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In a new blog post to the Team Fortress 2 website, Valve are filling the update void by detailing various different weapon designs which have been scrapped in the past. After confirming that the next major update will introduce the first new weapons in well over a year, the post details three different weapon ideas, "The Big Bomb" for the Demoman, "The Facestab Knife" for the Spy, and "The Sucker" for the Pyro, all of which were scrapped for various reasons.
The Big Bomb
The Big Bomb is described as being an alternate to the Sticky Bomb Launcher which replaced "a bunch of small sticky bombs" with "one big one". While Valve don't exactly detail how the weapon worked, it sounds as if The Big Bomb was a highly obvious, easy-to-spot, "fire-and-forget" weapon which simply added worthless spam to the battlefield. Valve also notes that not a single life was lost to The Big Bomb over "countless" play tests, making it probably the least effective offensive weapon in the history of Team Fortress.
The Facestab Knife
As the name suggests, this new knife would have replaced the Spy's Knife, providing players with the ability to instantly kill an enemy from the front, rather than behind. Valve describes how the idea, which they were never remotely confident in to begin with, turned out to be just as terrible as you would imagine. The video below provides a pretty clear example of why the weapon was quickly scrapped ahead of the Manno-Technology update in 2011.
The Sucker
As a replacement for the Pyro's Airblast ability, The Sucker would have allowed players to gradually pull enemies towards them over a period of several seconds. While it sounds kind of neat on paper, potentially allowing Pyro's to pull opponents deeper into their flames, The Sucker apparently created several "unenjoyable gameplay issues" which unbalanced the class while also playing havoc with the movement prediction system TF2 uses during online play.
Now, as you will have assumed from the title of this news post, not every weapon detailed in the post is a terrible idea which was scrapped long ago.
The B.A.S.E. Jumper
The final weapon detailed in the post acts as a parachute for the Soldier, allowing players to remain airborne for a short period after rocket jumping. The post describes the parachute as providing strategic position benefits at the cost of maneuverability. While play testing, it turned out to be "a bunch of fun", something Valve hopes to achieve with all of the weapons in TF2.
The Big Bomb
The Big Bomb is described as being an alternate to the Sticky Bomb Launcher which replaced "a bunch of small sticky bombs" with "one big one". While Valve don't exactly detail how the weapon worked, it sounds as if The Big Bomb was a highly obvious, easy-to-spot, "fire-and-forget" weapon which simply added worthless spam to the battlefield. Valve also notes that not a single life was lost to The Big Bomb over "countless" play tests, making it probably the least effective offensive weapon in the history of Team Fortress.
The Facestab Knife
As the name suggests, this new knife would have replaced the Spy's Knife, providing players with the ability to instantly kill an enemy from the front, rather than behind. Valve describes how the idea, which they were never remotely confident in to begin with, turned out to be just as terrible as you would imagine. The video below provides a pretty clear example of why the weapon was quickly scrapped ahead of the Manno-Technology update in 2011.
The Sucker
As a replacement for the Pyro's Airblast ability, The Sucker would have allowed players to gradually pull enemies towards them over a period of several seconds. While it sounds kind of neat on paper, potentially allowing Pyro's to pull opponents deeper into their flames, The Sucker apparently created several "unenjoyable gameplay issues" which unbalanced the class while also playing havoc with the movement prediction system TF2 uses during online play.
Now, as you will have assumed from the title of this news post, not every weapon detailed in the post is a terrible idea which was scrapped long ago.
The B.A.S.E. Jumper
The final weapon detailed in the post acts as a parachute for the Soldier, allowing players to remain airborne for a short period after rocket jumping. The post describes the parachute as providing strategic position benefits at the cost of maneuverability. While play testing, it turned out to be "a bunch of fun", something Valve hopes to achieve with all of the weapons in TF2.
While the joke at the end of the post isn't exactly the most serious announcement in the world, it more or less confirms that The B.A.S.E. Jumper will soon be introduced into TF2 with the next major update...just don't expect to see any of the other three weapons that were mentioned. Thankfully, they're long dead. Let's just hope the next major update for TF2 also introduces the previously teased Moonbase map.
