An apropos quote from the Spy for TF2.  Yeah, yeah, I know, that old chestnut again.  But news has been slow.

The guys at Valve thought it was a good idea to add a lottery to what was mostly a game of skill.  A game that they spend so much time talking about balance and fairness.  And then a lottery for weapons.

As you may have seen in my response, or in the Steam Forums… this wasn’t popular.  We were suckered in to queuing up for the update NOW to play with all the toys, and then told we’d have to wait to be randomly handed the new toys… in a random mix of old toys as well.

Well, Valve has finally seen the light:

And suddenly, I don’t hate the new item system anymore.

A note for game designers:  suddenly changing an aspect of a game release cycle is not good.  I don’t mind having a new way to get items in addition to the old way.  But to suddenly say, “Hey, we’ve got new items, but you can’t earn them the way you expected, you just have to wait for them to turn up…” bad news.

To those out there who’s line of defense for Valve was “Hey, they’re giving you content for free!  How dare you demand it!  It’s a gift!”  That would be true… if TF2 wasn’t sold on the condition, the promise, of new content.  When I bought it, the first update had never happened.  Then they came out with the Medic pack, and promised at least new updates for all classes.  This makes it a part of the expectation of the product.  Like updates to Windows, or virus definition updates for antivirus products.  Sure, we bought the program as a unit with the promise of updates.  If Norton suddenly decided that they might or might not update your antivirus product, and that the virus protections given would be randomized… would you feel like you are getting your money’s worth?

The title of this post is a quote from the Spy.  No, this update was not doubted;  I was sure Valve would come around and give us back our achievement milestones.  For two reasons:

1. Valve isn’t dumb;  when a large swatch of their customer base is pissed, they’ll notice.  I wouldn’t have bought Half Life 2 or Left4Dead without owning TF2 and knowing Valve quality.
2. If their problem was that not enough people had the weapons according to their stats, then lowering achievement requirements is much better than arbitrary unfair random item presents.

Valve didn’t care about Achievement Farms;  they wanted their new content in the hands of everyone.  You can tell, because they’ve said that they wanted more people to get the items, and felt that a random-give system in addition to a trading system would get the updates in the hands of more people at once.

Now that they’ve added back the milestones, the peg-marks for getting the items are much easier.  No more “get all the achievements for the final weapon.”  Weapons are in reach of everyone with a modicum of work in regular play to get the minimum requirements.

As an alternative, you can also wait for Lady Luck to hand you your item.  That’s how I finally got my Ubersaw.

This is why I complained.

I spent time on Achievement_Idle.  I ran an Achievement_Idle server.  I invited friends to the servers I found.  I idled the game at home.  I posted on the Steam forums.  I drew a (quick) comic, and complained in clan forums.  I made a stink because I wanted Valve to know I didn’t like it.

As one voice, sure, I could have been ignored.  But I was part of the crush of the fanbase, complaining loudly and coherently about the shortcomings of the system.  Valve heard us and added back the milestones.  It’s the hundreds… thousands of people complaining that made it happen.  Kudos to all.

Kudos also to Valve, who looked back at their system that they had lovingly crafted and added back to it the system we wanted.  It’s not easy, after crafting a new system, to accept that many people don’t like it, and want it back the old way.  So thanks for your open mind, Valve.

The Interwebs is flooded with people griping and complaining about the new Sniper/Spy update for TF2.  The reactions to complainers, however, shows a lack of understanding of the problem.

Now, I don’t like whiners.  They’re usually counterproductive, and what they whine about is usually a problem of theirs.

But this update is full of massive FAIL.  And what shocks me is that it was published by Valve for TF2.  Let me explain this.

If you watch the documentaries in TF2, you can see just how hard Valve worked to make the game just “click.”  Classes are bright colors on drabish backgrounds.  Every class is a different shape for easy ID.  Weapons are big and obvious looking.  The game was designed from the ground up to be as user friendly as possible.

They BRAG about how much effort has gone into planning TF2 to be pick up and go.  And you know what?  I picked up and went when I bought the game.  Having never played a shooter before, TF2 just lodged in my heart as DOOM must have done a decade ago.  It was like nothing I’d played before.

But for a company that talks so much hot air about planning to make the game as easy to pick up and fun to play as possible, they’ve really kicked themselves in the face with this update.

Here’s why:  I waited an hour for the update to download, have been waiting a week watching the daily blog updates, have been waiting months with the speculation of what I’d get to play with… and then I get into the game and find that to unlock weapons… it has to randomly happen to you.

