#cs2 changes

[nartouthere]

CS2 New Update analyzing Vertigo changes, renting cs2 skins, incendiary fix, and much more! I cover the new cs2 patch release notes for 5/23/2024

[healpimp]

While the bot banwave is all well and good, do not forget that this happened after we endured 5 years of nothing but lootboxes with community-made cosmetics and maps and a boatload of cheaters and bots. Valve profited off of the community both in labor and purchases while they left the game to rot. The banwave is GOOD; we can finally enjoy playing the game without having to deal with aimbotting, mic and text chat spam and we don't have to risk our private information either.

But this is the bare minimum and this wasn't the case for five years. FIVE YEARS.

Valve is LATE; this should NOT have taken five years nor should the playerbase have had to force Valve's hand through protesting. And we didn't protest once, we did it TWICE. There is still no line of communication with Valve either, there are still no official statements, nothing.

It frustrates me because why did it take 5 years? Why did we have to scream at Valve TWICE? Why did we have to give them bad publicity to give them a reason to move? Why did we have to consider a boycott for one of the few things that still gets new content added to the game and gives community creators revenue for their hard work?

We can celebrate this change. The game is playable again. This is what we wanted.

But do NOT get complacent; Valve have every reason to do this as a publicity stunt. Between their new multiplayer PvP game Deadlock coming out, both TF2's AND CS2's extensive bot/cheater problem and Artifact (a Dota 2 based card game AND their last big flop), their reputation and profits are at stake. They have garnered a reputation for harboring cheaters in their multiplayer games, and if they didn't fix that before releasing Deadlock, this new game would automatically flop. Not to mention the very concept of Deadlock is rather unpromising in itself (MOBA 6v6 3rd person Hero Shooter... Okay.)

What I'm saying is these recent news of the ban waves and the confirmation that yes, the TF2 comic is going to be released eventually (no actual date or even year has been confirmed, mind you), it's easy to forget why we were so frustrated to begin with. This happened last time, and Valve saw it fit to start slacking again.

Do not forget. Do not let up until we know Valve isn't just trying to make us settle down to earn more money. We were promised a functional game, and it needs to remain functional.

[hungwy]

I’ve seen many people reblog a post which contains tweets that, in my eyes, amount to a single complaint that is only half true (but that I agree with for the most part). But anyway, here’s a longpost:

(tweet in question)

I think it’s mostly wrong to say FPS multiplayer “peaked” ("was most fun for the playerbase"?) with Source games in the way presented. Believe it or not, you can still join a server with 30 people playing on a user map with fucked up assets everywhere, and some of the 30 people playing will be 14-year-olds with bad mics getting mad at being spawn killed by someone with 20,000 hours in the game. In fact, there are servers like this in most Source games, including Garry’s Mod, TF2, and CSS and CSGO (but honestly I think TF2 is most representative of the above scenario). I just launched Valve’s community server browser and have found an unending list of silly-sounding servers for TF2: Minecraft trade, Murder at the Mannor, Zombie Escape, Medieval Mode, all full or near-full. I checked Garry’s Mod: SCP-RP, Zombie Survival, Clone Wars Roleplay, “Swamp Cinema”, 1980’s Mafia Roleplay, DarkRP (x20), again, all well-populated. Admittedly CS2 was mostly deathmatch servers (due to it being Source 2 and not Source and so missing a lot of plugins that would allow for “fun” servers), but CSS still had surf, bhop, minigames, and jailbreak servers still going and full. My server browser won’t show CSGO for whatever reason, but up until CS2 released I know for a fact that these silly ass servers still exist there too. The implication that these servers and their conditions are gone is wrong. You don’t want a server with the exact same conditions though, I think you want to relive the specific memories you’re having and feel happiness again. But maybe I’m going too far there.

How about this. I’ll give it to you, Dusk developer, that for you FPS multiplayer peaked with insane TF2 trade servers, but you also make boomer shooters for a living, so I think you’re biased towards enjoying an older generation of games anyway. Modern FPS games are fantastic and in their own ways contain a lot of fun. Modern games in general fill the spaces that, for you, TF2 servers filled. Have you seen Roblox minigames and Minecraft server plugins? They’re actually crazy and decently well made. I’m excited that kids have grown up in such a good environment for games. They have tons of options that we didn’t have back then. It’s awesome! Like, don’t let your nostalgia blind you to the fact that kids are having just as much fun as you now. TF2 and Garry’s Mod are not the be-all, end-all of FPS multiplayer fun. That sentiment I completely disagree with and think people should get over.

