Rock, Paper, Shotgun

TF2 Gets Unlockables

By Jim Rossignol on January 23rd, 2008 at 10:09 am.

MmMMmMM!
Yep, that’s what’s happening. Comrade Francis from PC Gamer UK is over at Valve playing the new map stuff for TF2, and he’s posted some details over on C&VG.

Starting with just two new items for the Medic, Valve are going to be gradually rolling out new, unlockable weapons for every class. These will be alternative versions of their current loadouts that, once unlocked by earning a certain number of achievements, you can pick and choose from on a new ‘Loadout’ menu.

It sounds like Valve are just experimenting at the moment, so there aren’t many concrete details. It will expand the options available to the various classes however, which will inevitably please some players while infuriating those who thought they have the game nailed down.

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72 Comments »

  1. Nick says:

    That is actually no too bad of an idea, considering the achievements are – by and large – easy to get. It will add variety which is nice.. I’m sure there will be lots of outcry though, as you mention. Plus new weapons means new taunts.

    At least, it had better mean new taunts.

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  2. Butler says:

    Nice, a great way to make a nigh-perfect online shooter even better.

    It’ll also be another kick in the nuts for the people trying to play it competitively (read: eSport) which is always good.

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  3. Turin Turambar says:

    Agh, i hate the idea. I only play TF2 in short bursts, so i don’t have many archievements (nor i am interested in them). Now i have to “grind” to get some of them to unlock the new stuff.

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  4. Philip says:

    Nice idea, in as much as it allows people new to the game to get used to the classes and find their playing style without getting too bogged down in options, and then extends the games customisation and lifetime further down the track.

    I just hope that the acheivement requirements aren’t too hard to reach – I personally, as an only occasional FPS play, wouldn’t want the game to turn into a sort of FPS RPG, where high-level players get to pwn the newbs with their fancy kit. However, knowing Valve, I can’t imagine the new stuff being released until it’s play tested to the n’th degree, so it should be Ok.

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  5. Man Raised By Puffins says:

    My initial reaction to the news can be summarised as “ugh?”, as it brought to mind the BF2142 system. But the way Tom describes it, it could be interesting. Although it sounds like a balance nightmare if each class is eventually getting two new ‘load-outs’.

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  6. Oh please NOOOO

    To the people who are saying this is a good thing — why do you say that? What is your thinking that says this will improve the game?

    The way I see it this will be just like all those other multiplayer FPS games that introduce “unlockables” — they’re basically putting more power into the hands of the people who have played the game a lot, thus making it even harder for newbie players to get into it!

    Oh, Valve, I thought you had a clue about game design! We don’t want unlockables – we want more maps! More mission types!

    The only thing that can save this is if the new weapons etc. are just cosmetic just like the rest of the achievement system.

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  7. Richard says:

    Giving them the benefit of the doubt, because hell, the TF2 guys know what they’re doing. But it doesn’t sit very well with me. There’s a simplicity to knowing “Okay, THAT’S a Medic, he does X…” that really sits well with the game.

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  8. Dude says:

    Well the achievment so far are not that hard to get, ok some defensive one are more difficult but classwise if you play one class a lot you will eventually get most of them I would guess.
    And this is no Dice or EA, I think what valve wants to do is reward player who try to master a class. Good thing they start with the medic.

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  9. Trezoristo says:

    I think I can speak for myself Richard, thank you :).

    It all depends on how they implement it. I would personally guess that the new lay-outs won’t be necessarily better then the old ones, simply different. That should work for everyone: New players won’t have a big disadvantage over players who have been around longer, other than the fact that they have less experience with the game obviously. Furthermore players who mastered their old layout have a choice to stick with it or, if they are looking for some variety, try something else.

    I guess we’ll have to see, but knowing Valve I really don’t expect they’ll disrupt the very nice balance in Team Fortress 2 by giving the more experienced players large advantages.

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  10. James says:

    As long as there is the option of turning the weapon choices on or off on each server, I don’t see the problem.

    Maybe it’ll be small changes. Such as a Heavys MG getting a larger clip size at the expense or spin-up time, or the Medics gun getting a faster heal rate at the expense of no Invulnerable mode etc?

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  11. Seniath says:

    I will refrain from comment until I find out what the extra Pyro things will be. So I’ll get back to ye in 5 months.

