Oct 20, 2017

Team Fortress 2 - Valve

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include:

The Jungle Inferno Update is live!

Additional information available on the website (http://www.teamfortress.com/jungleinferno/)
5 featured community maps: Mossrock, Lazarus, Brazil, Enclosure, and Banana Bay
1 new official map: Mercenary Park
5 new community taunts: The Dueling Banjo, The Jumping Jack, The Soviet Strongarm, The Russian Arms Race, and The Headcase
2 new official taunts: Yeti Punch and Yeti Smash
2 community cosmetic cases with 20 items each
2 new War Paint collections made up of community-made War Paints and official War Paints
2 new War Paint collections filled with classic weapon skins being brought back for another tour
4 new Pyro items: The Dragon's Fury, The Thermal Thruster (with a new kill taunt: The Gas Blast), The Gas Passer, and the Hot Hand
1 new Heavy item: The Second Banana
Free contracts to earn the new Pyro and Heavy items
36 campaign contracts
Mercenary Park Gift Shop to select your campaign contract rewards
Equippable ConTracker to customize and track your campaign experience

General

Significant weapon and class balance improvements (see Gameplay Changes section below for full details)
Increased the maximum number of backpack slots to 2500 (from 2000)
The default voice codec now defaults to Steam Voice
- Steam Voice is now using Opus audio at a higher bitrate than the default CELT codec
- Added a new vaudio_celt_high option for sv_voicecodec, allowing community servers to opt-in to higher bitrate voice chat
Fixed the Engineer being able to store the Gunslinger's melee crit for a future melee attack
Fixed a bug where the ammo from a picked up weapon could exceed the player's maximum ammo allowed
Fixed a bug where the dispenser would use different bounds checks for distributing ammo and health
Fixed a bug where the player model would not play the attack animation for some weapons that fire bullets
Fixed the Bottle, the Scottish Handshake, and the Neon Annihilator not having their models break on critical hits
Fixed some of the Heavy's edible secondary items not having the model update when the item is eaten
Fixed a case where players could have multiple weapons visible at the same time
Fixed some outdated tips
Mannpower Mode
- Knockout powerup now collects health pack health without subtracting their health bonus. Results in Knockout carriers collecting more health from each health kit.
- Resistance powerup now blocks backstabs
Fixed Engineers using the Eureka Effect to teleport out of hell on Halloween maps
Fixed the announcer sometimes saying "The tank is halfway through!" when a tank first spawns in Mann vs. Machine mode
Updated the Pallet of Crates to only drop crates and not cases
Players that have their movement slowed for any reason now have a status icon appear on their HUD (in the same area that displays other player effects, such as Marked-For-Death)
Added first-person inspect animations to all weapons
Added a disconnect sound when the Medic stops healing their target
Added new sounds for the Family Business, the Winger, and the Frontier Justice
Updated sounds for the Brass Beast and the Awper Hand
Steam controller improvements
- When using Steam controller configuration to configure non-Steam Controller devices (e.g. Xbox controllers), the proper button icons are now displayed in the UI
- Improved controller icon placement in some UI screens, including for players using less-common aspect ratio displays
- Where text rather than an icon is used to indicate a controller binding, the text strings are now correct for non-Steam controller devices, and slightly more verbose in some cases to avoid confusion with regular keyboard bindings (e.g. "Press [B button]" vs. "Press [B]")
- Fixed miscellaneous corner-case bugs where the wrong action set could be selected, and some edge cases with handling of multiple simultaneous actions during an action-set change
- Added new action bindings for the most popular voice-line commands. The default controller template now binds "Call Medic!" to the directional pad. The following voice lines are also available, but are not bound by default: "Go! Go! Go!", "Move up!", "Spy!", "Ubercharge ready!", "Help!"
Community request - Added tf_playrounds/tf_listrounds debug commands to jump between mini-rounds on multi-stage maps
- May not work on all maps if the map ties custom logic to entities other than the mini-rounds themselves (e.g. arbitrary capture zones (e.g. dustbowl))
Applied the match rejoin limitations in Casual to Mann vs. Machine as well
- Players who leave a Mann vs. Machine match cannot matchmake back into that same game for several minutes
- Players who are vote-kicked from a Mann vs. Machine match cannot matchmake back into that same game for several hours
Added Ready Steady Pan Season 3 tournament medals
Added ETF2L Highlander Season 13 and ETF2L 6v6 Season 28 tournament medals
Added TFCL Highlander Season 1, Ultiduo Season 4, 6v6 Season 3, 4v4 Season 1, and bball Season 1 tournament medals
Added AsiaFortress Cup Season 12 tournament medals
Added Insomnia 61 tournament medals
Added CappingTV Ultiduo Winter Chalice tournament medals
Added RGL.gg Pick/Ban Prolander Participant tournament medal
Added ozfortress season 20 tournament medals
Added Tip of the Hats 2017 community medals
Added Snack's Summery Ultiduo Siesta (season 2) tournament medals
Updated the Mappers vs. Machines Participant Medal 2017 medal so it can be painted
Updated the Arms Race tournament medals so description tags can be used on them
Updated the TFCL Alpha medal to be paintable
Updated The Heartfelt Hug to be paintable
Updated the localization files

