Powerlord

They're up to a REFINED per crafted weapon now? That's freaking insane. And I'm saying that as a person who has like 18x refined in my inventory.

This apparently happened a few hours ago, but had no server update. However, I thought the Genuine versions of these were already tradeable, so I'm not sure what this is referring to... or did Valve stealth-add the crafting recipes for these items already?

Yeesh, ANOTHER pre-order item? Soldier item this time... a hat, I think. Servers are updated and restarted.

It's also a very large map that takes a long time to download. I'll do it, but it's all your fault. In fact, I've already done it (it was already on the download mirror).

Well, (coming from , there used to be an area around behind the stairs area that you could jump down into. That area is gone now, and jumping down will kill you. We've had rc2 on the server before, and people still complained about framerate problems on it.

Frontier had a few major changes in the back area between A, B, and C (i.e. the hill). In fact, one area that used to be part of the map will now send you plummeting to your doom near where the cart turns the corner to climb the hill.

Source Engine Changes (CS:S, DoD:S, TF2, HL2:DM) - Fixed another server crash exploit caused by malformed network packets. Team Fortress 2 - Added three new community maps: - Koth_Lakeside - PL_Frontier - PLR_Nightfall Server is updating now and these 3 maps will be added to rotation. Well, pl_frontier is already in the nominate list but will be put into the normal, non-nominate rotation. Additionally, the server default maps will be toggled to two of the new maps. Servers have been restarted. pl_frontier_final is the new BLU default, koth_lakeside_final is the new RED default.

From what I read of it, something like that. I think they also tried to discuss the store aspect of it.

atmuh linked to this in chat, but I had to link it here, just because the concept is funny... Hats of Affect: A Study of Affect, Achievements and Hats in Team Fortress 2 And yes, as far as I can tell, this is a serious paper.

This happened while I was gone, but... Required updates for Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch are now available. The specific changes include: Source Engine Changes (CS:S, DoD:S, TF2, HL2:DM) - Fixed a server crash exploit caused by malformed network packets. Team Fortress 2 - Fixed the Amputator and the Crusader's Crossbow healing teammates that have the Equalizer as their active weapon. - Updated the Red team skin for the Fists of Steel.

OK, one vote for not turning off crits, turning on ctf crits, and turning off waffleshots. Or did you forget those were how the game was designed?

I would love nothing more than shutting random crits off (tf_weapon_criticals 0) on BLU. Disabling damage spread (tf_damage_disablespread 1) couldn't hurt either. Of course, it wouldn't make sense to turn waffle shots back on if you've disabled those two. Having said that, over a distance, unless you get lucky, turning waffles shots on lowers your over-distance damage rather than raising it. Likely won't happen. As far as I'm aware, the current plugin hasn't been updated for two and a half years, and even if it was, I don't think 100% crits is a simple cvar toggle like instant respawn and friendly fire are. Yes, and those crits (Kritzkrieg-created or any weapons that does crits/mini-crits) aren't affected by disabling random crits. I haven't really seen anyone opposing a change to disable random crits on one of the servers. My preference would be to disable them on BLU, along with damage spread. If no one opposes this change over the next few days, I'm tempted to just throw the switch to change it. I don't want this to do some long, drawn out process like the "should we reset stats" thing originally was. The ONLY downside I've seen on no-crit servers is that the Spy's backstab animation no longer plays (even though players still die in one hit), which is extremely confusing if you're using Your Eternal Reward.

You're kidding, right? You think demo + stickies is harder than getting 3 heavies to walk up to a cart and start shooting? Or that building a sentry gun is (especially now that you can move them)? You know you're delusional, right?

Clearly the solution is a sentry gun. However, we can keep going on and on with what-ifs. 3 heavies alone are vulnerable to all sorts of situations depending on what the other team has. On another note, I've updated pl_swiftwater on the server to frc16 (was frc14). Not that we ever play it, which is a shame, because I think it's a pretty good payload map. TF2 Beta has had some minor tweaks, mostly stuff that was implemented wrong in the last beta update (i.e. Soliders still calling out "MEDIC!" with the Equalizer even though it doesn't appear on the Medic's HUD).

3 heavies on cart = kill them with stickies

Required updates for Team Fortress 2 are now available. The specific changes include: Source Engine Changes (CS:S, DoD:S, TF2, HL2:DM) - Updated the version check when connecting to a server to indicated whether the server's version of the game is older or newer than the client's version when they're different. Team Fortress 2 - Made Bill's Hat always tradable. - Fixed a client crash caused by malformed custom client spray. - Added a Red team skin to the Fists of Steel. - Fixed melee attacks not destroying remote detonation pipes. - Added the Rimmed Raincatcher to the list of Unusual hats. - Fixed the Stickybomb Launcher viewmodel sleeves using the wrong team colors for team Blue. - Fixed players getting set bonuses applied on tournament servers when the server is restricting the player's weapons using the item_whitelist. - Updated CP_Thundermountain ---- Updated the final stage to have the train begin receding after 15 seconds. ---- Reduced the cart speed on the final two ramps in the final stage to 1/2 normal speed. Servers have been updated and restarted.

