It never was a big development milestone, in part because gameplay didn't really required vehicles of some sort, but this year came with lots of big changes and additions and... here we are. I'll save you the technical details, isn't really hard to add horses to Source engine if you go the simplest route, but there's a lot more. Riding horses probably wouldn't have happened without the superb animations made by Nimrod Hempel, community member that has helped FoF over the years. The main motivation source came from the sheer will, positiveness and insistence from another community member called Paralhama. Finally, also big thanks to The Saloon people that joined our playtests and helped with final touches.


The inclusion of horse riding into a game known by its small arms and silly footed combat could cause some scepticism at first. So let me clear something up, we don't want to change how most of our maps play. We have chosen a few regular maps as Fistful, Depot or Tortuga for this experiment to take place, there still exist areas (mostly indoors) where cavalry can't enter. A couple of new horse exclusive maps were added, this is probably the main direction where horse riding should be going, but I must say that the experience in some of our larger traditional maps has been very positive so far.




Horses offer great advantages when it comes to movement speed and attack power. For instance, there's no moving penalty while aiming or slowed down speed while reloading. Ramming other players to death is a key advantage for riders.



However, horse riding requires good control, isn't just about speeding around mindlessly. Turning fast at high speed makes horses slide/drift. This side effect may be used to deal with trailing enemies though. The control scheme is quite similar to standard first person view, in short: aiming and movement direction are tied. Some degree of free aiming should be expected in upcoming updates, such improvements were delayed due time constraints.


We are reaching new horizons, do you want to ride along us?



Credits : The Saloon ("Badass Gunslingers" steam group)
Playtesters : Nimrod Hempel, Paralhama, El Indio, Chitch, Yami, Flaydin, Kyeki, Papa Pasda, Paollus, Decathlon Antifa, Ranger, sid3windr, Ψευδαίσθηση, Treed and YAYOI.
Also thanks to Kyeki for providing a test server for the beta tests. Pass the whiskey!

Fistful of Frags existed way before its Steam release in 2014, in fact, only half its existence has happened on this platform. It was the end of year 2007 when this adventure started. Those were other times for sure: YouTube or Facebook? two small start-ups. Smartphones? ha! Freemium exploitative games? Fortunately not.

As a western modification for Half-Life 2, our first public beta was rather small, unpolished, yet engaging. Vigilantes, desperados, team based gameplay (way slower than it is now), 5 maps and a handful of weapons.



Many more betas, weapons, maps, game modes and lots of changes came, and of course, a release on Steam that allowed us to be known and played by millions of persons. Ain't the subject of this modest reminder to talk about all those releases. Some FoF 'historians' around could tell you the positives and negatives of such lengthy development cycle.

Beyond success and failure, what's really important to me is how lot of great people shared their time with each other, making assets, giving feedback or publicising the game around. That's how many stories of friendliness (and even romance!) started. Do you have any story to share? I'd love to read them.

Finally, the past is gone and future is always around the corner. Here's a sneak peak of something we'll be playing soon!



(yep, that in the background is one of our first maps, tramonto_lite)

Howdy pardners

This is a reminder, a singal boost one might call it for an event that is bound to take place really soon.
This has already been mentioned in the previous news release but it seems people have missed it somehow.

>>> Event forum thread <<<

Visiting the link above will give you all the information you need just hurry cause there ain't much time left !

Pass the whiskey !

Howdy pardners !

The summer is almost here but the whiskey never stops flowing in Fistful of Frags !

It's been a long time since we had a news release, we aim to rectify this and use this opportunity to fill you in with a surmise, a presentation of all the "latest" important updates the game has seen in the past few months.

A lot of maps have seen small changes, optimisations to make spawning safer but also to change/guide the playerflow in different ways thus making them play out in a new kind of way.
A lot maps have even seen additions like secret rooms, secret spots with stationary Gatling guns and even Cannons creating new hilariously funny battle situations, so make sure not to miss out !
Some of these maps are fof_fistful, fof_sweetwater, fof_nest, fof_desperados, fof_impact and in the case of fof_tortuga, a full revamp by it's creator !
So make sure to check each of them and let us know what you think. :)



Do you want to shoot while moving fast? Now it's possible by picking up the Slide perk, it'll give you the ability to slide by pressing the crouch key when at running speed, for longer slides make sure to press and hold the crouch button. Note that accuracy remains at standing still position while sliding.





