Everything Wrong With Team Fortress 2

[@TKsh1]

Almost all of the problems happened because of age. The default settings, the competitive scene, the huge skill gap, it gets worse by the day without some basic maintenance (and don't even get started about Sniper). It's a old game with a even older engine, but Valve's support would help a lot and even maybe open the way to a "sequel", but they just don't want to. Guess we'll just have to live with the problems until the next big thing happens.

[@htwo1]

yeah this is 100% true. The game being old is the cause of all of its issues with very few exceptions. like random crits. I also did wanna talk about both the sniper and engineer, but felt it was too much time whining about classes that are obnoxious and powerful, so i left it at just pyro

[@_Lythe_]

Even with all the flaws tf2 is still the greatest game I have ever played even though I was late to the game and joined mid bot crisis I enjoy the game throughly.

[@htwo1]

@@_Lythe_ well the trick is to avoid casual entirely with community servers, then the game's as good as new.... Kinda

[@roby4504]

If they keep neglecting it like the dumbasses they are, they could just sell it to another studio, like to that one team behind TF2 Source 2.

[@krimson8089]

It's hard to imagine tf2 having a sequel, because we got so attached to the characters and the setting that it's hard to really imagine a Team Fortress 3. A Remake would be great for tf2, like Team Fortress 2 Classic and Open Fortress, which include already established 2 new classes. I could see potential in the Mercenary class being a comp class for 6v6 and Highlander being comp with our current 9 classes.

[@mrmedic7799]

6:47 "Having your shots be inconsistant is a terrible idea" *Uses the Beggars Bazooka*

[@sharkotario808]

at least the damage is the same all the times if u hit the rockets

[@Entow2012]

yes

[@manunova5929]

For a "garbage" weapon that is inaccurate on purpose which can shoot three rockets in quick succession and has higher damage potential than three perfect shotgun shots at maximum damage ramp up, I'd say a lack of accuracy is okay.

[@leonard_9500]

10:50 Don't even start me on fast weapon switch being turned off by default.

[@Frosty-ud7fv]

YES one time it turned off for some reason and I spent ages trying to figure out why I couldn't switch weapons

[@zue625]

I've been playing the game for my entire childhood, and I couldn't ask for a better game to grow up with, but it's baffling how much it's neglected. It really is like watching the death of your child, but I suppose it's better to remember the fun already had. Also you're pretty underrated for your subcount, keep up the grind man.

[@Syrno]

Valve actually got rid of the whole "employees work on what they want to" thing during the development of Half-Life: Alyx, because they found that workers were happier. This is talked about in "The Final Days of Half-Life: Alyx"

[@KannaDHD]

so they got rid of it BECAUSE EMPOYEES WERE HAPPY?

[@Syrno]

@@KannaDHD no the employees were more happy with the new system

[@user-zb7ub1om1e]

Most people wouldnt want to work on tf2 anyway. The coding in there is horrendous

[@ellugerdelacruz2555]

​@user-zb7ub1om1e Which is all the more reason why SOMEONE needs to work on it. I mean heck, if Half Life can get something like Entropy Zero, why not TF2!?!?

[@thechroniclegamer4285]

@@Syrnoyeah because it isn’t using a map editor from 1996

[@alexxx4434]

The fundamental design flaw of TF2 is the fear of stalemates, hence why there are are a number of b/s game elements: random crits, punishing defenders by increasing their respawn time. They just makes matches even more steamrolly.

[@Appletank8]

I kinda get why defense has slower respawn, because generally defending is easier than attacking. Otherwise, defense will win almost every time.

[@robbierotten2024]

@@Appletank8 agreed, defending is way easier than attacking. The medic is kinda designed to break stalemates though, so is demo. Also, what even is a stalemate in attack/defense? A “stalemate” in that mode just means that defense is winning lol

[@Appletank8]

@@robbierotten2024 Defense being able to effectively spawn camp I guess? Or the game state not changing, which equates to defense never having to fall back. TF2 assymmetric modes (+KOTH) seem to want attackers to succeed more often than not, assuming equal forces.

[@robbierotten2024]

@@Appletank8 defense being given the entire start of the match to set up a defensive line, ontop of being able to set up defenses later from points of their choosing. Ontop of this, they’re not constrained by having to achieve an objective, such as group up together on a cart or a control point. Map structures are often favored defensively in favor of the defenders too on game modes like payload, giving them a good advantage.

[@Appletank8]

@@robbierotten2024 Yeah, which is why Blu tends to get a spawn advantage, because the dev team doesn't want to front line to barely move and enu in 5 minutes

[@Crueltycretin]

The Pyro problem is where you fall off, chieftain. The Pyro running into the enemy team brainlessly holding M1 and getting top 3 isn't a testament to the design, it's a testament to player inability to learn from their deaths. Take, for example, the clip you intro'd with, where you're Huntsman sniper, A flame particle is visible from beyond the corner. You peek the corner without drawing an arrow. The Pyro wasn't at fault for your death there. And yet your base reaction was to go "god I love the Pyro class" instead of actually thinking about why it is you died there; Because you went around a corner unprepared with a corner-peeking weapon, and wound up in the effective range of an enemy. Literally any other class save for maybe another Sniper in that situation and the outcome remains the same.

