[TF2] 11th Edition: The hats will never stop

[Jacquerel]

I actually think the botkiller wrench is the only weapon worth having, the others are just a bit gaudy or uninteresting.
They're all the same thing! A vanilla weapon with a roboheavy's head dangling from a chain.

[The_Codfish]

So, guys, question on strategy: Basically, what upgrades should I be taking? I almost always concentrate on increasing my weapons' LETHALITY/utility, but when should I try to amp up my defenses/character?

[a prickly pear]

you only really need damage resistance if you're playing medic or getting stuck on a certain stage, like when they throw 3 giant crocketeers at you. Though +10% run speed is nice, and pretty cheap too.

[El Ninja Monkey]

Updates to Team Fortress 2, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
Source Engine Changes (TF2, DoD:S, HL2:DM)
Fixed a bug where rejected players could leave a "ghost" player that takes up a slot on the server browser
Team Fortress 2
Fixed tf_mm_strict to work as documented

Just boring little things

[WordsHere]

The closest I've gotten to playing was getting in to an horribly laggy server. Second closest was spectating a not so laggy game.

[Moronis]

Well try joining in when folks are playing on the Sepulchritude server then. They tend to have a fairly good time of it.

[_Quietus_]

Speed, jump height and health on kill really makes a pyro shine

[Superfrequency]

Ok, I figured out how to make my own missions for singleplayer. Not difficult. Observations:

- The maximum amount of money you can have is 30000. Most loadouts require about 15000 to max out.
- The Demoknight is the cheapest loadout to fully upgrade at about 10000.
- Pretty much don't bother with the Huntsman.
- Spies, bloody useless! Even a fully upgraded Enforcer with crit canteen is not all that fearsome. Valve needs to add a sapper cooldown upgrade.
- WOW, fully upgraded Flare Gun. This thing is no joke. With fire rate, reload speed and burn length maxed you can crit other pyros with it long distance. I did not take the update seriously when it said it would "become a lethal long-range weapon". It does like 180+ DPS on burning targets. Very, very useful upgrade for defensive Pyro builds if you are not tanky enough to go flame people. It is surely a devastating combo with slowing Jarate.

I'd really, really love to play a mission where you start with $5000, earn double that and face difficult waves immediately. Half of the fun of this mode is being superpowered. I'm sure someone will make one, but if they don't I might have to.

[Arcanum]

- Pretty much don't bother with the Huntsman.
- Spies, bloody useless! Even a fully upgraded Enforcer with crit canteen is not all that fearsome. Valve needs to add a sapper cooldown upgrade.
- WOW, fully upgraded Flare Gun. This thing is no joke. With fire rate, reload speed and burn length maxed you can crit other pyros with it long distance. I did not take the update seriously when it said it would "become a lethal long-range weapon". It does like 180+ DPS on burning targets. Very, very useful upgrade for defensive Pyro builds if you are not tanky enough to go flame people. It is surely a devastating combo with slowing Jarate.

This. The only use I got out of huntsman was Bleed damage + jarate, which allowed me to just fire arrows into a crowd and get tons of damage. Spy was clearly the most underpowered, since the instant I would start backstabbing, everything ever would notice me and shoot everything ever at me. I also tried upgrading the scorch shot but I kept not using it forever and I forgot while I was playing Pyro

I'd really, really love to play a mission where you start with $5000, earn double that and face difficult waves immediately. Half of the fun of this mode is being superpowered. I'm sure someone will make one, but if they don't I might have to.

IIRC, there is a difficulty mode on Mannworks called "ironman," which is almost what you said but with only $1000, and the first wave would tear you a structurally superfluous new behind. At least, that was my experience while messing around on Sepulch

[Superfrequency]

Pretty much everything above the standard difficulty wrecked me. Just jumping into the game with the ability to max one or two of your weapons right off the bat feels so right, though. You can edit the parameters of giants to make unique entities like Minigun-fast crit Soldiers, so it could still get a lot harder.

I forgot to mention, but when I rolled Phlog I did over 8000 damage in one life, which might be more than all of my damage records in the main game combined. It's serious.

Unpro Tips for all classes:
- You don't need to completely max out your ammo capacity or clip size. You're not going to use all of it if you're playing with five other people.
- Health regen is not that great unless you are a Medic, and even then it only takes +2 more health per second to completely nullify afterburn. If you are not a Medic, just get healed by the Medic. Health on kill is incredibly useful, however, because it gives you stacking overheal, and should be applied to your primary weapon immediately.
- I have found the various damage resistances to be mostly a big money sink. If you have health on kill and a decent Medic, don't bother.
- Jump height isn't going to do much for you unless you're a Scout. Conversely, movement speed is useful for every class. Speed buffs like you get from the Baby Face's Blaster or Gas Jockey set don't stack, so don't use them!
- Piercing is fantastic.
- It's more important that the Medic is running Kritzkrieg and maxes out charge rate than it is for you to completely max out your damage, which is very expensive.
- Crit and uber canteens are very powerful. Make sure you use them, but only when you really need to!

