Totally going to play some TF2 right now and wear my halo.

Then feeling crappy because I still haven't gotten any Scout unlocks.

Quoted for truth a friend of mine is totally avoiding tf2 now because of this shit. I used the idle program myself as mentioned on my last post and never really got anything out of it, so I stopped using it before a lot of other people and still got punished for it =P

Valve has stated since then that the hat drops would be significantly increased or something, but I can't help but wonder... if this idling program was never made, would the hat drops have still stayed at about 0.5 % chance? I mean jesus guys if I wanted a game with drop rates like that I'd go play an mmo.

Sorry to double post, this topic just seems to have dead as a doornail moments before taking off again.

link

link

Ok the piss jar was 1 thing, but I do believe Valve are getting crazier and crazier with their new ideas now. So first we get a random items system, then pets... what's next? Mounts and different armours with level caps? -_-

except the dog thing is completely fake...?

People said the same thing about the jarate piss jar...

Except that was an official Valve thing for April Fools'. This is just some kid who speaks English as a fifth language tooling about with Photoshop and getting a laugh and a nod from the developers.

TF2 Halloween Event

The gist of it: Halloween map, temporary achievements through Nov. 2nd that get you Halloween hats.

Also, the game is on sale on Steam for $2.50 for about 10 more minutes or so.

Best event ever. :tpg: Just spent about three hours playing on one of the /v/ servers; someone was playing Thriller over mic and everyone stood on the point taunting repeatedly.

http://imgur.com/UO71ql.jpg

Got all the achievements eventually, too.

Friendship ends in one day.

Well, to be honest, engie kinda got an update when he got upgradable dispensers and teles, and the ability to knock a sapper off of the entrance and the exit at the same time. He's play balanced right now, he's just not much fun to play. =/

At any rate, this game remains my favorite because they keep updating it. I wonder when or if they'll start doing the randomized weapons thing. (Maybe after the last class update?)

Meh, those things helped engie, but they're a long shot from an update.

The problem is that, from the beginning, everyone figured out the best spots to place sentries. Sentries haven't gotten any better. Players have gotten better though, have figured out how to take out just about any sentry with ease, and now sentries are obsolete.

The class being stale and not much fun doesn't help, either.

Now Engineers are far less about sentries and far more about Teleporters. Sure you can throw up a distraction sentry or something, but its primary purpose should be keeping enemies away from your level 3 teleporters which are pumping out all of the classes that have received updates to the front lines.

Then again, I've always found defensive engineer extremely boring to play, even when sentry spots were fresh and new.

Been thoroughly enjoying playing Heavy/Scout/Medic recently, though.

Patch came out with a whole bunch of special things the announcer lady says to you during warmup and at random points during the match when you're a demo/soldier. I played one round on Dustbowl where my team managed to stop the other team twice on the first point on the first stage and racked up eight kills for the demos and only died twice to soldiers. Playing as a soldier I got one or two kills without giving one up to a demo.

Also found the scout's hat!

So it seems that the Demoman is getting a sword to replace his melee weapon, and a shield to replace his stickylauncher.

What makes this news is, to my knowledge, that these two items used in conjuction with each other allows for the actual sword itself to crit, and the shield itself, when you press the alt-fire button, will send you charging towards an enemy player just as fast, or faster than a scout's speed.

Upon charging if you are a decent distance away from someone, your sword will pretty much one hit kill from the way it sounds. Of course, without the shield the sword can not crit, but with each successful melee attack you give, you get a speed and health boost.

No word on the soldier update yet.

The shield also gives resistance to fire and explosive damage, which should make it a little more interesting. Without stickies the demo is going to be a lot less useful against sentries, though, so I don't see myself using it a whole lot.

Edit: Also, demoman is a bit behind in the standings, and that's why their unlocks got revealed first. Be sure to check teamfortress.com out to read the two new comics they put up, too.

I don't suppose anyone has figured out how to get the soldiers new boots yet? In any case here's the current item crafting list TF2 Backpack Examiner - Blueprints

As you can see team fortress item making (or rather in the hat making) has become a total grindfest as everyone thought it would, even more so since there's no way to get garenteed items. I think I heard somewhere that achievement idle servers are considered legit now (long as you're not using an add on program to do it?) which speaks for itself really, valve wants you to grind and grind hard x.x

The new weapons updates have made me decide the demoman might arguebly have gotten the worst items in the game so far. As fun as the chargin targe and eyelander is, a smart player or organised team can take you down easily as the sheild damage reduction is for fire and explosions NOT bullets.

