TF2Pro

New TF2 Beach Ball?

In a new patch to Team Fortress 2 yesterday, Aug 20, 2010, players received a bright beach ball.  The item was found in the game files which can also be seen by opening sdk hammer.  There has been no mention of its use or what it will be used for in the game yet.  The beach ball has the Blu and Red team’s logo on it.  Many players have speculated that it is part of the mentioned new TF2 game mode talked about in an interview by Robin Walker.  The video below shows the beach ball in action.  It looks like the beach ball has the physics that a beach ball should have, so maybe it will be a new game mode.

Fixed, thanks to information from Ayana.

TF2 Trading, It’s almost here! Plus more…

If you’ve been one of the many asking “where is my trading, you promised” then you’ll be happy to know that Team Fortress 2 item trading is possibly only a month away (Valve Time).  According to an interview with Robin Walker the TF2 team will be adding in item trading, a new gamemode, and around 20 new weapons from the Polycount  Contest.

Robins Conversation:
“It’s a reflection of the amount of time we had to spend on them, and us being very safe. I think the Crit-a-Cola was designed the day before it went out, to be honest, which is terrifying. But sometimes we can think of something that you can make a pretty educated guess on, yeah, this is going to work out. We definitely have lowballed those in the past, in that we’ve chosen something that’s more underpowered than overpowered, because we can just make it a little better later. The Polycount items have had a lot more time on them as a whole, so, we’re doing more interesting stuff there than in general we have with the other items.”

Robin did go on to say that they have planned to pull more weapons out of the Polycount Contest for a 2nd update down the road.

Now is the time to start finding people to trade with.

New TF2 Animation - Pyro Dancing

Team Fortress 2 custom animation of the Pyro Dancing.

New TF2 Animations - Sniper Dancing

Team Fortress 2 custom Animation of the Sniper Dancing.

New Hat and Small Fixes…

Team Fortress 2 had a small update/patch drop today on Steam.  Users can now acquire the new “Alien Swam Parasite” Hat (picture above) in TF2 .  In addition you can head on over and Download the Mod “Alien Swam” which use to be an old mod for Unreal Tournament.
List of changes from the Update/Patch:
* 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.

New TF2 Animations - Spy Dance

Team Fortress 2 custom animation of the TF2 spy dancing.

New TF2 Animations - Heavy Medic Dance

New Team Fortress 2 Animation where the Heavy and Medic Dance together.

Engineer TF2 Dance

Team Fortress 2 animation of the Engineer dancing with his sentry gun.  Funny TF2 videos.

Poll - What is your favorite TF2 Miscellaneous item so far?

The results are in for out latest Team Fortress 2 poll.  In a very tight poll, a slight majority of tf2pro.com poll takers felt the the Earbuds were their favorite Misc Item followed by the Primeval Warrior/Grizzled Veteran/Soldier of Fortune/Mercenary Metals.

Do you agree with these results?

Small Update Fix - 07/09/10

A list of updates/fixes were made to TF2 on July 9th, 2010, a day after the Engineer update.
Here is that list:
- Fixed an exploit that allowed Engineers to build level 2/3 mini sentries.
- Fixed a bug that allowed sapped buildings to be picked up by the Engineer
- Fixed a bug where Wrangled level 3 sentryguns would still fire rockets when they were out of ammo.
- Fixed a bug where players would go into reference poses when switching classes while carrying a building.
- Fixed seeing the changeclass label in the spectator HUD when using cl_hud_minmode.
- The amount of revenge crits a player can have at one time is now capped at 35.
- The Wrangler no longer shows the shotgun’s ammo count.
- Engineers can no longer pick up buildings while stunned or in loser state.
- Fixed Engineer shotgun and piston not using team skins for the Engineer’s arms.
- Fixed an issue where Wrangled sentrygun effects wouldn’t be attached to the sentrygun.
- The Gunslinger 3 hit combo now only increments the combo count when hitting enemy players.
- Fixed a crash in the control point progress bar.
- Fixed a server crash in the player death code, related to building carrying.
- Fixing performance spikes that occur at round start, and after each point capture, when TFBots are present in the server.
- Achievement fixes:
- The “Rio Grind” achievement limit is now correctly set to 50.
- Fixed a typo in Six-String Stinger achievement name.
- Fixed a bug in the “Death Metal” achievement that caused it to rapidly complete itself.
- Fixed getting the Six-String Stinger achievement without playing the guitar.
- Fixed sentrygun detection code in “Best Little Slaughterhouse in Texas” and “Deputized”.
- Missed notes from yesterday’s release:
- New response rules and sounds added for some classes

