Today we’re launching our Community Test Environment (CTE) to test the content in the upcoming version 1.4 game update. You can try out update 1.4’s new snow map, new game mode, new weapons, new cosmetics, and a brand new playlist system right now on the CTE by going to your Steam Library and downloading “Insurgency: Sandstorm Community Test Environment”.
Please be aware that this is a developer test build of the game and you may encounter unexpected bugs or issues. Content shown in the CTE is not final and may or may not be implemented into the public version. There are no restrictions on recording, streaming, or discussing the CTE, however, it’s important to disclose that any footage or feedback is in relation to the test. The CTE will close at the end of the testing phase. Please see our blog or social media for details. Information on the CTE can be found here.
To hear more information about the new playlist system, see yesterday’s community update post. We welcome your feedback on the CTE, so please direct any bug reports or general opinions to the CTE sub-forum here. Below is a list of changes, please note that this does not include all changes:
New Features
- New PvP game mode “Frontline,” which can be thought of as a tug-of-war inspired “two way Push” mode
- Capture all enemy objectives one by one, and then destroy the final weapon cache objective to win. Defend your own objectives and weapon cache from being captured or destroyed.
- After the neutral middle objective is captured, your team must defend your own objective and also attack the enemy’s objective.
- Every time a team captures an objective, they will gain respawn waves and respawn their team. A team loses all their respawn waves when the enemy team reaches their final weapon cache objective.
- New map “Hillside” with support for the following game modes:
- PvP
- Push Security
- Push Insurgents
- Firefight A
- Firefight B
- Skirmish
- Frontline
- Team Deathmatch
- Co-op
- Checkpoint Security
- Checkpoint Insurgents
- Hardcore Checkpoint Security
- Hardcore Checkpoint Insurgents
- Frenzy Checkpoint
- PvP
- New light machine gun assault rifle hybrid weapons for the Gunner class:
- Insurgents
- Galil
- Security
- Galil SAR
- Insurgents
- Official matchmaking games will now allow players to vote on the next map and continue playing with players in the same session instead of returning to the main menu between matches.
- Complete overhaul of the Play menu and official matchmaking, which now uses playlist based matchmaking instead of individualized matchmaking by game mode.
- This decision was made to give us room to add more game modes both this year and in 2020 without concern for splitting the playerbase or server hosting costs. And also to allow us to add new content to the game more rapidly, even on a weekly basis, in between content updates through limited time playlists. Read more about the playlist system and what led to its creation here.
- A playlist contains one or more similar game modes. A player selects a playlist, searches for a match, and is put into a game in one of the game modes that the playlist features. When a match ends, a map vote starts, and players can vote on a new map and mode within their current playlist’s supported game modes.
- “Limited time playlists” that offer unique gameplay will be added and cycled through usually every two weeks without requiring a game update.
- These limited time playlists are meant to be an iteration of the Arcade system. Limited time playlists will feature “Arcade-inspired” game modes that will typically be derivative of existing modes, but with special twists on gameplay.
- While they won’t necessarily be as unique or fully produced as Arcade modes like Frenzy or Team Deathmatch, they will come much more rapidly and outside major content updates.
- We aim to have one limited time Co-op and one limited time Versus playlist available at any time, staggered so that one switches out every week.
- They will typically be modified through our new “mutator system,” which adds new game rules to an existing mode. The system allows for a wide variety of options and combinations like:
- Hot Potato Firefight (dead players drop a live frag grenade)
- Hardcore Push/Frontline (decreased player speed, but no equipment loss)
- Headshots Only Team Deathmatch
- Headshots Only Team Deathmatch, but you get 100 supply points
- Supply Gain Checkpoint (gain Supply Points as your score increases)
- Supply Gain Checkpoint, but you only start with 1 Supply Point
- Etc.
- The mutator system is also available to community servers, so community server hosts can apply and combine mutators to their servers as they wish.
- “Community Servers” is now a fourth button in the Play menu. This is meant to bring better visibility to our community run servers.
- Official playlists for update 1.4 will be as follows:
- Co-op
- Normal
- Checkpoint Security
- Checkpoint Insurgents
- Hardcore
- Hardcore Checkpoint Security
- Hardcore Checkpoint Insurgents
- Frenzy
- Frenzy Checkpoint
- Versus
- Ground Battle
- Push
- Frontline
- Point Capture
- Firefight
- Skirmish (some maps now have smaller layouts)
- Ground Battle
- Competitive
- Firefight
- Competitive Firefight
- Firefight
- Normal
- Additional CTE playlists will be available during the CTE, but will change as the CTE continues. They will start as follows:
- Versus
- Hillside Ground Battle
- Hillside Push Security
- Hillside Push Insurgents
- Frontline
- Hillside Ground Battle
- Co-op
- Hillside Normal
- Hillside Checkpoint Security
- Hillside Checkpoint Insurgents
- Hillside Normal
- Versus
- Co-op
- New Weapon Upgrade
- 3x Type 03 scope for QBZ-03
- New Cosmetics
- Security Soft Shell style jacket
- Shell
- Shell Rolled
- Shell Camo
- Shell Camo Rolled
- Insurgent Winter Sport style jacket
- Winter Black
- Winter Blue
- Winter Red
- Winter White
- Equipment (backpacks, vests, pouches) will now shift and jiggle with movement.
- Security Soft Shell style jacket
- Added Competitive rank decay where in Diamond and Platinum ranks your rank will slowly decay if you do not play often enough. Later during the CTE, we aim to add exclusive cosmetic rewards for every oon to be paired with exclusive glove cosmetics for competitive players.
- Audio
- Panning rule dropdown added which allows selection of speakers or headphones to provide the best positional audio experience for your hardware.
- Effects slider added which controls the volume of all in-game sound effects.
- Added an option to mute the ear-ringing layer of the explosives and flashbang shellshock effect.
- VoIP no longer uses auto-ducking but instead uses side-chaining. This provides a more natural ducking of game audio when VoIP is used, and also prevents an issue where even if VoIP volume was set to 0 that game audio would still be ducked when VoIP was transmitted.
- Spectator and Replays
- New camera controls and options added.
- Camera zoom
- Hide Hud
- Disable camera smoothing
HOTFIX: 22/08/19
- Potential fix for a frequent crash caused by being idle or spectating while another player who was far away from you died and respawned.
- Fixed a frequent crash that would happen when joining a match or transitioning to a new level.
- Fixed an issue where the third person player arms would break when deploying the PKM in a standing or crouched stance.
Known Issues
- [Visual] Combat Goggles glass may be visible through smoke on certain settings.
- [AI] On rare cases, bots may appear 'invisible' or show as floating vests. If you experience this or have information on this issue please post in this thread.
- [Connection] Some players have reported issues with server connection or pings showing as '0'. If you experience this or have information on this issue please post in this thread.
- [Audio] If the same level is loaded twice in a row online, the default soundscape stops working.
- [Hillside] Double windows of several buildings in the map cannot be vaulted or have weapons pointed through by players even if there is no glass in the frame.
- [Visual] [AI] The insertion truck driver can sometimes T-Pose
- [Weapon] [Animation 3P] When prone and bolting or reloading with an M24 or Mosin, the weapon disappears.
- [Party System] There is a Steam issue that sometimes stops players from inviting others to Party via the ingame UI. A potential workaround is to invite via Steam overlay.