As strange as it sounds, one of the possible use-cases is to heal a Scout and use the Uber to destroy a sentry gun. Sadly, that seems to be the main use case, thanks to its speed-up ability. Although... in theory, that would also apply to a Charging Demoknight...

I just realized, I forgot one change in that list: Powerjack: - +20% melee vulnerability That's in addition to its -25% damage from the no crit change. The Powerjack's usefulness just went way down... particuarly since the entire Pyro set lets you run faster, but you now take both more explosive and more melee damage.

There are apparently a few interesting changes that got added to the Beta version of the game yesterday. First are two new items: New Flaregun - The Detonator: - Alt-fire detonates flare in flight ---- Does a small explosion that catches players on fire - 20% explosion damage vulnerability - Flares always crit burning targets, regardless of range. New Medigun - The Quick-Fix: - Heal rate increased 50% - Uber charge rate increased 50% - Not able to overheal - Match the speed of any faster heal target - Uber effect: Megaheal ---- Heal rate increased 3x on heal target ---- Heal target and medic immune to stun and damage forces Another major change is that they've removed the No Crit attribute on all weapons that have it and replaced it with -25% damage dealt. Replaced the no-crit attribute with -25% damage on the following: - The Eyelander - The Gunslinger - The Southern Hospitality - The Powerjack (also added +20% melee vulnerability) - The Horseless Headless Horseman's Headtaker - The Ullapool Caber - The Claidheamohmor Here are all the other weapon changes: Vitasaw - Added the ability to see enemy health Dalokoh’s - Removed cooldown Fists of Steel - Increase deploy times 20% - Ranged damage reduced 40% (down from 60%) Loch-n-Load - +10% damage Equalizer - Tuned high-end damage range so it's no longer possible to one-shot certain classes - Suppress the medic call effect while active Madmilk - Heal 60% of damage done (down from 75%) Flaregun - Flares always crit burning targets, regardless of range. Backburner - Removed the restriction on airblast ---- Ammo cost increased 150% (4 blasts at full ammo) - Damage bonus reduced to 10% (from 15%) Sydney Sleeper - +25% increased charge rate And finally general changes: - Added an option to display healing done over heal targets (hud_combattext_healing) - Display a value whenever the player does something that earns them a bonus point - Starting position of values is now affected by range to target, making it easier to see numbers when next to targets

I'm going to say right now that I really don't like micspam. Anyway, what I really came here to post is this: Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include: Team Fortress 2 -Increased the base damage for the Scout's Sun-on-a-Stick, and changed it to always mini-crit against burning targets if the attack is not already critical -Fixed burning deaths to always use the death notice icon for the weapon that started the burn -Updated the RIFT pre-order items to be not-tradable until the RIFT pre-order period is over -Updated the burn effect from the Pyro's Sharpened Volcano Fragment to only last for a limited time on enemies -Updated the description of the Well Spun Hat claim code item Servers have been restarted.

I thought the guy caught on during certain points, particularly when he asked if the guy was a Government worker. Oh, and the "I thought the guy was the administrator" is also a logical error on Gordan's part, as G-Man is the Black Mesa Administrator. Dr. Breen is the head of City 17.

It's a bottom tier unusual (least wanted effect, not very well liked hat...), but still... unusuals of any sort are worth quite a bit in term of hats/metal/keys. For reference, outside of themed hats (Flies Handyman's Handle, Ghosts Le Party Phantom, Burning/Scorching Pyro hats), the order of effects from most to least wanted are: Sunbeams Burning Flames Scorching Flames Purple/Green Energy Vivid Plasma Haunted Ghosts/Circling Heart Searing Plasma Circling Peace/TF Logo Flies Purple/Green Confetti Le Party Phantom and Blighted Beak are higher up on the Unusual "want" chart than normal, because they're the only two Misc items that have unusual effects. They place right after misc hats (Towering Pillar, Noble Amassment, Modest Pile), followed by set hats, then class-specific nicer hats. Edit: For reference, the "ask an opinion on a trade thread!" experts said this: "Probably... Mongolion unusuals are dirt cheap." Of course, this has to be taken into perspective, as the "dirt cheap" they were referring to as an OK deal was: Familiar Fez A Rather Festive Tree Dr’s Dapper Topper Carouser’s Capotain Engineer’s cap Officer's Ushanka Blighted Beak Ze Goggles Magnificent Mongolian MNC Set Gift-wrapped (non-tradeable) Voodoo Juju v.Hotrod v.Tyrants Helm v.Ye Olde Baker Boy v.Shooter's Sola Topi v.Glengarry Bonnet v.KF set 1 refined

Are you sure? I saw someone receive a Stocking Stuffer Key just the other day...

Actually, that's an interesting point. It's impossible to give someone items if they're not running TF2. Similarly, it's impossible to get an Unusual item as a random drop, as you can only get them from crates. The Stocking Stuffer Key was given to everyone.

I'm surprised. It had to be a recent gift since Mongolian is a newish hat, but I wonder if they meant to gift it to you, or got the wrong person.