Update -- Jan. 06

[Tehrasha]

Server Browser (for TF2 and DoD:S)
- Added a client-side server blacklist:
- Supports blacklisting of specific servers, all servers on an IP, and all servers on a class C range.
- Saves the server list to a file, and has an Import button to allow easy sharing (cfg\server_blacklist.txt)

Balance changes:
- Reduced the health penalty on The Sandman.
- The Force-A-Nature knockback on target now:
- Only applies to hits that deal more than 30 damage and are in close range.
- Factors in the firer's angle of attack when determining the knockback direction.
- Has less of an effect on grounded targets.
- The Dead Ringer now:
- Reduces cloak to 40% when uncloaking early.
- Has a 35% cap on the amount of cloak it can gain from an ammo pack.
- Has a quieter de-cloak sound.

Changes / Fixes:
- Fixed a performance & stability issue with AMD processors.
- Improved the stability of the game server -> item backend connection.
- Fixed a rare server crash related to dispensers.
- Added min/max values to viewmodel_fov convar to match the settings in the slider.
- Reduced the number of moons in ctf_doublecross, sadly.
- Demo playback now ignores sv_pure settings, allowing demos to easily contain custom content.
- Fixed a crash related to sv_pure and the wireframe_dx6 shader.
- Players can no longer shoot while stunned.
- Fixed a bug that caused movement speed reductions to not work on stunned players.
- Soldier Rage bar no longer resets when touching a resupply cabinet.

Achievement fixes:
- Fixed the "Second Eye" Demoman achievement.
- Fixed a bug in the "Play Doctor" Medic achievement.
- Changed the requirements for the "Medals of Honor" Soldier achievement.
- Updated description for the "Blind Fire" Demoman achievement to better explain the requirements.
- Fixed an issue that affected several achievements requiring the use of the Equalizer.

Community requests:
- Added "skip_next_map" server ConCommand to skip the next map in the map cycle.
- Added "Play a hit sound whenever you injure an enemy" option to the Multiplayer->Advanced options menu.
- Added server "tf_use_fixedshotgunspreads" convar. When set, shotgun & scattergun pellet spreads will use a non-random distribution.
- Added a "show_htmlpage" command to allow server operators to display custom web pages to clients.

Changes to the TF Bots:
- In KOTH mode, Bots are now:
- More likely to roam around and hunt enemies if there is lots of time left.
- Become more likely to push for the point as time runs down, or their teammates start to capture it.
- Medic bots now:
- Opportunistically "overheal" nearby friends when they can.
- Prioritize healing of injured nearby friends more.
- Don't focus on Heavies quite so exclusively.
- Don't spam their Medigun continuously at round start.
- Won't choose cover far below their heal target so much (koth_nucleus).
- Fight back with their syringe-gun appropriately.
- Various improvements to combat behaviors.
- General bot improvements:
- They no longer stand still on the point when capturing or defending it.
- They choose more varied routes now.
- They choose better defensive spots around captured points.
- They fall back to another weapon when they entirely run out of ammo.
- They adjust their FOV when using zoomed in sniper scope.
- They treat in-range Sentries as the most dangerous threat.
- They fire their weapons is more realistic bursts.
- Engineers use their shotgun properly.
- Added a "virtual mousepad" concept to rework how bots track enemy players:
- They now periodically estimate the position and velocity of the enemy they are tracking, instead of "locking on".
- After rotating beyond a maximum angle, they will pause for a fraction of a second to re-center their "virtual mouse".
- Allows for over/undershoot "slop" in aiming. Looks more natural, and allows skilled players to dodge.
- Addresses the "180 spin around and fire", "Heavy bot is OP", "Sniper is OP", and "I can't fight a Heavy bot as a Scout" issues.
- Tuned Sniper spot finding algorithm to generate more diverse locations, partially addressing the "Predictable Sniper camping spots" issue.
- Soldier bots are more careful to not fire rockets that will explode on nearby geometry and kill them
- Fixed a bug where bots tried to heal from a Dispenser being carried by an Engineer.
- Tuned scoreboard logic to guard against malicious server operators spoofing bot pings to hide the "BOT" tag.
- Added more bot names as suggested by the TF community

[Purplecat]

From my point of view, they actually buffed the dead ringer for me.

"Fixed a performance & stability issue with AMD processors." is a grave underestimation. Multi-threading being on caused BSOD's, or worse... freezes for people with AMD processors (which a lot of people mistook for hardware failure... until they noted many other people have the same problem). Glad it got fixed as the only offical fix before that was to turn off multithreading, which made the game laggier. :/

[Gamer Wolf]

Damn, guess we'll have to listen more carefully for DR spies. Good that they fixed the Rage Bar reset and the Equalizer achievements though.

[iller]

[Mr. Munchlax]

Seriously, that FaN nerf is very welcome by me.

[Anthrax]

[Purplecat]

Just don't be surprised it's buffed in another way later on thou. Like how the sandman was with this update.

Never found FAN too useful myself and strongly prefer the scattergun as a scout. <_<;

[MaskedJackal]

[Gami]

ugh i hope i too now get less BSOD's, damn those were anoying. although i didn't get it because i had multicore rendering on. i hope they fixed the weird graphical glitch too when going into weapons menu while playing * i get a weird flickering screen with pieces of the weapons menu flickering constantly over my screen, it fixes itself after a while though but it's damn anoying..

and god damn yeah FaN nerf, fff damn how i hate fighting those scouts.
but i don't think the sandman health buff is gonna make a big diffrence. not that the sandman is very usefull anymore anyways =w=

[Arcalane]

Little known fact: you can use "nav_generate" on maps to generate a navmesh for them. It takes a few minutes (so go get a cuppa or a sandvich) to make 'em, but you can play with the bots on most maps. I don't think they have CTF or PL logic installed properly (feel free to correct me on this, someone), but they seem to have the hang of CP. In PL I'm told they all rush off to stand around the point rather than the cart, which means you're stuck pushing.

Be warned, the links below are giganto-pngs.

Their habit of changing class on death is beneficial though, as they rather like to make nests. Otherwise, their placement choices aren't too shabby.

Other notes;

Never decloak in a bot's LoS. They will shoot at you immediately.

Try to avoid bumping into them when cloaked - they'll panic and shoot in your direction. This can be dire if faced with a pyro and such.

Bots can easily tell the doppelganger/spy from the real player/bot when the two are near or next to each other.

Snipers are exceptionally tunnel-visioned right now. Very easily snuck around.

You can earn achievements off bots.

The recent changes to their behaviour mean they're a lot less likely to be completely incapable of defense on maps like dustbowl, unless most of their team is dead. Means you're not stuck doing all the hard work unless they start sentrynesting. They do like to spawncamp and/or go on the offensive a bit though, so they can easily get caught away from the cap and lose that way. The larger a team is, the less likely it is to fall victim to that sort of thing, at least in my experience.