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

i just got a name for my strange knife.

Holy shit Apple is deprecating OpenGL and OpenCL in macOS 10.14, and still no Vulkan support. They ONLY want Metal; TF2 and other Valve games might be fucked on Mac.

The way I've seen it explained is that when you get to the point of developing cheats/exploits of any kind, the fun is generally programming-related and little to do with original enjoyment of the game.

That'd make sense if it was kept on a basis of testing it a few times in public to confirm that it works at most. The fact that these exploits are used and abused so commonly gives off an almost sadist vibe. Some people are just assholes with mental problems.

Jokes on them my MacBookPro is so old (mid 2010) it wont even run 10.14 so hah! Just barely runs TF2 at minimum settings anyway but that's beside the point

While I was trying to test out a mod for TF2 I ended up getting a Circuit-Melting CnD.

Jill is probably going through the soul crushing experience of trying to get TF2 running on Vulkan.

That's a horrible decision, even by Apple standards of stupid.

Either they get TF2 and other Source games on Vulkan and use MoltenVK, or they make a DX to Metal translation layer like they did for OpenGL. All that effort getting Source on Mac, flushed down the toilet.

it has to happen eventually. there is a point of no return where legacy support ends being a reasonable expense and the only way to move foward is to pull the plug on it.

Not sure if this is the right place to ask (I will snip this post if it isn't), but does anyone have any download link available for the dr_playstation TF2 map? I'm interested to see how something was done, but unfortunately I lost the map .bsp so I'm not able to check anything. I'm mainly interested in how the custom weapon was done, and it would be good for archival purposes, if the final version of the map ever gets released. If you need a reminder for this map, here is a video showcasing it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Sx8LpeWDec

From what I remember the map wont get released until its finished. If you really want to know how said things have been done I would ask Dr.Face directly

whats a good name for a huntsman

In light of the TF Folk recently going down on some controversial weapons let's dive into the arsenal of the Engineer: Widowmaker: Was perfectly balanced; Still kinda is. I just want them to remove that pointless buff they added in MyM - really, it was fine. Rescue Ranger: Honestly this is another "It's clearly better than the other weapons(atleast on Defense) but nerfing it into dirt would make it a lot less fun!" but I really think it still needs a nerf. It's just so fucking powerful in essentially every way but dealing damage - and even at dealing damage it isn't too shabby. The weapon came out and it was perfectly fine and already regarded super powerful, and then they decided to buff it. Twice. Really? I personally think they should just reduce it's damage by ever so slightly so it's *actually* super bad at killing people like it was when it first came out or should simply reduce the clip by one. I was surprised people were actually debating if it needs a nerf when Jungle Inferno hit, seemed like a no brainer, yet it's still imo way too powerful. Jag: Remember how they changed the Panic Attack by literally 10% and made it so much better? We need another small number adjustment, specifically to the repair rate. At the moment the Jag is in 80% of situations the better option, which obviously ain't good. Given the faster swing speed the HPS (Heals per second) isn't actually what the weapon says, but more at 12% or something like that. Simply reducing the amount of HPS would make this weapon actually balanced and would give other Wrenches an actual reason to be used, at a good cost, making it a good sidegrade instead of essentially a direct upgrade. Wrangler: The obvious one. Holy shit how isn't this nerfed to the ground yet. There is absolutely no reason to use the Pistol or the newly made Short Circuit because of this thing essentially allowing the Engineer to tank entire ubers, unless it's a ubered Heavy. This thing makes pushing Last in valve comp if the enemy has a competent engineer so awful because they can just use the shield and tank an entire soldier/demo, not to mention just how annoying this thing is in pubs. Reducing the effective HP from 3x to 2x seems a lot fairer to me, and would make this thing actually doable. thats it really PS: Make the Texan Hos. more interesting

For Pete's sake, don't auto switch engies with level 3 buildings or medics with full uber meter...

Just for the sake of argument of comparison. How much better is the JAG considered over stock wrench? Oddly enough, I find myself still using Stock more then the JAG. I swap to JAG mostly for just building stuff quicker at spawn. Rescue Ranger's issue I feel is that it removes a lot of the risk of staying near your sentry ( thus, not getting hit by explosives while they attack your sentry ), and when paired up with things like the wrangler, can make it feel like it'll take a team just to knock out a engineer nest at times. Then you have the Teleport the sentry to my hand ability, that feels more like a get out of jail free card. Wrangler, I feel the biggest issue with it was the shield more then anything. Giving the Sentry 3x more health at any given moment is extremely powerful at deterring people. You can waste an entire uber just trying to destroy a single wrangled sentry. Over all though, I think it's that Engineer is just too good at being a brick wall. In specific maps ( Upward's Final point for starters ), having multiple good engineers set up in different spots can feel like your fighting a larger team then you really are. I've seen multiple uber pushes at the same time fail on that. Even more so if they have other classes like pyro's denying them the ability to push forward. Though, it's hard to judge how well this would work with a really well coordinated team though. As competitive don't generally allow multiple engineers to be run and casual doesn't generally have good coordination.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erBCQt_0qe4

engi needs dual pistols double the power but double the reload and spread

Well, Jag has problems with repairing and destroying sappers. I thought it was OP as well before I actually started using the Wrench.

