CS2 Adds Chicken Tricks and Speeds Up Retakes Rounds

Valve has released a new update for Counter-Strike 2 that changes how Retakes mode works, adds a new mechanic for pet chickens, and expands tools for custom map creators.

For regular players, the main new feature is the ability to make a chicken perform a small trick during freeze time. In addition, the developers have sped up certain moments in Retakes mode to reduce unnecessary pauses between rounds.

"1. CS2 Adds Chicken Tricks and Speeds Up Retakes Rounds","1.1. Gameplay Changes","1.2. New Tools for Map Creators","1.3. Valve Improves Script Debugging"

Gameplay Changes

Valve introduced the following changes in the update:

• Defusing the bomb in Retakes mode now instantly ends the round if the Counter-Terrorists have enough time to complete the defuse and the opponents no longer have any active utility capable of stopping it.

• Freeze time duration in Retakes mode has been reduced.

• The delay before the start of the next round has been shortened.

• During freeze time, players can now ask their pet chicken to perform a trick by marking it with a ping.

• Chicken names are no longer displayed if the option to hide custom text on items is enabled in the settings.

The Retakes changes should make matches more dynamic. In situations where the outcome of a round has already effectively been decided, players will no longer need to wait for the full timer to expire.

New Tools for Map Creators

A significant part of the patch is dedicated to custom map scripting and interaction with in-game entities.

Valve added and changed the following features:

• Instance.Precache now supports entity precaching.

• A new top-level Entities export has been added.

• The Entities.Spawn method has been added.

• The Instance.OnBotControl method has been added.

• CSPlayerController.IsControllingBot has been added.

• CSPlayerController.GetControlledBotPawn has been added.

• The CSPlayerPawn.Reset method has been added.

• Instance.ConnectOutput has been moved to Entities and now accepts a configuration object.

• Instance.DisconnectOutput has also been moved to Entities.

• Instance.EntFireAtName has been renamed to Entities.FireInput.

• Instance.FindEntitiesByName has been renamed to Entities.FindByName.

• Instance.FindEntitiesByClass has been renamed to Entities.FindByClass.

• Instance.EntFireAtTarget has been renamed to Entity.FireInput.

The old versions of the moved and renamed methods are still available for now, but they are marked as deprecated. Instance.FindEntityByName and Instance.FindEntityByClass have also been given deprecated status.

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Valve Improves Script Debugging

The developers also made it easier to identify errors when creating maps:

• Attempting to call a method on an already deleted Entity now produces a message indicating that the entity is invalid.

• ConnectOutput now displays a warning if the target entity does not have an output parameter with the specified name.

Overall, the update affects both regular gameplay and the technical side of CS2. Players received faster Retakes rounds and a new chicken mechanic, while map creators gained expanded tools for working with scripts, bots, and in-game entities.