Steady's Gaming Blog

Team Fortress is really one of my favorite games. We have a server in the Combat Engineers Gaming Community. It is hard to populate the server sometimes. One of the things that really annoys me about a dedicated server, are knuckleheads. Knuckleheads come in two shapes and sizes.

Knuckleheads that use my server to farm achievements really piss me off. You know that knucklehead who cannot read the server rules, and when you log in, tells you to leave because he and his buddy are farming achievements. Sm_admin, ban knuckleheads for a few. Really, it is stupid, go earn the darn things, play the game right.

The second type of knucklehead is the one that tells you how good he is, how bad you are, and exactly what you are doing wrong. Sm_admin, silence knucklehead. This week as I was reading the TF2 blog, they might have found a way for me to never have to play with knuckleheads again.

It seems that with some of the AI from Left 4 Dead, they have found a way to add bots to Team Fortress 2. It currently only works on King of the Hill maps, seems they cannot handle more then one control point yet. So today after having to hear some knucklehead play his “Bill Nye the science guy” (I was playing on another server, so I could not silence them) music for like the fifth time in five minutes. I decided to give the old bots a try.

I have to admit, I did not expect much, I figured the AI would not be all that good. So I dialed up a King of the Hill Sawmill map. I spawned nine bot buddies, and away we went. My team moves out, no stupid jumping around, or idiots bouncing off walls. None of them had names that told me what they were going to do to my mother. The next thing I know, the other team is taking the control point, what being beat by a bunch of bots. To make a long story short, this was one of the most entertaining hours of Team Fortress 2 that I have played in a long time. The AI seems to work pretty well. The game was not one sided, it was actually rather balanced. None of the bots told me how to play the game, or how good they were. Bill Nye the science guy was no longer a part of my life. Hey, this is pretty fun; it was a pretty good game.

I really hope that they add this to dedicated servers. It would be a great addition to the game. I could round up four of five of my non-knucklehead friends; we can play on our dedicated server with some of our bot buddies, and start to really enjoy the game again. So I have to tip my hat to the folks at Valve, from what I have seen the new bots look pretty darn good. I am pretty sure that Valve is not done with them yet, and they will make them much better. I am a little concerned however, what are the knuckleheads going to do when they have no place to play Team Fortress 2.

If you ever want to play on a non-knucklehead server, (at lease when I am on there), join server 69.12.111.20:27015. I am also looking for some non-knucklehead admins to help populate the server, if you have any interest, post a comment and I will get back to you.

If you have never played Team Fortress 2, you should. Steam is having a free weekend; all that is required is that you have a steam account. I have spent a lot of money on games. Out of all that money, I think the $19.99 I spent on Team Fortress 2, might be the best money I have ever spent. The game is very entertaining. Valve also does a nice job of adding content, updating maps, and keeping the game fresh.

Team Fortress 2 Free weekend – Pre load.

If you are old like me, and afraid of those fast twitching FPS players, don’t be. One of the great things about Team Fortress 2 is that every player can find a class that they can make work for them.

The War update which goes live Thursday night will add, new weapons, new maps, and it looks like a crafting system. If you are looking for a server to play on try the combat engineer’s server, 69.12.111.20:27015. We try to run a clean game, all skill levels are welcome. We frown on hassling new players, and try to be helpful.

I have been playing a lot of Team Fortress 2 lately. I play the pyro class mostly. I am not sure why, it just seems to be the class that I enjoy the most. I have all the unlockable weapons for the pyro. I usually equip him with the regular Flamethrower, Flare gun, and Axtinguisher. The other day I was playing a map, and a few of the players did not understand why I was not using my backburner. I just find the regular flamethrower to work better for me. So let the debate begin. First the specs on both weapons from the TF 2 wiki.

Famethrower
22.5 fire particles each second – 4 to 6.8 damage per particle, according to range – max of 153 damage/sec. Short range, no reload. Crits do 3x damage, up to 459/sec. Additionally, victims burn for 5-6/sec for 10 seconds. Alternate fire blasts compressed air to knock back enemies, redirect projectiles and extinguish flames on teammates, using 25 ammo per blast.

Backburner
22.5 fire particles each second – 4 to 6.8 damage per particle, according to range – max of 153 damage/sec. Short range, no reload. Crits do 3x damage, up to 459/sec. Additionally, victims burn for 5-6/sec for 10 seconds.

Special Ablity
Guarantees critical damage when attacking an enemy from behind. No alternate fire.

So from this data, the only thing the backburner has going for it, is that you are guaranteed critical damage when attacking an enemy from behind. You no longer have the alternate fire of back blast. That, in my opinion a terrible trade off.

I find the compression blast much more useful for several reasons.

1. The ability to to extinguish teammates. Nothing more valuable to that slow moving heavy, then a pyro that can stop that burning feeling.

2. The ability to blast enemies away from you. Back blast will send them flying. Toss a scout up in the air, and then fry him, great fun. Blast them into a corner and fry them, can you say bar b-q. Also useful on some maps that have some higher elevation, nothing like sending someone to his dead by back blasting them off a bridge or building.

3. The ability to defend against an uber attack. Lets say a medic and his uber buddy are about to capture a point. You cannot harm them, but you can back blast them off the control point. Which is very useful, and one of the very few ways to defend against an uber attack.

4. You can deflect projectiles, but I have to be honest this skill takes a bit of practice, and is useless against most classes.

A few more points, back blast is expensive, 25 ammo per blast, so pick up all ammo you can. Also you do get a chance for a critical with the regular flamethrower, it is just not guaranteed.

So I think the backburner is a very selfish choice. It really does not promote working with your team. The trade off is poor, the back blast is far more important then the ability to crit someone from behind. So the next time you are making fun of that pyro using the flamethrower instead of the back burner, I hope you do not need his help.

I am always trying to populate the Combat Engineers TF2 servers, so add 69.12.111.20:27015 to your favorites, and invite all your friends.