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John Caveson

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Posts posted by John Caveson

  3. Posted

    Huh, I never noticed the FoS was buggy. Probably because I don't use them. That's interesting. I wonder how Valve would fix that coding-wise.

     

    1 hour ago, hugthebed2 said:

    I've always been a firm believer in using the disciplinary action over the escape plan. Being able to whip a teammate and then go into a fight with a few seconds of speed can give you the opening edge in a fight.

    A fair point. Don't forget it has the longest melee range in the game as well.

     

    1 hour ago, hugthebed2 said:

    I agree with you that there aren't really any weapons that scream out "I'm overpowered!" whenever I play. Though I'm still sad about some of the weapons that are underpowered.

    Yeah, but part of me fears Valve will over do the buffs and we'd be stuck with some new OP combo for another 1000 days. So if this is it for balancing, then I'll take the meme loadouts any day.

     

    1 hour ago, hugthebed2 said:

    Also apparently a hot take is that the ambassador nerf isn't even that bad. It removed some fun from the weapon but where it really shined was 102 burst damage which can kill any light class if you hit the headshot and butterknife them. People compares its DPS too much to the stock revolver even though it should be a discussion about burst damage.

    As a Spy main, I never really thought the nerf was that bad balance-wise. I just thought it was the wrong kind of nerf. The long range 102s gave it great utility for picking off Engineers and Snipers from a distance. Taking that away has just made it more or less a boring +/- stat weapon to the Revolver. The real problem was the DR abuse in combination with the Amby to make a non-stealthy Gun-Spy subclass. They were embarrassments to Spies everywhere.

     

    I would have gone with thesentryisaspy's (an old, old time Spy main) suggestion of making it more of a hand cannon as the original description on the Sniper vs. Spy update page.

     

    +crits do 120 damage instead of 102

    - 50% clip size

    - slightly longer HS cooldown

     

    Something along those lines. That way it's main purpose be for its long-range utility. And if you just want good ol' reliable damage, stick to stock.

     

    At the end of the day though, I do understand Valve's logic behind the nerf. I think, personally it's stupid, but I can't argue that it made the weapon more in line what the Spy was supposed to be in not being a mini-Sniper.

    1 hour ago, hugthebed2 said:

    Regardless of my qualms, I still think the game is fine weapon wise. I am an Iron Curtain purist (die tomislav heavies).

    хоро́шим komrade.

     

    1 hour ago, TheOnlyGuyEver said:

    Basically the trend is: if a class has a weapon slot that is underused, any weapon which lets them get more frequent use out of that slot is probably better. Sandvich, Escape Plan, Pain Train, the list goes on.

    That honestly summarizes my list actually.

     

    1 hour ago, TheOnlyGuyEver said:

    I think the only weapons I would say are remotely OP are the Wrangler and maybe the Vaccinator. But the Wrangler is not nearly as bad as it used to be; I have no idea how I or anyone lived like that for so long.

    Hmm, I never had trouble with the Vacc, though admittedly, that's just lack of experience fighting against or with. Not many people really know how to abuse it, so not enough people are complaining about it. I find there are a lot of weapons that do that; either a greater evil had to be slain at the time (in Amby's case, the Enforcer), or a notable pro player starts using it all the time, then word spreads and more people start to use it and realize how good it is, then the complaints come in.

     

    For example, remember when everyone thought that the Razorback was useless trash? Then some notable high-level Snipers started using it, word spreads, people figure out it's potential, then boom, Sniper is suddenly the most important class in HL. The weapon was untouched since it was released, then before you know it: poof nerfed.

     

    Now that I think about it, the Amby was the same way. Though, funnily enough, a major reason the Razorback was thought to be trash was specifically because the Ambassador sort of countered it. So after all of the complaints, both weapons were nerfed at the same time. A price I'm willing to pay for it I suppose (along with the Danger Shield nerf).

     

    1 hour ago, TheOnlyGuyEver said:

    Let me also just say that I think the Second Banana is one of the greatest things to happen to the game in years. I've sworn off the Sandvich ever since that thing was added. The Second Banana lets Heavy be the most Medic-independent that he has ever been, it's really so much fun.

