Major TF2 Update "Today"

[DZComposer]

The official hlds newsgroups got lit up with a warning from Valve that a "large" TF2 update is dropping "Today." I put Today in quotes due to Valve Time. It was basically a "We're about to release an update that may screw up your server, be ready for a headache" e-mail.

Major engine changes, like locking the FPS on the server a-la L4D2, are coming.

Content-wise, I expect it to be the 2011 Halloween Update if it is truly a large update, though the e-mail did not mention any content. It could be just "large" numbers of localization files.

If it is as big as he is making it seem, the update may break Sourcemod, so heads-up.

I'll keep you guys posted.

[Scourge]

Heads up appreciated, ill be sure to download another free game to stall myself over till all servers are back up and running

[King of the Shrooms]

thank ya for letting us know dz....i know i appreciate it and the others are bound to as well.

[Vy'drach]

Hope this is that update that was releasing a bunch of new items and features. I want that Pyro conscience misc item. And second misc. slots.

[Dr. Orange]

Danks for the heads up DZ!

[Vy'drach]

Valve timed to tomorrow.

http://forums.steamp...d.php?t=2170311

Supposed to have the second misc. slot, and I really hope it has that pyro conscience.

[DZComposer]

This gem is on the blog:

Well, here's an update: It's done! Suck it, Valve Time.

We're going to have a mandatory TF2 update coming Wednesday afternoon/evening. This is just a heads-up that it's coming so that you can be prepared.

There is one change that might require a change to server configs:

tf_show_voice_icons has been renamed to mp_show_voice_icons so that it's more generic.

Thanks,

Tony

From the server admin mailing list

Anyway, the update:

Source Engine Changes (CS:S, DoD:S, TF2, HL2:DM)

Fixed an issue with the multi-threaded renderer which could cause a crash on map change

Adjusted whitespace to improve formatting in status command output

Changed stats output to show KB/s instead of bytes/sec, added a connections column, and changed the users column to "Map changes"

Fixed game servers not being able to execute the retry command due to the dependence on the connect command (which is not executable by game servers)

Made sndplaydelay executable by servers

Server frame rate is now based on the tickrate of the active Source mod, not the fps_max convar

Server processing delays have been reduced, especially for servers on modern Linux kernels

Entity processing logic has been optimized to significantly reduce CPU usage on full servers

Multi-threaded server code is now enabled by default under Linux (already enabled on Windows)

An exploit with non-printable characters causing lag on Windows servers has been fixed

CPU is fully yielded back to the system whenever the server is running faster than the tickrate

Dramatic increase in performance for low-level math libraries

Team Fortress 2 Manniversary:

Experimenting with a new store interface with a subset of players

Added several dozen community items in celebration of the Manniversary

Added loadout presets -- each class can now store four complete loadouts, including weapons and cosmetic items, and change between them with the press of a button.

Added a new item type that can accept user-applied decals. Take any image off your hard drive, put it on a stick, and then smash people with it! (See the Decal Tool in the store!)

Added new co-operative high five taunt

Class select menu now shows the active loadout for each class

Characters can now equip two misc-slot items at once

Added a new in-game abuse-reporting system (see "Capture abuse report data" under "Miscellaneous" controls)

Non-newly-released weapons in the store can now be tried out for free once per week! This will give you a fully-functional version of the weapon to be used in-game for no cost. If you decide you like it, you can purchase it for a discount during the trial period.

All items purchased in the store can be used for crafting and can be traded after a few days

Added a new startup music track from Meet The Medic

Integrated with the new Steam Workshop to enable the publication and management of community contributed content

Maps:

Added new community control point map Gullywash. Stamps are available in the store to support community map authors!

Barnblitz is now available for offline practice

Frontier: various geometry fixes

Gorge/5Gorge: added team-specific func_nobuild brushes in elevated forward spawn areas

Replay:

New camera shake functionality added for replays that are not sufficiently dramatic

New slow-motion functionality added for replays where even camera shake does not provide sufficient drama

Added support for recording voice chat into replays

Items:

Pocket Medic can now be equipped by the Soldier in addition to the Heavy

World Traveler's Hat and the Connoisseur's Cap are now paintable

Bonk Boy and Foster's Facade are now misc slot items

Fixed The Director's Vision not playing animations correctly for all classes in the loadout screen

The Killer Exclusive is now paintable

When sorting the backpack, otherwise-equivalent items will sort by strange weapon rank and crate series number if possible

When selecting items from the loadout, weapons with different kill eater ranks will all show up

Hat of Undeniable Wealth And Respect animations have been added. Really.

