TF2 Items

TF2 Trading: Good Story Pt. 3

Posted on by Mei Satsuki

Last time I shared with you the second part of a very nice story. Here is the third part for you guys to enjoy as Team Fortress 2 fans and active TF2 trading players.

TF2 Trading: Continuation

This is the third part of the (true) story of LoopsCode in Reddit:

Fast forward a few more months, the team sort of disbanded because we all had real life responsibilities to attend to (although no worries, we all shoot the shit on our Slack channel on a daily basis). I was talking to Messiah how I was graduating soon in June 2016, and whether he has any tips for me for job search.

Little did I know, Messiah, who I absolutely admire because he is also the main dev of a Steam based website, works in a company in Silicon Valley. I was absolutely flabbergasted. Recall, I’ve known him for around a year and a half by now, and this is the first time I knew about this. He keeps it very low key, a hint to his character. He asked me if I was interested in his company, which is conveniently located in the center of Silicon Valley.

Am I interested? Am I?? My life long dream has been to work in Silicon Valley. I think interested was an understatement. I was more like – fuck yes I am!

I honestly tried to apply for internships in this area all five years of my college career, with no luck each time. Being able to begin my career in the Valley would actually fulfill a long-time dream of mine.

Messiah put in a good word for me to the CEO of the company knowing what I did with the UGC Roster Verifier tool (and our fun technical discussions on coding and tech in Slack/Mumble), and I scheduled my first call with them.

One call led to another technical call. Then a third culture call. Then finally, I was invited to their office in the Valley for a full day of on-site interviews. I flew over from the East coast; everything was paid for. Was I nervous? Goddamn I was. At this point, I was rejected by a few companies already, and morale was at a new low.

TF2 Trading, TF2 Items, TF2, Team Fortress 2

Whoa, what happens next? Stay put for the next part as we continue on with his story! It’s as if winning a lottery of great TF2 Items.

TF2 Trading: Good Story Pt. 2

Posted on by Mei Satsuki

Last time I shared with you the first part of a very nice story. Here is the second part for you guys to enjoy as Team Fortress 2 fans and active TF2 trading players.

TF2 Trading: Continuation

This is the second part of the (true) story of LoopsCode in Reddit

As you all know, some teams would bring in unregistered ringers (often times higher skill divisions than what the current team is), imposters with the same name and display picture (played by a higher level player), or sometimes, the team leader just doesn’t know it’s against the rules. Prior to a match, there isn’t much time to actually check one-by-one whether the player on the team is really who they say they are, or whether they’re in the official roster. My team leader, let’s call him Messiah, knew that I was a software developer. He is also one. He expressed to me his frustration, and it clicked to me that maybe I should try to take a stab at solving this problem.

A few weeks later, the UGC Roster Verification tool (now offline) was born. Initially, only the players in the team used it. After awhile, I started sharing it on /r/tf2, /r/truetf2, the UGC forums, TF2Center forums, and more, and it kinda blew up. I recall over 1000 unique players used it, and for a kid like me, that was pretty insane. Hearing people’s thoughts on the tool prompted me to learn to gather user feedback, test for bugs, and ultimately implement new features to it. This was a great feeling, and it really trained me to become a better software and product developer.

 TF2 Trading, TF2 Items, TF2, Team Fortres 2

Wow, this is really getting pretty interesting, right? Were you guys able to use this UGC Roster Verification tool? Did this program also helped in terms of TF2 Items? Let us know if you did!

TF2 Trading: Copying Overwatch

Posted on by Mei Satsuki

It is funny to see that the table has turned between Team Fortress 2 and Overwatch. In the previous months, people has nothing to say but Overwatch is just Team Fortress 2 with better graphics (which Blizzard admittedly taken concepts from different shooters including Team Fortress 2). Yeah, I am pretty sure those people haven’t tried Overwatch before commenting like that or watched Blizzard interviews and press cons. Now, TF2 is learning from the success of Overwatch. Valve are implementing game modes and other stuff in TF2 that they see are working for Overwatch. I guess, it is a give and take of ideas? TF2 trading ideas? Yeah, that sort, if you will.

TF2 Trading Ideas but Still Short

There is nothing wrong with the copying of this and copying of that between games. Moreover, if they are in the same game genre, there will be similarities and copying of ideas. It is not wrong, in my opinion, if you would copy another aspect of a competitor’s game so as long as you make it better. Take a look at World of Warcraft. People would say or said that they only copied Everquest, right? Blizzard’s biggest moneymaker was just from an existing idea but made better. Same goes for their other games i.e. Hearthstone to Magic: The Gathering, Starcraft to any other RTS existed before it and of course, Overwatch to objective type shooter.

