Oh. Right. Awkward, I forgot I was stupid.
Submitting a Steam account: http://steamcommunity.com/id/SirSchrodinger

 

So, I just re-installed TF2. Whose up for some ass-kicking?

 

http://steamcommunity.com/id/fleeordie/

Add me if you haven't.

 

And so with my newly acquired necromatic powers, I raise this thread from the grave!

Another few months and so comes another Team Fortress 2 binge. Played a bunch of rounds with Castiel and had a blast, though it's kind of difficult to find a server that one of us doesn't lag horribly in, what with him living pretty much exactly on the other side of the planet.


Anyway, decided to use the Machina for the first time for no reason in particular. I know it's an awful weapon that promotes bad Sniping habits, but I swear it's improving my aim.

I've realised that I go for no scopes a lot when confronted at close range, when it's obviously better to just try and go for a quick scope head shot. The Machina forces me to go for it, so I've been landing quite few.

On top of that, it's main detriment, the fact that a massive laser point directly to where you fired from, has allowed me to start correcting a lot of bad aiming habits because I can see exactly where every shot lands. Sometimes I'm amazed by how much I can miss simple scanning shots. I literally am more accurate with snap-to-target style aiming than scanning to line it up. Bizarre.

Other than that, I pretty much never use it for it's main benefit; easy body shots on medium classes due to the increased scoped in damage. Except Medics, because they just have to die, head shot or no.

 

It doesn't promote bad habits, per se, but I would start using something else once you're comfortable with your aim. It's an excellent teaching method to stop making you go for no-scopes, but ultimately you'll end up using it for a crutch when you could be so much better by just using the vanilla rifle.

 

In the sense that it highly encourages you to stay hard scoped more, I'd say that it definitely promotes bad habits.

But yeah, you won't get any argument from me about using Stock Rifle. I have 200+ hours played on sniper (after including offline practice) and have used Stock for pretty much all of it.

Edit:

So apparently there's strong suspicions that Meet the Pyro is about to come out. The latest post on teamfortress.com is just 'Mmmmmph' over and over, like Pyro is trying to talk. So excited.

 

Well yeah, people have been going nuts over it for a bit. Data mining in the updated TF2 files and such. Valve's been running an ARG for a week or so, I think. Rumor has it that it'll be Monday.

 

/Behind the times. Only started playing tf2 again in the past few days, so this is news to me.

Awesome.

 

Payload used to be pretty popular, but now most people are playing CTF and Control Points, it seems. Or at least, that's what I've seen. The servers with those game types get more traffic, in my experience.

Good luck finding a Surf server with more people than just you, though.

 

pl_hoodoo was one of my favorite maps, and one of the most popular HG servers
It might have been deserted because an update fucked up AIs.

In other news, Meet the Pyro is out, and there is apparently a unicorn in it. Trippin fucking balls.

 

That was one of the funniest things I've ever seen, Pyro is tripping balls xD.

 

So pretty cool update, all in all. Can't say I'm terribly excited for the items that were released, though. I really appreciate the design goals behind them, providing new ways to play classes, but I can't really imagine anyone using a lot of the items.

For example, I can imagine a lot of Scouts that would like to run faster, but I can't imagine one that would want to jump way less to achieve it.

Or the Sniper Rifle. Who is this made for, really? Experienced players won't use it because it forces you to stay hard scoped and new players probably won't use it because of the reduced body shot damage.

Or even the new Flare Gun. Why would you ever need to knock someone back from a long range, and how often would this situation come up that you'd be willing to lose 50% flare damage for it? You're certainly not going to be using it close range, since you already have an airblast.

I dunno. Maybe they'll turn out to be better than I think they'll be, but I doubt it.


New weapons aside, the patch actually contains a lot of changes to existing weapons. Here's a few that I'm quite excited about:

Holy rocket jumping Medics, Batman! This might be one of the coolest additions Medic has ever received, while also making the Quick Fix not a complete joke.

Running faster as a Scout? Yes please.

