ubercharged.net

I’ll be brutally honest. I really have no idea how to start this one. This is always something that bugs me whenever I sit down to write something; how do you interest your audience whilst having it not sound inappropriate, without simply using “I’ll get right down to it”? Maybe I’m just obsequious to form, but heck with that, I really have no idea where to begin.

/lampshading

Anyway, there have been a few bits about TF2 nibbling at my ankles, some for quite a while, and some just recently coming into play. Whilst they’re not super important, they’re certainly things I’d like to see added, perhaps with an option to turn them off (although I don’t see why you’d ever want them off, unlike the dingalings).

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Frontier Justice crit activation

This one is fairly recent, given the weapon I’m talking about.
What I want is an action that allows you to toggle on/off any crits you’ve earned for the Justice, using mouse2 (or whatever weird key you have bound to +attack2, you nerd). It’s not a terribly huge deal, but (for example) sometimes I want to take a couple of potshots at enemies far away without wasting my crits, given that there’s less reasons around to use the Luger nowadays…

How it would work: This would start as normal – you’d have crits for your shotgun whenever you’ve earned them, but if you hit mouse2, they’ll shut off until you click it again.

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Invisibility and Dead Ringer icons

Spy is the one class where I always have viewmodels on. This is not to help time melee hits; rather, it’s because I don’t use the class icons on my fairly toasty HUD, and the only way to assure whether you have invisibility on is with the cloak bar, which is odd with the C&D.

Not only that, but I’d like a way to determine whether I have my Dead Ringer out or not, if I so choose to play without viewmodels.

How it would work: Perhaps have the cloak meter glow when you are fully invisible, and have a little cross on it when you’re only semi-invisible? Apart from that, have a Dead Ringer icon next to it whenever you have yours out, and perhaps just an outline when you don’t.

This may be a little confusing for new players though, so I’d just add it as a command that’s off by default.

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Syringe count

It’s just a pet peeve, but I’m someone who uses syringes a fair lot when they actually DO play Medic, blutsauger included.

I also, however, like to heal as much as possible for my charge, so sometimes I’m not so sure if I’ve reloaded yet before hitting a target with the beam. So…

How it would work: Show the syringe count, no matter which weapon you have out. Maybe keep the uber meter permanently on too.

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Grids for Engineers

This is slightly harder to do. In essence, I often find myself spending a second or two more than I’d like aligning my buildings to things like a corner, or just on a cliff, of sorts.

So , you could have the Engineer automatically align his building to the ledge or against the wall in a gridlike section, but the trouble lies with when you want it set diagonally, or don’t want it perfectly on edge.

How it would work: I think it would be handy to have an option that allows this ability. Just a simple console command to give people the choice, off by default, and with which they can script without having to add something silly to the game like +attack3 or +alt2 or anything.

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Glowing bars for items that recharge

Take Jarate, or Bonk, or even the Sandvich now. While the “ding” it makes is a nice touch, sometimes you miss it. Sometimes the bar glitches out and shows that it’s full regardless of the fact that you just used the item.

So here’s a little idea I had: make the bar that shows how far it’s recharged glimmer for a second when you’re fully charged. This would apply to Bonk!, the Sandman, the Banner, stickies, the Targe, the Sandvich, ubers, Jarate, and the spy watches; a sizable portion of weapons.

How it would work: Just a blink of light, maybe a second or so in duration. Alternatively, make the bar turn a different color like green, or make it blink green.

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They’re not very big issues, I’ll admit, but to paraphrase Mr. Croshaw, the niggly little bits in a game which one plays a lot come back to annoy you.

I’ll agree, it’s probably best not to complicate things too much. The thing is, sometimes it’s better to just have a console command for those people who don’t want/need such options, as keeping them out of the multiplayer advanced menu makes it simpler for new players. Some of them, such as the item recharge bar glowing, don’t really need this, while some (like the Engineer grid) do, if there’s any chance at all some people don’t want them.

Anyway, part II will be here at some point. For the time being, anyone got any little things they think would be a good addition to TF2?

sometimes I want to take a couple of potshots at enemies far away without wasting my crits, given that there’s less reason to use the Luger nowadays.

Directly from the Ubercharged.net secret interview headquarters.

An exclusive interview with Mr.E., the anonymous author of the Übermensch controversial report that made its way into the internet last week.

Reporter: It is a pleasure to be here ladies and gentlemen, gamers and gamerettes. Today we have here Mr.E., who shall remain anonymous for the duration of this interview. Good afternoon Mr.E.