But like, how the hell does competitive gaming play into this? I truly don’t buy the wording of “Esports and competitive ranking ruined multiplayer”. It’s just not true. Not only are the servers you’re mourning still exist, they’re still well-populated and their “golden age” coincided with some of the greatest heights in competitive FPS gaming. You know what’s funny? When CSGO released in 2012, TF2 saw a drop of almost 10,000 average players. It recovered basically the next year. Besides a small dip in 2018, TF2 had held around 50,000 average players since its release, until 2019 where its average player-count has risen to about 80,000 players. Garry’s Mod wouldn’t peak in total concurrent players until 2015 and has had a dedicated core of players averaging around 25,000 since like 2013. Seriously, these are incredibly consistent player-counts throughout the release of Overwatch, PUBG, Fortnite, Apex, and Valorant. In fact, contrary to the tweeter's implicit assumptions, it seems like nothing much has changed, and that competitive gaming did not, at all, ruin or depopulate these “fun” spaces.

So, again, how does competitive gaming and esports play into this? Only thing I think is valid is the fact that a few popular modern FPSes don’t do the whole “community-hosted server” thing: Apex, Fortnite, PUBG, Valorant, and Overwatch all do not have native community-hosted server support. Which, to be frank, is bad for their competitive gaming scene too! Esports has ALWAYS used self-hosted servers for practicing to get better. I don’t know the argument for not having these sorts of things, maybe not developing the toolkit for these things is easier than developing them. IDK. But I agree that it is bad that many popular games don’t support this sort of thing. The “self-hosted netizen” is a category of person that’s been declining for a long time regardless of the effect of competitive first-person shooter games on the casual first-person shooter games self-hosted server market. But again, for the topic of the post, I think this is a completely nonsensical implication. As far as I can tell ALL Valve-made Source engine games have active and popular community servers still, and the popular games ALL have very populated servers with “fun” gamemodes and atmospheres. Competitive has grown very popular, yes. It's true. It's fun to compete, everyone knows it. But esports has taken very little if anything away from the casual playerbase of Source games.

(Also, for the record, during the actual multiplayer FPS golden age of the time, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 shooters, there were no self-hosted servers for us, and it was still the most fun anyone ever had playing casually on console. It was the age of trickshotting and montages, man! For the intent of this post that exact restriction counts as “keeping players from interacting with one another” yet these games, especially COD, were, uh… infamously social. Not to mention these games had competitive scenes alongside the casual scene perfectly fine.)

I think, really, ignoring the actual content of the tweet, these tweets are just about nostalgia for your childhood. Which is fine! You can miss things you used to do for fun and no longer do. Probably every human that’s ever existed has gone through this. I mean, again, it is kind of popular in current culture to be nostalgic. The 90s aesthetic, early 2000s media, retro games, super hero movies, cartoons being consumed by adults to a greater degree than ever, et cetera. I think to some extent the complaint itself isn’t like, a completely unclouded judgement of the Decline of The Beauty of Multiplayer Gaming throughout the years. The concrete complaints in those tweets seem both a little rose-tinted and unnecessarily doomerpilled to me. But like, regardless, it’s kind of your fault for not returning to these things, man. Go join one of those servers if you’re not busy being an adult with a job and friends and other obligations that may keep you from doing things that you’re not used to and have fun like you did in childhood. Or is that what's actually the problem…? I don’t know. A suggestion. I just think in the end the complaint isn't valid.

This post is long and I had a LOT of thoughts that I may have missed or chopped off at the incorrect time. I think the picture I'm trying to build has probably been communicated, though? Maybe I’m not considering something, maybe I overinterpreted implications, maybe the fact that the playerbase of TF2 and Garry's Mod being highly consistent for ten years or whatever is not indicative of anything I've said, but I hope regardless you understand that like, at least part of this tweet is weird to say in the ways I've attempted to untease. People young and old are still having crazy times in video games and esports has done, as far as I can tell, absolutely nothing to change at, ever.

Turning off reblogs because I have a feeling anyone who doesn't follow me might become annoying about this

[floradelisstuff]

Beloved grieving after the quarrel.

𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘶𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘱 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘦𝘻𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘢𝘴𝘱 𝘍𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘧𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘪𝘳 𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘖𝘧 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺… 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘢𝘯𝘵… 𝘚𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘺 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦…

Created with Photoshop CS2 and BeFunky. I think that I went a bit overboard with the hair... but I like it. I do have all the layers saved separately so can still be changed.

[tropiyas]

Deadlock is a chimera of all of Valve's best game design I can't get over it

The game is pretty much everything about Dota 2 format but adapted as a third person shooter. SO much changes to the format though to make it feel much faster and difficult in its own way

TF2 MvM item / upgrade management and menu

TF2's general style and presentation, mixed with a bit of Dota 2's darker/magic based aesthetic

Verticality of TF2 (Smite did not have this), punishing gunplay and tight utility usage of CS2

Pretty much everything about Dota 2 is in this game but adapted for third person shooters

Half Life/Portal 2's world building, voice acting and character performance

Ricochet jump pads idk

[andmaybegayer]

Hello it's me with another very naive computer question!

