OMG: Blog post says TF2 Beta is released!

[Vivi Hill]

See: http://tf2.com/post.php?id=4721&p=1

We should definitely get a tf2 beta server up. Bet it could be popular.

[VoltySquirrel]

http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=4721&p=1
I've been ready for this since the thing was announced back at PAX by Kritzkast. What do you guys think, could we get a server up for this. Because I'm interested in the new Natasha variants.

[Vivi Hill]

*cough* viewtopic.php?f=23&t=398

[VoltySquirrel]

See: http://tf2.com/post.php?id=4721&p=1

We should definitely get a tf2 beta server up. Bet it could be popular.

COME ON! I JUST THREW UP A FORUM THREAD FOR THIS!

[NuclearWatermelon]

I'd merge that.

That said, really looking forward to this. We should get a beta server beyond just what I am installing now on my machine.

[Toaster]

Spin-up/down time increased, slowdown-on-hit effect falls off over distance.
Players being healed by a medic are immune to movement-impairing effects generated by hit-scan weapons.
-40% damage

perfect changes imo, would like to see the mini used more often

[VoltySquirrel]

Ok, I just messed around in the beta for an half an hour and here are my thoughts.

Granary:
The change they talked about was a door leading to cap 2/4 from 3 at the middle of the ramp. I think this will make a great flank spot and a nice escape for nervous spies.

cp_5gorge
Its simple. It's Gorge, just with a symetrical flip. It's good.

Ubercannon/Kritzkrieg:
Essentially, if you are healing a teammate, they won't be slowed down by a Natasha or Shortstop. While I was testing out the Natasha varients, I shot at a solly/medic pair and they didn't slow down at all.

Natasha:
So, across the board, the slowdown effect of Natasha drops out past medium range. It's good.
Now, the varient with the slower spin up is too much like the regular Natasha, but any nerf to the Natasha is a godd one. Made me play much smarter. The one that drops your health to 225hp is my personal favorite, which made me rely on my medic, medkits, or sandvich. Then there is the brutal nerf, which gives you 40% damage. At close range, it does at most 20dmg, with 3 at mid-long. Really makes you focus your fire and get close.

[Maringue]

Natasha:
So, across the board, the slowdown effect of Natasha drops out past medium range. It's good.
Now, the varient with the slower spin up is too much like the regular Natasha, but any nerf to the Natasha is a godd one. Made me play much smarter. The one that drops your health to 225hp is my personal favorite, which made me rely on my medic, medkits, or sandvich. Then there is the brutal nerf, which gives you 40% damage. At close range, it does at most 20dmg, with 3 at mid-long. Really makes you focus your fire and get close.

Having the slowdown effect drop off at range seems like a good change. But really? -40% damage? Apparently Valve wants people to stop using this all together. They also apparently want there to be no good counter to scouts. I've always thought the Valve developers had a massive hard-on for the scout.

It's not like it's hard to counter a Natasha heavy, any heavy with the normal minigun will kill him every time. You actually have to be pretty good to kill a minigun heavy with Natasha because you have to start shooting 25% sooner than he does. That and just get a decent spy. I feel like they are way over shooting the nerf on this one. The longer spin-up time is also a bad fix. Two heavies turn the corner, the mini gun will ALWAYS win anyway, there's no need to put the guy with the Natasha at a bigger disadvantage.

I think the best fix is the range mod of the slow down. It is overpowered that you can get hit by a stray bullet from across the map and get slowed to a standstill. But, if any of these other changes are made then it will kill the heavy's ability to be a counter balance to the scout.

[Woliati]

I don't like the Variant 1 or 2 on those, I use the other.

Btw, I did something stupid and crafted 1 refined in the beta, thinking I had enough for a hat, now I have no items ):

[Failhorse]

I haven't played yet, but read most of the feeback on tf2.com

Seems like a lot of people are seeing a huge FPS increase. I'll bet it's cause they dropped support for dx8 on this. any thoughts on the back end side of this?

[Vivi Hill]

When I tried it out I didn't see any improvement--same stuttering unless I turned the priority down (and mat_queue_mode doesn't do very much at all to fix this). I DID see "critical hit" text for the first time in a LONG time. Not sure if that's supposed to be in the normal tf2 and it's bugged out in my game, or what, but I know when I get crits I don't see that text.

[VoltySquirrel]

I DID see "critical hit" text for the first time in a LONG time. Not sure if that's supposed to be in the normal tf2 and it's bugged out in my game, or what, but I know when I get crits I don't see that text.

Same.

[VoltySquirrel]

Natasha:
So, across the board, the slowdown effect of Natasha drops out past medium range. It's good.
Now, the varient with the slower spin up is too much like the regular Natasha, but any nerf to the Natasha is a godd one. Made me play much smarter. The one that drops your health to 225hp is my personal favorite, which made me rely on my medic, medkits, or sandvich. Then there is the brutal nerf, which gives you 40% damage. At close range, it does at most 20dmg, with 3 at mid-long. Really makes you focus your fire and get close.

Having the slowdown effect drop off at range seems like a good change. But really? -40% damage? Apparently Valve wants people to stop using this all together. They also apparently want there to be no good counter to scouts. I've always thought the Valve developers had a massive hard-on for the scout.

It's not like it's hard to counter a Natasha heavy, any heavy with the normal minigun will kill him every time. You actually have to be pretty good to kill a minigun heavy with Natasha because you have to start shooting 25% sooner than he does. That and just get a decent spy. I feel like they are way over shooting the nerf on this one. The longer spin-up time is also a bad fix. Two heavies turn the corner, the mini gun will ALWAYS win anyway, there's no need to put the guy with the Natasha at a bigger disadvantage.

I think the best fix is the range mod of the slow down. It is overpowered that you can get hit by a stray bullet from across the map and get slowed to a standstill. But, if any of these other changes are made then it will kill the heavy's ability to be a counter balance to the scout.

Thing is, the Natasha isn't meant to counter Heavies, as the only was a natty light heavy can be a sasha heavy is with either random krits, an uber, or he got the drop on him. No, the Natasha is meant to counter all the other classes, specifically the scout. The problem with the Natasha is that it, like most Heavy kills, are done at close range, so only nerfing the weapon so the slowdown drops off at mid to long range is not good enough. Now, I'm not the biggest fan of the weapon, I flat out hate it, so maybe I sound biased, but something has too be done to balance it. Other classes need to have a change at killing a Heavy, and just that added nerf is not enough.