Competitive Matchmaking rolls out for Team Fortress 2

Even though Overwatch is currently taking the market by storm, Team Fortress 2 hasn’t given up. Following Overwatch’s recent released competitive mode, Team Fortress 2 has gone ahead and released the heavily requested competitive matchmaking mode. To celebrate, Valve has split content release over two days, the first being titled ‘Meet your Match’.

The first day saw the release of the competitive mode and casual mode. Both of which are rank based matchmaking with the difference being competitive mode will feature only a 6 vs 6 team. Casual mode will be unranked except for a hidden ‘number’ which signify the player’s overall skill level. This mode will have 12 vs 12 teams fight against each other from beginning to end. Both of these matchmaking modes will reward players who are consistent and/or highly skilled.

Furthermore, the first day saw new maps including two control points on Sunshine and Metalworks and a payload called Swiftwater; all of which are community-created. On top of these maps, the community-created gamemode was released called ‘Pass Time!’ which is basically a game of football meets capture the flag. Players will search out the ‘JACK’ which will spawn in the neutral zone. A player must retrieve this and go towards the enemy team’s goal. The JACK holder can not shoot and must rely on allies to bring the JACK over.

The second day kicks it up a notch with the introduction of a battle between the Heavy and the Pyro. Players will have to choose a side when they hop on to Team Fortress 2 and duke it out. Each kill in a Competitive or Casual match will earn points for the respective teams chosen. The winner will receive a brand new ‘class pack’ in a future update. These class packs will be a brand new set of items that will give a slew of new weapons and balancing to the class.

Alongside this, there are new taunts including the Pyro’s Balloonbouncer, the Scout’s Carlton, the Spy’s Disco Fever and the Soldier’s Fubar Fanfare. Players will also get the ability to purchase older class packs which will allow players a chance to play with some classic sets such as the ‘Demo Knight’. There are even more crates and items that players can purchase shown on the second day page. Not only that, but a complete run down of the update notes are displayed which show off some drastic balances and changes too. Some of the biggest changes including the Medigun being able to catch up to the speed of healed targets and the Pyro’s flamethrower will reduce healing rates. You can browse the entire thing below or on the site. Happy matchmaking!

General

• Reworked the main menu
  • All play-related buttons are now accessible by clicking the “Find a game” button
  • Moved the Workshop and Replay buttons down the bottom group of mini-buttons
• Enemies killed by energy weapons now play a special sound as their body dissolves
• Added new sound vo files for Competitve Mode
• Added sounds to all attacks where the target player resisted a part of the damage
• Added Prinny promo items for purchasing Disgaea: Prinny Hat, Prinny Pouch, and Prinny Machete
• Added AsiaFortress Cup Mercenaries Cup Season 7 medals
• Added TF2Maps 72hr TF2Jam Summer Participant medal
• Added Random Acts of TF2 medals
• Added check to prevent players with P-REC loaded from participating in matchmaking
  • Prevents P-REC crashing which results in players receiving abandon penalties
• Updated the Demo Support feature
  • Added an option to only record matches that are played using Tournament mode (mp_tournament)
  • Added an option to auto-delete matches that don’t have any events recorded
  • Fixed a bug where tickcount values were being noted incorrectly
  • Options can be set using the Adv. Options menu
• Updated model/materials for the Bonk Boy, Dr’s Dapper Topper, The Sole Saviors, and The Dark Falkirk Helm
• Updated the localization files
• PASS Time update
  • No longer in Beta!
• New Items Available
  • An Early Participation Pin will be awarded to everyone who played PASS Time during beta
  • Two new achievements with item rewards
    • Tune Merasmus’s Multi-Dimensional Television
    • Jackpot!
  • Map Changes
    • All maps are tweaked, polished, and out of beta
    • Renamed pass_pinewood to pass_timberlodge
    • Renamed pass_warehouse to pass_brickyard
    • Added a new city-themed map, pass_district
    • An updated pass_template for level designers will be released on escalation.com/news
  • Game Mode Changes
    • Changed the score limit from 3 to 5
    • Tweaked various JACK throwing parameters
    • Pack Running
      • The JACK no longer heals the player carrying it
      • A player carrying the JACK with no nearby teammates is marked for death
      • Teammates near a player holding the JACK will be slowly healed, and can run as fast as the fastest nearby teammate
    • JACK Power
      • Passing the JACK increases a power meter
      • The power meter will decay over time
      • Filling the power meter unlocks a special goal worth extra points
  • Art Changes
    • New view model animations
    • The HUD provides more information about goal type and status
    • Player pips for Spies will reflect cloak and disguise status
  • Misc Details
    • Added cvar tf_passtime_scores_per_round
    • Added tf_glow entity that can be used to enable the glow effect on any entity
    • Updated trigger_passtime_ball FGD entry to hide unimplemented features, temporarily
    • Spawnflag added to func_passtime_goal to indicate to the HUD that a goal is unlocked by JACK power

