The Fort 2

The Trammps - Dustbowl Inferno

Teatime — 2010-09-01T14:16:12Z

Welcome back to Radio TF2.

And here we have another classic from the glamorous 70s; this time a well-known song from The Trammps immortalizing one of maps most popular and infamous at the same time: “Dustbowl Inferno”

Burn baby burn! Burn baby burn!
Burn baby burn! Burn baby burn!
Burnin'!

The gate was opening – we were ready for action (oh, so ready)
And out I ran – I was the main attraction
My flame was burning hotter than hell
And I started circling and cooked those red guys quite well
(And I was humming)

Burn, baby, burn! - Dustbowl Inferno!
Burn, baby, burn! - Burn that Heavy down
Burn, baby, burn! - Dustbowl Inferno!
Burn, baby, burn! - Burn that Demo down

The first point was easy – we hit them hard and strong
But rushing through the tunnel – it started all going wrong
Sentries and Heavies (with medics) – A spy in our back
So I joined up with a medic – and we went out to attack (And we were singing)

Burn, baby, burn! - Dustbowl Inferno!
Burn, baby, burn - Burn that Sentry down
Burn, baby, burn! - Dustbowl Inferno!
Burn, baby, burn - Burn that Medic down

And when the flames were dying down
I saw the red team on the ground

We kept on coming – and the reds kept gunning
We fought for every inch – and we sent them running
But the last point was hard – their defense was strong
Then we went in with two ubers – to us the victory belonged
And we were chanting

Burn, baby, burn! - Dustbowl Inferno!
Burn, baby, burn! - Burn that Soldier down
Burn, baby, burn! - Dustbowl Inferno!
Burn, baby, burn! - Burn that Spy down
Burn, baby, burn! - Dustbowl Inferno!
Burn, baby, burn! - Burn that Scout down
Burn, baby, burn! - Dustbowl Inferno!
Burn, baby, burn! - Burn that Sniper down

I just can't stop
Once my burner gets hot
Just can't stop
Once my burner gets hot

Burning, burning, burning, burning...

A New Breed of Engineers?

Teatime — 2010-08-28T21:33:15Z

Well, so far the Engy Update might not have changed gameplay in general on a relevant scale. But certainly it has changed the way people play the class. And from within the diversity of (new) ways to play Engineer a new school of engineering gameplay appears to become prevalent. I've dubbed this type the “Play-It-Safe Engineer”.

The introduction of movable buildings has created a lot of new strategic possibilities to the Engy. On maps with dynamic gameplay (A/D, PL, 5-CP) he is finally able to keep up with the action without having to destroy his buildings first.
Another advantage of that new ability is that an Engineer can build and upgrade a building – especially a sentry – on a safe spot and then move it into a hotspot and might have a good chance to get it working before the opponent can destroy it, while before it would have been highly unlikely that an Engy would have been able to erect and groom a sentry on such a spot.

Especially the latter has prompted a new school of thought. Since the Engy can easily move his building it's no longer necessary to expose oneself (and one's efforts) to any dangers and risks. So a lot of Engies have started to set up their buildings on a safe spot, usually well away from the actually hot spots of the conflict. This can easily be right outside the respawn or – for example – on the 2nd point of a 5-CP-map. There they wrench away, get their entire stuff ready and once they consider the moment opportune they will bravely move their buildings forward.

Granted, this stance towards the engineering profession is not entirely new. And in some instances it might even work for the team's advantage, in a way.

Before the Engy Update this type of engineer was the one who would immediately start building his sentry and dispenser on the 2nd CP on Dustbowl (for example). Why bother defending the first CP which in most cases can't be hold anyway, risking being killed and subsequently struggling to erect a proper defense on the 2nd point? Sounds logical, doesn't it?

Of course there's a flaw in that kind of thinking: On a map like Dustbowl (or Badwater, Goldrush, GravelPit etc.) the main idea is not to stop the opponent on a preliminary point, but to slow him down, to make him waste as much time as possible so that the time left to defend the final point – the point which eventually decides over victory and defeat – is as short as possible. [1]

The Engineers buildings – all of them, though most importantly the sentry – are invaluable contributions to slow enemies down. The enemy has often to sacrifice ubers to bring it down, spies might shift their focus to engies (instead of heavy classes) and in many cases no opponent can simply step onto the CP, hoping the stay alive long enough to cap it.

Not providing this means simply to piss away a tactical advantage and to make the attack unnecessarily easier for the opposition.

And yes, I have been in games where the already set up defense on the last point saved a match because the enemy was able to rush towards the final point very quickly. But I think I've been in more games where the enemy was able to cap the last point shortly before the time limit was reached because they were able to spend too much time on attack runs. [2]

Before the Engy Update dynamic maps like 5-CP were never ideal scenarios to play Engy. But with movable buildings and mini-sentries this has changed. Now an Engy can make a difference on a hot spot. He can buy time on a 5-CP-map, but also effectively support momentum (resp. help to prevent reversal of momentum). The impact differs a bit from map to map, but the fact remains. The offensive Engy might not get many kills, but he can provide distraction and – with a little luck and/or skill – garner tons of assists. With that he can be very helpful, though not in a very noticeable way. And I admit, since the Engy remains a fairly weak class he will get killed a fair amount of times. BUT, an offensive engy can do his share to win a game.

