Update out, woot!

Too bad i'll have to wait until after tonight for my last exam to be over, arg!

The achievements on your SteamID pages have been updated as well.

Steam Community :: Team Fortress 2 Stats :: pompadork

All the stat info for medics has been reset, so you're starting anew. Be prepared for some absurd achievements!

Source Engine

* Improved particle performance on multi-core machines
* Added FOV slider to Options | Video | Advanced for all games (moved there from TF2’s multiplayer options)
* Fixed surround sound initialization problems with new speaker modes defined in Vista


Team Fortress 2

* Added Goldrush
* Added Character Info and Loadout to the main menu
* Added 39 Medic achievements
* Added unique Medic items:
o The Blutsaugher, The Kritzkrieg, and The Ubersaw
* Added new attack animations to most melee weapons
* Added new speech for the Heavy and Demoman
* Added Stopwatch mode to Tournament mode
o Automatically used on Attack/Defense maps
* Teleporter effect no longer shows up on invisible or disguised Spies
* Spies disguised as their own team can now capture control points
* Increased force taken by pipebombs by bullets and explosions
* Target ID hud is now colored red or blue to match the spectator target
* Tournament mode no longer ends matches early if the time limit is nearly up when a new round starts
* Fixed exploit where clients could start benchmark mode on servers
* Fixed drowning exploit that allowed players to regenerate health
* Fixed reload exploit that allowed plays to fire instantly after switching weapons
* Fixed flamethrower bug where a player flush against a wall couldn't be lit on fire from the front
* Fixed invulnerability overlay not drawing if the invuln player was previously on fire
* Fixed "times used" entry in teleporters maxing out at 32
* Fixed rare client crash on level change during control point capturing
* Minor fix to stat gathering to prevent players using sv_cheats to easily garner achievements
* For mapmakers:
o Mapmakers can now directly place the tf_gamerules entity into their map. Fixes Hammer thinking the inputs to it are broken
o Mapmakers can now place Engineer buildings directly into a map, with an option for them to be invulnerable
o Added "AddRedTeamScore" and "AddBlueTeamScore" inputs to tf_gamerules
o Added "SetRequiredObserverTarget" input to tf_gamerules. Force spectators to use the specified viewpoint
* Granary
o Added setup time logic, and gates to the middle
o Fixed an overlay alignment bug on one of blue's gate signs
o Minor lighting fixes in red/blue spawns
* 2Fort
o Added medium ammo and health to basement hallways
o Added small ammo and health to top of spiral
o Fixed a clip brush exploit outside blue sniper deck
o Fixed number "2" overlay on front of red base not being assigned to the brush face

So, I've never actually PLAYED TF2, but hearing from friends, seeing the videos, and all that fun stuff has made me rather interested in picking it up. And apparently this weekend [May 2-4] is a Free-TF2 weekend, so... Yeah, I'm gonna give it a go.

Any tips for a complete TF2 noob?

Yeah, while cheating is out of the question, we can still HELP EACHOTHER OUT VIA A GFF EVENT. Lets.

Sousuke add us to your steam friends when you get it! It might seem like a lot to learn at first since the 9 classes are really different, but just try them all out and see what you like and it's pretty easy to pick up i think.

Practice, practice, practice. I would actually recommend that you choose Medic first and get good with healing and staying alive.

General tips:

1) NEVER STOP MOVING. This makes it harder for you to be backstabbed, and harder to be sniped.
2) Don't be afraid to melee. It's surprisingly powerful in this game. The Bonesaw is more or less the Medic's main weapon.
3) Don't just heal one person. Keep looking around and mousing over your team-mates. If they're not 100%, top them off quick (assuming that your "main" heal-bitch is not being attacked/at 100%).
4) Watch out for spies. Tips on finding them out:

If you can't move through a team-mate, it's a spy.
If it's between 50-100% (i.e. not full but with a white health marker instead of a red), whack it a few times, it might be a spy.
If it's a medic without an Ubercharge meter, it's a spy.
If a friendly pyro lights another friendly on fire, it's a spy (and dead).
If a pyro is on fire PERIOD, it's a spy (pyros are immune to the after-burn).
If it's a slow-moving scout, it's a spy.
If it's a spy without a disguise and his pistol out, it's either an enemy spy or a really stupid friendly spy.
If it's not being fired upon by your enemies, it's a spy.

5) Don't panic and blow your Uber too early. The only times you should use it:

-Your heal-bitch calls for the uber.
-You are about to die (in which case, uber, pray your buddy kills the guy attacking you, otherwise run)
-You're about to make a run at an enemy fortification (i.e. sentries, cap points, etc.)

Once you get good with the medic, the other classes will be much easier to learn, especially the Scout. It's all a matter of learning to stay alive and when to run away.

I'll try to keep those in mind. Sounds like a lot to figure out, though, kinda.

Also, if I already have Portal and Half-Life 2 [but not Ep1 or Ep2], is it worth getting the full Orange Box, or should I just grab TF2? Are the Half-Life Episodes and Peggle worth the extra $20?

