Update 1.5 is here with performance improvements, changes to the matchmaking system, a new PvP game mode “Domination”, a player reporting system, gameplay adjustments, and more.
Thank you to everyone who shared their feedback with us since our last major update. We’ve made a bunch of improvements to the matchmaking system based on your input. In addition, we’ve further optimized the game and added a new Versus game mode, Domination. Although this mode was originally intended as a sample mode for modders, we decided to include it in 1.5 officially due to how well it performed during testing, its ability to function as a strong onboarding experience for new players, and to respond to the requests we frequently get to permanently reintroduce Team Deathmatch into the game. We’ve made a number of gameplay changes including adjustments to weapon sway and recoil, a slight sprint speed reduction, improved reliability of smoke grenades, and more advanced optional separation of vault, crouch, slide and jump keybindings. In celebration of the update and the holidays, we’ll be running 2x XP across all playlists.
See the full changelist below:
Optimization
- Optimized CPU by preventing characters from ticking each frame when they are not being rendered. After benchmarking internally on higher end systems we have deduced this is now saving 0.5 to 1.0 ms per frame, or the equivalent of 6 frames per second. However, the impact of this optimization will be mostly felt by mid to lower tier systems where this gain could be more considerable.
- Made major art and optimization passes on several maps. The target of this optimization pass was to increase average frame rate, improve frame stability, and increase visual fidelity.
- Outskirts
- Refinery
- Precinct
- Summit
- Optimized environment assets by turning off tick events where they were not needed.
Matchmaking Improvements
- Playlist Selection & Queueing
- Multiple playlists within a single game type may now be queued into at the same time.
- Added an estimated queue time measurement that will give a player in queue an estimate of how long it will take to find a match.
- Removed the player count for playlists to prevent potential player bias that may have affected playlist population on certain playlists like Firefight.
- The Ground Battle playlist has now been separated into Push and Frontline playlists.
- Team Balance
- Added ability for players to manually switch teams if there is an imbalance.
- Added team auto-balance feature where if teams go unbalanced for too long the game will automatically switch players from the excess player team over to the team with fewer players. Players will be notified with a warning in case they want to volunteer themselves manually.
- Joining Friends Mid-match
- Added ability for players to join other party members who are already playing in-game.
- Player Reporting System
- To report a player, pull up the scoreboard with Tab, right-click the offending player’s name, and press “Report Player”.
- Offending players will receive a notification box informing them of their disruptive behavior.
- We will continue to monitor and refine the system’s weights and penalties over time, this is just a first implementation.
New Versus Mode: Domination
- Fight over three objectives which give points to the controlling team.
- All weapons are available while playing this game mode.
- Respawn quickly in random locations around the map similar to Team Deathmatch.
- Domination is supported on the following maps:
- Hideout
- Hillside
- Farmhouse
- Crossing
- Ministry
Gameplay Improvements
We’ve worked hard to listen to the players and make improvements to various gameplay mechanics. Our intent is to directly address player feedback about shooting and aiming not being rewarding enough of skill, to improve player movement and acceleration to feel more controlled, and to add some flexibility to certain key bindings which have been popularly requested.
- Made weapon sway more predictable and less punishing when standing and moving.
- Set up Lissajous curve fixed pattern for sway instead of the more random current Perlin noise pattern seen in the public version since release.
- Reduced sway speed by 20%. Sway magnitude has not been changed.
- Reduced incentive for crouching and proning to reduce sway (crouching now reduces sway by 50% instead of 60%, prone now reduces sway by 70% instead of 80%).
- Reduced sway penalties when moving (sway magnitude now increases by 15% instead of 50%, sway speed now increases by 50% instead of 200%).
- Slightly reduced the sway speed and magnitude reduction when focusing to counterbalance the other sway changes (focusing now reduces sway speed and magnitude by 60% instead of 80%).
- Made recoil when standing and leaning less penalized compared to other stances.
- Reduced overall recoil when aiming down your sights (ADS) by 15%.
