130 responses so far ↓

• 1 b4dboyz- // Jul 29, 2008 at 4:57 pm

  Wow… They do listen to this blog, don’t they.

• 2 x_machina // Jul 29, 2008 at 4:59 pm

  Well, I’m really glad to see these changes, especially the backburner one. Anything that cuts down a tad on pyros is a good thing IMO. I love ‘em, but if a pyro’s still alive after 3 direct rocket hits, he might be a bit too powerful.

• 3 Eother // Jul 29, 2008 at 5:00 pm

  That’s uncanny.

• 4 Aeneas // Jul 29, 2008 at 5:01 pm

  The power you have Chris. Now if only you could use it for good not evil

• 5 poptart_fairy // Jul 29, 2008 at 5:02 pm

  Get a job with Valve, you fool!

  STRIKE. STRIKE WHILE THE IRON IS HOT.

• 6 Spotacus // Jul 29, 2008 at 5:05 pm

  In voice of demoman: BOOOOO!

  Backburner should still have some kind health bonus, if not the full 50. It gives you the incentive to try and flank because you might actually survive.

  There are going to be lots of useless ubers now with more people using the airblast. I predict engy domination.

• 7 Rev. Name Withheld // Jul 29, 2008 at 5:06 pm

  HOLY DONGS, THIS IS AMAZING! Valve must love you, or something. Now all they need to do is to remove the regular crit chance and the Backburner will be fine at least in my eyes

• 8 Dreimar // Jul 29, 2008 at 5:08 pm

  Aw… back to plain old flamethrower for me then… Nice about the gear symbol though!

• 9 AlphaHawk // Jul 29, 2008 at 5:14 pm

  They do listen to us.

  We have the POOOOWER!!!!!!!!!!

  Highlander, lol.

• 10 Wossname // Jul 29, 2008 at 5:18 pm

  Oh, wow, this is fantastic.

  Pyro is my #2 class, but I’ve never seen the point in the backburner health boost. Hooray, Valve, for listening!

  >Fixed grenades, rockets, and flamethrower being able to fire through grates at round starts

  With the flamethrower, at least, if you started it up a few paces back and then ran forward, the fire would go through the grate.

• 11 Itszutak // Jul 29, 2008 at 5:19 pm

  gosh, I could be famous if I comment here . Hi valve!

• 12 Ricey // Jul 29, 2008 at 5:19 pm

  wow lol when I as reading the notes I could not believe all the things they added that I had seen on the blog

• 13 Generic Username // Jul 29, 2008 at 5:20 pm

  I COULD BE FAMOUS HOLY CRAP ON A STICK :O

• 14 mr. Brit // Jul 29, 2008 at 5:20 pm

  Christ, you go away for 10 days and it all goes down! 2 new LIO’s, valve ruins some requests but still no Heavy weapons!! What sort of a shoddy show are Valve running….

• 15 Baggie // Jul 29, 2008 at 5:21 pm

  Dear lord, this is incredible, think of all the power you wield! UNLIMITED POWER!

• 16 atomicthumbs // Jul 29, 2008 at 5:22 pm

  My suggestion: add damage to Dispenser destruction; more the more metal is in it, and full metal is an instant kill within a short radius.

• 17 Miniman // Jul 29, 2008 at 5:24 pm

  Holy fucking shit thats awesome!

• 18 Aenir // Jul 29, 2008 at 5:28 pm

  According to that ad over there, the rich jerk makes 3 mil a year.

  Really I’ve never understood why anyone would want to explain what made them rich, then everyone would do it and he’d be made worthless.

• 19 AlphaHawk // Jul 29, 2008 at 5:29 pm

  Oh yeah, funny tag.

  My favorite TF2 blog here :)

• 20 Fargmot // Jul 29, 2008 at 5:42 pm

  I rock.

• 21 jordan // Jul 29, 2008 at 5:45 pm

  hi mum!!!

  atomicthumbs has a good ideaa… maybe a slight shrapnel damage… II dont know. Chris has the power.

• 22 RPharazon // Jul 29, 2008 at 5:46 pm

  I WANT TO BE FAMOUS.

  Also, the first thing I did when I read the update news was shit bricks.

  And then I checked this blog and saw that you already commented on it, saving me an arduous trip to the old Gmail account to spam you with “OMG MAKE NEW BLOG ENTRY ALREADY LOLOLO” messages that you must have gotten within minutes of the update.

  But yes, you win.

• 23 mrmong // Jul 29, 2008 at 5:46 pm

  suggest that valve give you money

• 24 Phil // Jul 29, 2008 at 5:47 pm

  Gah! My health bonus!

  And my cheap kills with the flamethrower at people behind the spawn gates!

  Ah pyro. We had a good run. :’(

• 25 n00bie51 // Jul 29, 2008 at 5:59 pm

  YEAH, YEAH, NO MORE +FIFTY HEALTH, TAKE THAT YOU NOOBS.

  Now I’m going to be owning all the Pyros who are used to fifty extra health even more than I already do as Scout. :D

• 26 superflykiller // Jul 29, 2008 at 5:59 pm

  fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK!!!

  my beloved health bonus! dammit valve! dammit commenters! this is all your fault!

