@prevent Ayy! I've been wanting to make a thread similar to this.
ADS Speed:
Honestly, the ADS speed in and of itself isn't really the issue, I don't think. At least, the base ADS speed. Overall player weight factors into ADS time as well, which I think is incredibly stupid. ADS speed gets slowed down by quite a bit at maxed weight.
Ins2014's ADS speed is actually far slower than Sandstorm's base ADS speed. However, in Ins2014 you typically brought up the front sight first, and then the rear, so while ADSing you could line up a pretty accurate shot. In Sandstorm, you line up both at the same time, which might be why it feels "off".
Also, with weight factored in, ADS time in Sandstorm becomes closer to ADS speed in Ins2014, so players running around with no gear and only a primary have the edge on players with full gear. Now, in theory, this is balanced by armor protecting players from the first shot, countering the speed advantage of the player with no extra gear.
The problem is that armor does virtually nothing. Heavy Armor does what Light Armor should do (with a little extra protection) and Light Armor is good if you want to spend a supply point to increase your weight by 15% without any benefits. Also, even equipping a Light Carrier with any primary and secondary weapon substantially increases your weight; even though the carrier itself only weighs 10%, the mags weigh an additional 20-30% weight in my experience. So if you're at max weight and defending, but you aren't constantly holding your sights up, the first rusher with no armor or ammo rig is going to annihilate you.
This weird-as-hell weight-ADS system seems to mostly favor Competitive play, with fast and precise movement and ADS speeds, but really fucks up the rest of the core gameplay in the other modes IMO.
One more thing: More weight also means you have less recoil. However, when I tested it (which was ages ago, I'll admit) maxed weight gave maybe a 15% recoil reduction, which in no way makes up for a halved ADS speed.
Hipfire Vs ADS Recoil:
Abso-fucking-lutely. Hipfire recoil makes no sense at all at the moment. Even a super-controllable MP5 (and I've used this metaphor a lot now) jumps around more than a three-year-old at a bounce house. Yet other guns like the new LMGs actually seem to work better hipfired than they should.
Also, I feel like the hipfire is somehow different from Source, almost like the cone where you can move your gun around in freeaim is larger than Source, or maybe the gun moves around in freeaim faster than Source. Something feels strange.
Hipfire is a 100% tactical thing. It makes sense at close range where you lack the time to ADS for a more accurate shot. Having to ADS 24/7 is dumb. Hipfire at the moment makes sense only for the SVD, bolt-action rifles, and anything else that kills in one shot, because simply put, you aren't hitting a second one.
Light & Heavy Armor:
You didn't mention this, but I feel that it's still related to the problem.
Armor in Sandstorm is actually less effective than armor in Insurgency: Source, and that's saying something. Specifically, Light Armor, at point-blank range, can save you from a Tariq, Hi-Power, and G3A3 (for some reason). No effect on anything else.
Heavy armor additionally (in CQB) stops a shot of an L10A6A1/PF940/M9, FAL, M14 EBR, Uzi, MP5A5, and MP5A2. So Heavy Armor can stop lethal shots from only eleven guns in Sandstorm, with the 40+ guns now in the game. Helps against explosives, too, but it seems marginal to be honest, and still not worth 30% weight and 3 supply.
No Armor Meta:
I've said it once and I'll say it again: Every weapon in Insurgency: Source (without mods, i.e. AP ammo) could kill a player wearing no armor with a single shot, even the Makarov. 9mm weapons would need to hit upper chest, but otherwise, this statement holds true.
In Sandstorm, there are only eleven guns capable of killing a player at full HP with no armor, out of the 40+ in-game now; the G3A3, FAL, M14 EBR, PKM, MG3, M240B, M24, SVD, Mosin, TOZ, and M590. Every other gun requires a second (or third) shot.
-> The only gun on this list that is stopped by Light Armor is the G3A3.
-> Heavy Armor still won't stop you from dying from 6-8 of those weapons in one shot, depending on how shotguns are factored in.
Ice Skating @ High Weight:
Not as bad as before, but still an issue IMO. Mikee even stated himself in the Sandstorm Gameplay Overview Trailer that "...Sandstorm is definitely a hardcore military game, but still recognizes the value of fluid movement". Let me tell ya; at a high weight, your movement is anything but fluid. It feels like I'm back to playing PUBG again with how much I'll slide around just trying to get through a doorway or window with maxed weight. The whole "inertia" system is poorly implemented and needs to be reworked entirely.
My suggestion is this; allow players to make turns on a dime regardless of weight. How much weight you're carryng becomes a factor into how much speed you lose when making sharp turns. Light players can recover faster from sharp turns, while heavyweight players need more time to get up to recover from turning corners, but can still make sharp turns.
Insurgency was built around responsiveness; giving the player full control of his or her character. Anything that makes the player feel like they aren't fully in control of their own character is a sin, in my opinion, and accelerative movement and turning removes the player's ability to make precise turns, right when they want to. I'm tired of running into doorways or sliding past windows and failing to get through them as a result.
On second thought, maybe I shouldn't mention the CTA lol.
Think that's all I wanted to cover. Jesus, this rant was long as hell LMAO.
TL;DR Make Sandstorm much more like Insurgency: Source, because that game had very few flaws at its core. Really, the only imbalanced thing with Ins2014 is AP and HP ammo.