As best I can tell, the game randomly picks an uplock and hands it to you.  Including unlocks you already have.  And herein lies the problem.  While I don’t like Achievement Farming to get weapon unlocks, at least you have a goal to strive for.  With this new system… I don’t know when or if I’ll ever get to shoot the Huntsman or throw a jar of Jarate.  I got my first spy unlock minutes after I started the update, the Cloak and Dagger watch.  And then for the next five hours I didn’t earn anything.  And I watched friends of mine re-earn weapons they had already unlocked.

Now, I don’t play TF2 for the unlocks.  I play because I enjoy it.  But after being wound up for months I have to get the unlocks at random?  And I might get stuff I already own?  Valve, for a company that crows about the details of the lighting system for characters that give them easily visible silhouettes, this was downright dumb.  All my excitement has turned into blah.  I want to pin people to the wall with the bow and arrow!  I want to Jarate somebody!  But I can’t, because your stupid random system won’t give ‘em to me… and I don’t know how long I have to play to get them.  EPIC FAILURE of understanding people.

NOTE:  I see people saying “Calm down!  It hasn’t even been a full day!” or “Ooh, too bad you have to play the game to get the weapons!  Boo hoo!”  Understand, I know this is the first launch of a new patch, it’s gonna have bugs.  And I have no problem playing the game to earn weapons.  For God’s Sake, I played Eve Online.  I can handle waiting for bonuses… but not when I haven’t a clue when they may happen, or if, or if I get yet another Kritzkreig.  Will I have to play a week to get my bow and arrow?  I don’t know!

There are easy solutions:

1. Give us all the unlocks at the start.
2. Have an XP system where you can earn the unlocks.
3. Have an XP system where you can BUY the unlocks.
4. Base the unlocks on achievements.
5. Give the unlocks based on time playing the game.

And with all the solutions above, publish the method (I’m still guessing how this system works*) and give us status bars (or some way of knowing if we are making progress).

*NOTE:  Valve is going to explain… tomorrow… how the unlock system works.  I guess I’ll wait until… tomorrow… to waste any more time beating my head against the wall.  Could you have not put something in the patch notes, like, oh I don’t know, stuff like that is usually explained?

This picture was part of a brainstorm for a possible YouTube series of videos, a machinima “busting” myths about the gameplay of Team Fortress 2.

This image was developed in GIMP.  The character poses were set up in Valve’s Model Viewer, then put into the composition.  The metal plate is many layers of grunge and gradients smooshed into each other.  The background is a dynamic shot of 2FORT from Team Fortress 2.

Here’s a quick piece of “Industrial Design” developed to advertise an EDGEGAMERS ORGANIZATION Team Fortress 2 clan event staring the TF2 map “Turbine.”  The picture was taken ingame, and then the rest of the design was developed in GIMP.

I couldn’t wait for the Scout Update… the Sandman was what cought my attention, and I just couldn’t wait to give it a try.

So I did what any red-blooded computer programmer gamer graphic designer would do… I made a leekspin parody video, available above.

Enjoy.

One of the latest bandwagons (or should I say bomb carts) in the TF2/YouTube community is to take well known songs, and replace the melody with tone shifted copies of the sound file of the Team Fortress 2 scout saying “BOINK!” and “BONK!”

Most are incredibly lame, but this one just makes me laugh and laugh and laugh.

I dare you to watch this and not laugh.

Saw a commercial for Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean Online, and because it’s free*, I thought it might be interesting to make a review on my sister site, Gamium.org.

So I went to their website, downloaded the surprisingly small installer (this is a stub installer! I told myself), and ran it. Well, installation was pretty quick as well, and I thought, neat! Well, it is a free* game, so perhaps it’s not graphics heavy, or something.

Started up the game, and it downloaded patches. OK, I thought, well, maybe the installer was a bit out of date, and this is a free* game, so I won’t complain too bad. Of course, like all games, it takes over the whole screen (I have dual monitors, so I play all games in windowed mode… however, I get the fun first run take-over-the-screen fight for screen resolution junk. Anyway, it patched the game, I updated game settings, and then it said I had to restart the game. Ok…

Restarted the game, and it downloaded MORE PATCHES. It is now 2 hours since I downloaded the game. Yeah, I’ve done a few things in between steps, but that’s because I ain’t going to breathlessly await patches… I mean, come on! Four rounds of downloading steps?

This is something that really annoys me about most of the online games I’ve sampled of. Their installers are only stub installers which download the rest of the code. But then they go through multiple rounds of patching (I’m thinking of WoW D: ) just to get to a real final install. A plea to game companies: fix your build processes, so that whenever you release big patches, you update the installer please! Please! I’ve already waited for the initial download… don’t keep suckering me along or I may decide to play TF2 instead!