    Ironic how what was supposed to be a Sandvich-lite consolation prize for Heavy being voted second, turned out to be the more used weapon over all of the Pyro weapons. I mean what did Pyro get? A broken, buggy mess of a flamethrower, a meme melee, and a near useless gas can secondary. The Thermal Thruster was the only one that really added something to the table, but even then, it's a bit unwieldy compared to the other secondaries.

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  4. Posted

    You know, I think 1000 days is long enough to analyze the current state of weapon balance, don't you?

     

    So what do you guys think of how balanced the game is currently? Are there any weapons, or combo of weapons that are distinctly op, like on the level of TommyGruVich and Dr. EnforCicle? Or is Stock still the way to go for new players? What about the context of HL and 6s?

     

    Personally, I like the current balance situation we have right now, at least as far as pubs go. I haven't really heard much complaining about any particular weapons or combos that need to be addressed ASAP. I also haven't really caught up with competitive at all to give a sound opinion on the state of things there.

     

    I think that all of them are either balanced side-grades to stock, or underpowered, which I would rather deal with than overpowered, given the choice. In fact, I can count on two hands which unlocks each class absolutely "needs" to not remain at a disadvantage.

     

    • Scout: N/A
    • Soldier: Escape Plan
    • Pyro: Powerjack
    • Demoman: N/A
    • Heavy: Sandvich/ Second Banana, GRU/Eviction Notice, FoS
    • Engineer: Wrangler/Short Circuit
    • Medic: Crusader's Crossbow, Ubersaw
    • Sniper: N/A
    • Spy: N/A

     

    As you can see, I believe you can be perfectly fine with 4/9 classes with just stock. I couldn't find any weapons which were drastically OP enough that you just simply can't live without, for those classes. As for the rest of the cast, you may notice that all of them (with the exception of the Wrangler) are utility secondaries/melees that, while clearly better than stock, are used more for mobility, team support, or just personal survival, rather than straight up killing power, which would negatively disrupt game-flow.

     

    Soldier's Escape Plan, Pyro's Powerjack, and Heavy's GRU/Eviction Notice are of the indispensable mobility category. The Escape Plan rewards bad positioning and getting hit as Soldier, which is fundamentally a class philosophy problem, but practically has no overall effect on gameflow, as he is marked for death, and if he's going fast enough, it just means you just need to breath on him to finish him, so overall I'd say it's fine. The Powerjack is just an outright buff to Pyro, as this just allows him to get into flame range better, but considering Pyro was already a pretty weak class to begin with, I see no real problem with it. Finally as for the G.R.U. (and by extension, Eviction Notice), it is still a problem, as Heavy is supposed be slow, without the benefit of explosive jumping like Soldier or Demo. And as we know, a fast Heavy is a deadly Heavy, and, like Soldier, it rewards bad positioning, which for Heavy, is where all the skill of playing Heavy comes from(minus tracking ofc). However compared to its previous iterations, it's current form is not nearly as insane as it once was, but it's still a must have over the stock Fists.

     

    As for the rest of Heavy's unlocks (Sandvich, Second Banana, and FoS), they are meant to help with his tankiness, which him being a tank in the first place, is not really a problem. They are just simply better than stock, with the food items having the added utility of healing your teammates, particularly your pocket Medic, and the FoS being a sidegrade to GRU, rather than the Fists.

     

    Medic's unlocks allow him heal and build uber more efficiently, which means more charges, which means faster games, which is always a plus in my book. Plus, they just make Medic more fun to play overall.

     

    Finally that leaves Engineer. He seems to have the opposite effect of Medic. That in which if he gets buffed with unlocks, it slows the game down rather than speeds it up. Both of his secondaries are better than stock, and both help Engineer protect his buildings better, which again, is not healthy for the game, especially if you have multiple Engis turtling it up on a particular point. Though, like the GRU, they're not nearly as crazy as they once were. Anyone remember the Rescue Wrangler combo and the Sigafoo Save? I sure do, and yeah, they are currently much more tame now.

     

    So, yeah, I think the game is probably the most balanced it's been since pre-Uber Update I would imagine. I think Valve did a great job there.

  5. Posted

    2 hours ago, ConfusedCactus said:

    Obviously now I'm old enough to understand it's because I was just an immature kid, and adults often don't really want to hang out with kids, for one reason or another.

