/cog/ - Traditional & Video Gaming

>Valve doing anything for Halloween besides releasing a map that will only ever be played for two weeks then forgotten about and a ton of holiday restricted cosmetics
>Redeem itself
Not a chance in hell

Halloween is still the best time of the year to play TF2 though.

I still think they should make a "Boss" mode based off of the bread monster. Kind of like MvM, but just one giant boss that will mutate as it takes damage vs 9 players.

Merasmus is still around, he can magic it into something even larger than we saw in the short.

>>190532
It's a safe bet that one or the other is this years ScreamFortress boss monster.
Hopefully they release none holiday restricted cosmetics and some non-reskinned weapons.

Why can I murder people with a candy cane as I run around in elf booties, but not mow people down with a coffin minigun?

>>190533
>Why can I murder people with a candy cane as I run around in elf booties, but not mow people down with a coffin minigun?
Their explanation in the past is that the Halloween items fuck with the silhouette. Except that most do it no more than regular hats; some are overly large, but applying the restriction wholesale just reeks of laziness, especially since there are many cool items.

Another possibility is that, compared to regular cosmetics, Halloween cosmetics practically rain like candy what with presents in stages, so the restriction seems to include a limit to exclude them from crafting. While it would be nice to craft them into new hats, it would also really mess with the TF2 economy.

Solution: Release fewer hats and add weapons to the roulette of gifts. Alternatively, place craft parts into the roulette that when combinations are mixed, results in a non-restrictive hat.

As for silhouettes... much like the color palette; they really don't give a fuck any more. Hell, look at the Medics priest robes. As for guns i's not modeling that's a problem (community has that in spades), and they certainly have more than an ample amount of effect concepts; yet I doubt we'll ever get one.

Maybe if we're lucky though; we'll get a HHH stragifyer.

Saxxy Nominees are up: http://www.sourcefilmmaker.com/saxxyawards2014/

>>190548
Is it supposed to be a ref to TFC or eyecandy to all the Heavy fangirls/fanboys, or part of a themed set or what?

>>190589
You could answer all that by looking on the wiki.

https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Heavy_Lifter

Update time.

>When you mute a player, the mute settings now apply to text chat as well as voice chat. If you want the previous behavior, change convar cl_mute_all_comms to 0.
Yup, I bet they did this for the guys spamming binds. I'm glad it exists.

>Fixed a bug where reflected rocket explosions from non-stock flamethrowers would cause the flame sound to loop
Oh thank god, that was annoying.

>tf_teamtalk is now on by default - the dead can talk to the living
WHAT? Why would you do that? That's a horrible, unbalanced idea. It makes me not want to play Spy anymore.

>Added "Enable/Disable Auto TeamBalance" votes
This doesn't seem like a good idea either. Seems really abusable.

I agree with all the winners for this years Saxxys. Good show all around.

>>190604
>This doesn't seem like a good idea either. Seems really abusable.
It could be useful when people are just fucking around (like making towers) and balance might fuck with plans.
>Use sv_vote_issue_autobalance_allowed to control if this vote is enabled on the server
If the default is off, I don't see the problem; if it's on, it could be abused until server admins get smart

>>190604
>>tf_teamtalk is now on by default - the dead can talk to the living
>WHAT? Why would you do that? That's a horrible, unbalanced idea. It makes me not want to play Spy anymore.

Looks like one of those "people can already do this via workarounds [external voicechat in this case], now it's default so everyone can do it" patches. See also: pistol firing rate.

But yes, the Spy really doesn't need more general nerfs.

Damn it, didn't had the chance to vote for this year's Saxxys.
Oh well.

>>190607
Agreed, even if I don't share your pessimism about the current affairs of the game.

>>190609

Valve hasn't done much to not take that attitude, though.

Edit: If you just/also said that because of the post's title, that was a residue from the last thread. My bad.

Yeah, for those who didn't notice, Issue #4 is out. http://www.teamfortress.com/tf04_blood_in_the_wate

Fair warning, this one is super long.

>>190625
Unf indeed. And I wouldn't be surprised if this was originally going to be two issues but they combined it in one for better flow and to make up for the wait.

Also, I wonder if they have any plans to put these to print. The format they're doing them isn't your standard page size, and the partial-show method makes for an intriguing way to set up reveals. Page turns might add to that, but it will still lose something (especially when a click would modify images already on the screen.)

Am I the only one who has a really dumb worry that they're making Medic evil so they can kill him off and replace him with a cheaper or less busy VA? Doesn't seem like Valve to be stingy or fussy about scheduling for VAs, but he stands out as being a triple-A lister in a sea of locals or the like, though he was still a relatively minor VA when he was first cast.

>>190629
That's stupid. You're stupid.

>>190627
Well, they have released Dead Tree Editions of some of the older comics...

Oh wow, this issue was great.

>>190637
I'm sorry but

>mun-dee

My sides were in orbit at that point.

Also, Valve should get the voice actors together and record audio versions of these.

Also, Zhanna for 10th class. Or at least a Soldier/Heavy reskin.

>>190634
They have, but that was before they had this new interactive version. The old comics were plain comic pages on the screen, this is something between a comic and an interactive novel

>>190637
>new zealand thing,
New Zealand is Anti-Knuckles Sunken Island.

I totally called that twist on Sniper's origin story when he mentioned that it was like he fell out of the sky.

>>190641
Wait what? When was this?

>>190637
Did Zhanna always have hair that weird?

>>190647
That whole bit of banter as they left the house. Those two were made for each other. Hope he survives

>>190648
I'm more worried about Soldiers fiance.

>>190655
She's fine, Else TFC is dead already. Heavy will Self Uber and its all going to be over.

