Major Update Speculation V31: Gamechanging Edition - Games

[QUOTE=Dookas;50150333]Spy V Engi will be a Summer update no doubt[/QUOTE] I personally expect yet another stale series of contracts that runs on for way too long, bundled with an update that has barely any cosmetics and no new weapons to offer. And matchmaking will come out of Beta maybe, so that's at least something.

they need to go to doing monthly workshop contribution packs, one item for each class, or set of items, depending on context, and then one or a few all/multi class items. Workshop contributors are happy that theyre getting more in, players are happy to expect new items and not be flooded with excess, and valve makes a nice hefty profit doing it. I cant see any problems with it. Could also be bundled with bugfixes and minor balance changes depending on context and necessity. no need to worry about a monthly pack if the month will also contain a major update that would already feature cosmetics and stuff. Hell, you could even release new crate series' for it with special keys tied to months. March keys open any year's march crate, august keys to any august crate, etc. Would also be easier for managing revenue (since IIRC right now it's tied to key sales) Having the items end up in the store would also be nice.

I can't believe that matchmaking isn't even a full feature yet, it was supposed to be ready by the end of last year

[QUOTE=Zeos;50156643]I can't believe that matchmaking isn't even a full feature yet, it was supposed to be ready by the end of last year[/QUOTE] Probably i just was unlucky recently, but it looks like MM Beta hype is calming down - average waiting time in queue rose notably for me

[QUOTE=kos8bit;50156772]Probably i just was unlucky recently, but it looks like MM Beta hype is calming down - average waiting time in queue rose notably for me[/QUOTE] Then after 3-5 mins of waiting i see that the map is Vanguard... Ofc someone is gonna be a hero of the day (not even kidding) and will abadond that game to save everyone's else time <;) Seriously, they need to remove it from comp at all. Noone wants to play on it.

Like, I know that they generally wait till summer now for a new update, but Matchmaking should be completely separate from any schedule, it should just be [I]out[/I], though knowing their whole attitude to 'beta' content, fuck knows if it will ever really be anything other than always testing

Matchmaking will be trash unless Valve removes half of the weapons in the game or adds weapon bans, and at this point, I dont know if Valve is willing to admit that they made broken weapons - atleast for comp.

[QUOTE=Fluury;50158585]Matchmaking will be trash unless Valve removes half of the weapons in the game or adds weapon bans, and at this point, I dont know if Valve is willing to admit that they made broken weapons - atleast for comp.[/QUOTE] Of course some weapons are broken in comp, balancing for 12v12 with random crits is a very different from balancing for 6v6 with no random crits.

I think having a system that allows you to ban weapons would be good, but not necessary. Banning classes could work, but it could be difficult finding servers/players that ban a certain selection of classes. The real question is what maps will be added for 9v9, since Highlander really only shines in Attack/Defend/PL maps

[QUOTE=Doctor Hunt;50158652]I think having a system that allows you to ban weapons would be good, but not necessary. Banning classes could work, but it could be difficult finding servers/players that ban a certain selection of classes. The real question is what maps will be added for 9v9, since Highlander really only shines in Attack/Defend/PL maps[/QUOTE] there are definitely some koth maps good for Highlander, Asheville being the main one

[quote]Connection failed after 4 retries[/quote] That's literally all I see when I try to search for a Matchmaking game. I can't connect to any of the servers and I'm getting given low priorities because I get that as soon as I find a match. WTF.

I'd at least like to see a 2 per class limit in 6v6. Sure it wouldn't fix the lack of use 5/9 classes see but it would at least fix getting swarmed by scouts or teams that only try to grief by going engie or sniper rush or something.

[QUOTE=Blackavar;50158921]there are definitely some koth maps good for Highlander, Asheville being the main one[/QUOTE] Asheville isn't on the workshop so it's not going to get added. Coalplant is though and I could see that going official. I wouldn't be surprised if the next campaign features maps that Valve can add to comp matchmaking. PL_Swiftwater, CP_Sunshine and KotH_Coalplant are all on the workshop and are obvious candidates that could be used for matchmaking.

Don't forget Metalworks, that's practically a shoe-in

[QUOTE=Doctor Hunt;50159301]Don't forget Metalworks, that's practically a shoe-in[/QUOTE] Yeah for 5CP maps I think we'll see Sunshine, Metalworks and Glassworks all added in a campaign at some point.

-wrong thread-

I'm all for more maps in Matchmaking. Matchmaking should have more KOTH maps though, those are so much more fun than 5CP maps. KOTH just lends to more varied, and dynamic gameplay. 5CP is more fast paced, really to the point that whoever caps mid usually wins the round. That, and KOTH lets you use more classes that aren't held back from being too slow like in 5CP.

[QUOTE=Fluury;50158585]Matchmaking will be trash unless Valve removes half of the weapons in the game or adds weapon bans, and at this point, I dont know if Valve is willing to admit that they made broken weapons - atleast for comp.[/QUOTE] You do realize they can balance weapons for comp, right? I'm pretty sure everyone agreed that once competitive is a thing, they will look at statistics and balance weapons accordingly.

