Hey everyone, my name is Michael Tsarouhas. I am the lead game designer on Insurgency: Sandstorm. Today’s Community Update is about our new free content roadmap for 2019, which you can see above. While we have other things we hope to accomplish as well during this time frame, we wanted to take some time to share some of the highlights which we are confident we can deliver. We’ll go into detail section by section below. First though, it’s important to note that the order in which this content will come is still TBD. Some stuff will come a little at a time across multiple updates (new weapons and cosmetics) and others later on pending how well they do in playtesting (Frontline and Outpost game modes). It’s possible that some content may need to get pushed back, but we want you to know that these are our goals, and regardless of when these things come we can assure you that all of it is confirmed and in the pipeline. Furthermore, it is free to all players who own the game on PC.

Please bear in mind also that this is only our current plan for PC content for 2019, not Xbox One or PS4. However, we can say we intend to put at least some of this content on consoles as well. Whether or not we can put content such as a level editor, specific game modes, and modding tools on consoles is as of now uncertain, but other content such as weapons and maps are more likely. It’s all something we are going to seriously look into, but we aren’t comfortable committing to at this time. Remember also that this is all just 2019 too. There will be more free content coming in 2020. So without further ado, let’s get into the nitty gritty.


Modding is in our blood. As many of you know, Insurgency originally started as a mod for Half-Life 2 that was released back in 2007. Modding was a huge part of the standalone Insurgency released in 2014 as well, its Steam Workshop now sitting at over 18,000 mods. This includes everything from unique weapon model replacements to custom maps to UI overhauls to character skins and more. We couldn’t be happier with the way the community took control of the game and made their own out of it, and we believe this is the right mindset to have as a developer when it comes to making video games. Why wouldn’t we want to empower you to create just like we were empowered by Half-Life 2 to create the original Insurgency mod?

That same treatment is coming to Insurgency: Sandstorm as well. This includes but is not limited to community created levels, game modes, rulesets, gameplay modifications, factions, weapons, and weapon upgrades. We want to provide plenty of support to for players to make their own content, and honestly, we want to play that content ourselves. The scope and timing of this kind of mod support is still to be determined, but we are committed to those seven things above, as well as the ability to share mods on either the Steam Workshop or a similar service.


A lot of players have said we should be doing more as far as our level environments go. They’ve said they wanted to see more diverse maps that aren’t just rural desert towns. We took that feedback seriously. First we created Outskirts, a map that takes place in a construction site, shantytown, and compound in greener pastures. Then we created Ministry, a map that takes place almost entirely indoors. And for the next map, we’re gonna turn things up. Or down, if you consider the temperature (sorry had to do it.)




Those of you who are perceptive may have noticed that this snow level is actually a remake of Sinjar from both the original mod and Insurgency 2014. You can see the perspective from the Security’s spawn, and that brutal hill that so many security team members have lost their lives on. We’re bringing it all back, but this time with improvements, and also with snow. Characters will breathe cold puffs of air as they run and fight, and they’ll leave snowprints which can be tracked by other players. This Sinjar remake will have a new name to fit the new setting, and it will be our next official map. We have another map slated for later this year which will also be changing things up, but more on that at a later date.






We’ve also heard your feedback on night time maps. A lot of players have expressed the desire to play all the maps we already have (and any upcoming maps) at night. We’ll be doing a night time version of every map we have, with custom lighting as well as special night time equipment. This includes flashlights, night vision goggles, and infrared laser sights. Enemy AI in Co-op will also see adjustments to their various behaviors. If you thought our combat was intense before, wait until the night comes. The low visibility and new equipment mean players need to move more cautiously, equip the right gear, and approach the entire level differently than they would have if the sun were up. Places that were good cover in the day are suddenly more exposed at night, and places that were exposed suddenly become good cover.


We get tons of weapon requests of all kinds of weapons. While we can’t meet every one, we certainly have a lot of exciting options to choose from. Survey data indicated that over 60% of players wanted to see new modern weapons. We can confirm that among other guns we’re currently working on a Tavor 7, an Israeli 7.62x51mm bullpup, for Security, as well as an AS Val, a special caliber integrally suppressed rifle, for Insurgents. These two in particular aren’t going to be added together and will come in separate updates, so we’ll leave it up to your imagination to guess each one’s counterpart for the opposite faction.

Our second post-release community survey was really enlightening as far as weapon upgrades and attachments go. When we asked about new features, 59% of you said you were most excited by optics which can be toggled between multiple levels of magnification. The runner up was a distant 21% for full body awareness where you can see your legs and lower body from the 1P perspective. We can confirm 2019 will see toggleable optics, and many of the optics already in game will be converted to be toggleable. This includes putting down the magnifier for your 2x Kobra when you need to use it in 1x form, or using the back up iron sights on top of your 4x SU230. We’ll be cooking up some entirely new toggleable optics as well.

When asked what kind of upgrades you’d like to see most, 42% said new optics, followed by 22% for new underbarrel attachments. All three of the other options, Barrel, Magazine, and Siderail, were tied at roughly 12%. As said above we’ll be adding new toggleable optics, and in addition to that, normal single magnification optics. This includes optics for pistols, for those of you who want to get all high speed with your Secondary.

We’re also doing various different foregrip types which will affect weapon handling in more ways than just recoil reduction. We’re considering foregrips that allow you to draw your Primary faster (much like the Quick Draw Holster for your Secondary), reduce sway, reduce time to Aim Down Sights, reduce free-aim radius so your weapon stays closer to the center of the screen while not aiming down sights, or even allow you to use Focus with Shift while you are still moving and aiming down sights. All these ideas are pending testing, but the goal is to give players options beyond just making recoil more manageable. We want options that play into some of the unique mechanics of our game, and for players to make meaningful choices as they manage their Supply Points. And hey, if a foregrip isn’t your thing, how about a mini-shotgun? Cause that will be there too. In addition to new Underbarrel attachments, we have some new Magazine upgrades planned: mag pulls for faster reloading and custom magazines that will increase reloading even faster if you’re willing to spend the Supply. For Siderail, we’ll be doing new flashlights and an IR laser sight to coincide with night maps.


This is a pretty exciting one, and it’s going to come sooner than many of the other things on our roadmap. The response to update 1.2’s new Hardcore Checkpoint game mode has been awesome. We got a lot of good feedback, made some tweaks, and feel like it’s in a great place. We noticed players appreciated above all else the overall change in pace to combat. The slower movement really does turn your normal tactical doctrine on its head, and forces you to play very differently. And despite such a radical change, not only did the game still feel like Insurgency, but it also enhanced some aspects of Insurgency. A lot of people asked if we would ever do a Hardcore version of PvP game modes, and that’s just what we’re gonna do.

“Hardcore” will become a predefined ruleset which can be applied to any game mode. It will be available for any community servers who want to enable it. What that exact ruleset will look like is still being worked out, since we don’t necessarily know if respawning with a bolt-action in a mode like Skirmish will go over well. However, we’re considering a few options, and above all else you can expect the movement to be close to if not identical to the current movement speed in Hardcore Checkpoint. And yes, you will be able to play Hardcore Frenzy. Expect to need to change up your tactics for that one.

