Major Update Speculation V31: Gamechanging Edition - Games

[QUOTE=Snowshoe;50311362]The problem with these 'cases' is, no one wants to open them.[/QUOTE] Not really, you would be surprised but unbox numbers are comparable to previous crates. And thats just cosmetic crates. I bet weapon cases have much higher unbox rates due to novelty of weapon skins.

[QUOTE=GetGrenade;50311444]Not really, you would be surprised but unbox numbers are comparable to previous crates. And thats just cosmetic crates. I bet weapon cases have much higher unbox rates due to novelty of weapon skins.[/QUOTE] Weapon cases are a separate thing altogether. Skins are new, hats are not, Valve is changing the way hat crates work for the worse.

[QUOTE]I never understood this, since most of the time it was possible to get the EXACT SAME not-strange skins outside of the case as a coontract reward.[/QUOTE] Uhhh, no? The cases and contact rewards are separate collections.

[QUOTE=Snowshoe;50311519]Valve is changing the way hat crates work for the worse.[/QUOTE] Not moneywise. I already said that unbox numbers are pretty much same, so I fail to see how is it worse for them.

[QUOTE=GetGrenade;50311865]Not moneywise. I already said that unbox numbers are pretty much same, so I fail to see how is it worse for them.[/QUOTE] Yeah if the unbox numbers are similar then the new crate system is probably better for Valve, since the rare cosmetic items sell for more on the market and Valve makes more money then if all items were the same rarity and pretty much the same price.

[QUOTE=GetGrenade;50311865]Not moneywise. I already said that unbox numbers are pretty much same, so I fail to see how is it worse for them.[/QUOTE] Where can I see the unbox numbers?

[QUOTE=gaben's nut;50312026]Where can I see the unbox numbers?[/QUOTE] Pretty sure they're confidential to only the contributors of the crate and valve.

Why the hell some people think they know how cases worked out for valve better than valve themselves. If they keep doing them they are obviously better (in terms of income, grade system itself has some cool ideas behind it, but still questionable). Nobody will lose possibility to make more money just to make you salty about that. Also, i think it would be cool to see something like shuffle cases, not just shuffle crates.

[QUOTE=boomsta_;50310146]We don't get anything from the market. Also people that get items into crates these days technically make more than older crates since there are far less items in them. However the actual number of crates sold are lower.[/QUOTE] For reference, I know you don't receive any money from the market. I'm on about Valve receiving money from the market.

[QUOTE=dongalator;50312132]Pretty sure they're confidential to only the contributors of the crate and valve.[/QUOTE] Although not exact, [url=http://stats.tf/cat/cosmetics]this site is good for gauging the amount of a cosmetic in existence[/url].

It's not showing any of the new cosmetics though

[QUOTE=gaben's nut;50312330]It's not showing any of the new cosmetics though[/QUOTE] I believe it has a few day delay

am I the only one who doesn't really care about unbox chances and only hopes they get something that doesn't look like hot garbage? I mean I unboxed the sniper cape and I love how it looks.

I only ever unbox a kind of crate just once to give the (exceedingly tiny) tip to community contributors, and oftentimes just trade down as fast as possible to the cosmetic nobody seems to want. In my individual case, tiered crates have made that much easier to accomplish. Even if this has proven convenient for my tastes, I'm in agreement that it is frustrating for people who want entire sets, though - it feels like teasing to make you want to gamble and pay more for that small, small chance at getting that last piece, which feels anti-consumer.

From my perspective (as a non-contributor), the main problem with the way tiers in current cosmetic Cases work isn't so much the fact that there's few really rare, Elite-grade items, but the fact that Mercenary-grade items represent like 80% of all unboxes. In the old crates, there were plenty of different possible outcomes when people opened them, as many, many cosmetics shared an equal (realistic) chance to be unboxed. But now, users that buy Keys and unbox in larger amounts are 'rewarded' with an absolute deluge of the same 4 or 5 Mercenary grade cosmetics. This leaves them with a ton of duplicates and forces them to sell them off at really low prices, not getting much of their Key money back. Also means that a lot of Commando/Asssassin grade cosmetics continue to hold quite a decent value (a couple of dollars/euros at least), which sucks for people like me who would prefer to buy these things off the Market once the prices fall months later. [B]TL,DR:[/B] from many a regular user's perspective, the forced item tiers for cosmetics (they're fine with Decorated weapons imo) mean that massive numbers of 30-40 cent Mercenary grade items are unboxed and grudgingly sold by unboxers that get a shitton of garbage duplicates, while many Commando/Assassin grade cosmetics retain rather steep prices (2+ euros/dollars) many months down the line. There's also cases where some of the cool/interesting stuff in a content update is so well locked behind a high-rarity-tier gate that you virtually don't get to see it much in everyday play. The Burstchester taunt, the 4 weapon reskins and some of the coolest cosmetics (like that space Sniper set) were some of the non-map highlights of the Invasion update, and I almost never saw any of them throughout the event, and I played a decent amount of hours then.