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  12. AbyssUK says:

    Yes, make the sad losers you play the game 24/7 EVEN better than poor saps like myself who only dream of having the time to play a good game of TF2…. I HATE YOU ALL!

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  13. Butler says:

    The fun lies in (like in BF2) trashing the people that play 20/7, along with all their flashy unlocks, with the start equipment alone! Oh, and some good old fashioned FPS skillz.

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  14. Andrew says:

    As Richard says, this doesn’t sit well with me because I feel it goes against the simplicity of the game. Does TF2 really need unlockables when it’s so easy to grasp right now?

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  15. Lu-Tze says:

    First of all, read the article. Secondly, the achievement list for Medic has been knocking around the internet for ages if you want to find out what’s necessary.

    From the only example we have, it doesn’t seem like they are giving experienced players any advantage over newbies… buffing health massively instead of ubering is just a different way the medic can do his job, the alternate sounds like a better way to have a Medic Heavy combo (no more one shot sniper kills) but would not work as well for Medic Pyro teams (where it’s all about that uber). It sets the tone as being “different” rather than “superior”. My biggest interest in the changes is how they will be applied to the Engineer class, where their primary weapon is their buildings rather than a gun… perhaps faster teleport recharging and more teleporter health at the expense of Turret potential? Or uber dispensers that dish out healing, ammo and metal at an increased rate. Speculation of course.

    What isn’t so much speculation is the medic achievements, and the fact that these are tied to those DOES make me worry. Notable achievements include Healing Someone In The Air So They Don’t Die From Falling, Killing Spies You’ve Healed, and Killing A Scout With The Syringe Gun. I am sure that following the release, servers will be full of medics playing the game in very unusual ways to try and get these unlocks only to never use them. I have absolute faith that the unlocks won’t unbalance the game in favour of veterans or a particular class but I don’t doubt that the process to acquire them as they unlock them for each of the 9 classes will skew the way people play online in unfortunate ways.

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  16. Andrew says:

    Interesting, I just hope Valve keep it balanced – at the moment, good teamwork trumps having a rush of a single “powerful” class or similar.

    I just hope the class structure stays the same. I’d hate for anyone but the demoman to have grenade projectiles, or for anyone but the sniper to be able to get critical headshots.

    We’ll see, I’m sure.

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  17. Feet says:

    I hope they balance it right. As someone else said the unlocked weapons should not be superior than the original loadout, they should merely offer a different way to play that isn’t more powerful then the original way, or just be cosmetic (like a new melee weapon) otherwise it turns into a game for powergamers. I hated the unlockabe weapons in TF2, players would grind for the unlocks and put me (the casual player) at a severe disadvantage. And I hate grind games.

    If they do it right it could make the game far more interesting. Being able to identify which loadout a medic is sporting quickly so you can adjust your tactics accordingly (on the same team, and as an enemy) will be very important.

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  18. Feet says:

    Damn it, I meant I hated the unlockable weapons in BF2.

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  19. Stick says:

    We’re doomed. Or it could turn out excellent. Or somewhere between those two. Wait, why am I posting again?

    Oh yes: more options for medi-gun! Very encouraging. (I.e, the focus is on the class role, not handing out rocket launchers to everyone.)

    thirty-five new Medic Achievements? Yikes.

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  20. Stick says:

    Also: that new game mode mentioned in the article sounds great.

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  21. Philip says:

    Andrew says: As Richard says, this doesn’t sit well with me because I feel it goes against the simplicity of the game. Does TF2 really need unlockables when it’s so easy to grasp right now?

    You’re talking about an FPS with 9 classes, 6 maps and 3 game types. Each class has a melee and at least 2 weapons, plus the extra abilities such as the double-jump for scouts, uber-healing for medics and invisibility/disguise as a spy. Sounds pretty complicated to me.

    Yet, as you say, it seems simple when you play it. I wouldn’t personally be worried about the complexity issue, more about balancing and unlock-attainment issues.

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  22. Seniath says:

    Oh, actually, I will make a comment. I’d like to see the option for “Pure” servers perhaps, that restrict all classes to basic equipment, regardless of achievement status.

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  23. Dinger says:

    We’ll see what they do. The trick is to make some of those toys quirky and cool. Maybe the other medic loadout is an area invuln. Or it will bring back that irritating “infection” mod to TFC.

