INSURGENCY: SANDSTORM V1.2 - COMMUNITY TEST ENVIRONMENT NOW LIVE!

Hi everyone,

Today we are launching a preview of our upcoming version 1.2 patch. This includes; two new weapons (the M99 and M82A1 anti-materiel rifles), a new map ‘Outskirts’, a new gamemode ‘Hardcore Checkpoint’, equipment customisation, new cosmetic options, an improved server browser, support for offline play, and numerous bug fixes including character interpolation.

This content is now playable on the Community Test Environment. However, please remember this is a preview build, so some issues are expected (see ‘Known Issues’). If you encounter any problems or have feedback for the development team, please respond in the CTE sub-section of the official game forums or Steam forums.

Our team will be monitoring feedback during the CTE and aim to push this update to players on the live version of Insurgency: Sandstorm soon.

You can find some of the key new features and known issues below.

NEW FEATURES

• New map “Outskirts” playable in Firefight, Push, Checkpoint, and Hardcore Checkpoint
• New official Coop game mode Hardcore Checkpoint.
  • Movement speed is significantly reduced. Enemies are harder. Friendly teammate indicators only show when a teammate is nearby. Objective indicators are hidden in the HUD.
  • If you die, you will respawn with a Mosin bolt-action rifle and Makarov pistol. You must resupply at a Supply Crate to get your Loadout.
  • There are only two Supply Crates. One will spawn on a random objective, the other will always spawn on the final objective. You can only resupply once on a Supply Crate. Small Ammo Boxes will give some ammunition for the weapons you are carrying.

• M82A1 CQ anti-materiel sniper rifle for Security Marksman class
  
• M99 anti-materiel sniper rifle for Insurgent Marksman class
  
• Loadout selection is now editable from the main menu
  
• Balaclava and neck gaiter Facewear cosmetics for Security faction
  
• New skull pattern for Insurgent balaclavas
  
• M90F camouflage for Security
  
• Equipment customization
  • Ammo carrier vests and backpacks can be customized with different colors and camouflages.

• Ammo Carriers and Armor preview buttons in the Appearance menu
  
• Character rotation in the Appearance menu
  
• Overhaul of community server browser including:
  • Favorites
  • Showing empty and full servers
  • Passworded Servers
  • Minimum and maximum player filtering
  • Filter reset
  • Search box
  • Better sorting options

• Vote kick allowed on official matchmaking servers
  
• Offline local play without New World services
  
• Steam cloud support
  
• Skeletal mesh merging which reduces CPU overhead for characters
  
• Dust kickup particles now play when weapons are fired while prone on appropriate surfaces
  
• Upgrade to Unreal Engine 4.22.
  • Upgrading to the latest version of Unreal Engine was a large task, however it was a necessary part of optimizing the console versions, and will enable greater performance and development possibilities in the future for all versions of Insurgency: Sandstorm.

VISUAL IMPROVEMENTS

• Character movement interpolation improvements; characters will no longer jitter when moving in third person close to the camera.
• Fixed broken terrain shadows on low settings.
• Facial hair improvements on low quality settings.
• Weapons with extended magazines and belts will now display correctly in the kit select menu.
• New special animations for performing an ammo check while deployed.
• New first-person deployed crawl animations.
• Adjusted first-person sprint animation speeds to better match footstep sounds.
• Reduced the playrate of first person rifle sprint animations to improve their look
• Improve the synchronization between first and third-person leaning animation.

USER EXPERIENCE

• Full re-write of Explosive Drone and helicopter pathing.
• MOTD announcements with images and link support.
• Added icons to the main menu which inform the user if they are connected to both NWI services and Steam or not.
• Altered the text for the 'leave competitive' game dialog to clearly indicate you will receive a leaver penalty for leaving early.
• If the player has no regions selected when attempting to matchmake, the select region dialogue is now displayed instead of just attempting to matchmake with no region.

NOTEABLE FIXES

• Doors should no longer desync for those joining a server before the server has completed loading a map.
• Fixed a visual issue causing character models to appear to sink into the ground.
• Fixed issues with weapon scope stencils clipping the weapon in both bipod and up positions.
• Various improvements to soundscape portals ensuring transitions from indoor to outdoor are reliable.
• A ton of other reported bugs and issues.

KNOWN ISSUES

• [Audio] Some players are reporting audio cutting out / looping.
• [Scopes] Some players are reporting missing reticule/crosshair.
• [Bug] Blue box over scopes – Should be fixed! Please report this issue if you experience it.
• [Audio] A10 Audio cutting out – should be fixed.
• [Cosmetics] Some known morph issues on the new character cosmetics.
• [History] Has been disabled for CTE, due to known issues.
• [Fire Support] Calling in helicopters may cause slowdown on some systems.
• [Settings] Steam Cloud doesn’t synch “GAME” Settings.
• [Map] Outskirts is Work In Progress (WIP) so expect some polish over the course of the CTE and beyond.
• [Scope] Low-Quality Scope material is broken when spawning with M99 and 7xM99 scope after the round started.
• [Visual] GasMask has known visual issues
• [Visual] Restricted Areas sometimes look strange on the map, but they should still work as intended.
• [Settings] Rebinding certain keys may lead to actions becoming doubled / ignored.
• [Stability] Some users may experience a crash when exiting the game.

Hotfix: 21/05/19

Stability

• Fixed a crash caused by Wwise when exiting the game.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed issue where the local profile would be saved before the key binding changes had been applied resulting in key bind changes not being applied properly.
• Fixed an issue where restricted areas could show as visually incorrect on the tactical map.
• Fixed an issue where Explosive Drones were not able to enter windows correctly.
• Fixed an issue where pressing escape on the Customize screen would not return you to the previous menu.
• Fixed an issue where Match Preferences text size would be incorrect if only one game mode was selected.