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Posts Tagged ‘xcom’

TF2 Patch, Nov 10, 2016

Posted on: November 12th, 2016 by Obey

The important parts of this patch regard “gravetalk”, or your ability to see chat and hear voicechat from your dead teammates (regardless of whether you are alive or dead). Before, gravetalk defaulted to OFF; now it is defaulted to ON, including in Competitive. Of course, you can’t normally receive the chat/voicechat of the other team unless alltalk is ON. The rest of the patch is just bugfixes.

{N} Olse’s ongoing XCOM 2 saga, starring TF2Newbs characters, can still be read on our forums!

Halloween Event ends Tuesday, November 15th! Each day, one contract is unlocked, for a total of 24 (26?) missions to complete. If you haven’t done any, or only some, the remainder are saved in an invisible queue, revealing two at a time.

Each mission rewards a Halloween-themed cosmetic, with a chance of being Haunted.

 

Patch 1

Undocumented changes

Patch 2

  • Updated tf_gravetalk setting for Competitive mode to be on by default

[N] Obey

Matchmaking Fixes: Sept 27 2016

Posted on: September 27th, 2016 by Obey

Here’s what’s up:

  1. More matchmaking improvements
  2. {N} Olse’s fictionalization of his fellow Newbs’ exploits in the world of XCOM 2 continues to update almost daily.
  3. Updated with minor Sept 28 patch

 

Casual Matchmaking: Rematches

When your Casual game ends, you can opt for a rematch. On the results page, you have 30 seconds to opt into a rematch. If at least 6 players from each side opt in, a rematch will begin, using the same teams, same map, and same server. The game will then draw in replacement players for any open slots.

If you don’t choose to opt-in to a rematch, you will automatically go back into the Casual Matchmaking queue. Leave the queue by manually removing yourself.

Team-Fortress-2-Competitive-Matchmaking-Featured-Image

Casual Matchmaking: All ‘Bout Dat XP

Had too many teamstacked Casual games? Valve continues to work on it:

Your Rank (which is partly a measure of your skill, and partly your playing time in Casual) is now a stronger factor when building teams.

Now, you no longer lose XP for leaving a Casual match early. You’ll earn it after the match ends. And at the end of the game, the chart will show you how you earned the XP you did.

 

Comp Matchmaking:

When a player leaves a match, a bot will replace that slot, and will play in that player’s place until the player rejoins the match. The substantial penalty for leaving a match remains the same.

Matches no longer end when the first player leaves, but they grant proportionally less XP as more players leave the match. But if a second person on the same side leaves the match, the match is still terminated.

 

 

Full Patch Notes: Sept 28 2016

  • Fixed some players not being able to click on the new rematch UI elements
  • Fixed the end of round music not playing in Casual matches

Full Patch Notes: Sept 27 2016

Matchmaking

  • Players can now form rematches at the end of a Casual match
    • At the end of a Casual match, players will have 30 seconds to opt-in to a rematch
    • If at least 6 players from BLU and 6 players from RED have chosen to rematch, then a rematch will begin
    • A rematch will use the same teams, map and server
  • Players can now re-queue into Casual Matchmaking during the end of a match
    • Players who decline a rematch or simply don’t vote in the rematch voting period will automatically be re-queued
  • Updated the way XP is earned in Casual matches
    • Players will now be awarded more XP based on their team’s performance at the end of a match
    • XP is no longer lost for leaving a Casual match early
    • A breakdown of XP sources is now shown when your XP bar fills up
  • Casual matches now more strongly prefer to distribute players to teams based on experience, in order to better avoid creating one-sided matches
  • Casual matches are now more likely to start with fewer than 24 players in lower population game-modes or regions, wherein the wait time for a full match would become excessive
    • The current minimum allowable match size in such situations is twelve players
    • The matchmaker will still attempt to place late-joiners into these matches as they become available
  • Competitive matches no longer terminate when any player abandons the match
    • Bots will now fill in for players who have abandoned, or temporarily disconnected from, Competitive matches
    • Matches that finish at an advantage or disadvantage (e.g. 6v5 or 5v6, not counting any bots) will now result in smaller or larger skill rating adjustments for advantaged wins or disadvantaged losses, respectively
    • Competitive matches that lose more than one player per team will keep the current behavior of ending the match
    • Players who abandon Competitive matches still receive a large skill rating penalty and Competitive matchmaking cooldown, regardless of whether a bot was allowed to take their place
  • Greatly improved the reliability of client ping estimates when placing users into matchmaking servers
    • The game client now periodically checks in with the matchmaking server network to estimate ping to each region, and feeds the information back to the matchmaking system
    • This should greatly reduce cases of players being placed in regions to which they have poor ping, even when said regions are geographically nearby
  • The scoreboard now shows the connection status for missing and connecting players

