Team Fortress 2 Message Board older than one year ago

#valve WETA, the special effects team behind the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and District 9, have given Team Fortress 2 developers Valve a very special gift: a sentry gun. That works. More »

#steam While the church downstairs prepares to celebrate the Christmas season, Tripwire Interactive has been busy creating an expansion for Killing Floor that lets you kill Santa Claus, along with a special present for fans of Valve's Team Fortress 2. More »

#valve Valve is giving Steam users a new way to win video games—up to a hundred of them!—and even score some new headwear in Team Fortress 2. The "Great Steam Treasure Hunt" is a game for winning games. More »

Steam, the market's leading innovator for promotions to make you buy irresponsible amounts of their product, has struck gold once again with its current Treasure Hunt promotion. Here's how it works: Every two days, four "objectives" become available, requiring hunters to perform both out-of-game and in-game tasks for prizes. For example, current goals include setting up a Steam profile picture, or earning a ridiculously high score in Chime -- which, like all the other games with objectives on the list, is discounted during the two-day period.

Anyone who accomplishes one of the four tasks will be eligible for a drawing at the end of each two-day chunk, through which 20 users will receive five games off their wishlists for free. Anyone who accomplishes 10 of the goals during the entire promotion will be entered to win the grand prize: 100 games of their choosing from the Steam platform. There are also exclusive Team Fortress 2 hats to be distributed to fervent hunters, which, let's be honest, is going to sell more games than all the other prizes up for grabs. People just love them some virtual hats.

[Thanks, Zayd!]

Team Fortress 2 is ever-evolving and a new initiative from Valve hopes to make this rampant evolution a bit safer for all players through the Team Fortress 2 public beta. Accessible to all owners of the game on Steam (open your Library then install "Team Fortress 2 Beta" from your games list), it's a special version of the game that lets Valve tinker around with game mechanics while you test 'em out live. Think: scientist and guinea pig. You're the guinea pig.

Valve has detailed the first few changes in the beta right now and published a brief FAQ -- if you've still got questions, hit up the link below.

[Thanks, John]

#betawatch Valve is throwing on ongoing public beta test for Team Fortress 2, and everybody that owns the game is invited! More »

As you've probably seen by now, we like to change things in Team Fortress 2. A lot. And while we're perfect most of the time, we occasionally get something wrong. One reason for this is we just don't get enough data from internal play testing, and another is that we spend too much time watching Tom Bui serenades on Youtube (Hint: Search for "Tom Bui" on Youtube) (Another Hint: Click here). So to help us change TF2 even more frequently, we're pleased to announce the Team Fortress 2 (public) Beta.

or buy a hat for 1.99

your choice

Telltale Games has a difficult tightrope to walk, balancing as it does between narrative and gameplay. The studio counts on you being immersed in the universes it creates, but also has to keep all that character from getting in the way of the game it has crafted.
Poker Night at the Inventory seems to be drenched in the studio's typical humor and likable characters. But it quickly becomes clear that the repetitive dialog is muddying a poker game that was already weak to begin with. In short: Telltale has fallen off the rope entirely.

At least in Sam & Max there's always the chance of redemption in the next narrative-led mission. In Poker Night ... well, there's just the next oddly timed "sandvich" joke.

Our first attempt to play the ETF2L Highlander Exhibition match ran into some technical difficulties. This time around, we've been assured that the appropriate number of chickens have been sacrificed to the dark lord of the internet. You can find out all the details on how you can watch the match here. If you don't feel like firing up SourceTV, this time there are live streams as well.



While we're here, yesterday we forgot to link to the first productive use of TF2. Check it out!

We're getting a little slack around here on the blog posting front. In our defense, we've just had our second day of snow in Seattle, and that means civilization has pretty much broken down entirely. We were about to eat our last intern when we realized we wouldn't have anyone who knew how to operate the blog posting tool/machine/software/doohickey. Luckily the intern, bless his little proactive (and tasty) heart, wrote a detailed description of how to use it on the company wiki. Around here, we call that a Career Limiting Move.

Winning entries in Valve's Polycount Pack.

