In case you missed it, some members of the VALORANT Dev team stopped by Reddit to host an AMA about the updates we released with Patch 13.06. They went deeper on topics like Performance Score, Agent Mastery, Agent balance, matchmaking systems, and the Warden.
Check out the highlights below! Some answers and questions were combined for easier reading. But if you want to see the full conversation (including additional topics not shared in this recap), check it out here.
Performance Score
Question [censored]: I wanna know, how exactly does "Trades" work? Does it count trading, being traded, or both?
Answer [riot_kero]: It counts for both! We think Valorant is best when you are playing TOGETHER :D
Generally, we want to encourage our players to
- Enter gunfights with at least one other teammate
- Swing with your teammate when a gunfight happens
Question [Decoraan]:
I have questions about the contributing factors of performance score, and performance score as shown in game.
In the bell curve, what is that showing? Is that showing my score as compared to the lobby? My own score? Or a general performance score of the population?
And all the contributing factors, what do they mean? How is utility counted? How about the adjusted kills / deaths?
Some more transparency around what it all means and how it’s counted would be great. Overall, the system is a great upgrade and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes next as a console player.
Answer [riot_kero]:
Bell Curve
- Your performance score compared to all other players
Adjusted Kills/Deaths
- Not all kills/deaths in a game have the same impact and we want to recognize when they are more impactful! First bloods for example are a lot more impactful than subsequent kills in a round
Util
- We normalize this per agent per ability so we don't evaluate a Chamber and Clove in the same way. We're actively tuning this piece to make sure it feels true to the game of VAL you played.
Matchmaking and RR Gains
Question [Straight_Worth_6751]: Does performance score affect MMR now or is it still based on ACS?
Answer [riot_kero]: Performance score and ACS do NOT affect MMR. MMR is generally a reflection of how well you play with your team and how well you perform in your gunfights!
Winning games (and gunfights) is the most important thing to gain RR. And the new performance score is designed to help a player know how good they are at contributing to a win, i.e, players who average higher performance scores are also probably more likely to win. Lurking Reyna will have low perf scores, so when they see their low winrate they have something to look at that tells them they’re not contributing much. It’s not a causal score, it correlates.
[RiotReally]: Breaking it down a bit more, RR is calculated by a separate system closely tied to MMR that takes expected outcomes into consideration. This is what helps prevent situations like a Diamond player queuing with 4 Bronze players and gaining big amounts of RR based on having a high Performance Score (or previously ACS).
We still think Performance Score should recognize that it's a great performance, but we'd expect that from the Diamond player in that scenario, so we wouldn't want their Performance Score to boost their RR gains.
Like you said, the factor that correlates most with your RR is winning and playing with your team gives you the best shot at it.
Question [venxtia]: Do you think the current matchmaking system is well balanced? I played a comp match yesterday (I am Gold 2) and the enemy team had a Diamond 1 Reyna..
Answer [riot_kero]: We've been working on the MMR system throughout the year (and will continue to do so), and although we are happier with tighter matches (closer round differential/less crazy top frags), we think there's an opportunity to also look at tightening up the visible rank disparity in matches!
Agent Mastery
Question [pspspspsps22]: Will the mastery system be expanded upon in future updates? Eg, with Mastery II Pose, more sprays/buddies/titles, voice lines, backgrounds, etc?
Has there been discussion on increasing the Kingdom Credit cap in the near future, considering the amount of available rewards for players now?
Is the agent mastery system still a bit of a work in progress, or has it achieved the vision you all set out to create, leaving us to expect few tweaks to it as time goes on?
I love this update btw. Definitely a much needed one and one that actually encourages me to play the game solo, which has been fantastic
Answer [Riot_Tyrana]: Love these questions and happy to dive into them.
- We're constantly looking at feedback and seeing what resonates the most with our players. Right now, we want to make sure what we delivered is hitting the marks for what we designed around, but internally we already have a lot of ideas on how to expand on Agent Mastery through more ways that just rewards. Keep an eye out and we'd love to hear more of what you'd like to see and what you've been excited about!
- This is something we're looking at and have been discussing as Agent Mastery was rolling out. Before we commit to making a change, we want to see general trends and spending across the economy before we snap react. There are a lot of ways that we could adjust the economy, but we want to make sure that we're making the right decision for the best outcome.