• 27 Alexander // Jul 29, 2008 at 6:00 pm

  So when are they going to fix snipers shooting through the gates? IT STILL HAPPENS!!

  On a different note, I’m still not seeing these adds, and they aren’t images so addblock shouldn’t block them…Must be an automatic feature with Opera.

• 28 Icarus Tyler // Jul 29, 2008 at 6:02 pm

  It’s called collective brainstorming, and according to valve they do it too.

  You throw some guys on a problem, they blurb all kinds of ideas out, and the good ones you keep :-)

• 29 Eother // Jul 29, 2008 at 6:03 pm

  Once, I killed four people through the gates during the setup round, with my precious flamethrower. Now…now I can’t. I’m so depressed.

  I mean…really. Don’t stand by the friggin’ gate and taunt when there’s a pyro there. It’s your own fault.

• 30 DumbDog // Jul 29, 2008 at 6:03 pm

  I’m glad they got rid of the extra 50 health for the pyro. I also like that they fixed the ability to shoot through the start up gates.

  I checked this blog right after the update because I recognized that some of the fixes were from here. Now it’s time for all us to suggest our heavy unlock and achievement ideas. ;D

• 31 Tim // Jul 29, 2008 at 6:10 pm

  Finally, us gamers are able to come out of the closet about all the horrible things imperfect game design has done to us. Now the healing can begin.

  Of course, there’s still a world of suffering out there. Chris, use your powers to get Bungie to release a patch that makes the Halo series actually good.

• 32 Tim // Jul 29, 2008 at 6:12 pm

  Come to think of it, if we speculate about the HL2 EP3 and Portal 2 stories here, we will effectively write the story. We have great power. NOBODY SUGGEST THEY END WITH A CLIFFHANGER!

• 33 Tim // Jul 29, 2008 at 6:14 pm

  Or maybe “Chris” is just a major front for Valve. The real Chris is probably tied up in Gabe Newell’s basement, which is why the comic is suspiciously absent.

• 34 iflurry // Jul 29, 2008 at 6:16 pm

  You know, I thought the +50 health was a bad idea from the get-go.

  Until I actually got one. Then I was all hur hur hur >8D

  As much as I loved the idea of the air blast, I could never get the hang of it myself. I think I’ll stick to the BB, even without the (beloved and behated) extra health.

• 35 Dave // Jul 29, 2008 at 6:18 pm

  Hey, you know HL2 EP3 and Portal 2? They should end with cliffhangers.

• 36 Pigbuster // Jul 29, 2008 at 6:19 pm

  I think the “clipped localized strings” thing refers, in part, to something that repeatedly happened to me, i.e. the death-cam says that I was just killed by someone named “%NEMESIS”.

  So now you know what that meant. Though the most important question is if you actually care, I suppose.

• 37 RPharazon // Jul 29, 2008 at 6:19 pm

  Tim - 32:

  Episode 3 should end with a cliffhanger and we should wait another 6 years for Half-Life 4.

  Also, Alyx should die in the first chapter of Episode 3 and Kleiner should become the inept and comical sidekick.

• 38 Skye Lazuli // Jul 29, 2008 at 6:32 pm

  Wow, that’s pretty cool to have such influence; myself, I never really cared too much for the Backburner- I’m pretty much always with the original. It’s fun sometimes to know you’re going to die, but with the ability to push your enemies around.

• 39 AlphaHawk // Jul 29, 2008 at 6:51 pm

  Though I’m surprised after they put what we wanted in, they didn’t put that Meet the Sniper soundtrack you wanted in. I agree, that would be awesome.

  Use the force Chris :P

• 40 Tom // Jul 29, 2008 at 6:54 pm

  Holy crap they used my idea, normally I can’t get anybody to agree with me on the simplest of matters. Thanks Valve. :D

• 41 raven // Jul 29, 2008 at 7:02 pm

  Now I just hope they add they the “Meet the class” tracks, and the future ones when they come out too! I love these songs.

• 42 Tim // Jul 29, 2008 at 7:03 pm

  THANKYOU VALVE. Single best update in a long time. I can’t count the number of bugs I’ve filed with the line “Demoman can STILL shoot through the starting grates”. Thank Christ that’s over.

  And the Backburner health bonus removed. God, yes. I can’t wait to fire it up.

• 43 Koslov // Jul 29, 2008 at 7:21 pm

  I knew those changes sounded familiar when I updated my servers :P

  I bow to the power of this blog!

• 44 Metal Gear?! // Jul 29, 2008 at 7:26 pm

  OK Valve, now release some information about the Heavy update! Also, please remake Hunted. That was the best map of TFC ever. Screw those slow flag maps. Hunted is where it is at!

• 45 wolferey // Jul 29, 2008 at 7:41 pm

  Health bonus or not, I’m still gonna pwn ya ;o)
  Good changes there, especially the gear symbol =)

• 46 b4dboyz- // Jul 29, 2008 at 7:53 pm

  hay guise mayb we shud all complain bout engie not havin uber wrench!!!!!!!!!!!1111111!!!!!11one!111eleven!!1one!!!11

• 47 Plaz // Jul 29, 2008 at 7:59 pm

  @Chris- Why no beat the rush and post requesting ideas for updates of all the other classes? That way, when Steam announces accepting ideas, this blog is at the front of the line, smiling with a bunch of crap.

