VanillaTF2

Crasp — Today we are glad to announce another Team Fortress 2 prize cup in association with Western Digital. They will be providing 5 of the newest SATA hard disks equipped with a 32MB cache and running at an amazing 10,000RPM. Not only will they be providing these unrivalled puppies, they will also be providing €250 for the winner!

For the Velociraptor Challenge we have decided to do something a little different. Read on to find out more!

I tried to stay out of this one, but slowly seeing the whole mess escalate I needed to clear my own thoughts and get them in order. What better place to do that than for everyone to see on Vanilla?

I’m sure many of you fine readers have come across games that saw little to no changes over the many years it was alive, as well as those with patch-happy developers at the helm. The unlocks issue determines which category competitive TF2 will ultimately be remembered for long after it’s demise. This is especially true for us because we, the community, have the power to shape the 6vs6 format to our liking. I know of games from either category with both successful and terrible competitive scenes, so this issue is not only a chance to leave behind a lasting legacy, but is also the very crossroads for whether we live or die. As proof of this, we are already seeing this issue split the community in half, with a number of teams refusing to play with unlocks allowed. Having the top teams leave the #1 league since the dawn of competitive TF2 is not a good sign for the future of the game. We have come to a crunch point and a firm decision needs to be made.

A while ago we decided to change rants to a weekend thing. With perfect timing, the Valve’s latest changes to our game spawns reactions of all kinds. Here’s the latest rant (unsigned):

Updates updates and more useless updates!

So this morning, I turn on my computer and see that there’s a new TF2 update. But I’m really non-plussed about any updates nowadays. There was a time when I would frantically find out what was happening but not any more. Updates to me (and to most of you) are just ‘meh’. Looking at the update list, there’s all sorts of crap that Valve have added that we don’t need, especially since they haven’t been explained:

Added ‘The Medi-eval Medic’, ‘The Hibernating Bear’, and ‘The Expert’s Ordnance’ item sets.

Added new weapons: ‘The Claidheamohmor’, ‘The Back Scratcher’, ‘The Boston Basher’, ‘The Fists of Steel’, ‘The Amputator’, ‘The Crusader’s Crossbow’, ‘The Ullapool Caber’, ‘The Loch-n-Load’, ‘The Buffalo Steak Sandvich’, ‘The Brass Beast’, ‘The Warrior’s Spirit’, ‘The Candy Cane’, and ‘The Jag’.

But what the hell are these things? Should we care? Do they only work in the new ‘Medieval Mode’? The only thing that’s certain, unfortunately, is that these weapons and sets, along with the

Added 20 new hats,

is that they will (as usual) decrease your fps, and increase your frustration at anything pub – now theres a new wave of SELLING VINTAGE WEPS FOR WINTER CRATES and BUYING BUFFALO STEAK SANDVICH.

It’s been a tight weekend of unlocks and season 8. Meanwhile, we were left with this latest rant about the meta game. Go on:

Hello ladies and gentlemen, today I am trying to get some insight on the current meta game of TF2. For those of you who might actually not know what i mean by meta game, I am going to clarify it.

The meta game is the way the game is played, affected by circumstances from outside of the game. This is of course not really specific, so let us go into detail:

What does a usual 6v6 (!) on cp_OnlyMapInMapPool (badlands) look like?

Lineup: 2 scouts, 2 soldiers, 1 demoman and 1 medic

All of us except for those who are really new to tf2 know the rollout. And everybody does it the same way, except for some minor variations. On a lucky day (or when your team gets rolled), you go through valley with your soldiers. And that’s it. And that is very good and very bad at the same time, but let me explain: cp_badlands is an awesome map; I think we all agree on that. But why? Because its easy, because you can relax and turn your brain off and play your favorite game. And that is pretty awesome. On the other hand, exactly this lazyness that you are allowed to have while playing badlands (maybe granary as well for that matter), makes the community lazy. That’s it. My explanation goes deeper however; because we are not done yet.

A movement is on the rise.

For the past years by now, one of the most heated battles within our community has been the question of what new additions to include and what to forsake. With the latest release, inevitably the debate rose to the next level.

The conservative side is gaining momentum, preaching the simplified evangélium of a standardised ruleset, “Pro-Vanilla” (small map pool, standard loadout + medic weapons). The liberal side’s appeal is wide. -Anything from different degrees of new weapons and maps, to fighting just for their right to “try before buy”. It’s shaping up to become a binary division of for and against the new.

Having grown up in a family of anthropologists, it never fails to fascinate me just how much our community behaves like a small scale replica of the vast societies found in real life. -The common citizen, the elite, the organisation, the media, the politics, the government.

This following article is an attempt to shed light on some select similarities, and why I ask for humility, patience and respectfulness in the mundane debate that follows the changes that challenge the established system of TF2.

Let it be known that this is not a rant directed towards specific people, but the overall direction of the debate as I see it across the medias we have at disposal.

- By, Sivert “Torden” Bakkeng

DISCLAIMER: This is a discussion post. The purpose isn’t to achieve anything, or to insult anyone, it’s just my personal thoughts (naturally not that of anyone else in dignitas etc.) to hopefully provoke some discussion on an otherwise under-discussed topic.

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Ooooh. An update! That’s an interesting release, isn’t it?

Let’s just cover, very quickly, what was released in yesterday’s update (29th Sept, 2010).

• Item store added, where players can purchase TF2 items (with real £ or [where is my euro key] $).
• Trading facility opened up.
• Item sets added, including set bonuses similar to a MMO, such as the scout , 25HP bonus.

What did you think when you first saw this update? I know what I thought: “what the F*C* (capital letters) have they done now?!“.

One of our least not unpopular features is back: The rant. This writers takes a journey back to try and pick up on some loose ends about unlocks.

Banning/restricting weapons has always been cause for a huge debate, especially when Division 1 decided to have a gentleman’s agreement and only use regular weapons + the Medic unlocks. Curious to their mindset for this, I asked one of the most experienced Div1 players which weapons should be banned and why. Today’s class is the Scout:

“For the Scout, I would ban the Force-a-Nature, Crit-a-Cola and the Sandman. The Force-a-Nature because it has no real positive use in the game. Bouncing people around the map is frustrating for everyone involved – frustrating for the player being bounced, frustrating for the FaN scout’s partner as he tries to finish him off and can’t, etc. In some situations it’s imbalanced, in other situations it’s nothing short of retarded.
I would ban Crit-a-Cola because scouts hit hard enough as it is! Sure, the Crit-a-Cola effect means the scout takes huge damage from rockets and pipes, but in the time it takes for a Soldier/Demo to see a Scout and fire two rockets at him, the Scout will likely have been able to fire at least 2, more likely 3 mini-crit shots, which could would likely total around 200 damage even from mid range. When you add in the fact that it can be used with über, it becomes pretty clear that it shouldn’t be allowed in competitive play.
Sandman, urgh, so many reasons to ban it. It was originally a stun effect, now it’s a disarm and slow effect. Those effects should only be found in RPGs. They completely break the flow of the game and achieve a far too significant effect for a relatively minor action. BAN!”