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[QUOTE=rolfum;50313311]am I the only one who doesn't really care about unbox chances and only hopes they get something that doesn't look like hot garbage? I mean I unboxed the sniper cape and I love how it looks.[/QUOTE] Unbox chances matter to people who are smart enough not to unbox. They dictate the pricing of the items.

Crates have never been worth opening. If you wanted something, it was always cheaper to buy the item from someone who did unbox. Tiers are no different. What you're paying for is the [I]chance[/I] to get something good, and cost to benefit ratio is nowhere near reasonable no matter what crate you look at. So any arguments about the tier cases having worse returns just don't make sense to me: returns on unboxing have always been bad. I also don't really agree with the argument of the differing rates. Most items in the previous crates have had varying drop rates as well. Now with the cases, they're much more pronounced, but the cases are transparent in how rare each item is compared to the others. The massive number of duplicates, I can understand why people wouldn't like that. But that's still nothing new given the previous crates still having different drop rates. Except the thing is, now you can trade all those duplicates up to get one item of the next tier. Still usually not worth it, but it beats being stuck with all the dupes after an unboxing spree. Having become used to this kind of system through CSGO, its addition to TF2 was nothing unusual for me. I honestly still think of it as an improvement. Owning a rare and/or valuable item feels much more rewarding than a common item. I was surprised to see people disliking the tiers. So what I see the main issue people have with the tiers is that it was a significant change. Kinds of items which were historically common and cheap can now be rare and expensive. Valve knows what kinds of items are desirable, and raises some of their rarities 1-3 notches. This can result in what was an ordinary cosmetic now running for 15 keys or more. For someone who's used to paying no more than a couple keys for a nice cosmetic, this is a significantly unpleasant shift. In the grand scheme of things, I see the inclusion of tiers, as well as a number of other changes we've seen in the past year, as a part of a major attempt at improving the virtual economy. You can dislike the changes as much as you want, but the most measurable form of approval and game health is that of economic activity. How many keys are being purchased, prices of items on the market, volume of items being sold, time spent playing, and other easily quantifiable attributes.

[QUOTE=Blade Rx69;50314287]Crates have never been worth opening. If you wanted something, it was always cheaper to buy the item from someone who did unbox. Tiers are no different. What you're paying for is the [I]chance[/I] to get something good, and cost to benefit ratio is nowhere near reasonable no matter what crate you look at. So any arguments about the tier cases having worse returns just don't make sense to me: returns on unboxing have always been bad. I also don't really agree with the argument of the differing rates. Most items in the previous crates have had varying drop rates as well. Now with the cases, they're much more pronounced, but the cases are transparent in how rare each item is compared to the others. The massive number of duplicates, I can understand why people wouldn't like that. But that's still nothing new given the previous crates still having different drop rates. Except the thing is, now you can trade all those duplicates up to get one item of the next tier. Still usually not worth it, but it beats being stuck with all the dupes after an unboxing spree. Having become used to this kind of system through CSGO, its addition to TF2 was nothing unusual for me. I honestly still think of it as an improvement. Owning a rare and/or valuable item feels much more rewarding than a common item. I was surprised to see people disliking the tiers. So what I see the main issue people have with the tiers is that it was a significant change. Kinds of items which were historically common and cheap can now be rare and expensive. Valve knows what kinds of items are desirable, and raises some of their rarities 1-3 notches. This can result in what was an ordinary cosmetic now running for 15 keys or more. For someone who's used to paying no more than a couple keys for a nice cosmetic, this is a significantly unpleasant shift. In the grand scheme of things, I see the inclusion of tiers, as well as a number of other changes we've seen in the past year, as a part of a major attempt at improving the virtual economy. You can dislike the changes as much as you want, but the most measurable form of approval and game health is that of economic activity. How many keys are being purchased, prices of items on the market, volume of items being sold, time spent playing, and other easily quantifiable attributes.[/QUOTE] The one thing that does piss me off about the new grade tier system is how inconsistent it is. All normal hats had yellow names untill now, why do the tiered items need colored names and borders? Couldn't they just add the tier color to the level text, same way the limited hats have yellow text there?

Doctor's Dapper Topper is now confirmed to be receiving an all class update after an announcement from the creator. Needless to say traders have already exploited this to their advantage by hoarding as many Unusual copies as they could, a similar fate seen by Federal Casemakers. We've come to a point where people are fervently exploiting these situations for their own benefit, and the stakes are increasing in each consecutive updated cosmetic. It should be the responsibility of item contributors to keep these updates under wraps before it gets even more out of hand, because as far as we know Valve could crack down on item updates as this practice becomes more widespread. [img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/PdbVUxy.png[/img_thumb]

