August 13, 2009, 10:56 am – Valve – Product Update

As many of you know, today the TF2 Blog began Day 1 of the Classless Update, which was centered around the availability of 18 new hats and a new arena map. What many of you don’t know is that Valve hid links to “easter eggs” inside the update page. This was brought to my attention by Axon, who found three of them. One of the links was in the monocle of the man wearing the top hat on the left. As you can see, very sneaky of Valve. The links below should still work unless Valve deactivated them. Enjoy.

http://www.teamfortress.com/classless/hidden/hats/

http://www.teamfortress.com/classless/hidden/enigmatical/

http://www.teamfortress.com/classless/hidden/barbary/

So Valve recently had some Beta servers going in the TF2 world, and it appears Valve has shown some love to the Scout, showing-off at least 4 updates with him. Those changes are.

(Source and More Info Here)

Good to see they haven’t given up on the Scout or the Force-A-Nature. It’s also good to see that these updates are getting tested more, to help create more balanced, and bug-less features.

Even though the Sandman has Double-Jump now, I’d still prefer not having a 1 rocket kill me. I love my plain and simple aluminum bat.

Thanks for these updates, Valve! RIP Pistol Script. You were so young, but your time is up.

Well, the news is: Project: Bonk! is the largest TF2 Scout fan group on Steam Community. Project: Bonk! is also evolving, just not in member wise either! We have a new logo, and a new tag! We also plan on contacting the popular spy group “Elite Spy Group” aka “[ESG]” in becoming partners. After all, can’t Scouts and Spies all get along?

Well, we currently have over 158 members! Beating “Team Fortress 2 Scout” also known as “E.P.S”. They have 138 members as of right now, and appears to be a Spanish group. So thanks to all the members of Project: Bonk! The staff really appreciate your loyalty, and company. You all help build a better future for the next generation of Scouts. If you have any ideas on helping us grow, feel free to get in contact with us. You can fine me on the Steam group if you need to contact us, my name on Steam is “Soaked.”

As for the new Project: Bonk! logo, I’m glad it came out so well. After a few hours of work and not slacking, I’ve finally come up with something that is up to my standards. While designing it, I’ve tried to keep the TF2 style in it, while adding a fresh look on it. Although the original size isn’t very big, I hope to create a much larger logo, for future projects, and a better resource. I was also aiming for it to be easy to identify while scaled down to even 48×48, which worked out quite well.

We also have a new tag. Since Project: Bonk! is a community and not a clan, we thought it would be better to be put at the end of the name. Since “prjktBnk!” didn’t really go well at the end, we decided to switch it up a bit. By making it more friendly in space, and multiple tag wise. Most clan tags go in front of your username, so if you’re in a clan, it’s easier to use the tag. Since it’s at the end, and takes up only 4 characters. Which will not only benefit you, but will also benefit the community.

And last but not least, as I mentioned before, I’m going to contact the leader of ESG to see if they would like to partner up. So that we can help each other grow, and become stronger communities. ODR66 is also going to help us, my blog posts will also show up on their site. Thanks ODR66!

Left 4 Dead Crash Course DLC Full of Zombies and Free of Charge

Just because a Valve’s got a new baby sloshing around in its tremendous, engorged Boomer womb (insert baby Boomer joke here) doesn’t mean the developer’s going to start neglecting its first undead child. The proof? A brand new, totally free DLC campaign is on the way for stalwart L4D1 supporters.

Titled “Crash Course,” the new campaign fits snugly between No Mercy and Death Toll, chronologically speaking. Along with new Campaign and Survival maps, new character dialogue, a recharge timer for Infected teammates, and rebalanced item spawns also put the C in this DLC.
The new scenarios will, of course, work fine and dandy with Campaign mode, but apparently, Crash Course’s true purpose is to be a “30 minute” showcase for Versus mode. You know, more like a typical multiplayer shooter.

It’s out in September. And it’s free! Unless you’ve been so horrendously wronged by the existence of Left 4 Dead 2 that even Valve’s continued support of L4D1 (the very thing you feared for when L4D2 was announced) isn’t enough to stop your steaming, you’ll play it. You’ll play it and you’ll love it because, well, why not?   

Some of you may have already noticed the HLstatsX reset that took place today, and many of you have wasted no time rebuilding your rank.

Now is the time to prove your stuff and join the new race to the top. We will be looking closely at the results here on the blog, and as always are looking for feedback on how to improve the stats system.

Think the medic gets too much of a assist bonus?

Think melee kills deserve more points?

Let us know what you think!

