*AuthorTopic: Gun Mettle, Contracts, and Official Servers.  (Read 6210 times)

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Plasma

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Gun Mettle, Contracts, and Official Servers.
« on: July 02, 2015, 03:34:42 PM »
Warning: Big long useless rant incoming. Skip to last paragraph for actual important servers changes.
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Awesome! The TF2 Dev team just released a big update, with a lot of server fixes, balance changes (for good or bad, we'll see), a new map and CS:GO style 3 months campaigns that includes Contracts.. err, wait, CS:GO style campaigns?!

Yes, that's right. What should be a fantastic patch (as in, finally more content instead of just new skins, hats, and taunts) is only disappointing, at least if you're the owner of a community server. This is MvM all over again: community servers will not be participating in Contracts, and obviously no rewards whatsoever. You will have to play on official Valve servers for that.

We've already received the reason (though it's been the same for two years now): Valve is afraid of cheating server owners, plugin coders, and other dishonest individuals. Their solution, every single time, is to simply cut all community servers from participating. That's the way things have been for CS:GO for a while, and that's how it's going to be for TF2 from now on, as I'm sure these new Campaigns will be extremely profitable, for both Valve and maps/models makers.

Instead of simply trying to find some kind of compromise, fixing their engine, tracking and punishing communities that cheat the system, they opt for the "nuclear option" (their words) Fallout style. It's sad, because that means I'll have to go play on some random Valve server, with strangers and potentially actual cheaters, until I've completed my weekly contracts and then come back to Hyperion. It's sad, because these kind of updates could really help the communities grow, especially small or new ones. But hey, we don't want to drop the prices of these ultra-rare level 5 kills-counting Strange special collection guns, now do we? The Steam market needs to stay pure. Oh and I urge you to read this update's comic; I think they don't even try to be ironic in these anymore.

Rant over. Sorry.
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Still, it's a big patch, with a lot of very cool changes that all servers benefit from, and we really needed some changes as TF2 was getting a bit stale compared to other recent big releases.

No changes were made to the Payload server.

I've changed the Full Rotation server to a Gun Mettle server. This means it will go through the 4 maps introduced this patch, and follows the Gun Mettle gameplay changes. If it were an official server, Contracts would be live, but it's not, so don't expect your Campaign Coin to track anything while playing with us. You need to go on an official Valve server for that.

The above change is not permanent, it will depend on the server's traffic and popularity. We might add more maps to the rotation in the future, but I'm not sure we're allowed to if we wish to "participate" in this new Campaign.

Feel free to voice your thoughts and opinions, about this update, and the changes to our 2nd TF2 server.
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Finally, I'll be starting our Summer Giveaway "campaign" soon. Probably next week, I still need to get back home ;) I hope you guys enjoy this new update! See you in-game!
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