27 Jul 1999

I'm Outa Here

SteelAngel

23 Jul 1999

SF, The 20,000th Spy

NextWish

To minimise load times the graphic above is a smaller low-res graphic, click on the graphic for an hi-res 1024 x 768 version. (310kb)

21 Jul 1999

The Defensive Spy

SteelAngel

Ok kiddos, here's the scoop, DRCrypt sent me a bunch 'o hints for the gas grenade and the defensive spy. For those of you who are stuck playing offense, thinking the spy can't do anything else, the read this! It will open your eyes.

I have another spy tip for you guys involving the gas grenades. Personally, I find the gas grenade rather useless in any sort of offensive situation... the main drawback of it is that it hurts your team as well, so that firing one into the hallway of an enemy base may very well disrupt enemy defense for a while, it doesn't exactly clear the way for your team's offensive either. There are two things that I use gas grenades for: to make a quick getaway and for defense in TFC. Making a getaway should be obvious... if your cover is blown and you are being chased by the enemy, just prime a gas grenade for a few seconds, throw it in front of you, and run like hell. Enemies are usually loathe to go waltzing through a gas cloud and will many times give up pursuit, or find their aiming warped by the hallucinatory effects.
Defense is far more interesting. A spy can be excellent defense, ideally in conjunction with an engineer.Take 2fort, for example.If you lay at the top of the spiral as a dead body, you can watch and see if anyenemy team mates make their way down. If they pass you, run behind them and, when you hear the flag being taken, throw a gas grenade and run up a two bends of the spiral. The following is pretty cool... when the enemy flag runner has walked into your gas cloud, they will make an audible gasp, which tells you that they are now at the bottom of the ramp. When you hear that gasp, prime a regular grenade and throw it. Because the flag runner is now in the middle of a bunch of hallucinations, he will most likely think that this grenade is another of them, and therefore walk right into it as it explodes! If you are a little more skillful, you can also time the grenade throw perfectly between them running through the gas cloud and throwing your regular grenade so that it explodes midair as they round the bend. It takes some practice, but the gas cloud is actually a really good alarm system that can tell you where the enemy is at what time.
More on this "defensive spy" strategy. I find hanging around as a corpse in the spiral in 2fort more useful than being actually in the basement near the flag. For one thing, spies suck at uncovered combat, and against a soldier, chances are you will be toast. In TFC, it is also very hard to land a knife in the back on a target running away from you, even if they are slower, so your weaponry isn't very helpful. Being at the top of the spiral gives you a number of things... for one thing, you can see enemies coming down the spiral and therefore alert any defense at the bottom, such as Engineers (I usually try to coordinate my 2fort basement defensives with an engie), that they are coming down. Then, even if the enemy comes through, they will be weakened enough when coming back up the ramp that it should be relatively easy to tranq them and shotgun them from behind the corners of the spiral bends. You can also pull the gas grenade trick. I rack up many kills and save the flag often this way. One should mention, though, that eventually, the enemy will catch on and start shooting the corpses on the spiral on their way down. That's okay... as soon as they start doing that, you know that their guard is most likely down in the enemy fortress, since they think you as a spy are only working defense! Go start working offense and when they catch onto you there, switch to defense again. That way, you will constantly be helping your team in a positive way and racking up frags besides.

21 Jul 1999

The Happy Fun Gas Grenade

NextWish

Sorry guys for not updating in a long time, but my birthday is coming up on the 28th and i've been taking it easy. I will be setting up a new poll soon as well. I'm sure your wondering what I have install for you,
A bug in TFC that was found by an friend of mine.
The Best thing is that it will remain in tfc as an easter egg.
Why will it remain in TFC as an easter egg I hear you ask?
Well I emailed a bug report to the babe of valve... Jenni Grant and heres what I got back:

Hi Geoffrey, Thanks for the e-mail. Yes, this "feature" is a bug,
but we willleave it in as an easter egg...
Jenni

