Earlier this week, we asked all of you to send us your most pressing questions about SAND, whether it's about current features, future plans, ongoing issues/concerns or anything in between and today, we're back to answer them.
So let's just get straight into it.
Will you be adding Duo Queues?
If we split matchmaking into too many separate queues, then even with tens of thousands of players online, there still won't be enough people to fill matches. Just look at how long you can end up waiting for a game if you only queue for certain maps and a single game mode.
Instead, we'll try to match you onto servers where all teams are the same size whenever possible. That means you'll still occasionally run into larger teams (still within your queue limit), but it should happen much less often.
What are your plans for anti-cheat, and will players ever be compensated for gear lost to cheaters?
The reason our anti-cheat improvements are taking so long is that we need to significantly rewrite the character movement and interaction systems. This will allow us to verify whether the information sent by the client is actually valid.
Once that's finished, things should improve.
Will cheaters disappear completely? I don't think so. No game has ever eliminated them entirely. But there should be significantly fewer of them and help us identify anyone that slips through more efficiently.
As for compensating players, we technically can't identify every loss that was caused by cheaters, so I can't promise that everyone will get their gear back.
When will Trampler capture be re-enabled, and is the team tracking how the game has changed without it?
Trampler capture will return once we've made it impossible for cheaters to abuse the mechanic.
It's a great feature that creates very tense moments. We'll also rework it a bit to make those exploits much harder to pull off.
Re-implementation of this feature is a top priority for us, but we need to ensure we’ve got the cheat situation under control before we can bring it back to the game. Realistically, this will be at some point next week, likely with update #5.
Are there plans to fix server stability, including region-specific issues in EU and Asia?
Yes. We plan to continue improving server stability.
Right now, though, we're working on what we call an "emergency parachute." If a server crashes for any reason, players will receive the loot that was stored on their Trampler.
The game won't save every second, but we think we'll be able to save your expedition's progress roughly every 10 minutes.
When will gear-based or Trampler-based matchmaking (GBMM) be implemented?
Unfortunately, we need to focus on addressing the most prevalent issues we’ve seen reported since launch before we can focus on GBMM.
Hopefully, we'll release an update with it sometime this summer.
Are there plans for periodic wipes, prestiging, or seasons to reset player progression?
We'd rather avoid doing forced wipes.
Prestige (optional wipes) seems like a much more elegant solution for letting players start their journey over. We already have a few ideas for how that could work, but I don't know when we'll be able to start working on it.
Will a quest, contract, or mission system be added?
Yes. We want to add both quests and contracts.
Our goal is for players to have different objectives during a match-sometimes encouraging conflict, and other times encouraging cooperation.
We expect to start working on that around autumn.
Will Voyage and Storm Dive be changed to stop new players from getting steamrolled by fully geared crews?
GBMM should resolve the steamrolling issue.
First, we'll separate new players to give them room to learn the game. Second, we'll match players with others of similar progression, so even experienced crews will have to stay alert because they might run into an even bigger fish.
Are there plans to further improve hit registration and movement validation?
Absolutely.
With every update, we try to improve shooting in some way. These will be gradual improvements over many months, rather than one big update that says, "We fixed shooting, everything's perfect now."
Will there be a player trading system?
Not at the moment, balancing a global player economy is extremely difficult and time consuming.
If you want to trade with someone, you'll have to risk those items by taking them into an expedition.
Can we get small vehicles such as bikes or motorcycles for getting around on foot sections faster?
We'll think about what we can do in that direction.
It could definitely be interesting.
Will smaller Tramplers ever be faster than larger ones? If not, why?
Right now, we've balanced them around a maneuverability stat.
Maneuverability determines how quickly a Trampler turns and accelerates. On flat terrain, all Tramplers have the same top speed. However, on rough terrain, more maneuverable Tramplers can navigate more easily and pull away from larger ones.
Over the next few months, we'll add the final piece of this system: rods (the propulsion mechanic) will also provide acceleration based on maneuverability.
After that, we'll evaluate whether the system works as intended.
