GFF Team Fortress 2 Crew!
 

Whaddap (there's not a dedicated tf2 thread, huh?)

GFF Steam Community: Steam Community :: Group :: Gamingforce

I know there are a bunch of you who play TF2, but we don't all play together often enough. Even the last 'event' sort of sucked (with only like 7 of us showing up :mad:)

I know we had an event listed to essentially cheat to get the medic achievements, but its not there anymore. No event i guess! But that would have been pretty cheap anyway, i think.

Also, someone here should run a server. Starman's sucked last time (owned)

As a random point,
TF2 Stats Parser - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net

Heres a program to show you some stats that aren't visible in game normally (or on your steam tf2 stats web page). Interesting to see how far along i've got to go for that stupid 10 million medic heal achievement.

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/8337/11xd2lt3.th.jpg

9.75 million to go, w00t.

Well my main issue with the GFF organized games was that any server that was set up, my ping was bound to suck horribly, I still tried to do stuff, but it was mostly pathetic having a ping of over 250 and trying to do anything while we only have 6 people total in 2fort or so. I think we do have enough active people to make it worthwhile, I mean recently I had a game with Starman, Garr and RR and even if we were losing most of the time it was pretty fun. I've had the chance to play with kitty(soldier addict) and Pom too(damn that sniping fag) so I guess we could have some fun killing each other.

Maybe it will be easier now that its over the summer, but yeah even with Starman i had lag so i imagine you in south america would be pretty bad :\/.

Last time we played all i said was 'oneechan ohayo' on mic and no one responded so i just stayed quiet the whole game.

I didn't respond because I was laughing too hard.

Also, garr, make yourself feel better about your K:D ratio by playing medic or some other support class a lot. I have a shitty K:D, but I have about a billion assists.

I've just started playing TF2 again recently, so I'm down for any games. Gotta get my Medic on again.

I'll have to reinstall the game, but I could go for a round or two again.

But I'm probably really rusty.

I've been playing quite a bit lately, so you bet I'm down for any GFF events that might be going on. I'm usually able to play in the evenings or late at night. Not too much during the day.

Maybe some of us should try hopping on the Steam Group (or make an IRC channel) chat room more often. It would be a lot easier to organize events in real time and to just plain hook up and play.

Anyway, keep us posted, pom!

Sick, I got 9.1 million to go. Just a few more years and I'll get that fucking saw.

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/6891/statsgr5.th.jpg

But yeah, I'm definitely in... maybe we could Grief some random server, that would be fun.

As for events, you'd have to ask the group admins to be sure, but i think they removed the event we were supposed to have to just goof around together in order to get those medic achievements?

Did you all actually want to do that? I don't care about getting them like that or playing 'for real' either way, but if that event was up i'd probably still go :\/

Yeah man i don't know, 10 million is quite a bit. I have a feeling that a huge majority of people will try to find cheaper ways to getting the 36, especially since valve stated a few weeks ago that only ONE person had reached that mark ;_;

Well, if something gets set up, I'm down. I've been playing medic almost nonstop (mostly because I like to win, most teams need medics, but no one plays em) so my killing skills are pretty useless unfortunately. I guess I was born to support (my secondary class would probably be engineer).

Need to read up more on the new medic achievements myself. I haven't touched TF2 anything since my trip started last month, but it's back to the same old same old now.

That was pretty fun tonight whaddap puff, juan, jinn. PS new max kills as soldier is 16 :D

I set my personal record of 1700 damage as a soldier tonight. Didn't get one kill. :(

Anyway, I'm gonna start idling in #tf2 on IRC, so feel free to join me.

Stats Parser is down. Anyone got a mirror for it?

Anyway, I'm down once finals clear up.

So happy, finally got my sentry gunner achievement the other day. I was sitting there guarding the capture point for 10 minutes and didn't see one person. Then, with 45 seconds left in the round, 10 people charge the point and I somehow managed to kill 9 of them.

For some reason engineer is a lot more boring in TF2 than I felt it was in TFC. Even when I'm trying to build an offensive gun.

Part of me feels it has something to do with an uber demo/soldier coming in and destroying all your hard work relatively easily. Something unfulfilling in watching it die because of that. Or the sappers from the spy either =/

Some of the best moments as a engineer I've had though are fending off spies from my SGs and managing to keep it alive. Although, that's more a problem of the team not being around to help >_>

I'm down for any community TF2 Events. Is anyone posting announcements or events in the Steam group?

I don't know why you wouldn't just switch servers. I'd rather play a DBZ mod than on a 4chan server.

Also, anyone up for a game tonight? I don't have any plans to do stuff tonight, and I haven't played for a few days.

usually it shouldn't, headshots from what I know have a higher crit chance, but aren't completely related to them and for strange hitboxes of headshots, heavies are kings you can almost shoot their bellies and get a headshot, it's pretty insane.

On another note I will try to join RR if my internet isn't sucking.

If you guys didn't know there have been some notable changes in the achivements, hence the delay of the new patch. Most have them been toned down considerably (eg: Instead of TEN million, it is now ONE million. <3)

Flickr Photo Download: TF2 Medic Upgrades
Flickr Photo Download: TF2 Medic Upgrades
Flickr Photo Download: TF2 Medic Upgrades

I didn't see those, sweet.

1 million is nothing though haha. Assist in killing 20 nemesis seems kind of time consuming as well.

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?

Any speculation on what the horrible pyro achievements are going to be?

By definition most of them will involve burning people and are therefore wonderful and not horrible

a quick question about the achievements involving "friends", do ppl have to be on your friend list to count or do group lists like GFF count? this might have been mentioned before but I missed it

Sparhawke I know they have to be on your friends list, but I'm not sure if they have to be on your list before you join the server if you get what I mean.

As for my two cents on the Pyro achievements, I'm willing to bet money unlike the medic that they will involve every other class in some shape or form. Burning engineer buildings to death, some kind of teamed up one with the medic and I would be amazed if there wasn't some kind of Pyro vs Pyro achievement since that scenario makes their main weapon much harder to use.

Well you got to have some achievements which is going to use all the weapons at the classes' disposal and then some that are going to be just crazy, like "Kill X amount of people with the axe", "Burn 3 pyros without dying", "Burn 50 spies in disguise", etc.

This is actually pretty easy and will only get easier during the initial rush of initiate pyrotards. Chop chop whoosh.

Well it was an example. It would probably be like 5, which still doesn't seem much. =p

Btw, did you make your signature, with free hugs and all? :p

Alas no, I uninstalled GMod before the fingerposing for TF2 came in and haven't got around to putting it back yet.

Pyro with what looks like a flaregun in Meet The Sniper, this is going to be great.

Btw. Meet the Sniper character vid released, love these vids :)
Gametrailers.com - Team Fortress 2 - Meet The Sniper Trailer HD

At around 1:16, you can see one of the new Pyro weapons. A flare gun perhaps?

