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Team Fortress 2 Sniper Update Info, Pyro Megaton

sonicmj1

Member
sniperupdate.png


Valve promised that updates to the Sniper would be next. Now, they're releasing the information about what we're going to see.

For the first day, Valve showed off their the update to the Sniper Rifle, the Huntsman Bow

Valve Software said:
Any experienced sniper will tell you how irritating it is when your targets keep moving around. The question is how to stop these cheaters from wind-sprinting around like they own the place. And the answer is to pin them to a wall. How? With arrows!

"Now, hold on," you might be thinking. "I'm strong, but no one could throw an arrow that hard." Introducing the Huntsman longbow, which solves that age-old throwing problem.

"Now, hold on," you keep saying. "Aren't bows and arrows primitive and harmless?" Why don't you ask the dinosaurs? Except you can't, because the cavemen bow and arrowed them to death. One headshot from the Huntsman can mean an instant crit, in addition to a bolt-riddled corpse hanging from a wall that's gruesome and funny.

And even if you don't kill them, they'll carry around a certain arrow-shaped something as a living testament to your awesome archery skills and their frankly unawesome dodging skills. Comes with 18 arrows and a one-second charge for full power shots.

On the second day, Valve revealed a new gametype, Payload Race.
Valve Software said:

They also showed off a pair of new arena maps.

Sawmill:
Valve Software said:
Set in a stormy mountain sawmill, this arena map has its cap point in a large structure atop a hill in the center of the map; beneath which lies a hidden underground spytech base; and above which, pouring down on everything we just mentioned, is rain—the first weather effect to appear in a TF map. If that previous sentence wasn’t long enough for you, replace the period with a comma and add this next part: players must ALSO watch out for the two deadly saw blades near the cap, which were left on when the previous occupants abandoned it for a less deadly, hilly, rain-swamped sawmill not built on a spybase.

Nucleus:
Valve Software said:
A diabolical doomsday device is the foundation of this circular arena map, which features long sightlines and a bottomless radioactive pit underneath most of the game area. The cap, located in the center of the arena, is only accessible by catwalks suspended over a chasm, which open after the timer has run down.

On the third day, the Sniper gained a new tool to stop pesky Spies, the Razorback. I suspect it'll replace the machete.

RazorbackShield.png


Valve Software said:
The Razorback is a beautiful hand-carved tribal shield, built using indigenous techniques passed from father to son since before recorded time. Sometimes the old ways really are the best ways. And after using the Razorback in the field, we quickly discovered this was not one of those times.

All the tribal craftsmanship in the world, it turns out, cannot stop a modern butter knife. So we taped a car battery to it. Sure, the added weight of the redesigned Razorback’ll slow you down a little. But any poor sap dumb enough to backstab you while you’re sporting one is getting a surprise to the tune of 10,000 volts. Plus, if they want to stab you again, they’ll have to wait until their knife cools down. Which is lucky for you, since the Razorback collapses into a million finely crafted pieces after a single stab.

On the fourth day of the update, Valve unveiled a new revelation. The Spy will be getting some toys of his own. Both affect how his cloak functions.

SpyUpdate.png


For the fifth day, Valve officially unveiled the already-leaked Meet the Spy video, as well as a list of achievement names. They even unlocked an achievement of their own.

ValveCorporateAchievement.png


On the sixth day, Valve showed off the Spy's new Revolver, the Ambassador.

Valve Software said:
There are two sorts of men in this world: the sort with blood pouring out of a hole in their heads, and the sort holding the Ambassador. It has the ammo count of a revolver and the pinpoint accuracy of a sniper rifle, even at long range. (But remember, a gun that packs this much heat needs to cool off between shots, so make every shot count.)

With its rosewood grip and likeness of your enemy’s mother (please send photo) engraved on the barrel, the Ambassador is eight motherloving pounds of steel your enemies won’t want to negotiate with.

On the seventh day, God rested. But Valve is BETTER than God!

You thought Jarate was an April Fool's Day joke. You were WRONG.
Valve Software said:
Jarate is a thrown jar that splashes upon impact. When splashed on enemies, they take 35% more damage for a period of time. Jumping in water will wash off Jarate. Jarate is also able to short out Spies’ cloaking devices. When used on teammates, Jarate will extinguish any fire effects.

Valve also released a Sniper achievement list.

With three updates now revealed for each class, it seems that all the information on the Sniper/Spy update has been shown. All that's left is for it to be unleashed on the world!
 

Mistouze

user-friendly man-cashews
aznpxdd said:
So another unlock which you can use to affect other player's control? Great.

I know complaining about stuff can be enjoyable but READ! If you kill someone with the bow, the ragdoll will stay some time nailed to a nearby wall and if you only hurt them, they'll keep the arrow on them.
 

