Valorant Patch Notes 9.06 and Vanguard updates bring various quality-of-life improvements and small adjustments to ability interaction that will improve the state of the game. With improvements to the social and system side of Valorant’s framework, the game becomes more polished and better for the existing PC players and the new influx of Console players. Updates include better game logic and improvements across the communication and social side. An article about anti-cheat and player behaviours also addresses how the integrity of the game is maintained and steps being iterated to improve future experiences.
Patch Notes
Regarding Agent interactions, there is an interaction change with Agent abilities on Ascent’s A-side windows. The changes are as follows:
- Phoenix’s Blaze and Neon’s Fast Lane will break the window if their initial cast center point would hit the window, but the walls themselves will not interact with the window.
- Harbor’s High Tide will no longer break the glass window since it does not hit walls.
- Chamber’s Trademark, Cypher’s Trapwire, and Killjoy’s Lockdown will no longer break windows when placed too close.
These are niche changes and while it will be useful, especially in making less presence around these areas through ability usage, there shouldn’t be big changes to how this area of the map is played. The Sentinel utility not breaking the windows might be the biggest adjustment. It will allow Sentinels to catch both audio queues and detect enemies making it a theoretical sentinel buff on that part of the map, but it isn’t a major upgrade.
The window may have more traps around it now.
Another change about AOE abilities becomes added to the game as follows:
- Brimstone’s Orbital Strike AOE windup/activation and Vyse’s Steel Garden AOE windup audio integration have been updated from being positioned directly on the Agent when in the AOE to being slightly directional toward the origin of the AOE to allow you to know which direction to travel in, in order to escape.
This change is more about the player’s better understanding of how to run away from the Ultimate once it is cast. It will probably be more useful in avoiding Vyse’s Steel Garden rather than Brimstone’s Orbital Strike. Still, it is another slight nerf to the AOE Ultimates which are the strongest form of site Ultimates in the game not counting Killjoy’s Lockdown. As a quality-of-life change, AOE Ultimates have the most potential to swing the round from relative safety and any patches to these abilities so there are better interactions on both sides helps the game become healthier long-term.
y'all cooked with this new Vyse combo. now name it. pic.twitter.com/c6zfoWMI6q
— VALORANT (@VALORANT) September 17, 2024
Other updates are more quality-of-life updates and include improvements to the voting system discounting AFK players, some interactions of Sentinel utility on the crates on Haven, and voice chat improvements after unexpected disconnects. The improvement to the voting system and voice comms is a huge improvement as it has been noticeable for players and these will help determine drawing with an AFK in overtime or making sure that voice comms work for players so comms are still usable for players even if it drops out.
On the social side, adding the option to block players has been added for a better gameplay experience. Valorant and Tac shooters are notoriously toxic platforms and it is common to see players engaging in disruptive behaviour. Adding this ability to block someone will make the game easier for players as harassment is rampant in the game and being able to mute these disruptions before bans or warnings are dished makes it easier for players to concentrate on the game. It’s a small step to ensuring players treat each other with dignity and respect within the video game. The feature should be much appreciated by the majority of the player base, excluding the few bad apples who will no doubt be upset that their disruptive behaviour won’t be acknowledged by those fed up with them.
Vanguard Evolution
The announcement of the ranked rollback feature that is due to be added is both a fascinating and potentially problematic feature. The article explaining the Vanguard anti-cheat system explains the rollback feature as “undo”ing the RR lost to playing against a cheater after they’ve been banned, so both accounts get what they deserve. While it seems like a great idea on paper to maintain the competitive integrity of the ranked game modes on Valorant, it seems like it could be exploited and abused if not used correctly.
If the ranked rollback feature were to be implemented correctly, it would personally help the community feel less hard done by players they’ve believed to be cheating. I’ve reported many cheaters during my time playing the Competitive queue and cheats come in many forms from just the typical aimbot to other features such as wallhacks and triggerbot just to name a few. With the addition of console gameplay to Valorant, cheats have likely exponentially increased on the new platform.
The update features in Patch Notes 9.06.
I have gotten feedback from the in-game system thanking me for my report and telling me that they were indeed cheating retrospectively more than once, and I have lost every time I have felt I have come up against a cheater. This feature to undo the RR loss feels like it could be vindictive to all those who were victims of this behaviour. Personally, bad losses also deteriorate mental states and affect performance, which makes it difficult to keep performing well if you go zero for ten against a cheater even if you suspect they may have been cheating that match. This is indeed more true in group settings where even when players play coordinated, they all get killed by the one cheater and the mood can drop and affect future gameplay experiences.
This is why if the system side picks up on enemies cheating, they should let prospective opponents know as soon as possible such as straight after the match has concluded to let them know that the potential cheater on the enemy team they likely reported was a cheater if the game recognises it as such. The article mentions Vanguard deliberately delaying the ban hammer so that means the game likely recognises cheaters well before they’re banned. If after a game of being stomped by an enemy cheater players get a pop-up message saying they’ve likely faced a cheater, it would improve mental and make it easier to stomach going four and fifteen even if players cannot get their RR back until the cheater has been banned.
dimensions cannot contain Singularity 2.0 pic.twitter.com/vAt4eN68O9
— VALORANT (@VALORANT) September 25, 2024
Valorant’s anti-cheat uses a kernel system and works much more effectively compared to other FPS titles I have played so it still is a big improvement compared to its prospective competitors in the market. Yet the fact that Valorant goes out of its way to be transparent about its processes and working to deal with cheats makes it both rewarding as a player and glad as a fan of game integrity in online spaces. It makes the time spent on investment feel worthwhile and makes it seem like developers care about the gameplay experience rather than having the whole team work on designing cosmetics to milk cash out of its player base like some other games.
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