Team Fortress 2

[Guitar Woman]

So, so like, I got the Orange Box about a month ago, right? And it wouldn't run on my computer past Episode 1 and the original HL2, which made me need to go and get a real computer so I could play TF2, which is pretty much the only thing I bought it for.

Anyway, TF2 takes around 4 hours to update fully, probably more now that all that Pyro tomfoolery has been released, so I wasn't going to download all that tonight and just decided to play a nice few levels of Portal to appreciate my new PC and how it is better than the other one.

My specs are as follows!
2.53 GHz Dualcore (this is a bit of a downgrade, my last CPU was 2.8 GHz; it wasn't a dual processor though, I would assume that makes up for it a little bit.)
2 Gigabytes of ram
Some graphics card that is really good. It can run STALKER on high settings, that's pretty much all I know about it.
Lots of other shit

So I install Portal, TF2, and HL2 Episode 2, and update Portal appropriately, takes about 30 minutes. I play it, and it gets about as far as the Valve logo with the fat guy and the valve in the back of his head before it reboots my PC. No warning, no error message, just an unexpected reboot. It got to at least the loading screen on my last computer before telling me that I sucked too much at having RAM and pixel shaders to play it.

What.

I haven't tried Episode 2 yet, but I'll do that and get back to you on the results. If it's just Portal doing this, fine, I can live without it.


No, it is not just Portal, Episode 2 also does this.

Son of a BITCH.

[executioneer]

i'd find out what your gfx card is, and maybe update the drivers for it if possible

and yeah dualcore processors make up for it being a lower ghz a tiny bit :lol

i wouldn't be surprised if it crashed on tf2, also :(

[MetalMilitia]

The CPU isn't a downgrade because a newer processor has a more efficient architecture thus getting more "work" done in less cycles. It's like now the old Athlon XP series needed a naming scheme that informed the consumer that they were equivilient to higher clocked P4s.

If you built the machine yourself it could be anything - but probably something to do with your graphics/sound/motherboard drivers. Could also be a memory problem.

Go to "My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced system settings -> Advanced -> Startup and recovery settings" and disable "automatically restart". Then load up Portal and if it displays a BSOD make a note of the EXE that caused the crash. Now reboot the PC and google the EXE - you should be able to find out which software caused the crash.

[Guitar Woman]

So yes, the guy who set up my gaming PC apparently thought up to date video drivers weren't necessary. I probably should have thought of that before I made this thread but fuck you ok I was panicking :<

[Fathom Zero]

Oh man, I have a Pentium 4 2.66 Ghz, 1 gig of RAM, and a Radeon 9200 and it runs all of those like sex on wheels.

And I didn't pay a dime for any of it. God bless hand-me-downs. Granted, TF2 crashes my graphics card occasionally, but I thnik that's because it overheats, so I'm not too bothered about it.

[Guitar Woman]

I've got the Radeon 2400, I think. It runs every game I have at the highest possible settings and is pretty pretty pretty :<

[Fathom Zero]

The HD2400, I take you to mean.

Mine's an AGP card. Yours is PCI-E. Unless you're dumb enough to spend it on the PCI version, (which is the best PCI graphics card on the market.)

Computers like Dell's don't come with any graphics card slots, only PCI ones.

You should be able to run it, it's not a hardware issue by any means. It's a software one. Portal's been known to be heavy on the shaders.

[MetalMilitia]

Only the really old shitty Dell base units didn't have AGP or PCI-E slots. My last PC at work was a bog standard Optiplex machine and even that came with a ATI (AMD) 1200 series PCI-E card.

[Fathom Zero]

The Dell Dimension 2300 (the series isn't even being made anymore, so yeah, you're right) didn't have such a slot. But that's okay because it was still a piece of ass, even in just raw processing jobs.

[Guitar Woman]

Uh, guys, I thought I established that I already got Portal running, and that the problem was no drivers were installed for the card?

Also, Episode 2 is the best shooter I've played in forever. Completely redeems Episode 1's mediocrity.

Team Fortress 2 doesn't work, still; it gives me a VALIDATING FILES bar for about a nanosecond and then disappears whenever I try to run it. I've been told that I have to delete all the TF2 local gamefiles and reinstall it, which is fucking RIDICULOUS because I just finished updating it.

I'm not angry, though, because Episode 2 is seriously a great goddamned stump of a game. I'll be angry at TF2 for not working when I finish it in about an hour.

[executioneer]

so it was graphics drivers, then?

edit: n/m

[Guitar Woman]

Haha! I got it!

It kept trying to validate the files which is necessary for some reason, but it couldn't do it by itself so I just went in the "Properties" menu for TF2 from the My Games list and did it manually.

It's fantastic, by the way.

[Fathom Zero]

I look forward to slaughtering you.

