Team Fortress 2, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch Updates Released

[tf2.com]

Updates to Team Fortress 2, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
Source Engine Changes (TF2, DoD:S, HL2M)

• Added ConVars sv_rcon_maxpacketsize and sv_rcon_maxpacketbans to allow server admins to control the maximum RCON packet size and whether or not users get banned for exceeding that limit. The defaults reflect the existing behavior.
• Fixed not being able to import custom spray images on MacsFixed Macs cancelling http map downloads that take longer than 30 seconds

Team Fortress 2

• Added Pyrovision!
• Added new game mode Special Delivery and map Doomsday!
• Friendly players glow when carrying the flag
• Fixed rare cases where flag could fall out of the world
• Fixed cases where the Payload HUD looked like the cart is still on a hill when it isn't
• Fixed cases where some clients didn't receive broadcasts about long continuous particle effects being started or stopped
• Updated the HTML renderer for displaying server MOTD
• Votes created by a dedicated server no longer trigger a failed vote cooldown
• Fixed map triggered annotation events not working on dedicated servers
• Fixed the game crashing if tempents are created that use invalid materials
• Using a Name Tag while in game notifies everyone of the name change
• Fixed Strange Part: Projectiles Reflected not tracking grenade and sentry rocket deflections
• Added new items
  • City on Fire item sets
  • Pyroland weapons and cosmetics
  • Community-contributed cosmetic items for all classes
  • Mysterious treasures have been incinerated, but are now craftable
  • Added crafting recipe for Pile of Ash
  • Scorched Keys are now available in the store for a limited time
  • New promo item
• Weapon balancing changes
  • Gloves of Running Urgently
    • Removed self-damage over time penalty
    • Heavy takes mini-crits while active and for 3 seconds after switching away
    • Attack damage penalty reduced from -50% to -25%
  • Tomislav
    • Spin-up speed bonus reduced from +40% to +10%
  • Quick-Fix
    • Medic mirrors blast jump of their heal target
  • Crusader's Crossbow
    • Reload speed time reduced by +40%
  • Cozy Camper
    • Regenerates 1 heath per second
    • Reduced movement penalty from -90% to -80%
  • Sticky Jumper and Rocket Jumper
    • Added 'flying' sound to blast jumps
  • The Concheror
    • Changed rage building source from "damage done and damage received" to only "damage done"
    • Increased the rate at which Rage builds for this item by +25%
  • The Equalizer
    • Removed player move speed modification and added it to a new item named The Escape Plan
    • All owners of the Equalizer will be automatically granted The Escape Plan
  • Crit-a-Cola
    • Added +25% increased movement speed while active
    • Increased duration from 6 to 8 seconds
  • Atomic Bonk
    • Increased duration from 6 to 8 seconds
  • All Flamethrowers
    • Increased base damage by +10%.
  • Backburner
    • Removed +10% damage bonus attribute
    • Note: Because of base damage increase, damage remains unchanged
  • Degreaser
    • Added -10% damage penalty attribute
    • Note: Because of base damage increase, damage remains unchanged
  • Phlogistinator
    • Damage defense while taunting reduced from -90% to -75%
• Item bug fixes
  • Fixed sentry sometimes spawning in shielded mode while the Wrangler was equipped, but not deployed
  • Improved visual and audio cues for when the Manmelter is ready to fire
  • Fixed Manmelter being able to earn crits via friendly Pyro self-damage
  • Fixed Scotch Bonnet's blue team skin not showing
  • Fixed Unarmed Combat's taunt not working
  • Unarmed Combat's color now matches the team using it
  • Fixed the Apparition's Aspect showing a burning texture in DX8

Source: TF2.com

 

[Fruity Snacks]

So does this mean the Medic can Rocket Jump with the Quick Fix?

 

[Pocket]

I remember seeing a video of someone testing a custom mod for the Medic that makes him rubber-band a rocket/sticky-jumping patient years ago. Among other interesting ideas. Valve must have finally seen that video and decided it was a nifty idea.

Now to sit back and wait to see what Trotim thinks of the balance tweaks.

 

[Trotim]

I'm not gonna comment on the balance changes for a few days, not sure about them myself yet.

That said Special Delivery (Doomsday) has one neutral intel you bring to the elevator, and when you stay on the elevator with the intel for long enough you win. When dropped the intel doesn't reset and become neutral until the intel timer runs down, it stays your team's color.

 

[LeSwordfish]

I'm not gonna comment on the balance changes for a few days, not sure about them myself yet.

That said Special Delivery (Doomsday) has one neutral intel you bring to the elevator, and when you stay on the elevator with the intel for long enough you win. When dropped the intel doesn't reset and become neutral until the intel timer runs down, it stays your team's color.

Well, that solves the problem i saw with the mode, which was, why would you kill a noob with the flag until the last second?

also, 10% flamethrower damage increase? Halleluliah.

 

[ForbiddenDonut]

So does this mean the Medic can Rocket Jump with the Quick Fix?

Yes. As long as he's healing either a Demoman or Soldier, the Medic will jump when they jump.

 

[Prestige]

i really like this update i think

but hey i really liked the uber update

 

[Ida]

• Added new items
  • Pyroland weapons and cosmetics

 

[LeSwordfish]

As eyerapes go, it is at least entirely optional.

 

[Ravidge]

Next item they should add to the game:
The Naked Eye
misc slot
On Equip: Hides all cosmetic items from view. Weapon reskins show up as their original incarnation.


Come on. even better, make it a game option.

 

[Trotim]

Jumping along with a Soldier or Demo is actually really tricky, often you end up with a wildly different trajectory.

