Insurgency: Sandstorm News

Hi everyone, my name is Jon Higgins, Marketing & Communications Director at New World Interactive. Today’s community update is going to be slightly different from our usual development oriented blogs and instead focus more on some of the things that have been going on behind the scenes here at New World. We hope you enjoy this peek behind the curtain and brief company update.

As some of you may have read a while back we announced we would be creating a new studio called New World North in Calgary, Canada. After a few small delays we are now set up and slowly migrating staff from around the world to the city, which is quickly becoming Canada's newest game development hub.

Our new location in Calgary enables us to pursue our longer term company vision of having a sustainable, enjoyable, ‘best-in-class’ work environment for our team. It represents our new home as we look to centralize a formerly distributed team and grow with more experienced talent. These changes will allow us to continue pursuing our goal of creating critically-acclaimed, cutting edge and highly successful video game experiences.

Founder & CEO Jeremy Blum at the New World North Office.


There is still a fair bit of work to be done on the new office, however it is a significant upgrade from our old space in Amsterdam, and provides a lot more flexibility for our company to grow.

Our old space in Amsterdam, packed down ft. character artist Gabriel Fronza.




In addition to our new space we are also welcoming a few new faces to our team and hiring for several new positions. Recently we announced the hiring of former BioWare Lead Artist Michael Grills who joins us as our new Art Director, as well as ex-Tencent, Ubisoft, and Epic employee Derek Czerkaski who will be joining us as our new Head of Production.

“Derek is an extraordinary talent in the gaming industry. We are delighted to add him to our team and confident he will help New World continue building our best-in-class studio.” - Keith Warner, President

Some of you may have picked up on a quote from our recent press release regarding the hiring of ex BioWare artist Michael Grills:

“We’re taking on a new, unannounced project which requires stronger artistic vision and leadership than games we’ve worked on in the past. Michael is a great fit for what we have in mind, bringing lots of creativity, industry experience and strong leadership to the table. We’re looking forward to having him on board and are very excited to see what he’s able to help us accomplish in the future for this project and beyond.” – Jeremy Blum, Founder & CEO

While our development team currently remains focused on post-release support and the console version of Insurgency: Sandstorm, we are also laying the foundation for exciting new projects. Insurgency: Sandstorm’s success has allowed the company to not only continue to support the game, but also expand and explore new frontiers.



A while back Nick Calandra and Omar Ahmed from Gameumentary visited our offices in Amsterdam and Denver to tell the story behind the formation of New World Interactive and our journey from enthusiast modders to award-winning indie developers.

Initially planned as a one off, the documentary crew captured so much footage with our team that it will now be premiering as a three-part story over on the Escapist YouTube channel and website later in the summer.

Our team have just seen a first draft of the episodes and we feel it will give a very stripped back and raw look at everything from the ups and downs of starting an independent video game company in 2010 all the way up to Insurgency: Sandstorm’s release. From our failed kickstarter and almost going bankrupt, to making our first million, the series touches on all aspects of our company, including an exclusive look at an unreleased game concept that, while discontinued, also laid the foundation for Insurgency: Sandstorm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyBOQ-QQrfs

We’ll be returning to more developer focused community updates, including a preview of our upcoming snow map. However if you want more frequent updates be sure to follow us on social media @InsurgencyGame on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or join the /r/Insurgency subreddit. Below is some of the content we have teased over on these channels.

We are releasing a hotfix today to address frequent crashing reported by the community on first generation AMD Ryzen CPUs. If you are still experiencing crashing after this hotfix, please try the following:

• Right click Insurgency: Sandstorm in your Steam library
  
• Select “Properties”
  
• Navigate to the “Local Files” tab
  
• Select “Verify Integrity Of Game Files”
  
• Reboot your PC once verification has been completed.
  

We have also been informed by some AMD users that the AMD 19.5.2 drivers do appear to be working for them. If you are still encountering issues and are an AMD user, you may try using this driver to run the game. Another option is to ensure your GPU drivers are fully updated to the latest version.

