Gentelmenz – New Strategies on the Table
In all honesty, I dreaded the Scout update, just like any good Spy/Demoman/Sniper MPC probably would have, more than any of the other class packs released. We Spies would keep getting our butts kicked by loudmouth, bad breath, speedy little baseball brats who, even without the pack, still annoy the hell out of me. But a whole SERVER full of nothing BUT Scouts, possibly the hardest class to stab/blow up/snipe?
(Cheers to EvilDaed for the pic)
First thing I did when I played after the update was go Engineer. 10 kills right there. =D This I had been planning ever since the news came out. Messed around here and there, played Pyro a heck of a lot too. Even the Heavy, which I am terrible at, nicked me some really easy kills. Although it’s fun, it’s still gonna last for a couple of weeks.
“But wait!” said Robin Walker, who swung in through the window wearing a rakish tricorne hat and clenching a dagger ‘tween his teeth, grasping an old-tyme-navy pistol and a gold compass on his neck. “There’s moooore! Say hello to the new Scout update, now with new and improved SPY BUFFS!” I could hardly believe it. “For me?!” I asked, jaw wide open, staring googly-eyed at the new and exciting treasure vault of knowledge, intelligence, speed, and deception that Valve had included. I could hardly contain it. What could have been one of the least important and most annoying updates for me turned out to be a terrific one!
Of course, to quote myself, “… it’s still gonna last for a couple of weeks.” No problem, though. I enjoy Pyro just as much, yoooou farmers! >=D
So, here’s the gist of what’s been included:
Spies can now choose which weapon they want to be seen by the enemy carrying.
So much for the “b” key being useless, eh? EH? And a fine one at that, especially usable since a bunch of classes usually DON’T have their weapon #1 out; see the Demoman, Engineer, Medic, and Spy for the best examples. I don’t know if the animation when changing “weapons” is smooth or not, but hey, who’s complaining? And for those of you who say it’s “annoying,” well, I’d say it’s “dangerous.” No longer will you be able to guess whether I’m a Spy simply by looking at my gun. Haha! Take that, General Balls!
Spies can now see the names of their enemies when they’re disguised as the opposing team.
This is just great. Now, I can choose who I want to dominate =D. That is, if I can. This may seem like a trivial addition, but don’t defenestrate it just yet! Besides the above mentioned, my server uses a “skill” system. Generally, the higher the skill level of the person you kill, the more skill you gain from that kill, and your rank on the server is judged by this. I don’t know about you, but hey.
One more quite important addition of this that could easily be overlooked is that you can also see the amount of health your enemy has left. Sound important? *evil face* Yeah, you see that heavy coming towards you, calling for your “medigun”? You’re not going to melee him to death before his shotgun comes out and sends you back to respawn, but it looks like he’s got a hundred health left. Why don’t you take out that revolver and fire a couple of shots instead, wink wink?
Backstabs have been fixed so that facestabs no longer occur. Again. Yes, again.
I have no idea. I’m gonna go test my facestabs later with a little help from my friends. See what the update did.
One notable thing, though, and I’m not sure if this was what they meant by this update, or whether they didn’t intend to mention it at all (as Valve has done before), but backstabs are now instantaneous.
That’s right, folks! A hard and fast change to the knife which, while not the most graceful aesthetically, is extremely effective in game. And I am loving it. One of the major Spy complaints has now been fixed. No more worrying about getting the actual hit during stabs, especially on moving enemies, this new baby allows for a REAL insta-death once you click that button. And while this may have removed one of my facestab techniques (albeit a pretty useless one), the simple fact that this has happened makes up for it ten times over.
Actually, what do I mean by “not the most graceful aesthetically”? In game, it’s an instant death, but the animation stills plays after you’ve killed the enemy, both for you and for those watching. They die before your graphical knife actually hits them. I don’t care too much. =)
So, I retract my earlier statement; the Spy may very well not be the least played class after this update. We’ll see. We’ll see. I’m hoping the Scout bang dies down quick, at least on my servers, so I can do more contract killing and stealthy espionage.
Once I get some practice time in with these new changes, I’ll be writing a guide on using them. Hopefully I’ll be able to come up with some… *ahem, interesting ways. Several tutorials online, e.g. OMFGNinja’s, would probably have to change somewhat, if not pretty drastically to accommodate this. I wouldn’t blame you for not playing Spy immediately, on account of the Scouts, but it’ll be here. Until then, happy stabbing! Or should that be happy burning/booleting/sentry-building? 
