Team Fortress 2

[Artezul]

Team Fortress 2 Sketches.

http://my.break.com/Content/view.aspx?ContentID=474681

[Tempest]

For anyone interested, the new set of Achievements and Medic Weapons went online this week.

On the one hand I like that Valve is trying to change up the game and the weapons aren't honestly better or worse than their regular counterparts (Except for the new saw IMO), but forcing you to get them through achievements is a little shady since it will preclude newer/inexperienced players, or players who don't usually play Medi, from getting them; especially for any kind of legitimate matches or tournament play. The only way to make it fair would be to give server owners the ability to decide if a.) No one gets them b.) Everyone gets them or c.) Only those who unlocked them get get them. I think for the most part people can get the first weapon unlocked easily enough through normal play (you unlock the first weapon by getting 12 of the 39 acheivements) since I was able to do the in pretty much the first few days after the release (And I am in no way a TF2 master), but I will admit to going to a specific "medic achievements" server to get the bulk of the second milestone/weapon. A couple of the ones I have left to get for the third batch are ones that most everyone will get eventually like "Grand Rounds" (Heal 200 people after they have called for a Medic), "Infernal Medicine" (Extinguish 100 allies), and "Chief of Staff" (Accumulate 1,000,000 overall heal points) but ones like "First Do No Harm" (On a team with at least 6 people, make no kills and have the best score on your team at the end of the round) look fucking impossible. The best new achievement by far is "You'll Feel a Little Prick" (Assist three kills in one Ubercharge with a Scout).

Here's a list of the weapons:

Get 12 of the 39 Achievements: "Milestone 1" - Unlock the Bluntsauger, which can replace your Syringe Gun. It is basically a Syringe Gun except it cannot do Critical Hits but every needle that hits gives you 3 Health.

Get 24 of the 39 Achievements: "Milestone 2" - Unlock the Critzcrieg, which can replace your Medi-Gun. It functions like the medigun in terms of healing and giving people extra health, but instead of invulnerability, the Ubercharge gives your ally a 100% Critical Hit chance for 10 seconds. Also, the Ubercharge charges slightly quicker.

Get 36 of the 39 Achievements: "Milestone 3" - Unlock the Ubersaw, which can replace your Bonesaw. Basically the same as the regular Bonesaw, except that each successful hit increases your Ubercharge by 25%.

BTW, the "Milestones" are considered Achievements, but they don't count towards your total for any subsequent Milestones (I.e. If you have "Milestone 1", you still need to get 12 more Achievements before you unlock "Milestone 2") which is why there are 39 Achievements overall but only 36 necessary for the final unlockable

[Artezul]

Hm, I can't say they're simple changes. Any single one of these upgrades would improve your overall viability and/or survivability. Unlocking these through achievements sound like a drag to me; namely the impossible ones mentioned.

[fujinsan]

I just got steam, and I'm downloading tf2 right now. Steam name is Lewz187 temporarily that is.

[papasith]

as bad as it was, anyone missing the milestone item drop yet?

[War Machine]

Missing? They took it out? I just got back from vacation and haven't had the time to check the Sniper and Spy update. Anyway, I thought the item drops were the new system for getting the new equipment.

[papasith]

well they are still in for al lthe old items, but the random drop will drop the old and new items as well.

[Tempest]

I don't mind the idea of random drops, but the implementation was horrible in my opinion. The concept of trading items is just unnecessary, and the drop rate is way too slow. If I were Valve I would change it so that

1.) Drops happen a lot faster. I've heard of people playing 4 hours and getting nothing, not even a duplicate. This is just wrong. Robin Walker tried to explain in a blog post that ideally everyone should get all the items within a few weeks. WEEKS? Right, that is far better than a system where skilled players can get them in a few days, and achievements server grinding gets them to you in a few hours.

2.) Either drop trading all together and make it so you get items in a random order, no dupliactes OR make it so that you don't get duplicates until you've gotten at least one drop of every item. I don't need 4 flare guns, I don't want 23 backburners. I now have 2 sanviches, 2 Kritzcriegs, and 2 Jarates, which would be fine, IF VALVE PUT THE TRADING SYSTEM IN THIS UPDATE. Seriously, that right there is probably what makes me the most angry about the change. Don't change the system if you don't have the new system ready in it's entirety. How did that elude them? Were they just too dumb or too lazy to do anything about that? Looking at Gabe Newell, I'm going on a limb and saying lazy.