Bunny

Member
man that is awesome! i remember valve saying something about trying to make the hypodermic needles from the medic stick to people after being hit, but doing so was difficult, looks like they may have figured it out. anyway, can't wait for this update!
 
RocketDarkness said:
Despite the giant headline, it looks like it only pins upon death, from the way they word the last paragraph.
Then what would be the point of using the bow over the rifle?

Is it a fewer shots, more damage kind of thing, or what?
 

aznpxdd

Member
Danne-Danger said:
Then what would be the point of using the bow over the rifle?

Is it a fewer shots, more damage kind of thing, or what?

Yeah...

From it description I'm pretty sure it limits the victim's movement somehow.

MGrant said:
Seems like a faster charge in exchange for less damage on body shots.

That sounds exactly like the sniper rifle.
 

MGrant

Member
Danne-Danger said:
Then what would be the point of using the bow over the rifle?

Is it a fewer shots, more damage kind of thing, or what?

Seems like a faster charge in exchange for less damage on body shots.
 
Danne-Danger said:
Then what would be the point of using the bow over the rifle?

Is it a fewer shots, more damage kind of thing, or what?
Upon a second read through, I have concluded that Valve intentionally puts contradictory information in their TF2 announcements so that there's still a little mystery left.
 

Bunny

Member
Cat in the Hat said:
So a bow and pee water are confirmed so far. How much you wanna bet the other item is a boomerang. thats my guess.

i think that pee water was an april fool's joke.
 

JohnTinker

Limbaugh Parrot
It's almost certainly a projectile like the HL2 crossbow, but with a charge time, headshot crits, and no massive range.

It's not a stun-gun like the Sandman. When you die, you can stick to the wall like Combine struck by the HL2 crossbolts.
 

ice cream

Banned
It seems so have faster charge, slows them down and doesn't hit instantly so you have to aim accordingly, like the flare gun. Basically it's what Valve were saying before, they wanted a gun that more short range than long range.

JohnTinker said:
It's almost certainly a projectile like the HL2 crossbow, but with a charge time, headshot crits, and no massive range.
All headshots are crits anyway with the normal sniper.
 
such a fun game which gets better every update, I love it.

Danne-Danger said:
Then what would be the point of using the bow over the rifle?

Is it a fewer shots, more damage kind of thing, or what?
I would see it more of a no-scope weapon, handy for fast moving battles.
 

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
Faster charge and 18 shots?

Given what Valve was saying before about closing the Sniper's range, it sounds like to me that you can basically do more "dps" (for a lack of a better term) with the bow an arrow than you could with the rifle, but the traveling time of the arrows will mean you need to be closer to your opponent.
 
ZealousD said:
Faster charge and 18 shots?

Given what Valve was saying before about closing the Sniper's range, it sounds like to me that you can basically do more "dps" (for a lack of a better term) with the bow an arrow than you could with the rifle, but the traveling time of the arrows will mean you need to be closer to your opponent.

Or that there's no scope on the bow which means you have to be closer to line up a headshot.
 

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
Gully State said:
Or that there's no scope on the bow which means you have to be closer to line up a headshot.

Could be that too. No scope and/or traveling time would definitely require the gap to be closed.
 

Ikuu

Had his dog run over by Blizzard's CEO
Be interesting to see more, don't see why you would want to run around with this and be closer the action.
 

Capndrake

Member
dasupremeone said:
are the weapon unlocks still achievement based?
Starting from the Sniper update you'll be able to get them as dropped items from others.

Getting the achievements will get you "unique" versions though.
 
Capndrake said:
Starting from the Sniper update you'll be able to get them as dropped items from others.

Getting the achievements will get you "unique" versions though.
is this confirmed, or are you pulling my chain
 
Since we're talking about bow-related weapons, I figure I'd share my own.

I was playing RE4: Wii Edition a month or so ago, finally going back to do the non-GCN content, Separate Ways. I've picked up all the available weapons, make it to the last level, and it occurs to me that I've never used the crossbow yet. I figure it's got to be fairly strong, since it was the last weapon available. A J.J. appears (the minigunner dudes), so I pull it out, and fire. Sure, i was expecting good things, but I did not expect the explosion that occurred. I pause and examine the bolts. "Explosive-tipped." Sweetness. Sure wish I had realized it sooner, I'd have stopped carrying explosive grenades a long time ago if I had known!
 

Capndrake

Member
dasupremeone said:
is this confirmed, or are you pulling my chain
A recent update added a bunch of code to one of the game files which heavily implies that you'll be able to unlock weapons by picking up dropped ones. You'll also be able to get (decorative only) headgear this way.
 
Capndrake said:
A recent update added a bunch of code to one of the game files which heavily implies that you'll be able to unlock weapons by picking up dropped ones. You'll also be able to get (decorative only) headgear this way.


Will this change how you can pickup ammo/metal from dead peoples weapons? I do that all the time to get more metal as an engineer or flamethrower ammo.
 
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