aabicus – Page 57 – The Daily SPUF

Subclass Birthday Bash Results!

June 18, 2014 aabicus 0 Comments 6v6, announcement, event, recap, SPUF

Danthefinn’s Birthday Bash is over, and boy was that fun! I got to play Battle Medic on some hilariously kooky maps, and to my amazement, I found that I really liked the Syringe Gun. It’s actually a lot better then I thought at stacking up the damage if you just aim intelligently and know how to lead (and I think all that pulse-rifling in Loadout is what subconsciously prepared me for it). As someone who dropped a crossbow within minutes of playing TF2 and never looked back, this was quite a shock to discover. But enough of that, you just… [Continue Reading]

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On Fire

June 16, 2014January 15, 2017 aabicus 0 Comments analysis, history, On Shooters, pyro, TFC

Flames are weird in video games. In real-life, they’re impossibly debilitating and would make continuing to do anything, much less fighting other people, an excruciating experience. Also, real-life flamethrowers can shoot yards of deadly liquid flames that put every video-game flamethrower to shame. In video games you generally want the players to still be functional and you want flamethrowers to fill the “close-range combat” role, so these aspects of flamethrowers are often toned down. You can read more about it on the TV Tropes page Video Game Flamethrowers Suck. Monolith Production’s Blood was the first game to have afterburn,… [Continue Reading]

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ACTUAL Training Weapons

June 12, 2014 aabicus 2 Comments advice, demoman, engineer, scout, soldier, strategy, weapon

Put that Rocket Jumper down. This article is designed to cover weapons that actually do the job of training somebody who hopes to get better with a class in TF2. These weapons encourage (or force) the player to learn things that translate well into regular loadouts, and don’t force the player to become reliant on them to do well. So put your Front Runners on, it’s training time! 1. Candy Cane. The Candy Cane is a depressingly low-poly melee weapon that grants Scout health kits on kill, at the cost of 25% explosive damage vulnerability. It’s this second half that… [Continue Reading]

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Why you should heal Shotgun Heavies

June 10, 2014 aabicus 0 Comments advice, class, comparison, heavy, medic, shotgun

Most gag classes are not getting any sort of love from my Medigun. Trolldiers can go find their health somewhere else. Demoknights usually are in charge of taking care of themselves, what with the medley of health-returning swords at their disposal. Gunspies will get the same treatment as regular spies, i.e. a spritz behind friendly lines or a long-range crossbolt if I have a split-second and line-of-sight. And don’t get me started on so-called combat medics. But shotgun heavies, on the other hand, are always treated by me as lovingly as any other legitimate class, and they can look forward… [Continue Reading]

Community Announcements

TF2 To recieve new parachute

June 9, 2014 aabicus 0 Comments announcement, balance, soldier, SPUF, weapon

No, not a golden parachute. Though now that I’ve made the connection somebody will probably make a SPUF thread wailing “Could this be a sign Valve’s gonna retire TF2???” Well, they’re probably wrong, because this new blog post is pretty awesome and hinting at future content. Valve takes a bit of time to talk about some weapon ideas that were scrapped, and leaves us with a teaser regarding a potential new Soldier secondary in the works. I don’t personally understand why everyone is leaping on the assumption that it’s literally just a parachute with obvious parachute stats (slower falling speed,… [Continue Reading]

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Stock engineer is better on offense than defense

June 4, 2014 aabicus 0 Comments comparison, engineer, theory

(Note: This article was co-written with SilverAlen, and it was originally his observation. Thanks Alen!) The key here is “stock” Engineer, but after some time playing him I’ve noticed that he’s honestly more important to his team on offense than defense. At least on pubs. Why? Hear me out! If engineer is on a dedicated offensive team, enemies are less likely to push and less likely to destroy his nest. Even when they do, they usually do not prioritize him. Defensive teams tend to use the Kritzkrieg or Quick-Fix, so you are less likely to get ubers. Spies will typically… [Continue Reading]

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Synergy In Every Medic Loadout Combination

June 3, 2014 aabicus 0 Comments comparison, defense, loadout, medic, melee, strategy, weapon

Medic has very few unlocks, it’s true, but this really is because almost every niche he’d need filled is already in there somewhere. The lion’s share of discussion on this topic is dedicated to his secondary Medigun, but what about his options in primary and melee? Well, for a change of pace I thought I could cover every single available weapon combo in Medic’s Primary/Melee slots, how they synergize, and their viability and effectiveness as a combo. I’m leaving out the bonesaw because it should never be used ever. Crossbow/Amputator: If you’re going to use the Amputator, this is the… [Continue Reading]

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How to get Infinite Hand Grenades in Team Fortress Classic

June 1, 2014 aabicus 0 Comments glitches, guide, TFC

If you’re familiar with Team Fortress Classic, then you should immediately notice something wrong with this picture. Grenades are items thrown with the F key (by default), they’re not a holdable item like your other weapons. Well, while grabbing screenshots for my last article on grenades, I stumbled across something very cool. Absolutely a glitch, but one where you can get a bottomless supply of fully-functional hand grenades. Here’s what you need to do to replicate the glitch yourself: 1) The first thing you’ll need to do is import the maps from Half-Life Deathmatch into TFC. In other words, grab… [Continue Reading]

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On Grenades

May 30, 2014January 15, 2017 aabicus 0 Comments analysis, comparison, history, On Shooters, TFC

Let’s cut right to the chase: Grenades were famously removed from Team Fortress 2. Why? I’ll let Adrian Finol of the Hydro Developer Commentary speak for me: One of the main changes between Team Fortress Classic and Team Fortress 2 was the removal of thrown grenades. Most classes could carry a standard hand grenade along with a secondary grenade, tied more closely to the class. Team Fortress 2’s focus on unique class roles led us to notice that the standard hand grenade was a more powerful combat decider than some of the primary weapons. This made the classes… [Continue Reading]

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On Double- and Single-Barelled Shotguns

May 27, 2014January 15, 2017 aabicus 0 Comments comparison, history, loadout, On Shooters, scout, shotgun, TFC

Not really TF2-related, but I thought I might take this opportunity to talk about a trend in shooters I’ve noticed. Loads of games seem to like giving you two shotguns, one of which is pretty much twice as good as the other. The Ur-Example is probably Doom II, which introduced as its only new weapon to the franchise a double-barrel shotgun, which was the first weapon in the game to have a clip you had to reload (which really cast an odd light on all the weapons in Doom I, I guess that pistol can carry 200 rounds without having… [Continue Reading]