- Increased recoil when crouching and proning to compensate against the above change (crouching now 20% less recoil instead of 40%, prone now has 30% less recoil instead of 60%).
- [Reduced recoil penalty for leaning when low weight (lowest weight now has 10% more recoil when leaning instead of 20%).
- Recoil penalty while moving should be consistent across all weights rather than favoring players who are heavier (heavier players previously had a greater reduction in recoil).
- Increased Mk 14 EBR recoil.
- Reduced top sprint speed by 8%.
- Smoke Grenade Improvements
- Fixed an issue where smoke grenade clouds were inconsistent for players on a server. Now smoke clouds appear the same for all players.
- Smoke grenades expand faster to make them more useful and is no longer frame-rate capped.
- Advanced Keybinding Options
- Jump and vault can now be bound separately or as a combined key. The combined key is bound by default.
- Crouch and slide can now be bound separately or as a combined key. The combined key is bound by default.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue where it was possible for the player’s weapon selection to become soft locked when picking up and throwing back explosives under certain circumstances, which prevented them from being able to change weapons after it occurred.
- Fixed an issue where smoke, incendiary, and Molotov explosive particles would not be rendered if the player was inside a game menu before they detonated, leading to cases of invisible fire and smoke.
- Fixed an issue with the Rocket Barrage fire support that would prevent fired rockets from landing on their targets if they were called on a position too far away from its origin.
- Fixed an issue that prevented players from being able to switch to the C-4 or IED detonator when in a vehicle.
- Fixed an issue with Lesson prompts potentially creating a hitch on lower tier systems when displayed.
- Fixed an issue where floating shells could be seen on the M870 while ADS and cocking the weapon.
- Fixed an issue where an animation would play twice when firing the last round of weapons with hold back bolts.
- Fixed an issue with the third person mesh for the 4x C79 optic, which had some visibly jagged edges.
- Fixed an odd visual issue which was related to the bare arm cosmetic and forearm weights.
- Fixed an issue with the M9 pistol, where a hole in the rear of the first person model allowed you to see the loaded ammunition through it.
- Fixed a visual issue where fingertips could be seen protruding through certain glove cosmetics.
- Fixed an issue where weapons could briefly disappear when scavenging in third person.
- Fixed an issue where the VHS-2 would not receive more than one magazine when the Extended Magazines attachment was equipped.
- Fixed an issue where magazines could appear in the bottom left of the screen while speed reloading certain assault rifle type weapons.
- Fixed a third person reload animation issue with bolt action rifles while prone.
- Fixed an issue with the scale of the AT4 launcher causing it to become partially invisible.
- Fixed an issue where players could potentially stand while performing a slide.
- Fixed an issue where third person grenade launchers could look visually broken at certain distances.
- Updated the RPG-7, M3 MAAWS, AT4 and Panzerfaust 3 first person iron sight and hip fire animations to time them more directly with the audio and the projectile leaving the launcher, this should prevent cases where, when firing a rocket, it could leave the launcher at an unpredictable angle.
- Fixed an issue with the Panzerfaust 3 launcher using the incorrect first person sprint animation.
- Fixed an issue with the settings menu that caused the reset to defaults modal window to appear behind the settings window.
- Fixed an issue with the end round reason displaying the generic reason instead of the correct one.
- Fixed an issue where the M240B could be seen as flickering.
- Fixed a weight painting issue with the third person VHS-2 grenade launcher, which caused visual artefacts at certain distances.
- Fixed an issue where a player would resume their third person gas mask equip or unequip animation on respawn after being killed during that animation sequence.
- Fixed an issue where under barrel grenade launchers could occasionally be rendered invisible after the insertion sequence in Checkpoint.
- Fixed an issue where player gear would jitter erratically when initially rendering.
- Fixed an issue where the player’s leg could not be seen correctly when breaching a door in local play after respawning.
- Fixed an issue where the player’s arm would look odd while reloading a shotgun prone or crouched in third person.
- Fixed an issue with the first person mag release animations for the FAL base reloads.
- Fixed an issue where the range computer UI would list certain available actions with inverted wording.