[@htwo1]

The issue with the pyro isn't with any of what you said. It isn't that it's unreactable, or that I didn't deserve to die there, or that I don't know what I could have done different. I know that it's my bad I died there. The problem is that hte amount of skill it takes for me to kill him is far, far greater than the skill involved for him killing me. If I want to kill him i have to perfectly headshot him, or bodyshot melee him, but all he has to do is look in my general direction and hold m1. Same with other classes. A soldier, demo, scout etc can all out-dps the pyro, but its much harder for them to aim their shots than it is for the pyro to hold down a button

[@Crueltycretin]

@@htwo1 I mean, you could stay out of his effective range in the first place. Be ready for ambushes around corners, don't follow one around a corner if he starts retreating, etc. But the main example given wasn't to clown on your clip, but is more or less to illustrate the type of mentality that leads to those situations where there's a fresh install top thirding as Pyro; People let the giant high-visibility stream of fully opaque flame particles slowly shamble up to them, and then go "pyro op" in chat as if they didn't have ample time to shoot him before he got there instead of thinking about what happened and why. You said it in your video about pick classes that counterplay is a lot of what makes a class balanced. Pyro has plenty of counterplay, and sure, is annoying to deal with, but you really can't iron out problems with a game based on what's "annoying", because "annoying" is wholly subjective and can't be taken into consideration when developing a game as complex as TF2.

[@htwo1]

@@Crueltycretin Yeah you're right and I do agree, there's certainly lots of counterplay around pyro, I'm not ever denying that I don't think. It's a matter of that skill imbalance. Because you can't avoid the scenario 100% of the time, you can't stay out of his effective range permanently. And when you are in his effective range my point still stands, its so much easier for the pyro to do what he does. Pyro isn't overpowered or even problematic at all, but it can be frustrating to die to a player who is clearly exerting a whole lot less skill than you sometimes

[@Crueltycretin]

@@htwo1 I mean, fair enough, but at the same time I never really understood the whole "skill" thing. The way I've always seen it is that "skill" is a myth people will use to justify mechanics they like and bash mechanics they don't like, and I've yet to see it proven wrong, really.

[@htwo1]

@@Crueltycretin eh Idk. I think it creates frustrating situations for the guy who has harder execution. The person who has to hit 2 good pipes is frustrated when they miss, but the pyro just holding left click gets 2 piped and goes "unlucky"

[@jamjmith]

There’s definitely devs at valve whod wanna work on tf, but Valve will literally fire people or hold their pay because they’re working on a “non profitable” game

[@sosig6445]

"non profitable" Has a skin market comparable to CSGO, has 100k concurrent players despite no updates, has thousands of players constantly buying mvm tickets every day... non profitable my fuckin' ass! It's only non profitable because these fucks refuse to put a tiny amount of work in it

[@commenterthe3rd]

rly?

[@madaxgaming6405]

@@commenterthe3rd ye

[@FireFusionYT_0]

This sounds believable, though I do need a source for this information...

[@MintyCoffee]

Literally, how do you know this.

[@Zerdark77]

My main problem with the game is just the severe disparity of skill that's displayed in a majority of matches. You touched on it briefly, but this huge skill disparity is the cause of a lot of complaints about the game's balance. Especially the debate about Sniper's balance. The fact is once a player has reached a certain level of skill in the game, regardless of what class they pick, they are not fun for most of the rest of the playerbase to play against. Sniper as a class is just a lot more pronounced when this issue comes into play since playing against a Sniper that can consistently headshot you every time he sees you essentially makes it feel like you're not allowed to play the video game. If you were on his level, then it'd be a balanced interaction. But more often than not, it's not at all a balanced interaction because the skill disparity is enormous. If matchmaking actually functioned and skilled players were matched against other skilled players, then this wouldn't be as big of an issue. But more often than not, the skilled Snipers are just shooting fish in a barrel and nobody is having fun. And the people who aren't having fun instantly dying from across the map every time they try to do literally anything go off to complain about it on Reddit while the Sniper mains get faced with toxicity and hackusations for just playing the game, and they're not having fun either. This system isn't fair to anyone. Everyone has a right to play the video game. But when almost every match results in a complete stomp, it's not really fun for anyone.

[@htwo1]

I actually disagree with you on the sniper thing. you're right, the skill disparity is an enormous problem, but if you ask me that's not why sniper is a problem. The reason sniper is a problem is because of the lack of interaction you have with it in 99% of situations. If the sniper is skilled enough, even if you're equally as good, they kill you before you even know they exist. Their power as a pick class is enormous, but it ends up being even more frustrating because of this lack of interaction

[@Zerdark77]

@@htwo1 In most cases, I do agree that it is entirely out of your hands. As soon as the Sniper sees you, as long as he's able to aim, you're just dead. And that's a problem. A lot of common counterpoints essentially amount to "Don't let him see you", but that's kind a problem on maps like Upward where pretty much the entire map is a sightline. At that point, "Don't let him see you" essentially boils down to "Don't play the video game". And there's also the fact that Spy is kinda useless at countering a good Sniper since at least two of his secondary weapons are essentially designed around "Fuck you, stop playing Spy." The Razorback being especially terrible, especially when the good Sniper positions also happen to be good Engineer positions. Good luck trying to gun down the Sniper before the sentry gun kills you. The main thing I'd like to point out though is that this only really becomes a huge problem in the hands of skilled players. When someone like me plays Sniper for example, I'm completely fucking useless no matter how big the sightlines are or how many Engineers are on my ass. I can barely hit bodyshots on Brass Beast Heavies half the time. But then you get the Snipers that can seemingly hit their shots as soon as you enter their line of sight. Which again is kind of a problem on Upward, especially that first capture point where the exits out from BLU Spawn are directly in the Sniper sightline. Which if you ask me is actually pretty bad map design, but I digress. My main point though is the problem with Sniper would be at least to some degree alleviated if we had a competent matchmaking system. Obviously Valve can't just delete the Sniper, so we have to work with what we've got. If the top tier Snipers would stop getting matched with everyone else, it wouldn't be as big an issue. If most Snipers the average casual player encountered were at my skill level, Sniper really wouldn't be a big deal. Unfortunately as you pointed out, TF2 is an almost 15-year old game and there's a lot more good Snipers than some would think. And if you missed the boat, well good luck practicing Sniper yourself when you're dead as soon as you peek your head out of spawn. Personally I don't think Sniper is inherently overpowered, but once people started getting really good at him, the problems with him became much more apparent to everyone else. Pair that with secondary weapons designed to shut down the one class meant to keep him in check other than himself, and you have a recipe for disaster. Personally I think the problem would be solved by rebalancing his secondary weapons to allow for more counterplay options and making a matchmaking system that actually works. But this would require Valve actually doing literally anything, and I think we both know how likely that's looking lately.

