[Team Fortress 2]: Towering pillar of bad opinions about hats

Kilroy · July 2010

Possible PA tournament in the works:

That_Guy wrote: »

Well it looks like there is enough interst to get started. Please fill out the following form so I can have a list. Depending on how many people sign up, It might be highlander and it might not

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dERBd1dITVFLNXBiNzFoTFgzeTh4eWc6MQ

Possible PAX meetup. Contact deveric for details.

tyrannus wrote: »

PAY ATTENTION TO THIS

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1360060

If you're planning on looking for new maps, UIs or any other mods then avoid FPS Banana for a while. They've been infected with the "Black Internet" trojan.

Full Credit to Rhalle and GTFO Gaming for finding this. Just thought I'd let you all know about this since the only thread on this on the Steam forums is in the CS:S forum.

Here's the links to the threads I got them on and some info I quoted on it:

Rhalle
GTFO

Originally Posted by GTFO
The site is currently infected with the 'Black Internet' trojan.

It's embedded in the site itself somehow, which means all you have to do is go there-- you don't have to download anything, and you'll be infected. All the following programs did not detect the trojan AVG, Ad-Aware and Windows Defender.

If you've been to FPSBanana in the last day or less, check your task manager. Look for iexplore.exe running-- or multiple instances of it if you are surfing with internet explorer, of course. You might also be hearing audio advertisements and/or multiple weird noises and mouseclicks.

Apparently this trojan infects the MBR, to fix the virus problem make all folders viewable in the control panel -> large icons -> folder options -> view -> show hidden files, folders and drives, then reboot in Safe Mode and go here:

C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Appdata\Local\Temp

and deleting these two files:

Loader.exe
Smss.exe

And until further notice I strongly suggest that you avoid going to the website.

THIS SHOULD BE ON EVERY PAGE.

Like Mapping? Check out the Art Pass Contest!

Polycount Pack Winners:

Soldier:

Scout:

Pyro

Spy

Sniper

TF2 for mac?! Wuuuuutt!?
Write up from [URL="ttp://www.tf2pro.com/"]TF2Pro.com[/URL] via Hey You under spoiler:

After a long triumphant wait, the TF2 update on June 10th, 2010, allows Mac OS X users to play Team Fortress 2. As we put one more TF2 update under our belts, we can’t help but feel like the Engineer update is now closer than ever. New or confused about all this information? Well here’s everything you missed and more:

First off, Valve kicked off this Mac update with a Free Weekend and new blog post. All Mac users that log in this weekend and play, will receive a pretty white pair of Apple Earbuds in game. (Must log into a mac, launch TF2 and die on a server at least once to receive the ear buds.) If you don’t have the Earbuds yet and have access to a mac, make sure to do this soon, as the offer end Monday June 13th, 2010. Blog post also contained a new video, TF2 cartoon, and update information.

Next! Training is finally here. Team Fortress 2 players can now train their aim against cardboard cutouts and TF2 bots. Unfortunately it is only available for the Soldier currently, but there is speculation that more classes will come in the future.

Then, small but kind of important things! TF2 also received a menu makeover, a new crafting icon, and a new practice option, where users can test their skill on official Valve Koth maps and Dustbowl against bots. As part of the new menu system, TF2 characters show up in the upper right hand corner with player records. Players have reported that the Pyro shows up as a him and her on the main screen, which further questions the Pyro’s gender.

Also! If you haven’t seen the video yet or heard all the speculation, you have a lot of catching up to do. First off, the video has a windows comparison. Take a look at the screen below if you didn’t catch it. Engineer is also wielding a new shotgun with what appears to be a scope. Could it be a laser pointer, a scope, or something totally different. At the end of the video it says, “Think Bullets” which has been speculated to have something to do with the Engineer update.

Finally! One last bit. This showed up in the texture files in TF2 which can be easily viewed in hammer. Tobor is written in the middle which is Robot spelled backwards. Which further hardens speculations that the Engineer will be receiving a Robot as a new unlock (as hinted at in the recent Engineer Video.)

