Valorant: Riot devs are bringing new quality of life changes to the in-game ping system

There are many things that you can criticize Riot Games for, but when it comes to listening to the Valorant fanbase’s queries, they are incredibly adept at it.

In a recent developing concern over the in-game ping system, the Valorant fanbase had taken to Reddit to talk about the lacking aspects of the call out feature in the game.

The reason for this being quite a serious concern is that as a low-TTK, tactical, first-person shooter, Valorant depends heavily on proper team communication and callouts. If you aren’t using your comms properly, you will not be winning many matches.

And even with the game coming with its very own in-built voice comm system, many solo queue players either don’t have a mic or are just not willing to talk while in the game. This is precisely where the importance of the ping system comes in.

Valorant needs a better ping system

According to the Reddit post, the current ‘pressing Z’ system might bring up many useful pings in Valorant, but the communication feels inadequate, especially for deaf and mute players.

The post even goes on to compare the Valorant ping system to that of Apex Legends and Paladins, and further goes on to suggest that the system in Valorant majorly falls short of expectations.

Not only should the ping warn teammates of oncoming danger, but also the specific call out of that particular region on the map.

The writer suggests: “So, for the pings on the map. I suggest that when a spot in the map is pinged, say, in Ascent, you ping Boat House, not only would it help if it says in text chat 'Boat House', but also be shown its name, even with a reasonable sized font on the ping itself (or better yet, make it modular where, in the settings, you can set the size and opacity at the very least so players having to read it can set it at a size that’s based on their preference).

“Sure, we have other callouts for parts of the map that don’t have an official name, and also it’d be tricky to ping players who are, say, under A-site heaven in split, or under A-site heaven in Haven, but it gives the info with slightly better accuracy than just, say, a ping.”

He adds: “If it was possible to have a customizable chat wheel [like in Dota 2], then it’s fine that it doesn’t have any voice over whatsoever. Heck, you don’t have to open or close and add a file into the game and make it an option in the game where all we need to do is type what we want to put in the custom chat wheel, and you’re done.”

In referring to Valorant’s ping system to Paladins, the writer states that “Valorant TTS is very poor. If anyone here ever played Paladins, you know what I’m talking about. It has a very intuitive and content-rich TTS menu. I could play every match without even using any voice comms. Riot could learn a thing or two analyzing the Paladins TTS system.”

Riot Games is listening to the queries

Snap taken from the Reddit post

Riot was very quick to respond to the queries that the player raised regarding the in-game ping system.

The Valorant devs have gone out on a limb to say: “In the process of creating an initial round of new lines for major regions on the maps.”

They also explained that “more tactical voice over” updates are coming. The regions already appear in the chat, but having the characters say the regions out loud will make a big difference. "We plan to add a lot more ‘tactical [voice over]’ over time,” the devs concluded.

With Riot being serious about making a lot of quality life changes to Valorant, fans can expect to see many positive changes coming to the in-game ping system shortly.