Community Roundup: June 2024
June 28, 2024 - hunterbunney
Tags:
community
fun
Pull through, blogheads! It's time for another feature, eleventh hour be damned.
As a reminder, even if you don't plan on playing it now, you can install RR now and keep those assets pre-loaded in your TF2C files, in the event that a kindly "network guy" hosts a public match. In fact, there's really no reason not to install it.
Our hosts at VaultF4 — the unfortunate dog to the ringworm infestation that is our mod — have a 30-person PropHunt server, alive and kicking, here in TF2C. The gamemode port is in beta, so expect the requisite level of jank, but if you're on the fence about pretending to be a traffic cone in a class shooter, you might not be the PropHunt type in the first place. Truly, the community roundup is wasted on you.
Learn more about PropHunt and the port here, and look out for it in the server browser! Be the brave boy that joins an empty lobby. Start the wave.
Renaissance Revival Version 2.1
Last month's spotlight, the Renaissance Revival pack, has gotten an update! Dozens of new staves, glaives, and other fantasy-historical weapons await you (as long as you install the pack, convince your friends to install the pack, and pester your Discord server's "network guy" to mount it to a server — network guys act begrudging, but they secretly love chores like this).As a reminder, even if you don't plan on playing it now, you can install RR now and keep those assets pre-loaded in your TF2C files, in the event that a kindly "network guy" hosts a public match. In fact, there's really no reason not to install it.
PropHunt
We at TF2 Classic are known for our Christ-like acceptance of sinners, harlots, and all sorts of wretches whom the live TF2 community won't abide — including those who enjoy alternative gamemodes like Dodgeball, Randomizer, and now PropHunt.Our hosts at VaultF4 — the unfortunate dog to the ringworm infestation that is our mod — have a 30-person PropHunt server, alive and kicking, here in TF2C. The gamemode port is in beta, so expect the requisite level of jank, but if you're on the fence about pretending to be a traffic cone in a class shooter, you might not be the PropHunt type in the first place. Truly, the community roundup is wasted on you.
Learn more about PropHunt and the port here, and look out for it in the server browser! Be the brave boy that joins an empty lobby. Start the wave.
Achievement Theory
June 23, 2024 - Waugh101
Tags:
development
As TF2C’s art lead, I don’t tend to be very involved in the gameplay side of things. Yet it has a lot of topics ripe for these behind-the-scenes blog posts. For a look into one of those topics, I asked our gameplay folks about their process for designing achievements. Here’s some of what I heard.
The game’s achievements can be grouped into three general categories:
Tutorials
Tutorial achievements are designed to introduce players to mechanics that they might not otherwise pick up on. They’re particularly helpful for more obscure interactions, like the Wrench’s ability to defuse thrown Dynamite Packs.
Progression Milestones
Progression milestones are intended to encourage desired behaviors and help build useful habits. For example, rewarding cumulative healing or playing a variety of maps. They also give returning players longer-term goals to look forward to.
Challenges
Challenges are designed to be more difficult tasks. These give achievement hunters harder goals to push for. They also act to reward more general players for a skillful or lucky move. Examples of challenges include landing a long-range RPG shot or surviving a full round as VIP.
There are some more general considerations, too. For instance, it should ideally take more than a month to complete all achievements, but it should also be easy enough to earn one every day or two. When we release new weapons, achievements should accompany them. These new achievements should also come with counterparts for existing weapons, though. This helps to keep older stock still feeling worthwhile to use. Lastly, achievements should be spread fairly evenly between classes. However, it's important to keep in mind that different classes will get different types of achievements more easily.
To compliment all of this, the difficulty-based completion sounds and increased progression pop-ups help improve the game feel around them.
It was around this point that I asked “So when do you start painting pretty pictures?” I could sense some weird looks behind the screen; I think I’ll stick to the art department. Here’s hoping they don’t nerf my account’s damage or anything.
The game’s achievements can be grouped into three general categories:
Tutorials
Tutorial achievements are designed to introduce players to mechanics that they might not otherwise pick up on. They’re particularly helpful for more obscure interactions, like the Wrench’s ability to defuse thrown Dynamite Packs.
Progression Milestones
Progression milestones are intended to encourage desired behaviors and help build useful habits. For example, rewarding cumulative healing or playing a variety of maps. They also give returning players longer-term goals to look forward to.
Challenges
Challenges are designed to be more difficult tasks. These give achievement hunters harder goals to push for. They also act to reward more general players for a skillful or lucky move. Examples of challenges include landing a long-range RPG shot or surviving a full round as VIP.
There are some more general considerations, too. For instance, it should ideally take more than a month to complete all achievements, but it should also be easy enough to earn one every day or two. When we release new weapons, achievements should accompany them. These new achievements should also come with counterparts for existing weapons, though. This helps to keep older stock still feeling worthwhile to use. Lastly, achievements should be spread fairly evenly between classes. However, it's important to keep in mind that different classes will get different types of achievements more easily.
To compliment all of this, the difficulty-based completion sounds and increased progression pop-ups help improve the game feel around them.
It was around this point that I asked “So when do you start painting pretty pictures?” I could sense some weird looks behind the screen; I think I’ll stick to the art department. Here’s hoping they don’t nerf my account’s damage or anything.
