It’s not fair to change CS:GO’s maps or
gameplay mid-way through a major tournament,
such as the one in Katowice a few weeks ago.
But now it’s ended, Valve is pumping out
the major updates for CS:GO. We’ve got map
updates, new content and gameplay changes-
some of which I suspect are in response to
what went on during the major.
For instance, they’ve changed the loss bonuses
yet again!
It makes sense that you get a good amount
of money for winning a round. You deserve
to be rewarded for winning. But should the
losing team be PUNISHED for losing? Surely
losing the round is bad enough, but to be
given less money to play the next one with
will only make matters worse! A team that’s
behind will only become further behind.
The game’s way of trying to balance this
has always been to give the losing team more
money for every round in a row that they lose,
until it gets to the point where they can
buy decent stuff almost every round without
needing to resort to desperate ecos and rushes.
Once they win a round, their next loss bonus
has always been reset down to $1,400 again.
In 2017, Physicaque worked out that with this
system, simply winning both pistol rounds
gave you nearly 70% chance of winning the
entire game! So in October last year, Valve
upped the pistol round loss bonus from $1,400
up to $1,900 to try and get losing teams competitive
again sooner, and to make the outcome of pistol
rounds less important in the grand scale of
things.
And now we arrive at where we are today, and
losing teams have been nerfed even less! Winning
a round no longer resets your loss bonus to
$1,400. It just goes up or down by 1 category
every time you win or lose a round. Say you
lose a series of rounds and your loss bonus
goes up to $3,400. But then you win a round!
This used to immediately reset your loss bonus
back to $1,400 again. But now, it’ll only
have been reduced to $2,900. And 2 wins in
a row would have reduced it to $2,400 and
so on.
This change will have the biggest impact on
games where one team is losing a lot more
than the other. Like for anyone who had to
fight Astralis in the major, for instance.
Fairer matches won’t change AS much, maybe
an extra $500 or $1,000 here or there. This
update will also help to naturally balance
one-sided maps.
Next up: a new kind of assist has been added
to recognise the importance of flash bangs!
If somebody dies while flashed, whoever threw
that flash will get a shout-out. This is a
great way of rewarding teamplay, and for acknowledging
the importance of utility. This only shows
up if nobody else got an assist on that player,
though. Sadly, they still won’t get any
points for it.
You can see from here that it won’t show
up if you mistakenly flash a teammate who
dies. It only shows up on flashed enemies.
The AUG was the most popular CT rifle in the
recent major, so Valve has upped its price
from $3,150 to the original $3,300 again.
The question is: will people continue to use
it? If not, then it shows how much price matters-
people would rather get an inferior weapon
and save $200! But if it’s still used…
well, that would be even more interesting!
That would show that it should have been the
favourite rifle of choice for years, but it
took until 2019 and the pros to be using it
before everybody gave it a chance!
And the M4A1-S has also been changed! While
it and the M4A4 used to be equally popular,
the silenced version has fallen out of favour
in recent years, now a distant 3rd behind
the M4A4 and the AUG.
So its ammo capacity has been increased from
20 to 25, and has more reserve ammunition,
too.
This is BIG! It was always more precise and
easier to spray with than the M4A4, but you
had to sacrifice so much ammo capacity that
people didn’t think it was worth it. Moving
from a magazine capacity of 30 down to just
20 was too big a drop to justify, and you’d
find yourself running out when against multiple
enemies. But 25… I can see people using
it now! Let’s see how the balance between
the CT rifles changes, once the dust has settled.
Valve admits that shotguns were rubbish. And
although they’re probably still rubbish,
they are at least a lot cheaper! The nova
has been given some wall-penetration, and
the sawed off’s range up to a more acceptable
1400 units. Which is the same as the Mag7!
I still don’t know how good it will be,
but before this change it was useless! Bullets
would disappear into thin air long before
they should have done. You couldn’t even
hit the broad side of a barn. So at least
now you’ll probably manage that.
