Smissmas 2016 is here
Smissmas 2016 is here and its a tiny, weeny update! Seriously, very tiny. Like, it’s the sort of update you’d get in March 2013 to make everyone shut up for a bit until the big Summer update. Not even that, actually.
Firstly, there’s the standard Festive Crate. It’s got a bunch of Smissmas items, 17 in total, that will look amazing in July. The special crates need a special key to open, available for the normal price in the Mann Co. Store. Nope, you just buy the crates from the store. No keys, no drops, nada. Opening the crate will get you a random cosmetic, and a Festivizer.
The Festivizer can now be used on more weapons, rather than just decorated ones. The list of weapons consists of: Fire Axe, The Jag, The Kritzkrieg, Pistol, The Quick-Fix, Natascha, The Sandman, The Spy-cicle, Kukri, Shovel and The Scottish Resistance.
Of course, this means there’s no actual NEW strange weapons. Many of these weapons are very similar to stock weapons, and will have the same or similar Christmas lights as their stock counterparts. No fancy changes like the second round of Festive Weapons, it’s just lights again. Also, this means no Festive Kritzkrieg to help lower the price of Strange Kritzkriegs, but the inclusion of the Quick-Fix is nice. Outside of the Medi Guns, the Jag and the Pistol (which was technically available last year as well), most of these weapons are aren’t particularly popular, but it’s nice to have the option.
There have been some other changes as well and a handful of bug fixes. For example, Badlands and Granary are back in the Competitive map list, although no one knows why they were removed in the first place. Unfortunately, Snakewater and Foundry have both been removed, again for unknown reasons. Personally, I’d rather they just kept it as 5CP and KOTH (which both work nicely for 6v6), but goodness knows what Valve is thinking these days.
Another chance to Matchmaking is the removal of the rematch system, which has been replaced with the option to remain on the server and vote for a next map. You get three choices, based on what maps players had picked to play before ending up in that server. This makes a lot more sense and should have been in the game when matchmaking was released. The same goes for a maximum ping setting, which has been added to a gear on the Casual/Competitive menus.
The most interesting thing is an alternative to Autobalance for Matchmaking, where players can volunteer to be autobalanced when other players leave the server. This will hopefully help balance matches out a bit more and minimize 12v9 games, but I wonder if it’s too little, too late, same with most of these changes.
On the plus side, the Stockings are back, containing exactly the same stuff as it did last year. As usual, it contains a name tag and description tag, a random bucket of paint, a backpack expander, three random weapons that are all untradable and a giftapult, perfect for giving said untradable weapons to random people.
Overall, it’s not a bad update, but it’s definitely a lackluster one. And a late one.
Have a good holiday, guys!