A surprise patch for Team Fortress 2 went live today, implementing a number of significant changes. The Heavy receives a boost to minigun spin-up time and in increase in movement speed while firing the minigun. On the other side of the spectrum, the Pyro’s Flamethrower will do 20% less damage, and a fire’s burn duration will last 6 seconds rather than 10. The Flamethrower’s airblast was buffed to balance for the decrease in damage.
Other significant changes include a new community map, cp_freight, and a new soda for the scout: The Crit-a-Cola.
Check out the full patch notes right here:
As a Medic and a Pyro, I can’t help but be saddened by the Flamethrower nerf. The next time I have an Uber primed, and a Pyro waiting to take out a group of turret, I’ll be forced to reconsider, and I will shed a single tear.
Team Fortress 2
Added new community map cp_freight
Added missing physics models for several items
Added jiggle bones to the Sam & Max items, and The Buff Banner
Added Crit-a-Cola
Dedicated Server
Linux optimizations.
Fixed Linux servers not relisting correctly after a master server restart
Fixed a case where servers could have “ghost” players consuming player slots
Engine
- Marked the “snd_show” convar as a cheat
Gameplay Changes
- Pyro changes
o Flamethrower direct damage reduced 20%.
o Burn duration reduced (10 -> 6 seconds).
o Airblast re-fire delay reduced by 25%.
o Airblast ammo usage reduced by 20%.
o All reflected rockets/grenades/arrows now mini-crit.
o Airblasting enemies into environmental deaths now awards the death credit to the Pyro.
- Heavy changes
o Minigun spin-up/down time reduced by 25%
o Minigun firing movement speed increased to just under half-normal (from 80 to 110).
o Throwing a sandvich to a teammate now earns a full bonus point (was half a point).
- Bonk! changes
o Post-use movement penalty removed.
o Now has a re-use cooldown time, like The Sandman.
- The Chargin’ Target changes
o Direct charge hit now does 50 damage + 10 per head (up to 5 heads).
o Capped the turn rate from +left and +right while charging.
- The Huntsman changes
o Removed restriction that arrows need to be aimed before they can be lit by a Pyro.
o Bow can now be lowered without losing the lit arrow.
o Changed bow so you can start charging it while you’re jumping, but you can’t fire until you’re on the ground.
o Fixed bug where flame effect would get stuck on if you change weapons with a lit arrow.
- Backpack changes
o Moved Crafting button out to the root class/backpack selection panel.
o Dragging and dropping items in your backpack now makes appropriate sounds.
- Bot changes
o Bots don’t retreat to gather health as readily if they are in combat.
o Bots no longer retreat when moving to block a point capture.
o Bots should now equip an appropriate combat weapon and fight while moving to collect health.
o Bots who are roaming the map and hunting now chase down their victims, following them around corners.
o Bots That fire projectiles (ie: rockets/grenades/etc) don’t hold down their fire button for a minimum time. This was causing Soldier bots to fire rockets into nearby walls as they strafed, killing themselves.
o Soldiers bots now switch to their shotgun after firing all four rockets when engaging an enemy.
o Added a few more bot names from community suggestions.
o Fixed a behavior loop with Engineer metal gathering.
- The Sandman change
o Added a slight speed reduction to stunned players.
- Community requests
o Added ConVars log_verbose_enable and log_verbose_interval to report player positions in the server log at regular intervals
log_verbose_enable default: 0
log_verbose_interval default: 3 secs
o “Last-weapon” initialization on respawn now sets itself to be the melee weapon if you don’t have a selectable secondary weapon (like The Razorback).
Bug Fixes
Fixed an case where The Gunboats didn’t apply their damage reduction properly.
The amount count in the HUD now flashes red when you’re low on ammo.
Extinguishing a burning teammate now earns a full bonus point (was half a point).
Fixed a permanent overheal exploit involving dispensers.
Fixed a bug in spectator mode where the user aborted out of freezecam, setup a spec mode (like IN_EYE), and would then have the setting stomped after the freezecam timer expired.
Fixed bug with disguised spy sometimes seeing his own name in the disguise status HUD.
Fixed a client crash that could result from players with arrows embedded in them.
Fixed items that can be worn by any class having the wrong model when worn by a disguised Spy.
Added missing map prefixes to server browser game types.
Killing yourself with your own sentry no longer increments the sentry’s kill counter.
Fixed dropped hats sometimes having the wrong team color.
Fixed crit-boosted players not getting critical hits if their weapon has custom no-crit behavior.
Fixed the achievement dialog taking a long time to pop up, and completed achievements now sort to the bottom of the list.
Fixed Spies disguised as Medics hearing the autocaller sound.
What do you think about the changes, Ranters? Is the Pyro damage nerf justified? Or is it a good day to be a Heavy?
Source: Steam
