Counter-Strike: Global Offensive or CS:GO has been out for almost 8 years now. And, within that time, the game has evolved a lot too. What started off as a continuation of the beloved first-person tactical shooter franchise is now a completely different game to what we had almost a decade ago. However, not all is rosy and dandy in the world of CS:GO as the game has had to deal with a lot of rough patches as well.
While the core mechanics of CS:GO remain largely similar to their original form, tons of stuff has been changed regarding the maps, gunplay, movement, and more. However, the biggest change arguably within the CS:GO landscape has been the move to free-to-play, for better or worse.
CS:GO has always had a massive cheater problem. You would’ve been lucky if you went through 3 matches in the official matchmaking without encountering at least one hacker. However, with the release of Valorant giving stern competition to CS:GO over the past few months, Valve has really started to spin its gears and work hard to make CS:GO a viable experience again.
Firstly, the game introduced the new Trusted Mode a couple of weeks ago that made it much harder for cheaters to run 3rd-party scripts and programs on the game. In addition to that, a lot of changes are also being made behind the scenes to turn CS:GO into a robust experience that everyone can enjoy.
Continuing on that path, Valve has released yet another update to CS:GO which is much more significant than the previous few patches. So, here are the new changes that are being made to CS:GO in the 23/07/2020 update:
1. Trusted mode has been made default for CS:GO
Previously, the trusted mode in CS:GO was a requirement to play official matchmaking. However, you still had the option to turn it off and run your game without it any time you wanted. However, with the new update, it seems like Valve has removed the ability to launch the game without trust mode easily.
Instead, the CS:GO Trusted Mode will be the default launch mode for the game at all times. Having said that, if players or developers really do want a third-party program to access the CS:GO game process, they can use a new compatibility launch option. The “-allow_third_party_software” code can just be added to the steam launch options to run the game without trusted mode.
This feels like a good blend between allowing players the freedom to experiment with the game while also avoiding hackers and cheaters within the official matchmaking. All the other things about the Trusted Mode are still the same and players need to have it on in order to access official matchmaking.
2. Mutiny and Swamp coming to Official CS:GO Matchmaking
Official matchmaking in CS:GO is always being altered by Valve to keep the experience fresh and new. Maps are rotated every few weeks so that the game doesn’t feel too mundane. So, with the new update, Valve is adding the maps Mutiny and Swamp to the Casual, Deathmatch, and Scrimmage modes in official matchmaking.
To make way for these two maps to come in, Chlorine and Jungle are being removed from official matchmaking. So, if you were a fan of those two maps, you’re out of luck. Hopefully though, we can see some changes to those two maps as they aren’t exactly the most played maps on the game.
3. Decoy Grenade explosions no longer damage teammates
Decoy Grenades have always been a point of contention in CS:GO in terms of their usefulness. While they are very good at deterring an advancing enemy force, they don’t really do much else apart from that. In addition to that, the tiniest amount of 5HP damage that they do to the players around them, including your teammates has just been annoying.
So, Valve has finally decided to remove friendly damage from Decoy Grenades. This means that even if your teammates are within the blast radius of a decoy grenade, they will no longer take damage by default. However, this setting can still be changed within the console using convar ff_damage_decoy_explosion command.
Other changes include some minor changes to textures and the Danger Zone delivery drone in Steam Workshop maps. You can check out the full patch notes for the latest CS:GO update down below.
CS:GO Patch Notes for 23/07/2020 Update:
Trusted Mode:
- Trusted Mode is now the default launch mode for CS:GO.
- Previous Trusted Mode launch options have been deprecated.
- Instead, a new compatibility launch option “-allow_third_party_software” is provided to allow third party software to access the CS:GO game process.
- For more information about Trusted Mode please refer to the following Knowledge Base article:
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8835-KLXV-0292
Maps:
- Added Mutiny and Swamp to official matchmaking in Casual, Deathmatch, and Scrimmage game modes.
- Chlorine and Jungle have been removed from official matchmaking.
Gameplay:
- Grenades now convey the correct amount of damage to teammates if thrown by another teammate who switched teams or disconnected.
- Decoy grenade explosions no longer damage teammates by default. (controlled via convar ff_damage_decoy_explosion)
Miscellaneous:
- Fixed bsp-embedded models caching rules to allow for reloading the correct model when transitioning to a different map.
- Capped view model backfaces on Desert Eagle.
- Fixed workshop workbench texture regeneration on low shader quality GPU configurations.
- Minor adjustments to Danger Zone delivery drone behavior for Steam Workshop Danger Zone maps.