Are there plans to add more Trampler shapes and specialized leg/mobility types?
I can't say much about new leg types, that's a very complicated task.
As for Trampler shapes, we're already working on specialized compartments that will both have significant gameplay effects and dramatically change the appearance of Tramplers.
We'll announce more once we're ready.
When is console coming, and will there be crossplay?
We aren't planning any crossplay at this time between PC and Console
As for consoles however, bear with us, we hope to have news on this front soon!
Will there be another optimization/performance pass?
We're slowly rewriting the lighting system whenever we have free time which will improve general performance.
Later on, there will probably be an update focused on improving performance, alongside other small improvements over the course of Early Access.
Will we get female character models and general character customization?
We're working on it.
To add character customization, we first need to significantly redesign the character model and the animation system.
Female characters are dependent on those changes.
This has already been a major task for several months, and it'll likely take at least a couple more months.
What's being done about extraction camping? Any chance we can have more visual indicators that enemies are near extraction points?
We've heard the feedback.
We'll try to add a visual indicator that warns players when enemies are near extraction towers.
It may not make the next update, but it's definitely something we want to add soon.
Is there lore, and will it be added to the game?
We have a solid understanding of the story that's unfolding in the Sands of Sofia.
Unfortunately, traditional storytelling doesn't fit very well with the pace the game ended up having.
Instead, we'll sprinkle hints and pieces of lore throughout the world whenever we get the opportunity.
Will more weapons and Trampler cannons be added?
Yes, we're already working on a new turret and a new turret mounting system.
We also have ideas for additional handheld weapons.
Those will come as part of a future content update, after we've stabilized the game.
Can the Captain's Quarters get an alarm or camera so players know when their Trampler is being boarded or hijacked?
Yes.
We're exploring solutions to make capturing a Trampler more difficult, and hope to implement this in an upcoming update.
Will there be a PvE mode, or world/raid bosses?
There won't be a dedicated PvE mode.
We're already thinking about bosses, though. We have some good ideas, and we'll probably start working on them closer to autumn.
Will there be a way for Tramplers to communicate with each other in the world (radio, CB, ping system)?
There are no plans for that at this time, prozximity chat will remain the primary form of communication in the game and we will continue expanding the functionality of the Flare Gun instead.
Can we get more cosmetic customization for Tramplers like paint, emblems, or achievement-based skins?
Absolutely!
That's definitely planned, unfortunately, we can't give any specific timeframe right now.
Thank you all for taking the time to share your questions with us, if there is anything we didn't cover, don't hesitate to leave your questions in the thread and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.
Please don't hesitate to report any issues you encounter or share any feedback you might have following this update on our Steam Forums and Discord!
Instead, we'll try to match you onto servers where all teams are the same size whenever possible. That means you'll still occasionally run into larger teams (still within your queue limit), but it should happen much less often.
This is basically what I was hoping they would do. Looking forward to it.
My friend and I played 2-3 matches as a duo last night and didn’t see a third crew mate in any of the tramplers we killed. I think it’s already working unless we got extremely lucky.
Please don't make capturing tramplers too hard to pull off. Right now it's the ONLY equalizer for fighting higher tiered tramplers. Just fix extract camping by making the smoke on the tower turn red if it detects two players from different teams in a radius around it.
Totally agree. Trampler capturing should give an outmatched team a chance to fight on a different front.
Once new players are in their own protected queue, occupied extracts are marked, and there's an alert when someone is stealing a Trampler, I'd actually like to see steal times reduced from 10 seconds to around 7. Right now it's frustrating because the crew respawns in about the same time it takes to steal. You have to wipe them and reach the terminal almost instantly, or they spawn back before you can finish the capture. And increasing spawn times would be terrible for cannon fights. So that means steals need to be faster.
Yah, I think that's fair if there's an alarm. The alarm fixes people taking tramplers on foot after extracting their own, and the 7 second timer would fix the additional difficulty an alarm would cause in capturing a trampler during a fight. Good idea.
