Welcome to July’s Community Blog. A lot has changed since we last spoke, I’m sure by now fatherHank is riding kangaroos and eating some vegemite in the Oceania region. (sorry Aaron)

With all the departmental restructuring/personnel shifting, I figured that this month’s community blog would provide a great opportunity to introduce myself and my other colleagues that currently make up the Communications Team at New World. Read on!



Player Support Lead / Interim Community Manager

This month actually marks my first official year with New World! I started at around the same time as fatherHank when I was tasked with doing some contract work in Player Support. In July 2020 I was given the opportunity to lead and evolve the Player Support Department to where it is today. I hope that our efforts in decreasing cheating and toxicity in Sandstorm have shown since then.

This is probably the first time any of you have heard from me via a public forum like this. I was able to work quite effectively behind the scenes within Player Support - it has definitely taken me some time to adjust from that now that I’ve been given a platform where I have a spotlight shining on me. With all that being said, I’m still super excited to take on thehttps://imgur.com/a/F0YQQZ3 task for the time being and hope that I can work with the community to ensure that your feedback is always being heard.

I’m starting to hang around the Official Insurgency: Sandstorm Discord a lot more (I guess that is kind of a part of my job now though…) if you see me there, don’t be a stranger! Always happy to chat or jump into a game of Push with anyone who asks.


Community Associate / Will Slaughter Your Sergeants

Hello all! Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Logan (A.K.A. Sgt_Slaughterer) and I'm the new Community Associate here at New World Interactive. I have the honor of training to step into the spacious Jordan's of our previous Community Manager Aaron (fatherHank) and continuing to uphold his high standard of transparency and respect. I'm not going to lie, it's going to be no small task to follow in the trainer shaped footsteps that he left in the community, but I'm committed to the task and excited to continue the good work that he started.

I figured I should tell you a bit about myself here so let's see; some of my personal interests outside of gaming are drawing, playing guitar, and cult horror movies and comic books. I cut my teeth on old-school FPS Like DOOM (still have the floppy disks!) and from there I became very interested in the Source modding community and the amazing mods that came out of that (CS, DoD, Insurgency). My preferred genre is still FPS but I also enjoy "relaxing'' with rogue-likes like BoI/Spelunky/Rogue Legacy, etc. I'm currently re-playing Control on the Series X and Noita (pretty great indie rogue-like) on PC, and attempting to hold my own in Insurgency: Sandstorm, but this community is no joke! Part of my daily routine has become hopping on to learn the ins-and-outs of the game and getting immediately humbled every time. It's a process for sure, as there’s a ton of depth to this game, but man is it rewarding and I feel super lucky that I get to play and learn a game with a community as passionate as you guys. Feel free to hit me up on Twitter @SgtSlaughterer


Player Support Analyst / Johnny “Bravo”

Hey everyone, my name is Bruno, but most of you probably already know me within the community as Bravo. I joined NWI back in November of 2020, yet it feels like I've been part of this incredible community for what seems to be an eternity at this point.

During this time, I've seen the release of Operation: Cold Blood and Operation: Exodus, worked on a Trello Board for the community and helped a few thousand of our players through our support desk. I'm always working on something, so I may not be as active as I wish I could be on Discord. However, I'm always happy to have a chat whenever I have time, so if you see me in-game or on Discord, feel free to say hi!





Oh man, July was a pretty jam-packed month for the Community Team. While taking this month to welcome and onboard Logan to the team we also happened to announce our first-ever Community Cosmetic Contest! With the success of the 2020 Mapping Contest that we held last year, we thought it would be fun to hold another contest that is similar in vein, but is way more accessible this time around. Be sure to check out the official rules and terms - if you’re a capable concept artist or game asset creator, now is your time to shine!

This month we also announced the release of our first console beta! That feels so good to finally say. If you haven’t signed up yet, you can find beta applications here - we will be having multiple betas so don’t worry if you haven’t been picked to playtest straight away.





As some of you probably know, the Player Support team has emphasized community engagement because we know that we all share a common goal. We consider ourselves lucky to have such a vocal community, and we want our community to see that they are being heard and that their opinions matter.

