ubercharged.net

More after yesterday’s spy related forum goodness, the forums rock out again with more kick ass TF2 stuff. This time it’s a set of life size, do-it-yourself spy masks by semafour:

Inspired by supremesonic’s post in the picture posting thread, I have whipped up some lifesize spy masks, as I said I would.

They really ought to be printed at 72dpi, as that’s how I made them. Yes, dumb, it should be higher, but its 2:30 am, so give me a break.

The pictures for the classes have been taken from the team fortress 2 gcf. They are not particularly high resolution, and have been enlarged.

Enjoy!

(I’m looking forward to seeing pictures of these in action!)

(Forum thread here, Flickr Page with download here)

I’m gonna print a set of these out. I’m sure I’ll find some legitimate, productive use for them.

A bit of detective work by Skizzerz in the forums unearthed this little gem

(Clicky for the full image 1.6mb warning for the 3 people who access ubercharged.net on dial up)

Yeah, it’s a hoax by Kaanin (read the last line the full image), but it’s incredibly well done with a lot of thought put into it. It would be totally plausible if it didn’t actually say it was a hoax in the fineprint. The weapon ideas aren’t that bad either, and would totally work in the game.

You listening Valve?

Server Details

• Server: ubercharged.net - 69.9.43.108:27016
• Password: none
• Location: New York

The most intense battles, the most cunning of strategies, the most nail-biting of finishes - it’s time for the

Attack/Defend Extravaganza!

Go get the maps now, or sit twiddling your thumbs while you download them from the server on connection:

• cp_steel_b4 Still the best custom-made map I’ve ever seen
• cp_egypt_v2
• cp_freezone_a2
• cp_dustbowl I’m going to kind of assume you have this one.

The usual set playtimes on Saturday, 10 pm in each timezone:

The server is up 24/7 and set to download maps, so you can log on wherever and poke around, but you’ll find things a lot faster if you download the maps yourself from the links given above.

I honestly don’t know how this one could get any more win. You’ve got the demoman with an afro, Boogie Wonderland, disco dancing,
AND a HEAVY IN A GIANT FRICKIN GOLF BALL FIRED ACROSS THE MAP!

It’s all been Garrys Modded up.

Spotted over at FRAGWAGON

To the tune of The Devil Went Down To Georgia

The devil went down to Dustbowl, he was looking for a soul to steal.
He was in a bind ‘cos he was way behind: he was willin’ to make a deal.
When he came across this young man bangin’ on a sentry upgradin’ it good.
And the devil jumped upon a control point and said: “Boy let me tell you what:
“I bet you didn’t know it, but I’m a sentry builder too.
“And if you’d care to take a dare, I’ll make a bet with you.
“Now you build a pretty good sentry, boy, but give the devil his due:
“I bet a dispenser of gold against your soul, ‘cos I think I’m better than you.”
The boy said: “My name’s Engie and it might be a sin,
“But I’ll take your bet, your gonna regret, ‘cos I’m the best that’s ever been.”

Engie you rosin up your wrench and bang your sentry hard.
‘Cos hells broke loose in Dustbowl and the devil deals it hard.
And if you win you get this shiny dispenser made of gold.
But if you lose, the devil gets your soul.

The devil opened up his toolkit and he said: “I’ll start this show.”
And fire flew from his fingertips as he oiled up his wrench.
And he banged the wrench across his sentry and it made an evil thud.
Then a band of demons joined in and it sounded something like this.

When the devil finished, Engie said: “Well you’re pretty good ol’ son.
“But if you’ll sit down in that chair, right there, and let me show you how its done.”

Spy on the cap point, run boys, run.
The soldier’s in the house with a spammin’ gun.
Sniper in the battlement, shot you in the head.
“Medic, does your gun sting?”
“No, child, no.”

The devil bowed his head because he knew that he’d been beat.
He laid that golden dispenser on the ground at Engie’s feet.
Engie said: “Devil just come on back if you ever want to try again.
“I told you once, you son of a gun, I’m the best that’s ever been.”

