Powerlord

P.S. The Engineer had better get a set this time around. Of the 9 classes, 8 of them as of this moment have sets in game, and the 5 new sets that have been announced for this next update are all for classes other than the one that has yet to have a set. Also, I checked the Day 2 page for hidden links when they first posted it... the Scout page wasn't there then.

The Quick Fix, the one that's been in Beta for like a year, charges 40% faster, but heals both the medic and his target at like 300% speeds when you use its uber. It also speeds the Medic up if the person he's healing moves faster than him (so you can heal a Scout to get to the battlefield sooner).

It does crit enemies that are on fire in Beta. However, one important thing to remember (as I recall): It does *not* detonate when it hits someone. You must right-click to explode it (and now it explodes when it hits a wall).

To be honest, those two items are more overpowered with the Targe... the Targe has higher resistances and even with a 70% charge damage boost, the charge damage is still less than melee crits.

Taking away all ranged weapons is itself a downside, in case you hadn't noticed. DarkChocobo said it gave him only buffs and this clearly isn't the case.

Not really, the shoes take away the Grenade Launcher, the shield takes away the Sticky Launcher, and the ammo thing can hurt if you have anything but a shield equipped as you can no longer gain ammo from ammo boxes.

Day 2, Timbuk Tuesday has been posted, with a host of new items for Sniper and Demoman. I'll post the stats shortly. Sniper Name: The Bazaar Bargain Slot: Primary Type: Sniper Rifle Each consecutive headshot gives +10 charge per second A body shot reduces the bonus A missed shot clears the bonus Name: The Shahanshah Slot: Melee Type: Sword +25% increase in damage when health is less than 50% of max -25% decrease in damage when health is more than 50% of max Demoman Name: The Splendid Screen Slot: Primary (Secondary) Type: Shield +25% fire resistance on wearer +20% explosive damage resistance on wearer Can deal charge impact damage at any range +70% increase in charge impact damage Name: The Persian Persuader Slot: Melee Type: Sword +100% increase in charge recharge rate All ammo collected becomes health Ali Baba's Wee Booties Slot: Secondary (Primary) Type: Shoes +25% max health on wearer +100% turning control while charging So, yes, it is now possible to have a Demoman with no explosives. Also, where's the Sniper's third item...?

Pssh, you should watch the TF2 Beta stuff. Actually, I don't recall seeing Spy or Heavy stuff in the TF2 Beta, so today's new equipment is kind of a surprise. The ones currently in testing are Soldier (6), Sniper (1), Medic (3), and Pyro (1). Edit: Wait, my bad, I actually meant the translation stuff that was leaked a few weeks ago.

I tend to use the DR with L'Etranger or Ambassador. However, given that I tend to miss the head with the Ambassador, I'd likely swap to using the Enforcer with it instead.

Spinup is silent, shooting presumably isn't. I'm surprised Valve made a new revolver that makes you take longer to cloak. It's a straight upgrade for the Revolver for Dead Ringer spies, as the DR is unaffected by that.

Yeah, I was warning everyone who was listening to hold on to one of each weapon because the only other time Valve has done double drop rate is when there are a lot of things required for crafting. Specifically, they did double drop rate during the Golden Wrench thing.

Valve has posted The Über Update, Day One Today is Mobster Monday, introducing new weapon sets for the Heavy and Spy and a new Payload map: Barn Blitz. New weapons are: Heavy Name: Tomislav Slot: Primary Type: Minigun +75% faster, silent spinup time 20% slower firing speed Name: The Family Business Slot: Secondary Type: Shotgun +40% clip size -15% damage done Name: The Eviction Notice Slot: Melee Type: Fists +50% firing speed -60% damage done Spy Name: The Enforcer Slot: Secondary (Primary) Type: Revolver +20% damage done 0.5 sec increase in time taken to cloak Name: The Big Earner Slot: Melee Type: Knife +30% cloak on kill -25 max health on wearer Name: The Made Man Slot: Misc? Type: Flower A gentleman always has a flower handy to drop on an opponent's grave. Also, this week is a week-long free-weekend. Meet the Medic has been confirmed. The update is scheduled to hit on Thursday, June 23rd or so it looks.

Just an FYI: Monday Night Combat is $3.75 as today's Steam daily deal. It's somewhat similar to TF2, but you buy ability upgrades as each map progresses. Also, there are only 6 classes.

Except it doesn't explode on contact with people... only if you right-click or it hits a wall. Or so the description says.

Incidentally, the hospital in the picture appears to be based on Pacific Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. The same city Valve is based in, go figure.

There's something funny going on with the TF2 site today. Not only is there bird poop everywhere, but the birds themselves are hidden links, to these images:

The Detonator got buffed, not nerfed. Before, the Pyro took extra damage from all explosives if he the Detonator equipped. Now, it's only extra damage from his own explosives. Also, it now explodes when it hits a wall. As for the Quick Fix, I'm not too surprised it got nerfed a bit. While not as powerful as the Medigun, it is close to it in power.

Valve decided to have a required TF2 update during my work day today. Servers are now updated. This update also supposedly added the ability for the birds found in maps to fly. Additionally, the TF2 Beta was updated: Gameplay: Pyro: The Detonator: Flares now detonate on impact with the world, but with a greatly reduced radius (manually detonated radius unchanged) Replaced +20% increased blast damage with +20% increased self blast damage Medic: The Quick-Fix: Lowered heal and charge rates to 40% (from 50%) New sounds General: Main Menu changes: Added a "Start Playing" option which presents users with various game modes to choose from. Once selected, the game matches the player into the best available server for that mode. Payload King of the Hill Attack / Defense Payload Race Control Points Capture the Flag Quick Play (finds best server based on ping, number of players, etc) Crafting interface reworked Item load-out interface reworked Training: New training user interface Added "A,W,S,D" movement instruction to Soldier training Added ammo instruction to Engineer training Clarified many instructional strings Voting: New sounds

Just a heads up. After I log off Friday night, I won't be on again until Sunday afternoon/evening sometime. So, if the server drops off the face of the planet or something, you'll have to bug FireSlash.

It's one of two I've been missing for Pyro for years. The other being the one you need a Spy to help you farm because no one ever does the disguise kit taunt ever, except when trying to get the Spy achievement for it. Incidentally, I have every achievement for Spy and Sniper; I'm down to one or two achievements for Pyro, Scout, and Heavy. I still have a ton of achievements for Engineer (at least one of which has been bugged for some time), Medic, Demoman, and Soldier. Sadly, it's been entirely horrible every time I've played it recently.

Pssh, I had a 15-stab round on degroot just the other night. Seriously, though, I've been playing less Spy and more Pyro/Sniper/Engineer than usual, so I'm not surprised Paranoid has the backstabs award now. P.S. I must be near Pyromancer by now...

This happened while I was playing Spiral Knights, so I didn't get to it right away.

Speaking of which, I'm too lazy to read 17 pages... do we have an in-game guild? I actually played Spiral Knights a bit during Beta, but if I don't get anything from having a Beta account (knights got deleted in push to retail), I'm going to restart on Steam and go with that. Until I get bored of it that is.

I had that problem the first time I launched TF2, but afterwards it appeared to work correctly. No clue about what else to do to fix it though, other than the usual "verify integrity of game cache" thing.

Updating now. Also, Spiral Knights is a free game, so... free hat for everyone? Edit: Wait, isn't The Essential Accessories a Misc item? So there are paintable Misc items now? Edit 2: Servers are back now.