First peek at new medic abilities
Tom Francis from PC Gamer has had a session at Valve peeking at the new medic achievements:
The first Medic unlock, for example, is called the Overhealer. Instead of temporarily buffing people’s health to 50% above their normal maximum, it permanently boosts them to double their standard health. The downside is that it’ll be dramatically worse at building Ubercharge - in fact, Valve are toying with not letting it Uber at all.
No details on what the second unlock they’ll be rolling out in this update will be, beyond the basics: it’ll be another Medic healing ray, and it’ll change the way the class plays all over again. The first is earned by acquiring half of the thirty-five new Medic achievements, the second for acquiring them all.
And some details on the new map mode:
The new game mode is showcased in Goldrush - the map that will ship alongside cp_badlands in a little over a month from now. One team must escort a small mining cart through a series of Dustbowl-like map segments. The cart moves faster the more Blue players are near it, but stops entirely if even one Red player is in range. Blue have to escort the cart all the way to Red’s headquarters within a certain timelimit.
The variety in the new medic abilities sounds interesting. I’m not so sure about unlocking them via achievement though. That style of gameplay annoys me, and gives me bad WoW flashbacks of hours filled with mindless grinding to level up enough to go grind somewhere else. The thing I like about TF2 now, is that anyone can play the whole game out of the box without having to worry about more experienced players having an even bigger advantage over them just because they’ve got more cool stuff.
Update
Murdoc has spotted all the medic achievements already in the game.
madlep on January 24th 2008 in medic, news, team fortress 2
Stumble it!
Anonymous responded on 24 Jan 2008 at 6:56 am #
You should go look at the list of medic achievements before you bash it. Most of them are “get an assist kill with ” or other very easy to get things.
They made the achievements easy on purpose for this
Also, my take on the new weapons is that they’ll be fine. Valve has clearly shown that they’re VERY good at balancing TF2 (the game is nearly perfect. Sure, there’s some minor things wrong, but it’s better than most games). They’re not going to be overpowered, just different.
Take the overhealer for example. It will take forever to uber someone (if at all), in exchange for increasing peoples max health for one life. That’s not overpowered, it’s just different. The only thing that would make it overpowered is if there was no way to discern if it’s been used on someone or not, but that’s easily fixed with an aura, or some other graphic that shows up when it’s used on someone (doesn’t reveal their health, just says ‘hey this guy might have more health than normal’).
It exists for the normal 150% buffed health (the medic has to be pretty much healing the person constantly to get that, so the medibeam serves as an indicator).
Elvis! responded on 24 Jan 2008 at 7:04 am #
I’m actually excited about this. I like the idea of tailoring a weapon to a situation…and even more exciting is the new official maps…god i’m bored of 2fort et al. now
madlep responded on 24 Jan 2008 at 7:38 am #
@anon - yeah, the medic weapons sound good, and I’m looking forward to them.
I was just saying that I’m not a big fan of the whole “achievement” thing that seems to be so much in fashion with every game system at the moment.
I just want to be able to play out of the box with everyone on an even footing from the start rather than having to spend time hunting achievements rather than playing the game. Yeah, most of them are easy, but that’s not the point.
Crazydog responded on 24 Jan 2008 at 8:19 am #
The new weapons aren’t things that give experienced players an advantage necesscarilly.
Sure, the new medigun gives a permanent 200% health boost, but it can’t ubercharge!
Anonymous responded on 24 Jan 2008 at 9:22 am #
I guess the PS3 version gets completely hosed again..
Goose responded on 24 Jan 2008 at 3:34 pm #
I like the idea if the achievements are relatively easy to attain. Using this style they could ease new players into the game by slowly introducing them to new things (when they happen to reach a skill level where they can get the achievements) and not overwhelming them with 3 weapons for each class right off the bat.
Shfoosmuck responded on 24 Jan 2008 at 5:41 pm #
Normally, I’d say that unlocking weapons by achievements is a terrible idea, but like Anonymous said: This is Valve, people!
Looking a TF2, I can safely say that they will never break the game. These people are professionals. So, if they decide to implement this, then power to ‘em!