Also, the achievement names + images have been leaked:

TF2 Pyro Achievement List Leaks - Shacknews - PC Games, PlayStation, Xbox 360 and Wii video game news, previews and downloads

Those 1000/500 scare me. Burn 1000 enemies? =/ Burn 500 of your friends!?

Full Pyro preview's out: Pyro Update

3 unlockables, a flat buff for the default flamethrower, and (implicitly) damage from taunts

I am liking that compressed air blast idea, it'd surely help pyros against soldiers and being able to push people apart to break ubercharges? just nice... but I'd really love they'd relase these in batches so people don't go whoring that one class all along.

But people didn't end up whoring Medic in the long run. Things'll be sketchy for a week or two, but for the long-term health of the game it's much better to put out frequent, smaller patches. Having a lot of pyros on a server is a much better problem than waiting another 3 months for Valve to balance two loadouts at once.

Everything about this update sounds pretty awesome. I've never played Fastlane, but Turbine is one of my favorite maps. I'm not sure whether I'll end up using the air compressor or the backburner (probably the air compressor), but both look pretty good.

Pyro is one of my most played classes, and those achievements seem to be right at a good amount of challenge. There seem to be a handful that pretty much require cooperation from enemies, though.

Oh god, this is going to be just like in the star wars games when my friends and I would shoot a rocket and then force push it back and forth.

If this can also push stickies and grenades I could seriously see Pyros getting a lot more impressive.

That second upgraded weapon also looks sweet enough that I might join one of those lame achievement servers to get the Pyro unlocks (I'm still three or four away from getting the Kritzkrieg. :().

I like most of these Pyro achievements more than the medic ones, they seem to be a lot more reasonable on average. I also like how most of them are cumulative things instead of stuff that doesn't actually happen within normal gameplay. Those Lumberjack ones are going to be really lame, though. Getting six kills in a single life as a pyro is hard enough.

Also, lol, 1,000,000 health is equivalent to killing over 2000 fully healed heavies.

Great update especially the new flamethrowers as already said. It not only gives them a whole new method of play but also once you have both of the guns you pretty much still have the option to play in the classic style too.

As for the achievements once again some of them are never going to happen in normal play conditions, but at least they're better then the medic ones. You could say it's like they want players to use achievement servers or something x.x best examples from that list being, BarbeQueQ, OMGWTFBBQ and Got A Light? Some of the others are tough, but at least they might actually happen in a normal match.

For those who don't know, it's not like the Medic Achievements, where you have to obtain 12, 24, and 36 respectively for each milestone. It's now 15, 20, and 25, meaning you can skip up to 10 ridiculous achievements and still have all three new weapons. This is great since I doubt I'll ever be able to deal 1 million damage without farming it. Now, we can actually do achievements and feel something came out of it.

I'm very excited just to try out the new push back functionality of the Pyro. I don't play Pyro enough to have a full appreciation of what this may mean, but I can see myself getting more into it now, not just because of the achievements (I promise!) but for the fact that the push back seems to address one of the Pyro's main weak points, which was the long range game.

Could a Pyro possibly be quick enough to push that ground rocket back in a soldier's face? And if this thing lets me push around stickies on the ground, then Pyros will be ridiculously invaluable now on Payload and CP maps. I guess we'll have to wait and see tomorrow during Pyro Fest 2008.

Haha, just watched the sniper video. Great! I thought the double-headshot was a little over the top with the demoman, but the opening was possibly the best thing ever. Also, saw this comment on the page and it seems quite possible!

Edit: And, of course, for anyone that hasn't seen Team Roomba's pyro video, you need to now: TEAM ROOMBA PRESENTS: Meet the Pyro on Vimeo

Thing is, the pushback also says opponents as well. So seeing an uber-rush with a pyro, and then at the end of that, compression air blast in the group = Chaos. :D

I honestly don't get why everyone wants this Hunted thing back so much. I haven't played it myself but from what I can put together it's more or less like Payload except the cart is a useless little man who dies if you give him a cross look, on top of being player-controlled for some godawful reason. Who the hell's going to want to play the empty suit in a game where you can't even get a medic half the time?

VIP maps were good in CS since the VIP was able to get a pistol.

I remember spending a ton of time on Hunted back in TFC days, and they were actually able to make it a decent percentage of times. I think it will be a lot more difficult with Ubercharges now, since the offense can just uber up two guys and find the VIP to slaughter him. I think it might be best if there's some, like, "No uber" area around the VIP or he gets some ability to remove all ubercharges (friendly and foe), otherwise it would be a bit too unbalanced.

Edit: I was also thinking, might a pyro be able to Air Pressure Jump now with their ability?

Timing and practical issues of being next to a soldier as he rocket jumps aside, no, I don't think this works.

A) Sounds like the compressor pushes the rocket in the direction you're aiming, so it would likely just hit the ground nearby.
B) You would also push the soldier with the compressor.

And you do know that any gun can push stickies now, right?

No. Designer Robin Walker says they experimented with this, but found it wasn't as fun as it sounded. They tried relegating it to an unlockable weapon, but then players got confused about what the air-blast could and couldn't do.

Everyone's running around being pyro (literally, my entire team), I'm working on my medic achievements finally. In one game alone I'm like halfway through a couple and almost have my burn ward achievement.

True, but aside from other stickies and rockets, the other weapons aren't really very effective when it comes to spam. The shotguns can only move one at a time usually. In addition, a demoman may not want to use one sticky to move others if he's guarding another point with his stickies and a soldier may not want to waste time reloading a rocket after shooting one at a bunch of stickies.

The compression blast seems to be useful since it's relatively quick, not *too* much cost of ammo, although I guess a pyro would have to be daring enough to get up close to the stickies. In any case, I haven't really tested out its effectiveness in this regard, since everyone and their mother is playing pyro right now.

EDIT: Bah, not as great as I hoped I guess. Looks like the spread isn't that big (makes sense) so you're pretty much only pushing one sticky at a time still. However, since we had 6 pyros doing it at one point, we guarded the area right after CP1 in Stage 3 of Dustbowl (the little open raised area) pretty well for much longer than we should've, bouncing away stickies from the SGs.

SOURCE YOUR QUOTES FAG

OH NOES I COPY PASTA'D SOMETHING GENERIC.

If it was direct from Robin Walker then yeah, but otherwise who the fuck cares?

I'm still trying to get the medic achievement where you're healing someone while they get their achievement, but it seems like everyone on my team gets an achievement except for whoever I'm healing. :mad:

It's plagiarism. In this case it's mostly harmless but as a general rule it's helpful to source the original author so that the phrase may be put in its proper context and — you know what? This is remedial. What kind of faggot are you that you don't understand basic concepts like this?

Ooooooh, that kind of faggot.

No shit, sherlock? You've really got the condescending pseudo-intellectual part down, have you been in theater?

Yes, every term I've ever used once in my life is so indicative.

Big surprise no one ever invites you when we play TF2.

I finished most of the pyro achievements to unlock all three weapons. Really... if you have backburner... Having Flare gun or Axestinguisher seems somewhat useless because if you are going to melee... might as well stick with the flamethrower and the shotgun is a much better finisher than the flare. If you are hitting from behind... use the backburner and not the axe since you are using the backburner to score godly crits.

