Why is this game not successful?

I'm really curious why so few people play this game?

I propose you read some forum threads to get an answer on this question.
It´s complex and cannot be answered in just one sentence.

There are a lot of things that don´t work proper yet :

  • stuttery / jittery moves of the characters in online games ( coop and versus ) EDIT : Update 1.2 finaly improved the moving animation

  • bad average FPS performance ( related to Unreal 4 engine which seems to be completely new to the NWI developers, so they have to figure out how to optimize the game for older/weaker hardware )

  • stupid AI behaviour in coop games :
    Bots are walking in a duckrow through molotov and incendiary fire and getting killed one after another ( they MUST learn to wait until the fire is off or flank ),
    they are running with speeds like 100 meter sprinting world champions although they are carrying weapons and equipment of 20-40 kilogramms,
    insta-killshots from ridiculous distances and at close range ( for example coming around the corner ),

  • RPG´s explode in your face because the fired rocket cannot pass objects close to your line of sight ( needs bugfixing )

  • You cannot throw a pack of C4 or an IED more than 8 meters ( which is a ridiculous decision of the devs )

  • The Dshk ( .cal 50 gunner on the truck ) has endless ammo and he kills people hiding behind walls ( as if he has x-ray vision paired with insta-kill-aimbot )

  • ridiculous "GPS guided" Molotovs and Frag grenades that hit you with 100 % accuracy when you hide behind a cover for a few seconds

  • following a steam friend onto a sandstom server is too difficult for people who don´t know steam so well ( too complicated right now ) **EDIT : Update 1.2 implemented the name of the custom gameserver on the scoreboard screen on the top right **

  • some minor graphics and sound bugs ( regular sound cut-out for 5-8 seconds ---> complete silence )

  • no votekick option on servers to remove people who are teamkilling or trolling around EDIT : Update 1.2 finaly integrated votekick on regular servers

  • bad visibility of the laser dot ( they should better use a bright green laser instead of the red one / also there is no visible laser beam in smoky conditions ( which is kind of dissapointing )

  • But the most important necessity : This game needs more maps , especially custom maps and mods, because it´s getting boring to play over and over the same few maps.
    This game needs the work of Modders to make it interesting again, so we need the SDK tool released as soon as possible !

  • Did i forget something important ? Please add more if so 😉

All in all the game is really fun and very intense , but really needs some bugfixing and changes ( rethink decisions )

last edited by GSG_9_LIGHTNING

@gsg_9_lightning said in Why is this game not successful?:

Did i forget something important ? Please add more if so

-> Currently-garbage damage model. 25% of Sandstorm's weapons are capable of one-shotting a player with no armor without a headshot.

-> There's a massive drop in look speed at the center of your screen, but your gun still moves at normal speed, making accurately-aimed hipfire difficult.

-> Ludicrously-high hipfire recoil (about 40% more than the base) makes controlling hipfire hard, if not impossible with weapons that have moderate+ horizontal recoil.

-> Movement mechanics make you Sonic with no weight and a drunk zombie at max weight.

-> There are still glitch spots on the maps that offer players a moderate to severe advantage (i.e. spawnkilling).

-> Spawnkilling, in general.

-> Tagging is horribly inconsistent (still gotta post about this one).

-> I often question how people see me in smoke while I can't see them.

-> Backcapping. IMO, it's not a broken mechanic, but it still pisses players off lmao.

-> Hitreg rarely just takes a dive down the shitter, in both Coop and PvP.

-> DAMAGE REFLECTION

-> Helicopters are nearly impossible to counter.

-> The M4A1 is still annoyingly spammed (as well as the MP5s at this point).

-> Fire Support occasionally bugs out and doesn't strike the intended target.

last edited by MarksmanMax

Not a sequel to the original Insurgency.
With the release of TDM and the lack of players on Push/Skirmish the game now has NONE of the core features of the series

high lethality 1 shot 1 kill
Waved respawns as a team
Objective based gameplay

Sandstorm is closer to Battlefield and CoD, it's now placed in a oversaturated market rampant with casuals who move on to other games after 40 hours instead of like the fans of the previous game who stuck around for it's core, unique gameplay.

