They'd either need to start updating them themselves, or completely revamp how huds work in tf2.

It works fine in dota because you just replace images so that there's pretty much nowhere to break things, and updates don't really do a whole lot (the ingame editable ui has only had notable changes a few times over dota's history). For that matter the new way huds work in dota, they're all just remapped automatically (iirc) to the new ui.

In tf2, things break all the time, both from updates and from hud work just having a lot of room for things to go wrong. Very few huds have been able to continue being updated for their entire lifetime. If they started costing money, it would already need to be updated by the time the update hits every single time, which is impossible for the community and not really doable for valve (or at least I wouldn't trust them with anything of mine considering how the stock hud is).

I'd like it, if only so that you could actually store variables in a way that makes sense (tf2 scripting is technically turing complete within size limits, so you can still make psuedo-variables that work fine, though I won't get into that). But at the same time, I can't see it being used the way you intend it too much either. The way scripting is now, as long as you type an underscore instead of a space, that's equivalent to:

alias tr_map_1 "map pl_badwater;exec regen"
alias tr_map_2 "map pl_upward;exec regen"
alias tr_map_3 "map tr_walkway_fix"
alias help_tr_map "echo This is a command to set for opening certain maps in the maps folder."

alias vm_set_1 "r_drawviewmodel 1;viewmodel_fov 100"
alias vm_set_0 "r_drawviewmodel 0;viewmodel_fov 100"

If you wanted a nice fancy interface with it, you could throw this into the above code too, and have it work basically the same as you're suggesting (except the input would be "tr_map;1" instead of "tr_map 1"). Not many (any?) people do, not because it's overly complicated but more because it's just unnecessary, but anyway:

alias tr_map "alias 1 tr_map_1; alias 2 tr_map_2; alias 3 tr_map_3"
alias vm_set "alias 1 vm_set_1; alias 0 vm_set_0"

That would cause issues for if you typed another number in console later, but you could just throw in something inside tr_map_1/2/3 and vm_set_1/2 that runs "alias 1 none" for each number they used if you really cared for it. It wouldn't take much more work to get the help command working too, though the code would look pretty different. And could even throw 'setinfo tr_map " "; setinfo vm_set " "' to make them look like commands (show up in the dropdown menu) if you wanted to go all out.

Not saying I don't like the idea. The syntax is pretty bulky and weird for if you're trying to do things that can already be done almost as well in a similar amount of space. But it'd be a dream come true if it could do more variable-focused stuff. Things like being able to print different things out on the same line, or if statements, or being able to do math on the numbers (ie using multvar). Those three things alone would turn some 5000+ line scripts into 50 line scripts.

Short answer: no. There is only ever one healthdeathwarning value and how it triggers the animation is hardcoded, you can't make your own.

Long answer: you can do workarounds to make it sorta work, so that when you hit below 50 health (not 50%, the actual health value) for example, another animation appears. MagnumHud does this. Though it takes a bunch of custom dynamic block fonts, localization editing, the hud being designed specifically for it (by having each label be inverted fonts, though it hypothetically could be made to work without that, but that would be much more difficult), a fair bit of animation work, and some extremely finetuned positioning (which will break on most other resolutions if you don't make customization options for it). More hypothetically you could have scripts change hud files based on class (and with a loadout switcher, loadout too I guess) so that it would work the same as percent values, though that's extremely bug-prone and an even more involved technique.

Keep in mind we're talking the sort of thing that afaik has only been done once, even after being released publicly for 7 months. Not that it's super secret or anything, but because it's very specific and very hard to understand (and not very well documented). I'd probably stick to "effectively not possible" because of that, but I'd be wrong if I said nothing like it exists.

Depends entirely on what you want to do and what you want out of it. The guides for handwiring a build, designing a PCB, or buying a kit are all entirely different.

Whatever you do, r/mk has some good resources:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/wiki/switch_suppliers
https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/wiki/customkeyboards

Keep in mind that unlike building a computer, it will not be cheaper. But it will be fun, more specific to what you want and more customizable, and usually higher quality than what you can get commercially.

You pretty much copypaste them/do what they do except with the labels you want to change from hudplayerhealth. And of course mess around with the colors and timings as you like.

This isn't the sort of thing that just happens, people won't just instantly try to hang out and go over to your place. Most people wouldn't even find out about it, and most people aren't going to ask you to hang out at your place unless you're extremely outgoing with that or have been doing it regularly with them already.

It can be great for running a game of d&d or something, and generally is nice when you do know that you'll be inviting people over a lot, but you need to be the one on top of that.

For healthcross: go in hudanimations and get rid of the line that changes its alpha value.