• 48 CheeseLord // Jul 29, 2008 at 9:30 pm

  God damn it, now the Pyro is utterly nerfed, it’s meant to be an assault class, now pyros will have trouble getting across even the 2fort bridge.

  Huzza about the other things, though.

• 49 sQUEAKYfOAMpEANUT // Jul 29, 2008 at 9:50 pm

  Holy crap. You guys certainly called it.

• 50 S-Guy // Jul 29, 2008 at 10:00 pm

  I’m famous! HEY BOB SAGET!
  *cricket*

  Anywho, great thing about the flamethrower not going through the grates, although I’ll miss those moments when the enemy team crowded around our grates at the start and started taunting, and we could all light them on fire. Hilarious. XD

• 51 Niteowl // Jul 29, 2008 at 10:13 pm

  Now, not to crap on anyone’s parade. Certainly not Mr. Frohman, who’s a gentleman and a scholar and cram packs every post with wittiness and rampant speculation; but simply because many of those changes were mentioned on this blog doesn’t mean OMG WE THOUGHT OF IDEAS A THE COLLECTIVE INTERNET MIND AND HAVE A HARDWIRE INTO VALVE AND ALL THEIR INNER WORKINGS!

  It could be, you know, that Mr. Frohman picked the ideas that had the most popularity, and that seemed the sanest, and therefore you know, were probably going to be put in the update.

  Or, it could mean that VALVe is copy and pasting every blog post from 1fort into their Microsoft Project and Bugzilla.

  And they still haven’t implemented your necrophilic gnomish panty raiding gametype Frohman, so I’m not sure they are listening to everything you say.

• 52 Lemon Bottle // Jul 29, 2008 at 10:35 pm

  Personally, I never found the health bonus usefull. It’s about as effective as kevlar on CSS.

• 53 Anonymous // Jul 29, 2008 at 10:51 pm

  Don’t be so narcissistic. I thought of all these ideas before being linked to this blog, and spoke of them publicly. Does that mean they took the ideas from me?

• 54 AlphaHawk // Jul 29, 2008 at 11:16 pm

  I think we should throw in just a few ideas here, before moving on.

  I think one thing that should be implemented, and I think I can get everyone’s (yes, everyone’s) backing on, is a fix that would make a teammate pushing you off a teleporter impossible. THAT would make this game alot better than it already is. Infact, why not make it so that if you even attempt it 2 times, you get an autokick? Nah, serverside responsibility I guess. Anyway, how about it? First person to stand on a tele while it charges, can’t get pushed off unless he or she willingly walks off.

• 55 [@] Chronos[Ha-G] // Jul 29, 2008 at 11:17 pm

  To be honest, unless Valve comes forward and either confirms or denies that they read this blog - and even THEN it would be subject to speculation as to whether or not they were telling the truth - we’ll probably never know the true extent this blog has on the development team.

  In my opinion, though, this blog probably has some decent impact - but by no means do I suspect it to be the sole source of ideas for Valve.

• 56 [@] Chronos[Ha-G] // Jul 29, 2008 at 11:26 pm

  @ 54 -

  That’s both a great idea and a potential source of ultimate frustration.

  You’ve already listed the pros to it - teleporter is first come first serve, so if you legitimately get to it first it’s guaranteed your teleport.

  Biggest con I see is some jackass going scout and intentionally beating you to the teleporter just to claim it for himself. Another problem is how to implement the collision - as it stands, if a teammate moves into the position of another, they both move slightly away from each other due to it. I don’t think they’d do this, but if Valve was suddenly stupid as hell and made it so that someone standing ON the teleporter fully collided with someone attempting to push them OFF the teleporter, suddenly you’ve got a roadblock in front of you. That isn’t a problem if they just immediately teleport away, but if they start moving around on the teleporter - and are unable to be pushed off because they got there first but are not teleporting because they’re moving about intentionally, you’ve got a big griefer situation there. But that one’s an easy fix - just make it so they do not collide period.

  …

  Shit, that reminds me of something I wanted to put up as a suggestion in your previous posts, Chris.

  I’d love it if Valve changed the collision mechanics of a sniper while zoomed in - Too many times to count, I’ve homed my sights in to the juicy melon of an unsuspecting medic or heavy or something, only to have a random teammate run by me close enough to disturb my aim just as I pull the trigger. I’d prefer it if teammates didn’t collide with zoomed-in snipers period. An unzoomed sniper, or one with any other weapon out though, should collide with teammates as normal.

• 57 Shawn Poulsen // Jul 29, 2008 at 11:50 pm

  Lemon Bottle: I would have to agree.

  I spent a little while keeping a mental tally of times when, as a pyro using the backburner, I’d find myself on 50 health or less. About 90% of these times were just after getting into a pyro duel with someone else.

  Very very rarely was it really helping vs soldiers and demos - Sticky carpets still atomise you, crit rockets and crit pills do the same.

  I’ll miss it, but in the same way I miss demo grenades exploding on impact after a bounce - I know the game is better without it.

• 58 Nonomu198 // Jul 30, 2008 at 12:15 am

  With great power come great responsibility to make a 1fort comic.

