JENING Concert Announced for Saturday!

February 27, 2009

JENING will debut his new song, and hold a full JENING concert, late this Saturday night (probably after 11:00 p.m. Pacific). Zero-Rogue of the D7 clan has created an incredible stage amphitheatre map (including built in pyrotechnics, fireworks, and smoke) that JENING will be happy to perform on and will invite his friends to see!

JENING hopes you will be able to join JENING for this concert! Please comment!


New backstab to be addressed in new JENINGsong!

February 26, 2009

JENING thanks all of his friends for their feedback and discussion regarding JENING’s thoughts on the new Spy changes contained in the Scout update! JENING is particularly flattered to know that many forum threads on the Steam Community forums have linked to the JENINGblog! JENING welcomes his new visitors and is honored to host them on the JENINGnet!

JENING has been testing out the new backstab mechanic further and stands by the earlier points, though JENING views these changes now as a new challenge, appreciated or not. A useful video provided by JENING’s good friend Jean_Sun is helpful in transitioning from the old stab to the new stab:

Finally, JENING is working on a new JENINGsong to address the new backstab! JENING would like to perform this very soon (Thursday night or this weekend) and is currently searching both for server venue and also a couple of cameramen with the knowledge, willingness, and ability to upload the song to YouTube! These preliminary lyrics can be your hint as to the tune of the new JENINGsong:

So bye bye, good ol’ backstab of mine
Valve changed the animation and now we spies must try
To relearn our class, or surely we will all die
Even those of us who’ve only played spy
(Even those of us who’ve only played spy)

JENING invites your comments, including volunteers for camerawork and for server hosting . . .


JENING’s thoughts on the new Spy Changes in the Scout Update!

February 25, 2009

JENING has had a chance to playtest Valve’s new Scout Update, with specific attention to the significant Spy changes included therein. The following are JENING’s thoughts on each of the changes, formed after several hours of gameplay and discussions with JENING’s good friends and well-respected spies OMFGNinja and Ska-Meister (the thoughts that follow are solely those of JENING, and JENING does not purport to speak for his good friends).

SPY CHANGE NO. 1: Backstab animation made much faster so that there is virtually no delay between the time the stab is engaged and the stab itself

Pros: Significantly reduces missed backstabs resulting from target “slipping” away from knife between time stab is engaged and the stab itself. Also reduces facestabs, something all spies should endorse.

Cons: Reduces the range of the knife (the old “fast stab” no longer works), requiring you to be close to flush up against your opponent’s back to execute a successful stab. Also, backstab hitbox significantly reduced such that stabs even a few degrees off from the center of someone’s back will not register (e.g. sidestabs, angled stabs).

JENING Verdict: JENING does not appreciate it. While it is nice to not have stabs “slip” away, skilled spies could already do this pre-change by executing “fast” backstabs. The reduced range of the knife makes it even harder for spies to backstab classes whose speed is equal to or greater than the spy (i.e. all but heavies and soldiers). The significantly reduced hitbox also makes it much harder to land backstabs (just being a few degrees off of center will result in a failed backstab), immunizing any player from backstabs who stands next to a wall, even if their back is not completely parallel to and flush up against the wall itself.

SPY CHANGE NO. 2: When disguised, spies can change the weapon they appear to be holding (by changing into your disguise while selecting a different weapon — e.g. if you are holding a knife while you disguise, you will appear to be holding the disguised class’s melee).

Pros: Enhances viability of disguises by allowing spies to adapt disguises to different situations.

Cons: Because the weapon your disguised character appears to be holding will correspond to the weapon you are holding when you put on your disguise, spies who usually have their knife out will often accidentally forget to change to their revolver when putting on their disguise, resulting in a disguise that is less credible (e.g. a pyro running around with his ax).

JENING Verdict: JENING does not appreciate it. While it is good to see robustness added to the disguise kit, because most spies have their knives out as their primary weapon, and because disguising as a player who is running around with his melee weapon out all the time is rarely credible, this change makes it more time consuming and trickier to change into a credible disguise. This change could be significantly improved if there was a way to set your default disguise weapon.

SPY CHANGE NO. 3: Spies can now see the names and health levels of players on the opposing team, in the same way that they can see that information for players on their own team.

Pros: Allows you to identify your opponents and their health levels to assess targeting priority and the best weapon to use when engaging them.

Cons: Perhaps a bug, but spies can now track cloaked spies on the opposing team in the same way that all players can track cloaked spies on their own team (i.e. if you put your cursor on an otherwise cloaked and invisible spy, his name box will pop up).

JENING Verdict: JENING will appreciate it if the “bug” is fixed, otherwise, JENING does not appreciate it. Knowing who you are fighting and their health level is huge, particularly on arena. However, any change that allows opponents to track a fully cloaked spy greatly reduces the playability of the class, particularly given how effective random spy checking is at revealing cloaked spies.

JENING wonders what you, his friends, think of the update and invites comments and discussion . . .


Steam Chat is down with new Scout Update!

