We are releasing a hotfix today to address a critical team-assignment issue and introduce some new optimizations to reduce micro-stutter when a lot of action is going on. We are aware of some issues with hit registration and are working to address them.

If you are having performance issues after playing with this hotfix, please report your hardware specs and other information HERE. It is also very useful to describe the performance issues you’re having specifically - in particular whether it’s constant or something that is worse on certain maps or during certain gameplay events. For example, we know that weapon cache destruction as well as team respawning cause performance hitches and are actively working on this. Gathering data from you all will help us continue to optimize effectively and make the game as smooth as possible for release.

• Removed spawning of bullet impacts if not visible by the player.
  
• Removed spawning of bullet audio if not audible by the player.
  
• Removed particle effects for character movement if not visible by the player.
  
• Removed spawning of character audio if not audible by the player.
  
• Adjusted texture pool sizes to help reduce their loading and unloading times on lower settings.

• Increased timeout to potentially prevent players being placed directly into Spectator when joining a game.

Crossing

• Modified culling to make it more aggressive at longer range.
  
• Particles no longer have a second delay before they become inactive outside players view.
  
• Actor merged some recently added assets.
  
• Moved Security Supply Crate on Skirmish to a nearby location to fix an exploit.
  
• Tweaked post-processing to reduce washed-out look and improve contrast.
  
• Removed sun and a few effects due to rendering issues and to improve readability for gameplay.
  
• Adjusted Checkpoint Insurgents insertion vehicle position.

Hideout

• Modified culling to make it more aggressive at longer range.
  Particles no longer have a one-second delay before they become inactive outside players view.
  
• Tweaked skylight to improve contrast, mainly in dark areas.
  
• Tweaked skybox to reduce overall brightness of the map.
  
• Tweaked post-processing to reduce washed-out look and improve contrast.
  
• Fixed certain props fading out too quickly in player’s view.
  
• Fixed an issue where a certain door didn’t fall to the ground when breached.
  
• Removed sun due rendering issues and to improve readability for gameplay.
  
• Fixed several out of bounds issues.
  
• Fixed numerous major exploits.
  
• Fixed several stuck issues.
  
• Fixed a few props fading out too quickly on Skirmish and Firefight West.

We are releasing a hotfix today to address various feedback and issues. We are aware of frame rate fluctuation problems people are having and some of today’s changes are to help alleviate this. Smoothing the game experience is a high priority for us leading up to release and post-release.

If you are having issues with running the game smoothly, we recommend trying some or all of the following options in the Settings menu:

• Set the game to Fullscreen under Video/Display.
  
• Set Scope Quality to Low under Video/Advanced.
  
• Set Frame Smoothing to on under Video/Advanced.
  
• Set Frame Limiter under Video/Advanced to a frame rate just below your average FPS to ensure more consistent and reliable frame times.

• Fixed an issue where the game was not launching in Fullscreen even if the Fullscreen option was selected in the Settings menu. This would result in players unknowingly playing in the less performant borderless windowed mode which limits FPS to the monitor’s refresh rate.
  
• Added framerate smoothing option in the Settings menu.
  
• Added framerate limiting option in the Settings menu.
  
• Added LODs to vehicle fire particles and further optimized the emitters.

• Increased Easy Anti-Cheat and initial connection timeouts to 150 seconds to assist with connection to matchmaking servers.
  
• Fixed Class Selection menu occasionally not showing any classes to choose from.
  
• Fixed an issue where awarded cosmetic items were showing as locked until the game was restarted.
  
• Fixed an issue with Smoke Artillery not blocking visibility for bots in Checkpoint.
  
• Fixed destructible objectives crediting players with assist damage when they didn’t destroy them.
  
• Fixed an issue with Supply Crates which stopped their UI element from showing reliably.
  
• Fixed third person animation poses for grenades, pistols and items.
  
• Fixed an issue where changing weapons while using a bipod would cause the third person animation to break.
  
• Fixed an issue where moving away from a deployed surface with the bipod would temporarily break third person animations.
  
• Fixed foregrip hand poses for the third person AKM and MP7.
  
• Fixed an issue with third person grenade launcher animation poses.
  
