TF2 Newbs (Team Fortress 2) Blog

The mini-updates just keeping coming. Here’s what’s changed:

1. Unusuals are now tradable on the Steam Community Market, making it easier to trade your items for Steam Cash.
2. The “Crosslinker’s Coil” hat has been added.
3. FIXED: The bug that prevented some players that received an “Upgrade to Premium” not getting the pop-up window to thank the gifter. Retroactively applies, so those affected players will get the proper pop-up next time they log on. (Gifting an Upgrade can earn the gifter the Professor Speks all-class accessory and/or increase its Users Helped counter.)

The Crosslinker’s Coil is an all-class promo hat that is not yet tradable, paintable, or craftable, but can be renamed. You earn it in Genuine quality by purchasing “Gunpoint” on Steam. It’s a “stealth puzzle indie game” where you’re a spy that rewires traps and hazards in his surroundings to your advantage. It’s $9.99 for the basic, full-version game.

 

WARNING: Y’all should expect more community-made updates filled with community-made hats and other cosmetics.  Why? Because the TF2 Blog said so; apparently they’re making metric ass-loads* of cash.  You have been warned.

 

 

 

[N] Obey

 

Randomness: Gosh, it looks like everybody wants to emulate TF2….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, lots of mini-updates this week, it seems. Don’t forget to check out the June 3rd patch. Here’s what this patch (technically from June 5th and 6th) includes:

1. Unusual hat particle effects can now have their attachment points and offsets adjusted in the loadout menu.
2. The four remaining Mysterious Bundle items have been revealed, containing one of the following four hats:
   • Genuine Officer’s Ushanka
   • Genuine Tyrant’s Helm
   • Genuine Tough Guy’s Toque
   • Genuine Stainless Pot
3. FIXED the game failing to launch on Mac OS X 10.5.  “Yay!”

 

Terraria News:

Apparently a MAJOR update/expansion is due out for Terraria in July. They’ve been teasing such new features as rocket launchers, mini-maps, paint cans, and not having to jump over one-brick-high differences in elevation.  See the teaser trailer on PC Gamer: http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/05/24/check-out-terrarias-pc-only-1-2-update/?ns_campaign=article-feed&ns_mchannel=ref&ns_source=steam&ns_linkname=0&ns_fee=0

 

[N] Obey

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dude, a patch on a Monday. Here goes:

1. Three new “Adult Swim” promo items were added for purchase or crafting.
2. Two all-class melee weapons, the Conscientious Objector and the Bat Outta Hell are now craftable via the class/slot token formula, and can be used in crafting.
3. Minor things:
   • Physician’s Procedure Mask and Practitioner’s Processing Mask now equip in the “beard” region, so they can now be crafted via the random hat crafting formula.
   • Mann Co. Supply Crates now have the number in their names. About time!
   • The Full Metal Drill Hat and the Soldier’s Sparkplug no longer hide the Soldier’s grenades.
   • The following items have been added to the item drop system as of the previous patch: Track Terrorizer, War Pig, Pyrotechnic Tote, Bearded Bombardier, Soviet Gentleman, Pocket Purrer, Medi-Mask, Koala Compact, and Hat of Cards.

 

Three New Hats!

All of the new hats are purchasable from the Mann Co. Store, or they can be crafted via the 3 hats > random hat crafting formula.

Bacteria Blocker is a hat for the Scout. It is paintable, giftable, craftable and tradable.

Weather Master is a hat for the Medic. It is giftable, craftable and tradable. It is not paintable.

 Breather Bag is a hat for the Pyro. It is paintable, giftable, craftable and tradable.

 

Ta-ta for now!

 

[N] Obey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This entire patch was community-created. Now, there’s no new weapons, maps, or game modes. There’s just a metric asston* of hats and cosmetics, and a new specialty crate. Here is the “hub page” so that you can see all of the content, including a comic: http://www.teamfortress.com/roboticboogaloo/

*1 metric asston = 1.4 standard asstons.  That’s a lot.

