CORE GAMEPLAY

Random Crits

• Fixed melee random critical hits damage range boost being 0->533 damage for 15%->60% chance instead of 0->1600 damage.
• Fixed random critical hits damage range boost being 0->533 damage for 2%->8% chance instead of 0->800 damage for 2%->12% chance.
• Developer Note: When random crit chance was changed in 2009, the intention was to make random critical hits more skill / performance based for non-melee random crits. Thus, the values for crit chance and crit chance boost were changed. However, due to crit chance being shared between melee and non-melee, melee random crit chance was affected, keeping the chance boost based on damage the same, but more than halving the damage required to gain the max boost. This runs counter to the stated intention: less skill / performance is needed for the same high crit chance. Furthermore, due to how the chance boosts were applied, non-melee only got a max 8% chance based upon 533 damage, rather than the stated 12% chance from 800 damage, reducing the peak reward from your performance. These fixes now separate melee crit chance boost from non-melee, thus allowing melee to retain its 4x boost from 1600 damage, while non-melee now has a 6x boost from 800 damage.

Bullet Spread

• Changed the default for fixed weapon spread to on.
• Developer Note: Although fixed spread was on average equal to random spread, maximum values for random spread still could proc much wider spread than fixed spread, resulting in real gameplay balance differences. This issue was further exacerbated by the incorrect random distribution of spread. Rather than attempting to reconcile the differences between casual and competitive play, we find it best to disable random bullet spread for all modes, making risk/reward at each distance consistent, similarly to disabling random damage spread.
• Spread is now based upon a real Gaussian distribution (circular). This will improve evenness of pellet distribution.
• Single-shot guns like the Pistol and Revolver now recover their accuracy 66% slower than their fire rate, rather than a fixed 1.25 second cooldown. Accuracy recovery time cannot be lower than 0.25 seconds or higher than 1.25 seconds.
• Effectively, this means you can exchange lower ideal DPS for better accuracy / guaranteed DPS by tap firing.

Distance-Based Damage Ramp

• Fixed a bug involving distance-based damage ramp not working as intended when damage spread is disabled (the default).
• Damage falloff was not fully falling off to 50% damage at max distance (1024 units) when damage spread was disabled. Instead, it was falling off to 53% at 922 units.
• Ramp-up now considers the closest possible distance the attacker and victim can be to each other, rather than max ramp-up only being applied if they were inside each other perfectly. This should make max damage from ramp-up more intuitive and consistent.
• Reintroduced damage ranges seen on certain no-falloff weapons when random damage spread was enabled, by integrating them into falloff/rampup.
• Developer Note: Falloff/rampup is an integral part of Team Fortress 2, dictating ideal ranges for fights, thus balancing engagements. So it's an incredibly powerful attribute when a weapon ignores falloff. We decided to reintroduce damage threshold variance as seen in damage spread for these weapons, and integrate them in a way which follows the general distance-based engagement rules of Team Fortress 2.
• For more information, see the sections for the affected weapons: Grenade Launcher and Sniper Rifle

General Weapon Changes

• Fixed switch speed bonuses not being used for applying a holster speed bonus. For example, The Degreaser's holster bonus was only applied after it has been deployed for the base deploy time (0.5 seconds), rather using the deploy time with its switch bonus (0.33 seconds). This caused an awkward situation where you had to wait longer than expected to benefit from The Degreaser's holster bonus.
• Fixed holster speed penalties, such as on The Fists of Steel, being bypassable.
• Fixed holster speed bonuses being able to be accidentally cancelled by switching through multiple weapons.
• Fixed movement speed slows not being applied consistently from weapons like from the Natascha and the Sandman.
• Added lag compensation for teammates, to fix issues with players unexpectedly blocking bullets and The Sydney Sleeper extinguish not applying as expected.
• Fixed firing speeds being slightly inaccurate/delayed in some cases.
• Explosions now check in a 4% inner radius for a trace, so that small differences in geometry do not block explosion damage entirely. This is a 8 point box additional check if the center point fails, and damage is scaled based on how many points hit.
• We are aware this changes the behavior of sticky traps. However, following this change you should be damaged by them if and only if you can see the stickies, so fairness should be maintained.
• Fixed damage to buildings rounding down instead of up like damage to players.

