Check out today's blog post. Interesting ideas in store... I might actually try mantreads now. http://www.teamfortress.com
Ambassador Players that are head-shot from across the map are expecting to see a Sniper in their death-cam, but they sometimes see (more often that we'd like) a Spy with a revolver Goal: Reduce the effective combat range to something more reasonable and expected with the Spy Changes: First-shots are no longer perfectly accurate. Bullet-spread is instead reduced by 50%. This makes head shots less reliable at long range, while still very viable at close and medium-range. Yea less spy hackers shooting you from across the map! Dead Ringer Feign death is an interesting effect, but a good Spy can use it extremely frequently making it frustrating to play against and reducing the risk of using it nearly constantly Goal: Rather than make it less interesting, let's make it more predictable to fight against by removing methods by which Spies can reduce its cool-down. This should create more of a rhythm to fighting against a Spy using this and introduce a little more risk to player using it. Changes: Ammo kits and dispensers no longer refill the Spy's cloak meter YEA FUCK YOU DR SPIES!!!
I'm betting the mantreads will still only be good for market gardening. Also: Crit-A-Cola The last change to this item added Marked-For-Death when the effect ended. This was okay because it forced Scouts to get out after a little while, but it didn't add any risk in-the-moment. Goal: Add more decision/thought on when/where to activate and how to manage the risk/reward of the effect Changes: Added: Each attack while active adds Marked-For-Death debuff for 5 seconds (does not stack) Removed: Marked-For-Death when effect expires Removed: +25% move speed bonus Removed: +10% damage taken penalty The Atomizer Triple-jump as a passive effect is just too strong. It makes combat against the Scout unpredictable because opponents don't see the bat, and therefore have a hard time anticipating the Scout's capabilities until late in an encounter. It also makes the Scout very strong against explosive classes - due to a combination of extreme mobility and high close-range damage. Goal: Require the Scout to deploy the bat to take advantage of the extra jump - which is also is a signal to other players that they can perform an extra jump - and reduce the bat's negatives to compensate Changes: Triple-jump is now only possible while the bat is deployed Removed: Self-inflicted damage when triple-jumping Removed: Attack speed penalty Added: Melee attacks done while airborne mini-crit Added: 50% deploy time penalty (to prevent quick-switch by-pass) Reduced damage penalty vs players to -15% (from -20%) RIP Clutch's scout loadout.
Your Eternal Reward This is the least-used Spy knife (technically, the reskin is, but anyway...). While silent-kill and rapid-disguise-on-kill are good, the downside on this knife is extreme. Changes: Removed: "Cannot disguise" penalty Added: Non-kill disguises require (and consume) a full cloak meter Backstab-based disguises are still free Increased cloak drain rate by 50% This is okay. Sandman The feedback on this weapon has been fairly consistent for a while: Players really hate losing the ability to fight back. Compounding this, the ball has to travel really far in order to disarm players. Being hit by a long-range ball (more often than not) ends up feeling random, rather than skilled. Changes: Long-range ball impacts no longer remove the victim's ability to fire their weapon (but the victim is still slowed) We've updated achievements that were looking for disarmed players Max range balls now do 50% increased damage (from a base of 15) The flight time required to trigger the "max" effect has been reduced by 20% Ball regeneration time reduced to 10 seconds (from 15) This is okay. Pretty Boy’s Pocket Pistol This weapon is one of the lower owner-equipped items in the game. Looking at the current design, it seems that not taking falling damage ranks pretty low on the value scale for a Scout, and a flat +20% damage taken penalty is basically the kiss-of-death for a low-health class. Goal: Make the weapon less of a liability and focus it as a "get health quick" tool with decent burst, at the expense of total damage New design: +15% firing speed Up to +7 hp per hit (from +5) -25% clip size (9 shots) This is great. Crit-A-Cola The last change to this item added Marked-For-Death when the effect ended. This was okay because it forced Scouts to get out after a little while, but it didn't add any risk in-the-moment. Goal: Add more decision/thought on when/where to activate and how to manage the risk/reward of the effect Changes: Added: Each attack while active adds Marked-For-Death debuff for 5 seconds (does not stack) Removed: Marked-For-Death when effect expires Removed: +25% move speed bonus Removed: +10% damage taken penalty God bless. The Atomizer Triple-jump as a passive effect is just too strong. It makes combat against the Scout unpredictable because opponents don't see the bat, and therefore have a hard time anticipating the Scout's capabilities until late in an encounter. It also makes the Scout very strong against explosive classes - due to a combination of extreme mobility and high close-range damage. Goal: Require the Scout to deploy the bat to take advantage of the extra jump - which is also is a signal to other players that they can perform an extra jump - and reduce the bat's negatives to compensate Changes: Triple-jump is now only possible while the bat is deployed Removed: Self-inflicted damage when triple-jumping Removed: Attack speed penalty Added: Melee attacks done while airborne mini-crit Added: 50% deploy time penalty (to prevent quick-switch by-pass) Reduced damage penalty vs players to -15% (from -20%) This is okay. Flying Guillotine This weapon is capable of high burst-damage under what sometimes seems like random conditions - such as mini-crits at long-range, and full-crits when the target is slowed or stunned by anything (e.g. Ghost "Boo!" effect, Natascha, etc.) Goal: Remove the feeling of randomness, and reward accuracy Changes: Removed: Crit vs stunned players Removed: Mini-crits at long range Added: Long range hits reduce recharge (by 1.5 seconds) Distance considered "long range" reduced by half of the previous value when determining mini-crits Idk how I feel about this one.
Medic Vita-Saw Ubercharge on death is too valuable of an effect to be passive Goal: Change the weapon in a way that requires skill and risk in order to gain this effect Changes: Added "Organs" collecting concept (... you know, hit someone with a saw, and out pops a vital organ which you then take, and hold). Each hit with the Vita-Saw harvests the victim's organs (shown on the HUD). Added: On-death, preserve 15% ubercharge per Organ harvested. This effect caps at 60%. My favorite Medic melee weapon might be better than ever. I can't wait to handle that new "organs" system! I Hope that I don't have to go kamikaze all the time to keep only a minimum of 15% instead of 20% automatically. Thanks Thor!
I don't give a damn about spy changes, I use stock everything (well reskins) lol. I am actually happy to see the amby spy go out of style again, it's getting ridiculous.
Pretty much the opposite for me, if I have my saw out it's either because I'm about to die and want to inflict a little damage/take somebody with me before I do, or I'm shamelessly dicking around as battle medic and not trying to build or keep uber anyway. Probably just going to switch to stock bonesaw (or ubersaw if there's any chance of uberchaining ) once the changes take effect.
You know the vita saw might see some use. And a good reason to be banned in HL even tho it is already banned.
I'm honored to be stabbed by the godlike Faceless most of the time... Maybe that's the reason of my drinking problem while playing on the FITH server.
Speaking of Faceless: I may have attempted to do a "welfare check-in" on him when the spy nerfs were announced...
Godspeed, Faceless! Since I haven't seen it brought up here yet ... how about those changes to the Darwin's Danger Shield? As a Pyro co-main, I'm salty about the increased resistance to fire. I guess we'll just have to start hunting them in packs... can't shoot us all! Also not really a fan of the changes to the Crusader's Crossbow. Leave Medic alone Valve!
