TF2 update 24 June 09

Reb · Tue Jun 23, 2009 11:05 pm

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[-]June 23, 2009 - Team Fortress 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1 & 2, and Portal Update Released

Updates to Team Fortress 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1 & 2, and Portal have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Team Fortress 2, Episode 1 & 2, and Portal

Added support for the Novint Falcon

General

Added an option to the advanced multiplayer menu to select left or right handed view models

Fixed a bug where a spectator's wearable items could be seen floating around the player they were spectating

Fixed a bug where a fake Spy hand would appear on the screen of other players

Custom death animations now only play 25% of the time

Fixed teleporters not being build-able in some places where they should be (such as within the pit at the end of Badwater Basin)

Fixed rare client crash on connection and level change

Removed refract from water ripples caused by bullet impacts for performance reasons

Added log entries for player extinguished events using the medigun, jarate, flamethrower and dispenser

Started tracking localization settings to help make decisions regarding localization in the future

Fixed the blank progress bar in the upper-left of the screen when the client scheme is reloaded

Mapmaker requests

Added spawn flag to func_respawnroomvisualizer that allows it be non-solid to players

Added SetSolid input to func_respawnroomvisualizer to change solidity to players dynamically

Added OnWonByTeam1 and OnWonByTeam2 outputs to the TFGamerulesProxy

Sniper

Fixed a bad detection case in the "Friendship is Golden" achievement

Changed the description of the "Triple Prey" achievement so it better describes how to get it

Critical arrows now have a trail and correctly deal enhanced damage

The Huntsman now defaults to be right handed

Friendly arrows will no longer trigger the near miss sound on you

Fixed several sources of floating arrows

Spy

Fixed disguised Spies occasionally looking like they have invulnerability, instead of the correct fake Spy mask

Disguised spies will no longer lose their disguise weapon when they interact with a weapon locker

Fixed a bug where the spy's watch would randomly change models during play

Fixed uncloaked spies flickering in and out of the cloak effect when taking damage

The Cloak and Dagger now always regenerates at its intended rate. Previously it only regenerated at the correct rate when the spy was cloaked

Increased the Cloak and Dagger regeneration rate slightly

Capped the rate of energy loss from moving faster than run speed (falling / air toss) while cloaked with the Cloak and Dagger

The Dead Ringer's cloak consume rate has been slightly reduced, giving about an extra second of cloak time on a full meter

Emerging from the Dead Ringer's cloak now drains up to 40% of the cloak meter instead of 100%. This drain only happens if the meter is at least 60% full

The Dead Ringer's cloak meter can now be regenerated from ammo sources

The Ambassador now only crits when fully accurate and no longer penetrates enemies

The Spy can no longer change weapons from the knife while shocked by the Razorback

Force-A-Nature & Flamethrower air blast knockback effects no longer work on disguised spies

Fixed disguised Spies showing the wrong teleporter effects when using an enemy teleporter

Lots of awesome stuff in this new update. Shame about the ambassador nerf though. Dead ringer should be more useful now though

Skillers · Wed Jun 24, 2009 1:37 am

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Force-A-Nature & Flamethrower air blast knockback effects no longer work on disguised spies

WTF?! Those were valid spycheck methods (and the knockback could be invaluable in certain situations).

Lord Metritutus · Wed Jun 24, 2009 10:19 am

Indeed. People could spam them loads. Too bad.

I am pleased with the cloak tweaks.

And the ambassador tweak does not bother me, I expected it to only deliver a critical hit on headshot anyway.

Something not in the update list is that newly found items now seem to have random levels attached, such as Level 78 ubersaws. The levels do not do anything at this stage though.

Skillers · Wed Jun 24, 2009 10:21 am

Well with the flamethrower, using fire was more effective, and not having the FAN pushback is counter intuitive, as you could see if you were actually hitting a spy that way, as it should be.

Lord Metritutus · Wed Jun 24, 2009 10:28 am

The Dead Ringer is now awesome again.

Skillers · Wed Jun 24, 2009 11:15 am

Metritutus wrote:

The Dead Ringer is now unbalanced again.

Fix'd

Si · Wed Jun 24, 2009 11:52 am

I swear Valve should stop <LOOK MA, I AM SWEARING> around and ruining the game.

DHR-107 · Wed Jun 24, 2009 12:28 pm

Skillers wrote:

Metritutus wrote:

The Dead Ringer is now unbalanced again.

Fix'd

QTF.

That's a stupid fix.

Lord Metritutus · Wed Jun 24, 2009 1:04 pm

DHR-107 wrote:

That's a stupid fix.

It is not that bad. Try it in-game before commenting.

Reb · Wed Jun 24, 2009 4:55 pm

Si wrote:

I swear Valve should stop <LOOK MA, I AM SWEARING> around and ruining the game.

