We've almost completely wrapped up the next big release for Team Fortress 2, which will focus on the Pyro class, along with the Meet the Sniper movie. We've spent time looking at how the recent Medic release went, and have rolled feedback from that release into the new item designs for the Pyro and into the design of the achievements required to unlock those items. One item, shown here in concept form, will be the Axtinguisher. Although it does about half of normal damage to standard run-of-the-mill non-burning enemies, once you light someone on fire the Axtinguisher will guarantee a critical hit.
Along with all of the new content, we're also going to be making some significant changes to the Pyro class for everyone, regardless of whether they have unlocked any new items.
I think it's a great mechanic. It's brilliant fun to run in and bring a finishing blow down with the fire axe already...but throw a guaranteed crit in as a bonus? Awesome!
Everytime one of these comes out it will bring me back into the game for a week or two, but do they really need to announce these silly 30 second movies. I mean I think there funny and all, but fuck do they take forever to make, just release them all when there done.
They take "forever to make" because they're high quality. I actually DO look forward to them, personally... then again, I am a frequent visitor to http://www.cgsociety.org/
Anyway, this is very exciting news! I can't wait to see the new and improved Pyro as this class is the least useful in competitive games, and as far as I can tell, the least played in pub matches as well. He has a lot of potential, but just isn't quite there. I only worry that he may be too easy to make imbalanced... We'll see what Valve has come up with I guess!
It's easy to cause a lot of chaos when playing as a Pyro, but it's not easy to convert all that mayhem into actual kills and kill assists. A newbie pyro is a good distraction, an expert pyro can be a walking funeral pyre.
I look forward to the Pyro updates, as it's my favourite class, even though I'm more consistently good with other classes.
It's easy to cause a lot of chaos when playing as a Pyro, but it's not easy to convert all that mayhem into actual kills and kill assists. A newbie pyro is a good distraction, an expert pyro can be a walking funeral pyre.
I look forward to the Pyro updates, as it's my favourite class, even though I'm more consistently good with other classes.
Eh, that's a pretty narrow view of what makes a class "good". If you help your team win, you're doing well, regardless of what appears on the scoreboard. On Dustbowl, a Pyro that kills no one and yet forces half the defending team to run back to their spawn just opened a huge hole in the defense. This isn't quantified in the scoring, but that doesn't mean it's irrelevant.
As Random noted, the new ax really seems to lend itself to cheap binds. Heavies will be incredibly easy targets. I'm concerned about some of these unlocked weapons being a little too all-purpose; neither Valve nor the community want to see farming achievements become a necessary evil of staying competitive.
Sounds great - Pyro is my favorite class. I just hope they learn from their mistakes the first time around and fix the god-awful "achievements = new weapons" system.
New weapons = great
New achievements = great
Achievements tied to major gameplay elements in a game that's based entirely on everyone being on equal footing = worst idea ever
Is it really necessary to require achievements for new weapons? Why not just make the weapons available so everyone can use them, and the people who want achievements can get achievements? I love TF2, but I just don't have that much time to play it, and there's no way I'll ever get to use all of the new weapons if they continue like this.
In other words, I'll likely just stop playing the game after awhile, as seeing other players with new weapons that you don't have access to just kind of kills the fun, especially when you don't have hours and hours on end to farm achievements. And no, many of the achievements (at least for Medic) do not occur in the natural course of the game.
Anyway, I look forward to seeing how this update plays out.
Maybe Valve can actually fix the Custom/Internet tabs so I can finally filter out the custom servers and play this game again. Playing with modified respawn times completely hoses the TF2 gameplay dynamic. And don't get me started about the abhorrent custom maps...
Eh, that's a pretty narrow view of what makes a class "good". If you help your team win, you're doing well, regardless of what appears on the scoreboard. On Dustbowl, a Pyro that kills no one and yet forces half the defending team to run back to their spawn just opened a huge hole in the defense. This isn't quantified in the scoring, but that doesn't mean it's irrelevant.
I didn't state my opinion in terms of the class being good or bad. The class is fun and suits my playstyle, and that's why I play it. Though someone earlier in the thread stated the opinion that they were underpowered, and I think this comes from it being harder to score points as a Pyro.
Pyros are great to have in your team, and their efforts can definitely contribute to a stunning victory, but it's not easy to get massive kill and kill assist streaks. Best I've done so far is 11 kills with one life, which is pretty damn good, but is outshined by my performance with other classes. Doesn't make the class bad, it just means your efforts aren't being recognized.