I would see a flare/flamethrower/axestinguisher combo for setup.

I've seen people use the flare gun effectively since the update.
Hitting snipers, or any other back range support units.

oh dear are you shunning me

please don't shun me

I don't want to be shunned

(PS: I have no idea who "we" is so you might want to enlighten me on that point so that I can be properly resentful. Is this like a royal We kind of situation?)

Have you noted if there a little bit of a splash area from the flare gun? Nothing as big as the rocket of course, but something large enough so that it isn't just another version of the sniper gun without the scope. I haven't been able to get snipers with it, although it's still partly b/c no one is playing sniper right now.

Each weapon definitely has its own situation, which all play to different pyro styles. You have Backburner for the sneaky surprise pyro and Axestinguisher for that insane pyro who charges right at you. And I guess the Flare Gun is just a nice little toy apparently (whoever heard of a long range pyro).

Axestinguisher is quite fun with another pyro, as one burns, and the other just goes on a hacking spree. But i've seen the long range pyros work as they like to use the flare gun just past hills and so on. People recently have become more crafty using the thing (or at least the number of servers i've played on).

Flaregun is great for annoying snipers. And that's about it. It's really hard to hit moving people, especially ones that don't move in a straight line. I seem to spend most of my time combating other Pyros and the flare gun is poorly matched against the shotgun in situations like those. And it's terrible if you run into a soldier.

Only just started playing again myself, got about 3 of the new achievements so far but I've been playing on servers with class number limiters.

One thing I did notice that wasn't mentioned anywhere though was that they changed ctf well, removing the middle building and the underwater tunnels... why? I don't understand the logic behind it, sure the sniper has a waaaaay better shooting range now, but half the fun of well is all the different angles you can attack from, not to mention it makes the water exits nearly pointless, now all the action will be stuck in the middle of the map even more then it was before :(

You know, GFF? The thread where you're posting, and the Steam community group you belong to? Conversations tend to go:

"We could use more people. Pang's on, anyone want to ask him?"
"No, that's okay."
"Yeah, I'll pass."

Although you're already pretty resentful of this place in general, so you don't really need to do anything different. So you can stop pretending to care about plagiarism and go satisfy your emotional need for trolling elsewhere, like the MGS4 thread or the Quiet Place.

Oh god, Valve removing all dropoff damage from the pyro's flamethrower is a little much =/

Will both of you shut the hell up, fuck? Christ, who cares if he plagarized it or not and who cares if Pang is a douchebag. Move the fuck on ladies.

Ok, backburner is officially one of the most annoying weapons in the game. It's got the same problem as facestabs from the spy (I ran into a pyro in a narrow corridor as an engi, and was shooting him with a shotgun as he proceeds to crit me dead in half a second), but it's ridiculous when you've got a pyro paired up with a medic. You always want to kill the medic first, since otherwise the pyro won't die, but since you're chasing the medic, the pyro can rape you from behind. :mad: Also, the +50 health is obnoxious, since it gives them a massive advantage over any other pyro that doesn't have the backburner.

Flare gun seems pretty useless too, but I guess that's pretty similar to how the pyro's rockets were in TFC anyway.

The drawback to those pyros though is that if you're long range like a soldier or demoman, they can't reflect those back at you. So if you play it safe long range against that combo, you should be ok.

the backburner is great, but yeah I think they really need to tweak whatever detection you have when you are "actually" behind someone and I think they overdid it with the 50 health, now it's the same as a soldier wich along a medic, it's a lot. On another note, the new axe couldn't be more useless if I got a weapon(right now) that 100% crits most of the time why would I switch to another that's weaker... also on top of having 100% crit from behind the backburner still has normal crits from the front so yeah it can also crit normally like the other flamethrower.

When they fixed facestabs, Valve jacked backstabs also. I'm a bit apprehensive on how they'll fix it.

The backburner gives the pyro more life than a soldier, which hurts a soldier pretty bad. A soldier used to be able to be a bit careless when dealing with pyros, but you really have to focus now. You can't afford to waste any rockets, so switching to the shotgun is key now.

When facing pyros as an engineer, empty your pistol on them and then use your shotgun. Pyros usually get retarded when facing an engie, as they tend not to juke as much. 12 pistol round should hit the pyro dead on before he gets into burning range. The pistol whittles enough health and the shotgun should be able to finish them off. However, the +50 HP changes the equation a bit.

The problem is that the "I see a back, trigger crits" detection triggers whenever you can see ANYONE's back, even if they're not in range for your backburner. This doesn't happen with the Spy (obviously) so it should be a pretty easy thing to fix.

Honestly I doubt it's going to be a huge problem long-term anyway since everything seems overpowered when there's 32 of them on a map at once.

Lately that's been slowing down now, since everyone's been going to achievement maps and so on. So now everyone got the stuff and are going back to playing other classes.

I haven't seen any pyro madness on random servers since the day after it came out. Most things seem to be settling down yes, thanks to achievement servers and the fact you don't need all of them to get all 3 weapons (still haven't got my ubersaw). Pyro is back settling down to the 1 or 2 people per server who play it (feels like it anyway).

However, there is nothing more satisfying right now to me than separating a heavy or a demo from their fresh uber with some well/luckily placed air blasts. Usually dooms you to death personally, but take one for the team when you can.

Ah the backburner is great. I don't usually stay defense with pyro so i can live without the air blast. The flare gun is definitely useless though, yeah.

Also there's a skywalking exploit in fastlane, heads up ~


PS who wants to play :]

I am so happy ;___;

as far as I know facestabs are still a common thing all over the place, but so my post has some juice to it. The flaregun isn't that useless, it really depends on the map, honestly in 2fort I don't see a point for it, since snipers usually camp right by the resupply so burning them does nothing, and if you end up in the water at the bottom you have no way to fight back, unless you are able to catch them with your axe.. wich is unlikely, but in maps like dustbowl it isn't that bad at least it can harm engineers as they fix sentries so demos or soldiers can finish them off easier. So far for me it depends solely on the type of map if I am taking the flare gun or not.

Meh, I like being able to pick off fleeing burning enemies with the shotgun, since it's optimal range is right outside the flamethrower's. So for me, the flaregun is pretty useless. Plus the fact that it has only moderate damage, a large delay between shots, a slow projectile, no area effect, reduced effectiveness on pyros, and no effectiveness underwater.

Backburner is a definite keeper though, just for the health if nothing else. And it just makes being a sneaky bastard a lot more fun.

I have no idea if I'll use the Axtinguisher for anything. Generally if you get close enough to someone to melee them, you might as well just burn them. I never really used the regular axe for much either, except the occasional humiliation kill. I'll probably use the unlock just because it's more interesting than the regular axe.

Man, maybe my aim just got a lot better in the last couple days but it feels like shotguns got a stealth boost overall. I'm getting more kills with the Soldier's shotty than with the rockets.

