analysis

Regarding the Difference Between SPUF and the Steam Forums

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You read that correctly, this one isn’t an article about TF2, but about the official forum meant for its discussion. No, not the Steam Community User Discussions, I’m referring to SPUF. Or as some may call it, the Steam Powered User Forums, despite the lack of an actual “powered” noun anywhere in the title for the Steam Forums. More specifically, by SPUF, I mean the TF2 section of the Steam Forums, and that distinction is something I’m going to be touching upon in this article. To put it simply, it’s sort of odd that we as a community frequently refer to… [Continue Reading]

Shooting the scorched earth

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Picture by Grarrg123.
Picture by Grarrg123.

Scorched earth is a tactic used by militaries where the main goal is to destroy everything useful for the enemy while retreating or advancing (destroying their manufactories, farms, oil fields and stuff like that). If you have participated in kindergarten gang wars, you will spot the similarity with the real thing – if you managed to win a small tackle-fight against your little enemies in their own lair built of wooden bricks, chairs and clothing – you totally wrecked their camp afterwards, victoriously, so they would have to build everything from scratch. You were also a terrible person, but whatever. Scorched Earth is also a fun little game with artillery tanks shooting at each other, but most importantly, it shares a similar name with one of the weapons in TF2 – the Scorch Shot.

Just before the holiday season, Valve shipped some new crates. There is a particular one I’ve looked forward to the most. Crate #77. Not only do you get a chance to unbox the strange Grenade Launcher again (hardcore traders fainting, poor people throwing hands in the air and praising the Lord), you can also get the strange Scorch Shot! I also had the joy of unboxing it right away with my first crate drop, just like I wanted. I could finally use Scorch Shot and force other people to see my kill counter on it when I kill them to death!

Why don’t people use the Scorch Shot more? Because they hate having fun! Well, it deals 50% less damage. Instead of regular flare’s 30 damage, you deal 15 damage.  Yes, I know, people want to kill their enemies faster? Pfffft. It is way funnier to watch your enemies burn slow if you’re a Pyro. Things people do when on fire… ehhhh… It also won’t critically wound people on fire like Flare Gun does, but honestly, who cares? I can bounce people all over the map!

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On The Direct Hit

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"Dodge this!"
“Dodge this!”

The Direct Hit can either be the most devastating single-shot rocket launcher unlock or the worst rocket launcher to ever disgrace the battlefield if you can’t place your shots right and want to rely on splash damage. As a Soldier-main who’s retired his first strange Direct Hit for the easier stock rocket launcher after reaching a few hundred kills past Epic Rank, I too can agree that it’s a troublesome weapon to many who don’t know the nature behind using the Direct Hit. But mastering this pesky launcher can pull off some both quantitative and hilarious outcomes.

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Scout melees and you!

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Who wants some-a this? Picture by Gen. DeGroot.
Who wants some-a this? Picture by Gen. DeGroot.

If you had a baseball bat, and you were insane enough to hit random people with it, you wouldn’t really care about its looks. If it’s hard enough to crack some skulls – it’s good. However, you wouldn’t really hit people with wrapping paper, now would you?

That’s just your preference. If you would like to hit people with wrapping paper, but some federal laws and such nonsense forbid you to do so, you have TF2 for that.  Play Scout and you get to hit people with baseball bats if that’s your thing. Unfortunately, you deal less damage (35 base damage per hit). Fortunately, you swing the melee faster. If you fancy some frantic beating while screaming nonsense and double-jumping around, you found your class.

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Why all Melee Unlocks should be Balanced like the Demoman’s

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SPUF enjoys arguing about TF2’s balance. A lot. One of the most common issues to sprout up involves TF2 melee weapons. It’s no secret the vast majority of stock melees are underpowered, except those with utility like knife and wrench. If their only job is to deal damage, then they’re gonna suck because every class has a plethora of primary or secondary weapons that deal more damage at longer ranges more effectively.

So when most competetive TF2 players agree that the bottle is the best Demoman melee weapon, this may seem unusual. How can it really be the best choice for its slot when it has no gimmicks beside emergency damage?

In my opinion, it has to do with the way Valve has handled the unlocks in that slot. Using demoman as an example, here is what I think the golden rules should be for designing melee unlocks.

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The Wrench in Balancing Plans

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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]

The Rescue Ranger: Solver of practical problems

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Don't worry, sentry! I'll save you!
Don’t worry, sentry! I’ll save you!

As an Engineer main, the Ranger is by far one of my favorite weapons. While it takes some skill to use well, the payoff is ridiculous and is overall a fun weapon to use. Also, 120 damage crits at any range is a godsend for a shotgun. I’ve jarateed off many friends with a lolcrit smashing them in the face.

The Rescue Ranger is a weak weapon in combat, shooting repair claws that do 60 damage at close range and 20 at long range, with a base damage of 40. But then again, the Engineer was never meant for shooting people to death. Instead, he has 128 DPS aimbots that fight for him. The fact that it has the lowest DPS of all Engineer primaries, it’s hitbox is not the size of a truck and it isn’t the Frontier Justice means it’s rather uncommon to be seen used by most players. Don’t let that put you off though because the Ranger has two amazing practical uses(other than being a Ninjaneer): sentry transportation and supporting other engineers from your own nest’s safety.

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The Crusader’s Crossbow is now the least viable Medic primary

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What Valve giveth, Valve can taketh away.
What Valve giveth, Valve can taketh away.

After a mere 48 hours of giving us the perfect Crusader’s Crossbow, Valve followed up by nerfing it’s damage by 33%. As someone who has spent hundreds of hours perfecting my skill with this weapon, and considers it my favorite weapon in TF2, let me say that the weapon is now useless.

Let me rehash the same reasons I enjoyed the previous crossbow and show how none of them apply any more.

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

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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 2’s genesis.
It also, to me, is ineffective.