EDITORIAL: Scout Update Has Ruined Team Fortress 2
- Scribbled on February 28th, 2009 by Jonah Falcon
- Filed in Editorial Content, PC, Shooter
Valve has been pretty good about Team Fortress 2 updates, with the Medic, Heavy and Pyro, with sensible upgrades that kept the game in balance. Unfortunately, with the Scout update, they’ve – to put this diplomatically – shit the bed in a big way. This is coming from someone who normally plays the Scout.
For one, I never really liked single class updates – it would cause a massive surge of people playing the class to earn the achievements and upgrades. With the Medic, it wasn’t as much of a problem – who doesn’t want medics on their team. The Heavy and Pyro were slow moving enough to avoid. But Scouts are a different animal.
Scouts are the only class that runs really fast, and can double jump. Their entire purpose is evasion, not combat. Bonk someone on the head and run. Shotgun when necessary. They were never meant as an offensive weapon. However, the upgrades they have take all the challenge out of the class, and make them annoying to play if you’re not a Pyro. It’s not surprising to see 4 or 5 Scouts on a team now, even those who have all the upgrades. With the double barreled shotgun, they can now stun people with the knockback. The Sandman is even worse, immobilizing anyone for far too long.
What’s next, Valve? Give the Demo guided missiles? The Sniper the ability to see and shoot through walls? The best part of the Heavy, Medic and Pyro upgrades were the fact they didn’t change the fundamental nature of the class, and didn’t disrupt the gameplay. The Scout update has turned the class into an unbalanced class, unstoppably lethal in the hands of experienced gamers. For me, playing the Scout has always been like a buzzing bee whose job is to harrass and steal the documents – not an offensive class.
Some servers have taken to limited Scouts to a team to one, which sucks because my class is the Scout. Even on unlimited servers, I usually choose the Pyro or the Medic, because there’s too many Scouts, and some one needs to defend.
If Valve knows what’s good for them, they’ll start the nerfing soon. Otherwise, TF2 is unplayable.
[UPDATE: Logan and Norman Chan agree with me, and complain that casual players who have no interest in grinding are being forced to grind in a game that wasn't supposed to be about grinding. Can I use the word "grind" again? There, I just did.]
February 28th, 2009 at 4:28 am
Try being a Spy player. When more than 1 scout are near me. I’m screwed. An average scout player bonks me, gets close, one shot from his new gun takes out 90 percent of my HP if it doesn’t crit, then I get knocked back and hit again.
The game is severely off balance, I saw this coming I cannot believe Valve has crushed the balance they’ve worked so hard to acheive. The 50hp wasnt near as bad.
Scouts can take down heavies with no problem now. This is ridiculous. They have killed the game for me.
And first blood in arena? Scouts are overpowered and quickest so either they or some random sniper gets it. I liked arena without it.
March 1st, 2009 at 9:25 am
I agree with this editorial all the way, even further, I might add, because not only has Valve SPECTACULARILY managed to f*** up the scout and anyone attacked by him, they also flaunted many of their promises. Let’s tally: No new payload map, no new game mode, no Meet the Pyro, no dual-core support etc… Valve has euthanized TF2 pretty thouroughly with this update. Hopefully they get around fixing their own errors in the next month.
March 1st, 2009 at 10:04 am
Yeah it’s a shame. TF2 became a no-play for me. They destroyed my favourite class.
They also managed to listen to the stupidest ideas on the forums.
Just goes to show you that even Valve will hit the lowest denominator just to make a buck.
March 1st, 2009 at 10:23 am
Err.. McNuggetFiend, the new gun does less damage than the old one. So I doubt it will take off 90% of your life with one hit.
The new gun makes the Scout WEAKER offensively, but improves mobility. The BONK! drink isn’t a weapon. The Sandman I haven’t used personally, but since the Scout sacrifices double jump, I don’t think it will be incredibly popular after the initial few weeks. It does make the Scout useful on non-Scout maps (like Dustbowl).
This post doesn’t really have a valid point IMO, the Scout isn’t a lethal killing machine (before OR after). When the game goes back to 1-2 Scouts per team then I’m sure you’ll be thinking they’re back to normal.
