Evening Reading

Yes yes I'm still going to keep doing ER.. Just been some crazy stuff going on with FileShack around these parts as we've had some pretty heavy hardware failures hit all over the place. It's been pretty intense trying to get everything back in order for you guys. We hope to have full capacity by the weekend as we're putting together a new machine tomorrow with a few TB of storage and 16gigs (!) of ram to serve stuff up outa Dallas.

Lastly, when you're 85 and porking teenagers you can rest easy knowing its for the good of humanity.

Steve Gibson is the cofounder of Shacknews.com. Originally known as sCary's Quakeholio back in 1996, Steve is now President of Gearbox Publishing after selling Shacknews to GameFly in 2009.

Filed Under
From The Chatty
  • reply
    September 19, 2007 6:04 PM

    TF2 is fun thread!

    Favourite moment so far, running straight ahead all of a sudden i stop. Strafe right, still can't move forward, strafe left, no go. Thinking wtf, there's an invisble barrier, i shoot ahead and a dead spy goes flying. Apparently we had done the sidewalk shuffle while he was cloaked.

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      September 19, 2007 6:04 PM

      lol!

      I hate spies

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      September 19, 2007 6:04 PM

      how does tf2 compare to TFC?

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        September 19, 2007 6:06 PM

        I never played much TFC so i'm not the best judge of that, i find it more fun though.

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        September 19, 2007 6:06 PM

        not as crispy as KFC...

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        September 19, 2007 6:07 PM

        it's quite a bit alike, but more refined and without grenades

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          September 19, 2007 6:14 PM

          Could it really be called Team Fortress Classic: Source???

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            September 19, 2007 6:21 PM

            [deleted]

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            September 19, 2007 6:48 PM

            Why would they do that? It's not like TF Classic at all. It's like TF 2007

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            September 19, 2007 7:23 PM

            Personally, I think Fortress Forever has more in common with TFC then Team Fortress 2, mostly because of the similarity of the maps.

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      September 19, 2007 6:06 PM

      Its great fun except for the sound looping problem. :(

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      September 19, 2007 6:15 PM

      how the fuck do you tell a disguised spy

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        September 19, 2007 6:17 PM

        Light him up.

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        September 19, 2007 6:18 PM

        turn on your brain and watch what they're doing or just pyro everyone a little bit. imagine everyone is suspect until they shoot their weapon.

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          September 19, 2007 6:19 PM

          Especially anybody near a turret, dispenser, or teleporter. Also pretend everybody on your team wants a piece of your ass and spin in circles accordingly.

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          September 19, 2007 6:29 PM

          Seriously they need to fix the spy on servers without friendly fire (though I doubt I keep playing on non-FF servers for much longer, I've never been one for newbtastic settings).

          At the very least make it so that there is no visible difference from shooting a teammate to that of shooting an actual spy.

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            September 19, 2007 6:42 PM

            I want to subscribe to your friendly fire newsletter. Add me to your friends list. My steam id is in my profile.

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        September 19, 2007 6:20 PM

        By shooting him dead.

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        September 19, 2007 6:33 PM

        A few good (and somewhat obvious) things to look for:

        Is he running into your base instead of away?

        Is he idling in your base a bit?

        Is he following someone around very intently?

        Does he seem jumpy and erratic in friendly territory?

        Do enemies not react to his presence?

        Is he carrying a weapon other than his primary?

        Is he running slower than the he should be (this only really applies to Scouts).

        The main thing I'd advise is constant suspicion of everyone. If you see someone acting odd at all just pop a few shots into them; most Spies will usually freak out and then you can go in for the kill. Lastly, a lot of Spies are lazy and don't switch disguises that often, so if you find a Spy is disguised as a certain class, there's a very good chance he will continue to use that same disguise.

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          September 19, 2007 6:35 PM

          ...and the #1 way to identify a spy: Buttafuco, buttafuco, buttafuco

          #1: You look at him and it says you're looking at yourself

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            September 19, 2007 6:40 PM

            I love that. To add , I've noticed that occasionally the supposed name and class of the person will not match up with the scoreboard one. Easy kill there. Also, keep in mind who is playing what on your team. If you see two Engineers running around, but there's only one on your scoreboard, you've got a Spy.

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              September 19, 2007 6:41 PM

              Yes, if it's anything like TFC, if you disguise as a class that isn't on the other team, the name will be way wrong.

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        September 19, 2007 6:38 PM

        FIRE!

