Team Fortress 2 PC Updated; Sudden Death an Option

Valve has released the first significant update for the PC version of Team Fortress 2 in about a month, making several gameplay tweaks and bug fixes. If it has not already patched itself in your copy of Steam, Team Fortress 2 will update automatically when you attempt to launch it.

Particularly interesting changes include Sudden Death now being a server option that defaults to "off," the Spy doing slightly less damage to buildings with his weapons after sapping them, the Medic healing at a faster rate during the pre-round setup time to offset the need for players to self-inflict wounds and boost the heal rate, as well as some fixes to SourceTV and the Source engine. There are also a number of changes specific to the Dustbowl map.

A recent round of reports indicated that Valve has an Xbox 360 patch in the works for TF2 as well (no word on the PS3 version), with new maps for both versions being developed and plans to freely release the studio's own PC character animation tools.

Continue to the full story for the rest of the patch changes.

Team Fortress 2

• Sudden Death mode is now a server option (a convar) and defaults to OFF

• Sapped buildings now take slightly less damage from the Spy who sapped them

• The Medic's Medigun now charges at an increased rate during Setup time, to remove the need for self-damage grinding

• Fixed an rcon/console command that could cause server crashes

• Prevented players from playing the "civilian" class

• Prevented players from hiding their name in the scoreboard

• Fixed exploit where the Medigun UberCharge wouldn't drain if you switched weapons

• Fixed decals not being correctly applied to the world in some cases

• Fixed critical bullet tracers not being visible to players other than the firer

• Fixed first person spectator view of the Spy watch not showing the correct cloak value

• Fixed the teleporter's player shaped particles not drawing

• Fixed the flamethrower stuttering when firing directly into a building

• Fixed a rare crash that can happen when a player being healed leaves the server suddenly

• Fixed rocket trail effects sometimes existing permanently in world

• Added effects to players when they earn an achievement, visible to other players nearby

• Tweaked achievement HUD fonts and color palette for more readability

• Improved stat gathering for map play times to increase accuracy

• Improved stat gathering around draws to better understand why they're occurring

• Fixed occasional misreporting of syringe gun & fireaxe damage distances to the stats system

• Fixed an occasional crash caused by an achievement not being found during a game announcement

Dustbowl

• Now waits until either team wins fully before changing to another map on server timelimit expiring

• Teams now score a point per captured control point, rather than per sub round

• Prevented Demomen being able to launch grenades into the stage three alleys while standing at the final cap point

• Fixed gaps in stage gates that allowed snipers to kill defenders during setup

• Fixed several model and brush perch exploits in stage three

• Added stair access to the upper area in stage three after the first cap

• Limited line-of-sight at the first control point in stage 3 to remove a griefable sniper spot

Source Engine

• Fixed some audio buffer support issues with Vista

• WorldVertexTransition under dxlevel 80 + 81 now correctly uses vertex alpha to blend the two textures

• Improved the console in the graphical UI version of the dedicated server

SourceTV

• Relay proxies can now record demos now with tv_autorecord 1

• Fixed an interpolation code bug during demo playback that was resulting in view jitter

• Added several TF specific game events to SourceTV auto director logic

• Increased the average shot length by 2 seconds