CTE 1.7: Nightfall Now Open!
Today we are launching a playable preview version of our upcoming version 1.7 update. This includes a new map ‘Tideway’, five new weapons (AS Val, Honey Badger, Sterling, Grease Gun, Welrod), nighttime versions of all maps in Co-op, new cosmetic options, and more! See below for more info.
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 1.7 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 June. The CTE will be open until 5:00 PM MST June 1st.
You can find some of the key new features and known issues below:
[h2]New Features[/h2]
[h2]Night Equipment[/h2]
[h2]New Cosmetics[/h2]
[h2]Gameplay Improvements[/h2]
[h2]General Improvements[/h2]
[h2]Visual Changes[/h2]
[h2]User Experience[/h2]
[h2]Noteable Fixes[/h2]
[h2]Known Issues[/h2]
[h2]Hotfix 1[/h2]
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 1.7 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 June. The CTE will be open until 5:00 PM MST June 1st.
You can find some of the key new features and known issues below:
[h2]New Features[/h2]
- New map “Tideway”
- Reimagining of Buhriz from Insurgency 2014
- Playable in the following modes: Push, Domination, Frontline, Firefight, Normal Checkpoint, Hardcore Checkpoint, and Frenzy Checkpoint
- Honey Badger
- Grease Gun
- AS Val
- Sterling
- Welrod
- Night versions of all maps including the new map Tideway have been created for Checkpoint, Hardcore Checkpoint, and Frenzy Checkpoint modes
- Enemy AI have lower visibility and night-appropriate responsiveness
- Enemy AI Breachers and Advisors make use of flashlights to locate and blind players
- Versus modes can be played on night maps on community servers and potentially in the future as limited time playlists, but official matchmaking will only support Co-op night maps
[h2]Night Equipment[/h2]
- Only available when playing on night maps
Night-vision Goggles (NVG)- Available in the Accessory slot
- Each faction has two available types, with different image quality and FOV
- Each type is available in Green, Amber, White Phosphor, and Multicolor color filters
- Increases nighttime visibility substantially, but still will have dark spots where there is little ambient light
- When worn, will slow down aiming down sights speed
- Available in the Accessory slot
- Infrared Laser weapon upgrade (IR Laser)
- Available for all Primaries and Secondaries
- Projects a laser beam and dot only visible when wearing Night-vision Goggles
- Helps target enemies without ADS and indicate to teammates which angle you are watching
- Useful when combined with NVG Point Shooting upgrade (see below)
- Available for all Primaries and Secondaries
- Infrared Flashlight weapon upgrades (IR Flashlight)
- Available for all Primaries and Secondaries
- Projects a beam of light in a cone only visible when wearing Night-vision Goggles
- Useful in very dark areas that Night-vision Goggles can’t fully illuminate
- Available for all Primaries and Secondaries
- Flashlight weapon upgrades
- Available for all Primaries and Secondaries
- Projects a high intensity beam of light in a cone
- Useful to see targets far away and to blind enemies, but will reveal your position
- Available for all Primaries and Secondaries
- Night-vision Scopes
- Available for 4x and 7x optics
- Attaches a second scope to an existing optic to give its sight picture White Phosphor night vision
- If Night-vision Goggles of a different color filter are worn when aiming down a Night-vision Scope, the scope’s sight picture will appear as the color filter of the Night-vision Goggles
- Available for 4x and 7x optics
- NVG Point Shooting weapon upgrade
- Available for all Primaries and Secondaries
- If selected for a weapon, when aiming down sights while wearing NVGs, free-aim will disable and the weapon will “lock” to a position where it points to the center of the screen
- Useful when combined with Infrared Laser weapon upgrade
- Available for all Primaries and Secondaries
[h2]New Cosmetics[/h2]
- Added new shemagh that covers half the face under “Insurgent Facewear”
- Half Wrap Black
- Half Wrap Plain
- Half Wrap White
- Half Wrap Black
- Added new hoodie with the hood up under “Insurgent Torso”
- Hoodie Up
- Hoodie Up Camo
- Hoodie Up
- Added new digital dark red camo under “Insurgent Equipment”
- Digital Dark Red
- Added new MICH 2000 helmet with IR strobe, headset, and headphones under “Security Headgear”
- MICH 2000 IR
- MICH 2000 IR Cans
- MICH 2000 IR Headset
- MICH 2000 IR
- Added new desert night camo under “Security Equipment,” “Uniform Camo,” and various other items
- Desert Night
[h2]Gameplay Improvements[/h2]
- Removed Mk 18 CQBR from Security Breacher and AKS-74U from Insurgent Breacher
- Weapons are still available for Advisor
- Change is being made to give Breacher and Advisor more distinct roles, weapons, and equipment
- To compensate, we are adding 4 new Breacher weapons that better suit Breacher’s weapon selection and role (AS Val and Sterling for Insurgents, Honey Badger and Grease Gun for Security)
- Gives all specialized classes (Breacher, Advisor, Marksman, Gunner) unique weapons not shared with other classes, which makes unlocking of each class (a new mechanic we’re introducing in 1.7) more meaningful
- Advisor also sees some changes in line with this adjustment, see below
- Weapons are still available for Advisor
- Expanded Advisor class optic selection in Versus
