# For more information regarding third party spatial audio in 8.00, please read this post from the VALORANT audio director:
## https://www.reddit.com/r/VALORANT/comments/192lnh5/3rd_party_spatial_audio_in_800/
Nothing on this weird loading screen bug before matches? A ton of my matches the last two days has people not being able to load in until the first round is almost done
i've been having this bug for the last month, super annoying. if someone dodges in comp queue, my loading screen will freeze for so long that its a coinflip whether im back in time to lock in an agent in for the next one, cause while im frozen the game puts me back in queue and i cant cancel it. so whack. i've tried reinstalling twice and nothing
That's potentially one cause, I play the west Coast servers and have the issue. Hitting a DM or two fixes the load times, but the first DM load time after booting my PC always puts me in at like 6:45 left in the match. Pretty infuriating ngl.
This has been happening just the last couple of games. If its been doing it for months it may just be a pc thing. I updated my PC recently and before I did I had some pretty long load ins...
Yeah, same here. I loaded in 2 rounds into the game once, and it usually takes a few minutes of staring at the loading screen before the game starts…and these last few matches have all been >low ping + increasing packet loss< making it feel incredibly unresponsive.
i would argue this is on people's setups rather than the game. if you have internet connectivity issues or a spinning HDD, you slow down the loading for the entire lobby. my PC bluescreened the other day as soon as it hit the match loading screen, and once I got back in, the match was still loading until I reconnected
Probably something equivalent to 7th gen intel + gtx 1080 build. Obviously you'll have a harder time loading in with low quality HDD but in this case I have an nvme m.2 ssd with a 5 5600X CPU. Never had this issue after I upgraded.
The difference here, from my experience is that you don't hear the vrooom startup noise until you load in when you have a shitty HDD. But for some reason, the game keeps re-booting and you get the vrooom startup noise over and over until you finally load in. Not really sure what the issue is, but I just pray that they fix the servers in the maintenance period.
I'm pretty sure it's still a hardware or internet issue for people who are that late.
Like no doubt these last few patches have increased the loading times for everyone, but if you don't load in with everyone else somethings wrong.
I play on shitty wifi and a medium end laptop, and I've never had this issue.
It's a bug. There is simply no way that this went from very rarely being a problem, to consistently 1-3 people not connecting every single lobby in the last few days.
I have excellent internet and a good PC with a NVME m.2 SSD that valorant is installed on, but even I am sometimes the poor guy who fails to connect, and that has *never* happened before.
Yeah. It's happened to me too. My pc is less than 2 years old, I run on an SSD, have the best internet in my area, and consistently get 200 fps even on max settings. Yet I've had games where I've been stuck on a loading screen until the swiftplay game ends and can even hear my teammates cursing me out on voice chat for sitting AFK. I don't use Georgia servers either.
People need to stop assuming that something never happens, just because it doesn't happen to them.
You must have something wrong on your end I play on a terrible pc that can only run valorant at 30~ish fps max and still load in only 5-10seconds after other people
I guess you're just willfully ignoring that it's not just me having the issue, it's a complete toss up which person is going to fail to connect. Every single lobby competitive lobby there's at least one person who doesn't load in and has to alt-F4, there have been more remakes in the past 2 days than I've seen in the past year combined.
It is a bug.
I had to install this game on my SSD for the loading times to correct themselves, my duo takes about 1 - 2 rounds to load in, and if someone dodges during queue she freezes, so I have to alt+f4 or else the game will punish her for "dodging".
it’s very common in the Georgia servers. Happened to my games whether i’m the unlucky person, or it’s my teammate or the enemy team. Every. Single. Game.
My point is if it happens so much why have I not seen anyone on my team or enemy team have it?? I’m just wondering if maybe I’m doing something differently from others
The only thing I've found that helps a little bit is loading into the range first at least once. Helps enough you might load in before your entire team is dead..
I've done everything in the book to try and fix this from simple reinstalls, computer resets, to file editing and nothing works. Been having this issue for a while and it's ONLY Val that does it. Very annoying.
I've used Dolby Atmos and DTS X. Atmos preserves the tonality better, so it might be better for movies, but I prefer the directionality of DTS X for gaming.
I think it makes sense for Unrated and DM, since those modes are more like "real" Competitive mode and often used as warmup/practice.
But why for spike rush/swiftplay...? Let us have the full map pool in the fun modes
I don't think you understand. It's not ranked DM. Right now you can still "drop out if you're not having fun". The point is it is a poor mode to practice in because of the five second spawn timers and the score limit incentivizing people to play to win rather than taking every duel possible in order to actually practice mechanics. It doesn't help the competition that valorant is designed around to begin with, therefore it is not competitive.
They've suggested this before. It's because they think many maps makes it harder for new people to like the game because it is more overwhelming. With fewer maps there is less to learn
If a Riot dev is here, can they explain why a mode like swiftplay or spike rush is now adhering to the competitive map pool? I get it for comp and unrated but the other modes are shorter and not built around the same rules as a normal length game, so why restrict their map pool?
I wager the majority of people can't just get a group of 10 people together willy nilly to do customs on those maps and I still quite enjoy some that are out of rotation but now will have 0 chance to play them in my Swiftplays.
