Scout update coming Feb 24

Keero

Tribe of Judah Membership Administrator
Scout Site Unveiling Release Details

February 17, 2008 — Valve, creators of award-winning games and leading technologies, today announced a set of new releases for Team Fortress 2, the title named Editor's Favorite Game of All Time by PC Gamer (UK). The releases are headline by the Scout Update and will be made available Tuesday, February 24. Between now and then, folks can learn more about what's coming by checking www.tf2.com/scoutupdate each day.

Well... awesome.
 
Ah at last! I could have bet you one of the upgrades would have been a baseball. Half the people in the steam forums wanted one!

I bet you can knock them back too just like you can do with the stickies, improvised baseball games here we come! :p
 
The Sandman unlock. :p I do hope rockets can be batted back. Would be awesome.
 
The Sandman unlock. :p I do hope rockets can be batted back. Would be awesome.

I suggested the rockets thing on their forums for the metal bat, so it would remain useful, but the no double jumps thing with Sandman takes care of that. Valve wanted the scout to be more useful on maps like Dustbowl which I assume is because with narrow corridors scouts can't get past sg's and spam. The Sandman seems like it would be useful in a long range capacity slowing down the enemy allowing other teammates to hit them at range.

I still want my explosive "Package" weapon :p.
 
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first thing I see is sandman the engie and dominate the sgs
 
I was thinking if you stun the engie he can't slap the sentry and repair it, a lot easier to take down.
 
I loathe being stunned in any game, but especially multiplayer games.

The loss of control of your character is incredibly frustrating for me; the unresponsiveness of controls for the Infected in Left 4 Dead Versus was one my main reasons for shelving the game (that, and running through the same 10 levels over and over and over again got stale).

As if Scouts weren't annoying enough already.
 
I was thinking if you stun the engie he can't slap the sentry and repair it, a lot easier to take down.

I get your point but I disagree. If the Sandman is a long range line of sight weapon one could just as easily play sniper and kill the engineer rather than stun him. If the scout is alone against an sg (like 2fort) he will still need the line of sight and distance (because the stun time decreases the closer you are) to take out the engy. I've tried taking out an unattended sg as a scout at range and it took all my ammo from both my guns so it doesn't really work at long range.

I loathe being stunned in any game, but especially multiplayer games.

The loss of control of your character is incredibly frustrating for me; the unresponsiveness of controls for the Infected in Left 4 Dead Versus was one my main reasons for shelving the game (that, and running through the same 10 levels over and over and over again got stale).

Now what does concern me is after re-reading the text on Valve's site it says...
And guys who think they're tough because they're invulnerable? It works on them too.
Does this mean it works on ubers?! I mean we've already got the pyro to airblast ubers backwards but now we have a way to hold them directly? I think it's a bad idea because ubers are responsible for the ebb and flow of so much of the battlefield, it's a big nerf to ubers if it works on them. Still we will have to see, Valve hasn't done so bad so far. It's fun to conjecture though :p .

As if Scouts weren't annoying enough already.

Every update so far has increased the power of it's class to some degree so the scout update really should follow suit to be fair. Having said that yes the scout is the most annoying class -_-. As a spy I've been dreading it the most as scouts are the hardness class to be a spy against. I played spy right through the pyro update because you can at least catch up to and out run them. However for the scout update I may have to hold off spying a bit :( .

They've announced the community maps now "arena watchtower" and "cp junction" . I've played junction and I can't say I was impressed. I mean it seemed ok it just didn't stand out in my mind. I've never played watchtower but then I don't play a lot of arena.
 
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Now what does concern me is after re-reading the text on Valve's site it says... Does this mean it works on ubers?! I mean we've already got the pyro to airblast ubers backwards but now we have a way to hold them directly. I think it's a very bad idea because ubers are responsible for the ebb and flow of so much of the battlefield, it's a big nerf to ubers if it works on them.
I don't know.

I am not very sympathetic to teams that rely on ubers in regard to this scout update.

If you are ubered, kill the scout first. Problem solved. And you should be able to since you are ubered for crying out loud.

The uber was only intended to give the medic and his patient invulnerability and to promote teamwork. It was never intended as a win button.

So I fail to see this as being considered a significant nerf to ubers, except to teams that utilize ubers poorly in the first place.
 
I don't know.

I am not very sympathetic to teams that rely on ubers in regard to this scout update.

