Valorant

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https://beta.playvalorant.com/en-gb/

Surprised a thread for this doesn't exist already, a new F2P FPS game from Riot releasing this summer.

There was a closed beta session last weekend that content creators got access to and general consensus seems to be it's a game worth trying out. The NDA lifts on the 3rd so expect to see a lot more footage of it on Friday.

Thoughts? Personally I'm intrigued to see how it pans out, definitely going to give it a whirl whenever I get the opportunity.
 
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If you wanted to dumb it right down, yes. However, it'll have an anti-cheat system that actually works and the servers will be 128 tick by default. It's effectively aiming to replace CS:GO whilst not being a replica.
 
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Thoughts? Personally I'm intrigued to see how it pans out, definitely going to give it a whirl whenever I get the opportunity.

I think you'll enjoy it, it's been a long time in the making and there's a very serious team of people behind it.

I've been working on it (infrastructure) for around the last 18 months, and it's great to finally see people talking about it, the feedback so far has been amazing :)

The commitment to anti-cheat is real too, probably some of the most advanced netcode ever in an FPS game built from the ground up to prevent cheaters, along with dedicated global infrastructure.
 
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I've been waiting for a game like this to come along for some time now, as CS:GO MM is very stale and I don't want to pay for features that, given how much cash Valve rakes in through skins etc., should really be in the base game. With all the talk from the various streamers I've dropped in on so far I'm getting low-key hyped.
 
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However, it'll have an anti-cheat system that actually works

For about 3 days until someone finds a way to break it.

The commitment to anti-cheat is real too, probably some of the most advanced netcode ever in an FPS game built from the ground up to prevent cheaters, along with dedicated global infrastructure.

It is the client you need to secure to prevent cheats like aimbots and esp/wallhacks (assuming you aren't sending too much data about events the player can't see/hear*) and the server authoritative to prevent things like RPM and physics/collision hacks. I guarantee it won't hold up long sadly once cheat devs get their teeth into it. Any attempt to discern cheating via "netcode" and/or game stats such as FairFight will either have to be done with a light touch, which will still let a lot of cheaters through, or it will have too high a false positive rate and ban too many legit players.

* For instance if a player is running behind a wall with positioned footstep sounds that can still be used to infer their position even if the netcode wasn't sending the actual player position.
 
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Soldato
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For about 3 days until someone finds a way to break it.



It is the client you need to secure to prevent cheats like aimbots and esp/wallhacks (assuming you aren't sending too much data about events the player can't see/hear*) and the server authoritative to prevent things like RPM and physics/collision hacks. I guarantee it won't hold up long sadly once cheat devs get their teeth into it. Any attempt to discern cheating via "netcode" and/or game stats such as FairFight will either have to be done with a light touch, which will still let a lot of cheaters through, or it will have too high a false positive rate and ban too many legit players.

* For instance if a player is running behind a wall with positioned footstep sounds that can still be used to infer their position even if the netcode wasn't sending the actual player position.

Without getting bogged down in the details, I think a different way to understand Riot's approach here, is to consider the history of Riot and League of Legends.

A number of years back, League was being ruined by cheaters, Riot knows that cheaters can decimate the player base of a game - you only have to look at games like PUBG to see what can happen there. Yet, Riot managed to get League to a point where cheating isn't really a serious problem anymore, or certainly not what it was - it's also the worlds biggest competitive game, and it's free - so Riot knows how to do this at scale, long term and keep doing it.

With Valorant, that knowledge and experience has been there from the ground up. You can guarantee - if/when someone does figure out a way around the anti-cheat systems, Riot will throw untold amounts of resources at that problem and leave no stone unturned until it gets solved, because they understand the ramifications of not fixing it - especially with a free-to-play title.

I understand the scepticism though - in the end we'll have to wait and see how it holds up to the 'wild' so to speak :)

I've been waiting for a game like this to come along for some time now, as CS:GO MM is very stale and I don't want to pay for features that, given how much cash Valve rakes in through skins etc., should really be in the base game. With all the talk from the various streamers I've dropped in on so far I'm getting low-key hyped.

Yeah, we were playing with a whole load of influencers and streamers, at the event we laid on for them over the weekend, and the reactions we got were so great - to be on a server playing with some of the big name streamers was amazing, although playing against some of the actual pro CS players was... lol :p
 
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Without getting bogged down in the details, I think a different way to understand Riot's approach here, is to consider the history of Riot and League of Legends.

A number of years back, League was being ruined by cheaters, Riot knows that cheaters can decimate the player base of a game - you only have to look at games like PUBG to see what can happen there. Yet, Riot managed to get League to a point where cheating isn't really a serious problem anymore, or certainly not what it was - it's also the worlds biggest competitive game, and it's free - so Riot knows how to do this at scale, long term and keep doing it.

With Valorant, that knowledge and experience has been there from the ground up. You can guarantee - if/when someone does figure out a way around the anti-cheat systems, Riot will throw untold amounts of resources at that problem and leave no stone unturned until it gets solved, because they understand the ramifications of not fixing it - especially with a free-to-play title.