General

TF2 Matchmaking Changes

Posted on: July 30th, 2016 by Obey

When TF2 suddenly introduced their casual and competitive modes and removed quickplay, a lot of problems became immediately apparent. Two weeks have passed since the launch, and I can say that both modes have much improved. Let’s dig into what has changed now that quickplay no longer exists–and see what else is going on:

  1. Heavy vs. Pyro ends Sunday, August 14th. Pyro is winning, 55% to 45%, at this time.
  2. {N} Olse has a signup on the forums for his next Newbs XCom 2 write-up.
  3. Terraria patched
  4. Short tutorial on TF2 Matchmaking
  5. Full patch notes from July 28

 

XCom 2: Newbs Edition!

It’s that time again: {N} Olse will write up an account of how us Newblets will save the world in 2038! Just sign up on the forums by creating a character according to his guidelines. Olse will play thru the game with characters designed by Newbs’ specifications, and then fictionalize that outcomes for a story for you to read!

 

Terraria Patch 1.3.2 is now Live

So what’s new in Terraria? Here you go:

  • Having a Party Girl in your town will occasionally cause town members to throw a Party. Party Girl and Clothier sells different stuff during a Party, including a piñata that looks like a pig.
  • You can now choose what kind of evil corruption is in your world during world creation, as long as you have a world savefile that has unlocked Hardmode.
  • A lot of bugfixes.

This isn’t much of an update, but developer ReLogic says that a future patch will create a biome out of the Underground Desert, and its hallow/corrupt/crimson hardmode variants, so there’s that to look forward to.

Also, they have been hard at work on Terraria: Otherworld for some time. The game is going to be a more RPG-centric game with more concrete goals, skill trees, NPCs with deep personalities, etc. They’ve hired a new art director and have decided to rework much of the game, so I don’t think you’ll see it enter beta in the next two years.

I continue to mention Terraria news because a lot of Newbs players own and play Terraria.

 

A Short Tutorial on the New TF2 Matchmaking

Helpful links:

Note that the option “Quickplay” no longer exists. Now, you can choose from the following options when you hit “Find a Game”:

  • Casual: After a short wait, you’ll join a game (occasionally in-progress) randomly selected from the map options you’ve checkmarked.
    • No penalties for leaving in the middle of a match.
    • A typical match tends to take 10-30 minutes.
    • You can level up your Casual Rank by scoring points and winning matches.
  • Competitive: After a short wait, you’ll join a 6-on-6 match on a randomly selected control point map.
    • Big penalties (in Rank, cooldown before joining next match) for leaving in the middle of a match.
    • A typical match tends to take 5-20 minutes.
    • Your Competitive Rank can go up or down depending on the match results.
  • Mann vs. Machine: After a short wait, you’ll join a team of players that fight a bunch of computer-controlled robots.
    • Boot Camp is free-to-play, and some servers allow more than 6 players.
    • Mann Up requires tickets, limits the party to 6 players, and provides rewards for completing missions.
  • Community Servers: Opens the Server Selection window so you can select a Favorited server, one you’ve played in your History, or search for one on the Internet.
    • This is how you can find our TF2Newbs servers!
  • Training: Complete solo practice missions to learn how to play TF2.
  • Create Server: Launch your own server, choosing any map that you have preloaded into your TF2 files. You can have players join and/or bots can play as well.

