Valorant patch 1.12 is a decidedly smaller step forward than patch 1.11, though this isn’t particularly surprising given the latter’s messy launch, which resulted in it being rolled back and delayed. In the 1.12 patch notes, Riot Games comms associate Jeff Landa shares that the release of 1.11 forced the team to “reevaluate what it takes to raise the quality bar for patch days going forward.”
As a result, patch 1.12 offers only bug fixes and minor tweaks, including updates to the observer mode and social panel, so there’s no weapon or agent buffs or nerfs to report this time around. Also know that the in-match display of Act Rank Badges remains suspended until the team works out what exactly is behind the performance issues.
Landa has confirmed that the next patch will “very likely” be skipped, leaving the team to “get back in the swing of things on or around December 8.” In the meantime, the following improvements and fixes are very welcome indeed.
Here are the full notes for patch 1.12:
COMPETITIVE UPDATES
- Act Rank Badges are disabled in-game while we investigate a potential issue where they may be causing performance hitches in-game. Your Act Rank Badge will still display in Competitive lobbies, map load in, and on the end-of-game screen
- The Competitive team will continue to investigate the system to work towards a holistic fix in a future patch
GAME SYSTEMS UPDATES
Observer
- Observers no longer hear ping audio
- Improved sightline visibility in well-lit areas
- Added Game State Modification cheat to allow moderators to adjust various aspects of the game (player stats, money, etc.) in a tournament setting
- Rolled back fixed team colours change from 1.11
- This was causing some confusion as people have started to associate red with attack, and green with defence
- There were a couple bugs causing certain UI elements to display in the wrong colour
- We plan to bring this feature back in the future, when we finish adding support for custom team colours
SOCIAL UPDATES
- We have redesigned the Open/Close Party toggle to make it easier for players to understand whether they are in an open or closed party
- Observers will now appear as ‘in game’ in the social panel
- Observers can now view and type in /all chat in custom games
QUALITY OF LIFE
- Added a new user interface for custom game observers during character select
BUG FIXES
- Fixed a bug where leaving/disconnecting from a Custom Game would result in a VAL-51 error, requiring the game to be remade in order for the player to rejoin
- Fixed a bug in the end-of-game screen after an Icebox match that displayed Haven’s map, and would incorrectly display timeline markers
- Fixed issue where players could target mid-air (dropped) weapons with some abilities
- Left handed mode: fixed recoil animation being incorrectly mirrored (mismatching actual weapon recoil)
- Fixed overlapping Observer UI when a player is planting/defusing
- Fixed inconsistent team colouring on minimap pings
- Fixed rare issue where Observer camera transition visuals could get stuck when swapping between player views