- Overall, the team is very happy with where Agent Mastery landed, but we went into AM with the intent that it would be a living system. I'd say that the version you see today is what we consider "Version 1.0". We set out with very specific goals in mind, but as development works, things continue to shift and adjust to make sure we can deliver something meaningful to all of our players. We have a lot of ideas around, but we want to make sure that as we evolve AM it is built around feedback from the community and players to ensure we're continuing to evolve it in the best way possible. It's important for us to collect the feedback, see how players are moving through the system, and outline our roadmap to make sure we can make changes that meet your expectations. Expect to see more in the future!
Question [SteveRogers_7]:
Are there plans to have the Agent IDs and Accolades be able to shown off in agent select or in the lobby? I do not check my friend's career tabs very often and it seems unintuitive to tuck away these show off items in that tab.
Answer [RiotTrouble]: As you said, the intent is for you and your friends to be able to see these achievements and compare with each other. We are definitely looking at ways to surface this stuff, particularly Agent Mastery, more visibly throughout the client.
Question [chlschcknfngrs]: Any fun tips how to min-max agent mastery? I was so close collecting everything agent contract unlockables (about 3 agents with levels 9-10 left and another 3 agents with level 10 left) and now it kinda seems disheartening sort of starting all over again.
Answer [riot_dango]: You earn Mastery Points just by playing, and you'll get bonus points for winning the match and for a high performance score. So play your best, play to win, and you'll level up faster!
We hear you on the reset, especially when you were that close to those sweet rewards. We've added a ton of new ones to keep things fresh. And if the Agent gun skins are what you're really after, you only need to reach Lifetime Level 15 on those Agents to purchase them without needing to purchase any of the other items.
Agents & Game Balance
Question [Redditaccountwaste]: No balance changes was one of the notable things about the new patch. Are the team satisfied with the current meta compared to previous ones?
Answer [penguinVALORANT]: There are a few problems to address that we'll be working on for sure - satisfied for the end of this year doesn't mean long-term satisfied if that makes sense. Top of mind for me as the Agents/Live Balance lead are the following:
- Neon's tuning state. She's still on the stronger end of our internal metrics (winrate + frustration are both things we track and monitor across our playerbase with our great Insights team). While we expect Neon to be frustrating, she's still out of line for both our tactical principles in experiential gameplay & just raw ranked power in multiple skill brackets. Changes here wouldn't be just straight numbers nerfs, we want to look at more pattern level changes. I have to be a vaguepost king and not get too into the weeds on what we want to do here as we're still actively iterating and testing multiple changes, so multiple tactics are still up in the air.
- Ranked game experience feeling too samey/flat. There's work to be done across multiple characters etc here.
- We're interested in rewarding macro strategy and other tactics to improve which agents you see. This year has been a learning for us with metas coming and going faster than previous years. We overswung on some of the nerfs (Yoru's first nerf pass)
- Gunplay combat has overall seemed to be in a healthier state, w/ the bandit out and us continuing to look at the warden for followup
Question [Interesting_Web_9936]: Will there be any updates to the Warden in the future for balancing, such as potentially changing cost or firing rate?
Answer [TiffyMunchsnax]: Can't commit to any exact details or patch, but we are discussing the first week of data so far as a team already. Generally speaking though, weapons do take a little longer for players to build the mechanics around so there's some balance levers that are safer vs more disruptive. To your example, fire rate up or down will really mess with your muscle memory that your building.
Question [chlschcknfngrs]: What to you is a "success point" for new guns integration aside from ample usage in VCT?
Answer [TiffyMunchsnax]: We don't only balance for VCT and look at usage there. But the biggest thing is does the gun have a clear identity on when you should be using it.
Some things that we look at to assess that
- K/D, Damage stats etc.
- Effects on team and enemy econ
- Sentiment, how you all feel about the gun in surveys
- Actual feel of the gun (the audio, the recoil, etc.)
- Mechanical and positioning mastery
- How it fits with each of our weapon archetype philsophy (rifles, shotguns, etc.)
And we compare that all relative to what exists currently on live. VCT is treated as a place where we do take a closer look to see if there is a clearer identity.
For all of you who were able to stop by the AMA and ask questions, thank you! We look forward to doing more of these in the future. GL HF GGs.
