TF2 General Chat and Speculation Station: Whiteboard Blues - Games

[QUOTE=Petroklos;52657500]Unless they're still playing on the edge of a knife, they should know from at least the beginning of a work day, whether its gonna be the day or not. If it was intended to be, so they said nothing up to yesterday to keep the hype trains and suspense going, they could have at least told us at the start of their workday "today is not the day folks". I'm really struggling with wrapping my head around the events leading to yesterday and how to feel about the TF team's (lack of) response to the whole mess.[/QUOTE] I know it might not be exactly comparable but it's interesting seeing the confidence of an update day as time goes on [URL="https://forums.warframe.com/topic/498442-official-deployment-status-thread-echoes-of-the-sentient-see-you-friday-am/"]from a bigger company that [I]does[/I] communicate far more often.[/URL]

[QUOTE=Darth_Toast;52657680]I know it might not be exactly comparable but it's interesting seeing the confidence of an update day as time goes on [URL="https://forums.warframe.com/topic/498442-official-deployment-status-thread-echoes-of-the-sentient-see-you-friday-am/"]from a bigger company that [I]does[/I] communicate far more often.[/URL][/QUOTE] This is the dream but I'd settle for what the Overwatch team does. Also, DigitalExtremes is bigger than Valve?!

[QUOTE=Petroklos;52657703]This is the dream but I'd settle for what the Overwatch team does. Also, DigitalExtremes is bigger than Valve?![/QUOTE] The whole company was working on the one game is what I mean.

[QUOTE=Darth_Toast;52657680]I know it might not be exactly comparable but it's interesting seeing the confidence of an update day as time goes on [URL="https://forums.warframe.com/topic/498442-official-deployment-status-thread-echoes-of-the-sentient-see-you-friday-am/"]from a bigger company that [I]does[/I] communicate far more often.[/URL][/QUOTE] snip im dumb,i posted before reading the reply

I would say the next big date is TF2's birthday. By then My new wave of hope will be ready and refreshed after the 9/6 damage.

[QUOTE=Darth_Toast;52657709]The whole company was working on the one game is what I mean.[/QUOTE] Haven't they also been developing "The Amazing Eternals" for the last year or two?

[QUOTE=clearsky;52657763]Haven't they also been developing "The Amazing Eternals" for the last year or two?[/QUOTE] Even still, I can name more department leads on Warframe than team members working on TF2

Don't underestimate Valve. 9/6 ... 2018! Seeya'll next year! ... In all honesty they may have actually planned something for 9/6 and missed the cutoff with a particular part of the "event." I'm just not surprised about it at this point.

Just saw this in the Steam thread, Mike Morasky (Valve's composer) said that he's been working on a project for about a month in the summer, and he expects it to be released next week, unless Valve time gets in the picture. There was no mention of tf2, but it could be related. Other than in game music, the short is likely to have some as well after all.

For the sake of convenience and helping both me and others understand the clusterfuck that was 9/6 I'll try to gather all the information and recent happenings into one post, look at them from a bigger view, and see if there is a conclusion to be made that does not have me scratch my head. I normally draw these conclusions in the bathroom but it ended up with me wasting water for 30 minutes and getting a headache from hot water Exhibit A - [URL="https://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1577839&p=52655875&viewfull=1#post52655875"]The Uncle Dane Valve Visit[/URL] I don't have to explain the backstory, all that is relevant is that Dane saw a whiteboard at a board room the TF Team uses for meetings with: - An obvious drawing of a Jungle - September 6th - An exact time - which Dane couldnt exactly read, but thought of around 11:30AM. Keep this in mind. What's important to note is that the whiteboard, the last time he went there, was completely full, but this time it's completely empty. The TF Team was aware of Dane's visit 3 weeks prior - and Eric quite literally took them to it to explain it - to the meeting room where one could clearly see the whiteboard. After this, he made the tweet and the snowball started rolling. Exhibit B - Valve/TF Team Activity and Reaction Till the day of 9/6 - the TF Team was completely silent - nothing unusual, however the TF Team has proven in the past to sometimes stop the snowball before it starts rolling out of control when the community becomes hyped about things that dont matter. This leads people to believe that this 9/6 thing might be something actually substantial. Example: The SteamDB situation. While it's true that they didn't come out of their way to say that, but only responded to an Email, I have sent them an Email about 9/6 at midnight in their time. The first unusual thing is drunken_f00l, a Valve Developer that, while not directly working on TF2(as far as we know) has been associated with them rated a post and thus obviously lurked the thread for a bit. Then, later that day, Jill and Driller(?) came online at an unusual time.(atleast for Driller) and stayed online for a while - this only fueled the hype train even more. Then the great Depression starts. Pazer, a pal of Dane and one of the people that visited the Valve, posted this chatlog between him and Jillerino. [t]https://puu.sh/xtkfu/005200faca.png[/t] Now, what can we get out of this? A. They, or atleast Jill, is 100% of 9/6 rolling wild. B. Jill also sees it as an accident/mistake given the gif is a man jumping out of a window. Interesting note: Look at the time. 12~ AM. What did the whiteboard say? Around 11:30AM~ if we are to roll with Dane's assumption. Driller and Jill came online around that time, which is unusual. The thing is that Jill works in mysterious ways as said by geel, someone that knows him a lot better than we do, emphasizing Ponyman is a cunning and handsome mastertroll - so we really don't know the motives behind this. ( [URL="https://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1577839&p=52655573&viewfull=1#post52655573"]Scrap Dad conformation[/URL] ) Many saw this as a deconfirmation of 9/6,however, thus officially ending the road of optimism and starting the Great Depression & Uncle Dane Meme Generation. Exhibit C - The Little and Shady Things. These are things that aren't related to the last few days but more things that also lead a bit to 9/6 if you were to value them at your own risk. - VNN got a shady email with no proof whatsoever that Maps were selected. - The following week of that email, Mapping Man UEAKCrash uploaded rc5 of Overgrown after a long time of no updates. From my own Observation, this often happens when maps get selected for Updates. They suddenly get updated. - ics got an email like 1-2 months ago saying they'll have the Update out "lots of time" before Halloween. This is the only timeframe we can work with that is remotely confirmed. Exhibit D - The Interpretation. This is where we are at. Questions. Confusion. Frustration. From looking at all of this again, I have personally drawn two conclusions. 1. (The one I am rolling with) The Update was planned for 9/6, but a major bug/issue popped up, preventing the launch. I come to this conclusion as I don't think the TF Team wouldve just let that Snowball roll into a wall fully knowing nothing would happen. The question is how long this Update will be delayed - if it's tonight, tough-break style, next week, or even later. 2. The date was something completely different, like an internal playtest, or an elaborate ruse of the Janitor, the TF Team was fully aware of 6/9 but decided to not act and let the community crash. That's about it summed up. If I missed information, feel free to correct me. TF2's birthday is on the [B]10th of October.[/B] That's in a little bit over a month. It has been [B]35[/B] days since the last patch and exactly [B]3[/B] weeks since the Case Blog Post.

