Patch notes ahoy! With the Ver. 2.0.0 update set to happen tonight/tomorrow morning (depending on where you live), we now have a good idea of what's going to be changed. Some highlights:
- The big one is of course private lobbies, both for Ranked battles and matches with "custom" rules that you and your friends can set up. There's also the ability to join with friends' friends, which is nice.
- The level cap is now 50, and you can now reach ranks S and S+ in Ranked battles. The latter seems to be solo queue only, not with private lobbies, but once you reach S and S+, matches in private lobbies won't decrease your rank, which may help for farming gold, assuming you still get gold there anyway. The amount of points you get for winning and losing ranked battles is also gonna be adjusted apparently.
- The multiplier for Splatfest victory percentages is now x4, up from x2, meaning that popularity won't affect the overall results as much as before.
- Several maps are getting design changes, mostly in Ranked modes. Urchin Underpass' changes were teased a while ago, but
now we have a full view of the new version of the map. Very drastic changes indeed.
- New music and gear are included, and several subs and specials are getting tweaks, perhaps most notably the Inkzooka taking longer to charge (though not by a whole lot).
Very interesting stuff here, but I want to talk about the Urchin changes in particular. I don't think I ever really viewed the original's choke points as being much of a problem. I mean, I could tell they were effective, but I didn't necessarily think they were unbeatable or anything. But given how much some other people were complaining about it, I guess I'm not surprised this happened. Not to look down on the changes, however. I actually think some of these updates were pretty clever. The main choke point was widened, naturally, but to compensate they also raised a part of the walkways in the back to act like a sniper perch (one you can't climb back up if you're forced off btw). Although we have a greater view of mid overall, the actual mid area is now less susceptible to things like
Inkzookas snipers just wrecking you from the other side of the trench, what with the replanted trees and raised barricades acting as cover (at least I
think the trees block shots, correct me if I'm wrong). Basically, the center now looks like an area that can actually be "held down" properly. The side paths to the left of the choke points were also changed a lot. There's now a second perch around the back corner of mid, giving players another option to flank the opposing team. The perches from the previous version were moved more to the side of the map to accommodate mid being widened, and they're now "centered" on the trench instead of being slightly to one team's side. Notably, glass now covers the entirety of these center perches, meaning you basically can't camp them with chargers anymore. Lots to take in, but I think these are some good improvements, and I'm really looking forward to trying this map out. I wonder if they'll put it in the rotation for Turf Wars right away like they did the other maps when they were released.