March 1st, 2009 at 1:24 pm
The main annoyance for me is the sandman. It sacrifices mobility for getting an easy kill. It allows the scout to make you helpless for a few seconds, in which he can easily run up to you and kill you with the shotgun.
I think BONK is a good addition to the scout’s true purpose though, helps getting past sentries and demomen somewhat. The increase rate of fire by force-a-nature makes it a bit annoying too though.
March 1st, 2009 at 2:41 pm
To be honest, I never liked TF2 =D
March 1st, 2009 at 4:16 pm
tf2 sucks!!!
March 1st, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Like all TF2 class updates, I think that after a while, things will go back to normal. At the moment, with all of the intense scout spamming, it seems a little unfair, but once people get sick of the update, and the teams get a little smarter and increase the amount of Pyros and Engies, the scout number will go down, and it will seems less unfair. The Sandman is only really useful in isolated occasions, Bonk! has a slowdown effect and makes the Scout lose a secondary weapon, and the Force-A-Nature has terrible reload times. All of the new updates have checks and balances, the only reason it seems unfair is because of the increase in number. Just wait a week. Things will be fine.
March 1st, 2009 at 5:08 pm
The sout is a bit over the top now. THe new gun dosen’t have any negative effests. It’s just too good now.
At least make it so soldiers, engineers can’t get knocked out because they have helmets.
March 2nd, 2009 at 9:20 am
I have been playing TF2 for almost a year now and have been through every upgrade to date. The past updates have been great and have not allowed the upgraded characters to be more powerful then say a demo who has not received an upgrade. I have more than 80 hours on the demo and 60 as a sniper. I understand valve wanted to come out with the scout update so more people would play them and use them. But seriously why is the scout the only class who can stop an uber??? Well the pyro can use the blowback option but the pyro has to be up close. The scout can be ever so far and be effective. Sure the new shotgun can only shot 2 then you have to reload but it adds crits to equation so its even more lethal. I do think BONK is a great idea. The scout is way to powerful now and as for me the game is ruined. I really loved TF2 and I think valve has screwed this up big time. I totally agree with Jonah Falcon on this one. Rock band 2 here I come! I really hope valve fixes this like they fixed the pyro… if not then I might not play this game for to much longer… what a shame… thanks valve…
March 2nd, 2009 at 1:24 pm
I agree that the new scout update has upset game balance. The scout’s shottie has always been slightly overpowered in my opinion but tolerable. But now with the new update it is too much. It makes no sense for a scout to blast back a heavy or soldier with repeated shots and kill them in 2 or 3.
March 3rd, 2009 at 6:05 am
i have 21 scout achievements ALL from live normal servers, i dont use any of the upgrades and i cream these noob scouts i see with all the upgrades who have clearly been on acheivement servers as they cant aim atall, makes me sick but at the same time i love making them switch class ;p
March 3rd, 2009 at 9:19 am
It’s great to see that so many agree on this. Perhaps Valve can give players like the option to play “classic” or enable that as an option on some servers… I remember the game being a lot more fun back then…
I know some argue that the new weapons come with penalties and are balanced, but there is still something off about the game now. It was perfect when released… why did they need to fix that? They could have just added options, play modes, and levels!
March 3rd, 2009 at 11:35 am
i love how people are getting upset about the scout’s update. As a offensive class the class should be able to kill a sniper, spy, or medic in a couple shots considering he is an offensive class. Plus if you are a sniper and you allow a scout to get that close enough to use his new toys maybe you should consider a different class. But back to the scouts new killing equipment. I believe that the only problem is speed that of the force of nature shoots and it’s reload time. Then FON can shoot both it’s shots in half a sec, and it’s reload time is only a little bit slower than a scout reloading his scatter gun, which takes only .76 for the first bullet and .56 for the rest. just slow down the reload and it’s shots and most of the problem will be taken care of. but as for the new bat, i think it’s a fair trade (more killing potential for less mobility). i think the can is amazing for getting past the sentry, which before scout could only stare at and think mean thoughts.
