TF2 General Chat and Speculation Station V13 - Heavy times - Games

God I miss community servers for this exact reason. Just this gang of expert players hanging out and whenever someone a little more inexperienced joins they are given some friendly pointers if they ask for it and the whole atmosphere just makes it fun to learn. I mean people say gg and stuff but there it often really was fun to play, even while losing. I would never had gotten into the fps-scene as much as I have if not for that. I know I shouldn´t enable this but I´m rating diamonds because deep down I can´t help but agree a little, at least with steam getting knocked off the thrown as the biggest PC game distributor. THat would be a pretty nasty wake-up call, I bet.

Yes, you're right. I would be pretty weird if my reaction were to lick a condiment off my lips.

I'm as biased about this as Sean Hannity after snorting 3 lines of meth off a portrait of Donald Trump that's precariously balanced on Ann Coulter's ass, but I maintain that the removal of QuickPlay (flawed though it may have been) in 2016 and the subsequent death of 90% of the community servers not named "Skial" was the single worst change Valve made to TF2. I was not around in the pre-QuickPlay era when there were only community servers, but I did witness the change in Jan 2014 when community servers became an "opt in" option in QuickPlay. That was a huge blow, but the better servers were able to maintain a population, at least during peak hours. 24/7 single maps servers did better than rotation ones, but any server that had a reasonable community of regulars did okay. After MyM, I saw post after post in /r/tf2 of long standing community server groups shutting down. It seemed like EU servers died faster, but the situation was only slightly better in the US. I also saw firsthand how many players who were regulars on one or several servers left the game and did not return to it when their favorite server died. I ran the only populated 24/7 Doublecross server from 2014 until 2016 (it's now a shambling zombie that springs to life maybe twice a month.) For a brief period in early 2016, I ran the most popular 24/7 Landfall server. To this day I occasionally get messages on reddit and elsewhere asking what happened to my servers and will they ever come to life again. My answer is always the same. "Not unless Valve makes a major change to funnel traffic to community servers." I don't think the TF2 team understands their own game. They have gone on record as saying that they completely fail to get why anyone would be a friendly in-game. Quite recently I ranted about how much I dislike friendlies in a PvP game and how they imbalance teams. With that said, I DO completely understand the social aspect of TF2. Particularly on all-talk servers that run static TDM-oriented maps (the usual suspects, 2Fort, Turbine, Hightower, Harvest, etc.) In the QuickPlay era, it was not uncommon for PvP servers to go all friendly for a bit at the end of the night. People would chat about TF2 related stuff (stranges, unusuals, game mechanics, etc) and whatever else. It's not the primary purpose of the game, but TF2 does serve as an FPS VR chat. Even when everyone on both teams are actively working to kill the other team (which is most of the time, hopefully), playing against regulars is more fun than idiot randos in Valve's casual mode. Battling the same pool of people over a period of time means you get to learn their play styles and skill levels. Some brief highlights of players I remember over the years of running Doublecross, in no particular order: Emmanuel Ros: Filipino kid with a bad microphone and hilarious accent. The more he got killed, the more irrational his play style got, peaking with him stickytrapping spawn ...his OWN spawn, in hopes that an enemy would walk by. He also taunted after every kill, which usually got HIM killed. The Geez: A 60something WM1 pyro who periodically reflects a projectile when you least expect it. Enryu: One of the best demos in the game. Never played anything but sniper on DC. He was insanely deadly. His favorite playmate was: Jbird: The best quickscoper I have ever seen in TF2. If you're in his front firing arc, you're dead. Conversely, if you can get behind him, HE'S dead. JB tends to shut off his brain when playing on pubs and do insane shit like snip from the battlements ...the ENEMY battlements. One of my great joys was "sneaking" behind him as Heavy and punching his lights out with my fists. (When not getting dual quickscoped by him, which happened most of the time.) Macintosh Sauce: 50something Canadian ex-pat who alternated between being a WM1 backburner pyro and spamming huntsman arrows into the front of the enemy base. Known for saying odd phrases over the mic, many of which are repeated by the few remaining regulars to this day "Shut up, little boy!" "Don't be a TRYHARD!" "Oh no, you suck!" Scruffy: A sniper nearly as good as Jbird, and in fact a bigger problem because he plays so passively. He DOESN'T do stupid shit, so he's nigh on impossible to kill. He also always has a private profile and changes his name. I kept him on my friends list primarily so when I got complaints about an aimbotter I could say "No, that's just Scruffy." Train in Vain: the single most obnoxious demo I ever met. He played mostly before the 2014 sticky nerf, and always had a medic or two up his ass. He hated the short circuit. I don't miss him at all. Monobunny: The single best DM monster pyro in the game. A greater threat than HA Johnny, Digresser and Satan combined. Shotgun aim better than lmaobox, reflects every projectile ever. Also, a complete and irredeemable prick. I have heard repeatedly that his behavior is much better when NOT on community servers, but all I ever saw was an infantile manchild with a skillset that outdid the best TF2 cheats. Having him around was certainly an experience. This is just a small sample. There were hundreds of others. Some of them are still Steam friends of mine. Others took an immediate and strong dislike for me (which is not surprising, I'm a divisive character on the best of days). What's gone is the place where they all met. Doublecross is dead, and countless other communities with it. Valve have no idea what they killed and the players they drove from the game when they removed the community aspect of TF2. The company has long judged the merit of their endeavors by numbers. I keep hearing about TF2's player count doing well. I find that statistic to be meaningless. Playing against a bunch of randoms playing on Valve's shitty casual matchmaking is an okay-at-best experience ...for maybe a round or two. Unless one wants to change teams, or move to spectate to see if that all stock sniper is legit. Even when the game is balanced and free of cheaters, the map reloads at the end of each round (at least in CTF) and there's a 60 second "waiting for players" pre-round. The pacing is horrible and there's always massive player churn. Yet there is no other way to play maps that aren't 2Fort, Hightower, Harvest or Turbine. There of niche maps and communities based around them is gone, as Roy Batt would say, like tears in rain.