[Chojin]

i fucking hate the new pyro achievements, especially the backburner. that thing has stats like:

all crits from behind
50% more regular damage too
BUT
you can't do some shit that's new anyway

So it's better than the default pyro gun in every way, and that thing was already pretty bazonkers. I fucking hate flamers in every game, though ;< GRR

At this rate, the new Heavy's weapon will have the following stats:
+25% damage
all crits on shots that hit a person
cannot activate skill "nuclear winter"

oh yeah glad to hear you fixed your pc problem. I was going to tell you that it was the card or processor overheating because 99% of the time that is the only reason your computer will murder itself - to protect it from melting.

[Fathom Zero]

That's really the Heavy's? Jesus.

Time to get my Sniper on. I already have, but I definitely will after this. The Chief of Staff achievement is easy, the Pyromancer is hard as hell, and I have a feeling this Nuclear Winter will probably be in between the two as far as difficulty.

Backburners can go eat a dick.

[executioneer]

At this rate
""

[Fathom Zero]

Sometimes, I question when I'm retarded.

And sometimes, I just know.

[Fathom Zero]

Hahaha; an update was just released in the last couple hours that, among other things, removes the health bonus from the Backburner.

[Guitar Woman]

Well, now my complaints about not being able to frontally assualt Pyros with the Scrumpy bottle are completely gone.

Thanks, Valve!

[Chojin]

every server i've gotten on today has been filled with WTF MY HEALTH IS ONLY 175 WHAT SKULLDUGGERY IS THIS

[Guitar Woman]

I hate when people defend the Pyro's gayness with the arguement that he's only deadly when you're up close, which is idiotic since about 75% of the game takes place in close quarters and it's really hard to fucking stay away from something if half of the other team is playing as it

[Chojin]

and when you consider that the only weapons in the game that do any damage have scattered shots

[Guitar Woman]

I didn't think of that either, no.

I've gotten fantastic at sniping Pyros with my revolver, if I am discovered and have time to get away before they make a Spyburger out of me. The Demoman is also the easiest class to kill Pyros with aside from the Soldier, I've found.

[Chojin]

I learned to hate pyros early in Kingpin, where they could kill you near-instantly if they kept a stream on you, or eventually if they touch you once, but also it was impossible to see them behind the wall of flame, and any rockets you shot at them would get immolated by the flame and blow up in your face.

In TF2, I really think that scouts should be the major anti-pyro class, but as-is they can't get close enough to them to have the scatter gun work effectively, and the scout's pistol might as well not be in the game.

What the game really needs is the abilty to stop-drop-and-roll if you're on fire - it'd leave you way open to others shooting at you, but it seems like every time I die from a pyro it's 10 seconds after I've killed them and I'm alone anyway and booking for the nearest health kit. And not many of the official stages have a real body of water to jump into to stop the flames.

I only ever switch to pyro if people are camping our spawn.

[Chojin]

Giving medics or even other pyros a fire extinguisher would also be a good idea. The medic's heal gun does put fire out pretty quickly, but only for a single target.

[Nick]

My Dell 2100 sucks. :(

[Guitar Woman]

when did I make this thread did you bump an old thread

oh ok

[Guitar Woman]

Also, I'm pretty sure that I have become the greatest Spy in the entire history of Team Fortress.

I'm just that fantastic. I also like how you never have to rely on your own team as the Spy, since the ones I'm on are often full of idiots.

[Chojin]

well, good spies usually coordinate rushes while they're sapping sentries.

[Guitar Woman]

My team barely ever listens to me, but I usually give them a heads up when I take out sentries.

I've given up on buddying up with other Spies to take out dug-in Engies, since everyone seems to have this habit of running headlong into Pyros while de-cloaking.

I also didn't realize that getting shot by anything other than the flamethrower wouldn't blow your cover, which is awesome.

[Fathom Zero]

I'll get you anyway.

The Blutsauger will give the medic +3 health if it is an enemy, but not for teammates. I've used that to my advantage a couple times.

[Guitar Woman]

I cheated to get my Blutsauger and then never ever played medic again. It's great for killing Pyros, though; if one's following me just close enough to be dangerous, I'll pelt him with it and vamp all his health to stop myself from being on fire.

Also, is it just me or does the Ubersaw crit EVERY TIME IT HITS ME?

That thing is ridiculous.

[Chojin]

We just set up a dedicated server for TF2 over here. I have sourcemod running on it, but just a barebones install, as I'm going to figure out some other stuff later to do with it.

Like having ganon pronounce everyone dead.

Server's called "Chris Hansen's Internet Sting Operation", btw.

[executioneer]

YALL MAKE.... NO SENCE

[MLE]

Okay, so this is actually a fun game :<

[Guitar Woman]

I can't think of a single game from the current generation that I like better than TF2, honestly.