One of the really common complaints you see about modern software (from Adobe, Microsoft, etc.) is the move from the single-purchase model to a subscription-based model. While I understand that people are upset about paying more money over time, this also feels like the only viable option for shipping products that work with modern OSes, especially Windows (I don't have any experience with MacOS). Windows pretty regularly updates, and if you want your product to continue to work, you have to continue paying your engineers to maintain compatibility through time.

Obviously I understand that there are lots of FOSS options out there, but for the companies that are built on making money from these sorts of software products, I don't see another way. Am I way off the mark here?

This is a really good question. I don't have a great answer, but the model I have in my head is that "traditional software distribution" is partially an artifact of an era where companies were starting to use computers but internet use was still spotty so providing support for software was just a very different ballgame. A lot of what I'm saying here is not like. Fact as much as it is my understanding of The Software Business from the side of someone who is a little involved in that but mostly not in that.

(This is mostly about "business software", that is to say, accounting packages, creative suites, design packages, modelling tools, etc. This model does not explain like. Spotify. But that's much easier to explain.)

You're not wrong that the subscription model really make sense given modern software development, where patches come out continuously and you get upgraded to the latest version every time something changes, but there has been a significant change in how software is developed and sold that makes it noticeably different. I think that the cause of this is mostly because it's finally practical to do contract-style deals with hundreds of thousands of customers instead of doing one-off sales like we used to do.

In the Traditional model you charge a pretty sizeable upfront cost for a specific version of the software, you buy Windows XP or Jasc Paint Shop 7 or whatever and then you get That Version until we release The Next Version, plus a couple years of security and support. When the next version hits, we stop adding any new features to your version, and when that hits end of life, you maybe get offered a discount to buy licensing for the latest version, or you drop out of support.

Traditional software with robust support typically costs an awful lot, Photoshop CS2 was $600 new in 2005, or $150 to upgrade from CS, because you're paying for support and engineering time in advance. A current subscription for just Photoshop is $20/mo, and that's after twenty years of inflation. Photoshop is also cheap, a seat for something like SolidWorks 2003 could probably have run you $3000-4000 easy. I can't even give you a better guess there because SolidWorks still doesn't sell single commercial licenses online, you have to talk to their salespeople.

The interesting thing to me about Traditional pricing was that I think it was typically offered to medium to small businesses or individuals, because it's an easy way to sell to smaller customers, especially if it's the 90's and you're maybe selling your software through an intermediary reseller who works with local businesses or just a store shelf.

Independent software resellers were a big business back in the day, they served as a go-between for the software company and smaller businesses, they sold prepared packages in a few sizes and handled the personal relationship of phoning you up and saying "Hey there's a patch for your accounting software so that it doesn't crash when someone's surname is Zero, we'll send you a floppy disk in the mail with some instructions on how to install it." Versioned standard releases are a thing you can put in a box and give to resellers along with a spec sheet and sales talking points. This business still exists but it's much smaller than it once was, it's largely gone upmarket.

If you were bigger, say, if you were a publishing house that needed fifty seats of editing software you'd probably call the sales department of Jasc or whoever and get a volume deal along with a support contract.

Nowadays why would you bother going through resellers and making this whole complicated pricing model when you could just sell subscriptions with well-established e-commerce tools. You can make contract support deals with individuals at scale, all online, without hiring thousands of salespeople. You can even provide varying support levels at multiple cost brackets directly, so you don't need to cultivate a direct business relationship with all your customers in order to meet their needs. Your salespeople handle the really big megacorp and government deals and you let everyone else administer themselves.

It also makes development easier. You can also deploy patches over the net, you just do it in software. You can obsolete older versions faster, since you can make sure most people are using the latest version, and significantly cut down on engineering time spent backporting fixes to older versions. I think a lot of this is straightforwardly desirable on most software.

Now, there are still packages sold by the version, and there are even companies selling eternal licenses.

Fruity Loops Studio is still a "Buy once forever" type deal.

MatLab can be purchased as a subscription or as a perpetual one-version license.

Windows is still sold like this, but also direct to customer sales of Windows are minimal, Windows is primarily sold to OEM's who preinstall it on everything.

But it's a dying breed, your bigger customers are going to want current support and while there are industries where people want to hang around on older versions, for a lot of software your customer wants the latest thing with all the features and patches, and they'd rather hold on to their money until later using a subscription rather than spend it all upfront. Businesses love subscriptions, they make accounts books balance well, they're the opposite of debt.