However, the Play-It-Safe Engy does not. He acts defensively, always behind (friendly) lines; securing, but not pushing. Such an Engy will at best help his team not to lose, but he does very little to help it to win.

He might have his moments when the tide of conflict is turning against his team and his buildings help keeping the incoming opponents at bay. Then again, with a bit more offensive behaviour the own team might be the one doing the pushing instead of defending.

Who knows, maybe too many engies are still trapped in the mindset of a primarily defensive and immobile class. But perhaps these are simply representatives of the kind of players who are either looking for easy success (I've ranted about those before) or are more concerned about their kpd than the fate of their team.

I have little respect for the Play-It-Safe Engineer. And these days I see far too many of them ...
Come on, you cowards! Put your sentry in a spot where it can hurt people! Not in one where the sentry won't be hurt ...

[1] Simply because the more time the enemy has left the more he can erode your defense and also the more opportunities he will have to make potentially fatal attack runs with ubers and/or kritz

[2] Only all too obvious on Dustbowl or Goldrush where failures in previous rounds will punish you in the following round. I guess we all have been in games where suddenly we were expected to defend the final point of Dustbowl for 20 minutes.

Catching up (pt.2)

Teatime — 2010-08-23T21:31:57Z

Engies and Spies: An eternal love story. A love story where, you know, the relationship has reached the point at which murder has become perfectly reasonable.

In principle nothing has changed between Spy and Engy with the Engy Update. Yet I feel that circumstances have made the Engy more vulnerable to his arch enemy.

It's quite obvious in the case of the Wrangler. There you are, holding a remote control, squinting and trying very hard to identify through the bloody shield what's going on in the area you are covering while also keeping you head low to prevent from being headshot by some sodding Sniper. Yes, you can look around, and when you catch a Spy sneaking up you might even stand a chance using the Wrangler against him. But once there is any action you simply don't have the opportunity. Not only because you have to bloody aim, but also because – at least from behind the shield – you have to look very carefully what to shoot at [1]. At that point even the worst Spy in the world can backstab an Engy and sap the sentry without any risk and hurry.

But the update also highly increased the mobility of the Engy; in some aspects enabling him to be mobile, in others pretty much forcing him to do so. On a map with dynamic gameplay (A/D, 5-CP) a good Engy pretty much has his hands full all of the time. If he does his job right he will have four buildings he has to build, upgrade, repair and move. So like a squirrel he's always running around, trying to collect metal, whacking a building here, shooting at an enemy there. And while moving buildings he's relatively helpless. All that gives a spy a much better chance to sap an unattended building en passant. Also in general the spy checking is more spotty on such maps since the dynamic nature leads to far more diverse movement.

In all fairness one aspect which might put a small obstacle into a Spy's business is the by-now common presence of mini-sentries on such maps, making it a bit harder for him to backstab people. Unless he carries the Dead Ringer. Or saps the (usually unguarded) mini-sentry first.

Speaking of the Dead Ringer: I maintain that the Dead Ringer (and to a lesser degree the C&D) has in general strengthen the Spy's basic position against an Engy because he can for one risk more easily to draw him into prolonged fights after sapping (since the Engy will not be able to kill him), and when failing very often can escape for another run shortly afterward.

Since I don't play Spy I can't really say how difficult (or easy) it was for a Spy to deal with an Engy before the update. But I think it's safe to say that it has become easier, at least in some situations. Perhaps I'm just a little touchy to this subject because I'm usually at the receiving end of it. I still think some small anti-Spy measures (with proper trade-off!) wouldn't have hurt. Maybe that would be a subject worthwhile of a community-weapon.

Stay tuned, there's more to come ...

[1] Yes, I'm whining. The bloody colored shield really annoys the hell out of me.

Catching up (pt.1)

Teatime — 2010-08-22T12:41:20Z

Anybody still here? Have been quite a while, I know.
I've been busy with a project connected to work, but quite frankly I also didn't exactly have any great ideas what to write about. Okay, I would be lying if I said I had any great idea now, but there are a few things whirling inside that grey mass that claims to be my brain. So let's see if I can get some of these things into a shape coherent enough to share with you.

I've predicted the changes applied by the engy update could have a huge impact to the game ...

Well, so far I have been wrong. While we see the Wrangler commonly used by engineers and mini-sentries appear to be sitting on each corner of a map I fail to see any significant change in the game.

For one I have to admit that Valve balanced those weapons better (I use this word reluctantly) than I initially assessed. Using the Wrangler with a regular sentry is a pain in the ass because you don't see a bloody thing from behind the shield. Okay, exaggerated, but not much. If you crouch or even stand behind the sentry it blocks too much of your view to be able to aim properly. Also, as I've mentioned in a previous article, the color of the shield is really irritating and makes it difficult to tell friend from foe. All this pretty much forces the engy to step out from behind the shield, making him easy prey for snipers, which – besides spies – have become my most loathed opposing class as engy. The Wrangler is a long range weapon, best used in the open, which sets it just opposite snipers (usually operating from dark corners way in the back of the map). [1]

Here some random screenshots for those of you who don't play engy:

: Crouched behind the sentry, looking through the clear-view spot.