Mr.E: Good afternoon to you too.

Reporter: Now, Mr.E., last week this report made its way to the internet through secret channels, and has since then been brought to both the attention of the media and the public. Would you mind explaining to us what is the content of this report so that we are all on the same page?

Mr.E: Well, this report, if you so want to call your view of it, consists of the analysis of a colleague of mine at the Reliable Excavation and Demolition company. Now, it is common knowledge that none of us in the RED team are the most usual of individuals in the psychological front. You should hear what some of them talk about themselves. What some of them say to their weapons or what they do to grass or birds or…

Reporter: Excuse me Mr.E., but… Weapons?

Mr.E: Yes, I mean… it’s nothing, don’t worry about it. Because we’re RED, and at least we’re not BLU, and that’s what counts. That’s the important point. That. Is. What. Counts. Except… This colleague of ours… I’m not so sure if he still thinks the same. I mean, initially we were all pretty quiet, you know how it is when you’re all new at the job. But then after some time, after some updates in our lives, he started to talk a lot more. And suddenly his conversations do not seem so simple, his rage does not seem simply turned towards BLU, it seems towards everyone and anyone; and sometimes he looks at us, and believe me you don’t want to see him look at you, because his eyes, his eyes-

Reporter: They are scary?

Mr.E: Yes; well, I suppose scary is a way of telling it, but the truth is it’s more than that. Sometimes it’s as if he holds us in no more contempt than the BLU’s, and that we’re all ants to him, and he sits there in his chair, with blood dripping from his fingertips and with that look on his eyes.

*Mr.E. drinks a bit of water*

Reporter: So, you believe this colleague of yours might wish you harm?

Mr.E: No, it’s not that. We’re nine combatants in the middle of a war; of course someone wishes harm to someone else, accidents and hostilities happen. It’s normal, it’s the human condition that one or other of us might sometimes be angry. But the thing is that we cannot hurt each other. There is no fire between friends, and that’s nice and okay, because that means that we can protect each other and not be worried about stray bullets. Oh, and it helps against spies, can’t stress that enough.

Reporter: I believe there might be a ‘but’ incoming?

Mr.E: Yes, there is… He is the only one that can affect us. I mean, my dispensers and such can heal them, and I can teleport them, and perhaps I shouldn’t be saying so many things, but gosh darn it… We can help each other, but it’s all very subtle and simple. But he can heal us, uber us, give us crits – And he’s the only one who can directly affect us like that. And if he can heal us, then he might be able to hurt us; and he’s invincible and we don’t know if he shares his invincibility because he has to, or if he’s not bound by any rules, and and and….

*Mr.E. drinks some more water*

Reporter: Are you calmer now, sir?

Mr.E: Yes, yes. It’s just that when I think of him then, looking at us sometimes when he barges in, his body reflecting every light in a sickly red glow. It gets to my stomach a bit.

Reporter: I am sorry for the interruption sir, but it seems that there are some disturbances outside our studio.

Mr.E: What? WHAT? Is it him? It is him, isn’t it? It’s him? It’s HIM!

Reporter: No, of course not sir. It cannot possibly be him, our headquarters are well hidden, there’s no way such a person might find its way here, and-

Mr.E: He can, believe me he can. The things I’ve seen him do. He. Can.

*CRASH*

Mr.E: It’s him, it’s him. I know it’s him, no one can keep him out, no one, no one. Noonenoonenoonenoonenoonenoone-

*Reporter nervously wipes sweat from his forehead*

Reporter: Stay calm please Mr.E., I’m sure it’s just the wind, no reason to be alarme-

*CRASH*

External voice: We apologize for cutting this transmission. We shall make sure that the rest of this interview will be transmitted as soon as possible with possible corrections and RUN RUN RUN FOR SAFETY HE’S BEHIND ME AND HE’S WATCHING US ALL AND HE’LL KILL US ALL HE’S MAD HE’S M-

*SPLAT*

-connection lost-

Ibuprofen from the forums continues to do our job for us with this amusing image breaking down the appeal of each Team Fortress 2 class:

Thanks to Bazinga for sending this in. YouTube user thejazzman9475 has been hard at work creating some of the best TF2 videos ever made. Ever. So far, they’re unfinished, but they’re already dripping with freshly painted win.

There are a couple other ones in the works too, featuring the Pyro, the Sniper, and the Engineer. There’s also one with a surprisingly risqué Heavy/Medic pairs dance sequence. I, for one, can’t wait for these to be finished.