I understand the scepticism though - in the end we'll have to wait and see how it holds up to the 'wild' so to speak

Thing is with League you don't have to contend with aimbots and that is the most ruinous thing in an FPS game - stopping stuff like speed hacks and so on are just getting back to basics and devs stopping being lazy as has tended to happen the last few years. ESP/Wallhacks are lame and can give an edge against a casual player but someone who is good will already have most of that information down by instinct and awareness and will have enough control over their own positioning and pace to offset any advantage a lesser player might gain via that. But an aimbot is an edge that is hard to combat and they can be implemented to be extremely natural looking these days :(

The counter to cheating in most cases is having community servers which draw a regular crowd and good admins plus the game giving the admins the tools they need and is another thing that developers/publishers have tended to move away from with the lobby systems and gameplay that doesn't well suit that.
 
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I don't really disagree with most of what you say, I used to do Overwatch cases when I played CS:GO so I've seen it all! :p

All I would say is, lets give it a chance - and see how it holds up eh, I understand the scepticism but I'd be willing to bet, more effort has been put into anti-cheat in Valorant, than any other FPS game so far.

In the meantime, talking about wallhacks :D - I'm loving Sova's teaser;

 
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I cant wait to give this a go, made my account, linked my twitch, downloaded the client.

Fingers crossed I can get a closed beta code on the 7th!

Love apex but need a break, need something fresh to sink my teeth into. :)
 
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Im sure streamers are hyping this up (much like every other game thats nearing release for them to promptly drop it weeks after release) but to me this looks absolutely terrible.

I have no doubt the drop feature will see it reach high numbers on Twitch for a short while but I cant see it coming anywhere near CS levels.
 
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Im sure streamers are hyping this up (much like every other game thats nearing release for them to promptly drop it weeks after release) but to me this looks absolutely terrible.

I have no doubt the drop feature will see it reach high numbers on Twitch for a short while but I cant see it coming anywhere near CS levels.

I think it'll be enormous and I'll give you three reasons why;

Firstly; The core fundamental game play is absolutely brilliant, the gun play and shooting mechanics are the best I've ever played in a game and the skill ceiling is very very high.

Secondly; The map design is brilliant, Riot has some of the original map designers who made some of the iconic CS maps working on Valorant, they know how to make highly competitive environments for a tac shooter.

Thirdly; It's really good to spectate - which is one of the hardest things to get right in an Esports title, I can see it being enormous from the point of view of streamers and professional teams, simply because it's just fun to watch.
 
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Damn you lucky man! I've been watching Onscreen the whole time, got back to a Twitch notification but I'd been gifted a sub! :D
 
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One of the things that keeps coming out of the professional players, is how the hit registration is so precise. In the sense that there's literally never a time where you're emptying a clip into somebody and the rounds just don't feel like they're hitting, if you lose a 1v1 engagement, it always feels fair and the loss was a result of the other person getting the drop on you, or just having a better shot.

I still think some of the little things make it awesome, like how you can request a gun from the buy menu, and anybody in your team with spare cash can buy it for you just by right-clicking on it, - even if you're at the other side of the starting point. Little things like that are cool and will make it so much easier for teams to share economy properly, in casual/solo queue, where not everybody knows each other, or is using voice comms.
 
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One of the things that keeps coming out of the professional players, is how the hit registration is so precise. In the sense that there's literally never a time where you're emptying a clip into somebody and the rounds just don't feel like they're hitting, if you lose a 1v1 engagement, it always feels fair and the loss was a result of the other person getting the drop on you, or just having a better shot.

I still think some of the little things make it awesome, like how you can request a gun from the buy menu, and anybody in your team with spare cash can buy it for you just by right-clicking on it, - even if you're at the other side of the starting point. Little things like that are cool and will make it so much easier for teams to share economy properly, in casual/solo queue, where not everybody knows each other, or is using voice comms.

Quite impressive if they've managed to do that without it going the other way and people complaining they are getting hit too much when they go behind walls or the game feeling like it is playing out somewhat artificially as it tries to fudge a fair outcome. It isn't too hard to get perfect hit registry - getting a good balance between that and other people feeling like they were taking damage before they saw the other player or after they'd gone into cover, etc. is a lot harder.

It is the little things that often make or break games like this.
 
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One of the things that keeps coming out of the professional players, is how the hit registration is so precise. In the sense that there's literally never a time where you're emptying a clip into somebody and the rounds just don't feel like they're hitting, if you lose a 1v1 engagement, it always feels fair and the loss was a result of the other person getting the drop on you, or just having a better shot.

I still think some of the little things make it awesome, like how you can request a gun from the buy menu, and anybody in your team with spare cash can buy it for you just by right-clicking on it, - even if you're at the other side of the starting point. Little things like that are cool and will make it so much easier for teams to share economy properly, in casual/solo queue, where not everybody knows each other, or is using voice comms.


Any chance of a beta key pretty please? :)
 
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