Well, not really…I just haven’t had much to write about. But now I do! And guess what, it’s about TF2 again. Namely this.
In this update we can see the results of some of the playtesting that league players have been involved in. Well, sort of. Since I’m lazy I’ll just C&P some stuff I wrote about the update at the Orochinagi forums, and add a bit more for clarity.
Sandman nerf
Stuns are still annoying, but at least they can\’t take out ubers now. Although I will lol the next time a Sandman scout tries to tag me and gets one-shotted by my rocket. Although chances are I’ll end up getting critstunned by some jackass who decided that it was a good idea to switch his loadout now that the Sandman doesn’t take away his double jump.
Critboost on intel cap
Pretty stupid idea if you ask me. If you want people to attack more on CTF maps, then make turtling harder/less rewarding than it is now – don\’t give a team that happens to cap once the ability to shit out instant death for ten seconds.
Every time I play ctf_turbine I inevitably imagine how much more fun the game would be if there were no engineers on either team.
KOTH mode
Fun. I like it more than arena since it emphasises the best part of the game (capturing and holding territory). Maps like koth_nucleus don\’t really have any unassailable sentry spots either so defense depends more on how good your other classes are. I think koth_viaduct is way too small for 24 players though – my box has trouble keeping 60fps on that map and the point turns into a spamfest very quickly.
ctf_sawmill
Haven\’t actually played it in a real match yet, but I like how 1) your spawn is BEHIND the intel room, making it easier to attack and 2) the intel room is tiny, making it hard to maintain a sentry down there. Kind of sad that they cut off the paths that go by the waterfall though.
Autoreload
Handy for certain classes (Soldier, Demoman, Scout) not so much for others (Spy). Thankfully there\’s a cvar to turn it on and off so you can make it class-specific.
I haven’t tried cp_yukon yet mainly because the players on the servers I tend to play on seem to have a vendetta against 5CP maps, even though I think Granary and Badlands are probably among the best maps the game has to offer. Every time RTV comes up everyone votes for Goldrush, Dustbowl or (on particularly bad days) Pipeline 🙁
Another somewhat depressing thing this update has taught me is how so incredibly few people actually know how to play Soldier effectively. Valve inadvertently broke rocket jumps for a full weekend when they tried to undo some self-damage changes they had made to the Demoman. The ability wasn’t taken away, but the damage received by the Soldier was reduced, thereby reducing the distance he could propel himself. Normally simple jumps like going straight up to Well’s third floor from the second point, or jumping onto Gravelpit C from the ground level, or flick jumping from the battlements on Badlands to the spire all became difficult or impossible to do.
And yet I saw SO MANY supposed ‘career Soldiers’ adamantly insisting that RJing wasn’t broken. I mean, I’m not awesome at Soldier, yet the fact that RJs were broken was blatantly obvious to me from the moment I booted up the game after the patch to fool around in the new maps.
I don’t know. Maybe it’s wrong to expect the same level of interest in advanced techniques from everyone I end up on a server with (in a game whose skill ceiling is rather low for a multiplayer FPS to begin with). But TF2 pubs are starting to push all the wrong buttons for me – I’m getting tired of having to deal with teams consisting of 4 W+M1 Pyros, 3 Huntsman Snipers and 4 sticky spamming Demomen. What’s worse is when those people are on my team. No, PyroFan23423562, you can’t W+M1 into that sentry and destroy it. Sorry.
I’d start playing PUGs or something but I don’t know anyone else who does it…
Oh, and for some perspective, I’ve been playing Soldier almost exclusively for quite some time now (I occasionally switch off to Medic, Demoman, Spy or Sniper as needed, or if I think I can get away with it). Mainly thanks to this awesome Soldier tutorial:
Wow – interesting video. Is it that easy to actually shoot guys out of the air (aerials per the vid) in the PC version? I mean, you never see that in the PS3 game – probably because of the slow response you have adjusting your aim with the analog stick.
And wouldn’t a W+M1 Pyro just run out of ammo?
I’ve airshotted a few guys who were trying to steal high ground from me, as well as a few Scouts who were too trigger-happy with their jump button, so yeah, it is possible. Takes a lot of practice, though – I’m far from being able to do it consistently.
I don’t really mean the term ‘W+M1’ literally – it’s a derisive term used to describe the fact that the Pyro requires basically no aiming ability or skill in order to be able to deal out damage at low-mid levels of play – he’s basically ‘spray and pray’. It’s what contributes to the fact that the Pyro is the offense class of choice is so many public servers.
Of course, it also means that he’s terrible at high levels of play, but that’s a given, I guess.
I’m at least pleased that stunning ubers is gone. Plus, I don’t think there will be too many of the “new” Sandman players, as there’s a hell of a lot of whining from pubbers about how taking away uber stuns somehow “ruins” the weapon. One of my friends is complaining about the Force-A-Nature as he thinks the damage on it is too powerful – never mind that you have to get up close to get the most effectiveness out of it.
Loving KOTH as well. That one Nucleus match the two of us played the other day was pretty danged fun. I haven’t had any problems with Viaduct in over-populated servers, but I guess having a GTX 260 on this system helps.
Yar, I quite like Nucleus. It can be a bit of a Sniperfest but the map has plenty of flanking routes to get behind them and take them out.
I’ve been planning an upgrade but I haven’t gotten around to buying parts yet, heh.
It’s weird that Pyro is a popular offensive class in the real game – in the PS3 version Pyros are generally used for defense. It’s almost like Pyro and Demo-man switched categories – attacking characters on the PS3 tend to be Soldiers, Scouts, and Demomen.
Well in high level play on the PC version the main offensive classes tend to be exactly those three. Pyro gets used – you guessed it – defensively. Usually on the last point of a 5CP map.
Part of the reason I play Soldier so much is that my team hardly ever has any, and then they whine and bitch about how they keep losing…