4 days into my new column, and already I'm behind where I want to be :/
Last week was one of those weeks where a lot happened, and a lot didn't... After a good couple of months of rumors, we finally got TF2 for the Mac. Earbuds struck a chord ala Halos, with players sporting the gear reportedly receiving a good amount of heckling. Thankfully, Mac Fans have had to put up with plenty of heckling about their lack of gaming capabilities for the last 15 years, I'm sure a little more won't dissuade them from playing the best multiplayer FPS available to them. Still, shame on the bullys... We need to welcome new players with friendliness not mockery. It was a free weekend for TF2, but player numbers jumped 10K to 30,000... Hopefully we'll be seeing these Mac players stick around.
Some of the Mac-kery was even aimed at the brand new Training mode implicating it's base training approach as a sign of Mac gamers clueless-ness. Jeez, can we please not turn into Counter-Strike players? This is a great new feature and while it may only be useful to a fraction of the TF2 population, it's the fraction that needs to be enticed to stay. PC FPSs are even more brutal to newcomers than the popular console FPSs, and the short training section will help new players settle in more easily. I for one am very excited about their inclusion and look forward to more and more training scenarios. A very simple Soldier Rocket Jumping tutorial would help round out that training significantly before moving onto other classes.
This new training mode renews another pipe dream of mine. Valve needs to implement a race to the middle training scenario, where players can practice their roll outs with a bot medic following them. Truly, a speedy roll out is one of the things that most hampers pub players entering the competitive scene. When even just one soldier is slow to mid in a TF2Lobby 6v6 match, the team is at a significant disadvantage. This probably easy to implement training device would be extremely helpful to players of all skill levels, not just introductory level players.
On top of the World Cup going on (perhaps part of the reason finding free time is a lil harder right now, I need a laptop in the living room :D ) the annual e3 video game conference just kicked off. While Valve has been playing coy, and perhaps even induced too much hysteria, with their discussion of surprises, the curtain is starting to be pulled back. Tomorrow will be the time for Valve's in depth discussion of things, but today we got a brand new Portal 2 teaser which can be viewed on our YouTube Channel. On top of that, Valve announced that Portal 2 will be coming to the PS3 with it's SteamWorks functionality. Cross-Platform gameplay is apparently not a part of that, but the SteamWorks functionality will bring the PS3 users all the constant updates that Valve is known for. While Valve has grumbled about developing for the PS3 in the past, the inclusion of SteamWorks indicates the level of Valve's frustration with Microsoft's heavily restricted X-Box Live service. Valve tried to offer Portal for download via X-Box Live Arcade but was unable to do that due to file size limits. The capability to update TF2 was also significantly hampered, with Valve really only able to patch TF2 for the X-Box twice. The inclusion of SteamWorks with Portal could be a good sign for the re-appearance of TF2 on a console, which would be great for it's overall visibility in the video game scene. Valve's biggest news will come out tomorrow, keep your fingers crossed for anything about the Engineer.
Alright, before I end, someone asked in the comments of my last post about Broken Demos and rollback patches. Yes, unfortunately Valve's update last week broke demos again. The work-a-round to this problem is either the use of a rollback patch, which hasn't been released for any of the latest patches, or installing a no-steam version of TF2 and updating it to the patch level of the demos you want to play. Yes this is all a major pain in the ass.... It's unknown if Valve's new demo system will solve this problem which rears it's head all too often.. If the new system does not allow older demos to be played back in a newer version of TF2 (after the system is implemented, I don't have unrealistic expectations), then Valve NEEDS to figure out another solution. For the good of the competitive game, and thus the game as a whole, this issue of demos breaking cannot be allowed to continue.
Well, XPL looks to be turning out nicely. Although, there is a funny twist to it that seemed to catch my eye as soon as I glanced at the list of registered teams. It’s like someone took a bowl, tossed in every league of competitive TF2, and stirred it up to create some sort of foreign…thing. I have no idea if I’m supposed to love it or hate it. Isn’t TF2 grand!