New to TF2?
Read the manual.

NEWEST CRAFTING INFO
Fabricate Crit-a-Cola= 1 Kritzkrieg + 1 Bonk! Atomic Punch
Fabricate Dalokohs bar = 1 Sandvich + 1 Bonk! Atomic Punch
Fabricate Gunboats = 1 Chargin' Targe + 1 Razorback
Fabricate Homewrecker = 1 Eyelander + 1 Equalizer
Fabricate Pain train = 1 Sandman + 1 Scrap Metal
Fabricate Scotsman's skullcutter = 1 Axtinguisher + 1 Jarate
Fabricate Tribalman's shiv =1 Huntsman + 1 Dead Ringer

The rest can be found at http://tf2wiki.net/wiki/Crafting
The Servers

Hey You & Quaz and Wally's
TF2PRO.COM / TEAM ZISSOU SERVER Donate!
Come test custom PA made maps and mods for the PAMTU (Contact an admin to join).
Server IP: 208.167.242.188:27015
Password: wang

Job's
Hyperbolic Drama Chamber Donate!
Normal server with SourceMod.
Server IP: 216.155.146.69:27015
Password: wang

JonXP's
JonXP's server Donate!
Regular vanilla server. No plugins whatsoever.
Server IP: tf2.finalmeasure.com
Password: wang

PMAvers'
House of Non-Conformity Donate!
Custom map server.
Server IP: 208.167.243.68:27015
Stats page
Download the Map Pack. 232 MB download.
Contents of the map pack (updated: July 1st-ish):

cp_coldfront_rc1
cp_indulge
cp_generator_b4b
cp_mainline_rc5
ctf_cloudburst_b3
ctf_landfall_a9
ctf_mercy_b5
koth_garbage_day
koth_lighthouse_rc5
koth_moonshine_rc
koth_persia_b4
koth_switcheroo_b3
koth_trainwreck_b1
pl_cashworks_rc2
pl_swiftwater_frc3a1

Extract to: Steam\steamapps\<your account>\team fortress 2\tf\maps
Password: wang

SICK OF 32 INSTASPAWN PUBS?
Try the Blacklist Updater
Follow the info in the link and it'll provide you with all the info you need to create a customized blacklist.
So, you want to play competitive TF2?

This guide will set up you up with the basics on how to get in on some quick 6v6 competitive play without having to commit to a clan, schedule, practice, etc. This is purely for 6v6 and not Highlander (9v9 with a class limit of 1 for each class) because I do not believe highlander has their own pug gather system yet.

PUG stands for Pick Up Group, which is what it sounds like; A group of players interested in playing a tight 6v6 game. The 'gather' system is a system built into the #tf2.pug IRC channel that automatically assembles players who've opted in into teams and provides a server with league rules to play on.

This is done through 2 programs:

-Mumble, for voice chat
-IRC, for the gather system.

Personally, I love getting in a few 6v6 matches here and there, especially when the PA servers are empty. It's active at all times of the day, and you'll be set against players of a wide range of skill, ranging from merely interested folk like maybe yourself, to ESEA and CEVO level players.

As well, I think the gather system is a great way for people who knock 6v6 or have the wrong impressions about it to try it out for themselves and see what people like myself mean when we described it as just another level of play.

IRC

Open up your preferred IRC client it, be it something like mibbit.com or mIRC.

You need to connect to the irc.gamesurge.net server, and go into channel #tf2.pug

There is also a #tf2.pug.na channel, but its regulars are a bit more advanced, most coming from the top place teams, so #tf2.pug is much more entry level, which is what you'll want if you're looking to get into 6v6. Being immediately put up against slardel when you're a scout isn't going to do much good for your skills or your love of the game.

Mumble

Mumble is a third party voice chat software similar to Ventrilo and is used for communicating with your teammates during the match. Every team, clan, what have you uses a third party voice chat program instead of the in-game voice because it allows you to communicate when you are dead in-game.

