Jun 28, 2012

You’ll Never Guess What Adult Swim’s Adding To TF2

Team Fortress 2 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Nathan Grayson)

I managed to dig through code and find this image with no prior knowledge of how code actually works because I AM A WIZARD. Everyone, I have some regrettable news: I woke up this morning with the sudden realization that – in my heart of hearts – my truest wish has always been to lead a life of megalomaniacal supervillainy. So, incredibly long and spellbindingly interesting story short, I’ve wired the entire world to explode. Unless!> You can tell me – without glancing about one nanometer below this sentence – what’s come of the Team Fortress team-up between Adult Swim and Valve. Mwahahaha, I can smell your fea– yeah, it’s a hat. Well, damn. I guess I’ll just go back to writing about videogames, then.

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Jun 27, 2012

Pyromania is LIVE!!!

Team Fortress 2 - SZ

<a href="http://www.teamfortress.com/pyromania/"><img src="http://www.teamfortress.com/images/posts/pyro_day3_blog.jpg" width="420" height="263" border="0"></a>

The <a href="http://www.teamfortress.com/pyromania/">third and final day</a> of Pyromania is here, and the update is now <i>live!</i> New new items! New achievements! A new game mode! Pyrovision! Bongos! It's all live right now! In fact, this is such a big deal, we're doing it! We're HITTING THE ALL-CAPS KEY! WE'VE BEEN SAVING THIS FOR A SPECIAL OCCASION, AND IT DOESN’T GET ANY SPECIALER THAN THIS! MAN, IT LOOKS LIKE WE'RE SCREAMING! IT'S LIKE A MILLION VOICES CRIED OUT IN TERROR, AND THEN JUST GOT LOUDER!

WHAT'S THAT, ROBIN?

okay, caps lock key is off. we can't even capitalize our sentences now because they took our caps lock key away. didn't take our exclamation mark key though!!!!!! oh hellz yeah okay they just took that too. enjoy the update, everybody.

oh, hey, also: just because this is the last meet the movie, don't think it’s the last update you’ll see from us. we have big plans for the future of tf, so stay tuned [exclamation mark]

Jun 27, 2012

Pyromania is LIVE!!!

Team Fortress 2 - SZ

The third and final day of Pyromania is here, and the update is now live! New new items! New achievements! A new game mode! Pyrovision! Bongos! It's all live right now! In fact, this is such a big deal, we're doing it! We're HITTING THE ALL-CAPS KEY! WE'VE BEEN SAVING THIS FOR A SPECIAL OCCASION, AND IT DOESN’T GET ANY SPECIALER THAN THIS! MAN, IT LOOKS LIKE WE'RE SCREAMING! IT'S LIKE A MILLION VOICES CRIED OUT IN TERROR, AND THEN JUST GOT LOUDER!

WHAT'S THAT, ROBIN?

okay, caps lock key is off. we can't even capitalize our sentences now because they took our caps lock key away. didn't take our exclamation mark key though!!!!!! oh hellz yeah okay they just took that too. enjoy the update, everybody.

oh, hey, also: just because this is the last meet the movie, don't think it’s the last update you’ll see from us. we have big plans for the future of tf, so stay tuned [exclamation mark]

Jun 27, 2012

Team Fortress 2, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch Updates Released

Day of Defeat: Source - Valve

Updates to Team Fortress 2, 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 (TF2, DoD:S, HL2:DM)

Added ConVars sv_rcon_maxpacketsize and sv_rcon_maxpacketbans to allow server admins to control the maximum RCON packet size and whether or not users get banned for exceeding that limit. The defaults reflect the existing behavior.
Fixed not being able to import custom spray images on Macs
Fixed Macs cancelling http map downloads that take longer than 30 seconds

Team Fortress 2

Added Pyrovision!
Added new game mode Special Delivery and map Doomsday!
Friendly players glow when carrying the flag
Fixed rare cases where flag could fall out of the world
Fixed cases where the Payload HUD looked like the cart is still on a hill when it isn't
Fixed cases where some clients didn't receive broadcasts about long continuous particle effects being started or stopped
Updated the HTML renderer for displaying server MOTD
Votes created by a dedicated server no longer trigger a failed vote cooldown
Fixed map triggered annotation events not working on dedicated servers
Fixed the game crashing if tempents are created that use invalid materials
Using a Name Tag while in game notifies everyone of the name change
Fixed Strange Part: Projectiles Reflected not tracking grenade and sentry rocket deflections
Added new items
- City on Fire item sets
- Pyroland weapons and cosmetics
- Community-contributed cosmetic items for all classes
- Mysterious treasures have been incinerated, but are now craftable
- Added crafting recipe for Pile of Ash
- Scorched Keys are now available in the store for a limited time
- New promo item
Weapon balancing changes
- Gloves of Running Urgently
  - Removed self-damage over time penalty
  - Heavy takes mini-crits while active and for 3 seconds after switching away
  - Attack damage penalty reduced from -50% to -25%
- Tomislav
  - Spin-up speed bonus reduced from +40% to +10%
- Quick-Fix
  - Medic mirrors blast jump of their heal target
- Crusader's Crossbow
  - Reload speed time reduced by +40%
- Cozy Camper
  - Regenerates 1 heath per second
  - Reduced movement penalty from -90% to -80%
- Sticky Jumper and Rocket Jumper
  - Added 'flying' sound to blast jumps
- The Concheror
  - Changed rage building source from "damage done and damage received" to only "damage done"
  - Increased the rate at which Rage builds for this item by +25%
- The Equalizer
  - Removed player move speed modification and added it to a new item named The Escape Plan
  - All owners of the Equalizer will be automatically granted The Escape Plan
- Crit-a-Cola
  - Added +25% increased movement speed while active
  - Increased duration from 6 to 8 seconds
- Atomic Bonk
  - Increased duration from 6 to 8 seconds
- All Flamethrowers
  - Increased base damage by +10%.
- Backburner
  - Removed +10% damage bonus attribute
  - Note: Because of base damage increase, damage remains unchanged
- Degreaser
  - Added -10% damage penalty attribute
  - Note: Because of base damage increase, damage remains unchanged
- Phlogistinator
  - Damage defense while taunting reduced from -90% to -75%
Item bug fixes
- Fixed sentry sometimes spawning in shielded mode while the Wrangler was equipped, but not deployed
- Improved visual and audio cues for when the Manmelter is ready to fire
- Fixed Manmelter being able to earn crits via friendly Pyro self-damage
- Fixed Scotch Bonnet's blue team skin not showing
- Fixed Unarmed Combat's taunt not working
- Unarmed Combat's color now matches the team using it
- Fixed the Apparition's Aspect showing a burning texture in DX8

