Team Fortress 2 Medic Changes Made Official

[LiquidRain]

Shacknews gets official word of the new TF2 changes. (http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/52236)

In addition to the known crit-increasing gun "The Critzcrieg," the remaining two unlockable medic weapons were also available for hands-on time. Dubbed "The Blutsaugher" and "The Ubersaw," they will serve as replacements for the medic's standard syringe and bonesaw, respectively.
The Blutsaugher's vampire effect is great for us low-health medics, the Critzrieg could be a very interesting weapon, especially when paired with a fellow medic with an uber charged by his Ubersaw! Thing is, I already know of one fellow TF2 player who's severely disappointed with the new loadout - what do you think?

[Vandabo]

Looking forward to seeing these in action. I rarely play as medic, but I'm sure the people who do will have much stronger opinions either way about this. Hopefully it doesn't screw with the flow of the game too much.

[Disgustipated]

Fuck. Yes. These new changes are AWESOME, and make the medic the key player of the whole game. He was all along, but now people will not be able to ignore him.

Bring on the UBER VAMPIRE MEDIC!

[Delenda]

The ubersaw sounds... interesting.

I don't know if people have run into it on their servers, but I know there's a trend of some medics completely ignoring their medigun and just running around bonesawing people. I can't tell if this is actually going to make them useful, or just encourage more people to do it at the expense of healing. (although I guess the achievement requirement will delay that a little, at least for the first few months)

It also sounds like they're using crits as a kind of currency in their trade-offs. I guess non-crit servers are gonna end up pretty much worthless now, and I wonder if it will lead to more or less bitching about them. I personally find them rather random and annoying, so I'm not sure how I feel about them being even more heavily integrated into the balance.

edit: I just realized that post sounds really negative. I do like like the changes for the most part. Vampire needles are awesome.

[LiquidRain]

Well, the flood of crits by a Critzrieged player will be offset by what the article says: expect a hail of bad to come your way once you hit that crit power up. And without invulnerability, you will not last very long.

[Food Nipple]

Wow, these achievements are terrible. You're going to have to cheat if you ever want to have a chance to try the Ubersaw. Servers are going to be flooded with medics doing stupid shit like ubering scouts and intentionally healing spies so they can get achievements.

I'm not going to be able to play a decent round of TF2 for weeks.

[Devilturnip]

Wow, these achievements are terrible. You're going to have to cheat if you ever want to have a chance to try the Ubersaw. Servers are going to be flooded with medics doing stupid shit like ubering scouts and intentionally healing spies so they can get achievements.

I'm not going to be able to play a decent round of TF2 for weeks.

My servers will still be playable... fortunately, CP has players that aren't douche bags.

[cp#]

The achievements are too difficult, we won't be seeing a Ubersaw for weeks. It will take me months just to get the Crit-medigun

[Delenda]

Oh I didn't even look at the achievements. Some of those are just... well, some are idiotic, some are just blind luck and some will never happen in the course of a normal game unless you fuck your team over trying to get them.

Play Doctor: In a team with no Medics, be first to switch to Medic after a teammate calls medic and heal 500 health

I do like that one though.

[Food Nipple]

I have no problem with achievements that are nearly impossible to get, it's nice to have some kind of in-game memento for when something really exceptional happens, but tying unlockable weapons to impossible achievements is a big no-no.

[Disgustipated]

I have no problem with achievements that are nearly impossible to get, it's nice to have some kind of in-game memento for when something really exceptional happens, but tying unlockable weapons to impossible achievements is a big no-no.

I totally agree. I don't think I'll ever get the Uber bonesaw.

10 million healing points total? That'd take like 2 months playing. I'm thinking for the first week the EvAv server is just going to be all of us unlocking achievements. Sigh.

[OrangePulp]

I have no problem with achievements that are nearly impossible to get, it's nice to have some kind of in-game memento for when something really exceptional happens, but tying unlockable weapons to impossible achievements is a big no-no.

Yeah, I don't like the idea of people wasting ubers on a scout just so that they can get new stuff.

New gear/map sounds pretty cool, though; and with all the bonesawing EvAv medics seem to do, it sounds like we'll see a lot more ubers, provided they can unlock the damn thing.

[roboninja]

Wow, some of those achievements are tough. First call for a nerf.

[morose]

As someone who primarily plays medic anyway, I dig that these achievements aren't all brain dead easy. Hell, looking at them, I'd be surprised if I don't end up with almost half after just 2 play sessions. So having a few to work towards after that is appealing to me. I can see how those folks who just dabble at medic occasionally would be slightly annoyed, but I expect I'll feel the same about the Sniper or Spy achievements when those come out since I so rarely play those classes.