Personal/private users who might just want the features of Photoshop CS2 and that's fine forever don't matter to you. They're not your major customers. This kind of person is not a person who your business cares to service, so you don't really care if you annoy them.

Even in the Open Source business world, subscriptions are how the money is made, just on support rather than for the software itself. You can jump through relatively few hoops to run Ubuntu Enterprise or SUSE Enterprise Linux on your own systems for free, but really there's not much benefit to that unless you pay for the dedicated support subscription.

In many ways I think a lot of things have changed in this way, I have a whole thing about the way medium-scale industrial manufacturing has changed in the past thirty years somewhere around here.

While there are valid reasons you might want to buy a single snapshot of some software and run that forever, the reality is that that's a pretty rare desire, or at least that desire is rarely backed by money. If you want to do that you either need access to the source code so that you can maintain it yourself, or you need to strike a deal with someone who will, or it needs to be software so limited that it (and the system it runs on!) never need updates. Very few useful programs are this simple. As a result subscription models make sense, but until recently you couldn't really sell a subscription to small businesses and individuals. Changes in e-commerce and banking have enabled such contracts to be made, and hey presto, it's subscription world.

[ebony-pupp]

In honor of #fixTf2/#Savetf2, I have been making a TF2 OCs but more on them in a second. (This time I actually figured out how to use the links lmao)

Listen, even though it's been a while since June 3rd but we shouldn't stop posting things about Tf2 (with other things sprinkled in too ofc!) to show Valve that we're serious and we won't back down. Now I don't have much to say, I'm not great with these big, moving speeches but I truly believe in this cause. I want things to change especially now since we may or may not be also teaming up with CS2 according to vvvv

to have both of our games fixed, and since we have over 325,000 signatures on the #Fixtf2/#Savetf2 website, I think we really have a chance. It doesn't matter if you know the game or not, we just really need your help with getting Valve to fix the bot/hacker/doxxer, problem. Imagine after all the time you spend on your favorite game, suddenly it was overflowing with grievers, bots, spam, leaked addresses and anything in between. You'd be devastated, wouldn't you? You'd do anything to get your game fixed, wouldn't you?

You can help us, fix our game by signing the petition(If you haven't already) or by sending it to more people, I have provided the link(s) bellow vv

https://save.tf/

And now for the OC. This character class is called, "The Lurker", their names are Ziggy(Blu) and Zeb(Red). I'm gonna be honest with you, I don't have much on them, mostly because I am just going through a TF2 phase and was pretty much just combining 3 characters till it evolved into more characters so now I have 12 now I think, 4 drawn and 8 yet to be drawn. Also the class emblems that I put with the characters I do make myself and I have to hand draw the characters before I put them into chrome canvas to draw a second time, so I am sorry if these do take a while to put out ^^;. The reason why also would be that I have to actually come up with what the class emblem would be.

Anyways, have a good day/evening/night! And if you have any ideas for me to do, just let me know, I'm always open ^^

[isolatedgirlthing]

valve can do whatever they want with their own games on their own platform i guess but CS2 is literally just the CS:GO steam page with all the text and images changed.

You can see that the release date isn't the actual CS2 release date, and the user tags don't need changing, but there's 2 things about this that are pretty scummy.

CS2 replaces CS:GO

The CS:GO reviews are now CS2's

There's some pretty significant differences between CS:GO and CS2 under the hood. I can't say how much this affects gameplay between the 2 but if it's anything like TF2 I know some people are going to be pretty dissappointed that their movement tech might not work anymore.

Far worse, the system requirements for CS2 are pretty significantly higher than CS:GO. To be expected of two games released 11 years apart, but the games industry has a pretty big problem right now of making hardware a huge barrier to entry.

Both of these problems would be non-issues if CS:GO still existed, you could just chose to play that instead, but Valve doesn't want you to keep playing one of the most popular multiplayer shooters ever, they made a shiny new toy in their shiny new engine and they want everyone to play with that instead.

Here's where the reviews come in. No matter what the community response to CS2 is, it's going to be completely swallowed whole by a decade of their own positive sentiments for the game that's been replaced. That "Very Positive" reviews tag is going to stay up there forever unless every player for years hates it, not just a few dedicated fans right now.

Not to mention the blatant apathy towards media preservation shown by wiping the old game off every player's hard drive.

[xcal1bur25]

For those curious about Trails of Cold Steel and it's ideal party comp, this is the actual specialty of the various members of class VII in cold steel 1 and 2. Note that this applies only to those games, and not 3 where they change things up.