Bug fixes

• Fixed being able to repeatedly activate taunts before the current one had ended while underwater
• Fixed disguising with the Conniver’s Kunai while spotted by a Sentry causing the Sentry to ignore the Spy
• Fixed class change notifications appearing to the enemy team for a period of time after teams swap sides in Competitive Mode
• Fixed a case where players would sometimes see other players carrying the wrong weapon(s)
• Fixed a bug where the Engineer couldn’t remove the Sapper from a linked teleporter if was building (not active)
• Fixed a bug where the Engineer was able to heal a linked teleporter while it was building. This now matches the behavior for the other buildings.
• Updated several hats to fix the Sniper not removing them while taunting
• Fixed hiding the Pyro’s head when using the second style of the Fear Monger
• Fixed using the wrong ozfortress medals for divisions other than Premier
• Fixed a few UGC tournament medals using the wrong names
• Fixed the Engineer’s missing pelvis hitbox
• Thanks to Justin G., aka sigsegv, for these reports
  • Fixed airblasts sometimes sending reflected projectiles toward friendly players, buildings, and projectile shields
  • Fixed demo record/read stringtables not writing/reading past 512kb
  • Fixed inconsistency between items that use mini-crit buff (TF_COND_ENERGY_BUFF)
  • Fixed multiple Mann vs. Machine bugs caused by bot AI functions being executing after the bots have died
  • Fixed a bug related to lunchbox items, where the ammo bar can be drained in cases when it shouldn’t be
  • Fixed Medics sometimes instantly reviving players in Mann vs. Machine

Performance

• Fixed several cases of loading and rendering hitches that would cause abrupt changes in FPS
• Improved Flamethrower flame performance in Mann vs. Machine on clients and servers by up to +500%
• VGUI .res files are now cached after loading, reducing framerate hitches. Custom HUD authors can disable this by setting vgui_cache_res_files to 0.
• Improved rendering performance of zombies
• Improved VGUI font performance

Custom HUD Versioning

• In order to reduce crashing and broken UI elements after updates, custom HUDs now must explicitly specify the version of the TF UI with which they are compatible.
• Custom HUD files must now be installed as add-ons under the tf/custom/ folder. Loose .res files extracted to the game directory will not be loaded.
• Custom HUDs must now contain a file named “info.vdf” in their root folder, with the key “ui_version” set to the TF UI version with which they are compatible.
• The current TF UI version is 1.
• Non-HUD add-ons under tf/custom/ will continue to work without an “info.vdf” file, but may not load .res files.

Mann Co. Store

• Added the Competitive Matchmaking Pass
• Added new class starter packs
• Added new key-less cosmetic crates
• Revamped main store pages
• Added a spotlight item
• Added ability to mouse over and preview items in a bundle/crate/collection
• Adjusted some weapon prices for consistency

Maps

• cp_granary
  • Added new ammo pack locations in final and yard areas
  • Clips and blockbullets added to stairs
• cp_badlands
  • Final cap point capture time increased to 2 seconds (from 1 second)
  • Clips and blockbullets added to stairs
• cp_foundry
  • Reduced ammo kit in final cap entry room (attackers’ side) to medium
  • Slightly reduced attacking team’s spawn time when working on final
• pl_upward
  • Fixed an exploit where players could sometimes build sentries in the cliffside by capture point 3
• pl_thundermountain
  • Fixed the first and second cap points of stage 3 each awarding 2 points to the capturing team instead of 1
• Mannpower
  • All official maps now set Mannpower mode without requiring the use of the tf_powerup_mode convar

