Update 1.9 Operation: Cold Blood Now Live!

Operation: Cold Blood Check out the full changelist below and see what’s new in Operation: Cold Blood.

New Map: Bab

Fight your way through a village, down snowy hills, over a frozen river, and up to the gates of an ancient fortress. This map differs from our other maps by being more supportive of long-range combat and open layout play, but still has plenty of points for medium to close range engagements. It also sports a more mountainous, snowy, rural environment, which is only otherwise seen in our other snow map, Hillside. For those of you who are curious, “Bab” is an Arabic word that means “gate”. Bab has support for the following game modes:

• Versus
  • Push Security
  • Push Insurgents
  • Firefight
  • Domination

• Co-op
  • Checkpoint Security
  • Checkpoint Insurgents
  • Hardcore Checkpoint Security
  • Hardcore Checkpoint Insurgents
  • Outpost

New Weapons: M110 SASS, M1 Garand

There are two new high caliber semi-automatic sniper rifles available for the Marksman class: the M110 SASS for Security at 4 supply points, and the M1 Garand for Insurgents at 2 supply points. Both weapons support Optic, Underbarrel, Barrel, and other upgrades, including an old school 22mm muzzle-loaded grenade launcher for the M1 Garand. Oh, and be careful: when you run out of bullets in the M1 Garand, both you and your enemies will hear its loud iconic “ping” sound.

Please note that these weapons are not included in Competitive, as the Sharpshooter does not have access to lower recoil semi-auto battle rifles such as the SVD.

M110 SASS

M1 Garand

New Feature: Toggleable Optics

Toggleable optics are optics that can be switched between a short-range magnification and a long-range magnification. We know you’ve been wanting this for a while, so here it is. We’ve added 9 new toggleable optics to Sandstorm, and we’ve updated 8 existing optics that were already in the game so they can now be toggled. Optic availability on a per-class basis has not been changed. The new medium to long range oriented 6x-3x optics are available for the Marksman class as with 7x optics.

Here’s a list of the new toggleable optics:

• New Insurgent Toggleable Optics
  • 2x-1x OKP-7
  • 2x-1x MARS
  • 2.5x-1x M1C Scope (M1 Garand specific)
  • 4x-1x M150 BUS (Red dot sight on top)
  • 6x-3x T Scope

• New Security Toggleable Optics
  • 4x-1x SU230 BUS (Red dot sight on top)
  • 3x-1x CH Sight BUS (Red dot sight on top, G36K specific)
  • 6x-3x DOS Scope (M110 SASS specific)
  • 6x-3x Red Ring Scope

Here’s a list of optics that already existed in the game prior to update 1.9, but have been updated to be toggleable between two magnification levels. Their names have been updated to show both supported magnification levels. The original magnification level (2x, 4x, and 1.5x) is still available and unchanged, you just now have a backup option you can switch to.

• Existing Insurgent Optics That Were Updated to be Toggleable
  • 2x Kobra -> 2x-1x Kobra

• Existing Security Optics That Were Updated to be Toggleable
  • 2x Holographic -> 2x-1x Holographic
  • 2x Red Dot -> 2x-1x Red Dot
  • 4x SU230 -> 4x-1x SU230
  • 4x C79 -> 4x-1x C79
  • 4x SUSAT -> 4x-1x SUSAT (L85A2 specific)
  • 4x ISM -> 1.5x-1x CH Sight (G36K specific)
  • 1.5x A1 Scope -> 1.5x-1x A1 Scope (AUG A3 specific)

• Optic Upgrade Supply Point Changes
  • Decreased G36K’s 1.5x-1x CH Sight from 3 supply to 1
  • Decreased M16A2's 3x A2 Scope from 3 supply to 2
  • Decreased SVD and AS Val's 4x PSO-1 from 3 supply to 1
  • Decreased Mosin-Nagant's 4x PU Scope from 3 supply to 1
  • Decreased L85A2’s 4x-1x SUSAT from 3 supply to 2
  • Increased 4x-1x C79 from 2 supply to 3
  • Increased 4x C79 NV from 2 supply to 3
  • Decreased 7x Sniper Scope from 3 supply to 2
  • Decreased 7x Hunting Scope from 3 supply to 2
  • Decreased 7x Sniper Scope NV from 3 supply to 2
  • Decreased 7x Hunting Scope NV from 3 supply to 2

New: Free Unlockable Cosmetics

Cold Blood features a spectrum of characters from regular to irregular forces. Insurgents include unprofessional fighters grabbing what they can to defend their homes. Security meanwhile have newly issued gear for the winter.

