Team Fortress 2 Pyro update coming this Thursday

NTolerance

NTolerance

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http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?story=53168

Two new community-created maps will also be included. Does anyone know what they are? Epic did a great job with community map packs w/ the Unreal Tournament series so its good to see Valve doing the same. Most servers usually just run stock maps or a bunch of crappy custom maps. It will be good to see some Valve-approved custom maps hit every server by default.
 
Warpath, Egypt, Castle, Wolf, Science, Overflow, and Labor are all great custom maps.

Glad to see they're still trucking away at achievements for the various classes and boy do pyros need some improvements, so this works out really well. I'll be excited to see the new stuff.

TF2 will be even more of a great game once all the classes get these customization options.
 
Whoa, this completely snuck up on me. Didn't see this comin that soon. I also really love how they put up a free weekend whenever one of these things happen. Makes it pretty easy to dual-box and get some of the easier achievements.
 
[quote name='infinitepez']I also really love how they put up a free weekend whenever one of these things happen. Makes it pretty easy to dual-box and get some of the easier achievements.[/QUOTE]

That doesn't sound like much fun.
 
[quote name='NTolerance']That doesn't sound like much fun.[/QUOTE]
Nor does it sound like much of an "achievement".
 
[quote name='Damian']Nor does it sound like much of an "achievement".[/QUOTE]

May not be the most noble of ways to do things, but after the medic achievement pack and some of those ludicrous achievements (kill a bunch of people with an ubered scout/unarmed heavy), it's a lot more fun actually using the new weapons instead of waiting for the precise conditions needed to unlock them.
 
[quote name='infinitepez']Whoa, this completely snuck up on me. Didn't see this comin that soon. I also really love how they put up a free weekend whenever one of these things happen. Makes it pretty easy to dual-box and get some of the easier achievements.[/QUOTE]
Don't need dual boxing. Just go to an Achievements server where they have all kinds of bots set up. I popped in to one hoping I could at least do the little bit to get the blutsauger but it was chaos in there: as many people fighting to needle/saw bots as there were bots. So I went the old fashioned way to land the blutsauger, though I have no problems with people farming achievements to access content.

Again, why can't the content be available from the get-go? Linking the achievements with the content isn't the way to go. The reward in achievements should be the achievements themselves--they're badges that show one's leetness. Content is part of the game and should be available to all game owners regardless of skill level. All they're doing by linking content/achievements is creating a 'rich get richer' situation (or a situation that necessitates farming for the lesser skilled or those of us who don't have time to play 40 hrs a week).

/rant

The pyro is probably my favorite class. I realize it and soldier are the two easy modes and home to a majority of newbs, but there's something infinitely satisfying about sprinting around a corner, lighting up 3 or 4 tangos quick-like, and sprinting away as the kills/assists slowly register. This crit axe that is rumored sounds like a lot of fun.
 
Double posting but on different topics so shaq it.
[quote name='infinitepez']May not be the most noble of ways to do things, but after the medic achievement pack and some of those ludicrous achievements (kill a bunch of people with an ubered scout/unarmed heavy)[/QUOTE]
Those two you refer to actually aren't that ridiculous...you just need a friend to help you out on a regular server. It's 3 kills with an ubered scout for one achievement and 2 fist kills with an ubered heavy for another. The ubered pyro one isn't tough to get either.

The 20 assists on a heavy in one life might be what you're thinking of. That one is tough. Another uber and/or assist achievement is the assist in a simultaneous kill of 5 tangos with an ubered soldier. I guess you're praying for a crit?

The point is there's a number of goofier achievements like the ubered scout/boxing heavy that you can get with a friend on your way to earning enough to unlock whatever you're after, assuming you're not after the whole enchilada.
 
[quote name='dothog']Double posting but on different topics so shaq it.

Those two you refer to actually aren't that ridiculous...you just need a friend to help you out on a regular server. It's 3 kills with an ubered scout for one achievement and 2 fist kills with an ubered heavy for another. The ubered pyro one isn't tough to get either.

The 20 assists on a heavy in one life might be what you're thinking of. That one is tough. Another uber and/or assist achievement is the assist in a simultaneous kill of 5 tangos with an ubered soldier. I guess you're praying for a crit?

The point is there's a number of goofier achievements like the ubered scout/boxing heavy that you can get with a friend on your way to earning enough to unlock whatever you're after, assuming you're not after the whole enchilada.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, but at least the 20 heavy kills has at least somewhat of a chance of happening in regular gameplay (Carefully played defense on stage 3 of Dustbowl springs to mind). How often does it make sense to ever uber a scout or an unarmed heavy? These are the biggest ones I have problems with - the ones that you'll only really get if you're farming them.