And he played spy on the cap point, run boys, run.
The soldier’s in the house with a spammin’ gun.
Sniper in the battlement, shot you in the head.
“Medic, does your gun sting?”
“No, child, no.”

With Apologies to The Charlie Daniels Band
Picks (mostly) courtesy of FRAGWAGON

ATTN: Snipers Of the Word! Could we please stop these Sniper On Sniper Hate Crimes?! I mean if I had a dollar every time I peaked my little head around the corner and some bloke splattered my head across the decor, I’d be a billionaire. Lets just make a pact here and now, we’re becoming extinct!

Every time I enter an area there are less and less of us around. Yet there are 3 scouts, 5 engineers, and god knows how many pyros. Lets just start picking off these little bastards when they come blindly scampering through our areas. I mean Christ knows what have they done to receive their “Get Out Of Head Shot Card”?

There are a lot of me mates missing limbs, eyes, fingers, and poor Richards funeral consisted of a headless body. The mans wife was not pleased. The pyros thought they would get their rocks of by using his head in their little Pyro tennis game. It’s sad really, the way they get such enjoyment out of another mans body topper. Hopping around so gleefully just whacking back and forth until their little char-boiled hearts are content. How can we be blowing each other heads off when we have this kind of ruthlessness outside of the class?

So what I’m asking you, my fellow snipers in arms, is to stop this madness and evoke this rage on the other classes that are far below our skill level in accuracy, wits, and patience! Now lets go get them! Snipers Against Sniper Hate Crimes Unite!

I Turned around to find twenty or so little red dots covering my body completely, how unfortunate.
Bang!

(photocred - Stu75, shawnzy, & exeHL.)

Welcome to [NerdBomb] - another ubercharged.net newbie - cheers madlep

Say what you will about the pyro update, one kick ass result of it all is the new extreme sport of pyro tennis. Here’s what I mean.

2Fort2Furious crossfire exercise

TF2: Crossfire from FLOOR_MASTER on Vimeo.

TF2 new fun things to do as pyro by The Fortress

TF2 Rocket Tennis by Imran Maq

TF2 Rocket Tennis from Imran Maq on Vimeo.

Team Fortress 2 - Rocket Tennis By Waebi

Team Fortress 2 - Rocket Tennis from Dominic Weber on Vimeo.

Valve are going to have to seriously re-think the way they are bringing out these updates for the classes. I was all for one or two at a time, spread out the content and make the replay value stretch out along with it. But with the first update of an offensive class, I feel now they have to throw them all in at once.

I had another draft written up with my opinions on the pyro weapons, but I have just come from the worst hour of TF2 I’ve ever played. As I have stated scout is my favourite class, but with these updates, no matter what situation I have found myself in, I am now completely useless against a pyro. With 225 health and the “fixed” rego issue and the damage falloff being altered, I am always dead within a good couple of seconds. In situations before the updates If a health pack was around I could get myself out of trouble but now It is just pushing away the inevitable. Some of you may argue that this is “how it is meant to be” but I urge you to walk a mile in my running shoes and see exactly what I mean.

I have watched pyros take down a heavy and his medic time after time. No not a rare thing but to see it constantly? I’ve seen now super buff 225hp pyros take down level three sentries and their engineer. I haven’t bothered trying to be a spy recently because of the pyromania going on, but I doubt it is a pleasant experience either. Medic on a public server? forget it.

What is annoying me the most is that it has taken an essential part of the game and practically thrown it out the window: Class balance. No longer is there pros and cons that can be properly exploited. Right now you have a super class, able to take down everyone, and not just when used by the right person.

Something needs to be done and fast, or I may be having a vacation from TF2.

Say what you will about Valve - whether they are corrupting our youth, or recklessly destroying consumer electronics, at least they still have an environmental conscience.

When I first heard about the new stuff in the Pyro Pack, I was slightly worried about the environmental impact to greenhouse gases of it all was going to be. I mean, you’ve got the class that is basically the least fuel efficient and environmentally unfriendly of the whole game. And they were going to buff it up to burn even more stuff?