As a bit of an experiment, we’re going to include a Hardcore playlist in the Play menu, similar to how we do with the Arcade and Team Deathmatch. This will allow players to play Hardcore through normal matchmaking. First we want to first try Hardcore Push, and depending on how that is received, will tweak the ruleset as needed and potentially try other modes as well.


We polled about game modes in our first survey a while back, and saw there was a lot of interest in these two modes. The top three were a tug-of-war style PvP mode based on Frontline from our previous game Day of Infamy (23.2%), a single life PvP VIP escort mode based on Ambush from Insurgency 2014 (22.7%), and a horde inspired mode with multiple defense points based on Outpost also from Insurgency 2014 (17%). Realistically for 2019 though, we could only commit to two, and it made sense to balance things between one Co-op and one PvP. Outpost will be a great change up for our Co-op, as it puts players on the defensive rather than the offensive that they’re used to in Checkpoint. It will also be playable with both Frenzy and the Hardcore ruleset.

In order to better make the decision on which PvP mode to do for 2019, we did yet another survey where among the things mentioned in the other sections of this post, we asked players point blank if they wanted Frontline or Ambush more. Results were close, with 48.23% voting for Ambush and 51.77% voting for Frontline. With this kind of decision, we understand some players will be disappointed, and we know that Ambush definitely has an important following. However we need to be realistic with how we set our goals and plan our post-release content. Frontline is, after all, also quite similar to Push, which is our most popular PvP mode in both Insurgency 2014 and Insurgency: Sandstorm. It makes sense to try to build something for that majority of players to enjoy. Ambush would also require more production for things such as custom character artwork for the VIP that really sticks out from our eclectic and highly customizable faction characters. All that being said, we are still committed to Ambush, but it won’t be coming until next year. So for you Ambush fans and other voters out there, please bear with us, and know that other great free content is planned for 2020 as well.


Another thing we polled about in our second survey was cosmetic items, and which categories you wanted to see more items for the most. For the Security team, 28.82% of players wanted to see Headgear, followed by a close second of 28.69% for Torso items. Following that was new Camouflage at a dead even 22%. We have all three of these things in store for 2019. Security players can look forward to new soft shell jackets which can be customized with a camouflage pattern, with half-camo, or without a pattern entirely if you want to opt instead for one of the flat uncamouflaged green or tan color variations available for the Security. We’ll also be doing headphones and headsets both alone and combined with some existing Headgear, in a similar fashion to how we do the High Cut helmet types. This is a cosmetic request that we saw popping up constantly on Reddit, the forums, and social media, and we can understand why. As far as customization goes, and what the survey data supports, the head is one of the most prominent and recognizable parts of our characters and one of the best ways to express character in general. Also, it looks damn cool with the new Security Facewear we added in update 1.2.

For Insurgents, Facewear took the lead at 35.75% of votes, with 32.72% for Torso items following it. The rest of the item categories were spread out among the other options, all of which were less than 8%. We’ll be prioritizing new Headgear and Torso items for Insurgents, and have already got some slick leather jackets, athletic snow jackets (perfect for skiing the slopes of the Sinjar remake), and more in the works. For Facewear, well let’s just say that while the Insurgents might not dress to fight in the most practical way or even have the best taste, they certainly know how to look menacing.




Everything you see above is currently planned for 2019 for free across multiple updates. We have other stuff planned too this year, but haven’t felt ready to commit to those things yet. While it is possible some stuff might get pushed back if it needs more time in the oven, and some other things may also be added outside this scope, these are our goals we wanted to share with you all. We are committing all our development resources to reaching them. Ambush mode and other free content like this will be coming in 2020. If you have any other suggestions for new content, feedback on recent changes, or bug reports to share with us, please let us know on the forums, Reddit, social media, or wherever. We want to hear it, and we want to integrate it into our planning. Thanks very much for reading everyone, and stay tuned here and on our social media for more community updates.

We are releasing a patch today that addresses your feedback and fixes various issues on the Community Test Environment. If you haven't tried it yet, download the CTE right now and preview all the new content coming in update 1.3. It's in your Steam Library as "Insurgency: Sandstorm Community Test Environment".

• Added Coop playlist for new Ministry map. Go to the Play menu and click “Ministry Coop” to play. This playlist includes:
  
  • Ministry Checkpoint Security
    
  • Ministry Checkpoint Insurgents
    
  • Ministry Hardcore Checkpoint Security
    
  • Ministry Hardcore Checkpoint Insurgents
    
  • Ministry Frenzy Checkpoint
• Added Ministry Checkpoint and Ministry Hardcore Checkpoint to Local Play.
  
• New Ingame Settings
  
  • Added a View Distance Quality setting to the settings menu under Video.
    
  • Added Hierarchical LOD Transition Method option to the Advanced video options menu. This will allow LODs to switch to higher quality when aiming down sights with a magnified optic when set to “Field Of View” potentially at the cost of some performance. This can be disabled by changing this setting to “Fixed Distance”.

• Nvidia Geforce Experience can now be used again to optimize Insurgency: Sandstorm. This fix was implemented and deployed by Nvidia on Friday the 7th of June.
  
• Improved performance in garage of Ministry by optimizing breakable pillars.
  Reduced server logging.

• Fixed an issue causing vehicles and their turrets to jitter strongly while moving.
  
• Added a potential fix for hit detection issues.
  
• Added a potential fix for an issue where weapons could continue playing looping audio after the player or bot was killed.
  
• Fixed a number of issues with low quality scopes.
  
• Fixed an issue where the low quality scope stencil could occasionally be applied to non-scoped weapons.
  
• Improved prone deployed crawling when transitioning to prone and also moving.
  
• Fixed an issue where magazine upgrades such as Extended Magazines and Drums were not being applied correctly in-game.
  
• Fixed an issue where the breakable pillars on Ministry were not factoring in radial damage from explosives such as C-4.
  
• Fixed an issue where footsteps were not reliably being generated correctly on inclined surfaces such as terrain and stairs.
  
• Fixed an issue preventing first time players progressing to the end of the tutorial.
  
• Fixed an issue where “Community Server Name” would show in the Scoreboard during official matchmaking.
  
• Fixed an issue where Security faction Eye Color was not being applied properly to Character heads.
  
• Fixed clipping issues with Insurgent Hands Cloth Fingerless gloves item.
  
• Fixed crouch leaning direction issue with iron sights.
  
• Fixed infinite reload bug in Hardcore Checkpoint.
  
• Fixed being able to deploy bipods on weapons and rag dolls.
  
• Fixed backpacks not hiding in vehicles.
  
• Fixed visual bugs related to the VHS-2 and QBZ-03 for third person and first person.
  
• Fixed floating elements on the VHS-2 and QBZ-03 in the Loadout menu.
  
• Fixed ready animations for the QBZ-03.
  
