The Energon Pub

Many of you know Team Fortress 2, and for those who don't, I guess I have to explain:

Team Fortress 2 is a game made and published by Valve, the company responsible for Half-Life, Portal, and Left 4 Dead, and was one of several franchises they bought up that had been based on their work. (Another was Counter-Strike) While gameplay is much like Counter-Strike, each of the nine classes is it's own character, with not just it's own playstyle and weapon sets, but also something of a defined personality. The Pixar-like aesthetic adds to this. Likewise, they have been making "Meet the Team" videos to showcase each character/class, which are noted for their very high quality.

Recently, the developers have begun adding Class Packs, additional weapons for specific classes, for no charge, although when the packs are EVENTUALLY released on 360, they'll be offered for a price. They currently have all but three classes left.

But this is a rant and I'm not getting fired up yet so I should probably start here: The Steam Forum for Team Fortress 2 makes World of Warcraft look like a Mensa meeting.

The first four Class packs featured Milestone achievements. Complete a certain number of achievements, a Milestone unlocks, and with it, one of the class's three new weapons. However, this isn't what the developers intended. With the latest Class Pack, a "random drop" system was implemented, meaning you'd simply need to play to get new items, rather than focusing on achievements which can be very hard to obtain.

The fanbase, of course, met this with outrage. Some people were convinced this made TF2 far too much like an MMO (It didn't) while some demanded items, claiming Valve "owed them" for whatever reason. (They don't) I'm a firm believer in "you get what you pay for" and, as it turns out, all of the class packs are free. People began "idling" where they would sit in spectator mode, waiting to get new items, often while not at their computer. This led to many servers (Note that most servers are privately owned) implementing a method to kick people out after they remained idle for too long, as they were taking up a slot that could be used by someone who actually wanted to play the game.

As a concession, that class pack (a double-sized pack, for two classes rather than just one) was updated with Milestones. A reasonable, sane man would think this would have ended it. It would be a safe bet that this man never visited the Steam Forums. It was again, somehow, met with outrage. Many people complained this didn't stop idling, and only led to an increase of achievement farms. (Custom servers and maps meant to help people get achievements)

So now you know how bitchy they can get.

But there's a new story. With the last Class update, the developers introduced Hats, purely cosmetic pieces of equipment that had no effect on gameplay, but were just there for fun. Nine hats were introduced, one for each class. With the "classless" update (One with no class focus) they introduced another 18 hats, two for each class, as well as a "hatless" option for classes who's initial design already had a hat or helmet. Hats could only be obtained through the drop system.

As it happens, some people had made a third-party app to cheat the system and get new items. In response (Though a bit late here) Valve removed the hats of anyone who had used this app, (Something like 4.5% of all players) and anyone who didn't was given a "Halo" hat for "moral superiority," as something of a joke. In short, cheaters were punished, non-cheaters were rewarded.

You can see where this is going.

People complained. I don't know how, but people complained wrongdoing on Valve's part. While I was aware of the punishment/reward (I proudly charged into battle as an Angel of Shooting People with Rockets), the complaining wasn't brought to my attention until I saw a news post from Tim Buckley. Upon checking the Steam forums (I really should learn to never ever go there ever), I stumbled upon many people who, again, were claiming they were wrongly punished. Some claimed that it was unfair as they weren't given warning ("I wasn't warned I would be punished for cheating" isn't exactly something that earns sympathy), some made claims that wearing the Halo had gotten them kicked from servers, and people playing Medic were refusing to heal them. Many people are demanding to have their items given back.

This is, in short, batshit insane. The argument the cheaters were using was "We did all that difficult nothing for those items, and we weren't given fair warning that we'd be punished for cheating, so give us back out ill-gotten gains!" This is ridiculous. Cheating in a game with no multiplayer, that's fine, I have no problems there, but in a mutliplayer game, that's where the line is drawn. You should not have to be warned that you'll be punished for cheating, even if they don't do it right away, you're still a cheater.

To make it short: Team Fortress 2 is a really great, fun game. I really recommend it. (For PC, NOT the console port) But if you do, don't ever visit the Steam forums. This has a good chance of ruining a good time.

This is why I'm glad for the relatively small community on the 360 version.

TheMuffin wrote:This is why I'm glad for the relatively small community on the 360 version.

Trust me, 360 players are on the Steam forums as well. Their the one's who are always complaining that they haven't gotten the class packs yet, and that the 360 port always gets the shaft. Of course, in their defense, at least the 360 community's complaints are reasonable. Valve has had a hard time attempting to jam-pack so much new data into the limited space the 360 offers.

Just ignore them and have fun.
Us fanboys are always complaining about one thing or another and when VALVe fixes said thing, the fanboys will still bitch and moan. You can never please fanboys.

Jazz Reborn wrote:Just ignore them and have fun.

