Release Notes for 12/3/2012

[ MISC ]

- In addition to TKing, you can now be kicked/banned in two different ways for team hurting:
  - For doing an unusual amount of damage in a short amount of time.
  - For doing an excessive amount of team damage over the course of the match.
- Partial inferno extinguishing now properly puts out flamelets.
- Molly/Inc Grenade fire now goes out slightly faster when extinguished and updated the overall effects a bit.
- Fixed an edge case where the alerts panel would show on round start for a frame.
- Changed default tv_delay to 10s.
- Changed default tv_delaymapchange to 1. This postpones the post-match level change by the tv_delay amount to ensure that the broadcast to GOTV clients is complete. NOTE: Manually quitting the server or changing the level while the broadcast is still ongoing will kill the feed to all GOTV relays and GOTV clients and your spectators will miss the end of the match. It's best to let the system's timer run out on its own or wait for as many seconds as you have tv_delay set for.
- Replaced hard-coded 'E' observer use command with '+use'
- Tweaked autodirector based on feedback.
- Added item purchases to server log.
- Decoy grenade changes
  - Reduced price to $50.
  - Reduced fire rate and extended life span to make it less identifiable as a decoy.
  - Physically looks more like a flashbang to allow fakes.
- Fixed assists displaying the assister's name twice in the server log.
- Reduced default value of sv_clockcorrection_msecs to 30 and whitelisted the convar (thanks J3di)
- Reorganized net_graph options:
  - 0: off
  - 1: Competitively allowable data.
  - 2: Additional In/Out data.
  - 3: Additional real-time graphing.
- Added net_graph to convars restricted by sv_competitive_minspec ( allowable values are 0 and 1 )
- Valve can now assign official violations cooldown to accounts
- Added a game server convar sv_kick_players_with_cooldown (default=1)
  - 0: allow all players to play on game server
  - 1: kick players with official assigned violation
  - 2: kick players with any competitive cooldown

Release Notes for 11/16/2012

[ MISC ]

- Eliminated the vignette effect from the scoreboard.
- Scoreboard has been narrowed.
- Smoke grenade visibility on the edges of smokes has been adjusted to obscure vision less.
- Improved some cases of particle sorting between smoke and molotovs and other particle systems.
- Adjusted the loser bonus for Terrorists when time has run out. Surviving Terrorists get no income, but dead teammates receive a normal payout.
- Removed match start and round end info panel animation sfx.

Release Notes for 11/15/2012

[ GOTV ]
- As a GOTV client spectator, the flangbang effect from first person is now reduced a bit and there is now text that says "(BLINDED)"
- Fixed overhead targetIDs not showing sometimes when spectating with XRay mode on.
- Added a convar "cl_teamid_overhead_maxdist_spec" that can set the max distance overhead TargetIDs will show up when spectating
- Changed player target selection input from hardcoded number keys to keys bound to "slotN" commands.
- Changed X-Ray toggle key from hardcoded 'X' to whatever is bound for "radio2", which defaults to 'X'.
- Fixed health/armor/ammo of the spectated target not being displayed as a GOTV client.
- Made bomb visible in GOTV clients' map overview at all times.
- Fixed money not showing up in GOTV scoreboard for either teams.
- Fixed flashbang effect flash retriggering when changing spectator target.
- Fixed missing winpanel when GOTV spectating.
- Revised GOTV autodirector behavior.

