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[A Fish Aficionado]

 

[Spaceb0y]

I'm assuming I'm the one on the right. Who's on the left?

 

[A Fish Aficionado]

Zeke

 

[Bluth54]

Valve updated some AI behavior in the Halloween update, the gave medic bots the ability to use MVM medigun shields and gave the AI the ability to use the BASE Jumper so it looks like Valve may be working on new MVM content.
Edit: They also updated some MVM menu files (as well as updating the hidden comp matchmaking menu)

 

[torre_avenue]

Hi, TF2-GAF!

I'm going to use my first post here to rant about the Gored! achievement. I've played hours of Mann Manor trying to get that damned metal so I can craft that damned axe. But, every time I manage to hit the horseman, it doesn't trigger. I've done this three goddamn times, and it won't fucking trigger. And on top of it, playing as scout means if the damn Horsemann goes anywhere near BLU or RED, I'm going to get killed by some asshole or worse, an asshole with a level three sentry. God fucking damnit, why is this shitty achievement so hard to get?

Otherwise, the Halloween update has been pretty fun. I'm enjoying the Merasmissions (even though I haven't got a haunted or a crate yet), and the new maps are pretty fun. I'm glad BONUS DUCKS has been relegated to its own little corner, and the new Payload map is a nice little treat, despite the tightness of the map and the endless spam corridors and the Horsemann with the two Monoculii.

 

[A Fish Aficionado]

Zeke's big weiner

 

[Sianos]

hello friends

i come from the distant future year of 2013 with visions of what the future holds

 

[Yeef]

I mean, I think it was pretty obvious that the future held no one playing TF2. We don't need an oracle for that...

 

[Bluth54]

hello friends

i come from the distant future year of 2013 with visions of what the future holds

For anyone who doesn't follow TF2 news Valve put up some official comp servers today and some people were able to get into them via the matchmaking menu you can access via console command or a third party hud.

 

[Blizzard]

I've had two TF2 updates in the last day or so with no patch notes. Could that be related?

 

[Bluth54]

I've had two TF2 updates in the last day or so with no patch notes. Could that be related?

I wouldn't be surprised if the patch today was to prevent people from joining comp servers. It seemed like some people were able to join via the matchmaking menu and others couldn't and were told they needed to buy a pass (which of course doesn't actually exist yet).

 

[corn_fest]

What kind of comp servers are they?
I remember hearing rumors way back that they were going to try pushing Highlander because they weren't happy with how 6v6 does away with so many classes.

 

[Russ T]

What kind of comp servers are they?
I remember hearing rumors way back that they were going to try pushing Highlander because they weren't happy with how 6v6 does away with so many classes.

This is what I hope happens. 6v6 makes me really sad and it's a big part of why I don't like to watch competitive TF2.

But then again getting together a party of 9 is really hard.

 

[ExMachina]

Code from recent patches show both 6v6 and 9v9 will be available for MM. Valve has said they're interested in testing out multiple modes and that nothings set in stone.

 

[InvertedComposer]

So that indicates there's a 1v1 mode to prove your mettle.

or luck

or skill

._.

 

[ExMachina]

TF2Stadium (upcoming PUG/lobby site) is sponsoring a series of TF2-focused masterclasses today.

Too late to sign up but the 6v6 focused classes will be streamed live. The ones covering other subjects will be posted as vods eventually.

Will definitely catch Competitive History - I only really started watching TF2 seriously around 2012/S11 of ESEA, so it'll be cool to learn about all these players and teams that I've only seen in fragvids.

 

[Alienups]

http://i.imgur.com/RMUeMlc.png

 

[LUFTRAUSER]

The Batman Community Contest has ended and the winners have been selected!

http://i.imgur.com/RMUeMlc.png

GET HYPED!

 

[Bluth54]

Valve has added 3 new taunt videos to the TF2 youtube channel so we now know which taunts are going to be in the Christmas update:
The Bad Pipes
The Bucking Bronco
Mannrobics

The taunts have new voice acting which is pretty great, I believe this is the first time TF2 has gotten new voice lines since the Love and War update.

