In the recent Valorant Patch Notes you can read all the implementations that will be made to the game. Source: Riot Games.
Hey, we’re back with Patch 1.14, if you’re wondering what happened to Patch 1.13, we used it to roll out some Unreal upgrades. So there’s that.
This one’s light on the Agents, big on Icebox. This round of Icebox changes is focused on getting the A site and verticality just right.
To help combat smurfs/AFKers, you must now win 10 Unrated matches before you can unlock Competitive. Speaking of which, the slew of Observer additions should make it better to follow the competition. Rank distribution has also been adjusted to help those at lower levels in their climb.
The limited Snowball Fight mode arrives and the Night. The market is open.
MAP UPDATES
ICEBOX
The changes to Icebox in this update are centered around simplifying the A Site and reducing the height of some of the most vertical areas on the map.
Reduced the height of the A Belt area and connected it via a ramp to the platform below
This puts the upper A Belt area more in line with the rest of the verticality in the site
Acquiring targets up top also requires less vertical movement of the crosshair
Added a see-through gate here that can’t be passed from the ground level
Pathing should hopefully be more predictable from attackers approaching the site and defenders retaking the site
Sloped the wall (first image) and replaced the double stack of Radianite crates in the site with a smaller object (second image)
This should allow attackers to approach the site more safely, and a quicker retake of the site for defenders
Reduced the height of the yellow container.
This allows the top of the container to be fully cleared from several angles as well as reduces the amount of crosshair displacement required when aiming at targets on top of the container
MODE UPDATES
Ready to have a Snowball Fight with your friends (and likely your foes)? The limited mode goes live on Dec.15 and will last for two weeks, on Dec. 29. Play a match of Snowball Fight and you’ll also nab a themed Gun Buddy, delivered at a later date.
5v5: Team Deathmatch
The first team to 50 kills wins
Respawns are enabled, so get back in there
The snowball launcher is your weapon of choice
Killjoy has rigged a custom version of Brimstone’s molotov launcher
Projectile based snowballs have travel time and an arc (make sure to lead that shot!)
Infinite snowballs—don’t stop shooting!
The gift that keeps on giving: Power ups!
Gifts spawn around the map, sometimes a portal appears and gifts come pouring out
Each gift contains a power up when opened (shoot to open)
You can only have one of each power up at a time, so make sure to share with your teammates
If you die, you drop your power ups and someone else can snag them
Gift types
Rapid Fire: fire even faster
Growball: grows over time while traveling in the air
Ricochet: for all those snowball trick shots off the ground and walls
Skates: skate around quickly and in style. Jump higher!
Maps
Week 1: Check out the festivities on the newly updated holiday version of Icebox (Snowball Fight only!)
Week 2: Snowball Fight can be played on all current maps
Progression
Get 750 XP for each game completed, and 150 bonus XP for a win
Snowball mode does not progress missions
COMPETITIVE UPDATES
Rank distribution has been updated to make it easier to climb out of the lower ranks
These were previous;y disabled due to performances hitches
Act Rank Badge display has been re-enabled on in-game player cards.
Performance issues, such as hitches, have been fixed along with on death performance optimizations
Career page: Match History and Act Ranks have been split out into their own specific sections.
You can still view both your friends Match History and Act Rank progress
STORE UPDATES
Check out our newest feature with the introduction of the Night.Market
Each player will get 6 chances to receive a random Select, Deluxe, or Premium weapon skin at a discount
Opens December 10th
SOCIAL UPDATES
Requirements to unlock Competitive play have been changed from Play 20 Unrated matches >>> Win 10 Unrated matches
We hope this will lower the amount of AFKs and INTing we see in unrated games caused by players rushing to unlock ranked mode.
A text field has been added to the Report Player menu so that players can now provide more information on their reason for reporting, if they choose to
Players can now add friends in-game via the player list in the escape menu
Add teammates and opposing players to your friends list to play with again in the future if you enjoyed their company!
GAME SYSTEMS UPDATES
Manual Game State Recovery
In cases where tournament organizers need to roll back or replay from a given round, they can now remake any tournament match from that point with our manual recovery tool.
Cinematic Cameras
We have added cinematic camera locations across all maps for observers to use.
Observers can press Shift + player number to jump to the best cinematic camera to capture the action.
Observers can immediately leave a Cinematic Camera to move to Free camera
We have a lot more ideas for additional functionality, so stay tuned for that in the future.
Projectile Follow
Observers can now follow a projectile fired by a player character (Default keybind is F).
Observer camera will remain at the destination of the projectile and will transition to a free camera from this point.
Minimal Broadcast HUD
Observer perspectives that are meant to be used for broadcasting can turn on Minimal Broadcast HUD from the custom game lobby to retain as clean of a HUD experience as possible for custom overlays
Observer Follower
Observers can now lock their view to match another observer (Be the passenger instead of the driver)
Default keybinds for following previous / next observer: ‘[‘ and ‘]’
Observers can use player numbers on the minimap to jump directly to a specific player
BUG FIXES
Fixed an issue where Killjoy’s turret could be placed underneath the ground in some maps
Fixed an issue where Omen could teleport past the Buy phase barrier
Fixed a bug where pressing a push-to-talk key while typing in chat would trigger voice chat
Fixed a bug where AFKer queue restrictions would keep resetting for some players
In the recent Valorant Patch Notes you can read all the implementations that will be made to the game. Source: Riot Games.
Hey, we’re back with Patch 1.14, if you’re wondering what happened to Patch 1.13, we used it to roll out some Unreal upgrades. So there’s that.
This one’s light on the Agents, big on Icebox. This round of Icebox changes is focused on getting the A site and verticality just right.
