Riot Games has released a brand new update for Valorant. The update is titled 6.02, and it’s here to introduce brand new changes to how things work, especially with the hitreg at players playing with a higher ping. As for the explanation itself, it has been provided in the Patch Notes, where the Software Engineer Kevin Lee speaks about the changes.
It seems that Valorant will be less punishing for players with lower ping from now on. This update also provides changes to some of the weapons, including a map update on Fracture and Lotus, and fixes bugs related to agents.
GAMEPLAY SYSTEMS UPDATES
When a player fires a shot, it takes time for the input to reach the server. To prevent you from needing to lead your shots, VALORANT implements server rewinding. When the server determines the outcome of a shot, it rewinds character positions around the bullet to match their locations at the time when the shot was initially fired. Finding the right limit for a max rewind amount is important for reducing cases of anyone feeling like they need to lead shots, or that they can still be shot after safely repositioning themselves.
When we launched the game, the max rewind value was set to 200 ms based on what we deemed as acceptable networking conditions (factoring in some amount of additional input/processing latency) to play VALORANT. Based on player data since launch, we’ve determined that this value is too high for the networking conditions experienced by most of you. —Kevin Lee, Software Engineer
- Adjusted max server rewind limit down to 140 ms from 200 ms.
- If you only play in games where everyone’s ping is low, you shouldn’t even notice this change. In other cases, the impact of this change will be subtle, and most of you won’t notice the difference. That being said, we expect to see the following changes in gameplay patterns:
- Playing against players with high ping should feel less like you’re getting shot after moving behind cover by a bullet fired earlier
- Players playing with high ping may start to experience hit registration inaccuracy
- If you only play in games where everyone’s ping is low, you shouldn’t even notice this change. In other cases, the impact of this change will be subtle, and most of you won’t notice the difference. That being said, we expect to see the following changes in gameplay patterns:
- These behaviors already exist in VALORANT, but we are shifting the needle for what we consider “high ping” to be less generous. We hope that this change reduces the frustration players feel when playing against high ping players and continues to minimize the impact of networking conditions on gameplay.
- If you want to dive deeper into hit registration in VALORANT, check out our previous piece from 2020.
- For some more about one of the reasons that motivated this update, read our first Gameplay Consistency Update, and then our most recent update from last year.
WEAPON UPDATES
STINGER
We feel that the Stinger is overperforming at medium to long range engagements at its price point. Force buying Heavy Armor and Stingers on both round 2 and 3 was too effective and lacked the appropriate nuance and economic tradeoffs. We hope that players can occasionally still access this strategy granted they have the credits to do so.
- Cost increased 950 >>> 1100
- Damage fall-off changed:
- Previously:
- 27 damage per bullet (0 – 20m)
- 25 damage per bullet (20m+)
- Now:
- 27 damage per bullet (0 – 15m)
- 23 damage per bullet (15m+)
- Previously:
SOCIAL UPDATES
- Voice Evaluation Beta (North America/English-only)
- Last year we began a background launch of the Riot Voice Evaluation (RVE) in North America. RVE will now move into a limited beta phase that will enhance our behavioral reports data collection capabilities and improve the impact of our comms related behavioral interventions.
BUGS
AGENTS
- Potentially fixed bug with KAY/O’s Zero/point (E) not showing the correct enemies that it has suppressed (please let us know if you see further issues here)
- Pathfinding has been improved on Raze’s Boom Bot (C) when chasing an enemy. It can now more consistently jump up small heights and will do so with smoother movement
- Fixed a bug with Boom Bot (C) getting stuck in a wall and rapidly shaking while making a loud noise. It will now bounce off the wall per usual
- Fixed a bug where Yoru’s Fakeout (C) could get stuck in mid-air in various locations
- Fixed bug where Cypher’s Neural Theft (X) would only reveal one time if he had been killed or the round had changed during a previous cast
- Fixed a bug where Cypher’s Neural Theft (X) reveals would be interrupted when he was killed after it had been deployed
MAPS
- Players will no longer make footstep audio when dropping from Lotus B site platform to the fountain
- Lotus door volume has been lowered further (we lowered in 6.01 as well) during the rotation phase
- On Lotus, players next to each other while rotating door…rotates should feel smoother
- On Lotus, fixed an issue where players were spawning on the wrong side of barrier near C site if standing on rotating door at round end
- On Fracture, fixed a bug where the “Paul Delmann” badge could be stuck on the screen after Buy Phase ends
WEAPONS
- Fixed an issue where Frenzy and Bulldog reload audio is quieter than other weapons in third person
SOCIAL
- Fixed a bug that caused voice chat to no longer function when disconnected from the internet for less than 60 seconds
- If the internet is disconnected for 60 seconds or less, you will be able to reconnect to voice chat without having to relaunch the game.
