TF2 Loadouts

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

Better comic

Don't tell me you're one of the crybabies.

[blue_tetris]

Hats aren't an element of completionism. Getting hats isn't, like, getting all 120 stars in Mario. It's like finding something that only you have, that you did nothing to earn, and that sets you apart from other players--even players who have played as long as, if not moreso, than you. If everyone had the same hats as me, it'd be silly. I like the novelty and rarity of the hats I have.

And I have 700+ hours of playtime. Never idled, and still only have two hats (and a medal). Y'all need to settle down nah.

[otters]

I don't know where you're at, but Ctrl+Alt+Delete is horrible. :/

We're not friends anymore. I can't...I can't even look at you. I'm disgusted.

What the fuck. What the fuck, man.

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

It's like finding something that... you did nothing to earn

Well hold on now -- the people who did nothing to earn them were the ones who got banned from getting hats. Since underachievers in their mom's basements are the majority of the video game market, "just sitting and playing the fucking game" is considered an accomplishment. I can get behind the whole "it doesn't matter if you do well or not, so long as you put forward the effort" line of thinking. That seems like a completely fair way of doling out rewards in a way that's friendly and encouraging.

[SlappyMcGee]

I don't know where you're at, but Ctrl+Alt+Delete is horrible. :/

We're not friends anymore. I can't...I can't even look at you. I'm disgusted.

What the fuck. What the fuck, man.

I'm with T3chno here.

[T3chno]

the people who did nothing to earn them were the ones who got banned from getting hats.

Who's banned from getting hats?

[blue_tetris]

It's like finding something that... you did nothing to earn

Well hold on now -- the people who did nothing to earn them were the ones who got banned from getting hats. Since underachievers in their mom's basements are the majority of the video game market, "just sitting and playing the fucking game" is considered an accomplishment. I can get behind the whole "it doesn't matter if you do well or not, so long as you put forward the effort" line of thinking. That seems like a completely fair way of doling out rewards in a way that's friendly and encouraging.

Hm? Valve hasn't divulged the methods in awarding hats, but it's nearly certain that time alone doesn't get you hats. In fact, it's been noted that people who played the game less frequently got hats more frequently as a function of their playtime. So idling may get you hats, but it's probably not getting them too much faster than playing the game at your usual pace.

The hat system awards no behavior whatsoever except, apparently, idling to some less-than-optimal extent. People who signed on for the idling program were misguided into thinking that their cheating was helping them a whole lot. In fact, it only helped them a tad.



I would agree, on some level, the way that the items are being handed out and the fact it leads to such behavior probably indicates it's not the best way to grant items to players. There's some problem with the system at its very core. I don't think anyone minded achievement-based item pick-ups. Ultimately, there's no way to stop a player from demanding completionism in the game. There's some retardation in players that makes them view completionism, even where it's not genuinely fun or interesting, as necessary. Like it's a fucking job or something. That's why WoW is popular. If completionism requires time and no other factor, like excelllence in playing or unique accomplishments, then the jack-ass player will find a way to cheat at time, too. Using idle clients.

[T3chno]

It's like finding something that... you did nothing to earn

Well hold on now -- the people who did nothing to earn them were the ones who got banned from getting hats. Since underachievers in their mom's basements are the majority of the video game market, "just sitting and playing the fucking game" is considered an accomplishment. I can get behind the whole "it doesn't matter if you do well or not, so long as you put forward the effort" line of thinking. That seems like a completely fair way of doling out rewards in a way that's friendly and encouraging.

Hm? Valve hasn't divulged the methods in awarding hats, but it's nearly certain that time alone doesn't get you hats. In fact, it's been noted that people who played the game less frequently got hats more frequently as a function of their playtime. So idling may get you hats, but it's probably not getting them too much faster than playing the game at your usual pace.

Right.

Idling doesn't help you get hats faster than in-game.