How is the game being ruined? They are actively trying to fix the game and if people start to think the game has become inbalanced then hopefully valve will change it some more.

Bad support is better than no support entirely. Stop scare mongering saying the game is being ruined when you have hardly had time to even test the update out. I agree with Met here. Try the update out before condemning it.

Skillers · Wed Jun 24, 2009 5:12 pm

I agree with Reb, though I see the DR going back to slightly OP, but have just realised it still stops the massive damage prevention.

Lord Metritutus · Wed Jun 24, 2009 5:24 pm

Skillers wrote:

I agree with Reb, though I see the DR going back to slightly OP, but have just realised it still stops the massive damage prevention.

Indeed, not only can you not 'spam' it, but also, if you collect ammo to keep your cloak going, after the 'original' cloak period of reduced damage, it is treated like normal cloak, you take normal cloak damage, and damage/bumping into people makes you 'flicker'.

Hawke · Thu Jun 25, 2009 12:31 am

The Dead Ringer is fixed. Before, it was utterly useless- 8 seconds of cloak and 16 seconds recharge time after draining it completely was completely underpowered to everything in the Spy's arsenal. This puts it on par with the other cloaks. It isn't the best but now it isn't the worst. Bare in mind it has a nice loud sound to alert you of a Spy returning from the dead.
The Cloak and Dagger has been fixed- it requires you to remain completely still to start charging, it doesn't charge a bit everytime you stop moving. It also doesn't drain mega fast if you jump down on an area. It is fixed and useful.
The Spy is immune to knockback when disguised. This helps the Spy as his role is getting increasingly harder each day and his disguise is his only defence when he is trying to get into position to stab. Don't like it? HINT: FLAMES STILL WORK!
With all the complaining about the Ambassador, it now really demands skill to headshot- it won't crit when in the cooldown period so no lucky headshots will come, you need to aim it to kill.

Do not say it is unbalanced without trying the game first. It is like saying that cars suck when you have never seen one or driven one- completely unjustifiable and a tad out of proportion. Although prejudice is known not to take any sense of reason or logic....

Ogris · Thu Jun 25, 2009 12:47 am

The dead ringer at the start was OP.

Then it was useless.

This is the same case as with the AWP, if you dont use it(being the dead ringer) you have NO right WHATSOEVER to complain, you wouldnt hear an engineer being smart about biology, because he'd rather listen to someone who majored in it, rather than be hardheaded about it. The dead ringer is PERFECTLY FINE, just because it's a weapon that makes your life harder, it doesn't make it overpowered, i will admit at the start it was just... pointless as you could easily recharge it constantly, but when the full cloak drain update came out... well there was no point, it was useless, now, you can re-use it, BUT it is risky to do so, giving you a nice balance of the two extremes. Seriously, maybe valve should stop releasing updates, just because everyone constantly moans at new updates, seriously, they SUPPORT THE GAME FAR MORE THAN ANY OTHER DEVELOPER(apart from maybe blizzard), and all they get is bashing for TRYING TO MAKE THE GAME MORE BALANCED. Seriously people, come on.

Skillers · Thu Jun 25, 2009 1:17 am

I lol'd at srs business. For those who didn't get it, my "fix" was a joke

I know very well that the DR works alright now, though there could be some concern about using ammo crates to spam it.

I'm more concerned about the loss of knockback effects, that just seems... wrongs.

P.S.

Shadowhawke wrote:

Do not say it is unbalanced without trying the game first.

I definitely lol'd.

Hawke · Thu Jun 25, 2009 5:42 am

Skillers wrote:

Shadowhawke wrote:

Do not say it is unbalanced without trying the game first.

I definitely lol'd.

... why?

Reb · Thu Jun 25, 2009 6:44 am

Shadowhawke wrote:

The Spy is immune to knockback when disguised. This helps the Spy as his role is getting increasingly harder each day and his disguise is his only defence when he is trying to get into position to stab. Don't like it? HINT: FLAMES STILL WORK!

Actually in terms of the fan damage this is also a slight nerf to the spy. If you know if there is a spy about and you know what teammate is the spy then the scout can just run to the spy and unload both shots for an instant kill without having to aim the second shot.

Lord Metritutus · Thu Jun 25, 2009 7:49 am

Skillers wrote:

I know very well that the DR works alright now, though there could be some concern about using ammo crates to spam it.

I actually tried this. It is not possible. Not unless you have two ammo crates to run between, as they don't spawn fast enough, and as long as the enemy team has the memory span of a goldfish and does not remember where you were before (because you have to hang around the ammo pack).

Skillers wrote:

I'm more concerned about the loss of knockback effects, that just seems... wrongs.

This actually fits with the spy's immunity to being blown around by explosives (sentry rockets, rockets, grenades and stickies).

Skillers · Thu Jun 25, 2009 10:15 am

I didn't think he was immune to that, also seems wrong...

