Major Update Speculation Thread V3: Tonight's the Night, forever and always - Games

are they even trying to keep their playerbase at this point

Wall of text wherein I ramble incoming: I've been thinking about this update and what it might encompass as well as when it'll launch. Personally, I don't think tonight is the night. I don't think it'll be the night until the Steam Summer Sale starts. See, they've been holding off on major updates for a whole 6 months now. Besides the occasional bug fix and several cosmetics added (and a single weapon), we have not been getting much. I figure the last six months have been crunch time for not just the TF2 team, but for all of Valve. After all, they rolled out a huge update for Portal 2, have been working on Dota 2 endlessly (plus the international is coming up), CS:GO has been in need of constant tweaks and updates (and is scheduled for a PC AND console release in only 2 months, which means certification fun times with Microsoft and Sony), are working on a complete port of the Source engine (and by extension the games that utilize it) over to Linux, and who knows whats going on with Left 4 Dead and Half-Life 3. All-in-all, Valve is pretty damn busy. Now of course, I'm not defending what is basically Valve Time™; it's pretty damn annoying to get hyped up at the start of the year and see nothing for half a year, but given Valve's recent taste in how they announce updates in general, I'm not surprised. Valve wants this update to be huge; it should be grandiose, it should draw the attention of the entire gaming media and user base. They want people the day of the news to be saying "Did you hear about that huge update Valve put out?" even if those people don't play the game. Essentially, they want another degree of coverage from the gaming world that was brought upon by the Uber Update and Meet the Medic. In all honesty, it's quite a challenge to match an update like that, both in terms of content and how it shook the foundation of what we know about TF2 (the transition to F2P). However, Valve holding back has just possibly given them all the tools they need to beat last year. Valve has a couple of choices about how they want to do this update, after all, it could be... -The Saxxies -Another Uber Update with a Pyro focus -Mann vs. Machine (The Tobor Update) That's a load of content right there. Given that the Steam Summer Sale is coming up, I predict one of two things; a) All of the above will happen at once and will coincide with the summer sale; an update featuring Meet the Pyro will be released, and it will somehow tie into Mann vs. Machine (perhaps in video speculation about the Pyro being a robot?). The Saxxies might also be tied in somehow, with a video category dedicated to the MvM thing. Of course, we'll get a new gamemode for this, more than likely a horde/tower defense style mode with mode related and/or exclusive items. Half-Life universe tie-ins might also occur. All of this will happen to some kind of theme relating to summer (pyro=heat=summer). or b) A simple "Summer of TF2" announcement, where larger TF2 updates will occur all summer long, ending at the start of fall with another anniversary update. At least that's what I think. :v:

[QUOTE=misterdoo01;36389147]Wall of text wherein I ramble incoming: I've been thinking about this update and what it might encompass as well as when it'll launch. Personally, I don't think tonight is the night. I don't think it'll be the night until the Steam Summer Sale starts. See, they've been holding off on major updates for a whole 6 months now. Besides the occasional bug fix and several cosmetics added (and a single weapon), we have not been getting much. I figure the last six months have been crunch time for not just the TF2 team, but for all of Valve. After all, they rolled out a huge update for Portal 2, have been working on Dota 2 endlessly (plus the international is coming up), CS:GO has been in need of constant tweaks and updates (and is scheduled for a PC AND console release in only 2 months, which means certification fun times with Microsoft and Sony), are working on a complete port of the Source engine (and by extension the games that utilize it) over to Linux, and who knows whats going on with Left 4 Dead and Half-Life 3. All-in-all, Valve is pretty damn busy. Now of course, I'm not defending what is basically Valve Time™; it's pretty damn annoying to get hyped up at the start of the year and see nothing for half a year, but given Valve's recent taste in how they announce updates in general, I'm not surprised. Valve wants this update to be huge; it should be grandiose, it should draw the attention of the entire gaming media and user base. They want people the day of the news to be saying "Did you hear about that huge update Valve put out?" even if those people don't play the game. Essentially, they want another degree of coverage from the gaming world that was brought upon by the Uber Update and Meet the Medic. In all honesty, it's quite a challenge to match an update like that, both in terms of content and how it shook the foundation of what we know about TF2 (the transition to F2P). However, Valve holding back has just possibly given them all the tools they need to beat last year. Valve has a couple of choices about how they want to do this update, after all, it could be... -The Saxxies -Another Uber Update with a Pyro focus -Mann vs. Machine (The Tobor Update) That's a load of content right there. Given that the Steam Summer Sale is coming up, I predict one of two things; a) All of the above will happen at once and will coincide with the summer sale; an update featuring Meet the Pyro will be released, and it will somehow tie into Mann vs. Machine (perhaps in video speculation about the Pyro being a robot?). The Saxxies might also be tied in somehow, with a video category dedicated to the MvM thing. Of course, we'll get a new gamemode for this, more than likely a horde/tower defense style mode with mode related and/or exclusive items. Half-Life universe tie-ins might also occur. All of this will happen to some kind of theme relating to summer (pyro=heat=summer). or b) A simple "Summer of TF2" announcement, where larger TF2 updates will occur all summer long, ending at the start of fall with another anniversary update. At least that's what I think. :v:[/QUOTE] I like the B idea, but it would be a nightmare to squash bugs and so in time.