     

    tbf, even immature kids don't want to hang out with immature kids. I wouldn't be surprised if a good chunk of them were around your age at the time. With a good super-majority of em being in the early-mid-twenties. Barely out of adolescence themselves.

  6. Posted

    21 hours ago, Moby said:

    While they did stop selling the Steam Link since their stream software made it not worth it, they stopped selling the controller because they are making a new version.

     

    Has that been confirmed? I did a quick search, but all I could find were rumors based on old patents for inter-changeable buttons similar to the Xbox Elite on steroids.

  8. Posted

    Y'all remember Valve's deep dive into making their own console with the whole Steam Universe thing?

     

    Well I just now realized they stopped selling the hardware to that stuff. Like I know the Steam Machines were discontinued not long after release, but I didn't know they stopped selling the Steam Link and controllers. You can't buy them from Steam anymore. Apparently Steam Link is now just an app for smart devices, and Controllers are just outright sold out and discontinued. RIP.

     

    I had the Link on my wishlist for the longest time. I was just randomly browsing it when I noticed the price was missing, I check out the store page and lo & behold. That sucks for people who don't have a smart TV who want to play on the big screen. Oh well.

     

    tbh I thought the Steam Controller was really cool. And I've noticed several features that newer controllers have taken from it , like the under-grip buttons (XBox Elite) and gyro-aiming (Switch Pro). Speaking of which, I also heard that Big Picture Mode is now compatible and configurable with basically any controller now, which is neat. I remember always using for Rocket League. Makes me want to bust it out just to appreciate I have one. Might try and experiment with it and see if I can get a good shooter setup for it, like for TF2 or SWBF or something.

     

    Lastly, out of pure curiosity, does/has anyone here run/ran SteamOS on their machines? How does it perform?

     

    On 7/23/2020 at 3:26 PM, Gyokuyoutama said:

    XBox console names really make me appreciate Playstation console names.

    They're trying to imitate XBox Live players. hyuck hyuck

  9. Posted · Edited by John Caveson

    Eh, I would argue the inflation was inevitable, manipulation or not. And I think a big factor for maintaining that 2-3 ref price was the in-game trading where we were limited to eight items per trade. I think once people realized we were no longer bound to eight items, keys could be any amount of ref they wanted, since it would be a lot less of a hassle for the average user to just trade 10 ref for one key. I think keys would be theoretically, at most eight ref if we didn't transition to steam trading, as the average user wouldn't stand having to have a middleman just to upgrade to a higher-level currency.

     

    Think of that change as getting rid of the gold standard, if it makes sense.

  12. Posted

    14 minutes ago, A 1970 Corvette said:

    Still the best forum I've been on, layout/formattingwise. Very clean, but you could still do cool stuff with BBCode. I guess it would be considered "retro" now, if all forums weren't getting axed in favor of Discords (god help us all)

     

    At least I've got you guys still, r-right?

    Don't forget the simple, black background. Really easy on the eyes. (SPUFDark gang rise up) All of those useful sticky threads in (almost) all of the class subforums. (God bless that high fps config, and Stabby's spy scripts). God I still remember the constant threads about class and weapon balance arguments, and wickedplayer's update threads.

     

    Makes me wish I picked up TF2 (and PC gaming in general) pre-Uber update, so I could experience the excitement of all the class updates live.

    1 minute ago, Gyokuyoutama said:

    Also lol at how blk_mage's post in the video is the longest and most rambling.

    iirc, wasn't that like, his whole shtick? To be an obnoxious wall of texter?

     

    20 minutes ago, Gyokuyoutama said:

    I'm still just glad that Valve didn't screw us over as much as Wizards did.  At least they gave us warning, made sure to have the forums up for far longer than they needed to, and had an alternative (a shitty alternative that none of us use, but an alternative nonetheless).

     

    Wizards just yanked the plug with almost no warning and said "lol, just use twitter."

    Oh yeah, it's dumb. Game forums, (at least the good ones) always had effort and detail put into them, along with proper organization with their subforums, and subforums for sub-forums. Now everything is streamlined like everyone is using mobile, thinking everyone has ADHD and can't keep a conversation going if the last reply was more than a day ago. Like Reddit or something.

     

    Fuck I feel old complaining about it.

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