    Engineer stuff? What would you want instead of the current setup? How about a catapult instead of a teleporter: automatically fling friendlies downrange, over obstacles and what not? Or instead of a turret, a security scanner that removes all ammo from enemies who pass through it (and de-cloaks spies)? They wouldn’ have the impact of the turret, but they could be doable.

    (or just make a flamethrower turret and be done with it)

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  24. Jachap says:

    Completely meh about this. Obviously, I’d have to see it in action to pass full judgement but as an idea it strikes me as something of a misstep.

    Take the Overhealer, for example. The way TF2 works – on a public server, anyway – if the Reds see the Blus buffing up their soldiers, someone will inevitably start buffing up their own. So then everyone just has double the health. Woopee.

    I wouldn’t mind seeing some ridiculous comedy weapons, though, perhaps as randomly spawning pick ups with limited ammo or whatever, just to see where the slightly deranged TF2 world can go next.

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  25. Philip says:

    I wouldn’t mind seeing some ridiculous comedy weapons, though, perhaps as randomly spawning pick ups with limited ammo or whatever, just to see where the slightly deranged TF2 world can go next.

    Heh. I have visions of the landshark Gun from Armed & Dangerous rising from the ground to gulp down a pyro…or maybe choking on a heavy. Or perhaps a pack of weapons from Rise of the Triad…?

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  26. Hypocee says:

    You know what this balanced, kinetic, pick-up-and-play game which takes great pains to communicate all available information to the player needs? Tiers. Apparently it needs tiers earned by a grind, however small, to fix one slightly underpowered class and a boring map. This is a priority. I can’t believe what I’m reading.

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  27. roBurky says:

    I wish you’d quoted the bit from the article that explained what the upgrades were going to be. I thought they were still unknown, as did most people in these comments, it looks like.

    So it’s not an alternative weapon, it’s new ways of healing.

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  28. Lunaran says:

    I was gripping my desk with the effort of trying not to be worried, but reading the article does actually help.

    It’s a megahealth gun that doesn’t uber.

    Now I’m feeling a little better. Breathing is slowing, pulse returning to normal … a medic is still a medic, and not a second-tier medic. Heavies will get chainguns that might act differently but they’ll still be big stupid Heavies. Spies might get new tricks, but they’ll still be hilariously flammable.

    All right, this might not be so bad.

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  29. Dude says:

    I am sure a lot of people were crying when they saw what TF2 would be, a cartoon like shooter.
    Well as usual everyone cries before seeing what it actually plays like… So guess the whine about critical will soon be over on the official forum, lets start the whine about alternative weapons.

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  30. I trust Valve, but I doubt this will be well received by the TF2 community unless it’s exceptionally well balanced and implemented.

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  31. Daniel Puzey says:

    A lot of people seem to have forgotten that Valve are notorious for their in depth play testing and balancing. Of everything. To suggest that this is going to ruin the game seems rather premature.

    Alternative (but not “more powerful”) options seems like a perfectly good way of extending content. Making them unlockable helps to keep the player numbers up, and gives the game some more depth for those who might otherwise be getting bored of the same old by that point.

    And – honestly – who’s going to complain if you end up with one or two extra medics on team, eh?

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  32. Nuyan says:

    Bringing stupid MMO tricks into fps games is something I dislike quite a lot. Bleh.

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  33. Hypocee says:

    No, a Medic is not still a Medic, he’s a Medic A or a Medic B or (eventually, they say) a Medic C. I can only imagine that the geniuses who busted their humps for years making sure that class identification at a distance was absolutely unambiguous are livid. First person to say ‘you can tell them apart by looking at the gun’ gets a cookie.

    I know, maybe they’ll add an icon.

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  34. Lu-Tze says:

    I’ll be complaining when they are ubering the Engineers to get an achievement rather than playing the game.

    You just know that the 2/3 medics that are farting around trying to get achievements are going to be the ones on your team.

    I have no objections to keeping the game fresh by having fun with stuff like this, what I find irritating is the fact they will be doing it class by class. Extra Medics on the team? Not such a big deal. I’m completely not looking forward to the fortnight following when they release the Achievement Pack/Unlockables for Snipers though. Or Engineers. Or Spies.

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  35. espy says:

    Goldrush mode sounds excellent, and a lot like a hommage to the Enemy Territorry map of the same name. Great idea, I’ve always liked the ET rolling front concept and I’m really looking forward to this.

