4581

Definitely portal 2, since the framework is there. I don’t see them porting it to L4D however. TF2 and Portal is kind of silly to begin with; I think even Valve would draw the line at upsetting the L4D tone with funny hats.

Well, I guess they could make serious items, but where’s the fun in that?

4582

I don’t want to beat this into the ground much further, as I clearly have a different opinion than most, so I’ll leave it at this:

I’ve been playing PC shooters online for 15 years, many of which predated conveniences like friends lists and voice chat. And whatever game you want to name, be it one of the Quakes, Unreals, Half-Life, Wolf:ET, Battlefield, CoD or whatever, I found the pick-a-random-public-server approach worked perfectly fine. You always ran into clunker servers, of course, but rarely did it ever take more than 2 or 3 tries to find a decent game. Random servers used to be a completely valid option for many PC shooters.

But TF2 is different, where (as many people here agree) public servers tend to be awful. And it’s not hard to see why. The game offers more distractions from team goals than any other shooter you can name. It takes little in the way of imbalance to tip games into blowouts. And unlike team DM, where you barely notice the score, or Counter-Strike, where the game resets every 2 minutes, lopsided games in TF2 tend to be long and frustrating, where you can feel like you’re beating your head against a wall for 5, 10, even 20 minutes. You combine these three things and the random server experience is routinely bad in a way unlike any other shooter I can think of.

And a lot of people here are saying, deal with it, find yourself some better servers, which isn’t unreasonable. But still, I watch Valve add stuff like reskinned weapons and hats, and can’t help thinking, why can’t they add some tweaks to improve the game? CoD (whose audience has its own issues) manages to nudge people in the right direction using XP and the carrot of new items and perks. I don’t think it’s too outrageous to wish Valve would add some features to better the general experience.

The one thing I can’t get on board with is the idea of trying to coach people, whether via text, voice chat or whatever. It’s obvious a lot of players are perfectly happy being the 5th sniper with 2 points or the scout who spends the whole round trying to see how many people he can bonk with a baseball. These people don’t care that their team has been getting slapped around for 3 rounds straight and don’t want to be coached, so I don’t see much logic in trying to plead with them to play the game right. If I want to engage in a pointless and futile activity, I’ll argue with people on an internet forum. :)

4583

In order for everyone to cool down a bit, I present Team Fortress 2 Lego

Someone get on modelling Goldrush stat!

4584

I actually had a great night in TF2. I finally got a Half-Zatoichi as a drop, which will save me a bunch of crafting mats, and I also got what might be the best kill I’ve ever had. :)

Also, wow, those Lego TF2 characters are sweet.

4585

I played with you a couple of nights ago (they call me, wzrd) for about an hour or so, sluggo. You are good. Better than I am by a fair amount (I am more like Equis, I think it was, who needs a decent team to really excel). And think maybe that’s part of the disconnect.

I too have been playing since the very beginning of FPS games, since Quake Test (you’d think I’d be better by now). And in all of that time, I have never seen an FPS where random public servers were more likely good rather than just filled with random idiots. Maybe we have just had different experiences, but it has always been my experience that you need to sift through the chaffe to find good servers in the public domain. It’s why I played BF2 almost exclusively on the TG servers. It’s why I only played CS on servers with active moderators. And it’s why the people dicking off as a the fifth sniper are an expected part of the game to me. shrugs

I’m sure it is worse for you. I am probably better than say 50% of the TF2 population (number pulled out of my ass). You are probably better than say 90% of the active population. So when you evaluate people, you are going based on your standards…and most people not only can’t live up to that, aren’t ever going to be able to live up to that.

Again, I would suggest parsing through whatever servers are good ping to you and seeing if you can’t find some that are populated by a good clan or good regular players. I imagine your fun level will go up by a fair amount if you are playing with people as good as you are on a regular basis.

As a side note, it sure is gratifying to kill your damn Heavy. That guy is evil.

4586

I know, I saw you. I joined your team. We kicked ass, IIRC. :)

I don’t even think I’m that good. I feel hapless most of the time when I end up in isolated 1v1s during matches and get my ass kicked regularly. I think the reason I end up with a lot of MVPs is because I tend to be relentless in pushing forward towards the next goal or choke point and have no trouble switching to to whatever class will get the job done (as opposed to a lot of players who lock into one class and shy away from the action). I think it’s more basic strategy than any real skill.

Ironically, I think I have much lower standards for servers than most people, not higher. For most games, I’ve found public servers more than good enough for my tastes, and rarely let bad players get to me. But when my TF2 team is getting its ass kicked and we have 4 snipers and a demoknight and a heavy trying to melee everyone, it just rubs me the wrong way because those guys aren’t even trying and it’s having a very direct impact on my experience.