[War Machine]

Ok, I tried it out today. After about 3 hours of play I got a Jarate and a Fire Axe, so it didn't seem to take long to get the items, but it does suck that you don't know when you will get the items you want. Anyway, with the increased influx of spies I don't recommend playing as an engineer unless you have a pyro that knows how to spy-check backing you up.

I love using the spy, especially on levels like Well and 2Fort (were I got a string of 9 back-stabs in the same life), but with so many people wanting to be spy it becomes very difficult since the opposing team gets mad and spy-checks everyone. I'll probably use him sparingly for now and wait until the novelty subsides. Seriously, if your team already has 2 spies besides you, change your job, you'll be far more useful as anyone else and you won't ruin the day for the other spies.

[Femto]

So I just got this for the PC.

Who here still plays this shit?

My Steam ID is hermesgildo.

[War Machine]

I've been playing TF2 non-stop this whole summer, look me up, my name there is JackTheStripper.

[Femto]

Sent you an invite.

I'll be around.

I'm totally not used to keyboard and mouse though and I don't know the new maps either so I'm pretty terrible.

[Tempest]

I'm still playing. Gotta get those new hats, damnit.


Steam ID is TempestX1

[War Machine]

Dude, they just added more hats and I still haven't gotten a single one. From what I hear, each time that there's a drop possibility, the chance for a hat is about 0.5%. I don't know if they increased that since the last update though.

[Femto]

My computer is fucked.

I won't be playing this game until my new one arrives.

[dialdfordesi]

That sucks about the computer, dude.

So how does this drop system thing work? Is the drop triggered by scoring points or anything?

[Femto]

I think it's completely random.

[Tempest]

That sucks about the computer, dude.

So how does this drop system thing work? Is the drop triggered by scoring points or anything?

Weapons are done two ways: Random and by Milestones. Random drops are just that, and the drop rate is supposedly about an item an hour. Milestones are gotten through Achievements. For instance, by completing 10 Medic Achievements you complete "Medic Milestone 1" and get The Bluntsauger. At 16 you get Milestone 2 and get the Kritzkreig, and at 22 you get Milestone 3 and the Ubersaw.

Hat's are 100% Random and rarely drop (Never in my case)

[War Machine]

Yeah, getting the weapons is super easy since you have those two options: Random drop (where the percentage is quite high) and milestones (where getting the desired weapon is a sure thing). But the hats are completely random drops an a very, very low chance of occurrence.

[Femto]

I think I have all the weapons.

I did some achievement farming, reset my stats and then just played normally until I got all of them through drops.

I wish there was a better system to getting the new weapons though.

Some of those achievements are either near impossible to get or very time consuming and item drops are just too random.

I think drops are OK for the hats because it makes them special or whatever but for weapons and variety in combat?

They should just give them to you automatically as soon as an update is released.

Anyway, does anyone know what the weapon's level means?

Because I don't see a difference in stats between my level 10 weapons and the level 50+ weapons I've seen other players with.

[Tempest]

Anyway, does anyone know what the weapon's level means?

Because I don't see a difference in stats between my level 10 weapons and the level 50+ weapons I've seen other players with.

That's one of Valves "It's going to be important....later!" things, like how the briefcase and equipping menu with hat slots came online like months before hats came around. Random drop weapons can have different levels. I personally have a level 99 Axetinguisher and a level 0 Jarate in my case.


As for the rarity of hats, yeah, in theory it's an incentive to play more, but it's now just become an incentive for people to idle. I'll see like 7 people on my friend list "Playing TF2" and when I check they're all just on idle servers to get hats.

[dialdfordesi]

So valve's idea of discouraging idling is by giving honest players a halo? Oh well, at least when I got it I also got a flare gun and KGB gloves along with it.

[War Machine]

They also increased the hat drop rate, still no luck though (aside from the free halo).

[Femto]

I think that more interesting than that is the fact that they mentioned something about trading and combining items.

[dialdfordesi]

Finally got my first hat! My engineer is still going to be erectin' dispensers in useless locations, but at least now he'll be doing it with a sick 10-gallon hat!