It’s been a fun week, but in the end one class had to come out on top of the other. The Soldier prevails over the Demoman 6,372,979 kills to 6,406,065. There are always spoils in war and this was was no exception, with the Soldier walking away with (well, in) some spangly new boots, interestingly named the Gunboats. It’s hard to believe that Demomen put up such a good fight, I’m almost certain Valve did some jiggery-pokery akin to BBC vote rigging antics. Also hard to believe is that the Gunboats will be unique to the Soldier for very long.

In other update news, two new official maps have been released, one (pictured above) is ctf_doublecross, which has a layout similar to ctf_2fort, in that there is a central open area with symmetrical ‘bases’ on both sides. The other is a simple two capture point attack/defend map that plays a bit like cp_junction with lots of chokepoints, called cp_gorge. So far I like Doublecross, the night setting makes a nice change, and there is a lot of rocket jumping action in the middle. I am a bit less fond of Gorge, but maybe that will change when 90% of players aren’t Soldiers or Demomen.

I have a lot to say about the new weapons in regard to balance, but I can save that until i’ve played a bit more with them. However, from about three hours of play as a Soldier I am finding the Chargin’ Targe rediculously overpowered. It gives the Demoman an EHP (effective health points) value of well over 300 (somebody do the math). In short, demomen are now harder to kill than a Heavy for a Soldier or another Demoman. I haven’t had a chance to try out the Direct Hit yet, apparently it’s damage is currently 50% higher than the regular launcher instead of 25% as advertised.

Oh, and crafting.

Propaganda poster competition winner (click for full results)