Jun 27, 2012

Team Fortress 2, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch Updates Released

Team Fortress 2

Added ConVars sv_rcon_maxpacketsize and sv_rcon_maxpacketbans to allow server admins to control the maximum RCON packet size and whether or not users get banned for exceeding that limit. The defaults reflect the existing behavior.
Fixed not being able to import custom spray images on Macs
Fixed Macs cancelling http map downloads that take longer than 30 seconds

Team Fortress 2

Added Pyrovision!
Added new game mode Special Delivery and map Doomsday!
Friendly players glow when carrying the flag
Fixed rare cases where flag could fall out of the world
Fixed cases where the Payload HUD looked like the cart is still on a hill when it isn't
Fixed cases where some clients didn't receive broadcasts about long continuous particle effects being started or stopped
Updated the HTML renderer for displaying server MOTD
Votes created by a dedicated server no longer trigger a failed vote cooldown
Fixed map triggered annotation events not working on dedicated servers
Fixed the game crashing if tempents are created that use invalid materials
Using a Name Tag while in game notifies everyone of the name change
Fixed Strange Part: Projectiles Reflected not tracking grenade and sentry rocket deflections
Added new items
- City on Fire item sets
- Pyroland weapons and cosmetics
- Community-contributed cosmetic items for all classes
- Mysterious treasures have been incinerated, but are now craftable
- Added crafting recipe for Pile of Ash
- Scorched Keys are now available in the store for a limited time
- New promo item
Weapon balancing changes
- Gloves of Running Urgently
  - Removed self-damage over time penalty
  - Heavy takes mini-crits while active and for 3 seconds after switching away
  - Attack damage penalty reduced from -50% to -25%
- Tomislav
  - Spin-up speed bonus reduced from +40% to +10%
- Quick-Fix
  - Medic mirrors blast jump of their heal target
- Crusader's Crossbow
  - Reload speed time reduced by +40%
- Cozy Camper
  - Regenerates 1 heath per second
  - Reduced movement penalty from -90% to -80%
- Sticky Jumper and Rocket Jumper
  - Added 'flying' sound to blast jumps
- The Concheror
  - Changed rage building source from "damage done and damage received" to only "damage done"
  - Increased the rate at which Rage builds for this item by +25%
- The Equalizer
  - Removed player move speed modification and added it to a new item named The Escape Plan
  - All owners of the Equalizer will be automatically granted The Escape Plan
- Crit-a-Cola
  - Added +25% increased movement speed while active
  - Increased duration from 6 to 8 seconds
- Atomic Bonk
  - Increased duration from 6 to 8 seconds
- All Flamethrowers
  - Increased base damage by +10%.
- Backburner
  - Removed +10% damage bonus attribute
  - Note: Because of base damage increase, damage remains unchanged
- Degreaser
  - Added -10% damage penalty attribute
  - Note: Because of base damage increase, damage remains unchanged
- Phlogistinator
  - Damage defense while taunting reduced from -90% to -75%
Item bug fixes
- Fixed sentry sometimes spawning in shielded mode while the Wrangler was equipped, but not deployed
- Improved visual and audio cues for when the Manmelter is ready to fire
- Fixed Manmelter being able to earn crits via friendly Pyro self-damage
- Fixed Scotch Bonnet's blue team skin not showing
- Fixed Unarmed Combat's taunt not working
- Unarmed Combat's color now matches the team using it
- Fixed the Apparition's Aspect showing a burning texture in DX8

Jun 27, 2012

Valve to release its trailer-making tool to the public: Source Filmmaker

Team Fortress 2

Valve appended a tiny, incendiary surprise bomb to the end of the Meet The Pyro video: they've announced a free tool called Source Filmmaker. It's going into closed beta (apply here) and currently only supports Team Fortress 2. But beyond that, it seems like a suite that will equip machinima creators to truly tinker with what they produce; Valve says it'll let you "repurpose the video game world into a virtual movie studio." Among the tool's capabilities, you can make adjustments mid-playback, hand-animation of models, GPU-powered facial animation, and, amazingly—using Team Fortress 2 multiplayer to capture editable shots.

Valve created a video walkthrough of Filmmaker that also provides a behind-the-scenes glance at the creation of some of their TF2 shorts. Come watch within.