• Fixed an issue with the SVD with bipod breaking third person animations in the Loadout room.
  
• Fixed an issue where resupplying with a foregrip would break third person animations.
  
• Fixed characters T-posing when killed inside an exploding vehicle.
  
• Fixed an issue with the Lessons menu where clicking outside of the video would unload it.
  
• Fixed broken UI texture for Skirmish in the Versus match preferences menu.
  
• Fixed an issue where the character would be rotated 180 degrees in the escape menu and Loadout screen.
  
• Fixed an issue where Smoke Artillery would sometimes trigger its audio twice on detonation.
  
• Fixed issue that caused the Anti-Aliasing video setting to list anti-aliasing options that are currently unavailable.

Weapon Balance

• Decreased recoil by 20% if using a weapon’s burst fire mode.
  
• Increased recoil of M16A4 and M16A2 slightly.
  
• Increased horizontal recoil for drum mags slightly.
  
• Increased horizontal recoil when in free aim / hipfire.

Fire Support

• Added a cooldown to the Support Helicopter’s minigun burst time.
  
• Removed player damage from Smoke Mortar and Smoke Artillery shells.

All Modes

• Extended Magazine with 5 extra rounds now costs 1 supply.
  
• Extended Magazine with 10 extra rounds now costs 2 supply.
  
• Extended Magazine with 20 extra rounds now costs 3 supply.

Checkpoint

• Reduced the chance of counter-attacks using lethal Fire Support to create more diversity in enemy Fire Support attacks.
  
• Added 2x Kobra sight for Security Coop classes.
  
• Removed 1x Holographic sight from all Insurgent Coop classes.

• Added vehicle death animations.
  
• Added idle animations for characters in third person.
  
• Added sidearm melee third person animations.
  
• Improved ragdoll impulse values for ballistic ammo to allow them to react to impacts from bullets more realistically.
  
• Improved the lighting of third person items and weapons.

• Updated Customize screen with new cameras and lighting.
  
• Display Competitive rank when hovering over Competitive in the Play menu.
  
• Competitive rank display will always be shown even when unranked and will default to “Unranked” until you have completed the required number of placement matches and earned a rank.
  
• Bots in Local Play’s Checkpoint are now named after their chosen class.

Summit

• Added missing actor merged mesh.
  
• Scatter rocks no longer fade out on lower settings.
  
• Reduced skylight intensity slightly.

Hideout

• Reworked exposure settings.
  
• Reduced bloom.
  
• Increased contrast.

Crossing

• Reduced skylight brightness.
  
• Potential fix for Security Checkpoint A bright spot.
  
• Added vehicle nav modifiers for Checkpoint.
  
• Adjusted vehicle spawn number for Checkpoint.
  
• Added more cover actors for bots for Checkpoint.

Hi everyone,

We are excited to announce that the second Pre-Order Beta of Insurgency: Sandstorm is now open!

You can jump into the Beta and play right now by pre-ordering the game on Steam at a 10% discount. Owners of the original Insurgency, which now boasts a player population of over five million, will receive an additional 10% loyalty discount, available through the end of the year. Note that the Loyalty Discount does not stack with other promotions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DheJOeInks
Pre-Order Beta 2, which is now live, features two new maps compared to the first Beta, for a total of four maps and four modes, including offline coop, from the final version of the game, character customization, dozens of weapons, and hundreds of loadout options (including explosives, armour, and ammo carriers).

Thanks to all the positive feedback Insurgency: Sandstorm received during the first Pre-order Beta earlier this month, the team will be using your feedback to continue to polish and optimize the game up until launch and beyond. We are now happy to let players experience the the intensity of modern combat in this Pre-order Beta phase.

Beta 2 is still a development build of the game and an on-going work in progress. We use betas as an important tool for gathering player feedback, studying system performance, and balancing the game. As such, it is important to stress that this is not a representation of the release version of Insurgency: Sandstorm.

As you can see in the Pre-Order Beta 2 changelog, the team has worked hard on this new version, but you may encounter, bugs, balance and/or performance issues. We encourage all participants to use the and forums to report any issues so that our team can continue working on them for the release.

