Another TF2 Free Weekend

Overheal

For those of you without a copy (seriously?) there is to be yet another Free Weekend starting Tomorrow and ending Sunday/Early Monday to celebrate the release of new content for both the Sniper and the Spy. Preload now! Or buy. Cos I mean, what have you been waiting for? 20 euro? Pfft. Its a steal.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/440/

http://www.teamfortress.com/sniper_vs_spy/

Heads up: turns out its 50% off this weekend as well. You could buy your own can of awesome for just a tenner. Thats less than 2 pints!

S.I.R

its rubbish - they'd do anything to shift it.


Css/hl or nothing at all.

giggsy664

It's rubbish???



It's the best ****ing game evar!!

T-b0n3

TFC > TF2 !!!!!!

super_furry

Wish they'd hurry up and release some of those multiple updates on the 360.

Overheal

they would have already but are having trouble fitting it all under the 360s memory limitation.

youd have to be sad not to own TF2 for the asking 20 euros.

giggsy664

Valve don't like consoles.

Especially PS3 tbh

CutzEr

giggsy664 wrote: »

Valve don't like consoles.

Especially PS3 tbh

Agreed, I have it on the PS3.

It sucks ass.

I also have it on the PC (the whole orange box 8)) and it is.. The best game evarz.

What's your steam id?

giggsy664

CutzEr wrote: »

Agreed, I have it on the PS3.

It sucks ass.

I also have it on the PC (the whole orange box 8)) and it is.. The best game evarz.

What's your steam id?

It's above the WipEout avatar up there.
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Giggsy664. I also have killing floor.

Overheal

Looks like its on sale 2, for less than the cost of 2 pints.

Atlas_IRL

enjoying playing left4dead atm but getting a good friend only game only happens a few times a week, the whole pub gaming on it is boring.

Havnt played TF2 yet, am i too late? Many still playing? Would love to give it a try. Also many Irish playing?

Whats the learning curve like?


21 questions

death1234567

Atlas_IRL wrote: »

Havnt played TF2 yet, am i too late? Many still playing? Would love to give it a try. Also many Irish playing?
Whats the learning curve like?
21 questions

1. no
2. Yes, lots
3. Yes ,lots
4. Not too steep at all. A bit strange at first but easy to get the hang of.

giggsy664

death1234567 wrote: »

1. no
2. Yes, lots
3. Yes ,lots
4. Not too steep at all. A bit strange at first but easy to get the hang of.

I second this

cherryghost

the updates a load of balls.

items are now randomly unlocked instead of unlocked through acheivements

JD1763

Have to agree with the poster above - they removed the link between achievements and unlocks so its completely random now. Some people are getting loads of the new weapons others have none so far or dupes of existing weapons. Whoever in Valve thought this was a good idea needs a kick in the head.

giggsy664

cherryghost wrote: »

the updates a load of balls.

items are now randomly unlocked instead of unlocked through acheivements

I second this

Overheal

I was surprised by it too. Robin Walker has been back on to say the system atm is glitched. But theyre working on it. A full explanation is here:


*******************

we wanted to take a moment to talk about the new item drop system in the update, since we're getting a lot of questions about it.

Why did we build a new system?

* With our first four class updates we were tying the new weapons for each class to a set of achievements. Our intention was to make a set of achievements that eventually all players would get, and would be fun to get along the way. In some cases we did a good job at this (Scout), and in some cases we did a bad one (Medic). Across all of the class packs we were disappointed in the number of people that got to play with the new weapons, and feedback from the community was generally not favorable with this approach.


What did we do?

* For the last number of months we've been working on using the Steam Cloud to store a player's inventory. With that finally in place, we were able to deploy a new system focused on the giving of items to players. That new system watches the amount of time that players are playing TF2, and gives them a chance to find items at regular intervals. They aren't guaranteed to get the item at those points, but they have a pretty good chance. We based the system on granting items on the amount of time played because we don't want players to have to do weird things like join achievement grinding servers to get new content. Basing it off time also has the benefit of ensuring that if you play a lot of TF2, you're going to get more items than players who don't.

How long do I have to play to get an item?