Mumble is preferred over Ventrilo because of its ease of use and it provides several nifty features like an in-game overlay and pop-up messages telling you who's coming and going.

Download Mumble Here

Once installed it just needs some basic set up, and will ask you to create a certificate. Just enter in a name and an email, and then save it on your Desktop or any other place you keep misc. files.

Once you have Mumble set up, you will want to hit 'Add New' and enter in the relevant information. The tf2pug mumble server is:

Voice server IP : mumble.tf2pug.org:64738
Password : tf2pug

You'll want to keep the user-name you use in mumble and the server the same as the one you use in-game and in the tf2pug IRC channel so you can be easily identified. You will also want to stay in the 'Root' channel until you are assigned a game. Each of the respective channels (Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta) are server locations and each have a Red and Blue channel which you'll use during the matches

It may ask you if you want to run Mumble in compatibility mode when entering the server, just say yes to that.

First thing you'll want to do is make sure your Mumble is set to 'Push to Talk' instead of 'Voice Activity'. If you have it set to 'Voice Activity', your mic will turn on whenever you say anything without having to press a button, which can be annoying for your teammates.

Just go to Configure > Settings

and under Audio Input changed the Transmit drop down box to Push to Talk. Hit Apply.

Then go to Shortcuts along the left side, and hit add. It will add a new field into the white box. Double click on the 'Unassigned' and change it to Push to Talk, then double click the blank field under shortcut and select what button you want to use with the voice activation.

And that's it!

***

Getting into a match

So now that that is all set up, you're ready to look for a game.

Once you enter the #tf2.pug channel, the first thing you typically do is type !players

This will show you everyone who is queued up to play and what as. Because this is basic 6v6, the class layout that is supported in the pug channel is:
2 Scouts
2 Soldiers
1 Demo
1 Medic

Once there are enough of the above for two teams, the game will start. To add yourself to the queue, just type !add [yourclass]

I am now added to the match queue.

Now you simply wait. The queue will fill up with 12 players, and the following message will appear

It will then sort you into teams

You may sometimes get a message similar to this:

All you have to do is type !ready into the #tf2.pug channel and it will leave you in the match

Your final message will be:

This provides the ip and password of the server you will be playing on, but as well as the mumble room you will be using. In this instance, I will be using the Atlanta 1 room, under Red team. Connect to the ip, get on your assigned team, and wait for everyone else to get ready

The Game

So as we know, the standard class make up is as follows:
2 Scouts
2 Soldiers
1 Demo
1 Medic

Demo and medic are limited to 1 per team, and everything else is limited to 2, but you won't see much deviation from this. The most common change is one scout switching to sniper on maps like badlands, gravelpit, or well. Heavies and engies are rare but still appear when some last ditch defense is needed
on gravelpit or badlands, typically when you're down to your last point. Pyros and spies are sometimes used to try and kill the opposing team's medic quickly in a clutch play situation.

The maps you will be playing on mostly are:
cp_badlands
cp_granary
cp_follower
cp_well
cp_gravelpit
sometimes cp_yukon

These are the maps that have just been found to be the most balanced and enjoyable, offering some great back and forth play over the center and second to last points. cp_follower is a custom map that combines the spawn areas of granary with a middle area similar to badlands. It is very fun and worth having in your maps folder.

In terms of gameplay, no matter what class you are, conservation is the key. The only outright battles you'll be fighting are in the opening minutes on the middle point and in pushes (either uber, counter, or when opposing team's medic is down). With everything else, you should be holding back, building uber, sticking with teammates and trying to pick off a few members of the enemy team. Never try to engage alone unless you're a decent scout. Attempting to jump into a group of opposing players alone will only get you killed again and again.

Hit and run strategies are never frowned upon, and knowing when to fight and when to fall back is a key skill you'll need to learn quickly.

