Riot working on Valorant map rotation with improved RNG
Valorant map tuning has remained to be a significant issue for the game’s players since the official release of the game. Riot’s tactical shooter has had seven patch updates so far, and none of them attended to the issue of map selection RNG.
More often than not, players are forced to play the same map multiple times, which can be a tedious experience. Players don’t have the liberty to pick a map which some consider as a good thing, but repeated map rotation is an irritant for all.
Many players have complained that they have to play one map, for example Ascent, for as many as six times in a row. The lack of diversity in maps drains all the fun out of the game. Fortunately, Valorant developers have been paying attention.
Riot Games director Joseph Ziegler addressed the common complaint of players regarding Valorant map picking system in his recent tweet. The director acknowledged the nuisance that repeated maps cause and confirmed that a fix is pending.
“For everyone having a rough night where you get the same map too many times in a row: we’re working on a solution to make the map selector less likely to RNG you into the same map over and over,” Zeigler said in his tweet.
Is less RNG the right fix for Valorant maps?
Zeigler’s announcement has indeed pacified the Valorant community, although it’s still uncertain whether an RNG fix is the correct solution. After the map rotation fix, the player may not get six Ascent maps in a row, but the probability of getting an Ascent streak remains as the the number of games played increases.
Valorant currently has a total of four maps which is one of the reasons behind the broken RNG. Adding a few more maps may better fix the map rotation issue, but Valorant developers haven’t yet spoken to any such update.
German DJ and Valorant streamer Zedd chimed in with his own suggestion following Zeigler’s tweet.
“Maybe there could be a max amount of times you can play a map in a row (maybe 3x max?) at which point a map-change is forced,” Zedd said.
Zedd’s solution seems more specific as compared to RNG update that is just less random than before. Regardless, something is better than nothing. While this may not be the ideal solution, players will see fewer streaks with the changes promised by Zeigler.