Pre-Round

• Changed pre-round freeze logic to match Casual/Competitive matchmaking: the last 3 seconds of pre-round time unfreezes movement before starting the round, to allow players to move from their spawn position to the doors. Spawn doors are now also locked during this time.
• Fixed pre-round movement freeze not working correctly (requiring weapon switching, not being timed correctly, etc).
• Fixed movement taunts being usable during freeze time in some cases.

Misc

• Added respawn feature during the first 7 seconds after spawning. By pressing your Interact key (default F) during this time, you will respawn. This allows players to switch spawn rooms, and switch loadouts / class without a resupply locker. If you leave the spawn room, you will no longer be able to use this feature.
• Resupplying now removes in-combat penalties from recently taking damage, aka giving "crit heals".
• Disabled fall damage variance.

COMPETITIVE

• Respawn rooms no longer give instant respawns in competitive games. You must resupply to respawn for loadout or class changes.
• Fixed class limit being bypassable if two or more players switched to that class during a respawn wave.
• Added a reset class button for 6s games to allow class swapping without conflicting with class limits, like Highlander.
• Spawn points are now selected based on the player's class, to improve consistency in spawns.
• Improved support for 6s class selection and limits.
• Taunts are forced into first person perspective in competitive games.
• Match Status HUD now orders by class in competitive matches.
• Disabled respawning automatically on loadout changes.
• Added various features from Competitive Matchmaking to community competitive games:
• Added chat messages for class switching.
• Added team wipe announcer messages.
• Fixed Contract messages appearing in community competitive. We love you Miss Pauling, but that job can wait until after the scrim.
• Disabled dominations, soldier statue, item notifications and holiday ammo packs in community competitive.

SCOUT

• Fixed The Winger providing a Jump Height bonus before being fully deployed.
• Fixed The Baby Face's Blaster not applying boost when slowed.
• Fixed The Force-A-Nature fixed spread pattern being biased to the right side.
• Fixed Scout Sandman baseballs and Wrap Assassin ornaments computing random critical hits incorrectly.
• Fixed the Boston Basher not hitting yourself when missing a nearby enemy, unless you swung at an enemy which quit the game or died from another source within the swing time.
• Fixed being under the effects of Bonk causing the player to take push force from damage in cases where it shouldn't apply.

SOLDIER

• Made the Soldier Grenade taunt follow the same splash damage rules as other explosions.

PYRO

• Fixed many bugs involving Pyro's Compression Blast reflection.
• Fixed various reflected projectiles applying incorrect self-damage.
• Fixed various reflected projectiles not reversing team color.
• Fixed reflected rockets not having the correct properties of the original Rocket Launcher, like blast radius, particles, spells, speed, etc.
• Fixed reflected Sandman balls not dealing damage.
• Fixed reflected Wrap Assassin ornaments not dealing damage or bleed properly.
• Fixed reflected Rescue Ranger bolts not healing friendly buildings.
• Fixed reflected flares not exhibiting their specific Flare Gun's properties.
• Fixed many cases of incorrect application of Strange and Killstreak effects for reflected projectiles.
• Fixed reflected Huntsman arrows not applying the correct knockback force.
• Fixed enemy Snipers receiving extinguish bonus from reflected Jarate.
• Fixed reflected Loose Cannon cannonballs not applying Double Donk.
• Fixed and restored various kill icons for many projectiles.
• Fixed reflecting Sentry Gun rockets resulting in the Flamethrower playing its primary fire sound.
• Fixed reflected projectiles not having correct lifetimes.
• Fixed The Phlogistinator MMPH! taunt cancelling early if the player was knocked off of a surface.
• Fixed the Detonator and The Scorch Shot blast jumps not working during knockback immunity, like as applied by a Quick-Fix Übercharge.
• Temporarily reverted Flamethrower flame density mechanic causing massive DPS reduction in all but ideal circumstances while we investigate a fix.
• Fixed the Dragon's Fury range being dependent on its radius, and instead restored the original radius but clipped off the projectile's effects to exactly its range of 3000.
• Developer Note: The Dragon's Fury range is not like most weapons. It has a physics based projectile which tries to stop itself before overextending its range, but due to this and the larger projectile radius, it was changed to have a smaller radius to prevent issues with the front of the fireball touching players way past its range. Now, the fireball is hard limited to only affect players it hits if they were actually within the distance range, rather than if they simply touched the fireball at any distance. Thus, we have restored the original radius, making the fireball more intuitive and less awkward to aim, while fixing unfair cases of hits.