As well, the opening moments of the game, where each team are heading to the middle, are critical. You'll soon pick up on the paths each class takes for each map, but generally scouts and demos should arrive first, with soldiers and medic not far behind, with medic sitting at about 50-60% uber. As a soldier/demo, you really should only be walking the last few bits of the map towards the center, the rest should consist of rocket/sticky jumping. The medic will heal you as you go down.

The following are some general strategies and expectations from the standard classes:

Scout
-Typically, unless stated otherwise, the two scouts are supposed to act as 'roamers': They move away from the rest of the team and work in tandem to try and take out the enemy medic or pick off fleeing soldiers/demos.
-They also play a crucial role in the opening of the game, as they will, along with the demo, be the first people to get to the middle point, where they will engage the opposing scouts/demo for about ten to twenty seconds. Any kills or damage that can be done during this time is integral for your team's position post-mid-fight.
-Do not try to engage a combo (soldier + medic) alone
-Engage demo + medic combos, try to get into close and try to take out the medic or jump around him and peck off the medic if you can
-When all else fails, just kill the medic. You are expected to die much more than anyone else, but if you get this one job done, it is worth it in spades.

Soldier
-You and the other soldier are the blunt force of the team. You deal the damage, jump the jumps, and protect the medic.
-The soldiers are typically designated as pocket and roamer.
-Pocket soldier stays with the medic and protects him from everybody. He is not expected to go rocket jumping onto points or pushing the objective (unless the medic has an uber)
-The Roamer is exactly that, he has some leeway to rocket jump onto points and push without a medic, but typically, unless he wants to get screwed over, he will stay close to the pocket combo or the team demo
-Pockets should always use the normal rocket launcher and shotgun as it is the best to counter to scouts
-Roamers can use the DH if they're good but it's not expected.
-You should know how to rocket jump everywhere. This takes practice.
-Airshots are balla and will look nice in your frag videos

Demo
-You got to know the sticky jumps. For pretty much all the maps listed above, you must be able to sticky jump decently enough to get to the middle point at the same time the scouts would, or just behind them. This is particularly critical on badlands and granary, where a good few stickies set up at where the enemy team are coming out could decide who gets mid.
-You're a bigger damage dealer than the soldiers, and can fire more indirect. But you're all alone, so you dieing is kind of a big deal. Hang back and spam pipes into the middle point, and sticky up essential choke-points.
-This pretty much applies for both attack and defense.
-Stickying up choke-points is particularly essential when you're getting pushed back. A sticky trap on the gates on cp_well can practically turn the game to your favor.
-Personally not a big demo, so can't say much either way, but you have to be fairly competent in sticky usage and knowing when and where to fight, but also how to use your regular pipes to smack down scouts and soldiers

Medic
-You're the key to a lot of what goes on. Your uber and kritz are essential, and your death means your team is unsupported and will probably get pushed in on.
-That said, hang back. Stick with your pocket soldier at all times, don't try to advance ahead of him
-Scream ungodly sounds into the mic when being attacked
-Don't pull out your needlegun or saw unless you are completely and utterly alone and there is nowhere to run to. You will have people defending you, your job is to keep them up and to build the uber/kritz
-Jump a lot
-You can pop your uber if you're in trouble, no one will blame you, just stay alive.

That just about covers the basics of it.

GotFrag has a great page that goes a little more in depth not just into general strategy, but particular strategies for specific maps and such

Click here for GotFrag's Tips & Tricks section

Of particular interest should be Jaeger's general tips and tricks videos. There's only 5 so far, but they look at some specifics that are definitely worth knowing if you're looking to pursue this type of game-play a bit further

Tips & Tricks Volume 1 - Scout Energy Drink
- A few points about the Bonk, although the recent Valve fix made the first-person tip impossible

Tips & Tricks Volume 2 - Soldier Jumps on cp_gravelpit, point C
- Examples of how to quickly get up the C tower on cp_gravelpit out the left and ride side of spawn.
Tips & Tricks Volume 3 - Spamming Through Doors on cp_freight
- This is technically a glitch, and is not allowed by ESEA.
Tips & Tricks Volume 4 - Pre-firing Rockets
- Some safety tips for soldiers about spamming around corners.
Tips & Tricks Volume 5 - Medic Healing
- A little love for our healers as guest star creepin outlines the basic healing order, and why.

