Powerlord

Steam was having some huge problems earlier today. Shouldn't affect offline mode, but... As for what I mean by Steam having huge problems... you couldn't join any games.

I assumed this because the game page for Alien Swarm on Steam says "Tile-based map generation tool." Tile-based would be placing pre-created tiles together to form a map. Or so I assumed.

I haven't used it, but as I understand, the editor is completely different from the standard Hammer editor... for one, it's tile-based.

Right, and I know that. However, his description would sound like RED to anyone who didn't take the time to actually check. Especially since the number of players on the server is a transient value.

Nope, I don't play on Insane. Heck, I haven't even completed a campaign on Hard (6/7 levels... >:/) Then again, I've only played "twice" (two 2-4 blocks)

I leave the Reserved Slots solely up to FireSlash these days... you'll have to talk to him about it. Neither is full right now, one has 12 the other 22.

One of the people I've been playing with has this nasty tendency to run around with the flamethrower. If someone else has an FT, I'm not about to take one, too.

I haven't played since they nerfed it, but it was easily my most used gun, and the only one I had an achievement for. Oh, my most played class is Medic, and I was usually in the back because of it...

I should enable it just to spite you!

Well, I don't know if interest in CS:S has died off or not, but... A required update for Counter-Strike: Source is now available. The specific changes include: - Added Steam Clan Tag support ( Set yours in Options->Multiplayer->Advanced ) - Added new achievement "CLAN WARFARE": Win a match of at least 10 players where the entirety of each team is composed of a single clan. - All weapon fire rates now tuned to match their pre-update, tickrate 100 equivalents. (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1368659) - Added automatic server tagging for some server convars ( "mp_startmoney", "mp_friendlyfire", "bot_quota", "sv_nostats", "sv_allowminmodels" ) - Fixed some issues for players who were experiencing stat corruption. - Fixed several server crash exploits. - Fixed server commands "sv_disablefreezecam" and "sv_nowinpanel" not working on dedicated servers. - Adjusted some DX9 shaders to look more like their DX8 counterparts, e.g. flashbang effect. - Community Requests: - Fixed entity I/O messages "OnPlayerPickup" and "OnPlayerUse". - Restored UTF-8 support in the console. - Added env_hudhint entity, for use in custom maps (The allplayers flag must be set for the hint to work in Counter-Strike.) - Added client convar "sv_hudhint_sound" to turn off emit sound for hud hints. - Restored the "cl_minmodels" client convar. - Added server convar "sv_allowminmodels" that allows them to prevent clients from using "cl_minmodels". - Added a button to Options->Multiplayer that allows players to reset their in-game stats. - Note: Due to the nature of stats corruption, it is not possible to automatically fix all types of stats (such as weapon statistics reflecting usage of the wrong weapon). Players who suspect their stats are incorrect and wish to start fresh may want to use the new stat reset feature. I updated the server and restarted it.

I'm REALLY tempted to vote yes to this, just because of how often we seem to have stacking problems.

So, hopefully Valve irons out whatever is wrong with Steam's servers by tomorrow. I'm tired of having my character just freeze for 15 seconds while everyone else keeps moving around. I finally got fed up with it on ctf_doublecross (a map I really like) and quit.

So, the latest Sam & Max game came out today: Sam & Max 304: Beyond the Alley of the Dolls. Fairly early on in it, there's a TF2 Level 1 BLU dispenser. I did a quick write up about it and put it on the teamfortress.com wiki's Dispenser page, under Trivia. Someone else put a on Youtube, too.

Yeah... try playing with a teammate who spins around while using the Flamethrower.

...I wonder what that hat looks like. Oh well, I have Alien Swarm downloading already. Edit: Wait, does that mean we have a TF2 update coming down today?

Particularly since the offensive team will move teleporters up to make it so their team can relentlessly attack you.

