TF2 General Chat & Speculation Station V15 - Buff Pyro plz - Games

it's probably about time the Deflector becomes an actual item. with a big penalty mind you, like -50 hp. But still.

I could see a Deflector only working if it were done via a rage mechanic. Such as, after a certain amount of damage dealt, Heavy could taunt (or do some other action) to activate the mechanic which causes the minigun sound to change, reduce damage to enemies, but can destroy projectiles. If we wanted to be super op, could make deflected rockets/grenades explode upon being deflected and them hitting a solid surface.

It can remain passive. Level 1 strength has many weaknesses such as needing the rocket/grenade to be live for a non-trivial amount of time, aswell has being innefficient if the opponent shoots your feet.

Valve has revealed they're rolling out CSGO's trust factor system to all Steam games, so this may help TF2 to some degree.

If tf2 devs ever will implement support for it.

Was hoping I wasn't alone in thinking this. https://puu.sh/CwGmH/f46d5aff88.png Even with the amount of hours I have in the game, and the amount of hours I have on sniper specifically... I still find myself getting into scenarios where I am 100% completely and totally fucked with the stock rifle. It isn't the almighty untouchable and can be countered by using your WASD keys with a bit of thought into where it is you're going and how you get there. I think the class gets its bad rep primarily due to its popularity with cheaters. Sniper is pretty powerful in the hands of a cheater, but that doesn't mean the other classes are not nearly as effective. Ever face the spawn trapping heavy aimbot on Viaduct? Believe it or not there is an infinite ammo exploit for heavy now... Or the occasional prototype cheats that catch you off guard: Spy instant/silent cloaks, Projectile Aimbots, Wallhack/Aimbot with Force of Nature (A lot of people never notice this one)... etc There is not a single map in the official rotation that gives sniper a position in which he is unreachable by flank routes. Yes, this includes Harvest. I wouldn't say it hard counters, but... In closer ranges, it most certainly has an advantage in that mobility, vision, and damage is retained with no penalties. At longer rangers the huntsman will "suffer" but it isn't impossible to roll your lucky dice and watch the enemy sniper walk back into your arrow.

Idea: What if the Huo-Long Heater offered a static 20% damage resistance when spun up? No "only below 50% HP" malarkey. It's already the gun that punishes Heavy for being spun up. It'd still barely be viable for anything, though marginally useful for pooshing little kart. It wouldn't interfere make Heavy a suddenly massively imbalanced point capping monster barring some circumstance where he's got a pocket medic and a pet dispenser on the point (if this is happening, the game is already lost.) I am as biased on this as Tucker Carlson after snorting 3 fat rails of meth off Rachel Maddow's ass, but I maintain that the damage resistance nerf the Brass and Natascha received with MyM in July of 2016 where the resistance only kicks in below 50% HP made that mechanic all but useless. ESPECIALLY in the case of the Brass. For the year that the Brass had damage resistance when spun up, I enjoyed using it on Valve servers. Heavy normally has to think 2-3 moves ahead because he's so slow and fat he can't react to anything quickly. With the Brass, that became 5-6 moves. It was fun trying to outthink the other team with such a slow weapon ...at least in the capacity of playing defense Heavy on Doublecross. 2 1/2 years since MyM, the Brass is basically useless. Natascha is still somewhat viable in skilled (asshole) hands, but it's primary purpose is punish other classes that try to get anywhere near Heavy. This is to say nothing of legion of other game mechanic changes over the years that have made it harder for Heavy to get kills, and easier for other classes to kill him. I've mentioned them here countless times before and I shan't repeat them in this post. I would like to see the HLH and Brass become remotely viable. Until that point, I'll be using Natty to upset as manny Scouts, Demoknights and explosive/jetpack jumping classes as I can.

Play a few games with or against really high-tier Snipers. The ones that routinely play competitive, whether that be 6s or Highlander. Compare yourself to them, and report back to us. I have over 5k hours in the game, a good amount dedicated to Heavy, Soldier, and Sniper. That doesn't mean that suddenly my words hold just as much value as people like b4nny or other high-tier comp players, who know the game's balance inside and out. I still thought that the reworked GRU was garbage until I spent a bunch of games just trying them out and seeing how good they are, and now I actively appreciate the changes they made, just wanting the initial swap health drain to be lowered.

if the tf2 devs, yknow, the valve people themselves were to not use it that would be a pretty good sign of danger mode for tf2 unless they are already using it(?)

just like they want all of their projects on source 2 eh

FYI I think the 50% damage resist works differently than you'd expect. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-V2yCFp7bAQ I'm not a fan of any sort of flat damage resistance on classes. Makes it way too easy to pub stomp especially when combined with a Vaccinator (then again I have a love/hate relationship with the Vaccinator, in that it greatly helps combatting aimbots but totally unfair almost everywhere else). I think the only buff the Huo-Long Heater needs is for it to constantly flame rather than pulse, and make it so you can't jump over the flames to fuck with spycicle users.

