Anyone else reckon Valve are stuck for ideas here?

Skeeter · 2 Jul 2008 at 17:33

From the new TF2 blog:

http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=1670

Its been dressed up as a 'get the comunity involved to show them how we do things' task, but I think they have basically gone down the whole unlockables route, but have no idea on what to do for some classes. I could see this comming. The Sniper, Spy and Heavy are always goign to be very difficult to mod without breaking, as their current weapon set is critical to their gameplay. any unlocks muct be different enough to be worth while, yet similar enough not to change the class...

Its quite difficult too, if you stick to the rules. You need to make a weapon that gives the heavy an advantage when hes on his own, but that goes when their is a medic...

Soemthing like a minigun that works the same, but has a gyro powered health dispencer on it, so when its spinning (i.e. the heavy is walking slowly, spinning his gun or fireing) it dispences health back into him. This could be stopped the moment a heavy is healed by a medic, and the gun could have disadvantages to balance things like slower fire rate or lower damage?

Unfortunately for Valve, they are just goingt o get millions of requests from idiots going "OMG the heavy should so get a gun that gives him 600 health and has zero spin up time, and doesnt slow him down when he walks!!!"

LabR@t · 2 Jul 2008 at 17:38

the whole unlocks and a achievments is a pile of toss added to keep the console kids happy. What was wrong with the game as it was , nice and balanced

Skeeter · 2 Jul 2008 at 17:40

LabR@t said:
the whole unlocks and a achievments is a pile of toss added to keep the console kids happy. What was wrong with the game as it was , nice and balanced

Theirs a fatal flaw in your argument....

The console version hasnt had the updates!

I do agree though, the whole unlocks idea is pants. New weapons that are balanced, ok, but grinding like an MMORPG to get them... epic fail!

Masterdog · 2 Jul 2008 at 17:41

I can't be the only one that's gone off TF2 since the introduction of unlockables. I've loved TF since the Quake days, and initially loved TF2. But it's becoming less and less like the game I enjoyed now.

Revolution6000 · 2 Jul 2008 at 17:51

Or maybe they really do just want to get some feedback from the community, see if there is someone out there who can come up with something truly exceptional.

Phal · 2 Jul 2008 at 17:51

Just cant please some people!

First people whine because the game is too simple and noob friendly. Then they add stuff which at the very least makes things harder to anticipate and people whine about it!

Regardless of whether the updates are good or bad, you could at least be grateful theyre trying to do something with it instead of every other FPS game that gets released and then has a few bugs fixed and is never touched again.

So what if they want ideas from the public? Good idea if you ask me since were gonna be the ones playing the damn thing so we might as well get some input.

Skeeter · 2 Jul 2008 at 18:07

Revolution6000 said:
Or maybe they really do just want to get some feedback from the community, see if there is someone out there who can come up with something truly exceptional.

Have you read the Steam Comunity recently? Every other thread is a "My Unlocka Ideas For X Class" with things that would basically make them invincible!

Phal said:
Just cant please some people!

First people whine because the game is too simple and noob friendly. Then they add stuff which at the very least makes things harder to anticipate and people whine about it!

Regardless of whether the updates are good or bad, you could at least be grateful theyre trying to do something with it instead of every other FPS game that gets released and then has a few bugs fixed and is never touched again.

So what if they want ideas from the public? Good idea if you ask me since were gonna be the ones playing the damn thing so we might as well get some input.

I was meerly suggesting that maybe Valve have got a bit stuck for what to do for this class...

I really like the idea of new weapons. Alternative ways to play that keep the balance of the game are awesome, and they are also free which is great. The big gripe is that in a game that has become incredibly popular because of its pickup and play fun factor, having to grind/farm/private server/play badly to get these updates is just wrong. They should be handed out to all without any unlocking needed. A 'balanced game' and a game where only a small percentage have all the weapons cannot be the same thing.

Kainz · 2 Jul 2008 at 18:11

I had gone off TF2 well before the unlocks. Mainly because at the time the custom maps were frankly pants, and there were sod all Valve ones worth playing apart from 2farts. When I heard news of pathetic unlockables, that just stopped me in my tracks from ever wanting to return. What they should do is focus on bringing quality past TFC maps to the fold not faffing about with perfectly balanced classes.

Skeeter · 2 Jul 2008 at 18:13

Kainz said:
I had gone off TF2 well before the unlocks. Mainly because at the time the custom maps were frankly pants, and there were sod all Valve ones worth playing apart from 2farts. When I heard news of pathetic unlockables, that just stopped me in my tracks from ever wanting to return. What they should do is focus on bringing quality past TFC maps to the fold not faffing about with perfectly balanced classes.

TF2 is not TFC, and never will be.

Kainz · 2 Jul 2008 at 18:34

O RLY, I thought they were the same game :rolleyes:

And yet TF2 still retains the same classes, weapon loadouts and maps.

