14 DAY TRIAL // Smite's Conquest map is apparently undergoing a pretty serious overhaul, meant to improve it ahead of the game's second season of competitive activity.
Smite's first World Championship just concluded yesterday, securing Cognitive Prime's spot as the first team to ever win the title, not to mention a pretty sweet $1.3 / €1.1 in prize money.
The popular 5 versus 5 map was resorted to in both friendly and competitive environments, and its use in eSports competitions led to the team finding some ways to further tweak it.
The map has been reworked in order to improve strategic play and the general legibility of the playing area, and has also received some neat eye candy in the process. You can see an overview of the changes and additions in the video below.
The side walls of the map have been replaced by some good-looking vistas, with different landmarks to further help players get their bearings straight while playing.
A huge plume of fire and smoke has been added, visible from all over the map, at the point where players can battle the Fire Giant, and the Gold Fury has received a massive column with a gleaming golden statue, bathed in sunlight.
Hi-Rez Studios is preparing for Season 2
Further additions to the Fire Giant's arsenal will force players to move around more when engaging in battle and will enable latecomers to punish teams who have already started the fight at a bad time.
Another interesting change (potentially with the biggest actual gameplay impact) is the fact that neutral camps will slowly regenerate their health instead of resetting immediately when a god leaves their camp.
This means that you won't be able to simply try your hand at defeating a neutral camp and run away if things get hairy, because then an enemy god might reap the rewards of your hard work.
The Chaos end of the map has a massive volcano spitting out ash clouds and dripping magma, introducing some dynamic lighting effects and creating a gloomy effect.
The new Conquest map will become available on the public test servers starting January 17. In case you're interested in learning more about Season 2, you can have a look at the Smite Developer Talk below.
