New Update Adds Workshop in CS2

The latest CS2 update has dropped, and the most eye-catching change is the fact that it has added the Maps Workshop in CS2. This means that map makers can start making/porting their maps to the game and making them available via the Steam Community Market for players to download. As a consequence, this also means that community servers such as Surf servers and the likes will be a lot easier to play, making this update a big step in the right direction for many.

What Is The Workshop in CS2?

The Workshop is a section of the Steam Community where creators can upload their own designs. These can be weapon skins, stickers, and also entire maps. Many legendary custom maps such as Aim Botz were used by pros and other players to practice their aim, for example, but the Workshop was also used by custom servers.

When CS2 released, the Map Workshop wasn’t available immediately, meaning that players could not download any maps for offline usage via the game itself. This also meant that players who wanted to play on fun servers such as Surf servers had a lot of difficulties to get to their favorite game mode. These difficulties are all in the past now that the Map Workshop is open for business, since this also means that community servers can host Workshop maps that then get downloaded automatically once you join such a server. Joining surf and other fun servers is going to be as easy as it was in CS:GO.

It will take a bit of time for mappers and creators to port their maps to CS2’s new engine (and some very old community maps might never get ported) but we’re already excited to see what the talented community can do with the workshop in CS2, and we can’t wait to see our favorite warmup maps get added to the game!

No More Dying Behind Walls?

Two interesting lines can be found in the patch notes:

“Improved performance of player animations on client and server”

This could indicate that Valve is working on inconsistencies between animations that players see and what’s actually happening on the server.

“In firstperson, dead players will now see their own ragdoll at the server-authoritative lag-compensated position of their demise”

This could indicate that Valve is trying to fix these instances where people get shot behind walls. It’s a return to how it was in CS:GO.

Whether all of this is a good step in the right direction will remain to be seen in the coming days and weeks, but it’s good to see that Valve are actively working on these issues.

No More Mute Teammates?

If you thought you had way more mute teammates in CS2 than in CS:GO, you were not alone, but what not many people know is that this was/is a bug. Valve has now increased the microphone voice threshold value, which might mean that these communication issues have also been solved.

No More Birds On Inferno

On Inferno, there would occasionally be birds flying through the sky. These birds often got confused for grenades by players, causing them to turn around in order to dodge a flashbang. These birds have now been removed.

Picture below: Markeloff (check out Markeloff’s Twitch channel) after realizing he dodged a bird, and not a flashbang.

Small Bug?

During testing right after the patch hit, I saw that ‘Always show inventory‘ was set to ‘Off‘ whereas I always have it on. As such, it might be a good idea to check this out in your own game after downloading the update.

Full Patch Notes

Release Notes for 11/2/2023

NOVEMBER 3, 2023

[ WORKSHOP ]

Enabled uploading CS2 maps to the workshop
Community Servers can host workshop maps
Added paint metalness and roughness by color features to Solid Color, Hydrographic, and Spray-Paint finishes in the Item Editor
Added option to toggle “Automatic PBR Color Correction” to all sticker types in Item Editor
Various Item Editor help system updates including “mat_fullbright 10” to test PBR
Various updates to workshop tools

[ GAMEPLAY ]

Fixed a case where user commands would be ignored in poor network conditions
Fixed a case where weapons would fire faster than intended
Fixed a case where clients would show multiple gunshots for one actual shot
Fixed a case where players would fail to keep their weapons between rounds of overtime
Fixed some instances of dropped weapons falling out of the gameplay space
In firstperson, dead players will now see their own ragdoll at the server-authoritative lag-compensated position of their demise
Decoy grenades interact aesthetically with smoke clouds
Smoke grenades now have a minimum fuse duration to prevent smokes from prematurely detonating if stuck in crevices
Players now ignore individual damage events dealing less than one point of damage
Knife attacks will now prioritize enemies and will only hit teammates if there are no enemies in range
Knife attacks no longer predict damage effects or sounds on the client
Knife attack immediately after switching to a knife will always deal full damage amount
For a given map location, eye height is now consistent regardless of how the player arrived

[ MAPS ]

INFERNO
- Fixed clipping in various areas
- Fixed various microgaps
- Fixed disappearing meshes in skybox
- Removed birds that got mistaken for grenades

[ SERVERS ]

Added sv_maxuptimelimit setting to request server shutdown after certain number of uptime hours.
Support -sv_maxuptimelimit command line parameter to randomly select uptime limit per instance within a range, e.g. “-sv_maxuptimelimit 48-72” command line parameter will request game server instance to self-shutdown somewhere between 48 and 72 hours by issuing “sv_shutdown” command on the game server.
Added game server startup timing log records.
Game servers will now print global chat messages when players acknowledge newly acquired items while connected to the game server.
Fixed a bug showing 100% packet loss immediately after connection
Fixed a bug where scoreboard ping could get stuck at a value lower than the real ping

[ MISC ]