[MLE]

I played as a scout and he said "wave goodbye to yer stupid crap, dumbass"

[Guitar Woman]

So getting around my problem with disposing of sentries, I've decided it'd be really fucking awesome to drop your disguise in a position where the Engie is between you and his turret, because it then turns around and takes him to pieces trying to get you. If he didn't see you, it'd probably take him way too long to realize what's happening because I've never seen anyone try this, so no way in hell are they expecting it. Also, tier 2 and 3 sentries would make mincemeat of anyone in a matter of seconds, so they'd never have time to respond. After this it's a matter of timing your cloak and/or disguise to coincide with the engineer's death, and then sapping.

I haven't actually tried this since I've been bogged down with work for a few weeks, but the only ways I see it not working are if an Engie is babysitting a sentry that doesn't belong to him, if there are multiple sentries covering each other, or if there happens to be someone who cares in the vicinity. The last one doesn't even matter so much unless they're RIGHT THERE, since there would probably be time to put a sapper on the sentry and mabye scurry away before they could get to you.

Also if he's facing you, but that's sort of a given.

[Fathom Zero]

I've done it with other classes. It's funny making an engie kill themselves as they're trying to fix it. It's good engineer behavior to stand behind wherever you expect it to shoot at, but sometimes people are just retarded.

[Chojin]

Is that what you mean :>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOLFnR8-PYs

[Guitar Woman]

Yes, that, without the knifing.

I'm glad someone else demonstrated this, since I wasn't sure how soon you'd have to cloak after dropping your disguise. I guess it's instantaneous.

I also knew it was just too awesome for nobody to have thought of it before.

[Schimid]

I play this game enough that I have a set plan for every map I go to. Shit, for every section of the map. I always, always snipe on Gold Rush 1, pyro on Gold Rush 2, engie on Dustbowl 1, ALWAYS spy on 2Fort...I wonder if it's a burden to the team :O

[Guitar Woman]

I don't have much variety like that, probably because I suck at being a team player. I play an ok Scout, usually on CTF maps because I am awesome at rushing in and capping before anyone knows what's going on, and I've given up on trying to be a good Demoman.

I should probably learn to be something other than the Spy, which I've put twice as much time into than any other class. But I can't, because stabbing half the other team to death while they're busy clustering around the Goldrush cart and not paying attention to anything else is something special.

Also, am I the only one who thinks there should be more three-point CP maps like Gravelpit? I love how open that level is, comparatively.

[MattJack]

would yall say any class is useless or OP? Or are they all well rounded and just compliment your style of play? I tried playing against my 14 year old brother, but he pushed my sh*t in really quick :(

Obviously I didn't know the maps, so I was fuc*ed from the get go, and not to mention I was the sniper the whole time.

[Fathom Zero]

They're all well rounded and can defend any other class, but some classes are suited to different situations.

[Phoenix Gamma]

Yea. It's just a matter of knowing when and where to use the right class.

I prefer the Spy myself, just because I've been getting better at navigating maps unnoticed. The only problems I have are the usual cramped hallway, which always leads to an embarrassing death after bumping into someone around the corner :(

Demoman's my other favorite, just because his guns have a little more versatility. You can really rack up an insane amount of kills if you hold a choke point. One of the maps I hardly ever play (was it custom?) had this bridge everyone was trying to cross, and both teams were just piling onto it. I sat behind a rock at a pretty far distance and picked everyone off one by one. I don't think I've ever dominated that many people before :D

[Chojin]

I wouldn't go that far - the pyro is by far the easiest class to play, has the most advantages over other classes, and is appropriate for every map. Aside from him, though, the game is remarkably balanced.

Just don't be surprised when a team of 8 has 7 pyros pushing the cart, though.

[Fathom Zero]

That would be Warpath. It was originally a Half Life 2 Deathmatch map, and it was ported.

It's a LOOONG map, too. Whenever I see too many knife kills, I always switch over to Pyro.

The key to the game is forcing people to change strategies and classes. For instance, if I'm playing GW, I'll be a pyro because I know she can't play anything besides Spy.

[Phoenix Gamma]

I wouldn't go that far - the pyro is by far the easiest class to play, has the most advantages over other classes, and is appropriate for every map. Aside from him, though, the game is remarkably balanced.

Just don't be surprised when a team of 8 has 7 pyros pushing the cart, though.

I can't play Pyro for the life of me, though :(

I'm mad at the rest of the world, because the rest of the world can use him better than me :x

[ValientKid]

I wouldn't go that far - the pyro is by far the easiest class to play, has the most advantages over other classes, and is appropriate for every map. Aside from him, though, the game is remarkably balanced.

Just don't be surprised when a team of 8 has 7 pyros pushing the cart, though.

And by Pyro you mean Soldier, right? Although the easiest to me would be the Sniper. Especially if you were born with naturally good hand-eye cordination

Also: Heavy update on the 19th. Gonna be a sniper's paradise.

[Chojin]

Soldiers are slower than other classes (save for the heavy) and have a very small amount of shots per clip, and have a shitty reload time. Back before they took away the Backburner's retarded health upgrade, they also had less health than pyros. Without a crit, their rockets don't do much damage, either.