Also every video description mentions communication, which means communication is probably going to be a theme of the update. It's possible Valve may finally ship a better voice communication system with TF2.

 

[Yeef]

Assuming Mannrobics is shareable, it is wonderful.

 

[ArtistDude88]

I nearly choked laughing at the bad pipes taunt.

 

[Bluth54]

Assuming Mannrobics is shareable, it is wonderful.

I would guess it's shareable since the video has a large group dancing and they can sell shareable taunts for more money.

 

[Russ T]

Oh my.

I want these. All of these.

 

[Proven]

http://i.imgur.com/RMUeMlc.png

Woah, woah woah woah woah. What was the other item?

 

[torre_avenue]

All I want is a Christmas themed event where I get to fight Old Nick and get a snow covered map variant. Is that too much to ask, Valve?

 

[Oreoleo]

The Tough Break Update

 

[Blizzard]

Wow, lots of changes. Sentries nerfed so that they do not immediately reactivate when sappers are killed? Base jumper no longer hovers when on fire?

 

[Oreoleo]

Pyros buffed, half-zatoichi nerfed to hell and back.

I am pleased. Edit: But where's mah competitive matchmaking???

 

[Head of Vengarl]

The Tough Break Update

Wow I love that they still bring big updates to this old ass game. Pyros buffed but the Degreaser + Axtinguisher got nerfed hard.

 

[ZekeThePlumber]

All
Base weapon switch speed changed from 0.67 seconds to 0.5 seconds
Upon spawning, friendly players will show an outline for 10 seconds
Updated various weapon descriptions to better detail their functionality

Multi-Class
Panic Attack
No longer auto-fires when fully loaded. Shots can be held and released at will.
Reserve Shooter
No longer boosts all-around switch speed, instead boosts switch-to speed by 20% and switch-from speed by 15%
No longer mini-crits any airborne target (i.e. jumping). Target must be forced in to the air via blastjump, knockback, airblast, or grapple.
The Half-Zatoichi
Now considered a sword (increased holster and deploy time and increased range)
Honorbound changed. Deals 50 self damage on holster if no kill was made. Cannot be holstered if player is below 50 life and no kill was made.
100% life restore on kill changed to 50% health gain on kill that can result in overheal
No random crits

Scout
Pretty Boy's Pocket Pistol
Increased health recovered on hit from +3 to +5
Mad Milk
Extinguishing an ally will now reduce the cooldown by 20%
Wrap Assassin
Now 42% more festive! Ornament shatters on all impacts, dealing a small amount of damage in a small radius. Bleed effect still only applies to a target that is struck directly.
Ball recharge rate increased by 25%
Damage penalty reduced from -70% to -65%

Soldier
Beggar's Bazooka
Decreased blast radius by 20%
Concheror
Doubled health regeneration rate. Regeneration rate is now decreased if player has been recently damaged.
B.A.S.E Jumper
Removed hidden property of up draft when on fire
Market Gardener
Added 20% Attack Speed penalty
Air-Strike
Reduced blast radius by 20% when rocket jumping (28% reduction when compared to stock)

Sniper
The Cleaner's Carbine
Reduced firing rate penalty from 35% to 20%
Added 'CRIKEY' meter which is filled by dealing damage
Mini-crits are no longer activated by kill, but can instead be activated by alt-fire when the 'CRIKEY' meter is filled
Cozy Camper
Quadrupled health regeneration rate. Regeneration rate is now decreased if player has been recently damaged.
Jarate
Extinguishing an ally now reduces the cool down by 20%

Pyro
Pyros like to collect rainbows! Extinguishing a teammate will now return 20 health to the Pyro.
Consecutive Airblasts will no longer prevent enemies from air-strafing until they touch the ground
The base Flamethrower's damage fall off over distance has been decreased, resulting in higher damage output at range
Degreaser
No longer boosts all-around switch speed. Instead, boosts switch-to speed by 60% and switch-from speed by 30%.
Removed damage penalty
Increased Airblast cost by 25%
Increased afterburn penalty to from 25% to 66%
Phlogistinator
Removed 10% damage penalty.
When activating 'MMMPH', the taunting Pyro gains temporary invulnerability and immunity to knockback effects
Axtinguisher
Properties changed
100% Chance to crit against burning targets
33% Damage penalty
20% Slower attack speed
75% Slower switch-to speed