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  36. Rich Powers says:

    Jesus Christ. Are some people so easily bored that it takes unlockables — and not a game’s intrinsic fun — to keep them playing?

    I trust Valve with this more than I do, say, EA, but unlockables inevitably reward players who have more time to burn in-game. The great thing about TF2, and BF1942 for that matter, is that everyone is equal from the start regardless of play hours.

    Call me old fashioned, but I hate unlockables almost as much as I do other new trends like microtransactions and in-game ads.

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  37. The Fanciest Of Pants says:

    Return of the Napalm rocket launcher? I hope so :3

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  38. Zaptrack says:

    WAH WAH WAH WE CAN’T READ.

    It’s not oh I play this longer so I’m better. It’s oh I play this longer so I get a neat new toy.

    And about the person whining about appearances. It’s not like you’ll see scouts running around healing people with their sticky bomb launcher. A medic still heals, a pyro still burns, a sniper still snipes. The medic might just make people get more crits instead of uber, or a pyro might get a longer flame range at cost of some intial hit damage (Read: What lets you damage other pyros with it)

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  39. Zaptrack says:

    trust Valve with this more than I do, say, EA, but unlockables inevitably reward players who have more time to burn in-game. The great thing about TF2, and BF1942 for that matter, is that everyone is equal from the start regardless of play hours.

    Wrong wrong wrong wrong.

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  40. Alec Meer says:

    Please be careful not to let your opinions collapse into insulting each other, folks. We don’t want to have to activate the bandroid.

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  41. Optimaximal says:

    No, a Medic is not still a Medic, he’s a Medic A or a Medic B or (eventually, they say) a Medic C. I can only imagine that the geniuses who busted their humps for years making sure that class identification at a distance was absolutely unambiguous are livid. First person to say ‘you can tell them apart by looking at the gun’ gets a cookie.

    But it doesn’t matter… The whole point of the unambiguous classes was to tell the Solider apart from the Demoman and the Heavy and Medic apart from the Spy and Scout.

    A medic is still just a medic – who cares if he can heal faster or uber his team mates – as a crucial portion of his teams frontline suvivability, he’s still a prime target!

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  42. Zaptrack says:

    Sorry, sorry, it’s just it ticks me off when people go into full blown whine without reading the nicely linked article. Just for the record, how many limbs does the bandroid have?

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  43. Dinger says:

    It could be that they’re shifting the game to match the changing demographic: as the months pass, the people left are the “hard(er) core” players.

    On the other hand, it could be “tweaking” the balance by adding new encouragement for underutilized classes. While I’m not averse to the medic, after a few pints I tend to whip out the bonesaw and start charging folks.

    That’s presumably also part of the motivation for “achievements”: identifying the rare behavior and encouraging it.

    As a fan of the pyro – the one character in the game who cannot speak intelligibly, and must find all his expression in the flamethrower – I’m hoping that any new loadout will increase his weaknesses (say, a leaky flamethrower that spews less fire, but explodes in a fireball on death) and irritation to the other classes.

    (Giving the spy the ability to cloak enemies as enemy to their team, while making them vulnerable to friendly fire, would be cute too)

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  44. Zaptrack says:

    Actually some servers run it so that the pyro does explode. It’s hilarious on melee only maps.

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  45. Zaptrack says:

    Sorry for the double post, but further explanation is required to explain why it’s hilarious. The pyro explosion typicially does enough damage to kill other pyros, thus creating a huge explosion chain of death. The server that I play on with this modification is 32 players, and the most we’ve had explode in one go is 25.

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  46. Turin Turambar says:

    Zaptrack said:

    “WAH WAH WAH WE CAN’T READ.

    It’s not oh I play this longer so I’m better. It’s oh I play this longer so I get a neat new toy.”

    Yes. And that’s the problem!. I also want to have new toys without the need of playing more. Why can’t they release the new loadouts for everyone, why the need of putting in unlockable “levels” like a RPG?

    Because people likes it, it feels addictive. People don’t see the difference between something -good-, for itself, and something -addictive-. See the amount of people who liked Diablo, see the bigger amount of people who liked WoW, see the amount of people who liked the adaptation of the xp/level system in CoD4.

    But i am not one of these… “people”.

    /elitist mode off.