The speed and length of the slide is dependent on the speed you had when you first initiated it but not only, it also scales with the verticality of the terrain. For example, running at top speed and sliding down a hill or set of stairs will produce a way faster and longer slide overall in comparison to a slide performed on a completely horizontal, flat terrain.

Tip
For the element of surprise use this new perk to your advantage and initiate your battles with it cause it gives you faster <<gun draw speed>> and allows you to shoot accurately (just like when standing still) during the slide's duration, you also deal slightly higher melee damage when you're sliding.

Picking up this perk will give you the ability to wall jump.
While you're performing a wall jump you can connect that with a kick (wall jump kick) and deal even greater damage !
This movement perk will give you access to some areas that you wouldn't be able to reach normally, it will also significantly reduce the fall damage you get when dropping off high places.

This jump perk is the first of it's kind much like the slide is for Fistful of Frags, it "came about" as we were looking for new interesting ways to evolve and refresh the game-play so we believe you will enjoy it once you master it.



Tip
It can be hard to pull off a wall-jump-kick but there's a way to use it very practically.
For example, if you ever get cornered (back towards the wall, touching) you can use it to jump over your enemy and corner him instead or wall-jump-kick above his own kick and fast "turn the tables on him".

The Black Bow features a higher damage output (faster fire rate and slightly more damage per arrow) which makes it very effective when you are taking shots at targets that are close to mid range away from you, making it ideal for close quarter encounters but distant ones as well, you will find it inside the red weapon crates at a fairly reasonable price for your enjoyment !



The FragMaster progression system was introduced mainly as a response to battle the issues the game faced with cheaters getting banned and creating a new account to bypass their ban.



It does not fully protect from cheaters of course, that's impossible to achieve especially in a completely, 100% free to play game.
This system locks away the most lethal weapons of the weapons/perk load-out screen, this affects exclusively level zero (0) Steam accounts, any account level 1 and above will not be affected by this system.
Players with Steam level 0 accounts will have to play to unlock these weapons.
The amount of FragMaster points you get at the end of each round depends on how well you've played (Notoriety score).


There are more updates coming down the line, a new very powerful weapon will be added soon to the game, one that has been in the design board for quite some time but couldn't be included thus far due to balancing factors.

Thank you for sticking with Fistful of Frags for so many years and supporting it by playing and helping with the content creation, this game cannot survive without you so we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

For more info on the game's updates you can visit the official patch notes thread via link bellow.
Fistful of Frags | Patch Notes 4

One more thing to mention, The Saloon, one well known community of Fistful of Frags is holding a competitive event very soon (early June) that might interest you.
For more info please visit the thread linked bellow.
The Saloon's T.E. Competitive Event 2022
*Credits* : Community member Yami (pictures and gifs) and community member Kyeki (news cover+banner pics)

Please leave your opinion or any questions bellow.
We hope to see you in-game passing the whiskey !

Today marks the start of the second season of the Official Ranked Competitive Shootout (O.R.C.S)

Tonight we watch as players from the EU fight eachother for a chance at glory !
Come join us and have fun watching the stream, show your friends if you like... this how it is when the whiskey is passed !

countdown clock

Here's the channel where you can join and enjoy the event.
O.R.C.S [EU] Official Livestream

Pass the whiskey !

Howdy there !

We're proud to announce that the registrations for the second season of the competitve event have already begun !
In order to make sure that all players have been notified we're having this public announcement.

Anyone who's interested in partaking in this event can find more info in the below linked thread !
Official Ranked Competitive Shootout season 2 registration thread

Prizes await the top 3 and top 5 of each region, come and pass the whiskey for a shot at glory !
Register today !

Howdy pardners !

Having Halloween behind us and some cool updates coming in the next couple of months we wanted to take some time to present to you the great work being done by the Fistful of Frags community !




As you can see a lot of effort and focus has been put into showcasing all of the different features of the game and highlight it's slow paced but also fast paced action !

It's always heartwarming to see how players can come together to create new content for Fistful of Frags, a game that still stands to this day as a testament to the power of the modding community .

Bellow you will find a small Q&A section dedicated to the player who created the trailer and some of those who contributed to it's creation .
Every one's voice matters when it comes to whiskey passing in Fistful of Frags so stay tuned for more exciting updates !

