Team Fortress 2 Patched, Spy Side-stabs Return

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Valve today released a decent-sized patch to Team Fortress 2, making a few tweaks and changes to the game's classes and systems.

Gameplay alterations include adding a duck timer, re-enabling spy side-stabs, and a primary weapon default for disguises. Other various bug fixes round out the list. Take a gander at the full patch notes below:

Gameplay changes

  • Added a duck timer that prevents duck spamming while running around on-ground
  • In-air, players are only allowed to duck once before they touch ground again
  • Fixed several bounding box issues with jumping, falling, and rocket jump air-walking. Bounding box should be much more accurate there now
  • Increased backstab check so that Spies can side-stab again
  • When disguising, Spies now always start showing the primary weapon in their disguise, and can then switch it with the last-disguise key
TF2 Fixes
  • Fixed flamethrower loophole that resulted in the flame effect being stuck on while the flamethrower wasn't really firing
  • Fixed exploit that allowed players to circumvent the force-fire timeout on the pipebomb launcher
  • Fixed a bug that caused Natasha's slow on hit effect to be inverted from 75% to 25%
  • Restored sawmill_logs.mdl file, fixing some user maps that used it
  • Fixed some localization issues with Scout achievement strings
  • Removed the "Final" phrasing in the map loading screen
Engine fixes
  • Fixed a server crash on startup under Linux
  • Fixed a buffer overflow issue related to network string tables
  • Gamestats uploading is now done asynchronously. This fixes the client timeout issues on map changes
CP_Junction
  • Fixed an exploit where engineers could build a teleporter exit in an invalid area
  • Fixed a few bad overlay assignments and other minor issues
Filed Under
From The Chatty
  • reply
    March 5, 2009 4:27 PM

    Oh good, side stab is back.

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      March 5, 2009 4:29 PM

      that's good?

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        March 5, 2009 4:33 PM

        yeah! You couldn't stab a sniper when his back was against a wall.

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      March 5, 2009 4:32 PM

      as long as it's side stabbing instead of the ever present face stabbing

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        March 5, 2009 4:33 PM

        the face stab was just the animation going slow so I figure if you get face stabbed then you were already back stabbed.

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          March 5, 2009 4:47 PM

          Yeah I think it has to do with lag. Kind of like how if say a heavy is shooting at you and you think you've avoided them by running around a corner, but you still die. Due to the lag your killer was still seeing you before you rounded the corner. Similar with the face-stab, you were already stabbed. Face-stabs may have been broken further than that though, not sure.

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            March 5, 2009 4:55 PM

            It has nothing to do with lag. It's an issue with the hitbox code in TF2. Valve has stated this before and they keep trying to hammer-down the bug in it.

            The patch before this one made the hitbox "smaller" from behind for other classes when playing as Spy. So you had to be a bit more accurate when hitting with the knife.

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              March 5, 2009 5:15 PM

              ahh ok thanks. Thought I may have been a bit off.

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                March 5, 2009 5:17 PM

                It has to do with how the character model moves in terms of speed and the hit registering precisely at that very second. They keep chipping away at it.

                Eventually I think they will get it right...eventually :P

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            March 5, 2009 5:03 PM

            There's three ways to handle latency for cases like this (and I'm using a sniper rifle as an example):
            * Attacker-side: If you were in my sights when I pulled the trigger, you were hit.
            * Server-side: If you were still where I aimed when the server received the command to fire, you were hit.
            * Victim-side: If you were behind cover when the server tells you I fired, you were not hit, even if I saw you in my sights.

            Someone's paying the price for latency. In the first case, the victim pays for both the attacker's and the victim's latency (ducking behind cover only to get hit later). In the latter case, the attacker pays for the victim's and the attacker's latency (a clear shot misses and sparks the ground). In the server model, you only pay for your own latency (plus the server has the final say in who's standing where.)

            Any clear answer on how backstabs are resolved?

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              March 19, 2009 6:47 AM

              Everything is already server side and the advantage goes to LATENCY, period. It can and does change on a whim and in two battles between the same players, it can be in the favor of each of them one time.

              I love all you people complaining about lag NOW. Where were you 9 years ago when there was a chance to have actually fixed the hitboxes, hit detection / registration and netcode when it popped up in Counter-Strike?? Or at least really made Valve aware that it was an issue back then, not only now because finally more people fracking see it? :(

              Valve can't fix the problem unless they revamp their netcode from the "high pings don't matter" mentality that has carried on since those days. Back when people didn't play Quake and UT because their high pings got them beat down by players with lower pings. Valve took a stance and said pings shouldn't matter.

              Well, here we are today. Pings don't matter. You can have a 110 ping and be up against someone with a 30 ping, and the person with the lower ping can experience latency because of the crappy netcode.

              Back stabs are resolved like everything else. Server registers the hit, checks where both players were on their end at time of attack, netcode factors in pings and the hit is registered. Even if you never even saw the attacker because there was so much latency their model wasn't drawn. And it can go both ways......you figure it out.

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        March 5, 2009 4:39 PM

        it is it is. Trust me, they gimped the spy big time in the patch before this. Basically you'd have to be right up behind someone and then some. The diagonal - back stab which is still a back stab or in this case labeled a 'side stab' should count.

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          March 5, 2009 5:25 PM

          Of course, you're talking about gimping the Spy in the same update that added a ton of disguise buffs, which was preceded by allowing him to recharge cloak from any ammo lying around and then actually removing the telltale dispenser trail so he could just camp a dispenser, waiting for (and thus not helping the team in the meantime) one miserable Engineer to be alone so they could feel less than pathetic.

          He's had a hefty net buff recently.

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            March 5, 2009 8:37 PM

            We have, and we're still a solid 9th place. But don't worry. Or look behind you.

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            March 6, 2009 8:07 AM

            No, that was in the patch prior...you're referencing the engy level 3 buff patch.

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      March 6, 2009 6:23 AM

      Sweet. I might have to start playing again.

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