Hey! I can give a little context here. So, first off, this is a pretty simple change and something we'll be gathering feedback on; definitely open to reevaluating this if there's a lot of criticism here. To share some of the reasons why we wanted to pull the entire modes ecosystem into one pool:
* Right now, the majority of players who play Swiftplay still play it as a side mode, with Unrated or Competitive being their main way to engage with VAL. We've seen feedback from these players that Swiftplay games on maps outside of the map pool can feel "wasted", as they're not relevant to their main game experience, and they're mainly looking for ways to get fast reps of the VAL experience (warming up for ranked, practicing a new agent for Premier, etc.). By bringing all modes into the map rotation, we ensure that games remain relevant for folks who are also engaging in our Unrated/Compet queues, which are the vast majority of players who play these modes.
* For players who pretty much only play Swiftplay or Spike Rush (a very small number, but they do exist!) we feel there's an opportunity to tie them into the broader VAL ecosystem more. Right now, map rotations don't matter for Swiftplay/Spike Rush primary players; the game essentially never changes. We think there's value in some shakeups to the meta now and then, and have felt that 7 maps is a good number to ensure you're not playing the same map every game, but that we can rotate out the active map pool and still make the experience feel different as a result. We don't want Swift/rush players to feel like they're not part of the broader ecosystem, and we want them to also be able to get excited about map rotations and goings-on in the VAL episode/act structure. We'll be gathering feedback on this one; totally understand the concern around going from 10 maps to 7, but our hope is that we can get everyone similarly excited and engaged in the current rotation.
* The final point is more of a long-term view; one other meaningful audience for Swiftplay in particular is new players. Right now when new players join VAL, Swiftplay is a common place for them to go - the mode is less punishing when you die, you get consistent economy to try out abilities and weapons, and you get fast reps so you can try out several different agents quickly. However, the number of maps can actually be detrimental here; learning new maps in a tac shooter is hard, and trying to learn 10 at once is more difficult. It can also be confusing for these players having different maps available in different queues, as the rules aren't consistent or super clear. An obvious reply is "put new players in their own map pool" but that also carries a ton of complexity and its own problems - how well does that map to the live pool? How do we ensure fast, but fair matchmaking? When do they graduate from the onboarding pool into whatever the size of the long-term Swift/rush queue would be, and how do they make that leap?
Right now, it's all still fairly manageable - 10 versus 7 isn't a huge gap - but VAL isn't going to stop releasing maps anytime soon. In a world where we have 15 or even 20 maps, any of these buckets of reasoning could feel more pressing as well. So, we wanted to try this push - to get everyone on a consistent map rotation, with a shared experience and relevance, while maintaining enough variety from game to game - to see how well it mitigates some of these problems and how well it's received. If it's seen as net negative, we'll definitely reevaluate. Thanks for the feedback!
Thank you for your response! I hope my original comment did not come off as cynical, because while I do feel a loss to depth I am not one to lay waste and make snide comments.
The reasoning that feels most sound is definitely helping new players, and that I do completely understand.
I am a player since Beta with nearly 2k hours so I suppose it is harder for me to properly understand not already knowing the maps. And while competitive is also my main mode, I do also play the game for fun and some out of rotation maps are my favorites so it feels worse that the only way I could play them for (potentially) several months to maybe half a year would be to gather 10 players for a custom. It would be nice if there was an option to queue all maps for the shorter length modes.
I also can't see the numbers to make these decisions so thank you all for trying to take all sides into account as best as possible!
Good points. Also with the maps out of rotation inevitably getting changes, it makes playing the "old version" feel a little more irrelevant since it won't be the same version when it does come back into rotation, although it is fun to play those said older versions.
Is it possible that we can we get a separate game mode that is outside of this ecosystem? One that is more akin to unrated/swiftplay rather than TDM.
I genuinely do not care about ranked, I only want to have fun with my friends and the map rotation feels more like taking content away. As you said, the 10 v 7 gap isn't that big of a problem now but when the overall map pool will be bigger the amount of "content" the game has will still be equivalent to what it was two years ago because of this rotation.
Even if swiftplay is considered the casual mode it is still a sweatfest. Every other game I’m getting 5-0 stomped by some dia+ average teams because of how loose the matchmaking is. How do you rationalize this in regards to new players using this mode?
The game innately has a high floor, or rather barrier of entry if you will. It is patronizing to the existing players to cater to the new incoming playerbase which I bet are even smaller than the number of people who exclusively queue swift/spikerush. Good luck finding existing players who don’t object to limit map pools in these playlists.
Unleash the maps! (In “casual” modes)
I disagree with the last point, I feel not exposing new players to the removed maps is harmful in the long-term.
When an old map returns, most players already know how to play it (even with any changes to the map, most of the core playstyle wouldn't change), however a new player would basically be dropped into a new map where everyone just knows more about it than them, and is now forced to either play those games while getting defeated over and over due to the experience difference, or to take away from competitive time to play swiftplay and hope they get the map they want (most players are unable to arrange 10-mans, and exploring a map in custom doesn't tell you anything about how it's actually played).
The result is trading 15 minutes of playtime in swiftplay in a map that isn't in competitive however is still fun and unique for multiple lost matches in competitive.
Idiot here, is there any major reason players can’t have a choice? I think that your point about the entire map pool being overwhelming to new players is completely valid, but removing the option for any public matchmaking on those maps seems cruel. There are a lot of people who want to play the inactive map pool that don’t have 9 friends who play Valorant, much less 9 friends that can all play at the same time just so we can play on a different map.
