I don't know if I completely agree with this. Obviously banners work best if you play around a stalemate but they don't make creating the stalemate any easier which I think is the main problem with other unlocks that deserve a ban. They also provide a resolution to their own stalemates and some of the best counterplay to them is to not let the game get slow enough that they can build it (by doing stuff like aggressing the flank with ur combo, sending players behind etc). In that way they feel more equivalent to stuff like offclassing to sniper and spy where you're going to do it when there's already a stalemate rather than planning for one with it. It does take longer to build than a pick class does to get a pick so there's something in that though.

I'm not sure that enabling cheese plays (where you're saccing for the point or deleting stickies to get through a choke) is inherently bad, it's just different. I do think that deleting stickies as they're coming out of a demo's gun so you can do damage to him and deny him from doing any is a pretty stupid mechanic though.

I think my general point is I kind of worry that we have a very fixed idea of exactly what the game should be. At this point everyone has figured out how that version of tf2 should be played and it's purely about execution which imo makes the game far less interesting than it has been in the past (along with certain balance changes that threw off the initial flow the game was designed around in the first place). It really hits home watching the streams of the old ESEA finals where they're still working out how to do all this stuff. I don't think unlocks in general really affect much at all, but I do think that wanting to ban stuff when you won't see it used in 95% of games and it's effect on gameplay is minimal or for one specific play is very much a symptom of that.

Also, I realize most people disagree with me on this, but I don't really understand why you need to ban the 80% of weapons that nobody ever runs because they're terrible. I feel like tf2 is the only game where people want to ban things for being too underpowered. Beyond that, I think there's a few weapons that actually have good use cases that most people don't include on their lists (soldier backpacks, and either quickies or scottish resistance for getting stickies off a point).

As for things that should be banned are some weapons that are arguable because they throw off class balance a bit like the winger and then the real problem weapons are things like the vaccinator, quick fix, wrangler, rescue ranger, natascha which all have the common problem that they make stalemates and holding last really easy, or things that just insta win fights for no cost like mad milk.

If "straight upgrade to stock" is at all a valid reason to ban a weapon then we shouldn't allow gunboats, escape plan or crossbow. "Does it change class balance in a way that makes the game significantly worse" is probably a better motive to go with.

Watch out ETF2L, if u keep banning sniper mains u might inadvertently create the perfect league.

I used to get this crash on my old laptop years ago in really bizarre circumstances which was when players in the server had certain hats equipped, and the error message indicates it's probably an issue with a dodgy model trying to be rendered. If it's every time a demo is loaded it might be some model that always gets loaded every time a demo starts, but not when you're in game? Maybe something that's blocked by sv_pure? I'd try launching with no custom folder and validating game files. Otherwise someone might know what model is causing it from context?

Sorry for the necro, but this video along with a few other termo vids isn't online anywhere any more. Did anyone have them saved who can reupload?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ4JNmJE8xc

https://i.imgur.com/yUwuhDa.jpg

My guess is that the transformation from the iron bomber model to the regular pipe model also changes the bounding box? That might explain why it's not a cube and has that weird dimension that's about a unit smaller.
In any case you could argue that all pipe launchers be updated to use an 8x8x8 bounding box or something but the if this is fixed it's definitely the iron bomber that gets changed.

This reads like uve never played 6es.

Hmm that seems like a bug. If the Iron Bomber has a special attribute to change its the collision and physics model to be the same as stock, they're probably intended to have the same hitboxes right? Might be something worth playing around with in that mastercoms mod either toggling so the iron bomber has the same behaviour as other grenade launchers or all grenade launchers have the same behaviour as the iron bomber.

I heard that custom vtfs can be used on pure servers when placed in vgui/replays/thumbnails, with vmts located in the correct location with preloading. However, this doesn't seem to work for me even on sv_pure 0 unless I place the materials folder in tf/custom/hudname rather than just tf/ which makes the texture not viewable in sv_pure 2.

Secondly, the same textures aren't working at all for another hud element, which I assume is because there are some other textures that element is checking for in addition to the ones I have (or perhaps because there's some kind of dynamic loading going on? Not sure). Is there any easy way of looking at the list of textures a hud element is looking for/using? vgui_drawtree 1 doesn't seem to do it for the particular element I'm looking at, and checking "show hidden" crashes my game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGTOYDIwCFo

A lot of people mention that the stock pipes are "less consistent" because they tumble through the air. This video and its description have a very detailed explanation of why this is not the case, the Iron bomber and stock pipes have the exact same projectile arc. The only difference is the fuse time and rollers.

Basically there are 2 things that make pipe launchers have "inconsistent" arcs.

1. Pipes are given a random amount of velocity when shot (within a range)
2. Pipes are given a random amount of spin when shot.

These are the same on all pipe launchers (except for the loch n load which doesn't spin) and if all of them had the same stats, they would all be exactly the same if it wasn't for VPhysics models.
The VPhysics model is what people talk about when they say the Grenade Launcher is "more inconsistent" with respect to its air arc. The source engine simulates drag, and so projectiles with a larger surface area to their model will be slowed down more in the air and travel slower. This happens with loose cannon projectiles which get slowed down more because they're big, so they go slower than they're supposed to.

In theory, the Iron Bomber's arc should be different to the Grenade Launcher's arc even when the random spin and velocity are disabled, because the projectiles are different sizes and shapes. However, this video shows that the Iron Bomber and Grenade Launcher actually have projectiles that fall in the exact same spot every time when these things are disabled. This is because the physics model for the iron bomber is actually a cylinder the same as the stock pipes. So iron bomber pills tumble in the air and experience the same orientation dependent drag that pipes do.

The sigsegv video that a lot of people reference when talking about this actually shows stock pipes and iron bomber landing at very similar positions.

Edit: It seems that the Grenade Launcher and Iron Bomber behave differently with respect to how their models interact with their collision hulls, effectively giving the Iron bomber a bigger "hitbox" see: https://www.teamfortress.tv/post/1008432/iron-bomber-regular-pipes-have-the-same-physics

Does the seed always treat the second bullet fired so that it goes at the same angle or is it based on something else?

If you want to hit an "average amount of spread" you can probably calculate what the average concentration would be with a random seed and choose one which is close to that average for each weapon.

Also, just out of interest, is spread just calculated using an azimuth and angle away from crosshair? If so is the angle away from the crosshair drawn from a uniform distribution or do they implement it some other way?

In the second example the red guy has the disadvantage because rockets come out of the right hand side of the rocket launcher.