Now, I'm not one for making posts usually, but valorant is lacking some very crucial quality of life features, as well as general gameplay features. I love the game, but constructive criticism is a great thing that only serves to make anything even better.

TL;DR: The Store, Gameplay Consistency, More modes, custom servers and workshop maps, better hitreg and performance consistency, better Deathmatch and shorter unrated. Gameplay mechanics tweaks, as well as a better ranking system. Oh and better content moderation too.

All sources will be provided below:

Edit: ID: Art#Opus Tracker link: https://tracker.gg/valorant/profile/riot/Art%23Opus/overview

HMU if you wanna q sometime. Plat +, or unrated warriors. (EU).

Feel free to crosspost, just tag me, or link the entire post.

Edit 2: Drastic ideas taken out. They were a fun little thought experiment.

Features:

Capture the flag.

Team deathmatch.

Maybe a new smg? Slower fire rate, yet accurate and good damage. Say 90 headshot, and 30 DMG to the body. Basically a striker 45 from modern warfare 2019. A new rifle, say marksman that does 2 bodyshots, faster than a Marshall, more expensive though. A more expensive guardian that shoots faster and does 75 to the body. Basically the MK2 carbine from modern warfare 2019. A new rifle with fast fire rate, lower damage to compensate, high price like vandal and phantom.

A warm-up ranked mode that's not called deathmatch or unrated. DM is shambolic, and unrated is meant to be a burst of fun, low stakes, and chill gameplay. So there should be another mode to consolidate warning up for ranked. Idk what (Maybe an unranked mode like rainbow six siege), but remember people, I don't get paid to make these suggestions or changes. Newcomer mode wouldn't be bad either, as long as there's a level limit (15-30?)

More consistently great (good isn't enough here) gameplay from game to game. I.e. Good hitreg, synced up client server animations, no random ass Ferrari peeks, etc. Riot claim to be actively looking into this. Sources: https://playvalorant.com/en-us/news/game-updates/valorant-gameplay-consistency-update/

https://playvalorant.com/en-us/news/game-updates/valorant-gameplay-consistency-update-2/

Fix the chat delay bug, as well as voice chat being unable to speak. Literally game breaking, along with the alttab input lag + increased latency bug, and the unstable tickrate.

Better remake system (automatic if not back by round 3/4).

Don't lose RR when going against a cheater. (RR rollback).

Less RR lost if someone leaves or goes afk.

More RR gained/lost (16 or so for a win is abysmal), now that I'm in diamond, winning rounds matters more than kd, utility usage, etc. Compared to diamond and below, where kd and engagement numbers matter more. Source is u/TimeJustHappens, as well as an old linked Reddit post.

A more transparent ranked system, as well as better indicators and factors involved in RR gain/loss. Assists should count for more, potentially even credits (kill/damage based assists).

A more synced visual and hidden MMR, none of this unviewable and secret matchmaking bs. E.g. gold's ending up in diamond lobbies and vice versa. Played with a diamond 2 mate of mine the other day, had a gold 3 Skye for some reason. Next game was more normal matchmaking of plat 3 to diamond 3.

No lackluster RR gains due to the system trying to push you down (source Reddit valorant faq and u/TimeJustHappens), if you got that rank, changes are you deserve it. You should gain a minimum amount of RR (e.g. 15-20), and gain more or less depending on factors such as kills, assists, utility usage, rounds won, and etc.

Ranked sources: https://reddit.com/r/valorant/w/faq/faq_MMR?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app

Better synced animation.

Less input lag after alt tabbing.

Better recoil reset & gun recovery times.

Less clunky movement/weapons. (Operator??? Significantly better on Jett/Chamber compared to other agents).

Better map selection system (breeze 3x in a row is abysmal).

Replay system.

Better battle pass xp bonus (3% is shockingly bad).

Endorsement system.

1v1 & 2v2 game modes.

Custom community servers etc.

Workshop maps.

Better Deathmatch.

Skins should be fully upgraded when bought, variants unlockable with radianite.

Agent loadouts (i.e. certain skin selected with certain agents, with a potential to favourite skin sets and randomise them).

A more consistent classic (more consistent spread pattern, maybe more pellets to be balanced?)

Paying £5 for a gun buddy that you only get 2 of is shambolic. £3 is more palatable, but if it's gonna be £5, I better be able to use it on as many guns as I like. So basically unlimited gun buddies from the ones you buy. That, or atleast 3. I have the Gaia weapons, can't use 2 charms on 4 weapons.

A proper gifting system.

Vod review & an in game demo system (Lol, even overwatch and csgo has these).

A better favouriting system (you can't favourite variants or tiers???).

A better store system (4 items, which you have to pay exorbitant prices for, then buy the battle pass in order to upgrade fully, then if you buy more skins, you have to pay £30 - 2800vp, in order to get 40 radianite, which is only enough to fully upgrade 1 skin, but you still will be unable to afford even 1 variant out of a potential 3 others to be bought).

If I'm buying a skin, I should be paying to have everything completely unlocked, not shoehorned into buying yet another currency, that is exorbitant and essentially a scam. Either that, or triple the amount of radianite given in the (very lackluster) battle pass.

The performance is getting worse every update ( I have a ryzen 5 5600x and an rtx 3070, and the game isn't as smooth as it used to be.)

The battle pass is meh value, £10 for a few skins (most of the time bad), only 50 tiers, and no premium currency given back, not to mention negligible amounts of radianite (which is used to actually get decent variants in the battle pass & premium skins.)