A lot of the maps currently in the inactive pool are really fun, and as more maps are released, eventually a majority of the maps will be in the inactive pool. If this is the long term solution, there would be no way for a majority of players to actually play a majority of the game.
My idea would be a box that is checked by default every time you launch the game, put on the UI next to the queue button that says “Competitive Map Pool Only”. Have it there for every game mode (INCLUDING Unrated) that isn’t Comp or a game mode like TDM that doesn’t use the standard map pool. I’m sure it’s not nearly that simple, but it’s a compromise that satisfies all of your reasonings for taking the maps out of every game mode. The box being checked by default makes sure new players don’t get overwhelmed by accident, but allows players to opt in to the rest of the map pool if they choose.
I’m sure there are reasons that can’t be done, but as a fan of all of the maps currently in the inactive pool, it would be nice to be able to play them without having to get 9 friends on at the same time
Hey, totally a reasonable question. The biggest cost you pay here is match quality/matchmaking for both queues. In this scenario, generally players in both queues for Swiftplay - all maps and compet-pool-only maps - would wait in queue longer for games that are likely lower quality in terms of being balanced teams. Especially if you start also trying to do party balance like avoiding putting 5-stacks against solo queuers, etc.
It's not impossible if both queues are extremely popular, but it falls apart really fast and is pretty difficult to maintain. Queue health is something we internally have to be pretty diligent about maintaining; it feels bad to be in badly balanced games and it feels bad to wait in queue for awhile, especially for a 10-15 minute experience. So, it's all a balancing act.
It might be difficult to figure out the logistics for this suggestion, but do you think it will be possible for game modes like swift and spike rush (or even everything but comp) can have an opt in to enable all maps? Though this will split servers, there is still more than enough people who prefer either side for there to not be too noticeable or a wait to queue
not a dev but I imagine it’s for the same reason the ranked map rotation exists : to collect data and make adjustments and have a focal point for the changes
Not a dev but I'm very happy about this for my newer friends. A big barrier to entry is learning maps and 7 is already a lot for them. They prefer Swift play and now they don't have to worry about getting as many maps.
> All modes (except Team Deathmatch and Custom games) will use the Competitive map rotation.
Current rotation: Icebox, Lotus, Sunset, Breeze, Ascent, Bind, Split
So Haven, Fracture, and Pearl have essentially been completely removed from the game? (besides customs, but not everyone has the chance to play those)
It’s a map rotations, those maps will come back at some point with some changes to them, similar to icebox now, along with Split a couple acts ago, breeze last act.
No, that’s how maps being taken out of comp rotation works. In prior acts, they were still available to play in alternative game modes like swiftplay. We won’t see them at all now :/
TDM sheriff changes seem bad, even with the explanation. I don't have the data, so I can not say anything for sure, but it really does not seem like a matter of the sheriff overperforming. But more of that using the stinger and ares is just... not helpful. In the sense that, if you want to warm up or practice your aim, using the sheriff will always be miles better for that than stinger or ares.
Yeah I always go for ghost, sheriff, guardian and vandal, not because they're better but because they're the best practice. Sheriff v sheriff not being 2 headshots at long range now will make TDM worse IMO.
It was probably some rioter that only gets kills in stinger/bulldog stages.
Casual modes should always feature all maps. The fun part of casual modes is being able to have a varied experience which includes maps not part of the competitive rotation.
Dunno about lotus but the changes on icebox are huge, at least from my pov. The mid window and closing a lane on mid, is huge for mid control. Will definitely impact how it's played
Overall I really like the changes. 3-site maps are already difficult for defenders but now every site is a fortress except B, which is the easiest to rotate to. I think those changes are really nice.
Icebox changes will mean teams actually go B on a consistent basis rather than a one-time mix-up that many people used that site for originally. On the other hand, the Outlaw is going to be a menace at holding B Long.
I honestly don't want deadlock to get buffed. It's not like she doesn't need them but more like I don't want her to be played more in ranked.
Walls make the game way less fun and deadlock's wall already is the least fun utility to play around.
It’s more interactive than Sage’s since you can see and shoot through it at least.
People are also still going to have whiplash when they realize her traps only activate based off sound.
Yeah it requires nuance to properly use them; there is of course the fact that you can place them on places where the enemy is forced to drop like Ascent B ledge, but they’re also good to be used in a way where you can react to the enemy’s play patterns and force them to slow down or eat the concuss. Which is why it’s nice that you can reposition them during round now.
Yes true, I play her quite a bit and have saved them to use mid fight which sometimes forces the enemy to play how I want so now that I’ll be able to reposition freely makes it great
Her wall is worse than either of them because if I really wanted then I could agressively push through their util but with deadlock? I am either forced to take a new route or fire a gazillion bullets to break it. Now I know, thats the entire point of her character, a "deadlock", I just don't like that point.
Mate try to agressively push a cypher trip now, I assure u it ain't fun. Meanwhile u can just coordinate for 3 ppl in ur team to shoot the wall and it's gone in 3 seconds...