(Image Credit: Sixerfixer)

Fastest Way to Mid-Badlands

Check Out Project: Bonk

This is the fastest way to get to the mid control point on CP_Badlands. And for a Scout, it makes a big deal being the first to the point
(depending on your tactics). To help get the point controlled a bit so when your team gets to it, they don’t have to wait for Red to go down to zero, puts pressure on the other team, and also makes Red wait longer to start capturing the point.

It’s also good to not be the first player there when a Scout, since then you can go under the bridge, and pop out the other side, and blast the enemy from behind. But eh, we all have a different tactics that we use at different times.

This way also requires the Force-A-Nature. So, sorry to the Scouts who stick with the Scattergun. Like they say, the Force-A-Nature is for mobility, and the Scattergun is for killing.

Force-A-Nature For Mobility, Scattergun for Killing

Check Out Project: Bonk

The Force-A-Nature can equal up the Scatter, just in different ways.

Many people think the FaN doesn’t come close to the scatter. Or that the Force-A-Nature is a nub weapon. If it sucks, then why would nubs and noobs use it? Wouldn’t they rather use a better weapon? I guess you could argue that it helps protect/keeps you alive longer. But what’s so wrong with that?

I’d say the Force-A-Nature isn’t as good as the Scatter in the killing department, but not always is the Scouts plan to kill everyone he meets. The Force-A-Nature has more depth than just to “push people in to pits, etc”. I use it to protect me teammates, by pushing the enemy away, or go around the enemy and push them in to my teammates for them to finish him off.

The Force-A-Nature is also great for mobility. 2fort, you just have to triple jump across the water, so you don’t have to take the high-risk bridge. Also, most people don’t expect that move. There is many more ways to use it to get to different areas. Some areas, you can do with just double jump, but the triple jump can help you get there more efficiently.

And coming back to when I said “but not always is the Scouts plan to kill everyone he meets”. The Force-A-Nature can usually help you more if you’re going to a control point: Push enemies that are a threat, that get in your way, on a control point: To push the enemies away, so you can keep capturing the point.

So that’s why the Force-A-Nature is just as (almost) balanced as the Scatter. You just have to use it differently. For better mobility, better distracting, etc.

Every Friday, at 9 PM EST, Arena/CTF Fridays commence on our second server! The ip is 208.167.232.12:27015 Fun times will be had by all, tell your friends and join us for a great time!

Many thanks go out to Matt from AGN who is continuing to investigate the weapon level issue, and below are some of his very interesting findings.

“Right now I have 1 theory and, looks to work but it can be wrong.
The levels of each weapon are dependent on the number of Achievement Mile Stones that you have for each class. So if you have all 3 Achievement Mile Stones for say Pyro you could get an unlock for all three weapons that go all the way up to level 100. If you have only 2 Mile Stone achievements you will only get up to Level 50.

The Levels:
Mile Stone 1: Basic Unlock.
Mile Stone 2: Basic Unlock Level to Level 75.
Mile Stone 3: Level 76 – Level 100
That is strictly a guess but it does fit with the achievement Mile Stones that I have.
I was asked to provide pictures of Guns that have these higher levels by the curious and people who don’t believe me so see the pictures below.

http://www.absolutegamenetwork.com/images/1.jpg – Level 91 KGB
http://www.absolutegamenetwork.com/images/2.jpg – Level 90 Blutsauger
http://www.absolutegamenetwork.com/images/3.jpg – Level 66 Huntsman

In Game Testing:
Socialized and myself spent maybe 30 minutes testing this unlocked weapons and we have found the following.

Scout
The Force of Nature at Level 71 does 220 Damage at close range to a Heavy leaving 80 health. Extremely Increased KickBack.
The Force of Nature at Level 12 does 200 Damage at close range to a Heavy leaving with 100 health. Kick Back not noticed compared to Level 71.
The Force of Nature at Level 10 does roughly 190is damage at close range to a Heavy leaving with roughly 100-110 health. ""

Heavy
The Killing Gloves at Level 91 had roughly 10 seconds of Crit Time After a Kill.
The Killing Gloves at Basic Level had 5 Seconds of Crit Time After A kill.
The Sandvich at Level 55 (I think it was Social Had it) Restored more health, recharged faster, made the heavy make less noise when eating.

Sniper
The Level 10 Huntsman did roughly 120 damage to a Heavy at Medium Range.
The Level 66 Huntsman did roughly 220 Damage to a Heavy at Medium Range.

Medic
The Blutsauger at Level 5 did 3 points of damage and restored 6 health in 3 shots in burst fire.
THe Blutsauger at Level 90 did 10 points of damage and restored 9 health in 3 shots in burst fire.

Random Other Tests
No increased rate of fire in any weapon
No increased ammo count with any weapon