Before playing, please check out:

• Quick Start Guide
  
• Official FAQ]
  
• Known Issues

Join us to celebrate the Beta 2 launch with a Dev Q&A and giveaway at 18h00 (CEST) on www.twitch.tv/focushomeinteractive



There are no NDAs or streaming restrictions on this test, and we're greatly looking forward to getting feedback from all across the gaming community as we work on the launch build. Pre-Order Beta 2 will stay open until the release of the game, September 18th.

Insurgency: Sandstorm releases on Windows PC in September 18, with Linux and Mac support coming later, and on PS4 and Xbox One in 2019.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/581320/Insurgency_Sandstorm/

Please find the Pre-Order Beta 2 Changelog below.

----------------------------------

• Large reduction in draw calls across all maps to improve framerate.
  
• Full LODs added to all cosmetic characters & gear.
  
• Full LODs added to all 3P weapon and equipment assets.
  
• Full LODs added to all props in the world.
  
• All maps actor-merged.
  
• Large particle optimization pass, set proper render bounds, LODs and tick rates on all particle effects.
  
• Nativize most Unreal blueprints allowing them to run faster.
  
• Improved bot spawning timings for Checkpoint.
  
• Bullet projectiles now trace against lower LOD collision meshes.
  
• Vastly reduced triangle counts on many larger environment rock prop sets.
  
• Gunship and Support Helicopter rounds now use a simple collision trace.
  
• Changed player spawning, to spawn one player per tick instead of two players per tick.
  
• Improved material instances for various cosmetics.
  
• Reworked the bullet hit validation.
  
• Increased performance for player movement in water.
  
• Ensured character cosmetics are not being spawned multiple times per cosmetic slot.
  
• Characters now use data-only blueprints.
  
• Items no longer tick by default.
  
• Reduced the amount of times cosmetics spawn and despawn.
  
• Made weapons only tick when equipped.
  
• Interactable gear now use timers instead of tick functions.
  
• Allowed only certain crew member characters to tick in helicopters.
  
• Utilized texture atlases for certain cosmetic items to reduce draw calls.
  
• Doors and Supply Crates only tick when they are in an opening or closing transition.
  
• Destroyed prop vehicles will now extinguish their flames after 40 seconds so the fire/smoke particle doesn’t stay forever.

• Doors can now be breached by being kicked down.
  
• Added visual feedback system for Commanders, Observers and teammates to indicate where Fire Support is being called in and what type of Fire Support it is. Colored smoke appears on the target area.
  
  • Security
    
    • Gunship - Green
      
    • Autocannon Strafe - Yellow
      
    • Explosive Artillery - Red
      
    • Smoke Artillery - Blue
      
    • Minigun Support - Purple
  • Insurgents
    
    • Rocket Barrage - Green
      
    • Bomber Drones - Yellow
      
    • Explosive Mortars - Red
      
    • Smoke Mortars - Blue
      
    • IED Drone - Purple
      
    • Chemical Mortars - Pink
• Servers will now kick players who have been idle for 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
  
• Tessellation has been added for improved terrain visuals. The quality/performance of this can be scaled by adjusting the effects quality in your video settings.
  
• New Local Play experience which allows you to play solo with AI teammates. This game mode is based on Checkpoint, but adds objective-based reinforcement wave gaining similar to as in Push.
  
• Lesson system including browsable menu texts which explain game mechanics and video hint pop ups when performing certain actions for the first time in-game. The full collection of Lessons will be added during Pre-order Beta 2.
  
• Add game options for the following:
  
  • Always show compass.
    
  • Enable and disable contextual key kints for use and vault.
    
  • Enable and disable in-game Lesson hint pop ups.

• New maps “Crossing” and “Summit”
  
• New Greased Bolt upgrade option for bolt action rifles under the new “Chamber” upgrade category.
  
• Added Hoodie Camo cosmetic and variations.
  
• Added Leather variations.
  
• New optic rail for AK’s.
  
• New water explosion particles for artillery shells.
  
• Proper third person meshes for C4, IEDs and detonators.
  
• New bus model and textures.
  
• New music for the Loadout menu.