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      September 19, 2007 6:27 PM

      [deleted]

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      September 19, 2007 6:28 PM

      [deleted]

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      September 19, 2007 6:29 PM

      Just had a grait game on granary where my team (blue) was getting stomped the whole while, then we got into sudden death and I layed down a sentry in a central area and picked off like 3-4 reds as they ran by. Then the rest of my team (those that were left alive) picked off a bunch of others so then there were two of them and three of us. The three of us pushed forward and our HWG got juiced, but then my teammate and I were able to kill the killer. As we moved up, I heard an engineer call out "E-recting a dispenser!" so I knew where he was and I streamed around the corner to pound him. He ran the other way shooting, but then turned and ran right into my teammate who was a solider and poped him with a rocket. Then, victorious, the two of us got on the central platform where the capture point was and started dancing...

      This game is tons of fun, I'm glad TF is popular to play again. I just wish it wouldn't crash so readily on my system! Anyone with the crash-on-scoreboard problem figure out how to fix it without running in a window?

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      September 19, 2007 6:32 PM

      Stupid moment - I'm heavy weapons, maddog is medic. He has his uber charged. We need to assault blue's defense. 6 blue guys are right around the corner and I tell maddog to hit the uber. I go around the corner and he is still healing me, but not hitting his uber. I take out one guy and then the whole team turns on me. Any second that uber will hit and I will wipe these fucks off the face of the earth.

      Right?

      RIGHT?

      Way to go maddog, learn to right click.

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        September 19, 2007 6:34 PM

        Maddog was probably busy staring at your ass. ohshi!

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        September 19, 2007 6:40 PM

        we need to play. I keep having the reverse problem where I ubercharge someone else and they dont do anything useful with it

    • reply
      September 19, 2007 6:37 PM

      I ran into a cap area with 10 enemies in it as a pyro a lit them all up. true story, many died.

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      September 19, 2007 6:37 PM

      Lol, we crashed the server, again.

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        September 19, 2007 6:41 PM

        BTW, that last stand at the red control point was amazingly fun., Someone built a dispenser right next to my heavy on the control point and I just sat there blowing the shit out of the red team. So much love.

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          September 19, 2007 6:41 PM

          opps. killing the blue team that is.

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            September 19, 2007 6:42 PM

            Were you on granary? If so, you red bastards are gonna pay! I'm gonna wrench you just like I wrenched Maddog! He was on my team at the time but it was a wrenching nontheless.

        • reply
          September 19, 2007 6:52 PM

          Yeah I was doing horrible in that round, I just kept getting plastered over and over. Kinda annoys me that I'll do really well one round then shitty the next.

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      September 19, 2007 6:38 PM

      [deleted]

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      September 19, 2007 6:40 PM

      is it true that you can tell if he's a spy in disguise based on whether you can walk through them or not? b/c i noticed i can usually walk through teammates (no collision box) but then just now i tried walking through a teammate and i couldn't and i was like wtf...and it turned it he was a spy.

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        September 19, 2007 6:42 PM

        yes this is one way

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        September 19, 2007 6:43 PM

        Yes, that is somewhat true.

        Doesn't change the fact that walking into melee range of a spy is somewhat akin to sticking a fork in an electric socket.

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          September 19, 2007 6:46 PM

          Not really, unless the Spy backstabs you his knife is relatively weak. Two shotgun blasts to the face and he's down.

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        September 19, 2007 6:53 PM

        It seems overpowered that the spy's disguises are flawless and that he can cloak.. they should really do away with one or the other.. At the very least they should make it so disguised spies always have your name regardless of whether they're copying your class.

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          September 19, 2007 6:56 PM

          it's not flawless. just shoot them. or if FF is on, have everyone shoot if they are near the flag. it's not that hard, and works.

          • reply
            September 19, 2007 7:00 PM

            Also, you can use voip icons to tell; and chat systems, and the fact that you no-clip on teammates, yet you can be blocked by a spy ... or a million other things.

            Just spamming round after round of ammo into random teammates is so stupid =(

            • reply
              September 19, 2007 7:04 PM

              what do you mean round after round? it seems like it would be pretty easy to tell with one hit or two.

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              September 19, 2007 7:05 PM

              All well and good, but if i'm the only one on my team actually trying to find the spies and there are about 4 of them in amongst my teammates it makes it a full time job, and with reloads on most weapons the pyro seems the only class viable for this specific task. Its not much fun though.