BRB going to watch anime while we wait

i'm on the verge of giving up all hope.

lol, he said verge

[QUOTE=Drsalvador;36389268]i'm on the verge of giving up all hope.[/QUOTE] But Robin just said that we would be happy with Valve "quite soon now." Of course [I]Tom Bui[/I] said the Saxxy rules would be up "sometime soon" 4 months ago so WHO KNOWS EVEN

[QUOTE=Croshi;36389309]But Robin just said that we would be happy with Valve "quite soon now." Of course [I]Tom Bui[/I] said the Saxxy rules would be up "sometime soon" 4 months ago so WHO KNOWS EVEN[/QUOTE] And? Don't you know their definition of "soon"?

[QUOTE=Croshi;36389309]But Robin just said that we would be happy with Valve "quite soon now." Of course [I]Tom Bui[/I] said the Saxxy rules would be up "sometime soon" 4 months ago so WHO KNOWS EVEN[/QUOTE] Episode 3 was supposed to come out in 2007 You can never trust Valve on this sort of thing. edit: [IMG]http://www.facepunch.com/fp/ratings/clock.png[/IMG]

delay all you like, valve. Gives me more time to accumulate more stuff.

[QUOTE=SLBros.;36389322]And? Don't you know their definition of "soon"?[/QUOTE] valve definition of "soon"? forever

[QUOTE=SLBros.;36389322]And? Don't you know their definition of "soon"?[/QUOTE] I was just saying I don't so no badreadingx1

[QUOTE=The Calzone;36389374]delay all you like, valve. Gives me more time to accumulate more stuff.[/QUOTE] I was doing that a couple of months ago, you know, when people when excited and expecting it to this whole madness to come up soon. I just gave up and crafted EVERYTHING I saved. And now that I have nothing, probably the update will come to laugh at my face.

[QUOTE=Croshi;36389309]But Robin just said that we would be happy with Valve "quite soon now." [/QUOTE] That email was over a week ago. Valve's definition of "soon" is different than the average persons.

it's still very early, got maybe 2 more hours before we should give up

[QUOTE=Danzflor;36389464]I was doing that a couple of months ago, you know, when people when excited and expecting it to this whole madness to come up soon. I just gave up and crafted EVERYTHING I saved. And now that I have nothing, probably the update will come to laugh at my face.[/QUOTE] I've given up and crafted everything like five times now. Not this time, though. This time I'm stickin' to it.

if it's a blog post for day 1, it'll come without warning, no HLDS email needed, so we can't judge by that

[QUOTE=Danzflor;36389464]I was doing that a couple of months ago, you know, when people when excited and expecting it to this whole madness to come up soon. I just gave up and crafted EVERYTHING I saved. And now that I have nothing, probably the update will come to laugh at my face.[/QUOTE] I've been stocking up since ealy on May. Crafted my stuff 2 times. 8 Refined and 6 Refined. Since then (2 weeks ago) I had the time to get even more and now I have 7 Refined. So I'd say you have all of your time. Hey, actually, they added the Action slot during the Engineer Update. That was 3 months before it got an use. The PDA/Sapper slots were added 2 or 3 months ago, too. Maybe we're in time after all.

I have my inventory aka 300 spaces full of metal (i had two salvaged crates there before)

So if anything happens I want a few things -Scouts killed Strange part -Strange Righteous bison -exploding demo weapons -a new secondary for engy hat isn't a remote control for sentries

[QUOTE=SLBros.;36389592] Hey, actually, they added the Action slot during the Engineer Update. That was 3 months before it got an use. The PDA/Sapper slots were added 2 or 3 months ago, too. Maybe we're in time after all.[/QUOTE] Something is definitely going to happen soon. Probably this week or next week.

Best of luck to all of those waiting.

I gave up already, whenever it happens, that's cool I guess.

[QUOTE=alwaysrage;36389699]Something is definitely going to happen soon. Probably this week or next week.[/QUOTE] I just wish they gave us a solid hint Like the time when they added "Modified some files for no reason whatsoever" to the patch notes

The Uber Update blog posts were released consistently around 8:00 PM EST. There will be no blog post tonight, and there will be no update this week--if even this month.

[QUOTE=Lord Exor;36389816]The Uber Update blog posts were released consistently around 8:00 PM EST. [/QUOTE] which happens to be right now

There'll atleast be the weekly workshop update.

[QUOTE=emmens;36389698]So if anything happens I want a few things -Scouts killed Strange part -Strange Righteous bison -exploding demo weapons -a new secondary for engy hat isn't a remote control for sentries[/QUOTE] Don't forget the S. Sandvich. Please Valve.

[QUOTE=Jetamo;36389844]There'll atleast be the weekly workshop update.[/QUOTE] It'll be Thursday. If there is one at all. I don't know if they're working on others things or if they just gave up, but we never got two weekly updates the same week.

Yeah, unless it is here within the next hour, I doubt anything will come.