[ MISC ]
- Repacked content to reduce CS:GO disk usage from 6GB to 4.8GB.
- Implemented separate sound for distant grenade explosions to make the distance easier to gauge. Sound crossfades near and distance sound between 800 and 2800 units.
- Reduced audible distance of scope zoom.
- Fire devices have been modified ( Molotovs and incendiary grenades ):
  - Fire can now be extinguished by smoke grenades and deployed smokes now deny fire device detonation and spreading.
  - Fire now spreads a bit faster and not quite as far.
  - Fire "tagging" slowdown has been removed.
  - Adjusted fire armor penetration value.
- Fixed Terrorists getting loser bonus payout for running down the clock. Now Terrorists get no income if the round timer runs out.
- Armor Penetration is now shown for weapons in the buy menu.
- 3rd person and first person default duck speed has been slightly increased.
- Tapping the duck key frequently in short intervals will cause your duck to slow, but cools down very fast.
- Smoke grenade visibility inside a smoke has been reduced to give less advantage to players inside and more to players outside.
- Design changes for Scoreboard
  - Added team names to scoreboard.
  - Made score more prominent.
  - Win banner states are now team specific.
- Design change for win panel and alert messages.
- Server log changes:
  - Added xyz coordinates to messages.
  - Added nade messages.
  - Added team change messages.
  - Added 'assist' messages.
- Fixed a case of loss of mouse and keyboard input.
- Server browser filter settings are now saved.
- Big Picture Support
  - Fixed not being able to dismiss server browser dialog with controller.
  - Added ability to disable all controllers.

Thanks to the following for input on the balance changes:
NiP, Ubinited, Team ALTERNATE, Area51, Mousesports, Anexis, FM.TOXiC, VeryGames, RegnaM.

Release Notes for 10/30/2012

[ MINOR FIXES ]

- GOTV relays now support up to 255 spectators per relay.
- Fixed a crash when connecting to a GOTV relay.
- Fixed tv_relaypassword.
- Added GOTV viewer count to the scoreboard.
- Improved highlighting of selected player for spectator.
- Fixed call vote panel showing an uninitialized button in some cases.

Release Notes for 10/25/2012

[ SPECTATING ]
- Resurrected SourceTV as 'GOTV.'
- Added a map overview that displays players, events, grenade detonations, etc. Can be drawn on in a select-able colored pen when spectating or if the "sv_competitive_official_5v5" convar is set to 1 on the server or if the client convar "mapoverview_allow_client_draw" is set on the client (drawings are not currently networked to other players).
- Added free camera to spectator modes cycle.
clamped hud_scaling to 0.95.
- Added convar 'cl_spec_show_bindings' that toggles the visibility of the spectator key bindings.
- Added spectator ability to toggle competitive scoreboard player data using the 'drop' command.
- Extended team clan name support to the Team Select Screen. To use team clan name, all humans should match their Team name in Games->Settings, or the server admin can use the 'mp_teamname_1' and 'mp_teamname_2 convars.'
- After halftime, teams no longer switch sides visually on the spectator screen, they now stay where they are and the team colors switch instead.
- Created a server convar that lets you swap the default player side position manually (CTs on right and T's on left) called mp_spec_swapplayersides.
- Made the hotkey that's assigned to jump to a player not change after half-time.
- You can now display a country flag next to your custom team name on the spectator scoreboard by setting "mp_teamflag_1/2" to ISO Alpha-2 country code of the country you want to display.

[ CLASSIC COMPETITIVE ]
- Introduced "Skill Groups", the new Skill Group emblems are now visible in the main menu and at the end of a competitive match. A players' Skill Group will be displayed after they achieve at least 10 competitive match wins.
- Reworked conditions of valid match leaving: A vote to concede becomes available to the team that lost a player. Otherwise the match continues.
- Number of players searching for a competitive match will display number of players compatible with the game type selected by player, for example players searching for "Dust II" will see a number of players searching for "Dust II" + "Defuse Mission", players searching for "Defuse Mission" will see sum of all players searching for "Defuse Mission" or any specific defuse map, and so on.
- Estimated wait time for a competitive match now more accurately displays wait time based on the game type selected by player.

