Final Major Update Speculation V37 - This is the last MUS thread. Speculate in General Chat. - Games

I put my bets for this december.

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/emD8J2x.jpg[/IMG]

Either way, I predict this will be the longest wait for a summer update yet.

It was pretty much a given that the Update is coming in July. Not to mention Winglet's comment in Reddit (Winglet was one of the supposed testers of the supposed Jungle map): [url]https://www.reddit.com/r/tf2/comments/6fq0qf/when_do_you_think_the_pyro_update_will_drop_or_at/dikf89i/[/url]

I do hope that they are aware (atleast i mailed Eric ~month ago) that the custom soundscapes in maps are broken (again) in the workshop versions of the map so what they hear is lacking ambience in some of the maps, including mine, should they test those. Last time when i reported this, it got fixed but since [URL="https://tf2maps.net/threads/future-way-of-packing-nav-files-into-bsp-and-getting-them-to-work-properly-with-workshop-elsewhere.30583/"]there was new method for packing nav files to the workshop map file[/URL], maybe there is something new that we arent' aware of for adding the soundscape files too?`

[QUOTE=RocketRacer;52356282]I know what you mean, but trust me. When you get so into something you can get dreams about it. I know some people who are so mad with OW they have dreams about it. I myself has had some dreams about games but they were super rare, maybe twice in my lifetime(that I remember ofc). [editline]14th June 2017[/editline] Time to take the initiative then! I'll quickly slap something together. EDIT: [url]https://discord.gg/yjBBMhG[/url] - made a Discord server for TF2, hopefully we'll get some people in here.[/QUOTE] I found the old Facepunch TF2 discord. Here's the link, it has about 36 people in it. [url]https://discord.gg/kUqQesA[/url]

[QUOTE=kos8bit;52362310]Both silence and "thank you for your opinion" don't affect the product, the latter one only makes overly attached people feel better That's why i really like Valve's "communicating through the product" policy - in most cases direct communication is just a waste of resources (time is a resource too) Just think about how thanking you for the feedback or saying that they are working on something affects the final state of the update? It doesn't affect it, at all, but it takes out somebody out of the active dev team for some time to do that stuff. So in the end what we get is wasted time in the price of satisfying somebody. I realize i may be wrong, i have only theoretical understanding of that stuff since i didn't finish any projects myself yet to be backed up by personal experience. My explanations are wonky, somebody like geel probably would explain this in a better and more realistic way.[/QUOTE] I am sure we all have differing opinions on this, but I see it as a case that if you have a crappy update fallout, then at least your fans still support you because you showed you care all the time. The development of Godus is a good example. So much silence that, when an update did come and was okay, people still hated on the dev team and many had already stopped caring.

[QUOTE=TF2 Team]If you are working on Jungle-themed content not yet on the workshop, you should strive to get it posted soon. Map authors in particular are encouraged to continue polishing and iterating on their submissions -- and there is still time to do so! -- so do not hesitate to get your submission visible to the world, even if it is not yet fully polished.[/QUOTE] Holy. Fucking. Shit. :v: So... no chance whatsoever of the update arriving this month. See y'all in July!

So I'm surprised that nobody's posted this yet: UEAKCrash got some new information about the Jungle props: Don't expect 'em. [t]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DCZULSpXUAQG1ep.jpg[/t] [URL]https://twitter.com/UEAKCrash/status/875479741842821121[/URL]

[QUOTE]you should strive to get it posted soon[/QUOTE] the speculation... it begins

[QUOTE=gronfort;52364781]the speculation... it begins[/QUOTE] sounds like they want to start playtesting community maps as soon as possible, but the update itself is still far away enough that map makers still have time to work on detail passes and that sort of thing if they're not done yet

[QUOTE=Lord Exor;52364192]Either way, I predict this will be the longest wait for a summer update yet.[/QUOTE] One of the perks of having others things to take your time away from the game to keep your mind of waiting for updates lol. Working on another Pyro Spray now, hard sketch is done and now vectoring in the lines together as we speak. Got a few new games as of late like the PC version of FF IX to tide me over as well. =P Keeps me from pulling my hair out hah Well, that and watching the opening to the new DuckTales series coming out later this years lol... [I]Life is like a hurricane, here in, Duckburg[/I]

So basicely, any mappers expecting the new assets to come out to artpass their maps before the update need to make their own asap. I'm surprised they won't release them early, it'd make sense to have the community jungle maps with the new jungle assets. But at the same time it keeps the suprise, we'll only see them only once the valve map is shipped with the rest of the update. Maybe they're planning to work on them up until the release too.

lmao what the hell Valve? They expect us to make them Jungle themed maps, even though there's basically zero props/textures related to a jungle in the stock game. :hammered:

I find it strange they aren't releasing any assets since they appeared to have a load of plants close to if not fully finished in the teaser image on the announcement blog post. [editline]15th June 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=sarge997;52364934]lmao what the hell Valve? They expect us to make them Jungle themed maps, even though there's basically zero props/textures related to a jungle in the stock game. :hammered:[/QUOTE] Borneo exists, and adding props to hammer from the mayann set isn't hard.