- Added Insurgent Advisor optics to Security Advisor
- Added Security Advisor optics to Insurgent Advisor
- Added Insurgent Advisor optics to Security Advisor
- Optic Changes
- Added 1x OKP-7 sight to SKS and AKS-74U
- Added 2x Red Dot to SKS and AKS-74U
- Added 4x C79 to AKS-74U, SKS, and L85A2
- Added 1x OKP-7 sight to SKS and AKS-74U
- Weapon Changes
- Reduced supply cost of AKS-74U from 4 to 3
- Reduced supply cost of Galil and Galil SAR from 3 to 2
- Reduced horizontal recoil of Galil and Galil SAR
- Made Galil Drum weapon upgrade increase horizontal recoil by a factor of 1.4 instead of 2.0
- Increased horizontal recoil of FAL
- Reduced supply cost of AKS-74U from 4 to 3
- The ammunition HUD element will now display when a player starts scavenging a magazine so it’s easier to confirm they have successfully picked up more ammunition
- Added a sound effect for when players scavenge ammunition
- Players can now cancel equipping an Accessory slot item (Gas Mask or Night-vision Goggles) by hitting the key again before 60% of the animation has completed
[h2]General Improvements[/h2]
- Tutorial Level Overhaul
- Renamed Tutorial Level to “Basic Training”
- Set Basic Training to end after destroying the weapon cache
- Added grenade throwing section
- Removed friendly AI
- Replaced enemy AI with wooden targets
- New players will once again be prompted to play Basic Training before joining an official matchmaking playlist
- Players are now awarded 1000 appearance credits for completing Basic Training
- Renamed Tutorial Level to “Basic Training”
- Dead Zone Improvements
- Free-aim “Dead Zone” has been turned off by default
- This means when a player's weapon is centered, camera look sensitivity will no longer be reduced.
- Free-aim is still a mechanic in the game, we’ve just turned off the Dead Zone within it
- Dead Zone can be switched back on and tweaked on a spectrum by the player
- Free-aim “Dead Zone” has been turned off by default
[h2]Visual Changes[/h2]
- Updated the Alpha AK magazine to use the AKM magazine to be appropriate to its 7.62x39mm chambering
- Updated the look of all Flash Hider and Compensator weapon upgrades to be black or darker shades
- Reduced the size of various Flash Hider and Compensator weapon upgrades to more realistic proportions
- Reduced the size of various Extended Magazine weapon upgrade magazine models to more realistic proportions
- Centered the Request Observer button within the Comms Menu
- Removed Arabic text from some textures if they referenced real people or places
[h2]User Experience[/h2]
- Added an “Add Upgrade” button under Primary and Secondary weapons in the base Loadout menu to better indicate that already equipped weapons can be upgraded
- Updated the community server browser to allow sorting of night and day maps
- This will only allow you to filter the scenario currently being played on each server, not the server’s available maps in its rotation
- Added refreshing icon to indicate when a search is taking place
- Updated the team selection UI in Co-op so you don’t see the bot faction or Spectator option
- Updated the Appearance menu’s save preset function to work consistently with the Loadout menu
- Updated the list order of classes in the Class menu to reflect the order in which a player will unlock classes, starting with Rifleman as automatically unlocked at the top and going down:
- Rifleman
- Breacher
- Advisor
- Demolitions
- Marksman
- Gunner
- Observer
- Commander
- Rifleman
- Increased the visibility and size of weapon upgrade hint icons which display near Supply Crates and in spawn zones
- Added a bind hint button for commands that use mouse thumb buttons
- Changed the global fire support cooldown ring from the radial menu to a horizontal bar
[h2]Noteable Fixes[/h2]
- Fixed an issue with the community server browser search function not working correctly
- Fixed an issue where pressing the Escape key to go back while in the Play menu would take you back two screens
- Fixed an issue when using a shotgun with flechette rounds and scavenging rounds that would prevent the player from reloading even though the animation would play
[h2]Known Issues[/h2]
- Tideway Checkpoint Insurgent is unavailable in Matchmaking
- Occasionally after loading a map, no faction or class selection options will be available, forcing the player to leave and rejoin to see them
- Some new cosmetics will overlap with a character’s gear and other cosmetics
- Night versions of loading screens and map vote images are not included in this build
- Voiceover dialogue in Basic Training will not play until reaching the vaulting objective at the green wall
- IR Lasers may not look like they’re following a straight line from the gun barrel in third person; but they are still following the point of aim
- Night map replays will play in daytime
- Players cannot send reports and open reports will not cancel if you have text written in them
- White boxes will appear on the UI when planting an explosive on a Supply Cache or resupplying
- Actions that force a player to equip their primary weapon (scavenging a new primary weapon, throwing a grenade, planting an explosive on the Supply Cache, etc.) will turn on NVGs if they are available
[h2]Hotfix 1[/h2]
- Fixed a crash impacting users who had the game set to languages other than English.
- Fixed an issue where new cosmetics weren't purchasable