What happened to sigsegv? Hasn't made a video or posted in like a year

Not to be pedantic, but just so we're clear it is a _20%_ damage resistance when spun up and below _50% health._ 50% damage resistance would be insane. Especially if it was on a secondary weapon that offered it passively, and 100% afterburn immunity.

I actually agree that hard scoping needs a nerf the 150 body shot is too much and it should be 100/300 headshot because body shots actually are easy and it's broken this would be such a positive change for both pubs and competitive. this is also coming from the guy who always says people that get sniped often have terrible movement (stand by that.)

I'm no stranger to the skill of competitive players. I was a competitive player myself for a good while across several games over the past 12 years but I've never pushed hard enough to get anywhere that I would consider sufficient and I just recently reached over 9 thousand hours in TF2. Rather than recognition and fancy medals though, I've had the experience of playing against a lot of people both good and bad. I've had my ass handed to me, and I've also dished some ass kicking out but nothing tops the thrill I get when facing a challenge. At the time the Match Maker beta was released I had time on my hands to thoroughly experience what it had to offer. So much so that I was able to get myself into the top 10. Lain is the reelest G https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/315994/a040b37b-210d-4605-8758-7337f87a280f/tf2_top10_mmBeta.jpg Along the path to Elite Exterminator I had the opportunity to face the Invite stacks that were occasionally queued. Facing B4nny and his stack was some of the most fun I had throughout the Match Making beta. I have my pride, but I also have respect and know that getting my ass kicked is just an opportunity to learn and improve. I don't like to give up before it starts, and I most certainly won't give up at the last minute. I've had the chance to Sniper v Sniper with Max! on the Snipezilla server, I've gone head on with Tagg and TrukTruk in the Match Making beta. I had my opinions about the nature of Pyro solidified when I ran into Satan in a 24/7 koth Nucleus server when QuickPlay was putting you in community servers. There are far too many names I've forgotten but the things I've learned that improved how I play the game won't ever go away. I believe the TF2 competitive scene, especially for UGC has been suffering due to the lack of better teams scrimming those below them. dK is by far the worst culprit and has gone so far as to justify their lack of scrims due to it being a "waste of time." I think the toughest experience I had was facing SpaceGhost in a pl_badwater highlander match. I was ringing for a team I had never played with, but I accepted the challenge because I wanted to see where I stood. Needless to say I got my ass handed to me, but so did the rest of the team. So I like to think that things could have gone differently and I know for certain that with more practice and the willingness to face a challenge will improve my odds the next time around. The sad reality is the lack of similar caliber players in your ever day valve / community servers. Most of the time you'll find these players using the servers as a 10-20 minute warmup. b4nny has been making an effort to play on Valve servers for the sake of his stream but a 12v12 isn't ever decided by one player. But to claim that these high level players are an epidemic plaguing the environment for new players is just outrageous. Believe me when I say b4nny isn't untouchable. https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/315994/f3aa69c1-0d62-49a0-8dc6-ad09f8d0eeae/b4nny4.png At the end of the day, I think a lot of people need to remember that TF2 was released in an era that properly rewarded players for spending the time to learn the game, and wasn't about attracting walking wallets with the ruse that if they spend enough money they can be just as good as the pros in the first week or two.

im probably alone on this, but i think tf2 would benefit a lot from a new 3rd option of matchmaking. One that supplies the hangouts of the old days. Playground maps like MARIO_KART, no cap plr_hightower, balloon_race, and the trade servers were major hubs for players to get together and just have fun, while for a lot of other players, such as myself and many people i know, it offered a very obvious unbalanced map so you knew right away that it was far from serious, meaning you could goof off and learn the basic mechanics of the game without worrying about pissing people off. I overall miss it, and i feel if done right, curating it correctly, it could get community servers a minor revival

He's in the SourceMod Discord server. Doesn't usually say much.

