Patch Notes 1.14: Changes to Icebox and Sage, observer tool additions, and new game mode

After Patch 1.12 that went live early in November, the developers made it clear that the next update will be released after the First Strike completion is completed. Instead of version 1.13, we are getting 1.14 with a lot of improvements and changes including these done to Icebox, and Sage, as well as additions to observer tool, competitive changes, new game mode, and more.

AGENT UPDATES

SAGE

Barrier Orb

• Barrier Orb can’t be cast in Buy Phase
  • Although 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 before walls. 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 expires
  • Overall, 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