• Reduced AS Val’s Vertical Recoil to 23
  
• Reduced AS Val’s Horizontal Recoil to 10

• Fixed an issue where classes that were previously unlocked were showing as locked
  
• Fixed an issue where the XP enabled icon wasn’t showing in the Community Server Browser
  
• Fixed an issue where the QBZ-97 and QTS-11 were not available in Checkpoint, Hardcore Checkpoint, and Outpost game modes for some players if mods were installed
  
• Fixed an issue where the QBZ-97 Explosive Launcher was shooting projectiles at an extreme speed without being affected by gravity
  
• Fixed an issue where an improper weapon skin was appearing on the AKM when equipping both the Red Dark weapon skin and the Extended Magazine or Drum Magazine upgrade
  
• Fixed an issue where the reticle on the 3x YMA-95-1 Scope for the QBZ-97 was unlit
  
• Fixed an issue where a match draw was not being triggered in Push mode when the score was 1-1

To see the current known issues list, please see the bottom of the full 1.9.1 Changelist here.

Check out the full changelist and see what’s new in update 1.9.1.

There are two new medium caliber assault rifles available for Rifleman, Demolitions, Commander, and Observer classes: the QBZ-97 for Insurgents at 3 supply points, and the QTS-11 for Security at 4 supply points.







The QBZ-97 is an effective bullpup 5.56 caliber option for the Insurgent team at an affordable cost, putting rounds out a little faster than an AKM. The QTS-11 is an advanced special operations rifle with an integrated bolt-action grenade launcher, and fires flatter than an AUG A3 with its lower recoil and slower fire rate.

With 1.9.1, we’ve decided to remove Competitive official ranked matchmaking from the Play menu. We understand that this change could be upsetting to our competitive players, but we feel this is what’s best for the game going forward. Competitive matchmaking suffered from extremely low player participation, with players often struggling to even find a match. This is especially a problem for us because it means new players who decide to try a competitive experience on boot up will essentially be stuck, confused, and annoyed. We need to ensure any new player in our community gets quick and easy access to much stronger experiences like those found in Versus, Co-op, or community servers. We want every gameplay experience in Sandstorm to meet a certain standard, and Competitive was not up to that standard.

For more information, please see our January community blog post here.

For the next two weeks our regular limited time playlist will be a modified version of Competitive Firefight. Modifications include normal Versus Firefight classes and normal supply costs for weapons and equipment. Other rules seen previously in Competitive Firefight like faster objective capture, shorter rounds, and 5 v 5 players are still the same.

We will be revamping the Stats section of the main menu to streamline the way we collect game statistics. New end of round screens have been implemented, and backend logic has been revamped to ensure XP and cosmetic rewards are correctly earned. As a part of this effort, the Weapons section will need to be removed in this update and reimplemented in a future update. Your game stats will still continue to be collected, however the UI to display the information will be missing temporarily. When we reimplement the Weapons and Achievements sections, all stats you have earned since before and after this update will still be seen. These sub menus just need to disappear for a little while as we rework our system, with no actual loss of data. We apologize for any inconvenience or disruption this may cause.

Here are the list of changes:

• Replays are now found in Stats > History instead of Replays in the Main Menu
  
• Improved end of round screen by adding match history and statistics at the end of every round

• Added night equipment to the Firing Range

• Updated the Main Menu to improve the presentation of the 1.9 update
  
• Improved the Result Screen when the round or match ends

• Fixed lighting issues on the map to remove shadows appearing and disappearing unexpectedly

• Fixed an issue where a wall and door was missing

• Fixed two areas players were unintentionally able to reach

• Fixed an issue where walls were not appearing near Objective A on Push Insurgents
  
• Fixed an exploitable area REDACTED near REDACTED

• Fixed an issue where players who attempted to vault at a specific location on Objective C would become stuck in or enter underneath the floor

• Fixed an issue where the fire and explosion effects of destroyed vehicles were not appearing

• Fixed an issue with certain networking hardware that caused a crash when connecting to official matchmaking related to getting local IP addresses on Windows
  
• Fixed an issue where the mod download status would start to count in reverse after reaching 2 GB
  
• Fixed an issue where ammo carriers models were missing ammo pouches
  
• Fixed an issue where vest color variation was not being saved when loading or saving a preset in the Customization Menu
  
• Fixed an issue where old mod versions were not being deleted when new versions were installed
  
• Fixed a clipping issue where the 4x optics were clipping into the first-person camera on the G36K
  
• Fixed a visual issue with the player’s hands when approaching the standing turret on Bab Push Security at Objective A and vehicle-mounted turrets
  
• Fixed an issue where spectators were unable to see through the scope when a player toggles an optic
  
• Fixed an issue where the cosmetic presets were unavailable after the end of a round
  
• Fixed an issue on the M1 Garand equipped with an Explosive or Smoke Launcher where the animation to unequip the shell would not play when swapping weapons
  
• Fixed an issue where the fire rate would not increase when the Greased Bolt upgrade was equipped with the Mosin-Nagant
  
• Fixed an issue where the bullets can be seen floating during reload when the player is near a wall with the Mosin-Nagant equipped
  
• Fixed an issue where the smoke overlay was not appearing all the time while in smoke
  
• Fixed an issue where the Ordering Fire Support hint showed the keybind for Aim Binoculars as Unbound
  