There’s no doubt that the Medic is a very important class to have on your team. They keep bulky classes healed, give them the advantage in fights, and build up the devastating uber or kruber that can break a defence or stop a charge dead in its tracks. Everyone wants a medic on their team. But actually playing the Medic seems to be another matter entirely. Despite the medic’s undeniable usefulness, even in the hands of an amateur, the simple fact is that a lot of people don’t want to play the medic. Sure, they’ll play it for the sake of the team, but they’ll be quick to anger, refuse to heal people who don’t explicitly thank them in chat, and generally think the world owes them for bothering to play medic. Not the signs of someone enjoying themselves.

So where’s the disconnect? If the Medic is so useful, why do so many people dislike playing the class so much?

Gameplay

Team Fortress 2 is, after all, a first person SHOOTER. And as the Medic, you’re going to be doing very little shooting. This can get a little boring for some people, because in the end they don’t want to hop around while keeping the medigun beam on a Heavy, they want to be shooting people- even if the latter is less useful to the team. It’s the same reason that some Medics seem so eager to go rambo all of a sudden- “ze hurting is more rewarding than ze healing” as the Medic himself would say.

Priority Target

People shoot for the Medic first. It’s just a fact. In higher level games like PUGs or even just serious servers with semi-comp players this is even more apparent. Once I ran into a Soldier using the Direct Hit who purposely rocket jumped right into the opposing team’s Medic’s face over and over to hit him with the DH up close and finish him with the Equaliser, not caring if he died in the process. That’s about the level of determination people have in regards to your death if you’re a Medic. There’s good reason for it- even if you’re not stopping them from killing someone, you’re building an uber, so they want you dead before it’s ready. Even if it is ready, they want to force you to waste it before you get to the rest of the team to minimize the damage. The only time people WON’T shoot you before your target is if you don’t let them, or if they’re a Spy or Sniper going for the easy target. After a while, this starts to get old, after the tenth time you get hit from behind with a rocket and then finished off before you turn around.

You Don’t Control How Well You Do

Here’s the one that scares people out of playing Medic on a losing team time and time again. As the Medic, your main concern most of the time is staying alive while keeping your team alive. If you find a good Medic buddy, you can go on a rampage and get stuff done while keeping your buddy alive. If your team is bad, you’ll often end up hopping from buddy to buddy as they’re gunned down, leaving you with nothing to show for it but a scattergun to the teeth after you run out of meatshields. And yet, the difference between you rocketing to the top of the scoreboard and rotting at the bottom is often independent of your skill. The fact is, without good players to support, the Medic just won’t do well.

You Need a Lot of Rescuing

Closely related to the last point, the sad truth is that a lot of time your team is going to be a pack of morons, and you need to be the one to get them in shape. But as the Medic, you’re not going to stand up in a fight with most other classes most of the time. So your Medic buddy, or just any random person you’re healing at the time, needs to kill them for you. And if they can’t, you’ll die. Over and over again. This is also one of the top sources of rage for Medics; a Medic buddy who can’t or won’t protect them. If they die, expect the buddy to get the blame. Often, even if it’s not their fault, if the Medic’s mad enough.

However, I enjoy playing Medic. It’s hard to see why, with all of that against it, but let’s look at the good parts of playing the Medic.

A Different Skillset

I’ll be honest; I’m a bad shot. I miss plenty of the time, and my habit of playing on servers with high ping doesn’t exactly help matters. My aim is less than superb, and I’m not exactly a pro at getting the range for confrontations right either. But playing the Medic, that starts to matter less, and my abilities to find cover, dodge shots, keep an eye out for enemies, and gauge the safeness of an area matters more.

Help From Others

Let’s be honest- if a Pyro had your back and he got attacked by a Scout, there’s a good chance you won’t save him. But if a Medic that was healing you was, you’d at least try to save him if you knew. And while a Heavy sometimes throws a sandvich to a Soldier, most of the time it’s the Medic who gets a free lunch.

Helping Your Team

Even with the odd disconnect of you feeling powerless and like you aren’t helping, if you compare how a team is doing before and after the addition of a Medic, it’s pretty obvious how much of an effect the Medic has. Lots of fights start turning against the other team, and the heaviest hitters on the Medic’s teams start killing people more, and being shot down while running for health less.

So yes, playing the Medic is frustrating. You can feel powerless, die with full uber, and get killed constantly despite your best efforts. But it’s all worth it when you keep a Heavy alive as he mows down an entire team, or uber a Pyro and watch the world burn.

