Major Update Speculation V35 - A Distinctive Lack of Communication - Games

L3-2 Sentryguns can speed up the game as much as they can slow it down.

Okay, take this with a grain of salt as I wasn't able to 100% ascertain the veracity of this informant's claims (a former eGO community manager that alleges to have a friend employed for networking at Valve), but I have potentially disturbing information with regard to the future of community servers and what Valve intends to do to them. If you may recall, an e-mail was circulated a month or so prior to MyM indicating that Valve was developing a system to more directly register and vet server operators, with the intent of bestowing trust and allowing community servers to participate in events (Halloween, contracts, etc). My informant contends that this was terminated for logistical reasons in lieu of the renovated server browser. While this may not be news to many given Sigafoo's testimony, what was astonishing to me was the insinuation that this new server browser isn't meant to fulcrum communities, but to allow for ad hoc connections to [B]CASUAL[/B] while marginalizing community servers further with an obscured and isolated tab. Valve very much desires to see communities fade away.

First they kill mods now they're after servers? are they trying to kill their own game? whats next? we plant bombs and everyone gets a ski mask?

[QUOTE=Lord Exor;51475959]I never could quite comprehend precisely why people were infuriated with the Darwin's Danger Shield. After all, it only really impacts the Sniper vs. Sniper meta.[/QUOTE] Considering one of Sniper's main counters (if not THE main counter) is enemy Sniper, that's kind of a big deal.

I've honestly never felt more abused by a company before. This emotional roller coaster I've been on with regard to Valve and their games has been unprecedented in my 23 years of gaming, and I don't feel as if they possess even a scintilla of empathy for those of us they slight. [QUOTE=Drury;51477858]Considering one of Sniper's main counters (if not THE main counter) is enemy Sniper, that's kind of a big deal.[/QUOTE] Which is an outrageous balancing concept in the first place.

The Ad-hoc Casual connections sound great, but further putting Community Servers down a tab? Ugh.. I feel like Valve thinks Community Servers are just a clusterfuck of cp_orange and trade Servers - which they arent that much wrong about, since these are most of the populated ones. I wish they'd just use the casual system of Server picking and send groups of players on empty Community Servers, or atleast gave a note going on saying "Hey! you - try this!" Then again we'll find out in like two weeks anyways, I'd rather keep my optimism.

Trade servers and cp_orange are populated because if someone wants a vanilla TF2 experience, Valve servers are easy to use and difficult for server operators to compete with; keep cause and effect in mind here.

Resistance to Valve's Casual matchmaking system is futile. Just give up, like I did.

I refuse to feed into a system I not only resent on a functional level, but loathe for being yet another instrument of community devastation. The trend of excluding communities and end-user customizability in favor of in-game progression systems, faux competitive, and matchmaking is absolutely sickening to me, and I will not compromise on it. And yes, I am cognizant of the fact that Valve doesn't care about me or players like me at all, because I represent a neglected minority demographic that they feel confident won't negatively impact their overall numbers. I'm sure you can then understand if these actions only serve to fuel my antipathy for the company.

Then again, it all depends on how visible the "Community" tag is, and how it looks like. This can be considered an improvement either way, since right now, I am rather sure Community Servers are going to get more attention if the Server Browser becomes more clean and allows for a more newbie-friendly control.

[QUOTE=Lord Exor;51477686]Okay, take this with a grain of salt as I wasn't able to 100% ascertain the veracity of this informant (a former eGO community manager that alleges to have a friend employed for networking at Valve), but I have potentially disturbing information with regard to the future of community servers and what Valve intends to do to them. If you may recall, an e-mail was circulated a month or so prior to MyM indicating that Valve was developing a system to more directly register and vet server operators, with the intent of bestowing trust and allowing community servers to participate in events (Halloween, contracts, etc). My informant claims that this was terminated in lieu of the renovated server browser. While this may not be news to many given Sigafoo's testimony, what was astonishing to me was the insinuation that this new server browser isn't meant to fulcrum communities, but to allow for ad hoc connections to [B]CASUAL[/B] while marginalizing community servers further with an obscured and isolated tab. Valve very much desires to see communities fade away.[/QUOTE]Despite the current ui claiming to browse "community servers" the server browser still shows the thousands of unjoinable Valve servers making it a huge pain to use. If they manage to hide Valve servers then maybe it could be beneficial to community servers? Ideally the new browser would allow players to search for Valve servers but also have a way to search for community servers. (Preferably a setting much more visibly apparent than quickplay's settings.) Do you think this might be related to removing the remnants of quickplay a few weeks ago?