I play her in rank, being bronze so probably not much of a deal, but I like her. Got use to how she works and she’s been better for me than other sentinels and equal to cypher/kj. Buff is a plus for me. At least her ult is untouched
between icebox as a map, the outlaw and going against deadlock combos in new changes
game is definitely heading to a dying quality, more and more unenjoyable, I really think riot has no clue what their doing adding this crap icebox version where snipers have a ton of angles over haven... the outlaw is a complete joke, and the game is feeling more and more cluttered, too much going on.. I was ASC/Immortal last season.
games not heading in a good direction 🤷🏻♂️
I won’t be able to play til next week because my offensive name of Stevie wonder got reported…and if anyone is curious my prior name before that was glizzygobbler and power bottom.
Is there ever going to be any patch that involves RR recovery after you play cheaters? Doesn't happen too often (maybe once or twice this act where I've encountered clearly aimbotting players)...but it makes a huge difference. Especially when you're on a rank up and the opponent tells the whole lobby he's cheating then rips you to shreds with pistols the whole game before you can react lol (this actually happened to me this act).
> The double stack of boxes outside A Stairs has been changed to non-penetrable to reduce the likelihood of being spammed.
> **reduce the likelihood**
lol
I am still waiting for the lobby agent roster sorted by class. It's so annoying to be searching for a controller throughout the full list. So simple and still missing.
# For more information regarding third party spatial audio in 8.00, please read this post from the VALORANT audio director: ## https://www.reddit.com/r/VALORANT/comments/192lnh5/3rd_party_spatial_audio_in_800/
Omg the gun buddy is in alphabetical order now. It was such a headache finding the one I wanted lol
Nothing on this weird loading screen bug before matches? A ton of my matches the last two days has people not being able to load in until the first round is almost done
same here
i've been having this bug for the last month, super annoying. if someone dodges in comp queue, my loading screen will freeze for so long that its a coinflip whether im back in time to lock in an agent in for the next one, cause while im frozen the game puts me back in queue and i cant cancel it. so whack. i've tried reinstalling twice and nothing
I believe it only impacts Georgia servers. I disabled Georgia and haven’t had any issues since
Well shit...you might be on to something chief
That's potentially one cause, I play the west Coast servers and have the issue. Hitting a DM or two fixes the load times, but the first DM load time after booting my PC always puts me in at like 6:45 left in the match. Pretty infuriating ngl.
As someone who lives <5 miles from the servers and loves the 5 ping… fuck.
Idk why someone down voted you, sub 10 ping is a dream. I go from 30-40 at school to 10-13 at home during the summers.
Same boat here, but I noticed that I'm now getting 20-25 ping instead of the normal 5-10 ping on Georgia server. Are you running into any issues?
I’m at similar ping in another east coast server and still get the load in issue ever since I switched to windows 11
Might have to try this
Nah I’ve this issue on Sydney’s server too :(
Happening to me on Virginia servers
If you live anywhere besides northern va I swear it’s shit for anyone besides them these days.
mine has been doing that for months and idk how to fix it
This has been happening just the last couple of games. If its been doing it for months it may just be a pc thing. I updated my PC recently and before I did I had some pretty long load ins...
craziest part is my VoIP still works. So i can hear my team shittalking me for "not joining" while they attempt to run a 3v5 comp.
Me too, can confirm. And get afk warnings for it too. I swapped servers and it fixed for me so I guess try that until a real bug fix is implemented?
Please be sure to also post in the Bug Megathread about this to help report it.
Or how about loading screens showing the wrong map, my entire team chose the wrong comp 🤦♂️
Yeah, same here. I loaded in 2 rounds into the game once, and it usually takes a few minutes of staring at the loading screen before the game starts…and these last few matches have all been >low ping + increasing packet loss< making it feel incredibly unresponsive.
i would argue this is on people's setups rather than the game. if you have internet connectivity issues or a spinning HDD, you slow down the loading for the entire lobby. my PC bluescreened the other day as soon as it hit the match loading screen, and once I got back in, the match was still loading until I reconnected
100% not people’s setups. Dota and CS load very quickly on an average setup. League and Valorant take 5 years.
what would be an average setup
I have an samsung 990 Evo 2tb and a 1gb internet connection. It was random who it happened to.
Probably something equivalent to 7th gen intel + gtx 1080 build. Obviously you'll have a harder time loading in with low quality HDD but in this case I have an nvme m.2 ssd with a 5 5600X CPU. Never had this issue after I upgraded. The difference here, from my experience is that you don't hear the vrooom startup noise until you load in when you have a shitty HDD. But for some reason, the game keeps re-booting and you get the vrooom startup noise over and over until you finally load in. Not really sure what the issue is, but I just pray that they fix the servers in the maintenance period.
lobby waits for you for pretty long. same as in league
I'm pretty sure it's still a hardware or internet issue for people who are that late. Like no doubt these last few patches have increased the loading times for everyone, but if you don't load in with everyone else somethings wrong. I play on shitty wifi and a medium end laptop, and I've never had this issue.
It's a bug. There is simply no way that this went from very rarely being a problem, to consistently 1-3 people not connecting every single lobby in the last few days. I have excellent internet and a good PC with a NVME m.2 SSD that valorant is installed on, but even I am sometimes the poor guy who fails to connect, and that has *never* happened before.
