Oct 13, 2011
Team Fortress 2 Update Released
Team Fortress 2 - Valve
Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Team Fortress 2
  • Fixed a problem with the Foster's Facade not correctly hiding the pyro's head.
  • Fixed a problem where loadouts would get reset under certain conditions if the item server couldn't be reached.
  • Fixed a common client crash when displaying items.
  • Items purchased from the store are no longer craftable.
  • Updated localization files.
Oct 13, 2011
Li'l Saxton Wallpaper Now Available
Team Fortress 2
Who wouldn't want to look at a muscular baby with a mustache and chest hair busting through an adult bear while they're checking their email? Get it now in the Artwork section of the website.

Oct 13, 2011
Football Manager 2012 offers TF2 extras
Team Fortress 2


Pre-purchasing Football Manager 2012 from Steam gets you a handful of exclusive in-game Team Fortress 2 extras, Valve has announced.

Put down your £29.99 now ahead of the Sega footie sim's release later this month and you'll receive the following:

  • The Merc's Pride Scarf can be worn by each class.
  • The Ball-Kicking Boots are available for the Scout and spawn a team-colored ball that everyone can play with.
  • Vuvuzela Noise maker.
Oct 13, 2011
Valve Celebrates One-Year “Manniversary”
Team Fortress 2 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Jim Rossignol)

He's bursting out of a bear.Needless to say, they’re celebrating with a big old hat-infrastructure update to Team Fortress 2. The ability for people create and submit and submit items has apparently now earned the community creators $2m, and Valve obviously want that trend to continue, as the update is a big ‘un in that direction. They explain: “The Manniversary Update includes several new features, including Steam Workshop, an improved item submission system that allows community item-creators to test, share and track the status of their creations. The entire TF2 community will also be allowed to participate by browsing, rating and offering feedback on all submitted items. The Steam Workshop will be fully integrated with the Steam community. In addition to the Workshop, the Manniversary Update will also ship 30 new hats and cosmetic items, an item decal system, weeklong “try before you buy” item tryouts, loadout presets, multiple miscellaneous items slots, improved game performance, and a new taunt.”

Everything will be on sale until Monday, too. The details, they are here.

Oct 13, 2011
Surprise Manniversary Update and Sale
Team Fortress 2 - SZ
<a href="http://www.teamfortress.com/manniversary"><img src="http://www.teamfortress.com/images/posts/lil_saxton.jpg" width="420" height="231" border="0"></a>

A couple days ago we mentioned a "major project" we were working on that we promised to keep you updated on in the weeks and months ahead. Well, here's an update: It's done! Suck it, <a href="http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time">Valve Time</a>.

That's right, folks. The <a href="http://www.steamcommunity.com/workshop/browse">Steam Workshop</a> is live! What is it? An improved submission hub for community-created content that makes it easy for you to upload entries, check on their status and get feedback from us at Valve. Also, the TF community will be able to look at, comment on, and rate all item submissions in a single place.

But that's not all. The in-game Mann Co. Store turned a year old today. In just 365 days, item-creators have made more than $2,000,000 in profit from their creations. In celebration, we're releasing the massive <a href="http://www.teamfortress.com/manniversary">Manniversary Update and Sale</a>! What's included in it? Holy crap, try to think of something that’s <i>not</i> included in it. Check out all the new features, items and improvements.

Almost everything is on sale between now and Monday, October 17th, so limber up your buying finger, and don't forget that any store purchase automatically upgrades a Free account to a Premium.

Happy Manniversary, everybody!
Oct 13, 2011
Surprise Manniversary Update and Sale
Team Fortress 2 - SZ


A couple days ago we mentioned a "major project" we were working on that we promised to keep you updated on in the weeks and months ahead. Well, here's an update: It's done! Suck it, Valve Time.

That's right, folks. The Steam Workshop is live! What is it? An improved submission hub for community-created content that makes it easy for you to upload entries, check on their status and get feedback from us at Valve. Also, the TF community will be able to look at, comment on, and rate all item submissions in a single place.

But that's not all. The in-game Mann Co. Store turned a year old today. In just 365 days, item-creators have made more than $2,000,000 in profit from their creations. In celebration, we're releasing the massive Manniversary Update and Sale! What's included in it? Holy crap, try to think of something that’s not included in it. Check out all the new features, items and improvements.

Almost everything is on sale between now and Monday, October 17th, so limber up your buying finger, and don't forget that any store purchase automatically upgrades a Free account to a Premium.