[@htwo1]

@@Zerdark77 tbh, as much as the skill differences between players cause a lot of problems, a matchmaking system with mmr probably wouldn't be a good thing for the game. Games that are designed to be casual tend to be very obnoxious when mmr systems are randomly added. The competitive queue mode is where people who want mmr are supposed to go, and comp queue is just a microcosm of everything wrong with mmr in a casual game

[@Zerdark77]

@@htwo1 With how the game currently exists, personally I don't see how things can get much worse, granted I've been a pessimist about this since 2020. Although I do propose an alternative solution: Fix Competitive Matchmaking and make it worth playing. If the high tier players actually had a viable alternative to go to, this would also alleviate the problem in Casual. If Comp Matchmaking actually worked, and if there were more incentive to actually play it like maybe a wearable Comp Badge based on your rank or something, the Tryhards would absolutely flock to the mode. And if the Tryhards are busy fighting amongst themselves for shiny badges, the rest of us who play the game more casually will be able to actually play the video game again. Assuming the bot problem also gets fixed. Again, probably wouldn't fix it entirely. But I have no ideas on how to completely fix the problem short of completely neutering certain classes, which are VERY unpopular ideas. All I've got are band-aids, but it's better than what Valve has been offering so far.

[@zjanez2868]

@@htwo1 in my experince sbmm actually makes games more casual and enjoyable(at least when you skill level isnt publicly visible) there are less complete stomps since you arent just relying on RNG to get a balanced team if you are good you arent forced to constantly carry teammates and if you are bad you actually get to play the game

[@Slithering-Pyro]

One thing I wanna say is, *supposedly* , Valve doesn't just let people work on whatever they want. The team for a certain part of Valve, say a game like TF2, CS:GO or DOTA, needs to submit a request for other team members to help out. If the request is accepted, THEN whoever wants to work on that project can help out. If a project isn't deemed important enough by higher-ups to allocate more mann-power towards it, then the workers just resume doing whatever they were already doing. So if I could theorize for a second, I think the main reason that TF2 hasn't gotten a lot of attention by Valve is not because nobody _wants_ to work on it, but because Valve doesn't think it's important enough to divert more workers towards it. Like I said this is supposed, I don't think very many people aside from Valve workers themselves know much about the way Valve as a company works, but I think it makes more sense to have a system like this instead of some straight up "do whatever you want" system.

[@kieran.grant_]

I personally couldn't care less if the *game* for TF2 ever gets any more updates. What *I* want is more TF2 *lore*. Particularly the comics, I want more of those.

[@Shade400]

What's the administrator going to do

[@thomashaeyen6942]

Maybe she'll kill charles darling for sticking his nose into her business. Seriously, he has no reason to know so much as he does.

[@sadkefekaya6442]

Maybe Dell's father somehow found a way to literally make australium but it needs australium to do for some goddang reason.

[@peteryeeterson5766]

@@sadkefekaya6442 that could actually potentially make sense. Similar to vinegar starters: it’s possible to create more Australium, but in order to do so you need to have some Australium on hand so that the new Australium has something to bind to. Granted, metals don’t generally have that type of structure, as metals are basically just a conglomerate of electrons with some nuclei floating in the middle, as opposed to the specific structures making up most organic material. But hey, it’s TF2, things don’t exactly follow the most precise of logic in this universe. Why did I write this again?

[@GenericPhantom1]

Didn't the co writer of the comics say he'll reveal the end of the comics?

[@doctortomato9520]

One little thing you skipped is that there might be so many players online because alot of those are bot that never sleep. I mean the player peak you mentioned is about when the bots started becoming such a large issue.

[@neverplayingallstarsimulat7685]

I can say as a pyro main the "pyro is to easy to learn" is kinda true since it is better to just spam w+m1 while using the phlog than doing combos, using air blast and mastering the class in general

[@mimimaxxing]

I feel like Soldier's a worse case than pyro, while a bit of afterburn might be annoying, it's not nearly as frustrating as getting hit by a random rocket for a quarter of your health. And even if soldier can't be picked up immediately, he only needs about 10 hours to topscore

[@artifactU]

people really just hate on anything

[@d-tergent7899]

The single moment that put me against random crits was a game on harvest, I was demoknight and successfully got into melee range of a sniper, the dedicated long range class that's supposed to be weaker when enemies are closer, under normal circumstances, this is an easy kill, but instead I get hit with a random crit and die this happened twice in the same game

[@artifactU]

game design 👍

[@Borz321]

Melees also have a higher critical rate so your actively discouraged to go into melee range of any class that doesn’t have a no random crits weapon

[@base13music]

Honestly, the most disgusting thing about tf2, is that you literally cannot use text and voice chat until you buy something from both Steam, and the tf2 marketplace.