This coming Tuesday November 9th, 2010 the TF2 item system will be down for maintenance starting at 1pm PST and ending at approximately 2:30PST. We are significantly increasing the amount of database horsepower behind TF2 to accommodate all the recent additions to the system. During this maintenance the following TF2 features will be unavailable:

• Backpacks
• Crafting
• Trading
• The MannCo store
• Loadouts

The game itself will continue to work. All players will have their default appearance and weapons.

To keep abreast of the status of this and future TF2 item maintenance, subscribe to this thread in the TF2 forum.

Note to developers using the TF2 Item Web API: As part of this maintenance all item IDs will change to eliminate negative IDs. We will be shifting all item IDs forward by 2100000. Depending on what data you store in your database, you may need to do the same.

#clips Telltale Games' crazy crossover card game features three characters with established voices - Team Fortress 2's Heavy, Strong Bad, and Max. But what does Penny Arcade's Tycho sound like? This trailer has the answer. More »

People don't just play poker for fun -- they play it to accrue piles of wealth. Telltale is providing similar, if small-scale, motivation to buy and play its crossover poker game, Poker Night at the Inventory, in the form of Team Fortress 2 items. You'll get one, the Heavy's poker visor, for pre-ordering from the Telltale Store, and you'll be able to get more from special Item Rounds within the game.

The items you'll be able to win from the game's other characters include Max's Lugermorph handgun for the Scout and Engineer, and a Freelance Badge that everyone can wear; an Enthusiast timepiece (Penny Arcade's infamous watch) for the Spy from Tycho; Strong Bad's Dangeresque shades, usable when the Demoman is gonna have to jump!; and from the Heavy, an Iron Curtain gun, for ... the Heavy. Not much of a loss on his part, then?

Check out a new trailer after the break. We'll warn you -- you're going to hear Tycho's voice (not the real Tycho, but a voice actor for the character), and it's going to be weird. Like seeing a radio DJ's face for the first time after hearing him, but in reverse.

#steam Later this month, Telltale Games—makers of Sam & Max and Penny Arcade video games—will release a new poker title featuring, among others, Team Fortress 2's Heavy. That's not the only incentive luring TF2 fans to do some gambling. More »

This is pretty exciting to us - it's the first time a game made by someone other than us allows you to find TF2 items by playing it. If you'd asked us, as we slaved away on TF2 back in '63, whether one day you'd be able to get the Heavy's first minigun off him by playing poker, we'd think you were nuts. Then we'd have hired you, because you had a vision for the future.

If you're curious, here's the set of items that you'll be able to collect inside Poker Night at the Inventory:

• The Enthusiast's Timepiece - Tycho's favorite timepiece (equippable by the Spy)
• License to Maim - Max's Badge (equippable by all classes)
• The Lugermorph - A second chance at Max's personal armament (equippable by the Scout and the Engineer)
• The Iron Curtain - The Heavy's first love (equippable by the Heavy, obviously)
• Dangeresque, Too? - Strong Bad's styling glasses (equippable by the Demoman)

"Did ... did you hear that? That creepy noise, coming from the direction of Steam. What is that? It sounds like ... Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 for $15."

Steam's Halloween sale is upon us, and you can't hide from these terrifying deals. Actually, we suppose you can, since they're just going to sit there on the site until November 1. The inanimate, inert, pleasant, but also totally spooky deals include Worms: Reloaded and Team Fortress 2 for $9.99 each, and the Overlord pack for $7.49.

With prices this good, the only scary thing is missing out on this sale. Although there are Steam sales all the time, so it's really just slightly inconvenient if you don't get anything this time. Um, boooooooo! Ghosts!

This year's Team Fortress 2 Halloween special includes things that no man has ever seen in Team Fortress 2 -- indeed, things that most TF2 players will insist do not, and cannot exist. Like an NPC. For the first time in any Team Fortress game, your team will meet an AI boss character: the "Horseless, Headless Horsemann." He'll be waiting for you in the spooky new Mann Manor map, which would be a much more frightening prospect if your whole team wasn't overladen with giant guns at all times.

