New World Interactive has released the first major content update for Insurgency: Sandstorm that includes the massive addition of a new ‘arcade’ playlist with rotating game modes, alongside five new weapons, a new firing range, performance improvements, and a wealth of smaller changes, additions, tweaks, and bug fixes.

This new version of the game is now using Unreal Engine 4.21, adds a new Team Deathmatch game mode, a new Arcade playlist in Play section, a new Range level in Tutorials section, competitive queue time penalty and tiebreaker, as well as the ability to vote to kick players on community servers.

This patch also increases usage of mesh instancing throughout levels, greatly reduces memory usage across all maps, fixes hitch when opening the scoreboard, fixes hitch when opening or closing the escape menu or Loadout menu, fixes hitch caused by Lesson video streaming, decreases persistent actor components present in levels, improves screen size fading of smaller decals, optimizes creation/destruction of cosmetic meshes and enables higher streaming budget outside of active gameplay.

As always, Steam will download this patch the next time you launch its client and you can find its complete changelog below.

Insurgency: Sandstorm First Major Update Release Notes

New Features

• Upgrade to Unreal Engine 4.21.
• New Team Deathmatch game mode.
• New Arcade playlist in Play section.
  • Currently features Team Deathmatch at 24 players.
  • The playlist will be updated with new Arcade modes in future updates, but all modes will be available through Community Servers found under Coop or Versus.
• New Range level in Tutorials section
  • Allows players to test all weapons, equipment, and upgrades in the game on both living and nonliving targets.
• Ability to vote to kick players on community servers.
• Competitive queue time penalty.
  • Leaving a Competitive match early will prevent a player from queueing. The penalty increases with each instance.
• Competitive tiebreaker.
  • If a match ends in a tie, a team will need to get a two-point lead over the other team to win, with a faction switch every round.
• Community Test Environment (CTE) now available in your Steam Library. The CTE is a version of the game that will be opened periodically throughout development to allow players to preview and test future updates before they are released.
• Restricted areas added to tactical map.

New Content

• Weapons:
  • Security
    • PF940 pistol
    • MP5A5 submachine gun
    • M240B machine gun
  • Insurgents
    • MP5A2 submachine gun
    • MG3 machine gun
  • Cosmetics:
    • Security
      • Eyewear
        • Combat Goggles
      • Hands
        • Knuckles Fingerless
      • Camouflage
        • Tropentarn
      • Tattoos
        • Wolf
        • Graffiti
        • Blackout
        • Spartan
        • Polynesian
        • Wire
    • Insurgents
      • Eyewear
        • Aviator
      • Facewear
        • One Hole Skull
        • Two Hole Skull
      • Tattoos
        • Snake Bite
        • Dead Woods
        • Swirl
        • Skull Compass
        • Eagle
    • Renamed Insurgent Headgear slot to Facewear.
• Added new truck for drive in sequence at the start of Security Checkpoint.
• Added new shockwave reaction system, allowing various props to audibly resonate when an explosive detonates near them.
• Added new Taglines:
  • Most Defensive Kills
    • Get the most kills while defending an objective.
  • Scavenger
    • Killed 10 enemies with a weapon that has been picked up.
  • Resourceful
    • Killed 25 enemies with a weapon that has been picked up.
  • Jacket
    • Killed 30 enemies with a weapon that has been picked up.
• Added new gas canister props that can be detonated.

Optimization

• Increased usage of mesh instancing throughout levels.
• Greatly reduced memory usage across all maps.
• Fixed hitch when opening the scoreboard.
• Fixed hitch when opening or closing the escape menu or Loadout menu.
• Fixed hitch caused by Lesson video streaming.
• Decreased persistent actor components present in levels.
• Improved screen size fading of smaller decals.
• Optimized creation/destruction of cosmetic meshes.
• Enable higher streaming budget outside of active gameplay.
• Optimized frequency of bot line of sight checks.
• Optimized UI logic.