[QUOTE=scoottehbesht;50314347]Doctor's Dapper Topper is now confirmed to be receiving an all class update after an announcement from the creator. Needless to say traders have already exploited this to their advantage by hoarding as many Unusual copies as they could, a similar fate seen by Federal Casemakers. We've come to a point where people are fervently exploiting these situations for their own benefit, and the stakes are increasing in each consecutive updated cosmetic. It should be the responsibility of item contributors to keep these updates under wraps before it gets even more out of hand, because as far as we know Valve could crack down on item updates as this practice becomes more widespread.[/QUOTE] I'd prefer that items be given a grace period before they can't receive any updates that aren't bug-related. Some of these 'updates' make them outright new items altogether, and sometimes the old version is preferable. Also, new HLDS e-mail [quote]Hey everyone, I wanted to give a heads-up about some upcoming changes to the way server accounts work in TF. In an future update, we are going to be introducing features that will only be available to game servers that have a registered game server SteamID, via the Game Server Login Token (GSLT) system. This system has existed for some time, but is currently only used in TF for persistent favouriting in the server browser. It has also gained some more restrictions recently that you should be aware of. - Game server accounts are tied to an owning Steam user account - This Steam account must not be currently community banned or locked. - This Steam account must not be limited. - This Steam account must have a qualifying registered phone. - Game servers that violate the community guidelines for the game they are hosting may have their access suspended or revoked. - Game server account suspensions or bans also apply to *all* other game servers tied to said Steam user More info and management tools are here: [url]https://steamcommunity.com/dev/managegameservers[/url] For TF specifically, being free-to-play, access to some upcoming features may eventually depend on the qualifications the owning Steam user account. So, while creating dedicated individual user accounts to own individual game servers is possible, it may lead to an increased burden in the future. We recommend game server accounts be registered to the Steam account of the acting server owner -- GSPs should require clients to provide their own tokens. This change will allow us to have a greater level of confidence in game servers, by making it easier to revoke access for bad actors and better tying game servers to their owners. The increased persistence gives us many more opportunities to assign trust to community servers, and to provide them access to features that would otherwise be too open for abuse. It also provides a much better mechanism for dealing with abuse than the current IP-ban system that is both less effective and more painful for server providers that share IPs between clients. We will have more information once we are ready to begin rolling out these features, but I wanted to send this heads up such that current admins and server providers can look into integrating this support into their setups. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns and I will try to address them, - Neph[/quote]

The tier system is shit. Everything they have done in the gun mettle update was shit. The skin system was shit. Every CS-GO related mechanics are trash excepted the "Drop gun/Take gun from a death person". Nothing else to say. Skins just don't fit the game. Tier system don't fit the game.

[QUOTE=Ellistron;50301150]We're working on a mandatory update for TF2. The update notes are below. We should have it ready soon. -Eric --------------------------------------- - Added the Mayflower Cosmetic Case and Mayflower Cosmetic Key - New community cosmetics case with 14 items - Fixed weapons not playing idle animations when cl_autoreload was set to 1 - Fixed team Spectator using the wrong name in tournament mode - Fixed occasionally getting the wrong output for the nextmap command - Fixed a regression with the explosive-headshot upgrade sound in Mann vs. Machine - Fixed the SMG firing tracers for every bullet while Focus is activated - Fixed The Sheriff's Stetson and The Patriot Peak not using the correct Blue team material - Updated models/materials for The Well-Rounded Rifleman, The Federal Casemaker, The Sub Zero Suit, The Salty Dog, and Universal Translator - Players can no longer change teams in Mannpower Mode - Updated tc_hydro and ctf_2fort to fix a problem with cubemaps[/QUOTE] 14 more item which will literally never get used by any player. It's always like that, they add cool item but because they have no value in the market player will not wears them.

[QUOTE=scoottehbesht;50314347]Doctor's Dapper Topper is now confirmed to be receiving an all class update after an announcement from the creator. Needless to say traders have already exploited this to their advantage by hoarding as many Unusual copies as they could, a similar fate seen by Federal Casemakers. [/QUOTE] Tbh I think the Doctor's dapper topper is one of those items that needs to be all class, hopefully he improved the texture too.

[QUOTE=Samwiseganja420;50314452]This is so sad.[/QUOTE] "Trading"

The HLDS email seems to be hinting at a return of community servers on Quickplay. And I'm all for it.

[QUOTE=ApertureXS200;50314402]The tier system is shit. Everything they have done in the gun mettle update was shit. The skin system was shit. Every CS-GO related mechanics are trash excepted the "Drop gun/Take gun from a death person". Nothing else to say. Skins just don't fit the game. Tier system don't fit the game.[/QUOTE] I've gotten used to skins in tf2. But i still hate the tier system. I've felt some major improvements in the quality of the skins in the tough break update. I mean you have some valid points but i don't think the drop gun thing is terrible either. I just want non-tiered crates back. I miss it so much. I mean the step up thing they did was nice. but it's not a good enough compromise.

[QUOTE=Samwiseganja420;50314487]I REALLY hope the bribing part is false. [url]https://www.reddit.com/r/tf2/comments/4j5pfg/can_content_creators_who_update_hats_do_like/[/url][/QUOTE] Virtual hats are serious business in the most literal sense.

Huh, I wonder if these Server-changes will be rolled out alongside a Major Update. Maybe the TF Team is trying to get Community Servers back into the game?

[QUOTE=scoottehbesht;50314500]The HLDS email seems to be hinting at a return of community servers on Quickplay. And I'm all for it.[/QUOTE] It could also hint at stuff like Contracts coming to community servers.