[QUOTE=Fluury;52657847] TF2's birthday is on the [B]10th of October.[/B] That's in a little bit over a month. It has been [B]35[/B] days since the last patch and exactly [B]2[/B] weeks since the Case Blog Post.[/QUOTE] Tomorrow will make it 3 weeks since the case blog post (made on the 18th). You really should just let go of this 9/6 thing and move on to other stuff. You and a few others have kept torturing yourselves with blind optimism for months now.

[QUOTE=RetroMike;52657876]Tomorrow will make it 3 weeks since the case blog post (made on the 18th). You really should just let go of this 9/6 thing and move on to other stuff. You and a few others have kept torturing yourselves with blind optimism for months now.[/QUOTE] I just wanted to go over the 9/6 thing. I'll stop viewing it as something interesting after this week. Also thanks for correcting me, I went for the birthday blog post instead of the Case one.

I want them to take as long as necessary. I'd rather have them keep working on something that will have actually been worth waiting for than something half-assed that they put out because of pressure from the community. Tha being said, my birthday is tomorrow. Come on, Valve! Do it for me! :poot:

[QUOTE=Fluury;52657847]essay[/quote] Steam world dig is free on origin if you want something to for a few days. [url]https://www.origin.com/en-us/store/free-games[/url]

[QUOTE=Fluury;52657908]I just wanted to go over the 9/6 thing. I'll stop viewing it as something interesting after this week. Also thanks for correcting me, I went for the birthday blog post instead of the Case one.[/QUOTE] I figured that was the error. I'm not trying to be mean or anything btw. I have high hopes for the update too, especially since I am a Workshop hopeful, but you need to reel in your hype to avoid burnout. Look what happened to Contra several pages back, dude lost it and I understand why. EDIT: I have had the feeling for a while now that the team has taken on more work for this update than their small team can handle. So we just gotta sit and be patient whether we like it or not.

[QUOTE=RetroMike;52657917]I figured that was the error. I'm not trying to be mean or anything btw. I have high hopes for the update too, especially since I am a Workshop hopeful, but you need to reel in your hype to avoid burnout. Look what happened to Contra several pages back, dude lost it and I understand why. EDIT: I have had the feeling for a while now that the team has taken on more work for this update than their small team can handle. So we just gotta sit and be patient whether we like it or not.[/QUOTE] I appreciate the concern but you must misunderstand me for the common hypeman. I have been with TF2 long enough and went through so much disappointment and the like that I'm already used to stuff like that. I just like to stay a bit more positive (albeit annoyingly) positive instead of negative, gives me something to look forward to, yknow? I prefer that over the way of the condescending sad-boy thinking hes the coolest kid on the block.

Valve is not going to delay the update until TF2's birthday, that would make zero sense.

I think a lot of people reached the acceptance stage by now.