In a typical round of goldrush, your average pyro’s flame thrower chews up more gas and puts out more pollutants than 1000 average soccer moms combined in their oversized SUVs on a 5 hour epic quest to pick up some groceries, grab the kids from school, drop them off at sports practice, then quietly hit the local bar for 6 rounds of ‘me’ time to unwind.

Essentially, the Pyro is the Hummer of Team Fortress 2.

So the thought of making the pyro even more flamey was setting off alarm bells. Fortunately to Valves credit though, they have taken a lot of care to address the environmental impacts of playing pyro. So lets take a look at what we’ve got.

The Problems With The Standard Pyro Flame Thrower

The main problem with the traditional flame thrower is that it is stupidly inefficient. For every target that was ignited, a huge amount of fuel missed and was burnt up in thin air. This alone created carbon emissions equivalent to launching a shuttle full of heavies after one of their gourmet bacon degustation fests during a typical game.

There are a few reasons for this:

• Poor design of the flame thrower nozzle caused a large amount of fuel to be projected and ignited at a steep angle, often missing the target completely
• Propellent pressure was not sufficient to eject fuel to a distance that was workable in practice. The slow ejection speed meant that pyros have to burn a lot more fuel to do the same damage - even more when the target is moving away from the pyro, as often happened
• Large damage trail off, (which is also related to the slow fuel ejection rate). More fuel is required to do the same amount of work
• The bright orange color of the flame indicates a poor oxygen/fuel mix resulting in lower temperature, and higher levels of unburnt hydrocarbons producing a sootier, more polluting flame. In addition, this also causes lower damage, further increasing the fuel use by the average pyro to take down an enemy. See illustration:
  Flame 4 is best. Cleaner, hotter, less polluting flame.
  Flame 1 basically causes a South Pacific island nation to be lost under the rising ocean every time you turn it on.
  
  

So What Did Valve Do About It?

While Valve’s intent was mostly to rectify the damage profile from the flame thrower, they also addressed a number of the environment impacts in the process:

The Flare Gun

The first Pyro unlockable is The Flare Gun, which replaces the shotgun. It allows the Pyro to ignite an enemy at long range, but does require careful aim on their part. It’s particularly useful for causing havoc on Snipers and Engineers who want to keep their distance.

The best way to reduce greenhouse gases from burning hydrocarbons is to not do it at all. The flare gun is a simple expression of this philosophy. Instead of wasting huge amounts of petro-chemicals to ignite the target from close range, the simple flare gun uses a small project fired at range to set the target on fire. Simple and effective.

The Backburner

The second Pyro unlockable is The Backburner. This flamethrower is built for the Pyro who likes to ambush their opponents. It removes the compression blast capability, instead guaranteeing critical hits whenever it’s used on an opponent from behind. To aid in survivability, it grants the Pyro an extra fifty health.

The higher damage output here demonstrates what a better oxygen/fuel mix can do. Obviously it still isn’t perfect, as correct calibration seems to depend on the facing of the target. But it’s still better than it was. We suspect that the compressed air blast feature was sacrificed to allow the extra oxygen to be directed into the ignition chamber for a better flame temperature and velocity.

The reshaped nozzle is not just a cosmetic change either. It shows some of the work that has gone into optimizing the direction and velocity of flame. Good stuff. Overall less pollutants for each second of burning, and it does more damage while it is burning, so shorter blasts should be required. Hopefully current pyros will realise this and be able to adapt to it.

The Axtinguisher

The third Pyro unlockable is The Axtinguisher. This mighty axe guarantees critical hits on any enemy that’s currently on fire, although it’s significantly weaker against enemies who aren’t. A great combination with the The Flare Gun, or with another Pyro buddy riding alongside doing the igniting.

Another example of doing more with less. The main strength of the flame thrower is to light people on fire and allow the burning to do it’s damage over a longer period. Previously though, to maximize damage output, the pyro would need to continuously burn a target while it was still in range even well after it had ignited. This resulted in a large amount of wasted fuel.

