TF2 Newbs (Team Fortress 2) Blog

(See also: The tutorial “A TF2Newbs Guide to MvM Item Hunting“.)

This update is predominantly a Mann vs. Machine update, but there’s some item tweaks in store for the regular game as well.

Also, starting with this patch update, I’ve decided to try to make these update blogposts more readable and less of a wall of bullets (which you can get anywhere, such as your “My News” wall in your Steam client, or at the Official TF2 Wiki. So sit back, and let me regale you with what’s in store.

1. New CP Map: Snakewater

First of all, there is Snakewater (cp_snakewater_final1), a new five-point control point map. Set in a cloudy, alpine area, your team will duke it out in the middle of a logging facility. This isn’t a huge map like Granary; like the recently released Process, it’s a map that works good for 6-on-6 matches and has been playtested heavily in competitive matches. There are no full-health or full-ammo pickups, but lots of smaller and medium ones on this map.

Also, there are new achievements you can earn for playing on Snakewater, as well as Process and Standin, which were released a couple of months ago.

2. Weapon Tweaks

Scout’s Baby Face’s Blaster has been reworked:

• It’s base speed penalty is now only 10% (down from 35%).
• It now shoots identical to the Scattergun, losing its increased clip size, increased accuracy, and its damage penalty,
• It still builds a speed boost when dealing damage with any Scout weapon, still gains when shooting an invulnerable target, and still doesn’t gain when shooting a disguised enemy Spy.
• However, jumping from the ground no longer removes the Scout’s boost meter. And jumping from the air only reduces the boost by one-fourth (25%) of the meter each time, instead of losing the entire boost from a single jump.

So now a Scout wielding this weapon will behave much more like a Scout normally does, jumping in and shooting a close target from vertical/diagonal angles. Hitting your target helps you move quickly to the next, and now you deal full damage close to the target, rather than doing a strange midrange snipe on wounded targets.

Medic’s Amputator got a tradeoff nerf:

• Added a -20% damage penalty.
• Added +3 health regeneration per second while the Amputator is deployed.

The Amputator already had an area-of-effect healing taunt, making it a straight upgrade from the Bonesaw. Now it does a little less damage, but it increases your passive health regeneration when you pull it out. This also means that when you do use the Amputator’s taunt to heal, the Medic will recover more than before. (This is also a means to restore the old Medieval Medic set bonus, which had increased overall health regeneration, but had been removed.)

Crusader’s Crossbow

• Damage over distance is now capped at 75 points (+/- usual variance).

The Medic’s Crossbow is one of the few weapons that deals more damage as the projectile travels farther. Now there is a cap on its healing so that a Medic cannot be both a functional Sniper (it still cannot headshot) or recover a teammate’s full health from a long range with a good shot (remember, it heals teammates). It still makes for a handy weapon when firing into a tight group of bodies (you’ll either hurt a bad guy or heal a good guy), and it still enjoys a faster rate of fire from the tweaks it’s received over the last few patches.

Liberty Launcher

• Added 25% reduced damage from rocket jumps.

Soldier’s Libby gets more love! It already retains a -25% damage modifier, so this change will further applies the same damage reduction you receive from your own rockets when your character is in the air (only) when receiving blast damage from your own rockets. Now it’ll only cost you about 20-35 health per jump (compared to 27-46 from the stock Rocket Launcher), and even less when wearing the Gunboats (I’m guessing only 10-25 per jump when using both). Enjoy that 4-clip, Soldier!

Eyelander

• Moved the eye glow position to the Demoman’s eye patch (his other eye). Changed the glow color to Cursed green.

Let’s you know why your friends are screaming about a “horrible green death machine” when you’re chopping them up. Carry on.

Golden Frying Pan

This ain’t even a joke!

That is a Frying Pan made of pure Australium. Like the Saxxy and Golden Wrench, it causes any foes killed by it to be turned into golden statues. Unlike the Saxxy and Golden Wrench, it is an all-class melee weapon of every class and perform as each class’s default: it can perform Spy backstabs and repair Engineer buildings (if you are those current classes)! Now, you can be Panstabbed!

Gee, how do you get one?  See below….

3. Killstreak Kits and Australium-quality Items

When you complete a Two Cities Tour (see below), you will earn a Killstreak Kit. I’m not sure if this is a tool or what, but this item is supposed to grant you new visual effects for your weapons. And as you finish more tours (probably important in number as well as which tours you participate in), you will earn additional fabricators, which will help you craft progressively rarer killstreaks or visual effects for said weapon.

Hm. The Official Wiki isn’t much help here. I’ll include more information later on….

However, it is possible to earn an Australium-quality weapon, by random drop after completing a Two Cities Tour. The following weapons can now be obtained in Australium quality:

• Scout: Scattergun, Force-a-Nature
• Soldier: Rocket Launcher, Black Box
• Pyro: Flamethrower, Axtinguisher
• Demoman: Grenade Launcher, Stickybomb Launcher, Eyelander
• Heavy: Minigun, Tomislav
• Engineer: Frontier Justice, Wrench*
• Medic: Blutsauger, Medi Gun
• Sniper: Sniper Rifle, SMG
• Spy: Ambassador, Knife

*The Australium Wrench is not to be confused with the ultra-rare Golden Wrench, even though they may look similar.

