The new Cache is losing its greenery. Those early previews at ESL New York had strong
colour-correction to make the greens pop and to stain those concrete surfaces yellow, as
well as having more green moss on the walls. This was already gone by the time it reached
the game. But since then it has had 5 different versions, and each tones the colours down
further, and removes yet more of the details. It’s gradually becoming the old Cache again!
…although you can see it still has some way to go. The one we currently have in the
game already has the biggest changes, but there’s an even newer version that’s currently
on FMPone’s workshop, which removes even more.
With it, the trims and darker bits have been brightened, and the green further stripped
from the walls and floors. Places that used to be quite green are now quite grey.
I’m sure it plays better than ever. But I’d be lying if I was happy about these
changes. It’s a shame to see the map visually becoming just a ghost of its former self.
There are good reasons for why this should be done. Framerates on this map were low when
it was first released, and no doubt these various optimisations have helped make the
map’s performance more acceptable for many players. I quickly tested a few of the most
demanding spots on my slowest PC and, when compared with the map at release, the latest
version is 8% faster on average if CPU-limited, and 9% if GPU. You have to decide whether
they’re worth the changes to the graphics. I’m not going to bother doing an in-depth
test again as I’m sure you’re all bored of that by now, but just know the framerates
you can expect from this map have only gotten better.
And I do think that, before a level is released, mappers have a tendency to chuck everything
at the project to see what sticks, then as time goes on and as players grow familiar
with the map, the mapper gets a better idea of what’s important to keep and what can
be discarded. And of course, with the introduction of custom
player models last year, it meant that maps needed to be adjusted to make these new characters
stand out against the backdrops. A few locations in other maps were also changed, like this
green spot on Overpass. But Cache with its striking colour palette was particularly affected
by this and I am sure that improving visibility has greatly influenced the direction these
updates have taken. Because you don’t want a ‘pay-to-win’ element to CS:GO, like
if custom player models camouflage better than stock ones, giving those players an advantage!
But where to draw the line? This issue is bigger than Cache. I’m seeing
a large contradiction with the direction the game as a whole is heading.
To say that graphics are important is an understatement. It’s now a requirement for a map to be beautiful
for it to even be considered for inclusion in CS:GO. Just last week I showcased the maps
which had made it to the final stages of the Mapcore 2019 competition, each with a distinct
theme and gorgeous details. These days, there are so many maps vying for our attention that
we can be picky enough to drop any that don’t look exceptionally beautiful.
In fact, let’s use Mapcore’s judging criteria to see what people look for in a map. They
split it into 4 equal categories: fun, setting, graphics and polish.
I’m going to give it the benefit of the doubt and say that ‘polish’ only relates
to gameplay, and not to graphics in the slightest. So that splits the score 50-50 between how
GOOD a map is, and how it looks. You could be mistaken for assuming that graphics are
half of the CS:GO experience! Yet once these maps are featured in the game,
if Cache is anything to go by, gameplay takes top priority and the graphics needs to be
toned back until it has no bearing on how it plays any more.
Isn’t it stupid that there’s a conflict between what is required to get the map into
the game, and what’s needed to keep it there? Don’t get me wrong- I appreciate graphics
and gameplay. I just wish there was a way of having both. And for a while we did! Having
set character models per level allowed for mappers to pick a class that stood out well
against their map’s backdrops. In this way, the game actually allowed for more graphical
variety than earlier Counter-Strikes, which would let you choose any character model on
any level. But late last year, Valve changed the rules
when they allowed players to be able to pick their own character models again. The decision
to introduce these is Valve prioritising graphics (and possibly money) over gameplay.
And maps like the new Cache have suffered from this. I am sure the map was fine with
the player models that FMPone had picked. It’s just when Valve rolls out such a large
new feature to a 7 year-old game less than a month after a map like Cache is introduced,
then of course it’s going to need emergency changes to keep it playable.
The changes on this map are particularly noticeable because Cache was in the wrong place at the
wrong time. But I feel the direction these updates have headed shows the far-reaching
implications a seemingly unrelated change to another part of the game can make.
At the end of the day, these custom character models are just another thing that mappers
will have to consider. On top of everything else that’s required to make a CS:GO-worthy
level. And while the player models are more fun than ever, I feel the worlds they inhabit
will be just that little bit bleaker.