Operation Vanguard begins

The update, which also brings to a close the Halloween event and all associated features, adds a host of new content, created and voted on by the community, including six new maps and fourteen new skins.

The new maps (de_marquis, de_facade, de_season, de_bazaar, cs_workout, and cs_backalley) will be available in competitive, casual, and deathmatch modes on Valve's official servers.

Missions, which first appeared in the previous Operation Breakout, are also returning, under the framework of Campaigns.

As always, an Operation Pass will also be available for purchase. The pass grants players access to, among other things, Operation Vanguard weapon cases, two exclusive campaigns (must be purchased separately), and the new operation coin.

Operation Vanguard will run until February 10, 2015.

The full patch notes can be found below:

[OPERATION VANGUARD]

• Six community maps added to the Operation Vanguard map group, available for free to ALL CS:GO players.
  • de_marquis, de_facade, de_season, de_bazaar, cs_workout, and cs_backalley

• The Operation Vanguard Pass is now available. With an operation pass, you’ll receive:
  • A personal Operation Vanguard Journal
  • Exclusive access to the new Operation Vanguard weapon case as a separate timed drop.
  • TWO all-new Campaigns: Weapon Specialist and Vanguard. Choose your own path through a series of missions that span the globe, and receive extra weapons or Operation Vanguard weapon cases as a reward.
  • Access to two optional campaigns: Maghreb and Eurasia.
  • An Operation Vanguard Challenge Coin, which can be upgraded by completing branches of a campaign.
  • Active Duty and Vanguard Scorecards, and Friends Leaderboards to track and compare your Competitive Matchmaking performance throughout the Operation.

• Operation runs until February 10th, 2015.

[ARMS RACE]

• Friendly Fire has been turned off.
• de_stmarc, de_lake and de_safehouse are now available in Arms Race mode.
• Fixed game reporting the wrong name of the player who got to knife level in Arms Race.

• Major update to Arms Race mode:
  • Leaders (players with the highest weapon index) from each team now glow for a short time after attacking.
  • The weapon progression list now picks a weapon randomly from 5 fixed weapon categories.
  • The number of levels to reach Golden Knife have been reduced to 16.
  • Two kills are needed to upgrade with each weapon (unless you get a knife kill or kill the enemy leader).
  • Added some new sounds to AR mode.

• To see more of the Arms Race rules changes, see this guide: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=336510139

[DEMOLITION]

• Friendly Fire has been turned off.
• de_shortdust added to Demolition mode

[DEATHMATCH]

• Changed Deathmatch bonus weapon to support all guns.

[GAMEPLAY]

• When FF is off, bullets no longer penetrate teammates

[UI]

• Fixed grenades icons in weapon panel obeying the user’s HUD color setting
• Fixed Mini-Scoreboard panel not properly hiding a few avatars slots on a full server in casual when you had the Mini-Scoreboard Style set to “Just Show Player Count”
• Fixed the freeze panel overlapping with the info panel.

[MISC]

• Halloween has come to a grisly end. (sv_holiday_mode set back to 0)
• Fixed rebuy not rebuying nades, defuse kit, or taser correctly.
• Volume of ambient and 1st person sounds have been slightly reduced in “headphones” setting.
• Death Camera music no longer plays while spectating.
• Half-time / Game-end music no longer plays in overwatch mode.
• Fixed bug where 10 second countdown music(s) would play after round end when round end music volume was set to 0.
• Addressed hitches that were caused by synchronous file i/o.