• 59 AlphaHawk // Jul 30, 2008 at 12:19 am

  @ 56

  The bullets don’t go through teammates either do they? Maybe they could do that for the sniper, and sniper only when his charge is up fully. God only knows what a heavy with half his team as a meat shield infront of him as he unloads on the enemy team would look like :P

• 60 AlphaHawk // Jul 30, 2008 at 12:20 am

  Oh, and to negate collision issues, people would just go right through them while they’re on the tele, like noclip.

  And jackasses who don’t need to use the teleporter, but using it anyway is frankly always going to be there most likely, even now y’know.

• 61 jackrabbit // Jul 30, 2008 at 2:12 am

  this is not the main source of info for valve but damn if it isn’t a big one

• 62 Crelda // Jul 30, 2008 at 3:04 am

  I main pyro so this update isn’t so great for me. I’m really gonna miss the health and I loved to fire through grates. Though I suppose I was good as pyro before the update and ill be good as pyro now they have nerfed the pyro a bit.
  Though now I get to try the airblast more as I should be able to survive any encounter with another pyro and just saying that is an indication of why this update is a good idea.

• 63 n00bie51 // Jul 30, 2008 at 4:55 am

  Firing through the gates is bullshit. Don’t use that “You shouldn’t even have been standing there” excuse. Innocent players who just go up to the gates to taunt are mercilessly killed before setup time and that can have serious consequences when the game actually starts, like having to walk all the way from the spawn back to the front lines. It’s exploitation and unsportsmanlike. It fails, and now I’m glad they’re going to fix it.

  I’m betting some players will still try to shoot through the gates and actually be able to succeed in getting their rockets past the door, though. :D

• 64 Soundwave // Jul 30, 2008 at 5:02 am

  I LOVE YOU VALVE.

• 65 Joe Snuffy // Jul 30, 2008 at 5:10 am

  i–i-I can see my house from here, ma!

  I’m glad they took down that starting gate glitch, some scum of the earth teams even went demoman rush kekeke in setup to spam grenades to push defender back from setting stickies or any one building ubers at the frontline.

  The gear symbol is a nice touch, and I might need to take suicide off my binded keys nowbut that extra health is something i’m going to miss, I never relied on attrition, but it was nice when ambushing solo.

  Would of been nice if they took the 50 hp away, but left the overheal buff, to let medics set you up before you go, you usually don’t return, working behind the lines.

  And @25, even without the BB hp buff, I’ll continue burning the arrogant little suckers that scout rush X D

• 66 Baggie // Jul 30, 2008 at 5:51 am

  I’d rather that they made the plus symbol into an actual gear, but this works too.

  Also the game plays a lot better and feel balanced, but who cares about that when I could nitpick?

• 67 Salmon // Jul 30, 2008 at 6:32 am

  I hope you were kidding about the noob-pyro thing thar noobeh51.

  From my experiences with the pyro, the +50 health has been a big help for me escaping from sentries and such after a nice little ambush. In fact, I couldn’t have possibly survived without it most of the times. It made up for being under enemy fire for such long periods of time, let alone for being completely helpless to demomen and weak to soldiers.

  I was with iFlurry in terms of “OH JESUS THESE FIREGIMPS HAVE BULLETPROOF SKIN” until I got my own burnbacker and starting getting owned my everyone with explosives. Of course there’s bound to be people who tell me I’m a noob who needs to learn how to dodge. I think the soldiers must have adapted to the pyro threat, as they certainly make sure I don’t get far. As useful as it was to stay alive and get the hell out of the enemy nest, in combat it really is quite useless in storming a base head on. Like I said, people have adapted. I did, even when sniping. YEAH, YOU STRAFE FATBOY. IT ONLY MAKES MY PENIS HARDER. Unless you’re a heavy or a soldier, you probably won’t ‘feel the heat’ so to speak. FUCK YEAH RHYMING PUNS.

  Ok, in short; Don’t whine. It won’t take long to learn how to aim the nade launcher or the rocket launcher. The pyro is slow and Valve knows this. Kill the pyro before it gets to you. If you can’t because they came from around a corner or door or somesuch, you’re not supposed to. The pyro is an ambush class. You were ambushed.

  This post has already been long overdrawn, so I’ll rap up the remaining topics quickly.

  You goddamn gate exploiters. You dumb bastards. Setup is ‘playtime’ so to speak, where the 2 teams can call each other spies and such before killing each other. You stopped this from happening and consequently made the game less relaxed. You pyros may be able to say they were at the wrong place at the wrong time, but what about the demomen? Yes, the demomen on stage 1 of Goldrush. There really is no excuse. You were spamming the goddamn spawn room itself with nades and you know it. That’s incredibly bad sportsmanship. Now some people would be thinking “Jeez, it’s just a game.” Well obviously, but I didn’t buy a game for some prepubescent abortion gone wrong to make it so I can’t play the game fairly.

  Midnight ranting, it’s good for the arteries!

• 68 Lenny17 // Jul 30, 2008 at 6:52 am

  I think I actually like them taking away the 50 health. I’m mainly a pyro (so it does affect me), but it is nice to be running around with my AB flamethrower and not be consistently run down because the guy coming at me had the BB. It really forced you to use the BB just to offset the advantage of other people having it.