• Fixed an issue where the tactical map on Hideout does not align with the compass
  
• Changed the respawn message on the UI in Checkpoint mode to “You will respawn when the next objective is secured” to clearly indicate that respawning will occur after the objective is secured after any counterattacks
  
• Fixed a UI issue where the Night Vision Goggles point shooting was not displaying as active
  
• Fixed an issue where the Crouch and Stand stances could be temporarily reversed
  
• Fixed an issue where the communication wheel would be missing text when swapping from a Commander or Observer class
  
• Fixed a sizing issue of weapon icons in the Loadout menu
  
• Fixed an issue where selecting a loadout preset would not make it the active loadout
  
• Fixed an issue on night maps where the Loadout menu would show duplicated grey slots
  
• Fixed an issue where the incorrect customization item would be incorrectly displayed on the Customization Menu

• There may be an issue where DLC weapon skins and character cosmetics (particularly Urban Digital) are locked and do not appear in the Inventory, Appearance, or Loadout Menu
  
• There is an issue where the floor may be missing in the Loadout menu when playing as Insurgents on Power Plant
  
• There may be an issue where players get stuck in the floor after vaulting
  
• There may be an issue where certain magazines may be missing in-game and in the Loadout menu. It could potentially be fixed by verifying the integrity of game files via Steam
  
• There may be instances where Insurgent AI and players occasionally appear as the default Security model
  
• There is an issue where the Contender achievement is still showing in the Achievements menu
  
• There is sometimes an issue when returning to the Main Menu after leaving a game where the screen may remain black and the frame rate drops before the Main Menu loads
  
• There is an issue where the Cycle Optic and Lean Right bindings use the same button on the controller configuration
  
• There may be an issue with collision boxes on players which could obstruct jumping
  
• There are issues with overlapping UI elements in Spectator mode
  
• There is an issue with scopes appearing elongated when aiming down sights on weapons equipped with toggleable optics
  
• There is an issue where the Recoil Grip is missing when the G36K is equipped
  
• There is a sizing issue of the Compensator when the AK-74 is equipped
  
• There may be an issue where unselecting a Loadout preset is not possible
  
• There is an issue where the 1.5x-1x A1 Scope on the AUG A3 has a black inner vignette when using focus zoom
  
• There may be an issue where the M99 equipped with the Whiteout skin only allows one magazine to be carried
  
• There is a visual issue causing blurring when aiming and using Focus on weapons equipped with the 6x-3x T Scope
  
• There may be an issue when a person dies inside a vehicle where they may see two ragdolls
  
• There may be an issue where magazines will not always drop from pistols when doing a speed reload
  
• There is an issue where Nvidia Highlights are not being triggered in the event when a player driving a vehicle is shot at by RPGs
  
• There may be an issue where an equipped Smoke or Explosive Launcher upgrade appears in the Main Loadout menu instead of within the Primary Weapon
  
• When the player attempts to swap an equipped bolt-action weapon with another bolt-action weapon, there is a chance that reloading will not work
  
• Mosin-Nagant Stripper Clip weapon upgrade does not push in properly when reloading in third person
  
• There are improper collisions with the concrete blocks in the parkade of Ministry
  
• The Wet Feet achievement may be unobtainable after completing Basic Training under Tutorials
  
• There is an issue where the Contender achievement is still showing in the Achievements menu
  
• AI-driven vehicles can get stuck in the Range level under Tutorials

Hello Gamers™,

We did it, we announced the next thing!

If you missed the stream on Tuesday we announced our next (minor) release, 1.9.1.

This update will be focused on celebrating Lunar New Year and will be releasing next week, on February 2nd.

1.9.1 will include two new weapons, new Character Cosmetic DLC, new Weapon Skin DLC, bug fixes, and some map improvements.

Normally we only have one minor release between major releases (i.e. 1.8.1 between Operation: Breakaway and Operation: Cold Blood), but this time there will also be a second minor release (1.9.2) coming before 1.10. We will have more details on that release in the coming months.

To reiterate: This is not replacing a major update nor is it the normal minor release that comes between ‘Operations’ - this is a standalone update to celebrate Lunar New Year.

The two new weapons coming next week are the QBZ-97 (for Insurgent Rifleman, Demolitions, Commander, and Observer) and the QTS-11 (for Security Rifleman, Demolitions, Commander, and Observer.



The QBZ-97 is a bullpup assault rifle with an optional upgrade for a unique 3x optic. It's the export version of the QBZ-95; the standard service rifle for the People’s Liberation Army since 1995. It offers single-fire and fully automatic firing modes. Cost hovers around $700USD.



The QTS-11 is an assault rifle with integrated grenade launcher and has been in service of Chinese military since 2015. The weapon has very low recoil and functions as a step up from the AUG A3, but has a slower fire rate at 550 rpm. It uses the 5.8x42mm ammunition along with a 20mm grenade. It also costs $78,000USD. Definitely not priced for Insurgents.

With 1.9.1 There will also be a new set of Character Cosmetic DLC and Weapon Skin DLC for each faction.

EDIT: After the publication of this blog the team at NWI decided not to release the 1.9.1 cosmetics. Thank you for your feedback.

---

Another change coming with 1.9.1 will be the removal of the Competitive playlist as an official playlist.

This was not a decision made lightly, but after a lot of discussion we feel it’s best for the health and identity of the game. Competitive didn’t really end up feeling like a complete experience and felt a bit forced. To be honest it didn’t really feel like Insurgency.

