[General Battuta]

The problem is that I am a very good FPS player and most servers keep track of aggregated kill/death ratio.

[Mongoose]

TF2 is really the first FPS I've played in an online setting, but I sort of get the impression that general FPS skills may not translate quite as well to it than to other games in the genre.  The mix of classes and their different abilities mean that you have a lot more to worry about in a one-on-one match-up, let alone a group fight.  And I don't really think that classes like the Pyro or Demoman have much of a direct analogue to other games in terms of their primary functions.  General FPS skills will definitely help you with individual actions, like playing as Sniper or knowing where to aim the Soldier's rockets, but there's definitely a unique skillset too.

[General Battuta]

I have been playing this game for two years now, thank you. I am well aware of how TF2 relates to other FPS games. I am pissy at it right now and am not likely to be talked out of it. My last comment was about the general FPS fixation on kill/death and how that data is available to taunt me.

[Mongoose]

Woah, okay.  I didn't mean anything by it.  I'll keep my tongue firmly bitten.

[Mongoose]

In lighter news, woo Halloween event!  The new event map is a riot, mostly because no one's really playing it seriously...as soon as the random gift drops or the boss appears, everyone drops everything and goes running around after it. I managed to get most of the stuff I missed from last year's Halloween, so now I just need to go for that paper Saxton Hale mask.

[Axem]

inb4TF2isnowWoW

Anyway I think it's fun. Getting Saxton Hale mask seems excessive (craft 1 of each paper bag mask), however that skull hat almost seems worth it... Almost. 4 refined + haunted metal? Geez.

[Mongoose]

Yeah, I've yet to actually get even a single refined metal myself, much less multiple ones. I have the haunted metal already, so if I go for anything, it'd probably be the special weapon, since that just costs two refined.  (I just have to hope that you can still craft it after Halloween ends...)  The Saxton Hale mask isn't all that bad, provided you spend enough time in the level and luck into a few presents; it's easy to trade away duplicates for ones you don't have, too, since everyone's looking for them. It does wind up turning the server I've been in into a massive Scout-fest, though.

[BloodEagle]

The weapon is just the Eyelander, with a different skin.  And there's no telling whether or not they'll let you use it between Halloween events.

[Mongoose]

The special hats (and the Saxton Hale bag) are already confirmed as being wearable year-round, so I'd assume the weapon is the same deal.  Valve isn't going to make expensive-to-craft items that only apply for two weeks, as no one would bother crafting them then.

[NGTM-1R]

Valve isn't going to make expensive-to-craft items that only apply for two weeks, as no one would bother crafting them then.

As my KoL and EVE experience tell me...oh yes they would, if they could make the bragging rights displayable.

[Mongoose]

Well (A) those aren't Valve, and (B) we know that it's not the case anyway.

[BloodEagle]

The special hats (and the Saxton Hale bag) are already confirmed as being wearable year-round, so I'd assume the weapon is the same deal.  Valve isn't going to make expensive-to-craft items that only apply for two weeks, as no one would bother crafting them then.

Only two of the four hats are available year-round.  Kind of a gip, since it's random which one you get, and since you can buy them).  But, you know, whatever.

[Mongoose]

Those two are wearable year-round, but can only be bought/crafted during the Halloween event.

[BloodEagle]

Oh.  ....  My bad! 

[Mongoose]

Another bump-a-lumpa, for great justice.  If I had any sort of gaming blag, I'd post these musings there, but you guys are stuck with them instead.

First off, thanks to a bit of help from a certain beer-loving Admiral, I managed to finally craft that damn Saxton Hale mask.  It's nice to be having fun with the game again as opposed to spending several hours a day running around Mann Manor.

I'm usually not all that great as Demo, getting more of my kills from random spamming than anything else, but the other night I had what had to be my best round as that class.  I was paying Payload on Badwater, and it felt like almost all of my shots were hitting their marks.  I was legitimately nailing people in the air all over the place, and I had a couple of very successful Ubers.  It's a rare thing for me to get in that kind of zone in any game, so I enjoy the hell out of it when it does happen.  I also had a great night as Spy in Well CTF, to the point where it was the first time I felt like I was truly "spying."  I had the Cloak & Dagger equipped, and the map layout was perfect for sneaking from corner to corner, working my way all the way to the intel; I think I took a good 3 or 4 minutes the two times I pulled it off.  There's something extremely amusing about sitting cloaked in the enemy base for a few minutes and watching the lone Engineer scurry back and forth, never suspecting that I'm about to run up and sap the hell out of his sentry. 

Finally, Valve managed to get me to pre-order this just for the sake of getting a bonus hat.  I think they've got me.