Valve has started April with yet more map changes.
Let’s start with Nuke. A bomb stuck spot near silo has been fixed. Normally this would
be something predictable, like clipping off the area behind a barrel, or down between
2 props. But when we compare these images… what do you see?
They’ve clipped a flat bit of ground! I didn’t know about this particular bombstuck
spot, but I can guess what’s happened: the ground here is a displacement, and I’ve
covered before how items can fall down between displacements even when there’s seemingly
no gap- like in this black hole video of mine from a few years ago. I guess that’s what
happened to a C4 here at some point. It’s disappointing that Valve would rather address
this by clipping the floor, instead of fixing the problem with the displacements itself.
I’m making a lot of assumptions in this video! Dangerous assumptions. A few updates
ago I pointed out on old bug where weapons could be picked up through walls, so Valve
changed it so that players had to have a direct line of sight with the weapons to be able
to pick them up. Now, because of that change, I’m ASSUMING that a new problem was exposed
where weapons hidden behind junk on the floor weren’t able to be picked up, hence this
update today, which will let players pick weapons up through junk objects on the floor
which should only ever have been decoration in the first place.
Not content with only fixing problems, Valve are now outdoing themselves by fixing things
that are already fixed! Take this second misc change. Before panorama this was a big problem
for me since reloading demos or levels would enable some HUD elements which should have
been hidden, such as the equipped weapons and stuff- which you may occasionally see
on some of my older videos. But this has been fixed for me for almost a year now.
Abbey has got to be the most frequently updated community map we’ve ever had. This time
we see a multitude of middle-sized changes. Just as they opened up the skybox above barn
at bombsite A a few updates ago, they’ve done the same between bombsite B and the middle
of the map. Here it is previously. You can’t see bombsite B since the skybox is closed.
And now here it is, more opened up. There’s still some invisible stuff going on here.
Just make sure your grenades go to the left of where I’m shooting and they’ll land
somewhere around bombsite B if it’s not a completely atrocious attempt.
I got to speak with thewhaleman, one of the makers of the map. He said how updates are
done by scrubbing through any reference to the map on reddit, twitter and hltv, from
any direct feedback they get from players, from their own experiences when playtesting
their map, and from data collected from the map’s official inclusion within CS:GO. This
helps them to get a general feel for the map’s balance, as well as information for pistol
and later rounds from matches played at nova and eagle+ ranks.
They make an experimental version of the map that they playtest privately, and have dabbled
with several major reworks of bombsite B that they’ve decided not to use.
He said that Abbey was made for a mapcore contest, and the deadline meant they couldn’t
optimise as much as they wanted, which is why these spots were closed up. I guess they
have since improved framerates enough to justify opening the skybox up for gameplay purposes
again. He also said that the glow of the glowsticks
was removed in an update a few weeks ago because it was giving away players’ positions through
smokes, and the extra crate here was added to stop a cheeky boost over that was never
intended. Oh… and the crate in middle was called pinky
because of THIS. They knew about it for a while, but when others
figured it out, they knew the jig was up and had to replace the problem prop.
This tarpaulin was formerly made using a displacement- which is a very Source-way of detailing things-
but this update has seen it swapped out for a higher-detail custom prop!
The rest of the updates are over at B site. The railing at CT entrance has been taken
out, making it wider and improving visibility. And while CT entrance has been widened, terrorist
entrance has been narrowed by extending this hut a bit.
The cover at the site itself has all been shifted towards the centre. This changes so
many things I made this comparison shot before and after, rather than trying to summarise
it with a few still images. Having everything in the middle will also affect the after-plant
positions. Long B has also been changed. This bit of
‘fence’ has been added back again, to give attackers extra cover as they approach
the site from this route. The wheelbarrow has been taken out of this corner to let players
hide up closer to the crate for better cover. OH and a tree has grown from nowhere to give
additional cover to anybody close to it. I don’t trust trees. They’re all spindly
and scratchy like that of an emaciated woman’s claws, sprouting from the ground… which
I assume is why a load of flat, simple looking planks of wood have been nailed to it. This
simplifies its outline. But whoever did it should be expecting a phonecall from PATGAS
(Protecting All Trees Great And Small) shortly. As you’d expect from such changes, the radar
has been updated, and clipping has apparently been improved. But somebody forgot to build
the cubemaps, so none of the windows have reflections and your AWP won’t reflect surrounding
scenery. But oddly, the benches in palace look as covered in paint as ever.