The axtinguisher is a great low tech, yet environmentally friendly solution to let the pyro to keep dealing damage without having to drain an oil well each time to do it.

Other changes

In addition to the main new weapons, there were some other changes that Valve snuck in as well.

• Added alt-fire compression blast to the basic flamethrower - This has a number of indirect benefits. Pyros have long been vulnerable to demoman and soldier projectiles. This gives more chance to evade and engage those classe on the pyro’s own terms, and possibly use new tactics with the flare gun. Reducing greenhouse gases is as much about changing player behavior as anything else
• Hadouken taunt now kills people it hits - This is somewhat complicated, and the full science of it is beyond the scope of this post. Basically what happens with the hadouken is that it is channelling psychic quantum entangled energy from an intersection between the 5th and 8th dimensions. Apparently it was supposed to be a single hit kill all along, but Valve mistakenly entagled the 5th and 7th dimensions resulting in a pretty, yet harmless flame to appear. DUH. This is basic stuff. We’re talking 1st year tele-psychic-quantum engineering here!

  Anyway, it’s been fixed now and it can correctly be used as an offensive technique. The nice thing about it is that due to psychic quantum energy from another dimension being used, there are zero greenhouse gas emissions! (at least in this version of reality, there is a half dead cat in a box in another universe that is choking on the fumes about now though). This is similar to what happens on Harry Potter, and the same reason why there isn’t any sooty residue when they do spells and stuff like you’d expect.

• Tuned the flamethrower hit detection to improve detection versus retreating opponents - Great.
• Removed Flamethrower’s damage falloff (was falling off to 25% by the end) - Even better. That’s what a decent fuel/oxygen mix does for you!

Anyway

I’m still at work, so I haven’t even had the chance to have a peek at the new stuff yet. I hope all you lucky people in a more convenient time zone on your local server doing your bit to grind your way to a cleaner planet.

No! Wait! Back off! I know a title like that is likely to get a lot of people angrily waving their wrenches at me and placing sentries outside my front door, but allow me to quickly clarify myself… I have nothing against those people who want to play Engineer. As far as I care, you can play any class you want as long at there aren’t fifteen other people also playing it. Nor do I think the Engineer is too powerful – I might curse when a well-placed sentry takes me down constantly, but I always know with a bit of skill and teamwork they’ll fall pretty quick. No, what I’m curious about is how people can play a class where the main aspect of what you do is stand in one place and constantly press the same button over and over again…

You see, to be good with the Engineer you need to make sure your buildings stay alive and are always in good working order. Yet since your buildings don’t have legs (Well, at least until the inevitable Engineer update…) that means that once you’ve built something you can’t really move away from it at any time. If you do, you’re making it a field day for spies to easily sap your equipment and then laugh as it blows up into little tiny pieces. So there you are, huddling behind your sentry for hours at a time and only flinching at the cries of “Spy!” that may filter through. But, alas! A Heavy has put a dent in your sentry! So you pick out your wrench and click on it. Fixed. Then the Heavy returns! Click. Oh, and there’s a sniper over there! Click. Oh, and here comes more enemies… Click. Click. Click. The same action over and over again without any real awesomeness occurring from it, while others on your time get the delights of backstabbing and burning at the real home of all the action.

Now, perhaps the strongest argument for playing the Engineer is that it helps your team to a great extent, especially when it comes to defending. This I cannot deny – In a lot of scenarios you practically need an Engineer to prevent really fast captures and humiliating defeats. Yet too many people think this is the only thing you can do to help, stubbornly placing their sentries in the same places over and over again even though the other team is systematically destroying everything in its path. I also believe too many people think this is the only way to actually defend in the first place, and it blatantly isn’t. Ignore the pointless way Valve separates the classes into those who attack, those who defend, and those who support – I play a defensive Scout a hell of a lot, and it works. You can rush back to a cap and make it if a Spy has been sneaky and got through, you can flank like mad and prevent the enemy even getting close to their objective, and you can generally cause havoc. The same goes for a class like the Pyro – These classes really do work as Swiss army knives as opposed to the single blade that is playing the Engineer.