Competitive mode suffered from a low population problem and could be a very bad first time player experience - clicking on a mode and queueing for 10-15 minutes isn’t something that will help grow our community.

Since release, Co-op and Versus have been what the majority of the community responded positively to and were the more successful modes. There will likely be detractors stating that had we put more resources into the mode it may have been more successful - the team decided that it made more sense to put those resources into the modes that were already flourishing and helping them continue to grow. New maps, guns, modes, and weapon upgrades are a better use of our resources at this time.

People who still want to play competitive will have the option on community servers, and one thing we are looking into is converting the existing competitive mode into a limited time playlist that we can bring back from time to time.

I know this is short notice, but like I said, it was not a decision made lightly and it was being discussed up until very recently. It didn’t feel like something that should just be announced in a social post, so I felt it was necessary to announce it on a stream ‘in person’ before presenting it in text.

---

The next release for Sandstorm will be another minor release, 1.9.2. There is no concrete date for this yet, but it will be coming before 1.10 (would be weird if it came after to be honest, you know, because of how numbers work).

1.9.2 will more closely resemble the minor releases you’re used to - community driven, with quality of life improvements, more bug fixes, and light on content.

I keep a (very large) document of all your feedback, and as something starts to get mentioned more often or seems like a particularly good idea I bring it to our Production Team and we discuss:

• Is it a good idea in the way of game design?
  
• Is it feasible to implement this given the time we have?
  
• Will it please the (majority of) the community?

Using those discussions we make decisions and plan the release.

I think we have a pretty solid list to work off of, and as we nail down details I will bring that information to all of you so you know what is coming next. Soon is very subjective, so I will say that details are coming soon™.

After 1.9.2 will of course be 1.10 - this will be our next “Operation” or major release. While we have an idea of what this will look like, it’s a bit early to be sharing the details.

---

The first State of Production for 2021 came out a couple weeks ago and was a nice summary of what happened in 2020 (remember the before-times?), what we learned during the year as a team, and what the future looks like for us. It was a super strange year for pretty much everyone world-wide so I would recommend taking a look - Our Executive Producer, Tim, is a much more professional writer than I am.

You can read it here: State of Production 16

---

The Insurgency: Sandstorm Mapping Contest has officially come to a close and submissions have been… submitted.

Public voting has now begun, so please help us determine which of the submissions should make the Top 10. After that vote concludes, the top ten will move on to the next round where NWI will vote and discuss each submission.

You can find details on voting and more right here: Sandstorm Mapping Contest

---

The final week of DGL Season 4: Round 2 has come to a close, here's the news on the upcoming events and reminders about other existing events.

Oceania Open Cup
The Oceanic Cup takes place on the 30th and 31st of January.
DGL is working alongside the Oceanic Sandstorm Group Discord.

Event begins @ 6PM AEST on the 30th with the round robin group stage
- Each team will play 3 games in groups of 4
- The 31st will start at 3PM AEST with the semi-finals

DGL Season 4
The third round of DGL Season 4 is open for sign ups, starting on the 7th of February!

Any new teams signing up will start out at the bottom of the rankings.

For any new teams or players who are not aware of how the season works, each team plays a match a week with 2 maps played. For more information please go to the event page.

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New year, new community content; welcome to From the Field for the first time in 2021. We’ve got some 16 bit art, an S-Tier challenge from Insurgency (2014), explosive overkill, ESP, massive achievement, and of course a meme.


Ever wanted to see all the weapons in 16 bit form? SAME (from Hashashaaaa on Reddit).

One Knife. Three smokes. One Grenade. Brutal Difficulty. The Ninja Challenge (from Vakuta on Reddit).

I think they’ve played this map before (from ImaBuckDatAsh on Reddit).

Science experiment gone… right (via WintorOperator on YouTube).

Celebrate small victories (from ribeyeballer on Reddit).



The way to Hank’s heart? Dumb memes (from AcogTrust on Reddit)

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That wraps up this month’s word pages. 2021 is already 1/12th over, and it’s already 12 times better than 2020!

It’s going to be a great year for Sandstorm and we are hyped to show you all what we’re working on.

fatherHank

Update February 3rd, 2021 - Update on public voting: New World Interactive has been made aware of some potentially suspicious voting activity in the Insurgency: Sandstorm mapping contest and is working with Mod.io to verify the authenticity of these claims. If found to be true, we will take appropriate action to remove any votes in breach of the rules.

As a reminder, entrants are not permitted to directly or indirectly encourage the use of duplicate accounts or automated scripts to manipulate votes, nor can any bribe, reward, or incentive be offered in exchange for votes, any entrants found to be acting in a disruptive or unsportsmanlike manner may be excluded from the competition. See Section 12 of the rules for full details.

After internal consultation, we have decided that we will extend the public voting period deadline until February 10th, 2021, at 11:59 PM ET while we investigate. During this time, we will also allow all entrants to make ONE update to their submitted file version; this can happen at any time until the new voting deadline.

If the integrity of votes can not be determined New World Interactive reserves the right to manually review all entries and select finalists based on expert evaluation from our judges.

In September of last year, New World announced the Insurgency: Sandstorm mapping contest in collaboration with Unreal Engine, Intel, Nvidia, and Mod.io.