Secret Agent Clank! on March 1st 2009 in how to, news, spy, tactics, team fortress 2
Stumble it!
Graven_Image responded on 01 Mar 2009 at 9:23 am #
I immediately got the ZP reference. I haven’t read far enough to know whether or not Walker dies of leprosy.
n00bie51 responded on 01 Mar 2009 at 10:12 am #
Have you even been playing Spy lately, SAC? Stair stabs are now much more difficult to execute and I’m sure OMFGNinja would agree. I think he would say that the knife physics are worse off than they were before the update. And they still haven’t fixed face stabs.
All competent Spies should have been using B way before this update because putting on your last disguise without having to bring out your disguise case is extremely convenient and simply useful. I say it’s about time Valve allowed Spies to choose what weapons they can appear to be holding to the other team.
Kabuto responded on 01 Mar 2009 at 10:31 am #
The scout update isn’t that bad for spies. After Bonk! wears off, they’re pretty easy to backstab. I got 3 in a row after they failed at an attempt at a scoutrush.
Zanpa responded on 01 Mar 2009 at 10:35 am #
Haha, i never use “B”.
bind mouse3 lastdisguise is made of win
Secret Agent Clank! responded on 01 Mar 2009 at 10:52 am #
Amazing what a couple of pics can do to spice up some writing. Cheers, mate!
@n00bie51:
Of course they’re more difficult to execute, but the trade off is consistency in normal stabs. The way I do it half the time, though, actually stops the enemy from moving so I can get the long animation stab. Not that I use it too much, anyway. =P
Clank wrote “So much for the “b” key being useless, eh? EH?”:
I tend to trade up between both, but the point of that sentence was that not enough people use the b key, rather than me thinking it was useless. Sorry for not being clear about that.
And sorry if I didn’t put much too up; my opinions have changed some, since I dropped this off for review 3 days ago *ahem
. Quickstabs ftl.
Anonymous responded on 01 Mar 2009 at 11:06 am #
How do you choose which weapon you want the enemy to see?
srsly responded on 01 Mar 2009 at 11:24 am #
That’s enough Secret Agent Fail! Seriously his writings suck and he’s written so much fail.
Huevomancer responded on 01 Mar 2009 at 11:30 am #
Too bad I’m in no position to play videogames or I’d hop on and check this new spy stuff out right now. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, and, contrary to the belief of the above troll, I believe you write quite well and contribute excellent material to the site.
BLSR1 responded on 01 Mar 2009 at 11:47 am #
Playing as a spy has become really easy. If you disguise as a scout you can completely blend it with their entire team. As long as a lone scout doesn’t come along while I’m moving across the map or recharging, I can get a lot of kills in one life. Just don’t draw too much attention.
COMPLAINCOMPLAIN responded on 01 Mar 2009 at 12:05 pm #
=D =D
…
Secret Agent Clank! responded on 01 Mar 2009 at 12:13 pm #
I’m half tempted to think that srsly and Huevomancer are the same person. XD
No worries, though. Unless someone brings up valid points/gives reasons for why I suck, I don’t pay to much attention. =P
@Anonymous: Equip the number weapon (1,2,3) that you want, and press last disguise (default is “b”).
n00bie, meet me on the forums. Starting a new thread; I’ve got a couple of things you may or may not be interested in.
xx responded on 01 Mar 2009 at 12:14 pm #
Is Zorgulon still alive ? I want some Zorgulon.
AP responded on 01 Mar 2009 at 1:20 pm #
Well, I’m not happy because of that update. Of course – changing disguise’s weapon and seeing enemies’ names are nice things. Anyway, I have seen mainly bugs after the update :/ At least half of my backstabs wasn’t registered (and I was sure I hit someone’s back…), also many stabs when I stood a little aside the enemy didn’t work.
)… So, facestabs still aren’t fixed…
Before the update, when I wanted to stab moving object, I used to hold “W” – so stabs were quick. And sometimes I wanted feel that satisfaction of killing a sniper with a nice, slow, full of grace backstab… sigh… I want it back :’<
In addition to this, one of my first spy-kills after the update was a facestab (it was funny to watch that demoman’s face, though
New animation is so ugly!
Ryan Williams responded on 01 Mar 2009 at 2:18 pm #
I hardly ever see the backstab animation because I always time my stabs so I begin the stab before I reach the player, generally meaning I can keep on running and stabbing multiple enemies without ever pausing.