Medic
Medics now have slightly higher health regeneration when healing a hurt patient
During setup time, ÜberCharge build rate is now increased by 3x
Amputator
Taunt can now be activated by alt-fire
Healing done with the taunt now grants small amounts of ÜberCharge
Vaccinator
Removed 10% health regeneration on proper resist
Added slight ÜberCharge build on proper resist
Increased ÜberCharge rate from +50% to +67%
Reduced overhealed ÜberCharge build rate penalty to 33% from 66%. As this penalty is applied after the base increase, healing an overhealed patient is now 33% more effective.
Crusader's Crossbow
Healing a player with an arrow now grants a small amount of ÜberCharge
Quick-Fix
Fixed cases where Quick-Fix ÜberCharged players could still be affected by certain knock-back effects
Players can no longer capture objectives while under the effects of Quick-Fix ÜberCharge

Spy
The HUD 'Cloak' meter now displays 'MOTION' and 'FEIGN' when Cloak and Dagger and Dead Ringer are equipped respectively
Dead Ringer
Initial damage reduction when feigning death increased to 75% from 50%
Spy-cicle
Fixed a bug where ammo packs from dead players were not filling the Spy-cicle meter
Fire immunity shield no longer appears when fire immunity is triggered

Heavy
Fists of Steel
Removed deploy time penalty
Added penalty of increased holster time by 100%
Gloves of Running Urgently
Increased holster time penalty
Warrior's Spirit
Now heals 50 health on kill
Damage received and dealt increased by 30%
Removed health penalty
Eviction Notice
Now provides 15% move speed bonus
Now increases damage taken by 20%

Demoman / Demoknight
Shield bash now deals damage at all ranges, scaled by distance
Melee damage boost after shield bash is based on amount of charge consumed. Now provides mini-crit at 25% depleted, and full crit at 60% depleted.
Charging now removes debuffs from the Demoknight (Bleed, Fire, Mad Milk, Jarate)
All Swords now have a slower deploy and holster speed compared to base weapons in addition to their increased melee range
Splendid Screen
Removed the ability to deal charge impact damage at any range (now native to all shields)
Now increases recharge rate by 50%
Increased blast resistance from 15% to 20%
Tide Turner
Now grants mini-crit instead of full-crit on charge bash
Reduced resistances to 15%
Chargin Targe
Reduced blast resistance from 40% to 30%
Removed fire immunity
Claidheamh Mòr
Removed charge duration bonus
Now restores 25 health on kill
Removed health penalty
Now increases damage taken while active by 15%
Persian Persuader
Removed ammo pickups granting health instead of ammo
Added penalties of reduced primary and secondary ammo
Ammo pickups now replenish charge
Now gains charge meter on hit
Quickiebomb Launcher
Fizzle time increased from 2 seconds to 4 seconds
Ullapool Caber
Base melee damage increased from 35 to 55
Added 20% fire rate penalty
Added 100% switch-to time penalty
Loose Cannon
Reduced projectile speed (now a visible attribute)
Reduced cannon impact damage from 60 to 50. Damage also scales with distance.
Reduced knockback from cannon hit. Knockback strength is now similar to airblast.

Engineer
After removing a Sapper from a sentry, there is now a 0.5s delay before the sentry is active again
Sentries brought into a respawn room no longer detonate outside of Mann vs. Machine
The Jag
Added damage penalty against buildings. Now takes 3 hits to destroy a Sapper.
Rescue Ranger
Healing per bolt reduced from 75 to 60

Half-zatoichi and dumb rocket launchers nerfed??? Axtinguisher usable again?