  I also like seeing more people using the AB, it adds a nice dimension to the pyro, and I’ve seen people do a great job of breaking up ubers or confusing players. Now that people don’t feel the need to abandon it in favor of the 50 health, I’ve seen a lot more of it, and it makes me smile.

• 69 robotwhofinallyadmitsit // Jul 30, 2008 at 7:17 am

  Barney should be playable…

  In Portal 2.
  And TF3 should have a security guard class.

• 70 [@] Chronos[Ha-G] // Jul 30, 2008 at 7:44 am

  @ 60 -

  I know about the jackasses, I’m just saying that it might become worse if they knew no-one else could knock them off the teleporter if they got there first.

  But that’s a problem that not even Valve can patch out - jackasses, that is.

• 71 SlowShootinPete // Jul 30, 2008 at 8:28 am

  Not with a software patch, no. A “reality patch”, on the other hand…

• 72 darthpugwash // Jul 30, 2008 at 8:29 am

  USE THIS POWER FOR GOOD

  PS VALVE pls add a banana bomb throwing monkey class in next update kthnx

• 73 Deadly_Dragon // Jul 30, 2008 at 8:52 am

  Right. It seems that VALVe do read this blog, so here’s my list of suggestions. Enjoy!

  1) Both the heavy’s fist taunt and the scout’s bat taunt should be instakills, or at least do damage.

  2) Pehaps there should be a way for pyros to ‘air-blast-jump’. I dunno, maybe if they aim at the floor it uses twice as much ammo but launches them gracefully to the sky?

  3) I know it’s been said many times before, but Goldrush really needs to be balanced. I think I’ve been in perhaps a grand total of 2 games where Blu get to stage 2 or 3. I’ve certainly only seen the ’splosion at the end once.

  4)Ummmm… ah! Can you tell Garry Newman to put the unlcokable weapons into Garry’s Mod? It would give TF2 comic writers a bit more scope for their comics.

  5)Please ignore the people asking for a boost to the Spy. I play as him more than any other class, and it is not an underpowered class, just a tricky one.

  6)Uh… That’s all folks! For now, at least.

• 74 Baby landmines // Jul 30, 2008 at 9:20 am

  I’ve just played pyro for about 2 hours after the nerf, and I’m not really sensing the difference. Maybe because now I’m not just randomly trying to charge into battle, I try to flank more.

• 75 RPharazon // Jul 30, 2008 at 9:21 am

  Goldrush doesn’t need to be balanced. If it does, balance it at the end of Stage 3. You’ll see what I mean after playing on a 24/7 Goldrush server for about 3 hours.

  Even the best steamrolling attackers get clogged up at the end by the millions of perfect sentry locations that simply can’t be taken down without several ubers.

• 76 Sam // Jul 30, 2008 at 9:31 am

  I think the heavy taunt should gib the person he’s pointing at.
  Just imagine it, he pulls out his imaginary gun and the peson infront of him exploding into a shower of body parts :D

• 77 darthpugwash // Jul 30, 2008 at 9:33 am

  I agree that some changes need to be made to Goldrush to make it more balanced. I’ve seen the ending explosion a few times, but all to often the attackers do not make it past the first or second stage. The last cap point on the second stage is particularly evil, very difficult for the attackers to break through there. The final cap point on the last stage is pretty brutal as well.

• 78 Snooglebum // Jul 30, 2008 at 9:42 am

  Maybe this shouldn’t make me happy, because I play Pyro a lot, but it does. Now I can go back to the normal flamethrower without knowing that I’m at a pathetic disadvantage against other Pyros!

  This is a good thing!

  Chris, you have far more influence then you think…

• 79 Eother // Jul 30, 2008 at 10:19 am

  @ people who dislike shooting through the starting grate

  I don’t know how the demomen or soldiers did it, so I can’t judge them, but I didn’t see a problem with a pyro shooting through the gate. You would have to be RIGHT BY the gate, and taunting (or mentally retarded) to get killed. If you are stupid enough to stand there and taunt…well, you deserve it. Stop being a retard.

  Honestly…unsportsmanlike? First, this isn’t a friggin’ sport. Sports are athletic. I know that isn’t the point, but I hate it when people say it’s a sport.

  Doesn’t really matter too much to me that it’s gone…but yeah. I’m done ranting.

• 80 Plaz // Jul 30, 2008 at 11:16 am

  un·sports·man·like (ŭn-spôrts’mən-līk’, -spōrts’-)
  adj. Not displaying the qualities or behavior befitting a good sport.
  sport /spɔrt, spoʊrt/
  A person who behaves in a sportsmanlike, fair, or admirable manner; an accommodating person: He was a sport and took his defeat well.

• 81 Eother // Jul 30, 2008 at 11:20 am

  Fair enough. Saying it isn’t unsportsmanlike isn’t necessarily calling a sport. My bad, thanks for the correction.

  It may not be unsportsmanlike, but it sure is funny.

• 82 Eother // Jul 30, 2008 at 11:20 am

  It may BE unsportsmanlike, oops.

• 83 Snooglebum // Jul 30, 2008 at 11:23 am

  @Eother

  Taunting in front of the starting gate is the greatest amusement know to man.

• 84 Eother // Jul 30, 2008 at 11:31 am

  Setting people on fire who taunt in front of the starting gate used to be the greatest amusement known to man, but now we can’t do it. Oh well.