[ SERVER ADMINISTRATION ]
- Added Save/Restore of match state.
   - Added convar 'mp_backup_round_file [fileprefix]' -- If set then server will save all played rounds information to files with this prefix. Backup file contains players information like KDA, MVPs, cash, kevlar, helmet, defuse kit, weapons and grenades and match score for first and second halves. In a case of a tournament server crash backup file can be loaded using ' mp_backup_restore_load_file'. The default is 'backup'
   - Added convar 'mp_backup_round_file_last' -- Every time a backup file is written the value of this convar gets updated to hold the name of the backup file.
    -Added concommand 'mp_backup_restore_list_files [number]' -- Lists recent backup round files matching the prefix, most recent files first, accepts a numeric parameter to limit the number of files displayed (default 5).
   - Added concommand 'mp_backup_restore_load_file [filename]' -- Loads the specified backup file and applies players information like KDA, MVPs, cash, kevlar, helmet, defuse kit, weapons and grenades; sets the match score for first and second half and starts next round.
   - Added convar 'mp_backup_round_file_pattern,' that defines the pattern for naming backup files using tokens. Example: %prefix%_%date%_%time%_%team1%_%team2%_%map%_round%round%_score_%score1%_%score2%.txt. The default pattern results in 'backup_roundNN.txt'
- Whitelisted 'mp_logdetail' convar.
- Added convar 'sv_damage_print_enable', that determines whether damage given and received is visible in the console after a player is killed.
- Added 'cl_bobcycle' to 'sv_competitive_minspec'. It's now restricted to the defauklt 0.98 on servers that have 'sv_competitive_minspec' enabled.
- Made all server cash_ convars notify players when they are changed.
- Servers running with sv_pausable 1 will now correctly display 'server paused' UI element on clients when server is paused using 'pause' command.
- Added mp_spectators_max convar to control how many spectators are allowed in a match.
- Added convar mp_halftime_pausetimer that will indefinitely pause the halftime timer.
- Added convar mp_warmup_pausetimer that will pause the warmup period indefinitely. *Warmup periods shorter than 6 seconds cannot be paused.

[ PERFORMANCE ]
- Performance improvements for users running on AMD systems.
- Fixed a major performance problem for users running Bitdefender antivirus software.

[ BUG FIXES ]
- Fixed two crashes that could happen if you were on a team and went to spectator team.
- Fixed the timer display on the hud still showing even when the bomb was planted.
- Fixed avatar scaling issues on the spectator hud as well as the issues that would place the player slot avatars offset some distance from where they should be.
- Made some adjustments to the specttor UI and regular hud to account for hud_scaling set really high.
Fixed a really bad bug where going from the lobby to a game could prevent players from having input. This would result in not being able to select a team or move around.
- Changed flashbang visual effect in Spectator mode so that it is updated when the target changes.

Release notes for 10/11/2012

[ Minor Fixes ]
-Fixed bomb defusal resetting when a server lags below 20fps.
-Fixed a case where the round and timer were not being updated when spectating.
-Fixed another case where warmup alerts panel didn't show for late joiners.
-Fixed a crash that would happen when you died that associated with the spectator panel.
-Fixed general scaleform crashes.
-Made radio commands also selectable via the keypad numbers.
-Fixed enemies on radar that were above/below you showing their up/down indicators rotated.
-Made alive/dead state on the spectator UI easier to read.
-Replaced mp_teamname_t and mp_teamname_ct with mp_teamname_1 and mp_teamname_2 to disambiguate convars from sides in a mode that supports team switching at halftime. Now the names follow the teams after the switch. ( mp_teamname_1 is the team that first plays CT ).
-Changed spectator HUD to show which primary weapon each player has purchased during freeze time.
-Made spectator HUD show all grenades carried by each player.

[ Classic Competitive Changes ]
-Added an explanation about competitive mode rules to better explain its difference from other modes.
-Added save/restore of cash for competitive matches: When a player disconnects and reconnects in competitive mode, their pre-disconnect money will now be preserved.
-Added a button requiring players to ready-up when a competitive match is found. When all 10 players ready-up then the matchmaking servers lock them in for the match. Abandoning at any point after clicking the ACCEPT button will result in Competitive cooldown.
-Increased competitive cooldowns to 30 minutes for first offense, 2 hours for second offense and so on.
-Kicking a player no longer offers a vote to continue. The game will proceed with a bot in place of the kicked player.

[ Minor Fixes ]

* All information required to reconnect to a competitive match is now also saved to a file on disk so that disconnected players could reconnect sooner to their ongoing game on the official dedicated game server even before connectivity with matchmaking servers is established.
* Increased grace period for disconnected players to 3 minutes.
* Message that refers to disconnected player now uses player's name rather than the generic term 'player.'
* Fixed the alerts panel not showing alerts consistently
* Made vote panel display whether you voted yes or no as well as flash each choice as people vote
* If a vote is team only (like a 'kick') then the other team will now see that a vote is in progress.