Well the new team fortress 2 Medic unlockables and achievements list came out today as well as some kind of free to play for the weekend offer for new players. Take a gander at this

I'm no expert but this should really help to balance out the classes a little better, I've lost count how many times people have yelled MEDIC! When there's no medics on the team. Some of these look really tough to get to the point of impractical, like the Blunt Trauma achievement what the hell is up with that?

FUCKING AWESOME.

Also Valve sucks at security. It's possible to unlock the new weapons with console commands, durrhurrhurr.

they noticed. the commands were removed today.
btw, for those who got to play with the new medic stuff briefly, what did you think?

Blunt Trauma isn't that hard, you just need a heavy that will play along. You'll be surprised how easy it is to do when there are 6 people trying to push a cart in Goldrush.

It just sucks how many crappy medics there are now on the servers. I don't understand why there are bunch of people who didn't play medic before wanting to suck at it until they can get their new weapons, which they'll never use again since they'll stop once they get their precious achievements. *le sigh*

What servers are you playing on where Dustbowl 2.2 isn't an ugly clusterfuck of 47 buildings?

Yeah that can pretty much be done on Dustbowl stage 2 at the capture point.

17 of the medic ones so far, woo.

Peer review is great on Melee Sudden Death or Melee Barn.

Red's Exit for Dustbowl 2 usually has a couple teleporters that are just left there. Coupled with some dispensers and it's easy pickings for a demoman.

While this is possibly one of the neatest patches ever, playing on servers with more than half your teammates is horrible.

I like how I can be a HWG and not one medic will heal me because they're too busy trying to bonesaw all the goddamn demos on the enemy team.

I never use kritzkrieg, bludsaughter is better than the syringe gun, and the uber saw has no downside. At all.

Yeah, I'm finding the new needle gun to be a lot better than my old bonesaw, and as such I'm killing tons of medics with it and not the bonesaw. Gonna take me forever to get that achievement.

Also, pup, need to play with you sometime so we can get the HWG/demo/pyro achievements for each other. I'm sick of shitty demos not killing five buildings when there's three SGs bunched right ontop of each other and a bunch of dispensers there too. :(

I've given up on trying to get all the medic achievements for the ubersaw since I'm not a big user of melee attacks anyway. Once I got my +3 needle gun that was all I needed. It has saved me from many a scrape. Although, I know a lot of meds who also are good enough with the ubersaw than they can uber out of trouble in the middle of a firefight with a few well placed attacks.

I can see it having no downside (how much slower can you make a slow melee attack that *needs* to be accurate in the first place), just that I don't want to dedicate my life to a few toy achievements =/

I'm on a lot RR so just come on any time. Also i don't know if i phrased my post weirdly, but i meant that the new needlegun is better AND the saw is better; i already have all of the achievements. I know valve wanted to give pros / cons for each weapon, but the 30% slowness is not noticeably at all and the weapon still crits. No reason to use the original saw at all.

Yes, it has saved my life a lot. It seems to happen that i'll uber someone who will run into 10 enemies trying to kill them all, then die once the uber wears off. Attacking people quickly enough can give you uber fast enough to just get the chance to run away. The only down side is the prospect of filling my uber that much has made me ignore the needle gun, so it's easier to die.

Pyro upgrades up next!

I wish they're release the class patches in groups of three or four, so we wouldn't have entire servers whoring up single classes.

What class do you feel is best against pyro? I seem to fare best when I'm playing as a pyro myself. The scattergun just gets too weak once you're outside of the flamethrower's range.

Pyro, in its element, which is close range combat with little hope of escape, is probably the most deadly of all the classes in my opinion. If the flame goes critical, then most anything will burn within seconds. It's like the killing ability of the heavy + mobility. The unfortunate thing is that this situation isn't all too common without some element of surprise.

In my opinion, the best class to combat it would be a soldier, since if they're any good, they can launch a pyro into the air and take his flames out of the equation. Scouts are also okay, since they can run around a pyro, so even with the lack of damage from the farther away scattergun, they can harass a pyro enough to leave or the scout can run away to safety.

I've also downed a fair number of pyros who think they can chase a medic (they can't) and run after me in a straight line, which is easy pickings with a scattergun. Of course, medics shouldn't be on the offensive, but just think twice before running after one.

This is a popular opinion I do not share, but most would say that Pyro is the game's overall weakest class. That may change with Pyro's patch, especially since a while back Robin Walker of Valve mentioned that they're particularly looking at Pyro vs. Soldier. Still, for the moment, a Soldier aiming at his own feet is far more deadly at close combat than a Pyro.

I think Pyro next is a good idea, since there should be some more medics to put out those flames, but yeah i can't imagine what the unlocks would be. It'll be interesting to see if they change someting about the shotgun, since a bunch of classes have that.

Me and puff were talking about how it would be cool for the flame thrower to have maybe a right click function where you could just release a lot of gas then ignite it and it would stay aflame for a bit kind of like a defensive deterrent, but i'm not sure what the disadvantage would be.

Haven't been playing much recently; guess I got kinda sick of the game. News on Steam today though:
Sounds pretty interesting, and a lot sooner than I expected if it actually is "almost completely wrapped up."

A update on the Pyro Update:

IGN: Team Fortress 2 Pyro Update Week

Expected news, but of course, still very exciting. Have you guys tried the custom PL_maps like Cave, or Dynamite?