That's the other thing... if it's from a distance, I probably wouldn't be attacking as a Spy. I'd either pull out a cloaking device or ignore the damage and continue on, depending on which I think would work in that situation. Heavy is the only one of the combat classes that can keep me visible from a distance, and that's implying I'm not using the Dead Ringer. Now... all bets are off if I get confused as to which cloaking device I have (which *does* happen... I think I have the DR while I really have the C&D).

So, I take it you hate PLR maps for the same reason?

I've never understood what you have against 5 CP maps.

I'll stop being picky as soon as cp_dustbowl isn't played over 3 times more than any other map.

As a reminder, we do have a stats page. It'd be nice if someone could mention it on the first post. Speaking of the stats page: I cleaned up some settings and moved them to a different file to prevent it from disconnecting and reconnecting to the stats server on every map change, not realizing that by doing so, logging was disabled. This should be corrected now. The unfortunate side effect is that no stats were logged today, until about 5 minutes ago. This is now be fixed... I made sure by restarting the server and it now tells me that it's logging to file, console, and udp. udp is the connection to the remote stats logger.

I think we should slap anyone who nominates either goldrush or dustbowl while we're playing the other with a 2 hour ban.

er... Valve would probably make slower, heavier rockets un-reflectable. As for the Spy knife, after thinking about it a bit, I wouldn't be surprised if they made it so it does a lot of damage and introduces a bleed effect. Not enough to instantly kill the victim if they're at full health, but they'll die in a few seconds if not healed. Only normal damage plus bleed effect from the front, though. Although, honestly, I'd still use the regular knife if that were the case, because a bleed effect wouldn't be enough to make me switch from a knife that can kill an overhealed Heavy to one that wouldn't.

Valve is doing a new contest (the Art Pass contest), this time with TF2Maps to design a 3CP map. Note: The basic layout of the map is already on the contest page, so you need to download said map and detail it. The first part of a comic (parodying an earlier Valve comic) is up here.

That's not the only item I want to know about. The Polycount page has been up and down since Valve posted this, so I'm going to list all the items, plus possible interpretations based on the descriptions by their authors: Soldier - The Black Box - Rocket Launcher replacement. It's implied that it fires heavier (slower?) rockets that either do more damage or have a wider radius. The Grenadier's Softcap - Hat The Battalion's Back-up - Buff Banner replacement... I imagine Valve will give it a different effect. Healing all nearby allies? Making them all move faster? Scout - Mad Milk - Bonk Energy Drink replacement. Implied to make you move faster. Milkman - Hat The Short Stop - Pistol (?) replacement. Implied to do extra damage when shooting people from behind. The Holy Mackerel - Possibly a new Melee weapon... possibly a secondary shot from The Short Stop. It's not really clear. Pyro - The Attendant - Hat The Powerjack - Intended as a Homewrecker replacement, but has a car battery on it. Maybe it will shock players and prevent them from using their weapons for a second or two, much like a Spy gets shocked when backstabbing a Razorback? The Degreaser - Flamethrower replacement. Has 4 fire sources... possibly a wider fire cone, but shorter? Spy - The Familiar Fez - Hat Eternal Reward - Knife replacement. Jovian's idea would be funny. I'd use it just to facestab Frogg with. Alternatively, it could be used without breaking disguise, but would take time to kill the enemy... this idea was presented in the fake Spy update page a while back. L'Étranger - Revolver replacement. Possibly fires two bullets at once, but has a delay between when it can be fired? Sniper - None of these have any description by the author, so this one is pure guessing. Darwin's Danger Shield - Razorback replacement. Perhaps lessens damage that the Sniper takes from bullets? Possible Misc item instead, if Valve can't figure out good attributes for it. Ol' Snaggletooth - Hat The Bushwhacka - Kukri replacement. My first thought would have been bleed effect, but Sniper already has one of those. The Sydney Sleeper - Sniper Rifle replacement. Slows targets hit by it. Possibly, completely stun when headshot. Could be a SMG replacement instead so it's more useful. As I recall, the Spy had a Tranquilizer gun in a previous Team Fortress game that slowed the enemy, so this is actually reintroducing an old game mechanic.