Engineer Update! Day 4 (Release Day)

We can all finally breath now, update day is here and the Engineer Update has dropped.  So many goodies can to Team Fortress 2 players across the planet on Day 4 of the update.

First off, many did not expect a third Valve map to come along with this update.  pl_thunder_mountain, not to be confused with Disney’s Great Thunder Mountain, was the third map announced for the update.  Alpine Themed Thunder Mountain included three separate stages and incorporated rollback zones, lifting bridges, and long lapping vertical climbs in dark stormy skies.  There is quite a few treasures that came along with this map like talking characters through windows and the sniper camping off in the distance.  One change that seemed apparent when compared to older Valve maps was the apparent open space.  It feels as though Valve has readjusted their map making rules.  This might be to compensate for the new Engineer toys.  Overall Thunder Mountain was a great addition to the TF2 Valve map base.

Secondly, after hinting at a robot, no one expected for the robot to be apart of the Engineer.  The Gunslinger, which replaces the wrench, is a robotic arm for the Engineer that allows him to place Mini-Sentry’s, gives it’s wearer 25 more health, and crits on the third “combo attack”.  Min-Sentry’s only cost 100 metal to place, they built 4x faster than a normal sentry and deploy with full health, however, they cannot be repaired or upgraded and they only deal half the damage a normal level one sentry would do.  The Gunslinger has turned out great for offensive Engineers that want to drop a quick sentry to keep the front lines pushed up.

Thirdly, the Engineer can now move sentries, dispensers, and teleporters.  This is done by left clicking on the equipment you desire to move with either the wrench or the gunslinger.  Once you have picked up the device your character will move slower until it is redeployed.

Last of all came a list of small changes and a new Community Map.  The new community map was Coldfront by Icarus.
Here is the short list of other additions:
- The Sandvich now uses a cooldown timer, instead of the health pack recharge mechanic.
- The Gunboats now reduce self-damage by 60% (was 75%)
- The Tribalman’s Shiv bleed duration reduced to 6 second (was 8), and its damage penalty increased to 50% (was 35%).
- Added better feedback sound for Pyros on when their flamethrower is doing damage.
- Fixed blood effect on bleeding player.
- Added a glow effect to Payload carts.
- Added Engineer main menu music.
- Added Romanian language support.

Overall this Engineer update has changed the face of Team Fortress 2.  Old maps have been changed with new Engineering possibilities and weapons.

Engineer Update! Day 3

After a very interesting day in the Team Fortress 2 world, 25 more Golden Wrenches have come and gone and day three’s Engineer update information has been posted.  Players flocked online today to play in hopes to receive those few extra drops to have a chance at the Golden Wrench.  After rumors of a leak in the Golden Wrench drop times, wrenches were taken away from a few players (some players even vac banned) that had knowledge of the drop times.  So lets get to the good stuff you ask…

There was only two things on the list today (plus one secret link), first being a new map addition to Valve official maps.  Hightower (or plr_hightower) is what looks to be a pay load map involving a long vertical elevator that has to be rode to the top to win.