TF2 Trading, TF2 Items, TF2, Team Fortress 2, Overwatch

Team Fortress 2 though, man, they fell short. Even on the copying of what is working for Overwatch, they failed. I have seen so much comments on how Valve continues to not disappoint on disappointing their players. Take this post in Reddit, there are so many people commenting on all the faults and the shortcomings in TF2 even if they tried updating in the game that of Overwatch. So yeah, sad but true and sometimes rage inducing, to be quite honest. And no, inb4 put out more TF2 items, that will not work as well for sure. So yeah, hopefully this changes soon. If not, we will really have to say goodbye to TF2.

TF2 Trading: Veteran Voiced Out

Posted on by Mei Satsuki

Team Fortress released recently a big update that included the competitive mode and the quick play matchmaking mode. I have only read the patch notes since, well, I don’t play Team Fortress 2 that much anymore because Overwatch. Going back, after I read the update, I thought to myself, “Wow pretty cool! Valve is putting an effort to compete in the FPS market again.” But then it hit me, “This sounds a lot like Overwatch.” Maybe it was just me. Until I found a video that reaffirmed my assumption after reading the patch notes. This is going to be bad for TF2 trading.

TF2 Trading: Muselk Talks

Muselk has been playing Team Fortress 2 since forever so it is very reliable in terms of his opinion. I also think of him as a non-biased first person shooter player as well. You will surely agree when you watch his other videos and most definitely this video:

I loved the “Overwatch is doing great with it, let’s do it as well” comment. For one, I really thought of the idea when I read the update notes and Muselk seconding the thought, what a relief for me. Valve doesn’t have to do that. They were first in the market anyways, they could’ve done that a long time ago and maybe got the success of that idea before Overwatch. Who knows, that would be another “TF2 did it first” argument and Valve could’ve gotten the credit and not Blizzard. What’ surprising was the ranked rating. You did great in a game with three gold medals and won and still ranked down? Maybe this was a bug but with the anxiety of the remaining handful (LOL) of Team Fortress 2 players, it’s almost unforgiveable. Valve is a veteran in the industry as well, they should know better.

TF2 Trading, TF2 Items, TF2, Team Fortress 2, update

The last thing to cry about is that Valve is as if they are just giving TF2 players disappointment after disappointment as if they don’t care anymore. I really anticipated that Overwatch will bring the best out of Valve but it was otherwise. TF2 items surely will not sell again.

TF2: Medic, Demoman and Medic

Posted on by Mei Satsuki

Okay, we got distracted by some topics last week, let us go back to taking a look at the recent changes. Now, for Medic, Demoman and Engineer. Definitely, Valve trying to make TF2 Trading active again with these changes to make Team Fortress 2 fresh.

TF2 Trading: Changes

Medic

Base

All Mediguns allow the Medic to match the speed of their heal target

Previously only available on The Quick Fix

Quick Fix

berCharge rate reduced to +15% (from +25%)

Overdose

Increased movement speed bonus to +20% (from +10%)

Increased damage penalty to -15% (from -10%)

Dropped Mediguns

Stored UberCharge begins to decay over time after coming to rest

Demoman

Base All boots now require a shield to activate any move speed bonus listed on the item

The Iron Bomber Decreased the fuse time to 1.4 seconds (from 2.0)

The Quickiebomb Launcher Increased charge time reduction to -70% (from -50%) Increased damage bonus for (max) charged shots to +35% (from +25%) Increased clip size penalty to -50% (from -25%) Removed “Stickybombs fizzle 4 seconds after landing”

The Sticky Jumper Updated model/materials and sound

Engineer

Base Level 1 teleporters now cost 50 metal (previously 125)

Widowmaker Damage increased +10% when attacking the same target as your sentry

Eureka Effect

Reduced “50% less metal from Dispensers and Pickups” to 20%

Added “Teleporters cost 50% less metal”

The Short Circuit

Base projectile attack is -10 metal (hit or miss) and then add -5 metal for each projectile destroyed (sometimes a buff, sometimes a nerf)

The Pomson

Fixed an exploit with shooting through your own buildings

Increased close-range damage to 72 (from 62)

Reduced long-range damage to 32 (from 42)

Updated projectile impact sound

TF2 Trading, TF2 Items, TF2, Team Fortress 2, update 

So, with these changes, Team Fortress 2 players will become more active again in playing the game. This also means that players will be having to change their usual playstyle to cope in these changes. TF2 Items will definitely sell again with the players coming back to play TF2. That’s something to assume, right? Hopefully!

