Slashdot Mirror
Team Fortress 2 Update To Bring Maps, Sniper and Spy Upgrades
Over the past several days, Valve has been releasing details on an update to Team Fortress 2. They first revealed that the Sniper was taking its turn in a series of class upgrades, getting a bow and arrow that's capable of pinning an enemy to a wall. Next, they showed off a pair of new maps — a sawmill arena map that's in the midst of heavy rainfall and a circular map built around a doomsday weapon. Valve also mentioned a new game mode called Payload Race — it's similar to a regular Payload match, but both teams have a cart to push. The next day brought about an electrified shield for the Sniper, and hinted that the Spy would be getting an update as well. The following announcement confirmed it, introducing a device that would allow the Spy to feign death, and another that lets the Spy remain invisible permanently, only draining their power while in motion.
Payload Race - When you and a co-worker return to work from lunch at the same time and have to race to the single bathroom.
Some community members/devs over at nexuiz forums are going to put together a team fortress mode for that awsome great game! :D
Great, now update the XBOX version already.
More feature creep! More BLOAT! NOOOOO!!
Wait... Thats a good thing this time.
I'll meet you at the intersection of "Should be" and "Reality"
to quote dragon's den "I'm out"
the spy is ridiculously overpowered anyway and with the last spy update allowing them to charge invisibnility from picking up metal they can be almost permanently invisibly anyway.
if you want to make a better game, make teleport entrances invulnerable to spies. on long maps there is nothing more bloody boring than spending 30 seconds running across the map.
all their bloody powers are available instantly, without doing anything. at least in wolf et the covert needed to find a body to disguise.
placing sappers needs to be slowed down. spys can place 5 in less time than the engie can get two shots off with the shotgun..
the scout update was bad enough with the big weapon they got, pyros got no chance, they can blow the pyro out of range. what else a pyro got? axe. see above.
Valve is really paying us some fan service. Spy backstabs the sniper in the middle of his spotlight? Classic! Feign death has been sorely missed and should add a whole new dimension to what is already the most rewarding class in the game. Glad to see Arena mode is getting some love, the server I play on - 74.86.155.168:27015 - has only the stock maps so it will be good to see some more "arena only" maps by Valve (Watchtower doesn't count). Hopefully this should breathe some more life into the game; the "old guard" in the community is finally starting to move on.
Fingers crossed for some Valve branded CP maps. Last one we had was cp_badlands, which came out in, I think the Pyro Patch? Last February I think. In the mean time the community has responded with some really good CP maps, and in the last four months there's been a huge surge in quality arena maps (arena_harvest, arena_freight, I'm looking at you).
moox. for a new generation.
If you watched the blog yesterday you'd have seen valve doing a lot of fun things for the fans.
Over the course of the day the unlock for a sniper shield got darker and darker, then at around 3pm people on the forums started freaking out because there was a spy behind the sniper in the picture. The pictures were swapped in and out randomly till the actual announcement.
They put a note on the blog saying, "When the Pyro hears about this she'll be inconsolable." There's been a debate over the Pyros gender for a long time on the forums. The post was left up for about an hour before it was stealth edited back to the masculine form. Still there was a lot of people going nuts on the forum over this.
They trolled us pretty hard with a lot of this stuff, but overall it shows that they are paying close enough attention to the community to do so. They knew all the right buttons to press to get people talking and started mashing. I know of no other company that is this dedicated to having fun.
Free isn't good enough anymore.
Not when you can easily pirate Team Fortress 2 with cracked Steam and the latest Team Fortress 2 client content.gcf, anyway, which you can play in Setti's cracked servers.
Don't blame me, I'm just being Pirate Bay.
"You should never doubt what nobody is sure about." -- Willy Wonka
That's the last thing this game needs, they are annoying enough right now.
Too bad TF2 is on steam... otherwise id buy it & play it.
http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2499
Not played TF2 but, didn't they add shields to counter strike only to make them the most hated weapon. Snipers should be powerful but weak( and rubbish at close range) adding a shield sounds stupid.
IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
i love teamfortress 2 and it's just about the only game that i play. my biggest complaint is these stupid class updates. they have been releasing them one at a time for a year or so. what happens is that every server you go on, every player is playing as that specific class so they can get all of the upgrades. the updates really ruin gameplay for 3 weeks or so until the new wears off. several of the people i play with all agree that they should just release all of the remaining class updates at the same time.... we all thought this when they first started releasing these updates.
stephen
I don't even play console FPS game. I prefer PC ones and like you just mentioned, they are definitely superior. However, someone's gotta defend consoles so let me try:
Advantages of consoles:
1. No install process. Just stick your disc in the hole and have fun. That's what she said!
2. Universal hardware. This means no dealing with graphics settings. No spending 15 to 30 minutes tweaking the settings to get the perfect balance of good looks and good frame rate. Also for developers, this means they don't have to develop for the "average system". Instead they already know exactly what hardware they're building for. Lastly this also means for online play, the playing field is more even. Everyone has the same hardware, so they have the same frame rates. Only difference is the ping between them.
3. Universal control system. Everyone's stuck using the gamepad so everyone has the same controls. PC games, some people try to use a gamepad or joystick and fail horribly. All of us using mouse and keyboard, well some have more desk space for moving their mouse than others.
4. Ease of updates. I gotta say console games are insanely easier to update than pc games. Maybe not for the developer, but definitely for the end user. You try to get online with your console game, it says update needed, press X to download. Then you just sit there bored for 5 to 10 minutes and you're all done. Some PC games are that way. Some have the courtesy to at least tell you there's an update, but you still gotta go to the website, download the patch, and install it. Others don't even tell you. You just wonder why you can't connect to any servers.
That's it. I can't think of any more advantages a console has. As funny as this sounds, if anything I'd say a PC has more of an arcade feel than a console. Why? One you've got the screen 2 or 3 feet right in front of you, the other you're sitting on the couch with a screen on the other side of the room.
I agree paying for something like xbox live is retarded. That was my little brothers main reason for getting a PS3 over the 360. The PS3 comes out cheaper in the long run when you don't have to pay $50 or $60 per year for online play that you don't use very often. Once a week or two is about how often he does online play with his console.
I can think of some more advantages.
5. Availability of voice communication. For the 360 at least, almost every online player has access to a headset. This is crucial for team-based games like Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead.
6. Lack of intrusive DRM. For me this was the reason to get the 360 versions of the two Valve games I mentioned. I don't want to deal with Steam.
While 5 is slightly easier on the 360 because the headset plugs into the controller, PC headsets are not hard to find. Heck, I have one plugged in right now!
Convincing people its better to use a headset than a desktop microphone or built-in mic on a laptop is a trick, though. non-headset mics tend to pick up background noise.
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
If the developer can't update the game because say... Microsoft won't let them without a costly affair, requiring updates to be 10MB in size, not allowing additional content for free etc. While on PC the developer can. How does it make it easier for the user? The user can't update because there are no updates available.
I get all my games off Steam. Other people are free to use this method too. With the PC you have a choice on how you get your games, updates etc. So, I don't really see this as an issue. If the user doesn't want a specific thing on the PC or wants a specific thing, the user can choose.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.