[QUOTE=Zadrave;50159848]You do realize they can balance weapons for comp, right? I'm pretty sure everyone agreed that once competitive is a thing, they will look at statistics and balance weapons accordingly.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=ComodoreBluth;50158631]Of course some weapons are broken in comp, balancing for 12v12 with random crits is a very different from balancing for 6v6 with no random crits.[/QUOTE] I'm mainly worried about how they are going to balance weapons to be balanced in 6s - Highlander [I]and[/I] Pubs. There are Universes between those "modes" and even just balancing around 6s would require valve to basically scrap entire mechanics, which they dont appear to be willing to do. Just look at the Pomson, a toddler can see that it has no place in comp since it has a stupid mechanic which fiddles with a major part of comp, yet however instead of removing the mechanic valve decided to "nerf" it, which leaves it still borked. Maybe I'm just pessimistic, and I probably am, but I dont see Valve creating a game where all weapons are perfectly balanced and no wep bans are needed.

They could provide us tools to control weapon stats on servers, add workshop for those presets and outsource balancing process to community, so it could be done much faster. EDIT: By tools i mean something modular that allows mixing different weapon mechanics, not just simple damage/rof/ammo sliders One more EDIT: That could revive community servers too (you can't kill my optimism)

[QUOTE=kos8bit;50156772]Probably i just was unlucky recently, but it looks like MM Beta hype is calming down - average waiting time in queue rose notably for me[/QUOTE]I was one of the people that stopped playing as much recently and it's probably due to a number of things: -Tons of great new games are coming out right now. Stuff like Dark Souls 3 and Enter the Gungeon are just taking up all my time, not to mention all the good TV that's on right now too. -It's starting to be exam season (at least in the UK). -They haven't updated in a while. Once they update it to fix the abandoning issues and make the ranking system better I'll be right back in there. Also if highlander shows up I'll be on that too.

We haven't got a patch with notes since March 29th. Wasn't February also like this? I believe this is our second patch drought this year. Rather surprising, since Tough Break is still in quickplay and advertised on site, when it was supposed to end on the 4th.

The entire first half of every year is almost always a drought, nothing new.

[QUOTE=GuntMyFries;50160917]We haven't got a patch with notes since March 29th. Wasn't February also like this? I believe this is our second patch drought this year. Rather surprising, since Tough Break is still in quickplay and advertised on site, when it was supposed to end on the 4th.[/QUOTE] although this is just major updates, it mostly applies too [img]http://i.imgur.com/7Hz6dGO.png[/img] it's generally not a good idea to expect much content before June. If you remove the item updates throughout this year, the bulk of the patches left are probably MM, which is already an anomaly

Do keep in mind that the last time we had a few-week update drought, we got a [URL="https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/February_29,_2016_Patch"]pretty big update[/URL] out of it. I doubt we'll get complete matchmaking or Spy vs Engie yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if the next non-schema-only update added an ARG, 9v9 to comp or something equally neat.

It wouldn't surprise me if valve did an update near Overwatches open beta or release in the next couple weeks to try and compete with it. I met alot of tf2 players during the stress test.

[QUOTE=poptart TF2;50161883]It wouldn't surprise me if valve did an update near Overwatches open beta or release in the next couple weeks to try and compete with it. I met alot of tf2 players during the stress test.[/QUOTE] Why do you feel the need to relate everything to Overwatch? No one cares about the "rivalry" anymore, it's obvious Valve and Blizzard aren't competing for players.

[QUOTE=DavidCameron;50162210]Why do you feel the need to relate everything to Overwatch? No one cares about the "rivalry" anymore, it's obvious Valve and Blizzard aren't competing for players.[/QUOTE] because game companies do it all the fucking time, why do you think battleborne had its open beta at the same time as dooms. Its an incredibly common practice to try and hold events for your own game to draw attention away from competitors to retain more of your playerbase, its been done constantly among game companies for decades. Its why consoles usually release at the same time, why game releases generally happen close together, etc. It just makes logical sense for valve, which is a fucking business to make a noteworthy update to try and draw attention towards there game. Heck it wouldn't surprise me if valves matchmaking was partially motivated by valve wanting to be able to compete, to try and retain its veteran players, considering they never gave a shit about any kind of matchmaking system beforehand.

[QUOTE=gigazelle;50161155]The entire first half of every year is almost always a drought, nothing new.[/QUOTE] [url]https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Item_timeline[/url] If you compare the previous years you'll actually notice that, so far, this is the worst year TF2's ever had in terms of items. Nothing except 2 medals. Every other year had at least something noteworthy until the end of April, but nope, not this time. It's also been the longest period ever since we actually got any sort of new item usable by the common player.

[QUOTE=Doom64hunter;50162661][url]https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Item_timeline[/url] If you compare the previous years you'll actually notice that, so far, this is the worst year TF2's ever had in terms of items. Nothing except 2 medals. Every other year had at least something noteworthy until the end of April, but nope, not this time.[/QUOTE] At least we've had countless updates to cosmetics. All the new versions of items that can now be worn by other classes are probably more than any new hats we would have gotten by now.