LOD models added to several older cosmetic items

Response Rules:

Reduced the chance of many response lines occurring

Responses related to cart progress no longer play when disguised

Players will now always call for a medic when low on health or when on fire when a medic is under the crosshair, whereas previously the character would ask the medic to follow them

Named base items will no longer trigger responses that were supposed to be for new item variants

Added additional Jarate hit responses

Demoman:

Added achievement award response

Removed "I didn't need your help y'know" line if being healed by a Medic

Saxxy kills will use the same lines as kills from the frying pan

Taunting with The Pain Train or the Saxxy now plays the same taunt as the grenade launcher

Added a taunt for The Ullapool Caber

Engineer:

Fixed a problem that caused him not to say thanks after exiting a teleporter

Saxxy kills will use the same lines as kills from The Golden Wrench

Added a previously unused golden wrench kill line

Added an occasional response when swinging The Gunslinger

Wrangler taunt now performs the pistol taunt animation

Heavy:

Added a previously unused fist swing line

Medic:

Added a line to the response that occurs when doing a battle cry while looking at an enemy while holding a melee weapon

Taunting with a Saxxy plays the medigun taunt

Taunting with the Solemn Vow or the Crusader's Crossbow now plays the same taunt as the syringe gun

Scout:

Removed the response when killing an enemy Scout or Pyro and moved the lines to the dominating Pyro/Scout response

Added a rare response to double jumping after getting a recent kill

Sniper:

Reduced chattiness when getting many sequential kills

Added a missing line to the scoped revenge response

Taunting with a Saxxy no longer play lines that reference a knife

Soldier:

Added a line to the getting übercharged response

Taunting with the Righteous Bison, Battalion's Backup, or the Saxxy now play the Buff Banner taunt

Bots:

TFBots have a percentage chance of noticing weapon fire based on their difficulty level. Easy bots are fairly oblivious, and Expert bots notice pretty much everything.

TFBots now treat certain weapon attacks as "quiet" (Spy knife, cloaking/uncloaking, some melee weapons, fists, etc). "Quiet" weapons can only be heard by TFBots when nearby, and their chance of being noticed is halved if the environment is "noisy" (ie., lots of non-quiet gunfire going on in the area). This greatly improves Spies ability to backstab TFBots without the entire team immediately turning on them.

bot improvements:

Spy bots are much better about circling around and backstabbing their victims now

Improved Spy bot target selection in some situations (ie: clusters of sentries and enemy players)

Spy bots will give up on an attack and retreat if an enemy sentry gun aims at them

Spy bots now avoid nearby enemies while disguised and/or cloaked so they don't bump into them and give themselves away

Spy bots now have a simple notion of when their “cover is blown" now

Spy bots lead their target's position as they chase them down for a backstab now

Spy bots don't go after victims until setup time has elapsed

Hard and Expert Spy bots avoid looking at their prey until they get close and go for the stab

Easy Spy bots don't avoid enemies, or try to get behind before stabbing

Normal Spy bots don't avoid enemies

Fixed bug where Spy bots would jump against the enemy spawn gates during setup time

Medic bot improvements:

Medic bots stick much closer to running patients now

Medic bots stick much closer to their patient if they have an Ubercharge ready, or are deploying their Uber

Medic bots hide from Sentryguns now, too

Pyro bot improvements:

Pyro bots are less "pushy" with their compression blast, but will use it against Ubers and to get enemies off of a capture point

Other:

Razer Hydra support can be enabled via "sixense_enabled 1" in the console. See http://sixense.com/tf2 for details.

Added "tf_allow_taunt_switch". Set to 0 for disallowed (default behavior), 1 for old bug behavior, or 2 to allow weapon switching any time during the taunt.

Screenshots can now be hooked up to the Steam Community automatically. There is a new option to control this under "Miscellaneous" in the Advanced Options page.

Fixed gold ragdolls playing custom death animations when they should be locked in a pose

Fixed Buffalo Steak Sandvich not having a cooldown if the Heavy is at full health.

Fixed touching a cabinet while under the effects of the Buffalo Steak Sandvich removing the mini-crits but not removing the melee weapon restriction

Fixed particle effects not showing up on spy disguise items

Fixed spies never using genuine, community, or self-made items as disguise weapons

Fixed demoman weapons primary/secondary being backwards in the loadout screen

Fixed effects on Sticky Jumper grenades

Fixed net_graph not updating server framerate when FPS is greater than 1000

Fixed game servers not being able to execute the retry command

Renamed tf_show_voice_icons to mp_show_voice_icons

Updated the localization files

Reports are Sourcemod may not be broken, but Steam is not properly pushing the update out to servers, so there are like no servers running right now.