Skins, custom maps and observer mode – Valorant developers answered questions about the game

March 27-30 I participated in a bootcamp in honor of the Valorant closed playtest. During it, the developers actively communicated with the guests of the event and answered numerous questions. In this material we have collected the most interesting of the answers.

– In regular matches there was no observational system. Will she appear on the release?

– Our team is already working on this feature. We have a basic observational system in custom matches, and we hope that we can improve it soon. In the long run, we also plan to launch a game replay system, but it seems that it will appear after the release.

– Will there be support for custom cards and game modes?

– Unfortunately, we do not plan such a function.

– During the presentation, you divided Valorant agents into four groups – initiators, duelists, guards and manipulators [ориг. — Controller]. How do you see the optimal team composition for a competitive game?

– We do not want these roles to dictate the rules of the game. Valorant in this regard is much freer than other shooters with a choice of characters. We believe that such roles exist in all tactical shooters – they appear in a natural way, gameplay. We just tried to create names for these roles that users can learn and use.

Nothing will prevent the player from taking Phoenix and playing back the lurker on it or, conversely, to break points for Sage. All this will work perfectly. Heroes differ only in equipment.

– Will you try to make the game friendly for beginners or prefer to focus on the hardcore audience of shooters?

– It seems to us that we can solve the problem that such games as CS or R6 have. They have amazing gameplay and lots of interesting strategies, but they are often hidden too deeply. Often, beginners can not even understand what exactly they should learn.

Imagine a standard situation: a beginner loses a duel with AWP in the mid. What conclusion will he draw? Most likely, he will decide: “I should have shot earlier.” Although in reality he could take advantage of smoke and not accept this duel at all. This is easy to see in CS: GO between Gold Nova and Master Guardian, where people shoot much better than come up with strategies.

We don’t want to constantly hold players by the hand, but still strive to give beginners a knowledge base so that they can figure out what skills Valorant requires from them. We will try to create a system that will explain to the user how he can train and improve his skills in shooters.

– Is there a plot explanation for the fact that agents repeatedly organize fights in the same locations?

– Developer 1: League of Legends showed us that the game can be interesting without explaining the reasons for what is happening in it. I do not work on the script, but as far as I know, the ENT and the game mode are completely unrelated.

Developer 2: If I put the question this way, then I have to answer no. But ENT explains many game mechanics. We spent a lot of effort to create a universe that can serve our game well, and not just become a backdrop for it.

– How did the name Valorant appear?

– In coming up with the name, we wanted to fix in it that emotion that the player experiences during some highlight or intense clutch. We consider Valorant an eponym for people with valor [ориг. — Valor]courage, courage. It seems to us that this word describes our agents well and the emotions that you can experience in the game.

– Tell us more about weapon skins.

– The game will have different line of skins, depending on the weapon. Some rifles will not change, while others, on the contrary, will receive functional changes – new reload animations, passive effects, new sounds, a choice of different colors. Everything will depend on the imagination of the designers!

– During the stage of the strategy, players can put marks on the map, but can not draw freely on it. Will such a function appear?

– We considered such an option, but decided not to add it to the game yet. There were other options, for example, allowing players to place more icons on the map. My experience suggests that excessive freedom in this regard will lead to teammates simply painting over your card and drawing indecent things on it.

– Do you plan to expand your arsenal?

– At the moment, there are no such plans. We wanted to include enough types of weapons in the game to satisfy all the needs of the players and at the same time not overload the economic system.

– Will there be a ban card system in Valorant?

– If the question concerns only matchmaking, then we do not plan to include the ability to select cards before searching. Our strategy is to create a dynamic mappool that will constantly change – including based on user feedback. If the card that will be in the active pool does not appeal to the audience, we will consider the possibility of immediately making any changes to it or removing it from rotation if the situation requires it. We hope that we will be able to maintain balance and keep enough cards in the pool so that matches do not turn into a routine, and users do not get tired of the abundance of new information.

– How many heroes and cards will be at the start?

– We hope that in the release version there will be 12 agents and four cards.

Valorant is a shooter from Riot Games, which is scheduled for release in the summer of 2023. The developers promise a well-developed competitive system and a high replayability of the title. My impressions of the closed playtest of the game can be found in this article.