We appreciate all the feedback we've received so far, and I promise that we have some good stuff coming in the future, so hang tight, and thank you again for all your help!





Another quality weapon case study from one of our very own Sandstorm Partners, sacrilcious__. - Luke


I would have broken both ankles attempting this. - Logan ( Twitch.tv/TheProfessianal Discord: ExtremelyStiff#5410)


Ladies and gentleman, the insane power of mods!(SnakeyI0 on Reddit)

Amazingly stylish screenshot curated by Bravo (Credit: Fetcher)





That’s it for July’s Community Blog. Thank you for reading and as always, thank you for playing Insurgency: Sandstorm.

• Reduced occurrences of presets and loadouts getting wiped after a map change or game restart
  
• Fixed an issue where the Bad Day and Upriser Tops did not always unlock properly
  
• Fixed an issue where the objective icons were missing on the Tactical Map and HUD when starting or during a Survival match
  
• Fixed multiple exploits on Bab, Citadel, Crossing, Farmhouse, Hideout, Hillside, Outskirts, Powerplant, Precinct, Refinery, Summit, Tell and Tideway
  
• Fixed multiple AI spawning issues on Powerplant, Hideout, Summit and Outskirts
  
• Fixed an issue where friendly AI would run away from Objective D after capturing Objective C on Outskirts
  
• Fixed an issue where the Insurgent Explosives Drones did not explode when they reach their desired coordinates
  
• Fixed an issue where players may become invisible while leaning and using binoculars
  
• Fixed an issue where there was a chance of players entering desync state when resupplying with a Gas Mask while holding a non-primary weapon
  
• Fixed an issue where the Resume Game button would not work in the In-Game Menu that occurred when the player did not select a class for the first time at the start of a match
  
• Fixed an issue where the Deploy button was missing in the Loadout Menu
  
• Fixed an issue where the RT would not trigger the Character Voice preview in the Customize Screen when using the gamepad
  
• Updated the Cycle That Thing (No Drop Remix) playlist image
  
• Increased the scroll multiplier in the Loadout Menu
  
• Fixed an issue where text in the In-Game Menu was not localized
  
• The modding editor now includes Bab, Buhriz (Tideway), Citadel, Killhouse, Mountain (Summit), OilField (Refinery) and Tell

• There may be an issue where replays are not available in the Stats Menu for community servers
  
• There may be an instance where Windows dedicated servers cannot be joined
  
• There are visual issues streaming textures when using Low graphic settings

Known issues that we are working on can be found on the Insurgency: Sandstorm Community Board.
For a full list of the 1.10 Patch Notes, visit the Update 1.10 Operation: Exodus Major Update.

For game support, visit our support desk at: https://support.newworldinteractive.com/hc/en-us

Do you know what you want to see added in Insurgency: Sandstorm? Are you a capable concept artist or game asset creator? It’s time to create something that could be officially added to our game!



Participants will have 6 weeks from July 11th, 2021 at 2:00 PM Eastern Time (“ET”), until August 31st, August 31st, 2021 at 2:00 PM ET (the “Contest Period”) to create and upload a set of four (4) cosmetic items combining into a fully-realized ensemble for the Security faction, a set of four (4) cosmetic items combining into a fully-realized ensemble for the Insurgent faction, weapon skin set that applies to six (6) Security weapons, or a weapon skin set that applies to six (6) Insurgent weapons.

NWI will select the top four (4) from each category (Insurgent character cosmetics, Security character cosmetics, Security weapon skin, and Insurgent Weapon Skin) and public voting will decide the winner from each category.

While there’s no specific theme, submissions that do not fit with the aesthetic of Insurgency: Sandstorm will not be considered as potential finalists.



$2,000 - Winner for Security Character Cosmetics
$2,000 - Winner for Insurgent Character Cosmetics
$2,000 - Winner for Security Weapon Skin
$2,000 - Winner for Insurgent Weapon Skin



Submissions will be accepted as original Unreal Engine assets or as original concept art.