Over the last 20 weeks, many talented community members have been working away crafting their own custom levels for Insurgency: Sandstorm using our mod tools.

We received over 30 fantastic entries from players of all experience levels, covering many game modes and unique settings. Over the course of the next 7 days a series of public testing and voting will occur to determine the top ten entries. Those top ten will go on to be judged by our team of experts and compete for up to $17,000 worth of prizes from New World and our sponsors.

As of the time of this post, public voting is now OPEN!

Voting will remain open until February 4th, 2021 @ 11:59pm EST.

After voting is closed we will tally the votes and the Top 10 will move on to be judged by a panel from New World Interactive.




To vote go to the “2020 Mapping Contest” section of Insurgency: Sandstorm’s Mod.io hub.

Install and test the entries, leaving a “Thumbs Up” recommended vote on any submissions you feel should go through to the top 10. This can be cast via the submissions mod.io page or the in-game mod browser.



The review scores for eligible entries have been reset. Only votes cast during the judging period (January 29, 2021 at 12:00 AM ET until February 5, 2021 at 11:59 PM ET) will be counted.
The finalists will be determined by the submissions with the highest number of Positive User Recommendations (Thumbs Up) minus the number of Negative User Recommendations (Thumbs Down). In case of a tie for a place among the Finalists, the tied Entrant with the higher total number of subscribers to their Submission will be chosen.

Full rules, judging, and eligibility requirements can be found at https://newworldinteractive.com/insurgency-sandstorm-2020-mapping-contest/

Good luck!

New World Interactive

Hello everyone, my name is Tim Perreault and I’m the Production Director at New World Interactive. The team and I are all back at work after our much needed studio closure over the holidays. This SOP will be a bit of a deviation from prior updates. Instead of discussing ongoing and upcoming development, I am going to reflect back on 2020 both in terms of successes and failures, discuss some of the key learnings we’ve made from both of these, and look forward to what 2021 has in store for Insurgency: Sandstorm and all of us at NWI!

Key Points for State of Production #16

• 2020 In Review
  
• Lessons Learned
  
• Looking Forward

2020 was not the year any of us expected. There were many challenges, successes, and failures. The running theme for the year at NWI was growth. Taken literally, the company grew significantly in size, hiring many key roles throughout the organization even creating entirely new departments, such as our Player Support group, as well as heavily expanding the size of other departments. The growth of the company also helped us mature the organization as a whole; both through the experienced individuals who joined us and what we learned from trying new things.

The year was marked by significant changes to our internal processes, both in terms of how we planned development for the year and how we executed on those plans. What that looked like was a plan to deliver four, evenly spaced releases over the course of the year. After our first release, we also decided that we wanted to include minor releases between major updates that would be more focused on quality of life and community driven changes. This process gave us a strong foundation to rely on as we navigated the various unexpected changes the year held for us.

Sandstorm itself went through a lot of growth in 2020. Some of the growth was evident to the players, updates such as Operation: Nightfall adding night maps with all the associated equipment, and four updates with maps, guns, and new equipment. Operation: Nightfall also heralded the arrival of cosmetic DLC, which is the first time we have done that at NW. The DLC offering turned out to be a successful addition to the game and the revenue helps keep development going.

While it may not be obvious to players, there were some significant changes made behind the scenes on a technical level. We have been developing back end tools and dashboards that help us manage Sandstorm in the live environment and development environment. This includes tools that give our community team the ability to control in-game messaging all the way to additional tools for our QA team. We’ve also started building out more automation in our pipeline, ranging from automated tests to automated deployments of our matchmaking services for testing new builds.

In the State of Production #11 we announced our acquisition by the Embracer Group as an independent studio operating under Saber Interactive. Since then our team has engaged more with Saber and we’ve started to experience the benefits of having access to greater resources. While it did take some time to get our pipelines setup, we now have a number of avenues of support from Saber with our development process and we will be able to continue building those over time.

While overall the year did show a lot of success, it was not without missteps and challenges. While undertaking a large, dedicated bug fixing and optimization sweep, we also undertook an engine upgrade which resulted in less time to spend on bugs and introduced a few new issues. We also ran into a number of design changes that didn’t end up having the intended impact we were looking for that eventually needed to be reversed.

The growth of the studio in size was a beneficial and a driving factor of our success in 2020; however, we did have a significant challenge early in the year, just before starting the majority of hiring, when the entire studio went fully remote. Onboarding new team members in a fully remote environment forced us to reflect on what the culture of our company is and how we can best share that spirit.

Finally, December 10th, 2020 marked the 10 year anniversary of New World Interactive. While circumstances prevented us from celebrating together in person. We are looking forward to our continuing development journey with Sandstorm in 2021. In particular, we continue to welcome your input and ideas, which we always consider in our planning; we're fortunate to have a great gaming community and sincerely value all of your feedback. We all look forward to sharing the next 10 year with you.

Over the last year, we’ve learned some important lessons from our successes and mistakes. We’ll be applying these lessons to all our future development efforts. Here are some of the key lessons we learned:

• Our new approach to development is working. Throughout 2020, we implemented new processes that have now been proven successful in terms of keeping us in scope and on schedule. We’ll be continuing to refine our process over time, and we are confident moving forward in our ability to deliver on our roadmaps.
  