Now it's time for....

!!!PRO VIDEOS!!!

Post with any questions for clarifications.

mrflippy · July 2010

Red's first spawn point on Egypt is the worst thing ever.

Seriously: Blu takes the first point and then all of our team dies again in spawn? Might as well just give the game to Blu.

Paladin · July 2010

Do you know if any of the PA servers still have the golden wrench mod

Kilroy · July 2010

Added some new content to the OP.

goggles · July 2010

OP is overpowered. Needs nerf.

undeinPirat · July 2010

so this alien swarm game

kinda

stole tf2's thunder

gonna go map for that game

Gorilla Salad · July 2010

mrflippy wrote: »

Red's first spawn point on Egypt is the worst thing ever.

Seriously: Blu takes the first point and then all of our team dies again in spawn? Might as well just give the game to Blu.

Egypt is the worst map, hands down. The look of it is cool, the design is utter shit.

Huntera · July 2010

undeinPirat wrote: »

so this alien swarm game

kinda

stole tf2's thunder

gonna go map for that game

WHAT ABOUT THE HAT MAN? WHAT ABOUT THE HAT?

jonxp · July 2010

Tube is OP. Nerf Admin.

tofu · July 2010

I can't believe you guys had to make a second original post

Sometimes it's just embarrassing being part of this community

Huntera · July 2010

This community fuckin' rocks at Alien Swarm.

Kris
Jak
Blind

Lookin' at you guys.

Rami · July 2010

Not to be a dick but this isn't the Alien Swarm thread, I don't know why people seem to want to talk about it in here.

goggles · July 2010

So, who wants to play some alien swarm?

Undead Scottsman · July 2010

Rami wrote: »

Not to be a dick but this isn't the Alien Swarm thread, I don't know why people seem to want to talk about it in here.

Because you get a TF2 hat if you complete a certain achievement in Alien Swarm.

And as we know, Hats are the most important thing in TF2.

DeMoN · July 2010

See, I think their plan with Alien Swarm was to release it free so that everyone plays it and unlocks the hat achievement.

Then people who don't have TF2 will be like "whelp, I got this hat, might as well buy the game"

Valve is trying to sell their game with unlockable hats in other games. It's genius really.

BlindPsychic · July 2010

Getting crushed by doors and fallin' down holes

Anyway I wonder when the guys are gonna make a blog update about this hat business

guar · July 2010

I'm going to be on in a little bit to see if my drop drought continues. Also, the engie update stuff in the OP? Unnecessary.

Undead Scottsman · July 2010

DeMoN wrote: »

See, I think their plan with Alien Swarm was to release it free so that everyone plays it and unlocks the hat achievement.

Then people who don't have TF2 will be like "whelp, I got this hat, might as well buy the game"

Valve is trying to sell their game with unlockable hats in other games. It's genius really.

Really, that's been the opposite of what they've tried before: offering TF2 hats in exchange for buying other games (Left 4 Dead 2 and Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse)

BloodySloth · July 2010

Man, Steam servers are too busy to update tuftoo for me

I want to gaze upon my beautiful new facehugger hat

Kilroy · July 2010

guar wrote: »

I'm going to be on in a little bit to see if my drop drought continues. Also, the engie update stuff in the OP? Unnecessary.

I'm going to change it to Polycount info after I finish dinner.

Undead Scottsman · July 2010

guar wrote: »

I'm going to be on in a little bit to see if my drop drought continues. Also, the engie update stuff in the OP? Unnecessary.

You only get about 10 hours a drops a week. Resets sometime Wednesday Night/Thursday Morning it seems.

Undead Scottsman · July 2010

Patch Notes

Nothing really spectacular.