4. There were many other little changes…

…but just too many to post on one blogpost. Go read the official TF2 wiki for the rest of the details.

[N] Obey

Would you look at this… a new TF2 item quality! Here’s the rundown (combining patches from Nov 6-Nov 12):

• Added a new item quality: Collector’s (with dark-red text).
• Added new Chemistry Sets (see below for list).
  • Some of these new Chemistry Sets create Strangifiers.
  • Lots of other Chemistry Sets create a Collector’s-quality item.
    • The recipe for Collector’s-quality items is simply a large number of the same type of item (e.g. 200 Mad Milks to make a Collector’s Mad Milk).
• Eternatween Enchantments (lets a server allow Halloween/Full Moon items for a two-hour period).
  • Requires a successful server vote before being consumed and taking effect.
  • Now has a server cooldown period between votes.
  • Fixed some spells not working properly during Eternatween.
  • Merasmus now has 13 new voice lines specifically for Eternatween, welcoming players to Eternatween, etc.
• Spooky Keys have now converted to standard Crate Keys.
• Spooky Crates and Piles of Curses will be deleted from inventories on a player’s next startup of the game.
• Halloween spells are now permanently affixed to their target item.
  • However, their effects will now show only during Halloween/Full Moon/Eternatween.
• Grandmaster will now update its model based on its wearer’s kill streak.
  • Being a chessboard hat, it will cycle illusory chess pieces above the wearer’s head, going from a pawn piece at zero kills, then each kill changing it in turn to a rook, knight, bishop, queen, and finally king at five or more kills.
• Updated the Jupiter Jumpers so that they can be equipped with the Mantreads or the Gunboats.
• Updated Ivan the Inedible to match the other Spooky Companion items.
• HTML MOTDs (Messages of the Day) will no longer be shown for players connecting via quickplay.
• Removed the prompt to opt-in to quickplay beta.
• Helltower Changes:
  • Fixed an exploit in Helltower caused by changing teams in hell in order to instantly respawn.
  • Increased the projectile speed and damage of the lightning ball spell.
  • Fixed being able to enter enemy spawn with the Teleport spell.
• Bugfixes:
  • Fixed special taunts being overridden by the Thriller Halloween taunt.
  • Fixed the Open Loadout button on the item pickup notification screen from not working properly.
• Added HalloweenSetUsingSpells input to the tf_logic_holiday entity by community request, allowing for Halloween spell usage for custom TF2 Halloween maps.
• Halloween-themed Community Items (see the list in the last blog post) are now back to regular price in the Mann Co. Store (in most cases $4.99 to $7.49).

New Chemistry Sets…!

Relax, no additional skill in math required… or is there? Because you’re gonna need to count higher than your fingers and your toes in order to crate a Collector’s item! I’ve heard of as high as 200-of-the-same-item requirements for these Collector’s Chemistry Sets. Here’s what’s now available:

• Strangifier Chemistry Sets, 13 total, from the August 27, 2013 patch:
  • Bonk Boy
  • Fancy Dress Uniform
  • Sight for Sore Eyes
  • Bird-Man of Aberdeen
  • Toss-Proof Towel
  • Teddy Roosebelt
  • Archimedes
  • Villain’s Veil
  • Camera Beard
  • All-Father
  • Summer Shades
  • Merc’s Pride Scarf
  • RoBro 3000
  • –not counting– Strange Bacon Grease (for the Frying Pan)
• Strangifier Chemistry Sets, 9 total, from the November 12, 2013 patch:
  • Boston Boom-Bringer
  • Lord Cockswain’s Novelty Mutton Chops and Pipe
  • Stockbroker’s Scarf
  • Dark Age Defender
  • Sandvich Safe
  • Foppish Physician
  • Outback Intellectual
  • Blood Banker
  • Professor Speks
• Collector’s Chemistry Sets, 39 total, added in the November 12, 2013 patch:
  • Scout (8 total): Shortstop, Mad Milk, Winger, Flying Guillotine, Holy Mackerel, Boston Basher, Atomizer, Wrap Assassin
  • Soldier (8 total): Black Box, Liberty Launcher, Cow Mangler 5000, Original, Gunboats, Battalion’s Backup, Righteous Bison, Escape Plan
  • Pyro (3 total): Backburner, Detonator, Homewrecker
  • Demo (2 total): Claidheamh Mor, Ullapool Caber
  • Heavy (5 total): Huo-Long Heater, Dalokohs Bar, Buffalo Steak Sandvich, Warrior’s Spirit, Holiday Punch
  • Engineer (3 total): Frontier Justice, Short Circuit, Eureka Effect
  • Medic (3 total): Vaccinator, Vita-Saw, Solemn Vow
  • Sniper (3 total): Machina, Hitman’s Heatmaker, Jarate
  • Spy (4 total): Ambassador, Conniver’s Kunai, Big Earner, Spy-cicle

So, while the existence of Collector’s items may not prevent most people from making scrap metal out of their items, it could cause some players to want very badly to collect all of one particular item in order to craft a Collector-quality item. Who knows, but this might cause metal to be worth more… or at least most random weapons.

[N] Obey