i would like to thank the community for coming up with this

Repairing makes hardly a difference, it's incredibly niche where it actually does. Sappers is an actual downside, but compared to the INSANE upsides it's pretty much nothin. More details on the heal-rate stuff: https://youtu.be/Cz1wmgyNtu8 Refer to above video about the heal-rate. As you said, the Rescue Ranger is just so fucking powerful and important. You might aswell make it another stock weapon, because at the moment not using it in defense is just shooting yourself in the foot and really limits your choices. As far as the Engineer himself goes, I'd say he's fine. Then again I still think Engie should get a mini-dispenser and a speed-pad for 5cp.

I've been wanting the mini dispenser since that guy put it up on the workshop. Speed pads to be added as well, more so for maps were teleporters aren't really needed at all in the first place like Harvest due to the size of maps.

one of the biggest problems with the jag is that people can and will just build stuff and then change off the weapon when they're done building, granted, this gets the job done, it nerfs the weapon, but not in a meaningful way, it just adds another step to getting essentially the same result and it's just really an annoying hindrance rather than achieving anything I think the question you need to ask here is whether it's actually worth nerfing the weapon, for the purpose of spreading the variety of wrenches, which for all intents and purposes all give around the same result. I mean as an example, is it a priority to make the wrench/southern hospitality used equally? In my opinion it really doesn't matter. It's definitely not the worst offender out of all engis weapons and nerfing the class as a whole, on the part which isn't even broken, seems like a bad idea. To be honest engi could probably build even faster and still wouldn't be overpowered by any means. I agree that playing against the wrangler + ranger combo in valve comp is unreal. The wrangler is definitely the problem. I mean if you take into account that at the moment valve comp is extremely low skill, factually speaking it's way harder to get to the top ranks in almost any game I've ever seen. If it ever gets to the point where people actually take the game somewhat seriously, engineer is going to be a serious problem facing the game.

there's nothing salvageable about the wrangler. if you remove the shield then the sentry just gets immediately melted for little benefit. kill it

The Wrangler has only been balanced three times, compared to the Short Circuit's seven (eight if you count adding self damage to the alt-fire)

Engineers having the wrangler has become integral to the stock Sentry's balance. Without it, Sentries are worth nothing except in surprise spots to take 2 or 3 people off-guard, and even then that's not worth the up to a minute of set-up, finding metal, et cetera. It's incredibly easy to edge big Sentries, and the only classes that can't do anything about them are classes the Sentry hardcounters (Pyro, Scout). All it takes is two of the three power classes (Demo/Soldier/Heavy) working together to take down a sentry even if the Engineer is actively trying to protect it.

I disagree with the main statement here(You need 2 power classes to take out a sentry - actively focusing it. How is that bad?) , however even if this was the case: Then change Sentries. The Wrangler is awful to fight against, and feels very unfair to fight against when you uber against, say, a Sentry. Literally the best counter to it atm is an Enforcer spy that just runs up to it and shoots it 5 times. That's already the case with the Eureka effect on several maps; Yet no one does it because its too much of a hassle. Same will go for the Jag. Nerfing an overpowered weapon does not automatically translate to "wanting to nerf the class" - keep the faster build speed, I don't mind. Literally nerf the jag by buffing all other wrenches to have the Jag build speed be the default one. The Wrangler isn't even just a problem in valve comp, but in real comp(tm) aswell, it's banned there for a reason. In pubs its ever so slightly more bearable, but still awful to fight against.

I was watching HiGPSs new Dead Ringer video and he suggests a Spy-walk button that when pressed allows the Spy to move at his full speed while under disguse so a spy can easily catch up with enemies without dropping his disguise. What does everyone think of that feature? Seems like it could potentially be a decent buff for spy.

The purpose of a sentry isn't explicitly to get kills, it's to force an uber to be used to take an area. You can't take soft risks with a sentry, you HAVE to have an uber or else you can't do anything. Also, there is this thing called a "team" that engineer has to prevent cheese like that.

It's bad because that means you need the bare minimum of coordination to deal with the Sentries. Or do you not remember that teams are anywhere from 9 to 12 people in size? Sentries aren't an actual threat anymore without the wrangler. Just like the general skill and knowledge of the playerbase went up relating to dealing with Spies, they also went up relating to dealing with Sentries. Also, if you are actually saying without a hint of irony that the strongest counter to an Engineer wrangling a Sentry is a fucking Enforcer Spy SHOOTING the sentry (instead of, oh, i don't know, sapping the sentry), I don't think there's going to be any value gained from a discussion with you about Engineer sentry balance.