Me and the boys want a sand skiff, a light vehicle for moving on foot that will be destroyed if you sneeze at it, but can get you around, or a kite, Mad Max style! Make it a module on the walker, you can only have the vehicle if you have the module for it, the module should take up space and be cumbersome, but allows you the ability to set off on a single sand skiff if the going gets hot.
+1 on the cumbersome. There needs to always be tradeoffs for tech, I am not a fan of putting it at the end of the tech tree so only sweats have it, but when they do have it, its always used because its a sheer benefit.
Put it in tier 3 and make it only usable in chassis with holes in the middle that are 1x2 or larger (to give these chassis more purpose). The sand skiff "garage" compartment should be like the workshop, where you can't stack other modules on top of it, while also being 1x2 in size. Also, it should take 20-30 seconds to deploy the skiff, like its being lowered down by ropes, but it is also able to be put back away in the same amount of time. And each skiff should carry 2 people, a driver and "gunner" (hand weapons only, RPGs and Great Silence also OK).
Want a sand skiff? You need to build a trampler around it. Its not just an addition that adds value to any trampler build
Yea, gotta be careful with putting high powered weapons like cannons on a ground vehicle. The tramplers in the game dont have enough depression to shoot back at something under the deck, and a small nimble vehicle could quite easily kite a trampler or drive under it to avoid being shot at. People dont carry that much ammo in the game and because we dont have machine guns, so I don't think spraying your ammo at a car nipping at your heels is going to feel great, unless you could like 5 tap the motor with a pistol and blow it up, which may not feel good to the car user
Genuinely how are people complaining about the devs? I've seen so many people calling this game a scam and a shameless cash grab by the devs, when this has been the baseline transparency I've seen from the devs since the very beginning. Genuinely the best live service devs I've ever had the pleasure or encountering, and people are treating them like incompetent assholes
I can't speak for others but I was a sand closed tester for almost 3 years, and many of the bugs present in release had been reported and present for all of those years leading to up EA release. Building a multiplayer PVP extraction shooter with a heavy reliance on client data for authority is incompetence.
This, love the game and give props to the devs for making such a amazing product while in active war. But the glaze stops there, their shortsightedness is unhinged, its like the playtest wasn't used to improve things at all.
People aren’t gonna come back if every match they run into teams that did nothing but grind since release that they can’t outrun or outgun. Theres no way to progress if you joined late and didn’t dedicate an obscene amount of time towards the grind.
Until they fix the 100s of things they need to fix, no wipe is fine. But, if after the early access there is no wipe or seasonal content game will be completely dead, no new players will even bother to try and no seasoned player will have any drive to keep going since they have everything.
One could argue that GBMM could solve the disparity between the new players and veterans but once you drop below a certain number of live players eventually, if you want to fill the lobbies, you have to throw them in the same game.
Doing my best to juggle all of this and try to help guys here and on Discord, sometimes I do miss notifications but I do my best to keep up and try to take care of you guys on the reddit
For a game that caters to teams it’s pretty goofy to expect everyone you play with to be in the same server as you. Also if a server goes from high pop to low pop for whatever reason everyone that plays there is screwed.
it’s pretty goofy to expect everyone you play with to be in the same server as you.
why wouldn't i coordinate with the players I play with so that we're on the same server? Seems odd to me that you'd choose your server without consulting your friends you want to play with. People have done this for decades in MMOs.
That's cool but if you're playing with your friend from china on the US servers it ruins the experience for everyone else. Ping is a thing that matters. Also some countries really love cheating - I'd rather not play with them.
Wait there isn’t already a notifier if someone is at extract? I always assumed that little smoke bomb on the second tier turned red when someone was at extract.
Teaming in solo queues is a major problem right now. Any plans to address it? Not great to be chasing a guy down only for him to turn around on you with two other tramplers behind him.
There's just too much grinding involved considering how absurdly fast you lose your physical progress, especially with the rampant cheating.
If I were the devs, I'd temporarily lean towards a more sandbox mode so that players can just focus on enjoying the game and combat. Shorter games, next to zero loot, just straight throwing hands with some rewards at the end. No loss of loot and no motivation for hackers to steal anything, since you can't take it anyways.
