TF2 General Chat and Update Speculation Station - One of Several Edition - Games

Afterburn needs to be strengthened, at least on the Flamethrower. [QUOTE=Blackavar;52454246]Since the update could be here any day, I'll just put in what I think should happen to his class as a whole: Fix the flamethrower. Make what you see the same as what hurts the enemy. Remove any discrepancies of range between people of different connection strengths. Along with this, make direct fire damage more powerful, but reduce the size of the hitboxes so more aiming is required. [B]Fix afterburn. For afterburn to be strong, it needs to have less ways of putting it out. Of course, by that I mean I think that healthpacks shouldn't extinguish fire. Everything else can stay. Something I've suggested for a while also ought to occur: Afterburn should do twice as much damage, over half the time. And I think that time should be based on how much direct fire damage has been received over the past second. If the Pyro, during a second of combat, laid into you with all the fire particles possible in a second, the afterburn damage you receive should be great. Whereas if only a single particle scrapes you, you shouldn't have to face much damage at all.[/B] Fix airblast. Currently, airblast is a big hitbox that reflects all people and projectiles within it, activated by a single button. Not only does this action require little skill, but it feels random and more based on luck than real timing, especially when reflecting projectiles at a close range. I believe that, at least, the hitbox should be changed from a box shape to a cone shape, meaning people at close range that you're not pointing at with your crosshair will not be airblasted. Secondly, I believe airblast as a concept should be based on explosive knockback, meaning any instance of airblast on the enemy can be strafed through. Third, and finally, I believe airblast's effects should be added to the momentum of the enemy, instead of completely nullifying where they were going in favor of a static, unskillful motion. If a Soldier is jumping at you, crit-shovel in hand, your puff of air shouldn't completely stop him. Unfortunately, I believe this may be something difficult to code into the game (but who knows what the TF2 team has been doing behind closed doors this year). Wean the Pyro off of combos. For too long, using the Flamethrower to kill opponents has been looked down upon, seen as an unskillful method used only by new players and trolls. But simply airblasting an enemy, pulling out a different weapon, and murdering them before they touched the ground, for some reason was seen as the epitome of skill for the Pyro, giving Pyro the honorary title of "Class with the lowest skill ceiling". Given my changes to how the Flamethrower works above, WASD+M1 should no longer be seen as unskillful, and given my changes to airblast, combos can either 1. be removed entirely, or 2. stay how they are because airblast is "more skillful" now. Personally, I think Pyro shouldn't have combos anymore, when the real close-combat DPS comes from the fire. Increase the mobility options of Pyro. In 6s, Pyro is regarded as mostly irrelevant, not just because of his poor combat ability, but by his slowness compared to the main 6s classes. Demo and Soldier can both explosive jump, Scout has incredible movement speed, and Medic has a higher movement speed. Pyro has nothing. A few different things can happen that can increase Pyro's mobility, giving him a place on the 6s team: 1. Increase his base movement speed to that of the Medic. This would be the first thing I would do. It would allow the Pyro defeat any backpedalling class, and get to mid just as fast as the Medic. 2. Give airblast a "Flamethrower Jump" property. Simply put, make it so that airblast has a recoil that, when aimed downward, sends Pyro through the air, perhaps as strong as rocket jumping (I don't actually think it should be that strong though.). 3. Give all Flare Guns the ability to jump, and give the Detonator the jump it had in the Beta version. I used to be a big fan of this idea, but I think the airblast jump would be a better idea. If this change happened, the only viable Flare Gun would be the Detonator, and that's not good.[/QUOTE] We should be making afterburn stronger, not weaker, and require more skill to get the most out of it.

make it so afterburn duration is based on how long you were touched by flames, making it so if you were just scraped by a flame particle, the afterburn time and damage would be minimal, but if you got hit in a full blast of fire, it would last much longer and do more damage per tick also make it so afterburn cannot kill you if the pyro that set you on fire died, but instead drained you to 1hp, making it so pyros have to actually survive setting multiple people on fire in order to get the most out of it instead of just dying and crossing their fingers for an afterburn kill

[QUOTE=Blackavar;52455704]Afterburn needs to be strengthened, at least on the Flamethrower. We should be making afterburn stronger, not weaker, and require more skill to get the most out of it.[/QUOTE] Was wondering if making it that afterburn actually starts off weak and gets stronger as the target is continuously doused in fire would be doable. [QUOTE=rolfum;52455724]make it so afterburn duration is based on how long you were touched by flames, making it so if you were just scraped by a flame particle, the afterburn time and damage would be minimal, but if you got hit in a full blast of fire, it would last much longer and do more damage per tick also make it so afterburn cannot kill you if the pyro that set you on fire died, but instead drained you to 1hp, making it so pyros have to actually survive setting multiple people on fire in order to get the most out of it instead of just dying and crossing their fingers for an afterburn kill[/QUOTE] Eh, you beat me lol... But I don't think I could agree with the idea that pyro dying denies him a kill. That is, you buff the pyro's ability to survive encounters better somehow to compensate. Against organized teams it can be a royal pain just to get near people to ignite them lol..