~
n00bie51 responded on 01 Mar 2009 at 2:37 pm #
Yeah, a quick stab. I think the update messes it up so you can’t do those anymore.
lubbar responded on 01 Mar 2009 at 2:45 pm #
I find this instant back stab for the spy really a pitiful update. I’m talking about the visual ingame when spectating or even seen it from outside.
I do play the spy very often, and I find this very frustrating, cause I like seeing the smooth long gesture of the knife going from top to the foe’s back, hitting him “for real”.
I feel disapointed now.
Corodan responded on 01 Mar 2009 at 3:26 pm #
I found this update to really mess me up.
Since spies can now disguise with other weapons, that only made veryone more spahranoid than ever. The new stab thing has completely ruined the system, and I was totally fine with just the cloak buff. I could have just settled for that.
duck duck MOO responded on 01 Mar 2009 at 11:57 pm #
I got facestabbed earlier, so that isn’t fixed.
Stairstabs are different to pull off ,not harder. If anything they’re easier than pre-upadte, but it really sucks that, you cant sidestab or flickstab anymore, and that the range got nerfed and that airstabs are less effective and more difficult.
Anonymous responded on 02 Mar 2009 at 3:57 am #
Take notice that you can automatically spot noob spies if they are running with their melee weapon out. If you see a demoman carrying his bottle on the front line, either your teammate is a complete idiot, or he is a spy. Shooting him is a viable option in both cases.
JOP responded on 02 Mar 2009 at 1:30 pm #
There’s a really great thread about this over on the forums:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=812575
It covers the advantages of the new stab mechanics, along with the disadvantages that have been incurred for some of the more advanced techniques.
APARTHEID responded on 02 Mar 2009 at 7:58 pm #
As of the present, I’ve found it much easier to locate errant Spies due to whatever bat or fire axe they may be holding when they switch to their proper disguise.
I’ve yet to see a Spy holding a Syringe Gun, but we’ll see!
n00bie51 responded on 02 Mar 2009 at 10:47 pm #
That’s true, Anonymous. This has only aided Spies slightly in not being obvious towards me when I see them.
This is one of the negative sides of TF2 — significant changes to the gameplay are guaranteed and periodic, and even if they’re good, you have to learn to adapt to them and in the end I don’t like how that affects consistency. Yeah, it’s nice Valve finally did it, but I would have preferred they given the Spy this feature back when TF2 was released.
Ota responded on 03 Mar 2009 at 6:49 am #
The way you play the spy now is to straightforward, makes it easier for the noobs, takes away from vets, i disaprove.
And why would anyone wish the spy overall playtime to go up? I wish it goes down even more, a team should have 1 spy, and that’s it, after the cloak update i was seeing around 3 of them on each team, regularly. God forbid it goes higher now.
Nessmk2 responded on 04 Mar 2009 at 1:30 am #
I didn’t think the spy needed a buff to begin with, really, and I don’t know what else they can give him at this point without it being a straight up-upgrade and being overpowered… His only weaknesses at this time are that he’s solid when cloaked and can catch fire. His revolver is powerful in a fight, he can one-hit kill from behind… I mean, there’s not much else to do.
Tim responded on 04 Mar 2009 at 5:40 pm #
I find reading your writing style stale whenever I read any article you submit. And is it just me or are you actually trying to do a Zero Punctuation Impression in your writing? Which just bores me even more like Himmelstoss articles.
Secret Agent Clank! responded on 05 Mar 2009 at 1:11 pm #
@duck duck MOO: Actually, that’s right. I’ve lost one facestab technique, but there’s one left I’m going to post about. =P
@Anonymous and n00bie: Wish there was some way to default a weapon disguise rather than just having you show whatever weapon you have out. =P Or even just default to the primary. I don’t usually forget, but it’s one more thing to think about when you have to focus.
@Ota: While I’d also like less people to play, I don’t have a viable reason for that.
@Tim: Really? Sorry. I can agree about this one, but why is it stale?
Tim responded on 05 Mar 2009 at 5:55 pm #
I’m not how I can explain why but I would really like to help you. Maybe just needs more energy I don’t know everyone has their dislikes and likes.
Secret Agent Clank! responded on 07 Mar 2009 at 4:37 am #
@Tim: I’ll see what I can do. Thanks for the comments. I’ll… try being goofier next time? XD
Actually, that was submitted the day after the update. My opinion’s starting to drag out.