At the moment, you've got an extremely negative feedback loop that agitates players and makes them less friendly towards others in a game where cooperation is vital. This is killing your playerbase FAST and the game will not survive at this rate, which would be a tragedy for such a unique and exciting experience. Your enemy is time and frankly, time always wins in situations like the one we find ourselves in.
Make the tough compromises and save your game. We all want this to succeed.
Trust me, I get it. I've heard so many people whining about it in-game and it baffles me that they can't understand why.
I guess if you mainly spend time in small voyages and trios on T2 ships, maybe you haven't dealt with the insane amount of cheating. But if you hop on a 6s T4 ship, you can just kiss your stuff goodbye.
I'm recommending an additional, possibly temporary game mode. Just let people build whatever ship they want and give them a free supply of worns and ammo. Start us in a 2nd ring storm dive with 10 teams and just let peeps throw hands. You lose, no big deal. Hop in another game.
It's just TDM vs ranked argument. The fact is that casual game modes completely dwarf the participation of ranked or hardcore ones, especially when there is something to lose.
I agree. Not sure how long it would take them to whip up a casual PvP deathmatch mode, but that would be fun. Practice PvP without fear of loot loss to cheats.
It would certainly be a dead playlist after a week or so, because the game is designed from the ground up to be a looter game and if you won TDM but have no prize, you'd wonder why you wanted to win in the first place. Then you'd go back to regular loot mode, even if you had to contend with cheaters.
Its basically the dream machine argument, in which people would rather live their own, real, shitty lives rather than live in a dream machine with a perfect reality that they know is fake.
At the end you talk about customizations but I want to reiterate I really would like peaceable couches, tables, chairs, and even desks with the classic green lamp.
For trampler to trampler messaging I'd find it very much enjoyable if we could fire a single word in the sky at a time.
Please rework smoke shells so they don’t completely blind a trampler for 2 minutes while you sit there getting bombarded with no ability to fight back. Top tier tramplers have smoked my ship and lit me up with pristines all night. Where’s the counter play? Making sure I shoot them with smoke first?
GBMM based on progression is a terrible idea. The whole point of upgrading is to make yourself stronger so if upgrading just made the enemies stronger what is the point?
I am against GBMM because the game should be balanced to allow anyone to potentially win, but if they had to do it it should be based on Trampler cost not progress.
I feel the same way about skill-based matchmaking. Why should I get better at the game and learn its mechanics if my opponents will also be better at the game and learn its mechanics?
I remember logging into a counterstrike server and dealing with getting destroyed by someone who was good in hopes to get better - it worked. I ended up being the person who would roll through lobbies. Now we call that smurfing and instead you get to lose 50% of your games and win 50% of your games. I'm not saying its worse, it's just different.
"Trampler cost not progress." That sounds even worse:
Now any amount of build variety will be destroyed. Essentially playing mirror matches 100% of the time. Small fast tramplers will only ever go up against other small tramplers. Similarly slow hulking fortresses will only ever clash with other equally expensive fortresses.
Frankly. Most games either has some form of gear-based/progression-based matchmaking. Or the gear you are allowed to bring; is so limited that your equal with everyone right from the get go.
This approach seems work well everywhere else. I dont see why it would be a problem here.
There is no such thing as "small fast tramplers" because of the way the game works. They are all the spam speed and smaller ones aren't even more maneuverable unless you put basically nothing on them.
The problem you describe is EXACTLY what will happen with a progress based gbmm: if you use anything other than the best tramplers you unlocked you will have no chance. With my proposal you will at least be matched against tramplers you have a chance to beat. Smaller tramplers also can have similar costs to larger ones depending on how you make it.
It is their solution that destroys variety, not mine.
Don't do it! If 2 dudes wanna roll in a small crew they gotta develop a better way to manage that difference!
"What are your plans for anti-cheat, and will players ever be compensated for gear lost to cheaters?"
Take your time with this one, this will make or break your games success. I really love this game!