- Fixed an issue where the screen could fade to black and remain black if the player switched player or view when watching another player die.
- Fixed an issue with the missing default action on some key action icons in the replay controls, that caused the playback speed action to always be displayed as a mouse scroll icon even though they were bound to different keys.
- Fixed a visual morph issue with balaclava and neck gaiter cosmetics.
- Fixed an issue where the player’s third person arm meshes would clip with the body while in vehicles.
- Fixed an issue where when prompted to play the tutorial as part of the users first time experience, clicking the popup would not take the player to the tutorial as suggested.
- Fixed an issue where if the player rolled a vehicle and all vehicle exits were blocked by objects they would not be able to exit the vehicle.
- Fixed an issue with crouched reloads on M3 MAAWS.
- Fixed an issue where kicking used the incorrect sequence when the player was equipped with anything other than a rifle.
- Fixed an issue where the third person fire particle was missing in third person for Molotovs.
- Fixed an issue with jumping in first person when equipped with a detonator.
- Fixed an issue with vaulting while equipped with binoculars.
- Fixed an issue where the “Do you want to save” prompt was behind the settings window in the replay.
- Fixed an issue where if you changed options in the video settings menu and returned to the game without applying your changes, on returning to the video settings menu the non applied changes could still be seen.
- Fixed an animation issue with shotguns while sprinting in Hardcore or when the Slow Movement mutator was active.
- Fixed an issue where there was a visual disconnect between first person and third person sprinting animations in Hardcore or when the Slow Movement mutator was active.
- Fixed an issue where if the player performed a high vault directly after throwing a grenade, on landing, their primary weapon would not be visible and they would need to reselect it.
- Fixed an issue where animations for detonators were hilariously broken.
- Fixed an issue where the Fragger class in Team Deathmatch and Domination had access to the underbarrel explosive launcher when they shouldn’t. Sorry noob tubers.
- Fixed an issue where the low scalability preset and low texture quality setting would not not correctly display anisotropic filtering x2.
- Fixed issue that prevented the scalability options from resetting properly when backing out of the video settings menu.
- Fixed an issue where underhand Molotov throws would not set the rag on fire.
- Fixed an issue where it was possible for players to decrease the amount of time taken to reload a weapon with a Bipod or Foregrip Bipod attached.
- Fixed an issue where players could perform a vault from the prone position.
- Fixed an issue when switching to and from grenade launchers would cause a noticeable delay before they could be fired.
- Fixed an issue where the Loadout menu character would always have a primary weapon in their hands, even when all weapons were removed from the players loadout.
- Fixed a rendering issue that caused the 4x M150 optic to have geometry visible inside its scope view.
- Fixed an issue where several first person pistol magazines would appear to have rounds remaining in them, even when the magazine was empty.
- Fixed an issue where when equipping a barrel attachment to the FAL would not prevent the stock barrel from being removed.
- Fixed an issue where the Alpha AK would not play the correct ready animation when the player had a drum magazine attached.
- Fixed an issue where, when spectating, the player would be shown the incorrect key bindings for change player and change camera, if they had re-bound those particular keys.
- Fixed an issue with the RPG-7 rocket projectile collision mesh also encompassing the fins when it should not have. This could have potentially contributed to some unwarranted deaths when firing through windows.
- Fixed an issue where the roaming spectator camera would be able to snap when zooming in and out.
- Fixed some additional roaming spectator camera snapping issues when roaming without any other players in the map.
- Fixed an issue where the mouse smoothing option was not being reset when “Reset To Defaults” was selected in the settings menu.
- Fixed floating left hand during the first person SVD reloads.
- Fixed a potential issue with the MP5A2 reload not being completed if you skipped the bolt release during the reload and completed it when you pulled it out again.
- Tutorial
- Fixed an issue where the player could still trigger audio instructions by resupplying, even after finishing the current objective.
- Fixed an issue where a tutorial waypoint could not be triggered if the player only creaked opened the door instead of opening or breaching it.