Following this update, the shotguns are among
the cheapest non-pistol items in the game,
and they all give you a kill reward of $900,
making them an excellent choice if you’re
short on cash and don’t mind lurking in
a corner to try and get some cheap, close-quarter
kills.
C4 and enemies can no longer be seen on the
radar through open doors, and the C4 should
now always return to a position on the ground
after it’s been dropped somewhere that it
can’t be retrieved. Which is a fix that
I can safely guess came from Vertigo!
The Prisma case I’ll cover some other time
in more depth. But 17 new community-made skins
have been added to the game!
The shuffle feature’s a nice idea- it lets
you select multiple skins for a single weapon,
and a random one from this list will be selected
at the start of every map. Great for players
with a large skin collection that they’re
particularly proud of.
Vertigo has had a few bug fixes. The runboost
exploit to get to bombsite B was not exactly
a secret. It should have been blocked off
for wingman mode, but wasn’t, so terrorists
found a way of planting at a site that the
CT’s had no easy access to. Valve thanks
you for your testing, but has patched it up.
If you’ve had your games of wingman ruined
by this bug then you can find comfort from
the fact that any future attempts will result
in the offending players plummeting to their
deaths.
And 2 doorways have been added. The first
is near CT spawn and actually features a door!
Which I guess will make it easier to guard
this ‘room’ from. And the second is just
a doorway, and is to back of A, which both
restricts visibility from this spot, and bottlenecks
players pushing through this area from either
side.
There was an overpowered boost on this spotlight
that let players see over into the site. It’s
still there, but the wall has been extended
so you gain no visibility from the position
any more. But players can still boost either
side of the doorway for a sneaky view over
into the A site.
RIP the generator that I shouted out for being
a great bit of cover last video. It’s been
removed completely.
And the climbable scaffolding has been shifted
across ever so slightly, which will let you
see ever so slightly further around into the
site from here.
The boostable concrete thing here has been
a lot made bigger. This will stop players
from falling off here from underneath, and
will give players on the top a bit more cover
from the CT entrances.
And being able to stand on this ledge was
unintentional, and has been clipped up.
Also, previously in the lift shaft you could
fall down here and survive. Not that you could
do anything- move at all and you immediately
DIED. But this has all been patched up, so
no jumping down lift shafts please.
At this rate, this skyscraper will be done
by Christmas!
And last, Canals. I thought they’d swap
it out for another workshop map since Valve
seems busy with Vertigo. But no! It’s still
hanging on in there and has had some changes
to the B side of the map.
These have been done to put less emphasis
on the section beyond the river. This is most
evident by having the site moved off the bridge
and over into the nearer side room. And the
outside passage- which was mostly used by
CTs- has been clipped off. The map has always
been lazy at blocking spots off, but this
takes it to new levels! Seriously, Valve?
You can say good bye to this bit, this room
and this alley here.
The last 2 changes I can show nicely with
little walkthroughs. Let’s start with the
terrorists’ entrance to mid courtyard. Previously
there was a route that came out in the far
canal. But this has all gone and all that’s
left is the corridor leading up! And a doorway
has been added to the top to allow for faster
access to the courtyard, and in turn, bombsite
B. Though I think this helps CT’s as much
as it does them, since you’ll have plenty
of time to lob grenades right into it in the
hope of catching rushing terrorists.
And the second comparison is on the T side
of the river. The entrance used to be further
along, but has been moved closer to where
terrorists start. You go up the steps and
come out at this room here. Bombsite B is
just over there, and walking around the corner
leads to the boost. Fans of this map will
see that a number of corridors have been removed.
Sadly, tributes to Benny Hill will no longer
be possible.
You’ll now be able to jump from scaffolding
into where bombsite B used to be. From this
comparison you’ll notice that nothing has
changed- it’s merely a change to the clipping,
since before you were unable to jump onto
the top of this sign, even though you clearly
should have been able to.
And last, the radar is now a beautiful shade
of carrot-orange.