Can we organize another day where we all play so i can dominate again ~ ~ ~

you mean me beating you up, but saying it's the ping all over again.

Yeah, xiao, facestabs are still pretty common. Maybe I haven't played spy enough, but backstabs still seem to work well enough too.

I wonder how many of these updates will defy expectations. With medic, you'd expect to at least get a heal, but unless it helped a medic get an achievement you probably wouldn't. With pyro, you'd expect spies would have a hard time, but it doesn't seem like it (although this is more likely due to the fact that pyros are more useful offensively now).

Name a date and time, and preferably a server. Of course, we probably don't want to use mine again.

I'd love to host but for some reason if i create one it doesn't show up in actual server lists.

I'll try to set a date this coming week for people and see what would work. I'm moving in like 2 days and i don't know if i'll have internet at our new house right away so we'll see.

Yeah, it's not as simple as clicking "Create Server." I'm not really sure how to set up a non-dedicated server, but Valve has instructions for setting up a dedicated standalone. Of course, this would work best on a different computer than the one you're playing on, if one is available.

I'm pretty much going to be AWOL starting Saturday and going until the following Monday. Sounds like I'm going to miss out. :(

I am happy they finally decreased the requirements for medics to get their unlocks, though. Finally got my kritzkrieg. Just one more achievement and I'll have the Ubersaw, too.

Huh, I totally didn't notice they lowered the requirements. I guess next time I choose medic I'll suddenly get the kritzkrieg, which is... not at all exciting.

well rumors say the next achievement pack is for the heavy... thoughts anyone? heavies certainly do need some tinkering after all the improvement in the other classes, I guess it's good they are next I'd guess they will have to rework soldier too.

The rumors I've heard state that the new weapons will make the heavy more useful when not paired with a medic. What that means I have no idea.

Perhaps a new gun you can fire while moving or a way to run a little faster?

I'd like to see a scout patch out of the hopes they'd get something to let them survive popping around a corner and seeing a level 3 sentry. I'd also like them to up the ammo for the scout's pistol. Why should they only get a few clips when the engineer's pistol gets something like 200 shots?

If any of you guys are looking to step up your game, playing on the Penny Arcade Forums servers will put hair on your chest in a hurry. Jinn and I played a bit the other day, but their server is private, so I think all they ask is that you make a forums account and have some passing interest in the comic.

It's not as hectic as it used to be before the class updates (they had some downright scary spies) but the caliber of player there is pretty high on average, and they're usually filled late afternoon into the night.

I play there almost exclusively now, because I know the players are more organized. It helps, too, when you know you can trust the judgment of the guy standing next to you because he's kicked your butt before.

Yeah, I had a pretty great time on their server. Wish I could have stayed a little longer. It was nice having a little bit more challenge - nothing wrong with testing out your skills a bit more than average.

I may actually play there later on in the evening. Hope to catch some of you for a game sometime soon.

So they've removed the health bonus from the Backburner, and from the looks of it many pyros have already switched back to the regular flamethrower. I guess I will too, since Backburner crits from behind only seem to work about half the time.

Yeah, I can't figure out the backburner crits. It seems to work best if I only start hitting the person while their back is turned and before they turn to face me. Sometimes I'll get it to work better if I stop shooting them for a split second and then restart when they're running away.

I think it's still back to normal flamethrower for me, though.

Yeah, I think the general consensus is that the backburner's useless now. Why would you take it over the airblast when the crits just DON'T WORK more often than not?

Man, that sucks. That was pretty much all the backburner had going for it. I am enjoying the air blast more and more though. I never realized how much stickybombs annoyed me until I was presented with such an easy way to remove them from my path.

The airblast for the regular flamethrower is more useful that many realize. When you're trounced with a line of soldiers headed your way on many maps, and you have a few pyros nearby that can skillfully airblast in, use the flames, and the 2nd one with the axestinguisher going around hitting people....you can clear them out pretty fast. :)

I was playing against one guy last night that was really effective with the airblast. He'd light you on fire, hit airblast really quick, and the switch to the axestinguisher since he had gotten close enough to hit.

Heavy Update:

The inevitable 35 achievements / 3 weapons (Boxing gloves, YES)

plus:

New Community Map

New Payload Map

New game mode with 5 "arenas"

One of the achievement icons shows a sticky being blown apart by lightning; could the Heavy possibly be getting a Tesla Gun?

IRRESPONSIBLE SPECULATION! WATCH THIS SPACE!

For those not keeping up there's been a couple updates:

New payload map, Badwater Basin.

And today, Natascha, a minigun with a 100% chance to slow targets on hit (but it doesn't say how much or how long) and does 25% less damage.

Interesting, but I'd still rather have seen what will apparently be the sticky-destroying lightning shotgun.

Interesting because now i can snipe heavies more easily than ever :D

WHEN IS OUR GFF GAME.

if you are still basing yourself on the achievement icon, there is no lightning shotgun the achievement itself has been unveiled and it has nothing to do with the new secondary weapon(actually none of them do) so I doubt there will be any lightning weapons for the heavy.


We can all just invade a server some day I guess Pom, we can agree none of us had a decent ping at starman's. On other news I wonder what "meet the ____" is next.

Unless, of course, the sandwiches are the new secondary.

The sandwich sounds kind of stupid and i'm hoping that's not it. There aren't a ton of open spaces without health packs anywhere around, so the heavy can still find health without a medic. Besides, they are trying to make the heavy more independent and unless the sandwich fills up his entire health, the damage he would take while switching weapons and waiting to fire again doesn't seem worth it.

WOULD BE DUMB.

Maybe he runs faster with the sandwich! The sandwich is full of energy-giving carbs!

Yeah well something like that is possible, and i'm sure if it IS a sandwich it wouldn't just be health recovery. So it could be a good 'weapon' just not how i'm imagining it i guess.

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...pboard03-1.png

hurrrrr

you don't play tf2 get out

sandvich lol RETARDED. Oh well EASIER SNIPING.

Also it says the supply is unlimited but i'm assuming there is a recharge time otherwise lol

Added the group, here's my info, hope to see some of you around.

I'm starting to play TF2 a little more now. Medic seems to be my thing, at least in 2fort. I play soldier and pyro a little bit, and heavy once in a while. When engineer gets an update I'll be all about that, probably.

It's a nice feeling being in the top three on your team while being medic full-time.

I can't believe I got the Sawbones achievement. My computer shits a brick every time I turn fast, so I had to have been fucking lucky to hit 5x in a row. It was on a heavy too. :D

Is it just me, or are the heavy updates... well, rather underwhelming?

I mean, there's nothing that actually makes me go "lol I WANT THAT." Natasha actually makes it harder for me to play solo, because I can't do as much damage and will die to any enemy heavy I meet. The KGB are nice... but seriously, melee on a slow class is just not a good idea at all.

The only thing I remotely want is the sandvich, for no other reason than to make it so that I don't have to drag my fatass around looking for a medkit when I want to heal myself.

