Pyroland

The RED courtyard of 2Fort in Pyroland.

“

Enter a world of imagination that's so superior to the long-winded world of imagination in books that you'll want to put all of your books in a pile and light them on fire.

— Pyroland publicity blurb

”

Pyroland, as it is officially named, is how the Pyro sees the world through its eyes. It was first seen in Meet the Pyro.

Description

In the Meet the Pyro video, Pyroland is a stark contrast to the dark, deserted desert town it takes place in. Instead of a run-down desert town, Pyroland appears as a cartoonishly colorful land with big flowery meadows, a bright blue sky with giant pudgy kittens floating around, giant lollipops and candy sprouting out of the ground, and a little town full of candy shops and party decorations. The song "Do You Believe In Magic" by The Lovin' Spoonful plays in the background.

Through the Pyro's insane mind, the BLU team are seen as little winged babies, having their normal heads on chubby diapered bodies. They gleefully coo and giggle at Pyro's seemingly innocent antics, when in reality they are being brutally hunted and killed- for example, in Pyroland, the Pyro blows bubbles at the Scout-baby, making him laugh and swat at the bubbles, while the real Scout is actually being hit in the face with the Scorch Shot. In both Pyroland and reality, the Pyro keeps an air of carefree, happy-go-lucky cheerfulness.

In-game, by equipping the Pyrovision Goggles, Rainblower, Lollichop, Infernal Orchestrina, Burning Bongos, or Balloonicorn, the player is allowed to see certain maps through Pyro's eyes. Rockets and flares leave trails of bubbles, and explosions are replaced by confetti. When players take damage, they laugh instead of shouting in pain, and bleed balloons. Gibs are the same as those in Birthday mode and servers with sillygibs on. Health pickups appear as cake slices, and ammo boxes appear wrapped as gift boxes.

In the kill feed, Domination messages read, "[Player] is BEST FRIENDS with [Player]", while Revenge notices read, "[Player] BROKE UP with [Player]"; additionally, certain hats and miscellanous items will appear to "assist" a player, if that player not already assisted by another player. These items include the Alien Swarm Parasite, Balloonicorn, Bird-Man of Aberdeen, Cremator's Conscience, Pocket Medic, Teddy Roosebelt, and Triboniophorus Tyrannus.

Because some hats are not compatible with the Pyrovision Goggles, such as the Spiral Sallet, the Balloonicorn allows for classes to wear any hat and still view Pyroland. The Balloonicorn occupies a miscellaneous item slot, but hovers behind the player, allowing for a second badge to be placed on the character model and allowing for item sets to be used in Pyroland.

Certain items, like the Rainblower, Lollichop, and Balloonicorn can only be viewed while in Pyrovision; outside of Pyrovision, the Rainblower and Lollichop will be viewed as the stock Flamethrower and Fire Axe, respectively. However, all Pyrovision items are visible in deathcams, whether or not the player is in Pyroland.

Maps with differing textures while in Pyroland:

In-game features

Multiple birthday mode and holiday mode features are active:
- Health and ammo pickups appear as cakes or wrapped as presents, respectively.
- Gibs turn into gears, toys and other silly items such as a unicycle.
- Cables are adorned with lights.
- Blood effects become balloons, streamers, and confetti.
Lights will be turned on/glow brighter (e.g. outside lights on the left side of the RED spawn in Sawmill).
Signs in objective-based games say "MMM MMMPH", except those in Doomsday.
Resupply lockers are purple with yellow handles and have pictures of a cuddly dog on the left side and a cuddly cat on the right side.
The Soldier's, Pyro's, and Demoman's grenades (and items that replace them) appear as baby bottles.
Enemies' and allies' voices become high-pitched (does not apply to the player's own voice).
Enemies and allies on fire will be surrounded by sparkles, but not the player in third person.
Certain smoke effects will become bubbles, such as the rockets from the Soldier's Rocket Launcher and the flares from the Pyro's Flare Gun.
All custom maps with the supported textures get the effect if you extract the "mtp.cfg" file from the gcf into the cfg folder in your tf folder and add a new map to it in the same format.
Instead of death or injury sounds, players will laugh when hurt or killed.
Items such as the Rainblower or Lollichop and other Pyro-based Pyromania items are visible to the player.
The Alien Swarm Parasite, Triboniophorus Tyrannus, Teddy Roosebelt, Pocket Medic, Cremator's Conscience, Bird-Man of Aberdeen, and Balloonicorn will be given assist credit for kills made by the player that are not assisted by another player. If any of them is renamed with a Name Tag, then it will show the custom name in the feed.

Related achievements

BFF²
Have 2 BEST FRIENDS at the same time.

Mass Hysteria
Have 6 teammates using Pyrovision at the same time.

The Great Deflate
Kill 79 enemies who have the Balloonicorn pets.

A Fresh Pair of Eyes
Dominate a player using the Pyrovision Goggles and earn your own pair!

Reward: Pyrovision Goggles

Bugs

Charging Demomen's yells are not higher pitched.
The Pyroland textures will not appear when using DX8.

Update history

June 27, 2012 Patch

Added Pyrovision!
[Undocumented] Added 4 new General Achievements related to Pyrovision
[Undocumented] Brain Parasites are now credited as being assisted by the player on unassisted kills.
[Undocumented] Pocket Buddies are now credited with assists on unassisted kills.
[Undocumented] Added advanced multiplayer options to turn on Pyrovision while spectating and during replays.

June 28, 2012 Patch

Fixed seeing through Sniper fences in 2Fort when using Pyrovision

July 2, 2012 Patch

Teddy Roosebelt can now get assists in Pyrovision
Fixed Pyrovision sometimes activating in killcams for more than just weapons and cosmetics
Fixed blood getting sprayed on the world in some cases in Low Violence and Pyrovision
Fixed decapitations creating head gibs in Low Violence and Pyrovision
Added team color to rainbow-showered players in Pyrovision

July 5, 2012 Patch

Added new options for Pyrovision to the Advanced Options dialog
- Added enable/disable for the HUD border
- Added the ability to make the HUD border static
- Added the ability to turn off the skybox depth of field