-----Original Message-----
From: Geoffrey 'NextWish' Huntley
Sent: Monday, July 19, 1999 6:07 AM
To: Jenni Grant
Subject: [TFC 'BUG'] "HappyFunGasGrenade" Gas Grenade trick!
Dear Jenni, I recently found a bug [feature?] in TFC.
It's a wierd "feature" with the spy's gas grenades. I've seen some really funny glitches in my lifetime of playing TF/TFC, but this intrigued me. Is this a bug or a feature robin/john left in tfc as an easter egg. Really I dont think it's worth the time to patch really since it has no side effects.. The grenade disappears after the normal set amount of time. It's really just a damn funny glitch/feature and I was wondering if you guys knew about it :)

So you wanna know how you do it right?
1) Load up TFC and Play as a spy
2) Walk into a room and look down
3) Prime a gas grenade and hold it do*not* let go of it
4) When the gas grenade falls to the ground run away and have a look of what your done.
If you have done it correctly the gas grenade should be bouncing up and down as if it was on a trampoline.

I have named it "The Happy Fun Gas Grenade".
As a favour in return, feedback of what you think of it would be nice.

17 Jul 1999

I love Anniversaries

SteelAngel

So did we all have fun yesterday? I did. Whee! Anyway, if you missed it, the old site is still up here. I just got interviewed by SailorScout, He's been a friend of mine since way back when he ran Golbez' Fortress. Check it out!

12 Jul 1999

Surprises coming up!

SteelAngel

Here's a question for my faithful readers. What happened on the 16th of July 1997?

If you guessed that the Promethium Spy Academy was first created, then you're right! For the 16th, I'm going to redo the old HTML from the _original_ Spy Academy! Come and visit, it will be a blast from the past!

In other news, we have NatesDaBomb's script up on the files page. For those of you who don't know, Nate was a major contributer to the site and my own spying skills.

11 Jul 1999

New Stuff!

SteelAngel

Coming up on the page later today will be a few new config files and some new ideas.

First of all though, I'd like to congratulate Roundy on being the first to set up an ANTI-spy page! Ha! So, my loyal minions.. Go there, and learn what he's protecting against. That should help you fix holes in your offense!

8 Jul 1999

Tips 'O The Day

SteelAngel

I think this site breeds more newsies than rabbits. Belgand, now Nextwish.. Jeez. When do I get to join the club? Anyway, on a better note, here is a couple of interesting hints/tips/what have you from DrCrypt:

It has been already said that it is a good idea to bind "discard" and "feign" to one key, so as to give a "realistic" death. However, I've found that if you bind a key to "dropitems", "discard" and "feign" you can be an excellent flag runner as well. "dropitems" drops the flag if you have it. So, for example, say that, when rounding the spiral with the enemy flag, you discover an hwguy waiting at the top as defense. Wait until he shoots you and then press your "dropitems;discard;feign" key. This will make it appear that he has killed you, as it will drop the flag and backpack. I've noticed that even smart opponents fall for this a lot, simply because they don't expect anyone to drop the flag once they've got it, and assume that you are dead. This key binding has made me a pretty formidable flag runner.

Always go into the enemy base fully stocked with grenades. Remember, one of your main purposes as a spy is to take out enemy defenses. This is especially integral when you are facing a team with a ridiculous number of engineers, like 3 or more. In situations like that, you are your teams best hope of a frontal attack. On that note further: I notice that a lot of "fights" go on in supply rooms over grenade backpacks, such as an hwguy shooting you off of the spot where you are waiting for the grenades to respawn so he can snag it. Remember, you need these grenades more than he does, so if he gets in that spot, try pressing up against him and ducking. This will usually give you the grenades quicker... yes, I know it seems wrong to give a tip on robbing your team mates, but some of them are ignorant bastards with no use for a good grenade, and it is in the interest of your team.

Actually spy! Report defenses to your team! And try to coordinate with other (perhaps stupider) spies on your team! This is important: take other spies under your wing. Two spies are more convincing than one, and if you can get him to work as part of a team, he isn't stumbling into the base completely undisguised with his dagger out, making the enemy paranoid.

Also, a cute TF1 tip. if you kill an enemy spy, watch his body. that body will change skin and color as the spy is. Wierd bug in the Quake code..