[QUOTE=Mort Stroodle;52657941]Valve is not going to delay the update until TF2's birthday, that would make zero sense.[/QUOTE] I agree but neither does delaying it for over a year.

They skipped summer break. That means the date barely matters to them at this point. They are only focused on quality.

Listen, i'm all for valve taking their time. But if it takes them over a year and counting to get the update to an even moderately acceptable state then that doesn't speak kindly to the releasing of future content.

[QUOTE=Mort Stroodle;52657941]Valve is not going to delay the update until TF2's birthday, that would make zero sense.[/QUOTE] Apparently they couldn't even be assed to make proper updates since before MyM anyways, that update is so, so bizarre because there's stuff in that update that despite the time spent making it... allegedly, they couldn't be assed to even try their balance changes

It's actually gonna be sad if the promised "Summer Update" Is actually gonna be in October. Give us a god damn blog post atleast, you are leaving people without nothing, It's no fun, Valve, It's no fun... A blog post, a note, expect-to date, anything. Even go ahead and write Hello on your site, so we know you're still alive.

Major Discussion and Speculation Station #2.5: Summer in Spooktimes

[QUOTE=Punchy;52658033]Listen, i'm all for valve taking their time. But if it takes them over a year and counting to get the update to an even moderately acceptable state then that doesn't speak kindly to the releasing of future content.[/QUOTE] There's also not much point spending lots of time on an update if half the people waiting for it stop caring about the game due to lack of updates like damn, throw us a bone, even a small one...

[QUOTE=Punchy;52658033]Listen, i'm all for valve taking their time. But if it takes them over a year and counting to get the update to an even moderately acceptable state then that doesn't speak kindly to the releasing of future content.[/QUOTE] We'll see what's in the update. I played all the jungle community maps, and the best ones that are the favorites to get in the update are really good and gorgeous maps. So at least we know that the community maps part of the update won't disappoint. If the update is actually really good, it'll have been worth it to me. Hey If they remove random crits it'll be the best update ever regardless of how much time it took them to deliver it.

Word on the street seems to be that content has been selected for the update, and I'm inclined to agree at this point. I highly doubt it has taken them this long to finalize the community-side content of this part of the update, and I would be truly baffled if they haven't finished their single map by now, either. The real question is- what was NINESIX? I don't think it was related to selecting content- as big as that is to us, the players, that's pretty much just filling out a checklist for the TF Team. A long overdue checklist, at that. As angry and disappointed as I can be with the TF Team, I highly doubt it was for something like that. Whatever it was, it was internal, and it was a big enough deal to be put on a calendar like that. I see a few key possibilities here: [B]It was the intended launch day[/B] Possibly. There is evidence leaning toward this, including the fact that many Valve employees were communicating over the span of the days leading to NINESIX, undoubtedly aware of it, but not bothering to say anything about it. Even when one of them explicitly called out Uncle Dane, which you would think would make the perfect context to shut it down...but he didn't. If this is the case, something unexpected came up to delay the launch of the update. Maybe web page development was being done last-minute and something broke, or they noticed some major bugs that they didn't want to ship. At this point, I imagine they feel like we've waited too long to be given an update with gamebreaking bugs on day one, especially an update that's meant to be so important to TF2's future. There's no real way of knowing what happened in this scenario- all we can really do is hope that whatever it is can be fixed in a span of time that allows us to see the update within the next few weeks. [B]It was the date and time for the final internal run of testing[/B] This would also make sense- since the update is likely in its final stages (and has been for some time, if Driller's previous statements are any indication)- one last run of testing to make sure everything is working properly would make sense to me. Especially if they decide to pull in other people at Valve to help with the testing- you'd want at least a full server's worth of people to test everything out in any reasonable amount of time. [B]It was...a meeting date[/B] It...was in the meeting room, after all. Perhaps it was the date for a meeting- and, again assuming that we're in the final-final stages of the update, a meeting to plan and finalize the update rollout. Going over every bit of content that's being added, assessing the state of the balance changes...I figure that it's a big enough deal to go in the meeting room in that context. I'd run a big meeting with my team if I were about to roll out a project that took us over a year to complete. What do you guys think is most likely? What [I]was[/I] NINESIX?

[QUOTE=Loth;52658090]We'll see what's in the update. I played all the jungle community maps, and the best ones that are the favorites to get in the update are really good and gorgeous maps. So at least we know that the community maps part of the update won't disappoint. If the update is actually really good, it'll have been worth it to me. Hey If they remove random crits it'll be the best update ever regardless of how much time it took them to deliver it.[/QUOTE] I really do think they should remove random crits though. There's no point in having them other than giving new players some sort of even playing field against more experienced players. Some would argue that keeping them on melee only would be a better alternative. I think they should just be removed altogether.

God if the update were to finally come out and it was buggy Valve would get so much shit for it (as they should), so at this point I'm just hoping they're polishing it up

I made a bet in august that the update would be out at the latest september 8 (end of my exams). My searing plasma Sergeant's Drill Hat was staked against three scrap and a crate. Bad decisions were made.