By John Walker on May 30th, 2009 at 2:23 am.
Here’s a spot of news. Team Fortress 2 has received an update tonight that means the Sniper and Spy unlockables can now be received through gaining achievement milestones. This works alongside the controversial new random-o-drops that enable people to get new items out of the blue, blue sky. The change comes alongside a collection of fixes for bugs and exploits that were brought in with the new bits and bobs. So there we go. Is everyone happy now? Cheers to pezhore for alerting us.
30/05/2009 at 02:24 Legionary says:
Excellent. Maybe now I’ll finally get that Huntsman which has made it a point of principle not to drop for me.
30/05/2009 at 02:26 Beastman says:
Thank God.
It really sucked when people were actually playing useful classes and having fun games instead of everyone flocking to the Sniper/Spy classes and having pointless stalemates.
30/05/2009 at 02:31 Freudian Trip says:
Magically unlocked The Huntsman after achieving a Sniper milestone with the Pyro (little bugged out still me thinks)
30/05/2009 at 02:33 Blast Hardcheese says:
I already got what I wanted, so I don’t need to bother with this.
30/05/2009 at 02:54 CMaster says:
No RPS coverage of the unlockable hats yet?
30/05/2009 at 03:03 kobrad says:
This is all very nice, getting our new weapons. But I have to wonder if the huntsman is made out of seven trillion polygons or what? This update made the game unplayable for me. Two updates back, I was flying.. The next big lesson for valve is optimizing the fricking code – this just killed the fun out of the new stuff.
30/05/2009 at 03:04 Stupoider says:
I’m so happy. <3 No more idle servers!
30/05/2009 at 03:10 Dick Nickerson says:
@Beastman
My thoughts exactly. Commence the Sniper/Spy spam.
30/05/2009 at 03:11 MeestaNob! says:
@Freudian Trip
No, that would be correct. You see, you would have had the requisite number of achievements completed to unlock the Huntsman however as the patch only now introduces the milestone/weapon unlock system for sniper/spy it is ‘catching up’ and awarding it to you retroactively. The class you were playing as when it realised what was happening is irrelevant to the server, it just doles out goodies when it’s told to!
30/05/2009 at 03:22 Wulf says:
@Beastman
You said it.
Hopefully the ‘Omgrindin’, Omgrindin’, Omgrindin’ fer ‘chievements! This game is lost and damned fer e’er, gtfo now plz kthx.‘ crew will be at a minimum.
…hopefully.
…
Ehh, who am I kidding?
/weeps
Oh well, at least the problem will be less pronounced than before.
30/05/2009 at 03:22 Stupid Fat Hobbit says:
Yeah, all the Sniper milestones popped up when I joined a server earlier. Pity I have all the sniper unlocks already. Now if I could just get some hats…
Anyway, this is only common sense. There’s no reason they shouldn’t have had both methods in since the update.
30/05/2009 at 03:27 HEAVY WEAPONS GUY says:
Funny story. Remember how Valve designed their sniper update to bring the class closer to the middle of the fight? Check out any map with battlements, I dare ya.
@Hobbit: The idea was that there would be fewer achievement servers (truly, grinding for items) and more balanced team from the onset of the patch. The lack of SPYSNIPER FORTRESS until this point suggests that the latter worked. Of course, achievement_idle laughs at Valve’s attempts.
Oh, and +1 preferring only randoms.
30/05/2009 at 03:44 Jayteh says:
I think the problem in the end was the duplicates. If the drop rate was lower, and there was no chance of duplicates, problem solved.
30/05/2009 at 03:47 HEAVY WEAPONS GUY says:
Of course, if the drop rate were lower, more people would cry over not getting anything.
30/05/2009 at 03:50 abhishek says:
The random unlock system (if implemented correctly) would have been head and shoulders above this achievement based system. All they had to do is a) remove any chance of getting a duplicate item until you had all the new (or unique) ones and b) implement an algorithm which guarantees an unlock after a certain amount of time (maybe 2-3 hours played or 10-15 rounds completed or something like that).
I’m not a fan of unlocks in the first place, as I believe that there is nothing wrong in letting everyone have access to all the weapons as soon as they are made available. However, if unlocks must be implemented, taking care of the above points would be how I would do it.