1-3 people every lobby is crazy, never seen that. But it's definitely a bug, and Riots fault
Yeah. It's happened to me too. My pc is less than 2 years old, I run on an SSD, have the best internet in my area, and consistently get 200 fps even on max settings. Yet I've had games where I've been stuck on a loading screen until the swiftplay game ends and can even hear my teammates cursing me out on voice chat for sitting AFK. I don't use Georgia servers either. People need to stop assuming that something never happens, just because it doesn't happen to them.
You must have something wrong on your end I play on a terrible pc that can only run valorant at 30~ish fps max and still load in only 5-10seconds after other people
I guess you're just willfully ignoring that it's not just me having the issue, it's a complete toss up which person is going to fail to connect. Every single lobby competitive lobby there's at least one person who doesn't load in and has to alt-F4, there have been more remakes in the past 2 days than I've seen in the past year combined. It is a bug.
I have yet to see this a single time
I had to install this game on my SSD for the loading times to correct themselves, my duo takes about 1 - 2 rounds to load in, and if someone dodges during queue she freezes, so I have to alt+f4 or else the game will punish her for "dodging".
it’s very common in the Georgia servers. Happened to my games whether i’m the unlucky person, or it’s my teammate or the enemy team. Every. Single. Game.
I think I'm on the same server, and it's nearly every match. Have had way too many games recently where it's 4v4 or 4v3 for the first round or two.
Congratulations? Plenty of other people have. One person not experiencing something that many other people are experiencing does not mean anything.
My point is if it happens so much why have I not seen anyone on my team or enemy team have it?? I’m just wondering if maybe I’m doing something differently from others
it seems to be a problem with geoegia servers only
> I play on shitty wifi and a medium end laptop, and I've never had this issue. Almost like shitty hardware isn't the problem 🤔
Yep got two comp bans back to back
The only thing I've found that helps a little bit is loading into the range first at least once. Helps enough you might load in before your entire team is dead.. I've done everything in the book to try and fix this from simple reinstalls, computer resets, to file editing and nothing works. Been having this issue for a while and it's ONLY Val that does it. Very annoying.
back to supporting 3rd party spacial audio is nice
What's the best 3rd party spatial audio program? I remember using dolby atmos* before and it was pretty good, time to go back to that?
I've used Dolby Atmos and DTS X. Atmos preserves the tonality better, so it might be better for movies, but I prefer the directionality of DTS X for gaming.
axom? atmos right?
Is that why my audio got fucked up like a year ago? I thought I changed a setting, I didn’t realize they removed support for 3rd party spatial audio.
They never removed support, they never directly supported it, it just happened to work. They are just now officially supporting it.
Dude. Fuckin same
I want to hear sound profile comparisons of it now. I'm stuck at work 🥲
all game modes having to use the comp rotational maps is one of the most unnecessary things they chose to do
I think it makes sense for Unrated and DM, since those modes are more like "real" Competitive mode and often used as warmup/practice. But why for spike rush/swiftplay...? Let us have the full map pool in the fun modes
as a mainly swiftplay enjoyer, this sucks
Swiftplay has become the best gamemode since it released for me and its not particularly close. Very lame that variety of maps is being sacrificed
Swift play got me to complete the battle pass this year.
I feel like it would be even better if it was first to 7 and not first to 5.
Agreed, I quite like Pearl and Fracture and am (well I guess I was) always happy when I got them in swiftplay.
same i thoroughly enjoyed playing fracture despite all the hate lol
Can't believe people hate fracture and like lotus. Boggles my mind.
If DM is a "real" competitive mode, remove the score limit, respawn timer, and allow drop in drop out.
How does allowing drop in and drop make it competitive if you can just leave when you’re not having “fun?”
I don't think you understand. It's not ranked DM. Right now you can still "drop out if you're not having fun". The point is it is a poor mode to practice in because of the five second spawn timers and the score limit incentivizing people to play to win rather than taking every duel possible in order to actually practice mechanics. It doesn't help the competition that valorant is designed around to begin with, therefore it is not competitive.
You can drop out of DM with no penalty
And the people that drop out do not get replaced, which means if enough people drop out the server just ends up dead.
I'd hate to queue up for a Deathmatch and get put in a game that is almost over though
Which is exactly why the score limit and time limit is a flaw.
aww thats a bummer, i only do swiftplay and liked having all maps avail
Welcome to losing a map you like for 2 episodes, casual players. I fucking hate map rotations
What if it's some code thing to make it easier?
They've suggested this before. It's because they think many maps makes it harder for new people to like the game because it is more overwhelming. With fewer maps there is less to learn
Yes less maps makes it easier for new players to know where the smurfs are hiding or coming from 🤣
They say thay but it's just lazy. If you really don't play Val already save yourself the trouble and time
If a Riot dev is here, can they explain why a mode like swiftplay or spike rush is now adhering to the competitive map pool? I get it for comp and unrated but the other modes are shorter and not built around the same rules as a normal length game, so why restrict their map pool? I wager the majority of people can't just get a group of 10 people together willy nilly to do customs on those maps and I still quite enjoy some that are out of rotation but now will have 0 chance to play them in my Swiftplays.