If you are still encountering any further crashing on this line of CPUs please be sure to inform us in the following thread here with the information requested below:

• List your full pc specs or provide a DxDiag.
  
• List your video settings and GPU driver version.
  
• Let us know when this crash occurs (e.g upon loading the game, during the main menu, in local play, in online play etc.)
  
• Let us know if anything unusual happens before the crash, or if the crash only occurs on certain levels / modes / etc.
  
• When submitting a UE4 crash report, include a description, your SteamID and your CPU type.
  

For any users who have been participating in testing on our crashtesting branch, please revert your game to the live default build by doing the following.

• Right click Insurgency: Sandstorm in your Steam library
  
• Select “Properties”
  
• Navigate to the “Betas” tab
  
• Select “NONE - Opt out of all beta programs” under the beta opt-into drop down.
  
• Select close on the bottom right of the window
  
• Restart Steam to allow it to update your game to that branch
  

We are releasing a patch today with various fixes and improvements. This patch is focused more on fixing things rather than adding new content. However, we do have more content in the works, all of which will be free. You can view our development roadmap here to see the content we have planned over the next 4 months.

• Fixed an issue where VoIP input would be inaudible to other players and would only transmit a radio beep.
  
• Fixed an issue where weapons and ragdolls would get stuck in door frames.
  
• Fixed an issue where certain cosmetic items could be missing from the player’s third person mesh after team switching while wearing a gas mask.
  
• Fixed an issue where if a player switched to a rocket launcher from a weapon that didn’t have a magazine, then switched back to said weapon, it would show the rocket launcher’s ammo as the magazine type instead of the one it actually supports.
  
• Fixed an issue where the 4x SUSAT optic view was clipping through the model.
  
• Fixed an issue where if the player had toggle crouch set they would be forced into a standing pose after completing a slide, instead of remaining in crouch.
  
• Fixed a rendering issue with the Heavy Armor Heavy Carrier combination.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Quick Draw Secondary weapon upgrade was being incorrectly applied to the first equip animation.
  
• Fixed an issue where the sprinkler systems on Ministry would not extinguish fire.
  
• Fixed an issue where if tapping F to resupply on a supply crate, the ammo information UI would not update automatically, only after performing an ammo check.
  
• Fixed a bug where the game mode rules would not show in the pause menu.
  
• Fixed an issue where the sleeves on certain cosmetics could clip with the player model.
  
• Fixed an issue where players could be disconnected if performing multiple melee attacks on highly stressed servers.
  

• A party can now join a community server together as a group when a server is joined by the party leader. This mirrors the party functionality for matchmaking games.
  

• Improved sandbag collisions across all maps for better bipod usability.
  
• Adjusted Competitive supply costs:
  
  • Added Suppressors for Uzi and Tariq.
    
  • Reduced 1911 Suppressor cost to 2.
    
  • Set all longarm Suppressors to 4 supply.
    
  • Set all longarm Compensators to 4 supply.
    
  • Set all longarm Laser Sights to 3 supply.
    
  • Set all longarm Flash Hiders to 2 supply.
    
  • Set all 1x/1.5x standalone optics (Kobra, Red Dot, etc) to 2 supply.
    

• Enemy AI in Coop will now choose more consistent and thematic clothing options rather than fully randomized ones.
  
• Updated first person crouch view transition to follow the third person animation better.
  
• Added interpolation for the lean amount in online games so that leaning looks smoother when observing another player in first or third person.
  

• Ministry
  
  • Fixed an exploit where players could get on top of the trimming in the lobby.
    
  • Fixed spawn camping issue at Insurgent spawn on Skirmish.
    
  • Tweaked planters in the lobby to improve flow between A and B objectives on Firefight.
    
  • Removed a few planters in the corners of the lobby to avoid players from camping inside them.
    
