Valve Listens Up

[trisk]

(most) Change is good.



All these change are good, IMHO.

[Mikemike 2.0]

What number is Jess' post on gotFrag? Also, I can't wait for those changes to the duelies and the M249. They'll be awesome.

[Jocky]

EXCELLENT ...i always knew the duelies were fuckin sick ass l337 pwn weapons..haha....THE DAY IS A FOOT

[pinkassmonkey]

yeah it'll be a great spray and pray combo with the para holding the most bullets for primary slot and dualies holding the most bullets for secondary slot

[jejune]

can someone please explain an "opaque radar"? thanks :)

[marc___1]

not see through



o·paque adj.



Impenetrable by light; neither transparent nor translucent.

Not reflecting light; having no luster: an opaque finish.

Impenetrable by a form of radiant energy other than visible light: a chemical solution opaque to x-rays.



So obscure as to be unintelligible: "opaque, elusive, minimal meanings" (John Simon).

Obtuse of mind; dense.

[SteelV]

jejune wrote..

can someone please explain an "opaque radar"? thanks :)

opaque just means that it won't be transparent anymore.. so you'll actually be able to see it without looking at the ground on dust lol

[RaptorRage]

Tis even more of a problem with all the bright sky boxes.

[a_russak]

I think we will see a lot more changes as Steam becomes more stable and all the bigger bugs are worked out. This news is important, valve is turning over a new leaf, and responding more than they usually do to public outcry, this changes will all take time, but it all sounds for the better.

[Lento]

They do listen, I got them to fix the voicecom bug, so now I will be able to use HLSS and play more than 20 samples. Also sprays will now work... :)



By the way serveradmins should set this for uber voicecom quality:

sv_voicecodec voice_speex

sv_voicequality 5



On the client I suggest setting this to get rid of choppyness:

voice_fadeouttime 0



Also if you dont want ingame sound to be lowered when someone speaks/plays sounds in the voicecom do:

voice_overdrive 1

[jedi764]

Why do people hate the shield so much, I think it's the best thing to come along. People call it a cheap weapon for pussies. But when you think about it, the awp is a one shot sniper that kills with one hit anywhere except the legs or arms. people can pick off others as they run. Now I think ppl are pissed about the shield because it actually gives a chance to some ppl who can't fire for shit. It helps stop those lethal awp raping from the Aztec bridge or the Dust tunnel. People hate the fact that they have to actually try to kill someone with the awp instead of BANg your dead, BANG your dead, Bang your dead. The shield is in my opinion a vital game piece that makes CS more exciting and adds some new flavor and dimension.

[kodt]

how can he say taht they are having troulbe making a lan version of steam/1.6 when

A. They already developed one for use at the CPL, and

B. some Russians have already hacked and realeased a LAN version of steam/1.6 sooo wtf?



Sure people who dont have valid keys can install and play on LAN then but who cares.. you will still need valid key to get online play...THis should have been released months ago.

[JdeFalconr]

Let's hope they DON'T "balance" the dual berettas and Para like they "balanced" the auto sniper rifles. Those guns are overpowered now, and we don't need the para to be better than it is, or the berettas to be made powerful.

[Thortok2000]

Okay, a few things to address.



1: I've always disliked VALVe's lack of community support. The common complaint (that they don't listen) is incorrect. They don't respond. Or didn't.

I had become used to a silent Valve. I didn't think there was a problem with it. Now, I realize that I was wrong. For when Valve is silent, there isn't communication. There is a community that doesn't know if it's being heard, whether or not it actually is. Hopefully Valve and other game companies realize that the ability to effectively deliver sweeping gameplay changes in a quick manner can only be checked and balanced by a loud, two-way conversation.

This says the point I've been trying to make all along. The simple 'we're working on it' is soooo much better than silence, and hopefully VALVe will realize that patient people (like me) will stop complaining and asking about it for a few weeks or so, now that an answer has been given.



2: As far as the gameplay suggestions, a couple things:



A: Reduce the damage and accuracy of AK and M4 (and perhaps other rifles) at great range. Other than the sg552 and aug, these guns DO NOT HAVE SCOPES so technically their accuracy should suck when the target is hardly bigger than the crosshair they're aiming with. However, I frequently die to a headshot (with one bullet!) from an AK at ranges of 60 yards or more. When trying to autosnipe a AK user, I die 90% of the time. Most other guns are fine but the 'headshot from the other side of a football field' has got to go. M4 is slightly better than the AK, but still accurate enough that they can land 3 or 4 bullets in you at that range and get the kill.



