Valorant is a fun and exciting multiplayer first-person shooting game that was published by Riot Games. It’s a team-based tactical shooter where five players will go up against another 5-player team. The goal is to win the round. It is usually achieved when all players on the opposing team are killed or the objective is achieved. What’s unique about this shooting game is that each player will select which character or agent they want to play.
Each agent will have unique skills and abilities that they can use in the game. But these abilities require charges, so players can’t just spam them. It’s very fun to play and it can also be competitive. One issue with multiplayer games is that the gaming experience can sometimes be bad because of toxic players’ bad behavior. Valorant is no exception to that many players also experience these things when they play.
This is why the game’s developers are always doing their best to prevent or lessen this behavior. Last February, there was an update on Valorant’s behavior detection and penalty. Let’s discuss what the update is in this article.
Dealing with AFK Players During Matches
One of the major updates is dealing with AFK players. Sara (Producer, “Riot necrotix”) and Lea (Strategist, “Riot aeneia”) know how an AFK player can affect the game. The team that has an immovable avatar would have to work twice as hard since they’re at a disadvantage. This is why they want to improve how to detect AFK-type behavior.
There was a previous system in place that will help detect AFK-behavior in players. Unfortunately, there was a loophole in that system. And the developers saw that many players were taking advantage of that loophole to slip through without issue. They are fixing that loophole so AFK players will be easily detected and penalized. They didn’t include any details as to what improvement the system has. The devs will also soon broaden the system to deal with other disruptive behaviors.
The developers will track a player’s account over time to see what kind of punishment will be given. If you’re someone who constantly drops out of games, then you will get punished. The penalty will depend on certain factors and below are what AFK players can expect to happen:
- Get a Warning.
- XP denial for games where the player AFK’d.
- Small deduction from the ranked rating for pre-game doges.
- Deductions from ranked ratings for in-game AFK.
- Increased queue restrictions.
- Barred entry from ranked games.
- Game bans in Valorant (for persistent AFK behavior).
Update On The Game’s Chat-Based Offenses
Aside from AFK behavior, Valorant’s developers also updated and improved players’ experience when they chat with other players. One of the major changes is the removal of the “comms bans for all”. Valorant also doesn’t tolerate threats or targeted harassment in the game. And players who do these things will suffer the consequences. They also updated the penalties for text-based offenses. Below are the updated penalties:
- Get a Warning.
- Comms bans.
- Extended comms bans.
- Ranked queue bans.
- Game bans.
- Extended game bans.
Valorant will Now Have Reporter Feedback
Many players feel that their reports are not seen or read by the developer. Though they assured that all reports are being read and reviewed, they want players to know this. This is why they are adding feedback on player’s reports. This will let the players know that the developers are reading the reports and are taking action. To read the feedback, players need to be logged into the game client. But this is only the 1st version. They are hoping to update this further where they can send notifications about the feedback when players are logged out.
Detecting issues and problems when it comes to players’ gameplay is only the first step. Once they’ve fixed the issues and minimized negative experiences, they want to focus on what they call “pro-social” gameplay. This is a feature that detects positive behavior from players to give recognition. They’re also adding a bonus feature where players can invite other players to games using only their Riot ID. This allows players to play with other people without the need to add them as friends. It’s a great time to play Valorant. So get familiar with its gameplay and join the battlefield now!