Now that would be an item. You get a Uber buff but no health effects.

>>190625
>despair, but also an erection

I like how in the Workshop there are already some amazing Halloween and space items.
I also find it funny that it seems like people have given up (for the most part) on making new weapons since they know Valve will probably only ever add cosmetics from now until doomsday.

>>190687
Or if the weapon is added it will be as a skin and no one will care about it.

>>190688
Pretty much, ya. They seem to have been going off of minimal effort, maximum gain for quite a while and I'm curious to know (since they're probably making a lot less money from TF2 these days) how long they'll even bother to keep things up or when and if there will be another decent sized update that'll give us a new weapon or two.

And even then, why bother with using Halloween themed weapons when they can just pull someone elses model off? (yes I'm still bitter about festive weapons and the like)

On the other hand, there's a relatively neat Spycicle reskin on the Workshop that would turn them into a skeleton rather than freeze them. I'd love to see Valve add that, only when the players die, they turn into an AI skeleton like you could make with spell books a while back. I also feel that the current comic is either leading to TF3 or a drastic revamp... or maybe just space or something since I don't think they've done that moon thing yet.

>>190700
The comic does seem to be leading to something, but what is up in the air at the moment>>190700

>moon thing
?

>>190700
>since I don't think they've done that moon thing yet.

rd_asteroid

>>190703
I'm betting they're dragging out the comic as long as possible because when the comic ends, TF2 ends. They went from bimonthly, to trimonthly, to biannual. At this rate the final chapter will be out in 2016, or possibly 2017, ending it on TF2's 10th anniversary.

>>190704
>They went from bimonthly, to trimonthly, to biannual.
That's just Valve Time, dude. Par for the course.

Doesn't mean your idea is wrong, just that the delay should have been expected as soon as they announced any kind of concrete timeframe. However, they won't just end TF2; they'd have TF3 to replace it with. Even if TF2 income is down (I have no idea if it is), it's still good income for cosmetics created by other people.

Also, reminder that Valve acknowledges Valve Time: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time

>>190706
That's okay. They'll happily take your money when you buy an Australium weapon on the Market, too.

If you play Mann Up just for the loot you're doing it wrong.

When you reach the point where you keep playing despite not having fun just because there might be some shiny trinket at the end you need to STOP PLAYING.

Co-op with players who are actually trying instead of having to deal with bootcamp derps is fun. Grinding for loot isn't.

>>190711
Fucking this.

>>190711

Except you got it backwards, because mann up is all about the loot you get in the end, that's pretty much it. If you only want to play for fun, the boot camp is right there, I don't see why would you need to get tickets to play the same maps at the same difficulty.

Oh, but you mean playing on mann up because you can find players that are actually trying?
Well, riddle me this: why do you think you can find almost all of these kind of players on mann up and not on boot camp?
Because they want to win to get loot.

>>190733
>mann up is all about the loot you get in the end, that's pretty much it.
I heavily disagree. Sure, there's good loot to be had, and since you're paying money it becomes more important, but the few Mann Ups I've done I did for the challenge with Steam friends and they were good times. (I only have one tour.) Sure, an Australium weapon would have been nice, but the only thing it would grant me is bragging rights, and I enjoyed those even without a sweet drop.

>>190736

>I did for the challenge
You mean like earning the badge? I will take you on that, there is no other way to get it.

Otherwise, if you already have a group of people and just want to play mvm for the sake of it, the answer will be the same: boot camp. Hell, you can even try Gear Grinder if you want a true mvm challenge, and it's free.

If someone only just wants to mess around, and does it on mann up with experienced people (that happens to be the ones trying to get stuff out of it), expect to be votekicked soon.

So is there an over/under on how long Valve will let this slow motion bullshit bug go on? It's not that bad for characters, but when it affects the doors opening so you can't see what's on the other side, especially if the game hasn't loaded the models for that side, it can seriously fuck your team.

>>190769
They made a change recently about how they loaded weapon models, in order to cut down on memory use. It probably has to do with that.

We are about to be two weeks from Halloween and there has not been a peep on this years ScreamFortress.
I am anticipating a rather large ball being dropped, but then again they've pulled this shit for what, the past three years?

>>190781

One thing is for sure: I would rather NOT have a halloween special than a fuckton of restricted cosmetics clogging up the game (Backpack and memory wise).

>>190782
I sadly have to agree, but you know that's exactly what we'll get
A boss battle and a slightly Ruskined map that will only ever be played for a week or two and a shitload of restricted cosmetics on top of it.

The best think about TF2 died with last years event.

>>190784
It's a sobering realization isn't it?
I hope and hope for a big old update that adds some stuff for each class and rejuvenated my love for the game, but it never comes.
It's almost a decade old. It's started sailing towards the undying lands.

>most of the top rated items of all time on the workshop are weapons
>a lot of them in the first 10 pages are Halloween themes
>very few workshop submissions this year since everyone knows it's not worth the time

Why even bother showing us the option to look at the most popular/requested items if you never pull anything from there?

>Valve should add more weapons!!!

Why do people keep ignoring the fact that Valve can't even be bothered to balance all the unlocks that already exist? I'm not even talking about nerfs here, there are tons of weapons that are just not worth using outside of contrived edge cases (and this includes a few stock weapons too).

Do people really want Valve to add another load of garbage along with two or three unneeded upgrades (of which only one will ever be nerfed (after a year or so)) to the game instead of actually improving the game?

The weapon rebalancing update from last year's summer is what I want to see more of, not another update consisting of one upgrade for another unlock, one not-efficient-but-fun gimmick and three trash weapons.