Happy Manniversary, everybody!
Oct 13, 2011
Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch Updates Released
Counter-Strike: Source - Valve
Updates to Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Source Engine Changes (CS:S, DoD:S, TF2, HL2:DM)
  • Fixed an issue with the multi-threaded renderer which could cause a crash on map change
  • Adjusted whitespace to improve formatting in status command output
  • Changed stats output to show KB/s instead of bytes/sec, added a connections column, and changed the users column to "Map changes"
  • Fixed game servers not being able to execute the retry command due to the dependence on the connect command (which is not executable by game servers)
  • Made sndplaydelay executable by servers
  • Server frame rate is now based on the tickrate of the active Source mod, not the fps_max convar
  • Server processing delays have been reduced, especially for servers on modern Linux kernels
  • Entity processing logic has been optimized to significantly reduce CPU usage on full servers
  • Multi-threaded server code is now enabled by default under Linux (already enabled on Windows)
  • An exploit with non-printable characters causing lag on Windows servers has been fixed
  • CPU is fully yielded back to the system whenever the server is running faster than the tickrate
  • Dramatic increase in performance for low-level math libraries

Day of Defeat: Source
  • Removed tickrate command line parameter
  • Updated the localization files

Counter-Strike: Source
  • Prevent AWP cycle time exploit using quick switch
  • Fixed bug causing HUD History to display item pickups from nearby players
  • Increased sized of HUD History resource to prevent clipping
  • Changed grenade damage so that it always hits HITGROUP_GENERIC and takes into account armor for damage calculations
  • Reduced standing and moving accuracy for pistols
  • Decreased accuracy while moving with sniper rifles
  • Added additional legacy mode (3) to cl_dynamiccrosshair
  • Updated the localization files

Team Fortress 2
Manniversary:
  • Experimenting with a new store interface with a subset of players
  • Added several dozen community items in celebration of the Manniversary
  • Added loadout presets -- each class can now store four complete loadouts, including weapons and cosmetic items, and change between them with the press of a button.
  • Added a new item type that can accept user-applied decals. Take any image off your hard drive, put it on a stick, and then smash people with it! (See the Decal Tool in the store!)
  • Added new co-operative high five taunt
  • Class select menu now shows the active loadout for each class
  • Characters can now equip two misc-slot items at once
  • Added a new in-game abuse-reporting system (see "Capture abuse report data" under "Miscellaneous" controls)
  • Non-newly-released weapons in the store can now be tried out for free once per week! This will give you a fully-functional version of the weapon to be used in-game for no cost. If you decide you like it, you can purchase it for a discount during the trial period.
  • All items purchased in the store can be used for crafting and can be traded after a few days
  • Added a new startup music track from Meet The Medic
  • Integrated with the new Steam Workshop to enable the publication and management of community contributed content

Maps:
  • Added new community control point map Gullywash. Stamps are available in the store to support community map authors!
  • Barnblitz is now available for offline practice
  • Frontier: various geometry fixes
  • Gorge/5Gorge: added team-specific func_nobuild brushes in elevated forward spawn areas

Replay:
  • New camera shake functionality added for replays that are not sufficiently dramatic
  • New slow-motion functionality added for replays where even camera shake does not provide sufficient drama
  • Added support for recording voice chat into replays

Items:
  • Pocket Medic can now be equipped by the Soldier in addition to the Heavy
  • World Traveler's Hat and the Connoisseur's Cap are now paintable
  • Bonk Boy and Foster's Facade are now misc slot items
  • Fixed The Director's Vision not playing animations correctly for all classes in the loadout screen
  • The Killer Exclusive is now paintable
  • When sorting the backpack, otherwise-equivalent items will sort by strange weapon rank and crate series number if possible
  • When selecting items from the loadout, weapons with different kill eater ranks will all show up
  • Hat of Undeniable Wealth And Respect animations have been added. Really.
  • LOD models added to several older cosmetic items

Response Rules:
  • Reduced the chance of many response lines occurring
  • Responses related to cart progress no longer play when disguised
  • Players will now always call for a medic when low on health or when on fire when a medic is under the crosshair, whereas previously the character would ask the medic to follow them
  • Named base items will no longer trigger responses that were supposed to be for new item variants
  • Added additional Jarate hit responses
  • Demoman:
    • Added achievement award response
    • Removed "I didn't need your help y'know" line if being healed by a Medic
    • Saxxy kills will use the same lines as kills from the frying pan
    • Taunting with The Pain Train or the Saxxy now plays the same taunt as the grenade launcher
    • Added a taunt for The Ullapool Caber
  • Engineer:
    • Fixed a problem that caused him not to say thanks after exiting a teleporter
    • Saxxy kills will use the same lines as kills from The Golden Wrench
    • Added a previously unused golden wrench kill line
    • Added an occasional response when swinging The Gunslinger
    • Wrangler taunt now performs the pistol taunt animation
  • Heavy:
    • Added a previously unused fist swing line
  • Medic:
    • Added a line to the response that occurs when doing a battle cry while looking at an enemy while holding a melee weapon
    • Taunting with a Saxxy plays the medigun taunt
    • Taunting with the Solemn Vow or the Crusader's Crossbow now plays the same taunt as the syringe gun
  • Scout:
    • Removed the response when killing an enemy Scout or Pyro and moved the lines to the dominating Pyro/Scout response
    • Added a rare response to double jumping after getting a recent kill
  • Sniper:
    • Reduced chattiness when getting many sequential kills
    • Added a missing line to the scoped revenge response
    • Taunting with a Saxxy no longer play lines that reference a knife
  • Soldier:
    • Added a line to the getting übercharged response
    • Taunting with the Righteous Bison, Battalion's Backup, or the Saxxy now play the Buff Banner taunt