: Standing behind the sg; basically sniper fodder.

: Crouched, but moved to the right. Quite vulnerable.

: Here you can (kind of) see how little you can actually recognize through the colored shield.

: Mini-Sentry. No obstructed view, but the colored shield is still a bit annyoing.

Also note to self: Get a custom HUD ...

Actually the Wrangler works best – in terms of handling – with the Mini-Sentry. You can easily crouch behind it and aim perfectly well. And since you have this clear view-spot right in the middle of the shield the color of the shield is not even obscuring.
All this makes me wonder if the Wrangler was initially designed for the Mini-Sentry and as an afterthought extended to the regular sentry.

Now I realize – and fully support – that a weapon like the Wrangler needs to be balanced and that there should be counters. But the implementation is just not very convincing and satisfying. I would rather have the Wrangler's shield to reduce less damage but being able to operate it in a more satisfying manner.

Having said all that let me add that the Wrangler is still quite powerful. But it's also very situational. Quite logically it works better on some maps than on others, also on some spots better than on others. On less advantageous spots an engy really requires some support from his team, otherwise the mighty wranglered sentry can easily go down within a heartbeat.

Speaking of teammates: Another negative side-effect of the Wrangler is that in many occasions the engy really has to stay at the sentry (or close to it) in case he needs to operate it (Especially when built in the open). The obvious downside of that is that this very much obstructs the engy to build dispensers or teleporters. Some people have complained that engies would only build their sentry and then go gung-ho with it, but sometimes there is really far less feisible opportunity to attend to other buildings when using the Wrangler.

Okay, and while we're at Wrangler and Other Buildings:
I really think Valve majorly screwed up when they implemented that switching from Wrench to Gunslinger (or vice versa)destroys all your buildings. Destroying the sentry, sure! But Dispenser and Teleporter? FFS, why? It's not an issue with balance. Did Valve simply not consider that a player might want to switch from one sentry type to the other in the middle of a game? There are enough cases where it makes perfectly sense to me to switch sentries. E.g. on 5-CP-maps: The mini-sentry is more suited when pushing, while the regular sentry is more useful when the own team is pushed back to the last point. On AD/PL maps a mini-sentry again is a good idea when pushing out of the respawn, but the standard sentry might be the better choice later on to deal with counter-attacks.

The way it is now an engy is punished for switching sentries. IMNSHO that's not only unnecessary, but actually a shame!

I have a few more topics to cover, but before I go TL;DR I'll rather do than on a different day ...

[1] I once compared the Wrangler to a MG Nest. The comparison still stands, but this is a MG Nest where the gunner have to step out from behind his weapon to see what he's shooting at. Put that image into “Band of Brothers” and you know why I'm not too happy about it.

Engineer Update: Weaponry

Teatime — 2010-07-18T14:08:03Z

Over the last weekend I've tried to obtain all the new weapons so I can live up to my journalistic responsibility to you, my dear half dozen readers . This included some idling as well as some good ol'-fashioned achievement whoring, but eventually I've got them all together. So now it's time to offer some first impressions on the new toys Valve has given the Engy with his class update.

Short Recap:

The Frontier Justice
Replaces Shotgun. No regular crits. Mag only holds half the ammo of the regular shotty.
For each kill by the engy's sentry the FJ stores 2 revenge crits (1 for assists), which are available once the sg is destroyed either by enemy hand or if the engy self-destructs it (the destruction also provides bonus crits).

The Wrangler
Replaces the Pistol. When selected the engineer's sentry will switch to manual mode (no longer engaging opponents automatically and can be remote controlled by the Wrangler. A target laser shows where the sentry is aimed and if there's an obstacle in its line of fire (quite useful when the engy is further away from his sentry), but also will clearly announce a wranglered sentry to the enemy team. While controlled by the Wrangler a sentry will fire on a double rate, at level 3 the rocket launch rate is increased.
Additionally a spherical shield is deployed around the sentry, deflecting 66% of the incoming damage.
When switching away from the Wrangler the sentry will become inactive for 3 seconds before switching back to automatic mode. During that time the sentry will tilt down, the laser will be out, but the shield – while no longer holding off damage – will only slowly fade.

The Gunslinger
Replaces the Melee-Weapon. When equipped it adds 25 health. The main feature of the Gunslinger is the ability to deploy mini-sentries. Any other buildings can be upgraded and repaired as usual.
The Gunslinger offers a combo which crits on the third hit.

Mini-Sentry
When wearing the Gunslinger the regular sentry is replaced by the Mini-Sentry. The Mini-Sentry only requires 100 metal to be build, is fully operational in 2.5 seconds, fires 50% faster than a regular sentry, but does only half the damage and can't neither be repaired nor upgraded. Like a normal sentry it can be moved and when the engy has also equipped the Wrangler it can be remote controlled.

