VALORANT patch 1.12 goes live today, bringing a lighter load than the previous patch 1.11, which was hit by multiple bugs and widespread instability. After rolling back patch 1.11 and later relaunching it, Riot Games has taken some steps to avoid making the same mistakes. Rather than skip patch 1.12 altogether, Riot says it is giving this update a “light touch.”
Match observers are the main focus of VALORANT patch 1.12, with their tools receiving multiple updates. In professional matches, observers are the behind-the-scenes workers who move the in-game ‘camera’ around the map. They switch the game’s point-of-view from player to player, catching all the best action in each round.
Observers will no longer be able to hear ping audio in-game, and will have improved visibility in “well-lit” areas of the map. Observers will now also appear as “in game” to friends when observing a match, and they’ll be able to view and comment in ‘all’ chat in custom games. A new Game State Modification cheat will allow game moderators to change certain game aspects such as player money and stats in competitive matches. The open/close party toggle has been simplified for players as well.
Riot has also rolled back an update from patch 1.11 that fixed team colors. While the VALORANT team plans to reimplement this in the future, the update was “causing some confusion” when it came to associating team sides with certain colors. Some players also encountered a bug that caused certain parts of the game’s UI to display in the wrong color.
Patch 1.12 brings a multitude of bug fixes that were caused by the prior update. Leaving a custom match should no longer result in the VAL-51 error, and the left-handed view model’s recoil should now be correctly oriented. A glitch that allowed certain abilities like Cypher’s Spycam to latch on to falling weapons and float in midair has also been patched out.
An issue with the observer UI blocking players who are planting or defusing has been fixed, as has a bug that caused the observer's camera to get stuck when switching between players.
While patch 1.12 brings a lighter load than usual, the VALORANT team is still likely planning to skip the game’s next scheduled patch. The next update will now come on December 8th, right after the start of the First Strike regional finals events.
Source: Riot Games