Hill Rebel - A civilian fighter from the mountains making do with what he has.

• Breathable Mask (Facewear slot)
  • Black

• Puffer Jacket (Torso slot)
  • Red
  • Orange
  • Yellow
  • Blue
  • Indigo

• Cowhide Gloves (Hands slot)
  • Sand
  • White
  • Grey
  • Dark Grey

Wetworker - A soldier who is cold weather acclimated and enjoys double entendre.

• Hard Mask (Facewear slot)
  • Tan
  • Sand
  • Brown
  • Olive Drab
  • Foliage Green

• Poncho (Torso slot)
  • Tan
  • Olive Drab
  • Foliage Green

• Poncho Camo (Torso slot)
  • Desert DPM
  • POLYPAT
  • M81 Woodland

• Insulated Gloves (Hands slot)
  • Tan
  • Dark Brown
  • Sand
  • Desert DPM
  • POLYPAT
  • M81 Woodland
  • Olive Drab
  • Foliage Green

New: DLC Cosmetics

We are adding new DLC cosmetics with this update that will give your characters and weapons a unique look. The cosmetic items they contain can be combined with other cosmetic items already ingame. Purchasing these is a great way to support Sandstorm’s continued post-release development. See the different sets below, along with what items they contain and apply to.

Insurgent “Yeti” Gear Set

• Ventilated Balaclava
• Snow Goggles
• Snow Suit Top
• Snow Suit Bottom
• Unique "Ink Blot" Camo

Insurgent “Whiteout” Weapon Skin Set

• M1 Garand
• SVD
• M99
• AK-74
• FAL
• Alpha AK

Security “Sasquatch” Gear Set

• Net Helmet with Foliage Strips
• Leaf Suit Top
• Leaf Suit Bottom
• Unique "Woodsy Brush" Camo

Security “Hunter” Weapon Skin Set

• M110 SASS
• M24
• Mk 14 EBR
• M82A1 CQ
• G3A3
• Mk 17 Mod 0

If you want to get all four Operation: Cold Blood DLC sets at a reduced price, check out the link here.

Outpost Mode

We’ve added Outpost to some new maps and improved some of the existing layouts with better objective placement and enemy AI spawn areas. We hope to expand the mode to more maps in a future update.

New Outpost Maps

• Hideout
• Farmhouse
• Tideway
• Bab

Improved Outpost Maps

• Tell
• Crossing
• Ministry
• Hillside

New Features

• Improved HUD during Outpost mode to better indicate the various stages
• Added sounds to notify players when supply points are gained and when waves progress in Outpost Mode

Adjusting Weapon Availability in Co-op Checkpoint

Starting today the weapons available to Security and Insurgents in Checkpoint and Hardcore Checkpoint in Co-op will match what Security and Insurgents have had access to in Push, Frontline and Firefight Mode in Versus.

For Outpost mode we heard your concerns (via comments on the blog and across Reddit and Discord), and Security will retain full access to the pre-1.9 arsenal of weapons.

We are making this change for three main reasons:

1. Having weapon availability parity between Versus and Co-op helps players that move from Co-op to Versus or vice versa
2. We want to maintain (and improve) the identity of the factions by making the set of weapons each faction has access to unique
3. We want to improve balance between the Security and Insurgent factions as far as weapon quantity is concerned - now each faction will have access to a similar amount of weapons

Optimizations

Over the last few months we’ve taken huge strides in optimizing our maps. Time was spent analyzing memory usage and determining performance bottlenecks in each individual level.
Our goal was to provide more consistent frame rates and performance in our levels without impacting the visual integrity. Generally this was achieved by reducing draw calls where possible in levels to help improve frame rates and improving cull distance to reduce CPU overhead.

Performance for the following maps have been improved:

• Hideout
• Farmhouse
• Precinct
• Crossing

Performance testing also showed areas for improvement in first and third person animations as well as many UI elements. These items were all optimized to provide better and more consistent experiences for users.