30/05/2009 at 03:53 ChampionHyena says:
As I’m sure you all know, Valve is planning to roll out item trading and a method to influence the system so we can work directly toward getting specific items. These did not arrive with the random drop-o-matic, so it’s been kind of a pain in the ass. I think if this all arrived at once, life would be MUCH simpler and people would be lauding the new random loot.
As it stands? No one seems to like it. Hell, I don’t like it! Sitting idle in a server all night to get the freaking bow I should have had on merit anyway? I never thought I’d want achievement unlocks back, but… here we are.
Stupid Fat Hobbit is right. Having both methods is simpler. People who have been playing TF2 since beta can get their unlocks the old fashioned way, and newbies with less-honed skills can still play with the new toys if they get lucky.
Seems there’s got to be a better way than either, though.
30/05/2009 at 04:03 Blast Hardcheese says:
@Heavy Weapons Guy: I’m riiiight behind you.
But I disagree. The Huntsman HAS been getting Snipers to get a tad closer to the fray, so I don’t mind it. Plus, it’s dodgable if you know they guy is shooting for you. The Rifle just requires the Sniper to stay alive a few seconds while he takes your head off. There are multiple maps where the Sniper can be basically invisible while he waits for his shot. On a CTF map of course, this is irrelevant, but those usually have battlements anyways.
30/05/2009 at 04:11 autogunner says:
achievment based forever in my opinion. these things only swing round twice a year so having to put up with class spamms for two months out of each year doesnt bother me, and teaches you new tricks both with the classes and against them, for example, engineers have got a hell of a lot better and foiling spies
also if they were done well, like the pyro update, the achievements could be used to teach new skills
30/05/2009 at 04:27 Nimic says:
I’ve played quite a few hours since the class update, and I’ve yet to receive a single “drop”. While my cousin, who I’ve played with on all those occasions, has gotten at least three.
But I still think this is a bad change. It was refreshing how not everyone was flocking to the two classes. Sure, you might see a few more snipers and a few more spies in certain games, but usually people would just go on with their merry days.
30/05/2009 at 04:28 Mr Popov says:
@Blast Hardcheese
DOdgeable yes. But also able to hit someone who rounds a corner when you’ve got an arrow enroute ;)
30/05/2009 at 04:31 feffrey says:
finally I can unlock something.
I have played around 30 hours (not all at once ofc) of TF2 since the sniper and spy stuff got put in and I never got a single unlock, hat, or anything. I never got any that I already had!
I even spectated on several different servers for hours on ends and never got a single unlock.
hopefully now I can actually get something.
30/05/2009 at 04:43 Redford says:
If anything this new update has motivated me to play scout a lot more then usual to counter the sniper and spy rushes.
Also, by the by, does this mean if everyone complains about how snipers can instakill half the classes in the game with an uncharged headshot, they might actually make an attempt to balance the class on something other then raw skill?
Nah.
30/05/2009 at 04:57 Vinraith says:
I enjoyed the old unlock system, it encouraged me to play classes outside my comfort zone and game me something to work for. That said, with the random drops, it seems to me the best solution would simply be to eliminate the concept of unlocks entirely and simply give everyone all the weapons from the outset. Introducing that much luck into the system is just crappy.
30/05/2009 at 05:11 Messiah Complex says:
@Vinraith:
I couldn’t agree more. Tonight, I played 2Fort as a Sniper, and got my Huntsman within 15 minutes. Finally! I spent the rest of the night running into the enemy base and missing 9 out of 10 things I aimed at. I enjoyed every minute.
30/05/2009 at 05:20 Cunningbeef says:
I got the Jarate about 30 seconds after joining a server. It was kinda confusing.
30/05/2009 at 05:33 HellFire says:
Well the achievement milestone’s are 5 ; 11 ; 17 …i have 29 achievements done with sniper and 27 with spy…. how or when will these 3 achievements unlock Oo ?
