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 . . .