Release Notes for 10/3/2012


[ Minor Fixes ]

Matchmaking
-Added a vote to continue playing competitive match with bots after a human player abandons the match, unanimous agreement of remaining human players is required to continue playing with bots.
-Reduced time required for confirming match when searching for competitive players and servers.
-Improved overall search times in competitive queue mode.
-Added a client message when the wamup period ends.
-Extended competitive match warmup period to 90 seconds.
-Message of the day will automatically dismiss itself when competitive match starts.
-Added an explanation to competitive cooldown timer for clients.
-Added a condition to apply competitive cooldown to players who have disconnected from the match.
-Implemented scaling cooldown periods for repeat incidences.

Vertigo
-Rearranged props below the boost-up ladder to prevent players jumping onto the ladder without boosting
-Clipped off various tiny ledges
-Made small props protruding from walls non-solid
-Fixed visible nodraw in ceiling hole

Misc
-Fixed a long standing bug where you could lose mouse input when you got to the team select screen.
-Fixed a bug where the color correction during freeze time did not account for the players also being invulnerable during the new warmup - this fixed the CC gap at the start.
-Fixed some bugs relating to the warmup notification not reliably showing for late joiners.
-The chat now displays when the warmup has ended, just like when it is in progress.

Release Notes for 9/14/2012

[ GAME ]
- Added third-person gunshot flinch reaction animations for all players
- Molotovs and incendiary grenades now explode in mid air if they haven't touched the ground after a small amount of time has passed
- Molotovs and incendiary grenades now no longer throw shorter than the other grenade types
- Fixed grenades bouncing really high if you threw them straight at the ground
- Fixed grenades that don't have a timer (like the smoke) not detonating if they found a spot to continually bounce and not touch what was considered "the ground"
- Fixed a bug in bullet penetration where a bullet would penetrate walls much thicker than intended when the first brush the bullet hit was a detail brush.
- Fixed a rare case when server reservation would not load correct map on official servers
- Flipped MP7 viewmodel fire selector from safety to full-auto

[ UI ]
- Fixed spectator glows not updating state often enough which could allow glows to show at the wrong time
- Fixed player target ID names not showing properly in some cases when observing/spectating
- Fixed the spectator UI showing in Arms Race
- Fixed player not auto observing their killer after the death camera if no bot was available to take over
- Fixed round in spectator screen not updating if you connected mid round
- If all players on a team share the same team tag, the scoreboard and spectator team names will display the players' team name (steam group name)
- Improved rendering performance of text UI elements

[ COMMUNITY ]
- Added default loading screen for direct connects and custom maps that shows loading progress
- Fixed server console say command to deliver text to all connected clients
- sv_password can now be set on community dedicated servers when they have no players connected and will be enforced.
- Matchmaking: blocking relationships do not prevent direct server joins, they only filter during matchmaking
- sv_pure: VPK files contain the necessary hashes so the dedicated servers do not need to compute them at startup but can be checked with the command “sv_pure_checkvpk”

Release notes for 8/23 Update

[ Gameplay ]
- Exposed a classic dynamic crosshair style in the options that represents the weapons spread accurately.
- Implemented first person client flinching. Now a player gets aim punched a bit when shot. The amount is based on the damage.
- Increased amount of tagging that results from hits.

[ Bugs ]
- Fixed the scoreboard turning toggleable in the end match state.
- fixed not being able to bring up the pause menu without dismissing the scoreboard in the end match state.
- Parallelized matchmaking results analysis process and reduced time game takes to perform matchmaking.
- Improved matchmaking algorithm giving more weight to dedicated servers ping during matchmaking results analysis.

[ Community ]
- Removed the implicit dependency on round-limited matches so servers that want to use mp_timelimit instead can. Mp_timelimit is used only if mp_maxrounds is set to 0.
- Exposed mp_forcecamera convar.
- Exposed set of server hibernate convars.
- Fixed code that was preventing mapper-placed weapons.