Pass the whiskey !

Player and trailer creator Kyeki

Q : How and when did you found about Fistful of Frags ?

A : I started playing Fistful in about late 2018. At that time, Red Dead Redemption 2 came out and I was looking for alternative cowboy games as the computer I had at that time stood no chance at running that game. I discovered Fistful from an old Jerma video and it stood out to me: completely free to play, runs on Source Engine so my computer could handle it, and plenty of cool guns. So, I downloaded it and tried it out and, well, here we are !

Q : What do you enjoy most from the game, what makes you come back for more whiskey every time ?

A : I really appreciate the sense of community I've gotten over the years I've played the game, that's probably what keeps me coming back.
For as long as I've played, I can rely on seeing a name I recognize or a friend in any server I join and everybody has a sense of belonging that I don't see in any other game I play. I also really like how customizable every loadout is.
Every player's playstyle is unique, and there's so many unique skills that form unique combos that in turn make the game harder/more interesting to play, like gun throw and Mare's for example.

Q : What did you have in mind/focus while you were creating the community trailer ?

A : I wanted to capture the diversity of gamemodes and playstyles present within the game and the sense of community I feel whenever I play Fistful. The easiest way to show both of those things, of course, would be to ask for gameplay clips from some of the best players Fistful has to offer that I happen to be friends with.

Q : What are your hopes and wishes for the future of Fistful of Frags ?

A : For the future, I'd really hope that Fistful keeps growing as a community and Rebel keeps actively maintaining it. I'd really appreciate seeing new skills and weapons added to the game, too. I can't think of any good ideas off the top of my head, but the more you can customize the more people I feel will pick up a unique playstyle they enjoy and continue coming back to the game. More community maps being officially added would be sweet too.

Veteran FoF player Yami

Q : How and when did you found about Fistful of Frags ?

A : I first started playing Fistful of Frags 7 years ago this year, back in 2014, when a bunch of my friends and I were new to Steam. We were looking for free-to-play games, and FoF caught our eye.

Q : What do you enjoy most from the game, what makes you come back for more whiskey every time ?

A : I think what I love most about Fistful of Frags is how varied and customizable everything is. So many different perks, weapons, maps, tactics, and more that allow every player to create their own perfectly viable playstyle. Beyond gameplay, FoF has a lively and dedicated community committed to improving the game wherever possible. You can just about always find a friendly face or several that you can play a few rounds with for a good time.

Q : What are your hopes and wishes for the future of Fistful of Frags ?

A : Like most players, I’d of course love to have new unique guns and maps to help keep things fresh. Being able to pick your playermodel & voice lines in FFA would also be great to see, as well as the potential return of player-collisions with props. Most importantly though, I just hope FoF continues to see new updates and attention from Rebel_Y, all the fantastic contributors, and the great FoF community.

Veteran FoF player Chitch

Q : How and when did you found about Fistful of Frags ?

A : I came across Fistful of Frags through Skallagrim in 2016; it was one of the first games that I got on Steam. I used to play it while sat in bed, with an old laptop on my lap and my mouse on the blanket. Five years later and I've got a powerful PC, a great set-up, nearly 700 games... and I still often find myself drawn back to FoF.

Q : What do you enjoy most from the game, what makes you come back for more whiskey every time ?

A : To put it simply: I can't name an FPS with more satisfying mechanics. The slow rate of fire and focus on accuracy makes for fun shootouts, and the longer than usual time to kill allows for strategic and wacky encounters that you won't find anywhere else. Running away from or razzle-dazzling enemies is often viable, and it's fun to use map and movement to ones advantage. In what other game can you can throw a gun back "Big Trouble in Little China style", or dance around an enemy with half-sideways bunnyhops as you slowly reload?

Q : What are your hopes and wishes for the future of Fistful of Frags ?

A : New maps would be a welcome addition to freshen up the game. Although, I'm not keen on the idea of gameplay and balance changes, since I've found many such changes questionable throughout the years. My main wish is that FoF maintains an active player count. I would love to be able to hop into a full server 5 years from now, because this is undoubtedly a game that I will always be able to come back to.

Veteran FoF player BrainDamagedGod

Q : How and when did you found about Fistful of Frags ?

A : Skallagrim's old video. I saw it in late 2019.