• Player Movement
  
  • Reworked character equipment weights which impact top sprint speed and stamina.
    
  • Reduced top sprint speed for characters by 5% before weight and stamina based slowdowns are applied.
    
  • Removed sprint speed increase for players when they were in a suppressed state.
    
  • Slightly reduced standing movement speed.
    
  • Reduced standing move backward speed.
    
  • Decreased sliding speed.
    
  • Increased slow walk speed.
    
  • Increased slow crouch walk speed.
    
  • Slightly increased jump height.
    
  • Slightly increased vault radius.
• Characters
  
  • Increase the brightness of certain Security camo textures for gameplay balance.
    
  • Removed black and dark grey variations from Insurgents torso and leg items for gameplay balance.
• Weapons
  
  • Increased ADS speed.
    
  • Increased 5.56 and 5.45 top damage slightly.
    
  • Reduced effectiveness of hip fire by increasing free aim recoil and radius slightly.
    
  • Balanced FOVs for optics when using Focus to be more consistent between low and high quality scope options.
    
  • Increased G3 recoil slightly.
    
  • Decreased FAL recoil slightly.
    
  • Decreased AK-74 recoil slightly.
    
  • Decreased UZI recoil slightly.
    
  • Increased reload speed for the M249 slightly.
    
  • Decreased lateral recoil on the MP7 slightly.
    
  • Increased lateral recoil for the AKS-74U slightly.
    
  • Increased Mk 14 EBR’s supply cost to 5.
    
  • Increased supply cost of Extended Magazine for MP7 from 2 to 3 supply.
    
  • Adjusted Mosin and M24 penetration power to be more balanced.
    
  • Vehicle mines are now throwable.
• Gamemodes
  
  • All Modes
    
    • Removed Mk 14 EBR from Advisor class for gameplay balance.
      
    • Team kicks for team kills will now use the cooled down value instead of the total value when defining if a player has killed enough teammates to warrant a kick.
  • Skirmish
    
    • Increased match length by adding a second round, with a team swap beforehand as in Push.
  • Checkpoint
    
    • Added all available weapon upgrades to all Insurgent coop classes.
      
    • Ensured Security Coop classes get all Insurgent weapon upgrades.
      
    • Added Flashbang to all Insurgent coop classes.
      
    • Added M4A1 to Rifleman, Demolitions, Commander, and Observer
    • Insurgent Coop classes.
      
    • Added M870 to Breacher Insurgent Coop class.
      
    • Add M249 to Gunner Insurgent Coop class.
  • Versus Firefight
    
    • Match length is now 6 rounds, with a team swap after 3 rounds.
      
    • Reduced player count to 24 players.
      
    • Removed Commander, Observer, and Demolitions classes.
  • Competitive Firefight
    
    • Increased supply costs for various weapons and upgrades.
      
    • Added more primary weapons to the Assaulter class.
      
    • Added 1x and 2x optics for the Sharpshooter class.
      
    • Removed Mk 14 EBR and SVD from the Sharpshooter.
• Explosives
  
  • Tweaked explosive penetration.
    
  • Frag grenades now only penetrate weaker materials.
    
  • Fire Support will still penetrate most surface types, but deal reduced damage.
    
  • Increased time taken for Incendiary and Molotov grenades to detonate cache objectives.
• Fire Support
  
  • Gunship
    
    • Increased autocannon burst cooldown to 4 seconds instead of 2.
      
    • Decreased minimum and maximum burst times.
      
    • Increased flyover time to 15 seconds from 10 seconds.
  • Bomber Drones
    
    • Increased explosive radius slightly.
      
    • Improved positional audio.
  • IED Drone
    
    • Increased explosion radius.
  • AI
    
    • Bots who are directly exposed at mid range will crouch and fire at their target instead of rushing to cover.
      
    • Bots suppressed in cover will reload if there's a larger magazine and they haven't fired recently.
      
    • Bots should turn slightly faster.
      
    • Bots should react slightly faster.
      
    • Bots will fire in a much tighter cone before zeroing on target.
      
    • Increased target zeroing time by a few seconds.
      
    • Reduced accuracy of suppressed bots.
      