Every once and a while, a video shows up that’s so good that we’re willing to risk the reader’s ire by putting up another video post. This is definitely one of those videos.

Quick update: The creator has uploaded a comparison reel, for those who didn’t see the original trailer or who just wanted to be even more blown away by the shot-for-shot accuracy.

Indulge me dear reader; just the other day I was playing a game of Team Fortress Two with my good companion Sir Tygrys when an observation was made. Checking the scoreboards, one notices that many of you are sporting digital avatars that are ill-fitting for such a Gentle Manne’s game.

Now perhaps you can get away with this shameful display on other counties of the Internet, but this is Ubercharged; my companion and I agreed we must do something about it.

And so Sir Tygrys, being a master of the arts, began work producing a collection of Team Fortress 2 inspired portraits tailored for Gentle Menne with an eye for the latest in style. Before presentation I must insist that neither of us will be held responsible if, upon glancing these works of art, your monocle falls into your tea.

But without further ado allow me to present to you our works, complete with the accompanying press release from the newly formed T&T Industries:

T&T Industries is happy to announce the release of our very own avatar pack, more precisely the ‘T&T Industries Classy Classes Avatar Pack’.

This pack was specially designed for all of you who understand the need to be classy in all your digital ventures. This splendid pack comes in two styles: BLU and RED, to suit individual customer preferences. You will find that they have been readily scaled down to 184×184 pixels, so they are immediately ready to use on Steam the very moment you download them to your drive.

All of these spiffing avatars were made by two masters of fine art – Sir Tygrys Murdock and Sir Tesla Sherbonk, with extra thanks to Sir Dont for improving the quality of the original images. Should you encounter either of them during your exploits in digital space, be sure to bid them thanks; they’ll be ecstatic to hear their work is appreciated.

Now go ahead and enjoy this fine art as we have prepared for you.

Remember our motto – quality is of the utmost importance and we strive to satisfy all of our customers.

Signed: T&T Industries Chairman of marketing

Willbur McTrackingster

You can download the newly improved v2 pack HERE, thanks to our friend Dont. You may also wish peruse the full sized imagery whilst you await the cheeseboard. Lastly, to those of you whom have no interest in showing some class, may I perchance interest you in a job sweeping out my chimney?

As you’ve all been told thousands of times, this game requires good teamwork if you want to ensure victory for yourself. Some of you might think of teamwork as just running to your teammate’s aid and helping him take out that pyro, or chasing off that pesky scout, or healing him when he’s been clogged up with bullets. There’s more to it than that. It’s the small things that you do that can save time and frustration and lead to better teamwork and victory. When we ignore our team and fail to help them, our victory becomes captured like our control points. Here’s a few tips on what small things you can do to help your teammates:

Self Spy-Checking
Most people out there like to spycheck everyone they meet, mostly Engineers and Snipers. It’s an important tactic that people use to keep themselves and others safe from spies. Make your teammate’s life easier and spy-check yourself for them. That Heavy-Medic pair won’t have to stop and waste time checking you. That Pyro won’t have to run after you to check you. Best of all, your team won’t have to waste their ammo on nothing. Show that you really are on their side. Shoot the floor. Swing your melee weapon over and over. Or if you’re feeling jolly, taunt. Last time I checked, spies can’t do that. By doing this, your team has one less person to check and more time to upgrade that sentry or push forward and capture that point! This is especially useful for lowering the stress for Engineers. Upon approaching their sentry nest, you should always expose yourself as a teammate so that they won’t have to run at you with their wrench and waste time spy-checking you when there might be a real spy around or when they could be upgrading their buildings. Same deal with Snipers, although it might not matter because half the time they’re too busy looking in their scopes to even notice you walk past. Silly Snipers…

Run Towards Your Medic
Well, you just got injured real bad. Who ya’ gonna’ call? The Medic of course. But don’t expect your wonderful doctor to instamatically, automagically pop up right in front of you and hook you up. No sir! When you call for a Medic, save him the extra walk and calmly run up to him. There’s no sense in having your Medic run out into the open and put himself in danger of death by some sniper or scout. Remember, one less Medic means more pain for your team. Oh, and if you get to the Medic, don’t be one of those stupid people who runs circles around him and dies because the doc couldn’t get a fix on you.