All submissions must be submitted to cosmeticcontest@newworldinteractive.com by August 31st, 2021 at 2:00 PM ET. No changes will be permitted past this deadline.

During the week after submissions are closed, NWI will judge and decide on the top four (4) for each of the four (4) categories.

The Entrant warrants that Entrant’s Submission complies with the Submission Guidelines. Sponsor may display all Entries on the Sponsor’s website, and other Contest-related websites as well.

After these finalists have been determined there will be a public survey available where the public will be able to rank all the finalist submissions from least favorite to most favorite.

The top-rated submission from each category will then be deemed the winner and official assets will be created using the source material to be implemented into Insurgency: Sandstorm.

By winning this Contest, the Entrant grants to Sponsor and assigns a royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, modify, publish, create derivative works from, distribute and display Entrant’s Submission in whole or in part.

To qualify, the submitted assets must be original content created specifically for this contest. No copyrighted material (or content directly based on, or deemed to be too similar to existing material) will be permitted, and any submissions found to be plagiarized will be immediately disqualified.

If you are working as a team or using any custom content you must ensure you have full legal permission to use any and all work submitted, as well as being legally able to grant permission for New World Interactive and contest partners to use the submitted entry if selected.

Summer is here - time to go outside! By outside I mean Citadel. What kind of person goes to the real outside? Certainly not Gamers.

No one has listened to enough ‘80s music to figure out what’s going on yet? I feel like I've been stabbed in the back.

Although this is my last blog for NWI, something I’ve been working on for a while is in here, and I think it’s pretty exciting. Read on!



Our Spring 2021 Player Survey has come to a close and we had nearly 10,000 players give us their feedback. As Tim alluded to in the SoP I wanted to dive a little deeper into what we’ve seen.

First and foremost: we have heard what you all think about the updated AI. The fixes to snapshotting have reduced the difficulty to a point where a lot of you feel it is too easy. We are tweaking and testing changes as we speak. While we are super happy with the reduction in snapshots, we will continue to monitor how you all feel about their difficulty overall.

New weapons are far and away considered the most exciting new content we add - luckily we had already planned on continuing to add more weapons with each major update! Even when I asked for specifics, ‘gun’ and ‘weapon’ were still some of the most common requests. You're all great 😂

Here’s a quick glance at what your requests looked like:



Shotguns and Machine Guns won the request-war for the type of weapons you’d most like to see, with Breacher and Gunner being the classes you feel need the most love. Here, I will only say that we’ve seen this. Subtle wink. Keep in mind that 1.11 and 1.12 were already in development or production before this survey was released.

When it comes to modes, Survival was one of the most common requests, which is good as that has already been added! Also the word 'mode'! Here's the word cloud for mode requests:



We’ve analyzed the rest of the answers from the survey and are using that to help guide our future decisions as well. Thank you all for taking the time to fill out this survey, it goes a long way.

---

Ok, here’s what I’ve been dying to share with all of you - similar to our map contest, we will be holding a Community Cosmetic Contest!

Whether you’re creating assets directly in Unreal or are a skilled concept artist, we will be accepting submissions for Insurgent Cosmetics, Security Cosmetics, and Weapon skins for each faction. Even if you're not skilled, we will still accept the submission, but you may not win.

From these submissions, our team here at New World will select four finalists from each category (one set of cosmetics for each faction, and a weapon skin set for each faction).

Those 16 finalists will then go to a public vote, with the winner from each category being added to the game in a future update - you will all decide the cosmetics that are included in an upcoming Operation.

Exact details including prizes and rules will be announced soon, but there will be cash prizes along with the bragging rights of having your idea added to the game.

There will be no specific theme, but anything that doesn’t fit the aesthetics of Sandstorm will not be considered. Your creation must also be original, anything found to not be original or taken from copyrighted material will be immediately disqualified.

We are incredibly excited to see what you all come up with, and equally excited to see what you all decide should be added to the game.

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There are some other big announcements coming up, including the 1.11 reveal, and the date of its CTE.

I will be watching these announcements from your side of the internet this time, and I’m pumped to see it all from your point of view.

Also, we are 50% off right now! Go grab some friends and get 'em playing, it's the perfect time.