Thank you guys.
I think you summed up the most important things.

After reading you comments i think the two most problematic things, that prevent this game from being successful (or at least be a successful sequel to the original insurgency) are:

  1. lack of polishing (bugs, performance, balancing, etc.)
  2. lack of content (maps, gamemodes, etc.)

I think the game was a success ... but only after 3 patches. The first 2 broke it and provided care for the players.

A lot of reasons, but primarily it never got enough momentum to break into the wider gamesphere. A lot of gaming media never ran a single piece on it. It was streamed by a few big streamers, but only like once or twice. Most of the potential audience never even heard of the game. So, marketing would be a problem in that sense.

Regarding casual players, there's not enough rewards in the game. You don't really get any feedback about having made the right choices or stuff like that.

For competitive players, well, there's no competition because there's too few players. Matchmaking is a total clusterfuck and sucks the fun out of this game. The only way to have fun matches is to scrim but in Europe for example there's only a few teams available for scrimming. So there's nothing left for competitive players either. The matchmaker is basically a slot machine. You might end up with a bunch of newbies against a 5-stack of veteran players, or you may end up with a player who just goes AFK right at the start, or so on.

And then there's the plethora of various quality issues. Bugs, poor performance, so on.

last edited by tzaeru

Why is this game not successful?

Cause it feels like NWI doesn't give a f*** about the community.

Where are all the hotfixes from hotfix-march? Yes there have been some, but you know what, that was not enough to fix the most problems.
And now almost 0 comms again.

But nwi says hey there are some hotfixes, we did what we said and now they focus again on content wtf?! How can you be proud of implementing new stuff if the game is "broken" for so many people?!
Or proud of 500.000 sold copies and not a single % of this base is playing this "awesome game" which it basically is, minus some very casual style gameplay descisions?!

Have a look at the factorio news to see how a hotfix month has to look like. Yes it's a absolute different game and it may be easier for them to push a hotfix, but come on, 2 weeks dead silence and not a single fix for sandstorm is ridiculous...

I'm so disappointed about this kiddo behaviour I want to uninstall this crap although I don't have big issues with performance, but with my dedicated server. Come on nwi...

and I bet they gonna release the next update with new content, beeing proud as f*** about the update and nothing changes for the community. but hey, "we released an update you were waiting for so long... ideal world"...

last edited by lt_delay

I.S. took the EXACT path WW3 did. And now look at WW3. I GUARANTEE you this game will never get off its little feet. Never, ever, ever. And when a different game comes around to make their appearance, NIGHT NIGHT/SWEET DREAMS Insurgency Sandstorm! lol.

https://gyazo.com/b1001b62c109fea233833a9179ab3aa9 <---------- =PATHETIC. 1800 players WORLDWIDE plays this at its peak players times. RIP

last edited by LetsGoChamp

@benny Same reason the previous game wasn't this early in its life.. lack of content still, and steam workshop/modding isn't in yet

I feel the game needs better direction for new/casual players.

I play a lot of Firefight and it’s really annoying to see the last guy in the middle of nowhere and you can tell he’s got no clue he’s last, no clue what capping an objective does or the concept of the game mode in general.

The game should do what was in Source and have the announcer tell you the general idea of Firefight:
“Okay, we need to get in there quick and capture these objectives. Each cap will bring you guys back. And hey! Watch out for that timer! If it goes to 0 and they’re holding 2 objectives, it’s over.”

As well as a counter to remind players how many are left similar to Rainbow Six Siege.
I would prefer this to be in text, but say if half your team is gone, an audio prompt will go up from the announcer: “Hey! There’s not many of us left!” Something quick and easy to bring on the (ins)urgency of the situation.