Hey good job, there, Hardhat! (an end to Valve's silence)

[YM]

Taken from http://www.teamfortress.com/:
We've been pretty quiet lately, but thankfully, that's about to end. In the next few days we'll have an update out that has a couple of new features for the Engineer and Spy, and a variety of other smaller fixes.

Teleporters will be upgradeable to level 3. As the teleporter is upgraded, the cooldown will decrease.
Dispensers will be upgradeable to level 3. They will heal faster and generate metal faster as they are upgraded.
Spies will be able to recharge their cloaking ability by picking up ammo off of the ground.
We've made a bunch of minor changes by adding particle systems and upgrading the HUD to show things like deaths by critical hits, players that are overhealed, and giving more information to medics when people are calling for them.

These are just to work on some class balance and depth issues that we've seen in the wild with these two classes, but aren't meant to replace their entire class packs. They will be getting more attention further down the road.

http://www.teamfortress.com/images/posts/scout1.jpg

While that's in testing, we're off working on several things that folks have been emailing us about, so we thought it'd be good to provide some detail:

The next class pack will be the Scout. One of the main goals we're focusing on for him has been to provide tools that make him useful in maps like Dustbowl & Goldrush. If you have any ideas for what you think would work well, post them over on the Team Fortress 2 Forum and we'll take a look.
We are actively working on a massive XBox 360 update, which will include pretty much everything we've shipped on the PC in the last year. We'll provide you with a rough date when we have one.
We're also working on bringing over a variety of engine improvements from Left 4 Dead into the TF2 engine, but it won't be a wholesale replacement of the engine. This means we'll get some of L4D's performance improvements, like the better multicore support, but not all of them. For example, we can't bring over some improvements without dropping support for DX8, which we're not prepared to do.

[Armadillo of Doom]

Very cool indeed. I play offensive engie quite a bit, so this is welcome news. Though I honestly thought Spy would be next for a class pack. The additional medic info is especially cool. Go Valve! And when are we getting our interview dammit? :p

[MrAlBobo]

more upgradable stuff...awesome

and...you fail at linking things :P

[Dox]

Teleporters will be upgradeable to level 3. As the teleporter is upgraded, the cooldown will decrease.
Dispensers will be upgradeable to level 3. They will heal faster and generate metal faster as they are upgraded.


Im guessing that may entail a nerf of low level things and make level 3 only slightly better :(


Spies will be able to recharge their cloaking ability by picking up ammo off of the ground.

*giggle hysterically* Sweeet.

[Spike]

Same I've said on the other post:

The next class pack will be the Scout. One of the main goals we're focusing on for him has been to provide tools that make him useful in maps like Dustbowl & Goldrush. If you have any ideas for what you think would work well, post them over on the Team Fortress 2 Forum and we'll take a look.

I hope Valve don't pay attention to steam forum posts...

And:

Spies will be able to recharge their cloaking ability by picking up ammo off of the ground.

what about taking ammo from dispensers, lockers? Isn't it the same thing?

Go Spy Go

[ProfFiendish]

YES, more Engie awesomeness.

...however, now I'll be increasingly fearful of spies D:

[Cameron:D]

Can't wait for upgradeable dispensers/teleporters :D

[A Boojum Snark]

I'm not sure I like the spy thing... downed guns are a little easy to come by, regardless of how much cloak each gun will give you. I still prefer my idea of making the mediray recharge cloaking, as it would help improve spy/medic relationships since most of the time spies don't like medics healing them, as it is an instant giveaway if seen.

Further... while the medic bit sounds ok, what I would like most is giving more info to the people CALLING for medic. There is nothing I hate more than having someone call for me and continually run away... they should get a HUD icon pointing to the nearest medic.

[Chris|Gramps]

Just updated Guys :D

[grazr]

Spies should only be able to recharge from dispensers and lockers imo. It's fairly overpowered considering, all they need to do is fix the damn backstab. Done.

[Icarus]

You only get like an extra 2 seconds for picking up medium ammo/dropped weapons. Most of your cloak will come from dispensers/cabinets, where you can remain cloaked forever (however, dispenser healbeams still give you away)

Demo stickies disappear after being shot once. Seems harsh at first, but c'mon, either they'll be using them as rockets or by the time you see them you've already lost. Besides, demos needed some form of a nerf.

This update doesn't affect the core gameplay much, but it's very, VERY nice added polish.

Btw, I'm loving the new manly dispenser

too bad the new teleport is so hard to maintain. but damn is it worth it. Instant teleports ftw

[ProfFiendish]

Demo stickies disappear after being shot once. Seems harsh at first, but c'mon, either they'll be using them as rockets or by the time you see them you've already lost. Besides, demos needed some form of a nerf.


If only you could shoot down rockets...

[The Asylum]

all they need to do is fix the damn backstab. Done.


This.