UncleFunk responded on 24 Jan 2008 at 6:51 pm #
I disagree. Valve are fully capable of nerfing the game. I loathe the unlocking style of gameplay as it punches casual players squarely in the balls/ovaries. (Delete according to gender.) These new weapons will be unlocked for the uber 24/7 players within a day or two probably. Whereas someone like me, who hasn’t even loaded the game in over a week right now (taking a bit of a break) won’t get to see them for a long time, if ever.
Worse still, I fear some may be a team based achievement, which means your unlocking is based entirely on who you get on your team, and if you’re stuck with a bunch of shagwits who do their own thing, you’re boned through no fault of your own.
I love the sound of the new Medic tweak, it’s great, but unlocking? If I want to unlock crap, I’ll go play a console game.
tehPete responded on 24 Jan 2008 at 10:55 pm #
It worked for CoD4, so there’s no reason it can’t work for TF2 - as long as they make sure the default weapons can still hold their own, all should be fine
I can’t wait to see what they’ve got planned for the other classes.. perhaps throwable TNT (a la the videos) for the Demo that’s more powerful than stickies? Maybe the Soldier could swap the Shotty for Nades? Or perhaps an unlockable Sean Connery accent for the Spy!
funkeystu responded on 24 Jan 2008 at 11:38 pm #
The thing I’m most looking forward to this is the inevitable new taunts to go with the weapons, one question remains - can valve meaningfully improve/expand the currently perfect array of taunts endowed on the Pyro?
I’m all for new weapons, but am currently undecided on the unlocking process. If valve manages to balance them as not to leave the casual/inexperienced player at any disadvantage then it should be good…apart from 1/2 the players on any given pub choosing to be medic (though on reflection, whenever an attacking team on a pub has had 5+medics, they’ve inevitably won).
It will be interesting to see how this pans out.
twentythree responded on 25 Jan 2008 at 12:30 am #
I’ve got a baaad feeling about this..
Not a big fan of the unlocking aspect, plus what are the new weapons? Flamethrower with shorter range? Semi-automatic sniper? Super shotgun for the Heavy?
That new medigun sounds fun, though
Wormbrain responded on 25 Jan 2008 at 6:42 am #
My favorite game is going to get even better. I have a full-fledged erection right now. Thought I should share that.
UncleFunk responded on 26 Jan 2008 at 8:33 am #
I can see the point of what people are saying in regards to “so long as it doesn’t nerf over the casual players”… Which begs the question, “then why bother going to the trouble of unlocking stuff?”
I’m with twentythree. I have a bad feeling about this as well. Valve are about due a colossal mistake… Hope this isn’t it.
I do like the idea of an unlockable Connery accent for the Spy though:)
Lone responded on 28 Jan 2008 at 7:03 am #
This change will likely cut out all of the casual players like most of you have said. I, for example, do play often enough to make use of an unlocking feature, but I am just generally *not good* at owning a large amount of people. I generally play defensive, behind-the-scenes rolls (unless I’m having a good streak :P).
I don’t like how they can introduce something so unbelievably awesome (those new maps) and then ruin it with a weapons change.
I think Valve isn’t seeing the numbers they want to see for online activity, so they are trying to boost the game somehow. I don’t think this is the best way..
Anonymous responded on 28 Jan 2008 at 8:11 am #
For the love of god go LOOK at the achievements. They’re even easier than the original ones, and those took less than 6 hours of playing to get. Never mind they were gotten by doing things you do in the game anyway.
They will not be hard to get at all, and Valve seems very determined to not make any of them overpowered. You’re all falling pray to doom saying and rumor
funkeystu responded on 28 Jan 2008 at 11:57 am #
Perhaps valve could have limited unlockables to non-gameplay related bonuses, ie. taunts, customisable badges on player models and shoes. As stated above I still trust valve to make this work - as long as casual players are not put at any disadvantage it should be fine, and perhaps add more depth/replayability to the game.
Dudey responded on 29 Jan 2008 at 10:53 pm #
If it’s so easy to get the achievements, then why bother making the new weapons unlockable at all? It’s a total waste of time and unlockable weapons are a bad idea.