DEMOMAN

• Added a ConVar tf_pipebomb_disable_random_launch to disable randomness on Demoman projectiles. (default on in competitive matches)

All Grenade Launchers

• Grenades now have minor damage rampup/falloff, based upon their old random damage spread.
• Grenades ramp up to their max damage (+3% of normal) at minimum distance, to normal damage at 146 units.
• Grenades fall off to their minimum damage (-15% of normal) at 1024 units, to normal damage at 682 units.

The Ullapool Caber

• Fixed The Ullapool Caber damage being affected inconsistently by falloff / splash.
• Fixed The Ullapool Caber and The Pain Train melee attack not receiving the Mini-Crit buff from charging.

HEAVY

• Fixed The Buffalo Steak Sandvich reducing speed when the Heavy already has a greater speed boost.
• The Holiday Punch now uses backstab logic to detect attacks from behind, making them more lenient and skill-based.

ENGINEER

Sentry Gun

• Sentry Rockets now follow the splash damage rules of other explosions. Will slightly reduce minimum splash damage.
• Fixed various cases of Sentry rockets not being counted as Sentry damage:
• Sentry rocket falloff/rampup was based upon Engineer's position, rather than the Sentry's.
• An ally Engineer repairing the Sentry did not get an assist on rocket kill.
• A Medic got an assist when healing an Engineer whose Sentry got a rocket kill, even though the Engineer himself was not involved in the kill.
• Sentry damage reduction attributes did not resist Sentry Gun rockets. For example, the Battalion's Backup did not have 50% resistance to Sentry Gun damage from rockets.
• The achievement Texas Two-Step would not count if your Sentry Gun had only dealt rocket damage.
• Sentry Gun damage and kills from rockets would not be considered for spawning Sentry Busters.
• MvM robots and TF bots would not be aware of a Sentry Gun attack if they had only been damaged by rockets.

Short Circuit

• Fixed the Short Circuit applying self-damage inconsistently.
• Damage per orb increased from 15 to 20.
• Zap targets per orb increased from 2 to 4.
• Instead of destroying projectiles, the orb now applies a stacking -35% damage penalty to projectiles.
• Developer Note: Completely destroying a player's projectile felt too unfair and frustrating. Now, the Engineer retains the ability to reduce the effectiveness of projectile spam, rather than completely disabling it, while also encouraging cooperative play between Engineers.

Wrangler

• Shield is now only active when the Sentry Gun is disabled, either from the Engineer dying, or him switching off the Wrangler.
• Fixed the Wrangler, as well as Firing Speed Upgrades and Crit Canteens in MvM not boosting the Sentry Gun fire rate appropriately.
• Increased rocket fire speed bonus from 33% to 100%.
• Sentry Gun firing rate is now doubled, rather than being 66% faster on a Level 1, and 50% faster on Levels 2 & 3. Mini-Sentries already fired 100% faster.

Eureka Effect

• Fixed The Eureka Effect providing teleport functionality before being fully deployed.

Jag

• Fixed The Jag dealing less damage than intended to enemy Engineer buildings.

MEDIC

• Players under the effect of a Quick-Fix Übercharge can now block captures.
• Fixed Medics having an accelerated Übercharge build-rate when healing a Heavy who is using The Fists of Steel.
• Added Medic Übercharge amount to the Match Status HUD.

SNIPER

All Sniper Rifles

• Fixed the Sniper Rifle's laser dot not following the Sniper's view point accurately.
• Bodyshots now have damage rampup/falloff, based upon their old random damage spread.
• Bodyshots ramp up to their max damage (+15% of normal) at minimum distance, to normal damage at 300 units.
• Bodyshots fall off to their minimum damage (-15% of normal) at 2560 units, to normal damage at 1680 units.

Huntsman

• Made the Huntsman headshot hit detection consistent rather than being based upon map angle.

SPY

• Fixed inaccuracies with backstab detection.
• Dynamic crosshair scale now shows for all revolvers. The crosshair scale is increased when not accurate. Normal scale is shown when the Revolver is perfectly accurate. 75% scale is shown for when you can headshot.
• Dynamic crosshair can now be disabled with the new ConVar tf_revolver_dynamic_crosshair
• Fixed Sapper cosmetics not appearing as attachments. (thanks OfficerSpy!)
• Fixed Disguise Kit team selection not working properly at high ping. (thanks nosoop!)