[umbratile]

Spies shouldn't be able to refill cloak at resupply cabinets or from dispensers. The fact that they need to use ammopacks encourages them to stay out on the battlefield (it's not like Spies are the masters of turtling, but they might start doing just that if all their free cloak is right by their base), and it makes them feel ever so slightly safer in the enemy's presence. There's nothing wrong with giving Spy players a bit more sense of safety, since it often feels a bit too hard to stay sneaky and stealthy, even for good Spies (assuming I can be called a fairly good Spy).

[Hawk]

I really like the changes for the Engineer. But as much as I like them, I hope they don't cause any serious trouble with balance and such. Oh well, I guess I'll find out tomorrow when I play.

I was curious and decided to measure just how good the Engineer's upgrades are.

Lv1 Teleporter: 8 second recharge
Lv2 Teleporter: 4 second recharge
Lv3 Teleporter: 2 second recharge

This was just counting to myself, though... not exact timing. But wow! The cool thing is, you can upgrade the teleporter by hammering away at either the entrance or the exit... I was worried you would have to upgrade both.

With a completely filled Level 3 dispenser, you can lay down a brand new sentry gun and keep upgrading it to Level 3, and the dispenser will be just short of running out by the time you're finished. I'm sure most engineers will get to work on the sentry before any dispenser upgrades, but this will give me something to do when I have a level 3 sentry and I'm just sitting and waiting for people to come.

And good for the poor scout. I've seen very little use for him in Dustbowl/GoldRush/Badwater, and these are the maps I spend all my time on. So it's good to see that they're focusing on that.

[ryodoan]

With a completely filled Level 3 dispenser, you can lay down a brand new sentry gun and keep upgrading it to Level 3, and the dispenser will be just short of running out by the time you're finished. I'm sure most engineers will get to work on the sentry before any dispenser upgrades, but this will give me something to do when I have a level 3 sentry and I'm just sitting and waiting for people to come.


Hmm.... I seem to recall that previously a fully filled dispenser could do the same thing, which means they nerfed the dispenser so that the previous dispenser = level 3 dispenser.... :(

[Hildreth's Will]

Sounds good.

The Spy one will be the most interesting, I have spent a lot of time hiding waiting for my cloak to return.

Engineer's dispeners will cost metal to upgrade, so it shouldn't speed up the building process too much. Also, I presume the entrances will be the ones in need of upgrading, not exits when it comes to teleporters.

[Psy]

The spy buff is amazing. Now you're rewarded for backstabbing people by picking up their weapon and instantly receiving extra charge for the cloak.

[ryodoan]

THe game seems unbalanced with the lvl 3 teles and Dispensers.

I will have to play it, but if you ask me the engineers really needed some kind of a buff. It it feels "unbalanced" now, it is just that engineers can actually do some good again.

When the game first came out engineers were awesome because nobody knew how to dislodge them, however, now all the popular engineer locations have known methods for digging the engineer out. Its gotten to the point that if I play on a standard Valve map I can count on getting maybe one sentry kill before the sentry gun is destroyed.

The way I play as an effective engineer is I have started to get creative and build my sentry guns in uncommon locations. Then, once I get a kill i move to a different spot because the person that just died has just alerted his entire team to my position.

As for teleporters, I build them all the time and NOBODY takes them. I will put the entrance right by the spawn, and tell people in chat to take it, and NOBODY takes it. They needed some kind of a boost.

For dispensors, well, I will need to play the game, but I thought they were in pretty good shape, although the healing was a bit slow.

/A proud engineer with over 95 hours of service.

[Icarus]

Spies shouldn't be able to refill cloak at resupply cabinets

Seriously?

This part of the update was done so spies wouldn't need a workaround. Pre-path, spies had to switch classes and back to refill their cloak. This eliminates that need.

[A Boojum Snark]

Also, I presume the entrances will be the ones in need of upgrading, not exits when it comes to teleporters.
They upgrade in a set, you can put in 180 metal at one end and 220 at the other and the pair will be level 3. If either end dies the remaining one resets, but you can upgrade one end while the other does not exist, and when the set is completed it is automatically level 3.

[TheDarkerSideofYourShadow]

Someone pointed out how much they hate going up against the lvl 3 dispenser, but then someone countered with this. The lvl 3 dispensers for D counter somewhat the increased troop movement for O provided by the lvl 3 teleporters.

[Sgt Frag]

Can't wait to check this out.

Some of it sounds cool, some of it I'll have to see.

I can see shooting the stickies making it harder to destroy sentries, especially if the dispenser is kicking out metal to fix it faster.

But maybe this will get players to think more of the demos ambush techniques more. Instead of placing stickies all over the floor you'll have to be more careful to hide them on walls, inside doorways, etc... where they can't be seen.

Spies gaining more cloak sounds cool. They have to work for it so it almost seems more like a luck thing than anything. Krit cloak?
Anyway, it's also a way to see masked spies, if you see ammo vanish from a fresh kill it's probably a cloaked spy.

I can see a whole team standing by a level 3 tele now and attacking in force. Could be good, could be bad depending on which team you're on. Might result in more steamroll/stalemate action.

