I can't stand to play Team Fortress 2 any more. Why? Here are my reasons:
1. The updates
Every update which adds new weapons makes the game more unbalanced. It didn't used to be so bad when the weapons rewarded skill. The ambassador rewarded players who could aim by doing more damage on headshots. The kritzkreig made the ubercharge more versatile but gave up the invincibility and made the medic vulnerable while the charge happening. But then Valve started making weapons like the backburner, which has a very small drawback but still gives you increased damage as well as crits from behind. There's the enforcer which is literally a pure buff when used with the dead ringer. There's no downside when you use it with the dead ringer and a crit can kill 3 classes in 1 shot (correct me if I'm wrong there). The manmelter doesn't use ammo, can't be deflected and the projectile travels 50% faster. It can extinguish friendlies and you get crits for doing so. I liked TF2 back when the classes were balanced and when Valve didn't cater to the newbs who can't aim, communicate or use strategy. The sniper and scout aren't meant to be specifically anti-spy classes, yet for some reason the scout has mad milk which makes the cloak useless, and the sniper has jarate which too makes the cloak useless, and then gives the sniper free crits if he's using the bushwacka. How does that reflect what the sniper is meant to be: Powerful at long range, but fairly useless in melee combat at close range and vulnerable to spies. There's the axetinguisher which gives the pyro the ability to pretty much instakill most classes from close up. The Pomson 6000 doesn't use ammo, drains cloak and UBERCHARGE, and still does damage. How is that in any way balanced? All the engineer needs to do is spam around his buildings and spies can't even get close, even when using the invisibility watch. In my opinion any weapon which is added to the game shouldn't impact on the vanilla set, so that the vanilla set remains the best set to use; the unlockables are meant to be "side-grades" not buffs or game changing weapons.
2. Hats
I don't get it. People actually pay as much as $1500 in real money for unusual hats in TF2. It's a game for christ's sake, in a few years no-one will even play it and your fancy expensive hat will be worthless and unseen. What's worse is so much of the community thinks that hats are an important part of TF2. It's an online fps, not The Sims, how you look is completely irrelevant. Here's an idea, if you want to look nice then do it in real life where you actually get to keep the hat forever. What's worse is Valve seems to be as oblivious to this as the community. Rather than fix bugs or improve the hit detection, they focus on hats. I think that is a skewed and unprofessional philosophy.
3. The Mann-Co store and set bonuses
I shouldn't have to pay money to get a class bonus. People say the items are not DLC because everything comes in random drops, but in the entire time I've had TF2 I've never once been dropped a hat which enabled a set bonus. Why should some players have set bonuses (like increased speed or decreased decloak volume) which completely unbalance the game and then the unlucky players have to pay money just to even the playing field. This is another example of how unbalanced Team Fortress 2 has become. The Saharan spy when used with the dead ringer is the epitome of this problem.
4. Broken replays
Every update causes whatever replays you have to become completely useless. And sometimes they just don't work. A few days ago I made some great replays, but when I tried to render then, all I got were error codes. Upon further research I discovered that the error codes meant the replays were useless and unrecoverable. Also unless I'm mistaken and it's been fixed since I last checked, Valve still hasn't addressed the problem of the smoke covering the screen for replays as spy.
5. Terrible players
Here's my theory. When a game is first released all the hardcore fans get it. For a while the servers are full of mostly good players. Then over time the game becomes more mainstream and popular and more people get it. This causes the quality of the players in servers to be diluted. Eventually the good players start to get tired of the bad players and begin to leave. This results in an increase in the number of good players leaving causing a snowball effect resulting in mostly bad players remaining.
6. Bugs and hit detection
As previously mentioned, the hit detection in TF2 sucks. There are so many times when I get killed by players who manage to shoot me through walls, around corners and when I'm behind cover. Perhaps it's the antiquated source engine or maybe it's just the mess that is TF2. Regardless I hate it and it should have been addressed YEARS ago. A bug I experienced today was one I've not experienced before. I stepped of the edge of some steps in koth_harvers (the ones leading to the windows); It's a 1m drop and I was on full health, but for some reason I died instantly. I've done it hundreds without taking damage and it takes a fall of considerable height to actually die on full health in TF2. But for some reason I died instantly. Other bugs include Razorbacks that you can't see until you stab (something which will kill even the best spies), some weapons not spawning (it's a lot of fun when you try to pull out your melee weapon only to discover it didn't spawn and now you're dead), and clipping in walls.
7. Random crits
I don't even know why Valve thought it would be a good idea to put them in the game. Random crits do nothing but destabilise gameplay. There have been so many times when I should have won a battle but then I didn't because my opponent got a random crit and killed me. Some weapons really shouldn't random crit but they still do, one example would be the aforementioned bushwacka: All you have to do is throw Jarate on the person and you get crits, it really doesn't need random crits too.
Who else is feeling the same way? I'm well aware this is going to get trolled but I don't really care I just wanted to put the thoughts that have been going through my head for months into words.