A very efficient rocket (YHL6965 on Reddit).



I guess you could say [REALLY CLEVER PUN GOES HERE] 😎 (TheSmallBrainEnergy on Reddit).



WintorOperator has cursed us with the most ambitious crossover of 2021.




Finally, for those who need to be reminded; the most helpful in-game tip available (GRRRNADE on Reddit).

---

Well, that’s that; this is the last Community Blog I will write for NWI, in a couple short weeks I am hopping on a plane and moving overseas.

As is my prerogative, I wanted to film a quick video to say one thing.



If you want to keep in touch, just hit me up on Twitter @fatherHank, I’m going to miss all you rapscallions.

It’s been a blast working as your Community Manager for the last 16 months and I’m very excited for you all to see what NWI has coming.

Bye for now Gamers™
fatherHank

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• Fixed multiple AI spawning issues in Survival mode on Outskirts, Hideout, Precinct, and Summit
  
• Fixed an issue where ammo boxes in Hardcore Checkpoint would only give one bullet for the MR 73
  
• Fixed some issues where the facial hair was misaligned on certain male heads like Soran and Rob (there are still issues with the Imperial and Garibaldi heads)
  
• Fixed an issue where the keybind in the Tutorials > Weapons > Remote Explosives was showing as UNBOUND
  
• Fixed an issue where the front lens was missing on the 2x-1x Red Dot, 6x-3x Red Ring Scope and 7x Hunting Scope
  
• Fixed an issue where the lighting would change or be inconsistent depending on the weapon held on Hideout, Hillside, Farmhouse, and Ministry night scenarios
  
• Fixed an issue where the Steam Cloud service would not restore presets and settings which only affected the cases where players had lost their data
  
• Fixed an issue where the Flash Hider and Compensator appeared too large on the AK-74
  
• Fixed an issue where the 4x-1x SU230 BUS appeared black instead of tan on the MK 17 Mod 0
  
• Fixed an issue where the bayonet (cosmetic feature) would remain visible when the bipod was deployed on the SKS
  
• Fixed an issue where the bayonet (cosmetic feature) was missing textures on the SKS
  
• Fixed an issue where the flat top remained visible when equipping 1x Flip Up Sights, 1x Kobra, 2x-1x Kobra, 2x-1x MARS, 2x-1x OKP-7, 4x-1x M150 BUS and 4x-1x SU230 BUS on the M4A1
  
• Fixed the following issues which occurred when using the gamepad:
  
• Fixed an issue where it was not possible to unlock items in the Customization Menu
  
• Fixed an issue where scrolling was not fluid in the Settings Menu while using a gamepad or keyboard
  
• Fixed an issue where the Next and Previous buttons were not working in the Mods Menu
  
• Fixed an issue where the minimum and maximum page range was not capped in the Mod Menu
  
• Fixed an issue where the refresh button would not refresh the list of community servers in the Community Server browser
  
• Fixed an issue where players were unable to interact with the Scoreboard screen
  
• Fixed an issue where scrolling in the Credits screen was not possible
  
• Fixed an issue where pressing ‘B’ while editing player indicator colors in the Settings Menu would close the Settings Menu and return to the Main Menu instead of simply exiting edit mode
  
• Fixed an issue where the Lean Right and Toggle Optic actions were both assigned to R3
  
• Fixed an issue where the default muzzle device would still remain visible after equipping any of the barrel attachments on the Alpha AK
  
• Fixed an issue where the siderail would not show when equipping the Laser Sight upgrade on the MG3

• There is an issue where the Bad Day and Upriser Tops do not always unlock properly
  
• There is an issue where the Insurgent Explosives Drones do not explode when they reach their desired coordinates
  
• There is a chance players may get into a desync state when resupplying with a Gas Mask while holding a non-primary weapon
  
• There is an issue where the weapons and explosives are misaligned in the Customization Menu
  
• There is an issue where the shadows of weapons and explosives appear in the Customization > Loadout Menu

Known issues that we are working on can be found on the Insurgency: Sandstorm Community Board.
For a full list of the 1.10 Patch Notes, visit the Update 1.10 Operation: Exodus Major Update.