30/05/2009 at 05:51 Admiral Dread says:
I actually prefer the drop system entirely, but I just hate grinding achievements for items. Before they put the milestones back it seems to be there was hardly an influx of spy/snipers at all, asides from a few extra basically playing with their new toys. I come on today and there was colored dots and arrows wizzing all over the freaking place.
That all said, nothing is more annoying then getting five items you already own in a row.
30/05/2009 at 06:02 Shadowcat says:
-1 for achievement-based upgrades.
@ChampionHyena says:
There is, and it’s ridiculously simple: Don’t make the new features ‘special’.
All this nonsense about achievement grinding or random drops is ignoring the obvious solution. Make them just like all the other weapons in the game (i.e. selectable by default), and suddenly, magically, you have a balanced game once more.
(Or if you don’t have a balanced game, then Valve screwed up, and they need to fix it — but that is the case regardless of how the new features are attained.)
30/05/2009 at 06:20 Alex says:
I hope that they have the time to fix some of the new animations. The first-person reload for the Ambassador is really sketchy.
I hope they keep the third-arm-cloak-and-dagger bug, though. That’s just fun.
30/05/2009 at 06:51 Y3k-Bug says:
Valve is so odd sometimes. Why didn’t they just do this initially?
They create some of the most compelling games in the world, but man they do things sometimes that is just baffling.
I honestly don’t get what people (or Valve for that matter) are looking for out of all this. They make an extremely good game, where one or 2 classes are updated at a time, and they want to stop people from grinding for the achievements? That’s impossible. It’s new stuff.
The expectation that people WON’T want the new stuff is bizarre to me. The only way this can be avoided is if all 9 classes were released in one shot. Since that’s impossible for balance reasons, people are going to just flock to the updated class. It only lasts a few weeks anyway.
Also, why do they feel the need to do this now? There are only 3 classes left anyway.
30/05/2009 at 07:25 The Fanciest of Pants says:
Yeah, releasing this system without the aforementioned trade/influence stuff in place was a tad silly.
It’s nice that I now(through milestones) have an ambassador finally to go with my 8 dead ringers and 2 cloak and daggers.
30/05/2009 at 07:43 Dave says:
That would explain why I suddenly got a bunch of milestones and Jarate, then, plus another duplicate Spy watch. I think some of the achievements are a little broken anyway though.
The Huntsman’s strength is at close-to-medium range I think. I love playing a Sniper now, whereas I would only occasionally enjoy it before when I was having a lucky streak (or maybe when the other team sucked.)
30/05/2009 at 07:55 Muffin Man says:
Awesome! I already have 19 Spy achievements, so I should get one more item now, and another pretty soon. :)
30/05/2009 at 08:35 Jazmeister says:
Why didn’t anyone do secret achievements yet? Like, it doesn’t even tell you how many there are, or how to get them? They’re all designed to reward good fun spy stuff. Are they supposed to be instructional?
And why couldn’t they just stop duplicates? WHY?
30/05/2009 at 09:14 anonymous17 says:
+1 for achievement unlocks.
You don’t actually have to get them by grinding, quite often weapons can be unlocked while playing on a normal server by getting the achievements while playing a normal game. Previously it didn’t feel this system obfuscated the actual game. Random unlocks are just too random, achievement unlocks do cause unlock servers but at least then those that want wish to spend time there can do so away from crowds.
30/05/2009 at 09:14 Lobotomist says:
I seen a guy (scout) run with a helmet , and another one (also scout) without hat…
So i guess Hats are in
Also i got ubersaw unlocked, but when i wanted to equip it – it wasnt there…
Buggy
30/05/2009 at 09:23 Wedge says:
I must have missed the whole people not stacking servers full of useless spies and snipers just because the achievements didn’t unlock them. Because y’know, it happened. People don’t stack the classes like that to get the achievements, they do it to use the new crap. And unless Valve makes it so only a few people can get the new stuff (which they sort of did this time, though it just rightfully pissed everyone off), that’s never going to change. Just get over it, everything will be relatively normal in another week or two.
