human would.
- Enemies treat smoke as a danger zone and won't blindly walk through it unless they have no other path.
- It is still an approximation using a spherical volume, not a pixel-perfect simulation, so expect situations where you can see them through the smoke and they can't.
- Flashbangs apply a disoriented/suppressed effect to NPCs. There are no clear visuals or animations communicating the state, so it may still feel ineffective, but they are not useless.
Tweaks
- You can play emotes while seated in a helicopter, so you can politely greet opposing teams.
- The emote wheel is a bit more responsive with the addition of a rotating arrow.
- Helicopter markers are visible only for friendly teams.
- The intel notebook now gives a soft beep when dropped on the ground.
- Shell casing impact sounds now play on more surface types; they were often silent.
- Ops hostage rescue now checks safe house vicinity instead of the safe house landing zone. Just bring the hostage close to a safehouse; you don't have to bring Smith completely indoors.
- Loadout limit arrows now have a tooltip so it's clear which team they belong to without relying on color.
- The loadout editor in the main menu and solo play screen has been updated so equipment and appearance are more clearly on separate tabs. This is work in progress as part of the economy rework.
Fixes
- AI visibility on chainlink fences with cloth or tarp cover has been fixed. AI was seeing through them because chainlink fences usually aren't visibility blockers. This mostly affected the Renegade Oil map, which has a lot of tarps.
- GPS is blocked while seated in a helicopter. It was not an allowed action, but a keybind hint appeared and the ability was active.
- Fixed the error when dropping grenades from a helicopter with no equipped weapon. You can still drop grenades—unintended, but not being fixed because it's fun—there's just no animation. Drop some smoke on your LZ for cover.
- NPCs in the wandering NPC benchmark now wander; they were missing a navigation mesh.
- Attachments can no longer be edited on locked or disallowed loadout items.
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