That's actually a lot easier than my rant made it sound. For some reason, I've never run into anyone who complains like that in game. Probably because the people who do are attempting to boycott it. In which case, that's a good thing; they're not hogging up server slots, and not talking my ear off over mic.

Shadowman wrote:Valve has had a hard time attempting to jam-pack so much new data into the limited space the 360 offers.

[/quote]
Que?

TheMuffin wrote:This is why I'm glad for the relatively small community on the 360 version.

****, people still play on the 360?

TheMuffin wrote:

Shadowman wrote:Valve has had a hard time attempting to jam-pack so much new data into the limited space the 360 offers.

Que?

There's a limited amount of space and memory they can use on the 360 to store game data. As it turns out, the new weapons, maps, and items can't fit inside of that with the rest of the game. At least that's what I've heard.

EDIT:

Jazz Reborn wrote:

TheMuffin wrote:This is why I'm glad for the relatively small community on the 360 version.

****, people still play on the 360?

I keep telling people that with Valve, the PC version is the real version, everything else is just a port, and that Valve doesn't ask too much in system requirements, either; you don't need a high-end PC with them. But people just don't listen.

Which reminds me, has the 360 version of Left 4 Dead gotten Survival Mode or the ability to use custom maps yet?

Shadowman wrote:

TheMuffin wrote:

Shadowman wrote:Valve has had a hard time attempting to jam-pack so much new data into the limited space the 360 offers.

Que?

There's a limited amount of space and memory they can use on the 360 to store game data. As it turns out, the new weapons, maps, and items can't fit inside of that with the rest of the game. At least that's what I've heard.

lol no. DLC for retail released games have no limit on their size. So that answer is bupkiss.

Shadowman wrote:

Jazz Reborn wrote:

TheMuffin wrote:This is why I'm glad for the relatively small community on the 360 version.

****, people still play on the 360?

I keep telling people that with Valve, the PC version is the real version, everything else is just a port, and that Valve doesn't ask too much in system requirements, either; you don't need a high-end PC with them. But people just don't listen.

Which reminds me, has the 360 version of Left 4 Dead gotten Survival Mode or the ability to use custom maps yet?

Yes people still play on the 360. I personally can't stand using a keyboard to move. It makes my hand cramp up. And clicking just doesn't have the satisfaction of pulling the trigger on a controller. And yes survival mode was released like around Christmas last year. Custom maps aren't possible because each one would have to be checked by the developers and MS and then recoded to work on the 360. It's more hassle than it's worth since most people are over L4D and moved back to COD4, COD WAW and HALO 3.

TheMuffin wrote:lol no. DLC for retail released games have no limit on their size. So that answer is bupkiss.

Well the developers say otherwise.

TheMuffin wrote:And clicking just doesn't have the satisfaction of pulling the trigger on a controller.

And an analog stick doesn't even come close to the precision of a mouse.

Ah, memory, not storage space. That I can understand.

And the mouse argument is invalid. Everyone uses basically the same controller. The games are designed on the 360 around that thought process so the level of precision given by a mouse doesn't matter. Because we're not playing on a PC.

TheMuffin wrote:And the mouse argument is invalid. Everyone uses basically the same controller. The games are designed on the 360 around that thought process so the level of precision given by a mouse doesn't matter. Because we're not playing on a PC.

I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean. Are you saying it doesn't matter that I can line up a headshot faster than you, because they designed the 360 port to use 360 controllers?

Bingo. I play on the 360. The 360 uses controllers. So you having superior precision/speed on the PC means nothing to me.

How many people actually play on the 360 servers now? I thought there were only, like, 10 or something. Or so I heard.

Theres normally around 20-30 matches going. Most of them about half to 3/4 full. So you're looking at a good 300 people on the weekdays in the evening.

I have tf2 for the 360, it works a whole lot better than the pc version (llllllaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggg) but that's probably just the computer. on the 360, it's really fun because it works (no updates, but i don't really give a crap). for anyone who got this game working on their computer, you are lucky.

DUAL_BOOT wrote:I have tf2 for the 360, it works a whole lot better than the pc version (llllllaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggg) but that's probably just the computer.

It's probably your connection as well as some servers. I actually have the map list filter out high latency servers. It helps.

DUAL_BOOT wrote:(no updates, but i don't really give a crap).

You should. You essentially only have half the game. Not to mention all the fixes and such. And that Flare Gun...oh, that sweet, sweet flare gun. You'll never look at the Pyro the same way again once you use the flare gun.

DUAL_BOOT wrote:for anyone who got this game working on their computer, you are lucky.

No, anyone who doesn't get it working is just unlucky, everyone else is average. Trust me, lag in online games is not nearly as much of a problem as it was years ago. These days, it's not the game's fault, it's yours.