For health colors: they don't exist anywhere. You have to make the animation yourself. Go in hudanimations again and change the colors as you see fit inside the HudHealthBonusPulse and HudHealthDyingPulse animations.

Green is a hard color to get right. I like it done well, but done well is completely dependent on the monitor and the lighting you're in. And how finetuned it needs to be to look good means green on one monitor looks fine, but looks bad on another. I like the look of yours on my phone for example, but not on my laptop.

Imo the biggest advantage of a healthcross, in terms of design, is that it makes symmetry make a lot more sense. It's a lot easier to get healthcross + health look consistently spaced with ammoclip + reserve than it is without the healthcross. But imo it just looks a bit off if you don't organize it some way; maybe make the separation between the health and healthcross the same as the ammo's, or maybe move the reserve up and to the right so that it's centered the same way as the healthcross is. It doesn't look bad what you've got, but they look better by themselves than together, if that makes sense.

I can't say I'm a huge fan of the uber flash, purple doesn't really show up anywhere else and feels out-of-the-blue. I'm assuming it's there for a huge contrast, but it doesn't make sense visually. Something like, for example:

green -(slow transition)-> dark green -(fast)-> white -(slow)-> green

would be just as (or potentially more) flashy and noticeable, but not clash with the theme you've got going currently. Rainbows are a nice option too, though they can be hard to tune well.

I'm not feeling the right-only shadows too. I like straight down shadows, and that's pretty uncommon in a lot of huds, but rightwards I've only seen rightwards in one or two other huds. This is entirely opinion though.

And it's just a small observation, but it's completely possible to remove the - on the damage number below the crosshair with a custom font, if you're feeling limited by that. I always do that on my own huds at least, I think it looks more clean, and to get it to align properly for any number of digits with the - removed is very easy. to get it aligned the way you do with the - for every damage number possible would take much more work and weird workarounds (enough that most hud makers would say you can't).

I do have to say that the font choice, cp icons, and the round/game timer (the positioning and sizing in particular) are all on point.

I might avoid recommending switch types, or at least reword it. The whole idea of tactile = great for typing is mumbo, though it is true for most people as their personal preference. The best and most sure-fire recommendation for getting a switch type right is a switch tester.

Other options would be good too. Ducky Shine 5/6 is imo better than Ducky One, Coolermaster is the best brand available to a lot of people locally, things like Magicforce are extremely good as a budget option, other more specific brands like Filco or Varmillo or Leopold are definitely worth a mention as well. And perhaps going over other common brands that aren't as good, like Razer or Corsair, in more depth than just the bad gaming keyboard description, could be nice to have too.

That and pointing out function layers and whatnot for smaller keyboards. I'm running a 40% currently (minivan with gat browns), and not only can I do everything that I could when I ran a fullsized keyboard, I don't have to move my hands and instead chord it so that it's actually more comfortable in the first place.

A lot of others are in UGC, which I mean isn't all that great but at least they're not clueless.

Though you also get people like Rob who are so clueless they think they know it better.

For keyboard: Ducky and Coolermaster are the two most recommended brands. Their mechanical keyboards are both pretty much the baseline for good quality for each of their pricepoints, though Ducky is arguably higher quality if just because their keycaps are significantly better. Other brands such as Leopold like Jacona mentioned, Varmillo, a Pok3r, Filco are all good and of comparable quality as well. On a budget, the Magicforce68 with Gateron switches / Outemu blues (Outemu blues are decent, but every other color of theirs is really bad and you should pay the extra for Gateron) or the Plugable TKL are about as good quality as you can get for a low price.

Compact + numpad isn't super common, but a 60% + separate numpad such as the Jelly Comb can be a good option (and lets you reposition / remove the numpad at will, and is arguably better since left-sided numpads are pretty nice to try out too). Alternatively, basically all 60% keyboards (or at least, most good ones) have function layers that should still support numpad use, and usually can be programmed to your needs anyway.

As for switch preference, get a switch tester (ones with decent switch options can be $20 and stick around as a nice desk toy) or go see if you can try some out somewhere. If you check out /r/mechanicalkeyboards there might even be a meetup near you at some point. There's a reason it's called preference after all, and depending on your preference, using a switch you don't like could feel pretty bad.

Corsair's keyboards are pretty meh. They aren't bad but they have a bunch of small issues that add up, while other keyboards of the same pricerange usually don't have anywhere near the issues like Corsair does.