Southern Hospitaility
Replaces the Melee-Weapon. Acts very much like the regular wrench, but causes bleeding, has no random crit and adds 20% fire vulnerability.

And finally the added capability of the engy to move his buildings. During that the Engy cannot switch to weapons to defend himself and is moving slower than a Heavy. Setting up the building on its new place happens within a few seconds and can be sped up by hitting the building with the wrench.

My expectations towards the Engy Update were three-fold:
– Support for the offensive engy
– Better defense against enemy heavy classes, especially from outside the sentry's range of detection
– Better weapons against spies and/or some support for spy detection

The latter clearly didn't happen. None of the new weapons or abilities in any way address the spy. I felt (and still feel) the balance between those two arch enemies has shifted with the introduction of the new spy watches which IMHO give the spy more of an edge against engies [1]. And while I agree that the spy has an immensely important role to counter the engy I would have preferred if at least one item would have dealt with spies (and as alternative weapons go Valve could have made this a tough choice by assigning it to the proper slot, e.g. secondary: Wrangler or Enhanced Spy Detection) .

But at least the other two points have been addressed with the new weapons/items.

The Wrangler clearly addresses the attacked-from-outside-its-range-weakness of sentries. It's balanced by the manual control in various ways: The engy can't repair or upgrade the sentry (or other buildings) without exposing the sentry to the 3 seconds reset time, he will inevitably miss enemy movements (especially those to his sides and behind him) and he is even more vulnerable to spies (decreased attention, can't spy-check without putting the sentry into reset-time). Also the target laser is a clear giveaway as well of the existence of a wranglered sentry and its position (on top of that the bubble of the shield is kinda hard to miss).
There's another aspect which puts a disadvantage to the Wrangler: It's quite hard to see through the bloody shield! It's not easy to tell friend from foe and in general visual information is quite compromised [2]. That very much tempts the engy to step out from behind the shield, making him much more vulnerable to enemy attacks (especially snipers).

While this might sound like a crippling assortment of disadvantages the Wrangler is in many ways a very powerful weapon. The Wrangler adds more than just the simple option to counter attackers outside the detection range of the sentry. Right now the Wrangler has the potential to be a fucking MG nest on Omaha beach. The engy can prioritize targets, the shield absorbs a lot of incoming damage, firing rockets at will can be quite powerful to hurt enemies barely out of sight with splash damage. Also the engy can very quickly resupply/repair the sentry and be back in the game, since the engy can switch back to the Wrangler before the 3 second inactive phase is up and regain manual control immediately. [3].

But that's not even necessary if the engy has a willing friendly engy who feeds and repairs his sentry on occasion. Even before the update two cooperating engies could be quite powerful; now it is even more so. If that engy has set up additionally a regular sentry, providing early warning system and quick response defense while the wranglered sentry deals with the enemies outside regular range, then the enemy has to work quite hard to push through.

Still even that setup is by no means invincible. Before the update even the best engineer was still very vulnerable to the many ways the enemy could get him and his sentry. An engineer always depends to some degree to the cooperation and support of the rest of the team, be it pyros providing spychecks or other classes obstructing enemy uber runs!

That is still very much true, even more now with the Wrangler. An engy using the Wrangler without any support by his teammates is still quite easy to kill, but if those teammates provide that support the Wrangler can really be not only an asset, but a force to be reckoned with (if handled properly). Trust me, I have seen both sides of that medal in the last few days.

One important aspect about the Wrangler is that it requires a very different mindset. Especially placement has to be approached totally different than with a regular sentry. A regular sentry is placed behind corners, in booths, always to some degree hidden and covered. The Wrangler calls for more open spaces, for long corridors or tunnels. Really, when placing a wrangled sentry think „MG Nest“. A wranglered sentry doesn't work well in the old spots, because reaction time is too short and the engy is too vulnerable to spam of any kind (incl. flames). It's basically area denial of a very different kind, adding the effect good snipers can have that sticking out your head around a corner could be quite harmful .

As such it can have a huge effect on gameplay. It can change the dynamics of the game in general, but also quite drastically change the way some maps are played. I expect to see the Wrangler to have quite an impact on the whole game. But I'm not sure if that impact will be exclusively good.

As a recommendation: Equip the Wrangler. The loss of the Pistol is not a big deal (as much as I have come to use it increasingly over the last few months) and by far outweighed by the advantages the Wrangler offers. Even if you don't intend to use it you have at least the option to do so, but on top of that you can use the shield in case of emergencies.

The Frontier Justice is an interesting concept. The basic idea behind it is to give the engy a temporary boost once his main weapon, the sentry, has been destroyed. But so far I have found it not a compelling replacement for the shotty. The smaller magazine is really a problem in firefights (e.g. when battling a spy). So I figure this one is more situational. Probably the better weapon when defending; all the more if the pressure from the enemy team is high. In such scenarios the FJ might really help, but in other scenarios I think I will stick to the regular shotgun.

