It’s understandable that updates for CS2 slow down as we lead up to a big event. Valve doesn’t want to break the game moments before it’s shown on the big screen in front of millions of viewers. That would be embarrassing. But since CS2’s first major event ended last weekend, there’s no longer that excuse. So now is the prime time for Valve to roll out all those big updates to the game that players hope they’ve been working on.
Cheating Problems in CS2
The main improvement that people are hoping for is something to tackle the cheating problem the game has.
There are two different issues here. One of these is where there are cheaters who can slip past the anti-cheat measures undetected, ruining games. But there’s another problem as well, and it arises when people have so little trust in the anti-cheat measures that they begin to assume people are cheating even when they aren’t. So right now, it’s very hard to know just how big the actual cheating problem is. But people thinking it’s a problem is a problem unto itself. Once people think there’s a problem, it becomes self-perpetuating, where players lose faith in their opponents playing fairly, and honest players end up no longer wanting to play the game. Even pro players are publicly discussing the cheating situation.
Overwatch Feature
Overwatch was a clever feature because it helped tackle both of these cheating problems at once.
Anyone who felt like the game had a cheating problem could feel like they were making a difference by submitting cases for review and reviewing cases themselves, with the intention of getting cheaters banned. Overwatch helped give players more faith in the game’s anti-cheat measures since they were part of it. In the last few years of CS:GO, none of the cases reviewed ever came back saying a cheater was banned, so it is presumed the feature was sabotaged beyond repair and now it isn’t in the game at all.
New Engine and Cheating Issues
Source 2 is a new engine, a new start, a whole new set of exploits just waiting to be patched. It was hoped it would be built with the decades of anti-cheat experience Valve had accumulated from Source, so there is disappointment that CS2’s early lifetime has been plagued by so many cheaters, some of them cheating so blatantly. CS:GO didn’t have this on such a scale towards the end of its life.
Challenges in Anti-Cheat
Discussing anti-cheat is difficult because not much is known about it.
Many players do not trust their own experiences and matches to be representative of everyone else’s. Valve should have plenty of data on pro and non-pro matches to make judgments about what to change and how. The biggest change to the game was dropping the length of a side down from 15 to 12 rounds. A shorter match length is liked, both for playing and for watching. Plus, it makes best of 3s and 5s much more manageable.
Implications of Shorter Match Length
A shorter overall match length has many, hard-to-quantify knock-on implications to the game’s economy because now the outcome of that first pistol round and following eco rounds will dictate a greater portion of the match. Getting the bomb planted early can send the CT’s economy into tatters for a large percentage of that game now. Other bits of the economy may need to be adjusted to accommodate this shorter match length and help the losing side get back into the fight sooner.
Future Hopes for CS2
There is hope that CS2 gets a 2.0 release, with new maps and better anti-cheat, so that players finally have a good reason to jump back into the game if they’ve been put off by early stage issues. Something needs to be done about the state of the server browser. It used to be the heart and soul of the game, and now it’s unplayable, requiring third-party websites to find servers. A complete turnaround by Valve to revitalize this aspect of the game is desired.
CS2 already builds on decades of refinement to the Counter-Strike formula, coming with its own changes like volumetrics, smoke clouds, unlimited tasers, and a shorter match length. However, if the game is to receive a gameplay change, now is the best time for these things to be rolled out.
Rather than mess too much with the Counter-Strike formula, Valve just needs to add more quantity, tackle the cheating issue, and give the player base more justification to dedicate their time to the grind.
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