Lastly there was the addition of a new community melee replacement for the Engineer, a new wrench.  Hanging on the wrench was “From: Watchmaker.”  No information has been given about the Wrench as of yet.  Valve also noted under the new wrench “This isn’t the only melee slot item the Engineer’s getting…just a bonus!”, so we look forward to seeing a possible guitar addition.

Also, there was a secret link to this picture.  The Engineer has appeared to have the ability to box up and transport sentry’s and place then in new locations.  This could be a great addition the game and help, “move that gear up” a little faster.

Engineer Update! Day 2

25 more wrenches have been found and Information on Day 2 of the Engineer Update has been announced.  Many surprised were in store for Day 2 of the update news, so lets get started.

First off, the Engineer will be receiving a new pistol replacement with a device called “The Wrangler.”  The Wrangler is used to control the sentry gun’s target; it creates a shield that absorbs 66% of all incoming damage as well as doubling firing rate and increasing missile launching rate.  Downside you ask… well the sentry gun is defenseless (inactive) for three seconds after the Engineer switches from the Wrangler, it eats up more ammo (so you might want a little help from your Engineer friends replenishing ammo), and the sentry will not target pesky bad guys while Engineer-controlled.

Second a list, 35 new Engineer achievements were announced, two of which were about a guitar (”Honky Tonk Man” and Six-String Stinger”.) This has many Team Fortress 2 players speculating the engineer will get his trusty guitar as a mele-weapon or it will be apart of a taunt of some sort.

Last but defiantly not least, was the announcement of a new payload map.  The third of official payload maps, this map is set on top of mountain, and has A, B, and C control points (which could mean anything).  Listed on the pictures are, “Built on mountain - why?,” “Abandoned?,” and “Blow it up to be safe.”  Map looks like it will a great addition to many server rotations.

Valve has also increased the weekly item drop limit to let everyone pull the lever at a chance to get The Golden Wrench.  So get out there and play some more if you though you reached your limit.

Engineer Update! Day 1

After over three years of waiting, Team Fortress 2’s Engineer Update if finally upon us.  Announced today, was the first of four days of information about the Engineer update, which will drop Thursday, June 08, 2010.  Today’s release featured information about the new Engineer’s shotgun replacement, the Frontier Justice.  The Frontier Justice has a 50% smaller magazine than the standard shotgun and does not get random crits however, for every sentry kill the gun gets two crits and every sentry assist the gun gets one kill and when the Engineer’s sentry is destroyed (either through enemy action or self-destruct), the Engineer receives bonus crits with the Frontier Justice.  Many are guessing the crits will stored and used with alternate fire (right click for many players).

Also with the update, came information about how to get the mysterious (well not anymore) Golden Wrench.  Over the weekend when players crafted weapons, some randomly crafted The Golden Wrench.  Valve has given out 25 at the time of this blog but plans on handing out a total of 100 by Thursday.  You can track who has received the Golden Wrenches as well as how many have been given out at the Wrench Log.  There is no specific recipe for crafting The Golden Wrench, it just randomly happens when other weapons/hats/metals are crafted.

So, what are you waiting for, get out there and craft some weapons, who knows, you may the next person with the Golden Wrench in their hands.  Good Luck!

Loose Canon

In an early morning blog posted titled “Loose Canon” on July 2nd, 2010, the TF2 team presented us with more clues about the upcoming Engineer update.  Along with the blog came an engaging thirteen page comic involving the Engineer.

A few notes/speculations/incites from the comic.

• Apparently the Engineer’s name is Dell Conagher.
• So far there appear to be no “new” hidden pages other than this one tying to this picture.
• There’s a neat portrait of old versions of the classes on Page 5.
• The Golden Wrench could be considered The Australium Wrench.
• The alleged “Loose Cannon” Sentry unlock found on Page 8? It’s a Level 1 Sentry turning into a Level 2 Sentry. Look closely, the “cannons” are simply the chassis of the Level 1 Sentry at an odd angle.
• There’s a demoman Easter egg in the portrait, like the demoman they portray is the original demoman design.