Scout Update

“

Who's the tough guy now? Huh, tough guy? Click to listen — The Scout Update Hub

”

The Scout Update was a patch for the Scout, the fourth class-content pack released in TF2's development, and was released on February 24, 2009. The update introduced 35 new Scout achievements, and 3 new Scout weapons.

The update was also the first to not include a Meet the Team video. The Scout also received several new voice lines that referred both to his new weapons, and to gameplay events such as point captures and Dominations. The update has also been the only one to date that allowed players to choose the unlock order of the weapons through milestones.

Additions

Maps

Game Mode		Map Name	File Name
Arena		Watchtower	arena_watchtower
Control Points		Junction	cp_junction
Control Points		Egypt	cp_egypt

Weapons

Class	Item Icon	Item Name
Scout		Force-A-Nature
		Bonk! Atomic Punch
		Sandman

Update Progress

Day One

“

...stunning the living crap outta anybody dumb, slow, drunk, mute or Australian enough to get in the way... — Sandman Publicity Blurb

”

The first day of the update released the Sandman, which gave the Scout the ability to incapacitate players at long range. Originally, the Sandman held the ability to stun Ubercharged players, however this was soon patched out of the game due to balance issues.

Day Two

“

It’s a perfect complement to the Scout update. Batter up! — Watchtower Map Description

”

The second day of the Scout Update included two new community maps, Watchtower and Junction.

Day Three

“

Runnin’ rings around all them molasses-slow dummies out there on the battle- field is thirsty frickin’ work. But when it comes to quenchin’ that thirst, only one thermonuclear thirst detonator packs all the “Atomic Punch” you’ll ever need. — Bonk! Atomic Punch Hype

”

Day three of the Scout Update revealed Bonk! Atomic Punch, the Scout achievements, and hinted at both a daytime version of Pipeline and the Force-A-Nature. Pipeline would remain unreleased until the Sniper vs. Spy Update.

Day Four

“

A Dustbowl-style control point map, Egypt is visually striking, full of great combat spaces, and features some really interesting uses of vertical space. Classes with the ability to ascend rapidly (Soldiers, Demomen, and Scouts using the new scattergun unlockable ) have lots of options for traversing the arenas. In addition, the ruins provide Engineers with a large number of potential sentrygun locations. — Egypt Map Blurb

”

Day four brought the last map of the update, Egypt, and included a fix to the map Fastlane. The ability of the new Force-A-Nature was hinted at in the description of the map, however the name remained unreleased.

Day Five

“

Anything this baby hits better PACK A LUNCH, 'cause it is going for a ride! — Force-A-Nature Mock Advertisement

”

The final day of the Scout Update revealed the new Force-A-Nature, and revealed a new Scout T-shirt available at the Valve store. Fans that mailed in the coupons would later receive gifts in the mail from Valve as a reward for their devotion. And at the bottom of the page, players were given the choice to vote on which weapon they desired to unlock first.

Day Six

“

The results are in, the update's out, now it's time to... PLAY BALL! — Scout Update Release Page

”

The release page simply revealed the results of the community poll, which are as follows:

• Force-A-Nature (Requires 10 Achievements to unlock): 17,219 votes (42.53%).
• Sandman (Requires 15 Achievements to unlock): 13,806 votes (34.10%).
• Bonk! Atomic Punch (Requires 20 Achievements to unlock): 9,463 votes (23.37%).

Other aditions

• Classes:
  • Added 35 new Scout achievements.
• Added crit boosted on/off sound effects.
• Added new sounds for upgraded Teleporters.
• Added new sound for a fully charged Medic dying.
• Add bonus points section to scores.
  • Scouts earn a bonus point for killing Medics who are actively healing a target.
• Added new "Remember last weapon between lives" option to the Multiplayer Advanced dialog.
• Spies can now control which weapon the enemy team sees them holding. Hitting the "last disguise" key while disguised updates the disguise to show the Spy's currently held weapon.
• Added several new Arena mode announcer speech events.
• Added "First Blood" to Arena mode.
• Removed 2x item respawn times in arena.
• Changed backstab handling to fix facestabs.
• Reduced stab radius to 160 degrees. Removed quickbackstabs and thus reduced the Spy's backstab range (Has since been reverted). Made backstabs quicker.
• Spies disguised as enemy team can now see player IDs for enemies.
• Updated cp_fastlane with Arttu's new version.
• Fixed obscure bug where spectators were able to carry the flag.

Trivia

• The Force-A-Nature originally could lift players into the air upon getting hit with even a single pellet, and disguised enemy spies were affected by the knockback. The strength of the Force-A-Nature's knockback was also far weaker.
• Bonk! Atomic Punch originally had a cooldown after the invulnerability wore off that slowed the Scout to Heavy speed, and a shorter resupply time. This slowdown was originally linked to the Retire the Runner achivement, which is now linked to Crit-A-Cola.
• Shortly after the update, a glitch was discovered by Scout players that allowed a Scout to stay under the effects of Bonk! Atomic Punch indefinitely. This was soon patched out. However, a player can still recreate this glitch in the Spawn room by standing in front of the Resupply Locker whilst under the effects of Bonk! Atomic Punch. Leaving will cause it to wear off, however.
• The Sandman was vastly different upon release than the current incarnation.
  • It would completely stop player movement when they were stunned, as opposed to the usage of the fleeing state that is imposed upon stunned players now.
  • It originally had the ability to stun Übercharged players.
  • It removed the Scout's double jump instead of incurring a health penalty.
  • It orginally did -50% damage against non-stunned opponents.

• The Scout Update weapons have had the most combined changes for a class weapon set after release.

External links

• Scout Update Hub