    • Encouraged bots to sprint to objectives if the round timer is low allowing bots to arrive faster during counter attacks.

• Animation
  
  • Updated animations and blending for character movement.
    
  • Reworked ragdoll physics to use correct weight and limb rotation limits, resulting in more natural looking ragdolls on death.
    
  • New animations for characters using bipods.
    
  • New animations for characters using binoculars.
• Weapons
  
  • New model and texture for the M9 pistol.
    
  • New smoke effect for rocket and grenade launcher barrels.
    
  • Improved textures for the M249.
    
  • Improved textures for the rail mounted pistol laser.
    
  • Added drum magazines to the following weapons
    
    • AKM
      
    • AK-74
      
    • AKS-74U
      
    • M16A2
      
    • M16A4
      
    • M4A1
      
    • Uzi
      
    • L85A2
  • Added grenade launcher sight for the M16A2’s M203.
    
  • Compensator and Flash Hider upgrades will only use a mesh if it’s meant for that weapon.
• Cosmetics
  
  • Updated cosmetic costs and rarities to be more based on the item rather than its colors.
    
  • Improved dirt layer on all cosmetic items.
    
  • Added gender switch button.
    
  • Added ability to save a preset of a character’s cosmetics.
    
  • Updated camo scaling to be more consistent across all cosmetic items.
    
  • Renamed DPM camo to Desert DPM.
    
  • Improved glasses under Insurgent Headgear.
• Gear
  
  • Made Gas Mask goggles less opaque.
• Audio
  
  • Improved audio experience in Loadout rooms for all maps.
    
  • Added muffled effect for players wearing a Gas Mask.
    
  • Sprint breathing and Focus breathing with and without Gas Masks are now character voice specific.
• Vehicles
  
  • Disabled leaning out of vehicles.
    
  • Disabled the use of all weapons in vehicles except pistols.
    
  • Melee can now be used in vehicles to break vehicle glass.

• User Experience
  
  • Taglines now populate correctly into the player’s profile.
• Characters
  
  • Characters seen at longer ranges through scopes should now tick at the correct rate.
    
  • Fixed an issue where a ragdoll’s skin tone would be set incorrectly.
    
  • Removed hit reactions from fire damage, preventing characters from bleeding when damaged by fire.
    
  • Fixed player’s camera from clipping into their head if they had the Loadout menu open when spawned.
    
  • Fixed finger posing on the Binoculars to prevent fingers clipping through gloves.
    
  • Fixed certain torso cosmetic assets that had clipping issues.
• Weapons
  
  • Fixed weapon audio breaking if previously killed by a headshot.
    
  • Fix an issue where the weapon overheat audio would not be terminated when exiting the Gunner seat.
    
  • Prevent cases where weapons get multiple Foregrip, Compensator or
  • Suppressor options.
    
  • Fixed Laser Sight not working correctly when equipping a grenade launcher.
    
  • Fixed AR Scope not showing correctly on the M16A2 world model.
    
  • Fixed Hunting Scope not showing correctly on the Mosin world model.
    
  • Fixed 2x Kobra Sight not showing correctly on the AK-74 world model.
    
  • Fixed Mk 18 CQBR secondary magazine showing during the up and down animations state when using a Foregrip.
    
  • Fixed some optics not being correctly aligned when in ADS.
    
  • Shells and secondary magazines on weapons should no longer show in the Loadout selection.
• Explosives
  
  • Updated Molotov and Incendiary grenades to they align properly to surfaces and leave the correct sized scorch marks.
• Voice Over
  
  • Fixed a bug where flying vehicle pilots would not play their “Leaving” lines.
    
  • Fixed a bug where objective destruction lines were not being played.
    
  • Fixed a bug where helicopter radio events continued playing after the helicopter had left or crashed.
    
  • Create a queuing system for both proximity and radio VO.
    
  • Melee VO lines will now only play if an enemy is in front of you.
    
  • Fixed suppression response VO for machine guns and snipers.
    
  • Fixed a bug where enemy bot VO was showing in the chat menu for dead or spectating players.
    
  • Fixed a bug where death VO would not be attached to the ragdoll of the dead player or bot correctly.
• AI
  
  • Removed grenade launcher bots.
    