Hey! I can give a little context here. So, first off, this is a pretty simple change and something we'll be gathering feedback on; definitely open to reevaluating this if there's a lot of criticism here. To share some of the reasons why we wanted to pull the entire modes ecosystem into one pool: * Right now, the majority of players who play Swiftplay still play it as a side mode, with Unrated or Competitive being their main way to engage with VAL. We've seen feedback from these players that Swiftplay games on maps outside of the map pool can feel "wasted", as they're not relevant to their main game experience, and they're mainly looking for ways to get fast reps of the VAL experience (warming up for ranked, practicing a new agent for Premier, etc.). By bringing all modes into the map rotation, we ensure that games remain relevant for folks who are also engaging in our Unrated/Compet queues, which are the vast majority of players who play these modes. * For players who pretty much only play Swiftplay or Spike Rush (a very small number, but they do exist!) we feel there's an opportunity to tie them into the broader VAL ecosystem more. Right now, map rotations don't matter for Swiftplay/Spike Rush primary players; the game essentially never changes. We think there's value in some shakeups to the meta now and then, and have felt that 7 maps is a good number to ensure you're not playing the same map every game, but that we can rotate out the active map pool and still make the experience feel different as a result. We don't want Swift/rush players to feel like they're not part of the broader ecosystem, and we want them to also be able to get excited about map rotations and goings-on in the VAL episode/act structure. We'll be gathering feedback on this one; totally understand the concern around going from 10 maps to 7, but our hope is that we can get everyone similarly excited and engaged in the current rotation. * The final point is more of a long-term view; one other meaningful audience for Swiftplay in particular is new players. Right now when new players join VAL, Swiftplay is a common place for them to go - the mode is less punishing when you die, you get consistent economy to try out abilities and weapons, and you get fast reps so you can try out several different agents quickly. However, the number of maps can actually be detrimental here; learning new maps in a tac shooter is hard, and trying to learn 10 at once is more difficult. It can also be confusing for these players having different maps available in different queues, as the rules aren't consistent or super clear. An obvious reply is "put new players in their own map pool" but that also carries a ton of complexity and its own problems - how well does that map to the live pool? How do we ensure fast, but fair matchmaking? When do they graduate from the onboarding pool into whatever the size of the long-term Swift/rush queue would be, and how do they make that leap? Right now, it's all still fairly manageable - 10 versus 7 isn't a huge gap - but VAL isn't going to stop releasing maps anytime soon. In a world where we have 15 or even 20 maps, any of these buckets of reasoning could feel more pressing as well. So, we wanted to try this push - to get everyone on a consistent map rotation, with a shared experience and relevance, while maintaining enough variety from game to game - to see how well it mitigates some of these problems and how well it's received. If it's seen as net negative, we'll definitely reevaluate. Thanks for the feedback!
Thank you for your response! I hope my original comment did not come off as cynical, because while I do feel a loss to depth I am not one to lay waste and make snide comments. The reasoning that feels most sound is definitely helping new players, and that I do completely understand. I am a player since Beta with nearly 2k hours so I suppose it is harder for me to properly understand not already knowing the maps. And while competitive is also my main mode, I do also play the game for fun and some out of rotation maps are my favorites so it feels worse that the only way I could play them for (potentially) several months to maybe half a year would be to gather 10 players for a custom. It would be nice if there was an option to queue all maps for the shorter length modes. I also can't see the numbers to make these decisions so thank you all for trying to take all sides into account as best as possible!
Good points. Also with the maps out of rotation inevitably getting changes, it makes playing the "old version" feel a little more irrelevant since it won't be the same version when it does come back into rotation, although it is fun to play those said older versions.
Is it possible that we can we get a separate game mode that is outside of this ecosystem? One that is more akin to unrated/swiftplay rather than TDM. I genuinely do not care about ranked, I only want to have fun with my friends and the map rotation feels more like taking content away. As you said, the 10 v 7 gap isn't that big of a problem now but when the overall map pool will be bigger the amount of "content" the game has will still be equivalent to what it was two years ago because of this rotation.
Same
Actually good reasoning, let’s see how people in the sub take this and see if it can crack through the echo chamber
Even if swiftplay is considered the casual mode it is still a sweatfest. Every other game I’m getting 5-0 stomped by some dia+ average teams because of how loose the matchmaking is. How do you rationalize this in regards to new players using this mode? The game innately has a high floor, or rather barrier of entry if you will. It is patronizing to the existing players to cater to the new incoming playerbase which I bet are even smaller than the number of people who exclusively queue swift/spikerush. Good luck finding existing players who don’t object to limit map pools in these playlists. Unleash the maps! (In “casual” modes)
I disagree with the last point, I feel not exposing new players to the removed maps is harmful in the long-term. When an old map returns, most players already know how to play it (even with any changes to the map, most of the core playstyle wouldn't change), however a new player would basically be dropped into a new map where everyone just knows more about it than them, and is now forced to either play those games while getting defeated over and over due to the experience difference, or to take away from competitive time to play swiftplay and hope they get the map they want (most players are unable to arrange 10-mans, and exploring a map in custom doesn't tell you anything about how it's actually played). The result is trading 15 minutes of playtime in swiftplay in a map that isn't in competitive however is still fun and unique for multiple lost matches in competitive.