Casual Play

Casual Play replaced Quickplay for the following reasons:

  • You will typically (but not always) join a game before the match has begun. A Valve server identifies 24 players (or up to 32, depending on the server) currently searching for a game, then starts the game by pulling them all in at the same time.
    • I’m not sure if Casual Rank is a variable in which players will join you in a match, so players of all levels of Casual Rank may be lumped together in a server.
  • The server will attempt to pull in players a little while after a player abandons the server or disconnects.
  • Autobalancing is disabled, but votekicking was enabled once more after the July 28th patch. So you can complete an entire match (each team gets to attack and defend once, or best two-out-of-three rounds on symmetrical control point maps, for example) with the same team of players.
  • If you want to play with your friends, you can Create a Party beforehand. Your entire party will then be on the same team.
    • If you invite them to a game after the match has begun, there is no guarantee that they will join your side–they cannot join Spectator, and will be assigned a team when they arrive.
  • There is NO penalty for leaving a Casual match. You can join another match at any time, and you get credit to your rank, based on your play up to the point of leaving/disconnection.

Oh, and you do get to choose the map and game modes you wish to play! Under each play format, you can click open a window to enable/disable specific maps. Use this function when you want to play on a specific map right now, or you only want to play on a list of your favorities. Note that only official Valve maps, unlike the beta map Asteroid, are available.

casual(In the above picture, slightly fewer players are searching to play Hoodoo than Borneo. If I begin the search, I may ended up at a Hoodoo or Borneo map, but not an Upward map, and never at a Payload Race map.)

 

Competitive Play

competitive

This has come around because serious TF2 players have wanted this option for years. Valve’s Comp Play is still quite different than the competitive leagues out there, but they are much more accessible, since you don’t have to join a team, organize practices, discuss strategies, or work around item restrictions. So consider it Comp Play Lite if you wish. But here are the features:

  • TF2 Comp Play still revolves mostly around 5CP maps, so only the following maps are available (randomly selected for the match):
    • Badlands 5CP (not KOTH)
    • Foundry (just added!)
    • Gorge CP (not 5CP)
    • Granary (just added!)
    • Gullywash
    • Metalworks
    • Process
    • Snakewater
    • Sunshine
    • Swiftwater (just added!)
    • Vanguard (just added!)
    • Viaduct KOTH
  • You can Create a Party–and it is recommended that you do so–but you can also jump in with solo or with a partial party.
    • There are no class limits, no item restrictions, and no votekicking or autobalancing. But if you choose Sniper, you better be good, or you’re going to hear about it from your party.
    • Currently only 6v6 is supported, but other modes such as 9v9 may be supported in the future.
    • You don’t get to choose your map.
  • Random critical hits are disabled. You only get critical hits when a buff or uber grants them to you; this is typical of most comp leagues out there.
  • This is Ranked Play: your party will face a party of similar average Rank.
    • Your Rank can go up or down after a match depending on match won/loss, points scored, and other elements of your play.
    • There is a hidden ELO in the game, which is represented by your Rank. If you were to always play at the same relative skill level, your Rank will rise to that level and then stay roughly the same.
  • There are penalties for abandoning a match.
    • You will receive a greater loss of Rank than if you had merely lost the game (since the July 28th patch).
    • A “cooldown timer”, which won’t let you join another match after an Abandon, is enforced.
      • If you have played only a few games, the cooldown timer is much greater (hours’ and days’ cooldown).
      • Each Abandon increases this cooldown timer before you can play the next match.
      • All of this is designed to prevent the player who tries to leave a match in order to avoid incurring a loss. A player with lots of losses has an accurate Rank; a player with lots of Abandons is not a team player that ruins the game for everyone.

