aabicus – Page 60 – The Daily SPUF

Why the Ball-Kicking Boots Is My Favorite Cosmetic

March 25, 2014 aabicus 0 Comments cosmetics, fun, loadout, scout, TFC

My two favorite cosmetics are Archimedes and Giddeon, but if you ignore the birds then my favorite wearable has to be the Ball-Kicking Boots. Generic-looking, yes, but they spawn a soccer ball for your team. In my opinion this trumps any possible visual bonuses from anything else. A free soccer ball has a whole host of uses, almost none of them combat-oriented. Here are some opportunities no other cosmetic will give you. 1. Give your whole team something to do while stuck in spawn. If you’ve played TF2 for any amount of time, you’ve probably gotten bored while confined to… [Continue Reading]

Questions to the Editors

Cross-Updating Announcements: An Apology

March 21, 2014 aabicus 1 Comment

A reader and writer of our blog, Sn❽wman, just informed me that because I didn’t update the 10v10 Mirrored Maps blog announcement like I did the SPUF announcement, he had no idea signups had come and gone. I feel really bad about that, I just didn’t know we had readers who weren’t also SPUFers. In the future I will make sure to update both announcements with up-to-date information as to the status of signups and other aspects of events like these. (Note that its unlikely I will ever have people sign up through the blog; you will probably need to… [Continue Reading]

Community Announcements

10v10 “Mirrored Maps” Tournament

March 18, 2014 aabicus 0 Comments announcement, demoknight, event, Highlander

===============IMPORTANT INFO========== Where: The SPUF Server When: Saturday March 22 at 6pm GMT Rotation: pl_retawdab, cp_tiplevarg, cp_lwobtsud ======================================= It’s been a while since we had a SPUF server event, so for this one, we’re keeping it simple. 10v10 Highlander on these mind-bending takes of your favorite maps! Best out of three wins, but even if one team wins the first two we’re doing the third, because half the fun is trying these maps out! Rules: -damage spread and random crits disabled -It’s highlander+bootieknight 10th player. Bootieknight player must equip a shield and booties (Why are we having him? So two… [Continue Reading]

Featured

Analysis of the Persian Persuader’s Health Regen

March 15, 2014 aabicus 1 Comment analysis, demoman, Filler, loadout, melee, weapon

If I’m not using the Ullapool Caber or Pain Train, I’m using the Persian Persuader. Health regen is a great thing to have on the Demoman, and the Sticky Jumper synergies surprisingly well with the Persian because it doubles the health return you get from ammo. (I’ve mentioned this before). But I never really understood why. Finally, I got around to doing some testing to figure it out, and I learned that the Persian derives its health return from the amount of primary and secondary ammo on the wearer. (For these purposes, the Booties are considered a stock grenade launcher… [Continue Reading]

Community Announcements

Beloved Daily SPUF Redirect URL Shutting Down, Millions in Mourning

March 12, 2014 aabicus 1 Comment announcement, history, mourning, SPUF

If our fair blog were a TF2 playstyle, he’d be a roamer. A while back we switched from spufblog.com to blog.spuf.info, and left the old URL as a redirect that aabicus was paying 18 dollars a year to keep running. Well, it didn’t seem that useful so we’re closing it down. If you don’t interact with the “spufblog.com” URL, this won’t affect you, and really this won’t affect the visible blog in any way. So if you need to, check and update your bookmarks; the old URL was on the first page of the SPUF megathread for some time.

Featured

A Love Letter to TFC’s Escape Mode

March 12, 2014June 1, 2022 aabicus 3 Comments Civilian, game mode, TFC

Author’s note June 2020: I’ve updated the server addresses at the bottom of the article. Both servers are still active, go play on them! As far as I know, “Escape” mode never made it to TF2 in any fashion, so whenever I get the urge for it, I crank up Team Fortress Classic and play with its healthy repertoire of Escape maps available. Also (unlike the TFC proper servers in my area) it still has a healthy playerbase today, which I link to at the end of this article and anyone who wants can go play with. At its core,… [Continue Reading]

Featured

Stranges: Dota 2 and Us

March 11, 2014 aabicus 0 Comments analysis, comparison, Dota 2, stranges

A lot of games show you your killing stats by default. Originally Team Fortress 2 wasn’t one of them. Then Valve decided they’d like to try making some money and in the Uber Update placed a single key between you and the stat-tracking weapon of your dreams. Like it or not, this was amazingly successful. They followed up on this by adding stranges (and most of the other item qualities) into Dota 2 when that totally-not-a-sequel-to-anything-owned-by-Blizzard became a thing. However, while I don’t play Dota 2 myself (I tried it once but I didn’t inhale) I’ve heard from my friends that… [Continue Reading]

Featured

A Model Modeler

March 8, 2014 aabicus 2 Comments cosmetics, Dota 2, interview, spy

Chemical Alia has a long history with Team Fortress 2; one of the original winners of the Polycount Contest with her Saharan Spy set, she’s also well-known for her female TF2 models and Dota 2 item submissions. She took some time out of her busy schedule to talk to us! 1. How did you first get into 3D modeling? Have you considered modeling professionally? I come from a fine art background, and I didn’t learn to model until after I graduated from college. After that, I went to grad school to learn how to model art for video games. I’ve… [Continue Reading]

Featured

The Secret Way Scout Can Still Fire Nails

March 7, 2014 aabicus 0 Comments Filler, scout, TFC

All glory to Trebel for this awesome visual bug he found. This glitch could be very old. I wouldn’t be surprised if this existed since the first release of TF2 in 2007. The conditions are simple, but rather unlikely in normal play. 1. Spawn as scout on a map with Resupply Cabinets. Equip the Scattergun. 2. Jump on top of the Resupply Cabinet and reload your scattergun so it ejects a shell onto the top of the cabinet. 3. It’s not a scattergun shell, it’s a nail! What? This is almost certainly a holdover from TF2’s Development, when Scout’s primary… [Continue Reading]

This Week in TF2 History

February 23 – March 1st

March 5, 2014 aabicus 0 Comments history, scout

Bye February! Nice knowing you! The last week of February has always been a popular time for TF2 updates, possibly because of the natural progression from Winter to Spring leaving Valve feeling optimistic and energized. Or random chance. Who knows. February 28, 2008 saw a reduction in the comically oversized reserve ammunition carried by the Soldier and Demoman. Before this update, Soldier had 36 reserve rockets, and Demoman had a whopping 30 Stickybombs and 40 Grenades. If only the Persian Persuader had existed back then… Tournament mode also became a thing, which disables autobalance and map objectives like flags and… [Continue Reading]