I think afterburn is about as it should be. Making damage-over-time more powerful will just be an annoyance. It's essentially a little bonus damage that you get for being a Pyro. Of all the possible ways to make Pyro more powerful, stronger afterburn has almost nothing to offer in terms of making the game more fun or interesting.

[QUOTE=Kitt Stargaze;52455726]Was wondering if making it that afterburn actually starts off weak and gets stronger as the target is continuously doused in fire would be doable. [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=rolfum;52455724]make it so afterburn duration is based on how long you were touched by flames, making it so if you were just scraped by a flame particle, the afterburn time and damage would be minimal, but if you got hit in a full blast of fire, it would last much longer and do more damage per tick [/QUOTE] [quote=me]And I think that [the length of] time [afterburn lasts] should be based on how much direct fire damage has been received over the past second. If the Pyro, during a second of combat, laid into you with all the fire particles possible in a second, the afterburn damage you receive should be great. Whereas if only a single particle scrapes you, you shouldn't have to face much damage at all.[/quote] come on guys, i just said that

[QUOTE=Mockingbird;52455758]I think afterburn is about as it should be. Making damage-over-time more powerful will just be an annoyance. It's essentially a little bonus damage that you get for being a Pyro. Of all the possible ways to make Pyro more powerful, stronger afterburn has almost nothing to offer in terms of making the game more fun or interesting.[/QUOTE] It's a little bonus damage you get for having a weapon with the shittiest range in the game sans melee. I think it's fair.

So we agree that it's good as-is?

No? It's not good enough. [editline]11th July 2017[/editline] The concept of it is fair is what I meant.

Why would you not prefer a direct damage buff though? It'd be more powerful for the Pyro and less annoying for the victim.

Dying instantly is less annoying than taking damage over time? People already flip their shit over Phlog and W+M1, even though neither are threatening.

you fix afterburn by removing the easy extinguishes. Jars and airblast, that is. rest is ok

[QUOTE=Antary;52456896]Dying instantly is less annoying than taking damage over time?.[/QUOTE] Dying instantly is less annoying than [I]dying[/I] to damage over time, yes. The better question is why would having stronger afterburn make pyro more fun? You'd occasionally get a kill you otherwise wouldn't, but it wouldn't open any new avenues of skill or effectiveness really. It'd be a buff to flaregun spam (detonator and scorch esp) and to running away prior to getting a kill. To me, that doesn't sound fun.

[QUOTE=Mockingbird;52458685]It'd be a buff to flaregun spam (detonator and scorch esp)[/QUOTE] It doesn't have to be. Say the new flamethrower afterburn, at full strength, ends up doing 12 damage per second for 5 seconds (6 damage per tick, a tick is half a second), for 60 damage. You could just have an attribute on all the flare guns like "50% afterburn damage penalty" or something. I'm sure the burn one received from a flamethrower in real life would be much greater than the damage one would receive by getting shot with a flare gun. And dying quicker is less annoying.

So strictly a buff to using shotgun after igniting with flamethrower? I thought you wanted to move away from the focus on combos? I don't think your suggestion is game breaking or anything, I'm just not sold on it bettering the game. [QUOTE=Blackavar;52458828]And dying quicker is less annoying.[/QUOTE] I'm glad we agree about this.

[QUOTE=Mockingbird;52458685]Dying instantly is less annoying than [I]dying[/I] to damage over time, yes. The better question is why would having stronger afterburn make pyro more fun? You'd occasionally get a kill you otherwise wouldn't, but it wouldn't open any new avenues of skill or effectiveness really. It'd be a buff to flaregun spam (detonator and scorch esp) and to running away prior to getting a kill. To me, that doesn't sound fun.[/QUOTE] With better afterburn you could pop out, set people on fire, and then run away, still harassing the enemy quite a bit. You wouldn't have to run at enemies like a suicidal maniac and then inevitably die if you intend to do any meaningful flame damage whatsoever. I think it would give the Pyro a better niche than what he has now.

As I said, I don't think that would be fun, but I'll agree to disagree if you're saying it would be for you.

I think a good solution would be to increase the rate of afterburn ticks per second. as it stands right now, it needs 10 whole seconds of afterburn to do 60 damage total. if you increase the speed, afterburn would be more of an immediate threat. Reduce the duration of afterburn, so that way you'll be doing the same damage as before but faster.

Anyone get this thing with their casual ranks always resetting to a previous rank, but when you finish a game in casual it'll magically rank you up to your real rank?

Yeah. I find it tolerably because sometimes you get two level up jingles in a row and it sounds really neat.

