The one constant in gaming is that things never stay the same. Valve has decided to get rid of the old in-game trading system in favor of the Steam trading popup window. Gone is the 8 item limitation and having to add someone if you want to do any trade beyond the average. It's a plus now you don't have to add someone you're going to delete two seconds later. It's also a shortcut if you want a steam coupon or Spiral Knights items (does anyone?) or Skyrim.
Then there's the downside. It's painfully slow, timeouts and errors often occur, and your backpack is completely unrecognizable. To make it worse there's the random trades which are even more annoying when you have to wait to find out someone wants to sell you a non-craftable batters helm (we believe the same dirty batters is making its way around the planet).
So vote on it and tell us your opinion. To the right. That is all.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
New update, Genuines now tradeable...and more
Team Fortress 2
New blog post here. Have a spare $99 to spend on your valentine?
- Added Something Special For Someone Special
- Added The Snapped Pupil
- Added Black Rose for the spy.
- Updated the Heavy's sandvich so it will only resupply ammo if the owner picks it up after dropping it. This means the only way to gain health from the sandvich is by eating it.
- Fixed the Red/Blue team skins not working on the Bonk Boy with the new styles
- Updated the in-game trading system to use the Steam trading menus
- Updated these items so they can be traded and crafted:
- The Warsworn Helmet
- The Bolgan
- The Bolgan Family Crest
- The Merc Medal
- The Battle Bob
- The Bushman's Boonie
- Updated cp_gravelpit
- Fixed z-fighting on the fan in the Red spawn building
- Fixed Red Engineers building inside their spawn room
- Hcqngrq gur ybpnyvmngvba svyrf "Updated the locatization files"
New blog post here. Have a spare $99 to spend on your valentine?
Statement from Gabe on steam hacking
Most who use Steam for gaming probably saw Gabe's official, legal department-passed response to the hacking investigation last fall. They are still working with law enforcement to put the issue to bed. You can read it all here. In short, hackers got people's encrypted credit card information for transactions from 2004-2008. So if you're like us and your credit card is renewed every year it's probably ok. But keep an eye on your credit card transactions just in case.
Interestingly, there was an audio recording released by the group "Anonymous" of a FBI conference call where they actually were talking about an individual involved in the case. It's on Youtube, rather boring too and doesn't release any top-secret stuff. But overall its interesting to see how seriously they take it and how young often the perpetrators are.
Interestingly, there was an audio recording released by the group "Anonymous" of a FBI conference call where they actually were talking about an individual involved in the case. It's on Youtube, rather boring too and doesn't release any top-secret stuff. But overall its interesting to see how seriously they take it and how young often the perpetrators are.
Monday, February 13, 2012
To Craft or to Uncraftable. That is the question.
A question from MrDrPsychopath came in that we want to address:
"Hey, I have a question. Could you guys release more information on noncraftable stuff. I am really lost without you guy's prices, so not having noncrafts there makes me a bit lost sometimes. Also, having a guide that explains how paints effect the prices. I know how paints work on Bill's, but that's about it. Cause I have a noncraft mutton chops and a noncraft stereoscopic shades, and I have no idea what to sell them for."
As far as the sheet goes we will look into adding more of the noncraftable (dirty) prices. In general most items that are noncraftable or dirty sell for about half of their clean counterparts. Why? It's mostly due to cosmetics especially for higher value items that aren't likely to be crafted. Where craft hats are concerned it changes slightly. Most dirty hats sell between 1 and 2 reclaimed. For example, a Dead Cone craftable hat will often go for 1.33 refined. However its dirty version will trade for 1 reclaimed (1/4 the price) because it is not a desirable hat. This disparity is likely due to the function of hat crafting and not on the cosmetic value.
Someone mentioned crafting non-craftable hats in order to try and get a higher value non-craftable hat for a profit. Our response to this is, whatever makes you happy but you aren't going to pay off your student loans with that strategy.
With paints, when you know how a painted Bills hat affects value then you pretty much know everything you need to. Most hats with a nice paint don't influence the price in direct proportion to the cost of the paint unless its a Bills. Cheap hats will not increase in value much if at all when painted, even a "premium" paint. White paint on a Flipped Trilby is not seen as a 2 key bonus to the price (in fact it puts into question the sanity of the one who painted it white). There is typically no change in the price at all unless the buyer really wants that paint.