Ogris · Thu Jun 25, 2009 12:22 pm

In the end.

Spychecking with a scout? You joking? Go cap the point or push the cart or annoy the enemy.
Pyro? You spycheck with your flamethrower, NOT the airblast.

It's just one of those changes, that causes people to go BAWW; but will affect less than 1% of the players, seriously, anyone who spychecks with an airblast needs to look at his weapon, to find out that the flamethrower is a MUCH better weapon at doing so. And why the hell would a scout be spychecking, is beyond me. Also, the scout is VERY fast, so using his bat he could take out spies even faster, maybe not detect them as fast, but seriously, if you dont have a pyro on the team, something is wrong. Oh wait, the engineer, what about him, YES HE CAN WHACK SPIES. This it total overraction over things that nobody ever does.

Wynney · Thu Jun 25, 2009 12:25 pm

rofl, I love it when you write stuff Oggy <3

Reb · Thu Jun 25, 2009 12:30 pm

Ogris wrote:

Spychecking with a scout? You joking? Go cap the point or push the cart or annoy the enemy.
Pyro? You spycheck with your flamethrower, NOT the airblast.

Peoples main complaint isnt the fact that you cant spy check with the weapons its because you cant save a teammate from getting backstabbed. Its more about saving your teammates than spy checking.

Also any class can spycheck and should be checking for spies. Just because the pyro is good at it means that he should be the only one checking for spies although with some people in this game you think they would be scared to actually look around themselves once in while.

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Also, the scout is VERY fast, so using his bat he could take out spies even faster

This is a buff for the scout. As I said since the knockback doesnt work the spy will die instantly from the FAN.

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but seriously, if you dont have a pyro on the team, something is wrong.

I giggled. You make it sound like a team has to have a pyro at all times just to deal with a class that can be beaten by turning around.

Gozzer · Thu Jun 25, 2009 1:32 pm

To be quite honest the change of not being able to detect a spy with FAN pushback or airblast just makes certain things in life for the spy a tiny bit easier.

90% of the time you airblast or FAN a disguised spy they will try and escape with thier cloak or fight back. If they try and escape then they now have a tiny weeny bit more of a chance as you can't airblast them into the air whilst they start to cloak and get a lucky ignite with the flame thrower, or FAN them into the air and get another lucky airborne shot. The spy can now cloak and move as he pleases instead of being pushed in a linear direction by either weapon.
If they fight back then they remove thier disguise and viola, it works again.

The other 10% of the time the spy will neither try to escape or fight. In this case he is a disguised usless piece of crap. Any smart player will kill him or announce his presence.

Ogris · Thu Jun 25, 2009 2:02 pm

Yeah i know Reb, in match situations, you're not always going to end up with a pyro, but then, you just have to be a bit more paranoid about things... take met for example, EVERYONE is a spy to him, and it works surprisingly well.

From what i thought the FAN has a fast refire rate, getting two shots off easily though, and well... if you hit someone with your flamethrower, he is obviously going to be in range as long as you keep following him... they cant run away if you follow them, if you set a spy on fire, what, are you going to airblast him to confirm? No, you're just going to keep holding down mouse1.....

As i said, i don't see the issue here really, if someone airblasts a spy, they will be able to run anway, removing this, actually makes it EASIER as they WILL stay in range, as the scout is faster, while the pyro moves at the same speed.

Reb · Thu Jun 25, 2009 2:25 pm

Ogris wrote:

Yeah i know Reb, in match situations, you're not always going to end up with a pyro, but then, you just have to be a bit more paranoid about things... take met for example, EVERYONE is a spy to him, and it works surprisingly well.

Just actually looking around you in general not just for spy checking is good practice. As I said its amazing the amount of people that will run forward to the point/cart like little sheep before actually being in an aware state.

Quote:

From what i thought the FAN has a fast refire rate, getting two shots off easily though, and well... if you hit someone with your flamethrower, he is obviously going to be in range as long as you keep following him... they cant run away if you follow them, if you set a spy on fire, what, are you going to airblast him to confirm? No, you're just going to keep holding down mouse1.....

As i said, i don't see the issue here really, if someone airblasts a spy, they will be able to run anway, removing this, actually makes it EASIER as they WILL stay in range, as the scout is faster, while the pyro moves at the same speed.

As I said this isnt about people spychecking. People have been complaining about not being able to stop a disguised spy from backstabbing your teammates. For example if a spy is about to backstab your 90% charged medic and there wouldnt be enough time to tell the medic there is a spy behind him (and 90% of the time they wouldnt turn around anyway). Before the update a pyro could just airblast the spy away and save the medic. Now they cant which means you would lose 90% uber.

Link to what people have actually been complaining about http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=903610

Actually now if a spy is ignited and you airblast him you will put the flames out instead (if he is diguised of course)

TF2 update 24 June 09

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