Quick CS:GO improvements

There are multiple things people still complain about when it comes to CS:GO's gameplay, such as movement or the smoke grenade glitches. However, fixing those may not be that easy.

On the other hand, there are a number of minor things Valve could change with little to no effort put in, that would arguably make the game a lot more enjoyable for both players and viewers.

This short article outlines some of them -- all things I consider easy to implement by the developer team, should they choose to do so. One of them will require some cash, but that shouldn't be a problem given how well CS:GO is doing.

How could Valve quickly improve our game? 

 

Adjust CZ-75, Scout & Defuse kit prices

I had a conversation together with Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas and Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund about these issues last week on Twitter. Currently the CZ-75 is overpowered, and everyone agrees on that. What people don't agree on is how to nerf it in a way that makes sense, especially as fans currently enjoy the fact that more save rounds are now won, which then makes the game more interesting to them.

I propose that instead of making the weapon itself weaker, we simply make it more expensive. CZ-75's biggest strength as things now stand is that it only costs $300 -- which means it's worth buying on nearly every single save round. Adjust its cost to $500, which these top level professionals also agreed with, and you will see a drop in usage, hopefully balancing things out.

Additionally the Scout makes effective second round buys on the defensive side too easy on maps such as de_mirage, de_dust2 and de_overpass with long areas that you can effectively control by jumping behind corners and with the ability to shoot accurately mid-air. I'm not sure if Valve wants to remove that last feature, but if the weapon cost were to be increased, it could again balance everything out.

Currently one kill on the pistol round gives you enough money to buy the $1,700 Scout on round two -- what if instead the weapon cost $2,000, thus making it harder to afford?

Finally, the defuse kit's pricing doesn't really make sense. It cost $200 in both previous Counter-Strike versions, while now the price has been doubled. It's offset by not needing to buy bullets, but that cost has only been included in the AK-47's pricing for terrorists. It would make sense to lower the price by at least a $100, thus making it easier for the counter-terrorists to afford them.

Though people will argue it'd make maps more counter-terrorist sided, you need to remember that teams currently only buy a few kits per team -- if it were to cost less, more players would buy them instead of grenades in low money buys, which could mean the defense wouldn't use as many nades to afford more kits. Likely that would offset the little gains of having more time to defuse. 

$400 seems like a little much for defuse kits 

Add 128 tickrate MM servers

Valve really must stop pinching pennies here. Regardless of how much money it'd cost them to upgrade their server hardware to make their matchmaking servers use tickrate 128, they absolutely need to do it. CS:GO simply isn't nearly as good of a game on tickrate 64 as it is on 128, and that should already be enough reason for Valve to do it.

They are raking in tons of money with CS:GO right now, and it's probably time to share some of the love with the players who they have to thank for it. You can bet more top players would warmup using matchmaking as well, and if Valve are to implement a team MM system - which seems very likely after the Cologne map selection system - it must use tickrate 128.

It's a different game with poor rates, and though this one will actually cost Valve money and probably take some time, it's something that should have been done a long time ago. It's time to help the casual players out by giving them betters servers, and time for the professionals to be encouraged to play more matchmaking.

Valve's argument has always been that there's a big number of players using old computers that don't have constant 100 fps, who would then be at an even larger disadvantage. Well, it's been two years since CS:GO came out and people's computers have been upgraded -- I assume that number is now smaller. Plus, why do we all have to suffer? Can't we setup some high quality tickrate 128 servers for those who can and do prefer to enjoy Counter-Strike the way it's supposed to?

On that note, it also probably wouldn't also hurt to decrease matchmaking's bomb timer to 35 seconds, same as it is in competition. Same goes for changing roundtime from 2 to 1.75 minutes.

Valve always talked about wanting to keep the game similar for casuals and competitive gamers, but the variation in bomb timer and round time makes a huge difference, one that will surely mislead casual fans tuning into majors. Yes, it will make matchmaking tougher -- but who really wants to do anything that's easy?

tickrate 64 can't be escaped in matchmaking 

Add de_season, de_tuscan to MM

The former will likely get added in the next Operation package once Shawn "FMPONE" Snelling finalizes the new version of de_season, while the latter is still being developed by Colin "Brute" Volrath. According to sources, the map is final touches away from being done -- though that has been the case for a while now.

Considering how much work de_cobblestone and de_overpass would need to be good maps in tournament play, Valve should simply give us a break and make sure these two maps are added to matchmaking as soon as they're completed. The previous version of de_season was already popular, and de_tuscan was one of the most popular maps in the previous versions of the game. It's a no-brainer.

Will we ever get de_tuscan in CS:GO? 

Fix changing weapons fastening reload time

This has never made any sense to me. Why does switching weapons allow you to shoot faster when reloading with certain guns? It's clearly a glitch, and one that adds nothing to the gameplay. It's also another thing that's likely confusing to new players.

This is yet again a no-brainer that should have been fixed a while ago, but luckily it doesn't exactly cause huge issues -- it's simply something that Valve should get to, at some point. I see it being fixed soon, but here's reminder nonetheless that the problem still persists.

Reloading shouldn't happen faster by quick switching 

 

Fix player stats in GOTV

The player stats box when watching GOTV is great -- it gives you an idea of how players are doing in a given match, which can be crucial with GOTV itself so seldom available anymore, as streaming has taken over Counter-Strike, seemingly for good. Only problem? The stats aren't correct.

For some reason the stats take into account the warmup time before a match goes live, which then makes all of those stats untrustable, since you never know what each player did in the warmup time. This is another minor thing Valve should have fixed a while ago, and one that shouldn't take too much effort from their side to take care of.

This glitch can be confusing at times 

Add purchasable spray logos

Though the community is by no means tired of the weapon skins or team stickers, there's something missing in the game. Spray logos have been a beloved part of Counter-Strike since its early days, with top players often literally leaving their mark on the ground after a kill sequence in matches.

In CS:GO this was removed as a feature, which opens the door for the addition of spray logos as purchasable items in the store. Stickers and skins make Valve a ton of money, why couldn't spray logos do the same? If people pay money for those, they will certainly pay money for spray logos.

Plenty of people would pay for cool spray logos 

These are just a couple of small things Valve could implement fairly easily, and in doing so make CS:GO a better game as a whole. What would you have them do, if given control?

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