official Team Fortress 2

[ViZioN]

Yeah, apparently they accidentally posted the update with debugging enabled. They are reworking it and going to post an update soon (in Valve time) that disables debugging.

And I am assuming that is -15 health not 15% (though they are both roughly the same at the scouts health), not bad....running around with 110 health vs 95.

LOL :laugh: Wonder who will get their knuckles rapped for that :p

[AimLXJ]

Yeah, apparently they accidentally posted the update with debugging enabled. They are reworking it and going to post an update soon (in Valve time) that disables debugging.

And I am assuming that is -15 health not 15% (though they are both roughly the same at the scouts health), not bad....running around with 110 health vs 95.

Ops my mistake, its -15% (95HP!)

[Denis W. Veteran]

Good, the resupply cabinet no longer resets the rage meter. No more camping dispensers (Y)

Also it's time to get some equalizer achievements.

[AimLXJ]

Ops my mistake, its -15% (95HP!)

Another mistake, apparently the server I was playing was not updated, so the Scout's HP with The Sandman is 110.

[Nagisan]

Another mistake, apparently the server I was playing was not updated, so the Scout's HP with The Sandman is 110.

Yup I have found out by checking with some other people. I think -15 health is a very good tradeoff now for the way the sandman currently works. It is not a guaranteed kill like it use to be, but it still effectively removes an enemy from combat temporarily. Either allowing you to escape, or allowing your team mates to push (imagine a single heavy with a medic spamming bullets into a hallway and a few of your team trying to push through, by the time they get through they are going to be fairly low on health. Now, let a scout take that heavy out of combat, by the time your team pushes through being able to kill or ignore the heavy for a few seconds, they are able to do MUCH more damage without getting low on health).

The -15 health is still a bit of a loss, but its only half the loss it use to be when it was a full stun. And it also prevents the scout from being able to easily 1v1 any class in the game that gets caught with a sandman ball.

[Blackhearted]

Yup I have found out by checking with some other people. I think -15 health is a very good tradeoff now for the way the sandman currently works. It is not a guaranteed kill like it use to be

Like it used to be? Maybe vs 125-150 hp classes it was a guaranteed kill. But rarely with anything that had more than that as the duration rarely allowed it vs those classes. As for the new change to the sandman... it's still useless, just like it has been ever since the first nerf to it. A mere partial revert of the health loss isn't enough to redeem this long dead unlock.

[Nagisan]

Like it used to be? Maybe vs 125-150 hp classes it was a guaranteed kill. But rarely with anything that had more than that as the duration rarely allowed it vs those classes. As for the new change to the sandman... it's still useless, just like it has been ever since the first nerf to it. A mere partial revert of the health loss isn't enough to redeem this long dead unlock.

Yes, like it use to be.

A point blank meatshot does on average 95 damage. Even with the half-damage it use to have, that is 47.5 damage every 0.66 seconds of stun.

Now, assuming the first shot lands right after the stun (your not going to hit your ball then sit back until it hits someone to move in, your going to hit it, move in, then retreat if it misses the person before you get too close), that is 47.5 -> 0.66s -> 47.5 -> 0.66s -> 47.5 -> 0.66s 47.5. Anyone with less than 190 health (all but the soldier and heavy) are dead at this point, in a mere 2 seconds assuming they had full health. Now, if it was a soldier, he now has 10 health or so, you can either switch to your pistol and finish him off, or get another meatshot before he has time to switch to his shotgun (if he fires a rocket at that range, he is dead regardless).

As for the stun duration you are simply wrong about that, it can stun for 2 seconds at medium range, long enough infact for a FaN scout to unload 2 shots and be nearly done reloading (which takes something like 1.9s total) before the stun wears off If that is not long enough for you to kill a stunned person (other than maybe soldier and heavy) then maybe you need to improve your aim a bit and try again?

Besides, just because a scout might not kill a person while they were stunned doesn't mean it wasn't a gaurenteed kill. If you get 2 shots off (in 0.66 seconds) against a stunned person that is still a whopping 95 damage that you got for free as they couldn't move (pre stun nerf). That increases your chances a ton against all classes as even a soldier is down almost half his health, another good meatshot plus an extra stray bullet would finish any class except the heavy off, all without giving them a chance to attack back until it was too late.