Parties

Parties can now be formed from anywhere within the game and persist through matches
Players are now able to join their party's match if late joining is allowed
Added a new party interface that allows you to quickly manage and interact with your party
Added a global party chat system that allows party members to chat with each other from anywhere in the game
- Party chat is printed in the in-game chat interface when in a game
- Added ConCommand "say_party" (default bind 'p') that allows for party members in a game to chat with other party members using the in-game chat interface (similar to how "say_team" works for chatting amongst your team) and with members not in a game

Matchmaking

Redesigned the matchmaking screens to be lightweight overlays that can be summoned and dismissed from anywhere within the game
Moved the Casual and Competitive badge panels to the main menu
Casual
- Levels now go beyond 150. All players now have a Tier in addition to their Level. All players start at Tier 1. When your Level goes past 150 your Level resets to 1, your Tier goes up by 1, and your Casual badge will change its appearance to reflect your new status.
- Players who had reached level 150 will have any experience beyond 45500 (the amount required to hit 150) put into an overflow pool. While playing Casual matches, any XP you earn will be matched and deducted from your overflow pool until it runs out.
- The "Vote for the next map!" dialog can now be minimized to view the top scoring players

Contracts

The Contracts Drawer has been replaced with the ConTracker, a state-of-the-art PDA
You can now work on contracts at your own pace. It's up to you to decide which ones to work on and in what order to work on them.
You can now make progress on Bonus Objectives while working towards completing your Primary Objective
Only one Contract can be active at a time
Contracts are now unlocked by spending Stars. Stars are earned by completing objectives.
Contracts can be turned-in once the Primary Objective is complete
Partially completed Contracts can be reactivated, for free, at any time
Party members who are on the same server and same team can now help earn progress on each other's Contracts