It’s a lonely Monday night, and things just got better tenfold when you find out that there is a match being shoutcasted, and one of your favorite invite teams is playing. In a giddy fashion, you launch yourself out of your sweat grafted chair and run to the kitchen for a drink, preparing yourself for the majesty of sweet frags and hysterical Source TV comments. My only question being…
As a community contributor, my level of production has gone up and down throughout my year here at Community Fortress. As with everyone in this scene, my involvement has been affected by real life distractions. Players disappear and come back as their school fluctuates or other commitments appear. Most recently a move and a return to the cooking world (gotta make that dollar) have sucked up my free time, and slowed my involvement. For a moment there, it looked like I was heading for unemployment again (my choice) and the potentials of working harder on eXtv and trying to make a living with that and other freelance work seemed very appealing. But, the situation at my work has changed favorably and I'm going to continue to cook. Working a good number of nights means my availability for the SpaceWhales, casts, and other things is a bit more limited. Good thing eXtv is post-produced and I can get plenty of work done during the day. I just need to crack the whip on myself.
Anyways, I wanted to start up doing a new series of blog posts for this site that appear more frequently, to ensure that I'm staying involved and eXpressing my opinions on this game and big events in the community. Posts will be about updates + changes, about desired updates, map rotations, news analysis, and all sorts of tangents.
Like the World Cup. Oh boy am I excited for tomorrow's match between the USA and England... Soccer is a unique sport that actually can give us quite a bit of inspiration in Team Fortress 2. The ball in Soccer is a team-wide commitment. If one player messes up their touch and gives the ball away, the team has lost everything they've been building for. The Uber in TF2 is the same way, it should be nurtured by the whole team and is really a shared responsibility between the Medic and the other players. Formation and shape is hugely important in Soccer, with players stretching out the defense or working in close with fast passes to each other. "Shape" is an important concept in TF2 as well that's not as present in casual games as it should be. How are the Medic, Sollys, and Demo working together? Are the scouts properly watching the flanks, or are they getting too aggressive and shut down? When a TF2 team is scattered all over the place, they are almost always ineffective. When the team moves with purpose, things happen.
Plus, who doesn't love a global throwdown? It's just great to see different playing philosophies and cultures come together in one place. Hopefully we'll see more intercontinental TF2 matches, and perhaps even down the road a NA regions cup. Man, that'd be sweet. Till next time...
The addition of new content has obviously been a major factor in keeping Team Fortress 2 fresh. This article aims to analyze the balance of the newest weapons: the Crit-a-Cola, the Scotsman's Skullcutter, and the Tribalman's Shiv.
Crit-a-Cola
The Crit-a-Cola, a replacement for the Scout's secondary slot, give the user mini-crits for 6 seconds, like a miniature, localized Buff Banner. It also turns all damage taken by the user into mini-crits for the six-second duration.
Why use this weapon? Well it certainly provides an advantage when attempting a suicidal Medic takedown, as well as during general combat if you happen to sneak up on someone. But is it worth it?
The maximum damage of the default Scattergun when under the Crit-a-Cola's effects is roughly 80, 20 more than a meatshot without any critical effects. This means it only takes 2 shots to kill a Medic, something that can absolutely matter in fast-paced games. However, a direct hit from a rocket will nearly wipe out the Scout (122 damage), as well as two shots from a shotgun (or some combination thereof). So if the Scout fails to kill anyone, it's absolutely useless... but is there any difference between that and how the Scout normally plays?
The inability to use the pistol certainly is a change, as it removes any ability to harass low-health enemies at any sort of range. However, this situation isn't going to happen in every single match, and if it does, you can attempt to close the distance with the Scout's 133% move speed. Medics will be present in every game and killing at close range as a Scout will also be present in every game.
So to conclude this section of the article, the Crit-a-Cola, while it removes the Pistol, is a balanced unlock, especially in the smaller games of the competitive format.
Updated Main Menu is AWESOME! And thanks to training mode I am now Mid/High... j/k but it's fricken awesome and will be very helpful for the new players.
