January 2014 – Page 4 – The Daily SPUF

Using Cosmetics To Your Advantage

January 10, 2014 BiteTheBullet 1 Comment advice, cosmetics, loadout, strategy

The largest element in TF2 that doesn’t affect gameplay at all are hats. You could argue that I could leave out ‘that doesn’t affect gameplay at all’ and still be correct. But anyway, since the Move That Gear Update this summer, the last link between cosmetics and actual gameplay was broken with the removal of the Polycount set bonuses. The only bonus these sets give you now is a merely cosmetic and merely visible tombstone after you kill an adversary. That said, cosmetics can still turn the tide of your battles and may even help your team! Here are several… [Continue Reading]

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Skeletons, Vampires and TF_Zombies, oh my!

January 9, 2014 Medic 0 Comments fun, game mode, halloween

“Medic, it’s not Halloween.” I know, but since it’s January and everyone’s depressed, I thought I’d write something about one of the lesser known TF2 commands. The TF_Zombie is a sight to admire, and there’s some rather cool stuff about them that you might like to learn about! Plus, you liked the skeletons on Helltower, right? Yeah, I thought so.

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On Ponies and Mercenaries

January 8, 2014 aabicus 1 Comment comparison, interview

If there’s an aspect of the TF2 Community that our blog has overlooked, its the extremely prolific video-making community. Several notable SPUFers are also Youtubers, and today we’re interviewing someone from the “mashup” community, where TF2 aspects are combined with media from another franchise. 2007excalibur2007 is well known for his “sentence-mixing”; taking TF2 audio and juxtaposing it over visuals from other media, especially the My Little Pony:Friendship Is Magic television show. ————————- Tell us a little about yourself; how you got started, how you got involved in your favorite fandoms, or how you crafted your own image in the mashup… [Continue Reading]

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The Importance of Weapon Balance

January 7, 2014 Argeon 0 Comments balance, comparison, weapon

Weapon balance is, undoubtedly, one of the most pressing issues in Team Fortress 2, after hats and trading. It seems like either Valve can hit the nail on the head and fix a broken weapon, or they flop around like a fish, trying hard to accomplish something but ending up exactly where they were. Today, I’d like to discuss the importance of weapon balance and how to aide Valve. If I had to gamble my money, I would say that you, at one point or another, had to play against a broken weapon. Regardless of whether it was the Pomson,… [Continue Reading]

This Week in TF2 History

December 30th-January 6th

January 7, 2014 aabicus 0 Comments history

Happy New Year everybody! Ever wondered what TF2 does to celebrate the new year? They don’t. Probably because its so close to the big Christmas update, nothing notable has ever happened to celebrate the new year. It is, however, Valve’s first week back which means they often fix notable exploits cause by newly introduced weapons. The first exploit that tragically lost its life this week was on December 31st 2007, When Valve fixed Syringe gun needles dealing harmless knockback to friendlies. This was called ‘needle boosting’ and this incredible-quality video shows it in action: January 3rd, 2011 saw the removal… [Continue Reading]

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Mann Vs Machine, with Added Silliness

January 6, 2014 Medic 0 Comments fun, game mode, MvM

Sometimes, when the sun is hiding behind the clouds and I’m feeling too lazy to bother even joining a Teufort server, I find myself wandering into the strange world of modded Mann VS Machine servers. And let me tell you, it really is a silly place…

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Some Weapons with Surprising Synergy

January 5, 2014 aabicus 2 Comments advice, analysis, demoman, loadout, medic, pyro, soldier

Ever since Valve released the Axtinguisher, weapon combos have become a huge part of Team Fortress 2. From the Sandman/Cleaver to the Jarate/Bushwacka, Valve has released a number of weapons obviously designed to go together, and for that reason they do so very well. But sometimes there are weapons whose synergies are not so obvious, who were clearly built for widely different roles, and yet somehow they can combine to create a lethal combo to the keen player who can see untapped potential. Here are a few I’ve discovered throughout the years. 1. Beggars Bazooka / Righteous Bison The Beggar’s… [Continue Reading]

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Trade Maps

January 4, 2014 Medic 4 Comments comparison, maps, sniper, trading

Trading servers are a dime a dozen. They’re dime-a-dozen back-stabbing scumbags… No, wait, sorry, I was thinking of Spies. But there are lots of trade servers, from trade_plaza to trade_minecraft to trade_rawr to trade_achievement_idle_noglass, and so on and so forth. While some of these maps, like trade_minecraft_realms, are wonderfully made, with all sorts of pretty things, randomized spawns, health kits in convenient places and stuff, most trade servers are incredibly simple. Two spawn rooms and a room in the middle connecting them. Boring, eh? Well, let’s go deeper…

This Week in TF2 History

December 23rd-29th

January 3, 2014 aabicus 0 Comments history

This week is our sparsest yet, and we can almost definitely chalk this up to it coinciding with Valve’s traditional vacation time at the end of the year. Since 2007, there have only been 2 updates during this week: The first, December 23rd 2010, has some interesting things. The Crusader’s Crossbow got its textures updated, and Valve revealed the stats to the Quick-Fix for the first time. This update also turned on double-drop week, the first of three times this has ever happened. This update also contained a cryptic change: “Added strings related to the Gadget Token to tf_english.txt.” We… [Continue Reading]

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Advanced Doomsday Strats (and some glitches)

January 3, 2014 aabicus 1 Comment demoman, glitches, maps, strategy

Since my last article on sd_doomsday, I’ve played the map a lot more, and learned a lot more about how to maximize your presence and worth on the battlefield. I’ve also learned a couple of glitches with the map, and since I don’t have enough of either to justify its own article, today we’re killing two monkeys with one stone. Strat 1- Best rollout: This is, in my opinion, the most optimal way a single player can spend the opening minute of the round to help his team: sticky-jumping over to the enemy intel door and controlling it before they… [Continue Reading]