There are quite a lot of upgrades that are not worth getting, or look like they are worth getting but unnecessary. After I play some more I think I will post some example builds that might help players who are struggling to succeed. The best build is still TEAMWORK.

Also, what is the command to call a vote to change the difficulty?

[Jacquerel]

It should just be in the regular voting menu when you press the escape button, that's how we do it on the #mspafa server

[Moronis]

I find that you want to bring in different weapons and classes based on the mission for the most part. Piss Sniper on Decoy, Regular Sniper on Coal, and Jarate and Bushwacka for MannWorks by way of example. Best thing overall to do though is to play for yourself and see what upgrades work for you.

[ikkonoishi]

Also I believe if you switch class that you get all the money your group has earned back to use on the new class. So switching to pyro to combat an explosive happy wave is a solid tactic.

[curiousTerminal]

You don't, yur upgrades are still assigned to the previous class. Switching is actually detrimental.

[Portalboat]

You CAN actually 'sell' your upgrades, though.

[Jacquerel]

You CAN actually 'sell' your upgrades, though.

No you can't?
You can in the first round but after that they're set in stone once you close the menu.

[-Benedict]

Which is, you know, a terrible idea. I'd think it was a bug if they didn't point out that your other class still had its upgrades with a little green indicator. Why the hell would you discourage players from changing classes?

[Mr.Tie]

being a little off topic, but I crafted a "Human Cannonball" if anyone is interested in it, I'd let it go for 1:1 craftable or a refine... it's the boring all class soberstuntman without the stars

[Arcanum]

I forgot to mention, but when I rolled Phlog I did over 8000 damage in one life, which might be more than all of my damage records in the main game combined. It's serious.

Doesn't quite compare to my 10000+ on a round while playing with a max upgrade loch with an upgraded kritz pocket.

I did like playing phlog but it was overall less useful to the team when i couldn't just airblast normal sized bots away, and when my scorch shot wouldn't quite bounce a target away enough.

- I have found the various damage resistances to be mostly a big money sink. If you have health on kill and a decent Medic, don't bother.

Actually, I found damage resistances on my scout set, which has a depressing lack of Bonk, to be very useful. My upgraded DPS with Piercing, occasional crit canteen to max out my damage output, and general annoyingness and aggro tendencies allowed me to absorb and deal quite a bit of damage. Heavies were barely phasing me, while I pumped entire clips into him and killing anything directly behind him, healing myself with the health on kill. Crit Rocket Soldiers were jokes. My upgraded resistances made the increased damage I take with crit a cola void. The only time I was really worried was when I had run out of my ammo and had to go fast to grab the ammo.

I can remember it clearly. As everyone was supporting engie, who was getting most of the attention, I would down my crit a cola and smash through the line, collecting all the money and health, turning around, and introducing the bots to an ass-full of lead. With my now almost 500 health bonus with resistances, I took another drink and pumped an incoming giant full of it.

I have to say, though, while they both might be weaker, the tighter spread on both the shortstop and the BFB really wrecks a robob's shit with piercing, and an upgrade or two quickly make both better in most ways than the stock. Since most maps allow BFB Scouts to just run around willy nilly, you don't have to use money on jump height while using that, and then the BFB's main downfalls in regards to stock disappear.

[-Benedict]

pffffff you kids and your ten thousands, how about TWELVE THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED TWENTY eh, did you know that that heavy weapons guy is really good at dealing sustained dps to dudes when he has max ammo, fire rate, and a medic refilling his ammo with a canteen all the time

[Mr.Tie]

More people need to be aware of the restarting the map will crash the server thing

and to press F4

[Arcanum]

I've recently come upon 8 strange parts: posthumous kills in perfectly acceptable circumstances. I'm willing to sell each for a reclaimed, if anyone is interested

[Wesley Foxx]

Tried a few setups but for me, nothing beats block box/buff banner soldier. Focus on clip size and reload speed, then fire rate and maybe one point in projectile speed just so that you have EVERY SINGLE LAUNCHER ADVANTAGE IN ONE WEAPON. Being able to put your money towards making your rocket output faster and get heals on every hit is beautiful.

I kind of want to try a blutsauger medic. That could potentially be amazing.

Worst round was three giant scouts, a shitload of fists of steel heavies, snipers, spies and soldiers. We eventually won the wave though.

[_Quietus_]

You honestly dont have to have much damage resistance as pyro on the non-giant robots
50+ HP on kill keeps you alive and well
But you know, giant heavybots and charged giant soldiers and stuff like that won't go down that easy

[Superfrequency]

damage resistances on my scout set

Scout doesn't need health on kill because he already inherently has it via cash overheal. Damage resistances are a bonus on top of that.