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  47. Chris says:

    This makes me nervous, because TF2 was the best game of ’07 and doesn’t feel like it needs tinkering. Still, if anyone gets the benefit of the doubt, it’s the folks at Valve.

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  48. Jonathan says:

    Turambar, for someone who doesn’t play this game you seem incredibly upset.

    This is Valve we’re talking about. Have some faith.

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  49. Kim says:

    What I want to know is if we’ll ever get ‘meet the-’ animations for the other characters >:(

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  50. Turin Turambar says:

    ¿?

    I am not particularly upset, just commenting these news and my particular tastes, apart of commenting the overall trend to incorporate RPG systems in every game, partially thanks to the success of WoW/other games like that.

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  51. go says:

    I have mixed feelings about tis, but it will be implemented anyway, so will wait.
    But I’m looking forward for real new buildings for the engineer, not just slight modifications to the existing ones.

    BTW: Goldrush mode was already discussed as a mod idea in the steam forums. I wonder if the user who suggested it was a valve employee testing peoples reaction.

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  52. Hypocee says:

    No, a Medic is not still a Medic, he’s a Medic A or a Medic B or (eventually, they say) a Medic C. I can only imagine that the geniuses who busted their humps for years making sure that class identification at a distance was absolutely unambiguous are livid. First person to say ‘you can tell them apart by looking at the gun’ gets a cookie.

    But it doesn’t matter… The whole point of the unambiguous classes was to tell the Solider apart from the Demoman and the Heavy and Medic apart from the Spy and Scout.

    A medic is still just a medic – who cares if he can heal faster or uber his team mates [...]
    I do, for one. From moment to moment, more than any other shooter I can think of, fight-or-flight is the very heart of this game. Can I Win This Fight. Am I the ambusher, or the ambushee? Do I shoot, or do I go find another fight?

    They’re saying that these unlockables are intended to have a real effect on the game – to neutralise Snipers’ one-shots in one loadout is one example they’ve given. I’m a Sniper, looking through my scope. Can I get the kill? Right now, I know, viscerally, from looking at the group of guys. When this goes into effect, I don’t until I identify whether this Medic I see is a Sniper-Nerfing Medic or a Non-Sniper-Nerfing Medic. Maybe it only takes a second, or less than a second – we’ve been trained for decades in some cases to pick up subtle shape changes – but for some classes that little annoying pang of uncertainty could occur hundreds of times per match, and it’s that very shock which they did however many complete rebuilds to keep out of this particular game.

    Looking at five of TF2‘s most precious USPs off the top of my head – its simple graphical beauty, its sense of humour, the streamlined class roles, the instant evaluation of enemies, and the relatively high usefulness of novices and dilettantes – this idea sideswipes three of the five. It could hardly be more diametrically opposite to what makes TF2, TF2. There are plenty of radical changes where I’d give Valve the benefit of a big fat doubt – you’d not hear a peep out of me if they’d added a class, or completely revamped a map or given the Medic a Redeemer or whatever, until I’d played it – but this, this just can’t fit. It’s not a question of balance or structure; if they roll this forward they will be literally dismantling, class by class, all that hard work they put into communicating with the player. That makes me sad and angry. I wonder if the people who made the game are still in charge of post-release development.

    Gold Rush mode does sound awesome, though.

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  53. Hypocee says:

    Hrm. There seems to be some mismatch in the Preview’s {blockquote} parsing versus actual {blockquote} parsing. Sorry about that, first time I’ve bothered with it.

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  54. Dude says:

    I don’t think its a RPG thing, it is more rewarding players who stick to one class and try to master it. As long as the achievments are not too hard to get, no arm in that.
    I play mainly soldier and I think it would be nice to have some variation, I don’t ask for a grenade launcher but maybe a faster rocket/less damage or a 2 rocket clip but more damage? That should allow player to try other playstyle.
    And to be honest I am not hardcore, I have played this game on and off and I almost manage to unlock all of them, I just miss some from class I don’t play (like spy). And no I wasn’t playing to get them…

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  55. Nick says:

    Gah! The BF2 unlocks WERE NOT SUPERIOR to the regular weapons. Anyone who says otherwise is simply wrong. The only exception was a special forces one that let you use flashbangs. Other than that the weapons were NOT better, they were different.

    I was hoping that would be the case for TF2 but the propsed medic one sounds awful at the moment.