• Communication is key. In late 2019 and throughout 2020 we have been doing a monthly State of Production. In 2020 we also started doing more regular Community Blog Posts, and Developer Live Streams. These, and all the other forms of communication and engagement with our community, have helped shape many of our development decisions.
  
• Keep a tight focus on content that we’re including in a release. We need to be careful to control the scope of each update, ensuring it is the right size for the available development time and leaving sufficient time to test the quality and gameplay impact on all new features.
  
• Focus on quality over speed. While we have dialed in on an appropriately sized update from a content standpoint, it seems like we’ve been pushing to get them out too quickly. We’re not leaving enough time for testing the quality and the gameplay.
  
• We must be extra diligent when we make changes that remove access from any feature to players. While the removal of certain features was done in an effort to improve the overall experience, we didn’t always achieve the results we were looking for. Sometimes even if content doesn’t always work well (questionable physics on the drivable vehicles) they still add an enjoyable element of gameplay that our players don’t want removed from the game.

2021 promises to be another great year for Insurgency: Sandstorm, building upon what we’ve done in 2020 and applying key learnings from where we have the opportunity to turn out some stellar updates. From a high level, I’ll touch on some changes you can expect to see coming next year both in-game and from our studio.

We understand, more than ever, that we need to take our time with releases. The quality of an update is as important as the breadth of content being delivered and we need to give equal time to the development of new content at a high bar of quality and to addressing bugs or other issues in the game. Accordingly, we’ve decided to reduce the total number of releases coming in 2021.

Instead of four major updates in the year, we’ll release three updates. Each release will still have similar content to what you’ve grown to expect, including new guns, new maps, new cosmetics, but with the extra time in development, we’ll be able to test, polish and fix bugs more thoroughly. We’re going to continue putting out minor releases in between our biggest updates and, in addition, we’ll be doing a special update early this year… more on that in the coming weeks.

The minor update for 1.9 Operation: Cold Blood will be coming in the next few months; our team will start determining what to focus on based on community feedback and the most desirable features. Our roadmap team will then evaluate and narrow down what can be implemented in the time we have available.

The end of our mapping contest is coming to a close on January 28, 2021. We’re all excited to see what has been created. For those of you who aren’t entering a map, remember there is a public judging element to this contest. From January 28 until February 5, the public can play and rate the entries to help narrow down the top contenders that will then be scrutinized by our judging panel. For full details check out the post here.

We continue working with Saber Interactive on the port to bring Sandstorm to consoles. They have brought a lot of experience to the table in terms of console development in general and porting in particular. We know people have been waiting for a long time, but we want to make sure when we release Sandstorm that it will be an experience we are proud of and that you enjoy.

Finally, last year, NWI announced that we would be opening a new studio in Montréal, Canada that will operate under the name New World East. This year we’ll be recruiting for the Montreal location with an eye towards opening an office as soon as the world is back open for business. We are all extremely excited about the upcoming significant growth of our team with the new studio. We will be adding many experienced developers that will support both Sandstorm and our other new projects.

While 2020 was not the year any of us expected, it has turned into a banner year here at NWI. I’m honored to have been a part of it and to have shared part of that journey with you. I am excited for what 2021 has in store for us and I hope you are as well. That’s it for this month’s SoP, we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming in February. Until next time, keep your stick on the ice.

• Fixed an issue where it was possible to use certain console commands to enter third person perspective

To see the current known issues list, please see the bottom of the full 1.9 Changelist here.

• Fixed an issue where mod’s asset registries were not being loaded correctly

To see the current known issues list, please see the bottom of the full 1.9 Changelist here.

This is it, 2020 is finally over.

Major updates for the year are also done, so we are going to have a brief blog this month.

I hope you’ve all had/are going to have a great holiday season and enjoy whichever holidays you celebrate. Calgary (where the New World studio I work for is) is on another lockdown now, so we are all being sequestered to our houses. Luckily I’m a huge nerd and the idea of staying in and playing games during my time off sounds pretty ok.

There aren’t any more streams planned for this year, so we will get back to that in January. I didn’t have anything to announce or show off so I didn’t want to waste everyone’s time and get you all hyped up for nothing.

The studio is closed from December 24th until January 3rd, so you probably won’t hear a lot from us for the next couple of weeks.

Since we spoke last we released Cold Blood. It’s now live and in the wild, and the addition of toggleable optics has been a smash hit so far.

We also made a change with 1.9 that was less popular - the adjustment of weapon availability for factions. After the change went live we saw all the feedback from everyone and decided that our decision was not being received as intended so we reverted the change and actually went further to turning Co-op into a sandbox, as requested.

If you haven’t read the letter from Mikee about this, I suggest you do, he explains the situation very clearly. As a matter of fact, I will just drop it here:

Hey everyone,

This is Michael Tsarouhas or Mikee here, I’m the lead game designer on Insurgency: Sandstorm. Our team wants to let you know we have heard your feedback about our recent change where we removed weapons from the Security and Insurgent player classes in Co-op. We will be reverting to the prior Co-op loadouts, and in fact expanding them further. However, we would like you to at least understand the rationale for our initial decision. When we elected to remove the weapons, it was primarily based on our goal to create consistency between the Co-op and Versus experiences, and help with onboarding new players in our growing community. However, based on your feedback it seems clear that this concern about weapon consistency is not shared by the majority of players in our community, and that’s why we will be adding back the various weapons.