 

[commissar]

Reserve Shooter
No longer mini-crits any airborne target (i.e. jumping). Target must be forced in to the air via blastjump, knockback, airblast, or grapple.

*tears of joy*

edit: oh man, does 3x uber recharge during setup mean one could get some kritz stickies and still have time for uber

 

[Oreoleo]

^I missed the removal of fire immunity on the Chargin Targe. That was some obnoxious stuff, good riddance.

 

[Blizzard]

Pyros buffed, half-zatoichi nerfed to hell and back.

I am pleased. Edit: But where's mah competitive matchmaking???

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention pyros healing on extinguish. :O

And the crusader's crossbow is actually vaguely more interesting now!

And yikes, I'm glad I got the reserve shooter contracts done before they changed that.

 

[torre_avenue]

Half-zatoichi and dumb rocket launchers nerfed??? Axtinguisher usable again?

I love the teamwork-focused changes regarding the Pyro and the Medic. I'm all for more ways to build Uber. That temp invuln for the Pyro using the Phlog crits is worrying because it feels like it can break the Phlog like how it was at launch. What's stopping one from getting MMPH, jumping into a crowd of enemies, taunting, and getting that ridiculous kill-streak?

But they ruined my Jag-Rescue Ranger combo. 3-hits to remove the sapper, half a second for the sentry to work again, and 60 damage to bolts. And with only 4 shots, it's going to make playing Engie at a distance really damn difficult again. I loved the fact I could actually be useful as an Engie by setting up my dispensers in an area that wouldn't get destroyed if an Uber rushed in, and just shoot my sentry to survive. And besides the Jag, what other good wrench is there in the game? The Southern Hospitality is mega shit, the Eureka Effect is useful but still kinda shit as a wrench, and the default.

And the Axtinguisher got itself an upgrade with the 100% crits at the cost of reduced speed. That's a change I can get behind.

 

[ZekeThePlumber]

For anyone curious as to why the Phlog seems buffed is because before if someone bumped you out of the taunt animation, it would immediately give the Phlog user the crits. Now someone on your team can't airblast the taunting pyro immediately killing himself and the people around him because he cancelled the animation. Granted it's still a shit weapon and you should feel bad for using it, now you just need to take the signal of a taunting phlog pyro to GTFO.

Also:

Added Strange Count Transfer Tool
Takes the Strange scores from one item and adds them on to another. The count for the source item is reset to zero. Strange part scores are only transferred and zeroed if a matching Strange part is found. Can only be used between Strange items of the same base type.

Neat.

 

[Oreoleo]

Update is live. 730MB.

 

[ZekeThePlumber]

Players can no longer use blast damage to move during the pre-round freeze period
Added server convar tf_preround_push_from_damage_enable for servers to utilize the old behavior

HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO ROLLOUT WITH ALL THESE SOLLIES AND SCOUTS BUMPING ME WHEN I TRY TO STICKY JUMP???

Also, you can remove the "gifted" tag from items now. Gifted unusuals are now worth more I suppose.

 

[ExMachina]

Faster base weapon switch, amazing Medic changes, Loose Cannon nerf, can airstrafe while being airblasted, performance improvements... best update ever. Bring on matchmaking, please. :3

 

[Taco_Human]

Super cool scoreboard update.

Killed the black rose model though.

 

[Chanser]

My festive spy knife is fucked, decorations warping all over the place.

 

[Guess Who]

I used to play the hell out of this game Back in the Day and decided to jump back in for some 2fort for old times sake and, my god, the game runs like absolute shithouse now on the same hardware that used to easily 60fps it at max settings for years. Tons of little stutters and huge drops to 20-30fps when looking out over the 2fort bridge area. Is this just me or is the game just stupid unoptimized now?

 

[Yeef]

I used to play the hell out of this game Back in the Day and decided to jump back in for some 2fort for old times sake and, my god, the game runs like absolute shithouse now on the same hardware that used to easily 60fps it at max settings for years. Tons of little stutters and huge drops to 20-30fps when looking out over the 2fort bridge area. Is this just me or is the game just stupid unoptimized now?