Gameplay Changes

Multi-class
- Panic Attack
  - This is one of our least-used weapons. The main culprit seems to be the queued/delayed-fire aspect, which fights against the basic concept of the secondary slot on classes that can use this weapon (Soldier, Heavy, Engineer, Pyro); players generally expect a secondary that is immediately ready to fire - for the rare case where their main weapon isn't available (e.g. out of ammo), or isn't the optimal choice (e.g. airborne, too close, etc.). Removing the queued/delayed-fire concept basically invalidates the original design, so we've started over.
  - Goal: Make the weapon immediately usable, remove the large burst potential (generally hard to balance), and give the weapon a unique design space to occupy
  - New design:
    - 50% faster switch speed
    - 50% more pellets
    - 30% less damage
    - Fires a wide, fixed shot pattern (regardless of server settings)
    - Shot pattern grows with successive shots (e.g. while holding down the attack button), but resets after you stop firing or reload
- Reserve Shooter
  - Pyros are too easily able to take advantage of this weapon's primary feature via airblast (i.e. no-penalty, on-demand launching of their target), and so their damage-potential can greatly exceed that of the other classes that also use this weapon. Rather than take a heavier-handed approach to solve this, we've instead decided to remove airblast as a source for mini-crits.
    - Attacks on targets knocked into the air by Pyro airblast no longer mini-crit
    - Added: Attacks on targets flying via the Thermal Thruster mini-crit
Spy
- Ambassador
  - Players that are head-shot from across the map are expecting to see a Sniper in their death-cam, but they sometimes see (more often that we'd like) a Spy with a revolver
  - Goal: Reduce the effective combat range to something more reasonable and expected with the Spy
  - Changes:
    - Headshot damage is now subjected to distance falloff effects
    - Headshots beyond 1200 world units do normal (non-crit) damage
- Dead Ringer
  - Feign death is an interesting effect, but a good Spy can use it extremely frequently making it frustrating to play against and reducing the risk of using it nearly constantly
  - Goal: Rather than make it less interesting, let's make it more predictable to fight against by removing methods by which Spies can reduce its cool-down. This should create more of a rhythm to fighting against a Spy using this and introduce a little more risk to player using it.
  - Changes:
    - Ammo kits and dispensers no longer refill the Spy's cloak meter
- Your Eternal Reward
  - This is the least-used Spy knife (technically, the reskin is, but anyway...). While silent-kill and rapid-disguise-on-kill are good, the downside on this knife is extreme.
  - Changes:
    - Removed: "Cannot disguise" penalty
    - Added: Non-kill disguises require (and consume) a full cloak meter
      - Backstab-based disguises are still free
    - Increased cloak drain rate by 33%
Scout
- Sandman
  - The feedback on this weapon has been fairly consistent for a while: Players really hate losing the ability to fight back. Compounding this, the ball has to travel really far in order to disarm players. Being hit by a long-range ball (more often than not) ends up feeling random, rather than skilled.
  - Changes:
    - Long-range ball impacts no longer remove the victim's ability to fire their weapon (but the victim is still slowed)
      - We've updated achievements that were looking for disarmed players
    - Max range balls now do 50% increased damage (from a base of 15)
    - The flight time required to trigger the "max" effect has been reduced by 20%
    - Ball regeneration time reduced to 10 seconds (from 15)
- Bonk! Atomic Punch
  - This weapon was designed to allow Scouts to pierce hotly-contested areas. While it does this quite well, it doesn't require enough skill, or carry much of a down-side.
  - Changes:
    - Apply a slow effect to the player after phasing wears off, based on the amount of damage they absorbed
      - From -25% at low damage, to -50% at 200+ damage
      - Lasts 5 seconds
- Pretty Boy's Pocket Pistol
  - This weapon is one of the lower owner-equipped items in the game. Looking at the current design, it seems that not taking falling damage ranks pretty low on the value scale for a Scout, and a flat +20% damage taken penalty is basically the kiss-of-death for a low-health class.
  - Goal: Make the weapon less of a liability and focus it as a "get health quick" tool with decent burst, at the expense of total damage
  - New design:
    - +15% firing speed
    - Up to +7 hp per hit (from +5)
    - -25% clip size (9 shots)
- Crit-A-Cola
  - The last change to this item added Marked-For-Death when the effect ended. This was okay because it forced Scouts to get out after a little while, but it didn't add any risk in-the-moment.
  - Goal: Add more decision/thought on when/where to activate and how to manage the risk/reward of the effect
  - Changes:
    - Added: Each attack while active adds Marked-For-Death debuff for 5 seconds (does not stack)
    - Removed: Marked-For-Death when effect expires
    - Removed: +25% move speed bonus
