Well, the recent changes they’ve made (backpack, etc) and recent comments indicate that they’re planning on adding some sort of non-achievement related way to acquire new weapons. It sounds like they’re keeping the achievement unlocks as they are, but also adding a new non-achievement unlocked system to complement it.
But generally, I think the unlocks are effective in forcing a player to understand how the class works before changing the rules on the player by modifying abilities the way that unlocks do. Some achievements are more effective than others, however. (I.e. the aforementioned Pyro “Hot Potato” rocket-reflect achievement is a lot better at that purpose that the medic’s “House Call”: join a friends’s game and heal them).
That’s what achievement servers are for ;)
Dude… if The Ubersaw didn’t take that cake a couple months ago than you are bat crap crazy. All of the weapon unlocks have a give/take that might make you consider keeping the original. For example, i’ll never use the backburner because I just can’t live without the concussion blast.
However, there is absolutely no reason to use the old bonesaw, ever. If you’re going to bother bringing out your saw (and combat medics are fucking annoying anyway) you might as well get a big chunk of your uber at the same time.
I agree, but mainly because I am frustrated at being stuck at nine medic achievements. I think I got 8 of them in the first 2 hours, and now I’m just waiting on some of the others. But I intend to play this game quite a bit, so I don’t mind sweating it out. I would suggest you follow Cedstick’s advice, and just crank 'em out on an achievement server.
sluggo
3005
Today’s handy TF2 tip:
When a spy saps a tele entrance right outside your spawn, don’t just stand on it waiting for it to inevitably explode. Run into your spawn, switch to engy, and try to save it.
Sometimes there just isn’t enough time, but this has become instinctual enough for me that I save the teles 50% of the time.
Good tip, but to extend it further – upgrade tele entrances too! Engineers at the front may have other things to worry about, so do them a favor and upgrade their entrances. (Though I tend not to waste my time upgrading inactive entrances.)
The only thing that gives me greater joy as a spy than sapping entrances is backstabbing people near the spawn when an initial point is still up for grabs. That little bit of backfield harassment makes the other team more paranoid and usually less focused as they watch out for me. Also, frequent insta-death slows the opposing team down nicely without cheaply resorting to stickying the spawn door.
The basic bonesaw is %20 faster, and more swings means more crits.
And each swing takes a single second, so the Ubersaw takes only 1.2 seconds to swing.
Yeah, I don’t see any reason to use the Bonesaw.
Achievement servers are absolutely necessary for some of the ridiculous counter-intuitive crap they have you doing as a medic. Unfortunately, achievement servers completely destroyed my personal records list. I now have a personal best of 24 ubers in a single life. Yeah, THAT’S possible.
With subsequent updates, Valve was able to create achievements you’d earn in normal play, but that absolutely wasn’t the case for the medic. If you’re actually trying to kill scouts with your bonesaw, UR DOIN IT WRONG.
It was needle gun to kill scouts. Which is entirely what you ought to be doing as a medic.
Or it was. It certainly used to be the case that the medic was the natural predator of the scout. Not so much any more with the force-a-nature and sandman removing the medic’s ability to move.
Really? I’ve always considered the medic apart from the usual class-counter-class system when it came to killing things. I always saw the medic as a general support, with ubers as an engy-turret counter. How exactly is the needle gun a counter for a standard equipped scout? Is it just a question of DPS vs the scout’s relatively small health bar?
That’s the reason I don’t use achievement servers. That, and it just feels dirty, no matter how much sense it may make. As for the bonesaw-to-Scout – no one said you had to play in WoW-raid-healer fashion. I actually prefer a self-sufficient Medic at my back rather than having to worry about constant turn-arounds, and tons of people love me for it. I usually ride with the same one or two players for an entire game when I’m medic because they will wait for me, all because I can whip out my bonesaw and take a Scout out at his back or mine if needed.
prolix
3013
I used to feel that way, but few things are more satisfying then dropping down behind the cart on a payload map, torching four or five players from behind, and seeing that wave of crits wash over your screen. Of course, I’ve certainly been on the other side of the fence too, staring forlornly and uselessly at sticky bombs. This is probably the best example of the kind of trade-off Valve was trying to create with the unlockables.
This is #1 for me as a spy. One spy behind enemy lines, grabbing ammo to keep his cloak refreshed, and constantly sapping entry teleporters, is incredibly annoying to the other team and can make or break a map. The best is when the engineer who placed the entrance runs back from the front to fix the teleport, which allows you to trade places with him and sap his sentry/dispenser/exit teleport. Good times. The new spy watch unlockable is just going to make this more fun.
Yeah, it’s DPS vs. a small health bar, coupled with a large clip size. You won’t hit with all of the needles, but you’ll hit with enough needles. It’s also visually easier to track a stream of needles onto a moving scout.
The crit-spam is pretty great, but I can’t do without the air blast if only because I get inordinate pleasure from reflecting soldier’s rockets at them. There’s a kind of poetic justice to it that I just can’t resist.
As long as we’re talking “my favorite things”, my single favorite thing to do as a Pyro is just hitting somebody with the flare gun from a hidden position, and watching them freak out and spin around wildly looking for the pyro behind them that just flamed them. It absolutely never gets old.
BlakeD
3017
Wait a minute, wasn’t there a mason jar that the Sniper drank from in “Meet the Sniper” when showing the time lapse? And at the end it was filled with yellow liquid…
Yep. Wow.
Jarate or Urinete?
EDIT: Just fills the mason jars up after drinking coffee. Also, today’s update with the comic (and the “LATER” panel specifically) explains the secret. Ahem… No wonder the “Jarate” puts out fire and shorts out electronics or in this case just the invisibility of a spy. Awesome.
The needle gun has a very high rate of fire and a very high clip size. The only trouble in using it effectively against anything is getting enough needles to hit. By retreating while firing, you can lead the normally ADD scout into running in a straight line chasing after you, getting a full faceful of needles, and dying in a split second.
Even better, you can take advantage of the needles’ slow travel time by backing around corners, killing your enemy when they can’t even see you.
It works great on stupid pyros too. Clever scouts and pyros simply stop and go after something else when you do this, though. There is a considerable element of the medic’s lethality that relies on his appearance of being easy prey or a high priority target.
As someone else mentioned already, yeah, i really don’t think the benefits of sticking with the basic bonesaw come even close to out weighing the option of getting a chunk of uber with each hit. More crits is nice, but the ubersaw can still crit (i hope im not wrong on that one… pretty sure you can though), and ‘swinging faster’ would only be useful if the medic is entirely alone and cannot retreat back to his teammates.
And UGH to the medic being the “natural predator” to the scout. Attitudes like that are the reason why I will stand around a medic hammering E only to die as I watch him try to take out a scout. Or whatever. I would put many other classes above the medic on the scout killing list - heavies, snipers, pyros, engies… soldiers… im tempted to list every single class beside scout.
Anyone know when this thing hits? I heard it was today, but no update. Then again, if they said it would be today, that means at 11:59PM.
