I've played Sandstorm for about 35 hours and wanted to leave a little feedback. I'm not a hardcore FPS gamer / pro - Plenty of people can wipe the floor with me, so I'll leave game mechanic suggestions to others. However, as someone who's worked in 3D & Production for some time, my eye has always been drawn to the detail end of things (graphics, lighting, etc).
A few quirks aside (it's Beta after all) I think Sandstorm is visually stunning & beautiful. Even though some of the comments on Steam forums were brutal and in IMHO unfounded regarding visual fidelity, your Art Department deserves alot of praise & credit (my hats off to them).
Now, I've never had an issue with performance (butter smooth) but there lies the problem, not everyone owns the latest hardware. So, it's understandable certain system configurations were performing poorly with the UE4 rendering platform.
That being said, I hope optimization for the final release doesn't reduce quality (lighting, textures, shadows, AO, GI, etc) for top tier systems in order to accommodate slower performing hardware. More specifically, if areas regarding visuals must be reduced, I hope your team leaves the option to run Sandstorm in all it's glory & fidelity for those who do have the hardware to push it's limits.
Anyways, don't look at the delay as a setback, it's an opportunity to take your baby to the next level. I'm confident you guys will release an awesome game that looks & plays great, and one that'll have the longevity of the first Insurgency title. You got the hook in us, time to reel it in (wink).
Thanks for all the hard work, now go enjoy the upcoming weekend,
-Terry