• 85 Plaz // Jul 30, 2008 at 12:54 pm

  Thumbs up!

• 86 HyperKUltra // Jul 30, 2008 at 2:07 pm

  Crapstack. I just got the Backburner, and I liked the extra 50.

• 87 HyperKUltra // Jul 30, 2008 at 2:08 pm

  FNORD.

• 88 Stranger // Jul 30, 2008 at 2:54 pm

  That’s great…

  …now where is my stat reset button!

• 89 Wills // Jul 30, 2008 at 3:12 pm

  When the pyro pack came out, I was there. I loved the pyro from before I even started to play TF2, and since I’m still improving as a player, the extra +50 health was a definite grace period while it lasted. It helped me learn the class a bit more, but in the long run, I think it’s probably a good thing it was reverted - I was relying too much on the health, and not enough on ambushing and sneaky Hrt hr nha phrnt yrh mrprph tactics.

  I’ve gone back to using the normal flamethrower now (Oddly enough, it seems like I’m still getting a continuous steam of crits when I’m attacking their back), and it’s actually quite a bit more fun than the back burner. More of a challenge, but also more of a reward, since the air blast was a forgotten joy.

• 90 d@niel // Jul 30, 2008 at 4:31 pm

  I just got the backburner yesterday. That’s the only reason why they removed the 50 hp.

• 91 Zac // Jul 30, 2008 at 5:13 pm

  Wow, I think Valve bases their updates on this blog.

• 92 Newt Pulsifer // Jul 30, 2008 at 6:37 pm

  Because this blog is friggin awesome! :D

• 93 rammingspeed42 // Jul 30, 2008 at 8:33 pm

  Out of the mouths of babes and whatsits.

• 94 Cloud Strife // Jul 30, 2008 at 8:56 pm

  If I’m on the attacking team, I get a medic to uber me, take out the sentries, then proceed to spawn camp the defenders on Gold Rush/Dustbowl. Now that’s unsportsmanlike, that and be able to now shoot my stickies into the other teams spawn and kill them. :P

• 95 CheeseLord // Jul 30, 2008 at 9:21 pm

  think the pyro has been nerfed now, it’s meant to be an Offense class, one that can run into the thick of battle, not like the spy or sniper who have to stay hidden for maximum kills.

  One idea that someone on the Steam Forums had is that the Pyro’s health should be increased to 200, for both weapons, because at 175 they’re a little weak.

• 96 Battle Dolphin // Jul 30, 2008 at 10:37 pm

  @95

  Totally agree. I think taking away the +50 HP from the BB was a good call (weapons with HP buffs makes no sense) but a 200 HP total for ALL pyros would hit the sweet spot. At 175 a single crit melee kills a pyro. And no pyro likes to have that medic or engie one hit ‘em when they pull a good ambush. Also 200 HP stops snipers getting one hit body shots. I do like how you now see both flamethrowers running around and not just BB’s all the time.

  I think that the new BB is fine. It has always worked for me with regards to hit registering. The problem is not the mechanic but that the angle for it to kick in is so small. A bit wider angle of attack would really help remove all the complaints that the BB is useless now. The concept is great, it just needs to be a bit more generous on what is defined as the “back” and relax the angle. Nothing like the spy’s 180, but more than the narrow angle we have now…

• 97 AlphaHawk // Jul 30, 2008 at 11:54 pm

  Maybe we should talk more about the heavy update now? I got an idea for the shotgun replacement too.

• 98 Joe Glenn // Jul 31, 2008 at 1:12 am

  THANK YOU VALVE! That 50HP was complete overkill. The massive crits were more than enough compensation for no air blast. The extra 50HP by itself would be compensation enough for no airblast. Hopefully thisll cut down on the number of lame-o’s just running around holding down fire getting a bunch of kills due to massive crits + inflated HP.

• 99 stavrosthewonderchicken // Jul 31, 2008 at 2:44 am

  Don’t listen to Niteowl he’s a dirty spy and he doesn’t change his underwear often enough and also he wears ladies dresses sometimes not that there’s anything wrong with that.

• 100 J-man // Jul 31, 2008 at 3:04 am

  woot 100th post!

• 101 Turyx // Jul 31, 2008 at 3:52 am

  ” Chris, use your powers to get Bungie to release a patch that makes the Halo series actually good.”
  Are you asking for a patch or for a miracle?

• 102 n00bie51 // Jul 31, 2008 at 5:24 am

  Dude, I’m part of the PC Halo community.

  You do not want to go there.

• 103 Tayta // Jul 31, 2008 at 6:03 am

  I see what you did there.

• 104 rammingspeed42 // Jul 31, 2008 at 11:14 am

  If the PC Halo community is anything like the Xbox Halo community, then that is a scary thing.

• 105 rammingspeed42 // Jul 31, 2008 at 11:14 am

  If the PC Halo community is anything like the Xbox one, then that is a scary thing.

• 106 x_machina // Jul 31, 2008 at 12:04 pm

  @73

  I absolutely agree about the Spy. He’s my favorite class, and he is certainly NOT underpowered. If you know how to play as one, you can cause so much disruption it’s just ridiculous. Getting a quad-kill on an advancing team in Goldrush isn’t something that should be made any easier.