• Fixed various Security cosmetic issues:
  
  • Fixed Patrol headgear and Combat Glasses eyewear clipping with each other.
    
  • Fixed clipping with Balaclava Open and Balaclava Closed headgear.
    
  • Fixed Covered hair option clipping with Headband headgear.
    
  • Fixed the Boonie Hat camo orientation to be horizontal.

• Weapons
  
  • Reduced LMGs standing and crouching recoil by 10%.
    
  • Reduced L106A1 and L85A2 supply cost by 1.
    
  • Removed Laser Sight weapon upgrades from Versus Marksman and Competitive Sharpshooter classes. This was felt to be a CQB attachment that was inappropriate for the class’s role in being a long range shooter, especially given the new anti-materiel rifles. This attachment remains available in Coop modes.
    
  • Doubled Gunship and Support Helicopter body health. This will not affect rotor health or other areas of the helicopters.
    
  • The VHS-2 can now scavenge M4/M16 style magazines.
    
  • Added VHS-2 and QBZ-03 to Team Deathmatch and the Range.
    
  • Added the 1x MRO optic to Team Deathmatch.

• Explosive Drones now spawn above the target on which they were called in and fly down, preventing them from getting caught on buildings as they path towards their designated target.

• Hardcore Checkpoint
  
  • Added more Primary ammo for players who respawn.
    
  • Increased speed of the 1P Hardcore sprinting animations by 20% to make it look more natural. This does not affect player speed, just the speed at which the animation loops.
• Frenzy Checkpoint
  
  • Enemies will now throw explosives if a player is out of reach to attack in melee.
    
  • Added ability for AI to drop down ledges and vault over obstructions when their target is unreachable. This will also affect other game modes.
    
  • Light Armor and Heavy Armor will now protect against melee damage. This will also affect other game modes.
    
  • Increased frequency of special enemies, which includes the Flamer (the on fire one), Jumper (the teleporting one), and Bruiser (the big one with the tasteful shirt) enemies.
    
  • Slowed down Bruisers slightly.
    
  • Rebalanced normal enemy and special enemy counts during counter-attacks.
    
  • Added loading screen game mode description.
    
  • Counter-attacks now only include Smoke Mortars and Chemical Mortars.
    
  • Fixed an issue with Jumper where they would not move to attack players who were too far away.
    
  • Tweaked Bruiser health points. Bruisers now take more damage in their exposed flesh, such as arms and legs. They will still take damage in their torso armor and helmet, but it will be reduced damage. These areas will also spark to indicate the reduced damage.
    
  • Bruisers will no longer freeze on top of grenades. Previously, they were trying to pick them up to throw back, but were so tall they couldn’t reach the ground. We thought this was hilarious so we wanted to make sure you knew too.
    
  • Fixed Flamers not always appearing on fire.
    
  • Fixed Jumpers not always glowing.

• Outskirts
  
  • Improved a pillar collision box on Firefight West Objective B area so that throwables can be reliably thrown around a corner and not impact with an invisible wall.
    
  • Blocked west window in final weapon cache room on Push Insurgents to prevent destruction by rocket.
    
  • Removed lower northwest room from capture zone on Objective C on Push Insurgents.
    
  • Doors are now closed on ambulance at Objective A on Push Insurgents.
    
  • Doubled up a shipping container at Push Security Objective A to mitigate Insurgents camping outside the southwest corner of the objective in the building. There is no line of sight from here to the northeast entrance to the objective any longer.
    
  • Moved Insurgent Objective D supply crate from bad location on Push Security.
    
  • Fixed a missing Restricted Area for Insurgent spawn on Push Security Objective C.
    
  • Smoothed out player movement in various areas.
    
  • Fixed floating Supply Crate on Push Security Objective D spawn.
    
  • Fixed not able to capture Objective D while aiming in a specific direction on Security Checkpoint.
    
  • Fixed Insurgent A spawn partially not restricted on Push Insurgents.
    
  • Various other fixes.
• Ministry
  
  • Various visual detailing improvements and performance optimizations.
    
  • Gave the plants in the lobby area a nice trim to make it more difficult for players to hide inside them on Firefight Objective B.
    
  • Added additional lights in the lobby area to eliminate some dark corners.
    
  • Fixed various spots throughout the map where players could get stuck.
• Crossing
  
  • Improved AI navigation.
    
  • Fixed an issue where the player could get stuck inside a barrel near Objective C on Push Security.
    
  • Fixed a small window blocking grenades at Objective C on Firefight West.
• Summit
  
  • Reduced playable area for Firefight East to funnel players more towards the objectives.
    
  • Fixed an issue where players could get outside the level at the far end of the market area.
• Refinery
  
  • Made several gameplay adjustments across the whole map to improve readability and make it more clear where players are shot from.
    
  • Unmerged numerous merged actors to take more advantage of automated instancing to improve performance.
    
  • Created HLOD clusters to improve performance.

• Nvidia has disabled the SLI profile for Insurgency: Sandstorm temporarily until they further investigate an issue with Unreal Engine 4.22.
  
• Game audio randomly cutting out. If you are experiencing this issue, please help our team by providing feedback in this thread.
  
• Bullets sometimes not impacting with players. We have submitted a fix which should resolve any issues with this, however if this still occurs please let us know on the forums.
  
• Beta tattoos not showing properly in the Appearance menu.
  
• Weapons may occasionally continue looping audio for some players after an AI or player has been killed. We have submitted a potential fix for this, however if this still occurs please let us know in this thread.
  
• Class presets, keybindings and cosmetics may not be saving correctly on exit for some players.
  
• Community XP gain enabled servers are not showing XP/Stats/Unlocks in the end round screen despite submitting the stats correctly as intended.

Hey everyone, my name is Michael Tsarouhas. I am the lead game designer on Insurgency: Sandstorm. Today’s Community Update is about our upcoming new map Ministry, which you can play right now in the Community Test Environment along with a new game mode, new weapons, new weapon optics, and more. Some of you might recognize this level as a classic from Insurgency 2014. Ministry was one of the most popular and iconic official Insurgency maps. It was (and still is today) the most played map for both Skirmish and Firefight modes, and the second most played map for co-op in Checkpoint mode. It was a favorite of our competitive Firefight players as well, always featured in tournaments and league play. Ministry stood out from other maps with its indoor room-clearing style gameplay, symmetric layout, and stylish visuals. It was a no-brainer that we had to recreate it for Insurgency: Sandstorm.



