Today we get a few map updates, some small changes, and some new music kits.
But first, the UPDATES.
Oops, looks like some people who should have got the 10 year birthday coin from playing
Counter-Strike in this last week were unable to because their inventories were full.
But don’t worry- Valve will still give it to you… this time.
And presumably linked to that update is this one: which is a new notification which will
be added to the main menu to threaten you into buying a new storage container if your
inventory is getting full.
I’m peeved about this because I went to the bother of transferring 1,000 items out
of storage to test when this message kicked in, expecting it to be when you had 1, 5 or
10 slots left, but it was still showing up, telling me it was 100% full, even after I
had deposited well over 100 items back into my containers again.
I just ended up giving up and thinking this feature is currently a bit broken.
I hate the long-winded nature of the deposit/retrieve system of containers in the game and I really
can’t be bothered to find the exact amount in your inventory for when this message first
kicks in.
Valve pls FIX.
A few of the updates stop people without prime status from being able to do stuff, presumably
cos new and dodgy accounts were doing new and dodgy things with them, which these changes
should hopefully block.
This is an interesting one- blocked players’ avatars will get one of several premade custom
avatars instead, rather than just having a blank profile picture.
So in this instance, rather than seeing anime, soldiers and… brazzers, we see some gorgeously
abstract shapes and colours instead, and hopefully enough different ones so that you can always
distinguish between players in a match.
A few of the maps have been updated.
EVERYTHING in Blagai has been moved.
I know that, cos they’ve literally moved the entire map across in Hammer to get away
from the 0,0,0 point.
This special place is the very middle of the Source engine’s playable space, which you’d
think would be the ideal place to put your map but is unfortunately where weird things
happen.
For instance, players can sometimes randomly spawn here -if you ever spawned in the wall
at the top of mid on Dust2 then this is why- the 0,0,0 point is also a spot where other
entities placed there will be deleted, and in terms of optimisation, it breaks the map
up at this point, resulting in longer compile times.
In case you wanted to know all that.
Which you probably didn’t.
But you might.
Moving the map also makes it harder for me to do direct image comparisons between these
2 different versions of the map.
But I still managed.
As you can see, most things have shifted about, either to better line up with their surroundings,
or just to be BETTER.
The stonework on this wall looks more natural.
A few of the models, like these stairs here, have been reworked, grenade clipping has been
added to this lattice- which might be less realistic, but at least now you’ll know
how it’ll bounce off if you throw something at it.
This metal roof thing here no longer glows.
And this flying key that was in the air before, has gone.
And this map has had its nav mesh upgraded, which does 2 things: firstly, it makes bots
move better across the map- because previously, CTs would get stuck in the spawn, and terrorists
would sometimes jump into the water and die.
And the second benefit for this updated nav mesh is that it’s given different parts
of the map different place names, which can be seen in the top left corner of the screen.
That’s how they do it.
Honestly, these all feel like changes that should have been made to the map before it
was added to the game in the first place.
And I’m still unsure whether this map’s name is meant to end with an I or with a j.
Primetime, formerly known as Prime, has had its name changed AGAIN to Cascade.
It probably makes sense to further distance this map’s name from the Prime feature that
CS:GO already has, and also from that popular saying that all the cool kids these days are
using where they boot up CS:GO for a match and say ‘it’s Primin’ time’.
But, in order to keep things as confusing as possible for people like me, the map file
is still called ‘Prime’.
So for those of you who wonder why I sometimes get the names of stuff wrong, like ‘cbble’
or the ‘sg 556’… it’s cos I do a lot of stuff in the console in-game, and that’s
the name I tend to refer to stuff by, so don’t be surprised if I still call Cascade Prime
from time to time.
But I’ll try not to.
Sadly, in this update, Prime’s graphics have been SIGNIFICANTLY downgraded.
Like a reverse face-lift.
A face…
DROP.
‘Reduced detail to help boost performance and limit visual bugs’ isn’t just talking
about a prop here or there- it’s removed many of the details which set this map apart
from others- and they’ve all been taken out to improve fps.
I’d say that a good 50% of the details on this map have been removed, including the
rubble, decals and every single particle effect that there was.
Which is a SHAME.
I suppose this map was around for a while to showcase how it looked, and now it’s
got to cater for people with slower PCs who just want to play on and to play this map.
But it feels like the very thing that made this map so immediately special, has been
taken away!
And it’s shown me how much this map benefitted from dust-motes and particle effects, which
helped to transform this map into a living, breathing place.
The removal of these things is more understandable, though, because they don’t work well with
the smoke effects in the source engine.
Sadly, the technology just isn’t there yet in CS:GO for multiple transparencies to play
nicely together.
So yes, Cascade will definitely run faster on your PC, and with fewer visual bugs than
before.
But still…
what a shame.
I’ve provided a link in the description to the older version of the map for anybody
interested in knowing how it used to look.
I talked about how this map relied on baked-in lighting and deliberately hid the real-time
shadows in the Source engine to achieve a softer look.
Well, that’s also changed and now we just see the same real-time, sharp shadows everywhere
that are seen in every other CS:GO map as well.
That’s right: Cascade now has cascade shadow maps.
It has also had its cave wall’s collision model updated, because it was wayyy too easy
before to run up to it and to stick your face through it into the nothingness beyond.
You can see that there’s also a clip brush added to stop players from getting to close
and personal with this surface now.
And Breach has had a few minor changes as well, mostly to the clipping to stop the cool
kids activating partyin’ time just here.
And also… these blinds at A can no longer be seen through.
And last, we get onto the music kits.
Which I’m kind of excited about, because one of them is MINE!
All mine!
And 50% my Dad’s.
Like I said earlier, all of the other ones in the Initiators Music Kit Box are from proper
musicians who know what they’re doing and make really nice sounding songs.
Meanwhile, Heading for the Source is… made by 2 people who, when we made these tracks,
never thought anybody was ever going to hear them.
And certainly not in this way.
I did have this big segment written for the story behind this music kit, and what it’s
lead to elsewhere.
It was an exciting story of nostalgia and BETRAYAL.
But I don’t feel this is the time or place to talk it because this should be about the
music kit itself.
Which you now have access to.
Thank you for your support, and should you choose it to accompany your future Counter-Strike
adventures, I hope you have FUN!