2.1.5 Patch Release
June 6, 2024 - azzy
Tags:
patch
Before we go on...
Our very own Benjamoose, the voice actor of the Civilian, is currently separated from his family due to major immigration changes in the U.K. that have introduced a financial requirement, and left him stranded in another country. If you're in a position to help out, you can find more information and donate here.The 2.1.5 Patch for Team Fortress 2 Classic has been released. To apply this update to TF2 Classic, use the latest version of our downloader. The major changes include:
Weapon Changes:
- Updated the Flamethrower:
- Fixed airblast sound sometimes not emitting properly
- Updated the Flare Gun:
- Increased deploy speed by 15%
- Fixed a bug that caused fizzling flares to attempt to move ragdolls across the entire map
- Updated the Stickybomb Launcher:
- Updated stickybomb break sound
- Updated the Mine Layer:
- Reduced clip size and max active mines to 4 (from 6)
- Updated proximity mine break sound
- Updated the Anti-Aircraft Cannon:
- Increased base damage back to 60 (from 58)
- Increased damage against buildings to 70 (from 58)
- Fixed bullets colliding with certain projectiles
- Updated Jump Pads:
- Increased jump height impulse to 770 (from 750)
- This addresses some inconsistencies introduced in 2.1.4
- If both Jump Pads have been built in Medieval Mode, attempting to build another now destroys the Jump Pad that is the farthest away from the player
- Updated the Sniper Rifle:
- Other players' laser dots now always use server-provided position data instead of interpolated player eye angle data.
- This fixes unreliable positions when the laser dot's owner is outside of PVS
- Updated the Umbrella:
- Alt-fire is now properly lag compensated
Map Changes:
- Updated ctf_2fort:
- Fixed broken color correction in both teams' intelligence room
- Updated vip_badwater:
- Construction work opens up a small shortcut
- Various lighting adjustments around the map
- Updated koth_frigid:
- Fixed some inconsistent textures on the walls on Mid
- Updated pl_upward:
- Reverted some detailing changes to the second point made in the last update
- Reverted reflectivity settings back to their values from 2.1.3
- Improved lighting around the bridge's supports near the 3rd point
- Updated koth_harvest:
- Rebased on Improved Harvest by Horiuchi! Their changelog is below:
- Cleaned up any unintended aspects of Pro Harvest's spawn edits left over
- Added windows near both spawn exits
- Doubled the opening/closing speed of spawn doors
- Added an extra stairway on the left side of each spawn
- Added back the broken roof from vanilla TF2
- Made the roof that sticks out the sides of the main building non-solid
- Drastically improved lighting quality
- Added a light to the control point, similar to Powerhouse
- Improved clipping
- Updated navigation meshes for the following maps (Suo):
- cp_amaranth
- pl_jinn
- td_caper
- vip_badwater
- vip_harbor
- vip_trainyard
Mapping Changes:
- Implemented tf2c_trigger_playermovement_fix:
- If enabled, respawning will reset any movement restrictions set by trigger_playermovement on the previous life
- Added missing SetTargetEntity input for point_proximity_sensor (14bit)
- Added the ability for point_event_proxy to use !caller (14bit)
- Fixed func_nogrenades, now also works for rocket based projectiles
- Fixed tf_point_weapon_mimic radius override not applying to rocket based projectiles
Miscellaneous Changes:
- Players who have played fewer than 3 rounds of VIP mode on the attacking team are no longer eligible to be randomly picked as VIP
- Moved Chekhov's Punch crit counter HUD up by a few pixels (Thanks rc4322!)
- Implemented rebuild command for Engineer
- Implemented tf2c_allow_tpose for server owners
- Implemented netprops to allow server owners to override player team skin (m_bForcedSkin, m_nForcedSkin)
- Implemented netprop to allow server owners to force reset a custom player model's animation state (m_bCustomModelResetAnimState)
- Implemented customizable Medi Gun heal sounds for modders via sound_single_shot
- Implemented used_by_teams keyvalue on item schema
- Implemented tf2c_jumppad_speed_hwg_mult and tf2c_jumppad_height_hwg_mult
- Fixed a small error on Engineer's model (Sam D. Wich)
- Fixed cubemaps on some older water materials
- Fixed tooltips having invisible borders
- Fixed a potential VGUI crash when loading onto a Control Point map
- Fixed a potential VGUI crash regarding 4team scoreboard
- Fixed a crash with bots on payload race maps
- Fixed a crash when attempting to use build/rebuild/destroy commands and lacking a Builder weapon
- Fixed multiple inconsistencies between Linux and Windows regarding rounding numbers
- Small ammo packs should now properly grant 40 metal to Engineers regardless of dedicated server type
- Fixed multiple crashes regarding Closed Captions
- Fixed changing VIPs respawning teammates in Sudden Death
- Setting tf2c_dev_mark to 0 now completely disables the player's medal regardless of rank
- Removed query caching as it went completely unused, improving server performance
- Added some item attributes
- Updated Launcher version to 1.7
- Updated English Closed Captions (Thanks SilentFox3!)
- Updated medals
- Updated localization files
- Updated Brazilian translation (Thanks LuizFilipeRN)
- Updated French translation (Thanks Surnist)
- Added Finnish translation (Thanks Misterz, Rarru)