Enforcer

• Fixed ignoring bullet damage vulnerability, like on The Pain Train.
• Fixed not piercing through The Battalion's Backup crit resistance buff.
• Fixed not piercing through Sentry Gun's reduced taken damage while Sapped.
• Although not technically a resistance, this may serve as a worthwhile niche within the Enforcer's kit.

MANN VS MACHINE

• Fixed damage to Tank not giving Critical Hit bonus chance.
• Non-giants can now be tickled by The Holiday Punch.
• Fixed Sniper Rifle reload upgrade not fully applying without auto rezoom.
• Fixed Sniper Rifle Explosive Headshot upgrade ignoring resistances. Now applies bullet damage.
• Fixed Heavy's Minigun firing speed upgrades not applying the appropriate firing speed in some cases.
• Fixed revives on players in between waves affecting revive speed penalty.
• Fixed ammo canteens not affecting energy weapons.
• Fixed Strength powerup not affecting damage dealt to Tanks (community request).
• Fixed the Destroy Entity Task being non-functional in func_nav_prerequisite.

MANNPOWER

• Fixed third person reload animations not getting faster from powerups
• Fixed passive reload on the Crossbow not speeding up from powerups

VISUAL

• Showcase your bling with the new live character model on the main menu!
• Fixed various issues in class selection:
• Selection animations now play instantly and smoothly
• Facial expressions now start from neutral
• Character model lighting uses a filmic 3-point setup
• Various foley sounds now play for the classes
• Updated the default FOV to 90.
• Removed the new player prompt regarding the 3D model in the HUD.
• Removed distance fade for high quality water. See 2Fort's water in all its glory from the battlements!
• Added ConVar tf_viewmodels_offset_override to adjust the position (within limits!) of your viewmodel on screen beyond the min viewmodels presets.
• Fixed camera roll getting stuck when observing.
• Fixed jittering when spectating ragdolls. (thanks ficool2!)
• Fixed ragdoll velocity being reset. (thanks ficool2!)
• Networked and predicted gravity on entities. (thanks ficool2!)
• Fixed viewpunch not being interpolated. (thanks ficool2!)
• Fixed voice labels being shown on enemy Spies. (thanks ficool2!)
• Fixed match HUD being disabled incorrectly. (thanks ficool2!)
• Improved resolution scaling on the bonus overheal health icon. (thanks Niterux!)
• Fixed attachments on viewmodels being inverted on flipped viewmodels. (thanks marxvee!)

DAMAGE FEEDBACK

• Enabled hitsounds and killsounds by default.
• Enabled damage numbers now combine by default.
• Changed hitsound defaults to be more responsive and satisfying for gameplay.
• Damage numbers and hitsounds now play even when dead.
• Improved damage hit feedback for bullets.

NETWORKING

• Upgraded the networking rates to be in sync with game update rates.
• Changed tickrate from 66 to 64 to fix alignment issues.
• Updated the client interp limit to 200ms instead of 500ms.
• Fixed a server networking protection system causing worse than expected packet loss on unreliable connections.
• Fixed cases where prediction could be out of date from server data.
• Decreased the lag compensation window from 1 second to 600ms, which reduces the impact of exploits.

DEMOS

• Fixed Demo Support automatically recording Casual matches when selecting Competitive matches.
• Fixed Demo Support not being able to log every kill.
• Fixed Demo Support recording pre and post-game by default.
• Servers are informed when a client stops recording a demo, just like they were informed when a client starts recording.

GENERAL

• Various settings were updated to popular modern defaults.
• Fixed a gameplay information exploit related to an old LCD keyboard system.
• Fixed accuracy of reported ping throughout the UI
• Fixed a gameplay information exploit related to VGUI commands.
• Fixed some sounds unintentionally having no cooldown between plays.
• Fixed Noisemakers being able to be spammed.
• cl_disablehtmlmotd is no longer queryable by servers. (thanks megascatterbomb!)
• Added tf_dingaling_lasthit_repeat_delay to prevent playback of duplicate sounds when killing multiple players at once.
• Added a ConVar tf_skip_equip_action_hint to disable reminders to equip the relevant action item.
• env_smokestack map entity now supports up to 8 materials

MODDING

• Added an ability for VScript mods to ignore class achievements and quests. (thanks LizardOfOz!)

STABILITY

• Fixed crashes on maps with large lightmaps.
• Fixed a crash when there are no observable entities.
• Fixed a crash related to a TF damage filter and PASS Time ball when it hasn't been thrown yet.
• Fixed many desync issues and exploits.