WARNING: the following editorial you’re about to read WILL piss some people off. Hopefully, others will agree with what I’m saying here. Either way, it doesn’t matter to me - this is MY (and Teatime’s) webpage, and we tend to make it a habit of getting under people’s skin. Many times, I glory in it - especially if it makes them stop and think, instead of acting like a sheep. Hang on to your socks, we’re in for some turbulence...
First off, in case you folks don’t know, I consider myself an old-timer when it comes to TF. I started playing it back in the Quake1 days, BEFORE all nine classes were in the game. I can remember when Engineers were able to make Teleport portals. I remember the Pyro’s days of "sticky napalm grens" - when Sentry Guns didn’t last, because you could airburst a napalm gren, and take out an Sgun with minimal effort (oh how I loved playing Pyro in my clan back in those days). I also remember the final version of QWTF, TF version 2.9, when they made it so the HWGuy could not move AT ALL, when his gun was spun up. Both good and bad playbalance decisions where made by TFS in those days.
Recently, on the PF forums (I no longer have the time to read any other ones, and often am lucky to read the PF ones), there has been a rather heated discussion about HWGuys (I can hear the groaning already), and their ability to accelerate to speeds on par with the fastest classes. I’ve personally seen these bouncing HWGs catch up to and pass a scout. Folks, something is definitely WRONG here. Let’s analyze the class itself for a moment, shall we?
The HWGuy has the slowest running speed, on purpose. He has the ability to have 300 armour factor - that’s 50% more than the Soldier can carry, and he’s barely faster than ole fatso. He carries the godsawful nasty Assault Cannon/Chaingun/GE Mixmaster 2000/whatever you want to call it, which is capable of shredding lighter classes in under a second at medium to close range. The heavier classes, besides another HWGuy , it might take him 1-2 seconds to annhilate them. Folks, this gun, in real life, is designed to be mounted on a VEHICLE, like a helicopter, an airplane, or some nasty Armoured tracked or wheeled conveyance. The mere weight of the gun assembly itself, the ammo supply that voracious beast would devour, and the batteries required to spin it up would preclude any normal person from moving faster than a walk. Hell, I’ve carried the US Army M-60 machine gun, with tripod mount, on patrols, with a full combat load - and that thing is enough of a burden. Most of us that play TF have seen the movie "Predator" - and have seen what that thing would look like in action - if it actually existed in a man-portable format!
All of the characteristics of the class, put together, lends itself to the HWGuy conforming to TFS/Valve’s original idea of the capabilities of the class. A slow, plodding but durable as hell SUPPORT class. Scouts were designed to run FAST - and as a result they have next to no armour, and no weapons that pack a punch. The Sniper has "that damned rifle" (another quote from the Vault, for us oldskoolers) - but next to no armour as well. He can’t fire his rifle unless he has his feet on the ground - that’s called playbalancing there, folks - back in the OLD-OLD days, he used to be able to jumpshoot. Bundy helped put an end to that crap.. As we work throught the other classes, they get progressively more lethal, and more armoured - and slower moving - for a damned good reason!
In conclusion, when you have a class with that much armour, that powerful of a weapon - to offset those advantages, he was designed to move slow. And if he’s shooting that gun while walking, he moves even slower - as is logical for a gun that lethal.
But now, thanks to ingenious people exploring the limitations of the Half-Life Engine, they have discovered ways to invalidate the DESIGNED checks and balances. Thanks to these techniques, we see plagues of these insane creatures, bouncing like a playground ball, and firing as they do so. Warriors, there is something seriously wrong with this picture. And now, all you advocates of this technique are going to start battering me with reasons why this should be. Hmmm, let’s go through a couple of the statements they’ll make in defense of this crap. In interest of simplifying this discussion, and with all due respects to Maj. Ghob - who recently provided a very thorough post (since I disapprove of this tomfoolery, I refuse to use the adjective "good" in reference to it) on how the various techniques are done - I’m going to call them all "bunnyhopping", because that’s how ludricrous it makes a HWGuy look on the battlefield when he’s doing it. A "bunny rabbit" with an assault cannon and a tonne of armour. *spit*
1. It’s not a cheat! It’s a skill anyone can learn, like rocketjumping or concjumping - *bzzt* Rocketjumping and gren1 jumping has a definite cost to it - it take a significent amount of armour and health away from you when you perform that maneuver. The concjump leaves the jumper concussed until it wears off, leaving you at less and optimal combat effectiveness during that time. If you mess up you bunnyhop technique - all you do it slow down to your normal - designed by Valve - speed. No other negative effects. You cease abusing a loophole, and revert back to how the design document intended the class to be.
