TF2 General Chat and Speculation Station V6 - Year of the Guard Dog SURVEY IN OP - Games

Observation: With the recent un-nerf/bugfix to the Quickfix, I've been trying it out again for the first time in ages. I've noted the QF has a hidden stat. The faster healing rate exceeds an invisible but important threshold: the impatience of the average pub idiot. With any other medi-gun, most pubbies will ignore the medic healing them and rush toward the nearest health pack, dispenser or even the resupply locker in spawn. This is even if the medic has explained in voice chat "I build uber faster on injured players, please hold still for a moment." Tangent: I said this to a sniper once, he said "lol, this medic is triggered!" and called a kickvote against me. It passed, beceause of course it did. The QF's healing rate is fast enough so that all but the most impatient and/or oblivious pubbies will hold the fuck still for a microsecond so I can build uber. The overheal and uber itself are underwhelming as always, but the QF is sort-of not horrible if one has a bunch of idiot teammates. It's an old TF2 meme to rename a medi gun "Retard Leash" or something similar. The QuickFix is more like this: https://i.imgur.com/1j12YLl.jpg

Sulfur looks way too modern for me.

So is Muselk officially back playing TF2?

anyone know if the sandman's balls are intentionally not supposed to be picked up anymore? I just noticed i cant pick them up, and dont know if its a bug, or a feature for consistency's sake

Sent a letter to John and Eric with weapon lighting fixes and a fixed DF texture. I used a stock weapons parameters fix pack (Thanks @sombrez !), the Dragon's Fury redux (Which has improved lighting too aside from the texture) (Thanks @Pie_Savvy !)(Didn't take the INCOGNITO version as it changes the texture pretty drastically), and the Golden Wrench fix (Thanks @starblaster64 !). I have also changed some of these VMTs and added a few VMTs myself to add a good lightwarp to some non-stock weapons, and put all this to a single pack. Also, skins look sexy with these parameters. Here's the download: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxbZm1jcnVYOdXRPckowWUo1bTA

That pack just has stock weapons, but it looks great, like 2007 TF2. If you already provided the .vmt for them to copy over, and it makes skins look better too, there's no reason for Valve to not take the two minutes is takes to replace some files if it makes weapons look better.

The issue is that you can't just apply a fan-made patch and call it a day. You need to seriously analyze it to make sure it's what you want for the game. Agreeing that it looks better isn't enough.

If they want the softer lighting, I wish they would just tell us. VMTs seem to just be text files so Valve could customise it however they wish, they don't even need to copy the fanmade versions.

Then maybe mappers should try making some A/D, Payload, and KOTH maps with a competitive mindset.

I believe there are already pro varients of maps out there that. I definitely know there are a few KotH maps that are for sure.

Hey i want to post up links to the VPK files i have compiled. Anyone have an idea on how i can post a link to a new thread i want to make?

Mappers capable of a competitive mindset are rare. They need a fair amount of competitive knowledge and understanding. You can't really expect a casual player to adopt a competitive mindset without the know-how. Same goes for mappers. Even with that competitive mindset, getting a map seriously tested exceedingly difficult. A new map is inherently unfamiliar, putting it at a major disadvantage. It takes time and effort to learn to play a map competitively. Doubly so for a mode that isn't 5CP or KOTH.

Then I guess we really shouldn't be talking about Heavy and Engineer viability in competitive when it's unlikely new A/D, Payload, and KOTH maps will ever be made with competitive in mind.

How did you read "competitive-focused map designers/reworkers are rare" and get "no competitive map makers exist at all"?

"Getting new maps tested is hard" "Mappers with competitive mindset are rare" And then the other issues that he didn't talk about: Non 5cp/koth maps just aren't tested at all competitively, period. You'd get laughed at if you brought forth what you called a "competitive A/D map". Then, if you did by some miracle get it tested, a few people might like it but those many who are deep-seated in their community would just call it aids and nobody would ever see the map again. In other words, we need the good, veteran mappers to.. learn how competitive works, I guess, and get them to make a map with that in mind, that happens to be A/D, KOTH, or Payload. Anyone want to pool some money for a commission?

The crit "vapor" for flamethrowers isn't attached to the hitboxes like the regular flames are, hope they fix it

getting new maps tested is hard because testing itself is a time consuming activity that not many people is willing to endure for the sake of a map that might or might not even be anything but a personal project. hell, not even valve managed to achieve 100% comp certified maps and they're the ones who had 11+ years to develop the game.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2421124966805271576/AB008915B60B85B08634B6E62D98533D4ADB2C6F/ lol

Anything that isn't game mode-wide reworks to A/D, Payload and CTF to make them work with a low playercount is a band-aid solution. It should not be the responsible of the community to solve Valve's problem for them, the way these modes work is fundamentally flawed with less than 18 players, much less 12.

I think Valve some invite some comp players to their office for a few days and do some brainstorming/testing of ideas to make all game modes (including 5CP) better for smaller number of players.