There’s also the possibility to play the Engineer in certain ways that try to break the mould of sticking around in the same place, and I suppose that’s where it gets slightly more interesting. Rushing to place an effective exit teleporter without the rest of your stuff being destroyed can be tense, and the idea of an offensive Engineer is one that I’ve messed around with from time to time. There’s a problem with these breaks in monotony, though… The first is that no matter how often you do them, at some point you’ll still have to return to the dull grind of maintaining inanimate objects that are doing all the enjoyable killing for you. The second it that trying to go on the offence or doing new things with the class in general will never work as well, and will generally result in a disheartening death. Perhaps with little bits of your body flying all over the map. Besides, I think that if you want to go and kill stuff in a brutal manner, you should go the class best suited for the job – Like the Heavy. Trying to subvert the classes into what you want them to be, like battle Medics, just doesn’t sit well in the grand scheme of things.

Still, what do I know? I’ve never played the Engineer for great lengths of time, so perhaps there’s some deep philosophical stuff behind it that you can fill me in on. At least it’d make you stop hitting me with a wrench that crits with an annoying frequency…

This stuff is all over steam, and every gaming news website, and every blog remotely related to gaming.

So you don’t need me to tell you about Valve’s latest table scraps that have been dished up for TF2 right about now.

Although if you do want to talk about it, there’s some discussion of it all over in the Team Fortress 2 forum.

Here I stand, sighting him in. My rifle warms in my hands, and the reticule grows, giving off the comforting glow of instant-death. Oblivious, the RED truckie kneels lopsidedly, smithing away at his sentry, whistling happily to himself. I can almost imagine the dreamy look on his eyes, this is his element. It’s almost a shame to interrupt such beautiful indulgence, such…breathtaking emotion…
…bah, who am I kidding?

Bang.

That was the signal. Seemingly out of nowhere another truckie appears next to the sentry, pausing to regard the inert ragdoll (I made it myself) slumped next to it. Almost inconspicuously, his arm darts out and touches the Sentry. Immediately it coughs and farts, before whirring to a stop. The “engineer” is nowhere to be seen when it finally slumps, defeated, as the electrical-sucking-thingimawhatsit does it’s work.
Whaddaya know? The Frog actually did a good job.

Unable to hold down a smirk, I call to the rest of me mates.

“Let’s give ‘em a bloody drubbin’.”

By gee I love this bit.

The air erupts in static as the source bulldozes it’s way around the corner, reams of flame preceding it, Pyro and Doc both clad in incandescent blue armour as they charged into a hail of rockets and gunfire. Our Ivans and Soldiers bring up the rear, adding their own firepower to the mix, drawing all the attention, and most importantly…giving me free reign.

Sighting in, I step out to see the RED Pyro blazing desperately around for our Spy. This one’s easy.
Squeeze, don’t pull.

Bang.

As I eject and slide the next round in, I see our little runt whip out his aluminium bat and charge an enemy Ivan from behind. Impatient little twats, they never take the time to reload. Can’t try to charge this shot, not if I’m to give Runt a chance to survive. I immediately sight in and squeeze the trigger.

Bang.

It’s not enough to penetrate, which isn’t surprising (have you seen the pub brawls the Ivans get in? Weak noggins would never survive those kind of G-forces), but it’s enough. The bat caves Ivan’s face in, and the self-important runt runs off cackling to himself. Ignorant little piker…but I have more important things to shoot.
A RED runt jumps around the corner, gunning for me. Hehehe…perfect. Kicking in mid-air, he changes direction to my right. Nice trick mate! Now I’d like to see you do that again, because that’s all that’s going to save you…

Bang.

Unlucky mate.

Sighting in again, and the battle’s winding down. Bugger. It’s all over, Dustbowl’s ours…again. The seconds tick down on the clock, and a final dirty great head jumps out of hiding, glowing red rockets preceding him in a final desperate bid to gain the advantage.