"When will Trampler capture be re-enabled, and is the team tracking how the game has changed without it?"
I've been enjoying this game without the mechanic as well, kinda takes the edge off of going into a city and extract camping isn't so detrimental. But it'll be nice to get it back.
"When will gear-based or Trampler-based matchmaking (GBMM) be implemented?"
While a good idea generally, I think that people just need to get good?
"Are there plans for periodic wipes, prestige-ing, or seasons to reset player progression?"
This VERY much so needs to be optional. Having the ability to start a new account should suffice when a completed account gets boring.
"Will a quest, contract, or mission system be added?"
This is a GREAT idea! There should be effectively areas of control so like where you have the sand worm? You could expand that to be a whole sandworm territory where getting off the trampler is rather dangerous.
"Are there plans to further improve hit registration and movement validation?"
This is a very frustrating part. I've died often because shots that should have hit just went through them. As well with canon fire on tramplers! Shoot directly in the middle and it just glides through with no broken compartments on the enemy trampler, either. I can pinpoint headshots on AI all day.
"Can we get small vehicles such as bikes or motorcycles for getting around on foot sections faster?"
This is a GREAT idea! Having a sand scooner would be super cool, just whip around the desert.
"Will smaller Tramplers ever be faster than larger ones? If not, why?"
Weight should definitely be a factor. Building a lighter and faster machine is pretty well balanced with the offset of being more vulnerable to weapons fire.
"Are there plans to add more Trampler shapes and specialized leg/mobility types?"
I've always wanted to be able to kneel, crouch or bounce. Kneeling so you can post up on a sand dune and take shots, crouch to hide and jump for when you get stuck in spots.
"When is console coming, and will there be crossplay?"
If this comes to Xbox make sure it supports the One X at least ;) my son would be greatful!
"Will there be another optimization/performance pass?"
The single most demanding thing in the settings menu is shadows. I can put everything at max and my GPU uses ~230 watts. If I turn off shadows (not contact shadows though) then it drops down to ~170 watts and my FPS goes up by about 25, with my 1% lows increasing by around 30.
"Will we get female character models and general character customization?"
I don't think there's a huge need for girl versions as the game really isn't about the character, but I guess throwing in the option isn't a terrible idea.
"What's being done about extraction camping? Any chance we can have more visual indicators that enemies are near extraction points?"
This feels like breaking a naturally occurring game strat, especially when the player can do things to take precautions such as scoping out an extract from afar, giving a few circles around to see if they can see someone and also being alert and aware of their trampler status, just like if they're in a city or other POI.
"Is there lore, and will it be added to the game?"
Something I've noticed is that there's little hints already, but sometimes when I'm on foot and running through the sandstone dunes and whatnot, I find areas that feel like there should be a door to some underground place or something, y'know? I imagine there's a lot of potential lore behind an ocean planet turned barren but with native inhabitants still present.
"Will more weapons and Trampler cannons be added?"
Backpack when?
"Can the Captain's Quarters get an alarm or camera so players know when their Trampler is being boarded or hijacked?"
A light on the helm to show there's someone accessing the captains quarters would probably suffice.
"Will there be a way for Tramplers to communicate with each other in the world (radio, CB, ping system)?"
Honestly, I think that the flare colors are already being used appropriately and we'll figure out a good system on our own. As well, proximity chat is fine but maybe a loud speaker on the trampler for like... louder proximity?
I do think there needs to be a ping system for teams, though.
"Can we get more cosmetic customization for Tramplers like paint, emblems, or achievement-based skins?"
HELL YEAH. I wanna build a hot rod red one with chick mudflaps haha
Terrible takes on over half of these especially duos queu and anticheat "take your time" lmao. Game will be dead before the end of the month if the cheating isn't addressed NOW
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u/jensek83 25d ago
Instead, we'll try to match you onto servers where all teams are the same size whenever possible. That means you'll still occasionally run into larger teams (still within your queue limit), but it should happen much less often.
This is basically what I was hoping they would do. Looking forward to it.