There are some exceptions like Essential Accessories which when painted are often sold for more than unpainted versions. Some medic hats are preferably white, such as the Tyrolean, but again like the Scout socks this will not inflate the price by that of the paint which is currently around 2 keys. Generally speaking if you want a particular hat and it has a nice paint on it that you like you may willing to pay more for it, in proportion to the cost of the hat itself.
"Hey, I have a question. Could you guys release more information on noncraftable stuff. I am really lost without you guy's prices, so not having noncrafts there makes me a bit lost sometimes. Also, having a guide that explains how paints effect the prices. I know how paints work on Bill's, but that's about it. Cause I have a noncraft mutton chops and a noncraft stereoscopic shades, and I have no idea what to sell them for."
As far as the sheet goes we will look into adding more of the noncraftable (dirty) prices. In general most items that are noncraftable or dirty sell for about half of their clean counterparts. Why? It's mostly due to cosmetics especially for higher value items that aren't likely to be crafted. Where craft hats are concerned it changes slightly. Most dirty hats sell between 1 and 2 reclaimed. For example, a Dead Cone craftable hat will often go for 1.33 refined. However its dirty version will trade for 1 reclaimed (1/4 the price) because it is not a desirable hat. This disparity is likely due to the function of hat crafting and not on the cosmetic value.
Someone mentioned crafting non-craftable hats in order to try and get a higher value non-craftable hat for a profit. Our response to this is, whatever makes you happy but you aren't going to pay off your student loans with that strategy.
With paints, when you know how a painted Bills hat affects value then you pretty much know everything you need to. Most hats with a nice paint don't influence the price in direct proportion to the cost of the paint unless its a Bills. Cheap hats will not increase in value much if at all when painted, even a "premium" paint. White paint on a Flipped Trilby is not seen as a 2 key bonus to the price (in fact it puts into question the sanity of the one who painted it white). There is typically no change in the price at all unless the buyer really wants that paint.
There are some exceptions like Essential Accessories which when painted are often sold for more than unpainted versions. Some medic hats are preferably white, such as the Tyrolean, but again like the Scout socks this will not inflate the price by that of the paint which is currently around 2 keys. Generally speaking if you want a particular hat and it has a nice paint on it that you like you may willing to pay more for it, in proportion to the cost of the hat itself.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Dr. Grordbert wants your vote
The Dr. Grordbert items have been popular with TF2 gamers. So popular that they are asking for you to vote on your next favorite one. They have two new sets, one for the scout and the other for the medic. Details are here. You can then go over to your Steam client and look for the Steam Workshop and click on the "Browse the Workshop" button.
Speaking of the workshop, there are some really great community-created items there. We especially like "The Problem Solver", "A Color to Dye For", the "Raven", "Jaws of Steel" and the "Persistent Patriot". All great items submitted by you! Keep up the great work and TF2 will be fun to play for a long time. You don't have to go to a gaming college or be a programmer to submit them either. Valve will even give you a split of the Store's sales of your item if it makes the cut!
Speaking of the workshop, there are some really great community-created items there. We especially like "The Problem Solver", "A Color to Dye For", the "Raven", "Jaws of Steel" and the "Persistent Patriot". All great items submitted by you! Keep up the great work and TF2 will be fun to play for a long time. You don't have to go to a gaming college or be a programmer to submit them either. Valve will even give you a split of the Store's sales of your item if it makes the cut!
Thursday, February 9, 2012
New update
Team Fortress 2 Update Released
February 9, 2012 - TF2 Team
An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include:- Added the Boston Boom-Bringer
- Fixed the Heavy bots not spawning in the commentary maps
- Updated ctf_doublecross:
- Added a respawnroom visualizer to the dropdown spawn exit to prevent griefing
- Updated community and promotional items:
- Soda Popper: improved model and texture
- Winger: fixed first-person clip reloading
- Apparition's Aspect: updated mesh to reduce clipping with many hats
- Hero's Tail: added an additional style that more strongly responds to paint
- Bonk Boy: added an additional style that leaves the Scout headphones visible
- Additional items are now paintable:
- Relaxed equip region restrictions for the Earbuds so that they can be equipped with anything
- Lokalisierungsdateien aktualisiert[1]
Undocumented changes
- Equip region changes:
- Added "arms" region to B-ankh!