  The current skill level required to play spy also seems to limit the number of people that actually try to stick with the class throughout an entire game.

• 107 Mike // Jul 31, 2008 at 1:20 pm

  I’m starting to get the shivers from no Nondrick. Help me Chris!

• 108 RC-1290'Dreadnought' // Jul 31, 2008 at 2:03 pm

  Some commenters here are obsessed with power. I have a different thing with the word Power. Every time I hear it, I hear it like its said by palpatine… “POWER,UNLIMITED, POWER!!”

  …
  followed by:
  “uuehhhhhh” (I love that bit :P)

• 109 HoW Monty // Jul 31, 2008 at 2:58 pm

  Dear Chris, Valve and other 1-Forters.

  As you all know, the next class to receive unlockable weapons will be the heavy. I have came up with 3 ideas of my own, which are hopefully balanced, fair and do not alter the role of the class.

  Unlockable Number One:

  Natasha: A little while ago Robin Walker posted a blog (entitled “A Heavy Problem”) that asked readers to come up with a weapon that would make the Heavy more effective when no Medic is availible . My suggestion is Natasha (ideas for other names would be appreciated), an alternative Minigun which drains health from enemies it hits. It is unable to fire critical hits and also has a slight damage reduction.

  Unlockable Weapon Two:

  Double Barreled Shotgun: In “A Heavy Problem”, Robin Walker also said that unlockable weapons should be easy to understand for all players. A Double Barreled Shotgun is a weapon which is easily recognisible at a distance and would need an introduction. It would replace the regular shotgun and deal slightly less than twice of the damage a regular shotgun does, maybe 175%, but would require a pump-action reload after each shot.

  Unlockable Number Three:

  Boxing Gloves: Another simple and easy to understand weapon, which would be recognisible at a distance. The Boxing Gloves would replace the Fists attack. It would be more damage but would be slower to use.

  Thanks for reading, I hope you have enjoyed reading my ideas and would like to see them in TF2.

  HoW Monty.

  PS: Chris, will there be another “Culled From Comments” post?

  PPS: Chris, could you put an asterisk (*) next to the required fields (Name and Mail) because I spent about 10 minutes typing this post out only to find that I had to submit my email address.

• 110 mr. Brit // Jul 31, 2008 at 3:06 pm

  I like the idea for Natasha, the others are good but not quite as fun.
  Perhaps Catherine.

• 111 CHARMANDER // Jul 31, 2008 at 3:24 pm

  HEY GUYS THIS IS EVERYONES FAVORITE ORIGINAL PYRO CHECKING IN.

  My oppinion on the Nerf to pyros. It was a much needed change and to tell you the truth it is causing less pyros to play as they are not living as long and killing less.

  Oh so you want to know how this change affected me?

  The change had little to no impact on Charmanders lightning fast reflexes , mixed with unimaginable flanking abilities fire axe and shotgun combo is still deadly when in my hands.

  Fear the pokemon that burns people then hits them over the head with a barbed wire wrapped axe.

• 112 friccish // Jul 31, 2008 at 4:06 pm

  @109

  Doesn’t the regular minigun “drain health from enemies it hits”? What else would a weapon that shoots bullets at someone do? Isn’t that what all weapons do?

  Just wondering if there was something I missed there.

• 113 AlphaHawk // Jul 31, 2008 at 4:20 pm

  Monty you beat me to it, I was gonna suggest boxing gloves too. Reason? Ever notice that when you kill someone with the heavy’s hands, the kill icon is BOXING gloves? It’s been like that all along.

  By the way, my idea for the shotty replacement would be a sixshooter, a big one kinda like the one in Trigun. (Look it up if you don’t know) It’s about 10-15 dmg points better than the spy’s revolver, and the heavy does his cowboy showdown taunt with it, and will kill on contact. It’s just like the pyro’s hadouken taunt, has to be placed perfectly.

  The downside is that it has no crits, and the heavy’s big chunky fingers give it the longest reload time of any gun.

• 114 Sentry Gun // Jul 31, 2008 at 4:23 pm

  If your commenters ruin the heavy update for me, I will kill you.

  Guess I’ll be playing far less pyro. Now that the Backburner has no reason to be used since back detection is absolutely awful and it doesn’t seem to crit normally anymore, plus it gives no more health bonus. So, it’s absolute garbage now. People bitched away all the usefulness of the backburner.

  Monty, a minigun that drains health per hit, even with only one health per hit, would be horribly overpowered.

• 115 Aeneas // Jul 31, 2008 at 4:41 pm

  Anyone having GPF errors since the steam engine update (my time this morning) ie in the last couple of hours.

  I think steam may have actually ruined TF2

• 116 Newt Pulsifer // Jul 31, 2008 at 4:48 pm

  I have another idea for the boxing gloves.
  Make it have a “charge bar” (similar to Demoman’s pipe launcher). The more you charge, the stronger is your punch, but also slower (because you have to charge it).
  If you hit the mouse button frenetically it attacks very fast (maybe not as fast as scout’s baseball bat) but the damage is very low.

  That way we can have another game mode called… Boxing(!). Strategy matters (fast easy-to-hit but low dmg punches vs. slow high-chance-to-miss but high dmg punches).

