[h3]Today we are launching a playable preview version of our upcoming update - Operation: Cold Blood. This includes a new map ‘Bab’, two new weapons (M110 SASS, M1 Garand), new weapon upgrades, and more! See below for more info.[/h3]
This content is now available on the
Community Test Environment. Go to your Steam Library and download “Insurgency: Sandstorm Community Test Environment” to play. Please remember this is a preview build, so some issues are expected (see 'Known Issues') and all content is considered work in progress. If you encounter any problems or have feedback for the development team please don’t hesitate to let us know in the
CTE sub-section of the Steam forums. Also be sure to fill out our
1.9 CTE Feedback Survey. Our team will be monitoring feedback during the CTE and aim to push this update to players on the live version of Insurgency: Sandstorm in December. The CTE will be available until Monday evening.
[h3]New Map: Bab[/h3]
Fight your way through a village, down snowy hills, over a frozen river, and at the gates of an ancient fortress. For those of you who are curious, “Bab” is an Arabic word that means “gate”. This map differs from our other maps by being more supportive of long-range combat and open layout play, but still having plenty of points for medium to close range engagements. It also sports a more mountainous snowy rural environment, which is only otherwise seen in one other snow map called Hillside. 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
[h3]New Weapons: M110 SASS, M1 Garand[/h3]
There are two new high caliber semi-auto 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 20mm 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.
[h3]New Feature: Toggleable Optics[/h3]
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, and 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 that they can now be toggled. You can see a full list of the new toggleable optics as well as the existing optics that now have support for toggling below. The existing optics have been renamed to reflect both magnification levels.
Optic availability on a per-class basis has not been changed. Unless otherwise noted as weapon-specific, used in Co-op, or used in Domination, all optic types at or below 4x-1x are available for Rifleman, Demolitions, Observer, Commander, Gunner, and Advisor classes. Breacher is limited to 1x and 1x-2x optics. The new closer to medium range oriented 3x-6x optics are available for the Marksman class.
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, G36K specific)
- 6x-3x DOS Scope (M110 SASS specific)
- 6x-3x Red Ring Scope
Existing Insurgent Optics That Were Updated to be Toggleable
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)
[h3]Outpost Mode[/h3]
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
[h3]Features[/h3]
- Improved HUD during Outpost mode to better indicate the various stages
[h3]Optimization[/h3]
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.
The following maps were focused on for optimization:
- 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.
[h3]Gameplay Improvements[/h3]
- Players now have the ability to customize night scenario Loadouts in the Customize menu prior to matchmaking
- Players have the ability to adjust the volume of radio commands in the Settings Menu
[h3]User Experience[/h3]
- Implemented night and day time selection for the Range found under Tutorials in the Main Menu
- Added sounds to notify players when supply points are gained and waves progress in Outpost Mode
- 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
[h3]Co-op Enemy AI Updates[/h3]
- 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”
[h3]Marksman Class Improvements[/h3]
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. The Mk 14 EBR’s unmatched full auto fire mode and high fire rate have warranted an increase in price.
Marksman Weapons
- Reduced M24 supply cost from 2 to 1
- Reduced Mosin supply cost from 2 to 1
- Reduced M82A1 CQ supply cost from 6 to 3
- Reduced M99 supply cost from 6 to 3
- Increased Mk 14 EBR supply cost from 5 to 6
Marksman Weapon Upgrades
- Reduced M24 Greased Bolt from 3 supply to 2 supply
- Reduced Mosin Greased Bolt from 3 supply to 2 supply
- Reduced M82A1 CQ Extended Magazine supply cost from 4 to 2
- Reduced M99 Extended Magazine supply cost from 4 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
[h3]Important Fixes[/h3]
- Fixed an issue with the explosive launcher weapon upgrade appearing broken in the Loadout menu
- Fixed an issue where the Chemical Mortars fire support smoke cloud color overlay was appearing black when the player is inside the smoke
- Reduced instances of an issue upon game launch where your character may appear invisible with only a vest (Note: Playing the basic training tutorial 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 may appear to be empty
[h3]Known Issues[/h3]
- Replays may cause the game to crash
- Players can see their vest in first person but can be fixed by swapping weapons or double hitting escape
- Weapons can be misaligned with the player’s hands during pre-game but can be fixed by swapping weapons
- Mosin-Nagant Stripper Clip weapon upgrade does not push in properly when reloading in third person
- AI vehicles can get stuck in the Range level under Tutorials
- Upon game launch, there’s a chance your character may be shown as just an ammo carrier. Doing the Basic Tutorial will often fix this until a full fix is implemented
- Upon game launch you may not see any of your customization options. Going to customize and swapping factions will correct this
- Players and AI may not appear to have a character model but only appear as a floating vest or weapon
- The background of the Main Menu may flicker
- The Slow Movement mutator will sometimes only function on the first map in rotation on community servers
- Initial state upon spawn of Toggleable optics can cause alignment or sensitivity issues but can be fixed by swapping weapons