[@artifactU]

you can on community servers

[@FlipFTW0777]

Above all else I think the most standout part of your video was that your passion for the game really comes through, on top of that the presentation style of the whole video is pretty pleasing - though I’d probably try to keep some “source: xxxx” for when you use gameplay that isn’t yours on screen (music as well). I think the skill ceiling/floor Pyro & Heavy examples are really well put - I’ll definitely be stealing your wording and thoughts in the future. I think the weakest part of the video was easily the conclusion and the Esports/Competitive discussion. I don’t really think anyone disagrees that there exists an enormous gulf between community competitive and casual play, this has been the prevailing thought for at least 5 years at this point, you explore the idea of how large this difference is, but after presenting it the video just ends abruptly. Maybe I’m the sucker for not taking the title of the video at it’s face value, but I thought it felt like you left a sentence unfinished - I was really expecting * Here’s everything wrong * Here’s my opinion on what can be done Or * Here’s information on what people are doing/trying Instead it feels like * Here’s everything wrong * It’s a shame * *It wasn’t meant to be* Overall still well worth a like and a subscription though I wouldn’t have been opposed to you pointing out the community efforts to continue to improve and develop this game by the players love it instead of solely recognizing the issues.

[@meowdderall]

at this point valve needs to genuinely hand tf2 off to a third party developer that way they still own the game but arent expending employees to work on it. a third party team that is dedicated to tf2 and improving it could do wonders, the solutions to a lot of tf2s problems aren't very complicated in theory but take a lot of time and resources that valve arent willing to put out themselves

[@pedrogarcia137]

I like the video. I agree with you in everything except for the pyro point you make. Yeah, pyro is easy for new players to play but, Soldier that is a class that i don't see anyone complaining about, is extremely easy for a new player. If u just press wm1 with soldier you can deal a lot of damage and kill a lot of enemies. And believe me when I say this, because when I began playing TF2 I always selected the soldier, and I killed a lot of players without even knowing how to rocket jump or aim. And, the pyro is not always effective if someone new uses it. I have encountered a lot of new f2p pyros that just wm1 and its pretty easy to kill them and they dont do a lot in the match. But a good pyro with skills, can deal a lot of damage and make a great deffense. So I personally don't think the pyro needs any change.

[@Intrafacial86]

Yeah, when I first started this game just after it went F2P, I started with the soldier because I saw him as a fairly beefy front line type of class that I could afford to play a little dumb. Over time, I shifted to maining demoman, but in defensive situations I'll occasionally switch to soldier with the cowmangler, concheror, and disciplinary action to provide a tanky support anchor to my team.

[@sadkefekaya6442]

You know actually (don't take it seriously) all classes are just so easy. You just press some buttons and stuff.

[@demoman5864]

2:02 classic ubersaw medic, could easily have backpedaled and maintained his life but instead charged towards the soldier with his ubersaw

[@imboredok8591]

1:11 alright listen their were several past employees that quit talked about that valve isn’t like this anymore we’ll kind of ,they say they do but you will be pressured by the higher ups of valve to work on different projects it’s got nothing to do with people not wanting to work on it it’s valve making people not work on it

[@hoodcate]

So it's even worse then ☹️

[@imboredok8591]

@@hoodcate yep no hope

[@sopweri7523]

as much as i love tf2 i have to agree im a soldier main and it kinda makes me mad when the pyro dies when they could have learned to airblast

[@mal0561]

“An old undeveloped game is prime real estate for bad actors to take advantage.” I knew steven seagal was behind the bot crisis all along!

[@sweglord227]

the whole "pyro is an easy class" thing is more of a skill issue sorta deal. his flamethrower kills you slower than you kill him most of the time, you just need to actually shoot him. ive seen several times where someone, any class, would just walk at like 3-5 people and just live for a solid 5-6 seconds AFTER getting in between everyone. people just need to learn to punish people who are holding w at them also if 27 is a very large number of weapons being banned in etf2l 6s, then wtf is rgl's 19?

[@htwo1]

The problem with the pyro being easier to perform with isn't really about how easily countered it is. Like yeah you're right you can just kill him and live in most scenarios where you're the better player, but the problem is how easy it is for the pyro to do what he's doing compared to a similar level of success on any other class in the game. And your effectiveness level doesn't really go up when you start doing more complex things, not until you're very many hours deep into being a pyro main. Also quite frankly I thought the list of banned weapons was much longer than that, so i guess thats my mistake

[@obamahostile4073]

1:48 This bit aged so bad

[@HazelsGraveyard]

I like the Risk of Rain 2 music you put in this video, real good taste!

[@cannonsword1]

I think it's very good that you bring this up. I heard about how great tf2 is and decided to play it, but I didn't stick with it exactly because of these reasons

[@ravenman4228]

"Having your shots be random is a terrible, terrible idea" Uses beggars bazooka in most soldier clips

[@Guaporacer]

to be Fair with the casual-competitive disonance aspect, CS:GO doesn't has an actual 1:1 rendition of competitive on a casual mode, it's also a 12v12 shitshow where you can spectate anyone after you die, so you can, for example, snitch an enemy's position to a friend that is playing on the same server, like, the only thing stopping you from doing so directly is the fact that alive players can't hear dead ones ingame, and after that the other modes are literally diferent gamemodes aimed at a more casual experience, like gungame or deathmatch, not to say the fact that there is also a whole gamemode avaliable in comp queue that is not actually played competitively because of how unbalanced it is, hostage mode.

[@delfinodolphinsquad910]

random bullet spread really isn't as much of a big deal that a lot of people make it out to be, other than that I largely agree with what you're saying

[@chaosinc.382]

THATS HOW VALVE WORKS INTERNALLY?! Hell's Bells! No fucking WONDER things are a sickening mess of neglect...

[@mostie]

Team fortress came out exactly on my first birthday, that is crazy

[@MotorcycleCheetah]

Not gonna lie was expecting a cinemasins type video with that title

[@sagesager7584]

ill never understand the "w+m1" problem, thats like every shooter, hit the movement key, and shoot, also pyros just really good at close range, honestly INCREDIBLY difficult to not just die the moment you attempt anything lol edit: would also like to mention in your clip your using the phlog and are ubered, of course your gonna be succesful lol

[@NuStiuFrate]

The close range class needs to get in close range, tf2 community loses their mind over this. Besides, literally doing just that will guarantee you spend most of your time in spawn. Nobody sees the pyro flanking, they just see the moment he charges in.