  • Improved Security restricted area to fix several spawn camp issues on Firefight.
    
  • Fixed an issue where the Security vehicle would not spawn on Skirmish.
    
  • Fixed an issue where the Security supply crate could be seen clipping through certain geometry on Skirmish and Firefight.
    
  • Fixed an issue where jumping on a specific plant in a corner of the lobby would cause the character to produce looping jump audio.
• Outskirts
  
  • Made southwest stairway in collapsed building (Push Insurgents objective D) accessible from the ground.
    
  • Made stair tower in crane building south of collapsed building accessible for approach to Push Insurgents objective D.
    
  • Made adjustments to the geometry around Firefight West objective C.
    
  • Reduced size of Firefight West objective C capture zone.
• Crossing
  
  • Fixed an issue where it was possible for the player to enter the bus through unbroken window panes.
• Precinct
  
  • Optimized merged actors throughout the map to reduce memory footprint.
    
  • Fixed several minor lightmap issues throughout the map.

• Combat goggles glass may be visible through smoke on certain settings.
  
• When a client respawns, they have a rare chance to have their player character become desynchronized. This can cause frozen animations, sliding, and falling through the world.
  
• If the same level is loaded twice in a row online, the default Soundscape stops working.
  

UPDATE 7/26/19: We've just released a hotfix for yesterday’s 1.3.1 patch with bug fixes and improvements to version 1.3. This hotfix includes a critical fix of a persistent crash on first generation AMD CPUs.

• Fixed a persistent crash on first generation AMD CPUs. If you are experiencing regular crashes on any other CPU architecture than first generation AMD, please be sure to verify your game cache on Steam first. To verify your game cache:
  
  • Right click Insurgency : Sandstorm in your Steam library
    
  • Select “Properties”
    
  • Navigate to the “Local Files” tab
    
  • Select “Verify Integrity Of Game Files”
    
  • If you still have issues please report them to us at [email protected]
    

• Fixed an issue with the VHS-2’s Explosive launcher not attaching correctly to the weapon in first person.
  

We are releasing a patch today with various fixes and improvements. This patch is focused more on fixing things rather than adding new content. However, we do have more content in the works, all of which will be free. You can view our development roadmap here to see the content we have planned over the next 6 months.

Full changelist below:

• Fixed crash with spectator camera.
  
• Fixed a cosmetic exploit which would allow a player to become invisible.
  

• Fixed Bipods not properly deploying on sandbags.
  
• Fixed a case where weapons could end up in a minute-long audio loop.
  
• Fixed molotov rag fire particle not always being removed when the weapon is unequipped.
  
• Fixed an issue that allowed players using the FAL to fire before a speed reload was finished.
  
• Fixed the initial M4A1 the player picks up in the Tutorial Level not having its Laser Sight upgrade enabled.
  
• Fixed reloading issues with grenade launchers.
  
• Fixed missing scenario images for Ministry and Outskirts on the map vote screen.
  
• Fixed anti-materiel rifle ready animation sequences not playing.
  
• Fixed the following extended mags not having the extended mag icon setup correctly: M82A1 CQ, M99, MP5A2, MP5A5, PF940, VHS-2
  
• Fixed QBZ-03 HUD image not showing the handle properly.
  
• Fixed navigation issue where Q and E wouldn't navigate properly on the post match screen.
  
• Fixed third person SVD and SKS reload animations not playing.
  
• Fixed incorrect texture on the first person M16A2 muzzle brake.
  
• Fixed incorrect ready animation playing when using an AKM with a drum magazine and foregrip.
  
• Fixed collision for bus door. Not like they’re in service anyway though.
  
• Fixed some rendering issues that caused decal blending issues between decals that were using different channels.
  

• Being suppressed by enemy gunfire no longer increases your weapon recoil.
  
• Increased first person grenade draw and holster speed by 10%.
  
