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I just crafted the Cow Mangler 5000 last night. It seems to be more difficult to get kills using that than the rocket launcher for some weird reason.

That's because it's had some major nerfs.

It has these stats now.

Does not require ammo.

Alt-fire: A charged shot that mini-crits players and disables buildings for 4 sec.

-10% damage penalty

No random critical hits

5% slower reload time

Deals only 20% damage to buildings

Cannot be crit boosted

Unlucky, that's easily the most difficult to level up due to the fact that it's hard to get kills with one normally.

Wont even bother. Luckily got a strange shotgun for soldier and strange direct hit as well last night. Time to learn how shoot rockets precisely, i guess.

Oh, and the Cow Mangler thing - the good thing about is the charged shot. Worth it.

Okay I don't get something. I am trying to play as a spy which seems a bit difficult. I tried disguising as the enemy and I was found out right away, as soon as a member on the enemy team saw me they started immediately firing at me, not even being sure I was on their team. It's like they immediately knew I was a spy on the opposite team disguised as them.

Okay I don't get something. I am trying to play as a spy which seems a bit difficult. I tried disguising as the enemy and I was found out right away, as soon as a member on the enemy team saw me they started immediately firing at me, not even being sure I was on their team. It's like they immediately knew I was a spy on the opposite team disguised as them.

Make sure you are not disguising where someone can see you. Find a good hiding spot and disguise yourself. When you are in your hiding spot, wait for a few enemies to walk by and roll out behind them, and you'll probably get at least one kill.

In most cases though, teams will spy check, which everyone should do as there is no team damage. If that is the case, make sure you don't bump in to some one on the other team.

Good spies are super annoying. The ones that go as a duo, rush into an engineer nest, and spam sappers everywhere while engineers try to whack the spies (or hope they've got pyros flaming and pulling out homewreckers).

I'd personally like to avoid spy until I get better..

I have one question though, do you have to play as certain classes to receive certain items or can I get all items just by playing as one class?

There is no weapon in the game where you can only earn it after playing X amount of hours as that weapon's class.

You can get a class's "original" unlock weapons by completing that class's achievements, but otherwise you can theoretically get all items by waiting on random drops or crafting weapons from said drops.

Good spies are super annoying. The ones that go as a duo, rush into an engineer nest, and spam sappers everywhere while engineers try to whack the spies (or hope they've got pyros flaming and pulling out homewreckers).

Do what I do, equip the DR and Revolver (Enforcer preferred now though really, no downsides with the DR) and go battlespy.

If you know how to use the Revolver properly and how to time the DR, you can be far more destructive than 99.9% percent of classical spies. Most players seem to be too shocked or too overconfident that you can quickly kill them in many cases without them getting off more than a shot or two.

Hax. :shifty:

Kind of looks like the same glitch as that used for "infinite" pyro compression blasts (which really didn't do anything, but caused a visual headache).

Do what I do, equip the DR and Revolver (Enforcer preferred now though really, no downsides with the DR) and go battlespy.

If you know how to use the Revolver properly and how to time the DR, you can be far more destructive than 99.9% percent of classical spies. Most players seem to be too shocked or too overconfident that you can quickly kill them in many cases without them getting off more than a shot or two.

True, but given my time is spent mostly on payload these days, all I see are dead ringer spies causing sapper havoc on both sides. Not a lot of 'sniping' spies to go around.

It infuriates me when the team I'm playing on has say maybe a single pyro and there are three or four spies on the attacking team. Well those spies can eat my degreaser + mailbox combo. :D

I want the mailbox :laugh:

I am more of a engi's best friend pyro with the homewreaker.

I am too, whenever the situation necessitates a homewrecker.

Actually I'm using reskinned versions of both melee weapons. I'm using the Maul (looks like a wrench) which is exactly like the homewrecker (the Maul was an accidental craft), and the mailbox renamed to "You've got mail! :D"

Also, not sure if anyone is aware how many points you can easily rack up by simply putting your teammates out with the compression blast. As a defensive pyro you can sail to the upper half of your team's scoreboard by simply assisting engies, dousing fires, and occasionally pushing back uber combos.