[@13H]

CS:GO while having a very large competitive scene, lost a lot of fun and casual aspects to achieve this. It became such a game that fun maps are no longer added as it's not fully balanced and the map pool shrunk a lot. Even casual games are littered with salty tryhards who kick you if you play below average. TF2, on the other hand, is very casual. You can play however you want, and you rarely get called out for not getting kills or messing around. Many of my friends play and love the game for this reason. It's really rare to have a pvp team based game which is this chill. This, however, results in valve not taking it seriously as an e-sports game. While I'd love TF2 to get this attention, if it will result in changes similar to CS:GO, then hell no.

[@KingRoni1222]

I still find it hilarious to see people complain about random crits. For competitive TF2, sure, whatever, get rid of them, makes sense, but for the main game, I see no problem, it's extremely funny to see those electrified bullets and projectiles in pubs and servers that let them be so. It's become such a cornerstone in the charm of the game for me that I can't possibly imagine a casual TF2 scene without random crits. I'll admit, the basis for it and its current functionality are both rather jank and not entertaining. If it was just a flat rate that didn't change depending on how well you were doing, that would be better, as a Critical Hit in something like D&D is a low chance to do something extraordinarily powerful, whether that be a simple action or, well, HITTING something REALLY HARD. It should be a funny mechanic, not a genuine addition to fix a problem. Edit: It stopped being funny.

[@artifactU]

its funny for you & anoying for the enemy

[@vashkin7457]

4:18 you can join mid match, if you join players party you can queue for same game and team as your party leader, you will join when here will be free slots another problem however with that autobalance system, because in my case its almost always trying autobalance YOUR PARTY MEMBER TO OTHER TEAM, WHEN YOU AND THE BOYS WANNA HANG OUT TOGETHER, and you cANT JOIN BACK, only cure is "retry" console command, but you still lose points and sometimes ubercharge or building

[@Nicoder6884]

I think these are definitely all valid criticisms, and I was wondering what you thought in terms of *solutions* to these problems. Especially in the Pyro/Heavy section, I really think it would be interesting to hear what you thought could/should be changed in order to make them work better conceptually.

[@solutartxiv]

13:09 I’m a new player. I only have around ~76 hours. I can feel myself start to improve on soldier who I’m still missing a market gardener for, and for some reason scout, who i have the least time in. I have 16 hours as pyro, he was my choice when starting the game and i knew he would be even before then. I don’t feel any noticeable improvement. Still can’t air blast and i just underperform in general as him. The point of pyro not particularly rewarding higher skill play seems extremely valid to me.

[@_GhostMiner]

TF2's default settings are also running in 640x480 or 1280x600

[@topacific836]

When Tryharding gives worse performance then Spamming.

[@fractalisomega9517]

Stock items are actually generally best, there are very few items that are 100% superior Sandvich, Powerjack, Crusader's Crossbow, and Ubersaw are pretty much it, everything else is very much sidegrades that might be easy to trade to and back

[@handlesarecringe957]

Why would random bullet spread make no sense? That's literally how it is in reality and in nearly every other game

[@htwo1]

I am playing a video game who cares about reality. Random bullet spread in a game like tf2 is a terrible idea because it means that your aim is less important. You can aim your shot in the exact same place at the exact same distance twice in a row and get two different results, why would that be beneficial to the game in any way?

[@wr3nche5]

15:48 shoutout to that medic ragdoll

[@bulletsftw3655]

There is a pub stomping demo hybrid who always has a pocket medic up his ass in one community server and that discourages me from joining cause he never dies, sure is frustrating to play against

[@zambojimmyneutron9635]

this vid deserves so much more attention

[@Geebanger0]

“Random bullet spread is terrible” - proceeds to use the beggars in almost every clip shown. It really doesn’t even matter if you’re using your shotguns at close range, and even if it does make a difference, the outcome of a fight will far more likely be impacted by things such as the skill of yourself and your opponent, whereabouts on the map you are, your internet connection, which team you’re randomly placed on, which class you and your opponent are playing, etc.

[@SuperTeamXP]

I would literally start exploiting right now just to annoy all the hackers in TF2

[@sleepdeprived6565]

Take a shot every time he says "Easy to learn, Hard to master"

[@vaskoz3700]

14:23 i love dustbowl i dont think it should be removed or tweaked sure its choky but thats why i love playing on it both attacking and defending i like how its much harder for just one tryhard to completely take over a point by himself you have to work togeter and dont rush in blindly and alone or youll get killed i always loved close quarter choky maps since thay kinda feel like a constant struggle instead of a bunch of isolated "high" moments and random krits are fine how they are just go play on a server where they are disabled noone is stopping you

[@htwo1]

Dustbowl can be fun, sure, but not when you actually care about the objective. Defenders have an enormous advantage, but instead of designing the map to be more balanced, valve just added a huge timer to make the defending team have to last out an eternity. Random crits aren't at all fine how they are. If you ask me, they should be disabled by default, and community servers should be able to enable them if they please, not the other way around. A game shouldn't insentivise a player to brainlessly spam, which both random crits and maps like dustbowl both heavily insentivise. The skill expression in tf2 is what makes it such a good game, random crits and brainless spam takes away from that.

