Spring has sprung, the sun is shining, and the birds and autocannons are singing! We have noticed a build-up of questions among the community lately, so we want to clear some things up and touch on what’s approaching on the horizon.
ONGOING DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT
There is some confusion in the community regarding Insurgency: Sandstorm’s current development status and the game's future. Let's clear some of this up! We can confirm that nothing has changed in terms of the level of support that Sandstorm is receiving. We are actively working on the game, and in fact, there are several people on the team who have been on the title for many years now, including Jeroen the Game Design Director, Mark Winter the Audio Director, Sgt. Slaughterer your Community Manager, and Player Support wizards Bravo & Nyko! Together, we have many things on the horizon that we hope you are just as excited for as we are, so let’s get into it!
HOTFIX 2
So, our recent “small” hotfix was, as it turns out, not so small and we realized this was confusing. The size of the update was larger than intended due to a change in infrastructure combined with the way UE4 handles paks. Hotfix 2 addresses a few issues players have been complaining about, but it was primarily meant to set the stage and prepare for the arrival of Update 1.16. Which leads us to….????
UPDATE 1.16 OPERATION: CRISIS
Update 1.16 is still targeting a spring release (and yes, it is still spring! The official last day of spring is June 20th)! We know that the community (hey, that’s you!) is chomping at the bit for new content and information but we’re not ready to reveal what it will contain. You can expect something more than just guns and skins this time around, though it will definitely have those too!
CROSSPLAY
Ah yes, the long-awaited crossplay. Often spoken of in the same breath as Loch Ness and Bigfoot, it’s getting closer to becoming a reality. As it stands now, we’re targeting it for inclusion in Update 1.17, but this is subject to change.
While we can’t quite do a deep dive on crossplay yet, we can touch on a few of the more common questions we see about what the functionality will look like!
Q. Will crossplay feature input-based matchmaking?
A. Yes! Our intention is for it to feature input-based matchmaking that you can opt in or out of.
Q. Will ALL platforms be able to play together?
A. Yes!
Q. Will I have to use crossplay?
A. No, it will be an opt-in feature. If you prefer to only play with players on the same platform as you, you will still be able to do that.
We know you’ve all been waiting patiently for crossplay! Unsurprisingly, increasing the number of platforms the game is supported on, from one to seven has come with a whole slew of unforeseen kinks to iron out. We’re approaching the finish line with this feature and can’t wait to finally roll it out to you!
UPCOMING LIGHTING ADJUSTMENTS
We don’t have a hard date yet for when we will push these changes to the live game, but we’ve been tweaking the lighting on a few maps to improve visibility in shadowy/dimly lit areas! We’re testing and monitoring these changes to ensure they don’t adversely affect performance. If all goes well, we may look at the other maps to see if there are similar opportunities for improvement.
As of now, we are working on changes to the following three maps/layouts:
TIDEWAY
HIDEOUT (NIGHT)
TELL
LTGM & XP EVENTS
Give us your feedback!
Limited-time game modes and XP events are handled by the community team and provided to the players so that we don’t go dark between the major updates. We’ve seen the sentiment that some of you would rather have new content than these events, but rest assured, these two things are unconnected. That said, we’re open to suggestions!
LOOKING FORWARD: UPDATE 1.17 & BEYOND
While we can’t talk much about what the specific content of the upcoming updates are just yet, we can confirm major updates 1.16, 1.17, and 1.18 are still coming, and we’re putting a focus on quality of life fixes for 1.17, many of which have been pulled from community requests. Some of the fixes coming in 1.17 include:
- Fixed an issue where a player's ammo carrier and armor could disappear from the character model when he is in the vehicle in online game modes.
- Fixed an issue a player’s gloved hand obstructs the sight picture when using AS Val with loading grip
- Fixed an issue where optics with multiple zoom levels get lens tinted after switching ADS mode while aiming in Picture In Picture mode
- Fixed an issue where when using the A10 call-in, some of the rounds will instead explode at the origin point of the map (0,0)
- Fixed an issue where the player could fall out of the map on Outskirts
- Enabled Chaos Vehicles & the Water Plugin for the release build of the game to allow mods that uses them to function properly
- Fixed an issue where the exhaust trail for the Rocket Barrage is rotated 90 degrees
- Fixed an issue where the restricted zone covers the unrestricted zone on Crossing (Push Insurgents)
- And more!
A word from Jeroen, the Game Design Director:
“As we continue development, we're thrilled to share that we're working on a new level from scratch for a future update. Instead of just writing about it, here’s an exclusive sneak peek at an early concept of the map. We hope you're as excited as we are to see this map come to fruition and can't wait to share more in the future!”
-Jeroen
THANK YOU
Well, that brings us to the end of this post, but before we sign off we want to extend a great big thank you to the community for your ongoing support and feedback. Sandstorm is five years old now and we know that’s a testament to the community’s passion for the series. Your support means everything to the team and we look forward to releasing future updates, fixes and improvements! See you in the field soldiers!
-The Insurgency: Sandstorm team