A reputation system.

Quicker update times (Case in point: Chamber. 1 year later, still busted. Cypher took 1 year + , same with phoenix and yoru taking atleast several months).

Better servers (The servers can't consistently handle 128 tickrate, aren't even true 128tick - 32 tick interpolated, official riot source and accompanying Reddit blog below), and the hitreg at times is disgraceful. Problems with delayed hit registration and packets being sent late once above 128 FPS, as well as when you alt tab. Sources also below.

More consistent gameplay (ping can randomly spike after no problems all day, leading to inaccurate gameplay. I have a 500mbps package, a WiFi router with limited devices and QoS turned on, as well as usually 7 ping to London servers, so I know it's not at my end.)

A shorter unrated (7-10 rounds then swap?).

More LTMs, some to be permanent. More variety. Better custom modes.

Valorant feels too long at times, and the modes aren't the most interesting after a while.

People actually being banned for gameplay sabotage, and voice chat.

I climbed from plat 2 to ascendant 1 this season (currently diamond 2, I can drop tracker if wanted), and since I reached diamond 2+, the amount of trolls, racial abuse, people on alt accounts (ascendant 2 or immo accounts playing on friends ACC's on my team, either on a plat 1 or low diamond account), is genuinely shocking. I don't know why this game doesn't have a reputation system, because it sorely needs one.

I've had several games in the past week, where due to a bruised ego in the pregame lobby or early rounds, they (usually grown men) start screaming ff, or actively throw either by: feeding, stalling and sabotaging our team through their own util, not buying guns for themselves or the team, forcing when everyone is saving and vice versa, playing op just to run down mid and die, and my favourite of all, smoking off main where we're pushing, blinding us as we go in, then going to B every round just to die. Oh, and can't forget about walling and slow orbing the team too.

I've gotten called a slave, stupid n**** monkey, been told I belong in a cage and etc., All through voice chat, and not a single ban has come through. This game has a major racism, sexism & homophobia problem, (and no, just because other games have bad or worse, doesn't mean me or anyone else who brings it up is whining and that this game is perfect.) In higher elo, communication is more important than ever and actually useful, and people creating a hostile environment for teammates leading to degraded game quality should be punished.

Price changes for certain guns, as well as buffs too. The ares is absolutely terrible, and for a shooter with 'precise gunplay', the fact that the spread and hipfire accuracy is so low, is terrible. The Bucky is also horrible.

Changes to make the phantom more competitive with the vandal (maybe better damage fall off? E.g. 0-20 instead of 0-15. Or better fire rate.) Maps are getting bigger and longer range, so the vandal is shining more than ever. Changes to keep the phantom more competitive would be nice.

Also, more communication with players, as well as more listening to player feedback (notice I didn't say implementing it, but atleast considering it is a good start). E.g. harbor is still weak, and his slow not only being negligible, affecting teammates, and a non deterrent is disappointing. Compared to viper, who's very team oriented with decay and damage, slow is terrible. Not to mention that harbors' wall is 15 seconds, but actually 12 as the wall takes 3 seconds to place and go up. The shield is expensive, and the smoke fades immediately after 13 vandal shots????

Thanks for reading.

Sources: Opinions, countless reddit posts, news articles, as well as official Riot blog posts. Linked below:

https://reddit.com/r/valorant/w/faq/faq_MMR?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app https://www.pcgamer.com/valorant-will-start-listening-to-your-voice-chat-in-july/

https://reddit.com/r/valorant/w/faq/faq_MMR?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app

https://playvalorant.com/en-us/news/game-updates/valorant-gameplay-consistency-update/

https://playvalorant.com/en-us/news/game-updates/valorant-gameplay-consistency-update-2/

https://www.reddit.com/r/VALORANT/comments/r12iwj/128_tick_server_update_patch/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

https://www.reddit.com/r/VALORANT/comments/sehmpl/skill_issue_indeed_alttab_netcode_problem/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

https://www.reddit.com/r/VALORANT/comments/wq8adf/is_server_tick_rate_being_worked_on_any_known/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

https://www.reddit.com/r/VALORANT/comments/ik4hka/valorants_128tick_servers_riot_games_technology/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

In Riot's tech blog article, under the "Animation" section, they state:

"Hit registration in VALORANT works by saving player positions and animation state in a historical buffer. When the server receives a shot packet from the client, it rewinds the player positions and animation state using the historical buffer to calculate if the shot hit. Initially we were computing animation and filling this buffer every frame. However, after careful testing and comparisons we found that we could animate every 4th frame. In the event of a rewind we could lerp between the saved animations. This effectively cut animation costs down by 75%." (The hyperlink for lerp was in the original article as well)

Unless they save the positions and animations in separate historical buffers, which by their wording it sounds like they use the same buffer ("player positions and animation state"). Since they only save every 4th frame and interpolate between them, that means any type of parabolic movement (Raze satcheling, jump peeking, etc.) or very quick movement adjustments may not get caught, especially when server tickrate drops.

That Riot post is dated nearly 3 months after the official game release in June, so unless they decided to update the netcode and run on dedicated servers (which they haven't), that is the current state of the netcode in terms of public knowledge.

I can also confirm OP's experiences, I keep my debug graphs on all the time and when looking at my own highlight clips I see the tickrate dropping a lot, which is not fair for anyone because it means at least one person is getting their shots registered late or not at all because of the server. That's not competitive integrity, and it sure as fuck isn't 128 tick when during gunfights when the server can't sustain a stable 128.