[Hawk]

Hmm.... I seem to recall that previously a fully filled dispenser could do the same thing, which means they nerfed the dispenser so that the previous dispenser = level 3 dispenser.... :(

You could be right, but I'm not sure. What happens is that I ate up 730 metal and the Lv3 dispenser still had about 1/8th of its metal left.

130 - sentry gun
200 - upgrade
200 - upgrade
200 - refilled my metal

I don't know.... I wish I could test it the old way, but I can't be sure that a current Lv1 dispenser is the same as a normal dispenser before the update.

[TheDarkerSideofYourShadow]

I don't know.... I wish I could test it the old way, but I can't be sure that a current Lv1 dispenser is the same as a normal dispenser before the update.

Lvl 1 dispenser = 40 metal per tick (which is what the original was at)
Lvl 2 dispenser = 50
Lvl 3 dispenser = 60

Now, I don't know if they upped the tick rate as well, or just the amount of metal dispensed.

[Scotland Tom]

I played for a few hours last night with the updates. Here's my abbreviated take on things:

All the HUD updates that give the medic more info are AWESOME. I can much more quickly assess how to be as effective as possible and I feel rewarded when I correctly analyze a situation and manage to help pull my team through it. The little crosses that swirl around overhealed team members also serve as motivation to keep as many of them overhealed as possible.

Some people are complaining that the engineer will be overpowered now. Not true. Sentry farms were just as vulnerable to a good uber as they were before. The fast lvl 3 teleporters almost seemed unbalanced, but once spies realize how much more of an important target they are that edge will be minimized. Overall the engineer has more decisions to make and can be used much more effectively on an attacking team with the upgraded teleporters and dispensers.

I didn't actually play the spy, but I saw fewer enemy spies that's for sure. I definitely got backstabbed more often than before simply because it was a lot more difficult to keep track of enemy spies. While I definitely felt the sting of the spies greater striking power, I realized that he finally got the boost he needed and his potency is now more on par with the rest of the classes.

[grazr]

It seems to dispense at a slightly slower rate as far as i could tell, so lvl 1 disp is a slight nerf whilst the lvl 2 is about the same as the original, 3rd would be a boost.

The reason why i say a spy should only be able to recharge at dispensers and cabinets is because there's nothing more annoying than being hit by spam. Your cover is blown and you have to start again. Retreating to a forward sg position (or even enemy dispenser) or cabinet to recharge a failed infiltration rather than having to wait a few long seconds, regardless, seems an adequite boost. It wouldn't keep spies in their own base, their cloak isn't their main feature; you infiltrate, then use your disguise as your weapon. There's nothing for them to do in their own base.. what's the point in staying in a place to recharge your cloak freely, when it's not even useful there. This idea being that it would just help failed infiltrations by getting you into combat quicker whilst not overpowering the spy overall.

Now i can run from start to finish in badwater, completely invisible. Getting away from enemies as easy as pie, not only that i could strike at them instantly after. They thought i had retreated when i just picked up one or two ammo packs and am watching them spam away blindlessly for a good 20 seconds; wait for them to pass me, uncloak and kill them. It seemed almost unfair, were i not to be the one doing the killing.

Having played spy a fair amount i can see this is way too much of a boost. The concept was a spy was at an advantage cloaked/disguised and a defecit when discovered; hence why it has no decent assault weapons. After this update i've dominated maps because i can cloak into a base, kill several people, and cloak out instantly. Then pass an ammo pack on the way in and do it again on the very next spawn wave. My survival rate shot up from approx 40% to 90%. The balancing issue was that you could be caught out by a keen player; now i can spend a good 80% of my time cloaked behind enemy lines without them knowing somone is even there, let alone me.

Infact on Goldrush earlier i spent my time running from ammo pack to ammo pack whilst invisible just so that enemy engi's couldn't get anything up. There was nothing they could do, because i was invisible the whole time. Then i'd retreat to their spawn when the ammo started running out, kill a wave of people, zap some tele's, and do it all again if the map wasn't already won.

Spy's wern't at a disadvantage to any other class, some people just don't get the tactics involved, it's a very unique class. A good spy could kill a team before, as much as the next experienced player using their chosen class.

Now that they've sorted the 10 second cloak really being only 7 because of the mist, when they fix the backstab that should have been enough to keep things balanced.

End of rant i guess.

[FaTony]

I want to play now! >< Darnit.

[xxack]

Words cannot describe how excited I am for Scout.

I haven't played it in so long... <3

[laghlagh]

The new crit kill icons are fucking horrible, gradients :(

[S3BB0_L1C1OUS]

Now did anyone besides me notice what happens if fully upgrade your entrance, build an exit and try to move that exit some place else?

No good job there valve! Really annoying.

[Nineaxis]

The new crit kill icons are fucking horrible, gradients :(

Absolutely. They should have done a flat black starburst behind the weapon or something actually in-line with the game's art.

[zpqrei]

Absolutely. They should have done a flat black starburst behind the weapon or something actually in-line with the game's art.

QFT. I hope they fix it soon. But overall I'm happy with the update.

[umbratile]

Green sparks would be a cool effect in my opinion.

I don't mind the red gradients, though. I don't see how they're horrible.