B: I will always call any one-hit-kill weapon as unbalanced. Your movement rate is slowed...so what? Lots of awpers quick switch to a pistol when sidestepping to negate that. They also run with a knife to get into position. Body armor does nothing against an awp, or so it seems. The only way not to die is to get shot in the leg, and then you're stuck in place for a good five seconds so another shot can easily kill you. More on the awp when I talk about the shield.



C: M4/AK abuse. Rate of fire and damage make it almost worthless to buy anything else if you've got the money for these instead. The scoped functions of sg552 and aug have less accuracy (other than the first shot, and faster recoil adjustment to get that first shot) than the M4/AK. Since the M4/AK still have too much accuracy even when it's not the first shot (watch dynamic crosshair, it isn't at the smallest possible yet, so the recoil cooldown isn't even done and they can still get great accuracy), and a high amount of damage and rate of fire, and not too small of a clip either, they are constantly used and abused. Frontal, close-quarter combat will inevitably give these weapons the win.



My suggestion is to reduce their usefulness at long range (make them useful above smgs or shotguns, but not against anything with a scope, at long range, the scope should win on accuracy). Perhaps also have body armor work against them. Or remove the 'stopping' effect these two guns in particular have when shooting the enemy (preventing any escape to a better location to fight).



C: The shield. I think it in itself is fine (assuming all glitches are fixed). However, movement speed needs to be a lot slower (for example, the speed when closed should be set as the speed when open, and the new speed when closed should be even slower). Make grenades either do more damage to a shielder or force him to drop the shield. When a shielder has something to his back, he takes a small amount of damage even when he blocks a bullet with the shield (this prevents those just camping against walls/corners to prevent being flanked). Perhaps simply making the shield smaller and easier to flank. Having the shield give ZERO protection when reloading.



The shield does it's job pretty well (being an anti-awp) but there's still problems with it. For one, a correctly used shield and a teammate can take out any single terrorist without him standing much of a chance. The terrorist has to kill the non-shielder (which may be hard if he's behind the shielder) while avoiding bullets from the shielder. If the shielder isn't good, he can be killed first, or not worried about because he can't kill you while you go after the other, but if he is, it's very hard to circumvent. I know this because I'm a good shielder, lol



Another thing to note is that this gives the CT an anti-awp while the T's don't have any anti-awp. The T's have nothing similar to a shield in any way, so no matter how balanced the shield is as a weapon, there is still no 'equating factor' on the T side. The T's have no way to shield unless they can kill a shielder, pick up the shield, and stay alive (usually a difficult task for a T against good players). The CT's, however, can not only shield, but can awp with impunity as the T's can't shield the awps.



So either let the T's buy shields (perhaps a 'different type' of shield with a different skin, one that would be available to terrorists to use), or give them some other weapon that provides some offensive or defensive power to equate the shield.



One final option is to not let the CT's buy awps. This way, they can keep the shield, the T's can keep their awp, and there would be more 'team identity'. This is the suggestion I consider would solve the awp/shield problem the best.



D: It never makes sense to me how the C4 timer can't be set by the person actually planting the bomb. If I want to set it for 8 seconds, why can't I? I know it's really unbalancing and everything, but if you look at it logically, a terrorist who really wants to bomb the place will either suicide (instant explosion upon reaching the target), or give it just long enough to get away from the explosion himself before blowing up. However, on a balance issue, this gives CT no chance to defuse.



Also, on servers with high times (like 45 seconds), the CTs almost always defuse. On servers with low times (30 seconds or under), the CT's almost never defuse.



The answer? Let it not be a server variable, but have the defuse time be set to the map itself. This way, small maps (with less travel time) can have smaller times, and big maps can have bigger times.



E: We have say and team_say. Let's have voice and team_voice (team voice being the default of course). Remove alltalk as a server command. I want to be able to strategize with my team, and lots of people want to talk trash to the other team (or just chat).



F: Let's be able to mute the radio chatter whenever you mute the person. Not sure if this is the case already, but I think it isn't, so it should be.



G: What is the point of the jump disconnecting you from a ladder? When has this done anything useful besides make you fall and hit the ground and take damage? I have removed jump and replaced it with a bind for jump-crouch, highly useful, however whenever I take a jump towards a ladder, I have to make sure to let go otherwise I just jump off it.



If a point can be made as to why it should stay like this, then I'll listen, but this is one little small thing that can probably be taken care of easy, and won't hurt anyone in the fixing.



I think that's enough suggestions for now.



3: As far as why the lan version for CPL but not the public, CPL is a respected place, VALVe was on hand for it, and there were already anti-cheat and anti-piracy measures in place. However, for the general public, steam is meant as an anti-cheat and anti-piracy method, which it is. You can't pirate the game if you have to verify online before playing. So offline mode is a more complicated manner than people think.

[StreaK]

Wow, opaque radar gives me action in the pants.