Polycount Pack
The Polycount Pack was a contest sponsored by Valve and the modeling community Polycount to develop new community item packs for introduction into Team Fortress 2. The contest was held for 5 weeks in May-June 2010 to coincide with the launch of the new Polycount site.[1][2] The contest submissions were to be brand-new models with unique stats once added to the game, but had to be designed to replace items that already existed. The contest closed on June 28th, 2010, and the winners were announced on July 15.[3] The five winning item packs were added in the Mann-Conomy Update.
In addition to the five winning packs, Valve confirmed that several other packs[4] were of high enough quality to be added to the game, and could be added in later updates. According to PC Gamer,[5] a 6th pack was supposed to be included, along with a new Medieval game mode as a bonus. They were both cut from the update due to time constraints, but were later added in the Australian Christmas Update along with two other packs. It was also hinted in a blog post[6] that Valve were working on a new training map, but this did not happen until the Hatless Update on April 14, 2011 in which training courses were added to Target for the Demoman, the Engineer, and the Spy. Three more item packs were added as part of the Über Update.
Everyone who entered the contest received the Polycount Pin, as well as a few select people who did not enter but helped the contest out in some way. A list of Polycount Pin owners can be found here.
The five winning Polycount sets were originally released with item set bonuses; wearing all items of one of the sets, including the hat, originally conferred a modest combat bonus. However, the bonuses were removed in the July 10, 2013 Patch, replaced with with the effect of placing "calling cards" on the corpses of enemies killed (except for the Saharan Spy set, which got additional effects while taunting). The packs added in the Australian Christmas update did not require their respective hats for their set bonuses, while the packs from the Über Update and most other later item sets (from other sources) had no set bonuses at all.
Contents
Winners
The Special Delivery
| The Special Delivery | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Effect |
Leave a Calling Card on your victims |
The Tank Buster
| The Tank Buster | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Effect |
Leave a Calling Card on your victims |
The Gas Jockey's Gear
| The Gas Jockey's Gear | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Effect |
Leave a Calling Card on your victims |
The Croc-O-Style Kit
| The Croc-o-Style Kit | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Effect |
Leave a Calling Card on your victims |
The Saharan Spy
| The Saharan Spy | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Effect |
Extra effects when taunting. |
Australian Christmas Packs
The Expert's Ordnance
| The Expert's Ordnance | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Effect |
No effect |
The Hibernating Bear
| The Hibernating Bear | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Effect |
No effect |
The Medieval Medic
| The Medieval Medic | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Effect |
No effect |
Über Update Packs
Lawrence of Australia
| Lawrence of Australia | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Effect |
No effect |
The #1 Fan
| The #1 Fan | |
|---|---|
|
|
|
| Effect |
No effect |
Airborne Armaments
| The Airborne Armaments | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Effect |
No effect |
Trivia
- The original melee weapon for the Special Delivery pack was a bat with nails, similar to the Boston Basher, called the 'Nail Biter' as seen here.
- Another melee weapon designed but never included was a crocodile tooth-studded aboriginal club for the 'Croc-o-Style Kit' pack.[7]
- The pack of darts included with the Sydney Sleeper was intended to be a cosmetic item.[8]
- The Peyote Cactus was originally intended to go with the Hibernating Bear set instead of the Buffalo Steak Sandvich.
- The Honcho's Headgear, Jag, Prairie Heel Biters, and Backwards Ballcap were once part of the 'World War II Pack', 'Jag', 'Bigger is Better', and 'Suburban Scout' packs respectively, but only the single items were added from the pack.
- The Bonk'n'Flash cosmetic featured on the Bonk Atomic Punch set was originally going to be part of the #1 Fan item set, but it was dropped in favor of Bonk Boy due to concerns of copyright.
Gallery
The Special Delivery Pack
The Tank Buster Pack
The Gas Man
The Croc-O-Style Kit
The Saharan Spy
The Expert's Ordnance Pack
The Medi(c)eval Update
The Australian of Arabia
Bonk Atomic Punch
The Airborne Armaments
The Polycount Pin
See also
References
- ↑ TF2 Team, Danke, my hard-hatted friend!, TeamFortress.com Official Blog, May 24, 2010
- ↑ Acumen, Official Valve Contest - Team Fortress 2: Polycount Pack May 24, 2010
- ↑ Robin Walker, Aye, that's tha way ya do it!, TeamFortress.com Official Blog, July 15, 2010
- ↑ TF2 CONTEST ENTRY LIST, by Class
- ↑ PC Gamer article, Next TF2 update adds trading, new game mode
- ↑ Brandon Reinhart, Is that an Equalizer in your pocket?, TeamFortress.com Official Blog, July 28, 2010
- ↑ nrek, "TF2 - Polypack- nrek" Polycount Forum: CONTESTS & CHALLENGES ARCHIVES
- ↑ nrek, "TF2 - Polypack- nrek" Polycount Forum: CONTESTS & CHALLENGES ARCHIVES