I am too, whenever the situation necessitates a homewrecker.

Actually I'm using reskinned versions of both melee weapons. I'm using the Maul (looks like a wrench) which is exactly like the homewrecker (the Maul was an accidental craft), and the mailbox renamed to "You've got mail! :D"

Also, not sure if anyone is aware how many points you can easily rack up by simply putting your teammates out with the compression blast. As a defensive pyro you can sail to the upper half of your team's scoreboard by simply assisting engies, dousing fires, and occasionally pushing back uber combos.

I generally prefer to play defensively (about 60-70% of the time), so I know what you mean. A lot of times a team is so concerned with pushing forward that they forget all strategy, immediately die en masse, and the enemy team will start capping like no tomorrow.

I can skyrocket up the scoreboard by playing defensively with almost any class (scout and spy generally don't play as well defensively, but sometimes they can help).

There should be an Engi update coming soon... I expected to see more crate series also this week but I guess not.

All the old series crates are rising in value quickly since you can't get them no more and they are getting more and more rare by the day. The series #1 is still 1 Refined though...the rest are a rec and they drop to scraps by time you get to 19.

The new crates are horrible...I'd never waste a key on any strange weapon when they do NOTHING over what you already had in the weapons. It's time Valve starts dropping a special Unusual crate that will allow you to find only Unusual hats but they would be a rare drop like a hat drop is now. At least give ya something to spend the key money on that's legit and good.

There should be an Engi update coming soon... I expected to see more crate series also this week but I guess not.

All the old series crates are rising in value quickly since you can't get them no more and they are getting more and more rare by the day. The series #1 is still 1 Refined though...the rest are a rec and they drop to scraps by time you get to 19.

The new crates are horrible...I'd never waste a key on any strange weapon when they do NOTHING over what you already had in the weapons. It's time Valve starts dropping a special Unusual crate that will allow you to find only Unusual hats but they would be a rare drop like a hat drop is now. At least give ya something to spend the key money on that's legit and good.

:blink: I've never heard of anyone willing to trade scrap, refined or reclaimed for crates. They're so common. What's the point? I just delete my old crates, including series one. Had I known there were schmucks willing to trade scrap for what's essentially Russian Roulette, I would've kept 'em :laugh:

There should be an Engi update coming soon...

I wouldn't bet on it. They've yet to ship a gamemode that is essentially finished; let alone unlocks for a very balance sensitive class.

There will probably be new engineer items at some point, but I doubt it'll be soon.

The new crates are horrible...I'd never waste a key on any strange weapon when they do NOTHING over what you already had in the weapons. It's time Valve starts dropping a special Unusual crate that will allow you to find only Unusual hats but they would be a rare drop like a hat drop is now. At least give ya something to spend the key money on that's legit and good.

Uh, no. Regardless of your like or dislike of Strange items (I'm not really a fan either), at least now you're actually guaranteed to get an item of some value. Strange weapons usually go for a refined or more depending on the item.

I'd much rather unbox a Strange weapon I can trade off than a plain old duplicate that is a complete waste of cash.

:blink: I've never heard of anyone willing to trade scrap, refined or reclaimed for crates. They're so common. What's the point? I just delete my old crates, including series one. Had I known there were schmucks willing to trade scrap for what's essentially Russian Roulette, I would've kept 'em :laugh:

There's a guy on a server I play on that buys em. No idea what use he gets out of them, but last time I traded I got a half decent paint for 10 crates.

