official Team Fortress 2

[Nagisan]

i think there is a thing in the agreement about using 3rd party utilities for anything, agreed they didn't say an idler specifically. but to use that as an excuse is just sad

IIRC the only thing mentioning 3rd party programs in the ToS was programs that modify the game such as wallhacks which modify textures and models in-game or things that modify DLLs to allow you to play games you would not typically have access to (such as a majority of steam cracks out there). The idler did none of that and therefore according to Valves ToS, completely legal (that is, before the blog post and what not).

In the end running the idler is no different (in terms of in-game rewards and what not) than sitting in an achievement_idle server and doing nothing. Sitting in a server through TF2 you were still idle (doing nothing) but your computer was not. Running the idle program you were idle (doing nothing) and neither was your computer (compared to running the game).

Basically what Valve is saying is its OK to idle as long as your using computer resources to do so. It is not OK to be more energy efficient and idle using hardly any computer resources.

[Minimoose]

Yeah, loads of people just use achievement_idle servers now or go on a private server and switch the timelimit to unlimited (or a map like idle or turris).

They say that is only punishes 4.5% of players, but I would bet that figure is from people who own the game, rather than people who actively play it. One thing I find annoying is how they tried to bring morality into it, it's got nothing to do with being good or bad, it's about how fed up with the crap system you became.

Just to show how broken the system is, I probably played for about 100-200 hours since the update came out (of course I don't count so I don't have a clue, could be more could be less), but I idled for somewhere around 1000, and I still didn't get a hat, now that strikes me as slightly ridiculous since some people played for 5 hours and got a hat and quite a few others have 3+ hats.

By now I have given up on getting a hat, running the idle program didn't cost me any time (also I didn't have a hat for valve to delete), so it's not a big deal that I can't use it anymore.

I do think that valve could have handled the situation more professionally though, like releasing an official statement right at the start saying, "We will **** you over if you use this program".

Edited September 5, 2009 by Minimoose

[Blackhearted]

Hats are serious business.

[sundayx Veteran]

Need hat.

[Denis W. Veteran]

Time for some epic win:

[Jimmy0]

Haha, that guy is brilliant!

[Pc_Madness]

That was quite creepy!

[Scirwode]

That was awesome :rofl: !

Scirwode

[Minifig]

Link.

Pretty much my dream map after I said this in the official forums.

[ViZioN]

LOL. 'Spy stole SASCHA!" :rofl:

Link.

Pretty much my dream map after I said this in the official forums.

Looks pretty cool :)

[ViZioN]

New Update!

Engine

• If the installation is an HLTV relay we allow clients to connect as HLTV clients even if tv_enable is set to false. A recent exploit fix made it such that we ignore the flag indicating that the client is an HLTV client if tv_enable is false, but it is possible that relays won't have this ConVar set
  

Additions / Changes

• Backpack improvement
  • Added support for 100 slots in the backpack
    
  • Backpack can now be sorted by type
    
  • Multi-selection in the backpack is now done by holding down the Ctrl key
    

  [*]Alt-fire on the Sandvich now drops sandviches

  • A single sandvich can be dropped at a time. Dropping the sandvich removes it from the Heavy
    
  • A Heavy can regain his sandvich by collecting a healthkit while already being at full health
    
  • Eating a sandvich using the taunt method now heals a Heavy to full health
    
  • Dropped sandviches heal 50% of the collector's health
    

  [*]Medic regen changes

  • Base regen amount increased from 1/sec to 3/sec
    
  • Regen amount increase since time of last damage decreased from 3x to 2x
    
  • End result of above: Old healing scaled from 1/sec to 3/sec based on time since being damaged (maxed out at 10 seconds). New healing scales from 3/sec to 6/sec
    

  [*]Blutsauger

  • Replaced "No critical hits" negative attribute with "-2 health drained per second on wearer"
    
  • Health drain stacks on top of the above Medic regen changes, lowering the base regen by 2h/sec
    

  [*]Added "mp_windifference" server ConVar (default to 0)

  • When set to X, matches will be considered won if a team gets X points ahead of the other team
    

  [*]Added a "Remember the active weapon between lives" option to the Multiplayer->Advanced options dialog

  [*]Added "Disable weather effects" option to the Multiplayer->Advanced options dialog

  [*]Added "Show non-standard items on spectated player" option to the Multiplayer->Advanced options dialog

  • If set (default), it'll show non-standard items being carried by the player you're spectating
    

  [*]Tournament mode changes

  • New item whitelist allowing tournaments to control what items can be used by players
    
  • Added "item_whitelist_example.txt"
    