[@vaskoz3700]

@@htwo1 sure i can agree on the random crits but they can still be enabled on mvm since robots dont go comlaining on forums and i dont understand what you mean by dustbowl only being fun if you dont play the objective i attack the objective mainly since its more fun than just randomly rocketjumping into single enemies on upward, upward may "good" but its not fun since all the enemies you face are 1v1 with the main difference maker being the skill of the guy youre shooting but on maps like dustbowl its more of a skill level of everyone in your team you dont have to have very good positioning and aim to help your team win you just have a job and you have to do it well whether or not you have good aim doesent really matter that much you just gotta for example destroy sentries put out fires build dispencers activate banners and i think a lot of high ranking players dont like dustbowl since their god aim doesent really make them have as much of an impact as it does on other maps so they automatically assume that the map is making them worse since they dont feel as special dustbowl has always opened up more support playstyles for all the classes and thats why i like it. and im not a friendly pootis handing out sandviches either

[@_vallee_5190]

Highlander TF2 is extremely similar to how TF2 was designed in every way. That's why is partially why it is the best format. The simple class dynamics of having one of each class make TF2 design work as intended.

[@htwo1]

Highlander is the closest competitive experience to casual tf2, but it's still quite different. 12 v 12 with no class limits is not all that similar to 9 v 9 class limit 1. How else would casual games have 8 snipers and 12 spies per team?

[@_vallee_5190]

@@htwo1 It is still an entirely different game mode but the underlying mechanics are still the same. I am not talking about a casual or competitive experience either I am talking about overall gameplay. Any player in TF2 can connect to highlander because if they play any of the classes they can immediately see their class being played in the top setting.

[@htwo1]

@@_vallee_5190 Ah i see, then yeah i agree completely. But I think the point still stands that Valve wouldn't want to endorse something that's fundamentally different from the casual experience. Not to mention that 6's is generally more popular amongst the best most hardcore players

[@davitdavid7165]

I disagree about your pyro take. Wm1 get much better with aim and positioning is a huge factor. Learning just these 2 things alongside general gamesense and maybe even how to airblast and utilise the rest of the arsenal every once in a while does make the pyro so much stronger, it is unbelievable. You can counter a bad pyro easily. Just keep your distance and either abuse your own burst damage potential against a sustained fire weapon by utilising corners or go heavy and win every time due to better health and damage.

[@CroissantConsumer]

This is why i use the dragons fury instead of the normal flamethrower

[@princedest1ny]

Th-This video... has 7 segments. Holy freaking christ.

[@fish8415]

as a new player i started like 4 months ago but i just played 100% crit servers to get significantly better and i have the demoknight skills of a methhead now

[@blacklight683]

As a tf2 fan I say Sent help please oh God sent help before they multipl-

[@keecko8169]

my only 2 criticism here are when you mentioned the new players only having stock as an issue, I get it, tf2 is a wildly different experience when only using stock, but you cant just give the new player every item in the game from launch, thatd be overwhelming and might even discourage the new player from trying anything new or interesting once theyve found something they like. I also should note that although heavy isnt making flashy plays, its very easy to tell if your heavy is good just by the fact that when you play near your heavy you barely take any damage, because good heavies realize their role is to tank damage for the high priority teammates, heavy might be an easy pick for a sniper, but thats because the heavy wants to be the one the sniper picks off instead of the medic, or other sniper

[@keecko8169]

But I do have some things to add on the the issues, one being that quickplay is in a lot of ways not the best tf2 experience we could have, way back in a long forgotten era of tf2 quickplay wasnt a thing, we had the server browser, which basically let community servers run a majority of play, with a few valve servers mixed in here or there. Although quickplay did some major things right, mainly making it easier to find community or valve servers, depending on what you wanted to play on, it also added a lot of restrictions to servers.

[@UmongusSussehFrusseh]

Casual mode isn't even playable anymore because of all those spinbot snipers.

[@hawoaliahmed6996]

8:31 i prefer random a matchmaking for me it work well in enough for tf2 there a lot of player the game is mostly casual it curb the sweatiness it give clear sense of progression and there is fun in playing against better players

[@duychung3314]

you forgot 1 more type of player, the "average 400-800 hours" player

[@Mathtriqueur]

75% of the maps in tf2 are bad Yeah, it's one of the reasons why I go to tf2maps playtesting sessions when I want to play tf2. (not a good image when moderns maps in there alphas are still better to play gameplay wise than the majority of maps (especially old maps))

[@htwo1]

unfortunately most community servers either just run 1 map, or run every map possible, so unless you go out of your way you just have to play the bad maps

[@Mathtriqueur]

@@htwo1 yes, sad. Hence why I join map playtest. You never know what new experiences you can get and the majority of players are on the same level so steam rolls only happen when all the pros are on the same team.

[@htwo1]

@@Mathtriqueur I've never joined one of these but they sound kinda fun. Although they can't always be good maps right

[@Mathtriqueur]

@@htwo1 true, but it's part of the experience.

[@htwo1]

@@Mathtriqueur I guess the fact that they're new gives em a better chance

[@Wibrr]

I love how half the footage was taken from uncle danes video on removing random crits

[@Wibrr]

As well as the commentary

[@smilweyboi9936]

Heres some of my ideas for VAC. For a temporary solution, I would lower the VAC Time until a Ban to at the Smallest, 5 minutes. That could certaintly help to keep them at bay. For a more Permanent solution, I would make a detection system for dectecting if the cheater is either a Bot or a player using Aimbot. If its a bot. It can instantly ban them on the spot or wait a couple minutes to ban as I'm sure most hackers would leave it running on there computer, Just to find there bots banned and not know why. And If its a player using Aimbot (or literally any other exploit) The wait until a ban can be Half an hour to An Hour and a half. I don't know how valve could make a detection system for that. But then again, Its Valve. I'm sure they can find a way.

[@user-qc1mc2ly8j]

June 2021.. when i started playing. i was part of that peak!