Rean: Appears to be a physical dps with high speed. Arguably is in fact that thing, and can be very effective when built to repeatedly spam 200cp ogre mode S-Crafts. His true potential, however, is as a Delay Spammer. Give him as many sources of Inflict Delay as possible, and have him repeatedly spam Arc Slash. The max number of different sources from items and special attacks should be 5, iirc. Cold Steel calculates status effects weirdly. If you have 5 sources of delay, the game rolls 5 times to see if it procs, and if ANY ONE of those sources procs, the FULL CUMULATIVE delay from all of them is applies to the enemy. So every arc slash (which has a very small amount of self-delay meaning rean's next turn comes up FAST, especially with his speed), has a 50% chance to inflict 30+ turns of delay on an enemy with 90% delay resistance. The only enemy with more than that is the final boss of cs2, who is immune outright. This strategy allows for essentially infinite stunlock.

Alisa: CP Battery. She spams heavenly gift and gives everyone the CP they need to use their own spam strats. Link her with Rean and give her gladiator items so she gets the steady supply of CP she needs to use it every 3 turns. Also, Heavenly Gift gives Insight, the best status buff in the game. Otherwise, spec her as a secondary mage.

Elliot: Best healer in the game. By a lot. Aside from that, his magic attack is second only to emma, so use the slots you aren't using to spec him as a healer to spec him as a magic nuker like her. Also his S-Craft is a full party res, which is nice.

Laura: Physical nuker. She's slow, has like nothing as far as magic stats goes, and while her defensive stats are good, high defenses only go so far. Laura is good at one thing, and one thing only. VIOLENCE. Her STR stat is through the goddamn roof, and she starts the game with an S-Craft, where most character unlock it throughout. This is a hint as to the correct way to use Laura: Keep her as a support member on the bench, swap her in at an ideal moment, take that turn to eat something to buff her attack as much as you can, and then immediately interrupt turn order with a 200cp S-craft. She's a pocket nuke.

Jusis: Spec as a magic knight, though as he should stay in the backline, focus on the "magic" part of that. Jusis is perfectly fine in the frontline, to be clear - several of his crafts even demand it. He stays in the backline (or rather, in the center of the party formation) for positioning reasons - namely, hitting as many party members as possible with Noble Command, an INCREDIBLE buff that increase speed, magic attack, and strength, and STACKS WITH ITSELF, meaning no, you want to spam this shit, not just use it when it's gonna go down. If he has a turn to spare, he should do some magic damage, since that won't force him to move.

Machias: His value comes from the craft Burst Drive, which lets him snap turn order in half. Otherwise, he's a ranged physical dps. I never used him that much but Burst Drive IS OP, don't get me wrong. I just tended to run Rean/Emma/Jusis/Alisa as my main party.

Fie: Seems like a speedy dps like rean, and can be built towards that same goal as a delayer, though slightly less optimally. Her true value, despite her diminutive size and misleading stats, is as a frontline tank. Specifically, an evasion tank. Use items to get her base evasion to 50% and apply the insight buff to make it 100%. Fie is now invincible against anything but magic (interruptible, also Fie specifically is good at interrupting it.) and S-crafts (rare, but also sort of a "you're fucked no matter what, have a full party res in your pocket" thing). Using a correctly built Fie in battle gave me permanent evasion tank brainrot. Evasion tanking is the coolest fighting strategy, in all games and all situations. Fight me.

Emma: Emma...is your nuke. Your beautiful, busty, glasses-wearing NUKE. Her magic attack stat is as bugnuts as Laura's physical attack, and OH BOY can you make use of that. Pandora doubles magic damage, but increases FP cost. Hades doubles the damage of the first spell you cast. Ingenuity lets you regen FP on the field so you go into every battle full. Claoimh Solarion is a spell that does obscene damage to EVERY ENEMY ON THE SCREEN. Do the math. Watch things BURN.

Gaius: Gaius is weird, but from what I understand the best way to run him is as an S-Craft spammer. He uses the ability to trade hp for cp, while a healer keeps him topped off. Then he spams his S-Craft, which i believe also inflicts a guaranteed status? I ran him as a status effect inflicter, but hey, whatever works.

Millium: Millium is a tank and defensive support. So she's not actually good. Just use offense. Or stunlock.

Sara: Sara has the best overall stats in the game, and a number of very, very hard hitting crafts. She is, unfortunately, kneecapped by that very versatility. Sara is broken on paper by having an absurdly high stat total and being second-best at everything. However, she doesn't have any uniquely broken strats like every other character, and lacks a specific niche within a party comp aside from "DPS".

