Hey People.
GOODBYE ‘MAUSER’, HELLO ‘SYRINGE’
Those who use the Mauser might have noticed that the first weapon view was changed a few months back to a syringe. Premiering this week is a further update, with the Mauser officially being reborn as ‘The Syringe’. Nothing will affect gameplay, but the new animations mean *everyone* gets to see the Syringe. What exactly was a ‘mauser’? Well, the ‘real life’ mauser is actually a rifle, so I have no idea why the original CustomTF coders made it a melee weapon. In any case, it’s main ‘feature’ in game, that it is the only weapon a spy can use which doesn’t ‘undisguise’ them.
I’ve re-imagined it as the kind of syringe used in the TV show ‘Dexter’, where Dexter injects his victims with it and they pass out instantly. Maybe the Syringe should do they same thing .. put players ‘to sleep’ for a while, rather than ‘Instant Kill’. In game it would appear as if they died, but … no death sound. Or maybe a new animation where they are lying straight down as if asleep. The spy still gets to ‘dispose’ of an enemy, and the enemy (perhaps completely uninjured) ‘wakes up’ (maybe groggy and slow at first), and then continues.. (?). Currently death via Mauser (Syringe!) seems too .. irritating, more of an annoyance than anything.. your opinions please.
I’m still making refinements, but a workable version will be up this week. I’m not even sure if it should be called ‘Syringe’ OR be named after the actual substance it contains – “Etorphine”.. For now, the game will refer to it as “Syringe” so as not to confuse people.. is ‘Etorphine’ ‘cool’, or ‘confusing’ (?).. People played Doom for years and didn’t know what BFG stood for – so maybe ‘Etorphine’ would be cool.. also it didn’t really matter that the word ‘Mauser’ was meaningless to most people, and as it turns out, inaccurate anyway. Anyway, currently it’s just a visual change, your feedback welcome, especially if you’re a regular user.
TIMESLOT : YOUR (2nd) LAST CHANCE TO INFLUENCE IT
I’ve been playing Saturdays *and* Sundays (thought I had to leave early last Sunday) and it’s actually kind of .. good. Based on the turnout in the next two weeks, a decision will be made as to whether to switch it back to Sundays, and whether the starting time should change. Remember, there’s no reason why people can’t log on and play whenever they want, the point of this is to have an *organised* Session, to maximise attendance.
SHORTER GAMES?
Experience has shown that sometimes the BIG maps *can* be played with minimal players. However they are very exhausting, and demanding, so as an experiment, I shortened some games to 32 minutes last week, and surprisingly.. it seemed quite ‘right’. I dunno.. your feedback welcome
Meanwhile, I look forward to experiencing true TF ecstasy at this weeks:
What: Weekly AGR Session
Where: tastyspleen.net:26666
When: Saturday AND Sunday 23:00 GMT. Convert this to your timezone here.
Who: True TF Warriors.
Why: To face your greatest challenge!
MAP SCHEDULE = 1fool1a, canyon1, and unscheduled ( um.. you tell me)!
—————
Newbies: please log on to the server BEFORE the Session begins to confirm your registration, and to make sure there are no technical issues. If it says “you are NOT registered”, email me.
AGR VENTRILLO SERVER
[NOTE: Ventrillo has now been phased out. Here’s a link on how to use AGR Voice2Demo]
When a weapon kills in one hit, there is no opening for counterplay. Not that I expect you to change the game at this point, just a reminder that less damage means longer fights, and longer fights skew the outcome in favor of the player with consistently better skill.
The only thing less fun than instant death is helplessly watching as your enemy tortures you (Psionic Grenades, vomiting, caltrops, etc), so out of the two I would say instant death is preferred.
If you change your mind and want to rebalance the syringe, turn it into a longer-lasting tranquilizer. With the tranquilizer effect, the victim at least has a chance to fight back. It could still do a little damage, but it shouldn’t be deal holy-hell-my-brain-is-exploding damage.
I see, well that’s +1 for the tranquiliser player effect.
I dunno about counterplay because the spy has to get REAL close to get a ‘hit’, and unlike before, you can now *see* him holding a syringe!!
I agree about Psions, but FYI ‘Caltrop damaged legs’ slowly heal now, and there’s a lot of randomness to disease symptoms, so if you get infected, its not necessarily ‘game over’, AND you can get healed. Oh and sometimes if you throw up, you automatically ‘heal yourself’, so dreams can come true 🙂
It’s not a melee weapon, but is a short range pistol, think 007.
Hey Shaka (where have you been man!?),
Short range pistol eh? The version I’m using has the (Classic CustomTF) values:
traceline (source, source + v_forward*100, #TL_ANY_SOLID, self);
.. so it must have been changed at some point (or it was a VERY short range pistol!). Btw, it looks like the original coders of the mauser weren’t sure about the name either:
/*
** W_FireMauser!
** Fires the mauser spy thing which is likely to have a name change
** so nyeh
*/
🙂
It’s a weapon that is easily avoided given it’s extremely limited range. Slower players or ones who rely on tank-like armour will be frustrated by such trivial matters but yeah….go ahead….nerf the spy class some more 😉
As I said: “currently it’s just a visual change”, the rest is all analysis/speculation.
The backstab effect of the knife was designed so that a cunning spy had a window of opportunity to deal extremely high damage if he caught an enemy with their back turned.
The mauser doesn’t require you to strike the target from behind to deal high damage, and unlike other weaponry, it’s damage isn’t reduced by any armor type.
Buying tank-like armor and having someone instantly kill you anyway is frustrating, I can confirm that from experience. The spy class isn’t being nerfed.
You aren’t really a spy anyway, just a scout with a disguise kit to bypass automated defenses.
Hopefully someday there will be viable counters to hopping-‘spy’-spammers and the instant-kill weapons will have been balanced or removed. I don’t see that happening in the next decade, though…or ever, honestly, which is a big part of why I stopped playing.
Don’t worry, I’m sure your “terrified rapist kit” (‘spy’ disguise, psi nades, fist and mauser[syringe]) will be around as long as you continue to play. If you call that playing.
Beltan, I agree with you about ‘instant kills’ being frustrating – the LAST thing we need at a time when we’re trying to attract new players.
If you were there last Sunday, you would have (briefly) seen a (buggy) test version of the ‘instant-knockout, no-damage’ version of the Syringe (as described above). It’s still deadly, but hopefully makes things more fun for both injector and victim. Maybe it will be ready for a further test next week, so… ‘some day’ … might be HERE. 🙂
It’s a start. Keep fightin’ the good fight, OMC.