  Throw in some dodge techniques and you get Heavy Super Punch Out!! :D

• 117 Generic Username // Jul 31, 2008 at 5:00 pm

  FALLOUT 3 WILL BE GOOD

• 118 Generic Username // Jul 31, 2008 at 5:08 pm

  owait

• 119 HoW Monty // Aug 1, 2008 at 2:25 am

  “Doesn’t the regular minigun “drain health from enemies it hits”? What else would a weapon that shoots bullets at someone do? Isn’t that what all weapons do? ”

  What I meant was a small amount of the damage that the heavy inflicts on enemies would be converted to health. I’m sorry I did not make that as clear as it should have been in my first post.

• 120 HoW Monty // Aug 1, 2008 at 2:34 am

  I’m now that that Natasha would covert 1/2 of a health point for every hit and it would not go over the Heavy’s maximum health. Does that sound overpowered.

• 121 Dwight K Schrute // Aug 1, 2008 at 8:09 am

  I don’t think you can give the heavy a healing ability. That steps on the medics toes and with a medic backing the Natasha-Heavy - he would be unstoppable. Medic+Heavy combos are already strong enough.

  I think the mini-gun unlockable should be an actual “mini” mini-gun. maybe 1/2 to 1/3 the size of Sasha. It could do less damage per shot with a smaller (more accurate) spread and possibly a larger clip size or some sort of ammo-replentishing skill/secondaryfire.

  Or maybe in the opposite direction - the mini-gun could be twice the size as sasha and be heavy as hell, to the point that when he fires it he can’t move (he does like big girls) . The trade off would have to be a greatly reduced spin-up time or bigger clip.

  I like the idea that the new gun be another russian girl name: possibly Anastasiya or Tanya.

• 122 Dwight K Schrute // Aug 1, 2008 at 8:14 am

  Just thought of something else:

  You could combine those two ideas and have two “mini” miniguns - one in each hand with the smaller spread, larger total ammo, faster spin up (maybe?), and inability to move when firing (maybe even pushed backwards slightly? - na). Call them the twins: Anastasiya and Tatyana.

• 123 Still Not Chris // Aug 1, 2008 at 10:27 am

  While everyone else talks about the heavy, I’ll get on the subject of Demoman.

  First, no midair detonations, and replace pipe-bomb exploding after bounce. Allow pipes to charge like stickies, and make them explode quicker after bouncing.

  Replace the engie’s pistol with an airgun thing, that has a compression-blast thing. It won’t be a very big blast, just big enough to push a sticky away. 8 rounds in a clip, 16 total less than stickygun. Engie’s screwed unless he gets help, but he can hold the demoman off until then. Teamwork is encouraged, but demo’s still capable. This would encourage nests, but a demoman going after a nest should have an uber anyway.

• 124 Still Not Chris // Aug 1, 2008 at 10:27 am

  And by midair detonations, I mean for stickies.

• 125 Cpt. Falcon // Aug 1, 2008 at 12:36 pm

  i still want my idea for boxing gloves.
  a bit faster and a bit weaker than fists, but with huge knockback.
  regular punches knock enemies back several feet, crit punches send them send them several feet up (via uppercut). if an enemy is in the air when you hit them, they fly back several yards, maybe three times as far as when they were on the ground.
  momentum plays a big role in this, because instead of trying to kill enemies just by punching them, your goal is to kill them by slamming them into walls or letting them fall to the ground (and die).
  new physics would have to be made for this, namely…. horizontal falling damage? basically getting hurt by going into a wall too fast.

  this unlockable would make the heavy better by himself by providing a good retreat tactic, knocking enemies away from you.
  you could also use it to spearhead attacks, plowing through enemies.

• 126 Salmon // Aug 1, 2008 at 10:53 pm

  You know how annoying it is when a pyro sacrifices himself to stop an uber by using his airblast to juggle you?

  OK, now imagine that pyro to take twice as much to kill and be able to actually send you backwards.

  Might not be too good a thing. Unless of course you have another uber with you, but 2 or more ubers always end up as an unstoppable force that is going to kill everyone and then spawncamp.

• 127 Cpt. Falcon // Aug 2, 2008 at 12:59 am

  Uber’s are already almost unstoppable. I think that the pyro’s airblast is a great counter-tactic to an uber.
  You might as well have said, “you know how annoying it is when a pyro uses his flaregun to set a sniper on fire, rendering the sniper’s scope useless.”
  A heavy’s also much more easier to hit, as well as (with my unlockable) having much less range. When you’re being juggled in the air, you can still look down and shoot at the pyro. Plus the only way for you to be juggled in the air is by consecutive crits, which are mostly rare. Being knocked back a few feet wouldn’t render you helpless, you can still shoot the heavy.
  And my idea can still be nerfed: it could do half-knockback on ubered (and maybe even kritzed, they need it) enemies.

  I still like my idea more than any of the other fist unlockables so far. :)

• 128 HoW Monty // Aug 4, 2008 at 2:42 am

  “I don’t think you can give the heavy a healing ability.”

  What I meant was, he would convert damge into health for himself, no-one else. This would stop if he was being healed by a medic.

• 129 Still Not Chris // Aug 4, 2008 at 8:18 am

  We know.

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