Limited Time Playlist: Big Money
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Insurgency: Sandstorm News
Big Money is back! Start with zero supply points and gain them as player score increases. Buy ALL the things! Available now until September 22nd!
State of Production #11
Hello everyone, my name is Tim Perreault and I’m the Executive Producer at New World Interactive. August has been an exciting month for the Studio; we’ve been putting the finishing touches on and releasing Clean Sweep, announced an acquisition by the Embracer Group, made some big changes in our Player Support process, updated the hiring portal on our website, and are making huge strides in our 1.8 development.
Key Points of State of Production #11
[h3]1.7.1 Clean Sweep Release[/h3]
We’ve recently released a minor update for Sandstorm, 1.7.1 Clean Sweep. This update was focused on responding to community feedback, optimization, bug fixes, and finishing our game engine upgrade plan. This was a huge opportunity for our programmers to focus on some bug fixes and optimizations they haven’t previously had an opportunity to work on. It also gave some of the other developers a chance to make some tweaks and fixes that have been on the back burner for a while. As Sandstorm continues to mature as a product, we intend to continue providing these minor updates between major content releases with more of an emphasis on responding to actionable community feedback.
[h3]Embracer Group[/h3]
It was recently announced that New World Interactive has joined the Embracer Group as part of Saber Interactive but continuing to operate as an independent studio. This is great news for Insurgency: Sandstorm as it means we will be able to leverage the skills and resources that come from being part of a larger group of studios. We are all extremely excited about what this opportunity means for our projects and we’re all looking forward to what the future holds. Check out our post here for a bit more information.
[h3]Player Support Site Update[/h3]
Over the last few months, we’ve made some big changes in our Player Support process. I’ve invited our new Player Support Lead, Luke Simms, to speak directly about the big changes going on:
Hey everyone! Recently, Player Support made some structural changes in order to better serve our community and playerbase. As of this SoP’s release, I am pleased to announce the major update of NWI’s Support Desk which is coming Monday, September 7, 2020.
The main purpose behind our website update was to improve the way we handle and provide customer support. In order to achieve this, New World Support will be utilizing Zendesk for all of our support suite needs. Zendesk will allow us to organize player-submitted tickets with little to no limitations. With AI feedback, centralization features, and new incentives, Player Support will be able to apply user reports and feedback to our games in a streamlined fashion.
In addition to our internal changes, Player Support will be improving on several current policies and procedures. Earlier this month, we updated New World Interactive's Official Community Guidelines with the goal of developing a more transparent look into our expectations of players. We're also working on better player reporting/ban appeal policies, as evidenced by our new Developer Ban Appeal Form. Creating thorough and concrete protocol will continue to be a top priority for our team in the coming months.
Above all, we want to make customer experience an intrinsic part of NWI’s culture. Gamers are some of the most vocal customer bases there are, and because of our consistent development cycles, your feedback plays an integral part in identifying issues and determining what should be prioritized. Our mission is to assist players as quickly as possible with any problems they may be facing so that they can get back into the battlefield as soon as possible. With all of that said, I’m looking forward to hearing from some new voices within our updated support channel!
We’re always here and happy to help.
support.newworldinteractive.com
[h3]Careers Page Update[/h3]
This month we rolled out an updated Careers page on our website in an effort to streamline our hiring process as we continue to grow. I’ve invited Roxann Morrill, our Special Projects Manager to talk about the new page:
When we arrived in Calgary our company was just over a dozen employees. Now that NWI is becoming part of the Embracer Group and Saber Interactive family, we are happy to announce the upcoming recruitment for many new positions that will enhance our development and production capabilities. We are also adding cool new tools to improve our hiring process. The integration of a new applicant tracking system (ATS) will ensure a smoother on-boarding experience for new hires and provide more visibility for prospective candidates. Our ATS will speed up the recruitment process enabling us to provide better and faster candidate screening. One of the highlights of the new ATS is the "Connect" tool, which helps candidates to submit their application, before jobs are posted, for departments they are interested in joining. In addition, candidates will be able to learn more about our team members from our new career website. Check it out here.
[h3]Studio News and 1.8 Development[/h3]
With Clean Sweep out the door, our development team is now completely focused on the 1.8 update. We’ll be wrapping up development at the end of the month before moving into final testing and polish. You can expect to see teasers for upcoming content coming your way on our 1.8 website. For the first week of September, the entire studio will be taking time off to give everyone a much-needed break. After the week off we’ll be back and firing on all cylinders to get this release finalized, do our public Community Test of the release, and get it shipped in October. Keep your eyes on our release website for the latest!
That’s it for this month’s SoP, until next time, keep your stick on the ice.
Key Points of State of Production #11
- 1.7.1 Clean Sweep Release
- Embracer Group
- Player Support Site Update
- Careers Page Update
- Studio News and 1.8 Development
[h3]1.7.1 Clean Sweep Release[/h3]
We’ve recently released a minor update for Sandstorm, 1.7.1 Clean Sweep. This update was focused on responding to community feedback, optimization, bug fixes, and finishing our game engine upgrade plan. This was a huge opportunity for our programmers to focus on some bug fixes and optimizations they haven’t previously had an opportunity to work on. It also gave some of the other developers a chance to make some tweaks and fixes that have been on the back burner for a while. As Sandstorm continues to mature as a product, we intend to continue providing these minor updates between major content releases with more of an emphasis on responding to actionable community feedback.