And yeah, i'll completely agree that it was a bad idea to link these with achievements. Woulda been much better if it was a purely cosmetic thing, similar to the Hyabusa sword people get for unlocking all 1000/1000 points in Halo 3. That way those dedicated enough can get it, while those that don't want to get it aren't put at a loss.
 
[quote name='infinitepez'] How often does it make sense to ever uber a scout or an unarmed heavy? These are the biggest ones I have problems with - the ones that you'll only really get if you're farming them.[/QUOTE]
It's true that they're ludicrous in the sense that they result from the kind of gameplay that shouldn't be (behavior that is aka dumb). Maybe the point from Valve's perspective is just to get people to try something "dumb," just for the fun of it. I was thinking ludicrous in the sense that the achievements are extremely hard to come by.
 
Warpath is one of my favorite maps. It would be great to see it get some official recognition.

Okay... so its a free weekend + new achievements for the pyro? It's going to be really hard to be a spy for quite awhile. I'm a little confused by valves approach to the achievements. Why would they encourage people to spend several hours just trying to get the achievements. Why not just set it up so that the longer you play the game, you'll eventually start unlocking achievements. As you get more experience, your weapon set increases.
 
[quote name='evyrew']Okay... so its a free weekend + new achievements for the pyro? It's going to be really hard to be a spy for quite awhile.[/QUOTE]
Anything that makes life more difficult for those stabby little fuckers is fine by me. :) [Full Disclosure: If I had half the skill it takes to spy well I'd be doing it--I just can't get the knack for spying.]

We really ought to try to get a regular TF2 thread going for general TF2 chat. I can't believe there aren't enough CAGs playing TF2 regularly to keep the thread from going stale.
 
[quote name='evyrew']I'm a little confused by valves approach to the achievements. Why would they encourage people to spend several hours just trying to get the achievements. Why not just set it up so that the longer you play the game, you'll eventually start unlocking achievements. As you get more experience, your weapon set increases.[/QUOTE]

Some of the achievements are set up like that - designed to only be unlocked after a lot of standard gameplay (see: get 1 [or was it 10] million healing points, extinguish 100 burning teammates, etc). It also seems they like their somewhat absurd achievements (HL2: Episode 2's "put a gnome in a rocket", for example). However, it'll be pretty impossible to stop farming. The new weapons, even if perfectly balanced, allow for more options/better adaptability, giving someone with them a slight edge. Everyone wants that edge, so they'll take the path of least resistance to get it. Usually that means farming. And honestly, I can't think of many good/reasonable achievements that would encourage regular gameplay and discourage farming.
 
[quote name='evyrew']As you get more experience, your weapon set increases.[/QUOTE]
Ugh. No no no. As you get more experience, you get better at the game and can take pride in gibbing just about everything on-screen. The weapon set remains static for everyone.

Ain't it reward enough just to be good at a game? Instead of weapons for a select few, what if Valve gave you some delicious gummi cocks instead?
gummi_lighthouses.jpg
 
Meet the Sniper video is out now!

I'll try to get one or two of the Pyro weapons but that would be it. I'm still waiting for an update for a class I actually use. As for the custom maps, a lot of them need updating or fixing so I hope they do that before putting something like Turbine_v3 or something.
 
The only thing I do not like about these is some of them are a pain in the ass and most resort to farming them which is just plum shitty IMO. But I am eagerly anticipating these updates to like a Scout, a bat with nails through it would be badass. Maybe some for Snipers and demo's.
 
There's so many completionists out there. What's wrong with only getting half the achievements? I don't mind looking at my stats knowing that I avoided wasting time trying to attain achievements through farming or legitimate means.

We need achievements for not unlocking all achievements. If you get all of them then you lose it! :)
 
[quote name='NTolerance']There's so many completionists out there. What's wrong with only getting half the achievements?[/QUOTE]
Unfortunately, in this case it means you don't get to play the whole game. Linking in game bonuses to Achievements is mind numbingly stupid. I'm not sure how such a normally intelligent group of people like Valve fucked this up so badly. It's like they sat around and had a meeting about how they could encourage griefing and discourage team play as much as possible. In a game fundamentally designed around cooperation never the less.
 
[quote name='Damian']Unfortunately, in this case it means you don't get to play the whole game. Linking in game bonuses to Achievements is mind numbingly stupid. I'm not sure how such a normally intelligent group of people like Valve fucked this up so badly. It's like they sat around and had a meeting about how they could encourage griefing and discourage team play as much as possible. In a game fundamentally designed around cooperation never the less.[/QUOTE]
Preach it, Brother Damian. Amen.
 
