Heavy

Mobster Monday

by ZombieSkittles on June 21, 2011

This entry is part 1 of 4 in the series TF2 - The Über Update

400px-Über_Update_Title_Card

Today marks day one of the first multi-day Team Fortress 2 update since The Engineer Update, so there’s a very obvious tingle of excitement in my groin. Entitled The Über Update, the TF2 Blog describes it as ‘the biggest, most ambitious update in the history of Team Fortress 2’.
Today’s preview of the game update, which comes out on Thursday, featured not only that the game was going to be free to play for the whole week, but that an anticipated map is being released, new weapons for the Spy and Heavy, and a certain video that has been heavily hinted at for while.

First the obvious.

The TF2 Team have been hinting at it for awhile, but now it’s been spelled out for us; we are going to finally get Meet The Medic with this update. This is a momentous thing, as the last Meet The Team video was released just over two years ago. Given Valve’s sense of humour and the quality of previous videos, this will be nothing short of amazing.

PL_BarnBlitz

barnblitz

A map that was first discovered a while ago and speculated about has finally been confirmed and about to be released. Not much is really known about it apart from the above screenshot preview from today’s update, but given the quality of most Valve maps, this should be a fun one to play, and hopefully gets some attention on servers.

Black Market Business

These are almost definitely not the only items to be added in this update, but for now we only have information about the Heavy’s and Spy’s additions. First, the Heavy’s weapon set, entitled Black Market Business.
The Tomislav is a new Minigun replacement that spins up 75% faster and quieter than it’s alternatives, but at the sacrifice of a fifth of the firing speed. The idea seems to be a weapon for Heavy players who prefer to sneak up on their enemies, or like me refer to hide around corners and ambush players silly enough to try and sneak into my base.
The Heavy finally gets a new secondary that isn’t edible. The Family Business is a shotgun with relatively simple changes in an increased clip size at the sacrifice of a mere 15% damage. This excites me, and the gun looks pretty neat too. This looks set to overcome the Sandvich as my go to secondary of choice, as I prefer to have a fall-back weapon rather than a light snack.
250px-EvictionnoticeFinally, keeping with the Italian Mafia theme, the Heavy’s final item is a set of brass knuckles given the really cool name The Eviction Notice. While they do only 40% of the damage of the Heavy’s normal melee damage (Which will probably be enough to keep a lot of players away from them), they allow the Heavy to punch 50% faster. Does this make up for it? I’m not particularly sure, nor am I really sure where this would be useful instead of the traditional Fists or the Killing Gloves of Boxing. They might find a use in Medieval, but apart from that we can only wait and find out.

250px-Made_ManThe Man of Honour.

The Spy gets some weapons with abilities, that if were allowed to be combined with The Saharan Spy set, we’d all be screwed forever. As it stands though, he can’t, so we’re safe once more thanks to me.
Of course, being that the spy only has two actual weapons in his arsenal, one of his three items is a cosmetic item. The Made Man is a simple rose that the Spy wears on his suit. It actually looks really good and suits the class.
When it comes to actual weapons the Spy gets The Enforcer; a revolver that reuses the negative given to the Saharan Spy set. Along with that 0.5 seconds longer to cloak, the revolver also packs an addition 20% of firepower. This will probably be the item that I’ll go to in the presence of Razorback Snipers, but otherwise I’ll stick with my Big Kill/Traditional Revolver. Unfortunately, I’ve learned that that half a second extra that it takes to cloak is often the decider that gets me killed.
Replacing the Spy’s stabby thing is The Big Earner, which is a knife that will make me hate players that wield the Dead Ringer all the more. While it takes off 25 health from the user’s maximum, a successful kill will give them back almost a third of their total cloak instantly. This is obviously built for use with the traditional Invisi-watch, and especially the Dead Ringer. I guess I’ll have to be extra vigilant as a Pyro now.

Oooh excitement!

In the updates of old, this amount of content would of been all we got, spread through the entire three or four days. To see so much revealed on day one means big things. I can’t wait.

{ 0 comments }

TF2 Amateur–Fishy Heavy on Dustbowl.

by ZombieSkittles on May 7, 2011

I’ve played with the Replay feature in the TF2 Beta before, but as of today the Replay Update officially went live on the official game, complete with new items, achievements and of course, a film making competition.

This is my first video fiddling with the official Replay feature, and I couldn’t help but notice that while in the Beta it seemed relatively polished and nice, in the official update I either experienced frequent jumps where the game would hang for me, or the replay just plain wouldn’t record/download. That being said, I expect these problems will be ironed out in the coming week, and everything will work well.

In this video, I play a Heavy on Dustbowl wielding the Iron Curtain, Fishcake and Fists. I felt I did rather well, capping the first point and clearing out the final control point. My only real regret was taking the risk of eating the Fishcake on the last point, when the Sniper comes over and penetrates my face with his…arrow.
Unlike my previous times with Replay, I took a little bit of time to fiddle with the different cameras you can use. While the game plays in first person perspective, you’re able to “record” from third person, and from “free camera” (the latter of which I do at the end to hover above my death.). Not only that, but you are able to record from the perspective of all teammates and enemies, allowing you to create some interesting build up to a final shot. While I haven’t done anything tremendous with it, you can see my exploring it towards the end, when the camera starts following the Red Sniper.
I noticed I was unable to record enemies from a first person perspective; when I tried the final result was a recording of myself in first person instead. I assume this is a bug that will get fixed in the follow up update1.

Unfortunately, as time goes on and I get used to this system, I’ll probably post more of these for you to put up with.