Q : What do you enjoy most from the game, what makes you come back for more whiskey every time ?

A : Prop throws, the "gunthrow" perk, melee combat, and making mods.
I like the game's more funny parts too, voice lines, ragdolls, environmental deaths.
It has low fire rate weapons which you have to stand still to shoot to be able to aim accurately, I don't know of any other games featuring this kind of gameplay. It also makes melee more viable and combos more effective, raising the skill ceiling.

Q : What are your hopes and wishes for the future of Fistful of Frags ?

A : I would like to see weapons world models and player models able to be modded again, as well as their materials. Particle mods and UI mods would be nice too.
I can understand not wanting client-side mods for player models or materials used on map textures, since people could use those to cheat. But I don't see a reason not to allow particles and ui mods.
I'd like to see the the speed cap raised a bit so I can bhop with hatchet/machete without getting the movement penalty. Another ~20hu/s should do it (probably).

Veteran FoF player 277

Q : How and when did you found about Fistful of Frags ?

A : So.. it's 2014 and i'm browsing around steam for games to play with my friends within their budget (£free). Fistful of Frags fit the bill so we gave it a try and in the years since then Its gone on to provide more entertainment than many other games I've paid for and shown itself to have a solid & welcoming community.

Q : What do you enjoy most from the game, what makes you come back for more whiskey every time ?

A : The thing with Fistful of Frags is there is very little fat on the bone. No long loads, no matchmaking waits. You can go from zero to gaming in 20 seconds. It's an "all meat experience" and it doesn't waste your time.
Gameplay wise; it offers many honestly unique playstyles, too many to list here...
A top pick of mine is disarming a foe in close combat, taking their weapon and shooting them with it, never gets old.
To sum up its staying power, its quick to start playing and it's easy to have fun, also there is a huge talented modding scene if that's your kinda jazz.

Q : What are your hopes and wishes for the future of Fistful of Frags ?

A : I don't hope for much more than to be able to drop in and pass some whiskey when the mood takes me, and it's never failed to do that for me. My compliments to the chef !

Veteran FoF player Wolfgang V2.35

Q : How and when did you found about Fistful of Frags ?

A : I found out about Fistful of Frags in December of 2014, and now have over 1800 hours in-game. I really liked historic weaponry and wanted a game that had the weapons' feel and function.

Q : What do you enjoy most from the game, what makes you come back for more whiskey every time ?

A : The main thing that got me into the game was the feel of the weapons.
Another one of the things that really interested me was map making, but it was only Garry's Mod.
I didn't realize that I wanted a more combat oriented game to make maps for, until Fistful of Frags. Aside from this creating Old West inspiration in me, it also introduced me to the community.
The community is my favorite part of the game !
I like how most of the longer-term players care to progress the game in new and exciting ways, and how kind and welcoming the majority of them are.
Not to mention the modding community: Skins, maps, sounds. What more could you want from modders?
The community is absolutely the largest contributor to my staying and I don’t plan on leaving.

Q : What are your hopes and wishes for the future of Fistful of Frags ?

A : To be honest, there isn't much that I really want to change. But because I make maps myself, I would love to see some new maps in Fistful of Frags. New weapons would be nice things to have, despite there being many new ways to use weapons. I know that I still haven't tried every combination.
But the thing is, I am confident that changes like these will take place, the community wants the same thing, and are willing to work for it. Me included!

Howdy. It's this time of the year were spooky things happen. Speaking of spooky things, this Halloween Fistful of Frags has a delightful surprise for you all, here comes our timed limited Halloween themed game mode!

Four TnT Bows will spawn at the start of each round, one for each team, they will be highlighted through all obstacles, if you decide to pick one up you will also be made visible to your enemies, but... with high risk, comes great reward.

When you damage enemies with the TnT Bow you will also heal allies around you, making you the lifeblood of the party ! ːsteamhappyː A lot of strategies can be planned around this concept just beware not to blow your self up!

If you get killed by an enemy blast, the TnT Bow will disappear and respawn elsewhere shortly after. If you die by regular damage, the bow will drop to the ground so your team mates can carry on blasting your enemies!



Imagine Four Team Shootout but with a twist, for a limited time each year (two weeks) you get to play in the "spooooooky" versions of some all time favorites, loved by all maps !



This mode also features the Witche's Cauldrons were cowboys can get her precious "juice" to spice things up !

