TF2 Asia

[Video] Pyro Tactics – The Reserve Shooter

skribe — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 00:07:30 +0000

More from this excellent video series teaching various Pyro tactics, tips and tricks.

No related posts.

[Video] How to Play Demoman

skribe — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 01:43:58 +0000

Here’s a really good introductory primer to Demoman. It explains the basics of the class and how to play, with some introductory tactics. Great stuff!

[Video] Pyro Tactics – Engineers and Hazards on Route

skribe — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 02:29:22 +0000

I found this excellent video on some wonderful tactics to use when playing Pyro.

December 21st Update

skribe — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 02:01:19 +0000

The latest patch from Valve brings a whole bunch of bug fixes, some seasonal map changes and gifts for all premium players. Here’s the release:

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include:

Added community-created winter items to the drop lists, the craft tables, and the store

Added the Spirit of Giving

Gifts from Secret Saxtons and Piles o’ Gifts now have a chance to grant a gift in addition to whatever item they would have granted normally

Fixed hearing the deny sound while rotating a sentry during placement

Manmelter balance tweaks:

Added particle effect on muzzle that appears when ready to fire

Increased projectile speed while maintaining the same travel arc

Increased extinguish range

Added festive lights to all ropes and cables

Fixed a problem that would sometimes allow the detonator projectiles to crit on burning targets

Updated the localization files

Updated the gamehaptics file:

Added draw/melee swing/melee hit/crit forces for the The Sharp Dresser and the Spy-cicle

Added draw/recoil/reload/crit forces for the Pomson 6000

Added draw/recoil/crit forces for the Manmelter

Added draw/recoil force for the Wrap Assassin

Added melee hit/world hit force for the Third Degree

Added crit forces for the Holiday Punch

Fixed missing forces for Demoman swords

Refined recoil force for the Sandman

Undocumented Changes

The Spirit of Giving and Secret Saxton have been distributed to all premium players.
The textures and backpack icons of Dr. Grordbort’s Copper Crest and Dr. Grordbort’s Silver Crest were updated.
Made the Santa’s Little Accomplice Bundle available in the store.

December 19th Update

skribe — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 04:24:38 +0000

Apologies for not being able to keep up with these update posts. This one is mainly bug fixes. Here’s the release:

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Fixed the Stocking Stuffer candy cane using the incorrect material

Updated the Brown Bomber so it can be painted

Updated the festive weapons so they can be gift-wrapped

Updated the localization files

Undocumented changes

Added the Something Special For Someone Special.

Control Points Foundry Map Review

skribe — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:05:19 +0000

Packaged with the 2011 Australian Christmas Update, the new Foundry map offers Team Fortress players a new place to compete with team-mates and to dominate opponents. Currently set up as a standard control point map, teams compete to control all five linear points. Each side of the map is symmetrical with only the central point being unlocked at the start of play. Foundry is the first Valve map since Barnblitz, which was released with the F2P Uber Update in June 2011.

The Good

Foundry offers some good play opportunities for all character classes. There’s room to rocket and sticky jump, there are places to hide and establish roadblocks; and there are alternate routes at every stage. Play can teeter on the edge for extended periods with neither team dominating, but can also quickly change into a blitzkrieg as one side manages to rapidly capturing enough points to win. There’s even an achievement for capturing the final point within 5 seconds of the previous one. Tactical nuance and team communication will determine the winner on this map. There’s little opportunity to sit back and soak up pressure.

The Bad

There’s no real stand-out highlight of the map. It feels fairly generic. The foundries themselves only feature in play around the final points and are likely to see very little action beside those wishing to score the relevant Achievement. Texturing is well done, but the lighting feels underdone leaving the map looking dull, even those areas that are well lit.

Summary

Lots of fun on offer. Play is fast and furious. The map feels ideally suited for 6v6 and Highlander player. Highly recommended despite the ‘dullness’.

2011 Australian Christmas Update Part 2

skribe — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:07:34 +0000

Part 2 of the now released 2011 Australian Christmas update brings with it new community created holiday-themed items as well as two new sets of crates: naughty and nice. Nice crates contain one of the 14 new holiday-themed items. Naughty crates contain decorative Smissmas lights that can be wrapped around the signature weapons. Both of which will only be available until December 22nd. Lots of fun to be had.

Details available at Team Fortress.

Part One info here.

2011 Australian Christmas Update Part 1

skribe — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:46:25 +0000

More goodness from Valve as we see the 2011 Christmas Update. Included are new toys for Pyros and Engineers, a new control point map, Foundry, 12 new map-specific Achievements and of course more hats. Looks like loads of fun and I can’t wait to play, but I do have to wonder if the Pomson 6000 and Third degree will make people even more reluctant to play Medic. What do you think?

All the details about the new goodies at Team Fortress.

Part two info here.

November 16th Update

skribe — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 02:10:24 +0000

The latest update for Team Fortress 2 mainly just fixes some bugs – and some pretty major ones too – but it also adds some promotional items as well. Here’s the release:

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Added new promo items

Fixed a bug preventing some server-side quickplay filtering from working, causing clients to ping too many servers

Fixed a bug where an item with an empty craft_class (e.g. the Apoco-Fists) could be obtained via crafting

Fixed an exploit that allowed untradable items to be traded with Steam trading

Web API changes:

Added flag_cannot_craft to GetPlayerItems web API output

Added description_string and description_format for some hidden attributes in the GetSchema output

Updated Pl_Upward

Fixed a teleporter griefing position near control point B

Updated Pl_Barnblitz

Fixed a bug that allowed players to get into the opposing team’s respawn room

Updated the localization files

Least Played Challenge – Heavy

skribe — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 09:17:57 +0000

Back on November 4th, I began a challenge: to play my least played class for 1 week, and then the following week to play my second least played class. It was part of the Least Played Class Challenge. So after 1 week (actually 10 days) here are the results from my least played class, Heavy Weapons.

The Results

Click to view the stats

There’s some genuine improvement there. It’s not great but okay. I’ve never claimed to be a great player but I did better than expected. I was hoping to increase the points total but almost tripling my kills for a class I rarely play is not bad indeed.

Here are the achievements I earnt:

I didn’t go out of my way to get any of these. In fact I was genuinely surprised when they popped up, especially Permanent Revolution – which is when I got the kill total (I think). All-in-all not bad for 4 hours work.

What did I learn?

I liked playing Heavy. It was particularly fun when I had a pocket medic and could just mow down the enemy. It’s great being on a team knowing that you won because of something you and your pocket did. It was not fun when the pocket medic would vanish without warning during a push or refused to Uber, despite there being nobody else around. I had that happen about 5-6 times on a variety of pub servers.

While I didn’t play Heavy exclusively during the week – I had to switch out to different classes for the team – I did try to play it as much as possible. Heavy Weapons is good bang for the buck (pardon the pun) when there are no spies around or the Pyros are doing their jobs well. I’ll certainly be playing Heavy far more often than I have in the past.