The Southern Hospitality has its pros and cons (obviously). The higher vulnerability against flames would be an acceptable price for the bleeding damage, but the lack of crit is more difficult to bear. A nice critted wrench hit has saved my life more than once.
In the end I will have to see what might be more effective against spies, but I doubt bleeding will give the engy an edge against them [4]. Unless the bleed effect would also affect their cloak (not sure about that ... tell my, spies).

As far as unlocks go, last, but not least we have the Gunslinger. I think we all agree that the Gunslinger itself is far less interesting than its bonus feature, the Mini-Sentries. The decision to don the Gunslinger is more a byproduct to the decision which kind of sentry the engy wants to use. Still, for completion sake: As a weapon the Gunslinger is slightly superior to the Wrench with the guaranteed crit at the third hit.

The Mini-Sentries are Valve's solution for the problem engies are facing on highly dynamic maps, especially 5-CP-maps and A/D-maps (though more for attack than defense). It's a consequent adaption of the idea of throw-away sentries [5].
IMHO it's a fairly elegant solution and so far – after one week seeing it in action – appears to be quite effective for its purpose. It's neither too powerful nor too weak. The Mini-sentry can be destroyed easily enough, but still kill an enemy when he's taken by surprise or distracted otherwise (e.g. in a firefight). The Mini-Sentry is NOT area denial; it is mainly for stalling and distracting. And while a Mini-Sentry can rack up some kills don't approach it with the expectation it will do much of that in a life.

And while this might sound like the Mini-Sentry was just a cute little toy, more annoying than dangerous it has some hidden teeth. Since the Mini-Sentry as well can be used in conjunction with the Wrangler it can become quite nasty. The shield makes it much harder to destroy it and the manual control can make it very effective even against heavy classes.
All that can make an engy a much more valuable asset on CP-maps than he was before, and could really change some of the usual gameplay. [6].

This introduces two very different styles of gameplay for the engy (different not so much from an outside POV, but as perceived from within the class), very much like the selection of the watch determines the way a spy plays the game.

Another big change – as predicted – comes with the new introduced ability to move buildings. We still see players adapting to this, so at this point I find it hard to predict the size of the impact this will have on gameplay. But impact it will have!

The most obvious is of course the option to build and upgrade a sentry in a safe spot, then move it to its destination and (with a little luck) set a lvl3 sentry on a place where it would have been much harder (if not impossible) to build in a regular way. Especially in regard of sentries this is one of the areas which I suspect could actually prove to be overpowered. I still think Valve should have created a trade-off for moving buildings [7], but at least they should consider to remove the sped up building time by whacking when re-deploying a building.
But besides sentries I find it equally valuable (and quite powerful) for the other buildings. Moving dispenser and teleporters can save a lot of time and – again – quite change the dynamic of gameplay.

Of course no good deed goes unpunished, and a certain breed of engies has already discovered new ways to forget their initial purpose and instead are starting to hunt for glory. These specimens – probably the same who before the update tried to collect kills with sentries only to quickly switch classes once they've failed miserably – now try to collect on their newly found power. They will build their sentries and try to get as many kills as possible, potentially from a safe distance by courtesy of the Wrangler. Building teleporters? Giving their teammates dispensers for support? Not really high priority in their book. Those are the players who have either forgotten that the engy is primarily a support-class or never cared in the first place. One piece of advice: Hey idiots, learn sniping and move to Counterstrike.

Players are still adapting to that. I still see engies not entirely realizing the different options and the changes necessary when using the new items. It takes a little time, and of course it's another phase of try-and-error to learn which items to use best in which situation and how to handle them for maximum effect.

So, BIG changes underway. Wrangler, Mini-Sentries, movable buildings. TF2 will not be the same as before. In some ways this has the potential to change the gameplay of TF2 more drastically than any other update before. As such I expect some nerfing along the way, since some of these changes may in fact throw off the balance a bit too much (especially the Wrangler/Shield and movable buildings).

As an engy I'm delighted with the new options given to me; more tools in the box to address different situations and challenges by different means. But like everybody else I'm still learning and experimenting. The Wrangler, for example, suddenly makes spots useful which were nonsense before the update. Also I think we will discover that some spots or chokepoints previously difficult now can be approached differently. New possibilities and challenges alike for yours truly and all his fellow engineers.

[1] The Dead Ringer allows for multiple runs on an engy and his stuff, while the C&D makes it much easier for the spy to wait for a good moment to act.

[2] There is an odd area in the middle of the shield where you can peep through clearly, but once the sentry is level 2 or above the additional barrels are obstructing the view.

[3] I'm kind of expecting a nerf here, either by prolonging the inactive period or at least enforce the 3-second pause before the sentry becomes active again

[4] Since it's far too easy for the basterds to run away to the next health pack.

[5] For those not familiar with that term: Setting up lvl1 sentries in a forward position simply to surprise or stall enemies. By nature those sentries don't last long, hence throw-away.

[6] I would like to say that this could even make the use of engies in competitive gameplay conceivable, but not in a 6-players format ... foolish comp scene

[7] To downgrade one level was my suggestion.

The Engineer Update is live

Teatime — 2010-07-09T19:11:39Z

As expected shortly after the 100th wrench was dropped the Engy Update went live!
With that the seventh class update was applied, concluding the update round for the last remaining class.