BUT I SUPPOSE THEY DO GET THOSE CRITS ABOUT 10% OF THE TIME, OH LAWSY

Also, you are ridiculous if you think Sniper's an easy class to play.

I think part of the reason you see so many pyros is that they can't be caught on fire.

[Guitar Woman]

Soldiers are really only a problem when I'm playing the Scout and have to be on the front lines around them.

As a spy they're always in front of me begging to be stabbed, and when I'm a Demoman they don't bother me because I'm better at blowing people up than they are. I thought they'd be way overpowered with the rocket launcher and everything, but yeah, what Chojin said.


A thought occured to me today that after every class is upgraded, it'd be really funny if Pyros end up being the shittiest, like in TFC.

[Guitar Woman]

I think he was also saying that people who play Sniper are gonna love the heavy update because they're such ridiculous targets.

I try playing Sniper every now and then, but I usually end up just killing other snipers who are only trying to kill me, and then realize that without us the game would be exactly the same and go play as something useful.

Or I'll pick a vantage point, wait for people to show up, get bored, and charge the other team with the submachine gun, which results in them going "what the fuck" while I kill one of them with the Kukuri and then am blown up by about 3 simultaneous rockets.

[Chojin]

Yeah, but the major theme of the heavy update is making him less reliant on the medic, so I'm thinking he'll get a neat hat or something.

[Guitar Woman]

I just hope the Spy update is next and he gets the Tranq gun.

[Guitar Woman]

http://www.steamgames.com/tf2/heavy

I don't see the point of the new gun, you'd already get slowed down a lot by knockback when shot by his standard one.

The boxing gloves sound awesome, but who actually ever punches people as the heavy?

I've also played that community map before and I really don't like it :<

[Fathom Zero]

"Killing Gloves of Boxing"

:lol

[Chojin]

Tons of people punch as heavies, it does retarded damage.

[Guitar Woman]

So I started trying to play as the Sniper today

Jesus christ :<

Are Heavies just immune to headshots?

[executioneer]

do you guys know anyone who plays as INTERNET TOUGH GUY
cause i was playin w/ someone with that moniker and it sounded awful here-ish somehow

[Chojin]

Sniper has probably the worst secondary weapon in the game (machine pistol is worthless), but his melee's pretty good.

As a sniper, I tend to hang out in view of friendly sentries - no spy in his right mind would attack you first, and as soon as I hear the engineer complaining about spies, I unzoom and bring out the ol' chop-chop.

My mouse also lets me dial down the sensitivity, which is great for zoomed shots.

[Chojin]

Speaking of secondaries, I only recently fell in love with the scout's (and engineer's) pistol - after I figured out that you can fire it faster if you keep clicking rather than hold the button down.

It also just 'feels' better to fire, that way.

[MetalMilitia]

I agree, I'm not sure if I've ever killed another player with the Sniper's machine pistol.

The sniper is a great class on certain maps but in others it's just useless. For example the last control point of the last stage of dustbowl is a prime sniping opportunity for both sides, and a good sniper on one team can win the match.

[Chojin]

Goldrush 1 has an AMAZING sniping point, but you have to crouch-jump up three boxes, onto a lampshade, and then onto a pole. I killed about 12 people today before they finally got a soldier to uproot me, and then he screamed over alltalk WHAT THE FUCK.

The best part about that spot is that you can see enemy snipers' feet before they can see you at all, and a charged shot to the foot is enough to drop a sniper. Also, you're so high up that nobody bothers to look for you, and only the MOST DETERMINED SPY IN THE WORLD will scale the aggro-crag just to nab you.

Also today, I fired two full clips from the machine pistol into a burning enemy demoman about 20 feet away and still couldn't kill him.

[Guitar Woman]

Screenshot?

I keep trying to get better at Sniper, and I think location is one of my biggest problems. I'm also the kind of jerk who would go that far out of my way to backstab someone, so yeah. Plus, I have a habit of disguising as a friendly sniper on that level to fool the other team before the game starts, so it would also probably make a good place to surprise a throng of attackers from.

[Chojin]

http://www.i-mockery.com/chojin/tf2/pl_goldrush0002.jpg

http://www.i-mockery.com/chojin/tf2/pl_goldrush0005.jpg

http://www.i-mockery.com/chojin/tf2/pl_goldrush0006.jpg

http://www.i-mockery.com/chojin/tf2/pl_goldrush0008.jpg

http://www.i-mockery.com/chojin/tf2/pl_goldrush0009.jpg

http://www.i-mockery.com/chojin/tf2/pl_goldrush0010.jpg

http://www.i-mockery.com/chojin/tf2/pl_goldrush0012.jpg

http://www.i-mockery.com/chojin/tf2/pl_goldrush0014.jpg

[Chojin]

Right outside of the red team's spawn -> go up stairs, cross bridge -> jump to boxes -> jump to lampshade -> jump to top of lamp. All crouch-jumps.

