In New World's most recent Community Update, which you can find here, Mikee wrote that Ambush is not planned to be added in 2019. Rather, it's delayed until 2020:
NWI's reasoning for delaying Ambush boils down to the second Community Survey results, with Frontline having a majority vote over Ambush. However, I think this call is pretty poor. Frontline only got the majority by less than a two percent margin, so cutting Ambush completely seems pretty absurd. It makes the most sense to add in either both game modes at once or neither at all. If Frontline had more of a majority, then delaying Ambush would make more sense, but those results are way too close to pick one gamemode over the other.
I also don't really understand why Frontline's being added. Now, I'm biased here, because I never played Frontline and never even knew that was a mode in Day of Infamy until I saw it on the second survey, but NWI's reasoning for picking Frontline doesn't make much sense:
Frontline is, after all, also quite similar to Push, which is our most popular PvP mode in both Insurgency 2014 and Insurgency: Sandstorm. It makes sense to try to build something for that majority of players to enjoy.
So, if Frontline's similar to a gamemode that's already in the game... why bother adding it? Upon further research, Frontline essentially seems like a combo of both Push and Skirmish, which was fine for Day of Infamy because DoI doesn't really have a Skirmish mode like Ins2014. However, it seems pretty unoriginal to add in a gamemode that's extremely similar to gamemodes that already exist in Sandstorm, not to mention the fact that it'll probably confuse the hell out of new players trying to figure out how each gamemode works. Ambush, on the other hand, is completely new and has basically nothing in common with the current gamemodes in Sandstorm, and would provide a breath of fresh air for PvP players tired of Push and Skirmish. But apparently, Ambush is just too much work for NWI to deal with:
Ambush would also require more production for things such as custom character artwork for the VIP that really sticks out from our eclectic and highly customizable faction characters.
I'd like Ambush to be added instead of another gamemode for a few reasons:
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I've wanted Ambush in from the start, like a lot of other players. There's a reason we started a petition last year about adding Ambush into Sandstorm. You can find the petition here: https://saveambush.org/
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The survey results do say that Ambush is played by a "minority", but what that fails to take into account is that many Ambush players are Ins2014 veterans. I'd argue that most Ambush players are actually vets, and almost all of those signatures on that petition were from veterans, myself included.
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Ambush requires the most tactics, teamwork, and coordination of any gamemode in Insurgency: Source. It's one of many reasons why vets flocked to this gamemode, as it's much more interesting than rushing the same objectives and spamming smokes/frags/rockets in a mode like Push. Spawn camping in Ambush is also virtually impossible since it's a one-life gamemode.
I'm a diehard fan of VIP-style gamemodes. I've loved playing them since the modded days of Medal of Honor: Assault Assault - Breakthrough. I've even got the most popular Ambush guide for Insurgency. I've already waited an entire year without any news on Ambush, and now I've been told I have to wait for another year.
If I'm being honest, most, if not all, Insurgency: Source veterans have already left Sandstorm, for one reason or another. Some left because of crappy optimization. Others left because of the lack of lethality. Some left because of the bugs in-game. But quite a lot of Ins2014 vets left because the most tactical gamemode in Ins2014 isn't in Sandstorm. Adding Ambush is a step towards getting those veterans back, along with bug fixing, optimization, and improvements to the gunplay and gameplay mechanics to make Sandstorm really feel like an Insurgency title. Sandstorm could easily be the best first-person shooter this year if NWI just brings the game back to its roots.
Now, I'm still assuming that adding in three gamemodes by the end of this year just isn't plausible. People want to see Frontline added, so I'm not against the mode being added to Sandstorm; I just don't think it should be sacrificed for Ambush. However, what could be sacrificed for Ambush is Outpost. Coming from someone who's only been playing Sandstorm Cooperative modes (the only PvP mode I played in Ins2 was Ambush), the AI is currently broken as hell. I've got quite a few posts talking about it, the main one being one of the most upvoted posts in this forum section. It's been broken for months now, and I'm nearly convinced that NWI doesn't really care about fixing it, so I'd rather just see Outpost scrapped entirely for Ambush instead.
Trust me, I'd rather play Ambush than play Outpost with AI that currently behaves like this:
Having to deal with this on defense would be a living hell.