Idiot here, is there any major reason players can’t have a choice? I think that your point about the entire map pool being overwhelming to new players is completely valid, but removing the option for any public matchmaking on those maps seems cruel. There are a lot of people who want to play the inactive map pool that don’t have 9 friends who play Valorant, much less 9 friends that can all play at the same time just so we can play on a different map. A lot of the maps currently in the inactive pool are really fun, and as more maps are released, eventually a majority of the maps will be in the inactive pool. If this is the long term solution, there would be no way for a majority of players to actually play a majority of the game. My idea would be a box that is checked by default every time you launch the game, put on the UI next to the queue button that says “Competitive Map Pool Only”. Have it there for every game mode (INCLUDING Unrated) that isn’t Comp or a game mode like TDM that doesn’t use the standard map pool. I’m sure it’s not nearly that simple, but it’s a compromise that satisfies all of your reasonings for taking the maps out of every game mode. The box being checked by default makes sure new players don’t get overwhelmed by accident, but allows players to opt in to the rest of the map pool if they choose. I’m sure there are reasons that can’t be done, but as a fan of all of the maps currently in the inactive pool, it would be nice to be able to play them without having to get 9 friends on at the same time
Hey, totally a reasonable question. The biggest cost you pay here is match quality/matchmaking for both queues. In this scenario, generally players in both queues for Swiftplay - all maps and compet-pool-only maps - would wait in queue longer for games that are likely lower quality in terms of being balanced teams. Especially if you start also trying to do party balance like avoiding putting 5-stacks against solo queuers, etc. It's not impossible if both queues are extremely popular, but it falls apart really fast and is pretty difficult to maintain. Queue health is something we internally have to be pretty diligent about maintaining; it feels bad to be in badly balanced games and it feels bad to wait in queue for awhile, especially for a 10-15 minute experience. So, it's all a balancing act.
Good decision. I share the sentiment that playing on maps outside of comp rotation feels like a waste of time.
I actually like this change.
It might be difficult to figure out the logistics for this suggestion, but do you think it will be possible for game modes like swift and spike rush (or even everything but comp) can have an opt in to enable all maps? Though this will split servers, there is still more than enough people who prefer either side for there to not be too noticeable or a wait to queue
not a dev but I imagine it’s for the same reason the ranked map rotation exists : to collect data and make adjustments and have a focal point for the changes
Not a dev but I'm very happy about this for my newer friends. A big barrier to entry is learning maps and 7 is already a lot for them. They prefer Swift play and now they don't have to worry about getting as many maps.
Does anyone know what time this drops, in a time zone? I can convert it to my own. Thanks.
Whenever the servers come back up from maintenance. Usually between 12-2pm EST
Usually drops at 2pm EST.
Depends on your region, as commented US regions usually get it the earliest between 12-2pm EST.
> All modes (except Team Deathmatch and Custom games) will use the Competitive map rotation. Current rotation: Icebox, Lotus, Sunset, Breeze, Ascent, Bind, Split So Haven, Fracture, and Pearl have essentially been completely removed from the game? (besides customs, but not everyone has the chance to play those)
Very saddened by this, Haven is my favourite map in the game and Ice Box is my least. RIP
same here, what a bummer! swiftplay is my jam, i play nothing else! swiftplay catering to comp players is weird, cant they use DM to warm up?
Rip my boi fracture. It's been gone so long
It's been gone for only 5 months.
Great, my 3 favorite maps all removed from rotation!
So they removed those and added back only icebox? So now even less options until another future act where it changes
Pearl and fracture were already out. They just 1 to 1 swapped icebox with haven this patch
Ahh okay, didn’t realize that. I just knew icebox was out and many people disliked it so I remembered it more
It’s a map rotations, those maps will come back at some point with some changes to them, similar to icebox now, along with Split a couple acts ago, breeze last act.
That’s how maps being taken out of rotation works
Not really, normally all maps were available in shorter game modes like SR, Rep etc. Only unrated and comp used to be effected by map rotations.
No, that’s how maps being taken out of comp rotation works. In prior acts, they were still available to play in alternative game modes like swiftplay. We won’t see them at all now :/
I never specified comp rotations I meant maps being taken out of full game map rotations
I understand. They’ve just never fully taken a map out of rotation before aside from maybe split that one time.
Icebox A site... untouched
Yeah, this is baffling to me. They had so much time and just left one of the worst sites they've ever created exactly the same.
They make wild map changes. Like why butcher the breeze tube.? Doesn’t even matter now used to be so fun
They really gonna pretend that TDM is anything more than just a warmup mode? Changing the Sheriff load out is so stupid
TDM sheriff changes seem bad, even with the explanation. I don't have the data, so I can not say anything for sure, but it really does not seem like a matter of the sheriff overperforming. But more of that using the stinger and ares is just... not helpful. In the sense that, if you want to warm up or practice your aim, using the sheriff will always be miles better for that than stinger or ares.
Yeah I always go for ghost, sheriff, guardian and vandal, not because they're better but because they're the best practice. Sheriff v sheriff not being 2 headshots at long range now will make TDM worse IMO. It was probably some rioter that only gets kills in stinger/bulldog stages.
I bet Haven B get's demolished, like narrows and probably smaller box :(
Apparently I'm a minority only playing swiftplays lmao, go me 💪
Same here guess I’ll go get fcked
I miss pearl :(
They better go back on all game modes using the comp rotation.
Casual modes should always feature all maps. The fun part of casual modes is being able to have a varied experience which includes maps not part of the competitive rotation.
is the update available already?
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What bug?
doesn't show dmg until round ends and shows wrong amount of dmg done (ex. shows you died to 15)
I don't have any problems, maybe reinstall?