I’ve recently gotten my G in the eGO clan, which means I’m an admin now! w00t! As eGO is dedicated to running clean, fun, lets-play-the-freaking-game-and-leave-the-crap-out servers, I added them to my server list, and played there exclusively (except for crazy game modes, or something silly… exclusive for serious play, let’s say). I’ve had tons of time playing TF2, and I see new people making the same mistakes over and over and over again. I’ve been planning to write a set of tips for every class, to give a boost to the n00b just starting out, so they don’t have to make so many painful mistakes.

Mistakes are a good way to learn a game; however, in a team based game, making SOME types of mistakes can pitch the whole team into painful oblivion.

So, to start out, here’s a few generic hints that will work for all classes:

Don’t Nudge Engies, Snipers, or Spies

Snipers have to hold their ground and try to keep perfectly still; only a fully charged headshot will kill for sure, and those ain’t easy to pull off. Running through a sniper will cause them to scoot, perhaps screwing around with his aim. And if he had a headshot lined up, he will hate you. Forever.

Engies who are building/repairing/turtling need to stay within wrench range of the building they are working on. When two characters occupy the same space, the game “shoves” both out of the way. More than once I’ve been “shoved” away from my equipment, causing me to miss a critical whack to keep my sentry alive. This also causes forever hate. The worst example was a sniper who wanted to camp a crack between two crates. I had already set up a level 3 sentry gun and a dispenser in optimal positions to use the crates as cover, but still be effective. The sniper charged into his camping hole anyway, shoving my character out of whack range, and into the open. My Engie was sniped, my equipment was slowly blasted apart while I watched… and Mr. Jerkface sniper didn’t even get a single kill through his crack. Thanks alot!

Spies actually deserve their own tip:

Don’t Take a Spy’s Hiding Spot

Spies have limited amount of Cloak; once it’s empty, they have to wait forever for it to recharge. I’ve had it happen many times that a fellow teammate runs up and tries to “share” a hiding spot with a poor spy.

First off, two characters are more obvious than one.

Second off, it’s totally obvious when a RED sniper is sharing a hidey-hole with a BLU pyro that something is amiss.

All this can get Mr. Spy killed. Please be considerate!

Don’t Bunch Up The Defense

Wow, too many times I’ve been on a team that places two sentry guns, three heavies, and four pyros all in one spot, all firing one way. While this can work for a while, it leaves your flanks and back undefended. When guarding the Intelligence, it’s important to cover all angles of attack.

But, also, this ruins one of the best defenses: multiple angles of fire. When bunched up, you can only make one cone of damage, and if a uber comes in, you’re all easy pickin’s.

If, however, you spread your defense around and fire INTO the defended position, not only does the incoming team have to make multiple targets, but they’re also taking fire from all directions.

Well, this is perhaps my fourth attempt at starting a personal blog. I’m pretty good at writing for other people’s blogs and forums, but for some reason, I get lost in the haze when I try to write my own content. But no more! It’s time that I dump all my thoughts in a central place, for while I’m not prone to learned exhalations, occasionally I write something of wit and wisdom, only to find it’s been lost to the sands of time.

Just for a bit of background, I’m a professional->hobby programmer living in a little town called Kemp, my home town for 12 years previous and my favorite place on Earth. You’ll hear me expound on the Kemp High School band, of which I am an alumnus (Bass!) along with other stories of wonder about my favorite small town.

The area around here is growing up so fast; it’s the sub-suburbs, the place where the gas-price-unchallenged make their home to escape the hustle and bustle of the suburbs, where 50% of the land has churches on top and therefore do not produce taxes, where you can’t stay on the side of the road with your hood up for 10 minutes before you have 3 cowboy hats (with people under them) tryin’ to help out. This is a place where ain’t is a word, and you’re welcome to say it whenever you wish.

I also dabble in voice acting; my move, regrettably, has moved me away from the awesome group in Dallas I was working with to improve my skills, but I’m open to work requests. I’ll have a portfolio up presently, I hope.

My other great vice is Team Fortress 2. I originally played the game when I saw my roommate playing with it and thought it would be an awesome game to review for my game review website, Gamium.org. However, little did I know how it would suck me in; the game is addictive and fun. I play mostly as Engineer, but dabble in Medic, Heavy, and Spy. And I’ve only ever gotten one facestab, a game glitch which I call a back-backstab as Spy. FEAR MY SENTRY GUNS. I play with the EdgeGamers Organization guild, a group of fine chaps who run the best gameservers for TF2 ever. I plan to put together a few “newbie guides” for Team Fortress 2, as I see waves of newbies doing the same things I did when I was a newb; things which cause you much pain and grief.

In any case, it’s way past my bedtime, so I’ll shut down here. Soon I’ll discuss the Kemp Mabank Rivalry game, and Tropical Depression Ike’s effects on my sleepy old town… but for now, GG!