Below you can see my interview with some of the developers on our level design and level art teams. First we have our lead level designer Jeroen van Werkhoven, who in addition to designing levels himself oversees all things level related. A native Dutch resident soon to be in our new Calgary studio, Jeroen is the original creator of the classic Sinjar map from the Half-Life 2 Insurgency: Modern Infantry Combat mod as well as Insurgency 2014 standalone, so he’s been with us for a while. Next we have Vuk Banovic, our lead environment artist, who both manages and creates much of the art you see in game around our levels. Vuk has worked on a number of titles including the Farming Simulator franchise, The Solus Project, and Alone in the Dark, and we’ve been lucky to have him on our team for four and a half years now. Finally we have Maja Miskovic, who has churned out tons of beautiful props and art both big and small for all of Insurgency: Sandstorm’s levels. With a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, Maja went through no struggle picking up all the technical ability required for game art creation, but also never lacked the artistic skill her work needed. Native Serbians and yet another testament to the international quality of our team, Vuk and Maja work tirelessly together along with the rest of the team to beautify Sandstorm’s maps. They love level art almost as much as they love each other.

Summarize Ministry for us in five words.

Jeroen: Fast, intense close quarters combat

Vuk: Amazing, amazing, amazing and amazing

Maja: Unique, great-looking and fun



Take us through the history of Ministry and how you arrived at the decision to recreate it in Insurgency: Sandstorm.

Jeroen: Ministry’s original layout came to life in late development of Insurgency 2014 standalone. It was a collaboration between many different developers, including one of our long time level designers Jonny Hickenbottom. Near the end of Insurgency 2014’s post-release development, Jonny did a visual overhaul of the map which now serves as a base for this upcoming remake in Unreal Engine 4. Jonny also created the blockout for the remake, which is basically a simple layout and framework that comes at the beginning of designing a level.


An early blockout image of Ministry’s lobby area in Insurgency: Sandstorm.

The map went through several iterations throughout its life to improve gameplay and visuals. When I joined NWI in 2014 it was actually one of my first tasks to make Ministry more visually appealing and do several gameplay adjustments. I remember this like it was yesterday because it put quite some pressure on me. The map was already very popular at that time, and I had just joined the team, but it didn't take long until I figured out that the map needed a background story. I added subtle destruction with minimal gameplay impact to emphasize that the Ministry was a high-level target for Insurgents since it is a government building. I also made the building’s architecture more grand and impressive to look at from the spawn zones by making it much taller. It needed the wow factor!



How faithful is the map layout to the original?

Jeroen: Ministry is very faithful to the original layout. With the endless possibilities of Unreal Engine 4, it's essential not to overdo it. We didn't want to expand the map for Sandstorm and make it much larger than the original. Ministry was always about the close quarters indoor fighting and fast action. The fast action is definitely one of the key ingredients of the map. Adding another accessible floor or adjusting the exterior can quickly impact the gameplay of the map, which we tried to prevent as much as we could. For us, it's vital that every player new and old can enjoy this map in its purest form. Not to reinvent the wheel, but to replace the rims instead with shiny new ones!

What challenges did you encounter recreating Ministry?

Jeroen: The biggest challenge was the scale. We use set dimensions for our modular assets, so we couldn't freely scale every wall, ceiling, floor etc. like we could in the Source engine with Insurgency 2014. We had to stick to our modular footprint and at the same time not make it too tiny or too large to not deviate too much from the run-up times on the original Ministry layout. We wanted to preserve the fast, intense, CQB action gameplay. Jonny Hickenbottom came up with the idea to export the original Ministry as a model and import it in Unreal. It took a bit of fiddling around at first, but once we found the scale, we were satisfied with it. It was more or less like solving a puzzle, making sure all modular pieces fit in the right spots.

Vuk: Since the majority of the map is indoors, the map was not too technically demanding. However, because of the same reason, it was very challenging to create believable looking indoor spaces with a high amount of detail without affecting gameplay negatively and without making it look too repetitive, cliche, or heavy for the eyes. So, artistically and visually, there was a lot of trial and error until I found a good global picture and found what works.

Maja: This was actually my first time professionally working on a visual pass, set dressing and world building. The first few days were really a challenge for me as I felt scared and excited at the same time, and I really didn’t want to screw up. Each decision I made, I questioned it, but with every day I felt more and more comfortable, and with each day I enjoyed it more and more. At the end I realized there’s nothing more fun than this. I have to thank Vuk and Jeroen for being such a great mentors and for all their patience and valuable feedback I got from them.



In terms of gameplay, what sets Ministry apart from other maps in Sandstorm?

Jeroen: Definitely the indoor gameplay and fast action. It's not a map that you can take a breath and plan your next move. Around every corner there could be an enemy, yes I warned you! Also, the high level of breakable props adds to the fun factor of this map. But more about that later.

In terms of visuals, what sets Ministry apart from other maps in Sandstorm?

Vuk: Ministry is a more modern looking map with overall much less wear and tear than our other maps. It has a particular mood that is in one way cozy and beautiful, but at the same time very official as you would expect from a government building. These qualities give it a special touch that can give you scary goosebumps. You have intense combat in a confined building that through its dignified construction asks that you respect it and its space. It also has some very distinctive landmarks. We built a lot of unique props specifically for this map only.

Maja: Ministry is visually very unique and recognizable in terms of environment art. Environment plays a big role on this map not just in a visual way, but also in a way that sets the general atmosphere and the feelings when you walk through it.



Ministry’s indoor focused layout is a big change from normal Insurgency: Sandstorm maps. How do you work to create good looking believable spaces that also offer good gameplay?

Maja: I wanted for every room and corner, basically every inch of the map, to have a purpose. Instead of focusing on looks only, I wanted each area to be practical and tell a story, while always keeping gameplay in mind since gameplay always comes first. Whenever I add or remove anything, I double check from all angles to see if it’s good and fun for gameplay.

What are each of your favorite parts of Ministry and why?

Jeroen: For me, it's the spawn areas! It's the first impression of the map, the first thing the player sees. We spent a lot of time on these areas. The Security side starts in a bit of a cleaner area, and the Insurgents in a bit more of a chaotic one which we achieved by adding certain aspects like a crashed car against a planter.

Vuk: I’d say the garage area as it’s a great example of a place that is very visually busy, but still clean flowing in terms of gameplay.

Maja: I really think that all the areas are amazing, but for me the lobby area simply makes my heart start pumping and takes my breath away.



Very important question: Will there be fire alarm sprinklers?

Jeroen: Oh yes! We added a lot of destructible elements to this map, who doesn't want to destroy things. So many things!

Vuk: Oh yeah, there will also be some new interactive props which have never been seen before in Insurgency.

Maja: Yes and it’s going to be a lot of fun.



What are some other games that inspire each of your work?

Jeroen: I play a lot of different games. Most recently I replayed the campaign of Titanfall 2 and also played a bit of the Resident Evil 2 remake. But I enjoy some old school Mario games too. Now you know why we have so many pipes in our levels.

Vuk: I literally take screenshots as references from all the games I play, as pretty much all the games I play inspire me. Most recently I played the Resident Evil 2 remake, World War 3, Battlefield V and many other very cool games.

Maja: Red Dead Redemption 2 is the most recent game I played. The visuals really impressed me.

One last question for Jeroen: how do you sleep at night knowing that somewhere out there, somewhere, there is an Insurgency server playing Sinjar Push with a Security team getting slaughtered on the hill as they try and fail to capture Alpha?