As for the 10 million points, I'll have to pay more attention to my average amount of healing points in a session. It doesn't seem that crazy to me as the ultimate medic achievement though on the face of things. The only one's I see that I'm concerned about getting are the ubered-X achievements (since they rely on someone else doing the work) and the Placebo Effect one... since I rarely leave my uber unused for any length of time except right after a good setup charge.

[Varsity]

10 million healing points total? That'd take like 2 months playing.

There is only one person in the world right now who has that many. :p

[TheKeck]

I can't wait. Now let me read up on these weapons.

[OrangePulp]

There is only one person in the world right now who has that many. :p

Can you actually check the total? I couldn't find it tracked anywhere.

[Lint of Death]

What? An achievement for Übering a punch-crazy Heavy but not one for a machete-mastering Sniper?

Either way, Charge me up and let's go.

[Varsity]

Can you actually check the total? I couldn't find it tracked anywhere.

We can't, but Valve have the full run-down.

[TheKeck]

Well, nutsack. A bunch of those achievements are ridiculous. That takes the fun out of it.

[claws]

Can you actually check the total? I couldn't find it tracked anywhere.
It's in your tf2_playerstats.dmx file, iHealthPointsHealed. (team fortress 2\tf). I've got 7 million and something so 10 doesn't seem that bad, assuming those 7 will count?

[TheKeck]

with all the bonesawing EvAv medics seem to do, it sounds like we'll see a lot more ubers, provided they can unlock the damn thing.
I think this (and other similar comments) are being overly optimistic. I think ANYONE unlocking the ubersaw for months will be quite rare indeed. I could be wrong, though.

[Food Nipple]

Can you actually check the total? I couldn't find it tracked anywhere.

A quick back of the envelope calculation:

I've got 34.7 hours logged as medic, and I like to think of myself as a pretty good one.


My most healed is 5,801 and my longest life is 8:45. Those two probably happened on the same life, but let's be safe and round down. Let's assume it took me 7 minutes to heal that much during normal play.

If I keep pace with my current record and I heal 5,801 points each life, it will take me 1,723 lives to hit 10 million total points. If each of those lives lasts 7 minutes, it will only take me 172 hours to heal that much. I logged 34.7 medic hours in 6 months, so I should have that ubersaw by April 2011 if I'm lucky.

[TheKeck]

Nice Food Nipple. You are backing me up nicely. :)

Edit: And that's not even the one I'd necessarily be most worried about. It's just a matter of time. A lot of those other ones require a HEFTY dose of luck and skill for both yourself and whoever you are playing with.

[NilreMK]

Nice Food Nipple. You are backing me up nicely. :)

Edit: And that's not even the one I'd necessarily be most worried about. It's just a matter of time. A lot of those other ones require a HEFTY dose of luck and skill for both yourself and whoever you are playing with.

I agree, all you have to do is play medic for 300 hours so I don't see what the problem is. However some of the achievements require skills and thats bullshit.

[Food Nipple]

Nice Food Nipple. You are backing me up nicely. :)

See, I told you I was a good medic :p

Big Pharma: Assist a heavy in killing 30 enemies where neither of you die.

I'd like to point out that according to OrangePulp's stats, the most kills he's had in a single life as a heavy is 21.

I'm now convinced that getting the ubersaw is impossible.

[tombofsoldier]

Wohoo! More new loadouts please! The problem with TF2 is that the classes are so specialized there's not much variety too how games play out. There's roughly one, maybe two winning strategies for each class in a given situation, the game just gets plain repetitive. Maybe the new weapons will mix things up.

[Wackman3000]

I dont care about how hard some will be, I WILL get myself that ubersawz. That sounds right up the alley of my style of medic and my lust for melee.

I could care less about syringe gun though, I don't think I've ever really used it.

[Nate Graves]

I dont care about how hard some will be, I WILL get myself that ubersawz. That sounds right up the alley of my style of medic and my lust for melee.

I could care less about syringe gun though, I don't think I've ever really used it.

You are missing out. I love the syringe gun. I begun to love it more when I realized you can actually arch the syringes, since they drop off after a few feet (which is why so many people suck with it, since they figure it just works like a regular machine gun and don't realize they're shooting the ground).

[Shadowstorm]

Sweet. Sounds awesome. Looking forward to using the medic again.

[TheKeck]

I'd like to point out that according to OrangePulp's stats, the most kills he's had in a single life as a heavy is 21.

