I apologise that this is a bit late.
But here is my video about the changes that were made on the 29th of March.
Let’s start with the map changes.
Dust2 had a one-way wallbang from CT spawn up to cat removed.
Before you were able to do this: …and now you can’t.
The other 2 patchnotes are a little vague.
‘Fixed some minor bugs’ could be anything- I’m guessing little adjustments that Valve
makes from reddit posts and stuff, but that aren’t big enough to justify updating the
map for until more major changes are also done.
But out of curiosity, I screenshotted- or should that be screenshat?- lots of places
from across the map, both with and without clipping visible to see what these ‘minor
bugs’ could be.
And I can confirm…
they’re minor.
No clipping has been changed, and other than a few tiny places where the shading is a little
bit different for whatever reason, the only changes I could see were to a tree and street
light model.
The old ones now appear entirely black- which obviously wasn’t the case before because
we’d have noticed.
So I assume that these models have been changed in some way.
When editing the maps I also noticed that, for the lights at least, the minimum CPU level
has been dropped from high down to low.
Exciting.
So I guess from this we can safely say that not a lot has changed.
The final patchnote for Dust2 was ‘Fix for mip bias exploit’.
I don’t know what this bug specifically is, but mipmap bias is to do with how textures
are replaced with blurrier, lower quality versions, as you can see from this Witcher
3 comparison between 2 different mipmap settings.
But MIP bias?
According to Wikipedia, MIP just means ‘Much in Little’, which doesn’t mean much.
Maybe…
it’s to do with the street light settings?
Yeah, I’ll go with that and just move onto something else because frankly we’re making
a mountain out of a molehill here.
A MIP, if you will.
Moving onto Canals, which has received some changes which I suspect just tidy up a few
issues that arose from the recent big update the map received.
They opened up B lobby to stairs- as you can see here.
I didn’t even notice all the changes at first but it’s quite drastic.
The room now has 3D arches, and removing the wall next to the stairs means that you can
now see all the way from outside, up into the room before the bombsite.
Not that you can do a lot with it.
Also, shifting these stairs a bit and moving the window up a notch now means that the window
models either side no longer match up, further compounding this map’s already suspect architecture.
They ‘Simplified the geometry around B site for better movement.’
Which I guess means making the room before B a simpler box-shape and by stretching out
the arch to make the entrance to the site wider.
It’s nice that they also added a previously missing trim from the base of the wall.
I’m sorry for not noticing this GLARING ISSUE sooner.
But I will say that the new version has an off-colour trim on the other side of the room
now.
We all really care about this don’t we.
They blocked ‘invisible’ area at A.
This isn’t cryptic- this literally refers to the part of the map with ‘INVISIBLE’
spraypainted- or is it spraypant- along the wall.
This will make it easier for people in the already OP Ramp area to clear the site one
place at a time.
They also changed the cover here from some oddly shaped plants to a much simpler- and
lower- dumpster model.
I feel this was a big enough change to be covered in the patchnotes, but no.
You heard it here first.
And lastly, they fixed several pixelwalk exploits where you could walk along the side of walls
somewhere.
And minor bugs.
I saved myself a lot of time by not bothering to investigate these, since it’s not like
they’re a problem any more any way.
I did however notice that they changed this window model.
And lastly, Nuke.
It has had the squeaky door moved back a bit.
As an attacking terrorist, I like this change since it means I can get through the door
with a bit more cover from surrounding scenery.
Valve describes the change as ‘clearer view towards hut’…
Perhaps towards enemies stood on the top of it?
Maybe?
The geometry near crane has also changed.
Before there was a strange sticky-outy bit where you pretend you were in jail, but now
you’re able to drop straight down off the edge if you do so wish.
T spawn’s roof has had a few changes to the clipping to smooth out movement.
There are 2 parts to this: slopes have been added to the edges so your view doesn’t
‘pop’ up as you go over them.
And the piping has had its clipping removed so your feet now pass straight through them.
But, oh Valve, you forgot to get rid of these corner bits.
Your view will still jolt as you go over these.
Please fix.
A few crates have changed colours!
This affects the newish boxes on B site, and this big one outside.
Not a lot to talk about with these, guess somebody on the mapping team just had a change
of mind.
And lastly, some of the boxes have been removed at the back of squeaky, leaving more cover
for terrorists to utilise.
Here is how it looks in the position, and what the enemy can see if someone’s stood
there.
But these map changes aren’t the only updates.
Hidden away at the bottom of the ‘miscellaneous’ changes is one that’s caused quite some
commotion.
Since I’m a little late to the party I’ve had the benefit of seeing the backlash from
the community.
About how this will end trading and will decimate the value of skins.
I’ve also seen how this hasn’t happened.
Yet.
The new 7 day delay will impact people who receive and sell items quickly- most notably,
gambling, skin and money laundering sites, as well as anybody who profits off of them.
I won’t be shedding a tear for these people.
Plus it’s not like it stops these things- it simply slows it down.
A skin is to be an investment, not something to daytrade with gay abandon!
That being said, there will be cases where innocent people will be inconvenienced.
If you want to borrow a skin from a friend for whatever reason, it’ll now take 7 days
before you can give them it back again.
And if you desperately need emergency cash for your Dad’s bone repair, then it might
also be a problem.
But these aren’t ordinary circumstances.
And Valve notes in their blog post that they’ll continue evaluating trading policies, presumably
to minimise the disruption to innocents whilst making life increasingly difficult for those
who abuse the system.
While pro player JW thinks it’s ridiculous a trade ban update has been added while his
vague hitreg problem persists, I like that Valve addresses a number of different parts
of the game in an update like this.
There are map changes for the people playing the game (that includes you JW!), there are
miscellaneous updates to improve the game’s audio and to troll skin sites, and this time
there’s even some love given to the mappers.
Finally, after all these years, you can change the scale of props!
Want a smaller pillar?
SURE!
Want props for a RATS gamemode?
Yeah!
Want a bigger tree?
No, but you can if you want to.
Let’s make it smaller.
Much better.