TF2 Top Ten

Valve delists lying TF2 servers

Some unscrupulous server admins have created custom "rules" that falsely report the number of players in-game, so players have had to deal with the annoyance of joining a game that the server browser reported to be nearly full, only to find it completely empty.

Valve have found a way to defeat such chicanery: a simple server ranking system that awards points based on the amount of time players stay on the server (up to 45 points per player). Servers that have a lot of players joining and leaving within a 15-minute window are penalized, and those with negative point totals are removed from the master server browser. There's a little leeway given once the score drops below zero, but it ain't much:



"Bad Player Experiences" are a polite way of saying that the player has joined a lying server, and bounced off in disgust. Valve's solution here is rather elegant, and it doesn't even require a client download.

L4D and TF2 updates

Left 4 Dead

Lobby leaders can now specify in lobby settings whether to search for an official dedicated server or for the best available dedicated server. If the official dedicated search fails it will then default to the best available dedicated server automatically

Team Fortress 2

Players who are stunned by a Scout now take 50% less damage

Increased the minimum distance to stun a player with the Sandman

(includes a number of additional fixes)

I do NOT condone this ...

... but if you absolutely have to grief TF2:

Best-selling games of February 2009

1. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
3. Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II
4. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
5. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin
6. Spore
7. World Of Warcraft
8. The Sims 2 Apartment Life Exp. Pack
9. Fallout 3
10. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack
11. Call Of Duty: World At War
12. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
13. Left 4 Dead
14. The Sims 2 Deluxe
15. Civilization IV
16. The Sims 2 Mansion & Garden Stuff Exp.
17. StarCraft Battle Chest
18. Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack
19. Diablo Battle Chest
20. The Sims 2 Pets Exp.

It's worth noting that Starcraft is a 10 year-old game. Diablo is nine.

GT interview on Rage (and a bit on Doom 4)

Left 4 Dead update

The update includes quite a few changes, so I'll just highlight a few. The entire changelog is here.

Versus mode:

Tank melee attack can now hit multiple Survivors in one swing

Fixed Tank punch being able to hit targets behind walls

The Smoker tongue can now target and grab victims through common infected

Increased the cone in which a Smoker can grab a target

Boomers that explode in mid-air will now hit Survivors directly below them with Bile

Fixed some cases where versus score was not being recalculated properly. It is no longer beneficial to pass pills between players at the end of the round or heal other players and then shoot them

Other changes:

The scoreboard now shows the numeric value of a player's ping

Quick match will now try to match to any campaign. Removed the preference to match to games according to the player progressing through all campaigns

Games in a finale are now joinable via the Friends and Steam Group games list

UT3: cheaper for longer

From Steam News:

Free Weekend Encore Begins Friday

Unreal Tournament 3 Black, the fully updated version of UT3 with the Titan Pack, has enjoyed an increase of over 2000% in simultaneous player numbers since its March 5th release and last week's Free Weekend on Steam. In addition, UT3 Black has claimed the number one spot on Steam's bestseller list.

To celebrate the game's overwhelming success and meet the huge demand, the UT3 Black 40% off Steam sale has been extended through Sunday, March 22, and an encore Free Weekend of play begins this Friday via Steam. Pre-load for the encore Free Weekend begins today.

For more information, please visit www.steamgames.com.

Way too much time on his hands...

If you've been gaming online for any length of time, you've probably joined at least one server that has some kind of arbitrary rule set. Bunny-hopping, for example, will get you kicked. Camping will earn you a punishment via the mod. Certain weapons are banned outright. My personal favorites are the "tactical" servers where you're forced to crouch while moving around, because the admin is utterly dedicated to his notion of "realism," and god forbid that someone sprints from one point of cover to another.

It's all about controlling the way other people play in order to give yourself (and like-minded players) a crutch. The beauty of having multiple venues, however, is that no one's forcing you to play on a particular server; there are plenty of other pubs out there that give you the freedom to play the game you bought. I've discovered, however, that the idea behind the various style-of-play limitations has evolved into something more ridiculous, and I'm compelled to call it out for being the bucket of rhinoceros shit that it is.

A sanctimonious little nazi calling himself msleeper has released a server plugin that's designed to prevent "achievement farming" in Team Fortress 2 (that is, earning achievements outside the context of normal gameplay, usually for the purpose of unlocking a weapon). He's apparently running that plugin on a "trap" server (with a custom map designed specifically for farming) that exists solely to catch those damned dirty achievement "cheaters" in the act. If you get even one achievement in his server, Mr. Sleeptard will add you to a blacklist of player names and Steam ID's (3560-strong so far), and send the SQL list to any server admin that wants to ban you.

What's his motivation, you ask?

By joining this server, and earning a single achievement, you show that you are willing to ruin the game for personal gain...

I have heard plenty of incessant bitching from farmers and people who think there is "nothing wrong with farming", and you are wrong. There is everything wrong with farming because it is ruining the integrity of the game, the purpose of achievements. My favorite argument is, 'It's better than people farming them in real games,' to which I say, why farm them at all? You shouldn't FARM them, you should EARN them.

And there you have it. It's not enough to enforce your rules on your server: now you have to enforce your rules on other servers, too. This guy has his own idea about how TF2 should be played, and he's out to punish people that don't agree with him. This, my friends, is what the great philosopher dubbed "epic douche-baggery," applied to a laughably futile endeavor.