[QUOTE=Dreamscape;51477986]Despite the current ui claiming to browse "community servers" the server browser still shows the thousands of unjoinable Valve servers making it a huge pain to use. If they manage to hide Valve servers then maybe it could be beneficial to community servers? Ideally the new browser would allow players to search for Valve servers but also have a way to search for community servers. (Preferably a setting much more visibly apparent than quickplay's settings.) Do you think this might be related to removing the remnants of quickplay a few weeks ago?[/QUOTE] Can't you just put "valve" in the tags box then select "don't include"? Or is that not a thing anymore?

[QUOTE=housejojo06;51478005]Can't you just put "valve" in the tags box then select "don't include"? Or is that not a thing anymore?[/QUOTE] Your assuming everyone knows it though. After watching pub players play in game, as well as people in online shooters in general I wouldn't be surprised at all if a good chunk of the community doesn't understand how most of those options on the server browser even work, let alone consider looking them up or trying them out. Besides, if the Valve servers aren't even joinable then there's absolutely no reason they should be on the list in the first place.

[QUOTE=Lord Exor;51477686]Okay, take this with a grain of salt as I wasn't able to 100% ascertain the veracity of this informant (a former eGO community manager that alleges to have a friend employed for networking at Valve), but I have potentially disturbing information with regard to the future of community servers and what Valve intends to do to them. If you may recall, an e-mail was circulated a month or so prior to MyM indicating that Valve was developing a system to more directly register and vet server operators, with the intent of bestowing trust and allowing community servers to participate in events (Halloween, contracts, etc). My informant claims that this was terminated in lieu of the renovated server browser. While this may not be news to many given Sigafoo's testimony, what was astonishing to me was the insinuation that this new server browser isn't meant to fulcrum communities, but to allow for ad hoc connections to [B]CASUAL[/B] while marginalizing community servers further with an obscured and isolated tab. Valve very much desires to see communities fade away.[/QUOTE] I, too, love to jump to conclusions.

[QUOTE=geel9;51475841]The hook is so infuriating because in order to chase a player who's bullshitting his escape away from you, you have to have the hook out, which means you can't reasonably hurt them (and god help you if they have any sort of regeneration ability)[/QUOTE] It's a lot smoother if you just bind something to 'useactionslotitem' or whatever that was. Pressing that instantly shoots the hook, releasing it instantly switches back to what you had out before.

[QUOTE=geel9;51478082]I, too, love to jump to conclusions.[/QUOTE] And what conclusion am I jumping to exactly? I'm merely relaying information of a dubious nature that I gleaned from someone, and to be honest, it doesn't sound too outlandish, particularly since the person in question isn't invested enough in the TF2 community to be aware of such things as Sigafoo's three hour video. Or are you programmed to defend Valve at every juncture, even when it isn't prudent or necessary? My statements about being emotionally toyed with by the company are things that would ring true regardless of whether or not the information provided is accurate.

[QUOTE=geel9;51478082]I, too, love to jump to conclusions.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Lord Exor;51477686]Okay, take this with a grain of salt[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Contra132;51476954]so is CTF an inherently shitty gamemode for TF in general, or is it much better in TFC than in TF2?[/QUOTE] I'd say it's the former. CTF only really works in a fun way in most games if every class is high mobility and aggressive. (This is probably what they were going for with Mannpower, as a Quake-like gameplay is just better for CTF design, but then they also made defensive powerups which just makes campy playstyles even campier). The problem with it in TF is that it's straight up easier to play CTF by coordinating a strong defense. CTF in TF is less about cooperating to steal something from the opponents as much as it is having enough organization to create a defense that is inescapable if breached. While this does pretty much excellently demonstrate the name "Team Fortress" in game form, it's not what people usually have in mind with capture-the-flag. Reverse capture the flag would actually work better with Team Fortress 2's philosophy and was designed for some maps in TFC (basically, having to take a doom device of some sort into the enemy's intel rather than stealing their's and bringing it back). Basically, the inherent existence of Heavies, Demoman stickies and Engineers makes CTF not work in the mindset that capture the flag is usually envisioned as, and instead a different and slower experience that may not appeal to players actually looking for a game akin to capture-the-flag. The gameplay of TF2 is too mixed between offense and defense for it to work well with what is usually a heavily offense-oriented game mode, even though it is a great philosophy for Attack-Defend, Control Point and Payload.

if Valve decided to help the community servers by any means, work on a better server browser or improved community only quickplay, then casual system would be a benefit to community servers, because there's an actual difference between valve servers and community now. whatever they do, I hope they apply a filtering system that works, to guarantee vanilla servers.