Gameplay

• Weapons
  • Fixed issue where flashbangs would not consistently blind players.
  • Flashbangs now slow player movement and mouse input during the blinding effect.
  • Weapons will now pull back further from any obstruction first before going into an up or down state.
  • Barrel length for weapons will now be extended by barrel weapon upgrades.
  • Fixed some weapons pointing through obstructions in first and third person.
  • Pistols are no longer dropped on death. This was done in an effort to further optimize the game.
• Weapon Balance
  • Increased spread of Flechette shotgun shells to be the same as standard shells.
  • Reduced shotgun pellet velocity, reducing damage at long range.
  • Increased time to Aim Down Sights for machine guns.
  • Removed AP rounds from M249.
  • Increased weight of FAL, G3A3, and Mk 14 EBR.
  • Decreased recoil for M249 and PKM.
  • Lowered supply cost of Uzi to 2 in Versus/Coop and 4 in Competitive.
  • Increased supply cost of MP7’s Extended Magazine upgrade to 4 in Versus/Coop and 5 in Competitive.
  • Combat Knife, Kukri, and weapon melee attack damage is no longer reduced by stamina.
  • Combat Knife and Kukri damage have been increased.
  • A Combat Knife or Kukri attack to the back of an enemy will kill them instantly.
• Fire Support
  • Set specific Fire Support call in amounts and availability by game mode and by Attackers and Defenders in Push.
  • Added Fire Support call in specific cooldowns.
  • Increased Fire Support personal cooldown.
  • Increased Fire Support cooldowns at start of the round in Versus.
  • Widened viewing radius of Support Helicopter so door gunners can shoot towards the helicopter’s rear.
  • Reduced viewing radius of Gunship so it cannot shoot targets at its rear.
  • Reduced pilot visibility angle for incoming rockets so helicopters are less likely to dodge.
  • Improved Autocannon Strafe so projectiles will no longer be blocked by obstructions.
• Improved connection between third person and first person head placement when leaning, reducing cases of head glitching.
• Improved objective capture progress handling when both teams have players on a neutral objective. Previously, this was favoring whichever team entered the capture point first rather than the team with the most players. This caused capturing to be deadlocked at 0% in some circumstances.

User Experience

• Competitive
  • Improved matchmaking to find better matches with players closer to your skill level.
  • Improved info screen to indicate order of rank tier progression.
• Play menu first time experience
  • When first clicking on Play menu buttons, players will be asked if they want to play the Tutorial Level.
• Improved character interpolation smoothing to ensure character movement in third person and spectator is now smoother.
• Improved third person spectator camera smoothness.
• Improved accuracy of interacting with doors, vehicles, supply crates, and other objects, especially when picking up dropped weapons close to each other.
• Improved Text Chat
  • Added spam and flood protection.
  • Removed blob background on chat panel.
  • Chat panel now only shows recent messages when the chat panel is inactive.
  • Made text more readable.
  • Toggleable profanity filter.
• Renamed “Browse Servers” to “Community Servers” in Play menu under Coop and Versus.
• Added connectivity issue icons on the HUD including warnings for high ping and timing out.
• Items you cannot afford to purchase with your current supply are now shown as faded in the Loadout menu.
• Added info buttons for Supply Points and Weight in the Loadout menu, showing descriptions for both when hovered over.
• The countdown clock during overtime round will now flash red on the HUD.
• When reinforcement waves are lost or gained, the HUD will more clearly show the increase or decrease with an animation.
• Loading screen hints will be shown based on your player level, with more gameplay related ones shown at lower levels.
• All random hints are visible in the in-game menu.
• Match Preferences in the Play menu will now show average match lengths and player counts for each game mode.
• The magazine icon for your weapon’s current magazine will now flash white to indicate a reload is in progress, or red if the reload has been interrupted from switching weapons, sprinting, etc.
• A magazine based weapon can now only be reloaded if you are not at your highest magazine.
• Your own name will no longer be shown above the speaker icon when using VoIP.
• Commanders who are suppressed or take damage during a Fire Support call in will now continue their lines in a suppressed state.
• VoIP will now properly reverberate when speaking outdoors or inside of rooms.
• VoIP will now be occluded if the player is speaking behind an obstruction.
• VoIP proximity range for teammates has now been increased to 80 meters while enemy proximity range remains at 15 meters.
• Vault hints can now be toggled separately from ‘use’ hints.
• Commander/Observer Color can now be changed (default is white). It can also be set to your Buddy Color/Friend Color.
• Loadouts can now be changed in between rounds.
• Hovering over a weapon with a different caliber will show what caliber the new weapon is.
• Hovering over a player icon on your team on the tactical map will now show their name.
• Hovering over a player name on the scoreboard will now show you where they are on the tactical map.
• Added a view limit to yaw when rigging a weapon cache.
• You can no longer look around on a vehicle’s DShK turret and put on a gas mask at the same time unless Goro is selected in the Customize menu.
• Teammate indicator now smooths the player icons.
• Teammate indicators are now shown during the pre-game.
• Spectator X-Ray can now be rebound in the key bindings menu.
• Spectator vitals display no longer has flickering item icons.

