damn
i might have to use dx9 now :/

that probably just means you can only get the missions and skin crates for 3 months
the balance changes are permanent.

this is why we have tf2 beta

Hi

So how is the gun pickup thing gonna affect HL and 6's ?

the trak is visible on the wep in-game, strange isn't.

cow mangler

We will not talk about this.

Game dead though.

Are you kidding? The jag is now legitimate in 6's if you usually stand in spawn to switch to scout as soon as your sentry goes down, I know on process or snakewater last it's sometimes a thing to build the sentry directly outside of spawn and then move it when it gets to 3 to a more difficult-to-spam location.

Ways for valve to NOT have fucked this up:
-Ammo on gun is related to the ammo of the gun you dropped. So if you have 4/6 scatter loaded (66%) and pick up a shortstop it should have 2/4 loaded. The reason I think this is the case is because of the change with shortstop's using of a secondaries ammo.
-All stranges are changed to stat trak. While I'm more hoping this selfishly because I like my strange scatter, it also doesn't make sense to have something as worthless as stranges in the game. Their economic value will be about the same as a unique after a while.

probably hard to apply stat trak counter to every weapon in the game, instead of just like 10(?) stock weapons

Then just make stock stranges stat trak and leave the others alone?

I think the quickiebomb launcher has to be emergency banned before playoffs or shit is about to get ugly

I just want my australium to show how l33t I am :(

could the weapon pickup thing be preparation for Source 2? Bringing it more in line with CS:GO so that transitioning to the new engine is easier?

Cuz it seems kinda silly for tf2. I mean I could see cool stuff happening with like, killing a med and taking his medigun with charge, but otherwise what are the odds of killing an enemy player of the same class in a situation where their fully loaded gun is dropped and you dont have time to reload yours? Maybe it's not intended as a serious mechanic and it's more for pubs and people who want to switch weapons all the time.

I might be alone in this but I seriously hope they don't convert stranges into stat tracks. From the start I made an effort to stay away from weapon gimmicks like kill streaks, australium weapons, etc, because I find them obnoxious and ugly compared to the stock models.

Strange weapons are the only ones I really like because they don't have annoying effects, ugly skins (I hate australium weapons) or obnoxious hud popups or sounds, they're just a stock model with a neat little metric of kill count.

Stattracks might work fine in csgo with realistic weapon models but seriously how do you think they would integrate a stattrack into a rocket launcher, grenade launcher or original model for example? I reckon it would look ugly as fuck.

As someone who edits a lot of tf2 videos and frags, I think the stock models and skins are beautiful and I really try to stay away from non stock models/skins.

Even these skins for this update look rushed, weird and downright ugly, seriously looks like they just opened photoshop and went into the pattern tool and used all the default patterns onto those weapons. I have no doubt a skin workshop will bring amazing skins to tf2 like it did to csgo, but even then I would like to be able to still have my good old stock weapon and skin. If anything they should add a cvar for sv_pure 0 that would disable all skins/effects.

What do you guys think of the black box? I'm pretty upset, it actually sounds kinda awful now. I don't see it being viable in 6s or HL anymore.

they didnt fix demo. See you next update.

I wonder if shadowburn and the like will change to using the stock+conch instead of black box+conch now in situations that they'd usually use the black box

+20 health return for black box while having 1 less rocket is REALLY not worth it, I don't see it being viable at all

for the record esea and ugc both have a policy where any new weapons and any weapons that receive balance changes during a season are immediately banned unless otherwise noted

I wish the Original would get some love already, some xmas skins, new skins, gold version, something.

I'm lovin it!

What time do updates normally get rolled out?

once a year

10 minutes before your match

how about dragon dildo

Also wont the stattrack stuff just add the counter onto already existing strange weapons as well? That should be the best way to go.

the stattrak stuff wont reset my strange kills will it??? im scared ;~;

I think the stattrack stuff will be separate from current strange weapons. Probs no way to transfer either idk.

I don't think they'd put a cvar in to turn off a feature which is going to make them money. CS:GO doesn't have it, I doubt we will.

WALL

Ok, I clearly didn't give the full list the due diligence it deserved. Ok, here we go.
What I said about the Cloak and Dagger still applies.

The Dead Ringer isn't nearly as useful in 6s overall except for going for extreme shenanigan plays. In which case not being able to pick up ammo boxes while cloaked to prolong the cloaking, especially with how load the DR is leads to it being a definite nerf in 6s.

What I said about the engineer still stands.

For the Jag specifically: the additional speed may actually be felt with this new update the Jag should probably be the de-facto choice for 6s. No reason to use normal at that point.