  1. There is ALWAYS a follow up update.

{ 0 comments }

TF2 Game Update for April 29th, 2010

by ZombieSkittles on April 29, 2010

It’s a big one this time around. The first factors to catch the eye are the addition of a community map (CP_Freight) and a new item.

200px-Backpack_crit-a-cola The new item is a secondary for the Scout, replacing his Lugermorph/Pistol/Bonk!, called Crit-a-Cola. This lunchbox item gives the player guaranteed mini-crits for a small period of time, and as a negative makes him take guaranteed minicrits. I’d keep talking about it, but that’s what I want to focus on.

Along with these two additions and a few tweaks, there were quite a few balancing changes and bug fixes for the classes and their weapons.

Scout
The scout ended up not just receiving his new item, but also getting his Bonk! Atomic Punch and Sandman altered. The Bonk! now has it’s slowdown effect removed (would make the Scout move really slow for a few seconds after the Bonk! dodge effect went away) in favour of a charging metre which goes up in time, like the Jarate and Chargin’ Targe. The Sandman also received a small buff, in which an enemy stunned by the ball has his ability to run reduced a little. This is obviously so the scout can catch him quickly.
While welcome the Sandman’s change, I’m a little wary of the Bonk! Atomic Punch’s change. This seems to remove all the negatives associated with the item, as the Scout can use it then carry on his way without worrying about someone catching up to him. There also happens to be an achievement which requires the player to kill a Scout who is caught in the “post-dodge” slowdown effect called “Retire The Runner”1. I can’t help but wonder if this change effectively kills this achievement (at least until Valve fix it).

Pyro
As an avid pyro player this particularly update interests me. On the negatives side of things, the Flamethrowers now do 20% less damage than previously, and the after burn damage they rely on so much has been reduced too. On the other side, the airblast received a number of boosts. Airblast now shoots quicker and takes only 20 ammo (allowing for 10 blasts total, in comparison to the previous 8). Any deaths caused by an airblast (air blasting off a cliff, into a train, etc) count as a kill credit for the Pyro, and any projectiles reflected with the blast will minicrit.
This seems like Valve are trying to do one of three things. This will make Backburner Pyros use their weapon a bit more strategically (actually ambushing their enemies for the guaranteed crits), otherwise they may not be able to make their kill. It will also make people use airblast a lot more thus creating new strategy against Demomen and Soldiers, and will make people use the Axtinguisher more. With the Axtinguisher guaranteeing a critical hit on burning players, and flame not doing so much damage, there is more incentive now in switching weapons.

Demoman
Now I don’t play Demoman much, and even when I do I don’t play as a Demoknight, so I’m not sure whether this change to the Chargin’ Targe is a buff or a nerf. Looking at it, it seems to be altered so that players using the Eyelander skillfully will get more power. The Targe is altered so when damage is dealt from the charge, it takes into account any heads claimed with the Eyelander2 and adds +10 damage per head.
It seems like a good idea, but I’m not sure how it’ll work in practice.

Heavy
Heavy got a rather all round positive update as well; the minigun and Natasha both spin up and slow down quicker, and the player can move faster while shooting too. This will make it harder for those who tend to try to surprise the Heavy player and kill them before they can react. Also, Heavys gain a whole point for sharing their Sandvich item with teammates, obviously an attempt to get Heavys to stop being selfish with their food.

Sniper
The last class to get what seems to be all buffs was the Sniper. The changes centre around the Huntsman unlockable, and mainly on it’s relationship with the Pyro. A Huntsman Sniper can now have his arrow lit by a Pyro without it having to be aimed, and if the arrow is lowered, the flame isn’t lost. The player can also ready his arrow while jumping now, but it can still only be shot once feet are on the ground again.
The flaming arrow changes are quite welcome in my books; originally you had to light it then use it straight away, as after keeping the arrow primed too long would cause it to shoot off randomly. This way, you can make more accurate and deadly shots, and take your time the whole way through.

There were a few bug fixes here and there too, notable ones being:

    • The amount count in the HUD now flashes red when you’re low on ammo.
    • Extinguishing a burning teammate now earns a full bonus point (was half a point).
    • Killing yourself with your own sentry no longer increments the sentry’s kill counter.
    • Fixed crit-boosted players not getting critical hits if their weapon has custom no-crit behavior.

There’s quite a few other changes in the update, all of which can be viewed here. What do you think of the various nerfs and buffs the classes received? Are you happy or annoyed?

  1. Today, in the 119th update, Valve have fixed it to work with someone under the Crit-a-Cola effect instead.
  2. for the unaware, the Eyelander is a sword which decapitates it’s victims

{ 2 comments }

TF2’s First “Community Update”

by ZombieSkittles on March 19, 2010

Today, Team Fortress 2 released it’s first update fuelled by the Contribute! site they set up a few months ago. In that update was a new melee weapon for the Pyro and Demoman, and a new secondary for the Heavy, and of course a variety of new hats.

Seeing the attributes the new weapons have, it’s clear they’re very situational, and to me more of a novelty than anything. The Homewrecker (Pyro melee weapon) for example, is able to destroy buildings relatively quickly, but has a 25% damage decrease against other players. As a primarily pyro player, I don’t run into a lot of cases where I’m able to get that close to a building to deal out melee hits, and if I can then I’m obviously being ubercharged. If I’m that close to a building though, it’s far easier to just destroy it with flames.

The update serves it’s purpose though, and shows that despite some pessimism, the quality of ideas being contributed by the community is actually pretty good. And as an added thought, Valve said that prior to the Engineer update, there would be one more non-bugfix update. Is this that update, and does that mean the Engineer update is next? I hate having to guess.

What do you think of the new items? If you haven’t seen them yet, Ubercharged.net has made a nice post today detailing all the items, with pictures!

{ 0 comments }