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  • Posts

    • Are you going to do performance benchmarks comparing all states? I'd be interested in seeing that in the next "part".
    • My father still uses a programme written in dbase3. Still manages to work with a little help from dosbox. 
    • Microsoft hides these secret Windows 11 performance boost settings available on every PC by Sayan Sen Windows enthusiasts often look for ways to extract as much performance out of their systems as possible, and it's often the case that they try and do so while trying to minimize the heat and power consumption. This is especially relevant in the case of mobile Windows PCs since laptops and notebooks tend to get hot and management of that heat and power is harder in such a form factor. As such users often turn to techniques like under-volting which can be used to squeeze out the maximum capabilities of a chip while also maintaining lowered power levels. There are official apps from AMD and Intel with the likes of Ryzen Master and XTU (Extreme Tuning Utility). While these are quite handy, most enthusiasts probably prefer to dig into the BIOS and play around with settings there like Curve Optimizer on Ryzen, which lets users set various frequency-voltage scaling values. These are essentially called P-States. If you are not familiar with them, Processor Power Management is done through Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) P-states and C-states. While P-states or performance pwoer states handle CPU voltage-frequency scaling, C-states deal with CPU sleep states so that some of the CPU functions, which are not necessary at that moment, can be disabled. The P-states and C-states work together to make the processor run more efficiently. It helps the OS and apps determine which cores can be parked and which should be boosted. Of course not every user is an enthusiast or knows the technicalities and integrities of how things like overclocking or undervolting work. Thankfully for them Windows itself offers something pretty cool, though it is hidden by default on all systems. By default, Windows only has two P-States, "Minimum Processor State" and "Maximum Processor State." However, this can be changed with a Registry trick to expand the options under a secret "Processor performance boost mode" dropdown. This essentially enables the HWP or hardware P-States available on a device, and these are not controlled just by the OS itself as the underlying hardware gets involved too. In total there are five Processor Performance Boost Mode profiles that control how Windows requests and allows CPU turbo/boost behavior under the different power policies. They are: Disabled: In this mode, processor boosting is effectively turned off. The CPU will avoid entering turbo or boost frequencies and instead operate closer to its base frequency ceiling. This can significantly reduce power consumption and heat output, but at the cost of reduced burst performance and responsiveness in short workloads. Enabled: This is the standard behavior where boost functionality is allowed under normal conditions. The processor can opportunistically increase frequency when workload demands it, balancing performance gains with power and thermal constraints as managed by the system. Aggressive: Aggressive mode favors performance more heavily, allowing the CPU to enter higher boost states more readily and sustain them longer. This should in theory improve responsiveness under bursty or heavy workloads but increases power draw and thermal output compared to the default enabled behavior. Efficient Enabled: This mode still allows boosting, but with a stronger bias toward energy efficiency. The system attempts to use boost more selectively, avoiding unnecessary frequency spikes when the performance gain is marginal. Efficient Aggressive: This is a hybrid approach where boost is still performance-responsive, but the system continuously weighs efficiency more heavily than in Aggressive mode. It aims to deliver noticeable performance improvements while reducing wasted power in less demanding scenarios. Here's how to enable the Processor performance boost mode: Open Registry Editor: Press Win+R, type regedit, and click OK. Go to: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00\be337238-0d82-4146-a960-4f3749d470c7 (where HKLM stands for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_) Modify the value of Attributes from 1 to 2 (you can find modify option by right-clicking) After that, exit Registry, you should now be able to see the new "Processor performance boost mode" dropdown menu: As you can see there are now five new P-States or CPPC states or power profile available that help define the boost mode processor setting on your PC. Wrapping it up here's a quick run-down of the settings as defined by Microsoft itself. Setting Description Disabled The corresponding P-state-based behaviour is disabled. Collaborative Processor Performance Control (CPPC) behaviour is disabled. Enabled The corresponding P-state-based behaviour is enabled. CPPC behaviour is Efficient Enabled. Aggressive The corresponding P-state-based behaviour is enabled. CPPC behaviour is Aggressive. Efficient Enabled The corresponding P-state-based behaviour is Efficient. CPPC behaviour is Efficient Enabled. Efficient Aggressive The corresponding P-state-based behaviour is Efficient. CPPC behaviour is Aggressive. Aggressive At Guaranteed Windows calculates the desired extra performance above the guaranteed performance level, and asks the processor to deliver that specific performance level. Efficient Aggressive At Guaranteed Windows always asks the processor to deliver the highest possible performance above the guaranteed performance level. In the next part we shall be comparing these settings to explore how much of a benefit or regression they can provide in terms of performance and power efficiency. If you decide to change the values on your system and are experiencing problems like crashes or an overheating PC, make sure to revert the steps back to the original state.
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