TF2 is currently in an awkward limbo when it comes to it's current casual situation. Due to the rampant bots despite the large community, Faceit, a major esports company, has stepped in and offered their own solution. For the people who have played Faceit Matchmaking before, it is almost identical. For those that haven't, what happens is you que up on the faceit browser or plugin, wait for a match to be found (which doesn't take long at all), and then either click a button that opens your steam client bootstrapper and takes you into the server, or paste the ip in your console yourself. A lot of people were very hopeful about this whole endeavor. People would finally be able to play casual matches without autobalance, bots, or joining mid game. But there are a lot of things that people are making notice of now that are conflicting. Thankfully, though, TF2's casual matchmaking on Faceit is currently in beta, and the team behind it is (at least claiming to be) listening to community suggestions and problems and trying to fix them. The largest issue people have reported about the casual matchmaking is that it doesn't feel "casual". This would make sense, given that Faceit is an esports company, but there is more to it than that. The main things people are pointing out are that there are penalties for leaving, payload cap timers, and incentives to win. These factors make the experience feel more like a "pug" (pick up game, usually at the very least semi-competitive) than a "pub" (a public lobby, what casual is normally). People are rewarded for tryharding in games, which a lot of people claim is "against the spirit of TF2 casual". Personally, I don't mind it much, but I do understand the frustration for some people who just want to run gimmicky loadouts and prey on oblivious snipers in the enemy battlements. You will rarely see anybody using weapons that aren't "meta" like the classic or the rocket jumper. One major benefit, though, is that there is a larger variety in the classes that people are playing. Granted, this plays into the "tryhard" argument, making games feel more like highlander. Overall, though, I'd say it's an improvement over the valve servers we have now. Is it an improvement over casual pre-bot crisis, though? At the moment, at least in my opinion, not quite yet.
In Summary:
0 Comments
Over the past month, there have been rumors of going back to school and how it will go down. So far, according to some teachers (how claim to not know much either), you can choose to go back into school, but there will be significantly less people in each classroom. It has also been said that you wouldn't actually be with your normal classmates or teacher, but that has yet to be confirmed. Initially, I wanted go back in for the sake of my mental health and learning ability. After learning of the conditions, though, I don't think I'll be going back in yet. Going back in just to be on chromebooks in a room you aren't normally in doesn't sound appealing, especially the chromebook part. On top of that, I don't think any of my friends will be going back in either, so there's no point for me to go back. I am hoping that things are resolved soon, though. I would like to get back to normality by the end of the year, but I doubt that will happen.
In Summary:
Unity is something that I have been looking forward to throughout this year. Although I am a total dunce when it comes to coding, I still was excited to learn a new 3D program that also had a lot of features. And oh boy, does it have a lot of features. That's probably the coolest thing about Unity. There is so much freedom to do whatever you want. Even doing the tutorials wasn't completely linear. For a program that has as many options as it does, it's very easy to navigate. The layout is very clean, and most things you can find from a main dropdown or a search bar. So far, navigation hasn't been the problem. My main problem, as I said before, is coding. I am not experienced with coding in the slightest. I have had some troubles already because even the slightest mistype can ensure everything you made doesn't work. This is the part of Unity that scared me, but so far it's not too frustrating. I'm sure in the future, it will become a large issue for me. Overall, though, I am really enjoying the program. The program is easy to use, and even when there are flaws, there is a team working on constantly updating the program. Working with it for a bit has made me like it a lot, and I'm hoping my opinion stays that way. For now, I'm having fun, and that's what matters.
In Summary:
|
Author
Archives
May 2022
Categories
All
|