The exact probability before Valve changed the rate (same for both the person in-game and idling):
"Every 15,430 seconds (4 hours, 17 minutes, and 10 seconds) you have a 1.1905% chance to receive a hat"

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

Hm? Valve hasn't divulged the methods in awarding hats, but it's nearly certain that time alone doesn't get you hats. In fact, it's been noted that people who played the game less frequently got hats more frequently as a function of their playtime.

I'm not saying the way they implemented it had any sense to it, just that I like the direction that I think they tried to go. I don't think there's much of a question as to whether or not Valve screwed the pooch with their implementation.[/quote]

The exact probability before Valve changed the rate (same for both the person in-game and idling):
"Every 15,430 seconds (4 hours, 17 minutes, and 10 seconds) you have a 1.1905% chance to receive a hat"

Whoah, what? Really?
That's stupid. That's just straight-up stupid. If that was actually the official drop rate, I can name an entire department of people Valve needs to fire, because this amount of stupidity is just inexcusable.


I've given a bit of thought to this (possibly up to an entire minute), so here's the approach I'd've taken on giving out hats:
First of all, I don't like this "chance to receive one item" thing; I much prefer that there's a chance for each item, "chance to receive this item." This way, while it should be implemented so that it's extremely rare, you could theoretically get multiple items at a time.
Four components to each item's chance:

1. [tiny base percentage] * [contiguous time spent playing relevant class this session]
2. [even smaller number] * [total time ever spent playing the game as the relevant class]
3. [negative, tiny number] ^ [number of items received for this class this game session]
4. [large time interval] - [slightly smaller, constant time interval] * [percentage of achievements obtained for this class]

chance of getting any given item = C ( A * B ), checked every time D amount of time elapses.
This way, you reward people who have been playing for a while in one sitting, people who have played the game a lot, and people who went out of their way to get achievements, while also preventing frustration around getting items for irrelevant classes.
I thought about including something for your score, but that'd probably be too harsh on newbies.

[blue_tetris]

tl;dr

gb2/Debate/

I'm wondering how many people didn't get medals and are figuring that the way they were awarded was "unfair". You ain't entitled shit, TF2 players. You paid -20 dollars-, one time. Some of you paid -10 dollars-. You're receiving new content every couple weeks, at a rate that is just shy of how fact MMO players get new content for $15 a month. Deeeamn, you fig'r they owe you sompin. Sheeeeeeeiiit. It's this kind of constant output that forces them to occasionally make sequels to games that you like and aren't done playing. It's that kind of booouuulsheeeiiit that forces dem to play like every other game company and release new Valve games as often as new Halo games come out. Sheeeiiiit.


Also, Flight's number is ridiculous. That means, on average, something like 1 hat every 300 or 400 hours of play. That's just straight-up false, to anyone who has gotten any hats at all and compared it to their longevity since the hats' inception.

[T3chno]

Also, Flight's number is ridiculous. That means, on average, something like 1 hat every 300 or 400 hours of play. That's just straight-up false, to anyone who has gotten any hats at all and compared it to their longevity since the hats' inception.

The guy who made the idler made that statement. I didn't make it up.

[Wannas]

You know what's funny? The guy who made the idler has a Cheater's Lament in his inventory.

[T3chno]

You know what's funny? The guy who made the idler has a Cheater's Lament in his inventory.

He's also getting praise from Valve for making TF2items.com.

[The_Juggler]

You paid -20 dollars-, one time. Some of you paid -10 dollars-. You're receiving new content every couple weeks, at a rate that is just shy of how fact MMO players get new content for $15 a month.

You know there is very little encouraging the developers to release new content - yet new content continues to be released.

TF2 has a pretty big fan following and a large internet presence, but little of that is making Valve any money. Sure it encourages new players to buy the game, but an advertising campaign could do that much better than making new features.
Pleasing the existing players is not a lucrative project at all - yet they do it.

So yeah - keep crying behbees!