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  56. matte_k says:

    i’ve been playing as a medic for a while, a great way of learning the maps or just dropping into a quick match due to the relative simplicity of the class abilities (i.e. healing and not much else). I think that adding in these things for the medic first is in response to the fact that the medic doesn’t really do anything other than heal and use the ubercharge, so maybe this is Valve trying to compensate for that by giving medic players a little more tactical choice? If it is done well, with a positive response, then other fine tuning can be done on the other classes, maybe a direct fire weapon for the demoman? (nothing sucks more than being cornered as a demoman and not being able to shoot AT your target, but relying on splash damage that can also kill you).

    I do agree that the system of hanging it on the peg of achievements isn’t really a good idea, UNLESS you can make the achievements ones that are easily accessible. Some are more easily gettable than others (for instance, joining one server i realised it was near the end of the match and i got the powerhouse offence achievement without doing anything, purely because i happened to join the winning team). So, rather than us all bitching about it here, let’s bitch over at Valve so they know what players want and don’t want- the majority should carry it, we hope…

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  57. Andrew Farrell says:

    Actually, the one achievement that’s eluded me so far is 10 kills from the one sentry gun. Any tips?

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  58. Lunaran says:

    The day this comes out, everyone and their mother is going to be playing medic on both teams on public servers.

    I’ve been waiting for a good opportunity to learn to play a Spy. >D

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  59. Junior says:

    Damn, I got halfway through your post before I was forced to voice my concerns.

    How long will it take me to kill people as a pyro when they have double health?

    I know at the moment that a quick torching at close range and a few shells will do the trick. But now? I’m never going to be able to be as foolhardy as I can be now, simply because I’ll never know if I’m going to run into a soldier who simply WON’T burn to death.

    And will your organised charge scatter and falter when I land in the middle of it and start burning you all?

    They’d better make these unlockables with great care about which classes they will harm, otherwise it’ll be a gimmick, one that could drive away players who have been there since the beta.

    Or, Maybe it’ll add a fresh burst of life by the time we’re getting a little tired of the vanilla TF2. Please Valve, Don’t fuck this up for us!

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  60. terry says:

    This is a great idea if only to see the speculation on the Steam Forums.

    Valve: We removed grenades from TF2 because they were offputting to new players who died to grenade spam.

    Steam Forums : OMGZ WER IS GRENDS. TF IZ NOT TF WITHOT GRENADE!!! I DEFINATELY WONT PLAY TF2! WTF NOOBS WITH NO GRENS WTF REALY

    Valve: We are adding new loadouts which will make classes more rounded.

    Steam Forums: WOOOOT!! GRENNS ARE BAKKK!!!!!!!!1

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  61. Stick says:

    Heh. I swear they’re running office betting pools at Valve for every announcement, however minor.
    “What are the odds of 3746 people losing their heads and going nuclear with doom-laden speculation?”
    “Pretty darn high?”

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  62. cereal_killer says:

    I, for one, welcome our new loadout overlords. As someone who plays TF2 on a fairly regular basis (3-5 hours a week) I am by no means bored by the current classes, but it will be interesting to see additions and variations to play. At this point I’ve come to expect tactics from classes in certain situations (e.g. i’m a pyro going after a demoman, he’ll run backwards and try to sticky me.)

    I wonder two things:

    Will the new loadouts be visible parts of the character models? Maybe the new medic gun will be a different color or shape.

    Will servers be able to disable the new loadouts feature? I bet there are already purists who will yearn for the original TF2 action.

    In any case, I would trust Valve with my firstborn son, so hopefully they don’t let me down.

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  63. Gulag says:

    Can’t fucking wait.

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  64. Pwnzerfaust says:

    If this is anything like the CoD 4 system of unlocking weapons and such, then I’ll be super pissed. I sucked at CoD 4 at first; not because I was particularly bad, but because everyone had more awesome weapons than I did and the default weapons weren’t worth a damn.

    If this is more like Battlefield 2 weapon unlocks, I’ll be less pissed. BF2 handled the unlockables system well, I think, in that the unlockable weapons were only a little better than the default loadout. Yeah, people with unlockables had a slight advantage, but nothing serious enough to make the newer players completely inferior to everyone else.