  • Bot will no longer flee from grenades they can’t see.
    
  • Bots now have very short visibility inside smoke.
    
  • Various bot pathing fixes.

• Penetration is now represented as “PP” (Penetration Power) instead of “Joules” in the Loadout menu.
  
• Rearranged the upgrade category order in the Loadout menu.
  
• Movement and vehicle controls can now be bound to the same key.
  
• Weapon in the Loadout menu can now be rotated slightly.
  
• Added generic Extended Magazine description.
  
• Added weapon selection icons for the GP25 Explosive and GP25 Smoke.
  
• Compass can now be toggled on and off in spectator mode.

• Crossing
  
  • Actor merge pass.
    
  • HLOD pass.
• Farmhouse
  
  • Actor merge pass.
    
  • HLOD pass.
    
  • Made minor gameplay tweaks.
    
  • Tweaked Checkpoint scenarios.
    
  • Tweaked restricted zones for Push scenarios to add a bit more breathing room for defenders to set up a defensive perimeter.
    
  • Tweaked playable areas.
    
  • Adjusted spawn locations and spawn point angles in all scenarios.
    
  • Tweaked Checkpoint scenarios.
    
  • Tweaked interior lighting throughout the map.
    
  • Small adjustments for global lighting.
    
  • Fixed several issues across all scenarios.
    
  • Particle gameplay/optimizing pass.
    
  • Blocking volume pass.
    
  • Road fixes and polishing.
    
  • Made foliage placement tweaks to improve readability.
    
  • Visual polish interior and exterior.
    
  • Soundscape polish.
    
  • Loadout selection room polish pass.
    
  • Decal polish pass.
    
  • Fixed miscellaneous issues to improve both gameplay and visuals.
• Hideout
  
  • Reduced sun flare effect.
    
  • Actor merge pass.
    
  • HLOD pass.
    
  • Made minor gameplay tweaks.
    
  • Tweaked Checkpoint scenarios.
    
  • Tweaked restricted zones for Push scenarios to add a bit more breathing room for defenders to set up a defensive perimeter.
    
  • Tweaked playable areas.
    
  • Adjusted spawn locations and spawn point angles in all scenarios.
    
  • Tweaked interior lighting throughout the map.
    
  • Made small adjustments for global lighting.
    
  • Fixed several issues across all scenarios.
    
  • Particle gameplay/optimizing pass.
    
  • Blocking volume pass.
    
  • Road fixes and polishing.
    
  • Foliage placement tweaks to improve readability.
    
  • Visual polish interior and exterior.
    
  • Soundscape polish.
    
  • Loadout selection room polish pass.
    
  • Decal polish pass.
    
  • Blocking volume pass.
    
  • Fixed miscellaneous issues to improve both gameplay and visuals.
• Summit
  
  • Reduced sun flare effect.
    
  • Actor merge pass.
    
  • HLOD pass.
    
  • Decal polish pass.

Insurgency: Sandstorm is a reborn, improved, and expanded sequel to indie multiplayer FPS hit Insurgency, coming September 18 to PC and 2019 to consoles.

Thanks to all the positive feedback the game received during the first Pre-order Beta last month. The team will be using your feedback to continue to polish and optimize the game up until launch and beyond.

We are now happy to announce Pre-order Beta Test 2 beginning next week. Meanwhile, experience the intensity of modern combat and check out the positive reception from journalists and players during the previous Pre-order Beta with the Gamescom Trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWzGzNpM66w
From August 30 through September 18, players who have pre-ordered Insurgency: Sandstorm on Steam will receive exclusive access to Pre-order Beta 2. The team will be focusing their work during Beta 2 on bug fixing and server stability.

The studio will also start working on the extensive post-launch support plan with new content coming after the release of the game. As Pre-order Beta 2 will have no NDA and no streaming restrictions, those curious are invited to watch live gameplay on Twitch, YouTube, Mixer, and Facebook throughout up until the release of the game.