But what is this?! This is disgusting! Dodgy! Critical rockets are bad enough, but wearing a helmet? What does he think this rifle is, a bloody corked bottle designed to piss off tarts at the Queen’s golden jubilee? Insultin’, this is. He thinks that helmet will protect him? It seems he needs to learn a good lesson in the fine art of getting his head blown off.
He’s even eyeing me as I pull the trigger. Lovely.

Bang.

His body flops to the ground as everything above his neck starts decorating the concrete wall. As with all the others, all that’s left in the crosshairs is a fine pink mist. Lovely, isn’t it? Oh yes.
This is my element.
And it suddenly occurs to me. I am dominating the ugly bugger. And that’s when the laugh comes, of it’s own invoilate will, ripping itself from my throat in a snigger of pure evil delight. Jeez, mate, I love this job.
It echoes through the compound and a “Pyro”, running the wrong way, hesitates as he hears it…and looks at me. Stupid bloody Spies. Time to compare knives.

Splitting the Spy down the middle gets me thinking. You’d think that these blokes would’ve learnt, eh? After all this time, they still bother poking their gobsmackingly large craniums into my crosshairs. Asking to get shot. Maybe I should reiterate it for ‘em? Spell it out. Let them in on a little secret. All in good fairness, of course. They could learn yet:

There is no place that is safe from me.

I’m a Valve fanboy, and the iDispenser is my altar

I have to admit that I was pretty excited when Valve announced they were going to release the iDispenser. I’m about as big a Valve fan boy as they come (despite occasional outbursts indicating the contrary). I knew when it was released I was going to rush out and buy one.

Sure enough, a few months later I was camped out at the local Valve-store from 3am the night before to secure my own iDispenser on launch day. And boy, was it worth it. An iDispenser is something that you wouldn’t think you’d need, but you wonder how you ever lived without one once you’ve been using it for a while.

For instance: A couple of times I’ve been out and about, and someone mentioned that they “needed a dispenser, here”. BOOM. There’s me, all casual like, laying down a dispenser from out of nowhere. Or when I’m on the train how before I had my iDispenser, I used to just stare out the window in boredom. Now I can just use my iDispenser to occupy myself.

Modding the iDispenser

This was great for a couple of months, but I got frustrated with the limitations that were designed into the iDispenser. Little things, like how you could only dispense Valve authorized products like health and ammo from the iDispenser, and how you didn’t have a choice of which supplier you connected your iDispenser to - you’re stuck with the one that Valve has business arrangements with (Lockheed Martin for ammo, and Pfizer for health).

It was about this time that I heard rumors about how the open source iDispenser community was finding ways to modify and unlock iDispensers. “Cool” I thought. So I downloaded the unlock utility, ran it and had my iDispenser modded in about 15 minutes. Nice and easy. It’s really quite powerful what’s under the hood. It’s basically running a stripped down Unix OS underneath that pretty analog gauge meter and particle beam interface. Before long I had installed a webserver, scripting languages, and was using my iDispenser to connect to the office coffee machine to tunnel caffeine over SSH to output it from the iDispenser. It’s cool that this hardware Valve has put together to serve up health and ammo is so flexible that it can be used to dispense pretty much anything.

They bricked my iDispenser! @#$%!

Now that was great - FOR ABOUT A WEEK. Obviously Valve and their partners make a lot of money off the iDispenser - not just in initial sales, but also in ongoing account subscriptions. I had expected that they wouldn’t exactly be keen on unlocked iDispensers being out in the open, but didn’t expect that they’d go to such lengths to discourage the use of modded, unlocked iDispensers.

So when I saw the recent iDispenser firmware update pop up to auto-download, I was a little hesitant, but I figured that about the worst that would happen is that I’d have to format it and just set it up again from scratch.

NOPE.

The firmware had some malicious code that basically corrupted the flash boot sector beyond repair if it detected the iDispenser was unlocked - I’m not just talking about messing up the unlocking, or temporarily disabling the iDispenser - I mean IT DESTROYED IT. It’s basically a turned what used to be one of the most useful items in my life into a worthless 4 foot, 150kg pile of red scrap metal. The worst thing is that there is no come back from this - the warranty is totally voided by unlocking it, and Valve even states in the small print that they reserve the right to do exactly this if they deem necessary. Grrrr.