February 25, 2009

JENING has discovered that with Tuesday’s Scout Update release, the Steam Chat functionality has been broken! (See Steam Forum Thread>>) Thus, any player to player message sent through your friends list will not be received by the intended recipient! JENING offers this news for anyone who has tried to message JENING, or anyone else, and has not received a response!

Also, JENING invites your comments regarding the Scout update which includes some changes to the Spy! JENING will comment on these soon!

EDIT: Fixed by Valve. Perhaps they saw the JENINGblog post!


JENING Spy Achievement — kind of

February 22, 2009

JENING invites you to view the latest Spy Achievement! Click here>>

JENING invites you all to check out the Team Fortress 2 Achievement Generator! Create your own TF2 Achievements and post them in the comments! JENING still dreams of having a real, bona fide TF2 achievement named after JENING!


JENING Penny Arcade, “Concert Site,” and Lost Hammer Video

February 20, 2009

1. JENING on Penny Arcade
JENING was very flattered to have been told that JENING’s YouTube performances, website, and spying have been the recent topic of a long Penny Arcade forum thread! JENING thanks his good friend Cango for starting the thread! Starts at post #533 and continues on for pages thereafter! Link: JENING on Penny Arcade Forums!

2. JENING “Concert Site”
Friends of JENING also showed JENING the following “Sonic Living” website, tracking artists and their concerts! Although an extra “D” is added to JENING’s “Unite,” JENING wonders if this was perhaps created by a JENING friend? Link: JENING “Concert Site”

3. Lost Hammer Video
In tribute to the MC Hammer/Vanilla Ice concert that JENING will be attending a week from today, JENING invites his friends to view this extended video of MC Hammer’s 2 Legit 2 Quit! It features the godfather of soul, James Brown, throwing fireballs at Hammer to empower him to take down Michael Jackson. JENING is not kidding!


JENING to see MC Hammer perform live, will extend JENINGrap!

February 17, 2009

JENING is always happy to know that his friends enjoy JENING’s music in addition to JENING’s spying! The very first JENINGsong, as many of JENING’s friends know, was the JENINGrap, done to the tune of MC Hammer’s U Can’t Touch This. JENING’s good friend Makk recorded JENING’s first YouTube video ever, which is of JENING singing the JENING rap!

JENING was recently made aware of an upcoming February 27 live concert featuring MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice, taking place in the state of Utah! JENING has arranged to fly to Utah from JENINGland and to attend the concert! JENING will hope to take video of the event and hopes to perhaps meet Hammer himself! Those videos will of course be shared on the JENINGblog!

JENING invites his friends to comment and perhaps pass along questions or comments they would like JENING to relate to Hammer! To commemorate this event, JENING will also try to extend the JENINGrap to more than just one verse!


Video: JENING’s Australian Concert Tour!

February 8, 2009

JENING was recently flattered greatly when told that several of his friends in Australia and New Zealand created a JENING Australasian Community Group! (To view JENING Australasia click here>>) In gratitude, JENING agreed to visit Australia (an Australian server) and take part in his first international concert tour! JENING thanks his good friends RadiaNt and James Nighthawk for arranging the concert and the community group! JENING thanks his good friend Richter for compiling this video!

JENING’S AUSTRALIAN DEBUT – Including the JENING Medley!


JENING invites you to celebrate Mr. Cheesus’s return TONIGHT!

February 6, 2009

JENING’s very good friend Mr. [TC] Cheesus, whom JENING has known since very early on in JENING’s TF2 career, will be returning to active TF2 play after a prolonged hiatus (due to his computer being broken). Mr. Cheesus is the leader of the ever-entertaining and Canadian clan, Team Cheesus, who host The Glory Hole, a custom maps server.As JENING is fond of reminding his friends, JENING is typically not a big fan of custom maps, but the ones on The Glory Hole are top-notch and JENING enjoys them very much! The Glory Hole also has a deep library of epic music which makes it one of JENING’s favorite stops for fun!

JENING hopes you will be able to join JENING, Mr. Cheesus, and all of JENING’s friends at this impromptu celebration TONIGHT, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2009! Festivities will begin after 10:00 p.m. Pacific Time! JENING hopes to see you there! JENING also notes that today is Rick Astley’s Birthday!

Update: Several of JENING’s Australian/NZ friends have brought it to JENING’s attention that they have graciously created an Australian Community Group for JENING! JENING is truly flattered and may have his first Australian international concert debut tonight!


JENING thanks his good friend Analog Boy for this Gamespot Forum Post! Also, JENING congratulates!

February 2, 2009

The following Gamespot forum post about JENING was recently brought to JENING’s attention! JENING thanks his good friend Analog Boy, who JENING just recently met, for helping JENING to meet new friends through this forum post! JENING is always happy to meet new people so that the community of friendly TF2 gamers may grow, and is always happy when his friends create or continue such forum threads! JENING appreciates it!

Link to Analog Boy’s JENING post >>

JENING also congratulates and welcomes his friends to congratulate Gearbox and Eccentricity for very recently reaching their 100th hour as engineer and heavy, respectively! JENING congratulates you both!