Eager players can pre-order on Steam now for a 10% discount, reducing the price to €26.99 / £23.39 / $26.99. An additional 10% loyalty discount will be given to fans that own the original Insurgency, bringing the pre-order price down to just $24.99. This additional discount will be offered until the end of 2018, and all pre-orders will receive instant access to any ongoing beta tests as well as future ones. Note that the Loyalty Discount does not stack with other promotions.

Insurgency: Sandstorm releases on Windows PC in September 18, with Linux and Mac support coming later, and on PS4 and Xbox One in 2019. Pre-order now on Steam to get bonuses, including exclusive access to the Pre-order Beta.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/581320/Insurgency_Sandstorm/

We'd like to thank everyone who took part in Pre-order Beta 1, this was a great opportunity to let our community loose on a development build of the game and gather crucial feedback.

If you took part during Pre-order Beta 1 last weekend and have a few minutes to help us improve the game we would appreciate you filling out the following Beta Feedback Survey!

Our team have been constantly going through the hundreds of threads on the Steam forums, Focus forums, as well as YouTube videos, Livestreams and social media comments and are hard at work focusing on improving optimization, server stability, and addressing common issues.

To help us gather the community's opinions into a more central place and collect further more quantifiable information we have created a short survey.

Every bit of feedback we get helps us create a better experience for our fans.

We look forward to seeing you all in Pre-order Beta 2 starting August 30th!

New World Interactive

Thank you all for joining us for this first phase of Beta testing so far. We greatly appreciate all the valuable feedback, and are hard at work polishing the game. From this point forward, our focus is finalization - including optimization, visual polish and important experience improvements based on feedback.

One thing worth noting about the optimization of the game, is that currently we are not fully utilizing Level of Detail to simplify our environments and characters. This is because of a few issues we’ve run into, which Epic is helping us with. When we’ve addressed these issues and fully implemented LODs, there should be a noticeable performance boost for everyone. Players can expect this as well as other optimizations to be included as we get closer to release.

In the meantime, we are releasing a small hotfix to address a few things which should improve your experience. Notes below.

Optimization

• Characters who are no longer in the players view do not update their animation and bone positions.
  
• HLOD distance is now affected by the users “Effects Quality” setting in the video menu. Lower settings should provide increased performance at the cost of some minor visual fidelity.
  
• Lighting will apply to player cosmetics as a group instead of individually.

Gameplay

• Improvements to hit validation to reduce cases of bad hit detection.

Fixes

• Fixed a crash on Linux servers caused by character animation snapshot.
  
• Fixed an issue with shotgun pellet simulation on some pellets.
  
• Fixed an issue where cosmetic credits earned during a game were not updated correctly within the character customisation menu when first opening it.
  
• The Game will not return to the main menu with “Connection has been lost” if Steam disconnects.

Updated Content

• Improvements to the moving lean animation.

User Interface

• Added submit feedback button to the main menu to allow easy access to the forums.

We are excited to announce that Insurgency: Sandstorm will release on PC on September 18th, 2018.

You can jump into Pre-order Beta 1 and play three maps and four modes from the final release right now by pre-ordering the game on Steam at a 10% discount for £23.39 / $26.99 / €26.99. Owners of the original Insurgency, which now boasts a player population of over five million, will receive an additional 10% loyalty discount, available through the end of the year. Note that the Loyalty Discount does not stack with other promotions.

Pre-order Beta 1, which is now live, features three maps from the final version of the game, every game mode, dozens of weapons, and hundreds of loadout options (including explosives, armour, and ammo carriers).

Combined with fully implemented vehicles and support fire, Insurgency: Sandstorm provides the most intense experience of contemporary war ever. Catch a glimpse of the action in the Raw PVP Gameplay video released last week then get playing on Steam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CljMKeczS98
There are no NDAs or streaming restrictions on this test, and we're greatly looking forward to getting feedback from all across the gaming community as we work on the launch build. Pre-order Beta 1 is due to finish on August 13th, so please enjoy the game this long weekend.

A second Pre-order Beta will run from August 30 up until release on September 18, with access to the full suite of six maps from the launch version of the game. Insurgency: Sandstorm is due out on consoles in 2019, please look forward to more information about it closer to release.

Insurgency: Sandstorm launches on PC on September 18th.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/581320/Insurgency_Sandstorm/