Of course the update went live in the middle of the night and I was far too tired to give it a glimpse. Especially since all I could have done was to look at the new maps, since getting my hand on the new weapons was likely to be a more lengthy process (or so I thought).

So this morning I took half an hour before work to join a server running the new maps and was pleasantly surprised that within a few minutes I received the Wrangler as an item drop. But time was too short to even try that one out. New maps are always so confusing and I've spend half the time trying to figure out where I was and where I was supposed to go, only to get transported back to the respawn by a little help of enemy weaponry seconds later.

But the bits I saw of Hightower and Upward looked quite good. Upward appears to be a good mix of open spaces and sneaky passages. I will certainly have the opportunity to examine the new maps more closely over the next few days.

Speaking of maps:
While the presentation of the update might have been less exciting than the previous ones it certainly made up for that with its content. We have been treated with four (!) new maps; three Valve-made maps (PLR_Upward, PL_Hightower, PL_Thunder Mountain) and one community map (CP_ColdFront). Let's hope these are good; I'm quite ready for some change of scenery (though the Valve maps are quite similar texture-wise).

The final release also introduced the last unlocks.
The melee unlock is the Gunslinger which additionally enables the engy to place mini-sentries (not upgradable, doing only half damage, faster build). This might be an interesting add-on for dynamic gameplay (like CP) to place quick throwaway sentries.

And yes, Valve indeed snuck in the capability for the engy to move his buildings. If I have seen it correctly a relocated building will downgrade to level 1, but that would be a fair trade-off. Correction: No, the buildings do indeed restore to their previous level. So much for trade-offs

Almost more than anything else this could change the dynamic of the game. Not only can an engy better keep up with a lot of back and forth (CP), or only back OR forth (PL, A/D), but also it becomes possible to pre-build a building in safety and then simply move it to its destination

On the new weapons I will comment later, once I was able to get a closer look at them (probably from the receiving end only for a day or two).

So ... was that it? All classes updated, case closed?
Will Valve stop developing further class updates and only supervise the development of new community weapons? It's not an unlikely scenario. Valve has supported and evolved the game for almost three years now. It would be quite understandable if they would take a less active stance in the future.
As far as weapons go I could accept that. Even if future map additions would only integrate community maps I could live with that. But I would really wish Valve would come up with new game modes as a cornerstone for the future evolution of the game.

But for now let's dive into the engy update and find out if it's hot, a miss or simply lukewarm ...

Engineer Update, 3rd Unlock (or lack thereof)

Teatime — 2010-07-08T13:31:56Z

Okay, I admit I was too tired to wait for the 75th wrench to drop and went to bed before the next update news were released. Don't think I've actually missed much.

Maybe my still sleepy eyes failed to register a 3rd unlock. All I saw was the introduction of another PL map, Hightower. At least I think it's another PL map. The respective blog entry managed to be very confusing on that, talking about a new PL map as if they had not already presented one I came to believe was called Upward. I stick to the “confusing blog” theory and assume we will get two new PL maps.

But the blog was also confusing in another point. It mentioned wrenches (then again, wrenches are ever-present these days, aren't they?) and then continued to talk about melee and a surprise. Well, I'm still waiting to be surprised, because I have no fucking idea what the blog was talking about. Knowing me it is probably something very obvious. Feel free to enlighten me.

(Update: Checking now the update page shows the wrench model by Watchmaker. Still no idea what's this about.)

Then again I found something on the update page [1] which I suppose was not the surprise mentioned in the blog. There's another hidden photo [2], or photos in this case, showing an engy building a lvl2 sentry then pack it up to erect it in its lvl2 state on another spot. At least that's how I interpret these photos.

If I'm right Valve would have finally integrated a way to move a sentry instead of having to destroy and completely rebuild it. It may not be coincidence that the sentry in the photos is lvl2. Perhaps (and I think I suggested something like that in the past) the engy will get an alternative toolbox only building sentries up to lvl2 which in the fashion displayed can be relocated. [3] If that is true we would finally have the support for the offensive engineer which I have been whining about in the last few days. I'm looking forward to be proven right

There is still one puzzle piece missing (besides the question what the 3rd melee unlock will be): The death icon showing a sentry firing a beam, commonly interpreted as a laser. I don't think this has anything to do with the Wrangler. I expect the Wrangler to show regular death icons. So, will there be another feature for the sentry still waiting for us? Or was it just Valve trolling us?

We will see. The way I've understand the schedule I expect the update go live after the 100th wrench tonight; while revealing the final update info. If that's the case we can discuss our first impressions tomorrow already.

BTW: Yesterday Valve also released the Engy Achievements.

[1] Speaking of which: A single page with an increasing clutter of blueprints and pictures? Okay, probably tongue-in-cheek to make fun of an engineer's workplace mentality. Still, it's a shame all those little nice details on the board get covered up, so IU would have preferred several pages.

[2] So far there has been a hidden photo each day.

[3] Though I ask myself if this will be restricted to the sentry or if this will work for all buildings?