But that’s not all! There have also been some other minor changes since the last blogpost. So that you don’t have to read a wall of text to catch up on the patches from the month of May, I’ll condense it down to this:

1. Crate #58 is the RoboCrate, that contains cosmetic items. See below for the complete list of items. RoboCrates are opened with RoboCrate Keys, which are bought in the Store for US$2.49. New Random RoboKey Gift tool items, also US$2.49, give a random player on your current server a RoboCrate Key (similar to a Secret Saxton). For US$57.27, you can buy a Pile of RoboKey Gifts, which hands out up to 23 free RoboKeys to players on your server.
2. The Pallet of Crates tool item will hand out crates to up to 23 players on your current server. It will provide one crate of the current drop list. (Each player receiving a crate also procs a chance that a RoboCrate is given to that player as well, probably until June 6th.) You can acquire a Pallet of Crates buy unboxing them from a RoboCrate or via trading; they cannot be purchased through the Mann Co. Store.
3. RoboCrates, RoboKeys, and related items do not have an expiration date. RoboCrates will continue to drop after June 3rd, but will do so rarely.
4. Items unboxed from a RoboCrate have a chance at being Unusual quality–of a new type of Unusual effect! More info coming soon.
5. 57 new cosmetic items, mostly hats. Many are robotic versions of existing hats. See below for the complete list of items.
6. Backpack Extenders are ON SALE, at 80% off (that’s 99 cents!), for a limited time.
7. Player avatars have been added to in-game voting popups, including votekick requests.
8. Fixed a bug that allowed mini-sentries to upgrade to level 3 on MvM maps.
9. The Phlogistinator now gains “Mmmph” gauge at a lower rate when attacking MvM robots and tanks (see below).
10. The Cow Mangler 5000′s laser projectiles now only mini-crits when reflected, instead of full critical hits.
11. Some items are updated so they can be crafted, etc. (see below).
12. You can now access the console on Linux and Mac versions.  Where was this before?!
13. You can now force your client’s download filter to only allow map files. This is important if you don’t want questionable user content (read: porn sprays) downloaded to your computer without your knowledge.

  

 

About that MvM Phloggy….

When attacking with the Phlogistinator (or other fiery weapon with it equipped), it requires 225 total points of fire damage to max out its Mmmph gauge. This has been changed in MvM, now requiring 1200 total damage on robots, or 3000 total damage on tanks. This is because the Phlog would max its gauge very quickly when fighting robots, so now the Pyro won’t be able to abuse the healing and near-invulnerability as often. (from the May 13, 2013 patch)

Item Updates

As of the May 13, 2013 patch:

• The Tuxxy all-class cosmetic item can now be crafted by the random hat formula.
• The Wilson’s Weave all-class cosmetic item can now be crafted by the random hat formula. It is now also tradable and giftable.
• The Ham Shank all-class melee weapon can now be traded and gifted. It can also be randomly crafted with the class and weapon slot token formula.
• The Soviet Gentleman hat for the Heavy is now eligible to be uncrated in Unusual quality.

As of the April 24, 2013 patch:

• The Blind Justice face cosmetic item for the Demoman is now paintable.

As of the April 13, 2013 patch:

• The Ap-Sap is now giftable, and Name Tags and Description Tags can be applied.

 

 Edit: Here is a complete list of the newly-released items (and the item they’re based off of in parentheses). Also, it seems that every item is available through the RoboCrate (with a chance of an Unusual quality)!

Base Metal Billycock (Backbiter’s Billycock)

Bolt Boy (Bonk Boy)

Bolted Birdcage (Birdcage)

Bolted Bicorne (Buccaneer’s Bicorne)

Bolted Bombadier (Bearded Bombadier)

Bonk Leadwear (Bonk Helm)

Bootleg Base Metal Billycock (Counterfeit Billycock)

Bot Dogger (Hot Dogger)

Broadband Bonnet (Glengarry Bonnet)

Bunsen Brave (Big Chief)

Byte’d Beak (Blighted Beak)

Cyborg Stunt Helmet (Sober Stuntmen)

Data Mining Light (Mining Light)

Dual-Core Devil Doll (Itsy Bitsy Spyer)

Electric Badge-aloo

Electric Escorter (Wazy Wayfinder)

Filamental (Apparition’s Aspect)

Firewall Helmet (Brigade Helm)

FR-o (Demoman’s Fro)

Full Metal Drill Hat (Sergeant’s Drill Hat)

Galvanized Gibus (Ghastly Gibus)

Googol Glass Eyes (Sight for Sore Eyes)

Gridiron Guardian (Football Helmet)

Halogen Head Lamp (Otolaryngologist’s Mirror)

HDMI Patch (Snapped Pupil)

Letch’s LED (Liquidator’s Lid)

Mecha-Medes (Archimedes)

Megapixel Beard (Camera Beard)

Metal Slug (Triboniophorous Tyrannus)