- Fixed an issue where players could occasionally not validate the “Enter Building” waypoint under certain conditions.
- Fixed an issue where the player could utilize the debug menu, thus allowing them to fly out of the playable area.
- Fixed an issue where the player could potentially complete the “Pick Up Weapon” objective without properly validating it and thus not be able to progress.
- Fixed an issue where the player could become stuck between a vehicle and a wall on the opening bridge sequence.
- Fixed an issue where the player could move their character and camera during the opening moments.
- Fixed an issue where the player could reach the extraction point by utilizing an Insurgent vehicle.
- Fixed an AI navigation issue where AI could become blocked by a wall during the sequence in which the player must destroy a weapon cache.
- Fixed an issue where respawning as the Commander class, selecting and calling in the Gunship before the related Objectives prompted the user to do so would block progression.
- Fixed an issue where the player could not validate the “Scavenge Weapon” waypoint if they killed the AI while it was reloading.
- Fixed an animation issue that would cause weapon animation to break during the scavenging section of the tutorial.
- Fixed an issue where reaching the "Equip Binoculars" objective with the Binoculars already equipped did not validate the objective.
- Fixed an issue in the tutorial, where using the Loadout Menu instead of holding F to resupply when prompted, would prevent the player from progressing.
User Experience
- The Loadout UI now gives sound feedback unique to that category as you customize your equipment.
- Localization has been added for the following regions:
- Czech
- Danish
- Dutch
- Finnish
- Hungarian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Norwegian
- Polish
- Portuguese (Portugal)
- Portuguese (Brazillian)
- Swedish
- Thai
- Chinese (Traditional)
- Turkish
- The tutorial will now end 25 seconds after entering the vehicle turret during that section of the tutorial. This is to ensure players are able to complete the tutorial and not be prevented from doing so by any more unpredictable issues caused by vehicle physics or AI behaviors.
Visual Improvements
- UI
- Updated the style of icon utilized to indicated servers that are XP gain enabled.
- Removed the “Customize” button from the bottom of the menu UI, it is now an option on the side right under tutorials.
- The “Profile” menu option has now been moved further down the list and has been renamed to “Stats”.
- “History” has now been renamed to “Replays”.
- Weapons & Equipment
- Added new third person Hardcore sprint sequence for LMGs.
- Added new prone gasmask equip & unequip third person sequences.
- Added a new third person toss sequence for discarded launchers.
- Added new third person standing and crouched reloads for the M240 machine gun.
- Added a new third person standing and crouched bolt cycle animation for the Mosin.
- Unified third person and first person Hardcore sprint pistol animations.
- Added a new folding bipod for the first person and third person FAL rifle, it was utilizing an incorrect bipod type before.
- Added a specific foregrip animation to the MP5A2.
- Added first person drum magazine speed reloads for the VHS-2 assault rifle.
- Translucent glass rendering has now been improved to prevent cases of flickering.
Levels
- Outskirts
- Fixed a number of clipping and flickering issues.
- Fixed an issue where it was possible to spawn on top of another player in Firefight West Security spawn.
- Fixed collision issues with certain columns near the H objective which prevented grenades to pass between them on Checkpoint Insurgents.
- Fixed an issue with incorrectly rendered shadows near the A objective on Checkpoint Security.
- Eliminated a line of sight that allowed longer range rockets to destroy the final cache on Push Insurgents.
- Crossing
- Fixed an issue where players on the Insurgent team could potentially spawn under the map on Frontline when the last objective was captured.
- Fixed being able to destroy the cache, objective D, from a far distance on Push Security.
- Fixed being able to destroy the cache, objective A, from a far distance on Frontline.
- Summit
- Opened a new path to improve level flow for approaching objective A on Push Insurgents.
- Added a missing blocking volume behind the H objective on Security Checkpoint.
- Fixed various places where players can get stuck.
- Refinery
- Fixed an issue where players could become stuck between a piece of sheet metal and a chain link fence near the Security spawn on Push Security.
- Fixed a collision issue which would block the player from using a door.
- Fixed an issue where the players could leave the playable area near Push Insurgents final spawn.