Jeroen: Thinking about that makes me all warm and happy inside! Except when I have to capture that hill myself. I mean come on, who designed that?

Will this slaughter continue when the Sinjar remake is added to Insurgency: Sandstorm?

Jeroen: I'm afraid so, and you better dress warm! That hill is not gonna capture itself.

Dress warm? What’s that supposed to mean?

Jeroen: ...



A big thanks to Jeroen, Vuk, and Maja for their hard work on Ministry and taking the time to participate in this interview, and another big thanks to everyone on the level design and level art teams. We also want to thank another team member of ours Matthias Schmidt, one of our German environment artists who contributed hugely to Ministry’s gorgeous interiors by creating all the wall, ceiling, and floor materials you can see shining so nicely in the screenshots above. His and the rest of the team’s work really helped make Ministry stand out from the rest of Insurgency: Sandstorm’s maps, both in terms of visuals and gameplay.

Remember you can play Ministry right now on our Community Test Environment, where you can also check out our new game mode, new weapons, new optics, and more. Ministry will be coming out later this month as a part of our version 1.3 game update. It will feature Firefight, Skirmish, Team Deathmatch, Checkpoint, Hardcore Checkpoint, and Frenzy Checkpoint game modes. We hope you enjoyed this Community Update, and be sure to keep your eyes open for more.

Hey everyone,

Today we’re launching a preview of our upcoming 1.3 update on our Community Test Environment. We invite you to try new map, game mode, weapons, weapon optics, community server XP gain, and more. Just go to your Steam Library and download the “Insurgency: Sandstorm Community Test Environment.”

The update includes a remastered version of one of our most popular maps from the original Insurgency, ‘Ministry’. Set mostly indoors, Ministry features more tight, CQB-focused combat than any of our other maps. Ministry will be availible for Firefight, Skirmish, Team Deathmatch, Checkpoint, and Hardcore Checkpoint game modes. Right now only Versus game modes are available, but Coop game modes will be added later.





We’ve also included a brand new Arcade game mode ‘Frenzy Checkpoint,’ which we revealed in detail earlier this Spring. Teams will have to try to battle waves of faster, more aggressive AI that are armed only with melee weapons. However, we’ve thrown in some twists, with special enemies with unique abilities like the athletic Jumper, the hulking Bruiser and the explosive Flamer.

https://youtu.be/H0A5Tzf--cU

Players should also expect some new hardware to play with. The VHS-2 (for Security) and the QBZ-03 (for Insurgents) assault rifles will be available for the Rifleman, Demolitions, Commander and Observer classes. We also added new optics including the 1x Micro Red Dot for Security and the 1x MARS for the Insurgents.



Finally, we’ve implemented a method for community servers to award experience. Details are available in our Community XP Server Admin Guide.

To play, go to your Steam Library and download "Insurgency: Sandstorm Community Test Environment. Please remember that this is an early preview build, sp expect some issues. If you do notice and problems or have general feedback about the new content, we encourage you to post in the CTE subsections of the official forums or the Steam forums.

• Refinery has been removed from the matchmaking pool, due to an issue with the NavMesh for bot movement. We ask that community servers owners avoid running any coop scenarios on this map until the issue is resolved.
  
• Tutorial bug: First-time players who have never completed the tutorial before will not be unable to progress fully through the tutorial due to some recent changes. The tutorial can still be played in its entirety on the live version.
  
• Beta tattoos not showing properly in the Appearance menu.
  
• Game audio randomly cutting out. If you are experiencing this issue, please help our team by providing feedback in this thread: https://steamcommunity.com/app/581320/discussions/0/1651045226222586970/
  
• SLI setups making level geometry strobe, disappear, and appear dark in general. This issue has been reported to Nvidia and they are working on a fix. In the meantime they will be disabling the SLI profile for Insurgency Sandstorm until this is resolved, we will update you when this occurs. As a temporary workaround we suggest players running the game in SLI temporarily disable SLI for Insurgency Sandstorm themselves.
  
• AI weapons may occasionally continue looping audio for some players after the AI has been killed.
  
• Class presets not be saving correctly on exit for some players.
  
• Various clipping issues with cosmetics overlapping each other.
  
• Turrets may jitter when the vehicle is moving.
  
• Binoculars may appear to be floating in front of the character in third person.
  
• Cosmetic items main slots will not apply directly on being clicked until you back out then return
  
• Equipment unlock item popups might use the incorrect background portrait.
  
• Uniform Camo may not show correctly in the Appearance menu, Loadout menu or ingame.
  
• Optic meshes may appear flattened when viewed with the weapon in the up state.
  
• New weapons have some visual bugs, mostly WIP textures, sockets etc.
  
• Post Match screen is displayed /NONE where the scenario name + gamemode are supposed to be shown. Frenzy, Ministry and Outskirts HC only

The following issues are fixed in the live build of Insurgency: Sandstorm but are still present in the CTE

• Equipment camo may not show correctly on ragdolls
  
• Eyewear may not show the full colour correctly
  
• Cosmetic items main slots will not apply directly on being clicked until you back out then return
  
• Equipment unlock item popups might use the incorrect background portrait.
  
• Uniform Camo may not show correctly in the Appearance menu, Loadout menu or ingame.
  
• Optic meshes may appear flattened when viewed with the weapon in the up state.

Hi everyone, today we released a third hotfix to address some issues that have been reported since the version 1.2 update. 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.

Critical Fixes

• Improved client-side forgiveness thresholds for hit detection.
  
• Fixed an issue where pressing the Randomize button in the Appearance menu would not save your random roll on exiting.
  
• Fixed a main menu crash caused by the Message of the Day if there was no response from the web server.
  
• Fixed an issue on Outskirts Hardcore Checkpoint where Ammo Boxes were not spawning.
  
• Fixed an issue where sprinting with a grenade launcher in Hardcore Checkpoint would result in the player’s arm appearing broken in first person.
  
• Fixed an issue where helicopters sometimes rapidly lose altitude if flying over low terrain outside of the map.
  
• Fixed an issue where picking up a single shot weapon from an AI enemy would result in a continuous reload.
  
• Fixed an issue where main slots in the Appearance menu were not applying the chosen cosmetic correctly when clicked on.

Gameplay

• Players who respawn in Hardcore Checkpoint will now have the following:
  
  • An unupgraded Mosin if they are Insurgents or an unupgraded M24 if they are Security, both with two clips worth of ammunition.
    
  • Their Secondary they selected in their Loadout, but with only two magazines of ammunition.
• Increased the penetration power of M82A1 CQ and M99 anti-materiel rifle rounds.
  
• Fixed a potential exploit in Precinct where players were able to access the top of a utility pole.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed Uniform Camo not showing correctly in the Appearance menu, Loadout menu or ingame.
  
• Fixed Equipment camos not showing correctly on ragdolls.
  
• Fixed Eyewear cosmetic item colors not showing correctly.
  
• Fixed the “flattening” of certain optics when a player is Aiming Down Sights and also has their weapon obstructed.
  