Community Servers

Don’t want to play on a Valve server? Join a community server for any of the following reasons:

  • You want to play on our TF2Newbs servers! Of course you do.
    • To join server #04, a 2Fort server: open your console, and type the following:
      • connect server4.tf2newbs.com
    • Then, Favorite us so you can find us again quickly!
  • You want to play on a server with alltalk, class limits, randomizer, or other options
  • You want to be able to join spectate, change sides, vote for an autobalance, or just wander around exploring
  • You want to play on a server with admins that can help when there is a problem, or you want a family-friendly server
  • You want to find a trade server, a Sniper-friendly server, a jump server, or an MGE server
  • You like to play on a server that has regulars that frequent the same playing space, and can chat with while gaming

Playing games is a social act, and so it makes sense to build and support a community where people can gather to play their favorite games.

 

Create a Server

Can’t find any active server to play on the Asteroid map? Feel like practicing your Soldier skills against a bunch of Engineer bots on Dustbowl? Do you want to invite your friends to a map you’ve made yourself? Use “Create a Server” to do all of these and more.

It is necessary to be familiar with console commands to load bots, use cheats, and otherwise make changes to the server. Hit the tilde (~) key to open the console, where you can type in commands.

Bots need a navigation mesh to be able to play a map; without one, they stay in spawn. If you’re using a map other than one of these, then you will need to generate a mesh for the bots with a command, which may require several minutes and will restart the server.

 

Full Patch Notes: July 28, 2016

  • Matchmaking
    • Competitive Mode
      • Abandon penalty times are now longer for first-time abandoners with a low number of games played
      • Abandoning a game now results in significant rank loss. This loss is always greater than losing a given match.
      • Fixed an issue where players could drop and reconnect too many times before triggering an abandon
    • Casual Mode
      • Matches can now start with fewer than 24 players when there are not enough compatible players in queue
        • The match will still add additional players (up to 24) as they become available
        • This should improve queue times for low-population regions and game modes
      • Added maps cp_gullywash, cp_snakewater, and koth_probed
      • Fixed not being able to cycle between spectator modes
  • Weapon viewmodels
    • The field-of-view slider has been re-added to Adv. Options menu (range: 54 to 70 degrees)
      • This feature is now allowed in Competitive Mode
    • Improved and fixed many animations when using a higher viewmodel field-of-view
    • Removed custom animations from the sv_pure whitelist because it was being exploited
    • Adjusted The Cow Mangler(sic) and Black Box reload animations to be slightly faster (they now match the default rocket launcher)
  • Your class portrait will now always be the innermost in the match status HUD (top center) and will have a slightly brighter background
  • Added the Prinny promo items to the Mann Co. Store
  • Added the Florida LAN 2016 community medal
  • PASS Time update
    • Fixed achievement items (e.g. Civilian Grade JACK Hat) not cloaking with the Spy
    • Tweaks and fixes for all maps
    • Fix pack speed not being updated sometimes
    • Aiming players will no longer receive pack speed bonus
    • Some adjustments to reduce average round length
      • Overtime will end immediately if the winning team touches the ball
      • Overtime won’t happen if it’s impossible for the losing team to win
  • Fixed players being able to avoid a vote-kick by reconnecting to the server at the right time
  • Fixed the pd_watergate HUD not drawing
  • Fixed Engineer teleporter exits sometimes detonating when used due to invisible geometry
  • Fixed getting a black screen if the chat window was open when the match stats were being shown
  • Fixed weapons not being hidden during some taunts for the Engineer, Medic, and Soldier
  • Fixed Spy cloak causing the HUD 3D Character to cloak for the player the Spy is disguised as
  • Fixed a client crash related to the animation system
  • Fixed a bug where players in looping taunts could sometimes cause other clients to drop from the server
  • Fixed not seeing particle effects for Unusual versions of Baseball Bill’s Sports Shine, Ritzy Rick’s Hair Fixative, and Texas Slim’s Dome Shine
  • Fixed hearing the “team wipe” Announcer audio at the incorrect times

Undocumented changes

[N] Obey