Powerlord

Over half. 76 I think, if you want an exact number. Also: 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 Moved the "Whiskered Gentleman" to the Misc loadout slot Server was updated, but BLU hasn't been restarted. It's not really a critical update for servers.

I had what I thought was an amusing moment on cp_badlands early today. I was playing Spy on RED. We had 3 points and had halfway capped the fourth, but were stopped. I moved to the last point while cloaked (using Cloak and Dagger) and disguised as a BLU Pyro. I decloaked near the point, then ran to it as if I were on BLU guarding it. Frogg ran by upstairs, saw me standing on the point, shot at me four times from upstairs (missing twice), but I remained just standing there. After he was out of sight, I cloaked, then uncloaked to kill an engineer who jumped down and started to build a sentry in the corner. Cloaked again, switched disguises while we captured point 4, then uncloaked to capture the last point. Turns out that even Frogg can be fooled.

A required update for Team Fortress 2 is now available. Please run hldsupdatetool to receive it. The specific changes include: Added new community weapons and hats. Updated CP_Gorge - Added nobuilds to the awnings outside BLU's forward spawn to preventing players building up there. - More clip work and model collision work based on community feedback. - Fixed BLU forward spawn door appearing through roof. Updated PLR_Pipeline - Added new stairwell in Stage 1 and window access to both teams' platforms by main choke point to help alleviate stalemates. - Reverted the starting position for the cart in Stage 3 if a team had won the first 2 stages to where you no longer get a big cart-start-position advantage. - Fixed rare cases where stage would break when cart had no nearby capper(s). - Fixed carts not always moving to their starting locations correctly. - Fixed respawn times in Stage 3 not being set to the proper values. - Fixed the map not finishing correctly in Stage 3 if the two teams capture the final point at the same time. Removed sv_showhitboxes to avoid players confusing it with the method by which we do hit detection (see http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Source_Multiplayer_Networking for info) So, anyway... more new hats and weapons? And thank $deity that plr_pipeline finally had that idiotic cart change to Stage 3 finally reverted. Maybe it won't be hated as much now. Servers are now back up and running. The new items are: Sniper: Tribalman's Shiv - Melee - On Hit: Bleed for 8 seconds. -35% Damage Demoman: Scotman's Skullcutter - Melee - +20% Damage Done. 15% slower move speed on wearer. Hats: Scout: Whoopee Cap Soldier: Sergeant's Drill Hat Pyro: Whiskered Gentleman Pyro: Vintage Merryweather Demoman: Tippler's Tricorne Heavy: Heavy Duty Rag Engineer: Safe'n'Sound Medic: Ze Goggles (they do nothing! er... that's not in the name) Medic: Gentleman's Gatsby Sniper: Bloke's Bucket Hat Spy: Frenchman's Beret New Crafting Recipes: Fabricate Scotsman's Skullcutter: 1 Axtinguisher + 1 Jarate Fabricate Tribalman's Shiv: 1 Huntsman + 1 Dead Ringer

The problem is that damage got bumped back up, plus the afterburn time went back to its old length, yet the airblast change and its 2-3x distance stayed...

Yes, that and it's an easily abuseable ability. It's up there on par with the Spy's Dead Ringer when it first came out... you could use it over and over and over and never die with it. In this case, you could just write a quick macro to alternately flame and airblast to do massive damage.

If you're that close to them, why not just axtinguish them? It does over 100 damage to people on fire.

Servers are back up and operational. Flame on! And I don't mean flame wars.

Backburner got another damage buff... because it's now 25% more damage than it was before (+10% +15%), which is slightly higher than what the old flamethrower damage was, iirc.

Required updates for Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike: Source Beta are now available. Please run hldsupdatetool to receive the updates. The specific changes include: Engine: - Improved crash reporting system to enable more detailed crash reports - Fixed a client crash caused by a buffer overflow while processing temp entities Counter-Strike: Source Beta: - Fixed not being able to add bots to the game using the Create Server dialog - Fixed some movement ConVars to match the current Counter-Strike: Source settings for default values and flags - Fixed several rubberbanding/stuttering issues with objects and players - Fixed several ConVars (sv_accelerate, maxspeed, etc.) being hidden - Fixed bloom problems - Fixed a server crash caused by malformed client autobuy string - Fixed developer console output being on by default - Fixed "Report Bug" in the main menu not working - Fixed the missing icon for the desktop shortcut - Fixed the "rebuy" command not buying the correct items depending on the order they were purchased in - Fixed the clock image in the spectator HUD being clipped Team Fortress 2: - Fixed a case where the Spy could start taunting and cloak at the same time Flamethrower changes: - Increased base damage 10% - Afterburn duration increased (from 6 to 10) - Flares that hit a burning player at mid-to-long range will crit - Reduced Backburner damage bonus from 20% to 15% So, it turns out this update was a buff rather than a nerf for Pyro.

er... wasn't it? *researchs* Whoops, nope, I guess not... used to be 25 and got knocked to 20.

Edited just to screw with atmuh and see if he notices. If it was on cp_freight, it was probably me. And yes, I tend to use the Lucksman as Sniper. I prefer the closer range combat than running away and shooting people from a distance. The Huntsman also promotes a shoot and duck behind cover playstyle. The lack of scoping dot is a big help for killing unaware enemies. The fact that you can't miss at point blank range (except on airblasts) is a big plus, too. Seriously, if you want to do a test, have an enemy stand in front of you, move up to point blank (or at least fairly close), and while still facing them, look straight down and shoot your arrow. Instant headshot.