- Farmhouse
- Fixed a collision issue where weapons could become stuck in a specific metal fence near objective A on Push Security.
- Fixed an issue where the player could see through the map if deployed and prone near Objective C Firefight West.
- Fixed an issue with a specific light being overly bright in objective B building on Push Security.
- Ministry
- Fixed an issue where players could become stuck in an area near the restroom entrance.
- Hillside
- Fixed a collision issue which prevented players from throwing projectiles over a specific wall near Push Security B.
- Fixed collision issues with certain columns near the F objective which prevented grenades to pass between them on Checkpoint Security.
- Fixed an issue where you could cap the B objective in Firefight mode from an unintended position.
- Hideout
- Tweaked the post processing settings to make the map a tad less dark.
- Fixed collision issues with certain columns near the A objective which prevented grenades to pass between them on Push Security.
- Precinct
- Fixed an issue allowing players to destroy the cache, D objective, from a long distance on Push Security.
- Fixed an issue which allowed players to vault on a specific prop in ways they should not be able to near the E objective building on Checkpoint Security.
- Fixed multiple collision issues near to the A, D, E and F objectives on Checkpoint Security.
- Fixed an issue where players could pixel walk to an unintended position near the B objective on Checkpoint Security.
- Fixed collisions on crates near objective H on Checkpoint Security.
- Fixed an issue where the player could stick through the roof when vaulting on a stack of crates near objective H on Checkpoint Security.
Competitive Improvements
Over the last couple of months, the team has been communicating with competitive players and collecting feedback to improve the competitive scene and overall experience with ranked games. Along with an increase of support for community tournaments and other competitive events, we have made the following changes to competitive:
- A reset of Competitive ranks to address issues of players not being able to find matches at various tiers.
- An increase in ranked Elo decay for inactive users.
- Created competitive leaderboard that can be accessed here. Please note that this leaderboard will populate itself as people play, and updates every hour.
We intend for these three changes combined to help address the current low population in Competitive and generate more interest. We’ll continue to monitor feedback on these systems and make adjustments as needed.
Mod Tools Private Alpha
As we get closer to the first public deployment of our mod support, we’re looking for community members with experience creating custom levels for games in Source Engine/Unreal Engine to participate in our Sandstorm Level Editor Alpha. If you’re interested in participating and are willing to bug test and provide feedback, please sign up here. Also included in these tools is the ability to make custom game modes and new gameplay configurations, but we are looking for feedback specifically on level creation at the moment.
Hotfix 1 - December 9th
Stability
- Added potential fix for a frequent crash which could prevent certain players from being able to progress past the initial splash screens, or crash after approximately 5 to 10 minutes of game time. If you continue to have this issue please report it here.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue which prevented the pre-order cosmetic tattoo from being accessible.
- Fixed an issue where Firefight mode was not awarding players the correct XP boost as advertised.
- Fixed a visual layout issue with the vote kick popup window.
Gameplay Improvements
- Adjusted Weapon Sway while using Focus back to be closer to pre 1.5 values.
- Increased objective capture time in Domination from 10 seconds to 15 seconds.
- Enabled the objectives column in the scoreboard in Domination.
User Experience
- Sandstorm Competitive Leaderboard: https://leaderboard.sandstorm.game
- Fixed a caching issue that caused old matches to be displayed instead of matches post-reset.
- Fixed username search order so the closest username match now appears first.
- Increased the players-per-page display from 10 to 25.
- Fixed calculation to determine ranked division.
Visual Improvements
- Added new image for the Push playlist under the Versus section of the Play menu.
- Removed the player name and Steam avatar information from the loading screen. This was done to create a cleaner presentation and draw more attention to the game mode information and gameplay tips.
Map Fixes
- Refinery
- Fixed a player collision issue which prevented players from being able to access a staircase.
- Hideout
- Extended the playable area slightly to fix a spawn that was too close to the border of the playable area in Domination mode.
- Tweaked the overview area location to improve the readability of the tactical map in Domination mode.