You're just so goddamn tiring to read. Yet another hyperbolic post from Exor about how he hates Valve and yearns for their demise is not interesting. It's just annoying. You've said your piece. A million times now. Say something interesting please.

I don't blame corporations for my inability to come up with interesting things to say.

hey guys, anyone know what that site "tf2polygon" is? traders add me and tell me to use that site constantly and im getting a little sketched out, especially since i cant even find the site on google

It's a scam. Consider "retreading" something other than the exact same topic then. Or just don't post at all if you have nothing actually interesting or engaging to bring to the table.

I miss the "Optimistic" reaction. I'd also like to see "Drama Queen" and a popular one from Discord, "Stop Posting."

I think its fair to assume most non major TF2 related websites that has the name format of TF2/CS+random word is a scam website

I see we're in the fighting with each other phase of the update drought now. How exciting.

just what i was thinking, just had to do a double check. havent been trading/playing for 4 years so im a bit out of touch

Friendship ended with Marketplace.tf now TF2Llama.com is my best friend

holy shit tf2polygon.com is actually kind of clever lmao It opens a "popup" when you click to login: https://reel.geel.tf/dge9balimogyzvuwm4pr.png Typical knowledge would say that you should look at the URL of the popup etc., and it's valid here, so no problem right? Except this is a fucking div inside the page.

I don't have a positive opinion of Valve. Artifact is the latest in a series of absolutely mind-numbingly godawful decisions they've made in the past decade. You'll find me in an Artifact thread sharing my discomfort because it's actually relevant to talk about it there. Because it's a new product. It's a new controversy. "TF2 team is small " isn't interesting, new, or engaging. We know. I'm not disagreeing with your opinion on TF2's development state. I'm disagreeing with your incessant need to shit up this thread with it.

speak for yourself. Thesaurus Exor is a blast from the past. it almost makes me feel nostalgic.

Thesaurus Exor has been posting here continuously for a long time so I'm not really yearning for the old days of *checks watch* yesterday.

Yeah, I think I'll just ignore you. Hey guys, Valve sucks!

Replying because I have an excuse to post TFC avis. Scout was definitely NOT a bad class. You'd normally see 1-2 scouts on offense. https://youtu.be/IOCWr8gU64k https://youtu.be/AyDI5_WwLSE Also bruh

Do not project your own inability to take pleasure in the shared experiences of others onto me.

exor posts are good its just the relish lips one that was gross

honestly id much rather read about the god stories of 150 killstreak man instead of "valve made a poopy and you guys know it!", something which people at this point dont dispute

Okay fine, I'll regale you with stories of my TDM Hightower adventures. In a few days you'll be begging me to shut up about that too, and then I'll be back to smearing relish on facial features.

i haet valve they aer bad compnani gibme agre its almost like doing this is about as childish as ever

if the discussion of the "health of the game" ends up being a massive circlejerk about the same thing over and over again and then ends up with petty fights about who gets the most epic zinger id rather not do that

once upon a time a stranger played mvm with me and they said I was "r/tf2" and to this day I still have no idea what that means as an insult since all i did was top score the game and never said a single word.

Tell me, what could scout do Medic couldn't do better though? The only thing I recall Scout having over medic was slightly faster movement speed, which was generally of shooted by bunny hopping in the first place. Also heaven forbid I typo'd one letter on a grenades name...

I cracked last night and bought the B.M.O.C. off Marketplace.TF last night. Nothing against your site, Geel, it's great, but part of my subconscious is flustered by spending over $10 on a digital hat regardless of how much I've envied it. With the spirit of Christmas/Smissmas in mind, I was wishing last night there could be a TF2 marketplace where a bulk of item profits were given to charitable sources. Valve hasn't done anything like that since the Japan Tsunami, and I kinda miss that. Spending so much on virtual items feels like it could be more fun knowing the money is going to something genuinely good.

Okay, here's something new for you. What are your opinions on players that pour thousands of hours into mastering only a few classes, as opposed to people that play reflexively based upon the situation and never attempt to master any one class?

Playing all classes helps you get better at playing a specific class, too, because it gives you a different perspective. It helps teach you the behavior and mindset of people playing any given class, which makes it easier to fight them.

from my experience "mains" are usually selfish people that don't wanna get too invested in tf2 and just wanna do their one-trick business for the rest of their "career" at the expense of anything else. they just want their own little fun after a hard day and don't wanna bother with the rest of the game. its possible and actually fairly simple to "master" all 9 classes. tf2 can be deep but not that deep. take it from the best players in the game who never actually "main" the class they're famous for and constantly offclass.