Lobbies:
Under the play menu you can now form a lobby and invite friends from your Steam friends list. When the lobby leader joins a server everyone else in the lobby will automatically join as well and form a group in-game.
Matchmaking:
To quickly find an ideal server (especially for new players) you can use the matchmaker under the play menu which will find a server with the most players and lowest ping it can. In the options menu you can configure the minimum players and maximum ping as well as show the full list of maps.
Groups:
Previously you could form alliances in-game by forming a Steam group, but this was a lot of hassle. Now you can create, join and leave groups in-game from the playerlist, and automatically get put into a group when playing in a lobby. As group owner you can rename the group and promote/demote admins to invite and kick members.
Edit: Old groups were converted to the new group system when joining the server with the first player to join as the owner so bases should still be functional, but I'm seeing a lot of feedback arguing for some of the pros of the old system like managing huge groups across multiple servers. If you have suggestions on how to merge the two systems post your ideas; right now I'm considering bringing back Steam groups as a default group when you first join the server with lobbies overriding that, and then the ability in-game to leave or rejoin your Steam group.
Update Notes:
Additions:
- Added April 2017 Workshop Crate #2
- Added Lobbies.
- Added Matchmaking.
- Added revamped in-game group system.
- Accepted 2 new outfits to the Stockpile.
Updates:
- Updated BattlEye.
Tweaks:
- Tweaked NEW labels and Steam stats to be translatable.
Fixes:
- Fixed potential for dropped chat messages.
- Fixed loading into third person only servers.
- Fixed hangar #2 doorway height.