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              September 19, 2007 7:07 PM

              Also, what do you mean the voip icons and chat systems? as far as i've noticed the clipping and shooting them is the only way to tell?

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                September 19, 2007 7:08 PM

                If someone is talking, you said a speech bubble above their head. They are not an enemy spy.

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                  September 19, 2007 7:09 PM

                  oh, i don't think i've seen anyone using the voip system yet then, never seen a bubble above people's heads.. anyway my problem is more telling which ones ARE spies rather than which aren't.

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          September 19, 2007 7:01 PM

          The point is that one passing notice the Spy gets by, but on further scrutiny it is easy to tell what he is. The way it is setup now works really well.

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          September 19, 2007 7:22 PM

          Maybe spies should have a zipper or something in the back. . . Nothing too obvious, just a small detail where you really have to get close in order to distinguish.

    • reply
      September 19, 2007 6:40 PM

      yeah it's real fun i like the game a lot except for the goddamn crashes all the time

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      September 19, 2007 6:47 PM

      Fucking scout rush on fucking map with 5 capture points. WTF. Seriously. Scouts are just a wheee bit overpowered. I can even kill people with them.

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        September 19, 2007 6:53 PM

        I agree, they feel overpowered right now. They don't even have to run away from most of the time cause they kill almost as well as the heavier classes.

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          September 19, 2007 7:36 PM

          I never ran away from a fight as a scout in QWTF.


          However, that's cause I was the worst scout in the world,and I always just died without accomplishing anything except making the soldier waste ammo.

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      September 19, 2007 6:48 PM

      Is there any way I can get a Shacknews Community invite? (No new subthread for this I believe.) I want in on all the upcoming TF2 Shackbattles - YOU KNOW YOU WANT ANOTHER MEDIC.

      http://steamcommunity.com/id/arsonide/

      Thanks.

    • reply
      September 19, 2007 6:51 PM

      I think killing a spy while he is cloaked or disguised is one of the best feelings in TF2. :)

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        September 19, 2007 6:55 PM

        I love seeing someone else show up with my name, and I just gun them the fuck down. They never see that shit coming.

    • reply
      September 19, 2007 7:11 PM

      People are playing at 216.9.7.87:27015 too, you know.

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      September 19, 2007 7:13 PM

      I have a server up now.

      Info in my profile.

      I have not put in a mapcycle yet because I have not gotten that far but 2fort should work for now.

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        September 19, 2007 7:15 PM

        hehe, forgot to put in the port info....

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          September 19, 2007 7:19 PM

          and the wrong hostname.. Man I suck.

          Info should be good now.

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        September 19, 2007 7:23 PM

        [deleted]

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          September 19, 2007 7:29 PM

          Yeah, because apparently it is ignoring my setting and just using 27015 and 27016. Oh well. I will just go with that for now.

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        September 19, 2007 7:30 PM

        [deleted]

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          September 19, 2007 7:31 PM

          Just throw in all of the maps
          cp_dustbowl
          cp_granary
          cp_gravelpit
          cp_well
          ctf_2fort
          tc_hydro

          I hate hydro so bad

          • reply
            September 19, 2007 7:32 PM

            [deleted]

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              September 19, 2007 7:45 PM

              I actually enjoy Hydro. It's almost like playing a new map every round without loading. I don't like how quick the rounds are though...I think it'd be better with a better objective. Maybe CTF or something. 1 cap per round.

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        September 19, 2007 7:30 PM

        [deleted]

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        September 19, 2007 7:50 PM

        [deleted]

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      September 19, 2007 7:21 PM

      Our servers went down.

      Actually, the whole ISP did - we apparently had a huge power outage. So my 3 tf2 servers are down until further notice. :(

      Those are: 64.72.82.16 and 64.72.80.35

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        September 19, 2007 7:31 PM

        [deleted]

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          September 19, 2007 7:42 PM

          64.72.80.35 is back up - huzzah! Stupid power outages....

          Oh well, the linux server at 64.72.82.25 will also be up in a bit once I update or if it turns on at all from the pwr outage. You guys can use that too if it goes well.

    • reply
      September 19, 2007 7:48 PM

      People need for listen out for medics been charged :( That way Heavies can push forward..

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      September 19, 2007 8:03 PM

      Shack friendlist thread request: I remember a while back people were posting their friendlist for Steam. Can someone direct me to the thread/chatroom that's needed to get the needed info to get all the shack players on steam?
      Thanks =)

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