It's been almost a month sinceDeadlock's last notable update, with Valverecently reducing the frequency of changes to its third-person MOBA to 'improve' its design process.
That adjustment has resulted in a much more substantial update this month, however, with Valve completely overhauling Deadlock's map.
In a Steam post, Valve described these extensive layout changes in typically terse fashion. «The map has been redesigned around being 3 lanes rather than 4.
This has a large number of accompanying map-wide changes regarding visuals, building layouts, pathways, neutral camps, air vents, breakables, powerup buffs, juke spots, mid boss, etc.» To accompany these alterations, Valve has also added an 'Explore map' feature, where players can «run around an empty city to test movement and navigation.» Like I said, it's a substantial rework, but what do these changes mean?
Well, it seems Valve didn't just reduce the number of lanes, but eliminated solo lanes from the map entirely, pushing players to work together in duos.