  • Added "item_show_whitelistable_definitions" command to get a list of whitelistable items
    

  [*]Added Tournament mode Spectator HUD

  • Added "Use advanced spectator HUD in tournament mode" option to the Multiplayer->Advanced options dialog
    
  • Shows all the members of your team (or both if you're a spectator) at the top of the screen, along with class/health/respawn time/charge level
    
  • Spectator indices are now shown on the team members, and hitting the corresponding weapon selection key (slot1-slot12 commands) will spectate them
    

  [*]Changed idle player check to include spectators & players who haven't chosen a team

Bug Fixes

• Fixed explosive radius detection using an axially aligned box instead of a sphere
  • Compensated by increasing the radius of grenades, pipes, and rockets to 50% of what they lost at the corners of the OBB
    
  • Grenades/Pipes radius change: 132->159
    
  • Rocket radius change: 121->146
    
  • End result of above: Explosives have had their radius reduced at some angles, and increased at others. Radius is now consistent, angles are now irrelevant
    

  [*]Fixed Sniper using the reference pose if he has the Huntsman deployed when his team loses

  [*]Fixed Spies speaking their response rules lines after killing a player as the class they were disguised as

  [*]Fixed Medics getting MedicCallerPanels in their HUD for cloaked enemy Spies disguised as their team

  [*]Fixed the Huntsman not firing crit arrows when the Sniper is being CritBoosted

  [*]Fixed being able to fire the Huntsman under water if you jump into the water with the arrow charged

  [*]Added check to prevent clients using the "firstperson" command to get out of thirdperson view while they're phasing, taunting or control stunned

  [*]Fixed Halo glow effect not being hidden for cloak/disguised enemy Spies

  [*]Fixed wearables not destroying their attached particles when they're removed

  [*]Fixed several player & viewmodel simulation issues that occurred when the game was paused

  [*]Fixed a DX8-based exploit that allowed modified particle effects to work under sv_pure 2

Community Requests

• Added the entindex() of the object being built to the "player_builtobject" game event
  
• Added flag to allow CTF map authors to turn off the Overtime mode when timers expire
  
• Added IgnitePlayer input to TFPlayer
  

[Minifig]

Fixed Halo glow effect not being hidden for cloak/disguised enemy Spies

YAY!

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

I got called a hacker for using that to help my aim.

That spy had no idea how I could keep hitting him on a balcony with my flare gun. Of course I said it was just skill and my team backed me up :p

[lalalawawawa]

Is there any difference between a level 10 weapon and level 90 or something weapon? And how do you get to a higher level? :)

[Dance.]

no there isnt. higher levels are random drops but now its all fixed.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

The level is just a number, but they're rarer items now.

Not as rare as hats (they're just stupid rare), but most of the items you find will be stock standard.

[ViZioN]

I wonder how much Valve have decreased the odds of getting a hat. I still haven't managed to get one, and others on my friends list seem to be in a similar situation.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

I think the odds are still the same, around 1/200 or something (although Valve did say they got boosted a bit) So play for 200 hours, get awarded 199 dupes and 1 hat.

And that's if you're lucky, I played 12 hours last week and received 3 items.

[Mathachew Veteran]

I think the odds are still the same, around 1/200 or something (although Valve did say they got boosted a bit) So play for 200 hours, get awarded 199 dupes and 1 hat.

And that's if you're lucky, I played 12 hours last week and received 3 items.

Yeah, I put a good few hours in and only got two items over the last few days.

[lalalawawawa]

Okay. Thank you for answering. :)

[ViZioN]

I think the odds are still the same, around 1/200 or something (although Valve did say they got boosted a bit) So play for 200 hours, get awarded 199 dupes and 1 hat.

And that's if you're lucky, I played 12 hours last week and received 3 items.

If only you actually got drops every hour or so. I reckon the average time for drops for myself is around the 2-3 hour mark which means I'll have to play crap loads of hours to get one, unless I get lucky...

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

Yeah, the drop times are random, but on average they can take 1-2 hours or more. I played a few hours last night and got nothing.

The system in it's current state really sucks, which is why people ended up using the idler (can't play TF2 for 24 hours a day constantly).

[Chanser]

So far only 3 hats gained.

[Minifig]

I found this absolutely hilarious..

[ViZioN]

Yeah, the drop times are random, but on average they can take 1-2 hours or more. I played a few hours last night and got nothing.

The system in it's current state really sucks, which is why people ended up using the idler (can't play TF2 for 24 hours a day constantly).

Yeah the sooner they implement some sort of trading scheme, or swapping duplicates for desired items, the better.

So far only 3 hats gained.

Only :( You're lucky :p