Valve released the TF2 SDK in February, and immediately we all jumped in on a conversation about our own version of the game, but with blackjack and hookers improving the game on all fronts to better suit our needs, whatever those needs were. This conversation wasn’t even new, competitive-focused mods have been talked about for almost 12 years now, at least from what I can find in TFTV discussions.

More recently than the release of the SDK comes a wallhack exploit that was publicized, with steps on how to achieve it, to perfectly bypass sv_pure limitations. Unfortunately, we now know that Valve in their latest large patch since then has not addressed it, just like they did not address the spy decloak bug that also had a step-by-step guide written for it (6 years ago!). While I think it was the right decision to publicize this exploit, it makes plain the continued pattern of Valve not caring about game-breaking exploits, which is clear to anybody who frequents this forum.

That should have been some sort of rallying point. Instead, people got caught up in discussing the philosophies of exposing exploits to the public, rather than what we should have been focusing on: legitimate fixes from and for our community in the form of our own promod that actually addresses our very real problems.

The downsides of forum discussion become very clear, very quickly when you try to read through everybody’s opinions and ideas. We get stuck in endless “what ifs” that lack any real scope (and sometimes, merit) and spend our time debating the boogeyman of the week instead of narrowing down our ideas to qualitative goals. Questions that need answers get buried by rebalancing offclasses, adding tutorials, remaking matchmaking or hosting pugs some nebulous new service, giving pyro a lightning gun, whatever. Meanwhile, we’re still stuck with an inconsistent experience that we actually have the power to fix.

This, just like the time before and the time before that, can be a wakeup call to focus on something that really matters, which is a fork of TF2 that is consistent, fixes what Valve clearly won’t, and gives the people who push the game forward the tools they need without reinventing from the ground up. Mastercomms just did this with TC2’s summer patch, and it looks amazing. Is that a jumping off point, or even a blueprint?

I’m not saying I have answers for who codes, funds, or maintains the crazy amount of work that a project like this would entail. I just wish we wouldn’t spin our wheels for a decade arguing over making a third global whitelist or anything that isn’t making our experience realistically any better. We’re playing the game now, why don’t we want to make the one we have stable instead of daydreaming about a totally different one?

respawn binding and spamming as soon as you're any level of caught has been such a game changer since it became a mainstream feature of 6s, but it's so shitty to push against, esp on process and sunshine, which are also the two most popular maps in the pool (at least for pugging)
shifting the goalposts for how easy it is to take advantage of the ridiculous sightlines on those maps with zero consequence makes it hard for me to say that it's healthy for the game, even if it's been around for so long that it's become central to a lot of holding strategies on those maps and is considered QOL by most

I am death merchant in that shitty game mode and all I can tell you is that:
1) meet your match happened in 2016, whatever "blood" on our hands that you're referring to is 9 years old
2) valve isn't listening to anybody as the game hasn't had a real, serious update to internal balance since 2017
3) competitive players DID play it at the time, and valve didn't make any changes then either. Tons of people played, and before long the entire game mode was wiped out because the cheaters in it were so rampant to the point that it was entirely unplayable. Bots continued to run up competitive matchmaking YEARS after it died in the regular playerbase, to include the casual community that don't come here to talk about game balance.

please update your frame of reference, it's not 2016 anymore and the game isn't going to change because we didn't queue up enough in something with no game balance when there were already better, pre-existing options that we could play instead.

bless up I can't wait to watch, always top tier production coming from cappingtv

https://i.imgur.com/UsJ4Kbl.png

it's still possible and is generally better to learn how to do them manually so you can decide when to ctap when its optimal, but even with that this ban just negates a way that I can do them consistently without twisting my hand in horrible ways or completely relearning how to jump with different binds. It's not necessary and just makes soldier harder to play, when it's already one of the harder classes to find real value on at higher skill levels where this tech is more necessary

Going to Sharks games in year of our lord 2025 is a practice in seeing how badly you can see somebody get beat up before you feel bad about it
Not sure how to go back to 2016 though so being from san jose is just like that now i guess

ngl man I went through your logs.tf page and after clicking for about 30 seconds I wasn't able to find a single log where you went positive anyway lmfao

we should discuss the difference between trolling as an epic own and maybe just realizing to yourself that you're really just not that good at playing the game

If I had a wishlist towards a pro mod, in-game player QoL is obviously important. But I'm imagining things that might make production easier, and there's a couple of things that come to mind. If we could have tools like CastingEssentials built into the game, it would make it WAY easier to configure before streams, or for newer casters to get involved. Native support for multiple huds, more options for customization without having to go down config rabbit holes, all of these things seem like no-brainer level positives. I know the PASSTIME group already have ideas in mind for bug fixes for their game as well, which cause a lot of grief for anybody trying to produce for that game mode too

I don't know if this "valve's last update" type of update but outside of seasonal hat additions it probably is. Whoever is going to be in charge of this project has a lot of work and expectations from the community, and they shouldn't take that lightly.

This is going to sound crazy, but I've been struggling since I got this monitor a couple of years ago with a burn-in problem, which only burns in when I sit in-game (for TF2 only!) and goes away after there are enough moving elements on my screen for a while, like if I start actively playing or watch a video for an extended period of time. I've included some pictures of the problem here and here.

Does anybody know why an IPS monitor would be burning in for solely TF- no other games or platforms do this. Also, I have to take pictures of the burn-in with my phone because it doesn't show up on a screen capture or OBS recording. Thanks!

caption ammomod and then you post an endif pic instead... clickbait

RIP to the best CS update ever with the ragdolls launching themselves across the map

I’m so hyped everything is coming together. Siyo said it best that we’re trying to be by the community for the community, and this event should be no different
that being said cu@ and we may have some more exciting announcements coming up

Adjustable legs are a bit overrated, especially if you don't really care about ergonomics as much (or are just on a tighter budget) but facebook marketplace is your best friend in either of those cases. Sounds like giving the malm to your girlfriend is already the best move no matter what happens, you just should probably upgrade yours in the meantime.

Pretty much anything when it comes to desks are secondary in comparison to being sturdy and looking good, height usually gets changed with an adjustable chair so you shouldn't have to worry about that. If something is nice but not well kept after, maintaining desks that are made of actual wood is still easier and worth more than buying one made of IKEA wood and having to replace parts entirely over time

editing to say that if anything else look into getting a deeper desk, 30 inches was a game changer for me over 23

This both looks bad and also simultaneously really unergonomic for office work

I know what red bull are doing to checo is kind of fair when his teammate is verstappen but the two people that they're considering replacing him with are usually worse so I don't really get it