[Fathom Zero]

I saw another guy doing that. It takes 'em a while to be able to shoot you, even though they're able to see exactly where you are.

I started playing Spy recently and holy shit the Deringer is over-powered. I was taking out teleporters and pyros like sex on wheels.

By the way, I've killed quite a few people with the machine pistol. When I've come up against a Scout underneath the bases in 2Fort, the thing saved my life many a time.

[Phoenix Gamma]

Jesus Christ. That's some determination right there. Kudos.

I remember awhile back, my entire team used dispensers to leap ontop of the B point in Gravel Pit. At that point, they built teleporters on the roof and the entire team proceeded to slaughter Blu from all directions. Sniping was a blast.

For the longest time, no one was able to figure out how the hell a Heavy wound up on the roof. They called shenanigans as we poured from the roof and into the building. It was my first Impossible Defense :D

[Guitar Woman]

The revolver's a decent gun, but pretty much everyone else has a better weapon than you so you better hope you can aim worth a shit. I'm really hoping he'll get the Tranq gun from TFC, though, so I can actually get away from Pyros now and then when they're within flaming distance.

Also, yeah, sapping sentries then shooting them or stabbing them makes everything way easier.

I steadfastly refuse to play the Spy anymore until everyone who plays this game learns what "GUYS THE SENTRIES ARE DOWN PUSH THE CART ALREADY FUCK" means.

[MetalMilitia]

Heh: MEET THE SANDVICH (http://steamgames.com/tf2/heavy/sandvichVideo.htm)

He punched out all my blood!

[Guitar Woman]

That is fucking awesome.

Oh, the update's also going live right now!

[Chojin]

I can tell by how steam won't let me connect!

[Fathom Zero]

I've BEEN connected.

Or not.

[Chojin]

I thought I was too, but I was mistaken.

[Fathom Zero]

I want to play on an all-heavy server.

[Guitar Woman]

So now that I've updated all the servers have ridiculous pings, the absolute lowest ones being 200 something, and I can't connect to any of them.

That Battlefield Heroes beta would be pretty nice right about now.

[Fathom Zero]

It would, wouldn't it? I've been having a bit of trouble with the installer, but I'll submit something to the forum or probably restart my computer.

[Guitar Woman]

Oh, guys, this update is just fucking awesome.

2280 damage as a sniper in one life, and I've been able to pull off a Medic disguise like 5 times now. I am a HERO.


http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/146/sandwichwn9.jpg
BEHOLD!

[Fathom Zero]

Everyone knew this was going to happen. I LOVE IT.

[Chojin]

I do love this update tremendously. The heavy's become one of my favorite classes - there's nothing like getting a kritzkrieg on you and mowing down five or more guys while the heavy bellows 'UWAAAAAA! CRRRYYY SOOOOME MOOOOORE!'

[Phoenix Gamma]

We should really get a few games going...

[Guitar Woman]

So I let my younger sister play for a few hours, and came back to find she had hopped on an achievement farming server and gotten me 63 points as the medic

The Ubersaw is pretty cool, but I don't think it was worth all the stats rape :<

[Fathom Zero]

I went on the heavy achievement maps and got about 30 backstabs until I realized there weren't any spy achievements. Still, it was very funny.

[executioneer]

man i was on a hvy achievement server and two jackasses had set up sentry guns right in the spawn point

which i suppose if i hadn't been trying to get achievements might have been funny, but it just wound up being annoying, so i switched to demoman and blew them to shit repeatedly

[Fathom Zero]

They usually don't have their junk up long enough to have it do any real damage.

[executioneer]

well they put them directly next to the restock cabinet, so they were constantly being healed themselves, and everyone else on that team basically just stood around shooting the other team as they spawned too

[Schimid]

I don't know how I feel about the new Arena mode. On the plus side, it's a cool concept and works well when it's 8v8. On the downside, anything less turns into a battle for whoever has more Pyros.

[Guitar Woman]

Now that I've figured out you have to always think about 10 seconds ahead while playing Demoman, I've made the thrilling discovery that every Pyro on earth is a fucking moron.

[Chojin]

Why were you on an achievement farming server anyway, willie?

That's hardly an ACHIEVEMENT. YOU WEE LITTLE BABY.

First you think my server sucks and now this. WHAT HAPPENED, WILLIE.

[executioneer]

i hated that you wanted to play melee combat only because i s*ck at it >:

that's the reason i only got the first two unlockables, f*ck the boxing gloves

[executioneer]

BASICALLY WHAT I'M TRYING TO SAY IS, I SUCK AT VIDOE GAMES

[BurntToShreds]

I just got TF2 a few days ago, and I have to admit, it's hard finding a role that suits you. I've had the most success playing as Demoman, but if my team doesn't have any
Medics, I make sure to switch ASAP.

[Schimid]

I had stopped playing this game for a while until this came out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTpvVdM57JQ

It's a soundpack with tons of different decals, sounds and songs to keep you busy. I don't wanna give too much away, but playing as a sniper got a lot funnier.

