Bots in competitive games are no more. Previously, when a teammate disconnected, left (or was
kicked), they were replaced with a bot of limited ability and selective hearing. You’d
usually tell them to HOLD THIS POSITION at the start of the round and to hope they’d
do as they were told instead of rushing off to almost certain peril. IF the bot did as
he was told and hadn’t died, once one of the 4 remaining players died they could take
control of the bot. Essentially an extra life for whoever dies first. Or who is quickest
to realise there’s a bot still alive. But no more! When you’re down to just 4
players, you ARE down to just 4 players, putting that team at a significant disadvantage for
the rest of the game.
This here is a 300 IQ move by Valve. We as the players have brought this upon ourselves
and if you don’t like it, you can cry harder, get good trust factor and source 2, scrub.
Actually, I’m not sure why Valve did this. It was mentioned recently that vacnet and
overwatch were being experimented on. I wonder if they uncovered some massive underground
ring of players who exploited bots to rank up some how. Even if that was the case, I
would have imagined there would have been a better way of remedying the situation than
to strip the ENTIRE MULTIPLAYER GAME of bots.
Even in normal games, bots could be exploited. You could intentionally kick the ‘worst’
player on the team and then let the best player on the team rush in aggressively, die, then
to take over the bot, effectively getting 2 best players for the price of one. But this
was sort of offset by all those times bots would just rush in and die. And how often
he’d waste all of his money on a shotgun, or machine gun. And how often the real player
would die early from reckless behaviour, wasting his first life. So my best guess would be
that they removed bots to disincentivise kicking players unless they are, literally, worse
than nothing. I’ve seen some people saying that this will make the games less toxic,
but I’ve seen plenty of toxic behaviour before a player is kicked, AND after a kick
fails. So I expect things to still be toxic.
Other than that, a few bugs have been patched. Pings no longer change position when walked
over by a player, nor do they disappear when placed on a weapon that’s then picked up.
These things could previously give away information about an unseen enemy, but now work as they
should by remaining in their originally placed state, even after the enemy has been picked
up, or if the weapon has walked off. For those of you in China, you’ll get Prime
Account status if you’ve completed the GOVERNMENT IDENTITY VERIFICATION program. Isn’t that
nice? A free upgrade to the premium matchmaking. It just means when you play too much, or get
VAC banned you’ll have to explain that to the Chinese government.
The size of the SWAT sleeves have been reduced to match all existing models. I assume this
was done to address the animation problem where the arm pads would pop up in front of
the screen when swiping a knife about.
And there are changes to some of the maps. Cache’s are rather simple – these cargo
containers at T spawn used to have a missing surface, which you could see through. But
you couldn’t see PEOPLE through- only the scenery. This has been sealed up, and along
with it, the container has changed colour. And surprise, surprise, isn’t green.
I’ve been told I’ve been shouted out in the patchnotes, though again it’s worth
noting that it was from the map’s maker, FMPone, instead of from Valve directly. And
it’s not really crediting me so much as the person whose clip I forward onto him.
Just now, it was luck that I managed to find the post again, so thank you Greg for pointing
it out, though if anybody has bugs then don’t send it to me on twitter- it’s much better
to send them straight onto the map’s maker, perhaps on their map’s workshop page, since
your changes will be more likely to be seen, and you’re more likely to be credited.
The bomb blast could be seen above the map because for some reason it was being rendered
in the 3D skybox, which is far below the level. But this has been fixed.
Engage has changed the most. The patchnotes mostly cover A, but the whole map has been
changed visually to improve FPS. I found this mostly comprised of fewer decals and details.
It’s almost like maps have to look pretty to get into the game, then spend the next
few months being stripped of their visuals for the sake of framerate and visibility.