There's a special meter right beside your health meter, once you drink enough from the Witche's cauldron and it fills up, you're in for a ride, quite literaly ! ːsteammockingː

You will get to ride on your ...ekhemm... "behind" along with infinite ammo and a pair of Peacemakers (guns) for a short period of time !!!

Go all out and bring the fear to all them cowboys out there, no tricks or treats, only lead ! ːsteammockingː Don't forget, you can pick up vials containing the witch's "juice" by killing ghosts and enemies !

Another feature of this mode is the "Ghost Gun" a modified version of the classic sawed off shotgun which even though it deals no damage it can be used to "Rocket Jump" !
If you point the Ghost Gun towards the ground and fire, it will propel you in the air but it can also be used to push away enemies... why not introduce em to a nearby scary cliff !? ːsteammockingː
The Ghost Gun can be acquired from within the gold boxes that spawn when you kill an enemy on a Killing Streak.

https://youtu.be/73ylTbR7hGc

So.. what are you still waiting for !?
There's simply no time to waste, only enemy cowboys to waste blastfully ! ːsteammockingː

We hope to see you out there passing that whiskey and blowing up cowboys !
YeeeHAW !

Special thanks to "Kyeki" (Fistul of Frags update video), "Yami" for the map screenshots and the mixxed.xyz servers for helping with the testing of this update !

Howdy partners, as you may guessed by now, FoF is like Covid19: seems like it may be gone forever one day... and the next is surprising you with a new feature ːsteamhappyː I'll talk today about some recent updates that bring an almost-new playarea and some fancy respawn system for Shootout modes.

https://youtu.be/OQepn2iMmR4

We had a small version of this map, recreated as a nocturnal, 12 slots level from a former version originally made by Resi. There was some community interest in having some more night maps, so I decided to create a full version that adds undergrounds, a large elevator and a better crafted flow among other things. Hope you enjoy it.

Other maps also received small updates to improve navigation, respawn room, aesthetics or layout tweaks. The list may include: revenge, overtop, depot and impact. Be sure to check them out!




Respawns in FoF never resulted easy for anyone, except for the cheeky bastards that may have exploited the system to farm frags. I know who you are ːsteamfacepalmː This ain't a goddam joke, people should not only die in peace but respawn in peace too!

In my defence, FoF maps are too intricate and tight packed to just slap a "normal" respawn system and call it a day, so the old system tried really hard but it never came to the state that something so important should get. It also was performance hungry, as it involved many calculations to figure out walking distances. With all those issues in mind a better replacement wasn't that easy, so things kept going... until now.

The new system pre-generates such walk-based calculations so they aren't executed realtime, it's much lighter for servers out there. It controls all respawn points in real-time though, so this way it knows how dangerous is each respawn area and how much benefit could a player obtain from starting there (for instance: a near crate or being into a highly travelled area). There are several key gameplay related advantages from this approach:

almost instant

since the game already knows which spots are free at any time

more fair

as the system has memory it tries to even out advantages or disadvantages between each players' respawns. Check end game console stats to know such details.
saves you from visiting the same locations because it tracks all pasts respawns for each player and weights them along other variables.



However, the new system requires some fine-tuning to correct certain issues that may arise after the automatic pre-generation phase, so if you notice enemies too close from your respawn point make a capture and post it on our boards. Also check this respawn bug catching contest out!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2082863666

Bringing-back a classic version of one of the core maps - "Robert Lee".
That is the side-wheeler steam-ship map.
We always liked the older version of the map from earlier-on in the game's history.
Weasel found an old copy of the map, extracted it, did some re-packaging tweaks on it, and renamed it to avoid any conflict with the current stock version.
Fully tested and now uploaded across all following servers:

[F+M] Two-Team / Dual-Faction
162.248.88.40:6311, or
Games.FreaksMisfits.club:6311

[F+M] Three-Team / Tri-Faction
162.248.88.40:6313, or
Games.FreaksMisfits.club:6313

[F+M] Four-Team / Quad-Faction
162.248.88.40:6315, or
Games.FreaksMisfits.club:6315

• Players may use the !soundoff to disable custom music playback.
  
• Updated the map rotation for each server to be 50% fof_robertlee_goty and 50% rotating other stock maps.
  
• Stay tuned for more since more custom maps may be upcoming on his community servers.