• Improved Slide by removing a “tolerance” that would initiate a slide if a player pressed Crouch shortly after stopping sprinting. This tolerance was meant to help with sliding that wasn’t timed correctly by the player, but instead had led to a lot of accidental slides. Now players should be able to crouch more consistently when they want to right after sprinting.
  
• Made various weapon and weapon upgrade:
  
  • Increased VHS-2 and QBZ-03 recoil.
    
  • M1911 suppressor is now 2 supply points instead of 3 to make it more consistent with the other Secondary suppressors.
    
  • VHS-2 can now pick up QBZ-03 mags and vice versa.
    
  • QBZ-03 can now pick up M4/M16 style magazines.
    
  • Disabled Melee Attack for Heavy Machine Guns. This was seen as too gamey and unrealistic, as well as looking strange in terms of animation.
    
  • Added 1.5x PK-AS for G36K for Security in cooperative modes.
    
  • Competitive changes:
    
    • QBZ-3 supply cost changed to 7.
      
    • VHS-2 supply cost changed to 8.
      
    • 1.5x PK-AS supply cost changed to 2
      
    • Extended Magazines which give +5 rounds supply cost changed to 2.
      
    • Foregrip supply cost changed to 4.
      
    • Foregrip Bipod supply cost changed to 5.
      
    • Added 1.5x PK-AS for G36K.
      
• Fire Support
  
  • Explosive Drone now requires clear space above when requesting them. This is intended to stop players from calling them in on the garage in Ministry or any other underground area.
    

• Characters
  
  • Added facial animations to your character in the Loadout menu.
    
  • Your own Eyewear should no longer be seen when you are killed.
    
  • Fixed issue with Carriers where the backpack would extrude past the seats.
    
  • Fixed t-shirt clipping issues with some Facewear.
    
  • Fixed clipping issues with Gas Masks.
    
  • Added details to Insurgent No Armor Heavy Carrier equipment combination.
    
  • Fixed shemagh's clipping with chest gear.
    
• Weapons
  
  • Added first person transition animations for entering and exiting sprinting in Hardcore Checkpoint.
    
  • Added missing melee animations to shotguns for muzzle thumps and melee flinching.
    
  • Third person “world” magazines spawned from speed reloading now spawn off screen. This prevents a duplicate magazine from appearing in view during a speed reload.
    
  • Fixed component on the VHS-2 charging handle not animating correctly during the ready animation.
    
  • Fixed QBZ-03 floating handguard.
    
  • Fixed the AK-74 foregrip disappearing when equipping a Bipod.
    
  • Fixed issue with underbarrel grenade launcher reloads in third person causing the magazine to move with them.
    
  • Fixed invisible casing/warhead on the third person M3 MAAWS reload.
    
  • Fixed shotguns using the incorrect melee animation when using a Foregrip.
    
  • Added breathing idle animations for the first person Binoculars.
    
  • Updated the M4A1 and M16A4 barrels to have holes in them.
    
  • Fixed floaty magazine during the L106A1 pistol reload starts.
    

• Made visual improvements to the map voting screen including adding background blur to make the interface more legible.
  
• Made the timer on the map vote screen now stop when there’s a winning map selected.
  
• Fixed grammatical errors in certain win condition descriptions that show at the end of a round.
  
• Adjusted post-match screen to improve readability.
  
• If when attempting to join a community server you receive a network error (mismatched password, server is full, etc.) it will now take you back to the server browser as intended.
  
• Tweaked the size and wrapping of the hints on the loading screen to result in better formatting.
  

• Ministry
  
  • Fixed not being able to destroy two windows at the back near Insurgent spawn.
    
  • Fixed scenario issue that was causing Hardcore Checkpoint Insurgents Supply Crates to not appear during gameplay.
    
  • Fixed light seam in lobby area.
    
  • Fixed an issue where player was restricted when crouching in lobby area on Checkpoint Insurgents.
    
  • Added extra entrances for bathrooms on each side of the building to improve level flow for Checkpoint scenarios.
    