To help combat smurfs/AFKers, you must now win 10 Unrated matches before you can unlock Competitive. Speaking of which, the slew of Observer additions should make it better to follow the competition. Rank distribution has also been adjusted to help those at lower levels in their climb.
The limited Snowball Fight mode arrives and the Night.Market is open.
AGENT UPDATES
SAGE
Barrier OrbBarrier Orb can’t be cast in Buy PhaseAlthough this was a hotfix solution intended to prevent an exploit with Omen, this change is overall a solid one that we believe creates cohesion across what can and can’t be cast in buy phase. Most of the abilities cast during buy phase are meant to set up more permanent utility.Once fortified, Barrier no longer loses health over time—Barrier only starts to deteriorate a few seconds before it expiresOverall, we’ve been happy with how the fortified barrier has been playing but wanted to make some changes to prevent the mitigation of the fortifying counterplay, while rewarding Sage players that successfully fortify their walls. By removing the mitigation of the counterplay, we are able to investigate future opportunities to reward players that succeed in getting their barriers to fortify.
MAP UPDATES
ICEBOX
The changes to Icebox in this update are centered around simplifying the A Site and reducing the height of some of the most vertical areas on the map.
Reduced the height of the A Belt area and connected it via a ramp to the platform below
This puts the upper A Belt area more in line with the rest of the verticality in the site
Acquiring targets up top also requires less vertical movement of the crosshair
Added a see-through gate here that can’t be passed from the ground level
Pathing should hopefully be more predictable from attackers approaching the site and defenders retaking the site
Sloped the wall (first image) and replaced the double stack of Radianite crates in the site with a smaller object (second image)
This should allow attackers to approach the site more safely, and a quicker retake of the site for defenders
Reduced the height of the yellow container.
This allows the top of the container to be fully cleared from several angles as well as reduces the amount of crosshair displacement required when aiming at targets on top of the container
MODE UPDATES
Ready to have a Snowball Fight with your friends (and likely your foes)? The limited mode goes live on Dec.15 and will last for two weeks, on Dec. 29. Play a match of Snowball Fight and you’ll also nab a themed Gun Buddy, delivered at a later date.
5v5: Team Deathmatch
The first team to 50 kills wins
Respawns are enabled, so get back in there
The snowball launcher is your weapon of choice
Killjoy has rigged a custom version of Brimstone’s molotov launcher
Projectile based snowballs have travel time and an arc (make sure to lead that shot!)
Infinite snowballs—don’t stop shooting!
The gift that keeps on giving: Power ups!
Gifts spawn around the map, sometimes a portal appears and gifts come pouring out
Each gift contains a power up when opened (shoot to open)
You can only have one of each power up at a time, so make sure to share with your teammates
If you die, you drop your power ups and someone else can snag them
Gift types
Rapid Fire: fire even faster
Growball: grows over time while traveling in the air
Ricochet: for all those snowball trick shots off the ground and walls
Skates: skate around quickly and in style. Jump higher!
Maps
Week 1: Check out the festivities on the newly updated holiday version of Icebox (Snowball Fight only!)
Week 2: Snowball Fight can be played on all current maps
Progression
Get 750 XP for each game completed, and 150 bonus XP for a win
Snowball mode does not progress missions
COMPETITIVE UPDATES
Rank distribution has been updated to make it easier to climb out of the lower ranks
These were previous;y disabled due to performances hitches
Act Rank Badge display has been re-enabled on in-game player cards.
Performance issues, such as hitches, have been fixed along with on death performance optimizations
Career page: Match History and Act Ranks have been split out into their own specific sections.
You can still view both your friends Match History and Act Rank progress
STORE UPDATES
Check out our newest feature with the introduction of the Night.Market
Each player will get 6 chances to receive a random Select, Deluxe, or Premium weapon skin at a discount
Opens December 10th
SOCIAL UPDATES
Requirements to unlock Competitive play have been changed from Play 20 Unrated matches >>> Win 10 Unrated matches
We hope this will lower the amount of AFKs and INTing we see in unrated games caused by players rushing to unlock ranked mode.
A text field has been added to the Report Player menu so that players can now provide more information on their reason for reporting, if they choose to
Players can now add friends in-game via the player list in the escape menu
Add teammates and opposing players to your friends list to play with again in the future if you enjoyed their company!
GAME SYSTEMS UPDATES
Manual Game State Recovery
In cases where tournament organizers need to roll back or replay from a given round, they can now remake any tournament match from that point with our manual recovery tool.
Cinematic Cameras
We have added cinematic camera locations across all maps for observers to use.
Observers can press Shift + player number to jump to the best cinematic camera to capture the action.
Observers can immediately leave a Cinematic Camera to move to Free camera
We have a lot more ideas for additional functionality, so stay tuned for that in the future.
Projectile Follow
Observers can now follow a projectile fired by a player character (Default keybind is F).
Observer camera will remain at the destination of the projectile and will transition to a free camera from this point.
Minimal Broadcast HUD
Observer perspectives that are meant to be used for broadcasting can turn on Minimal Broadcast HUD from the custom game lobby to retain as clean of a HUD experience as possible for custom overlays
Observer Follower
Observers can now lock their view to match another observer (Be the passenger instead of the driver)
Default keybinds for following previous / next observer: ‘[‘ and ‘]’
Observers can use player numbers on the minimap to jump directly to a specific player
BUG FIXES
Fixed an issue where Killjoy’s turret could be placed underneath the ground in some maps
Fixed an issue where Omen could teleport past the Buy phase barrier
Fixed a bug where pressing a push-to-talk key while typing in chat would trigger voice chat
Fixed a bug where AFKer queue restrictions would keep resetting for some players