Welcoming The New
Face it. It’s happened to us all at least once and will happen again sometime soon. A person new to TF2 joins your team and they’re doing a seriously crap job. They’re dying left and right, wasting ubers, the usual. Do you tell them to GTFO and uninstall the game? Do you tell them to ALT+f4 for free hats? Certainly not. The last thing you’d want to do is to discourage someone from becoming better at a game they seemingly enjoy. We all know the saying “practice makes perfect”, so it’s better to help a new person out then to ridicule them about how much they suck. Why, we all sucked when we first played TF2. And just how did we get so much better? We learned from our mistakes and other players. The next time you see a newbie on your team failing miserably, offer him a few helpful points such as:
• Don’t W+M1.
• Always check for spies.
• Don’t mindlessly charge out into the open.
• Shoot the ground near the enemy as a soldier.
• You can’t use the flamethrower underwater.
• A scout capping a point counts as two players.
You know, normal, everyday things that most players know. Although some may need to get used to the game, others are fast learners and can quickly become a good addition to your team.

Inform Your Team of Their Surroundings
It’s obvious isn’t it? It’s very helpful to inform your teammates of what’s going on around them, whether it be pointing out a spy, notifying your team of a well hidden sniper, or just advising there’s a pyro right around the corner. Telling your Medic with a ready ubercharge that there’s a spy behind him ready to stab will prevent a large amount of frustration. It means a great deal to engineers when you inform them what spies are disguised as and if they’re heading towards them or not. All it takes is simply yelling into your mic or quickly typing up a message in chat. Go with the sure thing. Watch your team’s back, and they’ll watch yours.

Just a couple of these small things can be very helpful to you and your team. Remember them, and a swell victory will be shared between you and your team.

Special Thanks to Tygrys for the gmod pics.

In a quantity that has not been seen since the appearance of Cuddle Pyro, we now bring to you the cutest personification of a Team Fortress 2 Character into real life. Those are the results when you combine Halloween and gaming parents.

Please be warned, watching this is not recommended if you are somewhere where people will look at you strangely due to a “DAWWWWW” reaction.

You can check out more photos by following the link, even of the 1 year old heavy:

[from Crafster via Kotaku]

Oh, and because it is pretty much obligatory here in Ubercharged.net:

“ENTIRE TEAM IS BABIES!”-Heavy Weapons Guy

Medics.

Murderous tendencies aside, there’s no doubt that medics have one of the most important jobs on a team. While the job isn’t glamorous, a good medic goes a long way toward winning a round. And to encourage people to play Medic, medics are rewarded with points. Lots of points.

Now, obviously a team needs a medic. If a team indeed has a medic, then it’s certainly good that some brave soul decided to step up to the bat (or is it bonesaw?), and play the rather unglamorous support class. Really, that’s great! But it’s not good that many medics take this as a license to whine.

Well, let me quickly run a quick disclaimer. I like playing medic, though I don’t play it very much. If ever I get bored of playing Demoman or Soldier (my favorite two classes), or if my team desperately needs a medic, then I play medic. Something is quite thrilling about staying alive when everyone is gunning for you.

Z-2 is “Thanks”, we know.

OK! Fine! You get the short end of the stick, we know. You don’t get the glamour of playing soldier or demoman or spy. You don’t get many kills. Sure. Fine. Your point?

HEALING IS YOUR JOB. It’s why you’re playing medic. Unless you’re an amazingly good battle medic (and actually, even if you are), you still should heal people who need it. You can’t hold a grudge against someone and refuse to heal them (Healers against Haloes, anyone?). It makes you the most useless player on the server. You’re even depriving yourself of points as a matter of principle. A really, really misguided principle. Congratulations, you.

Z-2 is a matter of courtesy. I always thank my medics, but I don’t need to. Hell, the game automatically thanks my medic for me!

While it’s good that many players take good care to protect their medics, that’s not their primary job. Their primary job is to kill the enemy. It’s the medic’s responsibility to watch their own back and the back of their patient, and to warn the patient of imminent danger – especially true in a competitive setting. The patient is doing the killing here. Let him concentrate on the killing. It’s considerably simpler to keep the medigun beam locked on the patient than to actually gun an enemy down. The medic, having only to hold the LMB down, should have plenty of time to check around and be completely aware of everything.

The Patient’s Responsibility

The patient has one responsibility regarding his medic: keep him alive. In other words, don’t go out of your medic’s healbeam range. Listen to your medic. Love him [sort of NSFW]. Remember, working with your medic will be beneficial to both of you.

Still no excuse to bitch. Medics, do your job, please.

Thank you.