I sent an email to the contact person on the SAG-AFTRA person asking if the struck games list was current since it hadn't been updated since 3/20 and got the following response today: [QUOTE]Hi Doug, The strike list on our website has been updated and is current. If we had worked something out with any of the negotiating companies we would of course update that information right away, but none of them have broken away from the bargaining unit and attempted to resume talks with us. We share and appreciate your concern, thank you very much for your support. Best regards, Katie Sikkema Business Representative SAG-AFTRA Theatrical/Interactive Contracts[/QUOTE] So yeah most if not all of the TF2 voice actors haven't been able to record lines for TF2 since the strike started around 8 months ago.

After all these years of TF2 I figured I'd be immune to being aggravated about waiting for things by now. Nope.

rip june

[B]SPECULATION TIME[/B] I think the crunch period is over. The TF Team responding to emails again, as well as that blog post going live and detailing that they've started the vetting process for items to get into the update, makes me feel like much of the content within the update itself is already done. Specifically, I believe they've finished, or nearly finished: * Their Jungle map * The SFM short/other things requiring voicelines (IIRC they announced the SFM short well after the strike started, so either they had the lines for it recorded in advance or they fucked up and announced something they can't release. Judging by Nathan's comments last year, though, and the timetable he said he went to Valve to record lines for the next major update, I'd be surprised if the voicelines for next update aren't already recorded.) * Their initial set of balance changes, prior to feedback * The creation and selection of stats for the new Pyro weapons * Coding for the changes to MM and the such Now, obviously this could be partially or totally wrong, but I don't think it's totally unwarranted. If our schedule is still the beginning of next month, it won't mean that the TF team is idling- it leaves them 2-3 weeks to do the following: * Ensure the server and game coordinator are set to handle the new changes via stress tests. Remember the period before MyM's release where it kept getting pushed back behind the scenes because the matchmaking system was a bitch to deal with? I imagine we're in the same position right about now. * Pick out the best of the Workshop submissions (assuming they haven't already decided on some, which I doubt) and test them. * Pick out the best of the Jungle maps from the community and put them through some rigorous rounds of playtesting. Some mapmakers may start receiving communication in these weeks (presumably) leading up to the update. Re-emphasizing: if our ETA is the first week of July, which is seeming likely, that means there's three weeks left until the update releases. I highly, [I]highly[/I] doubt that they've left important work like the SFM short/balance changes/Pyro weapons/Jungle map unfinished. The blog post indicates that they've started their Workshop item/map vetting process and already have a few options in their sights. If there's anything left to be done besides vetting/testing the community-made content for update and ensuring the servers are ready for the big change, I'd be genuinely surprised. Based on the information available, I'd estimate the balance blog post [B]at the end of this week or the beginning of the next[/B], with a response to Tyler's email coming either within the next few days or the end of next week, after the balance blog post has already been released.

I just don't see why valve wouldn't release the update during the summer sale. Many people won't be buying the campaign pass thingy because they already wasted their money on some great deals.

The release stuff as soon as it's ready, they probably would have released it now if they could

I'm terrified that reddit, steam discussion, and various famous youtubers are going to give terrible feedback for possibly good balancing. "this makes heavy OP" say the idiots. "no pyro buffs" say more idiots. "crit a cola doesnt need nerfing, nobody uses it" say actual potatoes. et cetera

[QUOTE=Blackavar;52365102]I'm terrified that reddit, steam discussion, and various famous youtubers are going to give terrible feedback for possibly good balancing. "this makes heavy OP" say the idiots. "no pyro buffs" say more idiots. "crit a cola doesnt need nerfing, nobody uses it" say actual potatoes. et cetera[/QUOTE] tbh this has concerned me since the announcement of the balance blog post valve has made a [I]lot[/I] of questionable balance decisions over the years, but certain sects of the community have, in my opinion, infinitely worse ideas on how the game should be balanced. in the past, I found a strange contentment with knowing that unless the community stood up in outrage over a proposed or implemented change, whatever we got was whatever we got. being powerless might suck, but if it means that everyone else pretty much is too, it was kind of worth it. because if all opinions are going to be treated with equal weight after this balance blog is released, I don't see much good coming from it. the vast majority of people in the TF community seem to have [I]horrible[/I] ideas on how the game should be balanced, and even one terrible suggestion from them could fuck up the game for a lot of people. honestly, I kinda want to believe that the TF Team is putting out the balance blog post just to make sure they don't do anything obviously stupid, like nerfing the Bison or buffing the Reserve Shooter again. I'm hoping it's just to see what ideas there may be extremely controversial or receive a lot of backlash, as opposed to handing the reigns over to the community as a whole to decide how the game should be balanced.

