sluggo
3261
I only got one drop today, but it was the Huntsman, my first spy or sniper item. Whee.
That fake idle program is awesome. I’ve gotten 5 items off it tonight, whereas previously I got 0 items out of ~12 hours of actual post-update play. (Although 8 of those hours occured before I found out about the required friends logon – thanks Valve.)
Seriously, this system sucks. The more I play, the more it frustrates me. I still have not gotten anything I want(Huntman and the Shield) with 20hr playtime on a 90+ achievements unlocked account. It also doesn’t help while most servers are filled with snipers with the above items, which they most likely got from idling. I guess I am going to try the idle method tonight.
I see no hope of change in a short period of time, as Valve is too busy masturbating themselves with the new record of concurrent active number.
http://www.nytimes.com/external/gigaom/2009/05/28/28gigaom-how-meet-the-spy-machinima-helped-double-tf2s-popu-7956.html?emc=eta1
p.s. To the people who are using the idle program, you may want to use this along with it to spice things up.
http://www.progressquest.com/dl.php
So, eh, ahhm, how does this fake idle program works? All I got since this update is the crappy sandwich.
You download the program linked above, run it and stuff will unlock over time while you’re doing other stuff (just not playing TF2).
Four nights of playing all night netted me two items.
Four hours of fake idling netted me three.
OK thanks.
Idling…
Idling…
Idling…
Idling…
Idling…
Idling…
I joined Icy Hot Idlaz for just this purpose. Got a Cloak & Dagger 30 seconds after joining.
I have 9 items now and only one duplicate (I had nothing at all yesterday… even the weakest of achievements was beyond my meagre ability and time)
Kurina
3269
What frustrates me is my time in TF2 over the past year has gone from playing religiously to fairly casually, with only an hour or two tops in the game each day. With 25 hours logged the past week, some of that in idle servers, I have a grand total of two unlocks.
It doesn’t make any sense to me, especially as Valve created TF2 with keeping casual players in mind. Now it only rewards the heaviest of players. There is the upcoming trading system, but when you hardly have any items, what on earth can you offer up for trade when heavy players already have most of the unlocks?
The system is nice in theory, but terrible in practice. I imagine I will never see many of the unlocks, I don’t have the time to spend in a game all day playing, and I can only leave idle servers running occasionally. :(
It will make you feel dirty, but use the idle spoof program linked above. Last weekend, I played for 14 hours overall, and I unlocked one item. Last night I ran the program while I slept and got the following:
1 x KGB
1 x Ubersaw
2 x Backburner
1 x Dead Ringer
Yeah, running the program is a little lame and weak, but I submit that Valve’s goofy random system is even more stupid.
Kurina
3271
Yeah I ran it temporarily last night, but with Valve knowing about it now, I keep worrying they may ban accounts for using a third party program to access and ‘cheat’ the game. Believe me I am all for it though, just keep wondering how safe it is in regards to my TF2 account getting VAC banned or something. If not much would come of it though, I have absolutely no problem going back to that method since I don’t have time to play all day praying for something good to drop.
Cubit
3272
from the guy who made the program:
No. It doesn’t touch anything with VAC. The fake server it connects to is not vac secured anyways.
Kurina
3273
You know, I totally read that yesterday and already forgot about it it being on a non-secure server. Thanks, loading the program back up now, here’s hoping for some tasty unlocks!
Also, from the number of folks that seem to be using it, Valve would have to ban quite a few people at this point that have basically done nothing more insidious than faking an idle server anyway.
Idling is so much worse than achievement farming… you’re not even playing the game!!! pathetic.
Adree
3276
Serves em right for giving us duplicate items and not having trading enabled yet.
All of the idle servers I’ve tried have been disconnected from Steam (I assume that means no unlocks) as of today.
You’re absolutely right. Maybe Valve should do something about that, like implementing a system that actually encourages playing the game.
The current system actually discourages play because rewards aren’t tied to anything in particular other than time and cruel random chance.
Kurina
3278
How is it worse? Both types of players are accomplishing the exact same thing, they hang out on a server and wait for their unlock. The system isn’t based on anything else, just how long you hang around a server. People are simply doing just that.
I personally don’t have time to play the game day and night hoping for an unlock. As I mentioned earlier, in one week I have received a total of two unlocks. Currently there feels like little hope of achieving any new and shiny toys that I may enjoy (although trying the idle program right now restores a bit of that hope).
Casual players should be allowed to enjoy the game to the fullest, just like the ‘hardcore’ players who play day and night. Some items help a class become more exciting for those who originally were not interested in them. Everyone should have an equal opportunity to enjoy the game, not only the ‘lucky’ crowd.
What especially worries me is when the trading system is released. Are people going to be standing around servers yelling “WTT C&D for Jarate!!” and not actually playing the game? Are people going to just be standing around trading while the rest of the team runs out and dies with no support? Granted this is speculation at this point as we don’t know for sure how the system will work, but I fear this is what it will turn into.
Maybe it’ll just be an anonymous stock market type system, so everybody submits bids and then they get matched up at random. That would make about as much sense as the current random unlock system does.
Cubit
3280
are you guys keeping your duplicate items, or deleting them to make room for unique ones?
