That sly Tom Francis must have a way with the private companies that makes them talk. Usually silent and reserved about their announcements, Valve has strangely released news regarding the next Team Fortress 2 update, and it looks to be the largest yet. Juicy details after the jump.
Massive Team Fortress 2 Update Coming September
News & Rumors
Remember back in the day- no, not that far- when Valve introduced the random drop system? Of course you do! You could be asleep in the spectator’s chair during a long match and wake up with a pile of redundant weapons piled neatly on the wide girth of your belly. It was helpful for those bums like me who are either terrible at games or too lazy to jump into an achievement server. However, by your fourth flaregun, it was obvious that the system was flawed.
Valve then introduced crafting and announced a trading system. Crafty players took advantage of the system and built themselves the missing trophies in their collection or created elegant head-wear, but months later, item trading remained inexistent. They mentioned trading in an interview not too long ago, blaming the delays on the Steam department. Something about the new UI, but whatever. Blame the Mac people.
Remember Half-Life 2: Episode 3, that Left 4 Dead DLC, or the Team Fortress 2 comic book? Neither do I.
They’ve done a great job of giving the community something to look forward to, but giving the players a heads-up of an upcoming TF2 update is unheard of. Usually they drop clues here and there and announce the update a few days prior to launch. Now they’ve confirmed the update for next month, which we should have seen from a mile away if it wasn’t for our tattered backpacks losing items left and right, just to be picked back up again by some mystical force.
Maybe they’re subtly nudging us, hinting that instead of sacrificing our newly-acquired items to the crafting overlord, we should save them for the time being.
Enough babbling from me, I know you just want the details. Along with the obvious Polycount contest winners, a new game mode and trading will make it into Team Fortress 2, but that’s not all! It never is! Being the cunningly deceptive people they are, Valve are sneaking in an additional contest winner’s item pack. The Mann himself, Robin Walker, gave this information to PC Gamer via an interview here.
TL;DR
- Trading
- About 20 new items (weapons and hats)
- New game mode (details not given)
- Less face-stabs
- Bullets (Bullet points remain unconfirmed)
I love the TL;DR part, didn’t want to read all of the TF2 stuff.
STILL WAITING VALVE!
Bring us Ep3!
Mother of god! Valve have done it again.
More hats? Can they at least make item drops a bit more rapid?
I’ve found the current drop system to work quite well, but it’s a bit annoying to hit the weekly cap. I don’t play a ton anymore, but if you jump into a local bot match (training) and join a team, then you’re all set for getting stuff.
You can just idle this way and the next time you die in-game, you’ll be handsomely rewarded. It’s a strange system, but I only used it to get my first real hat.
Frankly,I just play until I get an item drop,then I stop.