30/05/2009 at 09:47 MrBejeebus says:
Im perfectly happy with this, as i had EARNED all the achievements playing normally, and was given every item, theres still the hats tho…
for people that dont have the time to play enough to get achievements, the item drop system works…
30/05/2009 at 09:49 anonymous17 says:
If the outcome is still exactly the same as the original system, changing it back now ultimately has proved nothing. Everybody still chose to be a Sniper or Spy because they wanted the random unlock chance. The fact of restraining the introduction of new weapons to the characters didn’t have any impact on the character balance.
Valve’s system of introducing unlock weapons this way is going to cause this problem of many-same-character – it is unavoidable, having the better system in place for the long time is a better solution – although trying a different idea is not bad – in this case it hasn’t worked out.
Edit:
If TF2 ends up in a situation where people with the unlocks are far superior to those without – the game will be broken.
30/05/2009 at 10:48 Rakysh says:
I’m for just letting everyone have everything. I’m also for being a pyro for the next week or so, as most of my frequented servers have sniper limits, so there can be teams more than 50% spy. It’s awesome.
30/05/2009 at 10:54 derFeef says:
Valve listens, but maybe they listens too much. The impatient community whined so much that they maybe destroyed the future plans of the new item system. The TF2 team may have a lot more work now and has to rethink some things.
30/05/2009 at 10:57 fishmitten says:
I wondered why I couldn’t get into a proper game last night.
Still, it’s better in principal than the random drops.
30/05/2009 at 11:21 Dood says:
@derFeef
That reminds me of this Yahtzee quote: “Fans are clingy complaining dipshits who will never ever be grateful for any concession you make. The moment you shut out their shrill tremulous voices, the happier you’ll be for it.”
God, I hate those whiners at the Steam Forums. It’s the same with Left4Dead. Let’s just hope Valve don’t listen to them too much.
30/05/2009 at 11:32 Psychopomp says:
@Dood
First thing I thought upon reading that patch note.
30/05/2009 at 11:39 Vandelay says:
Partly glad, partly disappointed.
First off, excellent that I don’t have to wait ungodly number of hours to get the new weapons (still only got the Jarate, plus a fair few duplicates.) If the milestones are as someone says above (5, 11, 17) then I already have half of the new weapons (2 sniper, 1 spy – and only 1 more achievement to get the next.)
Having said that, the new improvement unlock system could have been a great replacement if altered slightly. If they had of just made a drop more likely the better you are playing (base it on round position, dominations, kills or whatever you like) that would still give all players a chance to play with the new toys and reward those that are good. They could also give a way of weighting the probability towards particular weapons, you could rank them in preference or something, which removes the frustration of getting duplicates constantly, but still keep the potential for getting them (I’m sure there is going to be reason for the duplicates, and probably more reason than the trading system they will be implementing.)
I’m also just disappointed in Valve not sticking to their guns with their plans. Instead they cave into the whiners on Steam forums, who don’t have the patience to wait and see what Valve are planning to do when the system is fully put in place.
edit: couple of other things. From my personal experience, the new system did seem to make far less snipers and spies on servers compared to the achievements. I expect the game will be barely playable for the coming weeks.
Also, the main problem with the drops is the fact that the chance of getting duplicates is so high. I really can’t believe Valve when they say the majority of players don’t have the unlocks. How often do you not see a medic with the Ubersaw? Or a Heavy with the KGB? I expect their stats are probably skewed due to including people who don’t play the game, who have just bought it as part of the Orange Box or another package. If the system had of been implemented from the very start (or they could just remove everyone’s unlocks – imagine the reaction on the steam forums then) there would be none of this complaining and the system would probably be liked by most people.
30/05/2009 at 12:11 Lemming says:
@Lobotomist
Hats are definitely in, you can see them all here:
http://csnation.totalgamingnetwork.com/forums/showthread.php?t=179692
Unless u dont want to ruin the surprise…
30/05/2009 at 12:30 CakeAddict says:
:’)
Now I can finally get some of those new unlocks, instead of more mountains of sandviches seriously Valve I’m on a diet!
30/05/2009 at 12:56 EBass says:
I’d much prefer it if they kept the “random” unlock system but made it based on cool stuff.
So get 5 headshots in a row. Unlock
Or get two kills in midair. Unlock.
