JENING’s Thoughts after Day One of the Spy/Sniper Release!

JENING has been asked by dozens of his good friends to share his thoughts about the spy/sniper release now that it is live and in play! JENING was able to play for five hours last night shortly after the patch came out! Here are some JENING reflections!

1. The New Unlock System

As many of you know, Valve has decided to decouple Acheivements from Unlocks. JENING approves of this because that system caused many players simply to farm acheivements on acheivement servers, rewarding most those players who wanted to spend their time pointlessly grinding away!

The new system, however, JENING believes is even worse. Unlocks are seemingly random, and obtainable irrespective of what class you play (JENING has seen heavies unlock spy weapons), or whether you’re even actively playing (JENING has seen unlocks during setup periods, and hears that even spectators can acheive unlocks). There is also no guarantee that you’ll get any unlock at all–many players have reported going many hours without an unlock. JENING has read that Valve’s Robin Walker has stated that the infrequency of some unlocks is a bug. But that still does not change the frustration engendered by the randomness of the system.

JENING suggests releasing all unlocks to all players at the time the patch is released. Since neither the Achievement or the Random system awards skill, or even time played (farming acheivements takes much less time than playing the game regularly, and dozens of hours played under the Random system may yet yield nothing), JENING submits that players not be forced to go through the motions and simply have the items from the start.

2. The New Spy Unlocks

• The Ambassador — Far stronger than it should be
  JENING was very happy to discover that his first unlock was the Ambassador gun as it was JENING’s most happily anticipated unlock! JENING found it to be extremely, almost excessively, powerful. JENING found that he could go in guns blazing, from the front, uncloaked and undisguised, and take out much of the enemy team. JENING even went 50-6 during one session of Arena Lumberyard in which JENING used the Ambassador exclusively. That session was with many of JENING’s friends — not just an assortment of novices Although JENING has played over 800 hours of spy, JENING still believes that such a high kill to death ratio strongly suggests that something is amiss and that the Ambassador is too strong.On paper, the Ambassador supposedly has a slower rate of fire than the Pistol, but in practice, JENING found that this was not at all the case, and both guns fired at substantially the same rate. The Ambassador is also supposed to severely drop off in accuracy after the first shot, but JENING found that the Ambassador was consistently accurate with every shot. The Ambassador is also supposed to do 15% less damage than the Pistol, but JENING barely saw much of a damage reduction at all.   Watch YouTube Video suggesting Ambassador is broken>>.

  On the other hand, the new headshot mechanic seems underpowered. JENING did not notice much of a difference in damage dealt as between headshots and regular shots. JENING strongly suspects that Valve will be issuing a subsequent patch that will operate as a severe nerf to the Ambassador. Although JENING will confess with guilt that he enjoyed very much being able to take out entire teams with just his gun, JENING believes that a nerf is needed.

• The Cloak and Dagger — Balanced and of limited use
  The Cloak and Dagger (“C/D”) drains at a seemingly faster rate than the standard Invisibility Watch (“IW”). A full sprint will give you just under 10 seconds of cloak (the IW gives you a full 10). The C/D also takes a full 20 seconds to recharge (the IW is faster, even without metal). If you walk very slowly and inch along, it is possible to move as far as you want while never dropping cloak with the C/D. But this is impractical.While there are many ways to play as spy, JENING’s preferred tactics rely heavily on swift and constant movement. JENING believes this style of play allows you to help your team more by shifting to where the action is, makes you less predictable and less susceptible to spychecking, and has a greater psychological effect on the other team (if they believe you are “everywhere”). The C/D is simply incompatible with that kind of gameplay. While there are certainly spies out there far more skilled than JENING who may be able to make great use of the C/D, JENING is not so skilled, and will not be using the C/D.

• The Dead Ringer — Better than JENING thought
  JENING has not yet unlocked the Dead Ringer (the “D/R”), but has seen it in action on several occasions. The D/R’s “fake death” is very convincing, and it includes a kill notification to the enemy, and can even trigger farena first blood! Decloaking out of the D/R is extremely loud, however, and most players will probably notice you if you try to decloak behind them with the D/R. JENING will reserve further judgment on this until JENING is able to unlock it and use it himself!

3. Other Changes To The Spy

Many changes were made to the spy’s disguises to make them even more convincing. While nice, JENING thinks the increased paranoia manifested in more spychecking will marginalize any intended benefit. Moreover, the spy’s mainstay for avoiding detection has, and will likely continue to be, cloak rather than disguise.

The spy can also now take enemy teleporters. JENING thinks this is nice, but it will probably be of limited application. Most engineer nests are already accessible through creative jumping. Still, a nice little buff, as engineers it will give engineers yet one more point of entry to guard and to spycheck.

4. The New Maps

Pipeline (Double Payload map) – Somewhat bland looking, and high potential for extended stalemates. Too linear, not enough side crevices ala Badwater. Fun and novel for now, but may become tiresome later.

Arena Sawmill - Dark, rainy theme is very aesthetically pleasing! Seemed a bit too big and decentralized at first, but played very well with 16 players. The moving sawblades are a nice touch.

Arena Nucleus - Fighting is too sparse and decentralized, as it all took place in piecemeal around the perimeter ring.

5. Jarate and the new scoreboard icon system

JENING has not unlocked Jarate. But it is awesome. JENING never thought being doused in urine could be so fun. Unrelatedly, Valve’s replacement of the scoreboard’s textual descriptions of classes with icons is confusing and was unnecessary, JENING thinks!

JENING invites your comments . . .

EDIT: VALVE HAS PATCHED THE AMBASSADOR. JENING HAS TESTED IT OUT FOR ABOUT 20 MINUTES. JENING APPROVES! The accuracy spread is much more severe now, and the damage also seems reduced. Firing rate seems about the same, but it is far less potent than before. However, it still seems like a promising, viable sidegrade. JENING will test it more later and invites your thoughts!