Valve promised that updates to the Sniper would be next. Now, they're
releasing the information about what we're going to see.
For the first day, Valve showed off their the update to the Sniper Rifle, the Huntsman Bow
Valve Software wrote:
Any experienced sniper will tell you how irritating it is when your targets keep moving around. The question is how to stop these cheaters from wind-sprinting around like they own the place. And the answer is to pin them to a wall. How? With arrows!
"Now, hold on," you might be thinking. "I'm strong, but no one could throw an arrow that hard." Introducing the Huntsman longbow, which solves that age-old throwing problem.
"Now, hold on," you keep saying. "Aren't bows and arrows primitive and harmless?" Why don't you ask the dinosaurs? Except you can't, because the cavemen bow and arrowed them to death. One headshot from the Huntsman can mean an instant crit, in addition to a bolt-riddled corpse hanging from a wall that's gruesome and funny.
And even if you don't kill them, they'll carry around a certain arrow-shaped something as a living testament to your awesome archery skills and their frankly unawesome dodging skills. Comes with 18 arrows and a one-second charge for full power shots.
On the second day, Valve revealed a new gametype, Payload Race.
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They also showed off a pair of new arena maps.
Sawmill:
Valve Software wrote:
Set in a stormy mountain sawmill, this arena map has its cap point in a large structure atop a hill in the center of the map; beneath which lies a hidden underground spytech base; and above which, pouring down on everything we just mentioned, is rain—the first weather effect to appear in a TF map. If that previous sentence wasn’t long enough for you, replace the period with a comma and add this next part: players must ALSO watch out for the two deadly saw blades near the cap, which were left on when the previous occupants abandoned it for a less deadly, hilly, rain-swamped sawmill not built on a spybase.
Nucleus:
Valve Software wrote:
A diabolical doomsday device is the foundation of this circular arena map, which features long sightlines and a bottomless radioactive pit underneath most of the game area. The cap, located in the center of the arena, is only accessible by catwalks suspended over a chasm, which open after the timer has run down.
On the third day, the Sniper gained a new tool to stop pesky Spies, the Razorback. I suspect it'll replace the machete.
Valve Software wrote:
The Razorback is a beautiful hand-carved tribal shield, built using indigenous techniques passed from father to son since before recorded time. Sometimes the old ways really are the best ways. And after using the Razorback in the field, we quickly discovered this was not one of those times.
All the tribal craftsmanship in the world, it turns out, cannot stop a modern butter knife. So we taped a car battery to it. Sure, the added weight of the redesigned Razorback’ll slow you down a little. But any poor sap dumb enough to backstab you while you’re sporting one is getting a surprise to the tune of 10,000 volts. Plus, if they want to stab you again, they’ll have to wait until their knife cools down. Which is lucky for you, since the Razorback collapses into a million finely crafted pieces after a single stab.
On the fourth day of the update, Valve unveiled a new revelation. The Spy will be getting some toys of his own. Both affect how his cloak functions.
For the fifth day, Valve officially unveiled the already-leaked Meet the Spy video, as well as a list of achievement names. They even unlocked an achievement of their own.
On the sixth day, Valve showed off the Spy's new Revolver, the Ambassador.
Valve Software wrote:
There are two sorts of men in this world: the sort with blood pouring out of a hole in their heads, and the sort holding the Ambassador. It has the ammo count of a revolver and the pinpoint accuracy of a sniper rifle, even at long range. (But remember, a gun that packs this much heat needs to cool off between shots, so make every shot count.)
With its rosewood grip and likeness of your enemy’s mother (please send photo) engraved on the barrel, the Ambassador is eight motherloving pounds of steel your enemies won’t want to negotiate with.
On the seventh day. You thought Jarate was an April Fool's Day joke. You were WRONG.
Valve Software wrote:
Jarate is a thrown jar that splashes upon impact. When splashed on enemies, they take 35% more damage for a period of time. Jumping in water will wash off Jarate. Jarate is also able to short out Spies’ cloaking devices. When used on teammates, Jarate will extinguish any fire effects.
Valve also released a Sniper achievement list.
With three updates now revealed for each class, it seems that all the information on the Sniper/Spy update has been shown. All that's left is for it to be unleashed on the world!
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Man, makes stuff like rdm update look like a joke. Not that it didn't already look like a joke.