This. Something I've always admired about the way Valve ran TF2 was how open they were to getting help and feedback from specific parts of the community. I remember Valve employees lurking in the Speculation Station months before Meet the Medic came out, looking at all the stuff we'd caught, sampling our reactions and ideas. It makes for a game that feels like it knows where its going; a tightly-run ship, a well-oiled machine. Compare that to Overwatch, where Blizzard just does whatever anyone tells them to, for fear of scaring off the shittier players and missing out on some sweet sweet lootbox revenue. Blizzard will hear people say "help, the character who's designed to counter my main is making things frustrating for me" and nerf that character into irrelevance. Valve, meanwhile, will outright say "you scrubs are relying too much on shit like the Ambassador and Axetinguisher, we're taking your crutch away, get good" and end up thriving as a result of that tough love mentality.

Even before the Axe/Amby part, this is hilariously inaccurate. Maybe prior to Meet The Medic (SIX YEARS AGO), Valve was like this, but nowadays they sure as fuck aren't consulting with people. When they do, these concerns are almost never followed up on. Comp players concerns about competitive mode during the beta and prior to the launch of MyM? Nada. The literal years it took for them to nerf obviously-OP weapons like Sandman, Cleaver and Razorback? The fact that they only just added actual ELO to Competitive Mode and did a survey asking the playerbase about random crits? Come the fuck on. Also, Axtinguisher got nerfed into unacceptable shit for years and only just got into a playable form again. The Ambassador, even pre-nerf, is the polar opposite of a crutch weapon- crutch weapons, by definition, help new players succeed but hinder the capabilities of good players. Even if you consider the Ambassador overpowered, it certainly wasn't a crutch. It was and still is outright useless for most of the players running it, who do not meet the aim requirement necessary for it to be better than stock Revolver. (And now for the few people who were good enough with it, it's considered a downgrade. Good job, Valve!) Valve's balancing and communication are barely passable. This most recent update was a positive sign, but do not even pretend for a goddamn second that they actually listen to what their highest-level players have to say (they clearly don't), much less the rest of their community. I hate the way that Overwatch is balanced, but their balance changes are usually a result of what's happening in the OWL or at high levels of play. Characters who have been marginalized over time have been getting steady buffs recently (Reaper, Sombra), and characters considered frustrating to play against are receiving huge reworks (Hanzo, Symmetra for the second time). They also provide explanations for literally all of their balance changes, which Valve has only just started doing. tldr valve communication bad valve balance decisions mediocre at best and very delayed tf2 balance overall good overwatch communication good overwatch balance decisions decent and rapid overwatch balance overall still sucks though

If players aren't flocking to comp, mappers certainly won't either aside from an extreme niche of people that are: good mappers, have in depth knowledge of comp, interest in comp, and free time to priorise this over any other project. Quite frankly I don't understand how anyone can think 6v6 TF2 has the potential for broad appeal. It's so inherently different from the core game that you need maps specifically made for it, you need to ban weapons, and half the classes are useless. And the game isn't getting any younger. Focusing the efforts on Highlander comp would be so much simpler. Select a few classes you don't mind playing, get matched with a team of similar level, play using stopwatch rules, get ranks. It's about as close to the core game as you can get, any serious map can work if you use stopwatch rules, and balance changes done because of this mode will reflect similarly on pub matches. Sure, teams of 9 are harder to come by for actual tournaments, but it's the only downside I can think of.

Maybe the contemporary team responds that way, but years ago they did just that: nerf weapons or classes that lower-skilled players obstreperously whined about. See: Demoman, Heavy, Pyro, Spy.

there's a lot wrong with this post, and i do not have the time to explain it consult THE COMPETITIVE PROBLEM and the "THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE" section for a teardown of Highlander and all of its problems, including how it doesn't actually reflect pub gameplay and how it over-emphasizes Medic, Demoman and Sniper in a way that pubs and 6s do not. this assertation that Highlander is somehow a better competitive format, or that it more closely reflects pub TF2, is incredibly flawed, and I'm saying this as a Highlander Spy main.

Tell me how that goes

Did you also fix up the Conscious Objector?, it's also got a bland material that lacks phong and a lightwarp, it looks wrong.

No. Stop saying this. This completely wrong interpretation of the word "crutch" does not exist outside of the competitive TF2 community. I've covered this before: While this oft-repeated assertion may be accepted as gospel among the TF2 community (particularly the echo chamber circle jerk that is tf.tv and /r/truetf2) the truth is this is not how the English language works. Outside of the medical device, the most common used definition of the word is: "Something that supports, often used negatively to indicate that it is not needed and causes an unhealthful dependency" or, phrased differently, "Something on which one depends, often excessively: a mnemonic crutch." The first part "A crutch weapon is a weapon that makes bad players better" is spot on, if properly expanded. For example, "Crit-A-Cola is used as a crutch by low skills players enable their continued use of poor habits and preventing them from developing their skills in the game." The same is true for the pre-nerf Half Zatoichi and the legion of bad demoknights who relied on it. The issue here is the second qualifier "makes good players worse." Again using the example of Crit-a-Cola, it is both a crutch weapon used by bad players and OP AF in the hands of skilled ones. Also, there is nothing to say that a skilled player could not use a weapon as a crutch to keep them from further developing their abilities as well: "[This weapon] makes good players worse by encouraging bad game habits." It is increasingly less likely the more skilled they the player is, of course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g07VEiybnIg

Quickfix is cool, but I never got around it, It just seems like a direct downgrade for every medigun there is.