Of course it wouldn’t be that simple, not like every time you did a specific pre-ordained thing you got an unlock. But if occasionally you did something really cool it might reward you with some random crap.
Not easy to code, but I’m sure you could work in the algorithms.
30/05/2009 at 13:25 Andy says:
I dunno if everyone else is knows this but I only just realised, arrows from the huntsman can be set on fire if they pass through the pyros flame, and then you have FLAMING ARROWS!!!!!!!!11111111111
30/05/2009 at 13:57 Freudian Trip says:
My only problem with the huntsman is that not only does it make the sniper just as awesome from long range but he’s got an instakill from 5 yards. The amount of time I’ve scouted these arseholes to receive a huntsman through my little toe annoys me. It kind of destroys the point in the scout in that you need to try get as close as possible, but getting that close will just get you owned in the face, so I end up taking them out with the pistol from range instead.
30/05/2009 at 14:23 Man Raised By Puffins says:
To be honest I’m having so much fun with the Huntsman that the foibles of Valve’s errant Random-drop-o-Tron aren’t really bothering me.
On balance I’d say the Sniper rifle is still the more effective weapon, particularly now it has crosshairs, but it’s not as crazily satisfying to use as the Huntsman (credit is due to Valve’s audio spods for doing a great job on the feedback you get from connecting shots) plus pin-cushioning targets currently ceases to get old.
30/05/2009 at 14:38 sinister agent says:
I spent a game the other week where two irish blokes were talking for about fifteen minutes, non-stop, about some other bloke who was getting unlockable hatsevery few minutes, and they were suspicious. Throughout this I tried asking them politely to shut up and either kick him if it mattered, or get a life and ignore it – nobody was playing suspiciously well or anything and I had no idea who they were actualyl talking about. Eventually I left (I tried muting everyone, but it didn’t work for some reason). Whatever the system is, I don’t care. I just wish people would stop fucking whinging about precisely how long they have to play to get their entirely free content, all of which is of limited and not entirely positive use anyway.
30/05/2009 at 17:45 Blast Hardcheese says:
@Dood
Ever think that most of the complainers on the L4D side are the same ones that bitch about their team and ragequit when they’re the worst player?
I sure do.
30/05/2009 at 18:04 James T says:
Do you think Valve made the free content so that people could not use it?
I wonder if the ‘discovery’ unlock system is actually a massive in-joke on the part of Valve, because it reminds me a lot of one of their other franchises… A half-life is the length of time after which there’s a 50% chance of an atom’s nuclear decay. You can’t say when it happened, exactly, or which atoms in a given quantity will have done it, but by the end of the half-life, you can confidently say “Yes — about HALF of this lump of plutonium has decayed! I’m so happy.” As far as radioactive decay measurements go, hey, I know I’m not going to have any better ideas — but as videogame mechanics go? Well… to paraphrase Fight Club, “On a long enough timeline, everybody
diesunlocks the content”. Sure, by the end of a given period, a player will definitely have all the unlocks, but it’s the quantum-event-like randomness of their distribution within that period that creates the kind of arbitrary reward and neglect which… doesn’t go down too well in the liberal democracies where Valve shift most of their units (as illustrated by the enormous number of rightfully irritated posts now available on your local internet).Haha, actually, come to think of it, there’s actually no given period in which the unlocks can ‘complete’, because you can get duplicates! Thank god plutonium isotopes don’t do that!… (Or would that be awesome? Any physicists here?)
Team Fortress 2: It Has No Half-Life.
30/05/2009 at 18:04 Abi79 says:
So now that we have milestones, and it’s again possible to use achievement servers to get all weapons, what’s the point of trading?
Without milestones, you had no idea what you were going to get next even if you idled for hours on end. Now you know for sure you can get everything if you want to.
30/05/2009 at 18:36 Mad Doc MacRae says:
I got my jarate and ambassador (as well as more huntsmen and cloak and daggers) from this update, so I’m getting a kick out of these replies…
But seriously, since we can have our cake and eat it too, why don’t we just quit whining and play?