The idea of Natascha seemed kind of silly to me until I was hit by it in the midst of a scout rush. Suddenly it's like you're crawling through mud. Completely shuts you down. Granted, it's obviously more suited for a defensive role but I'm sure we've all seen the heavy who plops down next to a dispenser and tapes down Mouse1.

For me Natascha is for team efforts rather to try and do everything solo(if you try to go alone with a heavy, you will probably get murdered unless you ambush in corners or something regardless of weapon setup), for instance you are in some map and you run into a medic, you hit him as he runs away a bit with natascha and fail to kill him, if you notify a spy that's already in their base about it, they will be able to easily catch up and backstab the slowed down medic, it also makes it easier for snipers to score those important headhsots(other times it can be confusing for snipers, but generally it helps) the only weapon in the update that helps with solo heavy is the sandvich, gloves are for special ocassions.

I never considered the viability of that strategy until I saw it in action as a medic on 2fort in the main floor atrium.

Pretty much agree with what everyone else has said on the new heavy updates, none of the new unlockables are really offensive orientated. For most other fps games I'd say this would be a crappy update since you tend to get people who do 1 man glory runs, but for Team Fortress (emphasis on the TEAM) it encourages people to work together even more I guess.

It's stuff like this I think that makes it stand out from other fps games. I don't know any other where there's the embarrassing chance a pro will be taken out by someone whose only just started playing.

PuGs are brutal sometimes; just when you think you've got a flamethrower and an Ubercharged medic behind you to take out a turret or two, he finds the advancing heavy and tickles him with the Uber you DESERVE. :(

Does the slow-down work on ubered enemies? It could be useful to just nail the medic while their moron pyro/demo runs too far ahead and winds up getting their uber broken. Combine it with a decent pyro using airblast and you should have a lot more luck breaking apart ubers in static control-point maps like dustbowl and gravelpit.

How do you guys feel about the new maps? I've been on vacation and haven't seen them yet.

Also, lol, worst achievement ever.

The arena maps are a lot of fun if you can get used to the idea of having to warm the bench occasionally. Valve really did make every class viable in Arena; I've seen MVPs in every class but Sniper, and it's hilariously effective to just drop a sentry in a hidden corner and wait. The game dynamic changes in so many interesting ways when people actually fear death.

I've only played a few rounds of Badwater, but so far I'd call it an improvement over Goldrush. Fewer obvious chokepoints, and a lot more ways to get behind enemy lines.

Steel is a disappointment. I've seen it hyped up massively over on SA (it's a goonmade map), and on playing it I realize it's because of the Serious Pro Player contingent over there. It's definitely a map for self-appointed "pros" and I don't think it will attract a lot of public notice in the long term. It's just excessively convoluted to the point that newcomers are literally left running in circles. It's a shame because the map is clearly assembled with a lot of skill and care, but it just reaches too far and is more-or-less a total quagmire unless your team is extremely disciplined. I do look forward to fishbus' next work, hopefully he can turn out something more accessible next time.

Woo, finally got the ubersaw.

I tried out Arena mode and it was pretty fun, though it was on a tiny server. I think I'd have a lot more fun in a 12v12 or something large like that.

Also, anyone else think the dude from the video on this page is the scout? Shamwow!

Funny you should mention that....

YouTube Video

Haha, can't believe I hadn't seen it since it's a Roomba video. I was nearly falling out of my chair laughing when I first saw that commercial on TV.

Any news on the next class update? Or I suppose Valve is concentrating on Left 4 Dead...

I read some rumours about it being spy, they usually base themselves on class usage though, lately demoman usage has gone down a bit from what I can see so maybe they go for that instead.

Oh please not demoman. I play mostly on dustbowl, so...:(

Spy/Scout are at the bottom of the playtime graph, and I'd consider the title of the most recent blog post as a pretty heavy Spy hint.

I would be highly surprised if Demoman wasn't the absolutely last class pack of them all.

Man, I had been having the hardest time ever getting that stupid 10000 health healed in one life achievement for the medic. I finally managed it tonight with a 20 minute life, 40+ assist (sadly, I didn't get credit for all of them since another medic with kritzkrieg would uber this one demo at the same time and we wound up splitting the assists), and got 18,700 health healed in one life. More than 10000 higher than my previous personal best! It was pretty rad since I was on blue while steamrolling red through the first two stages of dustbowl, then I got autoswitched to red and we managed to hold them off after the first capture point.

Still trying to get some easy achievement for the heavy so I can get the other minigun.

Edit: In other news, my mom told me the other day she was sending some Shamwows in a care package. Apparently they really work!

Well, it's confirmed, no more TF2 class updates until 2009 due to focusing on Left 4 dead.
No More Team Fortress 2 Updates Until 2009

Oh ho ho can AcerBandit be credit to team?

Lame. How many people does it take to make three new weapons, give it to a few people to beta test, and then release it. =\

Also, are you the reason I now can't seem to log onto steam, acer? >=(

Recently started playing TF2 again. It's definitely more fun when games are full of people you know.

Still can't stand those 24/7 2fort servers, though. How anyone can stand playing on them for more than a couple rounds is beyond me. Some people never even leave their base...

So with the new year coming up soon, we should expect to (hopefully) see some new patches. Has anyone heard anything of what could be happening in the next patch? Which class(es) will get achievements, any new maps, etc?

So far it's all about Left 4 Dead here and there. The TF2 team said that they'll get straight back to working on the updates for TF2, since they helped a bit with L4D.

Big-ass patch today, including huge huge changes:

* Teleports and dispensers now upgradeable to Lv. 2 & 3

* Spy cloaks now recharge from ammo packs and cabinets <- thank fucking god

* Goldrush 1 rebalanced to help break the defensive monopoly

* Bullets of any kind now "break apart" stickybombs (not sure what this means yet)

* Medic call icon now shows more information about the patient

* Bunch of sweet-ass particle effects

Also, the next class pack is the Scout, apparently.

Awesome. Awesome to the max.

Yes, these updates are really great. A welcome change seeing has how I've been neglecting this game for months. I hope to see you fuckers in the game more often now!

I play TF2 on occassion - Steam ID is The_Flowman

Add me and we'll play sometime.

Even though I'm not going to finish baking cookies until 3 AM, I'm still fucking playing this tonight.

Why were you baking cookies at 3am and not sharing some for the rest of us? :mad:


Also, the Engineer update is very nice, considering if you upgrade your Teleports to level 3, it charges up super fast, to the point where recharge is just about non-existant.

Finally something for engies to do besides griefing stragglers with their pistol. :D

And now camping teleporter exits will be ten times the fun!

I've only briefly tried the new updates so far, it's made the spy and engineer have quite a lot more flexibility then before, although I don't think strategy wise the engineer plays much different to before, he just has more to do once you have buildings set up.

My first thoughts was that the stickys would disappear instead of moving and that's pretty much exactly what the new update does, shooting a sticky destroys it. Seems kind of a strange bit of logic having a bullet able to destroy them and explosions just move them, but then again if explosions did it too then people would complain the demoman was underpowered now.

