Team Fortress 2 - Hat Fortress 2: America's #1 War-themed Hat Simulator

[piombo]

Maybe if the bullshit from jungle inferno and meet your match was reverted, and the game itself was in a much better state with better balance changes and less bloat, limbo wouldn't be so bad, but as it is, I'd rather put it down than to stay in uncle dane's shitty watered down version of tf2. If valve servers shut down, there could be a rise in good community servers and the sourcemods could get more support (like tf2 classic)

i keep on saying that the plug should've been pulled all the way back in 2012 when this game became f2p so it'd have ended on an high note, but alas that's what we get.

it's very debatable how far would community servers go, the community server browser is unuseable by default since there's a constant flood of fake servers + centralized slop, add that the remnants of this playerbase are mostly tradeshitters and/or redditors and you've got a rather explosive cocktail, tf2 classic (and this ignores other shitfests like pre-fortress 2 and open fortress) is inherently flawed on the basis of being completely different + being a tranny shitfest, that game is a fubar and it's best if it stays in its little nice bubble.

 

[Conan]

the ghost of ZM shows up on harvest because the life extension machine sometimes has to jolt someone back from death and they are dead for a short time.



there I answered it

 

[Shoresy]

it's very debatable how far would community servers go, the community server browser is unuseable by default since there's a constant flood of fake servers + centralized slop, add that the remnants of this playerbase are mostly tradeshitters and/or redditors and you've got a rather explosive cocktail, tf2 classic (and this ignores other shitfests like pre-fortress 2 and open fortress) is inherently flawed on the basis of being completely different + being a tranny shitfest, that game is a fubar and it's best if it stays in its little nice bubble.

There's no more proper big subcommunities with their own decent gimmick anymore, it's all like you said; a bunch of subcommunities that all run 20-40 24/7 <map> servers, most of which are completely fucking dead and a waste of the hoster's money and resources.

Numerous big subcommunities which had created their own custom experiences have come and gone over the years. Two prime examples off the top of my head are:

SLAG Gaming had quite possibly the first ever custom weapon system in Advanced Weaponizer (and its sequel plugin AW2), and other fun gamemodes like Parkour Fortress and Wario Ware. Then they died when Jonas (Mecha) started focusing on A Hat In Time.

Creators.TF came along with a decent private economy system and unofficial content updates similar to what Valve would do, Admittedly, other communities (SLAG and RedSun as two examples) already had private economy systems and custom weapons, but there seemed to be more effort put into it by Creators than the others. Then they burned out in a blaze of mediocrity and interpersonal team-centric drama that was also fuelled by the general public.

It'd be nice if all these hosters running in excess of 10 servers would just shut down their extraneous servers for the better of the browser. It'd be nice to see another big subcommunitiy pop up with its own gimmick and revolutionize the game again. Sadly it's just more and more of the same old shit now. 24/7 this, 24/7 that. And shitty idle servers. I mean if idle servers are your thing, more power to you. They aren't my thing. And the trannies. My god, the trannies. God forbid you get on the wrong side of one of them and banned from one server, as you'll likely end up banned from a litany of other servers who are friendly with the tranny as a result.

I don't see TF2 going out in a blaze of glory. I see it going out with a choked whimper, surrounded by a cloud of interpersonal tranny drama.

 

[kriegp_]

Finally! The key to answering to the Poopy Joe question. She was stockpiling Australium to

Spoiler

power the machine sustaining a formerly dead weapons manufacturer while having his idiot sons hire teams of mercenaries to fight over gravel for a hundred years

and also thus preventing

Spoiler

him from being free of his family curse that will make him take the form of a ghost and dodder around several locations in New Mexico every Halloween

in order to

Spoiler

finally get revenge for a slight she has since forgotten, but has always involved showing him that the successful third brother (whom he hated and discounted as weak before he was kidnapped by eagles,) will be the one to destroy his legacy after he finishes building his army of robots to fight nine of the mercenaries she had planted when his brothers picked

eighteen perfect idiots to

Spoiler

fight over inherited gravel

.

It was all planned from the start. The blurry robot photos in Doomsday were the key to all of this. Pure pottery. Rest easy, Poopy Joe, you were America's greatest patriot.

 

[Oilspill Battery]

Them using Pyro as an audience surrogate near the end was especially clever— keep him mysterious while simultaneously speaking to the audience. Seriously good shit.