Valve doesn't know how to balance. We have known this for almost a decade.
Have of the shit in TF2 is garbage and will always remain garbage because they just don't godamn care.
Adding a few new things in would at least potentially make for some interesting combos and interactions which is a very untapped niche right now since everyone just uses brute force more or less.

>>190800
>Adding a few new things in would at least potentially make for some interesting combos and interactions

There's also an equal chance that innovative weapons would break the game, possibly for months thanks to incompetence on both the devs' and the players' sides.

I'd rather not have TF2 rendered unplayable because they gave the Engineer a way to make his sentries invincible or the Soldier the ability to deal full rocket damage at any distance (those are the sort of "innovative" ideas that this game's community tends to come up with).

>>190802
Or the spy a watch that makes him near-invincible, fully recharges with an ammo pack, and does not flicker. Or split a pick-axe that gave increased speed and damage with low health and blocks healing into two that only do one or the other, still blocks healing, and, for the speed one, makes you take mini crits.

The community has a lot of bad ideas, but to be fair Valve has already put their own into the game before. That first one at least got remedied, though the second was a "remedy".

>>190802
>>190806
it's almost like... almost like players don't stat the weapons and every unbalanced one and fuckup is a result of Valve having no clue how balance works.

>>190808

>players don't stat the weapons

And God forbbid that day happens.

New update:
http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=14678

They fixed the Rancho Relaxo taunt, but on mention of fixing the animation of doors (which also includes the area beyond unloading sooner than the door completely closing) or slow animations for headshots and backstabs.

>>190827
Sadly, that is a perfectly understandable response. For every genuine mistake there are several actual ripoff attempts. The TF2 economy is a shark pool. I've had people try to lowball me even when I set a below bp.tf price for my item and I've had enough dumbasses try to guilt-trip, threaten or "GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO" me over low-value stuff.

>>190832

Except it"s not.
Instead of just doing things like fixing the trade by making a counter offer or just cancelling the trade, of all things, write a wall of text of how much you feel disgusted without even knowing what was behind that.. The guy should have known better since he saw my backpack, dosh isn't something that i don't have.

>>190833

Also, since I got blocked before even knowing what was the problem, I couldn't even ezplain or fix the trade, which I'm pretty sure it's unreasonable.

>2014
>being shocked that the TF2 community, specifically traders are anything other than rage filled man children who lack even the most basic social graces to understand the concept of negotiating or clear thought
Come on now guys

>>190833
I'm not saying it's right (especially when it's this easy to double-check), but the things I described do happen a lot.

>The guy should have known better since he saw my backpack, dosh isn't something that i don't have.

"Only poor people can be evil" is a retarded fallacy. "TF2 rich" people being obnoxious penny-pinchers and sharks is common (that's how many of them got there).

>>190849
At least that way you can never be disappointed in people, only surprised.

>>190849
When you're participating in TF2's trading side-game it's not too far off from reality. Ripoff attempts are very common and both the peddler with only a few craft hats and the magnate with ten unusuals will do it.

http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=14723

The old ScreamFortress maps are now live and available which is neat, because I actually sort of liked last years and HHH is always top tier. Time to "practice" while they fish for more restricted cosmetics to proof and shove in for the inevitably super late update this year.

I'm kind of hoping for another payload race map with a trick-or-treat theme and a set of like 9 weapons that randomly cycle through effects, good and bad, that you can open by crafting candy piles or something. The effects would swap out on respawn. Further pushing the trick-or-treat theme.

Oh and of course everything is holiday restricted as usual.

http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=14798
>When gift drops were introduced way back in 2011's Scream Fortress update, they were intended to be a small value-add — a simple bonus for all players participating in the update.
>While some farming accounts claimed more than five hundred gifts just last year, the median numbers of gifts claimed was only five.
> In line with our original goals of giving all participating players some free Halloween content without affecting the core experience, this year we'll be giving every player one guaranteed gift bundle just for logging in during the event. This bundle will contain a random sample of some of this year's content, including some that would otherwise only have come from crates. To keep some of the fun of getting multiple gifts through the event, all players can earn a secondary bundle by completing some of the event achievements.
tl;dr: I hope you didn't like gift farming

Article doesn't mention if this affects gifts on existing Halloween maps or not, but considering the "get a bundle just from logging in" thing, I'd say yes.

>we look forward to seeing you all get your hands on some of it in just a few days.
Scream Fortress confirmed for Thanksgiving.

I didn't even know gift farming was a thing. I did know that gift briefing was though and they won't do anything about that. Boy do I love having to switch to spy or scout in order to try and find the thing only to be shitbasted by camping engines, pyros, and snipers then have the gift reset and have to wait another hour plus for the same thing to happen again.
This would be a bigger problem if any of the gift items were actually other than backpack slot wasters however.

http://www.teamfortress.com/bloodmoney/#

Tonight's the night...

Ehhhh we had Merasmus and curses and spells last year. I'm interested to see how the bumper cars thing works, I guess...

>>191052
Like hot garbage.
Last year was fun. This year and mirasmus's first one have been the worst by far and I say that liking the character quite a lot.

Update is now live, though the update page hasn't been, uh, updated to have full details. So there's that.

http://www.teamfortress.com/screamfortress6/

>DEM BUMPER CARS
FUCK YES SCREAM FORTRESS

Terrible update.
Bumper cars control like trash and rather than being a reward at the end of the match like you'd expect, they are a punishment. Especially soccer which I had the 'pleasure' of being in one of those matches that lasted for well over 20 minutes.
The new cosmetics only seem to drop when you complete the achievements they added this year, and in addition to being holiday restricted, they cannot be traded. Good job Valve.

I don't know if it's me, but I played for over 5 hours today and only got 1 random drop and 3 gift drops. I have not played in over a month. How the fuck am I supposed to get metal or drops for the weapons I missed last update?