• Fixed an issue where the max player value in the server browser would be defaulted to zero for some players.
  
• Fixed an issue where Equipment unlock item popups were using the incorrect background portrait.

We are aware of the following issues and are still working on fixes for them. They will be addressed in upcoming hotfixes:

• Beta tattoos not showing properly in the Appearance menu.
  
• Game audio randomly cutting out. If you are experiencing this issue, please help our team by providing feedback in this thread.
  
• SLI setups making level geometry strobe, disappear, and appear dark in general. This issue has been reported to Nvidia and they are working on a fix. In the meantime they will be disabling the SLI profile for Insurgency Sandstorm until this is resolved, we will update you when this occurs. As a temporary workaround we suggest players running the game in SLI temporarily disable SLI for Insurgency Sandstorm themselves.
  
• AI weapons may occasionally continue looping audio for some players after the AI has been killed.
  
• Class presets not be saving correctly on exit for some players.
  
• Various clipping issues with cosmetics overlapping each other.
  
• Turrets may jitter when the vehicle is moving.
  
• Binoculars may appear to be floating in front of the character in third person.

Hi everyone, today we released a second hotfix to address some issues that have been reported since the version 1.2 update. 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.

• Fixed an issue where players could become stuck after spawning.
  
• Fixed an issue with hit detection where bullet delta times were not as accurate as they should have been.
  
• Fixed an issue where the first person cloth gloves were rendering inside scopes.
  
• Fixed a loading screen crash.

• Fixed a server-side hitch / lag spike that was occurring when a lot of bot spawning would occur simultaneously in Hardcore Checkpoint.

• Players who join a Hardcore Checkpoint round in progress will now get their Loadout when they first spawn in. If they die and then try to rejoin the match to get their Loadout back, the match will remember that they were there before, and they will instead spawn with the Mosin and Makarov.
  
• Increased the number of Ammo Boxes that spawn on objectives in Hardcore Checkpoint from between 2 to 5 up to between 4 and 6.
  
• Removed the initial fire delay from the M99 and M82A1 CQ anti-materiel rifles and limited their fire rate.
  
• The Black variation of the Insurgent Hands “Cloth” item is now a “vanity” variation to have parity with other Black item variations. This means the variation is marked with a yellow marker, and its cost is slightly higher than its item’s rarity tier. This was an oversight on our part, we intended for this vanity cost to be in with the 1.2 update, so we apologize for any expectations set for the item to be as cheap as it was.

• Fixed an issue with the Explosive Drone being too large and handling poorly.
  
• Fixed an issue where soundscape emitters were playing multiple versions of their assigned audio. This caused two versions of the same audio playing at the same time, flanging, and increased volume.
  
• Fixed an issue where Laser Sights and Foregrips were given too often to AI enemies in Coop. They will now only be given 50% of the time.
  
• Fixed an issue where tattoos were enabled by default in first-person.
  
• Fixed an issue with the M99 and M82A1 CQ Caliber measurements not showing as being large enough in the Loadout menu.
  
• Fixed an issue with Coop servers showing the incorrect maximum number of players in the server browser if that value was greater than 8 players.
  
• Fixed an issue with the incorrect Team Deathmatch image being shown in the Arcade section of the Play menu.
  
• Fixed an issue with button icons on longer Lessons and hints being cut off.
  
• Fixed an issue with Supply Crates not resetting correctly after a round restart.

We are aware of the following issues and are still working on fixes for them. They will be addressed in upcoming hotfixes:

• Beta tattoos not showing properly in the Appearance menu.
  
• Game audio randomly cutting out, if you are experiencing this issue please help our
  
• team by providing feedback in this thread: https://steamcommunity.com/app/581320/discussions/0/1651045226222586970/
  
• SLI set ups making level geometry strobe, disappear, and appear dark in general.
  
• Single loaded weapons picked up from AI enemies not reloading properly.
  
• AI weapon audio looping.
  
• Class presets not saving correctly on exit.
  
• Sprinting with grenade launchers in Hardcore Checkpoint causes the arm to look deformed in a “wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man” style.
  
• Various clipping issues with cosmetics.
  
• Randomize button in appearance menu not saving cosmetics correctly.
  
• Glasses and goggles not showing the correct color in the appearance and loadout menus.
  
• Helicopters sometimes lose altitude rapidly if flying over very low terrain outside of the map.

Today we released a small hotfix patch to help correct a problem that affected a subset of users who were experiencing issues with Steam Authentication. This issue should now be fixed in the latest version.

Our team is also aware of, and is working on several other issues associated with Friday’s version 1.2.0 update, and will be rolling out more hotfixes throughout the week.

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.

Today we announce the release of update version 1.2 for Insurgency: Sandstorm. This includes many changes from last weeks CTE, including a new map, new game mode, two new weapons, plus numerous bug fixes, changes, and optimizations. You can read some of the key highlights below or view the full changelog on our website.

• New map “Outskirts” playable in Firefight, Push, Checkpoint, Team Deathmatch, and Hardcore Checkpoint.

• New official Coop game mode Hardcore Checkpoint
  • Movement speed is significantly reduced. Enemies are harder. Friendly teammate indicators only show when a teammate is nearby. Objective indicators are hidden in the HUD.
  • If you die, you will respawn with a Mosin bolt-action rifle and Makarov pistol. You must resupply at a Supply Crate to get your Loadout.
  • There are only two Supply Crates. One will spawn on a random objective, the other will always spawn on the final objective. You can only resupply once on a Supply Crate. Small Ammo Boxes will give some ammunition for the weapons you are carrying.

• New Weapons
  • M82A1 CQ anti-materiel sniper rifle for Security Marksman class.
  • M99 anti-materiel sniper rifle for Insurgent Marksman class.
  • M2HB .50 Cal mounted machine gun for Security vehicles.

• New Cosmetics
  • Balaclava and neck gaiter Facewear cosmetics for Security faction.
  • New skull pattern for Insurgent balaclavas.
  • M90F camouflage for Security.
  • Cloth gloves for Insurgents.

• Class Loadouts can now be customized on the main menu through the Customize button.
• Enabled voting to kick players on official matchmaking servers.
• Overhauled community server browser to support favorites, showing empty and full servers, passworded servers, minimum and maximum player filtering, filter reset, search box and better sorting options.
• Bots will now randomly select all of their loadouts, including weapon attachments.
• Updates to the helicopter damage models:
  • The top and tail rotor can be destroyed with anti-materiel rifles.
  • Pilots, co-pilots and door gunners can be killed via normal weaponry or an anti-materiel rifle if behind a windscreen or metal plating.
• Ammo Carrier vests and backpacks can now be customized with different colors and camouflages. See the “Equipment” slot in Appearance under the Customize menu.
• Dust kickup particles now play when weapons are fired while prone on appropriate surfaces.
• Added support for storing key bindings and various other settings that are system-agnostic in the Steam Cloud.
• Local Play is now accessible if you’re offline and unable to sign into New World services.
• Appearance menu improvements:
  • Different Ammo Carrier and Armor Loadout options can now be previewed on your character.
  • Your character can now be rotated.
• Upgrade to Unreal Engine 4.22:
  • Upgrading to the latest version of Unreal Engine was a large task, however it was a necessary part of optimizing the console versions, and will enable greater performance and development possibilities in the future for all versions of Insurgency: Sandstorm including PC.