[QUOTE=Different;52365073]I just don't see why valve wouldn't release the update during the summer sale. Many people won't be buying the campaign pass thingy because they already wasted their money on some great deals.[/QUOTE] They never have released an update during a summer sale in the past, usually it's within a few weeks before or after the sale. Of course that doesn't mean they couldn't release the update during the sale this year if they wanted to.

[QUOTE=Contra132;52365145]tbh this has concerned me since the announcement of the balance blog post valve has made a [I]lot[/I] of questionable balance decisions over the years, but certain sects of the community have, in my opinion, infinitely worse ideas on how the game should be balanced. in the past, I found a strange contentment with knowing that unless the community stood up in outrage over a proposed or implemented change, whatever we got was whatever we got. being powerless might suck, but if it means that everyone else pretty much is too, it was kind of worth it. because if all opinions are going to be treated with equal weight after this balance blog is released, I don't see much good coming from it. the vast majority of people in the TF community seem to have [I]horrible[/I] ideas on how the game should be balanced, and even one terrible suggestion from them could fuck up the game for a lot of people. honestly, I kinda want to believe that the TF Team is putting out the balance blog post just to make sure they don't do anything obviously stupid, like nerfing the Bison or buffing the Reserve Shooter again. I'm hoping it's just to see what ideas there may be extremely controversial or receive a lot of backlash, as opposed to handing the reigns over to the community as a whole to decide how the game should be balanced.[/QUOTE] I think they should just look in the weapon fixing megathread and implement everything with a ton a good ratings. facepunch is a good place for balance. off-topic, gonna make a big list of balancing for that thread based on things i've learned recently and in the past, using the 6v6 global whitelist, community uproar, and personal experience

[QUOTE=Blackavar;52365102]I'm terrified that reddit, steam discussion, and various famous youtubers are going to give terrible feedback for possibly good balancing. "this makes heavy OP" say the idiots. "no pyro buffs" say more idiots. "crit a cola doesnt need nerfing, nobody uses it" say actual potatoes. et cetera[/QUOTE] I'm not worried that much, I think they're smarter than reading a reddit post asking for a dumb biaised nerf and implementing that. On the other hand they nerfed weapons nobody ever asked to be changed, like the bison. They asked the opinions of way more experienced players like banny for this update and aknoledged the top pyro players letter. I mean it's clear that we all have a biaised opinion based on our taste and our experience of the game, it's the game where that's the truest, you can have thousands of hours in tf2 and never play most of what the game offers. I'm pretty confident they know that, but we'll see.

[QUOTE=Blackavar;52365102]I'm terrified that reddit, steam discussion, and various famous youtubers are going to give terrible feedback for possibly good balancing. "this makes heavy OP" say the idiots. "no pyro buffs" say more idiots. "crit a cola doesnt need nerfing, nobody uses it" say actual potatoes. et cetera[/QUOTE] This. Basically what contra said as well, the YouTubers/content creators are a mixed bag that either are extremely knowledgeable about the game and it's mechanics, or among the ranks of the potatoes that watch their content themselves, and who's crackpot ideas simply have a disproportionately large audience. That, and the threat of these ideas taking root, and the community, instead of providing actual quality balance feedback will be fighting to convince johnny.potatoes.2003 that ubercharge is [I]not[/I] some kind of unfair advantage that needs to be nerfed.

[QUOTE=Blackavar;52365163]I think they should just look in the weapon fixing megathread and implement everything with a ton a good ratings. facepunch is a good place for balance.[/quote] what? god no. a single forum, especially one that's mostly comprised of pub players, should [I]not[/I] be the biggest determiner of what balance changes are and aren't made to the game. I'd certainly weigh facepunch higher than reddit, to be fair, since the general level of experience is much higher, but even so that sounds like a recipe for disaster. [quote]off-topic, gonna make a big list of balancing for that thread based on things i've learned recently and in the past, using the 6v6 global whitelist, community uproar, and personal experience[/QUOTE] I mean that's actually pretty on-topic, since we're discussing balancing and I assume you want that post to be seen by the TF Team when the balance blog comes out.

It's pretty interesting seeing everyone assume that everyone else is terrible at game balance and that Valve should only listen to [i]the right people.[/i] What if you're the one who doesn't know what you're talking about?

[QUOTE=geel9;52365199]It's pretty interesting seeing everyone assume that everyone else is terrible at game balance and that Valve should only listen to [i]the right people.[/i] What if you're the one who doesn't know what you're talking about?[/QUOTE] That question is answered easily with a quick trip to the steam discussions.