Engineer Update, 2nd Unlock

Teatime — 2010-07-07T17:43:11Z

Very late last night the 50th Wrench was dropped and soon afterward the Engy Update pages revealed the 2nd unlock of this class update.

It's called The Wrangler and replaces the pistol.

The Wrangler acts as a remote control for the sentry; with added bonus.
While using the Wrangler the sentry no longer acts automatically (comparable to a plane's autopilot: the human pilot flies the plane or the autopilot, but not both at the same time ). Which already manages to confuse me in regard of practicality!

I assume the way the Wrangler works is that I point it on an opponent like a gun and when pressing fire the sentry will shoot at the target in my crosshair. But what if I don't have an enemy player in my crosshair? Since the engy can be away from the sentry the angle between both lines of “sight” can easily be rather large. So at what point of the engy's (or Wrangler's) line of sight does the sentry fire? That would basically mean you can't make (any reliable) blind shots.
Also the higher the angle the more difficult it might become to judge if the sentry still has an unobstructed line of fire on the area the engy is overlooking.
Not to mention the weirdness if the engy is completely away from the sg in another area.

To some degree this reminds me of the (IMHO flawed) mechanics of the Scottish Resistance.

Not that I find the idea bad per se. This will finally enable the engy to counter attacks from outside the sentry's detection range, especially from soldiers and demos. After the Macupdate revealing the Frontier Justice I already speculated that the attachment on the gun (now revealed to be a scope) could be a laser to target out of range enemies for the sentry.
This solution is probably better balanced since the engy has to decide whether to fight himself or to take manual control of his sentry.

But as far as balance is concerned there are two more features to the Wrangler which need discussing.

When switching to the Wrangler a shield is deployed around the sentry, decreasing all incoming damage to 33%. Right now I'm not sure what kind of damage the shield covers. While the shield is displayed on the update page as a spherical field I assume all the shield does is simply reduce all damage applied to the sentry, regardless of the source and proximity. [1] I also assume the shield will not interfere with the sapper.

But also while in manual mode the sentry will fire faster, including rockets at level 3.

In short the inaccuracy of manual control is balanced by the sentry being tougher and more deadly. As a counterbalance to that the sentry will be inactive for 3 seconds after “holstering” the Wrangler. Which means accidently selecting the Wrangler can easily become a fatal mistake.

Another question is what happens to the sentry if the engy is killed? Will it remain in manual mode (not firing, yet partially protected by the shield? Or will it go inactive for 3 seconds and then switch to automatic mode again? I assume it will be the latter. That would be another balancing factor since killing the engy would open a 3 second window of opportunity to destroy the sentry (or perhaps even cap a point).

It's another unlock I don't find entirely convincing in its concept.
On chokepoints the Wrangler can be quite overpowered. It's more deadly and much harder to be taken down by a uber. In open areas it's more of a fair game, especially when the enemy is able to distract or even kill the engy.
What could easily become tough for the enemy team would be the combination of a “regular” sentry and one controlled by the Wrangler. Such a “best of both worlds” setup could potentially be really persistent. Which, again, on defensive oriented maps could make attacking tougher.

Also the new update showcased a new PL map: Upward. Not being accompanied by much info it looks like a more vertically designed map. Another good PL map would be a huge treat, so I'm looking forward how it will play.

So I guess we only have one unlock left. That will be an alternative melee weapon. Golden Wrench (unnumbered basic ones) with modified features?
I'm still hoping they will add something to support offensive engies on A/D and CP maps, something not particularly covered by the first two unlocks. And I really think this is an area which requires addressing. A modified building tool could still provide that.

Anything else, Valve? Besides the obligatory achievements, I mean? Compared to the sneaky presentation of the sniper/spy update (especially the terrific “Meet the Spy”-video) and the extravaganza of the War on the Soldier/Demo update this update is so far quite uneventful. Well, almost.

Yes, there are the 100 Golden Wrenches. Sadly I don't have the time to follow it fully, but I'm under the impression this is causing quite a commotion in the community. Ubercharged posted a commentary on the side effects.

Frankly I have not yet formed an opinion on all that. I understand that people would like to have a Golden Wrench. Heck, even I would love to get one. But it's playing the lottery, and some will be lucky while many others won't. Tough. Grow up. It's an item which value is only defined by its exclusivity. It has no impact on the game whatsoever. People only want it to feel special. While this is very human it is also very pathetic.

Some people suggest Valve should have handled this differently. Fair enough. But in times like this I can't help but thinking that this is shoving a mirror in front of a community's face clearly portraying the dark and ugly side of human nature. And while that surely was not the intent of Valve I like the sobering realization accompanying such events. It's a mix of stupidity, ignorance, envy and immaturity rearing its ugly head, and such things can't be illustrated and demonstrated often enough.
Simply because seeing people act jealously or grudgingly on such an unimportant object like a virtual decoration I kinda dread how these people would act in real life if things are involved which actually matter.

Okay, I'll stop the preaching. This night Valve will reveal the 3rd unlock. Tomorrow I will most likely bitch about that See you then ...

[1] Nerd-talk: Because if it was actually a spherical kind of force field questions would arise if people could get through that field, and if yes if inside the field the damage applied would be a 100% again.