• Implemented skeletal mesh merging to reduce CPU overhead of character animation.
• Implemented UE4 4.22 animation budget allocator to reduce CPU overhead of character animation.
• Disabled tessellation by default due to a higher than intended GPU cost, it may still be manually enabled.
• Optimized particle overdraw by implementing particle cutout textures.
• Fixed certain UI elements incorrectly performing tick logic after being closed.
• Optimized update frequency of world soundscape actors.
• Optimized logic, physics, and animation performance impact of helicopter air support.
• Reduced concurrent particle impact effect limits.

• Character movement interpolation improvements; characters will no longer jitter when moving in third person close to the camera.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql3hFFjSBHk

• Fixed broken terrain shadows on low settings.
• Facial hair improvements on low quality settings.
• Holographic sights reticle has been improved for better target acquisition and clarity.
• Tweaked reticle brightness values for the 1x Red Dot, 1.5x PK-AS and 1x OKP-7 sights.
• Weapons with extended magazines and belts will now display correctly in the Loadout menu.
• New special animations for performing an Ammo Check while deployed.
• New first person deployed crawl animations.
• New third person prone deployed reload animations for MGs.
• Adjusted first person sprint animation speeds to better match footstep sounds.
• Reduced the playrate of first person rifle sprint animations to improve their look.
• Improve the synchronization between first and third person leaning animation.
• Improved melee and knife animations.
• Cosmetic visual improvements:
  • Updated Very Dark skin tone to be more visually different than the Dark skin tone.
  • Updated long sleeve button down dirt mix.
  • Update on roughness of most gloves.
• User Interface
  • Reduced size profile of team score element on spectator UI.
  • Improved the alignment of the create party icon.
• Added a black variant of the 4x SU230 which shows on darker weapons.

You can view the full changelog on our official website: http://newworldinteractive.com/insurgency-sandstorm-version-1-2-patch-notes/

Hi everyone,

Today we are launching a preview of our upcoming version 1.2 patch. This includes; two new weapons (the M99 and M82A1 anti-materiel rifles), a new map ‘Outskirts’, a new gamemode ‘Hardcore Checkpoint’, equipment customisation, new cosmetic options, an improved server browser, support for offline play, and numerous bug fixes including character interpolation.

This content is now playable on the Community Test Environment. However, please remember this is a preview build, so some issues are expected (see ‘Known Issues’). If you encounter any problems or have feedback for the development team, please respond in the CTE sub-section of the official game forums or Steam forums.

Our team will be monitoring feedback during the CTE and aim to push this update to players on the live version of Insurgency: Sandstorm soon.

You can find some of the key new features and known issues below.

• New map “Outskirts” playable in Firefight, Push, Checkpoint, and Hardcore Checkpoint
  
• New official Coop game mode Hardcore Checkpoint.
  
  • Movement speed is significantly reduced. Enemies are harder. Friendly teammate indicators only show when a teammate is nearby. Objective indicators are hidden in the HUD.
    
  • If you die, you will respawn with a Mosin bolt-action rifle and Makarov pistol. You must resupply at a Supply Crate to get your Loadout.
    
  • There are only two Supply Crates. One will spawn on a random objective, the other will always spawn on the final objective. You can only resupply once on a Supply Crate. Small Ammo Boxes will give some ammunition for the weapons you are carrying.
• M82A1 CQ anti-materiel sniper rifle for Security Marksman class
  
• M99 anti-materiel sniper rifle for Insurgent Marksman class
  
• Loadout selection is now editable from the main menu
  
• Balaclava and neck gaiter Facewear cosmetics for Security faction
  
• New skull pattern for Insurgent balaclavas
  
• M90F camouflage for Security
  
• Equipment customization
  
  • Ammo carrier vests and backpacks can be customized with different colors and camouflages.
• Ammo Carriers and Armor preview buttons in the Appearance menu
  
• Character rotation in the Appearance menu
  
• Overhaul of community server browser including:
  
  • Favorites
    
  • Showing empty and full servers
    
  • Passworded Servers
    
  • Minimum and maximum player filtering
    
  • Filter reset
    
  • Search box
    
  • Better sorting options
• Vote kick allowed on official matchmaking servers
  
• Offline local play without New World services
  
• Steam cloud support
  
• Skeletal mesh merging which reduces CPU overhead for characters
  
• Dust kickup particles now play when weapons are fired while prone on appropriate surfaces
  
• Upgrade to Unreal Engine 4.22.
  
  • Upgrading to the latest version of Unreal Engine was a large task, however it was a necessary part of optimizing the console versions, and will enable greater performance and development possibilities in the future for all versions of Insurgency: Sandstorm.

• Character movement interpolation improvements; characters will no longer jitter when moving in third person close to the camera.
  
• Fixed broken terrain shadows on low settings.
  
• Facial hair improvements on low quality settings.
  
• Weapons with extended magazines and belts will now display correctly in the kit select menu.
  
• New special animations for performing an ammo check while deployed.
  
• New first-person deployed crawl animations.
  
• Adjusted first-person sprint animation speeds to better match footstep sounds.
  
• Reduced the playrate of first person rifle sprint animations to improve their look
  
• Improve the synchronization between first and third-person leaning animation.

• Full re-write of Explosive Drone and helicopter pathing.
  
• MOTD announcements with images and link support.
  
• Added icons to the main menu which inform the user if they are connected to both NWI services and Steam or not.
  
• Altered the text for the 'leave competitive' game dialog to clearly indicate you will receive a leaver penalty for leaving early.
  
• If the player has no regions selected when attempting to matchmake, the select region dialogue is now displayed instead of just attempting to matchmake with no region.

• Doors should no longer desync for those joining a server before the server has completed loading a map.
  
• Fixed a visual issue causing character models to appear to sink into the ground.
  
• Fixed issues with weapon scope stencils clipping the weapon in both bipod and up positions.
  
• Various improvements to soundscape portals ensuring transitions from indoor to outdoor are reliable.
  
• A ton of other reported bugs and issues.

• [Audio] Some players are reporting audio cutting out / looping.
  
• [Scopes] Some players are reporting missing reticule/crosshair.
  
• [Bug] Blue box over scopes – Should be fixed! Please report this issue if you experience it.
  
• [Audio] A10 Audio cutting out – should be fixed.
  
• [Cosmetics] Some known morph issues on the new character cosmetics.
  
• [History] Has been disabled for CTE, due to known issues.
  
• [Fire Support] Calling in helicopters may cause slowdown on some systems.
  
• [Settings] Steam Cloud doesn’t synch “GAME” Settings.
  