Visual

• Normal scope quality has been refactored to create a much more consistent and visual superior experience during all weapon motions.
• Animations
  • Added third person cache arming animation.
  • Updated third person lean.
  • Updated third person slide.
  • Better hit detection for groin plate armor when wearing Heavy Armor.
• Cosmetics
  • Improved Anchor facial hair.
  • Changed colors of Insurgent carrier, armor, and other gear slightly.
  • Reduced size of Security Heavy Carrier backpack.
  • Increased size of knife on the Security chest carrier.
• Adjusted speed of ejected shells.
• Made ejected shells inherit player velocity.
• HLODs will now not fade in to view when the camera moves rapidly from one point on the map to another. This alleviates an issue where props and geometry would slowly fade from one level to another.
• Mitigated texture streaming “pop in” when transitioning to and from the Loadout menu.

Coop

• Enemies now use all weapons, ammo carriers, armor, and explosives available to their class rather than a fixed loadout.
• LGMS (Laser Guided Molotov System™) removed from Molotovs. Enemies are now less accurate the further they are from their target when using all thrown explosives.
• Fixed enemies not ignoring targets in spawn zones correctly.
• Added a new music track for the final counter-attack.

Bug Fixes

• Reduced instances of an issue where the players hands might become invisible during gameplay. Please let us know if you experience this issue.
• Fixed an issue where muted players would randomly be unmuted.
• Fixed an issue where muted players would not carry over into new rounds.
• Fixed an issue where characters could be seen floating or partially sunken into the ground.
• Fixed an issue where the Extended Magazine upgrades would sometimes clip with hands during reloads.
• Fixed an issue where the game would freeze on the loading screen on a community server after changing the map.
• Fixed an issue where the loading screen could become stuck at 95% or 100% upon the server changing level.
• Fixed an issue where transitioning to the same map would cause players to disconnect on community servers.
• Fixed an issue where players might respawn in the stance in which they died.
• Fixed an issue where the framerate limiter setting would be reset on game restart.
• Fixed various localization text overflow issues.
• Fixed an issue where the teammate indicator could become offset when using Picture-in-picture scopes.
• Fixed an issue where the XP gain bar would disappear too quickly in the post-match screen.
• Fixed an issue where third person customization items would be occluded behind various props when going from prone to crouch.
• Fixed an issue where players shadows could be seen from below through the ceiling of buildings.
• Fixed an issue where the player’s level from the main menu and the in-game scoreboard menu would be different.
• Fixed an issue where the player’s appearance credit amount was not displayed in the post-match screen.
• Fixed a rare bug where characters could pop into view regardless of distance.
• Fixed an issue where ragdoll corpses would spawn under and in the center of vehicles when destroyed.
• Fixed staged reloads with open bolt weapons (Uzi, LMGs)
• Fixed an issue where long key bind names were not fully displayed in the UI.
• Fixed an issue where Taglines were not being recorded on the backend or displayed in the stats screen.
• Fixed an issue where objective and kill event stats were not being collected properly.
• Fixed an issue with the accuracy of the display of the capture time stat.
• Fixed a localization issue where reflected damage was not being localized in the kill- feed.
• Fixed issue where player hands would clip through DShK when equipping a gas mask. Now the gas mask will be equipped without playing the first person animation.
• Fixed issue where you could fire the DShK while putting on a gas mask.
• Fixed an issue where some Use icons were incorrect in the Tutorial Mission.
• Fixed an issue where the player’s primary weapon did not appear on screen when an explosive grenade launcher was attached to it.
• Fixed issue where a player could spam the rocket firing sound without actually firing a rocket.
• Fixed an issue when running the game in native resolution. Setting the display mode to “Windowed” would not switch to actual windowed mode.
• Fixed an issue where if player had “Fullscreen” selected in the Video settings, the next time the game launched it would start in “Windowed (Borderless)” mode instead.
• Fixed an issue where sometimes after dying and then spectating a player, ammo information was still visible on the HUD at the bottom right.
• Fixed an issue where “Scavenge Magazine“ was not properly localized.
• Fixed a couple of issues where text might overflow in some UI elements.
• Fixed an issue where vaulting while putting on a gas mask wouldn’t cancel putting the gas mask on properly.
• Fixed an audio glitch which could occur when entering or leaving the escape menu or Loadout menu due to the doppler effect.