* When we were tuning this system we first looked at the average amount of time that players spend playing TF2 daily. From there, we set the goal of most players having around 20 items in their inventory after a couple of weeks of play. If you're someone who plays a lot of TF2, you're going to get items a lot faster than that. In the first few hours after the release yesterday, we had some issues that prevented the system from working properly, so that timeframe was not indicative of the system as it's designed.

Is this the way we'll find items from now on?

* Like everything else we build, we'll be iterating on this system for a while, and have a lot of features planned. Some of the next things we have planned are:

- Item trading. This is why you're finding duplicates.

- Giving players a method to influence the system so they can work directly toward getting specific items.

- Adding more rare items like the hats.

We're going to be working on and rolling these out while we're also working on the next class pack, with the goal being to get it all released before then.

CutzEr

TF2 has become an RPG. People were saying it, I didn't think it was true.

But this is reality. I don't want an RPG Valve. I want my TF2 back

Overheal

Its not really. Only in how you change your weapons. The day to day play of the game remains largely unchanged despite a few new toys.

And this new Pipeline map is Awesome.

CutzEr

Overheal wrote: »

Its not really. Only in how you change your weapons. The day to day play of the game remains largely unchanged despite a few new toys.

And this new Pipeline map is Awesome.

Agreeed, Pipeline is the most awshumz map yet.

giggsy664

CutzEr wrote: »

TF2 has become an RPG. People were saying it, I didn't think it was true.

But this is reality. I don't want an RPG Valve. I want my TF2 back

I secon.... You get the point.

giggsy664

When I go the game ~5 weeks ago, I jumped straight into Portal and then TF2. I noticed people had different weapons (ie. natascha, flaregun) and I wanted to get these, so I went onto an achievemnt server regularly. I did this because I thought they got a head start on me. With the Sniper Spy update, I decided I was going to play fair and unlock them properly, but then Valve give me another Flare Gun and I'm like WTF? I said people were finding stuff.

Afaik you can still unlock them via achievements. I saw someone complete Pyro 3 and get the Axtinguisher.

5uspect

I guess you can still unlock the Medic, Pyro, Heavy and Scout items the old way but the Sniper and Spy unlocks are part of the new system solely.

Sierra Oscar

I sort of preferred the old system.

Stephen

I think a hybrid of both would be the best approach. That way those who are willing to grind achievements to get their stuff can do that and the more casual players can just get stuff randomly like they can now.

5uspect

That's true. Some people already have most of the unlocks. Its pointless to try and stop them. However it can be difficult/boring to get some achievements so random surprises are a good way to go. Perhaps some sort of thanks of voting system might we worth considering. That way the 8 year old mic spammers and the trolls would be left with nothing.

Atlas_IRL

Played it for a while yest, not really impressed tbh.

People where killing me with every shot, While i was sniping and hitting people a few times and they would still be alive wtf?? Even when i used the normal guns i'd start to spray someone and they'd shoot and kill me with 1 or 2 shots.. Also how do i change charactor mid round.

giggsy664

Atlas_IRL wrote: »

Played it for a while yest, not really impressed tbh.

People where killing me with every shot, While i was sniping and hitting people a few times and they would still be alive wtf?? Even when i used the normal guns i'd start to spray someone and they'd shoot and kill me with 1 or 2 shots.. Also how do i change charactor mid round.

Comma ,

CutzEr

So far: The Ambassador x2
Razorback
Soldiers Stash (Soldiers helmet)

And all the previous ones I unlocked already (and now x2 ubersaws)

Stephen

Atlas, were you "charging" the sniper rifle? The longer you stay scoped, the more damage it does. If you just click to shoot it will take 3-4 shots to kill heavier classes, unless you headshot them.

Spunge

Atlas_IRL wrote: »

Played it for a while yest, not really impressed tbh.

People where killing me with every shot, While i was sniping and hitting people a few times and they would still be alive wtf?? Even when i used the normal guns i'd start to spray someone and they'd shoot and kill me with 1 or 2 shots.. Also how do i change charactor mid round.

I didnt think much of it at first either.

I forced myself to play for a few hours, then i really got into it. Took me a while to figure out the goal of each map, and each classes particular role and how they all complement each other for the team to win the map.