Team Fortress 2 • Added Mac support. • Overhauled the main menu, and added help to Loadout, Backpack, and Crafting screens. • Added Training, with support for General gameplay & Soldier class training for now. • Added Offline Practice mode, with support for KOTH maps and Dustbowl. • The "Open Character Loadout" key will now go to your future class if you’ve requested a class change, but haven’t respawned yet. • Added community submitted gameplay tips • Community Requests: • Added "mp_forceautoteam", a server convar that forces all joining players to autoteam. • Added "mp_stalemate_meleeonly", a server convar that allows melee weapons only during stalemates. • Added "ExtinguishPlayer" input to tf_player for map makers.
Firstly, thank you all who voted for their favorite maps. There was a couple of surprises in the vote as you will see below.
As a quick reminder, teams have until June 18th to have their teams registered with the minimum of 6 players with Steam IDs entered to be eligible for the season. So get your teams registered ASAP.
Regular Season:
Week 1: June 20th thru June 24th
Map A: cp_badlands
Map B: cp_follower
Week 2: June 27th thru July 1st
Map A: cp_granary
Map B: cp_freight
Week 3: July 4th - July 8th
Map A: cp_gullywash
Map B: koth_viaduct
Week 4: July 11th - July 15th
Map A: cp_freight_final1
Map B: cp_gravelpit
Week 5: July 18th - July 22nd
Map A: cp_yukon_final
Map B: cp_well
Week 6: July 25th - July 29th
Map A: cp_obscure
Map B: cp_freight
Week 7: August 1st - August 5th
Map A: cp_mainline
Map B: cp_granary
Week 8: August 8th - August 12th
Map A: cp_gullywash
Map B: cp_badlands
Before I dig into this a bit more, let me cover how I evaluated the votes. Players were asked to rank the maps top to bottom of a pool of 21 maps that have been played in the various leagues over the past couple of years. These rankings were collect on a map by map basis, so for example Badlands vote would look something like 1,2,5,3,2,7,1,10,5 and so forth. What we did was simply add the ranks up and the lowest point scores won (think golf). This gave me a ranking of maps top to bottom, the top 12 are within the map rotation with the top four being repeated.
The surprises!! What was most surprising was Gullywash made the top four and was included twice. Both versions of freight made the top 12 (solidly) so cp_freight will show up twice being the third place rank, and cp_freight_final1 was pretty up there also.
The one time I looked at the vote very closely, cp_coldfront technically was the bottom ranked map and cp_mainline was 13 (just missing the rotation). However, when I looked at the votes themselves, cp_coldfront before the week in ESEA was seeing 3-5 average, while after everyone played it it was averaging 18-21 in rank. That being said, it skewed the numbers and mainline was a much more consistent map. The total points different between the two maps was 6 (148-154 or something in there) so based on the trending of the votes, I put mainline over coldfront for the season.
The formal map versions used in XPL will be posted shortly (read: when I stops the whole making money, providing food for the family and such and get them downloaded and packaged). Details will appear in Match Comms with the download locations and so forth when the times comes as a reminder.
One last thing, the Playoffs will take the top six from the rotation: Badlands, Granary, Freight, Gullywash, Viaduct, Gravelpit. More info the the playoffs will be forthcoming in a bit.
In this exclusive CommFT interview, decap gets us answers to the questions we've all been asking. ENJOY :) ________________________________________ 9:45 p.m. - decap: whos gonna do extremer 4 9:45 p.m. - Extremer: no one 9:45 p.m. - Extremer: not happening! 9:45 p.m. - Extremer: cba with getting fucking insane frags 9:45 p.m. - decap: lol 9:45 p.m. - Extremer: and then the guy who makes the movie losing half of them 9:46 p.m. - Extremer: like it happened with the 2nd and 3rd ones 9:46 p.m. - Extremer: especially the third
Well we all hear it, twl is the underdog league, the bottom fragers, the low/mid teams all bundled up into one big ball of joy. I’ve come to understand that if you look through the cracks in twl you’ll find not only that some great teams exist within the walls of rosters but decent teams from other leagues are also spotted amongst them. Hopefully with the further publication of twl and it’s events we can help to bring the shine back into that rusty old piece of metal.
Blaze i made a mentee app (http://commforums.com/scout-cevo-vanilla-pinkushin-t6515.html?t=6515) let me know if u can help me out even if its not an...