The Bumper cars could be fun, but as >>191070 says they control for shit. I don't expect to turn on a dime, but if I press left I shouldn't turn left a second later. Soccer can drag on since people that fly off can revive and the ball flies fucking high so you're just as likely to score for the opposite team as your own.

All the new spells are relegated to Bumper Cars, it seems. I like the theme for Doomsday, but Doomsday as a map is liked even less than Hightower so it turned a lot of people off instantly. Plus, fucking minis everywhere that wouldn't get destroyed/disabled if we get sucked into dancing, especially for melee only. One guy on our team put up a Lvl3 on the ledge by the capture platform, everyone got taken to do the Thriller, and while it was happening the sentry killed 3/4 of the other team.

Outside of the Bumper Cars, this just seems like a compilation map. Merasmus, "wheel" effects, spells, kritz pumpkins, even Zephania's Ghost. If the Bumper Car game is survival, with the platforms that drop, and both teams survive until one platform remains, then the Horseless Headless Horseman will show up to attack. Monoculus shows up as a spell, but I wouldn't be surprised if he showed up in some other way.

>>191070
>The new cosmetics only seem to drop when you complete the achievements they added this year
Valve already talked about this. You get a cauldron when you sign on and another for *one* achievement. That is, apparently, it.

There's also a new melee weapon if you get at least 4 achievements.

>>191077
>>191072
http://www.trade.tf/items/updates

>>191077
It is a wooden hammer with a mechanical arm on it, like the cartoon mallet in the new map. Not Halloweeny in the least.

So because valve 2014 servers with the new map on are impossible to find, I went ahead and played on a different random server I picked out of the 4 that we're running and had more than 11 players.
Nothing but mini sentries and try hard demomen. And since it was one of those shitty diner servers, the red team was just filled with bullshit like getting dominations with only two kills and KOing bumper cars when they're at 10%
That's when I remembered why I quit TF2

>doomsday

Worst event map so far.

MINISENTRIES EVERYWHERE

Fun fact: if Merasmus casts flood during the end of the round and the minigame is the elimination one, it won't end unless one team willingly dies or the team are scrambled.

So, QUALITY is an anime meme we may need to start applying to Valve. I farmed all of the achievements so I could be done with the map, and after six hours on it (only playing about half that time) I have to say it is not just the worst Scream Fortress, but the worst map period. The level of bugs that went unchecked were higher than ever, the bumper cars always go on for far too long, and not doing anything about sentries during curse casting just fucks people over.

Map idea: pl_burnward

Two-part PL map where you are trying to escort a burn victim to the emergency room. First part has three points, outside, as you escort the ambulance to the hospital. Second part takes place inside, two points, where you escort the gurney to the emergency room (which will be one of those giant observation rooms).

If BLU stays on the cart for more than a minute during the second part, the speakers will start playing lines that rip on RED team, each ending with "SICK BURN", every few seconds until the cart stops.
The map will end with the patient dying unless BLU captures a hard-to-get CP elsewhere inside the hospital

Tomb Raider cross promotion contest:
http://www.teamfortress.com/tombraidercontest/

The TF2 team continues to want the community to do their work for them. Think you might get a newt weapon? HA. Enjoy more cosmetic trash.

>Saved up and bought a Sniper and Demo voice last week
>Let them sit while I think about what to add them to
>Remember it ends on the 12th
>log in
>Items gone
>It ends on the night of the 11th rather than the usual rollover time of the next day
No. It's fine Valve. I wasn't going to use that metal for anything else. Sure you can go ahead and go back to giving me one weapon every hour and a half of play or so. Maybe I'll eventually have enough scrap to make the reclaimed by next year.

Fuck you.

>>191453
People can make a more legit Mario Cart type game now.

If the cart maps take off in popularity, I can seem them making Team Bumpers. The class-based gameplay of TF2, where the modes are combined with pseudo-demolition derby or racing. Then not only can they do hats, they can do cart customizations. Scout gets a tricycle

CTF: there's already a skating rink map where you auto-move around a track and your team has to carry the other team's intel through so many laps to win. This could easily be changed around carts.
PL/R: Use the carts to pull a trailer. Could even make it off rails to some extent.
CP: controlling gas stations
TC: Fuck TC
KOTH/Arena: Basically the same.
MvM: Your team has to follow the giant tanker carrying the robots and destroy it before it reaches its destination.

Most classes would remain more or less the same. The only ones that I think would really have to change are Medic and Engineer. Medic would act the same, but repairing carts instead of healing players, perhaps bring in the shield from MvM. Because the maps would be about constant movement, a stationary sentry gun isn't too useful, so the Engineer's role would change drastically. Turrets would be little RC carts with guns that seek out the enemy. Instead of a dispenser, he might be able to "upgrade" teammates' carts to refill ammo/health or carry more of the same. Teleporters wouldn't be useful, but perhaps a sling-shot device where the target gets a huge boost of speed or could be tossed around the map (so it can also be used against the enemy.)

FYI, if you get a message in Steam like "You will exchange this thing? screen-shot .com/screenshot_XXXX.png", it's a virus. A special one, too, as it will try to steal all of your tradeable items. So if you get that message, don't click it and let the sender know ASAP that they have a virus.

I don't think it's an account hacking; rather, I think it uses the active steam.exe process to set up a Trade Offer and send out messages. Just a theory, though, as I won't try running it myself. the virus may well try to hack the account to gain control of it, but at least up front it's using the running program.

>>191494

Except this can easily be avoided by not running said file.
Or by looking at the link.
Or not adding anyone with low stats/private profile.

That being said, some people will just fall on that, kinda like the posts with hidden scripts on pictures along with simple instructions getting spammed on 4chan years ago, people would just keep doing that no matter how old and blatant the worm was. Idiots will be idiots.