Gameplay Improvements

• Players now have the ability to customize Loadouts in the Customize menu prior to playing
• Players have the ability to adjust the volume of radio commands in the Settings menu

User Experience

• Implemented night and day time selection for the Range level found under Tutorials in the Main Menu
• An animated red arrow now appears on the objective icon to indicate that a counterattack has commenced in Checkpoint mode
• Added new scrolling animation to score bars in Domination to better indicate capture speed
• The top left part of the menu under the Co-op, Versus, and Competitive sections now says the section you are browsing instead of “Play”
• Post-match messages are now hidden when the scoreboard is active to reduce clutter

Co-op Enemy AI Updates

• Fixed issue where enemies would not have their vision blocked by smoke clouds
• Enemies capturing an objective will more effectively find players that enter the objective
• Enemies are less likely to leave an objective they are capturing
• Enemies are more coordinated when moving between objectives, keeping more distance between themselves so that they no longer bunch up in a column and “conga line”
• Fixed issue where enemies would not be blinded by an M84 Flash explosive
• Upon entering melee range, enemies will give players a small time to react before weapon bashing them

Modding Feature Updates

• Added an array called Additional Assets to mutators which will allow modders to reference assets for their mutator
• Increased the upload limit for mod.io to be greater than 2GB
• Mods built with a older version of the engine will no longer load by default for improved version compatibility

Marksman Class Improvements

Since new weapons have come to the Marksman, we decided to do a balance pass on its other weapons to make sure everything fits together. The M24 and Mosin-Nagant have been reduced in price along with their Greased Bolt upgrades to reflect their limited capabilities. The M82A1 CQ and M99 as well as their upgrades were reduced in supply cost to better match their effectiveness (high recoil, low magazine capacity, slow weapon switch time, etc). The Mk 14 EBR’s unmatched full auto fire mode, high fire rate, and new M110 SASS alternative have warranted an increase in recoil to balance it with other weapons both inside and outside the Marksman class.

Marksman Weapons

• Decreased M24 supply cost from 2 supply to 1
• Decreased Mosin-Nagant supply cost from 2 supply to 1
• Decreased M82A1 CQ supply cost from 6 supply to 3
• Decreased M99 supply cost from 6 supply to 3
• Increased Mk 14 EBR Vertical Recoil to 39
• Increased Mk 14 EBR Horizontal Recoil to 44

Marksman Weapon Upgrades

• Decreased M24 and Mosin-Nagant’s Greased Bolt from 3 supply to 2
• Decreased Mosin-Nagant's Stripper Clip upgrade from 2 supply to 1
• Decreased M82A1 CQ and M99’s Extended Magazine from 4 supply to 2
• Made 7x Type 99 Scope only available for M99
• Added M99's Extended Magazine and Bipod upgrades for the Competitive Insurgent Sharpshooter class

Level Design Updates

Tell

• Reduced occurrences of AI getting stuck in a corridor that affected Outpost B objective

Hillside

• Fixed an issue where ice shards on the front of a building were shaking

Summit

• Fixed an issue where players were able to access an exploitable area to defend objective B on Firefight East mode

Hideout

• Fixed a bug where players were able to vault onto a concrete block and get stuck (found in the Basic Training under Tutorials)
• Fixed an issue where the night variant of the level was too dark in well lit areas

FarmHouse

• Fixed an issue where the night variant of the level was too dark in well lit areas

Ministry

• Fixed an issue where players were able to access exploitable areas outside of the level that affected balance on all game modes
• Fixed several issues with AI cover nodes to improve bot pathing and behavior
• Fixed an issue where the night variant of the level was too dark in well lit areas

Refinery

• Fixed an exploit where the player could hover above a bus near objective B on Firefight West
• Fixed an exploit where the player could reach an exploitable spot on the edge of the level near objective B on Push Security.

Outskirts

• Replaced the cascade particle system with Niagara to improve particle quality and atmosphere, and make it less CPU demanding.
• Fixed an exploit that gained access to the hills near the collapsed building that affected balance on both Push Security and Insurgents.

Tideway

• Fixed an issue where players on the Security side had direct line of sight into the Insurgents spawn from several locations on Firefight West layout.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where loading a Replay caused the game to crash
• Reduced instances of an issue upon game launch where your character may appear invisible with only a vest (Note: Playing the Basic Training under Tutorials may help to fix this if you're one of the edge cases still affected by this problem)
• Reduced instances of an issue upon game launch where the Customization Menu appeared to be empty
• Reduced instances of an issue where pressing ‘Esc’ while in a Replay would open the Main Menu and will continue to open itself
• Reduced instances of players and AI not appearing to have a character model but only appearing as a floating vest or weapon
• Fixed an issue when pressing "Cancel" on Downloading Server Mods caused the game to become stuck on the Main Menu
• Fixed an issue where players could see their vest in first person after spawning
• Fixed an edge-case issue where the scenario that was just played could mistakenly show up on the map vote screen again
• Fixed an issue with the Explosive Launcher weapon upgrade appearing broken in the Loadout menu
• Fixed an issue when using an AKM with the Aiming Grip upgrade where the fingers would break during the reload animation
• Fixed an issue where the incorrect in-game voice over announcement was playing when attempting to capture an objective
• Fixed an issue where the Objective Status was showing incorrectly while capturing
• Fixed an issue in the Competitive Loadout screen where some weapons had the option of two Recoil Grips
• Fixed a bug where the supply points were shown incorrectly for the Recoil Grips on the AKS-74U, AKM and AK-74 in Competitive
• Fixed a bug where supply points were shown incorrectly for the M9 pistol for Insurgents in Competitive for all classes
• Fixed issues regarding the Smoke Launcher upgrade on the FAMAS F1
  • Added to the Insurgents Commander, Observer, and Rifleman classes in Versus and Co-op
  • Removed from the Insurgents Demolition class in Versus and Co-op
  • Added to the Rangemaster in the Range under Tutorials
  • Added to the Fragger in Domination and Team Deathmatch mode