[QUOTE=Daakun;51478341]It's a lot smoother if you just bind something to 'useactionslotitem' or whatever that was. Pressing that instantly shoots the hook, releasing it instantly switches back to what you had out before.[/QUOTE] I do that, but it's still almost impossible to reasonably damage people WHILE grappling around.

[QUOTE=Lord Exor;51477874] Which is an outrageous balancing concept in the first place.[/QUOTE] what I hate about the sniper v sniper meta is that it isolates snipers from their team, turning sniper duels into a side-game where two snipers are more focused on shutting each other down than contributing to their own team. but at the same time, if one team had the only good sniper, that sniper has solid reign over any sightlines covering the enemy team's desired locations, e.g. the objective/chokes there really isn't much of a way around this

[QUOTE=Lord Exor;51478359]And what conclusion am I jumping to exactly? I'm merely relaying information of a dubious nature that I gleaned from someone, and to be honest, it doesn't sound too outlandish, particularly since the person in question isn't invested enough in the TF2 community to be aware of such things as Sigafoo's three hour video. Or are you programmed to defend Valve at every juncture, even when it isn't prudent or necessary? My statements about being emotionally toyed with by the company are things that would ring true regardless of whether or not the information provided is accurate.[/QUOTE] I really tried not to mention, but what language are you speaking? I honestly had a hard time trying to understand what were you trying to say at first. Is there a name for this type of speech? Could you just write like everyone else? And do you speak like this as well? I've never heard anyone do so, it would be interesting to hear.

[QUOTE=ikes;51478507] there really isn't much of a way around this[/QUOTE] remove sniper

snip

[QUOTE=LZoleee;51478657]I really tried not to mention, but what language are you speaking? I honestly had a hard time trying to understand what were you trying to say at first. Is there a name for this type of speech? Could you just write like everyone else? And do you speak like this as well? I've never heard anyone do so, it would be interesting to hear.[/QUOTE] Translation: I am not jumping to conclusions; I am presenting another person's questionable testimony, but said person seems superficially credible. Are you eager to defend Valve at every point even when it makes no sense to do so? Anything I have said following the transmission of this information would still be in effect even if said information proves to be erroneous.

[QUOTE=LZoleee;51478657]I really tried not to mention, but what language are you speaking? I honestly had a hard time trying to understand what were you trying to say at first. Is there a name for this type of speech? Could you just write like everyone else? And do you speak like this as well? I've never heard anyone do so, it would be interesting to hear.[/QUOTE] I think it's called "English", but I'm Italian, what do I know

[QUOTE=Contra132;51476981]I don't remember who pointed this out (it might have been in this thread), but fun fact is that the DDS doesn't have an actual downside. Even with the explosive damage vulnerability, Sniper still has the same effective health (125) that he had against explosives before. With the bullet resistance + health boost, his effective health is much higher- around 175, iirc. The only real downside of the DDS is the SMG, but Sniper isn't exactly meant to be played at close/medium range. When played with Sniper as he's meant to be played, at a safe distance, it's a straight upgrade in every way.[/QUOTE] The DDS is the only item in this game that seriously makes me mad. Getting one shot by a close range direct hit as scout? I probably shouldn't have been that close to that soldier. My bad. Crit A Cola? If we all focus the scout once he pops that, he's no issue. But the fucking darwin's danger shield, the biggest irritation for me. It completely forces any other sniper to use it if they want a solid chance at a sniper 1v1.

[QUOTE=Lord Exor;51475959]I never could quite comprehend precisely why people were infuriated with the Darwin's Danger Shield. After all, it only really impacts the Sniper vs. Sniper meta.[/QUOTE] I find that Snipers get really mad when things hinder them. They cried really hard about the Natascha's damage resistance blocking fully charged headshots when Heavy was Overhealed. They all state while quietly hiding their razorbacks

[QUOTE=.Vel;51478945]Crit A Cola? If we all focus the scout once he pops that, he's no issue.[/QUOTE] they should make a new cola that turns you into a giant super scout but that'd be balanced because as long as multiple people can focus 1 player he will die!

A scout shouldnt be able to one shot a medic crit a cola is borked