We have a hotfix already planned for Monday December 14th which will give all Co-op Security classes access to both the Security and Insurgent weapons within each class. This will make the weapon availability very similar to how it was before update 1.9, except for small differences such as the M16A4 no longer being available for Marksman. Keeping that particular aspect is in line with our original intentions with the weapon availability change as it’s important to keep some measure of consistency in player expectations between Versus and Co-op. For example, having the M16A4 be available as a Rifleman gun sometimes and as a Marksman gun at other times was confusing while offering little gameplay value.

We are also going to take things a step further. Based on your feedback, it’s apparent that our community would also appreciate more weapons being available for the Insurgent team in the Co-op experience. Now, instead of the Insurgent players in Co-op getting access to just a couple extra Security guns as they did before update 1.9, they will get access to all Security weapons within each of their classes. This will create more consistency within the Co-op experience itself and is also narratively appropriate with update 1.8’s introduction of rogue police and special operations teams to the Insurgents. Bear in mind that as with the M16A4 in Security Co-op being removed from Marksman class, the Mosin-Nagant will also be removed from Rifleman/Demolitions/Observer/Commander and kept exclusive to the Marksman.

Sometimes we make choices that seem clear to us but don’t make sense to our community. While we can’t promise to take our cues and direction from the community in every decision we make, your feedback definitely influences our decisions. We’re sorry if our choice with 1.9 was frustrating. Other than the removal of weapons, we hope you’ve been enjoying toggleable optics, the new map Bab, new weapons, and all the other changes Operation Cold Blood offers, and will do so even more after the hotfix on Monday.

Take care,
Mikee

We are always listening to your feedback - that isn’t to say we will always be able to act on it, but it is my job to advocate for you all, and I’ll continue to do that.

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Since I don’t have a lot to talk about this month, I thought this would be a good time to hear from you.

I really want to know how everyone is feeling right now and if there are some areas we should focus on moving forward. Along with some others on the team, I whipped up a survey to help me gather some sentiment from all of you.

It is the shortest survey I’ve made since starting at NWI, so please take the five minutes to fill it out - it really does help us make decisions.

Here is the link for the survey, I promise it’ll be quick.

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The final featured community content for 2020 is here and it's... eclectic.


I can’t believe Sacrilicious finally found this easter egg (shoutout to Sacrilicious on Reddit)



Physics are cool. Tough, but cool (shoutout to InageMantra on Reddit).



Doors are tough. Cool, but tough (shoutout to -Grognak on Reddit).




Cosplaying as your in-game avatar? NICE (shoutout to fastengineerboi on Reddit).




Lego minifigs as Insurgents, also NICE (shoutout to uncle_sammy_poo on Instagram).

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That’s it for this month. That’s it for 2020.

The next update(s) are in progress, and I will have things to show you in early 2021.

I hope you have a great New Years - please be safe, wear masks, and take care of yourselves.
Lots of exciting things are coming in 2021, and I can’t wait to start talking about them.

fatherHank

Fixes:

• Fixed an issue where explosives were not saving correctly in the presets on the Loadout Menu
  
• Fixed an issue with the Loadout where selecting a preset did not always make it the active Loadout
  
• Fixed multiple level design issues missing meshes or had an invisible collision on Crossing, Refinery, Hideout and Tell
  
• Fixed a visual issue in third person when equipping an AK74 with the Masterkey upgrade
  
• Fixed a text overflowing issue on the Message of the Day on the Main Menu

To see the current known issues list, please see the bottom of the full 1.9 Changelist here.

Hello everyone, my name is Tim Perreault and I’m the Production Director at New World Interactive. It’s an exciting time here at NWI; in addition to our latest release for Sandstorm, we just celebrated our 10th Anniversary. From all of us at NWI, thank you for being part of the last ten years and we all look forward to building and gaming with you over the next ten. There are plenty of things to cover so let's jump in.

Key Points for State of Production #15

• Operation: Cold Blood
  
• Hotfixes and Known Issues
  
• New Map: Bab
  
• Toggleable Optics

Our latest update is now live, bringing you a ton of new content. In addition to the content you did see, we were working on a lot of behind the scenes content aimed at facilitating future development. This included an initial push on new Quality Assurance tools, analytics, and a new Dashboard that allows our community team more control over our message of the day and other in-game communication. Our goal with these tools was to provide you with a better game and better experience as we continue developing Insurgency: Sandstorm.

We have released three hotfixes so far that have addressed a number of issues, you can find the full notes here, here, and here.

We’re still looking into the known issues listed at the bottom of our patch notes as well as general feedback on performance since the last update went out. We’re currently looking into visibility problems with STANAG magazines, two loadout issues (loadouts presets not properly activating when selected and equipment from the second and third explosive slot not correctly being available), and an issue where it’s possible to have an incorrect localization partially active.

We’re also closely monitoring feedback about the changes being made to AI. With update 1.9 we made a significant change to the availability of weapons in co-op. This change was rolled back with our latest hotfix. You can read more about that here.

In keeping with tradition, I sat down to chat with some of our team to discuss our latest addition to the map lineup: Bab. This time I spoke with Jeroen van Werkhoven, Level Design Director; Adriana Matic, Level Designer; and Brian Birnbaum, FX and Lighting Artist:

Tim Perreault: Where did the idea for Bab come from?