Bots:
  • TFBots have a percentage chance of noticing weapon fire based on their difficulty level. Easy bots are fairly oblivious, and Expert bots notice pretty much everything.
  • TFBots now treat certain weapon attacks as "quiet" (Spy knife, cloaking/uncloaking, some melee weapons, fists, etc). "Quiet" weapons can only be heard by TFBots when nearby, and their chance of being noticed is halved if the environment is "noisy" (ie., lots of non-quiet gunfire going on in the area). This greatly improves Spies ability to backstab TFBots without the entire team immediately turning on them.
  • bot improvements:
    • Spy bots are much better about circling around and backstabbing their victims now
    • Improved Spy bot target selection in some situations (ie: clusters of sentries and enemy players)
    • Spy bots will give up on an attack and retreat if an enemy sentry gun aims at them
    • Spy bots now avoid nearby enemies while disguised and/or cloaked so they don't bump into them and give themselves away
    • Spy bots now have a simple notion of when their “cover is blown" now
    • Spy bots lead their target's position as they chase them down for a backstab now
    • Spy bots don't go after victims until setup time has elapsed
    • Hard and Expert Spy bots avoid looking at their prey until they get close and go for the stab
    • Easy Spy bots don't avoid enemies, or try to get behind before stabbing
    • Normal Spy bots don't avoid enemies
    • Fixed bug where Spy bots would jump against the enemy spawn gates during setup time
  • Medic bot improvements:
    • Medic bots stick much closer to running patients now
    • Medic bots stick much closer to their patient if they have an Ubercharge ready, or are deploying their Uber
    • Medic bots hide from Sentryguns now, too
  • Pyro bot improvements:
    • Pyro bots are less "pushy" with their compression blast, but will use it against Ubers and to get enemies off of a capture point

Other:
  • Razer Hydra support can be enabled via "sixense_enabled 1" in the console. See http://sixense.com/tf2 for details.
  • Added "tf_allow_taunt_switch". Set to 0 for disallowed (default behavior), 1 for old bug behavior, or 2 to allow weapon switching any time during the taunt.
  • Screenshots can now be hooked up to the Steam Community automatically. There is a new option to control this under "Miscellaneous" in the Advanced Options page.
  • Fixed gold ragdolls playing custom death animations when they should be locked in a pose
  • Fixed Buffalo Steak Sandvich not having a cooldown if the Heavy is at full health.
  • Fixed touching a cabinet while under the effects of the Buffalo Steak Sandvich removing the mini-crits but not removing the melee weapon restriction
  • Fixed particle effects not showing up on spy disguise items
  • Fixed spies never using genuine, community, or self-made items as disguise weapons
  • Fixed demoman weapons primary/secondary being backwards in the loadout screen
  • Fixed effects on Sticky Jumper grenades
  • Fixed net_graph not updating server framerate when FPS is greater than 1000
  • Fixed game servers not being able to execute the retry command
  • Renamed tf_show_voice_icons to mp_show_voice_icons
  • Updated the localization files
Oct 13, 2011
Highlander Mix-up Match Replays
Team Fortress 2
A few replays from the Highlander Mix-up Match have surfaced featuring some of the top competitive players, a handful of community contributors, and our own Dave Riller, Jon Lippencott, and Robin Walker.

Oct 13, 2011
Valve Celebrates Mann Co. Birthday & $2 Million in Team Fortress 2 Item Sales With A Mann-sized Update
Team Fortress 2

Valve Celebrates Mann Co. Birthday & $2 Million in Team Fortress 2 Item Sales With A Mann-sized UpdateHas it already been a full year since Valve launched the Team Fortress 2 Mann Co. Store, the in-game shop in which people trade cold hard cash for hats, weapons and hats? Yes, it has. Valve is therefore celebrating the shop's birthday and $2,000,000 in profits(!) for item creators with a high five-filled update.


Today, the "Manniversary Update" comes to Team Fortress 2, bringing with it a slew of changes: new hats and other non-hat items, load-out presets for your class of choice, a weeklong item "try before you buy" option, decals, slow-mo and shaky cam options for movie making, high five taunts and much much more.


Equally interesting is the launch of the Steam Workshop, "an improved item submission system" which lets item-creators submit, review and rate Team Fortress 2 items. "Rate items highly and you just might see them become available in-game," Valve says. "If your creation is accepted for distribution in-game, you can even earn a percentage of sales." With Steam Workshop, ou could be a percentage-of-a-millionaire!


There's a big old virtual goods sale to go along with the Manniversary Update (it runs until Monday), so if you've been eyeballing that new Engineer hat, now's the time to strike.


Manniversary Update [Team Fortress]


You can contact Michael McWhertor, the author of this post, at mike@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.
Oct 13, 2011
Surprise Manniversary Update and Sale
Team Fortress 2


A couple days ago we mentioned a "major project" we were working on that we promised to keep you updated on in the weeks and months ahead. Well, here's an update: It's done! Suck it, Valve Time.

That's right, folks. The Steam Workshop is live! What is it? An improved submission hub for community-created content that makes it easy for you to upload entries, check on their status and get feedback from us at Valve. Also, the TF community will be able to look at, comment on, and rate all item submissions in a single place.
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