Why did we build a new system?

* With our first four class updates we were tying the new weapons for each class to a set of achievements. Our intention was to make a set of achievements that eventually all players would get, and would be fun to get along the way. In some cases we did a good job at this (Scout), and in some cases we did a bad one (Medic). Across all of the class packs we were disappointed in the number of people that got to play with the new weapons, and feedback from the community was generally not favorable with this approach.


What did we do?

* For the last number of months we've been working on using the Steam Cloud to store a player's inventory. With that finally in place, we were able to deploy a new system focused on the giving of items to players. That new system watches the amount of time that players are playing TF2, and gives them a chance to find items at regular intervals. They aren't guaranteed to get the item at those points, but they have a pretty good chance. We based the system on granting items on the amount of time played because we don't want players to have to do weird things like join achievement grinding servers to get new content. Basing it off time also has the benefit of ensuring that if you play a lot of TF2, you're going to get more items than players who don't.

How long do I have to play to get an item?

* When we were tuning this system we first looked at the average amount of time that players spend playing TF2 daily. From there, we set the goal of most players having around 20 items in their inventory after a couple of weeks of play. If you're someone who plays a lot of TF2, you're going to get items a lot faster than that. In the first few hours after the release yesterday, we had some issues that prevented the system from working properly, so that timeframe was not indicative of the system as it's designed.

Is this the way we'll find items from now on?

* Like everything else we build, we'll be iterating on this system for a while, and have a lot of features planned. Some of the next things we have planned are:

- Item trading. This is why you're finding duplicates.

- Giving players a method to influence the system so they can work directly toward getting specific items.

- Adding more rare items like the hats.

We're going to be working on and rolling these out while we're also working on the next class pack, with the goal being to get it all released before then.

In the first few hours after the release yesterday, we had some issues that prevented the system from working properly

Yes, you can probably unlock something 5 minutes after downloading the game

I hope they will change the overview page of your backpack inventory.

Now you cannot drag/drop your items into groups. For example I would like to have all my medic items with eachather, and also the ability to move the duplicates close to eachother would be a nice thing -> this so you can keep a better track of what you actually have.

THen about the inventory size.
On my screen I have 5 * 10 columns, so that means that I can have 50 items.

All the classes have 3 unlockables which means that I require 27 slots for them, which then still leaves me with 23 slots left.

Is Valve going to produce even more hats, as 23 is quite a lot.

I personally still prefer the milestone achievement way of getting weapons. You would at least have to work for the unlocks.

...

I reckon they should keep the new unlock system for the hats so you can still trade hats with other people. They should go back to the old system for the weapon unlocks.

YES YES YES - more hats and back to the milestones, nicely put The Vortessence!

I vote for a double system. Gaining weapons trough achievements AND random drops.

healer LFG quick cp_well run, /w me for invite

Team Fortress 2 Update Released


Added Sniper/Spy milestone achievements as an additional way players can get the new unlockables

Arena Mode

Added tf_arena_use_queue server convar. Turn this on to get the old queue behavior. Default is off

Added tf_arena_round_time to set a timelimit on the round

Added the userid of the player who built the teleporter to the "player_teleported" event

Fixed player killed event causing server crash

Fixed Spies not being telefragged when standing on an enemy teleporter exit with the Dead Ringer enabled

Fixed attackers seeing the mini-crit particle effect for full crits if the victim has the Jarate effect enabled

Fixed the Ambassador not doing damage to buildings

Fixed Spies disguised as their own team not drawing blood effects

Fixed players killed by flaming arrows not showing the appropriate death icon