[Fathom Zero]

I'm digging the mashup in the video, though.

[Guitar Woman]

the YUS, I AM INVINCIBLE got me :<

[Guitar Woman]

Schimid, is there some other, less shitty place to download that from?

Megaupload refuses to let me have it and the FileFront link just redirects to the main page.

[Schimid]

I only know about those two...I still have the .rar archive, I could host it on Chojin's site and you could get it from there, I guess?

I played a bit with it tonight, and I love being a spy even more now. He'll randomly say some Joker quotes from Dark Knight, and each backstab elicits a "GENTLEMEN."

The best part is during the humiliation phase, when I cavort rampantly, throwing my knife around and complimenting my teammates.

[Gurlugon]

Boink's soundpack is awesome. I had all but quit the game and came back swinging after the Heavy update. Good times.

[JJ_Maniac]

I got sixty-four points as medic in a 2fort last night. That's good for me. I also just realized that Valve had either nerfed the multi-uber (the process where you continuously uber two companions), or I seem to be doing it wrong. I prefer the old syringe gun to the blutsauger, though.

[Fathom Zero]

Yeah, I think the criticals from the syringe gun are worth it, too.

[JJ_Maniac]

Alright, I'm writing this just after playing 2fort.
I think I now am certain about Herr Doktor's biggest flaw.
He can't put out his own fire. Let me clarify what I mean by this: the medic regens health at a slow rate, right? But: If He is on fire, no matter if his health regens to a hundred, he will STAY ON FIRE unless either it runs out or he jumps into water. I hate hate hate this, because when you kill a pyro and are on fire, unless you have a medic following you, you're pretty much screwed from all the damage he gave you. So, he gets an achievement either way, by killing you while he's dead, or by you jumping into the water.

[JJ_Maniac]

Also, I'm fairly certain this is, in part, why all the fucking pyros have backburners.

[MetalMilitia]

I like the blutsauger. Being able to top-up your health is useful and I've got a ton of kills with it despite the lack of crits.

[Fathom Zero]

I used to do that when I went lone medic on my team, running up, capping stuff and such. I haven't done that in a while. It's more difficult, recently.

[Guitar Woman]

Pyro's flame hit detection is fucking huge, also. I've been set on fire from at least 20 feet away by a Pyro. I called bullshit on this and was instructed to cry some more.

Why Valve refuses to fix all the blatant problems with the class is beyond me. One theory is that they're keeping Pyros this retarded on purpose because they think it's funny. Why else would there be a "Force a dominated opponent off the server" achievement?

[Fathom Zero]

Heh heh heh. I've done that quite a few times.

Another thing I find upsetting is that a pyro, but pretty much no other class, can just waltz up to a sentry and destroy it without so much as being scratched.

I say this after I've jumped of a game wherein I tried to build a sentry in the little house to the left of the blu base in the second stage of Goldrush and the pyro just sits around until after I'm done. Sentry's shooting at him, I've got my shotgun out, fucking blasting away, and he kills me, my sentry, and the dispenser and teleporter I was building. But whatever. I just switched over to sniper and put a slug into his head every time he spawned.

Then, as it turns out, Blu has about 1:34 left. So I switch over to scout and push the cart across the majority of the track and it crossed the point with just 14 seconds left. I didn't get the hint that me being the only guy playing offense at first, but it was driven home after they were able to push us all the way back to the spawn and hold us there until the game ended. Actually, I didn't even stick around that long, so I don't know how long they lasted. Hell, they could've come back and won. Whatever. Fuck that retarded team.

[JJ_Maniac]

Pyros shouldn't be able to shoot flames up through floors and kill sentries.

[Guitar Woman]

New update, guys

I've been playing a lot more as Demoman lately because I love outsmarting people and then having them get angry about it. That and people have just wised up to all of my super-sneaky Spy tricks, and on top of that backstabs only register about 70% of the time in a gross overreaction to facestabs. Which still happen, by the way.

I've come to loathe Soldiers. Either I've become conditioned to blithely accept bullshit Pyro deaths as routine, or they're just not annoying in a capacity other than the gigantic groups only a class update can provide. Plus, whenever I play medic, I think it's hilarious to use the Krtizkreig on Pyros. They become walking abominations against balanced gameplay, and can create critical sentry rockets through air-blast reflection.

Either way, I've recently realized that Soldier is positively the easiest class in the game and is basically Demoman for idiots. I take special offense at rockets because I'm a crack shot with standard grenades, and Soldiers barely even need to aim their massive-damage projectiles because they explode on contact with anything. I actually have to hit people. And when I do hit people, they usually complain about spam and switch to Scout to come and torment me.

Anyway, I was planning on ragequitting when the Soldier got his update and waiting for people to get bored of breathing through their mouths before I started playing again, but it seems like both classes are getting it at the same time. So I don't know what to do.

http://www.teamfortress.com/war/administrator/index.htm

I don't know how this is possible, I'm not even friends with the Soldiers on my team. I also like that Valve canonized the Announcer being the same person for both teams.

