Deleting the maps folder wouldn't help load times, other than the defragging that happens (if you're using a HDD and not a SSD). The only other major hitch to loading times is the amount of folders inside custom, which every file that tf2 loads has to compare and check to see if that file exists inside custom (which, with a lot of folders, will add up. 10 or so folders doubles the loading times for me). Because most files don't get loaded at all most of the time, extra things being inside your maps folder and whatnot wouldn't reduce loadtimes any.

So basically reduce folders in custom (either by merging folders or putting things in vpk's) and defragment your tf folder (on a HDD) and you'll get good load times back.

They don't catalogue it. Big configs can cause lag also, that should be obvious when you get up to huge sizes, but no config ever should be 20000 lines big.

You can say "we want info, not teasers or guarantees that it'll be good" without having to be a dick.

I think we can all agree that it really feels like valve is on their own island, rarely communicating and even when they do (like now) usually with a "but don't tell anyone." Which is disappointing, obviously, for a few reasons and is probably something to sort out more properly in the near future. But it is nice to get some more assurance that valve's tf2 team is competent and dedicated, and that's all geel's trying to say and all you can take his post as.

hudplayerhealth.res, edit "HealthDeathWarningColor" near the top to be the color you want.

In console, type "tf_hud_target_id_disable_floating_health 1" and it'll do that for you.

What exactly does this mean, if you don't mind me asking? Do they actively check out tftv and watch matches and whatnot, or are they just going off of "this would make comp more popular, probably" like it sometimes seems they do?

Don't mean to be skeptical but "they do care" could mean a lot of things, from huge unseen involvement with the community to next to none at all.

Isn't it though? I can't imagine any situation when you'd push/hold or do anything really in cp_standin but not in a domination gamemode or vice versa. They're different mechanically, but they play out almost the exact same from what I can tell, and if you changed cp_standin to work more like koth than cp, it'd still be 99% the same strategy-wise.

And really it'd be no fun for the same reasons too: unneeded and seemingly uncontrolled push/hold balancing that's unlike other objectives, and encouraging splitting up teams when it's better for the game to have actual teamfights than multiple small fights happening at any one time. It works fine in unreal tournament or in CoD or whatever, but that doesn't mean it'd work well in tf2.

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

Watching STVs and demo reviews are just a tool to learn, plain and simple. They just make it easier to identify your issues and know how to fix them, by seeing other playstyles and what other players may be doing wrong or right and comparing it to yourself. Especially for low level players, who a lot of the time don't even know what they should be doing and don't have the game knowledge to figure it out for themselves.

You obviously won't need to watch other people playing to fix your issues, because it really is just a tool available to help you, so no you wouldn't need it to improve. Though it still is a useful tool and don't neglect it just because it's not 100% necessary either. The key whatever it is you use to improve is to focus on finding out and solving your problems in any case, whether that be watching STVs, demo reviews, scrimming, pugging, etc.

There's a pretty big difference between uncontrollable randomness (bullet spread for example) that this thread is aimed at, and controllable unpredictability like midfight strats that a team can get better at and deal better against through skill which competitive play is based around. Stuff like midfights being unpredictable because a team might try a different strat isn't a bad thing, it's pretty necessary to be a competitive game.

I'll start working on converting fog's, because knuckles made a lot of his crosshairs have no dot in the middle and it's just a bit more work to type twice instead of once.

I've got about 2.5mb of material crosshairs archived already though:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/u1220grse2wrb7v/xhairs.zip?dl=1
The vmt's don't always correctly correspond because they're not meant to be thrown in all at once, so look into the vmt if you want to use one of them, but other than that should be good to go.

It's not like they can really say "yeah I don't want to deal with this, let's stop." If you stop subscribing to it and going against it, at best you'll leave everything you know to get away from it (hence the refugee crisis), maybe join a militia instead and spend the next couple years (if you live that long) fighting your own people, and at worst you'll be executed for it. At least, this is in the case of ISIS.

It seems really obvious to us that there's some huge cultural oppression going on in much of the middle east that needs to be dealt with, but for the people there many see it as the way things are. It hasn't even been a lifetime since the oppression against blacks and women in America was widely recognized, and is still being dealt with today, don't forget.

Mexico's cartels are a bit of a special case because the police can't and won't do anything about it. If a police officer arrests someone and finds out they're a cartel member, they let them go. Mexico's more an example of what happens when you don't crack down and let a criminal culture thrive.

That's not really the case with America, where if the police catch a gang member he still gets arrested. The criminal culture in America is able to be contained and dealt with, in small steps. Refusing to make progress (that doesn't necessarily mean outlawing guns mind you), because of a worst case scenario that isn't even applicable is pretty dumb. Gun control isn't the be-all end-all solution, but there's been way too much gang violence and way too much mass shootings to just pass off as "we can't do anything about it."

It's based on the average. If the average developed country's without America is somewhere less than 0.15 per 100k, but America's is 3.6 per 100k, then America is more than 25x the average of the rest.

It's not the best statistic, but the math checks out.

Does anyone actually think the original takes almost 2 seconds to reload after shooting?

On the same page it even comes with a video showing that the two are the same (in every way other than where the rocket shoots from):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlyjp0wDvpU&t=1m24s

It's actually nearly perfectly centered (it's 1112 pixels from the left side of the screen and 1111 from the right). It's just that the health is 3 digits big center-aligned whereas the ammo is 1 digit right-aligned so that the health ends up closer to the ammo at full, and without changing how that works there's no real good solution to make it look more centered.

I do deep sea fishing once a year with some family friends. Can't call it a hobby because we don't do it enough, and the pricetag on the equipment I've seen was giant, but I wish I did it more. Anyone got any advice for getting more into fishing without going broke?

Taiwan is officially the Republic of China, China is the People's Republic of China. It's not usually considered like that because it'd be way to confusing, but there are technically two different Chinas.