If anything, I think this recent discussion has prompted me to pay more attention to improving my favorites list. It’s a fair suggestion. I’ve got 60 Steam friends who play TF2 and I’m regularly watching to see what servers they play on instead of jumping on whatever server I can get a 90 ping to. But I’m still going to hope that Valve continues to add features that will encourage people to focus on team goals rather than run around aimlessly.

4587

On a completely different note, did Valve tweak the drop system to check your inventory and increase the odds you’ll get a drop you don’t have? In addition to the Half-Zatoichi I got last night, I got an Overdose today, which is one of the few items I don’t have. I’ve had a lot of good drops the last two weeks, which seems like it’s more than just luck.

4588

I almost went Medic, Thrrrrrpt style, but if we have even one Medic on the team, I call that good enough and play something I have fun with. We did indeed own the other team when we were on the same team.

Ironically, I think I have much lower standards for servers than most people, not higher. For most games, I’ve found public servers more than good enough for my tastes, and rarely let bad players get to me. But when my TF2 team is getting its ass kicked and we have 4 snipers and a demoknight and a heavy trying to melee everyone, it just rubs me the wrong way because those guys aren’t even trying and it’s having a very direct impact on my experience.

/me changes servers

If anything, I think this recent discussion has prompted me to pay more attention to improving my favorites list. It’s a fair suggestion. I’ve got 60 Steam friends who play TF2 and I’m regularly watching to see what servers they play on instead of jumping on whatever server I can get a 90 ping to. But I’m still going to hope that Valve continues to add features that will encourage people to focus on team goals rather than run around aimlessly.

Yeah, I agree with all of this. Since MANY people play by the rewards/numbers, if Valve added in even a reason to win, I think it might go a long way. CS has it (money!), BF2:BC (and many others) have it (exp which equals unlocks).

Me, I play to win every time, no matter the phat loot involved. But that is because I crave good competition more than anything else.

4589

The public servers have worn me down as well. Maybe at some point we can try a qt3 only game and see how it goes.

4590

The only time this works is when games are new and shiny. Otherwise it’s three of us hoping/waiting for more. ;)

The PoE had some decent games for awhile, but I have been back there in awhile…

4591

i’m a demoman fairly far away from the kart. the reds leave the kart undefended three feet from the cap. you can pretty much guess the ending.

4592

http://www.teamfortress.com/deus-ex/

The URL says it all.

4593

Now I deeply and painfully regret my Greenman Gaming preorder. Oh, the shame! THE SHAME!

Guess I could always just preorder from Steam and try selling my GMG key once I get it. Not sure I’m that silly though.

4594

I’m surprised they actually went through the trouble of making it work differently ingame. I guess that would be a plus to hardcore quake players.

4595

People seem to be digging the new “Machina” sniper rifle. It’s a hefty cost to craft, however – a Sydney Sleeper and a Righteous Bison (one of the newer Soldier lasers).

On the plus side, the Quake rocket launcher (“The Original”) is now craftable, and fairly cheaply – 5 scrap metal.

4596

The Machina does look pretty sweet. I’ll have to craft up the Quake launcher this weekend. Not sure about the engineer items, will have to see how they work out in game.

4597

The engineer glove (replacement for pistol, I assume) looks pretty awesome. Damages projectiles? That could be pretty damn useful for protecting sentries from stickies and rockets.

4598

The PoE community is dying a slow death. The server, however, is still running as “[F+] Well-Known Murder Place” at 74.201.57.128 and it’s still pretty much the same silliness it used to be. You’ll need to bug me on Steam for the password, which became necessary when the game became F2P. Without the password it fills up with players way too fast and I get flooded with “Kick somebody so I can join” steam messages.

There’s usually people playing it on Weekend nights and occasionally weeknights as well. There’s always an announcement in the F Plus group when we’re starting up.

4599

btw, Boots’ continued support of the PoE/F+ groups in terms of organizing and hosting the server is a great thing. He’s always polite, fun, and keeps things moving.

Thanks!

I do miss gay music night though.

4600

I reinstalled recently.

First of all, it is absolutely brilliant that all of my favourite servers were still in the server selection list.

Secondly, I really miss old TF2. It used to be a case where I could get a quick idea of what might be trying to kill me. Now with the abundance of items, I feel almost helpless anticipating threats. I still make a good medic though, even if I don’t have a mic with me at the moment which means plenty of people are getting surprise ubers or kritz. I’m laying off the kritz though until I can announce it.

Also, I had an epithany with Badwater the other night. Basically, being near the cart is like death, especially if there are no medics around because then the game just degenerates to a random spamfest at the various chokepoints. No wonder people don’t push it. This came after playing around on the Egypt maps which had a whole different vibe to them. Less random deaths basically from stray nades or rockets.