- Added "lenses" region to the Blazing Bull
- Whiff of the Old Brimstone is now "grenades"
- Add "head" region to Brainiac Hairpiece.
- Buzz Killer is now "Whole Head"
- Cremator's Conscience is now "Grenades"
- Added "glasses" to Professor's Peculiarity
- Removed "Demoman_Grenades" region
- Removed "Pyro_Shoulders" region
- Backpack changes:
- Updated the Soda Popper's backpack icon
- Holiday Punch now makes fabric sounds when moved around
- The Short Circuit and Virtual Reality Headset now make robotic noises when moved around
- Triboniophorus Tyrannus and Hat of Undeniable Wealth And Respect now make squishing noises when moved
- Silver Bullets no longer show the Sydney Sleeper bullets
- The Blighted Beak and Virtual Reality headset no longer fall off on death
- The Brainiac Goggles no longer hides the Engineer's hardhat
- The Brainiac Hairpiece is now a hat
- The Pencil Pusher, Sniper's Snipin' Glass, Clockwerk's Helm and Storm Spirit's Jolly Hat are no longer marked as paintable
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
PSA: Unorganized raffles are like radioactivity...
Stay far away! There is a trend on trade servers for gamers to hold impromptu, unorganized raffles of random items. Often the raffle holder will have a small buy-in with the chance to win a valuable item. This item could be a hat or a bills. The chance of getting something valuable for a little risk encourages many to take the plunge and give away their metal or worse. Of course there is no guarantee that the raffle holder will pay out said item. If he or she does it may be to a friend to give the appearance of being legit. Then there is the buy-in, often described as "slots" remaining and so forth. Here also, there is no guarantee that once said slots are filled with buy-ins that the raffle holder stops taking more.
Stick to official raffles, held by reputable groups with real presences such as actual servers, sites and admins who are more public. Even here things can be sketchy. Spy-crabbing is also another game of chance, make sure to use a middleman for any spy-crab for anything substantial. The only true official raffle are crates of course. Any way you do it, use your noodle.
That is all. Be well. Have a good drop night.
Stick to official raffles, held by reputable groups with real presences such as actual servers, sites and admins who are more public. Even here things can be sketchy. Spy-crabbing is also another game of chance, make sure to use a middleman for any spy-crab for anything substantial. The only true official raffle are crates of course. Any way you do it, use your noodle.
That is all. Be well. Have a good drop night.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Your favorite Badge/Pin is....
Surprisingly the favorite badge or pin of TF2 traders is: The Genuine Companion Cube Pin. Possibly the most widely available and signifying that someone bought Portal 2 pre-order for a good amount of cash, the Cube is the clear winner. The License to Maim from Poker Night comes in second place, and the Soldier Medals and Bombinomicon tie at 3rd place. Flair with an honorable mention in 4th place (I can see the Office Space rentals on Netflix getting queued up!)
Most unloved? Dr. Grordbert's Copper Crest at a measly 7 votes. It cost the same as the Silver Crest and was available for the same amount of time and the only real difference being the name and color. But as we see so often in the TF2 economy, gamers value things with similar consistency to real life: silver being slightly more popular. Although let's be honest the crests were a somewhat awkward store item and had seemingly little interest from the community.
That is all. Carry on.
Votes so far: 1750
Most unloved? Dr. Grordbert's Copper Crest at a measly 7 votes. It cost the same as the Silver Crest and was available for the same amount of time and the only real difference being the name and color. But as we see so often in the TF2 economy, gamers value things with similar consistency to real life: silver being slightly more popular. Although let's be honest the crests were a somewhat awkward store item and had seemingly little interest from the community.
That is all. Carry on.
Companion Cube | 502 (28%) |
Resurrection Associate | 33 (1%) |
Spacechem | 105 (6%) |
Dr. Grordbert's Crest | 14 (0%) |
Dr. Grordbert's Copper Crest | 7 (0%) |
Dr. Grordbert's Silver Crest | 16 (0%) |
Mark of the Saint | 153 (8%) |
Flair | 181 (10%) |
Photo | 40 (2%) |
Soldier Medal | 193 (11%) |
Clan Pride | 93 (5%) |
License to Maim | 221 (12%) |
Bombinomicon | 192 (10%) |
Votes so far: 1750
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)