Thanks!

You can do it with this plugin. Features are controlled with cvars and may be toggled separately.

Thanks!

Regarding reversing flames priority: yes, absolutely, this must be done. I have no idea how it was never changed. That comment in the code - "take the first flame", "THE FIRST" - hints strongly that this is an obvious oversight that they simply forgot that they store the flames in chronological order.

As for tweaking Blue Moon rampup. The thing is that this rampup accomplish nothing. Nothing. As the update notes claim its purpose was to combat flail-around post-ji tactics. Does this mechanics accomplish this goal? No, it does not! This "heat index", or whatever they call it, this metric has no correlation to flame density. It completely fails to detect flail-around WHILE constantly penalizing focused fire (especially at point blank). And with post-JI flames the game absolutely MUST have SOMETHING to combat that flail-around. If Blue Moon fails to do it wile having horrific side effects, why even bother tweaking it? If devs want to estimate density and penalize sparse flames, well, let them craft something that actually does it. If devs want damage ramp up as a separate mechanic that is unrelated to density estimation, let them implement something simple and comprehensible that doesn't involve a hidden metric that updates itself every frame based on complex computations. If devs want damage to be accounted by player's precision at a fine-grained level, then, well, probably just scrap JI system and go back to per-particle damage? Blue moon rampup fails at all three possible goals. As already said, density estimation is poor; the fact that damage rampup spans across several frames is incindental and its rate is heavily inconsistent and unpredictable; as for precision estimation, well, it penalizes focused fire against static target, I don't even know what to add here. I see no point in bothering with tweaking numbers of this system, this rampup system must simply be deleted and replaced with something else.

Years ago I made "Meet the Broken Flamethrower" video that demonstrates how flamethrower is clearly malfunctioning which is manifested through constant and unpredictable damage drops that players have no way to control and which provide no visual cues for why they happen (even in a slowed-down replay). YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqaI5LhNalk Thread: https://www.teamfortress.tv/52226/meet-the-broken-flamethrower

Unfortunately, it has never got any better. However, recently I invested some time into investigation of technical side of flamethrower (TF2 code being open source really helps!) and I've managed to come up with a solution that drastically improves consistency while also fixing that infamous "flail-around and hold M1" post-JI tactics FOR REAL (that "Blue Moon" rampup system never ever fixed it despite what update notes claimed!). Oh, and no more -50% damage near walls.

I implemented the solution in a form of a SourceMod plugin and I called it "Flamethrower Rehabilitation". I wonder if competitive community will find it useful? Anyways, I'll leave the links below.

Video demonstration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsNfgdueT9U
Plugin & code: https://github.com/bigmazi/flamethrower-rehabilitation
AlliedModders thread: https://forums.alliedmods.net/showthread.php?p=2841241

In-depth information about what it actually does, how it works and what it supercedes may be found at GitHub & AlliedModders pages that are linked above.

-1 rocket per clip
-40% self damage on rocket jump
Stacks with Gunboats multiplicatively (-76% if paired)

Assuming each current attribute is scrapped

An overview of flamethrower issues mostly related to the ramp-up system which was introduced in the Blue Moon update

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqaI5LhNalk

Are there some SourceTV demos or even VODs somwhere? All I found so far is RGL twitch channel where one and a half match was streamed.