[@Vegeta-gaminglol]

And with the new update they got 100 thousand new players

[@The_Loose_Spirit]

Ok, basically all problems in tf2 can be solved by developers, that listen to community or even BETTER - developer from community

[@petapu]

Valve employees no longer can choose what they work on themselves. It was a old policy which proved to be inefficient.

[@The_Loose_Spirit]

"I love Team Fortress 2" Oh, i see. It's my time to subscribe

[@slurbson215]

I had no idea about the medic single click setting. I have 1000 hours, I main medic man, it'd just be weird for me not to hold down the button now xD

[@Noobienator]

3:00 First started and NO bots found

[@spades831]

I just noticed that today, hackers and bots are starting to show up more often. And sure, bots and hackers have been a problem since god know how long now but right now, more are showing up now.

[@laprueba6521]

idk, for me every time a bot joins my game it immediately gets vac banned. Not kicked, banned

[@sideswipe2410]

First problem is the title. It's wrong

[@racemanzer8368]

Ok there needs to be like a… maintenance month once a year or something where they take a bunch of online games that need maintenance and you know… fix them

[@skeyturr]

8:00 exact same problem l4d2 got with TLS

[@Yelisey_Ku]

I love this game and I know that I suck in it but I still enjoy it and get fun

[@captainobscurity491]

You forgot to mention that the sniper exists

[@_ikako_]

I think the new player/tryhard problem would be fixed by a decent ranked mode. Look at overwatch, all the sweats like myself have thousands of hours in competitive because it provides an experience closer to what we want from the game, and we hardly ever play quick play. Sweats obviously still play quick play and the 12v12/6v6 split would mean competitive players still play in casual, but it would mean we spend a lot more time in the ranked mode with skill based matchmaking, leaving casual more to new players and goofballs like friendlies. This would also mean that eSports can have valve's support because the game players are watching in 6s *is* part of the game, it's just the ranked, competitive mode. Class meta is just like weapon meta in CS, sure most classes and weapons don't get played in competitive but they're still in the game, and you *can* use them, they're just not as good as the other options.

[@yeetusdeletus798]

bois we need to start speaking code then we can fix the game ourselves for everyone

[@S4nier]

tbh 2fort has lot less players playing it than before and it has way more bots now i feel like payload maps like upward and badwater has gotten more love in these past months

[@Red_Roy1445]

Come on... say it with me... If a server is full of bots re-que immediately

[@bluknight99]

The same arguments apply to the Portal series. Please. PLEASE VALVE! Make a new Portal.

[@htwo1]

erik wolpaw said he wants to make a new portal game, but basically he can't because of the way valve works internally. it wont make valve enough billions of dollars for them to make it so they wont

[@Dr_Dan_]

for what? what the game will have to offer in comparison to portal 2

[@htwo1]

@@Dr_Dan_ I don't think it's really about what it will or will not adapt from portal 2 gameplay. It's because valve works very strangely internally, so for projects to get off of the ground people with some serious clout need to will them into existence. And Erik Wolpaw doesn't have such clout. It also apparently wont make them enough money. There's a recent Tyler McVicker video about it

[@Dr_Dan_]

@@htwo1 first of all, tyler is an L taker and he has 0 insiders info. secondly, we dont need a portal 3, if itll be a sequel for the sake of it, portal dont need one, and thats it, the gameplay of the second game is rock solid, the story is finished. its only spinoffs from here

[@htwo1]

@@Dr_Dan_ Perhaps, but wouldn't you think that if the lead writer for the portal franchise personally wants one that there would be more places for the story to go? The guy likely wouldn't say he wanted portal 3 if he didn't have plans for the story

[@mendyshelios0451]

Also Sniper exists.... no dmg falloff, quickscope 150hp and his unlockable equipment....

[@alexandermarshall9276]

I've just picked up TF2 after not playing for years, and I speak as someone who would be better than a newbie but still not very good. (1) Bots are a real problem, agree etc. (2) Random crits are stupid. Random bullet spread, on the other hand, is a very standard aspect of game design for weapons like shotguns, and even CS:GO had it for a long time. The reaction of TF2 players against it seems to be an overreaction against all randomness created by the very specific absurdity of random crits. But I'm not going to argue against turning it off. (3) I don't think the lack of a good tutorial is a very big deal. The gamemodes are extremely easy to understand and a tutorial explaining all of the things you see as necessary would be bloated. You are right about the weird way in which the classes are categorised; personally, I would say that there are combat classes, support classes (engineer/medic), and assassin classes (spy/sniper). (4) Pyro actually feels weak in most of the games I play, though I agree in principle that the skill floor on Pyro should be slightly higher. The bigger problems are sweaty tryhards stomping everyone using heavy or soldier with a pocket medic, and (obviously) sniper - though you might be surprised to hear that most of my games have not had competent snipers, and the sweaty tryhard soldier (even more than heavy) with pocket medic is the far more common occurrence. The combination of a competent soldier or heavy with a pocket medic (often probably on discord together) in an otherwise totally uncoordinated low level game is really, really difficult to deal with, and often leads to being more or less spawn camped in Attack/Defence, but there is no real solution to this that wouldn't make the game worse other than perhaps by changing matchmaking itself. Heavy in general doesn't feel like a fun class to play at all - I think that Heavy and Sniper are the worst designed classes, though one is boring to play (Heavy) and the other is boring to play against (Sniper). (5) I have never played competitive TF2, and have only watched a small amount of it (and never watched Highlander at all), but I honestly did not find 6s very interesting to watch - though unlike a lot of people who seem to think that this is caused by a cabal of soldier and scout mains trying to freeze the meta into something stale, I doubt that this would be improved by making something like Heavy or Pyro more viable. There don't seem to be *that* many weapon bans now, and many of those that are banned are really egregious (thinking of you, jarate) anyway. So was there really that much potential for a long-lasting, highly successful TF2 esports scene? I'm sceptical, but we'll never know. (6) 2fort is a fucking dreadful map and I don't understand why it is such a staple. The first stage on Dustbowl is also an atrocity, but the other two stages are fine.