I'm now convinced that getting the ubersaw is impossible.
Yes, you begin to see the bigger picture. ;)

[Libuke]

I think some people will have it fairly quickly as them and there friends will just "cheat" (I can't think of a better work) and setup situations for each other to make them easy to get.

The 10million healed is the only one that will take them a fair amount of time to get.

People who get it legitimately will take a long time and lots of luck.

[HotCod]

I predict we'll see full unlocks with in a week, at most 2. Even with those crazy achievement it won't take long for a group of a freinds to get the hard ones by starting a server and doing what needs to be done. I think its almost going to end up the standard way of doing it if you want a the new saw

[Varsity]

The problem with TF2 is that the classes are so specialized there's not much variety too how games play out. There's roughly one, maybe two winning strategies for each class in a given situation, the game just gets plain repetitive.

Even if the number was that low, which it isn't, that gives 324 "given situations" before we start to factor in the influence of the current map. :p

Quite how the classes all being specialised is supposed to make the situation worse I don't know...

[Rogue_hunter]

I know that I'll have that ubersaw by June.

[Vyzov]

Wait.... Kill 8 enemy engineer buildings, with a demo man in 1 uber? What? That's... The only time I've ever seen where this can be possible is when we were all screwing around and built a wall of sentries.

[Hemalin]

Wait.... Kill 8 enemy engineer buildings, with a demo man in 1 uber? What? That's... The only time I've ever seen where this can be possible is when we were all screwing around and built a wall of sentries.

It should include dispensers and teleporters, so there'd need to be a minimum of 3 engies. The second or third cap point in Dustbowl is probably the most likely place for them to bunch up.

[Wasson_]

...no the 8 enemy structures thing is fucking retarded. But any TF2 news is good news. This in particular as I enjoy medic, they are often times essential in quick victory or breaking through stalemates.

NOW FINISH ALL THE "MEET THE" VIDEOS, I fucking love them! Scout's should be up next week!

[51|RandoM]

If they were easy they wouldn't be achievements.

[LiquidRain]

The real question is: will you be coming back to play now? :D

[Deadend]

I agree with people who are worried that these achievements may make crap stupid from achievement whoring, as so many are based on doing weird things in special context.

Best multiplayer achievements are ones you would get from being an awesome medic anyhow.

[51|RandoM]

The real question is: will you be coming back to play now? :D

because of medic buffs? not likely. Let me know when the spy/demoman/soldier buffs come out.

[TheKeck]

If they were easy they wouldn't be achievements.
As someone else said, it's the fact that these are tied to unlocking the weapons that makes this suck.

[LiquidRain]

If they were available right at the start it'd be much more interesting, I would think.

[Secret Agent Dog]

At current pace it would take me 286 hours to reach 10 million healed so gg on that one. Engineers that build 8 buildings close enough to each other so that a demo can destroy 8 in 10 seconds would require multiple players with developmental challenges. 4 punch-outs in 10 seconds can't even be accomplished against anyone who has a functional forward key. Good luck healing my friends, as they have all unlocked every single one of their achievements already. Expect late night hours of taped down medi-gun or 2 engis who just happened to build turret, dispenser, entrance, and exit all together in a "random" occurrence. Valve should have thought a lot of their new achievements through as no ubersaw will be legitimately unlocked in the next few years.

[Pluvious]

Great way to bork a game valve. Stat whores are going to ruin the game now. Idiots.

[LiquidRain]

And for ages we'll have people playing medics who just want achievements, not playing medics.

[TheKeck]

Well, that ubersaw is stupid anyway. I'll be happy with the first two unlocks.

:cries:

[Steele Johnson]

Fuck. Yes. These new changes are AWESOME, and make the medic the key player of the whole game. He was all along, but now people will not be able to ignore him.

Bring on the UBER VAMPIRE MEDIC!

Yeah, well if there are too many medics on a team, they'll get owned whether they have new weapons or not. :)

I think you'll be surprised how little the game will change with these new medic features. The gameplay will dramatically change when some of the offensive classes get their upgrades.

[Wackman3000]

Well, that ubersaw is stupid anyway. I'll be happy with the first two unlocks.

:cries:

Really? I thought the ubersaw was the best part of everything.

I am really starting to get concerned about this update. I thought I could trust valve with their content updates but now im really starting to wonder...

[claws]

And for ages we'll have people playing medics who just want achievements, not playing medics.
This is what concerns me most, especially as a 'career medic'. If we're going to have even more medics running around trying to assault everyone it's going to ruin teamplay.

[Pluvious]

I expect a few STAT WHORE servers will be set up and lets hope they all go there to boost and not screw up 'real' games.