Valve Considering Ditching TF2 Item Unlock System

Keane Ng

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Valve Considering Ditching TF2 Item Unlock System



Good news for the TF2 players who have complained about the game's random item drop system: Valve is considering alternative systems, and might just get rid of random unlocks altogether.

If you're sick of AFKing on 2Fort waiting for some of those shiny unlockable items in Team Fortress 2 to drop randomly, Valve has some great news for you. They might not be as openly angry as some TF2 players about the system they put in place, but they're not exactly happy about it either.

"I think we've learned that the random drop system is only good for some types of things, like the rare cosmetic hats," Valve's Robin Walker told CommunityFortress [http://communityfortress.com/tf2/news/exclusive-interview-with-valves-robin-walker.php]. The drops might be good for getting items to new players and avoiding achievement grinding, but for others, Walker admitted that it's less than adequate. "For competitive players, it's obviously a bad way to deliver items."

The TF2 team, then, is considering alternatives to the system. "At the very least, future packs will allow you to use achievements to get the new items, but we might move to a mode where we just give them to you," Walker said. Well that would sure save me a lot of time, though I'd probably just run Achievements.exe to unlock everything anyway. "As part of our goal of supporting tournaments more, I think we'll probably add better tools for them to control exactly what players can and can't use within matches."

So, put control of these things in the hands of the players instead of doling them out according to the arbitrary whims of invisible dice rolls? I think that makes a lot of sense.

[Via Shacknews [http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/59625]]


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Gunner_Guardian

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The_root_of_all_evil said:
I still want my Pyro beanie back. They took it away because of a "bug".
You are not alone.

I recieved a soldier hat, spy hat, engy hat, and sniper hat. They took them all away, every one except my heavy hat. I rarely play heavy :(
 

belgariontheking

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Gunner_Guardian said:
The_root_of_all_evil said:
I still want my Pyro beanie back. They took it away because of a "bug".
You are not alone.

I recieved a soldier hat, spy hat, engy hat, and sniper hat. They took them all away, every one except my heavy hat. I rarely play heavy :(
I will give you 12 razorbacks for your heavy helmet, kind sir.
 

EvilGenius666

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Jul 20, 2009
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belgariontheking said:
I will give you 12 razorbacks for your heavy helmet, kind sir.
There's another thing! What happened to the trading system they were supposedly implementing?
And also, do the levels of dropped weapons actually mean anything whatsoever?
 

Citrus

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Good to hear, but I knew Valve wouldn't keep this system; they can do a lot better, and it's nice when a company recognizes this.

Now if only they'd tone down the Dead Ringer... =(
 

WrongSprite

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Aug 10, 2008
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SomeBritishDude said:
Why don't they just have it so more kills/defends/capture ect means more items?
Because the people who are already good would keep on getting better, and there'd be an enourmous difficulty wall for new players.
 

LtFerret

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How about you ditch the acheviements system as well and just unlock everything at start
 

SomeBritishDude

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WrongSprite said:
SomeBritishDude said:
Why don't they just have it so more kills/defends/capture ect means more items?
Because the people who are already good would keep on getting better, and there'd be an enourmous difficulty wall for new players.
Well...Would that being kind of the point? Rewarding people who put more time and skill into the game? You know, like achievements, quests, how games work in general?
 

Woe Is You

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SomeBritishDude said:
Well...Would that being kind of the point? Rewarding people who put more time and skill into the game? You know, like achievements, quests, how games work in general?
Designing competitive multiplayer games works kind of different, though. In those, the skill is the reward. It's a bad idea to give someone better equipment just because they happened to have played longer. I get it in most MMOs where the environment is your enemy and the equipment also has this status but fighting against veterans who get access to all sorts of toys that you don't is just lame. It's a double whammy: you get steamrolled not only because you're worse than them but also because they have superior equipment.
 

Gunner_Guardian

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belgariontheking said:
Gunner_Guardian said:
The_root_of_all_evil said:
I still want my Pyro beanie back. They took it away because of a "bug".
You are not alone.

I recieved a soldier hat, spy hat, engy hat, and sniper hat. They took them all away, every one except my heavy hat. I rarely play heavy :(
I will give you 12 razorbacks for your heavy helmet, kind sir.
I already have my Level 0 Razorbacks :p
 

Woe Is You

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I do find it kind of interesting how much more mellow people are about this compared to the Tekken incident when we're talking about the same thing essentially.
 

Curtmiester

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Ya, it's good this happening. But I do feel bad for Vavle. This is a hard thing to work out. Fairness is in the eye's of the beholder I guess.
 

Nitehammer

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Woe Is You said:
SomeBritishDude said:
Well...Would that being kind of the point? Rewarding people who put more time and skill into the game? You know, like achievements, quests, how games work in general?
Designing competitive multiplayer games works kind of different, though. In those, the skill is the reward. It's a bad idea to give someone better equipment just because they happened to have played longer. I get it in most MMOs where the environment is your enemy and the equipment also has this status but fighting against veterans who get access to all sorts of toys that you don't is just lame. It's a double whammy: you get steamrolled not only because you're worse than them but also because they have superior equipment.
The unlockables are not supposed to be superior, they are supposed to be an alternative. A new player would not be disadvantaged due to a lack of equipment.