Short Stop: wait. This shit is legal? I still wouldn't use it based off the fact that most of the time engineers just sit in spawn to let it die and waste ammo but still. The added CD is a nerf though.

Fan o'war: Has this thing ever been seriously used? But the major change on it I guess would be that it acts like the Bushwacka where it crits instead of mini-crits. That combined with the damage increase and it may do something like 30 damage per swing.

Escape Plan: The uber building idea is actually really cool, I think it's a pro instead of a con.

Black Box: I thought the BB was already hanging on by a thread in 6s but with this I REALLY don't think it's worth the use anymore. Not having that guaranteed baby burst of health. One note is that it was extremely good with the Conch for passive holds that could turn into aggression, or breaking a last hold.

Liberty Launcher: It might have an extremely niche use with fast rollouts that potentially would take more health or normally only leave you with one rocket. In general though it would probbbbably be a downgrade. The big decider would ultimately be someone doing the math to see if the extra rocket equalizes the damage down with a full clip with the normal rocket launchers. If it does, then it may be a potential side-grade for pockets.

Wee Booties/Bootlegger : I've personally never held the item in high esteem at all becuase I never felt the increase in health was worth the dramatic dropoff in damage. It gives you the ability to live a little bit longer in skirmishes in exchange for losing out on a lot of damage potential. The charge change isn't really relevant for competitive. The increase in movement speed makes it a little better in its weird niche. I dunno, maybe more people will pick it up. It will work with extremely passive demomen to let everyone else handle aggression while he just focuses down specific targets. Dunno, personally I don't like it either way. So, I may be shaded with bias here.

QuickieBomb Launcher: This is a weird little addition to the quickiebomb launcher. Essentially the way I'm reading this change is that they've added a little additive based on how much yuo've charged it. The quickiebomb already ramped up faster than the normal stickybomb launcher. But the quickiebomb does default less damage and has less shots. Ultimately, just how much damage is added for charge will decide it's standing. I wouldn't doubt that they just add enough damage to have it match the normal sticky launcher's damage. That combined with the faster charge rate and ramp up probably makes it better for sticky sniping than stock. But the damage nerf for using it is mostly equalized at that point.

Once you get closer things get extremely EXTREMELY MURKY. I don't really feel like doing the exact math right now but this is going to come down to math and situationals to decide it's relative strength. Without doing the math (as in according to what is currently listed on TF2wiki and some quick testing with its current version on live), the Stock just does more damage, and it becomes noticable at medium and close range. The Damage differential makes the stock straight up better at this range.

However at close range the Quickiebomb is faster to use because of the fact that you a re able to detonate it faster (the .2 decrease in arming time) however the damage differential is even more noticable.

Obviously, the fact that you still can't really have sticky traps is huge negative onto the Quickiebomb launcher in terms of area denial really hurts it. My preliminary verdict is that NOTHING will change becuase if no one ever gave it thought or a try before now, they will continue not using it.

Iron Bomber: This has to be thesingle most niche weapon in the entire game, it's use is so specific I only ever considered using it on one map against one specific type of hold. This change does basically nothing, it brings it a little closer in line with the Grenade launcher radius wise. But is more or less the extreme definition of a side-grade, in that the thing it changes has such a narrow use switching back and forth will really only create a placebo effect 95% of the time.

Vaccinator: I maintain that overall its a net nerf.

Eviction Notice: Are you serious?

Panic Attack: Obviously you can't be.

ARE YOU PEOPLE HAPPY. My prognosis is that almost NOTHING will change in 6s. Maybe teams that scout built will use the escape plan. Sentries go up a little faster, the two demomen who used the bootlegger will see it be more useful (Hivemind is the only one I can name that used it outside the process rollout). We, and specifically invite, are the slowest people adapt things that don't have OBVIOUS uses (like the Basher or the Kritz, which is not used very much) or blatant upgrades (like the ubersaw or Crusader crossbow). This fact honestly is why I didn't give this list due diligence in the first place, basically no one will adopt these things. None of them are world changers enough to pull people out of their comfort zone. Maybe two teams in 6s ever use the Concheror, NO ONE uses the Buff Banner, 2 soldiers (maybe 3 or 4) regularly use the Black Box, DR shenanigans are already shenanigans. Dunno, the first time I looked at this list I ignored everything I didn't bold becuase no one touches any of the other ones. And nothing that I saw upon a better look changed that opinion, I legitimately think the 10% movement speed buff on Bootlegger is the biggest one I didn't go over the first time. Of course the jury is still out on how much damage will be added on the Quickiebomb Launcher and math needs to be done on the Liberty Launcher.

Why did I do this?

tl;dr none of the changes are very significant. Maybe the LL, or Bootlegger. In 6s

edit: WOW the formatting didn't transfer, like at all.