I've not played TF2 for a long time. Fill me in: casual ranks? What's going on?

Yeah there's ranks in casual now. They do nothing [I]now[/I], you don't get anything for ranking up, which I think is lame. I think there's a total of 150. There was an update where it would match you in games of people with similar rank, but either they scrapped it or there's not enough playerbase to do so ... I always see people of all levels in my casual games, even level 1's. This was the main focus of casual ranks, but as I said, it's no longer the case. When it did work and it did match you with similar ranks, it was hands down the [I]best[/I] TF2 pub/casual experience I have ever had, and that's saying something out of my 4,900+hrs on TF2. The match was honestly so balanced and we didn't have people spycrabbing, being friendlies or any of those shenanigans. That didn't last long though, that system no longer works and it's basically your normal pub game ... so ranks are completely pointless now except for showing off.

[QUOTE=DrVincentWolf;52464013]Yeah. I find it tolerably because sometimes you get two level up jingles in a row and it sounds really neat.[/QUOTE] On a related note I love it when someone's dominates you and you kill them at the same time and get the confused school band mix of the domination/revenge music.

[QUOTE='[ToRn];52464348']Yeah there's ranks in casual now. They do nothing [I]now[/I], you don't get anything for ranking up, which I think is lame. I think there's a total of 150. There was an update where it would match you in games of people with similar rank, but either they scrapped it or there's not enough playerbase to do so ... I always see people of all levels in my casual games, even level 1's. This was the main focus of casual ranks, but as I said, it's no longer the case. When it did work and it did match you with similar ranks, it was hands down the [I]best[/I] TF2 pub/casual experience I have ever had, and that's saying something out of my 4,900+hrs on TF2. The match was honestly so balanced and we didn't have people spycrabbing, being friendlies or any of those shenanigans. That didn't last long though, that system no longer works and it's basically your normal pub game ... so ranks are completely pointless now except for showing off.[/QUOTE] Next big update apparantly will do something with casual ranks, I swear they mentioned they already had the next badges made and planned to up the level cap. Maybe I'm all muddled here, but also the level getting you people of similiar rank or atleast work to an average of some kind would happen. Or maybe that's just for competitive?

Seems like someone has gaben as their cousin and he gave them a heavy statue,does anyone else have this statue to confirm its real? [url]http://imgur.com/gallery/BhhLp[/url]

[QUOTE=Goodwell;52467665]Next big update apparantly will do something with casual ranks, I swear they mentioned they already had the next badges made and planned to up the level cap. Maybe I'm all muddled here, but also the level getting you people of similiar rank or atleast work to an average of some kind would happen. Or maybe that's just for competitive?[/QUOTE] I think I've heard that they're raising the casual badge cap. As for matching people of similar badge level, I doubt that that will come to casual. More than anything else, casual levels are a measure of number of time spent in casual. They're not a good indicator of skill at all, unless they plan to change the way XP is accumulated as well.

[QUOTE=Big Snake Bos;52467781]Seems like someone has gaben as their cousin and he gave them a heavy statue,does anyone else have this statue to confirm its real? [url]http://imgur.com/gallery/BhhLp[/url][/QUOTE] My uncle works at nintendo

[QUOTE=Big Snake Bos;52467781]Seems like someone has gaben as their cousin and he gave them a heavy statue,does anyone else have this statue to confirm its real? [url]http://imgur.com/gallery/BhhLp[/url][/QUOTE] Those statues are real, if you have a couple hundred extra bucks lying around you can buy the non Gaben version: [url]http://www.gamingheads.com/licenses/team-fortress-2.html[/url] I may or may not have the Heavy and Soldier.

just played a round of casual with b4nny and he kicked my ass

Is VTFedit the way to go if you want to create a spray?

[QUOTE=ComodoreBluth;52468157]Those statues are real, if you have a couple hundred extra bucks lying around you can buy the non Gaben version: [url]http://www.gamingheads.com/licenses/team-fortress-2.html[/url] I may or may not have the Heavy and Soldier.[/QUOTE] I wouldn't mind a couple of them myself. But at the time being I need my cash more so I can actually have a healthy life lol. Hard to pick though which one I'd want first though. Over the years as of late, starting at 2004 I've started collecting little trinkets to store in my room of favorite game/cartoon/anime characters for the sake of collecting. Last piece I've gotten was a neat little 3d picture of [URL="http://www.dangerousuniverse.com/archive/2012/09/batman2.jpg"]this[/URL] for my room. Still one of my favorite cartoons of all time heh. [QUOTE=FalconHBFS;52473442]Is VTFedit the way to go if you want to create a spray?[/QUOTE] It's the way I go when I draw up sprays, but I believe you can just incorprate images now to turn them into sprays. I believe there is a website as well that does the work for you to turn them into sprays as well.