TF2 Classless Update Coming - 18 new hats!

[CommodoreKong]

Valve announced today that they're bringing out their next update soon, it will be the first major classless update.

Check out the latest updates here

Day 1: 18 new hats and the Offblast arena community map.

 

[Kelthaz]

Ah, Valve. They sure are a crafty company. There are four hidden page in today's update. Personally, I'm hoping for a soldier update.

Team Fortress Hidden Pages.

 

[CommodoreKong]

Ah, Valve. They sure are a crafty company. There are four hidden page in today's update. Personally, I'm hoping for a soldier update.

Team Fortress Hidden Pages.

On the bottom right hand corner of this page it seems to indicate that the Solider will be getting the next update.

 

[Kelthaz]

On the bottom right hand corner of this page it seems to indicate that the Solider will be getting the next update.

I'm hoping that this update is the Soldier's update. After the Sniper/Spy update I don't take anything Valve says at face value any longer. Perhaps classless actually means "without class". That fits the Soldier alright.

 

[LutherSloan]

There have been many hints that the Soldier is next to get an update, to the point where I'm pretty convinced that's what's happening.

Personally I can't wait for the Demoman update, but I'm afraid it will be last on the list.

 

[Kelthaz]

Day Two.

New game mode, one new map, and two newish maps.

 

[LutherSloan]

Nucleus will make for a good KOTH map.

 

[CommodoreKong]

I forgot you can't edit your posts here after a certain amount of time. I was going to update the title every day. Oh well.

I'm liking the idea of KotH. The main thing I don't like about arena is how it's one life like CS and it looks like KotH will solve that problem. I wouldn't mind if they converted all the arena maps into KotH maps.

 

[Reverend]

Yeah I never could get into the arena game mode. My favourite gameplay style is as a Demoman on the offensive, so I tend to die fairly often. That doesn't work so well with arena. Can't say that I'm too fussed about the new hats as I don't have any of the old ones yet. For that matter I don't have they spy's watches from the last update either!

 

[CommodoreKong]

Yeah I never could get into the arena game mode. My favourite gameplay style is as a Demoman on the offensive, so I tend to die fairly often. That doesn't work so well with arena. Can't say that I'm too fussed about the new hats as I don't have any of the old ones yet. For that matter I don't have they spy's watches from the last update either!

My guess is that hats will become a bit more common since we're getting more of them.

I pretty much never play sniper and I still haven't randomly gotten a huntsman. I think I have pretty much all of the other unlocks though.

 

[LutherSloan]

It looks like there's going to be some kind of 1 on 1 duel, maybe during Arena maps, where one player can challenge another. Whoever wins gets a choice of any of the loser's hats.

I still don't have a hat, and I've been playing a LOT. Obviously still not enough for Valve.

 

[CommodoreKong]

The final day of the update was today, Sawmill was converted to a CTF map and CP Yukon community map has been added as an official map, along with a long list of changes.

New Content:

• Added King Of The Hill game mode.
• Added custom animations played by the losing team during the post-win state. They are moved into third person camera to enjoy them.
• Added lots of new hats.
• Added koth_Viaduct.
• Added ctf_Sawmill
• Added community map Arena_Offblast
• Added community map Cp_Yukon

Additions / Changes:

• Added "Auto Reload" option to the multiplayer advanced options.
• Clip-based weapons that reload a full clip at a time can now have their reloads aborted by firing.
• Pistol now fires at a fixed rate, not based on the speed at which you press the firing button.
• Added a color blind option to add a Jarate icon above enemies who are busy accepting a terrifying existence where they have no dignity.
• Significantly reduced the amount of network traffic being sent.
• Capturing the flag in a CTF game mode gives the entire capturing team 10 seconds of critboost.
• Sappers attached to a teleporter automatically place another Sapper on the other end of the teleporter, if it exists.
• Engineers wrenching a teleporter will repair the other end as well, and remove Sappers from both if they exist.
• Disguised Spies no longer trigger On-Hit effects (like the Blutsauger's heal).
• Removed self-inflicted minicrits. Fixes Jarate'd Soldiers/Demomen having ineffective rocket/grenade jumps.
• Added an item panel to the spectator cam that shows non-standard items being carried by the player you're spectating.
• Added an "Inspect" key that allows you to look at items being carried by your team mates.
• Backpack improvements: - Added drag & drop to move items around. Item positions are maintained on the backend.
  - Added multi-select, allowing you to delete multiple items at once.
  - Added a new key to the key binding page that opens your inventory directly to your backpack.
  - Fixed mouseover panel being incorrectly position when the backpack first appears.
• Cloaked Spies standing in valid backstab positions no longer raise their knife.
• Added current map name and gametype to the bottom right of scoreboard.
• Added class icons to tips on the loadout and loading screens.
• Improved visuals around flags when they're being carried by a player.
• Improved critboosted visuals, making it much clearer when an enemy has critboost.
• Updated the loading panel to show the game type under the map name during level transition.
• In-game chat dialog now supports full Unicode characters.
• Added BLU main menu background.
• Added response caching for some server queries to help reduce the CPU load from DOS attacks.
• Teammates no longer block friendly radius damage. Prevents nearby teammates causing rocket/grenade jumps to fail.