Other new updates include Halloween items in the Mann Co. store, a randomly dropping Haunted Halloween Gift, and Ghostchievements, which are like regular Achievements but scarier, obviously. You can now gift wrap items in the store, as well, but despite Valve's best efforts, we're not going to buy that as a Halloween-themed update.

Free update brings Halloween zaniness.

#valve Halloween has come to Team Fortress 2! And so has the game's first boss monster, the axe-wielding, jack o' lantern behatted Horseless Headless Horsemann. It's all part of Valve's second annual TF2 Halloween special. More »

Two blog posts in two days? Your eyes don't deceive you. We're blog-writing machines this week, and there's plenty of gas in the tank.



Today's update includes both of the Art Pass Contest Winners' maps: Mountain Lab by Valentin "3Dnj" Levillain, and Mann's Manor by Tim "YM" Johnson and Alex Kreeger.

Also included in this update: You being scared! [sound of bat wings] That's right, it's the Second Annual Team Fortress Halloween Special. Will there be ghosts? Quite possibly. Will there be exploding pumpkins? You never know. Will you wet your pants in terror? If you're anything like us, emphatically yes.



And what more perfect holiday than Halloween to add the scariest feature yet to the Mann Co. Store: Gift wrapping! If someone decides to trick or treat on your server, wrap up that spare bottle of Jarate and give them the gift a thousand words could never describe, and a thousand therapist appointments will never undo.

Also added to the store: new community items themed for Halloween and a few scary hats of our own dark design. Some of these new holiday items are only available to purchase during the holiday, but will remain wearable all year round, so grab 'em while they're grabbable.

We've been fairly busy around the office this week after it was mandated that browsing International Stately Hats of Nationals was not a good use of time and there was work to be done on the next update.

Are you prepared to make your mother proud? We've joined up with Kritzkast to determine what the Demoman really said during his diatribe in Meet the Demoman. Our sensitive ears are incapable of determining exactly what was said so it's best left to the experts. The funniest clean entry, funniest not so clean entry, and most accurate will all receive prizes. Recording your brother being dominated in Dustbowl is not a valid entry.

#valve The recently launched "Mann-conomy" for Team Fortress 2 has quickly become a profitable venture for the community modelers who cranked out new weapons, hats and accessories for Valve's game. Valve just sent out royalty check to creators... and they're big. More »

And your mother told you video games were a waste of time! Valve has announced that user-created items in the new Team Fortress 2 Mann Co. Store have brought in positively massive royalties for five contest-winning Steam community members. The five community members included in the initial run of the Mann Co. Store -- Rob Laro, Shawn Spetch, Steven Skidmore, Spencer Kern, and Shaylyn Hamm -- all received royalties ranging from $39,000 to $47,000 after the first two weeks of sales.

Payments were arranged to be deposited directly into each users PayPal account, but their account limits were exceeded "within days." Though Valve worked out other payment methods for three of the creators, two of them personally flew to Seattle to pick up their checks directly from Valve.

The company points to the success of Mann Co. Store as an example of what can be achieved with its new peer-to-peer marketplace, which can be implemented in any Steam game. Said company head Gabe Newell, "Platforms that enable this kind of peer-to-peer exchange of virtual goods and services are going to be enthusiastically received." You can say that again.

In other news, we are -- all of us -- in the wrong line of work.

Valve's democratic distribution pays off.

Well, since trading is coming out within a month, not counting Valve Time, I thought I should set up a trading topic. If we can scrounge up like eleven people for a highlander team, I'm sure there's enough people for it.

Also, the trading system might end up being passive, but that isn't stopping me making this topic.

After days of deliberation, a moderate amount of yelling, and an M&M inexplicably up Drew Wolf's nose again, we're happy to announce the winners of the art pass contest. That's right, winners. Multiple. There were so many good-looking and fun maps that it was incredibly tough to narrow them all down to a single entry. So much so that we didn't bother.

Congratulations to Valentin "3DNJ" Levillain and Timothy "YM" Johnson. TF2Maps.net has a page up where you can view the winners of the contest, along with many of the other fantastic entries.