Turns out that Valve was really out to make an example of everyone who was messing with their business model, to act as a deterrent to everyone else in the market. Way to piss off your best customers! While everyone who didn’t unlock their iDispenser sure as hell isn’t going to now, everyone who used to be a passionate user has now been totally turned off using Valve devices and won’t even bother touching them. In addition, the amount of bad press they are getting over this means even the general mom and dad market they were trying to tap into has totally shunned them now after the expose special Fox did on the fiasco.

At least I’ve still got my old Tribes 2 portable inventory station, which is working fine even after all these years. And it actually does more than the iDispenser did anyway, even if it isn’t as pretty and the UI isn’t as flashy. Dynamix was never such a dick about modded inv stations either. They even encouraged it to some extent. It is getting a bit outdated though, which is why I bought my iDispenser in the first place.

It’s just annoying that there isn’t much else in the market to compete at the moment.
Bah.

Want to stay updated about new posts on ubercharged.net? Use Twitter? Now you can mix the two up.

Just start following uberchargednet on twitter. It’s an announcement only account that spams you with viagra and online poker ads notifies you when someone posts a new article on the site, or something else interesting and ubercharged-related happens.

Of course you can always subscribe to the old fashined existing news feed instead if that’s more your style. Or you can just come to the page now and then. Your choice.

Good news everybody! A very recent press release by Valve has announced the Pyro update will be Thursday. Once you’re done wetting yourself, here is what will be included:

• The three new Pyro weapons as well as 35 juicy Achievements
• The changes to the Pyro class of course
• Two custom maps that Valve has deemed awesome by the community
• Another free weekend this coming weekend
• The usual bug fixes

Additionally, the Meet the Team video “Meet the Sniper” will be coming out tomorrow, 11:00AM PDT (2:00PM EST, 7:00AM GMT, 1:00AM madlep time) as well as a site for the Pyro update. Cheers everybody! Clean your pants now.

ClydeFrog of Control Point fame, posted a Team Fortress 2 music vid filmed with a bunch of other Control Point regulars.

As you might have guessed, they’re jumping around to… Jump Around by House of Pain.

Double Jump Around from ClydeFrog on Vimeo.

The outtakes at the end are worth a watch as well.

I just did a ninja-bump of this post to the top so see everyone sees it again - madlep
Server Details

• Server: ubercharged.net - 69.9.43.108:27016
• Password: none
• Location: New York

The Ubercharged TF2 server gets all controlling with this week’s theme:

CP Central!

Five capture points, two non-conciliatary teams and an awful lot of fun.  But there are no granary or well complaints on the Ubercharged servers, oh no.  We’ll be visiting the more scenic locales of:

• cp_ghs_western_x
• cp_quickcap_v3 - An insanely close quarters battle, can’t wait to get started on this one.
• cp_redstone_b2
• cp_toy_fort_beta2 - an ingeniously decorated map
• cp_labor
• cp_badlands - the funnest official CP map by far.
• ccp_circlejerk_rc1 - a cunning alternative to the usual linear map, and the reason we started the Ubercharged server in the first place.

We’ve been having good luck with randam happenings, so keep your eye on that cool widget to the left of the page so you don’t miss the fun.  There are also the usual set playtimes on Saturday, 10 pm in each timezone:

The server is up 24/7 and set to download maps, so you can log on wherever and poke around, but you’ll find things a lot faster if you download the maps yourself from the links given above.

I’m not sure about other people, but I love the Battle Medic (Shadow Medic for some people). For those who are unaware, the Battle Medic is a Medic who focuses more on getting kills than healing and Übercharging. It is a perfectly legitimate class in my eyes since the Medic is capable of strong short-range attacks and respectable long-range ones. However, they get a bad rep because, unless you are a good Battle Medic, you aren’t that much use. To benefit the community, I shall teach you a few tricks to being a good Battle Medic. You best thank me now.