30/05/2009 at 18:36 A Delicate Balance says:
I’m quite pleased about this update. Spy is my least played character, mostly because I’m not very good at it. I have 20+ hours as medic, and only about 2 hours as spy. I was thinking I would end up playing spy and learning how to use the class better because of the necessity to get achievements for the unlockables, which, obviously, since they are out there, I wanted to get.
I was rather disappointed to find that I’d end up with the unlocks eventually (theoretically) but that I wouldn’t have to learn how to play as a spy to get them. I still don’t have to play as spy to get his unlocks (I got one of the watches as a random unlock) but now at least there is more of a reason to work through those achievements.
I would probably have worked on some of the achievements anyway, just to give me something to aim for with the spy (I do want to learn to be a better spy). Personally, I’m looking forward to getting the Jarate though. I know some people seem to have a fit at the very idea, but my wife thought it sounded very amusing and laughed when I explained that some prudes were getting all worked up about the idea of throwing virtual jars of piss at people.
I am still looking forward to seeing what will be done with the engineer for his update (whenever that might be). Engineer used to be my most played class (until I discovered the joys of combat medic), even though I was trying not to play as him too much until his achievements were available. In my mind at least, some kind of variation on the sentry gun or dispenser would be a fun unlock – not that I’m an expert on game balance or anything, but maybe an indirect fire turret. Also, for the soldier – what about a homing missile launcher unlock? Sure, it homes in on the enemy, but you need to get a lock first or it won’t fire… something along those lines.
Anyway, overall, I shall continue enjoying TF2 and exploring all the different possibilities for gameplay – from simply working on achievements for the sake of completion and direction, to working out which weapons I like on which classes or just hopping on a server and getting pwned.
One thing I’d wouldn’t do is jump on an achievement server just to get unlocks. Personally, I haven’t used a cheat in any game for at least a decade. I like the challenge of having to work to get all the options – to me that’s some of the point of the game – a single-player element to an otherwise multiplayer experience.
Finally, my TF2 motto – Death, carnage and the pursuit of ridiculous achievements.
30/05/2009 at 20:35 Scott says:
Everyone should stop complaining. This is the best of two flawed worlds. The milestones are ridiculously low; I logged on yesterday, got one kill, and was rewarded with 6 achievements and 5 new weapons. All three unlocks need a pittance of 17 achievements, which is actually only 15 because the first two milestones are counted. I had gotten that for both classes within maybe three or four games of normal play. The random drops mean that people who are utterly abysmal at the game will still get drops.
The random system is now, of course, useless to anyone with all the items. I plan on collecting as many Sandviches as possible once trading is implemented. I much prefer the achievement system, not because I can go on a grinding server and get them in twenty minutes, but because I genuinely like VALVe’s achievements, and it seems a shame to waste them.
30/05/2009 at 20:50 sigma83 says:
As the Christians once said to Charles Darwin: Quit rocking the boat.
30/05/2009 at 23:35 Nakki says:
It was awful to get razorback, two dead ringers and a second razorback in a row. Next to useless items if you ask me. Gladly I got lucky with a force-a-nature that I was missing and the milestones unlocked the missing jarate (after 3 random huntsmen and 3 random razorbacks) and ambassador (after two dead ringers and a cloak & a dagger).
Gotta say, I don’t believe my team was happy when I was running around shooting at people with sniper rifle without using the scope ;)
31/05/2009 at 03:34 Swainy says:
Well i’m pleased to see the milestones back BUT i think they made them far too easy considering they now added the random item finds.
I found myself automatically getting them all and it felt like an empty achievement. I guess that’s due to me still set in my roots back when you had to do all the achievements to get all the unlocks.
Man i was so proud to be one of the few to have gotten an ubersaw (legit) then.
I suppose they just wanted to make it easy to everyone could have the unlocks within a very reasonable amount of time.
Ah well. The times, they are a changin’.
Oh and people will still idle to get the hats y’know.
31/05/2009 at 07:30 Mad Doc MacRae says:
also why is no one ever on the 32 man RPS server???
[Rage Quit]Eightball wants to play!
31/05/2009 at 07:45 Walter says:
Whats the IP? I’ve only found the 20 man server IP. That said TF shouldn’t be played with more than 24 players.
