A Pointed Stick – The Daily SPUF

The Tide Turner: The awkward guy at the Demo weapon party

July 8, 2014 A Pointed Stick 0 Comments demoknight, demoman, melee, Ultiduo, weapon

Hey there reader, welcome to the Demoman weapon party, come on in. Bottle and Scotsman’s Skullcutter are providing us the drinks, the life of the party Stickybomb Launcher over there is trying to get our beloved introvert Scottish Resistance drunk to celebrate his recent fix, the Grenade Launcher is muttering a few obscenities but its ok, Loch N Load and Loose Cannon are watching him. Eyelander and Chargin’ Targe are just on the balcony over there heckling everyone (especially the drunk clown Sticky Jumper), Claid is wooing over the Splendid Screen whilst Persian Persuader is busy trying to getting Wee… [Continue Reading]

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Who is balancing this game anyway?!

February 19, 2014 A Pointed Stick 0 Comments balance, theory, weapon

Recently, Team Fortress 2 had an update delivered to the game that changed some content, including changing how Quickplay is used, however something that really interested me was the weapon changes, or rather the change to the Short Circuit. Now reading this somewhat confused me. Wasn’t the entire point of the Engineer’s beloved Short Circuit to make him more effective at safe-guarding his nest by more actively partaking in the defensive process? Why implement a downside that seems to discourage the Engineer playing defense? I then started to think back to the Short Circuit’s use after recent reiterations, back… [Continue Reading]

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SOLDIER BLOG POST CONFIRMED!

January 20, 2014 A Pointed Stick 2 Comments analysis, comparison, criticism, soldier, weapon

Oh Soldier, never have I imagined a class with such a simple concept (A jack of all trades with an unconventional core weapon choice of the Rocket Launcher versus the typical Assault Rifle) have such a lacklustre support from the community and the developers themselves. Now wait one minute there Stick, have you seen the Soldier’s weapon count? Heck, did you read the comics? He’s practically the poster boy for the TF2 team! Well on face value, you sure do have a point. The Soldier has a lot of weapons and he has one very prominent presence in the comics.… [Continue Reading]

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Out-Playing or Out-Thinking Unlocks

December 27, 2013 A Pointed Stick 0 Comments criticism, engineer, weapon

Gosh darnit Engineer, why must you STILL be around for me to type an article on? Everyone’s starting to question my relationship with you! D’oh! Fine then. Where was I? Oh yes, the blog. Well as you all have discovered this Australian Christmas, a bunch of weapons have been changed, the Soda Popper now turns Scout into Rocket J Squirrel during the initiation of his Hype Mode via Alt-fire, Soldier gains maximum health and active health regeneration with the Battilion’s Backup and the Concherer respectively…

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The Wrench in Balancing Plans

November 26, 2013 A Pointed Stick 0 Comments analysis, balance, engineer, theory, weapon

Whoo doggie, the Engineer. If people are not playing rock paper scissors over who between him and the Heavy has the lowest skill floor, they’re having arguments over his weapons so bad that they make [insert appropriate argumentative body here] look like a teen romance! How can one guy cause such a fuss that has SPUF so evenly divided that it could be the motivation for a community made WAR update? Well, if I was to answer it in a reasonably sized sentence (which as an academic, should be impossible) I’d say it’s because the Engineer is, in many ways,… [Continue Reading]

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The Great Heavy Skill Floor and The Not-So Great Heavy Skill Ceiling

November 1, 2013 A Pointed Stick 2 Comments analysis, heavy, theory, weapon

At the risk of being hanged, shot, crit-stickied and more hilarious ways Team Fortress 2 players can hurt each other (Hey Valve, a noose/lasso weapon, make it happen!) I will admit that I am not really a fan of the Fat Scout mentality that seems to have been touted as “the only way to skill-index the Heavy”. It seems rather defeatist to me, like the Heavy needs a super shotgun primary to have some kind of validity in higher skill levels, which is really limiting and rather traitorous to the initial weapons and designs that Valve introduced in Team Fortress… [Continue Reading]