Modest Metal Pile of Scrap (Modest Pile of Hat)

Noble Nickel Amassment of Hats (Noble Amassment of Hats)

Platinum Pickelhaube (Prussian Pickelhaube)

Plug-In Prospector (Ol’ Geezer)

Plumber’s Pipe (Prancer’s Pride)

Practitioner’s Processing Mask (Physician’s Procedure Mask)

Pure Tin Capotain (Carouser’s Capotain)

Pyro’s Boron Beanie (Pyro’s Beanie)

Respectless Robo-Glove (Respectless Rubber Glove)

Rusty Reaper

Scrap Sack (Pyrotechnic Tote)

Scrumpy Strongbox (Liquor Locker)

Shooter’s Tin Topi (Shooter’s Sola Topi)

Soldered Sensei (Master’s Yellow Belt)

Soldier’s Sparkplug

Steam Pipe (Nine-Pipe Problem)

Steel Shako (Stout Shako)

Strontium Stove Pipe (Scotsman’s Stove Pipe)

Teddy Robobelt

Texas Tin-Gallon (Texas Ten-Gallon)

Timeless Topper (Western Wear)

Titanium Towel

Titanium Tyrolean (Vintage Tyrolean)

Towering Titanium Pillar of Hats (Towering Pillar of Hats)

Tungsten Toque (Tough Guy’s Toque)

Tyrantium Helmet (Tyrant’s Helm)

Virus Doctor (Grimm Hatte)

Ye Oiled Baker Boy (Ye Olde Baker Boy)

Battery Canteen (Power Up Canteen, and functions identically)

 

 

As more information as made available, I’ll post it–so keep checking back! Your website hits are welcome.

[N] Obey

 

Here’s a summary of this patch’s changes:

1. Added the “Conspiracy Cap” and “Public Accessor” promotional hats to the game. They are not yet available.

2a. Some promotional items have had their restrictions removed.

2b. New info on previously-announced promo items.

3. Minor bugfixes, and one minor game balance fix.

1. Two new Reddit-themed promotional hats.

Because hats. And because of the April Fool’s TF2 blog post.
Both of these all-class hats are giftable and paintable, but NOT currently tradable, craftable, or even available. Just like some hats from previous patches (like from March 12), how to get these hats has not yet been announced.  But they’re definitely Reddit-themed:

 

2a. BioShock Infinite items are no longer promo-restricted.

So now, these seven items (Vox Diabolus, Pounding Father, Doe Boy, Person in the Iron Mask, Sydney Strawboat, Steel Songbird, and Blind Justice) are now tradable and craftable. Paintability has not changed. Oddly enough, they are not giftable. See pics here.

2b. New info on previously-announced promo items.

The following five items, while still currently unavailable, have now been tagged as promotional items for the upcoming game Poker Night 2, the sequel to Poker Night at the Inventory (which is just $4.99 at the Steam Store, and you can still unlock the promo items ingame, such as the Iron Curtain). This also means that you can SOON play poker with Portal 2′s GlaDOS, Sam & Max’s Sam, Borderlands’ Claptrap, Ash Williams from the Evil Dead franchise (yes, that Ash), and Brock Samson from the Venture Bros. cartoon. Which may be more intriguing than the new hats.

(Edited 4/8/2013: The game Poker Night 2 pre-release is now available in the Steam Store for just $4.99, bundled with a copy of the first Poker Night of the Inventory, so ya might as well just buy the second one and get all dem hats for the same price.)

3. Minor bugfixes.

The following things should now, probably, likely, almost definitely be fixed:

• Dispensers sapped by Red-Tape Recorders should no longer sometimes continue healing or not display a building destruction notice
• Added the guitar sound for the Neon Annihilator taunt
• Added missing cloak and crit-boosted glow effects for the Wanga Prick and Saxxy

The following fix is possibly more important, but has been changed. Now Red-Tape Recorders no longer remove the remaining metal of a dispenser it is sapping when it downgrades. So if you’re a cowardly, sniveling Spy, be warned that your Recorders no longer near-instantly erase all of the manufactured metal upon sap, so Engineers are free to recover that metal after removing your damned sapper. In other words, you can’t use your sappers to starve Engineers of metal to hamper their ability to repair sentries and teleporters. That’s an important game balance fix.

 

Hey, keep reading up on the Patch Updates, and forward others to the blog, so they can be as well-informed as you! Then they can join our servers, and we can kill them repeatedly! Hooray!!

[N] Obey