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  65. Chemix says:

    Yay for something to expand the lifespan of the game, almost like an expansion pack, but in the size of a Bethesda downloadable, but better in one crucial way, IT’S FREEE!

    My thoughts:
    1. Heavies are going to be fucking hard to kill: bonus their ammo remains the same, meaning they won’t be minigunning for anything more than a little past half their lifetime.

    2. Sentry Gun that can Walk- Imagine being able to choose to not have the rocket launcher, but instead stick with the level 2 sentry, but have it able to move, possibly while shooting, possibly while not being able to shoot, but still, capable of slowly walking from point to point, possibly faster as a level 1 sentry (fetch anyone? Go get the scout boy, go get im… 1 minute later … awwwe, good boy, you brought me a bat, thank you)

    3. Alternate Spy Gadgets- I really like the idea of actually picking identities and taking them (making the other player vulnerable to team damage), from a previous post here, but I think it’d be semi-easy roundabout to turning on team damage for almost a whole team, which sorta makes the pyro lose alot of it’s value. Something more or less able to be spammed would be a limited supply version of the sapper, that would turn sentries against their engi builders and such and convert dispensers to poison allies and heal enemies (enemies and allies of the dispenser’s builder), but one would only have say 2, and no other sappers for that life, and they would die with the spy like stickies, returning the devices to normal function. Alternatively, a grapple would be very useful for surprising enemies (particularly if the spy can spread out on the ceilling rather than dangle).

    4. Pyro Flamethrowers- Napalm, does less initial damage but keeps burning till they die, get healed or find water. Greek Fire would be an interesting alternative where it would go out in time, but water would make it burn worse (explosion perhaps?), but the ammo would be very limited (80 or something, with slightly less then current range). Either way, I’d like the option for a smoke grenade, it wouldn’t have far range, maybe even dropped like a ninja’s smoke bomb (with appropriate muffled dialog), but it would allow for a covered escape (pyro runs without a medic are almost suicide runs now) or confusion to burn people with, “smoke before FIRE”

    5. Dynamite sticks as an alternative to stickies, very limited ammo, but BIG boom… maybe a dangerously short fuse to make it difficult to spam… mmmm, probably make a good drop on death weapon to screw with meleers, but hell, I like melee…. who knows

    6. Sniper Camouflage- no NOT a cloak, sniper camouflage as in literal cover, like a barrel, a crate, a box, a false part of a wall, something that if you look at for more than a second you’d think was fishy, but something that’d you’d not notice at a passing glance unless you looked back. In exchange, no SMG, but more sniper ammo.

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  66. Richard says:

    @Chemix “awwwe, good boy, you brought me a bat”

    lol :)

    I also like the sniper camouflage idea – though making it even more cartooney with eye holes and the like :)

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  67. wyrmsine says:

    Hypocee – “It’s not a question of balance or structure; if they roll this forward they will be literally dismantling, class by class, all that hard work they put into communicating with the player.”

    I prefer to think of it as evolving the language. It’s certainly going to elevate the debate; certainly I’ll be pissed off every time I misjudge an opponent’s abilities and have some quiet time in the respawn queue to fume…

    Looking forward to it – I could use a couple new excuses to have fun like a n00b.

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  68. Nick says:

    You’ll still know what each class does.. I’m guessing they aren’t going to massively change the roles.

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  69. poullos says:

    I think they should incorporate all this under a different mode. I myself welcome these changes but, I know a lot of people who want to play a more straight forward game. Not to mention it looks like a new game from the existing one. I don’t want to see it like the weapons market they did in CSS(filtered in server lists). Make it a different mode so people know before hand what to choose/not choose.

    P.S: I love this game and I think valve will perfect it even more. :)

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  70. Marmic says:

    I like the idea of having the spy be able to turn sentries against their creators. Another thing that they could do is have it so that the spy can put a limited number of sappers and have it so everything that he put a sapper on turns off when he choses, and the buildings would stay off for about 10 seconds or so, the sappers would be one-shot, but the engies would not be able to take them off.

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  71. Gekonody says:

    Hey, the new weapons are not more powerful than their previous brethren – it’s a tactical choice:

    New gun: Heals you when you hit them, but can’t crit.
    New healer: Gives 100% crit, doesn’t give invincibility.
    New saw: Gives über-boost, is slower.

    It’s a tactical choice you’ll have to take, it’s not upgrading – it’s options

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