And lastly, VERTIGO. There are only so many ways I can rephrase
the same joke, but they’ve built this map up even more, by raising the ground approaching
bombsite B! This will change all of the angles between the two levels, but I like to think
was done because I pointed out that you could no longer drop down onto the panels below
without taking damage. Rather than to raise the props like any sensible person would,
they instead raised the entire floor. This solution is almost like an April Fools joke…
with added Valve-time.
Also… Valve pls fix.
This extra metal block has been placed on the B site, which will completely hide players
using this one-way drop from anybody stood at site. It did feel awfully exposed before
as you had to check so many spots at once, and then had nowhere to hide once you did
drop down.
Also, there have been other small changes to this area which I’ll show in pictures
here.
You may notice that some of the items in the ‘before’ category look blacker than you
remember. This happens when Valve updates a prop but doesn’t keep the old one, so
unfortunately these comparisons won’t show how they were previously. The texture is lost
and the shape will be the same as the new version. But worse than that, it’ll confuse
everybody watching this video. You have been warned!
You could previously jump around the outside of the I beams, which clearly wasn’t intentional
and would catch players offguard. You could argue this is all part of learning a map,
but pixelwalks are generally frowned upon in CS:GO for being TOO exploitative, so have
been patched up. I believe it was patched in an earlier update, but less than 2 weeks
ago THIS was possible and could have been used as a spot to hide at the end of the round
if you have enough health to pull it off. But spots you can’t get out from again are
also bad, and it’s been removed.
These blue bucket things were to block line of sight between T spawn and B site… but
there was still a small gap between them and the wall just here. This has been blacked
up.
This flashy looking bit of red netting was commonly used to hide behind as an OP- if
somewhat risky- camping spot. It has been replaced with simpler, more boring wire. Though
you can still camp behind it if you really want to.
Fans of the red netting will be happy to know that the stuff still remains at CT spawn,
and along the route from T spawn to B. I can’t help but notice that this level
has seen more and more stuff added to stop players from falling off the sides. It’s
almost as though plummeting to your death isn’t a suitable gameplay mechanic in a
competitive map. It does make me wonder how they choose which spots are blocked off, and
which are left open for accidents to happen. Would they rather have it all blocked off,
but choose to keep some spots open to remain faithful to the beloved 1.6 version? Or do
they leave just a few spots open, and have an ‘accident counter’ to make the falls
that do happen all the more embarrassing? And while we’re talking about it, just how
many floors is Vertigo really? Dankly named Gotyeetedsonewacc recently posted on reddit
saying that the map isn’t actually based on the 50th and 51st floor. If you count them,
there are 44 glass-sided floors, then the concrete bits just above and below them. For
THIS to be the 50th floor, this means that these 2 grey shiny metallic bits, when combined,
must amount to 5 floors in total! 4, maybe… but 5’s pushing it.
ShdewZ suggested that they skipped floor 13 for superstitious reasons.
At least it’s not in England, where the first floor is actually the second!
There’s a wallbang you can do through the elevator room which was particularly OP. This
hasn’t been removed, but has been toned down so that you’ll need a sniper of some
sort to perform it. So although nerfed, Valve is aware of it and has deemed it worthy: you
should learn it, if only to avoid having it used against you!
The concrete around the base of the crane at A has been raised to stop you from peeking
over the top so easily- you can still do it, but you won’t see much and will be vulnerable
to attacks from the ramp.
They’ve patched up the gaps in the cover at mid, which I pointed out last video as
being something they’d probably patch and now they have so that’s good.
There was a patch note about there being gaps between the tarpaulins, but I looked about
and couldn’t find any changes at all. So maybe it’s like those black props, where
the old version has changed as well. But with working textures. There are still gaps between
them that I could find, letting you see through to the other side of ramp in both directions.
They have added extra clipping around them on A ramp though- looks like there were a
few boosts remaining like along this wall here.
And they’ve added clipping elsewhere, just like with the last update a lot of these are
thanks to bonna97’s comprehensive list. You can see a few of the changes here though
I’m sure there are more.
I’m going away for over a week. Not normally a problem, but at the rate CS:GO’s being
updated at the moment I’m worried I’m going to miss the release of Source 2 or Half
Life 3 or something. So if that does happen, don’t wait around for a video from me- I
recommend following Bananagaming who is always impossibly fast at releasing update videos.
It’s like he never sleeps or something.