Team Fortress 2

* Added a Parasite hat to celebrate the release of Alien Swarm (http://www.alienswarm.com/)
* Fixed a client crash when opening the backpack while running in a language other than English.
* Fixed not being able to pick-up buildings in Arena mode.
* Fixed an exploit that allowed team kills with Wrangled sentries.
* Fixed a bug where teleporters could be given more than their normal amount of health.
* Fixed old demos with different data tables thinking the SourceTV player entity was burning.
* TF Bot Changes
o Improved performance of bot computations that are done when a point is captured, a round starts, or a checkpoint reached.
o Fixed Engineer bot infinite build-destroy behavior loop regression
o Fixed Medic bots losing their charge if they touch a resupply cabinet
o Fixed a crash due to having multiple types of bot systems running in-game simultaneously
o Fixed bot behavior issue resulting in bot pile-ups near level 3 teleporter entrances
o Bots no longer consider sapped sentries a dangerous threat
o Bots will not try to navigate through enemy spawn rooms (unless they have won the round)
o Bot Engineers will avoid building teleporters on steep slopes which can hinder teammate movement
o Added tf_bot_pyro_always_reflect cvar. Set to 1 to make Pyro bots always reflect projectiles, regardless of difficulty level.

EDIT: Picture of the new hat:

Hotlead Junkie · July 2010

Why are they wasting time with making and improving bots?

Undead Scottsman · July 2010

Hotlead Junkie wrote: »

Why are they wasting time with making and improving bots?

For the singleplayer campaign, duh. :P

undeinPirat · July 2010

tf2 is their testbed for shit

as is evident in l4d, there's always room to improve ai

so they use tf2 as a place to test stuff like bots

plus it's a neat feature for free!

also the parasite hat

ballin'

Hotlead Junkie · July 2010

Ah, yeah, improving AI for other games by testing bots in TF2 makes sense

xta · July 2010

can't even get on tf2 since steam is borked right now (due to the free alien game)

Huntera · July 2010

The parasite only looks good on the Pyro, sadly.

Kilroy · July 2010

Polycount pack, mapping contest, and PAX meetup have been added to the OP.

TehSpectre · July 2010

I would like to play some Alien swarm with some dudes.

deveric · July 2010

In for the blue dot.

PS PM FOR PAX MEETUPS AND GENERAL PAX AWESOMENESS

guar · July 2010

Undead Scottsman wrote: »

guar wrote: »

I'm going to be on in a little bit to see if my drop drought continues. Also, the engie update stuff in the OP? Unnecessary.

You only get about 10 hours a drops a week. Resets sometime Wednesday Night/Thursday Morning it seems.

Last Wed./Thurs. is when I stopped getting drops. It wouldn't make sense for the drop count to reset, then I get nothing all week.

Kupi · July 2010

Hotlead Junkie wrote: »

Ah, yeah, improving AI for other games by testing bots in TF2 makes sense

Technologies like nav meshes, evolutionary algorithms (which sentry locations are most successful?), virtual mousepads, and simulated perceptions are all portable to multiple styles of games.

L|ama · July 2010

vaaaaaalve

give me haaaaaaaaaats

UEAKCrash · July 2010

Ahahaha Tube is the best.

Also Alien Swarm.

guar · July 2010

Why does this update keep pausing itself.

e: ugh. Stop. with. all. the. pausing.

I am literally looking at the end of the download, 101.0 mb of 103.7 mb. Yet because the servers are flooded, I keep being suspended.

Feels Good Man · July 2010

welp got the hat no reason to play that game anymore

Burnage · July 2010

That parasite hat is going to look dashing on my medic's head.

Feels Good Man · July 2010

I like it on the sniper too

He takes it off during his kukri taunt, its p cute

Undead Scottsman · July 2010

It should look positive haunting on the Soldier.

Huntera · July 2010

Oh, what? It shows the parasite floating above their head on my character select screen.

Penny Arcade

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[Team Fortress 2]: Towering pillar of bad opinions about hats

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