January 2016 – The Daily SPUF

Weapons that are deemed underpowered, part 2

January 31, 2016 General_B 0 Comments pyro, scout, spy, weapon balance, weapons

We’re back again with a bunch of weapons that some people deem underpowered and crap and awful, but I think actually have a use! Last time we looked at the Overdose, Mantreads and Red Tape Recorder. Today we have four more weapons! The Sharpened Volcano Fragment. Yes, this piece of garbage isn’t as useless as it seems. The one use I’ve noticed this weapon having is in combination with the Degreaser and one of the Shotguns. Since the Degreaser has less afterburn damage, using this allows you to still give them full afterburn. Still a garbage weapon but has at… [Continue Reading]

Featured The Competitive Corner

Sniper and The Stealth Buff Nobody Spoke Of

January 30, 2016 ___ 0 Comments analysis, criticism, maps, sniper, watchtower

Recently-ish on SPUF, having no more need to complain about the now bus-sized mini sentry, and arguing random crits to the death, we’ve come back to one of the classes that has been complained about throughout the ages, from the earliest days of first person shooting, all the way through the rail pad on q3dm17 (also known as the longest yard) to these modern days, where one will instant kill you with a quickscope, often through 8 walls: The marmite-like sniper. You either play sniper, or you hate them, and even if you’re in the first category, they’re still annoying.… [Continue Reading]

Featured

Juggling weapons: the new TF2 meta?

January 29, 2016 aabicus 0 Comments analysis, glitches, weapon balance

Red Robot sparked some interesting conversations in various social medias including SPUF when he released this video, commenting on a new ‘playstyle’ he’d discovered: Using the new weapon-dropping mechanic, he had the very Counter Strike-esque idea to juggle multiple weapons of the same loadout slot and carry them through the battlefield. His first idea was to pair the Crit-a-cola with the pistol, and I can definitely see the appeal in that combo. The pistol’s a half-decent jack-of-all-trades with middling accuracy, firepower, and firing speed, so giving it a damage boost and falloff-immunity could be godly in the hands of a pro scout.… [Continue Reading]

Community Announcements Featured The Competitive Corner

Team Fortress 2 Competitive Beta Sign-Up

January 28, 2016 Medic 0 Comments beta, competitive, group, matchmaking, progress, steam

Well, who’d have thought it? There’s actually matchmaking things going on for reals! No more will B4nny (bless him) be the only reliable and constant source of information about Team Fortress 2’s official matchmaking. Nope, yesterday, a Valve employee popped by and announced that there is now an official Steam group, as seen here. It’s almost definitely official, since the admins are three Valve employees, and the group also has a selection of Steam Community moderators. The main admin of the group, someone called Jill, has got nearly 4000 hours on Team Fortress 2, which is a sign of, um,… [Continue Reading]

Featured

Damn Dastardly Decorated Death Contraptions

January 27, 2016 Medic 0 Comments Cosmetic, decorated, gun mettle, tough break, weapon

I am honestly already sick of decorated weapons. We’re only on our fourth campaign, our second campaign to give us skins for our weapons and somehow I am already sick of them. We’ve had a huge amount of variety, a bunch of weapons, a lot of new content, but despite Valve’s pushing of them, I’m still not a fan of them. Why is this? Well the first reason for me personally is that I’m a cheap bastard. I don’t really want to pay €6 to get things that I’d be doing in TF2 anyway, with weapons I already use. Contracts… [Continue Reading]

Featured Now for Something Completely Different

Optimizing Your Panda Express Strategy

January 26, 2016 aabicus 0 Comments food, heavy, I don't know!, I have no idea!, orange chicken, panda express, scout

Everybody has a vice, and mine is Panda Express. Their orange chicken is impossibly delicious and definitely my favorite food on this planet. Thank god I move so often and never seem to be anywhere near one, otherwise I’d be eating there all the time. The Panda Express at my old college campus was a place of many memories for me. It was where I first met my future wife in a study group for Dinosaurs class. I was its mayor on FourSquare before FourSquare revamped its mayorship system and made it stupid and pointless. I was there for all… [Continue Reading]

Featured Now for Something Completely Different

Dawnguard Snipin’ – Part 6

January 25, 2016 Medic 0 Comments dawnguard, dawnguard snipin', non-tf2, Skyrim, sniper, sniping

You know what mate? I’m getting kinda tired of walking. When Medic got back from Skyrim, he told me that there was tons of walking, but it was actually eventful. This is all just tedious! I spent all of last time walking, hope this time perks up. So after killing those two winged bastards, things start to get a bit tight and valley-y. I ain’t got a clue who you get onto those bridges up there (or even how they were built, these ugly Falmer aren’t exactly smart), but eventually we get to a place called Glacial Crevice. We head… [Continue Reading]

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Cardboard Weapon Bonanza!

January 24, 2016 Medic 2 Comments analysis, art, cardboard, cosplay, criticism, suggestion, weapon

This morning, I sat in bed staring at my bookcase, the top of which is adorned with cardboard Team Fortress 2 weapons that I’ve made over the years. Very dusty ones. I’ve mentioned my cardboard weapons many times in the past, with my collection of Medic melee weapons, and even wrote about how to make your own shotgun. So I decided to maybe find all my cardboard weapons, finished and unfinished. The result was worrying. Thing is, cardboard is a really good modelling material. I can’t afford stuff like Worbla, the weird card material that hardens under heat and is… [Continue Reading]

Featured

Landfall: The Newest CTF Map

January 23, 2016 aabicus 0 Comments ctf, maps, tough break

The new maps in Tough Break feel super generic, but they’re at least very well made. And after the oddity of themes like aliens, halloween and PASS Time, maybe its good for TF2 to take a step back and support some tried-and-true game modes with new gimmick-free maps. Nevertheless I’m surprised to find myself liking ctf_landfall as much as I do. It’s Capture the Flag after all, a legendarily poorly-designed game mode. But somehow, Landfall does a really good job of balancing the concept and avoiding perpetual stalemates. The map has a wonderful three-dimensional design with two designated layers of… [Continue Reading]

Featured

On Assortedness and AIs

January 22, 2016 Medic 0 Comments AI, bots, insanity, no internet, Team Fortress 2

Having nigh non-existent internet makes you ponder about things. It also infuriates you by teasing you with a possible internet connection, only to laugh in your face as it takes five minutes to load DuckDuckGo, and seven minutes to load Google. Loading the Daily SPUF to schedule and write articles has been a painful series of events. Seriously, this is what I have to contend with. A note to all future torturers out there. If you really want to get information from someone, lock them in a room with my bad internet connection. They’ll be begging for release within half… [Continue Reading]

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