Whoa, I never thought I'd see the day that the Equalizer got nerfed. Chances are we'll be seeing even more Market Gardener Soldiers in the coming days.

 

Yeah...fuck the Equalizer nerf. I'm not good enough at controlling myself to land a Market Gardener and I won't subject my medic to me running around stuck in Melee. What other options do you have? D:

In other news, someone called it 3 years ago.

http://imgur.com/gallery/Xsv2b

 

Other options? If you were just using it to escape at low health, like 99% of all Soldiers, then you can just use the Escape Plan now. Hell, I got three of them, since I had three Equalizers. It's still alright at killing people, it doesn't have reduced damage or anything, though it still blocks healing.

I actually really agree with the nerf. The Equalizer simply did too much, so having the effects split into two different items makes other options more viable.

Heh, pretty cool. Gotta love the Internet's collective ability to always be able to guess the right outcome through sheer numbers.


Anyway, new items are finally getting featured so there's a bit more info on them. The Scout set is apparently a lot better than I thought it would be. Sure, I'd say stock is way more powerful, but there's just something cool about running absurdly fast (I believe you run about 30% faster than a regular Scout at full Boost, and it only take 2-3 good shots to fill it.)

Here's a video STAR made on it.

And here's one on the disgusting Beggars Bazooka. I had a bad feeling about this weapon when I first saw it. Incoming damage nerf with some sort of tiny bonus to offset it.

Here's a video simply going over the weapons in detail, though no actual gameplay. Seems the Sniper Rifle works slightly different than I thought it would. You can unscope during focus, though it's unclear if this is a bug or not.


Also, just wanted to say thanks, Militis. You're actually the one that got me watching STAR about a million years earlier in this thread. Been watching him ever since.

 

I guess I assumed the Escape Plan got a damage nerf as well. Not as bad as I thought it would be. Still want my old Equalizer back though.

No problem, always happy to help. I am still subscribed to STAR myself, and enjoying every video he posts.

 

Allow me to remove my foot from my mouth so I can post.

The Hitman's Heatmaker is awesome. Seriously. I got one out of a pile of ash (super lucky!) and decided to give it a try. Another case of better than it sounds on paper.

At first I thought, why not just use the Bazaar Bargain? But it's so much easier to get Focus than getting 4 consecutive headshots to get the same benefit, and the Focus effect is even better than I thought it would be. If you stay scoped in, your next shot actually charges while reloading. This meaning every shot after the first does 225+ damage on heads if fired as fast as possible. Was totally expecting it to start charging after you reload. Plus, each kill or assist you get during Focus increases the duration.

Plus the gun is just damn satisfying. The combination of nearly silent misses and very loud and gory decapitations makes landing headshots one of the greatest feelings in tf2.


All in all, I'm actually really impressed with the items released now. Being the pessimist I am, I assumed the benefits wouldn't outweigh the costs enough to make the new play styles they allow attractive enough, but they seem to have done a really good job of balancing them.

I don't even have a problem with the new Rocket Launcher. Sure, if I'm anywhere near a soldier with one I get shit on in an instant, but they could do that pretty well already, and I actually have to worry about them less at range because of the inaccuracy. It still might get a nerf, but I'm not calling for one.

Ironically, the only one I'm disappointed with is the Pyro. The Flare gun is definitely useless, the knock back is absolutely underwhelming, and the rest were just re skins. Meet the Pyro is great and all, but the class definitely got shafted in terms of new weapons.

But, as a whole, this release definitely reminded me that I shouldn't write off a weapon before I try it. It just might end up being your new favorite weapon.

 

I'm actually real happy with the new flare gun: the knockback is surprisingly useful, (surprised me, anyway) and has netted me more than a few kills. I'll probably be going back to Detonator eventually, but for now, I'm really enjoying the ability to knock people off bridges from across the map.
And the taunt for the Rainblower is fantastic.
Anyways, i have a strange syringe gun I don't like if anyone wants it.