[neutralskeptic]

My Mild Disillusionment with #fixtf2: A Rant

So, I'll be frank. I've already been skeptical of this movement's efficacy for a while. Sure, it has a lot more backing than savetf2 and it seems like it'll follow up on its initial demands unlike the first movement, but I doubt Valve is going to handle it immediately, if at all, especially when they already have Deadlock and CS2's bot problems to deal with. Nevertheless, I've always sort of kept an eye on it, lending a signature to their petition and keeping an eye on their movements. What's really broken the camel's back for me, however, and has sapped away at my faith that fixtf2 will do anything constructive, is the way a recent point of controversy was handled. So, context for those of you out of the loop. To further spread awareness of the FixTF2 movement, Megascatterbomb (who I'm pretty sure you all know as the guy behind TF2's largest cheater database and who's been spearheading efforts against the bots) sent an open letter to Valve in their Source 1 game bug tracker. Pretty expected stuff, with Megascatterbomb (who I'm hereby gonna abbreviate as MSB for brevity's sake) asking his Discord followers to upvote that open letter.

Well, it was all going well until this happened.

For a former Linux user like me, who's dug through many GitHub issue trackers, this is expected. When the maintainer of a GitHub repo redirects you to an existing issue, in the majority of these cases the maintainer is simply trying to prevent the amount of duplicate issues from becoming bloated, not ostracize the person reporting the issue. To loosely reference Big Smoke: all they had to do was follow the link to that existing issue, and they'd be fine. Sure, it would mean that it would be harder for Valve to see, but I'm pretty sure that the resulting activity on that issue was enough to get their attention. But no! Instead, this is what they initially did.

It doesn't help that from what I've heard, bot hoster groups have sleeper agents inside MSB's Discord, allowing them to easily screw things up even further and muddle the issue up. The final result? Hell sorta broke loose in the thread, Valve closed that issue in the end, MSB changed the message in the above screenshot to remind them not to bloat the issue—most likely to save face, and finally, issue #3477 on the Source 1 bug tracker has recently seen a bunch of hapless fools trying to scream at a brick wall as they fail to grasp the larger nature of the bot problem. Is this the impression we want to give as a community? Do we want to repeat the poor relations and miscommunication between Valve and us that caused End of the Line and Invasion to flop? Ugh. Team Fortress 2 will still be one of my favorite games of all time, but I doubt that the community is going to accomplish any meaningful change at all, especially now that they've really soured their relationship with Valve. I just hope that the damage this does isn't that prevalent, as it's a real shame that a lot of the people involved are thinking so one-dimensionally that they can't grasp simple things like getting redirected to another open issue on GitHub does not mean that the repo owner hates you or that bot hosters can do more than just make disruptive, blatantly obvious aimbots. I'm very sorry for saying this, but I can somewhat confidently say that #FixTF2 might be doing something to TF2 that starts with an F, yes. Fucking it over.

Hopefully the community can at least push back and make up for a mistake as simple as this.

Alright. Rant over. Synchronize your death watches, and let's hope that Valve doesn't take too much offense at this. Farewell, and may luck always follow in your endeavors. :)

[notawizardblep]

I started playing TF2 in 2021

I was bored and was looking for some free entertainment. Stumbled upon the animated videos then dubs of the comics and then there was no going back. Long story short, the bots had always been around for me. The kicking, the dead servers, stopping everything to deal with a bot, the earsplitting noises, the spammed slurs.

But when you find a functional server the gameplay is wonderful chaos. And this is probably one of the most dedicated game communities I've taken a part in. There are hundreds of fan-animated videos and a 2-hour long horror movie free on YT and that's just a slice of the whole pie.

Even if you have no attachment to TF2, this doesn't just affect this game. This isn't a TF2 problem, but a Valve problem. Valve's neglect to upkeep their multiplayer games has also resulted in CS2 having a bot/cheater problem. That game is one year old. No matter how good that leaked game they are working on could be, it will still have the same issue if Valve doesn't change its abandonment problem. They are a billion-dollar company. Even if they don't have employees who want to do this work, they have the resources to hire people who do. People in the community have spoken up about the bot issue and even created projects to try to solve the issue on their own. The bot hosters harass these people by doing a number of illegal things. Valve has been so complacent about this issue, that the bot hosters are confident enough to commit literal crimes on Valve's own games to their customers. There needs to be a change if Valve wants to be taken seriously as a video game developer.

Community servers are also not an alternative solution to this. It is incredibly difficult to find a good and populated server because of the outdated navigation system. They are unfriendly to new players. Legit today I saw a post about bots showing up on Uncletopia a couple hours ago (a very well known TF2 server(s), and the owner had made a video in support of #FixTF2 today). Valve's neglect has told these malicious people that they can get away with just about anything. (Yes, more dedicated community servers have anti-cheat, but not each server has those resources. And this shouldn't be a problem in the first place.) They will not stop at casual. It should not be the community's responsibility to keep a game playable.

