I’m with you here Cyranix. I hated the achievement system since it encouraged people to play in a way other than ‘normal’, however the new one being completely random is pretty strange. It should at least be triggered by what you’re doing.
Hell, give a chance to get a drop based on what you’ve done. Kill someone, X% chance of a drop. Maybe even make the type of drop have a higher chance to be for the class you are or the class you killed or a combination combined with random.
At the very least the trigger for the drop should be something other than just time. The only drop I have so far I got while standing and doing nothing in the setup period and that just feels very odd.
I think another problem is that nobody really knows how the system works right now and it seems totally random. I don’t think that’s the case, and Valve will let us all know how it works and what’s broken soon enough.
I actually heard someone in TF2 say last night “I’d actually rather be achievement grinding than doing this shit.” Where “this shit” is just playing the game and not having to do anything special at all. I can’t believe how many people are whining because they have to play TF2. That’s all you have to do – play the game and you will get everything many times over. It’s an absolutely perfect system. Unless you hate TF2, I guess, which it sounds like a lot of people do.
It might not be working as intended, but I’m betting it’s far from random. Obviously there’s some amount, and there’s obviously an amount based on playtime, but considering I got several items during a hot streak and one on a cold, I’m thinking there’s more than just luck.
And even if there’s not, it’s better than the achievement grind. The spy and sniper achievements were done in a way, at least, that encourages normal play and rewards excellence with them. The previous achievements did sometimes, but they also forced players to play unusual ways, such as parking by dispensers, shooting needles at scouts, relying on a dominated player logging off, etc.
So yeah, screw the achievement grind. I’m playing TF2, and playing TF2 gets me new stuff. What the hell isn’t there to like, especially once the trading system kicks in.
Yeah I know, difference between the lottery and a competitive game. There’s also a difference between accessibility and frustration. TF2 isn’t Battlefield and I’m glad it’s moving away from unlocking kits. It’s a casual team game, not a hardcore game. And the new system helps keep servers from overloading on snipers and spies as bad as they previously would have.
Part of the problem is, as it says on the TF2 site, it’s not working as it was designed to.
You should find an item quite regularly, to the point where an average player playing the average amount of time (from their stats) will find all the weapons at least once by the time they’ve played for two weeks.
Obviously, people finding nothing at all for a couple hours is not right. It’s not supposed to do that. They probably have some bug in the code that makes your chances increase as time goes on without finding an item, or whatever.
It think if players were finding an item roughly every half hour, sometimes a dupe, and it was a little more predictable, there would be less kvetching.
good: i got some random stuff. i’m hoping for a hat, but not really that excited about it.
bad: the update meant i got put on a few teams that lost badly since 50% were spies and snipers. maybe it was the time of night. slightly offset since i got this medic achievement:
First Do No Harm
Play a full round without killing any enemies, and score the highest on a team of 6 or more players.
Well, this come down to the purpose of achievements.
Putting aside the games that consist them just for the sake of it, achievements are supposedly a tool to lure players out of their comfort zone, as demonstrated perfectly in World of Warcraft. The weapon unlocks in TF2 serve the same purpose. They are not linear upgrade of previous version, but rather an alternative to encourage players to play in ways they usually don’t.
So what is wrong with unlocking alternative weapons by playing in an alternative style? I think it is a perfect match.
Of course, I also understand the point of view of casual players. Difficulty is a relative matter. Which is why I want a hybrid system, combing both milestones system and random system.
where can I find a list of the servers you guys tend to play on?
The easiest way is to friend Qt3 people on steam and join the Qt3 group. Then just join games from friends. I play on the POE servers, and those severs may a bit risque’ for some. Oh Steam name: JetLagger
-Tim
The SourceOP and LotusClan servers are good, and I recently discovered the Nemu’s Battleground servers and they seem to be pretty nice. They’re all popular though, so you may have a hard time getting in and even once you’re in you can be booted at any time to make a spot for a donator.
Yea, I play on the LotusClan 24/7 2fort West Coast server. Anyone else frequent there?
I’m gonna go join the Qt3 group.
Cubit
3152
going along with what frank mentioned, do you guys think there is enough interest to rent a TF2 server for Qt3 use? a 24-player private server would just be around $20 a month. not much at all if just a few chip in.
i know i would play tf2 more often if i could go to a central place to play with other people i know from around here.
I’m this || close to pulling the trigger on renting a server. I don’t think I’d make it private, though, unless we really had the numbers to support it.
Does anyone have any good experiences with any of the server rental places?
Cubit
3154
it might be worth it to create a poll frank, to see how many people would seriously use a Qt3 server. if we do end up renting one for forum use, i would throw a few bucks your way.
I play almost exclusively on the No Heroes servers.
A couple others in my favorites are Nemu’s and Doorman is God.
pyrhic
3156
Frank, I just got a L4d server going on Gameservers and I’ve been impressed with it so far - there’s been no downtime, pings have been good, and I haven’t seen any lag.
ymmv of course, but if you’re looking for a place to start, i’d check them out…
For my 2fort server I played on DiG’s 24/7, but a lot of the members have sticks up there asses and get too serious about that game. I’m enjoying LotusClan’s server much more.
It’s entirely random, I’ve had people I know spectate idle in a server for a few hours and gain a bunch of new items. I tried doing that myself for an hour but got nothing.
Meanwhile I’ve been playing at least 10 hours of TF2 and got only the crappy razorback. This is extremely aggravating and does not reward skill whatsoever.
Thank ya, sir. I will look into that.
EDIT: Do they have referrals for you or anything?
EDIT 2: Answered my own question: http://www.gameservers.com/affiliate/ Sign up for this so I can give you credit towards your L4D server!
Here’s a blog post about the new drop system.
Since the update I’ve gotten The Huntsman x1, Jarate x2, Ambassador x1, Cloak & Dagger x1, Bonk x1, Flare Gun x2, Sandman x1, Natasha x1, Kritzkrieg x1.
Lemme tell you, The Huntsman is fucking awesome. Jarate is as well. You rack up tons of assists using that. Cloak & Dagger really fits my spy playstyle, it does drain faster than the normal watch though and it’s based on speed and distance moved. So for instance you jump off the 2fort battlements cloaked and lose like 60% of it.
And by the way this is not me being lucky getting a million drops in a short time, I’ve probably played 25 or so hours since the update. The drop rate is really funky. I got the Cloak & Dagger this morning and didn’t get anything else for like 6 hours.