Pyro was sitting at the table at the left corner next to the dalmatian.

 

[>tfw no Asian gf]

I finally read the final comic and man, what a ride it has been, I liked it, I felt like it tied up nicely most if not all of the loose ends and gave us a happy ending for all of the main characters, I'm just a sucker for happy endings to be fair.

I fucking love this panel.

 

[crowabunga]

the ghost of ZM shows up on harvest because the life extension machine sometimes has to jolt someone back from death and they are dead for a short time.

View attachment 6776327

there I answered it

He didn't look particularly alive in any of the post-resurrection panels. Could be some sort of Australium Zombie whose spirit got brought back from the dead, but the body is too decayed to get back inside it so he just roams around and the spirit manifests physically during Halloween.

That's a tension the TF2 "lore" will never get over, half of it includes spooky ghosts and fantasy and the other half is about a couple of billionaires confronting utter oblivion and demanding to be dragged back to life at any cost. It isn't consistent and it can't ever be, the metaphysics adjust as gravitas and comedic effect demand, and sometimes the two moods step on each other's toes.

 

[Stone Enjoyer]

I found this screenshot floating around Emporium where somebody asked Jay Pinkerton a few questions about things that led up to 7th comic being the way it is. Might be fake and gay, but in case it isn't, I'm just putting it here:

 

[Shoresy]

I found this screenshot floating around Emporium where somebody asked Jay Pinkerton a few questions about things that led up to 7th comic being the way it is. Might be fake and gay, but in case it isn't, I'm just putting it here:

View attachment 6776868

"most of the time, we're just lazy"
- Valve's company motto

 

[thhrang]

Valve the greater entity on the other hand hasn't (no, Valve is not Miss Pauling ffs) and will continue to puppet TF2's dismembered body until the day CS:GO and DOTA 2 are completely and utterly dead with no detectable pulse; torturing it for God knows how long with constant bloat, a broken matchmaking system, a ruined one-of-a-kind artstyle, stripped balancing, and a new community of clueless degenerates that don't have the slightest fucking idea of how truly wonderful this incredible game used to be.

it's a representation of Valve and post-MYM TF2 with the difference being there was no happy ending; it just, kept, suffering.

Honestly I would genuinely prefer if valve pulled the plug rather than keep this castrated, sanitized and bloated version of the game in limbo forever, but it's actually way easier and more profitable to keep the game in life support than to shut it down, especially with all these gambling addicts buying crates

Even in a post-MYM world, I do not particularly want the "plug" to be pulled on the game. What does this even mean, Valve shuts down their servers? There's no way in Hell this ever happens any time close to soon, largely because of the implications it would have on the economies of their other games, TF2 being the pioneer of the model, etc etc. Regardless, I still play the game, and have fun in Casual Mode, which works decent enough for when I just want to quickly jump into a round. I recognize that the game is mangled, and continues to be mangled with bloat, bad maps and retarded cosmetics... but I don't want the game shuttered. I can avoid bad maps, and I can avoid shitty cosmetics - there are customizable mods that allow you to remove hats, warpaints, weapon skins, and unusual effects to maintain the art style. This isn't to say that I don't want things to get better, I really do - and it shouldn't be up to the player individually to make the game be less shit - but part of the beauty of the game is that it is so customizable, and you can cater it to the experience that you want.

The GameBanana no-hats mod that I linked above works, and I've attached to this post an updated mod that should remove all weapon skins and warpaints, which is also customizable. Just put it in your Custom folder.

View attachment 6776868

This all pretty much matches with what I assumed. I am very happy and satisfied with the closure we got. Thank you, Wolpaw and Pinkerton.

 

[soy woah jaque]

I found this screenshot floating around Emporium where somebody asked Jay Pinkerton a few questions about things that led up to 7th comic being the way it is. Might be fake and gay, but in case it isn't, I'm just putting it here:
View attachment 6776868

The prison and korean mafia stuff definitely wasn't necessary, it seems they didn't want to make it too serious so they felt they had to force more humor than needed
But it's very satisying to learn that this is what they had planned from the beginning and it's not some rushed retcon

 

[Nitro!]

I'm so tired of hearing people say "just move on" to a truly special game like TF2 that's been repeatedly beaten over the last 8+ years by both the company that birthed it and the community that claims to so dearly love it (usually from those that don't have a connection with TF2, how easy for them to say). How can I "move on" when I'm staring deep into it's black, mangled eyes.