2. The soldier can fire and shoot, the HWGuy should be allowed to as well, to be able to survive being attacked by them - "Uhm, negative on that, Houston" Lets go back to the design of the class, folks. What happens when you’re walking/running, and you crank up that gun? That’s right, you slow to approximately half-speed. For a damned good reason, a weapon like that would have one hellacious recoil to it, that there would be no chance of keeping it on target if you didn’t have a firm stance. But besides that - it was designed that way.
3. If Valve didn’t mean it to be in there, why haven’t they fixed it yet? - *insane laughter* Anyone remember how much effort it took to get Valve to START working on the initial problems, bugs and other nonsense with TFC? I damned sure do - I started the TFC Reform Project to try to make these fixes happen, and I’m glad to say between it, help from other people/organizations, Valve decided to keep maintaining a product that generates them ZERO revenue. But remember, they’re working on TF2, and using TFC as a guinea pig for technology that might be used in that product. How many people are screaming "Where’s the patch?" - hmmm? In previous posts I’ve detailed the lengthy QA process Valve has to go throught, because of their relationship with Sierra, because of all the various mods out there, especially their present darling, Counter-Strike. Meanwhile, in the time between the last OFFICIAL release, and now, there have been at least 2 newer versions of the Speed Cheat, 2 of the Unban Hack, and other cheats that are probably higher on their priority list, WITHOUT breaking the working functionality they have at present. Change takes time, and persistance. Hence me being persistant. But I’m about to take this persistance to another level.
I could probably come up with a few more of the prevalent arguements that advocates of this idiocy would use to try to defend it - but I’m not in the mood to waste my time doing so. I’ll probably get a bunch of flamemail calling me a talentless whiner that can’t play the game for shit. Well, quite frankly, I’ve got a simple answer for anyone who feels that way about my stance on this issue. And I’ll make it really simple, so everyone can understand it. "You can kiss my ass." This little exploit is by itself destroying the "balance" TFC had before, and I feel it needs to be reined in, ASAP.
As for myself, I’ve made a decision. Right now we’re polling the PlanetFortress staff as to their positions on this issue, and at the end of that, we plan to send a group email stating our position on this issue. I’d recommend any other large TFC-related webpages to do likewise - both clan-related ones, and general discussion ones. But either way, if Valve decides that they will NOT take prompt action to eradicate this lunacy, I know what I’ll be doing. If that is the end result, and Valve allows this to persist, *I* personally will stop playing TFC completely. I will discontinue my participation in the TFC Reform project, and leave that in Warthog’s hands to do with as he sees fit. If it comes down to that, I WILL be deleting Half-Life from my system, and I’ll definitely be looking VERY warily at TF2 - if in the event it actually stops being anything more than vapourware. What, it was shown at E3 2 years ago, wasn’t last year, and will not be this year - not very encouraging, in my eyes.
This is a very sad decision for me to make, as I’ve always been a big fan of the TFS guys, and that stayed when John and Robin achieved their career goal by being hired by Valve. However, As much as I love the TF genre, and as much as I respect John and Robin - this is no longer the only TF game in town, and I’m having MUCH more fun playing Q3F and UnF these days. I see no reason I should waste my time supporting a game that no longer gives me any enjoyment. I’m not getting paid to do this, and when a hobby ceases being enjoyable - there’s no sense in doing it any more. 
If you feel a need to want to email me, to try to convince me why it should stay as is, or to send the usual slings, arrows and other abuse - you know the email address. Be forewarned - I’m cocked, locked and ready to rock, and as usual, I reserve the right to respond to intelligent conversation, ignore inane, profane and abusive ones, and to post suitable ones for ridicule here on The Fort - if they’re truly deserving. That having been said - Bring it on....
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