[h3]Embracer Group[/h3]
It was recently announced that New World Interactive has joined the Embracer Group as part of Saber Interactive but continuing to operate as an independent studio. This is great news for Insurgency: Sandstorm as it means we will be able to leverage the skills and resources that come from being part of a larger group of studios. We are all extremely excited about what this opportunity means for our projects and we’re all looking forward to what the future holds. Check out our post here for a bit more information.
[h3]Player Support Site Update[/h3]
Over the last few months, we’ve made some big changes in our Player Support process. I’ve invited our new Player Support Lead, Luke Simms, to speak directly about the big changes going on:
Hey everyone! Recently, Player Support made some structural changes in order to better serve our community and playerbase. As of this SoP’s release, I am pleased to announce the major update of NWI’s Support Desk which is coming Monday, September 7, 2020.
The main purpose behind our website update was to improve the way we handle and provide customer support. In order to achieve this, New World Support will be utilizing Zendesk for all of our support suite needs. Zendesk will allow us to organize player-submitted tickets with little to no limitations. With AI feedback, centralization features, and new incentives, Player Support will be able to apply user reports and feedback to our games in a streamlined fashion.
In addition to our internal changes, Player Support will be improving on several current policies and procedures. Earlier this month, we updated New World Interactive's Official Community Guidelines with the goal of developing a more transparent look into our expectations of players. We're also working on better player reporting/ban appeal policies, as evidenced by our new Developer Ban Appeal Form. Creating thorough and concrete protocol will continue to be a top priority for our team in the coming months.
Above all, we want to make customer experience an intrinsic part of NWI’s culture. Gamers are some of the most vocal customer bases there are, and because of our consistent development cycles, your feedback plays an integral part in identifying issues and determining what should be prioritized. Our mission is to assist players as quickly as possible with any problems they may be facing so that they can get back into the battlefield as soon as possible. With all of that said, I’m looking forward to hearing from some new voices within our updated support channel!
We’re always here and happy to help.
support.newworldinteractive.com
[h3]Careers Page Update[/h3]
This month we rolled out an updated Careers page on our website in an effort to streamline our hiring process as we continue to grow. I’ve invited Roxann Morrill, our Special Projects Manager to talk about the new page:
When we arrived in Calgary our company was just over a dozen employees. Now that NWI is becoming part of the Embracer Group and Saber Interactive family, we are happy to announce the upcoming recruitment for many new positions that will enhance our development and production capabilities. We are also adding cool new tools to improve our hiring process. The integration of a new applicant tracking system (ATS) will ensure a smoother on-boarding experience for new hires and provide more visibility for prospective candidates. Our ATS will speed up the recruitment process enabling us to provide better and faster candidate screening. One of the highlights of the new ATS is the "Connect" tool, which helps candidates to submit their application, before jobs are posted, for departments they are interested in joining. In addition, candidates will be able to learn more about our team members from our new career website. Check it out here.
[h3]Studio News and 1.8 Development[/h3]
With Clean Sweep out the door, our development team is now completely focused on the 1.8 update. We’ll be wrapping up development at the end of the month before moving into final testing and polish. You can expect to see teasers for upcoming content coming your way on our 1.8 website. For the first week of September, the entire studio will be taking time off to give everyone a much-needed break. After the week off we’ll be back and firing on all cylinders to get this release finalized, do our public Community Test of the release, and get it shipped in October. Keep your eyes on our release website for the latest!
That’s it for this month’s SoP, until next time, keep your stick on the ice.
August 2020 Community Update Blog
Hello Gamers™,
fatherHank here - 2020 is both the longest and shortest year of my life and I don’t even know what season it is anymore. I think it’s August though, so a blog post is due.
First and foremost, New World Interactive has joined the Embracer Group! If you’d like more details please click here. I was personally camping in the mountains when this happened and it was quite the news to come back to. We are excited about the future and the numerous opportunities this will generate.
Update 1.7.1, aka Clean Sweep, was released last week. With it came nearly 100 bug fixes and a few feature additions. Make a drink and head here to read the whole seven pages of patch notes. I think my personal favorite addition is the transparent G36K magazine, it’s just so clean.. and sexy. I mean really, look at this thing. Should I be having these feelings about a magazine? Probably not, but let’s move on.
Oh yeah, death animations have been put back in place and the suicide bombers will not crash your game anymore! Below is a video of our team trying to replicate the issue. I find it endlessly entertaining but I am a simple man. Bombers go boom.
New World will be closed for the week of 8/31 - 9/4 so you won’t hear too much from us. We have a few social media posts ready to go, but we need a week to prepare ourselves for 1.8. It’s going to be a T H I C C update with a lot of included community requests. This month’s State of Production will also be available next week, on August 31st.
We just finished our bi-weekly Developer Livestream and the VOD is available here. We wanted to go into our studio closure with a bang, so we may have revealed a couple breadcrumbs about 1.8! We are Hansel-and-Greteling you all into the next release.