I think it's less "move on" and more "let it go" because that's the only option Valve has. It's been skullfucked in every way possible and there won't ever be another like it, but I think Valve saw the writing on the wall before any of us could. It was always going to mutate beyond the control of its creators as an online game, and it's either keep an iron grip on it and strangle its userbase or let it happen and have it grow, gnarled and unkempt. Neither are particularly good options but the latter lets the people who care(d) about it decide when to call it quits.

More than anything else, I think that is the purpose of the comic, to say "yeah, we made the Mona Lisa, but unlike the real one, there's no bulletproof glass case and a bunch of dipshits have drawn black eyes and smeared pink lipstick on it, and that's just how it is - remember it as it was."

 

[Toolbox]

I'm pretty convinced that the whole 'everything happened so The Administrator could mindrape Zeph for 100 years' was a total asspull rewrite added during the eight year hiatus so the writers could be like 'uuh idiots, we fucked the game over for a decade on PURPOSE cuz metaphor.' So what, his ghost just isn't a thing now? Makes me wonder what the original concept for the ending might have been.

Deus ex Soldier just having australium in his pocket the entire time is also like really shitty writing.

Clearly. wherever they thought they were going with it wasn't working out. I think the ending we've got here is the best possible scenario that didn't involve them trying to stretch it out over several more chapters and taking additional years.

That said, after watching through this recap to refresh my memory, it's pretty lame that they seemingly retconned whatever it was The Administrator was planning, and had the story fall back to her needing more australium. They don't even really explain that she failed or anything. (Referring to 19:00 on in the video, though the following panel is specifically it)

Though I can see they likely just had no idea where to go with it.

 

[thhrang]

That said, after watching through this recap to refresh my memory, it's pretty lame that they seemingly retconned whatever it was The Administrator was planning, and had the story fall back to her needing more australium. They don't even really explain that she failed or anything.

This was their plan from the start.

 

[soy woah jaque]

What makes this game's situation so frustrating is that it has 3 major problems that make it a pain to have fun: Jank and Bloat, MyM matchmaking and competetive anti-fun balancing.

While the cosmetic artstyle stuff, performance, f2p restriction hell, bloat and all the gacha workslopper bullshit etc. etc. is annoying, it's sort of inevitable and you can't really undo it or fix it given the current standards of the dev team.

The uncletopia no-fun revolution however, is something that can be fixed so easily that it's suffocating how valve doesn't do it. It's a matter of bringing back pre-MyM quickplay and undoing all the compfag nerfing and balancing that made 90% of the unlocks complete boring garbage. This is something that some rookie intern could do in a week and yet it feels so out of reach.

 

[Toolbox]

This was their plan from the start.

It's a weird cliffhanger for that to have been the plan all along. I wasn't thinking it was ever gonna be a 'save the world' story by the end, seeing it was never exactly leading towards that, but something a little more climactic would have made sense. There was the whole planned space update that never materialized that I don't buy wasn't meant to tie into something following Sniper's mom getting shot into space, but they scrapped that too before #6. Even they admit there that their plan for this chp 7 was going to be a lot more involved on the Admin's story before they went this direction.

 

[soy woah jaque]

It's a weird cliffhanger for that to have been the plan all along. something a little more climactic would have made sense.

It could be a diet coke version of the AoT ending retcon, but it is possible that this is vaguely what they had planned from the start and the execution just wasn't as cinematic or as cool as it should have been, could have been more fleshed out I guess?

 

[cave dwelling faggot]

Late, but I re-read the comics from the start for this, and this was a great ending. Loved the panel of the administrator digging the grave

 

[BetterFuckChuck]

What likely happened is they had a goal in mind but not a plan and the plan changed over time but the goal remained the same

 

[Star Classic]

It's a weird cliffhanger for that to have been the plan all along. I wasn't thinking it was ever gonna be a 'save the world' story by the end, seeing it was never exactly leading towards that, but something a little more climactic would have made sense. There was the whole planned space update that never materialized that I don't buy wasn't meant to tie into something following Sniper's mom getting shot into space, but they scrapped that too before #6. Even they admit there that their plan for this chp 7 was going to be a lot more involved on the Admin's story before they went this direction.

Could've made a good RD_Asteroid tie-in maybe.