[@evilded2]

What f2p phlogistinator pyro hurt you so badly that there is a section just for them?

[@htwo1]

Weeeeeeeeeeelll phlog or not, the fact that he can kill me with a usb steering wheel just because he's playing pyro is kinda cringe, don't you agree. nobody hurt me shut up

[@floatinghat2270]

editing, script everything in ur video is awesome

[@antsjp6230]

I was getting ready to type so much about this video because it said “everything wrong with tf2”

[@balintkurucz7245]

Everything wrong with TF2: Bots, and neglect from Valve. That's it.

[@Dr_Dan_]

very loose definition of "everything"

[@Goofy_Ah_Being_15]

existence of the sniper

[@beetjegek6569]

im suprised you didnt mention Sniper, other then that. all ur opinions are verry well put together and explained. This video coulnt be more based

[@colorblindcoder]

as a colorblind person, I will sometimes see the brown on some character vests as red, so yeah the colorblind support for this game sucks

[@koopdawhoop.]

i dont even know why i stuck around with tf2 since i joined the day summer 2021 dropped, right in the middle of the bot crisis, unbalanced casual matches, horrid default settings, no communication due to being a F2P (couldnt even callout medics or spies n shit). ever since i switched to a much lower end PC, it's horrible optimization also fucked me over. because of all that i only really play tf2 classic nowadays since it actually runs good while looking better (also i rly like what they added to the game aside from the new weapons and maps + the settings on their official servers if we ignore critical hits remaining on melees ig)

[@_ikako_]

God please don't use the Medigun toggle setting, it makes switching heal targets require far more inputs. It's not hard to hold the button down, and it's going to screw you over when you want to quickly flash a teammate but you have to click 4 times instead of 2. Same for sniper rescope, it makes repositioning after firing a pain because you have to deal with the rezoom and slowed speed and just makes the class way more clunky to play.

[@Iwidelyoutliveeverything]

sniper is a big problem

[@dragonstrike406]

My personal theory is that they are working on Team Fortress 3 but I have no evidence for it.

[@dingusgoober]

I forgot where I heard this but apparently there ARE devs that want to work on TF2. It should be expected that at least one person at Valve would have at least some passion for a game like TF2. But for some unknown reason they aren’t allowed to work on it Again, I’m not sure this is true but it seems possible

[@paddypenguin8895]

random crits is one of my favourite things about tf2. dont even @ me idc what you got to say. is it bullshit? yes. is it unfair? yes. is it fun? abso-fuckin-lutely but random bullet spread can go crawl into a hole and fade out of existence

[@matecabello6390]

in my opinion the reason why valve doesn't like to upgrade TF2 is due to the spaghetti code.

[@TallonIVI]

They could fix this game so easily, just tweak the gamemodes a little bit and make the competitive mode also free for everyone(It is still behind a paywall!). I also think they should balance out pyro, heavy, spy, engie and sniper

[@Nova-rd3hi]

Everything wrong with TF2 (with my input): - Valve and it's treatment of the game. - Questionable game mechanics and balancing choices such as random bullet spread, random damage spread (which they removed thankfully), and blatantly overpowered or underpowered weapons. - Meet Your Match. Just literally everything about that update completely gutted some of TF2 core elements, making it easier for bot hosters and cheaters to ruin the game thanks to the horrendous, forced-automated matchmaking system that makes it easier for them. - The game is extremely unfriendly to new players. Ignoring the free-to-play mute update that happened in 2022, new players are still at a direct disadvantage the moment they install the game and it's not their fault. There's the absolutely appalling default settings that you mentioned. - Building on the previous point, new players have don't have access to some of the most game-changing unlockable items that certain classes need to be more effective and they can't get them by doing the (shitty) tutorial. They're stuck with default weapons on their first install. - The tutorial for TF2 is absolute garbage and doesn't actually teach you what you'll need to know in order to play the game semi-effectively, in fact it may actually hamper a new player. It doesn't teach you about rocket jumping while also misinforming you on how to use your weapons. - The game itself misinforms new players. For example, Soldier and Demoman are placed in the "Offense" and "Defense" categories respectively even though they're both good on offense and defense. The class-select screen tells you almost nothing about the class you'll be playing. - Pyro, sniper, and spy are like the problem children of TF2. Pyro, despite the easiest class to play, is still fairly easy to counter and doesn't have a more general use. Sniper is only long-ranged class in a game where every other classes' effective range is close to medium range, making counter-play as any other class extremely difficult. Spy is the only class in the game that gets worse the more someone plays them in a round. - TF2's balancing, while it isn't Overwatch-level bad, still kind of sucks. Almost all the time, there is basically no reason for a competitive player to play anything other than scout, soldier, and demoman because of their high levels of damage, mobility, and versatility. You also have the sniper. - As you said, a good portion if not most of TF2's maps are designed like shit. Older maps like Dustbowl have horrific chokepoints and tight spaces, they're way too easy for engineers and spamming demomen. Newer maps like like Venice are way too friendly to soldiers and snipers with lots of room for high speed rocket jumping and almost no cover from the enormous sniper sightlines. - Competitive Mode is an absolute joke, the one thing people actually wanted in the MYM update doesn't even function properly. It's basically a glorified 6v6 casual game with no weapon or class restrictions. If one person leaves, which happens a lot, the entire game is shut down.

[@PyrrhaNikos115]

Are you SURE that you're not Red Archer Live?