Hey guys, I decided to try playing TF2 again, so while its downloading and reinstallan to my HD, you can add me on steam: MrShinra

Is there a list of everyone's username = SteamID? Because I'm not sure who some of the people on there actually are.

well DN there is a list, dunno how updated but you can get a glimpse of a ton of people here, but yeah it could be missing some people about now. if you are going to play, depending on ping I might join, that's usually the problem for me, I don't have a good ping in most servers.

I'm usually some variant of "Indeed" on steam. I play TF2 like twenty hours a week, prefer to play with people I sort of know~

Ha. I've been wondering who this Indeed character was on my buddies list. Now that I know it's you, I'll probably be more apt to try to join up.

Has anyone played around with the new changes to the Heavy? I've been busy the past few days and haven't gotten to see what they're like yet.

Also, while browsing around the TF2 website, I hit this article on their blog that described info on the medigun that I had wondered about and never actually knew the mechanics behind: Team Fortress 2

Also, here's a changelist of what happened in the patch two days ago:

Valve's started their Class Update Teaser Page stuff again. First new weapon shown is the new Bat, the Sandman.

In before Uberedstunning is taken out.

Also been playing more TF2 lately. Now that I have a computer that doesn't lock up in areas with more than 3 players, I've started playing Scout and Heavy more. Unfortunately, nobody takes over the medic vacuum, so I almost always end up switching back within a few minutes due to being the only medic on the team.

Scout patch info 2 was announced today. Apparently one new arena map with lots of large open vertical spaces and a CP map along the lines of gravelpit. I'm looking forward to the latter.

I notice this time they didn't give the achivement icon files names that pretty much gave the achievement away.

Team Fortress 2 - The Scout Update

New shotgun for the scout. Double-barreled and very slow reload. Apparently it will also launch you in crazy ways if you use it while jumping, so get ready for lots of map-breaking excitement when combined with the sandman.

It looks like they're also not linking achievements into unlockables now (check the bottom of the page). Apparently it's going to be timed unlocks where everyone in the game gets them at the same time.

Also, new dustbowl-style map (yes!) announced yesterday in addition to an update to fastlane.

Team Fortress 2 - The Scout Update

The new voicework is solid fuckin' gold.

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

I think I'll wait a couple of weeks until entire servers stop being scout. I never fail to be opposite the team that actually wants to play the game.

Haha, best voice actor ever.

Also, apparently the voting was to determine which weapons would be attached to 10, 15, and 20 achievements. Totally want to play tonight and just build SGs, play as pyro with the attention getter, or heavy it up.

Finally got around to tf2 again, I thought the new scout weapons were unbalenced at first but the more you play the more it make sense.

The sandman is one of my new fave weapons, true the double jump loss trade off is a crippler but there's a good reason why they did it. You can mess up a good portion of an entire other team charge with a well placed ball whack, escape from bad class vs class situations with less chance of them chasing after you and on the flip side pretty much get free hits no matter how good at unreal tournament ballerina style dodging they are =P

I'm still undecided about the force of nature, other then it being a strictly close range only weapon, but the scouts new energy drink is like a mini no using guns ubercharge. For the engineers it's a knightmare to deal with, especially on maps like 2fort where they would be lucky to see a intel grabbing scout for 5 seconds. Their area denial tatics seems to be slowly becoming kinda broken, since they now have spys and scout rushes to worry about, but I can't wait to see how valve fixes the class balence in further updates.

I just hope they release the spy and engineer acheievements at the same time, that would easily be the funnyist thing to see since the acheivements started :tpg:

Sandman is game-breaking, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it get a nerf in the next update. Normally, it's just really (really) annoying, but whoever thought it would be a good idea to have the sandman stop ubers needs to be fired from life.

It essentially ruins the pyro, and medics have been reduced to window dressing. Aside from that, it's not as if the heavy really needed another counter. He's already got two in addition to his slow speed.

Also, what's the deal with all the crouch control? Was this ever really a problem? I have to wonder just what Valve's doing when they're introducing grenades disguised as baseballs and now all of this crap restricting movement when they specifically said they wouldn't do anything of the kind.

It kinda makes me long for a "pure" TF2 server, with no unlocks.

Latest patch adds support for multiple cores. It was already in there, but now it's not hidden behind esoteric console commands.

Has anyone else discovered this?

Gang Garrison

It's basically a simplified 8-bit style version of TF2. And it's free!

Also, for anyone that hasn't noticed.

Team Fortress 2 - The Sniper Update

There was a page showing a sniper piss jar as a 3rd weapon, but the page seems to have gone now, maybe the idea got canned because they thought some players would find it too offensive an idea for the theme of the game?

That was an April Fool's joke.

New game mode look pretty crazy, definitely gonna be the best on 32 person servers. The shield thing for the sniper is interesting, though the achievement that's ELECTROCUTE 300000 SPIES will be ridiculous.

Supposedly they're looking to detach achievements from the unlockables so it won't matter as much.

You might want to check that updates page again, no april fools joke this time it seems someone else is getting an update soon...

Either they'll open their eyes to sense and scrap the intensely silly notion of unlockable advantages in a bloody multiplayer game, or they'll tie them to something else entirely and I'll no longer be able to cheat my way to unlocking the new equipment (gods forbid).

It's pretty much the one element of terrible design in the entire game.

OHSHI. Spy + Sniper update at the same time is going to be hilariously bad. I wonder if one of these is going to replace the spy's electrozapper. The feign death is also a rad feature I was missing from TFC.

Meet The Spy leaked; can't guarantee the link will work for very long.

YouTube Video

2nd what Garr said, you would think they would have less ideas with all these fan videos around now, but apparently not.

While we wait for the spy/sniper update, I thought GFF would be interested to see some glitches with the sandman vs airblast. Personally I can barely read the subtitles on the embeded version, so you might want to view it on youtube.

YouTube Video

With the cooldown before you get a new baseball unless you go back to base being pretty long, I guess it never occured to valve to test these situations.

Jarate seems to not quite be an April Fool's joke. I'll be curious to see what the cool-down time is. Also, neat how you can't use it on yourself to put a fire out. Would also be an interesting tweak to make it so the damage boost also happened to your teammates when you use it on them to put a fire out.

Also, for anyone on here that doesn't already have TF2 and is reading this thread for unknown reasons, this weekend is free to play for anyone. Naturally they choose the worst time when everyone's going to be playing spy/sniper for shitty achievements, but it's still free!

I'm in the process of reinstalling Windows as I type.

Gonna do the usual thing of redownloading TF2, unlocking all the new shit, playing it for six hours and then shelving it for another few months. Woo! Bring on the demo/soldier/engie update.

If someone wants to play some TF2 on 360, hit me up.

If you need to ask what my XBLA username is, don't hit me up.

My brother bought the 360 version of the Orange Box for Portal, so I guess I could give console TF2 a go. How does it compare? I've heard it hasn't had a single content/balance update in eighteen months...