  • Replaced broken mirrors in toilets with decals, added opacity variations of decals, and various other small visual tweaks.
    
• Outskirts
  
  • Fixed Restricted Area not being applied to hill behind Insurgent spawn on Push Insurgents objective D.
    
• Hideout
  
  • Revised Checkpoint Insurgents layout to improve gameplay balance for final objective.
    

Today we announced a hotfix for Update 1.3 to address feedback from players over the Free Weekend. Today's hotfix includes major optimization for co-op AI spawning, changes to address vehicle stuttering, fixes for Steam cloud-related issues and several improvements to the limited time arcade mode ‘Frenzy’.

This update is now live, and you can view the full change list below.

As always, community feedback helps us improve the game, so we ask anyone experiencing issues after today’s patch to leave constructive feedback on the official forums or Steam forums detailing; hardware set-up, in-game settings, videos/images, and where possible, any reproduction steps.

• Heavily optimized the coop bot spawn logic to resolve server-side hitches resulting in client-side lag spikes / rubber-banding due to bot spawning.
  

• Fixed an issue resulting in vehicles stuttering wildly and at varying angles when servers undergo a larger amount of stress either due to a high player count, fire support, or the combination of the two.
  
• Fixed an issue where XP gain was not being visually communicated to players correctly at the end of a game. XP gain was still being recorded correctly on the stats back-end throughout the duration of this issue however.
  
• Steam Cloud
  
  • Fixed an issue that caused randomized cosmetics presets to get uploaded to the Steam Cloud.
    
  • Fixed an issue that discarded custom cosmetics presets.
    
  • Fixed an issue that prevented the user from disabling Steam Cloud synchronization.
• Frenzy
  
  • Fixed an issue where Frenzy bot “Flamer” ragdoll fire damage volumes would persist on the ragdoll for longer than the fire particle, this resulted in invisible damaging fire.
    
  • Fixed an issue where respawning Frenzy bot “Flamer” class bots would respawn and continue to inflict damage to themselves and the surrounding area causing a respawn chain until they changed class.
    
  • Fixed an issue where Frenzy bots could occasionally spawn with varying effects, such as voice pitch and particles, for classes that were not allocated to them.
• Fixed an issue where bots were being teleported to their squad leader during the pre-round instead of allowing them to remain in their designated cover positions.
  
• Fixed an issue where ready animations were not playing for the QBZ-03 and Alpha AK when equipped with a foregrip and drum magazine combination.
  
• Fixed an issue with the AKM where if equipped with a foregrip and drum magazine combination it would play the incorrect reload due to referencing the wrong drum magazine upgrade.
  
• Fixed an issue where tracer rounds were not available on the VHS-2 and QBZ-03.
  
• Fix an issue where vehicle impact sounds would be triggered on physics corrections instead of impacts.
  

• Outskirts
  
  • Blocked curtains in the room under security side porch adjacent to Insurgent Push Objective A to prevent clipping.
    
  • Blocked access to a roof in the shantytown that was being exploited.
• Summit
  
  • Fixed an issue allowing players to access a point on the mountain which could be exploited on Push Security.
• Hideout
  
  • Fixed a potential exploit on Push Security allowing insurgents to see into the Security spawn for objective Alpha.

• [VoIP] - Occasionally certain players may not be audible to others when using VoIP and instead only transmit radio beeps.
  
• [Bots] - Bots may occasionally be rendered as invisible in certain edge cases.
  
• [Audio] - Weapon audio may occasionally be left looping until the offending weapon is picked up from the ground. We have a potential fix for this and will be deploying it once it has been tested.
  
• [SLI] - Nvidia has disabled the SLI profile for Insurgency: Sandstorm temporarily until they further investigate an issue with Unreal Engine 4.22. If SLI is enabled directly in the control panel this will result in geometry strobing on screen. We suggest all users running SLI ensure that this is disabled in the control panel if it has been enabled at that level.