The Sniper vs Spy update has gone live in TF2. To go with it are some new weapons and a new way of actually getting those weapons. If you need to catch up I suggest having a look at the TF2 blog so you can see what I’m going on about.
In days gone past the way of unlocking new stuff for TF2 was through achievements. For example, to unlock a new flamethrower for the pyro meant obtaining about 20 of the pyro specific achievements. This system worked ok, but how good it worked was fundamentally down to how fun the achievements were to actually do. To use the pyro achievements as an example again they were good; they brought about new ways to play and some achievable but challenging goals (killing someone with a taunt for example). On the other hand though, some of the achievements for the other classes were tedious. Pretty much all of the medics were just a long slug through healing x amounts of points (I mean yeah, that’s what the medic does, but it doesn’t make for a fun achievement). In general though this system worked, and meant that the more you played a class, the more stuff for that class you would unlock. Simple and logical.
Now, I don’t want to sound like angry internet man here but this new system is nonsense. Basically, after a set amount of time of playing you have a good chance of unlocking an item. It could be any item for any class and is completely regardless of what class you are currently playing and what items you have already unlocked. Achievements count for nothing, your performance counts for nothing, all that matters is how long you have been playing.
Before the new update I had everything unlocked for every class, as no doubt numerous other people had. Since the update I have gained The Huntsman and the Cloak and Dagger along, then lots of duplicates of stuff I already had (sandviches, flareguns, etc). How is this fun? It’s not. It’s frustrating. What I want is the Ambassador but I’m waiting on blind luck to get it. What’s worse, I know people who have unlocked said Ambassador 4 times, but they can’t trade it because Valve haven’t put the system in to trade stuff yet, and by the time they do no one is going to want to trade my stupid duplicate Sandvich for it.
So yeah, nice work on the update pack Valve, but in my eyes this the first time you have completely screwed something up. Oh, also, all that work I put into doing those achievements for the unlocks (for the Pyro and Heavy anyway, I might have joined an achievement server for some others…) is now for nothing. To be fair though none of this is going to stop me playing because at the end of the day TF2 is still insanely good and the new unlocks are brilliant if not a little hard to get.
I don’t have anything but duplicates. I reckon that when trading is allowed, if I had four ambassadors, I’d trade you a sandvich for one. I reckon most people would. So, yet again, it’d just be people trying to quietly go through the motions for Grandpa Valve so they can get to the game.
It’d be entirely the same if, for example, it only gave you weapons you didn’t have yet.
doesnt this make it pointles?
couldnt i just load it up and go on a server then bugga off and let everyone kill me for the rest of forever and then get a whole load of acheivments? lol is this what your getting at here…. in which case is there any point in playing the game… because they have just taken away the reward and satisfaction when you get the ‘x’ amount of acheivments?
@Jaz Wouldn’t most people already have a sandvich? I suppose if they’re just being nice they would, but this in the internet we’re talking about.
@Ren You can just load up a server and go afk yeah – i’ve heard of a few servers that are there for just that actually. TF2 has never really been ‘about’ the achievements before, they were something to aim for. You play it just because it’s constantly fun, just the same as people still playing CSS and that has never had any sort of unlocks.