For game support, visit our support desk at: https://support.newworldinteractive.com/hc/en-us

Hello everyone, my name is Tim Perreault and I’m the Production Director at New World Interactive. We’re keeping this month’s update short and to the point, so let’s dig in.

Key Points for State of Production #21

• Spring 2021 Player Feedback Survey
  
• 1.10 Hotfixes
  
• 1.11 Development

The survey is now closed. We received over just over 7,300 responses which gave us tons of valuable data. We’re currently reviewing the feedback against our upcoming releases to both make sure we’re aligned and find places where we can bring more of the feedback into the releases. You can expect to hear more about the survey at the end of this month in the Community Blog post.

I’ve invited one of our producers, Christine Truong, to comment on our progress with 1.10 hotfixes and high priority issues:

The next hotfix is incoming really soon. The main focus of this hotfix is Survival mode, but we also added some UI fixes that specifically impacted our gamepad users. Don’t worry, we care about you guys too! More details can be found on the upcoming Hotfix Patch Notes.

Our team is extremely happy to hear that you guys are enjoying the new game mode and worked really hard to stomp out the bugs. Big thanks to those who sent in reports regarding the AI spawning issues. This really helped our QA team track down the issues and helped us resolve them quickly! The next one we’ll be tackling is the issue where the objective indicators may not appear at the beginning or during a match. Honestly a terrible bug we are working hard to fix ☹.

We’re continuing to dig into more issues with the release of 1.10 to make your gaming experience better, most notably the issue with the Bad Day and Upriser Tops not unlocking properly.

While part of the team is finishing hotfixes, others have started development on our next major update. We’re excited to start sharing some snippets of that development in the coming months. The Temptation is to drop some info about what is coming but I also don’t want to spoil the reveal. So Please Stand By and maybe just listen to some '80s rock instead.

It’s been short and sweet. Until next time, keep your stick on the ice.

To make up for missing last weekend we are offering TRIPLE XP from now until Monday at 11:00am MST.

Welcome to May’s community blog. Two weeks ago we saw one of our biggest releases yet with
Operation: Exodus. It’s been exciting seeing how everyone’s been rocking their sirwals, exploring Citadel, and enjoying the chaos that is Survival.

The team is already hard at work for 1.11 (and beyond), and we’re looking forward to bringing you new content soon.

P.S. I moved out of my house last week, so this blog will be a little short.




Operation: Exodus was one of our biggest updates yet with a new map, new game mode, new pistols (and their optics), and a fresh wardrobe full of cosmetics. Overall, we’ve noticed that the community has been happy with the 1.10 release - notably with the new map, Citadel, and Survival mode.

Citadel has brought on a new environmental mashup of both close and long range combat, and the randomized experience of Survival has everyone on their toes anticipating the endless enemies and preparing for the M99 with iron sights (or hopefully… a different gun).

With the release of the cosmetic DLCs for characters and weapons, we received (mostly) positive feedback over the artistic direction compared to our previous updates. We’re happy that you’re happy with how the studio has taken on the feedback you’ve given us.

There were some smaller issues with this release such as the field of vision being locked and sensitivity being limited to a single decimal point. Some players also experienced issues with disconnections caused by bugs. We’ve since addressed these in the recent Hotfix #2, and are continuing to monitor for issues. Overall this felt like a fairly polished release, but we will continue to raise the bar on quality for our releases.

As for the AI adjustments, the whole system is a continuous work in progress and we will continue to improve their behaviour over time. The AI has lost some of their robotic edge with the 1.10 release and their perceived difficulty is something we’re continuing to keep an eye on. The exciting news is that the spatial awareness system from the Survival AI will continue to improve the rest of the PvE modes in Sandstorm.

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I told you we had a survey coming, and it’s here!

It went live last week and your feedback is legitimately invaluable. Remember the word cloud in previous blogs that showed your most desired weapons? We are looking at a new cloud now, so make sure your opinions are heard.