• [Map] Outskirts is Work In Progress (WIP) so expect some polish over the course of the CTE and beyond.
  
• [Scope] Low-Quality Scope material is broken when spawning with M99 and 7xM99 scope after the round started.
  
• [Visual] GasMask has known visual issues
  
• [Visual] Restricted Areas sometimes look strange on the map, but they should still work as intended.
  
• [Settings] Rebinding certain keys may lead to actions becoming doubled / ignored.
  
• [Stability] Some users may experience a crash when exiting the game.

• Fixed a crash caused by Wwise when exiting the game.

• Fixed issue where the local profile would be saved before the key binding changes had been applied resulting in key bind changes not being applied properly.
  
• Fixed an issue where restricted areas could show as visually incorrect on the tactical map.
  
• Fixed an issue where Explosive Drones were not able to enter windows correctly.
  
• Fixed an issue where pressing escape on the Customize screen would not return you to the previous menu.
  
• Fixed an issue where Match Preferences text size would be incorrect if only one game mode was selected.

Hey everyone, my name is Michael Tsarouhas, I am the lead game designer on Insurgency: Sandstorm. In today’s post we want to talk a little about our upcoming new official cooperative mode Hardcore Checkpoint. We’ll go over our motivation behind creating the mode, the pillars that govern its design, and how we turned traditional Sandstorm gameplay on its head and created something that plays unlike any of our other game modes. We’d also like to take this opportunity to say that you can check out all the content coming in our next update including Hardcore Checkpoint in our Community Testing Environment May 20th. Just go to your Steam Library and look for “Insurgency: Sandstorm Community Test Environment,” which you should own as long as you own Insurgency: Sandstorm.

The idea for Hardcore Checkpoint actually came from our community rather than any sort of flash of inspiration we had ourselves. Just a couple months following Sandstorm’s release in December, we saw that a lot of players were already modding co-op on community servers. They increased enemy counts, turned up the AI difficulty, and made other tweaks. While these modifications might sound simple, they went a long way in making things way more intense. YouTubers like Karmakut, OperatorDrewski, Bluedrake42, and others took this to another level, turning off the HUD and playing with as few as just two players. The result was more a much more difficult, tense, and tactical play that you can’t always get from normal Checkpoint mode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr9E1Bi3PrI

These community servers and videos demonstrated to our team that there was a clear interest in gameplay geared toward our hardcore audience. People who aren’t afraid of a challenge and getting struck down by our AI. One of the unique things about Insurgency’s design is that it sits in the middle between the fast paced military FPS games like Call of Duty or Battlefield and the slow paced ones like Arma, Squad, or Escape from Tarkov. Because of this, when it comes to designing new game modes that actually change gameplay fundamentals, we can lean one way or the other. In February we released Team Deathmatch, an FPS classic obviously geared towards players who prefer fast-paced arcade-oriented gameplay. But now, with Hardcore Checkpoint, we’re leaning in the other direction.



Hardcore Checkpoint is founded on the ideas of scarcity and adaptation. Until now, all our game modes have been fairly consistent in terms of equipment. When you die, you respawn with all your gear as if nothing happened. In Hardcore Checkpoint however, this isn’t the case. If you die in this mode, when you respawn you’ll come back with only an unupgraded Mosin rifle, a Makarov pistol, and a smoke grenade. You can get your Class Loadout back by resupplying at a Supply Crate as you normally would, but there are only three crates in the map, and you can only resupply once at each crate. You get one crate at the beginning to start you out with your goodies, one that spawns at a random objective, and one at the very end for the final counter-attack. That’s it. This means players need to be much more careful, and when they die and respawn, they need to manage their ammo and make do with what they find. They can gather weapons and ammo off the ground or search for randomly spawning Ammo Boxes which will give a few magazines for the weapons they’re carrying.

New enemy AI behaviors have been added. Bots in Hardcore Checkpoint are fewer, but they are more trained, sneaky, tactical, and human. They’ll fire more accurately, wait to ambush you, use better weapons and weapon upgrades, hunch down in cover when suppressed, and retreat and regroup when overrun. Also, they dress cooler.



Movement speeds have been significantly reduced. Sprinting across a road without cover to flank an enemy is going to take longer, and isn’t always the smartest decision. Normal standing movement is now more of a tactical glide. When we first started playtesting, this felt pretty weird. We felt like slugs and we felt restricted in our abilities. But as we played, we realized this was exactly what we needed to feel, and was important to what the mode is trying to accomplish. The slower speed makes players even more vulnerable than they are in normal play, and thus raises the tension. It gives off some strong Rogue Spear or old school Ghost Recon vibes where every movement and action feels much more deliberate, and there are more opportunities for what game designer Brian Upton calls “anticipatory play”. In Hardcore Checkpoint, you’re not a rocksteady gunman or unstoppable competitive sprinter; you’re a soft squishy human trying to keep your gun up and on target as you pitter patter forward and hope a suicide bomber isn’t waiting around the corner. Running around everywhere will carry a much greater risk of getting shot, on top of the already great risk of losing that sexy Mk 17 Mod 0 with suppressor, optic, laser sight, and extended magazines for a dumpy old bolt-action rifle from WWII.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCCmJcieaog
(Video example movement comparison between Normal and Hardcore Checkpoint, using a loadout with 73% total weight)

Each of the eight classes is limited to just one player per class. Official matches are still set at eight players, however we found that player counts of six or even lower were also a lot of fun and congruent with the slower pace. With one player to a class, everyone has a specific role to fill and must take advantage of their unique capabilities to help the team. The Gunner and Marksman both need to be in position and set up in those windows as soon as a counter-attack starts. The Demolitions needs to be diligently putting grenade launcher rounds and other explosives into any dangerous looking rooms or buildings. The Observer needs to be with the Commander at all times in case fire support is needed, since there is never another Observer to fall back on. Friendly teammate indicators are hidden at a distance, so target identification and communication are paramount.



Hardcore Checkpoint is a brutal mode. There will be sudden death, there will be friendly fire, there will be stupid Observers, and there will be a time when you get very angry at us for not making the Mosin cycle its bolt faster. But when a team does their jobs right, communicates effectively, keeps the tempo slow, and gets into their groove, Hardcore Checkpoint is fun as hell. It’s been exciting for us to experiment with the traditional Checkpoint co-op that we and our community know so well and to create a totally new experience out of it. It stands as an example of how we (and modders) can take the Insurgency: Sandstorm platform and push the design in totally different directions. We look forward to having you all play it, and please let us know what you think in the comments, on the forums, social media, Reddit, etc. Hardcore Checkpoint will be coming out in our next update, and is playable as both Security and Insurgents on all our maps including our upcoming new map Outskirts. Remember you can also check out Hardcore Checkpoint and all the other content coming in the next update in our Community Testing Environment starting next week. Go to your Steam Library and look for “Insurgency: Sandstorm Community Test Environment,” which you should own as long as you own Insurgency: Sandstorm. We hope you enjoyed this community update. Be sure to stay tuned for more.