Map Changes:

• Update PLR_Pipeline - Increased the starting advantage in the third round if a team has won the first two rounds.
  - Fixed carts not continuing to the second round if they're capped at the same time in the first round.
  - Fixed being able to shoot pipebombs over the starting gates in the first round.
  - Fixed being able to open the doors in the first round before the setup time was finished.
  - Fixed players getting stuck in some doors.
  - Fixed players being able to get onto rooftops and out of the map boundaries.
  - Fixed other minor bugs and exploits.
• Update Arena_Sawmill - Fixed DirectX8 bug where some models would not be visible.
  - Fixed exploit with building teleporters outside of the map.
• Updated CP_Granary - Made a few changes to improve balance based on competitive community feedback.

Item Reworks:

• The Force of Nature - The enemy knockback now only `works in close range and behaves more like the Pyro's air blast.
  - Enemies cannot be juggled by the FaN's effect.
  - The self-knockback has also changed to respect the firer's view angle. Looking up while shooting will no longer propel the enemy upwards.
  - Knockback is now scaled by damage done.
• The Sandman - A Scout will receive 1 point for stunning an enemy and 2 points for a long range stun.
  - Stunned players now take 75% of all incoming damage instead of 50%.
  - Übercharged players can no longer be stunned.
  - Heavies spinning their mini-guns will continue to spin when stunned (whether the left or right mouse button is pressed).
  - The minimum distance to stun a target has been reduced.
  - The negative attribute has changed from "no double jump" to "-30 max health".

Fixes:

• Fixed various issues around layout & presentation of items inside the Backpack and "X is carrying" item dialogs.
• Fixed an exploit that allowed players to work around sv_pure.
• Particle files are now protected by sv_pure.
• Fixed critboost effect getting stuck on when you die while critboosted.
• Fixed Timer HUD element backgrounds not being the correct color if you change teams during waiting for players.
• Fixed a couple of issues with the way critboosts affected The Huntsman and the Spy's knife.
• Fixed an exploit where you could reload The Huntsman faster than intended.
• Fixed Heavy "civilian" exploit.
• Fixed a set of exploits using the DXSupport config files.
• Fixed r_screenfademinsize and r_screenfademaxsize exploits.
• Fixed sentries firing at a fully cloaked Spy if they're still the closest target.

Community requests:

• Added a HUD element for hybrid CTF & CP maps. - Supports 1 or 2 flags, and any number of CPs.
  - Mapmakers need to place a "tf_logic_hybrid_ctf_cp" entity in their map to enable it.
• Added custom kill server log text "train" and "saw" for deaths caused by these environmental hazards. Format: "%s<%i><%s><%s>" committed suicide with "world" (customkill "%s") (attacker_position "%d %d %d")
• Added new "medic_death" event for server logs Format: "%s<%i><%s><%s>" triggered "medic_death" against "%s<%i><%s><%s>" (healing "%d") (ubercharge "%s")
  - healing is the amount the Medic healed in that life
  - ubercharge (1/0) is whether they died with a full charge
• Added "func_respawnflag" trigger entity. It will remove & return the flag if a flag carrier touches it, or if the flag falls into it.

 

[LutherSloan]

I swear these updates always come out when I'm heading out of town. I won't be able to play until at least Monday night, and I had very little time to do anything today. Played Yukon and Viaduct very briefly. Unfortunately the teams were really stacked in Viaduct, so it wasn't much fun (I was of course on the short stack team).