March 6th Update Released

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Team Fortress 2

• Removed sv_alltalk from the list of convars that affect custom server tags

• Fixed Demoman grenades not hurting the shooter if fired at point blank range against a target

• Fixed critical modifier for explosive weapons (rockets, pipe bombs) increasing critical chance more than intended

• Fixed Sudden Death "seconds have passed" string not including the amount of seconds that have passed

• Fixed Internet and Custom tabs in the Server Browser not correctly displaying the server information for servers when going back and forth between the two tabs

• Updated the URL used for the "Click for more info on custom servers" link on the Custom tab

• Fixed a crash for a sound channel getting created without wavedata

• Fixed Setup timer not showing the correct percentage in the circular progress bar

• Fixed being able to enter a "spectate" command in the client console to join team Spectator when mp_allowspectators is set to 0

• Fixed SourceTV servers not being displayed in the Spectate tab for servers with custom server tags

• Fixed servers with maxplayers <= 24 that are running SourceTV having the "increased_maxplayers" tag added for their server

• Added mp_tournament_restart command to be used with Tournament Mode (mp_tournament). This can be used at any time to return to the "Waiting for Teams" state

• When a tournament match ends it now returns to the "Waiting for Teams" state

Meet The Scout

Toward the end of his presentation regarding the visual style of Team Fortress 2, Valve’s design engineer Jason Mitchell gave the session’s attendees the world’s first look at the upcoming ‘Meet the Team’ promotional video, featuring the smack-talking Scout.

“I’m a force of nature. If you were from where I was from, you’d be f–king dead!”

Seeing the Scout was a bit of a surprise, since Valve announced over a month ago that the Pyro would be the next character to be spotlighted in his own video.

I won’t go heavily into the details, because these ‘Meet the Team’ videos can only truly be enjoyed first-hand. Nonetheless, expect to see the fearless sprinter brazenly take on an enemy quite a bit larger than himself.

He may not be the biggest or the toughest TF2 character, but the Scout himself boasted “Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, and brother…I hurt people.”

Valve will be releasing the video online within the next few weeks.

You can read more about Jason Mitchell’s presentation.

February 28th Update Released

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Added "Custom" tab to the server browser

• Servers can now specify metatags describing the custom rules they've adopted

• Players can use tag filtering to find servers running the custom rules they want to play

• Added options for servers who want to become custom games: Disable critical hits (tf_weapon_criticals), eliminate respawn times (mp_disable_respawn_times), and raise maxplayers above 24

Initial release of Tournament mode (mp_tournament)

• UI for handling team naming, ready mode, and win results

• Disables team player limits, autobalancing, and intermission
  

Class balancing

• Reduced Soldier's maximum rocket reserve ammo from 36 to 16

• Reduced Demoman's maximum sticky bomb reserve ammo from 30 to 16

• Reduced Demoman's maximum grenade launcher reserve ammo from 40 to 24
  

General

• Added protection against voice command spamming. Dramatic reduction in teleporters needed

• Fixed mp_timelimit ending the map during the middle of a round on maps like Dustbowl and GravelPit

• Fixed "lastdisguise" command not remembering if you were disguised as your own team

• Added "Toggle Disguise Team" binding in Options->Keyboard to toggle the disguise team for the Spy's PDA

• Changed PDA menus to accept keys bound to "slot1", "slot2", etc., and "slot10" cancels

• Fixed Spectator targetID not using team colors

• Changed team autobalance code to not balance the teams when the active round timer shows less than 60 seconds

• Fixed "-maxplayers" on the command line not correctly setting the maxplayers value for the server

• Fixed Badlands never having Sudden Death triggered

• Fixed Engineer being able to detonate buildings that are being sapped

• Changed Engineer buildings to detonate when a player disconnects instead of blinking out

• Fixed potential client crash for players being healed by a Medic or dispenser

• Made several improvements to server-side stat reporting (not related to individual player stats)

TF2 Class Guides

Some great play guides have been created by Asfastasican, for every class in TF2 "These guides are for playing all classes in TF2. The guides are long reads, because I want to explain things and they have a lot of detail to cover all the bases. I’ll have a short class explanation, a description of its purpose and roles in TF2 and how they play out on offense and defense. I’ll go over each of its weapons and talk about each weapon in detail, then I’ll talk about special concepts and tactics. After that, I’ll talk about match-ups against the same class and all other classes. Finally, I’ll end each class section with some closing thoughts."

The Scout-
http://forums.gstutor.com/showthread...3635#post23635

The Soldier-
http://forums.gstutor.com/showthread...3637#post23637

The Pyro-
http://forums.gstutor.com/showthread...3638#post23638

The Demoman-
http://forums.gstutor.com/showthread...3640#post23640

The Heavy-
http://forums.gstutor.com/showthread...3642#post23642

The Engineer-
http://forums.gstutor.com/showthread...3643#post23643

The Medic-
http://forums.gstutor.com/showthread...3646#post23646

The Sniper-
http://forums.gstutor.com/showthread...3648#post23648

The Spy-
http://forums.gstutor.com/showthread...3650#post23650