1. The updates
Every update which adds new weapons makes the game more unbalanced. It didn't used to be so bad when the weapons rewarded skill. The ambassador rewarded players who could aim by doing more damage on headshots. The kritzkreig made the ubercharge more versatile but gave up the invincibility and made the medic vulnerable while the charge happening. But then Valve started making weapons like the backburner, which has a very small drawback but still gives you increased damage as well as crits from behind. There's the enforcer which is literally a pure buff when used with the dead ringer. There's no downside when you use it with the dead ringer and a crit can kill 3 classes in 1 shot (correct me if I'm wrong there). The manmelter doesn't use ammo, can't be deflected and the projectile travels 50% faster. It can extinguish friendlies and you get crits for doing so. I liked TF2 back when the classes were balanced and when Valve didn't cater to the newbs who can't aim, communicate or use strategy. The sniper and scout aren't meant to be specifically anti-spy classes, yet for some reason the scout has mad milk which makes the cloak useless, and the sniper has jarate which too makes the cloak useless, and then gives the sniper free crits if he's using the bushwacka. How does that reflect what the sniper is meant to be: Powerful at long range, but fairly useless in melee combat at close range and vulnerable to spies. There's the axetinguisher which gives the pyro the ability to pretty much instakill most classes from close up. The Pomson 6000 doesn't use ammo, drains cloak and UBERCHARGE, and still does damage. How is that in any way balanced? All the engineer needs to do is spam around his buildings and spies can't even get close, even when using the invisibility watch. In my opinion any weapon which is added to the game shouldn't impact on the vanilla set, so that the vanilla set remains the best set to use; the unlockables are meant to be "side-grades" not buffs or game changing weapons.
2. Hats
I don't get it. People actually pay as much as $1500 in real money for unusual hats in TF2. It's a game for christ's sake, in a few years no-one will even play it and your fancy expensive hat will be worthless and unseen. What's worse is so much of the community thinks that hats are an important part of TF2. It's an online fps, not The Sims, how you look is completely irrelevant. Here's an idea, if you want to look nice then do it in real life where you actually get to keep the hat forever. What's worse is Valve seems to be as oblivious to this as the community. Rather than fix bugs or improve the hit detection, they focus on hats. I think that is a skewed and unprofessional philosophy.
3. The Mann-Co store and set bonuses
I shouldn't have to pay money to get a class bonus. People say the items are not DLC because everything comes in random drops, but in the entire time I've had TF2 I've never once been dropped a hat which enabled a set bonus. Why should some players have set bonuses (like increased speed or decreased decloak volume) which completely unbalance the game and then the unlucky players have to pay money just to even the playing field. This is another example of how unbalanced Team Fortress 2 has become. The Saharan spy when used with the dead ringer is the epitome of this problem.
4. Broken replays
Every update causes whatever replays you have to become completely useless. And sometimes they just don't work. A few days ago I made some great replays, but when I tried to render then, all I got were error codes. Upon further research I discovered that the error codes meant the replays were useless and unrecoverable. Also unless I'm mistaken and it's been fixed since I last checked, Valve still hasn't addressed the problem of the smoke covering the screen for replays as spy.
5. Terrible players
Here's my theory. When a game is first released all the hardcore fans get it. For a while the servers are full of mostly good players. Then over time the game becomes more mainstream and popular and more people get it. This causes the quality of the players in servers to be diluted. Eventually the good players start to get tired of the bad players and begin to leave. This results in an increase in the number of good players leaving causing a snowball effect resulting in mostly bad players remaining.
6. Bugs and hit detection
As previously mentioned, the hit detection in TF2 sucks. There are so many times when I get killed by players who manage to shoot me through walls, around corners and when I'm behind cover. Perhaps it's the antiquated source engine or maybe it's just the mess that is TF2. Regardless I hate it and it should have been addressed YEARS ago. A bug I experienced today was one I've not experienced before. I stepped of the edge of some steps in koth_harvers (the ones leading to the windows); It's a 1m drop and I was on full health, but for some reason I died instantly. I've done it hundreds without taking damage and it takes a fall of considerable height to actually die on full health in TF2. But for some reason I died instantly. Other bugs include Razorbacks that you can't see until you stab (something which will kill even the best spies), some weapons not spawning (it's a lot of fun when you try to pull out your melee weapon only to discover it didn't spawn and now you're dead), and clipping in walls.
7. Random crits
I don't even know why Valve thought it would be a good idea to put them in the game. Random crits do nothing but destabilise gameplay. There have been so many times when I should have won a battle but then I didn't because my opponent got a random crit and killed me. Some weapons really shouldn't random crit but they still do, one example would be the aforementioned bushwacka: All you have to do is throw Jarate on the person and you get crits, it really doesn't need random crits too.
Who else is feeling the same way? I'm well aware this is going to get trolled but I don't really care I just wanted to put the thoughts that have been going through my head for months into words.