I want to experience a bot free TF2. I want others to experience a bot free game. Please, spread the world about #FixTF2. Even if we do not get the results we want, more people will be aware of Valve's harmful practices and their reluctance to change. Social media, give a negative review on Steam, call your grandma. Tell people about what the problem is and how Valve enables it. They won't listen unless they know that its bad for their business. And don't stop when they give a corpo speech tweet. Not until they actually fix the problem.

Below I've attached a link to the petition like most of these posts do. All you need is an email to participate. We are at 171k while I am posting this. The plan is to send these physically to Valve. Thank you.

https://save.tf/

[hungwy]

its just a little humorous to me that with the release of cs2 certain weapon skins have changed a little and now all the csgo e-traders are upset with how their inventories are devaluing because of color changes and texture misalignments

[sillythoughtsaboutstupidthings]

I made a video on how to fix TF2's current issue with bots running around and disrupting the game on official Valve servers. In summary we know that valve won't keep VAC up to date, as they don't like treadmill work, so anyone using botting programs won't actually get banned by it. We also know that valve doesn't want to port over the work they did on CS:GO and now on CS2, if it was an easy task they would've done so already. Also it wouldn't work, since it could likely be abused and it won't do anything about idle bots, since it's only designed to catch aimbots.

The solution is to leave it to the community. The reason being that community servers actually have the ability to be moderated.

You can actually have a server administrator that can ban known bot accounts, the servers can also have vote ban enabled making it quick and easy to ban new bots and cheaters.

The easiest way to implement that would be to make matchmaking function like the old quickplay system. What this does is that it directs players to any public server that fulfill the requirements of what could be considered a "vanilla" TF2 experience.

Alongside this change Valve just needs to contact big server hosters such as skial, Uncle Dane etc. to coordinate with them so they can set up servers that meet these requirements.

There are also other benefits of returning to the quickplay system such as:

Being able to vote for any map in the map rotation rather than just the same map or two randomly choices from the map rotation.

Being able to switch teams whenever there's an open slot

Being able to join servers ad-hoc from the server browser or your friends in the steam interface if they re enable that

Being able to spectate other players

Joining a friend's servers through the party feature could also be made a lot smoother by just letting you join as soon as slot is open.

All in all it's not that much work on Valve's part and would make the game perfectly playable and also better than it is today.

[fltime1]

How to Find the Perfect Mouse Sensitivity in CS2

Adjusting the sensitivity of the mouse sensor in Counter-Strike 2 is arguably the most customizable aspect of the game. You can copy someone's aiming settings or employ other options, but mouse sensitivity should be adjusted to suit you personally.

  Adjusting the sensitivity level in CS2 can radically affect the performance of the game. It has the potential to radically change your player ranking! While other settings in CS2 are important, mouse sensitivity is the centerpiece of the player settings library.

  How to Change Mouse Sensitivity in CS2

  Fine-tuning CS2 sensitivity is simple: go to Options by selecting the gear icon in the upper left corner, then navigate to the Mouse and Keyboard Control section. Usually, this is the first screen that opens. Then, simply enter the desired value in the “Mouse Sensitivity Settings” field or use the slider to adjust it.

  A faster way to change the mouse sensitivity in the game is through console commands. Remember that you need to activate the console before using it. To do this, go to Settings, then to the Games section and set the Enable Developer Console option to Yes! “.

  Then, using the “~” key, you can summon the console. Note that the console can be assigned any key that is convenient for you. This is done in the “Keyboard and Mouse” menu under the “UI Keys” section, where you can change the console activation key in the “Toggle Console” option.

To adjust mouse sensitivity using console commands, follow these steps:

Activate the console.,

2，Type in the command sensitivity X(enter the command sensitivity period as a decimal point).

                    How to Change Mouse DPI

  Adjusting the DPI of your mouse is a simple process, but can significantly improve your comfort level when interacting with your computer, including during gaming and activities that require precision. Most gaming mice on the market offer the option to adjust the DPI, giving you room for precise sensitivity adjustments.

First, if you have a gaming mouse, you will need the manufacturer's software, which can usually be downloaded from the official website. These applications allow for deep customization of your device. The application makes it easy to find and adjust DPI settings, choose from a list of presets or set your own values for a more personalized approach.

  For a more intuitive approach, many mouse designs include buttons that allow dynamic DPI adjustment. This feature is useful in gaming environments where you need to quickly switch between various sensitivity settings. A quick press of the DPI button will instantly change responsiveness. To understand the mechanism behind these buttons, it is recommended to consult the user manual.

  If the program installation does not work for you, or your gaming mouse does not have a DPI button, you can always adjust the cursor speed through your computer's system settings. While this method does not allow for direct DPI adjustment, it does modify the sensitivity by adjusting the overall speed at which the cursor moves across the screen.

  In conclusion, please understand that there is no single “perfect” DPI value - everything is highly individualized, depending on your preferences and goals. Don't hesitate to experiment with different settings to find the one that best suits your needs.