    - Removed: +10% damage taken penalty
- The Atomizer
  - Triple-jump as a passive effect is just too strong. It makes combat against the Scout unpredictable because opponents don't see the bat, and therefore have a hard time anticipating the Scout's capabilities until late in an encounter. It also makes the Scout very strong against explosive classes - due to a combination of extreme mobility and high close-range damage.
  - Goal: Require the Scout to deploy the bat to take advantage of the extra jump - which is also is a signal to other players that they can perform an extra jump - and reduce the bat's negatives to compensate
  - Changes:
    - Triple-jump is now only possible while the bat is deployed
    - Removed: Self-inflicted damage when triple-jumping
    - Removed: Attack speed penalty
    - Added: Melee attacks done while airborne mini-crit
    - Added: 50% deploy time penalty (to prevent quick-switch bypass)
    - Reduced damage penalty vs players to -15% (from -20%)
- Flying Guillotine
  - This weapon is capable of high burst-damage under what sometimes seems like random conditions - such as mini-crits at long-range, and full-crits when the target is slowed or stunned by anything (e.g. Ghost "Boo!" effect, Natascha, etc.)
  - Goal: Remove the feeling of randomness, and reward accuracy
  - Changes:
    - Removed: Crit vs stunned players
    - Removed: Mini-crits at long range
    - Added: Long range hits reduce recharge (by 1.5 seconds)
      - Distance considered "long range" reduced by half of the previous value when determining mini-crits
Soldier
- B.A.S.E Jumper
  - Players often complain that the B.A.S.E. Jumper is frustrating to fight against because the target is simply too hard to hit. This is mostly due to the combination of being able to deploy/retract at will, and the amount of steering control they have - which makes them too unpredictable.
  - Changes:
    - Reduced amount of air control while deployed by 50%
    - Removed the ability to re-deploy the parachute once retracted (until the player lands on the ground again)
- Mantreads
  - The second least-used item in the game. The aerial stomp mini-game is difficult, and The Gunboats are superior in most scenarios.
  - Changes:
    - +75% push-force reduction now includes airblast
    - Added: +200% air control when blast jumping
- Cow Mangler 5000
  - Removed: Cannot be Crit boosted
    - Granted/earned Crits (e.g. Kritzkrieg) will be converted to Mini-Crits instead
- Righteous Bison
  - Note: This weapon has been reverted to its previous design
  - Deals 20 damage per tick (down from 45)
    - Note: This is necessary because the projectile is no longer limited on the number of times it can hit targets
  - Projectiles are no longer limited on the number of times they can hit the same target(s)
  - Projectile velocity increased to 1200 (from 840)
Sniper
- Darwin's Danger Shield
  - Snipers using this item had an advantage against Snipers who weren't. As a result, players felt like they were required to equip this item in order to be competitive.
  - Goal: Remove the increased survivability against enemy Snipers (which invalidates the existing design).
  - New design:
    - Counter ranged burn attacks (e.g. flares), and strengthen melee fights vs Pyros
      - Afterburn immunity
      - +50% fire resist
- Razorback
  - Goal: Reduce the effectiveness of "pocket'd" Snipers in stalemates/standoffs (this primarily happens in organized/competitive play)
  - Changes:
    - Added: -100% overheal penalty
    - Added: Shield regenerates after 30 seconds
Medic
- Vita-Saw
  - Ubercharge on death is too valuable of an effect to be passive
  - Goal: Change the weapon in a way that requires skill and risk in order to gain this effect
  - Changes:
    - Added "Organs" collecting concept (... you know, hit someone with a saw, and out pops a vital organ which you then take, and hold). Each hit with the Vita-Saw harvests the victim's organs (shown on the HUD).
    - Added: On-death, preserve 15% ubercharge per Organ harvested. This effect caps at 60%.
- Crusader's Crossbow
  - Bolt healing is very high and significantly out-heals the Medigun when the target is in combat. This might be okay given the trade-offs (risk-vs-reward of ranged shots hitting and the opportunity cost, no overheal). However, it's also the fastest way to build Ubercharge - under the right conditions (e.g. corner damage farming with the Medic behind cover).
  - Changes:
    - Ubercharge gain rate reduced in the same way that the Medigun's healing (and therefore, Ubercharge build rate) is - based on the last time the target was in combat
      - Reduced by a third when 1 - 10 seconds outside of combat, and scales up to normal over 10 - 15 seconds
Heavy
- All Miniguns
  - Changes:
    - The 1-second damage and accuracy penalty now applies to the first second of spun-up time, whether or not the Heavy is firing. Previously, the 1-second damage penalty would only be removed after 1 second of firing.
    - Accuracy and damage penalties now reset when the Heavy spins down, rather than when the Heavy stops firing. This means if you stay spun-up beyond one second, and fire in bursts, damage and accuracy will remain at 100%.
