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!

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

Ongoing discussions have been taking place in the Forums about possible new changes coming to Team Fortress 2. Many have been observing radically different physics at work, everything from the Pyro’s air blast to rockets and stickies. Blows that normally send you up a few inches, have been propelling you across the map.

It turns out there may be some code buried in the last update, that will change some of the game mechanics fairly substantially.

Here some of the possible changes noted in the Forums by Matt from AGN. These are not currently enabled, so keep in mind these are not final, or set in stone.

lvl 100 Natasha, freezes victim completely.

 
lvl 75 Force Of Nature, basically lets Scouts rocket jump.

 
lvl 100 Huntsman, shoot ‘em in the foot, it’s as good as a headshot.

Level 90+ Killing Gloves makes you Chuck Liddell

 
Level 90+ Medic Gun (the unlock that gives 3 health) Kills faster and restores heal at a faster rate. Not exactly sure how faster but yeah.

We will release more on this as it develops.

Updates to Team Fortress 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1 & 2, and Portal have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Team Fortress 2, Episode 1 & 2, and Portal

• Added support for the Novint Falcon

General

• Added an option to the advanced multiplayer menu to select left or right handed view models
• Fixed a bug where a spectator’s wearable items could be seen floating around the player they were spectating
• Fixed a bug where a fake Spy hand would appear on the screen of other players
• Custom death animations now only play 25% of the time
• Fixed teleporters not being build-able in some places where they should be (such as within the pit at the end of Badwater Basin)
• Fixed rare client crash on connection and level change
• Removed refract from water ripples caused by bullet impacts for performance reasons
• Added log entries for player extinguished events using the medigun, jarate, flamethrower and dispenser
• Started tracking localization settings to help make decisions regarding localization in the future
• Fixed the blank progress bar in the upper-left of the screen when the client scheme is reloaded

Mapmaker requests

• Added spawn flag to func_respawnroomvisualizer that allows it be non-solid to players
• Added SetSolid input to func_respawnroomvisualizer to change solidity to players dynamically
• Added OnWonByTeam1 and OnWonByTeam2 outputs to the TFGamerulesProxy

Sniper

• Fixed a bad detection case in the “Friendship is Golden” achievement
• Changed the description of the “Triple Prey” achievement so it better describes how to get it
• Critical arrows now have a trail and correctly deal enhanced damage
• The Huntsman now defaults to be right handed
• Friendly arrows will no longer trigger the near miss sound on you
• Fixed several sources of floating arrows

Spy

• Fixed disguised Spies occasionally looking like they have invulnerability, instead of the correct fake Spy mask
• Disguised spies will no longer lose their disguise weapon when they interact with a weapon locker
• Fixed a bug where the spy’s watch would randomly change models during play
• Fixed uncloaked spies flickering in and out of the cloak effect when taking damage
• The Cloak and Dagger now always regenerates at its intended rate. Previously it only regenerated at the correct rate when the spy was cloaked
• Increased the Cloak and Dagger regeneration rate slightly
• Capped the rate of energy loss from moving faster than run speed (falling / air toss) while cloaked with the Cloak and Dagger
• The Dead Ringer’s cloak consume rate has been slightly reduced, giving about an extra second of cloak time on a full meter
• Emerging from the Dead Ringer’s cloak now drains up to 40% of the cloak meter instead of 100%. This drain only happens if the meter is at least 60% full
• The Dead Ringer’s cloak meter can now be regenerated from ammo sources
• The Ambassador now only crits when fully accurate and no longer penetrates enemies
• The Spy can no longer change weapons from the knife while shocked by the Razorback
• Force-A-Nature & Flamethrower air blast knockback effects no longer work on disguised spies
• Fixed disguised Spies showing the wrong teleporter effects when using an enemy teleporter

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Team Fortress 2

• Added a "Discard" button to the item pickup panel.
• Added a backstab custom death animation to the Heavy.
• Changed default for tf_arena_use_queue to 1. This was the original behavior prior to the last update.
• Changed the Dead Ringer so it can be activated while carrying the flag.
• Increased the Force-A-Nature’s damage by 10%.
• Fixed not being able to reflect arrows with the Flamethrower.
• Fixed The Huntsman drawing a muzzle flash under lagged conditions.
• Fixed the background color of the Spy disguise panel not always matching his disguise team.
• Fixed idle players being kicked when the server has tf_arena_use_queue set to 0.
• Fixed Spies not being able to sap a building if an enemy player was colliding with the building.
• Fixed getting a real target ID on an enemy Spy that’s disguised as one of your teammates if you are disguised as an enemy.
• Fixed the Ambassador not shooting enemy sticky bombs.
• Fixed Spies being able to automatically cloak after uncloaking at the moment of a weapon switch.
• Fixed Jarate instantly exploding when thrown in some places, like the final area of Badwater.
• Fixed spectators not having their items removed when they enter spectator mode.
• Fixed Sniper "civilian" exploit where players could crash the server.
• Fixed a couple of cases where viable backstabs would fail.