Feel free to add me on XBL. Username = fnool

In the process of getting acheivements as I speak, the bow and arrows pretty awesome especially getting headshots at close range legolas style, but I somehow managed to get 2 of them in my loadout!

I have a horrible feeling it's a glitch which has given me 2 of the same weapon instead of a new one every milestone that I'm going to have to report to valve :(

Edit: A newcomer friend of mine said he has 2 of the pyros flare guns, sounds like valve made another silly mistake in the updates...

Edit2: Stupid me it's a new random item finding system like something out of an rpg, bad idea valve imo

Nope - they've changed the system by which people acquire the new equipment. It's not tied to achievements anymore; now you just find them randomly. It's resulted in people occasionally having multiple instances of a single new weapon.

Or literally playing the game for hours on end without a single new item dropping for them.

The fact that this has to drop on the spy and sniper update burns my biscuits if only for the fact that spy is what I'm best at. I got 11 achievements in an actual server in around thirty minutes, and ten minutes after that I found out that it's random loot time in TF2.

While in theory it's not a bad idea to have random items given to you, (especially because it's free TF2 weekend and gives a lot of people a chance to experiment) the process itself is completely and utterly random. There is no trigger, there is nothing special you need to do. You can be in a server and see one person get every single item, and no one else gets one, or you can be in a server where no items drop for hours on end.

This has led many people to create 'farm' servers in which people set the map times for as long as possible, and everyone sits in spawn just waiting and going off to do other things.

A good decision would have been to tie items to points. For every 15 points you get, you get a new item. I haven't even seen headpieces drop.

Elaborating on what I said before, it reminds me of online rpgs where people camp the same boss monster for months. It has a chance of dropping some rare item, but then one day another guy kills the monster and gets the item first time, while you continue to grind to death.

It's a flawed and annoying system, it's not even as if they allowed players to trade doubles of items with their steam friends, frankly I'm amazed valve would do something so stupid.

Did you guys seriously love grinding non-intuitive achievements that much?

I played for about three hours last night; I got one drop. That's not a lot, but with the old system I'd need to get 12 achievements in 3 hours. If I wanted to do THAT I'd have to go to an achievement server, and I don't think anyone agrees that those goddamn monstrosities are good for the game.

I want the Huntsman because it looks like it might make Sniping actually kind of fun. I don't want to have to play Sniper incredibly poorly for 80 hours slowly grinding out achievements to get there. The chance to just randomly get the Huntsman while I play a class I am good at and enjoy is a godsend to me.

(and if you really think there's no reason the backpack lets you have duplicate items, you're not much of a creative thinker. Say it with me: personalized weapons.)

The drop I got, incidentally, was the Axtinguisher, which I already had. Oddly, I am not infuriated by this!

No achievement servers for me and I have all the unlocks for pyro, heavy, and medic (still haven't managed any for scout since I'm lame and only play on dustbowl). :(

Also, since nobody posted it, here's the changes they put in with the new game. I'm going to bold the ones I find most exciting/interesting.

So glad they turned off inputting sounds from .wav files. Now if only they'll do similar stuff for muting players and whatnot in L4D...

I'd love to see what exactly these silly gibs look like.

What are you talking about? I've had 4 bows and a 2nd scout drink so far, I can understand what you're saying about yet more rpg elements and everyone having a custom character, but it would help if you could actually choose which weapon slot the item was used in, for now the duplicates are pretty useless.

The real game breaker for me will be if they take even more inspiration from mmorpgs by adding multiple versions of the same weapon and one completly dwarfs the others in terms of how good it is, but hopefully that will never happen.

I never used any achievement servers, but I did auto-unlock all the equipment from previous updates with SAM. I'll be damned if I'm going to grind for that shit.

I find using enemy teles interesting in theory, but how often will you get to do it? At best this is a good way to quickly locate their tele EXITS so as to camp them, stabbity stab stab

Blutsauger > Needlegun

Oops, game broken, oh no, go home, cry

Meanwhile, on the TF2 blog, they confirm:

- Item trading. This is why you're finding duplicates.

Apparently I'm not explaining well enough, I was talking about if they decided to make different versions of the same weapon i.e. a level 10 Blutsauger for example instead of a level 5 that does something like +10 health per hit. It's one thing making the weapons unlockable based on luck, but a rarity thing like that would be going too far imo.

edit: Well by some kind of good luck I got all the weapons today, and I've seen players with the medic, engie, scout and pyro hats. Although it has to be said valves attempts to remove the need for achievement servers has only created overnight afk servers instead:

YouTube Video

I'll admit I didn't like this system at first, but as long as they don't do things like versions of the blutsauger from levels 1 to 10 I no longer have complaints with it.

Well they finally fixed the Ambassador after a day of it being completely unusable.

It does 100 damage a headshot now instead of a measly 45 damage (which I'm to understand a regular revolver shot did more damage than that). Only problem is, I think they lowered the accuracy of the gun, unless a pyro's head is just litterally impossibly to hit.

Speaking of which, I'm really on ends about how they gave a sniper a few added strengths against spies, whereas spies did not receive one decent item to help combat pyros. You could argue that the Dead Ringer is suppose to deter pyros from constantly flaming you, but what pyro in this game stops flaming after someone dies? It's just a minor complaint from my end, because I love the spy class so much. I know there has to be anti-classes, but I would have given up the ambassador for some flame resistant oil or something to that extent.

Other than that the update hasn't been too awfully bad, but I think that's because I've gotten lucky and got a few good drops after about a day's worth of game time.

I'm kinda meh about all spy unlocks, but spy really isn't my class of choice anyway. I got the propeller beanie for the pyro though, which is awesome.

With the Dead Ringer / Ambassador combined Spies got a massive boost and if not for their inherent weaknesses to paranoiacs setting everything on fire they might be too powerful (well, as powerful as Spies can be with FF turned off).

I'm routinely getting 8-stab-lives with this shit as it is, god knows how long I could just keep running around if ma petit chaud-fleur wasn't igniting random empty corners.

As far as snipers getting bonuses against spies, it doesn't matter too much. The new class of aggro rushing bow snipers just plug arrows into everyone they see regardless of class, and rifle devotees will continue to be a smorgasbord of exposed spines just as they always have been. The offset is that by rushing bow snipers make themselves much more vulnerable to enemies that haven't traditionally been able to bother them (like heavies).

Most chatter I've seen has been pretty negative about the Razorback anyway. Your typical autistic 2fort battlements sniper hates it because it does not entirely negate the need to occasionally put the scope down, and so they consider it useless.

Cloack and Dagger is a definate improvement, Ambassador is ok but it puzzles me why it's the only weapon in the game that can't damage engie buildings, but I'm still getting to grips with the dead ringer.

Unless their engineers are alone and/or the team is incredibly newbish it seems to have more negatives then positives. It encourages you to play spy badly since you have almost no cloack so you try to use fake death more, it gives lots of sound related clues to the other team that you're using one, and also because it does what I thought was impossible, make the other team even more paranoid about spies then they were already.