Alright, first thoughts on some of the tweaks:

Scorch Shot is completely useless. It's worse than both Flare Gun and Detonator. Highly doubt numerical changes alone could ever bring it up to par either, but even the -50% damage is too much considering it doesn't even minicrit, let alone crit burning enemies. The knockback is negligible, so weak it doesn't help but strong enough to be annoying - buffing it further would make it utterly frustrating, just a dumb mechanic. I have absolutely no idea how to fix it either.
The taunt is cool, I just wish getting hit by it actually did anything more than be a slight inconvenience.

I'm not sure about the GRU. They're very similar to the Steak now, basically a much more flexible version of it. That they nerfed the mobility the GRU granted in battle is the opposite route we wanted to take (where Steak is rollout, GRU short bursts of mobility). It also eliminates GRUjumping which from a design standpoint the GRU probably never should have had, but it was too established to get rid of now and Heavy can use any extra skill-indexing he can get. That said it does fix GRUhopping which was just blatant unintended cheating.
What I do like about it is that it means GRU Heavies that are ambushed are punished more with what's effectively an ~80 health penalty, and they're less dependant on Medics. However it still doesn't have a proper downside and still synergizes too well with Medics. Pretty sure that if it had been added to the game like this back then it would have been seen as overpowered as it is, but right now it's a bit of an improvement over the old ingame GRU. It's like it went down from power level 9 to 8, where 5 is balanced. A speed boost for Heavy is huge and has to be offset with a big passive survivability penalty, no real way around that.

Not a fan of the Equalizer split. Literally hundreds of people in the beta forums said it's not a good idea, why didn't TF2 Team listen to any of them? All it does is add a new melee that only increases damage with health lost, which is useless because Soldier doesn't have enough speed to melee in the first place. Pointless. On the other hand the Escape Plan is still too strong and will remain mobility option #1, only that it's much more boring now and can only be used for running away. That again is the opposite of what we had planned in Tightrope. Now if you buff the damage Equalizer to be useful somehow it'll be the rare lame instakill and leaves the Half-Zatoichi in the dust, which is the one Soldier melee where a damage bonus with health lost would have made a ton of sense.
edit: Also the Escape Plan appears to do regular Shovel damage at all times, making it a straight upgrade.

The Tomislav nerf is just sad. The silent spinning is only marginally useful and still should never have been on a Minigun ("ambush Heavies" already have a silent weapon with high burst damage at short range that starts shooting right away but is bad against groups - it's called the Shotgun), whereas the spin-up time buff is completely insignificant now. Either get rid of it completely or nerf the other aspects of the weapon, but this really looks like TF2 Team is clinging to their attribute like a little child. Went from too strong to too weak just like this.

Guess I'll explain more later as it comes up in Tightrope discussions.

 

[Fruity Snacks]

If we have a strange EQ, do we get a strange Escape plan?

Honestly, I used the EQ more for mobility, rather than for damage, I've always been a Rocket Launcher Solly, get in, get out.


Thank you for your insight Trotim.

 

[Trotim]

Afaik you do, but the Wiki says "Strange variants of the Escape Plan given to players who had a Strange Equalizer do not display accumulated kills. "

 

[Fruity Snacks]

Thats fine, I had like 4 kills on my EQ, so that is fine.


I'd love a strange part that counts "Miles ran"

EDIT: Oh god, the Carbine uses the same silenced sound as the Silenced M4 from CSS, I. Love. This. Weapon.

 

[grazr]

One of the things i never got is why removing crits from the equaliser wasn't a straight up instant reaction by Valve. It seemed like the most obvious thing to do. It was completely unnecassery when it already had a damage bonus, let alone speed bonus.

Anyway, in public play the weapon split makes a little more sense, as a soldier you deal a lot of burst damage so with the understanding of the crit mechanics (damage = higher crit chance) and that many players understand the more the soldier shoots the less ammo in his clip and more vulnerable he becomes in close quarters, switching to melee in order to get a couple high crit melee chances with the shovel was a legitimate tactic, especially in CTF when you had to force yourself through choke points.

The Equaliser isn't what it was supposed to be, but then it never was. It was supposed to encourage offensive play but instead became a weapon used primarily for retreating (and pissing off medics).

 

[tyler]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwz67vGDGhA

Pyrovision is wallhacking

 

[EArkham]

Afaik you do, but the Wiki says "Strange variants of the Escape Plan given to players who had a Strange Equalizer do not display accumulated kills. "

I had a strange and a vintage Equalizer, got both a strange and a vintage Escape Plan. The strange Escape Plan is at zero, the s Equalizer kept its kills (and will never ever gain another for obvious reasons).

 

[A Boojum Snark]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwz67vGDGhA

Pyrovision is wallhacking

I'm going to call this one "classic valve" since they have a habit of gamebreaking bugs slipping through when they add nonsense.

 

[Pocket]

Scorch Shot is completely useless. It's worse than both Flare Gun and Detonator. Highly doubt numerical changes alone could ever bring it up to par either, but even the -50% damage is too much considering it doesn't even minicrit, let alone crit burning enemies.

Back before they reworked the flare gun, I thought the benefit of shooting from a longer distance was more interesting and less screw-it-let's-just-copy-the-Axtinguisher than the bonus for hitting a burning enemy. Rather than bump it up to full crits on all burning enemies, I'd have liked to see them make that a specialty weapon and change the standard flare gun to have base damage that scales proportionately to distance fired. And then maybe other new flare guns would be based on that, but with maybe a base damage reduction or reduced afterburn or something.

 

[Trotim]

Well, yeah, I wasn't a fan of just making the Flare Gun crit on everything either. The point I was trying to make is that Flare gives you damage and the Detonator AoE damage + mobility. Scorch Shot does literally none of those things.