This game has far more longevity than left 4 dead imo, got bored of that in over a week, TF2 is still fun after a long time.

Atlas_IRL

Stephen wrote: »

Atlas, were you "charging" the sniper rifle? The longer you stay scoped, the more damage it does. If you just click to shoot it will take 3-4 shots to kill heavier classes, unless you headshot them.

no, i didnt know that ah sure i might buy it and give it a shot..

thebman

I haven't tried the new system. One thing that would probably work for medics would be to allow the person they are healing to gift them if they do a good job.

Something like that. It might not work for the other classes. I think its all getting a bit complicated, the thing about TF2 was that it was simple and not complicated at all. Random unlocks keeps it simple I guess.

Stephen

I have plenty of spare blutsaugers to gift anyway :pac: I've only seen one hat unlock so far, on a heavy weapons guy. He has an American football helmet.

Still waiting for some sniper unlocks...

thebman

I read last night that hats are designed to be rare finds.

LoLth

I've been using the server browser in-game but pings are just nuts (could be due to BT ADSL2 crappy interleaving). anywhere I can get a list of other servers with english/irish players? I'm tired of american kiddies screaming into the mic and/or asian people shouting "rorth, rorth, <insert syllables here>" before I get left alone defending a control point as the entirety of my team decides pulling back is the best way to defend.....

Jumpy

OMG. What unlocks can the snipers get?
I know I will get hate for this, but Sniper is all I ever play. Ever. Since Quake TF.

giggsy664

LoLth wrote: »

I've been using the server browser in-game but pings are just nuts (could be due to BT ADSL2 crappy interleaving). anywhere I can get a list of other servers with english/irish players? I'm tired of american kiddies screaming into the mic and/or asian people shouting "rorth, rorth, <insert syllables here>" before I get left alone defending a control point as the entirety of my team decides pulling back is the best way to defend.....

Join the boards steam group and check out the latest TF2 announcement on the group. They have the IP of an Irish server

It's always empty though

giggsy664

Jumpy wrote: »

OMG. What unlocks can the snipers get?
I know I will get hate for this, but Sniper is all I ever play. Ever. Since Quake TF.

Huntsman (Bow and Arrow)
Jarate (Jar of Piss)
Razorback (Prevents spies from backstabbing you. Works once per life afaik)

Stephen

I usually play on the jolt and multiplay.co.uk pubs. As well as Fester's Place, which usually has a bunch of Irish people on. I ping about 80ms to all of them, which is about as good as it gets with my crappy connection.

Also, Lolth: Esc->Mute Players is your friend

Jumpy

I didnt know you played TF2 as well. I had you capped as L4D only.

What on earth could a jar of piss do?

Jumpy

LEGEND! It can put out fires on teammates.
Oh I like this.

Stephen

I play TF2 during the times when I can't get enough people together for some vs in left4dead

The jar of piss also makes the victim take 35% more damage from anyone who shoots him until it wears off. It also decloaks spies, so there could be some fun to be had with the ones that make it their mission to sap sentry guns all time times!

Overheal

Yep the Jarate is great for extinguishing flames too. Fantastic when used on a tight-group of cart pushers. The amount of assists you get that way is unreal.

thebman

Its cool to have something to use as defense against Pyro's.

They can do a lot of damage sometimes.

Antar Bolaeisk

Not doing so bad out of this item drop thing do far, haven't bee playing long but I have nearly all the new items. I much prefered the achievement unlock system as it gave me a reason to play the other classes, now I couldn't be bothered with the spy and sniper simply because I'm crap as them ad I gain nothing from the achievements.

Apart from the random drops though this update seems to have been quite good, just wish the pyro players would realise their compression blast now has the ability to extinguish flames.

I've lost count the amount of times I've jumped up and down in front of a pyro seeking their aid only to die with them staring blankly on.

Ciaran500

Antar Bolaeisk wrote: »

I've lost count the amount of times I've jumped up and down in front of a pyro seeking their aid only to die with them staring blankly on.

You sure they don't have a backburner? I've had people come up to me looking to be but out when I have that.

Antar Bolaeisk

Nah, backburner is the one with the face on it, I'm positive they just have the normal flamethrower.