ParanoidDrone

So either I've suddenly begun to suck, lag is affecting me more than I thought, everyone has wised up to my Spy tricks, or I'm simply unlucky. But I haven't been able to do much of anything lately. Even when I switch classes, it's very hit and miss, mostly misses. I'll cut it short here before I start sounding like a whiny bitch, but FUCK am I frustrated right now. EDIT: Can anyone suggest a good n00b server for me to trounce? My ego needs some assistance.

Good news: Servers are back up. Bad news: LAGSPIKES. And lag in general, I suppose. Side effect of the server having been down or just a shitty connection?

I was about to ask for an ETA on the server, but from the sound of it, it doesn't seem like there is one. I assume word will spread once it's back up? Regarding the shotgun spread variable, I'm in favor of it if only for consistency's sake.

The servers aren't appearing on my favorites list, which could just be my network acting up now that I've moved back into the dorm, but Frogg says he can't see them either. Are they down or something?

But I liked being an annoying bastard with it... I agree that something needed to be done, but this mess of forced drain on decloaking and limiting the effect of ammo reeks of being heavyhanded, taking the easy way out, and generally treating the symptoms and not the cause. (While I'm thinking about, I may as well throw in a shameless plug for my own thread from forever ago about the DR.) Secret Agent Man, the former amount was 60%. EDIT: Valve finally noticed what we've known for ages -- the ragdolls tend to fuck up a lot. (Post #24) Fingers crossed for fix soon?

I still hate Turbine and would rather see Dustbowl stay, but other than that I agree for the most part. (Customs would probably be fine when it's mostly regulars, but we have RTV for that.)

I was mostly supporting ctf_sawmill because I liked it more than 2Fort/Turbine. Now that Doublecross is here, I don't care if it stays or goes. I enjoyed Premuda when I played on it. Then again, I enjoy most customs as long as there's no blatant imbalance due to "Ooh, shiny!" Anyone else feel that Doublecross is Valve's attempt at "fixing" 2Fort? It has the same bridge-connecting-two-bases, a bottom sewer route, Sniper decks overlooking the middle, and so forth, but it actually works. Maybe because the alternate routes are worth taking?

Conversely, it's people like Frogg that inspire me to play Spy more so I can overcome their paranoia and kill them anyway.

I figured that out really quickly, but he turns around so often there's about a 50/50 chance you'll end up on the wrong side of him anyway and get shredded. He's just really, really hard to backstab. And kill in a melee duel, too.

I don't think I'll make the scrim tonight. I get back from work right as they start, and I'll need to eat dinner etc. And I've recently fallen in love with L4D2 Versus.

Well, having just got back from a round of Vector, I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed it, personal fail and K:D issues aside. Both teams won when attacking, so it's not horribly imbalanced towards defense at least. Panic was also fun, but I wasn't able to see the first stage or really explore much.

I love how so many of the fixes are for things I never noticed.

I just hope update fever doesn't pass by before I get a chance to play. 20-30 kb/s download speed is not fun.

Probably a good idea so we can shelter ourselves from the n00bstorm. Then if we get bored we can pop on down to BLU and own face.

I keep forgetting about that damage reduction. In my head, it's just something that lets you become the Charger from L4D2.

Depending on how much HP the sword takes away, I may or may not favor it over the bottle. I don't think I'll use the shield much other than for the obligatory achievements, though. I give it a couple of days after the update goes live before people start making Master Sword/Hylian Shield skins.

You know, there's only a gi-fucking-normous thread on the Steam forums where everyone's showing theirs off. Although I can't say I blame you either. <.<

Sweet. I am breathlessly anticipating this. In unrelated news, does anyone happen to know if avoiding Witches causes the Director to spawn more than usual? Because I did a single player campaign in Dark Carnival where I made a point of avoiding Witches and encountered at least 6 or 7, two of which were IN A SAFE ROOM DOORWAY. (That is, twice there was one Witch, not once there were two Witches next to each other.) And one of those was at the end of that Crescendo where you need to open the gates and the horde doesn't stop coming until you're all inside.

You know, I NEVER would have pegged the Demoman as a mama's boy. Never mind 5 million a year. (Do you think all the classes make that much?) Also, I call total bullshit on Miss Pauling's claim that Soldier already said yes to his offer. IMO, Miss Pauling was directed by the Announcer to present both the Soldier and the Demoman with the same offer and leave the same parting shot of "Your friend said yes, by the way." to speed things along, regardless of what they actually said. Remember, The Announcer's trying to break the thing up. And even if Miss Pauling doesn't like the idea, I highly doubt she's willing to oppose the Announcer's orders. (Probably out of fear more than anything, if her face in the first comic is any indication.) (Phew, that was a lot of edits.)

I'm probably still used to pre-patch when they increased the advantage you got for winning the first two stages.

No Pipeline saddens me. But I'm excited to play on Nightfall and Premuda, so it's all good.

I didn't say I liked 2Fort, or if I did, that wasn't what I meant. I tolerate it more than Turbine for no rational reason, but that's it. (Unless you consider the grandfather clause to be rational.) As far as Sawmill goes, consider what class I like to play as. Now consider why "empty unused space that no one ever goes to" is a plus for me. I like Aerospace mostly because it's refreshing due to novelty and because in my (admittedly limited) experience on it, I've never seen it die to a turtlefest. The bases are simply too permeable.

My main beef with 2Fort (and CTF/5CP in general, I guess) is that it's incredibly frustrating when one side or the other doesn't seem to be even trying. Whereas with A/D, Payload, etc., BLU just needs to push and RED just needs to stall them, in CTF/5CP maps, both teams have to attack and defend at the same time, and both teams need to be more even than usual to have a really enjoyable match. Otherwise you end up with stalemates or steamrolls depending on whether your team is incapable of pushing forward or doesn't bother to defend the point they just capped. (Or if the enemy team does the same thing.)

I don't mind the concept of 5CP maps, but I agree that Well/Granary/Badlands get a bit old after the umpteenth time. My favorite one on the list right now is Yukon, actually. Actually, I think the reason the maplist is getting stale is because we've played all the maps a million times by now. With the Soldier/Demoman update on the horizon and the obligatory new maps (including an official Valve one, according to the original blog entry for the update), we should be getting a reasonable amount of new maps to alleviate that blah feeling. In the meantime, though... I'd love to see 2Fort and Turbine gone. Truth be told, I'd be alright with keeping 2Fort since it's one of the iconic TF2 maps, but Turbine is just ugh. Ditto Well (CTF), but Sawmill's good. Same logic for Dustbowl and Gold Rush -- neither is a stellar example of good mapping, but they're popular and iconic enough to be worth keeping. Besides, we could always use them to fill up the server on a slow day. I'm this close to asking for Hydro to be added, but I've never had a good round on Hydro ever. A map I do want to see added is Pipeline. It's on the nominate list, but not the rotation. o_O Customs: I'll reiterate Aerospace and Glacier from last time. Also Freight, since it's a 5CP map and I think some new ones would help alleviate the feeling of "Ugh, another one?" (Fun Fact: Firefox recognizes umpteenth as a word.)

And brix were shat. Judging from the screenshot, it looks like combining a class's unlockables will give something particularly special. A hat?