There is, though, one very effective way for a thief to do this, and it's not in our hands to avoid it; if you know the user pink taco, you already know what I'm talking about.

>>191499
Great, advice, except...

>Except this can easily be avoided by not running said file.
The link probably tries to use browser exploits to run the file without user interaction, hoping they don't keep their shit up to date so it doesn't prompt them to download anything. I have Adblock+NoScript set up, plus have my browser up to date, so I got prompted when I stupidly clicked the link. I'd hate to think what would happen if I opened it in IE6. Microsoft revealed a huge hole last week in Windows that just requires a TLS request to a listening port; I've read some things that say it could be done through a web page. It's the equivalent of a guy getting into your house just because they knock on your door once. While there's an update to fix it, it doesn't fix it on WinXP and people don't always update their stuff in a timely manner.

>Or by looking at the link.
The link itself appears to be extremely innocent, ending in a common image format (.png); I certainly thought it was just a regular image, and the only difference between the link sent and what you see in your browser is the / at the end in the browser. It wasn't until clicking that I learned it was a folder name; the idea of this had never occurred to me before. Since I deal with sites and programming as my job, I doubt this would occur to a regular user, either.

>Or not adding anyone with low stats/private profile.
I got the message from two people who had been on my friend's list for some time, one for two years year. They had downloaded and run the file themselves. (I think someone in the common group all three of us are part of got the virus, then passed it along to more in the group, etc.)

>>191564
Same thing with every update. Disappointment.

>>191570
Yeah. Considering the trailer, the full short itself could be pretty great. I've played a beta version of the map they made and think it had a lot of potential but also some balancing issues (partially due to spawn locations and easily getting lost). I don't expect anything great from the required cosmetic items or weapon skins. If we even get a single new weapon I will be surprised.

http://www.teamfortress.com/endoftheline/

Welp.

>>192014
Honestly, the trailer was more entertaining than the full short. For a fan-made thing, it's pretty good, especially for clocking at 14 minutes. They should have used more voice lines, though; I think the only time someone speaks is when the Heavy goes "Ha!" during chess. The medic yells while ubering during the trailer, but not the final.

Also I thought they were making a payload-like map, so I'm disappointed that it hasn't been released with the update.

Good short, but it could be better.
And it could benefit of some voice acting.

Also, only one melee weapon? And this is gonna be this year's Smissmass? Goddammit DOTA 2!

>>192016
Supposedly the creators said that this and Smissmass are different events, so here's hoping.

>>192017
But The EotL event is gonna last until jan. 5, how's that's gonna be possible?

>>192018
I think that's just the duck thing. Which has no purpose except trying to collect more ducks than your friends, so far as I can tell. Smissmass and ducks can co-exist, maybe.

>>192022

Everything about TF2 these days is a cash grab.

>>192023
True, but they don't usually feel this blatant.

Man it seems like something happened during the last 'ween update or something. I can't get a stable connection anymore. My ping just seesaws wildly from one point to the next and I just get kicked.

>>192023
That can apply to almost anything Valve releases lately.

>>192031

Except Dota 2, because Dota 2.

//youtube.com/watch?v=6UiftzQ45QE
Shibby seems upset!

>>192041
What? No, why?
DOTA 2 is one of the biggest cashgrab of Valve so far.
They even have their own crates.

>>192069

Oh sorry, I thought you were quoting >>192026 there. Must be the collateral effects from staying up all night.

>>192071
Oh, don't worry. Been there as well.

//youtube.com/watch?v=NnMOKCGYw-U
People get lost on Steel?
Also, so mad, huh?

>>192312
I played an early version of snowplow one night. The layout was very confusing, even for a veteran player like myself. This could have improved greatly since the version I played (this was August or so?), but if the layout didn't change a lot it's not surprising. I am disappointed that Valve didn't work harder to help them simplify it, but the mode/map wasn't some astounding thing everyone is missing out on.

As for steel, that is a bit lol. I can understand how newer players first on it get confused by the ability to cap multiple points (even if they've played gravelpit), but the layout is far simpler than snowplow, so if someone is confused by Steel I don't have the highest regard for their opinion (though the guy is a really good demo.)

>>192313
//youtube.com/watch?v=wpyTK7j-3gg
Oh yeah, that guy is a killing machine with that set.

>>192323
The biggest single change, at least to me, is quite relevant to >>192322
>Loch-n-Load
>Changes to base grenade damage variance now ensure the Loch-n-load does not exceed 124 damage on a single hit.
Looks like Valve agreed that the LnL is very OP and changed it so that it's not a 1-hit kill on the weakest classes (at regular health).

>Blast radius and damage variance for all stickies and pipes has decreased.
>Damage ramp-up is back for Stickybomb Launcher, but only when detonated in the air
Other specific items got various nerfs and buffs.

Oh fuck this grappling thing is awesome, it's like I'm the Goddamn Spider-man.

It's hilariously easy to cap right now if you figure out the basics of grappling because so many are going in without being able to get it to work. I've already found a route from one end of ctf_gorge to the other that takes about 12 seconds and got 5 caps in one round.

>>192325
It also turns Heavy into the best intel grabber, especially with the resistance mod.

>"Oh dear you've ruined my work you flying fat man!"

Merry Smissmas everyone!

>>192328

Any nice drops this year? All I saw was the festive cola.

In case someone wants to make snow every time they take a shot, put this in console:
bind "mouse1" "+attack; +use_action_slot_item; -attack"

//youtube.com/watch?v=NEcTM_1t1ZE
Wow, never expected to see STAR mad about this update.