Now, I will agree in saying it is still pretty much useless, but it is much better than it was in the past. A mere 15 health loss is, while a large amount (it would be the equivalent of playing a heavy with only 264 health), it is not so much that it completely cripples the scout in direct combat to gain a ranged weapon.

How much of a difference is it?

RL vs -30hp sandman: RL ALWAYS 1-hit kills a scout on a direct hit (the rocket hits the scout, not the DH weapon)

RL vs -15hp sandman: RL rarely 1-hit kills a scout (112 is its MAX damage, unless you play on a server with non-variable damage it will only kill a scout when hitting for only 3 of its 8 possible damage values, as opposed to 8 out of 8).

GL vs -30hp sandman: GL sometimes 1-hit kills a scout on a direct hit (16 out of 31 of its possible damage values)

GL vs -15hp sandman: GL rarely 1-hit kills a scout on a direct hit (2 out of 31 of its possible damage values).

So yes, it is still useless for the most part, as a scout with 125 hp would never be 1-hit killed by a normal rocket or nade, but vs its old variant of -30hp, it has received a huge buff, increasing a sandman scouts survivability against two of the main classes it counters (which makes him an even stronger counter vs those classes). Not to mention the ability to survive a good meatshot from other scouts (at 95 health thats only enough to survive half of a scattergun scouts meatshots, and never survive a good FaN meatshot, at 110 you have enough to always survive a non-crit scattergun meatshot AND always survive a non-crit FaN meatshot).

Either way, the sandman still sucks, Valve needs to delete the scout unlocks and release some decent unlocks for him, he is the only class that does not have at least one weapon that can be used 50/50 or a majority of the time (as in not a single one of his unlocks is good enough to be a perfect sidegrade, every other class has at least 1 unlock worthy of the term sidegrade).

But you cannot deny the fact that the sandman is much more useful than it was at -30 hp.

[Sir Topham Hatt]

Does anyone have any tips for being a Spy?

When you go near someone and your knife is ready to backstab them, I guess the disguise comes off? I find no matter what I do, I always seem to get found out :s

[Nagisan]

Does anyone have any tips for being a Spy?

When you go near someone and your knife is ready to backstab them, I guess the disguise comes off? I find no matter what I do, I always seem to get found out :s

Your disguise only disappears when you actually attack. You can put down all the sappers you want without losing your disguise, but the second you stab or shoot you lose your disguise. It has a lot to do with people being paranoid about spies, if you are sitting back just watching your team, you are going to be spy-checked. If you are running straight at a team mate (technically an enemy), expect to by spy checked. The best way to get backstabs is find the people off on their own and not paying attention, or learn how to do things like stair stabs and what not (google up some videos). I personally rarely play spy so beyond that theres not much in tips I can give, but its a few common mistakes people make (running straight at a persons back, etc).

I know when I play scout I pretty much either attack with my team or hang out around our back line looking for people out of place (for example, watching a "team mate" run out from around a corner or a room, when I saw none of my team enter that room/corner).

Another good one you can do is if you see some of your own teams nades bouncing around or some rockets being fired, take a step back and try to avoid them so it looks to the enemy like you are one of them, trying to avoid damage/death.

[Sir Topham Hatt]

Thanks :D

[Blackhearted]

Has anyone had any issues with TF2 causing their video drivers to crash and recover causing rather long hangs mid game lately? I've been having this issue on and off ever since i played this again around soldier update time. And it seems to be exclusive to tf2, as i can play any other game, including much more demanding things, for hours upon hours without a hitch. I'm running the cat 9.12's on my 4850 with 7 64.

[Nagisan]

Has anyone had any issues with TF2 causing their video drivers to crash and recover causing rather long hangs mid game lately? I've been having this issue on and off ever since i played this again around soldier update time. And it seems to be exclusive to tf2, as i can play any other game, including much more demanding things, for hours upon hours without a hitch. I'm running the cat 9.12's on my 4850 with 7 64.

I have never had any type of crash in TF2 related to my video drivers (also running 9.12s on Win7 64-bit), the closest I had was a TF2 crash due to some ram issue, it turns out without texture compression enabled the textures in TF2 take up more than 1GB of video memory (after all other things, that is).