Can you do me a favour? This time when submitting your most desired gun, don’t… don’t just write ‘gun’. I promise we will add gun, so be specific for us.

Please take your time to fill out the survey - it helps us understand how you, the community, feel about the current game, and can guide our development toward what you’d like to see in the future.

Click here to let us know what you're thinking.

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We've seen everyone's appreciation for Citadel so far, especially for the intricate details like extinguishing fires in the tunnels using the carefully placed sprinkler.

We wanted to show you a bit extra from behind the curtain.

One of the first steps in creating a level is a technique known as blocking-out or grey boxing. Essentially, the environment is sculpted using gray blocks with minimal detail. In our case we throw in some orange as well. This early phase involves incorporating the team’s conceptual ideas and then testing the playable areas of the level.

With Citadel, the theme was to provide a space with both close-quarter combat and mid-to-long range engagements. This is achieved with the contrast between open and narrow areas and between high-ground and ground level play.

Because I didn’t ask the Level Design team for these assets in time (classic Hank), some of them are not right at the grey box stage and have a bit more polish than they do at the very beginning.





Once the map layout is finalized, the visual style in the environment is refined, and details are added. The simple gray blocks are retextured or remodeled completely for more dimension. These details help to shape points of interest for players. These allow for the creation of call-outs and assist with map memorization for players.

Most importantly, the art creates an immersive war-torn atmosphere as you traverse the map. Here are a few more before-and-after shots from Citadel.

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We’re starting off with a bang… a flash bang. Sometimes, initiations don’t go as planned (Reddit user Readerofthethings).


Extraction music > lofi hip hop beats (Reddit user f1ndin)


Be careful what you wish for.

This is just incredible. No words (Reddit user toasterlife).

There was no good outcome for this guy (Reddit user Awareofthat).

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We are coming into Summer here in the Northern Hemisphere and I am personally excited for some nice weather and, pandemic willing, some time to get outside and see friends and family before I take off to Australia.

Take care of each other and yourselves, and I will speak to you all soon,

fatherHank

• Lighting was fully rebuilt on all the maps to fix visual issues such as seams and gaps appearing in the environment
  
• Fixed a server disconnect issue that occurred when the player was shooting their weapon during the helicopter extraction sequence right before the Victory screen
  
• Fixed an issue where the scope sensitivity sliders in the Settings Menu were rounding to one decimal place
  
• Fixed an issue on Precinct Firefight East where players would see the Restricted Area warning message that occurred when players left and returned to the Insurgent Spawn
  
• Fixed a number of exploit locations where players were able to access unintended areas on Citadel
  
• Fixed an issue where there was an invisible wall blocking some of the trench tunnels on Citadel
  
• Fixed an issue where the gunship was killing friendly teammates during the survival extraction
  
• Fixed an issue where the “Last Man Standing” music would start playing instead of the “Get to the Extraction” music when the extraction objective became active
  
• Fixed an issue when playing on the new ‘Pistols in Arms’ limited-time playlist and selecting a Secondary Ammo Carrier would cause players to disconnect from the game
  
• Fixed an issue on Outskirts Survival where the helicopter would fly back into view during the Victory screen
  
• Fixed an issue where the Region Preferences button was missing from the Play screen
  
• Fixed an issue where the hand position was too high and obscured the sight picture when using the SVD equipped with the Aiming Grip and 7x Sniper Scope while ADSing
  
• Fixed an issue where the 1x Red Dot was misaligned on the MR73 when using the Cheapo Suppressor (pistol optics cannot be equipped with the Cheapo Suppressor on the MR 73)
  
• Fixed the hammer animations on the MR 73 when equipped with the Suppressed Sniper Barrel

• There is an issue where preset loadouts do not save after game relaunch
  
• There is an issue where the camera switches to a view inside the helicopter interior after the player wins a round of Survival Mode during the Scenario Select Screen
  
• There is an issue where the weapons and explosives are misaligned on the screen in the Customization Menu
  
• Some toggleable options show black when using picture in picture view settings
  
• Male heads, Soran and Rob, have misaligned facial hair
  
• There is a chance when a Party leaders joins a dedicated server, the party member fails to join