Team Fortress 2 blocks item drops for idlers
Gosh, it's been over four years since Team Fortress 2 introduced random item drops. Four years of people standing idle in servers waiting for hats. Curiously, Valve's now chosen to clamp down on that. It's all perfectly reasonable but, well, hasn't everyone already moved onto idling in other games to score Steam Trading Cards?
Gosh, it's been over four years since Team Fortress 2 introduced random item drops. Four years of people standing idle in servers waiting for hats. Curiously, Valve's now chosen to clamp down on that. It's all perfectly reasonable but, well, hasn't everyone already moved onto idling in other games to score Steam Trading Cards?
"We recently made a change that helps ensure players are playing TF2, not just leaving their computers on in order to get item drops," Valve explained in a blog post yesterday. "As of last week, players can no longer receive item drops unless they are actively playing the game."
"Active" players are people who are: on a sever with Valve Anti-Cheat enabled; not running TF2 in the terminal-like 'textmode'; only running one copy of TF2; and responding to drop notifications without using an external program. You know: people who are actually playing TF2. They're not affected at all.
Valve says the change is to "designed to make the TF2 experience equally rewarding for all players." Though, farming items is also a messy loose end as Valve introduces more and more things to trade with others or sell on Steam's Community Market. It'll be interesting to see if Steam Trading Cards receive similar changes once the initial hype wears off.
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replyAlice O'Connor posted a new article, Team Fortress 2 blocks item drops for idlers.
Gosh, it's been over four years since Team Fortress 2 introduced random item drops. Four years of people standing idle in servers waiting for hats. Curiously, Valve's now chosen to clamp down on that. It's all perfectly reasonable but, well, hasn't everyone already moved onto idling in other games to score Steam Trading Cards?-
Yep, noticed this happening earlier this week. It's good on one hand because it cuts down on the market getting flooded by guys with lots of farm accounts. But sucks because I don't have much time for playing since my son was born so I would let mine idle so I could at least get the items. Will be interesting to see how this affects the game economy. Hope the price of keys doesn't go through the roof.
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I would really love it if they just gave up on the substantive items dropping and let me actually try out all the weapons.
I don't mind the rest of the stuff, but it annoys me every time I play TF2 and see tons of people with crazy weapons that I can't use unless I'm willing to play the game for a long time without those options.-
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Yup your stock gear is perfectly adequate more-so now that full set bonuses are gone as well.
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It's still there, it just has nothing to do with the hat anymore.
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Standard medic loadout is still the best one. :)
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Oh, I'm not concerned about it on a competitive level. I'm annoyed that I can't try new weapons without playing for a stupidly long time.
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Each class has a .99 bundle in the store with 2 alternate weapons and a hat. Those are a great way for the impatient person with a new account to get a bunch of options for 9$ or less.
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I've had TF2 since launch. And I'm not shelling out money for this stuff.
It's as annoying in TF2 as it is in every other FPS. I don't like unlockable/purchasable items that have any gameplay implications.
Hats, silly outfits, sparkly trails, whatever cosmetic bullshit is fine. But I want access to everything the game offers on a gameplay level in any given match and I don't care for this trend in the least.-
You must not have played much? If you put in a few hours a week, you're going to have absolutely everything in a couple of months.
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That's why the option to purchase with cash is there, for people like you that don't want to spend the time to acquire them through other means. If you don't want to spend the money, then I'm not sure what to tell you.
I strongly believe that TF2 would be just another game in the endless pile of multiplayer shooters that no one plays today if Valve had not used it as a foundation to launch their micro-transaction model. Hundreds (thousands?) of collectible items helps keeps the game fresh, and the weapons are for the most part very balanced or at least completely situational. -
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No, what I want is for all players to have access to all aspects of gameplay and be on a completely level playing field at all times outside of their own skill.
It's the same reason I hate that MMO developers seem to think "PVP gear" should have perpetually increasing stats. It doesn't make sense from a balance perspective at all.
I miss FPSs where all the weapons were either in the level, or not, and getting them meant knowing the level layout and thinking accordingly. Or at the very least, the CS model where everyone could access all weapons with enough in-game cash.
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^^^^^^ I have The Original borrowed right now because I wanted to play with it but didn't necessarily want to buy it. It's a pretty great way to handle the issue. Basically you can have up to one item borrowed at a time and then you have to wait for it to expire before you can borrow another. I'd personally like to be able to give back the one I have and borrow something else immediately but it's pretty obvious why that doesn't make sense.
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I never idle on my main account (to preserve stats without inflated times), but every time I bought keys it made more sense to buy them on a new account and unlock it for drops. I have 5 idlers total, they make like $1-2 worth of keys/metal a week, nothing too serious. The economy is so skewed towards people who invested shitloads more than me to unlock crates that it never felt like cheating.
Anyway, you can still idle quite easily with a hotkey script that presses enter for you every few seconds. -
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http://steamcommunity.com/id/slowtreme/inventory/#440 I'll trade away any/every weapon in my inventory. I have no idea what they are worth. probably nothing. scrap metal, keys, I dont know how this stuff works. I once saw a site that would tell me how much things are worth, and then someone tricked me out of earbuds for a crate or something.
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http://backpack.tf/id/slowtreme
Your backpack is worth $4 USD-
[deleted]
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Please give me $61 USD
http://backpack.tf/id/nahrungsmittel -
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$27, huh. What do I have that is so great?
http://backpack.tf/id/arcknight-
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What's a stock (non-vintage) Bill's hat worth?
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Holy shit, $92. How do I cash in?
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[deleted]
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Just put your username into the search box
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$1 and i dont even play it! http://backpack.tf/id/ninjase
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Penalizing people for idling in games for the Trading Cards would be the dumbest thing ever, and would mean that steam could watch more of what you do than ever before, and I can't say I like that thought.
TF2? Fine, good, whatever....Its their game, they have the right to monitor usage however they see fit. Any other game? I would hope they let users "play" them how they see fit.-
By "how they see fit" I mean by "how the gamer see's fit"
Damn you edit button!!
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Glad they did this. It was ridiculous the amount of money people were making for basically doing nothing. I only had 15 idle accounts but I've heard others had thousands.
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