31/05/2009 at 11:59 SteveTheBlack says:
Oddly, I logged in today, got some milestones, but the weapons refused to unlock :( Now I’m sifting through forums and restarting games waiting for the server to catch up with my achievements.
31/05/2009 at 18:27 Erlam says:
I think the random unlock system is actually quite brilliant (in combination with the milestone system.)
On almost every server I was on, someone would say “Oh, I just got ‘x’ achievement for ‘y’ class I never play,” and they’d then try the class, and find they actually liked it. I noticed that the amount of each class being played is a LOT more even now – 2 scouts, 2 spies, 2 snipers, 1 Soldier, 2 Demo, 2 medics, 2 heavies, 1 engineer, 1 Pyro (random mixing of those, sometimes 3 of one, 1 of another) is pretty common now. Before it was rare to see a scout, etc.
The only thing I wish would have been done is to check to see if you have ‘x’ item before you get it, because I’d rather not get all the pyro weapons (again, i’d already unlocked them) before getting any Heavy stuff, for example.
And I still don’t have the KGB’s, heh.
31/05/2009 at 19:23 A-Scale says:
Just got 3 weapons in under an hour. Took me almost a week to get the other 3. I’m glad you were able to admit your mistake, Valve. I forgive you (even though it hurt).
As to the apologists for the rubbish system that was just fixed, I say “screw you”.
31/05/2009 at 22:35 Y3k-Bug says:
The random system really wasn’t brilliant though. It actually still isn’t, as many people still haven’t gotten a single random drop, old or new weapons.
Will it be eventually? It’s valve, so yes. But it is no where near ready for actual public usage as the only way of getting weapons.
01/06/2009 at 05:37 Wulf says:
Are those who’re getting no drops doing anything to help themselves? By helping Valve, they’d help themselves. I guess what I’m asking is whether the statistics thread I suggested yonks back has been created and padded out, yet?
Information they could supply:
- Their Steam ID
- State that they’ve had no drops, very rare drops, or only duplicate drops.
- State their standard playing times, and times when they think they should’ve had a drop (X amount of time over X days).
- The servers they’ve been playing on.
- The maps they most frequently play on.
There are likely bugs in the system still, yes, but only feedback will help these people. If they’re not giving feedback then they’re not going to see any fixes for these bugs, it’s as simple as that.
I’m a casual player yet the system is working as intended for me, but even still, I’m tempted to create this thread to help people out if no one else has, simply because I’m beginning to feel a bit guilty. I’ve had a number of unlocks, both relevant to my class and not, so in my eyes it’s working as intended.
But if people are whining and not giving reasonable feedback then they’re obviously either A) not as bothered as they’re making out or, B) a big bunch of fibbers. Deductive reasoning and all that.
To wrap up: If you’re having problems with the system, then you’re in a position to give rational feedback, provide as much info as you can, and be reasonable about it. The more people that do this, the more quickly Valve will be able to track down any bugs.
For those wondering about my motives…
I’ve worked on software projects before, and having people who whine on and on without doing anything constructive helps no one in the long run, especially not them. If you’re experiencing an issue, file a bug report, provide as much info as you can, and do it in a way that will be easy for the developers to parse. By providing helpful information, problems get fixed.
All too often I’ve listened to people whine about one of the projects I’ve been involved with, and I’ve wanted to strangle them and scream at them: “Well, maybe if you told us how you encountered this bug, and the situation surrounding the bug, and told us what error messages you had, and gave us the logs we asked for, the bug you’re going on about would be fixed already!”
I know paying for something gives people a sense of entitlement, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be helpful, right?
I suppose my views are just a bit skewed though, because the projects I’ve worked on have been free ones, and people whine about free stuff that doesn’t work too. Because… well, people are like that.
TL;DR: Well reasoned, rational, informative, helpful, and constructive complaint = GOOD. Whining on the Internet about a problem you could likely be part of the solution to = BAD.
07/06/2009 at 21:07 spy says:
spy mileston bug nu se unlock deloc am ajuns pana la 28 de achivements
da-i dreacu pe cei de la valve
01/12/2009 at 10:51 team fortress 2 fan says:
i have enough achivements for those milestones for spy but i am not getting them why