Far from it! I totally agree that the relaxed environments of the goof around community servers is one of if not the most important building blocks for new players when they first start out. The problem with match making is the randomness it forces on the playerbase. It destroys the sense of belonging, makes insufficient to no effort at matching experienced players and newer players in an evenly matched game, it even goes so far as to reduce your experience to hitting a "find server" button instead of navigating the menus on your own. Jump servers did not teach me how to rocket jump as soldier. Surfing did.

i think adding a hangout button below comp button, and have a more user friendly server browser with approved criteria for community servers to have (list of playground maps, and default settings) i think it would make a great bridge to venturing off to community servers. I always had an issue with community servers, as it was very hard to find a playground map/server with the vanilla experience. (no crazy skin mods, no weapons disabled, no less than 5ish second respawn time, and no 100% crit chance) i think offering the basic vanilla experience thru community servers would be a start to that bridge, while still offering players a choice where to go

I have no interest in comp as a player but damn i'd be lying if I didn't say that casting 6v6 back in the day was some of the most fun I've ever had this side of the mic. other than micspaming servers, of course.

I think the one thing I regret having waited so long to setup was a replay buffer system to capture the various atrocities and the few impressive things I manage to pull off once in a while. As it stands I'm sitting on a Terabyte or two of full session length recordings and sifting through it to find the entertaining moments crushes my motivation better than getting random crit a second before my med pops uber. I tell you what though. Its gonna make capturing physical evidence of why random crits and other various ... things ... need to be changed/removed/fixed. https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/315994/c2eee948-3b70-417b-945a-8b50a1dfb49a/randomcrits.mp4

The class would be immensely better if all sniper shots did even so much as 1 less damage. -Unskilled bodyshots, point-blank quickscopes or lucky bad players wouldn't be able to wipe out a fully charged medic, -Full health heavies would be able to cross sniper sightlines with at least some health remaining afterward, and gain ground for the team vs having to cower in fear until your own sniper gets the pick, -Aimbotters would be nerfed somewhat too, to a greater degree the less damage the shots did. While i'd rather the class be reworked entirely to prevent it from being the only unpunishable insta-death from any range in a game otherwise about mid and close range combat, this is still a better solution than nothing. There's a reason it has a nearly 100% pick rate by cheaters- maps where sniper is less effective or hampered see the the impact of cheating on them reduced by huge margins.

Pretty good clip, but christ that crosshair is... something and this is coming from a guy that has this as their crosshair: https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/249352/3cfeea96-9ec3-42d9-9b84-f10c95a95105/image.png

Linking to something I said on the last page. ^ I just think this aimbotter's choice award isn't a good justification to nerf a class let alone change its behavior in the hopes to counter cheats. If we went and balanced everything so that cheaters couldn't effectively use anything to destroy a server, we wouldn't have a game to play at that point. I also think the "unpunishable insta-death from any range in a game about mid and close range combat" line is a bit absurd. It sorta contradicts itself if you think about it. Maps are an important aspect of any first person shooter, and the dynamics in Team Fortress 2 are heavily reliant upon well balanced, proper flowing maps. If Harvest's control point wasn't inside of a building sniper would objectively be over powered on this map without any arguments if ands or buts. The amount of snipers that can consistently bean you at mid-to-close ranges in valve/community servers are limited due to the simple fact that most would rather be spending their time in a Sniper v Sniper tournament, or in Competitive for a chance to win money doing so. Yes, you'll come across them in servers and yes they'll pound you into the ground at times but it probably has more to do with the amount of practice they've put into doing such than it does the class being "unpunishable" which kinda makes me laugh just reading that.

before touching sniper, I would say I'm rather sick of soldier and especially demo having the monopoly of the game.

https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/315994/eb650d50-eca8-43d7-97bd-3c60a3db6dfb/20170907150459_1.jpg its been through changes

genuniely curious, does the drop change actually help you at all? I can understand spread crosshairs (mine are spreads of various hitscan weapons) but I've never really understood how projectile drop/size crosshairs help.

Are you playing TF2 or flight simulator?

Funny enough the two white horizontal lines aren't meant to denote drop angles. It actually helped me learn how to keep my aim at head level when playing sniper, and also helps with Market Gardens. I've played a lot of WW2 games where I spent a lot of time looking through the scope of a tank with projectile drop markings. I think I've also gotten too used to having them there and that without them I feel a bit out of place.

Someone was asking a while back about dueling mini-games on Marketplace.tf. Here's that followup blog post. https://marketplace.tf/blog/posts/ISPADS