TF2 Trading: Laugh Out Loud

Posted on by Mei Satsuki

Team Fortress 2 might be pushed back into the shadows by Overwatch but animations related or about Team Fortress 2 never fails to entertain. Former TF2 players might go back to playing the game on just how funny this is and in turn spark TF2 Trading as well.

TF2 Trading: Funny Video

Enjoy!

 

This is the transcript of the video just in case you didn’t understand some of them.

“But I mean, Team Fortress 2 is just way too rediculous four you to- ’cause, it’s all the same thing. It’s like… I dunno.

You get the Scout. And you put him in a wig. And then he looks at the sun a bunch. And then, there’s Femscout. You put her in a wig too. Then, the Spy’s the bad guy…

Uh…

Femscout’s gonna have to die at some point, ’cause….

Fuck that shit.

And then, Scout’s sad. And then he has a sword. And then he fights demons. And then, Femscout’s back, she didn’t really die, becasue it was the Spy.

And then… uh….

Scout has to fight femscout. And he kicks her into the sun. And then he realizes what he’s done. And then he’s real sad. Then he’s on a bed. Then he looks at a gun. Then he’s about to shoot himself, but he’s like:

‘Nah, this ‘aint cool.’

So then he goes…

… drives a bike…

Off into the Sunset. And then the sun turns into his mom’s head. And it turns to the camera and mouths the words:

‘Ya’ done did good, kid’

And that’s the end of the show.

That’s every drama tf2 video.”

TF2 Trading, TF2 Items, TF2, Team Fortress 2

I was literally laughing my heart out while watching this. There were parts that I didn’t understand but I think that’s where it hit the spot, when the video made you “wtf”. There were some TF2 Items in the video as well like the hats. Hope you enjoyed this video as much as I did and credits to the owner and uploader!

TF2 Trading: Changes Continued

Posted on by Mei Satsuki

Last time I shared to you guys the changes made to the first three classes (Scout, Soldier and Sniper) in Team Fortress 2. These changes and balances were made in accordance with the new competitive mode and the new quick play mode. Good thing that Valve made these changes so that Team Fortress 2 will at least become a little fresher than the usual. This might make TF2 Trading a little more active as well, who knows?

TF2 Trading: Heavy, Spy and Pyro Changes

Again, this is from a nice poster from Reddit:

Heavy

Natascha and Brass Beast

20% damage resistance now only applies when spun up and below 50% max health

Huo-Long Heater

Added -10% damage

Added +25% increased damage vs. burning players

Reduced ammo drain to -4/sec (from -6)

Reduced pulse damage from Ring of Fire to 12 (from 15) due to increased damage vs. burning

Buffalo Steak Sandvich

Fixed “damage taken” multiplier accidentally being +10%, instead of the listed +25%

Spy

Base

Max speed increased to 320 (from 300)

Enforcer

Attacks pierce resist and absorb effects from all sources

Pyro

All Flamethrowers

Added: Direct damage reduces Medi Gun healing and resist shield effects by 25%

Medics hear a “healing interrupted” sound when this is happening to their heal target

The Manmelter

Removed (hidden) 20% fire rate penalty

TF2, Team Fortress 2, TF2 Trading, TF2 Items

With the balances and changes, players will have to play differently which is a good thing. Team Fortress might be old but these little patches can bring a whole new ballgame to Team Fortress 2. I saw some people comment that it’s a miracle that there’s a new patch which is true. They are happy that there is but they also don’t want to overhype it because there is nothing to be hyped about. Well, at least there’s a chance that there will be more TF2 Items available in the store! We will continue next time for the last three class changes!

TF2 Trading: Desperate Time, Desperate Measure?

Posted on by Mei Satsuki

Overwatch is beating the crap out of Team Fortress 2 in every aspect there is. Of course, some people might disagree but hey, truth hurts. Team Fortress 2 might have let the whole market take over them because they were, yes, were, on top of the FPS market for some time and might got a little too overconfident. Well, Blizzard saw that window and thus Overwatch. We might say Valve and TF2 is done for but TF2 trading some more blows and get a second wind, which I still doubt.

TF2 Trading: Competitive

So yeah, Team Fortress 2 finally thought of putting competitive mode in the game. Is it because they realized it through Overwatch? Or was this a long plan and they just put it now because of all the hype Overwatch is getting? Nevertheless, here is the video:

 


COMPETITIVE MODE

RISE THROUGH THE RANKS

Ever since the first dolphins crawled out of the ocean, they’ve longed to pick a fight with the fat, banana-eating apes over by the trees. And now they can, in a structured dolphin-safe environment.

Introducing Competitive Mode, a ranked 6v6 game mode featuring all nine TF classes. Climb the comp mode ranks to earn up to 18 titles and badges. Track all of your match and ongoing stats in-game. You can even earn stat medals by scoring in the top percentile of all players in your rank.