[Dr. Boogie]

Start playing as a soldier until you hate demomen?

[Guitar Woman]

And compromise my honor?

My Soldier hatred stems more from Spy playing than anything, because lol go for backstab Soldier uses clairvoyance to turn around and shoot your feet 12 times so you die

Or his pocket medic just warns him every single time because he's constantly turned around watching for you. I actually had a Soldier and his Medic butt-buddy follow me to another server after I ragequit so they could harass me some more.

[Fathom Zero]

OMG SHE LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE THAT FANART DOES.

http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/4418/tf2announcer.jpg

[Guitar Woman]

She's smoking her cigarette backwards.

[Fathom Zero]

It's unfiltered and emberous. >:

[executioneer]

looks like the ones in the ashtray were smoked backwards too. weird non-smoker mistake or intentional, whaddaya think

[Guitar Woman]

I bet she was just so raged/excited about the cart being near the final terminus that she couldn't be bothered to use them properly.

[Guitar Woman]

http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=3225

:oneofthosedays

Time to abandon my pretensions of being better than everyone else and whore the shit out of stickies.

[Fathom Zero]

Indeed. The demo hasn't gotten his due. Play the shit out of Payload maps and just stack 'em on the cart.

[Guitar Woman]

Or spawncamp!

Believe me, I'll be spawn camping a lot.

[Fathom Zero]

I got five just now. :)

[MattJack]

I played for a bit tonight and I felt that there were about 5x more soldiers than demos, so the demos had a better chance to get a point since they had so many nub soldiers to choose from.

[Guitar Woman]

153 Soldiers, dead by this scotman's shenanigans. :picklehat

My max points for Demoman also went up by about 8 tonight.

[Supafly345]

Thamx to video games I have a more sociolistic view on video games. YOY HEAR ME BARACK OF BAMA WWE WILL NOT BE PINNED
SVANDWICH

[Supafly345]

Finally, us 360 play3ers are gewtttomg faor re[resemtatoves fpr our plight on the 360 for5um. Now that december hits we will fuck up your new up0dates to the shizznit

[Fathom Zero]

I can't be as good a demo as bad a soldier.

Therefore, I am single-handedly subverting the war.

[Chojin]

I can't be as good a demo as bad a soldier.

my brain hurts

[Fathom Zero]

There's an "as I am" supposed to be in there somewhere.

I've been writing very shittily lately. I think I have Alzheimer's. :(

[Guitar Woman]

THIS JUST IN: John Morrison endorses Scotland.

http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/6515/scotlandqd.jpg

Demoman cannot possibly lose.

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

They need to skip the Threequel and jump straight to TEAM FOURTRESS

[Guitar Woman]

Ok, what the fuck, my 525 kills just got reduced to zero.

Everything nice I've ever said about Valve will be rendered stupid via hindsight if it's because they thought I was farming. I've bested MEN this week.

[Nick]

They're just telling you to go outside.


So, uh... Go outside.

[executioneer]

how the hell is he supposed to kill soldiers outside

[LordSappington]

Afghanistan?

[Guitar Woman]

It's December. In Oregon.

I just finished fall term, anyway, I get to be a shut in until next month

[Dr. Boogie]

I'm seeing a lot more dead demomen than soldiers. Get going, will you.

[Sam]

GUITAR WOMAN BLEW IT FOR DEMOMEN EVERYWHERE.

YOU FUCKING CHEAT.

[Chojin]

both classes kinda have their bullshit moments

[Guitar Woman]

Helmetless Soldier kinda looks like John Cena with his horrible crewcut

Edit: And holy shit, the Eyelander looks awesome. I was assuming the bottle would be replaced with a consumable liquor at some sort of stat expense, or that would just hamper you by making you too inebriated to aim properly. But a fucking broadsword? That will decapitate on a kill? And is haunted!? Fuck, Valve, you've redeemed yourselves from everything annoying/stupid/bad you've ever done. I don't give a shit if they ever release Episode 3 now.

I'm not quite sold on the Targe, although I barely use stickies anyway unless I'm spawn camping or tricking some dumb bastard into charging headlong into a minefield. The massive buffs against fire and explosive damage are absolutely sexy.

Also lol at the Newspaper headline calling Soldiers the easiest class ever :<

Edit edit: oh shit, and the new comic. I like that Valve's deepening character backgrounds, they even gave the announcer and the Demoman names.

[Nick]

calm down, laddie

[Guitar Woman]

I'm dissappoint with the Direct Hit. It sounds like what the grenade launcher is when people use it right. Or an EXPLODING HUNTSMAN, which, while undeniably hardcore, sort of makes me wonder why you'd ever be a Huntsman Sniper when you can just be a rocket sniper with 200 health.