Jeroen van Werkhoven: Bab came from the early days of Sandstorm. We had just started working on the game and we had an idea for a citadel type map and we started working on that first, but realized we needed more space at that time for a mode we were prototyping. We started expanding it and added this whole outside area with a town. Eventually that turned into Bab.

TP: What was the most challenging part of building the map?

JvW: I think the most difficult part was that because the map was in development for such a long time we really needed to figure out what we wanted to do with the gameplay. The map was massive compared to our current largest map, and we just couldn’t make it work. The journey of going from the town to the citadel was such a long run that by the time the player made it to the citadel they were already exhausted. Making it to the Citadel should feel like a reward, but it didn’t feel that way, just more map. It was not a lot of fun either because there was only one pathway through the citadel once you made it there. It felt like we forced 2 push layouts in a single layout. We tried to fix it but decided it just wasn’t working, so instead of trying to add more we decided to cut. To make the gameplay more fun and cohesive we removed the inside of the Citadel.

Brian Birnbaum: I don’t know how many iterations we had to do of the interior of the citadel to get it to work. I just remember so many pathways leading into it and all the tiny corridors and stairs, it took a lot of changes to get to where it is now. I can also remember in the early days when we were just starting to test the map we managed to get Keith Warner our CEO playing with us. The first time he played with us on this map, Mikee was in a technical driving down the hill and he ran over Keith without a second thought. We still joke about that today (Editor's Note: Mikee refuses to comment on the incident on the grounds that he might incriminate himself).

Keith Warner: No worries about incrimination but I’d like to know where those files are so I can delete them. No CEO should ever get run over by his team and I want to destroy the evidence!

TP: What was the approach to building gameplay around the medium to long range engagement distances we were looking for with this update?

Adriana Matic: For Bab, it was all about cutting specific sightlines. You wanted to keep the map open but also not let snipers be super OP. So it was kind of like checking angles and anticipating where those camping spots could be and limiting their sightlines so they weren’t over 180ᐤ and making good use of soft cover that just obstructs views. There’s also lots of hard cover, but using trees to block the view of a road was the primary approach.

TP: Do any specific areas of the map come to mind that presented a greater challenge?

AM: Yeah, so there’s this construction overlook that’s across from the ticket building and when we were testing players were having a lot of trouble because as they were moving down towards the ticket building they were just getting devastated moving through those lanes. There were two sort of higher vantage points where you could always aim down so you couldn’t really use walls high enough to block that. The solution ended up being using tarps and cloth and more foliage to kind of obscure the sight line to make it more difficult to clock players moving through.





TP: What did we do to optimize the performance of the level?

BB: So we did our usual optimization pass where we merge and instance as much as we can in the level but we were finding that performance wasn’t where we wanted it, partially because Bab is such a big and open map. We had to go through and limit as much that was rendering on screen as possible. We paired down all the similar textures in the level to reduce the load but we ran into a problem replacing textures. Unreal actually doesn’t have any easy way to replace a lot of textures and materials at once, especially instanced actors. There isn’t any way to replace all the materials on instanced meshes. So we ended up creating a tool specifically for Bab to try and lower Material and texture usage to lower the memory count.

JvW: We worked with the object view distances a lot too, because the game has to calculate when the player can no longer see an object and then stop rendering it which takes up CPU cycles. By manually setting all those distances we offload some of the computing, so we could look at all the props and say “Okay, after 50 meters, we want this to fade out”. By making that decision we could free up the CPU cycles to allow the game to focus on other things and ultimately keep frames higher. We’re still working on more optimization as we’re seeing feedback from our players using a broader range of hardware and figuring out the pain points.

TP: How did you build the unique feeling and atmosphere on Bab compared to our previous Sandstorm maps?

BB: So originally, we didn’t have too much of an idea of what we wanted the level to look like until we sat down to discuss it and got a paintover of the visual look. That visual look was a very cold and blue sky day.



We decided to give things nice visual cues and colors with the kites. Originally it was a very overcast day. When the concept art was created we didn’t think that we would be able to make the level look like the concept art. But it actually ended up looking a lot like the concept art in the end. I had to create a new blue cold skydome texture. It took several iterations to make the clouds and the blue in the sky to look right. I went through the level to add snow blowing off the trees and rocks, and even just on the ground because those little touches add some real visual interest. There are a lot of little snow effects to make the work seem alive. The hardest thing to create was actually the kites or at least it seemed hard at first. But interesting fact, they are Niagara Particles. Not blueprint or anything else. In Niagara you can simulate wind and basically all I had to do was do what a kite does in real life and tie a string to it.

TP: Bab is an Arabic word for door or gate, so it begs the question: what’s inside the gate?

BB: … Giant snowman.

Maybe one day we’ll find out about this Giant Snowman, but on that ominous note, we’ll move on.

Operation: Cold Blood introduced the long awaited addition of toggleable optics to the game. I sat down with Lead Game Designer Michael “Mikee” Tsarouhas in the Cold Blood Tavern to talk about the effort that went on behind the scenes to make that happen.

Tim Perreault: Toggleable optics have been in the works for a while. Can you tell me a little bit about the history of toggleable optics within the game, where the idea came from, when we finally started working on them, and how we were able to finally release them?