I do have a crash though that happens only between map changes (when the server changes maps). It does not happen every time, maybe 1 out of 4-5 times, but it is so freakin annoying playing on a normal map rotation server, only to have to restart the game and rejoin every couple hours due to map changes. Valve seriously needs to fix that issue, I have had it on 3 different occurrences of system installs and have seen other people with the same issue, so its not simply something wrong with my computer that I could fix....

[PricklyPoo]

Maybe people will stop calling the FaN OP now, it never compared to the scattergun in direct combat, the only reason people screamed OP was because it was an annoying weapon to fight against...

Agreed, I've always gone for an all stock scout. The FaN was never as good as the scattergun, it was more annoying though. :p

But I still think the sandman is worthless, don't understand why people use it.

[ViZioN]

Another update out. Just a small one this time though.

Team Fortress 2

• Fixed grounded players receiving falling damage from Force-A-Nature shots directly above them
  
• Fixed the Force-A-Nature firing fewer pellets when tf_use_fixed_weaponspreads was 1
  
• Updated the achievement icon for the "May I Cut In?" Spy achievement to match the achievement description
  

[Denis W. Veteran]

Has anyone had any issues with TF2 causing their video drivers to crash and recover causing rather long hangs mid game lately? I've been having this issue on and off ever since i played this again around soldier update time. And it seems to be exclusive to tf2, as i can play any other game, including much more demanding things, for hours upon hours without a hitch. I'm running the cat 9.12's on my 4850 with 7 64.

Nope, you're not alone. I've had the video driver crash on me twice this past week. Running a OC'ed 8800/9800 GT on Win7 x64.

[ViZioN]

Come to think of it, I've had the hang in game too. Normally lasts about 20-30s. Fairly irregularly, again on Windows 7 x64.

[Blackhearted]

Yep. That seems to be what i'm talking about(long hang, audio loop during hang, driver eventually resets itself, etc). Atleast now i know for sure it's not my system. Wonder what exactly is causing it though.

[Billus]

Yep. That seems to be what i'm talking about(long hang, audio loop during hang, driver eventually resets itself, etc). Atleast now i know for sure it's not my system. Wonder what exactly is causing it though.

I've always thought it was just my system lol. Really annoying when it happens, especially when your about to kill someone haha.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

I get that to, then again I also get it in other games.

The Nvidia drivers suck.

[ViZioN]

Are people experiencing the problem with the newest/newer hardware? Not that it should make a difference but my graphics card is pushing 3 years old now.

I think blackhearted said he was running ati drivers too so much be something in TF2 or less likely, Windows 7 x64 :p

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

TF2 might be doing something bad to cause DirectX to mess up, taking the driver down, but it's also quite likely it's just the nvidia driver acting up (The nvidia driver accounts for 60% or something of all windows crashes)

I just got a BSOD because it locked up and refused to restart while playing GTA4, same thing happens all the time in Fallout 3 as well.

[Blackhearted]

Are people experiencing the problem with the newest/newer hardware? Not that it should make a difference but my graphics card is pushing 3 years old now.

I think blackhearted said he was running ati drivers too so much be something in TF2 or less likely, Windows 7 x64 :p

Yep, i'm running a radeon 4850(at stock speeds) with the catalyst 9.12s. And since it's happening on my end too i guess that would mean it's not specific to nvidia cards.

I did also upgrade my mobo and cpu roughly a week and a half ago, but i seen this issue happen a couple of times before that too so... i doubt it's the newer-ness of that.

[r1ddl3r]

/braggin' on

30 heads in a life

/braggin off

As for crashing, I had a similar problem but I found a solution placing an empty html file in tf folder. The person who suggest it said that most servers use an html format to show info on the loading screen and that a thing UAC doesn't like (if I remember correctly). I 'll try to find the relevant info

[Chasethebase Veteran]

Hm, I've had no problems here. Windows 7 x64 with an ATi Mobility Radeon HD 4570

[Sir Topham Hatt]

Has anyone had any issues with TF2 causing their video drivers to crash and recover causing rather long hangs mid game lately? I've been having this issue on and off ever since i played this again around soldier update time. And it seems to be exclusive to tf2, as i can play any other game, including much more demanding things, for hours upon hours without a hitch. I'm running the cat 9.12's on my 4850 with 7 64.

Yeah, I have had this. Running exactly the same as what you are.

Sometimes it recovers back to the game, sometimes not.