New Blog Post, End Of Idling?

[Mana 3,867]

http://tf2.com/post.php?id=3727&p=1

If you're an idler, you're going to find fewer items than you were prior to this change. Sorry. On the bright side, there's less reason to idle, because it won't earn more than players who are playing regularly.

Yay!

[Mana 3,867]

Valve seems to enjoy taking away things I find useful. Especially this month, first the Equilizer was trashed, and now idling in general.

How sad.

My idle server was one of the top if not THE top server. And I'm happy to see it die soon.

[Brokkoly 11]

Now watch as people rage for valve stopping them from exploiting a system in a video game.

[Retsam 1]

Hats were cool when they first came out and nobody had any....

Now the uniqueness is gone and it almost makes you more unique to not have hats.....

Anyways, I guess I have far more important things in life as I definitely do not waste my electricity and time on idle servers for things that dont matter heh.

Im guessing the people that do are probably younger kiddies who are like "omg these hats are so cool, I must spend my life devoted to finding them all!".

[Dashuu 11]

Hats were cool when they first came out and nobody had any....

Now the uniqueness is gone and it almost makes you more unique to not have hats.....

Anyways, I guess I have far more important things in life as I definitely do not waste my electricity and time on idle servers for things that dont matter heh.

Im guessing the people that do are probably younger kiddies who are like "omg these hats are so cool, I must spend my life devoted to finding them all!".

It's as though some completionist programming were allowed on TV that emphasized this "Must collect them all" mentality to our young.

[Retsam 1]

Did you guys see the update? Looks like they killed the whole idling thing. Changed drops quite a bit. All I can say is, its about damn time....

It looks like they did away with the whole "luck" factor as well. Now you just get items at a regular interval.

Today we're shipping some significant changes to the item drop system.

* Previously, we rolled randomly at intervals to see if you got an item drop. Now we roll to determine when your next item drop will occur. So you're guaranteed to find items at fairly regular intervals. The bulk of drop complaints we've received in the past have been from players having unlucky streaks, where they didn't find any items for weeks. That won't be possible now.

* We've significantly increased the rate at which item drops occur, compared to the previous average interval.

* There's now a maximum amount of playtime per week in which you get item drops. Playing beyond that amount won't find any more items. The amount varies, but if you play an hour or so a day you're good. Some of your unused time will rollover to the following week, so if you're an intermittent player you'll also be fine.

What are the net effects of these changes? Here's the quick summary:

* If you're an idler, you're going to find fewer items than you were prior to this change. Sorry. On the bright side, there's less reason to idle, because it won't earn more than players who are playing regularly.

* Everyone else will find items more frequently, and with greater regularity.

We're still thinking about how to allow you to influence your drops. When we see discussions on the forums, people often ask why we don't tie it to some in-game performance (like your scoreboard position, or number of kills, etc). Many players understand that if we did this, idle servers would simply change into servers running plugins that generate those in-game events frequently (as we saw in the Soldier & Demoman WAR!).

There's another side of it that we care about just as much, which is the message it would send to all the players who don't want to idle. Any in-game performance metric we chose would result in there being specific maps, classes, tactics, and so on that resulted in more drops. We really don't want that to happen. When it's simply playtime, you're free to play the game however you like. If you love Payload, you can play Payload maps without worrying about whether you're earning less drops than the guys playing Arena maps. Community mapmakers don't have to worry about whether their maps earn item drops fast enough. Similarly, server operators can configure their servers however they like, without worrying about reducing the rate at which their players are earning drops. In short, while it's far from perfect, not tying to in-game performance is a lot less poisonous to your minute-to-minute game experience.

[Brokkoly 11]

Hats were cool when they first came out and nobody had any....Now the uniqueness is gone and it almost makes you more unique to not have hats.....Anyways, I guess I have far more important things in life as I definitely do not waste my electricity and time on idle servers for things that dont matter heh.Im guessing the people that do are probably younger kiddies who are like "omg these hats are so cool, I must spend my life devoted to finding them all!".

Many people still have 0 unique hats (not from an event or a halo) I recently, after playing since the hats first came out, got my first hat, by crafting. Hats are still pretty cool, and idling takes away from that feeling of earning it. Having a hat is one of those feelings of "yay, i got it." (unless you got the bald scout, then the drop system just hates you)

[Paul Bunyan 13]

I have no problem with the bald scout, actually (though I don't have it).

It's the bald sniper and engineer that would piss me off.

[jeffro53081 1]

I have no problem with the bald scout, actually (though I don't have it).

It's the bald sniper and engineer that would piss me off.

I have bald engie and I like it. I wish I could have bald scout, but my scout is stuck with hair. (Actually, 4 of my 5 drops were scout hats - that pisses me off)

[Mana 3,867]

Baldgineer is medic to team!

Also, I'd like to get at least 1 random drop hat. Been playing this game since the damn beta...

[jeffro53081 1]

Also, I'd like to get at least 1 random drop hat. Been playing this game since the damn beta...

Lol, I just got two drops tonight, mining light and soldier stash, to go with 2 baker boys, bonk helm, hatless scout, and the pot. And I've crafted 5 other hats... NO IDLING (unless you count the time sitting in spec before I donated).

I'm not sure what they did to the drop rates, but I got 12 item drops and 2 hats in the three days since they messed with it, in maybe 15-18 hours of playing.

[Paul Bunyan 13]

You're just one of those people who get hats and other things all the time.

I've gotten 2 from random drop, and a camera beard, and I'm on the road to crafting a soldier hat.

Then scout.

Then whatever I don't have by the time I get enough metal to craft 2 class hats. (lol)

Also, anybody know how this guy has two of the Max's Severed Heads?

[Brokkoly 11]

i dunno

[Melissia 7]

Valve seems to enjoy taking away things I find useful. Especially this month, first the Equilizer was trashed, and now idling in general.

How sad.

Good, the equalizer is a piece of trash designed to reward players for being shitty soldiers by saying "it's okay if you don't know how to dodge, you'll just do more damage that way anyway!". And it's extremely fucking annoying when playing medic-- put the goddamned pickaxe away fucktard, I'm trying to heal your noob ass.

[Dashuu 11]

Good, the equalizer is a piece of trash designed to reward players for being shitty soldiers by saying "it's okay if you don't know how to dodge, you'll just do more damage that way anyway!". And it's extremely fucking annoying when playing medic-- put the goddamned pickaxe away fucktard, I'm trying to heal your noob ass.

See, this is why I went back to the shovel. That and I missed my random melee crits. That's right, I like my random crits. I don't care how noob that makes me.

[Paul Bunyan 13]

I miss the shovel too. I used to only use the equalizer when we had melee events somewhere.

But now, since they nerfed the damage, I use it everywhere but melee events. lol

To me it feels like more of a speed boost than anything else. No point in rushing in to that pyro who only needs to graze you and you're fucked.

[FunkyFresh 68]

I miss the good heavy unlocks they were thinking about using instead of the ones we have now too

oh wait