Michael Tsarouhas: Yeah, this was one of the more interesting features in Sandstorm I think. It’s one of the things we originally wanted to do when we were first developing the game, but for production reasons we couldn’t. As people know, on release we had 2x and 4x optics that physically speaking would be able to be switched between different configurations. For a 2x you could move the magnifier away, and for some 4x optics you could just use the iron sights on top. We knew we had all the capability, but production-wise we just couldn't really do it. We didn’t have the resources or the time to get it ready for release in 2018. After the release a lot of players were requesting it, which we kind of expected. We tried to get it in an update in 2019, we put it in our roadmap. But it was just so challenging with a lot of the other stuff that needed to take priority and a lot of the other ways that the game needed to grow. We tried recently to get toggleable optics into our last release, Operation: Breakaway, but it really wasn’t ready. It needed a lot more attention and time to make sure we did it right. Ultimately, we added nine new toggleable optics and updated eight existing optics. So that’s 17 new toggleable optics that came in Operation: Cold Blood, and there was a lot of time and design and technical limitations and iterations that had to happen to get to that point. It was no small task.
TP: What were the biggest challenges with implementing toggleable optics?

MT: Oh god, everything man. Like, toggleable optics sound simple, like, you have two different ways to aim your optic, way one and way two. Sounds easy, but it was very complex. Not only were we doing it post release while we were trying to manage all the other things in these content-rich updates, but there were so many things we had to do to do it right. We had the following conditions: 2x optics that existed in the game already that needed to be converted with new animations. We had new 2x optics that needed to be created like the 2x OKP-7 and then needed animation. We had the optics that existed already with the iron sights on top that needed to be converted, some of which were weapon specific. Then we had the 4x optic with the red dot sights on top, and these needed new animations but different ones from the 2x optics. Then we had the new 6-3x optics that needed to be created with unique animations. So we had all these different types of optics that needed unique animations, and you had conditions where some were already in the game but needed to be updated to be toggleable. With all these different things needing to happen the biggest challenge was the communication and trying to make sure everyone was on the same page. Then there was the challenge of what to call them in-game. What’s an intuitive way to explain how these work through the loadout UI so players immediately understand what they are. The technical implementation was difficult as well. We had bugs where you’d aim an optic and it just wasn’t there, or the field of view was weird, the screen was blurry when it shouldn’t be, or it was just straight up showing the wrong magnification. On top of it all we had the normal challenge of gameplay balance. We had to iterate on these, we couldn’t just put them in and call it a day. We had to make sure they felt like they had utility and that they felt like they were balanced in terms of sight picture, transition times between the options, supply cost, fair trade-off compared to choosing other optics, and availability per weapon. So there were a lot of different factors.

TP: So speaking of iteration, what about the toggleable optics is very different from when they were first testable to what ended up being released?

MT: Some of the biggest differences were how the 6x to 3x ones evolved and how the weapon specific ones evolved. The 6x-3x were originally 7x-4x. We tried this in testing and almost unanimously the testers felt like they were not useful and not really effective as optics. This was because so many of the engagements were so close and you were just switching between two magnification levels that were both designed for further away, so it didn’t feel like there was a lot of value to it. When I first saw the feedback I was a little alarmed and was just thinking man, I wonder if we’re really going to have to rethink these. It’s good feedback and it makes sense because the game, broadly speaking, is mostly close and medium range engagements. But the way we solved it was really simple. We just knocked both magnifications down one level and then ran another playtest where almost all the feedback shifted the other direction. The other piece of this was that as we were developing we realized there were other optics that could be toggleable like the M1 Garand for instance. When we were doing research on the M1C scope we realized you could use the iron sights as well as the optic, so we stretched ourselves a bit in getting it work but we felt like it was important because it makes the weapon unique. It also helps with balancing other weapons that are seen as being cheaper or less effective like the G36K or the AUG A3. It’s great to give them a special upgrade that also gives a unique sight picture, etcetera. There were other ones we would have loved to have done. We would have loved to have done a toggleable optic for the 4x PU Scope but we just didn’t have time for it. We still got those other ones in.

TP: Any funny anecdotes about the development of toggleable optics?

MT: I was really shocked when I saw that we had 17 of them total. I remember when we were writing up the patch notes and being taken aback and even a little confused thinking wait a second, there’s no way we have that many. But I went through the list and realized like, yeah, we really do have that many. I think it’s kind of a testament to how big of a deal this is for the gameplay and how big of a challenge this was. But we did deliver on it. We knew it was something people wanted. And this was no small thing, but our team really wanted this too. We all knew that you could push a magnifier out of the way, I know you know Tim, and so this was an important thing to get to work so we pursued it and we delivered.

TP: Any final thoughts about toggleable optics?

MT: I think this is a good example of something in game development that you need to acknowledge can’t be rushed. You need to think about it from all angles: the gameplay, the technical implementation, the balance. How it might change how people enjoy the game period. All those things needed to be considered and while all those things took time and while we didn’t do it as quickly as we would have liked to, I think it’s saying something about our team and our passion that we put in the effort and we finally got it in. And we did it the right way and we did it in a big way… Again, 17. That number bears repeating.

While it has been an exciting year, the team and I are happy to be winding down. Over the next few weeks a lot of our team will be taking much needed time off. We’ll be coming back fresh and ready to get started on our next major update as well as a special surprise that will be coming out early next year. In our January SoP I’ll be looking back at 2020 as a year in review, things that went well, areas for improvement, and general lessons learned. To close out the year I’d like to wish you all happy and safe holidays and until next time, keep your stick on the ice.