March 3rd, 2009 at 5:18 pm
The scout is not rigged or overpowered. After each update there is always a large amount of people playing the class but it never lasts too long. What they did was add the option to change the scouts role a bit and make them more useful in spamfests (16v16)
Anyone who plays competitive 6v6 still uses all of the default weapons
March 3rd, 2009 at 7:41 pm
That is about as weak an argument as I’ve heard.
March 6th, 2009 at 2:23 am
[...] you happy the side stab’s being restored? Of course, it won’t fix the ruined gameplay balance that also accompanied the Scout [...]
March 14th, 2009 at 1:36 am
[...] Related article: EDITORIAL: Scout Update Has Ruined Team Fortress 2 [...]
March 17th, 2009 at 11:39 am
I wish I could bitch about a new scout update. I play on the 360 and they haven’t given us shit. Valve needs to get off their asses and give us lowly console player something new. And I do have a friend who plays on pc and I have seen the new update and played a little. Quit bitching the scouts not that overpowered and don’t forget demos can stop ubers.
March 24th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
I do not think that the scout update has ruined the game but all the updates. Each one brings new problems or bugs which do get patched but by the time everything is fixed another update will be released. The only thing that should be left alone in the game is the pyros compression blast. No I am not a pyro lover but I have played the game since release and I noticed how it was a skill class in high player servers since they could not defend themselves from splash damage. I never did like the soldier or pyro, do not get me wrong I still think that they should not get rid of the classes but I just think they were not needed. They have no teamwork profession. I hate demos to and they are powerful but they destroy sentries and thats their job. I agree to the CLASSIC server idea, but I think that the only thing allowed is the compression blast.
March 31st, 2009 at 6:33 pm
I highly disagree with this. The Scout still take A LOT of skill to do any good with at all. No downsides to the FAN?? You have 2 Shots! The knockback was essential. It’s our only defense, (besides running for our lives) against pyros. The sandman? Not so great. Unless you manage to catch someone alone it’s not going to help, and even then it can be hard to hit them with it! The drink is USELESS besides running past sentries… but even then, they are usually guarding what you need… not just in a hallway or something.
June 17th, 2009 at 2:18 am
it’s been 3 months and the scout is still overpowered.
July 6th, 2009 at 12:32 am
Why does everyone here seem to think the pyro has a big advantage over scouts? It’s definitely the other way around, unless you’re in a really confined space. All you have to do is stay out of flamer range and scattergun the hell out of them, switching to pistol if you run out of ammo. And it’s really easy since you run so much faster. And the FAN gives them an even bigger advantage over pyros.
Also, they nerfed the Sandman, which is the only one of the 3 new weapons I actually find useful at all. And I play a mean scout. And I switch it out on certain maps when I need the double jump.
July 22nd, 2009 at 3:44 pm
This article is wrong in so many ways. If you’re talking about the Scout being overpowered due to it’s upgrades, just search up the Scout board on the Steam Community Team Fortress 2 boards. EVERYONE, and I mean EVERYONE, is complaining about how useless the Sandman and Bonk are. The Force-a-Nature is a different story. Before the update, it was a pile of shit. After the 10% damage increase, it was improved ever so slightly, but misinformed people started complaining that it was overpowered, just like people complain that every other class is overpowered (backburner, sniper rifle headshots, etc, etc) So in a way, the scout update is no different from every other update and unbalances the game no more than the Sniper rifle does. You also claim that the scout is meant for evasion instead of combat. Why would someone play scout just to jump around and “dodge bullets.” In professional/competitive gaming AS WELL AS public gaming, scouts are the PRIMARY assault class. Why should Valve nerf the class because people are having fun playing the class they like? If the team is losing because they have too many scouts, big deal, leave the server and even better, LEAVE THE PUBS. Go join a pick-up-game.
February 20th, 2010 at 7:09 pm
Go play the xbox 360 version then… if you don’t want to get any updates at all.. and btw i play tf2 a lot and it’s rare to see more than 2 scouts in a team now because of the demoman and soldier’s update