Now that most people know how to use the grapple, Mannpower is a bit less of a joke, though it still has the usual problem with CTF where teams have too many people on attack or defense.

Vamp is probably the most overpowered, or at least most frustrating to face: if someone has it, kills you, and you did less damage than they did, you have accomplished less than nothing.

Precision is easily the worst, mostly because it only provides a real benefit at longer ranges, which aren't very common in this game, and all the grappling hook movement makes hitting

I still don't understand why the cheapest keys on the market cost more than buying a key from the store. They still sell keys from the 2013 Fall series, so it's not like they're some rare commodity. Not quantity, either, as there are 162 EotL keys and they start at $3.05!

>>192502
Something strange is happening with keys, they've been slowly dropping in price for over a week now.

>>192533
It's almost like the last update was so bad and underwhelming in so many ways that people are finally giving up on a 6 year+ old game.

>>193309
But what about the rumors of a Spy vs Engineer update?
Also, keep blaming Dota and the stupid colored weapons of CS.

>>193309
TF2 died on the engineer update.
It's been about hat trading and class bleeding for years.

>>193314

Hat trading, yes. It was good to a certain limit, but it has gotten out of hand and the devs expect the game to live only from that. As consequence, they don't care anymore, thus giving arise to all the current problems in the game.

>>193318
The problem is that they did away with charging for the game (even if $5) and went with hat-based transactions as their sole source of income from the game. Therefore their priorities changes as they want to maintain their revenue, which means introducing new cosmetics at a regular pace.

On the other hand, the game is still getting regular updates and new content (even if the new stuff isn't that great) after seven years. Most games that have this kind of developer longevity are MMOs with monthly fees.

That said, I still play primarily because of one or two communities, so for me it's more about the people than the game at this point. If their TF2 servers went offline, I would likely stop playing.

//youtube.com/watch?v=__5N-qoIpPg
//youtube.com/watch?v=PwXsUvgxfNI
RIP TF2?

>>193717
Monday Night Combat and Loadout didn't seem to affect it much, but those didn't have the powerhouse behind them that is Blizzard.

Besides, TF2 is eight years old. So it wouldn't be some immense feat for Overwatch to take a chunk of the remaining players away.

Whoa! Huge update we got today!

>>193720
DEM GUNS

>>193720
Muh cooch

>>193765
http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=16075
Yeah, but it's mostly a bunch of small stuff and not a who-
>Added new map ctf_thundermountain
>ctf_thundermountain
>thundermountain
Oh my stars and garters, I fucking love thundermountain.

What's with all this matchmaking news on TF2?

>>194626
TF2 turns into a dating service. Pay in key please.

>>194626
Valve is finally listening to everyone that's been bitching about F2P, conga, and the idiocy of official servers.

>>194651
When the whole server starts doing conga, it's funny.

When one guy is doing conga when nobody else is, it's a problem.

Oh god I just had a horrible thought. What if the new matchmaking system will be like MVM, where you have to buy tickets to play in competitive servers?

>>194658
Valve will eventually understand this problem and fix it by forcing all players to conga if one player is conga-ing.

>>194711
CONGA INITIATED. All players are auto dragged to the conga person in question.

>>194713
I'm now imagining that they're just zip-lined to the general location, but the algorithm that is supposed to make them all line up isn't bug-tested (normal for TF2), and instead all of the other players conga in the air to form a vortex around the initiator.

And now I want this to be a thing.

>>194716
Conga Cyclone. Engie dancing in the middle.

So Lmaobox has completely ruined TF2. Valve places so much trust in VAC that they have nobody to monitor their servers and don't read any of the reports they get. Instead the reports feed into VAC to monitor that player more closely. Which doesn't work because Lmaobox is undetectable by VAC and Valve refuses to do fucking anything about it.

>>195159
I haven't played TF2 since the disappointing halloween event. What is lmaobox?
Also that should not surprise you since I'd wager they have maybe a team of 5 total doing TF2 part-time, if that. The game is pretty damn old especially as far as multiplayer games go and they're relying on the community to keep it updated anyway, so why would they pour more resources into it?

>>195165
You could easily google this.

Lmaobox is a fully customizable cheat program. Aimbot, wallhack, auto airblast, auto backstab, auto sticky detonation, no-spread, infinite melee crits, anti-votekick, fake lag and chat spam, among other things. It costs $20 and is completely undetectable by VAC.

I hope you people like workshops, cause we got another one: http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=17092
>The Maps Workshop Beta is an in-development one-stop hub where mapmakers can instantly upload and get feedback on their maps.

>>196520
Oh boy, pay $6 to have colored weapons and fuck all else? I'm pretty underwhel-
>New feature : Weapon exchange and pick up. Weapons dropped by killed players can no longer be picked up for ammo. Killed players will now also drop a medium ammo box. Players that can normally equip the dropped weapon (proper class) can look at the weapon and press the 'action key' to exchange it with what they have equipped. The player's equipped weapon will be dropped on the exchange.
...I don't know how I feel about this.

>Changing to a new disguise while already under a disguise takes 0.5 seconds instead of the normal disguise time of 2 seconds
>While invisible, Spy receives 20% less damage from all damage sources
>While invisible, Spy has reduced timer on debuffs (fire, jarate, milk, bleed)
>Decreased the damage penalty on Sentries sapped by the Spy from -66% to -33% (i.e. shooting a Sentry the Spy sapped with a Revolver is now more effective)
I hear the crying now.