But the biggest changes are to the A site. It’s been transformed. The entire top level
has been lowered. So has that red bit by the door entrance, and a ladder now goes between
the top and bottom level at CT side. These changes will all make it a lot easier to get
around the site. Falling damage won’t be such a big problem, and I feel that by being
made thinner, the staircase around the side and the walkway going over the top will be
less attractive places to be caught in a firefight from. It will only take 2 jumps to reach the
red door, unlike the 3 it took previously. A lot of the cover has been stripped out from
the site as well. CT’s have far less around their top entrance to the site, again, reducing
how many spots players will need to check when attacking this bombsite. But there are
also fewer places on the bombsite where you can hide. Fewer campy spots and a mere pillar
in the middle to shield you from the rest of the site. See what you think of this site
now! The doorways leading from A to middle have
been widened. I’ve just realised how similar this spot is to that hut on Nuke.
The ceiling glass is breakable around A-site and mid. It’s not like this map had a shortage
of setup grenades with all of its car-shaped holes everywhere, but now there will be even
more, just waiting to be discovered and condensed into an 8-minute long Youtube montage!
In middle itself, that strange glass office place can no longer be accessed, drastically
cutting down on the spots CTs could stand when guarding middle. And a lot of tyres have
gone, presumably to improve FPS. And this is how middle looks from the terrorist’s
upper entrance- a lot simpler, visually, with fewer lines running along the walls.
And… the same from the bottom entrance. In my opinion it looks a lot less detailed
now, especially up above head height. And the same sort of thing’s happened at
B. A lot of the lines have been stripped away, fewer details up high… but gameplay-wise,
not many changes. But those cabinets now go down to floor level so you won’t see any
feet exposed beneath. Terrorist spawn shows a few visual tweaks.
Some of the windows have been taken out, and the map’s defining carpark thing now looks
quite different, and with far fewer cars inside. The terrorist’s side of the map has also
been simplified, with cover removed, tyres taken away… and a few walls added to split
it all up into more separate-feeling zones, especially between middle and A.
You can see the room leading to A has been dropped, much like the site itself has been.
And that staircase there will make it easier to travel between the site’s entrances.
Before you had to 3 jumps up this stack of crates, or to go all the way around to T-spawn.
Which obviously you wouldn’t do because it takes ages.
And lastly, CT spawn is the one place where I think it looks better now. Sure, some of
the details have been taken away, but there’s a lot more polish to the floor, and on the
car models which now reflect the sky a lot better. So yeah, lots of changes to Engage!
Meanwhile, the wingman map, Guard, has had a few changes too. The ladder has been pushed
back into the wall a bit to give players more space to get up and down, which should hopefully
improve movement on these treacherous things. The back alley has had its wall lowered, and
that power box next to the bikes removed. CT spawn has been pushed back a bit to make
it take a bit longer for them to get anywhere. Which should make it a bit easier for T-side.
Approaching the site now, and from the double doors the corridor bit leading to the bombsite
has been widened slightly, which will give players a bit more cover if stood either side
of the archway. The truck on the site hasn’t moved, but
its canvas walls have been stretched ever so slightly so that players stood inside don’t
get such a good view of the terrorist approach. The cubby by the restaurant has been made
even more shallow than it was before, which was already shallower than it used to be.
You can see that the crates have moved across a bit, some of the planks on the scaffolding
have been shifted to improve player readability, a bucket’s been placed here…
…and that invisible bit of floor by T spawn has been sealed up.
I did also check the clipping and stuff’s been added to a lot of the walls to make them
smoother to run along, and to make pixel-walks less likely to occur.
And as promised, place names have been added, which you can see up in the top left hand
corner to aid in your shout-outs to teammate. …yeah, that’s about it. Not bad for a
minor update. Shame the bots won’t be able to enjoy it any more, though.
And if you’re looking for an excuse to avoid whatever it is you’re meant to be doing
for a few more minutes, a cool trailer for de_engage was released just before Christmas
last year. While most ads disguise themselves as content, this is content disguised as an
ad. Which might also be an ad that I’m content with.
And Jakub has already found a few new bugs on the map that will need fixing. See them
HERE!