Half of it is cutting corners; the LEDs die out fairly frequently and is a well known (and still unfixed) issue on all of their boards with RGB. The keycaps are basically as cheap as you can get to have transparent legends (thin, cheap ABS plastic, paint-and-etch printing) and you can feel it (low durability, starts shining and feeling permanently greasy pretty quick, the indent of the legends can be felt and I always mistook it for specks of dirt on my fingers). The backplate, as much as they advertise it, isn't actually that good compared to other boards, and isn't seated into the plastic base all that well. As well the switches themselves aren't seated perfectly in the backplate either.

The other half is design choices that I still don't understand; the bottom row is nonstandard and limits keycap replacement options heavily (which really sucks considering their stock keycaps), and the spacebar being wider means the stabilizers aren't going to stabilize as well either. The cable is incredibly bulky and makes the board a complete pain to reorganize, kills portability, isn't removable, and for some reason takes up two usb ports to plug in if you want to use the software with it.

I wouldn't recommend them for those reasons (however small they are, they are there and cheaper boards usually don't have those issues), but if you have one and enjoy it then that's all you need to know. It is still genuine Cherry switches with a fairly solid backplate (even if it could've been implemented better) and you can't go too wrong with that.

This is something you need to try out. Mechs are a pretty different feel from rubber domes, and while most people who try them end up preferring mechs, there are some people who end up not liking them. Usually because either the switches they tried aren't suited for them, and a switch tester helps with that a lot. I can't stress how this is pretty uncommon though and I wouldn't be worried about it, even if the switch isn't optimal, the overall increase in quality is still there.

I didn't mind rubber domes too much when I was using Cherry reds, but I'm now on Gateron browns (more tactile than Cherry browns, but less tactile than Cherry clears) which I feel are much more suited to me and I actively avoid rubber domes whenever I can to type on it instead.

That's the thing though, that's not all that far off. It seems like most people (at least vocally) are against the recent push to unban everything other than what's absolutely necessary to keep banned, and would rather go back to a whitelist where the items allowed are picked because they actually make the game better (or at least don't make the game worse).

Not trying to discredit what you're doing, finding out what people want banned the most could give some interesting results. But at the same time you can't dismiss how many people feel that the we should be looking at what we actually want to keep instead of what we think we could suffer through having unbanned, which imo is more important info to gather anyway.

In my opinion, the new hud is overall a step up in a lot of ways (with a fair bit to improve) and the old hud isn't really that amazing. Don't get me wrong, it has great things about it; the class icon + health panel is a really great piece of nostalgia, it takes up less space than most other spec huds, and having all info on the same side makes it really easy to compare (especially ubers when they're next to eachother, as Kaidus said). In general I like the old hud, it's just not a step in the right direction to go back to it.

The new hud does some stuff that's way better than the old hud. There is more distinction between each player in the tournament spec panels which makes it easier to glance at a particular player. Similarly, I'm a fan of how the ubercharge meters are easily distinguishable from the players. The horizontal healthbars are useful for quickly gathering how healthy a player or team is, and doesn't feel out of place like the team healthbars, though I would like to see some slightly higher contrast on them (but that requires either a workaround, or a decreased saturation, so I understand why it is what it is). The game time is a lot more readable, both because it's a bigger font and because it's got a bg now (though it could be transparent and be just as good, without feeling as cluttered). Overheal numbers are easier to read too because you don't have white-on-light-green anymore, and even though the "OVERHEALED" label is too big it gets the job done and is just as easy as the old bg to tell how many people are overhealed with. It's down to opinion, and personally I prefer having them on one side if possible, but putting each team's spec panels on their own side balances things a lot better and means they're a lot less restricted in terms of vertical space.

As for making the new hud feel less cluttered, my suggestion would be to do something along the lines of

http://i.imgur.com/gX7VTci.png

There's plenty more to be done, and that's just a quick and dirty mockup, but imo that alone will make it feel a lot better. Could perhaps even reduce the margins between numbers slightly (not too much, but there's more than enough space to distinguish between name and health, which is the main concern) and cut the overall size down even further.

That and make the time bg / round overlay transparent and stop extending as far--most of it is wasted space and wherever the gradient starts would look equally stylish, so why not bring it closer (even starting the fade at the team name and finishing well before the screen ends would look nice imo). Could make the scores and team names smaller too. That and the spec panels are where basically all clutter comes from, and they could be pretty quickly and relatively easily reduced.

tldr: the new hud needs improvement and tweaking but it has potential, the old hud did things better but other things it can't compare and can't easily be made to either without pretty drastically changing everything.

https://github.com/JarateKing/PrismHUD/tree/master/_prism_hud/cfg/PrismHud/tictactoe

I think there's a display bug with one line, but I'm too lazy to actually locate and fix it.

can you not tell

but I agree, it's beating a dead horse at this point it's been done so much and is so predictable, and wasn't even funny in the first place imo