- Gloves of Running Urgently
  - Speed (lack-of) is used to balance the Heavy's high health, over-heal and damage output. While we still believe it's OK to have a class of items that increases Heavy's movement speed, players have been able to easily bypass the existing negatives.
  - Changes:
    - Added: Max-health is drained while item is active (-10/sec), and regenerated while holstered
      - Health will regenerate only the amount drained while active - minus any damage taken during that time
      - Each time the gloves are deployed, the drain rate is accelerated for a brief period of time
    - Removed: Marked-For-Death effect while active
    - Removed: 25% damage penalty
- Eviction Notice
  - Changes:
    - Added: Max-health is drained while item is active (-5/sec), and regenerated while holstered. Health will regenerate only the amount drained while active - minus any damage taken during that time.
    - Removed: 20% damage vulnerability
- Fist of Steel
  - The downside of "increased melee damage" doesn't ever really come into play when it counts (e.g. holding a choke point or objective), and when a Medic is attached, the resulting pool of effective-health is unreasonably large
  - Changes:
    - Added: 40% overheal reduction while active
    - Added: 40% healing rate penalty while active
- Added The Second Banana
  - Secondary slot item
  - When consumed by the Heavy, restores 200 health
  - Acts like a small health kit when dropped by the Heavy and picked up by another player
  - Item regenerates after 10 seconds
Engineer
- Doubled the amount of metal applied (per wrench hit) when upgrading buildings during the "Setup" period.
- Rescue Ranger
  - The ability to repair buildings safely from range without using metal is powerful. Combine this with the ability to instantly teleport buildings from far away - which by itself is interesting and useful enough in many circumstances - and you end up with a package that is very strong.
  - Changes:
    - Ranged repairs now consume metal (at a 4-to-1 health-to-metal ratio, e.g. repairing 60 damage costs 15 metal)
Demo
- Claidheamh Mòr
  - Note: This weapon has been reverted to its previous design.
  - Removed: +25 health on kill
  - Added: 0.5 second increase in charge duration
Pyro
- Added The Dragon's Fury
  - Primary slot item
  - Uses a shared pressure tank for Primary Fire and Alt-Fire
  - Primary Fire: Launches a fast-moving, limited-range projectile that deals 25 damage and briefly ignites enemies
    - Deals +300% damage to burning players
    - +50% repressurization rate on hit
  - Alt-Fire: Airblast
    - -50% repressurization rate on Alt-Fire
- Added The Thermal Thruster
  - Secondary slot item
  - Fires a short-duration blast that launches the Pyro in the direction they are aiming
  - Deals 3x falling damage to anyone you land on
  - Has a 1.1 second holster duration
  - MvM upgrades:
    - Able to re-launch while airborne
    - Stun enemies when you land (duration based on impact velocity)
      - Note: Landing directly on an enemy grants a bonus to stun duration
    - Faster recharge rate
- Added The Gas Passer
  - Secondary slot item
  - Creates a horrific visible gas cloud that coats enemies
  - Flammable material then ignites into 10 seconds of Afterburn if enemies take damage (even Pyros!)
  - Mann vs. Machine upgrades:
    - Enemies explode when ignited by attacks
    - Faster recharge rate
- Added The Hot Hand
  - Gain a speed-boost when you hit an enemy player
  - -20% damage penalty
  - Every successful slap is announced in the kill-feed
- Flamethrowers
  - Better visual sync, more consistent (no visuals/damage mismatch)
  - New particle effects
  - Applies to all flamethrower variants
- Airblast
  - Hit detection for both players and projectiles is now a consistent cone
    - Aiming at a player's feet no longer misses!
  - Airblasting players now factors in the momentum of the Pyro and target, giving both more control over the interaction
    - The target's existing velocity is no longer cancelled
    - Players moving at the Pyro at great speed will be reflected away at great speed
    - Players moving towards/away from the Pyro will experience less/more push force
  - Airblast now causes target player to have reduced footing and air control for a short period
    - No longer a flat stun
  - Now factors in the upward angle of the airblast, rather than having a fixed upward force
  - Total push force slightly increased
- Afterburn
  - Flamethrowers no longer apply maximum-duration afterburn on contact. Afterburn duration is now based on how long the target is in contact with direct flames -- starting at a minimum of 3 seconds, and stacking to a maximum of 10 seconds.
  - Per-tick afterburn damage increased to 4 (from 3), for a total of 8 damage per-second (up from 6 per-second)
  - Flareguns now apply 7.5 seconds of afterburn (down from 10 seconds), resulting in the same total damage as before
  - Afterburn now reduces all direct Medic healing and resist shields by 20%
    - Note: This effect was previously applied by direct flames from all flamethrowers (at 25%), but was moved to afterburn, and slightly lowered