Game Balance

• Scout
  • Crit-A-Cola
    • Added Marked-for-Death debuff for 2 seconds after the buff effect expires
  • The Soda Popper
    • Added “On hit: build Hype”
    • Removed “build hype by running around”
  • Shortstop
    • Added an Alt-fire attack — reach out and shove someone!
    • Removed +healing bonus
    • Reduced pushback vuln to +20% (from +40%)
  • Sun on a Stick
    • Take 25% less damage from fire while deployed

• Soldier
  • The Righteous Bison
    • Fixed a bug causing players to be hit by the same projectile multiple times, causing the damage dealt to vary wildly
    • Per-shot damage has been increased to compensate, resulting in slightly more damage on average
      • Point-blank deals 54 damage (previously 20-80)
      • Maximum range deals 24 damage (previously 14-56)
    • Slowed projectile by 30%
    • Projectile damage reduced by 25% for each enemy penetrated
    • Updated projectile impact sound
  • The Disciplinary Action
    • Reduced duration of speed bonus on teammates to 2 seconds (from 3)
  • The Rocket Jumper
    • Updated model/materials and sound

• Sniper
  • Cozy Camper
    • Now requires a full charge to gain flinch resistance
  • The Sydney Sleeper
    • When fully charged, or when making a headshot, now applies Jarate in a radius
    • Scoped shots now extinguish teammates
  • The Cleaner’s Carbine
    • Removed hidden +10% damage taken multiplier while under the effects

• Heavy
  • Natascha and Brass Beast
    • 20% damage resistance now only applies when spun up and below 50% max health
  • Huo-Long Heater
    • Added -10% damage
    • Added +25% increased damage vs. burning players
    • Reduced ammo drain to -4/sec (from -6)
    • Reduced pulse damage from Ring of Fire to 12 (from 15) due to increased damage vs. burning
  • Buffalo Steak Sandvich
    • Fixed “damage taken” multiplier accidentally being +10%, instead of the listed +25%

• Spy
  • Base
    • Max speed increased to 320 (from 300)
  • Enforcer
    • Attacks pierce resist and absorb effects from all sources

• Pyro
  • All Flamethrowers
    • Added: Direct damage reduces Medi Gun healing and resist shield effects by 25%
      • Medics hear a “healing interrupted” sound when this is happening to their heal target
  • The Manmelter
    • Removed (hidden) 20% fire rate penalty

• Medic
  • Base
    • All Mediguns allow the Medic to match the speed of their heal target
      • Previously only available on The Quick Fix
  • Quick Fix
    • ÜberCharge rate reduced to +15% (from +25%)
  • Overdose
    • Increased movement speed bonus to +20% (from +10%)
    • Increased damage penalty to -15% (from -10%)
  • Dropped Mediguns
    • Stored ÜberCharge begins to decay over time after coming to rest

• Demoman
  • Base
    • All boots now require a shield to activate any move speed bonus listed on the item
  • The Iron Bomber
    • Decreased the fuse time to 1.4 seconds (from 2.0)
  • The Quickiebomb Launcher
    • Increased charge time reduction to -70% (from -50%)
    • Increased damage bonus for (max) charged shots to +35% (from +25%)
    • Increased clip size penalty to -50% (from -25%)
    • Removed “Stickybombs fizzle 4 seconds after landing”
  • The Sticky Jumper
    • Updated model/materials and sound

• Engineer
  • Base
    • Level 1 teleporters now cost 50 metal (previously 125)
  • Widowmaker
    • Damage increased +10% when attacking the same target as your sentry
  • Eureka Effect
    • Reduced “50% less metal from Dispensers and Pickups” to 20%
    • Added “Teleporters cost 50% less metal”
  • The Short Circuit
    • Base projectile attack is -10 metal (hit or miss) and then add -5 metal for each projectile destroyed (sometimes a buff, sometimes a nerf)
  • The Pomson
    • Fixed an exploit with shooting through your own buildings
    • Increased close-range damage to 72 (from 62)
    • Reduced long-range damage to 32 (from 42)
    • Updated projectile impact sound