If you are ubered, kill the scout first. Problem solved. And you should be able to since you are ubered for crying out loud.

The uber was only intended to give the medic and his patient invulnerability and to promote teamwork. It was never intended as a win button.

So I fail to see this as being considered a significant nerf to ubers, except to teams that utilize ubers poorly in the first place.

I'd think it'd be kind of hard to uber, kill the scout first and then take out an sg because the sandman is a long range weapon I.E. the scout is going to be far away. Not to mention scouts are the hardest class to chase down. Really though whether it's an effective uber blocker is going to up to the refire rate, how accurate it can be and amount of stun time involved. Ubers have never been a "win" button imo but they are effective temporary stalemate breakers. They remove sgs and create a destroy/rebuild, fall back/rush forward cycle which would otherwise make defense a lot more boring. It's this ebb and flow I don't want to dilute. Already a skillful pryo can stop an uber in it's tracks and now we may have another method for doing that. I am not really predicting doom and gloom, I don't think it will break the game or anything. It's just with multiple counters ubers seem less like being invulnerable. Although since Valve did want the scout to be more useful on maps like dustbowl this may be what they are aiming for, a uber stopping scout so people will use him on maps like that.
 
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Thursday's Scout announcement is "Bonk" energy drink. I've cut and paste the text here for your convenience.

Runnin’ rings around all them molasses-slow dummies out there on the battle- field is thirsty frickin’ work. But when it comes to quenchin’ that thirst, only one thermonuclear thirst detonator packs all the “Atomic Punch” you’ll ever need. Bonk! is fulla radiation, which as we all know is pretty great for givin’ people superpowers. Just one can’ll blast ya into a few second rush of radioactive energy so powerful you’ll be dodgin’ bullets like they ain’t even there!

Note: Bonk! contains several hundred times the daily recommended allowance of sugar. After the beneficial effects of the radiation wear off, drinkers have reported experiencing feelings of lethargy that can last several seconds. Reading this sentence absolves Bonk! of any liability for killing sprees inspired by or deaths resulting from the ingestion of Bonk! Enjoy Bonk! responsibly… Or by the case!

I remember someone posted this exact idea in their forums (down to the name) so this is basically a user created weapon. So if I am reading this right Bonk gives scouts temporary invincibility? If you were worried about engies having scout problems Whon I'd worry more now...

BTW The Sandman was pretty much was an amalgamation of user created ideas too.

Note: In the absence of Keero I will be giving a blow by blow on the updates :D .
 
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Oh no I just got the idea if Bonk is popular in-game are we going to see a real life Bonk energy drink T_T :rolleyes: .
 
I'd think it'd be kind of hard to uber, kill the scout first and then take out an sg because the sandman is a long range weapon I.E. the scout is going to be far away.
Yeah, it can be hard at times. But then defending against an uber can be hard at times as well. That does not mean it cannot be done or be done effectively and consistently. Furthermore, with the coordinated backup of teammates such as a demo, sniper, and spy, I can still see quite easily the scout and sg going down like before when a uber attack commences. So I am very skeptical of the idea of a long range stun weapon suddenly changing the whole pace of a game.
The Mighty Gerbil said:
Not to mention scouts are the hardest class to chase down.
They are hard to chase down, but when they are running around like madmen from being chased, they are not batting their long range shot. So the Sandman will not come into play in defending the sg point in that scenario.
The Mighty Gerbil said:
It's just for being invulnerable ubers appear to be picking up another counter and I don't think that's the way to go.
The only way I can see this seriously changing the "ebb and flow" of the battle is if there does not currently exist some effective tactic to counteract/prevent the Sandman stopping an uber attack.

So I do not share your concerns as a result. There is another counter so the team quickly adjusts to counteract it, and soon it will become a habit of regularly playing TF2 players. By having more options to account for and overcome, the movements in the "ebb and flow" become more meaningful, more challenging, and thus more rewarding and interesting.

Maybe this has to do with my personality. I see this as introducing a new challenge to overcome, and thus makes my team's win more satisfying and worth my time. So all I care about is whether there are realistic options in overcoming it.
 
My understanding of Bonk is that it speeds the scout up for a few seconds, and makes him fast enough to outrun a sentries fire. Then at the end of the burst you run slower then normal for a few seconds (like pyro speed).

To me this seems to fit in with what valve was trying to do. It allows the scout to run past sentries meaning if a defense sets up too far from the point the scout can run past the defense and force them back.
 
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