Next Update: The Scout

[Keero]

TF2 Blog:http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2096

And if you're too lazy to click:

We've been pretty quiet lately, but thankfully, that's about to end. In the next few days we'll have an update out that has a couple of new features for the Engineer and Spy, and a variety of other smaller fixes.

* Teleporters will be upgradeable to level 3. As the teleporter is upgraded, the cooldown will decrease.
* Dispensers will be upgradeable to level 3. They will heal faster and generate metal faster as they are upgraded.
* Spies will be able to recharge their cloaking ability by picking up ammo off of the ground.
* We've made a bunch of minor changes by adding particle systems and upgrading the HUD to show things like deaths by critical hits, players that are overhealed, and giving more information to medics when people are calling for them.

These are just to work on some class balance and depth issues that we've seen in the wild with these two classes, but aren't meant to replace their entire class packs. They will be getting more attention further down the road.

While that's in testing, we're off working on several things that folks have been emailing us about, so we thought it'd be good to provide some detail:

* The next class pack will be the Scout. One of the main goals we're focusing on for him has been to provide tools that make him useful in maps like Dustbowl & Goldrush. If you have any ideas for what you think would work well, post them over on the Team Fortress 2 Forum and we'll take a look.
* We are actively working on a massive XBox 360 update, which will include pretty much everything we've shipped on the PC in the last year. We'll provide you with a rough date when we have one.
* We're also working on bringing over a variety of engine improvements from Left 4 Dead into the TF2 engine, but it won't be a wholesale replacement of the engine. This means we'll get some of L4D's performance improvements, like the better multicore support, but not all of them. For example, we can't bring over some improvements without dropping support for DX8, which we're not prepared to do.

And from tonight's update:

The Engineer's teleporters can now be upgraded to level three. It will recharge faster the higher level it is

The Engineer's dispensers can now be upgraded to level three. It will give out metal and heal faster as it is upgraded

Spies will be able to recharge their cloaking ability by picking up ammo off of the ground or from health cabinets

Some changes to the second part of the first stage of Goldrush to give the attackers more of an advantage

Any weapons that fire bullets (shotguns, sniper's machine gun, heavy's minigun, etc.) can now break apart the Demoman's stickybombs

The icon on the HUD for a person calling for Medic will now give more information to the medic (if the target is low on health, on fire, etc.)

Added an achievement tracker that will allow people to choose specific achievements that they are trying to get

There is now a custom icon for death messages when the player was killed from a critical hit

Added a new particle effect for when a player enters the water

Added smoke to the feet of a rocket jumping soldier

Players will now have some particles swirling around them so other players can see when they are overhealed

Go go!

 

[The Mighty Gerbil]

Yay! I'm glad they have not abandoned us! I've been dreading the scout update though, they are very hard to spy against but it had to happen sometime. I'm not very confidant faster healing dispensers are a good thing either. Ammo cloak renews look great as well as faster teleports. I hope they make it where a spy can take an enemy teleporter too.

Any weapons that fire bullets (shotguns, sniper's machine gun, heavy's minigun, etc.) can now break apart the Demoman's stickybombs

I was long aware this needed to happen. You very often can't clear them out no matter what you do. I was thinking explosives needed to detonate other explosives but this is good too.

 

[Bakey]

Here's some screenies I took of the new stuff:

One thing I did just notice playing spy on the first stage of Goldrush where there's 3 full ammo boxes there, you can essentially stay cloaked forever if you can time the ammo box pickups so that no one else gets them. You could really screw over a defensive engi that way.

Here's the Goldrush mapchange:

Here's a level 3 Dispenser and Tele Exit:

Here's a Level 3 Tele Entrance (note I only upgraded the exit, the entrance upgrades along with the exit and I assume the reverse is also true):

I took this screenie immediately after using the Level 3 Tele and you can see where the recharge meter is, it's MUCH faster:

 

[The Mighty Gerbil]

Interesting Bakey. I imagine if you need to upgrade the teleporter that will encourage engineers to place it only by them as opposed to hidden in a corner somewhere. I wonder if the spy ability will be nerfed a little or not, I better get to using it while I can .

 

[Tek7]

Behold! There shall be a plague upon the land. And this plague shall be...TANKING ENGINEERS AND INDESTRUCTIBLE SENTRIES!

Seriously, tanking engineers were difficult enough to dislodge already. Now they can set up a tent and bonfire next to their level 3 dispenser and level 3 teleport and just whack their sentry with a wrench all day long.

Oy.

Well, at least the spies got a buff, too. Maybe they'll cancel out...?

 

[The Mighty Gerbil]

Behold! There shall be a plague upon the land. And this plague shall be...TANKING ENGINEERS AND INDESTRUCTIBLE SENTRIES!

Seriously, tanking engineers were difficult enough to dislodge already. Now they can set up a tent and bonfire next to their level 3 dispenser and level 3 teleport and just whack their sentry with a wrench all day long.

Oy.

Well, at least the spies got a buff, too. Maybe they'll cancel out...?

Yeah that occured to me too Tek. Its the health buff from the dispenser that has me worried not the metal becuase you still can't swack the sentry faster. I am hoping they made the level one dispenser less effective to even out the superiority of level 3s.

 

[Keero]

What I did notice was that the Dispensers give out +10 Metal each level, so it's 40,50, and 60 at max, and the level 3 heal is similar to a medic's normal heal. I didn't notice a health increase for the building itself though.

The teleporter recharges in about 3 seconds or less, and you can upgrade the entrance or the exit, not both. So you can have a level 1 at base and a level 3 exit, so you don't have to sit around for a minute upgrading at the start of the round.

Spy cloak meter recharges about 15~20% when your cloaked running over metal, and looks like full meter when uncloaked. This is a great change me thinks.

When yelling medic, the health bars above the patients head will be dark red if they have little health. This helped tons last night on a brutal match. Should also show if they're on fire, but I didn't see that yet. And now the person getting healed will have a lot of little healing + signs on them when overhealed. Looks pretty cool. Someone should make hippy flowers with that icon for a groovy effect. >_>

 

[The Mighty Gerbil]

I played a little with it and nothing looks like a game breaker yet. I do have mixed feelings about some of it. Stabbing people while they are waiting for a teleport is now just about impossible. On the flip side as your never seem to have enough teleports for your team when you need them making one more effective is a good idea.

As far as the spy change it definitively helps the spy but because of it you almost never have to be stationary anymore. What this means is it makes hunting for a spy who has been seen a more futile experience as you don't have to be that guy in the corner who looks suspicious anymore. Goldrush isn't the only level you can stay cloaked almost perpetually on either. Factor in ammo from dropped enemies and I start feeling like a parasitic vampire draining the lifeforce from my victims to full my dark power . It may or may not be overpowered but it certainly changes how you play spy. One thing I am sure of is spy did need more power but I am not sure this is the best route or not.

I haven't seen the dispenser in action enough to decide about that.

 

[The Mighty Gerbil]

Having played some more with it I've only found one thing lacking with the update though I haven't confirmed it. Supposedly if you are a spy and you get buffed by your own medic the pluses you give off are your team's color not the color of the enemy. IMO this needs to be fixed to show the color of your disguise especially since you have no control over if a medic heals you or not. The fact is I used to deliberately give spies a buff before they leave friendly territory to help them survive should they take fire crossing the battlefield, now I can't.

<side note>I've also long wished valve would give spies an indicator as to who they are disguised as too. It's only fair since the enemy can see why can't you when it's your own disguise?</side note>

The engineer upgrades seem fine.