[quote name='Damian']Unfortunately, in this case it means you don't get to play the whole game. Linking in game bonuses to Achievements is mind numbingly stupid. I'm not sure how such a normally intelligent group of people like Valve fucked this up so badly. It's like they sat around and had a meeting about how they could encourage griefing and discourage team play as much as possible. In a game fundamentally designed around cooperation never the less.[/QUOTE]

True, I don't necessarily agree with the whole unlocking thing. However, it really doesn't bother me if I don't have every weapon. I get a lot of satisfaction out of simply firing rockets for hours on end. I guess I'm really old-school.

It's possible that Valve's reasoning is to get more people to play certain classes. Medics were rare before the big medic update. It did achieve the goal of getting people to play the class. And if you were playing on a well-admined server there were more medics but they weren't achievement whoring. There is absolutely no substitute for having competent server admins.
 
[quote name='NTolerance']True, I don't necessarily agree with the whole unlocking thing. However, it really doesn't bother me if I don't have every weapon. I get a lot of satisfaction out of simply firing rockets for hours on end. I guess I'm really old-school.[/QUOTE]
Oh it doesn't bother me that I have to unlock weapons. That's been a part of games forever. I hate that I have to do stupid things that hurt my teammates to do this unlocking, or else I have to cheat and achievement whore on a bot server. Achievements really should have been things you should be doing anyway. The original achievements were quite good, I have all of them but I think two and those are the ones that involve winning in X time. The only thing I had to do to get them was play reasonably well with a specific class. The only thing they "forced" me to do was to play with a specific class longer than I might have otherwise so I could get good enough at it to get the achievements.

Granted a lot of the new ones aren't bad, and revolve around healing like you should, but a lot of them either rely on someone else's doing something counting as YOU can somehow "achieving" something (all the UberCharge an X while he does Y ones) or are downright counter productive (like the heavy punching things while ubered)
 
There's a removed post at Shacknews that has user comments that reveals the final Pyro unlock IS A JETPACK.
 
[quote name='Nohbdy']There's a removed post at Shacknews that has user comments that reveals the final Pyro unlock IS A JETPACK.[/quote]
HOLY SHIT BALLS BATMAN!!! If that is indeed true I think I will find myself perhaps farming a few of these achievements because a jetback just seems so damned pimpin.
 
[quote name='Nohbdy']There's a removed post at Shacknews that has user comments that reveals the final Pyro unlock IS A JETPACK.[/QUOTE]

Eh, I hope not. I really didn't like Tribes. Any and all flying through the air should be due to self-inflicted rocket/stickybomb damage.
 
[quote name='Damian']Most of these achievements are a big improvement. Hopefully no one will feel the need to boost for them.[/quote]
That's very optimistic.
 
[quote name='Nohbdy']http://www.steampowered.com/pyro/?pw=presspreview

Sorry, not a jetpack but compressed air. Enough to cause knockback and redirect enemy fire.[/QUOTE]
So somebody got "jetpack" out of the new alt-fire compressed blast?

The Backburner sounds nasty. It's basically the old flamethrower but with crits when flanking. AND when equipped its user has a total 225 HP. I dunno, that seems like one hell of an upgrade to me. I mean, if you play pyro right, you're looking to flank anyway, so it's basically rewarding smart pyro play even more. BBQ here I come...
 
[quote name='mrelusive']
OMGWTFBBQ.png


OMGWTFBBQ: Kill an enemy with a taunt.

... lolwut?[/quote]

Apparently the Pyro's shotgun taunt does one point of damage.
 
Yeah, plus you'll only need 25/35 of the achievements to unlock everything. That means you can ignore the 10 achievements you hate the most. Definitely an improvement over the medic achievements.

While it's annoying having one class dominate the servers in the days following an achievement pack, a staggered release gives Valve a chance to tweak accordingly. Now achievements seem to be more reasonable.
 
it'll at least be interesting to see what "achievement maps" the community makes to farm these achievements
 
[quote name='Fuzi0n']So what time is the update being released? Any word?[/quote]

At best, 11:30PM PST, at best for Valve's time probably early tomorrow morning... :lol:
 
[quote name='Nohbdy']ACTUALLY actually, it's either the update or the start of the free weekend.[/QUOTE]
ACTUALLY ACTUALLY actually, it's the start time for a two-day wait for the update.

/Valve time y'all
 
Well it has been a pretty exciting 6 hours. So the flare gun is useful but less then expected. The Ax is very useful a good burn and slash takes down most easily. I really like the back burner as well, also takes down people with little to no effort, but has me watching my back especially for pyros now.
 
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