>Borneo official
>Snowplow fucking finally released
>Cloak and Dagger - Can now pick up ammo kits for cloak meter while visible.
>Increased base wrench construction speed on hit boost by 50%. Buildings now build 2.5x faster instead of just 2x (additive of 1.5x + base speed)
>Teleporters and Dispensers redeploy +50% faster (2.5x without wrench boost, 5.5x with wrench boost)
>Building pick up speed penalty reduced from 25% to 10%
>On Wrench equip change, buildings no longer self-destruct unless the building type is changed (i.e. Only Sentry explodes when switching from Wrench to Gunslinger)
>Mini Sentries can now be repaired
>Mini Sentries can now be wrench construction boosted
>Mini Sentry base build speed decreased. Mini Sentries that are wrench boosted build slightly faster than previously.
>Mini Sentries start at 50% health on construction and gain health during construction instead of starting at 100%
>Equalizer and Escape Plan - Changed no healing penalty to 90% less healing from Medics while active
I HAVE BECOME AS A GOD

GOOD
And just when I'm slowly coming back again.

>>196522
>New feature : Weapon exchange and pick up. Weapons dropped by killed players can no longer be picked up for ammo. Killed players will now also drop a medium ammo box. Players that can normally equip the dropped weapon (proper class) can look at the weapon and press the 'action key' to exchange it with what they have equipped. The player's equipped weapon will be dropped on the exchange.

Not a fan of this. It's completely unnecessary and breaks the game's flow. This game is 8 years old, you can't be introducing entire new gameplay features like this. Plus it removes some of the Spy's strategy. Nobody's going to notice weapons disappearing, but everyone notices ammo boxes being gone.

>new maps
>mostly reasonable weapon changes

>>>random damage spread off by default

holy shit I might actually try this update

It's not like they were trying to preserve their art style since adding paints, but Christ there is NOTHING good about this update at all outside of some of the rebalancing.

>>196526
So much for trick explosions to resupply.

>>196547
Yeah, I've been working on being able to do that. :(

>Detonator: Thanks for giving it a bit more height on jumps, but WHY NERF IT?

because the pyro isn't supposed to be a real class
be thankful they didn't randomly nerf the flamethrower or airblasting
you can look forward to them slowly nerfing all of its unlocks except for the only problematic one (superfast weapon switch speed broke the axtinguisher (nobody called it OP before the degreaser existed), it still breaks the flaregun and reserve shooter and it made the powerjack "too good")

>Despite of that, I still think the projectile's hitbox has the size of a truck.

the pomson's "projectile" is actually a particle, like the flamethrower shots
that's why its collision detection is so unreasonable
über drain is still a stupid concept, especially on the engineer; removing piercing made it less retarded, but they should just remove the drains entirely and make the pomson into a slightly better bison instead

also,

>danger shield still breaks sniper mirrors, 2 years and counting

>DROPPED MEDIGUNS RETAIN ÜBERCHARGE

playtesting? why, tf2 only exists to sell cosmetic crap nowadays!

>be a consumer whore, pay $5.99 for Gun Mettle campaign
>One of my contract drops is a case
>wtf, no, I'm not paying for a key to open this damn thing
>put it on the market for $7.05
>sells within a half hour
After gaben's cut I made $6.19 or so. Within three days the campaign has (sort of) literally paid for itself and made me a tiny profit, so now I feel quite good about partaking.

//youtube.com/watch?v=9e0-2nqM95w
Secrets, Secrets for everyone!


>>196682
I just did the same with the first case I got.
And managed to get a Genuine Dadliest Catch hat in 40 cents, and a genuine Apoco-Fists in 39 cents.
Also, felt tempted to get buds, now that those are at $10.

>Checking Markets after being away for a while

Ouch, Buds based economics just collapsed didn't it. When did that happen?

>>196755
Over a year ago.
I don't even bother with the market any more since metal just kept on decreasing in value. I knew it would due to the amount being generated every day, but when buds dropped that accelerated that quite a bit.

>>196783
Glad I sold off my high valued holiday stuff when I did. Guess I'll use the metal I've got to craft hats.

Are Valve servers lagging like fuck for anyone else?

>>196985
I get spikes like mad though I think it might be more because my ISP has basically abandoned the area.

Running fine from 60-100 area then BAM 800-900 which usually triggers a latency kick.

>>196987
It's not quite as extreme, but it's pretty frequent for ping to suddenly jump from below 100 to nearly 200 with the lag being so bad that I have no idea what's happening.

>>196988
>>196985
Blame Dota. TI5 started today

I'm starting to think contracts were a bad idea. People are refusing to do things that actually help their team or complete the objective in favor of completing a contract.

>>197000
It should have been obvious that would happen.

>>197000
Nothing different than when new achievements are released, but now you'll have a recurrence every Wednesday/Saturday.

Contracts even worth it with the case prices dropping like they are?

>>197000
Well, that if you're playing on a gun mettle server.

>>197006
You could still get a weapon relevant to your main class. Right now my only purpose in doing them is to get that gold coin, for the bragging rights. (Sold a case on day two, which payed for my campaign coin, so no salt here.)

>>197042
I'm always confused as to why standard keys seem to cost above the Valve store price, more often than not. If you can pay $2.49 for a key for Valve or $2.65 for a key from the market, why would you choose the market? I suppose to make sure Valve only gets a portion of the sale, but that seems like spiteful view of someone that has more dollars than sense.

>>197045

I actually asked that myself too a long time ago. Turns out, people that don't play TF2 may encounter some trades for items they want from the game they do play, but in those cases, the trader asks for (you guessed it) TF2 keys. Knowing this made my view on this practice rather neutral, though, I still doubt if paying a bit more is worth it in comparison to just having the game installed, I guess that's really up for each user.

But in the other hand, we can safely assume everybody is rather naive, as they can just buy them for their original price here:
https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Mann_Co._Supply_Crate_Key

>>197046
Keys are still at least holding their value while the other two tiers of the pyramid collapsed when the market opened.