• Fixed an issue where facial hair was visible through smoke
  
• Fixed a clipping issue when using the AKS-74U with an IR Flashlight or Flashlight upgrade equipped
  
• Fixed a clipping issue when firing the Tavor 7 with the 1x Kobra Optic upgrade equipped
  
• Fixed an issue where the Chemical Mortars fire support smoke cloud color overlay was appearing black when the player was inside the smoke
  
• Fixed an issue where the hand would crumple during the reload animation when Underbarrel upgrades were equipped
  
• Fixed an issue where the player had a chance to spawn with an invisible magazine during pre-round when Underbarrel upgrades were equipped
  
• Fixed an issue where the sight picture for the 2x Red Dot appeared dark while aiming down sights when scope video settings were set to normal
  
• Fixed an issue when equipping the 2x Red Dot, the body of the scope could be seen through the scope while aiming down sights
  
• Fixed an issue where the compass bind (toggle/hold) was not working properly
  
• Fixed an issue where the door breach and slide hints were showing as UNBOUND
  
• Fixed an issue on Outpost where the incorrect UI message appeared when an objective was lost or when the team was wiped out
  
• Fixed an issue where the hints appearing in-game showed large gaps between the hotkey and text
  
• Fixed an issue in the Customize menu where the cosmetic color variations were sorted improperly
  
• Fixed an issue where players were able to select classes which were not available based on their level
  
• Fixed an issue where aiming down sights and firing your weapon at the same time triggered the toggle for aiming down sights
  
• Fixed an issue where players cannot interact with the Class Selection menu when entering a local play game while using a controller
  
• Fixed an issue when spectating a player who is switching from their Primary to an underbarrel shotgun upgrade, the weapon would disappear and reappear instead of playing the animation
  
• Fixed an issue when firing the FAMAS F1 with the Masterkey weapon upgrade where the bolt of the FAMAS F1 moved as if it was fired
  
• Fixed an issue where the fire mode selector animation was not playing when using the FAMAS F1
  
• Fixed an animation issue when performing a dry reload while using a FAL
  
• Fixed an issue where the “BRRRR” sound effect was missing when calling in the Autocannon Strafe as fire support
  
• Fixed issues with the Insurgent cosmetic Hoodie Up where the hairstyle would clip through the hood
  
• Fixed an issue with the M240B extended magazine bracket
  

Known Issues

• There is an issue where the Cycle Optic and Lean Right used the same keybinds on the controller configuration
• There may be an issue where STANAG magazines are missing in-game and in the Loadout Menu. It could potentially be fixed by verifying the integrity of game files via Steam
• Players may see duplicated Primary, Secondary, or Explosive category headers in the Loadout Menu
• There is a visual issue with the player’s hands when approaching the Standing Turret on Bab Push Security at Objective A and vehicle mounted turrets
• Some magazines may disappear at times, verifying your files may fix this issue
• There are still instances where Insurgent AI and players occasionally appear as the default Security model
• Equipment color option selected under the Customization > Appearance Menu is not applying to all areas correctly
• There is an issue where the Greased Bolt upgrade on the Mosin-Nagant is not increasing the fire rate in the Loadout Menu
• Security ammo carriers are currently missing ammo pouches
• While spectating another player, the spectator may not be able to see through the scope and the toggle optic animation may not play
• There is an issue with weapon and knife hitboxes which may block players that jump into the weapon being held by other players
• Switching to or from the Smoke Launcher upgrade with no ammo plays the incorrect animation when using the M1 Garand
• Mosin-Nagant Stripper Clip weapon upgrade does not push in properly when reloading in third person
• There are improper collisions with the concrete blocks in the parkade of Ministry
• The Wet Feet achievement may be unobtainable after completing Basic Training under Tutorials
• AI-driven vehicles can get stuck in the Range level under Tutorials