If you’d like to join our next few streams we will be revealing 1.8 content live instead of through social channels for this release. This is our tentative schedule for those streams:
You can visit our 1.8 update website here for those details, and make sure to bookmark it as we will be updating it as we reveal more information.
More details will be announced in two weeks with our next Developer Livestream but we have revealed the official name of 1.8, it’s release date, and some art that will help you envision what it’s theme is….
Are you ready for Operation: Breakaway?
fatherHank here - 2020 is both the longest and shortest year of my life and I don’t even know what season it is anymore. I think it’s August though, so a blog post is due.
First and foremost, New World Interactive has joined the Embracer Group! If you’d like more details please click here. I was personally camping in the mountains when this happened and it was quite the news to come back to. We are excited about the future and the numerous opportunities this will generate.
Update 1.7.1, aka Clean Sweep, was released last week. With it came nearly 100 bug fixes and a few feature additions. Make a drink and head here to read the whole seven pages of patch notes. I think my personal favorite addition is the transparent G36K magazine, it’s just so clean.. and sexy. I mean really, look at this thing. Should I be having these feelings about a magazine? Probably not, but let’s move on.
Oh yeah, death animations have been put back in place and the suicide bombers will not crash your game anymore! Below is a video of our team trying to replicate the issue. I find it endlessly entertaining but I am a simple man. Bombers go boom.
New World will be closed for the week of 8/31 - 9/4 so you won’t hear too much from us. We have a few social media posts ready to go, but we need a week to prepare ourselves for 1.8. It’s going to be a T H I C C update with a lot of included community requests. This month’s State of Production will also be available next week, on August 31st.
We just finished our bi-weekly Developer Livestream and the VOD is available here. We wanted to go into our studio closure with a bang, so we may have revealed a couple breadcrumbs about 1.8! We are Hansel-and-Greteling you all into the next release.
If you’d like to join our next few streams we will be revealing 1.8 content live instead of through social channels for this release. This is our tentative schedule for those streams:
- Thursday, September 10th, 2:00pm MST
- Thursday, September 17th, 11:00am MST
- Tuesday, October 6th, 11:00am MST (LAUNCH DAY!)
You can visit our 1.8 update website here for those details, and make sure to bookmark it as we will be updating it as we reveal more information.
More details will be announced in two weeks with our next Developer Livestream but we have revealed the official name of 1.8, it’s release date, and some art that will help you envision what it’s theme is….
Are you ready for Operation: Breakaway?
Double XP Weekend
[h3]It's that time again, Double XP from now until Monday @ 11:00AM MST![/h3]
Update 1.7.1: Hotfix 1
[h2]We've released a hotfix for update 1.7.1 that addresses the following issues:[/h2]
[h3]Editor Fixes:[/h3]
[h3]Known Issues:[/h3]
EDIT: For the stuttering issue, please add '-NoGlobalInvalidation' as a launch parameter, this seems to help a lot of players. We are continuing on working on a permanent fix.
If you aren't sure how to do that, this link should help.
- Updated global lighting settings to more closely match lighting prior to update 1.7.1’s engine upgrade to 4.25
- Reduced instances of AI shooting a player after they ducked behind cover instead of suppressing the player’s last known visible position
- Fixed an issue that was causing reflective surfaces (windows, glasses, etc.) inside of smoke to be visible to players outside of the smoke
- Fixed an issue causing players to fall through the floor of the elevator in Ministry even though it was hilarious
- Fixed an issue with gear (armor, ammo vests, etc.) on corpses disappearing early
- Fixed an issue where magazines being thrown from speed reloads would disappear immediately
- Fixed an issue where magazines would only appear half way through a staged reload animation
- Fixed the previous and next hint buttons not responding on the in-game menu
- Fixed an issue where flashlight flare wasn’t showing correctly in night vision
[h3]Editor Fixes:[/h3]
- Fixed issue where renaming folders would also copy all items you had previously selected to that folder
- Fixed issue so changing streaming type for level will preserve level's subfolder when re-adding the sublevel
[h3]Known Issues:[/h3]
- Some players are experiencing stuttering and performance issues; we are collecting community feedback on the issue here to solve it faster
- Fire support sounds will sometimes play out of order or not at all
- Voice over lines for fire support kills are not triggering properly
- Fire support kills aren’t being added to the Commander and Observer’s score
- Backwards compatibility of mods has been broken and mods need to be recooked
- In-game hints may show a gap between the text and relevant hotkey under certain circumstances
- Setting a community server as a favorite does not save
- The Welrod may clip with the camera in restricted areas
- The third person vaulting animation may show the players leg clipping with the world
- Night Maps Replays are played back with the incorrect lighting scenario
- Not able to scavenge skinned weapon magazines from the Honey Badger and Mk14 EBR
- Mines are not triggered by vehicles driving over them
EDIT: For the stuttering issue, please add '-NoGlobalInvalidation' as a launch parameter, this seems to help a lot of players. We are continuing on working on a permanent fix.
If you aren't sure how to do that, this link should help.