Hi Legends,
1.4 Devlog #4: the vote is in.
You picked Switchyard and Foundry
Thank you to everyone who voted on Discord. Switchyard and Foundry come first and arrive with 1.4. Bastion and Pelagic aren't going anywhere: they're the two maps of 1.5.
From a painting to a map the bots can play
A map in Clutch Legend is two things. There's the art you see, and there's an invisible layer on top that the bots actually play on: every wall and every crate, the spawns, the bombsites, and the paths each player follows.
For each map that means four T tactics and three CT setups, with a route for every role in every one of them. Retakes come from different sides, players wait at the right spots before going in, and everyone has a place to stand after the plant. Switchyard alone has 271 wall segments and more than 1,300 waypoints.
Then I let the bots play thousands of rounds on their own and check that nobody walks through a wall, gets stuck, or forgets to retake. Only when that comes back clean does a map go into the game.
Switchyard is the railway yard: long sightlines along the tracks, a lane over the train that leads to A, a covered corridor, and a connector between the two sites that works both ways.
Foundry is the factory: tight corners inside, an upper road on the right that takes you all the way to B, and retakes that can come from the T side too.
Both have their own sound, like the five maps I showed you last time: trains and creaking metal in Switchyard, machines at work in Foundry. Sphinx got its new ambience too, wind and curtains moving in the heat. Sandstorm is the last one left.
Nine maps, one season at a time
In the post about the four maps I wrote that one day each season would use a pool of seven, with maps rotating out. With nine maps that day came sooner: a best of three bans down to a decider from seven maps, not nine. So the new pool is already in 1.4, and it works the way CS does it.
Every season the nine maps now split into three groups:
3 league maps: the ones you play in your league and in best of one tournaments, like today.
4 tournament maps: together with the league maps they make the pool of seven for best of three series.
2 maps on the bench: not played that season.
Every new season the pool rotates. The two maps on the bench always come back, the three league maps always change, and the tournament maps can stay. No map sits out two seasons in a row. The veto doesn't change at all.
The two new maps start split: one among the league maps, one among the tournament maps. In a new career that happens in your very first season. In a career you've already started, they join at the start of your next season, so nothing changes under your feet halfway through.
At the start of every season you'll see the full pool: league maps, tournament maps and the two on the bench. What still comes later is the rest of that plan: best of five finals, and Bastion and Pelagic to reach eleven maps.
Your Map Knowledge on all nine maps stays. A map on the bench isn't lost, it just isn't growing much that season, and it comes back. Players in existing careers start the two new maps from a sensible level, not from zero.
Next time
Next time, I'll show you the new look of Economy and Streaming: a clearer picture of what you earn and spend, and new painted artwork for your streams and sponsors. I'll also walk you through the new debt repayment plan: what happens when your budget goes into the red, and what you can do to get it back under control.
See you soon,
Federico