So, what does everyone think of the idea of voting during each map for the next map in rotation? Another revision of Coldfront will be coming soon if the Coldfront thread on TF2Maps is anything to go by. Among other things, the hill at the center point will be lower than it used to. Also, more Pyro changes are coming this week according to the blog. Edit: Also, wtf, after 1 or 2 awards of Targe kills, I have the Global for it?

It seems like if I get stab-fests like the one on the cart, they happen at the beginning of the round (I know I've gotten a 6-stab spree on the cart in Goldrush 1 before, before point A). I'm too lazy to record demos all the time in the hope that I get streaks like that, though. Figures. There's no real good way of handling it so certain maps come up more often. I mean, we could always set it up so there's always a next map vote 6 minutes before the end of a round, but that can get annoying... ...actually, why did we get rid of that? I know we used to have it... was it because certain maps came up too often?

It seems to be repeating sections. I'm wondering if it's because we have some maps in rotation more than once, so if a map directly before one of those maps are voted to, the mapcycle gets changed. Why the map before? Because rtv doesn't change the next map. For example, if my theory is correct, if we're on ctf_turbine and we rtv to somewhere, the mapcycle will be the map we voted to, then pl_goldrush, then cp_freight_final1... whereas the third map there should have been cp_gravelpit. More likely, what happened when I noticed it was a vote from gorge to somewhere, which reset badwater back to the first one, to be immediately followed by granary, nucleus, and dustbowl (the 3 maps I noticed were appearing more often). Valve tends to name their newer community maps that get added to the game itself with the suffix final. But the version of freight available online before it was modified for inclusion with the game was already cp_freight_final.

Do you think I would have brought this up if I hadn't already checked the map cycle? Speaking of which, this is what the mapcycle currently looks like: Now... granary is on there twice... dustbowl isn't (want to guess why that is?), nor is nucleus. Speaking of which, I haven't seen koth_viaduct come up at all recently, despite seeing all the maps near it. koth_viaduct cp_fastlane pl_goldrush cp_freight_final1 ctf_doublecross cp_gravelpit plr_pipeline cp_badlands cp_egypt_final pl_badwater cp_coldfront_rc3 cp_granary koth_nucleus cp_dustbowl ctf_turbine pl_goldrush cp_gravelpit pl_frontier cp_badlands cp_gorge pl_badwater cp_steel cp_granary

There appears to be some issues where certain maps are appearing more often than they are in the map cycle. I initially noticed this Saturday on cp_dustbowl (it's a well known fact that I don't like that map, and it came up twice in rotation), but I observed that other maps were also coming up more often than usual. Specifically, I noticed koth_nucleus and cp_granary come up twice without rtving to them. I'll look into the issue more tomorrow after I get home from work.

If you buy the PC version of Portal off of Steam, or in stores, it's $20. That's why Orange Box (for $30) was a no brainer if you were missing even one of the other games in the box.

The catch is that you need to sign up for a Steam account if you don't already have one.

New Blog Post Crazy theories start... now. The 10th class will come soon! It will be female (hence the big book of female hats)!

Figures, I don't have an extra Kritzkrieg, and I've been using mine when I play Medic lately. I had extras of the other two medic items... go figure.

I wonder if the Pain Train will involve the Axtinguisher... someone commented before about it using the handle from it... or was it the Fire Ax? Anyway, I'll look to see if I have an extra Kritzkrieg when I log back in to see if I can craft a Crit-a-Cola. Also, RED is up, BLU and PURPLE are being PITAs and sitting there at the "checking for updates" thing rather than just timing out and starting the server.

A required update for Team Fortress 2, and an optional update for Day of Defeat: Source and the Counter-Strike: Source Beta is now available. Please run hldsupdatetool to receive the update. The specific changes include: Linux Dedicated Server: - Fixed srcds_run to work properly with the Counter-Strike: Source beta dedicated server when autoupdating. Engine: - Fixed the startmovie command not using the codec dialog. Team Fortress 2: - Fixed dropped weapons and ammo kits not being affected by explosions. - Adding missing "+lookup" and "+lookdown" keybind options. - Added SetCTFCaptureBonusTime tf_gamerules input to allow map authors to set the length of crit bonus time (in seconds) for CTF captures. I will be applying these to the servers shortly... now that the server is accessible again. Updates are now applied, waiting for server to realize that there are no new updates available during the restart operation. Here's hoping that SetCTFCaptureBonusTime doesn't override the tf_ctf_bonus_time cvar.

I should clarify, when I said server binaries are unchanged, I meant that nothing on the server got updated. I tested this on the install that used to be OCReMix IDLE... which I'd updated after the last server update in case we continue to have network issues with the current server.

Portal's actually pretty short, unless you're trying to get the Transmission Received or Camera Shy achievements. Or do the challenge stages.

I didn't see a thread about this yet, so... The Mac version of Steam launched today, with 50 games. Among those is Portal. Portal is currently free for both PC and Mac through the 24th to celebrate the launch of Steam for Mac. The only thing you need to get it is to sign in to your Steam account or sign up for one if you don't have one. Unfortunately, Portal is the only Source game ported to Mac so far, so if you wanted to play TF2 on the Mac, you have to wait a bit... but they'll have new Mac game releases every Wednesday.