I'm liking some of the little details they added. If you look carefully the sniper now has a scar on his left cheek from the cut he got in Meet the Spy. The fact that backstabbing a sniper now results in him reaching for the knife in his back before collapsing is cool too. It's just like the animation shown way back in the class introduction teaser video.

Of course there are some not-so-great changes too. The scout's new noodle-leg doublejump animation is particularly lolworthy.

I managed to get the huntsman the other day, Pang. It's okay, but I don't know if anything can make sniping fun. It is a lot better for the mid range sniper because of how fast you can move and charge up using it, though.

I actually never minded the achievement unlocks because I tended to branch out and play a lot of different classes anyways, so it was just a matter of putting my mind to it in order to get the item I figured I'd need. Plus there was the actual sense of achievement when I got it all done.

Unlocks aside, I hear the second hats are set up for the next update. Highlights include a Russian snow hat for the heavy, and a chef's hat for the pyro.

Scout's legs have always been wacky as hell because of the way the double jump works. I've taken plenty of killcam shots of the scout kicking his own groin, or breaking his spine. Silly scout.

Well that takes care of the Ambassador gripe I had. Weird that valve decides to change the system again now, I somehow managed to get nearly all the hats from a unknown glitch during the week which gave me about 30 items in the space of a few minutes. I doubt that has anything to do with it, but it does mean achievement servers will be back in full force methinks =P

so i am guessing that there's no dedicated server and scheduled playtime (ie days-of-week + time) for GFF? ;)

how do you guys meet?

So notes on the new patch!

Hm. I wonder if that goes the same for the FAN and the leafblower. If so, that changes spychecking quite a bit.

You forgot to quote 1 other thing, the sandman no longer stuns uber charges. Now those serious buissness elitist tourny fags can rejoice and unban the weapon on their servers! Not that it's even that useful any more =P

Yeah, I was pretty surprised they did that one. I'm pretty disappointed by their removal of methods for spy checking. Whenever I was wary I could always hit someone with my blautsauger to see if I got some health. I wonder if they made it so stabbing a spy with your ubersaw doesn't give you ubercharge?

Yep, they made it that way as well, and from the way it sounds a LOT of medics are now pissed that they can't charge their ubers off the ridiculously easy bait that are disguised spies.

I play the spy class a lot, I love it, and in reality I couldn't care less if the ubersaw charged or not on hit, but its when medics cry that "they can't get uber charge off of 'bad spies'", that just irks the shit out of me.

Bad spies, by their definition, are spies that get killed in TF2.

I agree with it to be honest, but I don't agree with all that good spy/bad spy talk, even the best spies get busted by people just randomly attacking everything in the game. There is ammo almost anywhere so you can randomly shoot any corner, attack anyone on sight, besides detecting any spy is easy enough, so I never understood that whole point of "great" spies that never get killed or seen. to be honest if you never run into anyone you are probably not doing anything, I can also cloak all day in my spawn and not die, doubt it makes me good.

I think there are enough methods to catch spies currently, I think the spy is a very difficult class to handle, balance wise, since they want to make infiltration difficult, but not completely impossible.

I'm with snorlax on that, especially on increased max player servers. Less skilled bored players on those kind of matches have a tendancy to switch to pyro, which then results in about 3+ pyros per team and nasty random pyro spam, making the spy suddenly almost useless on some maps because of totally defended map chokepoints.

Going back to the topic of unlockables I've tested an idle program in an attempt to reclaim some hats that were given to me from a glitch on steams end. It also logs all the other users using the program per minute with their rewards and the figures are actually quite scary.

With often over 8000 users using the program I've never once seen the hat rewards go higher then 3 people per minute (normally less then that) in rpg terms that has to be something like less then a 1% chance of getting a hat! I know the hats have no effect on gameplay, but if taking a page from an mmorpgs book of timewasting item finding like this is a sign of things to come, then I can see a lot of players being pissed off in the future.

So recently people who didn't use idler type program got a fancy halo.

Team Fortress 2 Honesty Will Be Rewarded (With Halos!) - Team Fortress 2 - Kotaku

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/image...x_tf2_halo.jpg

Slightly old news by now, but this thread hasn't been updated in a while, and I've started playing it again, so there you go. I can confirm the halos are in-game, as I got them soon after starting up.

I love how most people who didn't receive one are being douches about it and most people who did are likewise bickering and boasting.

I didn't get one and I don't give a fuck. My only issue with the whole debacle is the amount of childish shit that it's left in its wake.

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

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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
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YouTube Video
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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
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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

The jingle sound is the best thing ever, if I had a dollar for every hit I've had that doesn't register on the opponent from lag or whatever I would be rich, at least now I know when I'm missing before I'm a corpse on the floor.

Going back briefly to the random unlocks, but I played seriously for the first time in a while yesterday and I unlocked about 5 items (2 of which were soldier boots and 1 hat if you're interested), I tried the same thing today thinking I might be having a lucky streak but nothing so far, makes me wonder if the rumour about more hours playing in last week = lower chance is true or not.

Not sure how many people here still play TF2, but if you don't keep up with it, you might want to hear this. (As long as you play the PC version, that is).

Just released today:
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/5...nomyupdate.jpg
Click on the image for full details. Or if you just want the gist of it:

• 17 new community created items for 5 classes.
• Online store. Functional items can still always be attained for free through crafting/drops, but a handful of cosmetic items can only be purchased.
• You can now trade/gift items with other players (unless you bought it through the store).
• Dueling mini-game, whatever that means.

Naturally there's a lot of nerd rage over microtransactions, but like usual it's just a lot of hot air over something that's not a big deal.

The one thing I'm a bit disappointed about was the supposed inclusion of a 6th class, which didn't happen. And I was hoping it would be medic, since it's been a hella long time since he's gotten anything.

Starman the medic does have a new bonesaw, but currently valve isn't allowing people to buy it. Near the bottom item list when in doubt I always check here after game updates.

The spys new items as a set are a really fun new way to play spy. Granted the pistol does less damage and you can no longer disguise at will, but the trade off is silent fast backstab kills (disguising as the last person you killed) and silent cloacking which is especially useful teamed with dead ringer. I never thought the kit would be that useful but I was wrong, it just shows how much people rely on the decloacking sound and being stabbed noises to identify nearby spys, all I can say is inbefore valve nerfs it.

Yeah, I just noticed the Vita-saw today, but it's pretty underwhelming.

And yeah the new spy stuff is fun, but I don't know if I'd go as far as overpowered. If anything, it's the Dead Ringer that's been broken this entire time, and combining it with the Polycount stuff just makes it even better.

After a few days of the update being out, the one thing I really don't like are the crates. It'd be nice if they didn't apparently have a 90% chance of getting a Scottish Resistance. Yeah, you can choose to trade them away, but if that's the only particularly smart choice you've got, then they're they're not going to be a valid trade item for very long.

Clearly I've been doing it wrong I could never get my head around the dead ringer on account of that loud as hell decloack noise, still at least I have this option for when I'm feeling lazy.