>Engineer contract
>Last almost two hours on the advance objective of "Kill 5 enemies with the same sentry gun"
Finally, this was a true test for my patience, this better be wor-
>A Powerhouse case
Fuck. Oh well, at least I can sell it.

Also, I won a steel fedora for the spy with my last free Tour of Duty ticket.

>>197079
I think I had to use a mini to get that Engie bonus. It's actually really good if you can throw one down in the middle of a large clash, as it can pick off stragglers and assists count as part of the five.

//youtube.com/watch?v=QsMpFrkuQ9g
This was amazing!

You know, I get it. Most people are asleep at 4am. So if I play TF2 at that time I'm mostly going to be playing with people from other countries. But WHY are they almost always consistently AWFUL at the game? There has to be some underlying cultural reason for it.

>>197111
Likely Valve's quick-connect system. The one where you click the button and just choose a mode quickly, and the game finds a server for you. I don't know how it decides which one to connect to, but it seems to prioritize ping very low; when trying to connect to a Gun Mettle server, I've been dumped in Stockholm servers when it's obvious from the server list that there are Washington or Virginia servers closer to me with open slots (but that I can't join from the server list, for some reason.) Player count seems to have a far higher priority.

If they're joining manually, new users, especially ones who have little online gaming experience, don't understand latency. Those who do will stick to servers located in or closer to their own country.

Could also be that they're affiliated with the clan that runs the server(s), but the clan only has servers located in one country.

>here have a sports game in your killing game
http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=17833

I believe I've already done every single existing contract already, and I have the feeling I'll be repeating contracts soon.

>>197174
Heheh.

>>197174
Seems interesting, but the beta-ness is still obvious: right away I encounter some bugs where the speed boosters don't actually make you faster (they just give the "speed boost" visual effect like from the Disciplinary Action and Concheror) and the ball will fail to deploy (leaving everyone with nothing to do until the timer runs out). The jump boosters and where each one leads could also stand to be more visible, since they're the only thing that keeps the map from being unfeasible huge. The huge open area on the rooftops is a kind of questionable design choice given how helpless that makes everyone against Sniper literally half a map away--at least the Wrangler damage falloff nerf happened before this.

Though speaking of Beta, why are Asteroid and Catcus Canyon still listed there? The last updates for each were eight and eleven months ago, respectively, and they basically look and play like finished maps.

>>197175
>I believe I've already done every single existing contract already, and I have the feeling I'll be repeating contracts soon.
What contracts are there? 9 classes, 3 maps, 1 Points = 13 contracts, but that's only 1690 points (including bonuses) and I'm just shy of 2000. I don't think I've repeated a contract yet...

>>197183
https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Gun_Mettle_Campaign
Oh, looks like contracts can have variations, so you can get the same contract twice but have different objectives. Even though there are four maps (not three), I guess I have had at least one repeat and didn't notice.

//youtube.com/watch?v=oi0lgwLgP58
Yup, is incredibly beta-ish. Plus, I have the feeling this is just testing waters for a different game.

>>197183
>>197184
Yup, I got a scout contract that I managed to finish in Harvest. Apparently, some Valve servers outside the new fours can let you do contracts.

>>197177
>Though speaking of Beta, why are Asteroid and Catcus Canyon still listed there? The last updates for each were eight and eleven months ago, respectively, and they basically look and play like finished maps.

Considering what >>196743 analyzes, we'll probably be seeing them after the end of the Gun Mettle.

Suddenly a new TF2 comic
http://www.teamfortress.com/tf05_old_wounds/

Only one more remaining! I figure we'll see it around 2018.

>>197280
Oh, two issues left. Well, 2025, here we come.

>>197280
Not sure how much I like how edgy these are getting. Each issue seems to be getting darker and darker. Hell, Soldier almost seems out of character at some points.

>>197284
Dunno, I think the tone hasn't changed much; it's only what's been revealed. From early on it was obvious that it was working towards a giant endgame, though whether it will be the end of the TF2 comicverse altogether or a lead-in to something like TF3 remains to be seen. I wouldn't be surprised if the comic was intended as a lead-up to TF3, and each comic is released when production reaches a milestone.

I just really, really hope they don't pull a "and everything returned to normal, the end".

>>197285
>>197284
My only problem is the ending. It made me cringe, like seriously that makes me uncomfortable just looking at it.

I wonder if the comic is going to kick off a wave of Medic/Sniper shipping. I know whichever update gave us "C'mere cupcake" spawned a whole bunch of Soldier/Medic fans and caused a big conniption between them and the Heavy/Medic bulwark for a while /popcorn.gif

>>197281
makani art is always such a good thing

>>197327
Could've gone to Hightower to snipe all the jumpers with Reserve Shooter.
No need to hang in GunMettle servers for contracts, apart from specific map ones.

You know, by the end of this Gun Mettle campaign, Powerhouse will may be the new Hydro.

>>197338
I ended going a couple of some non-Gun Mettle and managed to get most of those points there. I wish i could thought of hightower before.

You guys like aliens, right? I hope you like aliens.

//youtube.com/watch?v=8wDRQ4Dj72M

//youtube.com/watch?v=E8vKbDydELQ
>Someone did a Rick & Morty voice mod with the Dota 2 pack
Good!

>>197389
>Video not available anymore
Welp.
But yeah, this is gonna be interesting.

Also, related.
//youtube.com/watch?v=-EvgkzINs5w

http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=18409
>Next major update, including another Campaign, coming "out by the end of the year" (ahahahahaha, except it in the summer)
>Last Gun Mettle contract is Sept 30th
>No Halloween update, just more community items tagged as Halloween
>Community items that are added this year will NOT have the Halloween restriction, so they can be viewed anytime