Skeeter · 2 Jul 2008 at 20:20

Kainz said:
And yet TF2 still retains the same classes, weapon loadouts and maps.

and a completely different gameplay and style.

If they wanted TF2 to be TFC just with a 2 after its name they would have released it 8 years ago...

If you dont like the Valve maps and gameplay, dont like the comunity maps (some of which are frankly awesome) and dont like the whole balance concept, then you will never enjoy this game. But dont wish it to be a remake of TFC, just play TFC instead.

Back on thread, anyone else recon Valve are really interested in community feedback on this, or are looking for inspiration as they have reached a "hmm.... the heavy, wtf do we do here lolz?" moment?

uv · 2 Jul 2008 at 20:28

Skeeter said:
Back on thread, anyone else recon Valve are really interested in community feedback on this, or are looking for inspiration as they have reached a "hmm.... the heavy, wtf do we do here lolz?" moment?

If they were stuck and needed a few ideas, they only need peruse the forum - there's a gajillion threads of 'My Awesomez idea 4 Spy unlokz!' and the like.

I honestly think they're just treating it like a blog of sorts, to stop people whinging that we never get updates on the updates.

Good on them

I have no problem with the unlocks so far ('specially since I got Kritz

), and imo it's keeping a community alive - they have no obligation to add content to a game that you only pay for once

Skeeter · 2 Jul 2008 at 20:41

This is true. But all the posts on the forums are trash and badly thought out. In this blog they have atleast set some ground rules as to what the weapon must achieve (benifit when no medic around) and that i must be balanced. This 'should' create some realistic options... but i dotn think it will, we will still get people asking for stupid things.

My others slight concern is if they are genuinely asking because they are stuck, then it means they ahvent even started on the Heavy unlocks yet... meaning quite a wait

nintenjo · 3 Jul 2008 at 08:18

I dont like the unlockables.. i think they should just concetrate on fixing glitches and bugs that people seem to be exploiting all the time.

Otherwise its still a fantastic game

iviv · 3 Jul 2008 at 08:42

I don't mind the idea of unlockables. Its perfectly possible to play with the base weapons, that's what I do, and I enjoy playing it. I've not changed the class I play to get unlockables, as I'm not interested in playing the classes that have them. And when they roll the rest of them out, I won't drastically change my gameplay to unlock them.

However, releasing them one class at a time isn't a good thing, IMO. Each time one comes out, you get an influx of players to that class. The pyro one came out, and suddenly there's more pyros out there. Meaning that its much harder to play a spy as they go tagging their team for the award.
If they released them all at the same time, it would be much better. But it would mean valve would have to have them all ready, which would take ages.

misterPK · 3 Jul 2008 at 09:13

Sounds like their taking the "infinite monkeys will eventually type out shakespeare" approach!

To be honest I dont mind the unlocks. I don't really play that often anymore, so I havent farmed for them, just got the ones that happen while I play. I might have unlocked something by christmas...

PK!

Turtles · 3 Jul 2008 at 09:48

I don't mind the idea of unlocks, it just sucks how some people mess around in public trying to get them and the vast amount of one class you get on servers (all medics, now all pyros). If people want them that bad - go on an achievement server and get them all there. No need to annoy players who are actually trying to help their team....

Anywho, I never play Pyro so I never bothered trying to get the achievements. When Heavy comes out (which I have 70 hours as) then I will be trying to get them asap, even if that means farming them on a private/achievement server.

At least the unlocks show that Valve are still interested in TF2 and will continue releasing new content for the game. I think it would probably be better to release several class packs at once though, even if we did have to wait longer. It practically renders certain classes useless for a few weeks until the heat dies down. (notice the pun

Pyros....heat.....i'll get my coat

)

Phal · 3 Jul 2008 at 10:04

Skeeter said:
Have you read the Steam Comunity recently? Every other thread is a "My Unlocka Ideas For X Class" with things that would basically make them invincible!

Im not suggesting they impliment every retarded idea thought up by the retards that populate the TF2 Steam forums

That being said, the possibility is always there that a good original idea will come from someone which would be worth using. There is no harm in getting ideas from people as long as you dont mind sifting through a lot of dung to find something worthwhile.

As for the other guy who loves 2Fort, that map really doesnt lend itself to TF2 very well. Yes, TF2 has the same classes and a few of the old TFC maps but thats about where it stays. a lot of the weapons work rather differently now and theres also new weapons.

Its a different game

Just forget its called Team Fortress something and if you dont like it then just dont play it!

Arjun806 · 3 Jul 2008 at 13:58

I thinl Valve are interested in what the community wants, as there are always people complaining about the unlocks. I think they want to do something that the community won't complain about constantly.

Skeeter · 3 Jul 2008 at 16:51

Arjun806 said:
I thinl Valve are interested in what the community wants, as there are always people complaining about the unlocks. I think they want to do something that the community won't complain about constantly.

I do hope this is the case. The thought of Valve running out of originality scares me!