7 Jul 1999

There is *NO* Ninja

NextWish

The Fishers emailed me this with the following:
Just to let you know your logo has a picture of a new TF2 Class called the ninja not a spy. Ninjas are supposed to be a more combat orientated spy who can sneak through the shadows and do acrobatics.

Here's what Belgand at EtheralTF said about this matter:
I know this all started at an unamed TF site *coughfortress2cough*, and was relayed off there to many other sites. In the interests of what some people call "journalism" (not me, I call it yamswiggling!) I fired off a mail to Robin and recieved the following info on the status fo the TF2 "Ninja".
From: Robin Walker To: Belgand
Subject: RE: TF2 Ninja Date: Fri, 2 Jul 1999 14:50:09 -0700
What Ninja class? We don't have any Ninja class.

So as we can see here clearly there is NO ninja in TF2, what that really is (accoridng to further conversation with Robin) is that it is merely the spy.... a spy that can crawl along ropes and such.... so yeah, enjoy it as cool.

5 Jul 1999

Updated 2fort5 Guide

SteelAngel

Mac has updated his 2fort5 spying guide. Get it on the Files page!

5 Jul 1999

5 New Spy Stories

NextWish

6 New Spy stories were added to the stories section today, head over and check them out

4 Jul 1999

Menace's Script Updated

NextWish

Menace's Multi-Class TFC Script has been updated, it is now at version 1.7a.
Heres whats new:
This will probably be the final release before my v2.0 which will be the next phase of this config Ok here is a rundown of the new functions - left and right hand configs. - Help key to tell you what the binds are. Dynamic as well so if you change classes etc it will change the list of binds. - Improvements to sniper config - More documentation - Removed all custom functions, now it will use your settings if you follow the installation guide.
The File is available right here or on the files page.

4 Jul 1999

I'm Back Baby Yeah!

NextWish

Jeez, I was away for 3 days and peoples start to suspect that i'm dead? Seriously the reason is that i'm changing ISP's and i'm getting a cable modem, it'll be hooked-up by lunchtime today.

4 Jul 1999

Happy 4th Everyone..

SteelAngel

Hem. Soapbox time. This installement of 'Steel's Rant-o-Matic'is on the spy in TF vs TFC.

It is no secret why I prefer TF to TFC, those maps are too damn bright! Where once I could hide in a shadow, feign, and change my disguise, I now have to change on the fly, and hope I don't get myself killed. ESPECIALLY on the rock, my favorite level. I like what they did with it, 2 levels in the cellblocks for engineers and snipes, removed that silly power generator thing.. But there is not a hint of darkness in the whole level. How can I hide without darkness? It's bad enough that an astute enemy can see right through me.

I'd like to respond to an article by Scatterblak about the spy in TF and TFC.

He wrote: "The Spy, the main change was now a stab in the back is almost immediatly fatal. I haven't been able to prove this to be the same in TF because I stab people in the back and they received the same amount of damage as a frontward stabbing. In TFC a backstab is always more damaging than a stab in the chest from the front. Gas grenades seem to be more annoying in TFC, although I can't point out why."

Scat, in BOTH TF2.9 and TFC, a backstab does enough damage to kill a HW with one shot. The actual damage is 120 points of damage irregardless of armor. However, the actual area to stab is much harder to hit on the Quake-guy model than on the TF model. That's your problem right there. As for the gas grenades.. I miss the color effect.. that was cool as shit, but you GL goons had to ruin that (oh wait.. i'm a GL goon..). The TFC gas gren actually hits you with more effects. Because it is HL, you see blood spatches, you get bounced around by fictional explosions, you hear pain sounds, and death all over. The TF grenade is not that cool in comparison.

I hope that answers your questions..
SteelAngel out

1 Jul 1999

Nextwish, Where are you?

SteelAngel

I haven't seen or heard from NW in days. I hope everything is kosher.. In lighter news, BlastRadys has written up an excellent 28(!) page word document all about Spying on 2fort maps. I am thoroughly impressed at the size and the quality of this. I'm not going to reformat it into HTML, but if you have MS Word compatibilty, take a look on the files page, or get it directly here!