The Things to come take shape

Teatime — 2010-07-06T19:38:21Z

Okay, Ladies and Gentlemen, the wait is (almost) over; the Engy Update is approaching fast. Yesterday the pages for the Engy Update on the blog went live; finally making the update official.

Of course the revelation of the pages were preceded by a mystery of actual golden wrenches dropped on a small number of players, a number which slowly increased in the evening. Finally the Engy Update page shed some light into that mystery.

Over the next four days 100 people will receive a numbered version of the Golden Wrench who will craft some item. To this time it is not known if there are any further criteria influencing the chance to receive the GW or if it's totally random for any kind of crafting. [1]
Valve promised to spread the drops to make it fair for all time-zones (a lesson they've learned after the protests on the Soldier's Service Medal which was released late afternoon american time, favouring the american players.

According to the blog every 25 dropped wrenches another detail of the Engy Update will be revealed. What I can't say so far is if that means that we'll get only three new weapons (or items) incl. achievements and after the 100th drop the update goes live or if we will get four parts of new content (e.g. a new map) and the update will go live a day later.
Which means the Engy Update will be released either Thursday or Friday (night; for us europeans ).
Personally I hope it will be Thursday; not because I'm impatient, but because that would give Valve another workday to fix bugs before the weekend

So following the schedule the first new engy weapon has been revealed shortly after the 25th wrench was dropped. It's the shotgun which we already saw in the Macupdate teaser. The shotgun is called Frontier Justice.

The Frontier Justice holds only half the count of ammo than the regular shotty and does not get regular crits.
Instead it receives what Valve calls revenge crits. For each kill of the engineer's sentry the engy received two guaranteed crits for the FJ. If the sentry is destroyed the engy will receive bonus crits (the amount is unknown so far). Also unknown is if the scope in the FJ will actually work.

This weapon seems to be geared mostly towards the defensive engineer or – to a lesser degree – to the aggressive offensive engy. But usually it's difficult for an offensive engy to rack up many kills with a sentry before it's destroyed, so on offense this will be highly situational.
However, for the defensive engineer this can easily prove to be a huge buff. If the damage scheme is the same as for the regular shotgun a crit means 180 damage, which will seriously hurt medium and strong classes. Two hits can even kill an unbuffed heavy.
That will also give the engy a bit more edge against spies (at least those not using the Dead Ringer).

To be honest my first impression about the Frontier is rather mixed.

For one it does not help the offensive engy (on CP and A/D maps), which I feel needs some addressing. Hopefully one of the other items will cover that area.
But more gravely it will strengthen the defensive engy and can greatly contribute to fight off enemy attacks. This will definitely make some defensive-oriented maps like Dustbowl or Goldrush hell to attack.
The main good aspect of the weapon is that it will not scale to the number of engies, since the number of possible kills is finite and collected crits will simply be spread between multiple engies. In that regard two engies will not be twice as effective.

Still, I'm already half expecting the FJ to be slightly nerfed in the future.

Okay, looks like the second new item will be uncovered soon. Stay tuned ...

PS: Rereading the blog it clearly states "culminating in the long-awaited Engineer Update this Thursday", so that one's answered.

PPS: New speculations suggest the Frontier Justice might store crits from the engy's sentry which will only be released once the sentry is destroyed, either by the enemy or by self-destruct. That would explain the term revenge crits.

[1] Initially I had the theory based on the inscription „The People who fought while [...] pressing the CRAFT IT button“ that a player might have to be in a fight, e.g. receiving damage, while crafting to qualify for the GW.

The Shape of Things to Come

Teatime — 2010-07-04T14:58:00Z

Of course this shape looks suspiciously like a wrench.

I know I've cried wolf before, but it appears the engy update is finally drawing near. In the recent blog Valve has published another comic, dealing once more with the (fictional) history of TeamFortress and the conflict between the Mann-brothers spanning many decades, this time shedding light who three generations of engineers have been involved with it. More backstory is revealed [1], we see glimpses of Saxton Hale and the Administrator and we are introduced to something golden. Except, it's not gold, it's a new element called Australium – hey, should I have said SPOILER ALERT first? - which I suspect we will encounter quite soon more closely.

I say this because another golden object made an quite inconspicuous appearance. A recent update contained code and model of a golden wrench. For the most part it does the same its brother of lower origin does: You can upgrade buildings and you can whack people. Only, after some fatal whacking those people turn to golden statues, very Midas-like. But is it gold the people are turned into? Or could it be Australium?

Will the engy update introduce a new generation of weapons based on the extraordinary properties of Australium?

And will the engy be capable of harvesting the Australium he is creating with all his whacking? Not that any of this seems very productive in the first place. After all, for an engy to go after enemy players with his wrench is not the most prospecting enterprise to begin with. Ah, it's all so confusing.

So I'm waiting with anticipation what the next week will (hopefully) bring.

Shacknews

TF2Wiki on the Golden Wrench

[1] Hey, Valve apparently is putting together some coherent storyline ... well as far coherent as a story can be about two teams located in bases just a stone throw apart fighting each other to the death