I keep thinking the SCO REC is Scout Rectal Exploder.

[Guitar Woman]

Mouthbreathing wins again

I wonder who the fuck saw that coming.

Also jesus christ, Soldiers already take barely any damage from their own shit, this is going to be retarded.

[Fathom Zero]

Sweet, another CTF map. NEATO.

Also, I'm pretty sure the item would be the same for the demos, too.

[Guitar Woman]

Stickyjumping isn't nearly as versatile or controllable as rocket jumping, I think. It's fine when a medic's buffing you and you aren't trying to be too precise, but other than that you'll lose half your health if you aren't incredibly careful, and most of the time I'll hit an invisible wall in the sky and completely miss where I'm aiming for, then take fall damage and have like 50 health left. It is pretty awesome on custom maps that Valve haven't edited skywalking out of yet, though, since I can leap to the top and rain down death on everyone indefinitely.

Now that I've thought about it a little I don't see anyone using the boots beyond the first few days since they replace the shotgun. A Soldier with no rockets left is a dead Soldier if he's not got his shotgun.

[Fathom Zero]

Didn't think of that. That's a good balance for the boots.

[Guitar Woman]

So I love the Eyelander a fucking lot, and the Scottish Resistance to a lesser extent

After I got the Eyelander the first thing I did was charge an overhealed heavy while he was busy shooting someone else, and kept hacking at him until I cut his head off. The medic on him couldn't believe it. :<

The SR requires that you un-learn nearly every instinct you have about using stickies, because they're a lot different. The main difficulty is not being able to detonate all of them at once, you only blow up bombs you've got highlighted. One thing I've found to work is to cluster them in groups of 3 all over the point, and detonate whichever ones become trouble spots. It's pretty nice to be able to cover points in stickies and not have to leave before you detonate to escape the blast radius. Plus, you don't have to have a straight line of sight to detonate them, you just have to be pointing at where they are. The further you get away from them the more stickies you select to detonate, I'm sure I'll find a use for that at some point.

I can't use the things for shit on Payload maps. It kind of feels like the Demoman's version of the Kritzkreig, where it's fucking awesome in certain situations but useless in others. It's not an Engineer killer, either.

The most annoying thing so far is when one or two stickies get blown to some obscure nook on the map by a pyro or soldier, and after you detonate all the ones you know about there are still 2 sitting around somewhere that you can't get rid of by any way other than shaking the mouse wildly and mashing right-click. It's not really a problem, just irritating.

The Chargin' Targe seems like it would be useful somewhere like 2fort's bridge or other completely straight, narrow chokepoints, but I only played the two new maps tonight and didn't have time to wrap my mind around the thing while learning the new levels.

[Nick]

Wish I magically had all the new weapons.

[Hangie]

I haven't gotten any of the new weapons yet, but they look fun. I find it hilarious though when a demo charges at me as a pyro and I airblast him and roast him despite his fire resistance.

Also I smelted most of my unlocks because I was unaware that equipped items still showed up in the back pack :,(, now all I have is a sandvich, alot of metal, and a heavy class token.

[Fathom Zero]

I have a bajillion items, so it never mattered to me.

[Guitar Woman]

This update is actually a great time to play as an Engineer. Every Demoman is busy charging at everyone and cutting their heads off, and Soldiers have never really been any good at killing dug-in Engineers. I just fucking hate that the Direct Hit still gets a damage bonus on sentries; since they can't move out of the way, it's basically a no-consequences buff for destroying buildings.

I'm not sure why I have fun setting up a base and then twiddling my thumbs while I wait for people to get killed by my sentry gun, but I actually really like being an Engineer. If it's on a low-action map like 2fort or Dustbowl, though, it's probably a good idea to have a book lying around.

[Fathom Zero]

WTF IS THIS TEAM OF FORTCRAFT?

Also, my Ghastlier Gibus is now green.

http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/8311/wooc.jpg

Get on my level, fgts

[Guitar Woman]

I got the Spy's beret, the Engineer's welding mask, the Demoman's Tam O'Shanter which I painted olive, and the Sniper's fishing hat which I painted gold so it'd look like it was stained by Jarate. Now that I've got all the hats I wanted I don't even give a shit about this game anymore.

[Fathom Zero]

I'm actually excited for whatever they've got next. The Halloween events are always really cool, but that's far off. I hope it's somethin' crazy.

[Chojin]

i stopped playing TF2 when i didn't recognize a single weapon anyone was carrying

[Phoenix Gamma]

I got more shit than I can count. Most of my classes are custom equipped cause I usually play that game once a night to wind down. Spy finally crossed the 100 hour mark. Saharan Spy gear is fucking clutch, and looks funny with the camera beard. Also love the Scout's Shortstop. That gun's practically a straight-up upgrade from my perspective. And don't get me started on how awesome it is to burn someone with a degreaser, puff them into the air, switch to a shotgun, and kill them midair in a matter of seconds.

Shit's so cash.