TF2’s New Update: Hats Redesigned and the Beta!

Fancy’s the only word I could come up with. I’m sleepy and stuff.

In any case, the main improvements on the hats are for their appearance while painted. To quote the official changelog:

Many hats have had their appearance while painted improved. Paintable hats should now appear less like solid blobs of color and retain more of the character and texture of the hat.

Neat. Remember people, Pinky can see into the future.

A bunch of items have also been made paintable:

Made the following items paintable: Sergeant’s Drill Hat, Pyro’s Beanie, “Dangeresque, Too?”, Whiskered Gentleman, Safe’n’Sound, Trophy Belt, Frenchman’s Beret, Camera Beard, Max’s Severed Head, Alien Swarm Parasite, Ellis’ Cap, and the Horrific Headsplitter.

Also neat. Here’s the changelog: http://store.steampowered.com/news/4725/

But moving on to the main event, Valve are announcing the TF2 public beta.

What will they use it for, you ask?

Testing and tuning various class, item, and weapon changes

Testing map changes and variants

Running higher level, game-wide experiments (like doubling player health)

Testing new technologies without the risk of breaking the game

Nice! Valve hug, on three! One, two, three.

And the beta is already live and ready to be played by owners of TF2! Just head to your Library, and look for “Team Fortress 2 Beta”, and install it. Takes 4 GB, so make sure you’ve got some free space.

What’s in the beta now, you ask?

Three Natascha variants:

-40% damage

-25% damage, -25% health

Spin-up/down time increased, slowdown-on-hit effect falls off over distance.

Map changes:

cp_granary: new entrance added into the RED and BLU mid ramp room.

cp_5gorge: 5 CP version of cp_gorge.

Misc balance changes:

Players being healed by a medic are immune to movement-impairing effects generated by hit-scan weapons.

Oh, no! No! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! NATASCHA? WHY? WHY? WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY.

Moving on, let’s check out their FAQ:

Are there items in the Beta?

On signing into the beta, you’ll be automatically granted all the achievement based unlockables. As we add new items for testing purposes, these will automatically be added to your backpack. Random items drop are turned off, and the store will not be available.

Will Beta items be changed or removed?

In response to the feedback on them, items in the Beta may change, or be removed at any time. Don’t get too attached to them.

Are there Beta servers? Can we host our own?

We’re running a set of official Valve Beta servers, and it’d be great if other server administrators want to chip in. Details are here. (Use “-game tf_beta” with HLDSUpdateTool to install the server files for the Beta).

How do we give feedback?

Visit the official TF2 Public Beta forum