The increasing your stats after every kill is an interesting feature, but most of the time you won't see the benefits of it. Personally I think the biggest benefit the weapons have and probably one of the funnyist in the game is the charge allows you to barge your way to guarded parts of the map normal demoman would have to fight their way through to reach (i.e. behind enemy sentry farms) you normally end up vs a good number of the enemy team all at once when you do this, but it's still fun to see some players WTF reactions. I've got nothing really positive to say about the Scottish Resistance, it's a campers weapon, sure you can lay 14 stickies at once, but you have to be aiming at the things in order for the detonate button to do anything.

Soldiers unlocks on the other hand are much more interesting, the Direct Hit is great for class vs class situations but not if you have most of the other team rushing on you, the equalizer has no real downside compared to the shovel unless you're the kinda player who taunts a lot because it will kill you. When your hp is low switch to it and your attack and speed both have a boost, hell I found sitatuations where I hurt myself on purpose for that speed boost and I would just heal later. Lastly imo the Buff Banner is only as good as you are at soldier and your team at supporting each other. Skilled players will love you for it on rushes, but the newbies like the ones on this free weekend I've noticed are none the wiser about the mini crit buff.

Because I love you all so very much

YouTube Video
Error; are you sure that's a YouTube link?

YouTube Video
Error; are you sure that's a YouTube link?

Jesus, those crafting recipes are bullshit.
3 weapons -> 1 scrap metal
3 scrap metal -> 1 reclaimed metal
3 reclaimed metal -> 1 refined metal
4 refined metals + 1 class token -> one hat

So you need 40 weapons to make one fucking hat?

Even just to make a specific gun you need a class token (4) + a slot token (4) + a piece of scrap metal (3)...eleven weapons!

Pretty much this whole thing is a giant waste of time unless they really up the drop rate. =\

Did they lower the requirements? I thought the math was more like this

YouTube Video
Error; are you sure that's a YouTube link?

Happy because you worked for your hat my ass, there's no factors which change drop rate it's all random. Anyone after a hefty rare item collection will find they have found something worse then rpg grinding... and this is it.

For all the bitching about the crafting system I have to wonder if you guys were happier with the extra flareguns just sitting in your backpack doing nothin'.

It's not an ideal solution, but if you consider putting together random drops to build an item with no mechanical effect to be "grinding" that you're somehow forced to do, I think the joke's on you. As for me I got my Gibus and my Beret and I'm pretty content.

My complaint is not for having something like grind in the game, but rather the amount you have to do. If you was that desperate in an mmo you would just camp an area with *insert monster which drops said item name here* in TF2 there is no similar way to speed up the process, which leaves me wondering why on earth the requirements are so high.

To keep the special items special perhaps? Like Pang said, they're not essential so you don't have to get them but they are there for anyone with enough time on their hands and a high enough boredom threshold.

Whoops, forgot a factor of 3. :(

What bothers me about the crafting is that achievement_idle is now the most popular TF2 map and Valve seems pretty content about it. Why shouldn't they be? It makes it look like twice as many people are playing TF2 and for a heck of a lot more time. So these things that are supposed to be special, well, aren't. I mean, between the last two days I've played for around three hours and I got one item. From an achievement unlock. Prior to that I'd say I'm lucky if I find one item every two hours or so. So, if I were to play TF2 as a full time job for eight hours a day, it would take me 28 days to get one hat. That's what makes the system a bit absurd.



In TF2 update news, the buff banner now doesn't get reset when you hit a resupply cabinet.

I also found out if you go into the Advanced button under your Multiplayer menu they've added a ton of new options over the last few updates. I'm really liking the option where you have actual damage values pop up when you hurt someone. It's helped me figure out which weapon I should use at which distances and when it's worth possibly chasing someone down to kill them a few times now.

Playing medic is now INCREDIBLY intuitive with the feature that highlights people with low health. I've been playing it more than any other class lately.

I am loving the little jingle sound on hit

I am also loving that you can mod this sound