Map Balance & Fixes

• Hideout
  • Replaced numerous merged actors with instances to reduce memory footprint.
  • Updated dynamic props.
  • Reorganized various HLOD clusters to improve performance.
  • Fixed various exploits that harmed map balance.
  • Fixed various minor issues.
• Farmhouse
  • Added extra entrance for objective A on Firefight West.
  • Adjusted objective A on Push Insurgents to make the front entrance less of a bottleneck.
  • Fixed issue where a player could capture objective A outside the wall on Firefight West.
  • Reorganized various HLOD clusters to improve performance.
  • Fixed various exploits that harmed map balance.
  • Addressed spawn camp issue at Security spawn on Skirmish.
  • Addressed spawn camp issue at Security spawn for objective A on Push Security.
  • Moved final weapon cache objective to second floor on Push Insurgents.
  • Fixed various minor issues.
• Refinery
  • Replaced numerous merged actors with instances to reduce memory footprint.
  • Reorganized various HLOD clusters to improve performance.
  • Reduced landscape layer usage to improve performance.
  • Optimized the center area of the map to address draw call peaks.
  • Reduced long line of sight behind objective C on Push Security.
  • Made minor light tweaks to improve readability.
  • Fixed various exploits that harmed map balance.
• Precinct
  • Replaced numerous merged actors with instances to reduce memory footprint.
  • Reorganized various HLOD clusters to improve performance.
  • Optimized material usage to reduce draw calls.
  • Addressed spawn camp issue for Insurgent objective A spawn on Push Security.
  • Added more protection around spawn exit areas on Push Security.
  • Fixed various exploits that harmed map balance.
  • Fixed various minor issues.
• Summit
  • Replaced numerous merged actors with instances to reduce memory footprint.
  • Reorganized various HLOD clusters to improve performance.
  • Reduced landscape layer usage to improve performance.
  • Moved Security spawn slightly back to balance run-up times on Firefight West.
  • Fixed various exploits that harmed map balance.
  • Fixed various minor issues.
• Crossing
  • Made minor optimization pass on rocks and foliage placement.
  • Added a new less exposed route for Insurgents on Firefight West.
  • Closed several windows on the large building near the river facing Security objective A spawn on Push Security.
  • Fixed various exploit locations where players could hide inside rocks.
  • Moved objective B Push Security spawn to create more of a safe passage to objective B.
  • Added more protection for Security objective D on Push Security to make it less easy to destroy from a further distance.
  • Fixed various minor issues.

John Papadopoulos

John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
Contact: Email