Were you playing on an official server? It could have just been a server that was running more players and had other mods that were using up more resources, if not. I had some framerate issues on one of the new maps, but other than that haven't noticed in any change in performance.

 

[Proven]

Just got wind of the new changes. Unless the new Medic regen is great... they didn't really add much I think is that great. What am I missing? What makes Medic much more appealing? Do people just really like the crossbow?

 

[torre_avenue]

Just got wind of the new changes. Unless the new Medic regen is great... they didn't really add much I think is that great. What am I missing? What makes Medic much more appealing? Do people just really like the crossbow?

The changes under this update basically make it more viable for a medic to quickly build uber by doing team healing actions instead of just focusing on a specific power class and farming it off them. The increased Uber rate during set-up just...helps, I suppose. It allows you set up crit traps with Demos, though that seems like a fairly unique class case. The changes to the Crossbow and Amputator basically just make it possible to be the ultimate Uber medic, where you can dish out healing from range, or in an AoE, or with the normal medibeam. For me at least, Medic now becomes more fun to play because it'll take less time to build Uber if you're doing team actions and healing everyone and other Medic stuff.

 

[Alienups]

https://twitter.com/4G_b4nny/status/679596785413705728

 

[ExMachina]

Stream's live:

http://www.twitch.tv/b4nny

Q&A first. 4v4 MM coming up next (6s not working at the moment :X).

 

[Alienups]

oops

 

[ExMachina]

I typed up notes from the stream because I'm a nerd:

reiterated: role of MM is to bridge gap b/w pubs and competitive, Valve trying to standardize TF2 in many respects

MM is nowhere close to being released, still testing servers/system
- delay in 6v6 MM happened because people's custom files were causing MM to crash people's games

Beta Plans
- 6v6 to start, 9v9 later on b/c getting that many people/classes is difficult
- b4nny gave away 20 passes, mostly to top Invite players
- plans to rapidly expand beta after holidays
- streamable!
- party feature available (similar to MvM), still buggy though

Customization Options
- DX9 required for MM
- Valve will allow custom HUDs and files as long as they offer no extra advantages (devs directly asked b4nny about this)
- restrictions on some CFG commands
-- Valve reviewing performance configs from actual comp players
-- a lot of unnecessary commands in performance configs, many of them actually don't help

Changes to commands, some restricted
- ragdolls enabled locked
- motion blur being on is a bug - Valve
- no crits/spread ofc
- freezetime locked at beginning
- interp limit right now - b4nny gave feedback that it should be adjustable, Valve will add in built-in option for it (per class hopefully!)

Viewmodels, FOV settings
- 75 (viewmodel FOV) and 90 (in-game FOV) limits right now, in flux
- possibility: transparent viewmodels instead of outright turning off viewmodels

Weapons, Classes
- weapon bans, class limits - none right now (not a priority ATM, focus is on system itself working)
- balance changes like in Tough Break - more incoming, data will be gathered from MM

Map Rotation
- custom maps will not be in queue, but stock versions of maps may be changed

Ranks
- 1 rank per player, rather than per class
- winning gains rank, losing lowers it
- on scoreboard at end - frags, damage, support, rank, change in MMR - possibly more detailed stats in the future
- if you crash, you can reconnect
- there is a low-priority queue if you repeatedly abandon

Server Locations
- confirmed: Virginia, Los Angeles, Seattle
- chooses based on where majority of players are located?

Unanswered Questions
- VAC bans? hackers in MM?
- sprays?
- voice codec update?
- crosshairs?
- essential competitive items (eg Gunboats, Crusader's Crossbow, Boston Basher, etc.) more accessible?
- b4nny mentioned that game breaks down w/o a Medic during his visit to Valve, possible motivation behind some Tough Break class changes?

 

[Russ T]

That all sounds pretty ace. Shame about no 9v9 early on, 'cause that's what I want, but the reasoning is valid.

 

[Wolf Akela]

Getting back. What are the big balance changes since MvM was introduced?