The TF2 war rages on, revealing the Soldiers are still in the lead by a healthy, if diminishing, margin.
Also revealed tonight is a new comic featuring the Soldier, a free TF2 weekend starting this Thursday when the Soldier/Demo update goes live, and, most importantly, the Soldier’s first new weapon, the Direct Hit.
The Direct Hit swaps out for the original rocket launcher, and is geared toward those Soldiers out there who can not only hit the broad side of a barn, but hit the chicken inside right between the eyes. The DH fires rockets with 80% greater speed and a quarter more damage. In addition, direct hits on targets already in the air give the rockets an automatic mini-crit. This is the rocket launcher for the true professional soldier.
Sure, dipshits with no aim (like myself) are welcome to play with it, but Direct Hit rockets have a splash damage radius less than half the original. So, if you can’t shoot straight to begin with, this new tube probably isn’t gonna improve your game.
Hm. Hm. I have a feeling this weapon is going to be, simply put, fucking deadly in the hands of people who know what they’re doing. And it is going to kill me a lot. Like, a hell of a lot. Still, it sounds like a great, well-thought out alternate weapon, and I’m really excited to see it in action. I’m trying to picture just how fast those rockets are gonna be zipping around. 80% faster? That’s like… fast! I’m picturing a rocket going twice the speed it normally does, and that’s fast, and this goes even faster slightly slower than that! (I fail at maths. Again. ) Zowie.
I presume the war ends once all the new weapons are unlocked, but I think it’d be neat if Valve still kept a tally of Soldier/Demo kill ratios once all the new gear is released. Then we’ll see who fares better, super-fast rocket Soldiers or super-fast running sword-swinging Demomen. Those playing for the first time during the free weekend are gonna be really confused and totally killed to death.
28 Comments
December 15, 2009
These updates almost make me want to start playing tf2 again. Hmmmmmm…
December 15, 2009
Coming from someone who enjoys TF2 competitively, I’m not comfortable with Valve thinking they know how to effectively create an unlockable geared towards competitive play in a way that’s balanced. But I keep saying this about all the unlockables that are announced, we’ll just have to wait and see how good the Direct Hit is.
December 15, 2009
From what information they tell us about the Direct Hit, I predict this will either be a weapon that becomes too powerful in the hands of skilled players, or it will fire projectiles that aren’t hit scan but just fast enough so it becomes difficult to learn how to lead consistently (think Huntsman and Sandman) like with the current rockets and be ignored by competitive players, or something of both.
December 15, 2009
Considering how AWESOME and BALANCED every update has been so far, how could you be uncomfortable this time around? It’s exciting to see new stuff.
Anyways, I’m loving the comic story line for this update. Very insightful and well done.
December 15, 2009
I think it’ll be fun. It reminds me of a modified mini-rocket I made in Marathon, lo these many years ago. I’m old.
December 15, 2009
DrManette, I honestly cannot tell if you’re being absurdly sarcastic, because the class packs haven’t been all that great or balanced. In fact, some of the significant changes they’ve brought have made the game worse; I don’t know if we’re playing the same Team Fortress 2. :P
December 15, 2009
You have blown my brains out many times as a sniper, don’t sell yourself short on the DH…stoopid lazy town…
December 15, 2009
Aww, why does it have to be so much more powerful? All I can see this new weapon doing is creating an even HUGER skill gap between those who can aim and those who can’t. Oh well. Guess I better learn to aim. Quick.
December 15, 2009
Erm, actually going twice as fast as it currently does would be a 100% increase. This is slightly less. Just thought i’d point that out.
December 16, 2009
I wonder if the damage radius affects the force that the weapon bounces people with. I see lots of soldiers juggling helpless heavies with this in the future.
December 16, 2009
Considering I HARDLY play TF2 anymore since last summer, I don’t care whether the weapons are overpowered or retarded, as long as I get to use them and suck all the fun out of the game as much as I can before it will get boring again.
December 16, 2009
http://youtube.com/watch?v=EHtzuOfquoA
This is a video of a normal rocketlauncher sped up 80% to show how fast the rockets will go.
December 16, 2009
Hong Kong is boring
December 16, 2009
This sounds like it’ll be a great anti-sentry weapon. Consider that a guarded sentry can take a full clip of rockets if the engie is healing it the whole time. If this is more powerful and has the same clip size, sentries and dispensers are going to be having a very bad day. After all, it’s dead simple to hit a stationary target.
December 16, 2009
I’m wondering how hard it will actually be to hit a mid-air target with this thing, because the amount of times I’m hit with a rocket while sticky-jumping is un-believable. So the idea of 25% dmg + mini-crit. At least I wont have to think about landing safely.
December 16, 2009
@ZomBuster
Nice video! It doesn’t seem quite as fast as it did in my strange mind, but that’s good. We’ll still be able to avoid it at long distances. This seems more like a boost against sentries and medium-range targets. Plus, with the huge reduce in splash damage, this actually doesn’t seem that unbalanced to me. Guess I’ll have to see a lightning-fast rocket coming at me before I judge fully, though.
December 16, 2009
This sounds quite a bit like the Huntsman, and look how game-changing that was. I never liked the netcode behind projectile weapons that are meant to hit people. Did you know that if you are standing 0 feet from a wall, the huntsman will still take a full 0.3 or so seconds to reach it? When you’re trying to hit the head of a moving target, just that long to leave the bow…is a lot.
December 16, 2009
There were early tests…
Robin’s Launcher
December 16, 2009
Actually, this weapon sounds rather nice to me - one of my primary complaints about the regular rocket launcher is that the rockets move so slowly. This should help alleviate that.
December 16, 2009
@Chris’s Twitter
Amen to alt-tab brother.
December 16, 2009
@Twitter. If alt-tab doesn’t work, try (sorted for easiest to biggest pain in the ass):
Windows key
Ctrl esc
Ctrl-alt-del
Alt-Enter
Some games are persistent in not wanting to CAD out. Iirc, I believe either Mass Effect or Assassin’s Creed required 2 CADs to get it fully minimized.
December 16, 2009
@Nmanguy, its not just getting out of the game, it’s getting back INTO the game. IE, pretty much any of Valve’s games for me would almost be better to restart (the game) than try going back into after minimizing.
December 16, 2009
New info!
Pickax!
New Sticky Launcher!
Bugle!
Achievements!
http://www.teamfortress.com/war/part6/index.htm
December 17, 2009
Tom Francis gets a special freebie. Valve are big fat trolls!
December 17, 2009
Looking at the title of the latest newspaper: Gorge Herald. A new map perhaps?
And since every other Poopy Joe commemorative plate has been used, the 7th unlock must have something to do with explosions since that is the bonus plate.
December 17, 2009
Chris you should start making predictions like you used too, then you can get a weapon of your own to write about =D
December 17, 2009
The stickybomb launcher has something to do with explosions.
December 17, 2009
The 7th weapon, as stated before, is Florida.
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