You are still a medic, remember that!

This is one of the most important rules there are. If you are not fighting, you should be healing. You have the ability, and you’re not doing anything else, so there’s no reason you should not be. Likewise, if you’re low on health you should retreat and heal another attacker until you’re strong enough to continue. If you have an über, don’t waste it by dying; use it on someone and then continue fighting. If a teammate is near death or burning, heal them. Doing this keeps your team from being angry at you for being useless if you can’t kill anything.

You are the third-best class to take out sentries.

This will probably get controversy from the pyro fans, but I’m not forcing my will here on anybody. Yet. The arc of needles help you take out sentries without being in a sentry’s line of sight, unlike pyros. It is very slow work, but if it is a low-level sentry or the engineer is not there, you can take it out in a few clips.

Learn to aim high.

The syringe gun, as everyone knows, falls according to physics. You must always aim high to hit a target ahead of you. Usually half a head above Is enough to hit an enemy a small distance away from you, and a full head if they are quite far (about the distance across the moat from 2fort).

Learn spy backstab tactics.

If a class sees a Medic running with a bonesaw straight at them, they most likely will shoot you dead before you reach them. You have to approach from their blind spots (the side or back) to hit them. You go faster than any other class other than the Scout, so if you see a Soldier walking away with his back to you, take the chance. The only other time to hit any other class with the bonesaw is when they are moving towards you. The bonesaw does more close-range than the syringe gun, and it crits more.

The unlockable weapons are alternates to you, not improvements.

While Valve may have failed to make the weapons alternates for regular Medics, you can swing either way with Battle Medics. The Blutsaugher helps the way it always does, but it also adds the ability to tell if you’re hitting a sentry with an engineer, since gaining health means you’re hitting a person. However, the syringe gun crits, which is important when fighting. The medigun choice is less important, since you are not healing as much, but an important factor is whether you want to über more (Kritz has 10% faster gain) or use über to get past a crowded area or stop a control point from being capped. The bonesaw choice is similar; if you plan to über at all, stick with the Übersaw. However, if you aren’t, the faster speed of the bonesaw will help you.

Congratulations!

You can now call yourself a legitimate Battle Medic and others will agree with you. You are now a valued member of our team! We make good team!

And congrats to tpmx as well. Yet another ubercharged writer. Keep em coming - madlep

Hain writes in about some TF2 looking structure he’s been passing while he’s been out driving.

I have been eyeing this strange construct everytime I drive to NYC. A stadium and .. what’s that? This is Meadowlands, New Jersey.

Then it occured to me - everytime I see that, I hear the soldier say “maggots!”. Reminds me of CP_Granary!

Apparently this is the Xanadu Shopping Center under construction or something but it looks like bunch of containers stacked together next to a wooden walkway. They are building a real-life TF2 level!

Supposedly that “thing” is a ski slope that looks like something like this : Family fun.

But I wish it ends up like this : Now that’s MY rendering of how that slope should be. Pyro Gore for president.

Which got me thinking, there is a tonne of TF2esque scenery around where I live in Kensington and North Melbourne that I pass on the train every day on my way to work. My camera is busted, but here’s some that I spotted on Flickr:

Here’s one from the twilight zone.

Unseen 64 posted a link to wiki page talking about GabeN team’s efforts to recreate Team Fortress 2 as it was at the time of the Half-Life 2 source code leak (circa 2003) using that leaked source code. It’s a strange snapshot of a very different game to how it ultimately turned out.

There are apparently a couple of character models that were included with the leak - that was about it. Everything else was using placeholder art at that stage.

A typical Team Fortress 2 game consists of two teams - the Humans and the Aliens. Gameplay is largely based around Resources and collecting them. Resources are chunks that can be picked up by players, which are then added to the Team’s resource bank. There are many ways for players to acquire chunks, such as killing enemies, destroying enemy objects, or collecting from a Resource Pump.

Each round or conflict between the two teams is called an Act. Acts may have a time limit set by the mapper.

Link