  Mouse Sensitivity Settings for Professional CS2 Gamers

 Check out the sensitivity settings of some of the top AWP players in CS2:

   ZywOo: Sensitivity: 2, DPI: 400 and eDPI: 800

   Brockie: Sensitivity: 1.9, DPI: 400, eDPI: 760

   Very Good: sensitivity: 2.67, DPI: 400 and eDPI: 1068

   m0NESY: Sensitivity: 2, DPI: 400 and eDPI: 800

   Mouse sensitivity settings for riflemen in CS2:

   NiKo: sensitivity: 1.35, DPI: 400, eDPI: 540

   ropz: Sensitivity: 1.77, DPI: 400, eDPI: 708

   Donk: sensitivity: 1.25, DPI: 800, eDPI: 1000

Freeze: Sensitivity: 1.6, DPI: 400 and eDPI: 640

  The general trend is that players using AWP typically have higher overall DPI values, which may be useful for players using AWP in CS2.

  Keep in mind that choosing sensitivity in CS2 is entirely up to personal preference. Examples of professional settings can be used as a guide, but the best experience is when you find the settings that work best for you. If you are used to 3.5 sensitivity, switching completely to 1.2 may feel uncomfortable. It is recommended to make gradual adjustments, about 0.5 at a time, to find the perfect sensitivity balance for you.

  How to find the best sensitivity for you in CS2

  Patience and experimentation are key when finding the best mouse sensitivity settings. A tried and true method is to use the game pad as a benchmark. Try making a 180-degree rotation, moving the mouse from one side of the pad to the other. If this can be done easily and accurately, you've probably found the optimal sensitivity level. If the distance required for the turn is short, the sensitivity may be set too high. Conversely, if there is not enough room to make a 180-degree turn, this may indicate a need to increase the sensitivity.

  For more precise adjustments, use the AIM Botz map in CS2 during practice. This allows you to perfect your shots by practicing on a stationary bot. When you find that you have complete control over aiming and shooting and feel confident with every shot, you may have found the ideal sensitivity parameters.

  However, the true test of your sensitivity settings occurs in 5-on-5 matches. Playing against real opponents in an active environment will give you a deeper understanding of the effectiveness of your settings. These matches serve as real-world trials and provide the opportunity to refine your settings for optimal gaming comfort.

Once you have determined the sensitivity settings that work best for you, it is best to keep changes to a minimum. Regular modifications can disrupt your flow and adversely affect your game play, as your brain and muscle memory need time to adjust to the new settings. By ensuring optimal settings, you can focus your energy on building other skills, making each game a step towards proficiency.

  Conclusion

  Setting mouse sensitivity in games like CS2 is a very personal choice that must fit your gaming style and personal preferences. Don't stop looking for the best parameters, try different options until you find the one that suits you best. The ideal sensitivity you find will not only improve your gaming accuracy and comfort, but it will also help improve your overall gaming proficiency.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

[h3ll0csgotrd]

At Hellocs2 CS2/CSGO (Counter-Strike2) trading involves the exchange of in-game items, primarily skins, between players. Skins are cosmetic items that change the appearance of weapons in the game. They don't affect gameplay but are highly sought after for their aesthetic value and rarity. Players can trade skins through the Steam Community Market, third-party websites, or directly with each other.

[ghostofafool]

I have a Theory about Prodigy Math Game's Order of Influence. And this does not have evidence that I know of, I am playing with thumbtacks and string at this point.

This theory is that the Order of Influence has already partially accomplished their goal. This goal is world domination, but they're already in a good place to take over all of Prodigy Island. This is because there had to have been a governing power on the Island at one point. Probably the school board at the Academy. And the combat systems have changed at least twice already.

CS1: Easy Mode. The first one is simple, it lets you cast any spell your wizard has ever learned, whenever it is their turn. It does not let them cast the most powerful spell of any element except for Astral.

This changed to CS2: Actual Strategy. This let your wizard use any spell they had ever learned, but not whenever in battle they wanted. There were six spell slots, and you had to equip the spells you wanted to use beforehand. This lends room for actual strategy in your team setups, but is still restricting.

This changed to the current Combat System; CS3. CS3 only lets you use Four Spells. Starbit which is half power with Excellent Accuracy, One Spell decided by your wand, an All-Out Attack which is a screen nuke that depends on how many members of your team are active, and One Spell decided by your Relic. Relics are the replacement of your learning the spells.

The Wizards are using Relics instead of their actual knowledge. They are not learning new spells. All the Puppet Master has to do is remove the Relics, and then they have a massive advantage.

If the Academy School Board has been infiltrated by the Order of Influence, they also have an easy route to the Wardens.