Team Fortress 2, the competitive, multiplayer first-person shooter from Valve Software, has been updated – or ‘patched’. Users of Valve’s storefront and games house, Steam, will find that new files will seep unsolicited into their version of the game – changing it in scores of small and surprising ways.
Surprising, that is, unless you have the patch notes. Which we do.
Quickplay hasn’t been working precisely as intended lately – as players found themselves matched to a fitting server, only to be immediately redirected to an alternate server. That’s now stopped, as of last night.
For good measure, the TF2 dev team have introduced a Quickplay option to only connect to official Valve servers. That way, I suppose, you know you’re not in for any nasty surprises.
Fixed, too, are a trio of crash causes – one related to screen fades in-game, and two related to the client menu, which I’ve always found far crashier than the game itself. The client had been struggling with Killstreak effects, as well as invalid URLs as Message of the Day – especially frustrating, as this had TF2 crashing at the very moment of connecting to a server.
Elsewhere there are updates to recent items to better integrate them with the game’s existing systems, and fixes running the gamut from Asian fonts to the Heavy’s fists. Here’s the rest of the changelog in full:
- Fixed the show_htmlpage command bypassing the cl_disablehtmlmotd convar on the client
- Fixed the loading screen not rendering correctly for Mac clients
- Fixed Asian fonts not rendering correctly for Linux clients
- Fixed color correction being based off the wrong player’s origin in multiplayer games
- Fixed the Heavy’s fists not showing the Killstreak effects
- Fixed The War on Smissmas Battle Socks hiding the Soldier’s grenades
- Fixed the Meet the Medic taunt not releasing doves during the taunt
- Fixed HUD elements not drawing correctly after beginning to record a demo
- Fixed the Short Circuit particles not always being removed on player death
- Fixed an exploit where players could run the MVM_Revive_Response, MVM_Respec, and use_action_slot_item commands on behalf of other players
- Updated the Unidentified Following Object, Carrion Companion, and Chucklenuts so they can get assists in Pyrovision
- Updated the Festive Gloves of Running Urgently to include a blue material when equipped by the Blue team
- Updated The Brainiac Hairpiece so it can be equipped with items like The Grizzled Growth and added a “no helmet” style
- Updated The Map Maker’s Medallion so name/description tags can be applied to it
- Updated the Short Circuit to use the Engineer’s melee taunt
- Updated The Scotsman’s Skullcutter to use the Demoman’s secondary taunt
- Updated The TF2VRH and The Virtual Viewfinder so they can be equipped with hats
- Added UGC Highlander Season 11 and 6vs6 Season 13 medals
- Updated the localization files
- Updated pl_upward
Fixed being able to construct buildings in the skybox
- Updated Mann vs. Machine
Fixed the bots not being able to equip multiple cosmetic items
Fixed Scout bots not playing the correct animation when stunned with the Sandman
Fixed not being able to reset the countdown timer if a player disconnects while Ready
Updated the countdown logic to un-Ready a team if someone quits during the final 10 seconds or disconnects while everyone else is Ready
Updated mvm_rottenburg
Improved collision near barricade to reduce players getting stuck
Fixed credits not always being collected when they fall into the barricade
Updated mvm_mannhattan
Fixed being able to construct buildings inside the respawn room
Fixed a material problem near the hatch
How’ve you lot been getting on with Rottenburg and Mannhattan? Or are your interests strictly Mann vs Mann?