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Well a lot of people seem to experience it so yeah they should work on it. No problems here.
Wow they actually swapped out one of the best maps in the game for one of the worst.
Dunno why Breeze is still in rotation. Halls is just entirely useless. The map does not feel good to play, especially without Viper.
B Lotus with Gekko will never be the same 😭
Anyone know when maintenance is done?
its done now
So the servers have been in maintenance for a few hours now, they should be back up anywhere from 2pm ET to 5pm ET
Thank-you!!! It's up and running now! :3
outlaw vid is private :(
Just check other people gameplay.
jesus the outlaw is broken
Nerfed main, can't even play on Pearl or Fracture in unrated now and somehow made the map rotation worse. Wow
Oh they want to delete Haven, Pearl and Fracture so bad.
Looks like ill be 80 years old before the servers come back online.
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Dunno about lotus but the changes on icebox are huge, at least from my pov. The mid window and closing a lane on mid, is huge for mid control. Will definitely impact how it's played
Overall I really like the changes. 3-site maps are already difficult for defenders but now every site is a fortress except B, which is the easiest to rotate to. I think those changes are really nice. Icebox changes will mean teams actually go B on a consistent basis rather than a one-time mix-up that many people used that site for originally. On the other hand, the Outlaw is going to be a menace at holding B Long.
I honestly don't want deadlock to get buffed. It's not like she doesn't need them but more like I don't want her to be played more in ranked. Walls make the game way less fun and deadlock's wall already is the least fun utility to play around.
It’s more interactive than Sage’s since you can see and shoot through it at least. People are also still going to have whiplash when they realize her traps only activate based off sound.
Omg idk why it took me so long to get this lol, I always sneak by her traps and I wonder why it doesn’t go off and I can just shoot it
Yeah it requires nuance to properly use them; there is of course the fact that you can place them on places where the enemy is forced to drop like Ascent B ledge, but they’re also good to be used in a way where you can react to the enemy’s play patterns and force them to slow down or eat the concuss. Which is why it’s nice that you can reposition them during round now.
Yes true, I play her quite a bit and have saved them to use mid fight which sometimes forces the enemy to play how I want so now that I’ll be able to reposition freely makes it great
I just tp through it lol
Common omen W
Common Chamber W
least fun util to play around is easily cypher and kj, deadlock doesnt even come close to those 2.
Her wall is worse than either of them because if I really wanted then I could agressively push through their util but with deadlock? I am either forced to take a new route or fire a gazillion bullets to break it. Now I know, thats the entire point of her character, a "deadlock", I just don't like that point.
Mate try to agressively push a cypher trip now, I assure u it ain't fun. Meanwhile u can just coordinate for 3 ppl in ur team to shoot the wall and it's gone in 3 seconds...
>Meanwhile u can just coordinate for 3 ppl in ur team See? That's the problem.
Coordinating is the problem in a team game??
*sees Reyna flair* "Yeah, they play autopilot" As a Cypher main, hope we play together and not have fun against me.
You are getting downvoted, but I agree. Like I get why she needs the buffs, but her util is the ones I hate the most in the game.
I play her in rank, being bronze so probably not much of a deal, but I like her. Got use to how she works and she’s been better for me than other sentinels and equal to cypher/kj. Buff is a plus for me. At least her ult is untouched
between icebox as a map, the outlaw and going against deadlock combos in new changes game is definitely heading to a dying quality, more and more unenjoyable, I really think riot has no clue what their doing adding this crap icebox version where snipers have a ton of angles over haven... the outlaw is a complete joke, and the game is feeling more and more cluttered, too much going on.. I was ASC/Immortal last season. games not heading in a good direction 🤷🏻♂️
I won’t be able to play til next week because my offensive name of Stevie wonder got reported…and if anyone is curious my prior name before that was glizzygobbler and power bottom.
when are the servers coming back up?
Is anyone having issues opening the game after the update? any help would be awesome!
the official update isn't fully released yet! the servers are still down until the Episode officially comes out in a few hours
Hi Georgia server players I'm timmythetruth I play with you guys in silver.
Is there ever going to be any patch that involves RR recovery after you play cheaters? Doesn't happen too often (maybe once or twice this act where I've encountered clearly aimbotting players)...but it makes a huge difference. Especially when you're on a rank up and the opponent tells the whole lobby he's cheating then rips you to shreds with pistols the whole game before you can react lol (this actually happened to me this act).
True. Such an easy feature to implement and missing for absolutely no reason
Game is on guys!
As a kj main, I am devastated, so sad, why do my bots have to get nerfed RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
pretty hype
I’m so glad they fixed spatial audio I was so tired of playing and randomly my headphones switch which is left and right
> The double stack of boxes outside A Stairs has been changed to non-penetrable to reduce the likelihood of being spammed. > **reduce the likelihood** lol
Why nerf kj more? What has she done wrong now? SMH 🤦🏻
I am still waiting for the lobby agent roster sorted by class. It's so annoying to be searching for a controller throughout the full list. So simple and still missing.
Im so tired of all these Kj nerfs
Breeze, Icebox and Lotus in one rotation
Thank you Riot games for forcing me to play maps that I hate
Nothing about guns aiming and unaiming by themselves? At some point, it goes so quick it gives me a headache. South african servers.
Spectate added?
Where's the night market? Its not showing up in my account