Valve’s new Counter-Strike 2 update brings instant defuses and shorter breaks to Retakes, a reworked toolkit for map makers and tricks for pet chickens.
Valve released the update on , and the release notes list two sections: gameplay and map scripting. It is the first update since last week’s patch with big head mutators and silent reload adjustments.
Gameplay
- Instant defuses in Retakes: when there is enough time left in the round and no active utility can stop the defuse, the defuse now finishes at once. Players no longer have to wait out the full defuse timer when nothing can stop it.
- Shorter breaks in Retakes: freeze time and the delay before the next round starts have both been reduced.
- Chicken tricks: players with a pet chicken can now ping it during freeze time to ask it for a trick.
- Hidden chicken names: custom pet chicken names are no longer shown when the game option for customised item text is set to hidden.
None of the changes touch competitive or Premier matches, so there is nothing new for the pro scene to adapt to. Valve has not said why it focused on Retakes this time.
Map scripting
Map scripting lets creators of community maps and modes control the game with code. This update reorganises the toolkit around a new top-level Entities export:
- Spawning entities: Entities.Spawn creates new entities from a script, and Instance.Precache now accepts entities to load in advance.
- Bots: scripts can react when a player takes control of a bot (Instance.OnBotControl) and check which bot a player is controlling.
- Resetting players: a new CSPlayerPawn.Reset function.
- Renamed functions: several functions move from Instance to Entities, such as FindByName, FindByClass and FireInput, and ConnectOutput now takes a config object.
Moved and renamed functions still work in their old location but are deprecated. Scripts also get clearer warnings when they call a removed entity or connect to an output that does not exist.
