Team Fortress 2

What if it was a medigun, and required Ubercharge to activate (a la the Vaccinator)?

Don't mind me, I just need to vent about Scream Fortress real quick. Or more specifically, about the Halloween contracts.

The problem is, Halloween contracts are all for Scream Fortress maps, which, not to put too fine a point on it... are totally unbalanced messes. When just playing for fun, the fact they're unbalanced isn't a problem. Yes, spells and bosses and such make random crits look like highly skill-based gameplay by comparison, but that's what you expect going in, and really, it doesn't matter, it's just a game. But now, you're making people feel the need to actually play them and accomplish certain objectives for rewards. So that makes things like having Merasmus spawn thirty times in a round go from funny to infuriating as you're waiting for the round to end to complete your contract before the server crashes and you have to do it all over again. And what truly exasperates it all is the aimbot crisis. Because now you have to find a server that isn't full of them before you can even do your contract, which means a lot of waiting, and once you get into a decent server you'll have to be constantly kicking bots on your team and hoping the enemy team does the same, and worst of all, you have to hope that a bot doesn't copy your name and get you kicked (because yeah they still do that, so much for fixing that one Valve), ruining any contract progress.

I mean, it's obvious they don't have much interest in working on this game anymore, but with the bot crisis they really should have changed the free Halloween item system, or at least made some changes to it. Really, the worst part is that the contracts make the Scream Fortress maps into a chore, so I don't enjoy playing them, and by the time I'm done with the contracts the last thing I want to do is play these maps any more.

Or, disregard contracts, play in community servers, have fun?

Halloween maps are so unbalanced that it can still be hard to enjoy them casually. Too easy to die to random bullshit or have certain maps drag on for ages.

Well, it was apparent when they decided to turn Hightower and Doomsday into Halloween maps

Doomsday can potentially be over in like a minute, at least.

And miss out on free hats? Now that's crazy talk.

Beats the old days where you had to grab a gift randomly on the map. And that was enough of a bother when it wasn't designated to you, which resulted in a lot of Scout whoring.

My memories of Halloween maps pre-contracts were seeing a boss spawn, trying to kill it, getting killed by some jerk going around killing people trying to kill the boss, or finally killing the boss and then attempting to get the reward item only to get killed on the way there by some dick again.

Yesterday was Christmas for yours truly: two All-Class cosmetic drops, back to back - Baronial Badge (eh) and Salty Dog (excellent).

Unrelated to that, some time ago there was an impromptu 12-v-12 Scout Fiesta on Upward that I got to participate in. Force-a-Nature is a silly weapon.

I've been trying to get back into TF 2, dropped into three separate maps full of sniper bots and some guy spamming the same music while making it look like it was me.

Yeah most people don't play official servers anymore for that reason

It's not that bad. Yeah, bots are out and about - sometimes they come out in droves - but for the most part it's not difficult to get ordinary games with people. Plus, if given the chance, nine players out of ten vote those bots out.

Depends on region and when you're playing I guess. Personally I just don't see the point, even if the server keeps them under control they're a constant nuisance that interrupts gameplay. Would rather play Uncletopia or Skial's new casual-esque servers and not worry about it.

I guess the only thing playable with bots is the Mann vs Machine mode.

Where can I find proper matches?

Uncletopia.

Currently there's a group chat ongoing with TF2 voice actors, if you want to take a look.

Too bad about all the people demanding TF2 update news. Not that I don't get it, but it's not like the VAs can freely talk about it even if they have any info.

Fellow Tropers, a You Tuber known as Squim Jim has started a community protest in which people are sending emails en masse to Valve employees as well as media websites. There is currently no response from Valve, but people outside (starting with IGN) are listening and joining the mass complaints. Is this the best shot we have?

Edited by TheGrayShadow on May 20th 2022 at 11:18:41 AM

This game is still extremely popular. Why Valve completely abandoned it is downright baffling. I hope Valve actually listens and sees that there is still a lot of money in TF 2 if they actually cared. A man can dream and a good dream would be Valve realizing that TF 2 is still huge and starting to actively deal with the bots and at the very least hire a new team to make new content for the game. They clearly have the resources and the game is still hugely popular (it genuinely grew recently despite the bots).

Edited by TheLivingDrawing on May 20th 2022 at 2:49:05 PM

Unfortunately, despite all the fan uproar... TF2 code is a nightmare to work on, it's not something many developers are interested in after all these years, and the money they can make off it is substantial but ultimately a drop in the bucket compared to what they make off Steam (money is really not something Valve is desperate for). I think we're more likely to see some third games from them than another truly major TF2 update or a real fix to the aimbot problem. Not that I wouldn't be happy to be proven wrong.

Edited by FGHIK on May 21st 2022 at 3:12:06 AM

The last major update this game got was on its TENTH ANNIVERSARY. Let that sink in.

Then again, the game turns 15 in 5 months.

God, it really does.

Seeing as we see new cosmetics and crates added semi-periodically, someone is working on TF 2 even today, but they're putting in a minimal amount of effort just to squeeze in some extra money - so there is some incentive for Valve to work on the game, and increase the profit by making the game more playable.

Honestly one of the biggest flubs I've seen in my life. It's an incredibly iconic game that they've just left to rot.