 

CASUAL MODE

QUICKPLAY GETS AN UPGRADE

Matchmaking is also changing the way TF2 can be played casually. Now, instead of jumping randomly into an in-progress game, you’ll be matched into an unranked 12v12 game with players of similar skill. This means no more auto-balancing—you’ll be playing a match from start to finish, with actual winners and actual losers. 

We’ve also introduced a leveling stat: the more you play, the more you level up, and you can accelerate your leveling by earning points in-game. Have friends? Play on the same team every time simply by inviting them to your party.

TF2 Trading, TF2 Items

These information came from the Team Fortress 2 website. If you haven’t played Overwatch, this seems like a desperate move of Valve and without the capacity of creativity, they just copied what is in Overwatch right now. I don’t think “Overwatch just copied TF2” won’t work anymore because clearly, TF2 is the copycat on this one. Also even if there are more TF2 items, free or not, it won’t save the dying game anymore. Good try though, Team Fortress 2.

 

TF2 Trading Some Great Moments

Posted on by Mei Satsuki

Overwatch has “Play of the Game” feature every end of the game to let everyone see the most awesome play of the match (well not always). Some of your amazing and game changing plays won’t necessarily get to be chosen as the play of the game but get to be saved in the highlights section in the main menu. This is definitely a thumbs up on Overwatch as they credit great plays in a match. Unfortunately, Team Fortress 2 doesn’t have that. If you don’t record the entirety of your game, you can’t really predict when to record that pro move of yours. Sad, I hope Team Fortress 2 had that kind of feature as well and maybe you can post it in some TF2 Trading thread.

tf2 trading, tf2 items

TF2 Trading: The Very Least

So, without the Play of the Game feature in Team Fortress 2, I thought to myself, “how can we share our great moments in TF2?” without having to record the entirety of our gaming hours. Not to mention it will eat up all our disk space if we do that. Apparently, someone already made a post in Reddit asking people on some awesome plays or moments in Team Fortress 2:

What’s your most memorable TF2 experience, that you’ll probably look back on 10+ years from now

Mine is the time I first dominated this regular on this harvest server I frequent. He’s a beast, and is infamous on the server for being really good. Of course, I’d always get dommed by him, and after a while, I’d planned to get revenge.

So, one day, I rallied the entire team, and, as a pocket medic, I worked to support our 5 soldiers in an attempt to get a domination on him.

It look about an hour and a half, but finally, I healed a soldier who got a third consecutive kill on him, and finally…

THE DOMINATION

It was the first and last domination we’ll ever get. The kick was when he said in chat

“Your still trash tho”

I still go to that server

 

You can comment your amazing moments here as well, but it would be more awesome if we have some kind of video to back them up. You know what they say, “Pics (or vids) or it didn’t happen.” Well at least we get to share our moments here. Maybe we can choose the most wonderful moment and give out some TF2 Items? Looking forward reading your moments, everyone!

TF2 Trading: Updates

Posted on by Mei Satsuki

Overwatch is owning the first person shooter market now. Actually, Overwatch is owning the gaming market. So what does old man Team Fortress 2 doing about it? Will the dying game still try to retaliate? TF2 trading blows versus Overwatch? Well, these new updates, in my opinion, is an attempt to do so. Hey correct me if I’m wrong but I think they are trying to but this is just a “at least we tried” stuff going on.

TF2 Trading: News

I heard that there will be updates this month in Team Fortress 2 and here are the said updates (from their official website):

Team Fortress 2 Update Released

June 25, 2016 – TF2 Team

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include:

  • Internal system changes in preparation for a future update.
  • Fixed erroneously being warned that leaving a bootcamp match will result in an abandon penalty.
  • Fixed servers running tf_mm_strict 2 mis-handling bootcamp matches.
  • Fixed servers running arena mode constantly entering and exiting the pre-round state while empty.
  • Fixed servers failing to recover properly from crashing while running a bootcamp match.

Team Fortress 2 Update Released

June 22, 2016 – TF2 Team

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include:

  • Fixed Mannpower and PASS Time game modes showing up in the wrong quickplay UI categories.

Team Fortress 2 Update Released

June 22, 2016 – TF2 Team

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include:

  • Internal system changes in preparation for a future update
  • Updated the localization files
TF2 Trading

sad

Yeah, these are just fixes. I don’t have news on the other updates but it seems people are telling everyone to not be hyped about it which I agree on. I really think TF2 should be put down. More TF2 Items won’t cut it as well. Pessimism from me for days. Can’t help it since I’m just stating the truth.