It Happened.

3 Posts in one day. Updated look on blog. I know, its been awhile.

I'm going to work more towards reviews and whatnot, expect more content, probably. Oh, and the
strongbox update did give me at least one good thing.

--Santa

TF2—A Perspective.

I sure seem busy on TF2 anymore, with the whole unusual trading business going on now. It seems like only yesterday that I was giving you an update on how I was up to those two fairly nice unusuals (it may have something to do with the fact that I was telling you about it only 4 days ago). They’re gone now. As you can guess by the picture now hovering to your right, I’ve been in another major trade, so let me give you the lowdown as to what went on: Seriously, just about an hour or so after I made that post, a guy makes a post on m TF2OP trade, asking me if I was interested in a Stormy Storm Ten Gallon. I told him that I may be interested in it, and asked him his price, about an hour later he sends me a friend request.

He’s interested in my Ten Gallon partially, and I’ll admit—I was into the Hotrod. Stormy Storm’s probably my second favorite effect in the world, and it’s on my second favorite hat, and the guy just so happened to re-name it to “The Lightning Rod.” I was seriously having a hard time controlling my typing; almost feeling that he could sense my sweaty hands from the other side of the series of tubes connecting us. He wanted both of my hats for it, and I politely declined. After a genuine amount of debating, I came back with a 2:3 proposal, (this guy was a hat collector, and had a good few low tiered hats lying around his backpack) and he thinks about it. I get an answer of “How about 2:2 and I’ll do 2 painted Bills, black and white.” The deal had been struck.

This trade, in his opinion after completion, went my way by about 5 keys; but he was happy. I got (in all) a Stormy Storm Hotrod, a Green Confetti Western Wear, and 2 Bills (black and white, respectively) in return for my Orbiting Fire Texas Ten Gallon and Blizzardy Storm Attendant. From here, I sold the Western Wear to a good friend of mine for 1 Earbud and sweets equaling a Bills hat. I sold my 2 Bills and 1 refined for a Genuine Merc’s Pride Scarf, a clean El Jefe, and a clean Attendant. Since then, I’ve expanded my backpack to a total of 500 slots, and have begun collecting metal and keys, looking to expand my collection and reach the final goal of a Sunbeams Ten Gallon.

Look! Actual In-Game Screenshots!

Today however, I decided to get out of the trade server and into the game that is Team Fortress 2; a small escape from the heart-pounding trades. I’m a regular in a community, and so whilst in their Ventrillo server (for all of you out there who aren’t familiar with Vent, I suggest going out and downloading it. It’s like Skype, but runs on a lot less RAM.) They were talking about playing on the Payload server, which is almost always empty. This was going on while I re-sorted my backpack, so I thought, why not join them when I finish?

After a good, fun round of going Heavy with a Frying Pan, we decided to get serious, as serious as Payload gets in this server. Pulling out my trusty Strange Gunslinger, I decided to give it a good workout. I broke the 900 kill marker, and was getting ever closer to “Completely Normal.” As you can see from the picture, we kind of broke the last round of PL_Thundermountain, but who cares? I rediscovered my old love for normal TF2.

I still hold that Payload is my favorite gametype, even if I still love Dustbowl from my old pub stomping days on the Xbox. Most of you who do read through these posts have probably gone through the same dilemma: playing Hat Fortress 2 without touching base with the original game. I suggest trying it again, it may remind you why you play the game in the first place.

--Santa

TF2: Hats and Updates, For You

On May 3^rd, Valve decided to give us another update, and with it a few more interesting things:

• ·         The Texas Half-Pants can now be found

• ·         Added the Fruit Shoot, which is a reference to the old stories of William Tell

• ·         The Frying Pan may now be equipped by the Scout, Heavy, Sniper, Medic and Pyro (leaving the poor Engineer and Spy without the beauty of demo-panning, even if they aren’t Demoman)

• ·         Added a mysterious “Valve Store Shipment Box”, an item that has no pixels, description, or even an official release from Valve (that’s right, I read through patch notes pretty carefully), all we know is that it’s in the action slot for all classes, and will probably be revealed in the next few patches, but the last few items that had an introduction like this were the HOUWAR (Hat of undeniable wealth and respect) and the Golden Wrench, so this may be a pretty interesting item

Other than this, some interesting things have been going on in the trading world for me. Last time I was on, I told you about a prior trade with selling a pair of earbuds for a vintage Lugermorph and a Genuine Merc’s Pride Scarf, well since then I’ve sold the Lugermorph to a good friend who’s been wanting one forever, and I did something a bit more adventurous with my scarf.

A guy came up to me asking if I would buy a Planets Familiar Fez from him for 2 earbuds, which I didn’t have. He claimed it was quickselling, but I just had a feeling that I should buy it, so after a large amount of debate, I got him to accept an earbud and my Merc’s Pride. I thought that I’d probably sell  it for 2 earbuds, and make a good 5 keys profit, but about a day or so later, a guy came up to me, and asked me to 1:1 him for his Fez with Blizzardy Storm, claiming that he like planets more. Not being born yesterday, I checked the item’s history to see if it had been duped. It hadn’t. Next thing I know, I have a cool new Fez in my inventory.

Thinking I can go another step up from my already unbelievably cool Fez, I start snooping around Outpost, and lo and behold, someone has a Blizzardy Attendant, and they’re interested in an Unusual Fez. With a bit of negotiation, we end up with something we wanted—cool hats. As I’ve always loved Pyro like the class that I play when I’m not on Engineer, it’s all worked out pretty well.

Finally, I want to give a simple message to a prior admin on one of my favorite trade servers. I don’t know if he reads my blog, but if he does, it’s for you, man. 

TF2: The Perils of Hats

All Fear Gaben's Hammer

People of the Internet, the world is not comprised of sunshine, unicorns and glitter as you may have fooled yourself to be. Today’s post is brought to you by the depressing part that rests in all of us: greed. To the more innocent/new/non TF2 playing readers, I bring to you today a topic that all of us know happens, but one that most people don’t necessarily think about: scamming. I bring this up because on Monday, someone attempted that very thing to me, but more on that later.

For those following my string of posts about my current dealings in the unusual market know that I am currently in ownership of a Steaming Sola Topi and a Nuts and Bolts One Man Army. I plan on selling these for 3.5 Earbuds or bundling them with a TS Bills I acquired recently for 4 Earbuds, that or taking an unusual offer, pushing me towards my goal of a Sunbeams Hotrod. So, around noon I got a friend request and a guy offered me a Scorching Defiant Spartan. (I apologize to those readers who don’t quite get the vernacular of this post) This is a hat priced in the range of 6 to 8 Earbuds, if handled correctly. Of course, I just about dropped my pants, but I knew that in the unusual market, people weren’t always trustworthy, so I’m going to make this post a guide of tips to help avoid getting scammed.

·         Time Take to initiate trade. Saying this I mean if it takes the guy around 10 minutes to invite you to trade, or he says he’s a bit busy, use this to be wary. This doesn’t mean the guy is going to scam you, but it should be an omen of bad things to come.

·         Trade on TF2. I know that Steam trade is cool and all, but if you start trading in-game it tells you a few things. First you can see the purple border of an unusual if it’s turned on. It also tells you if the item has been re-named or has a new description. Make sure you pay attention to the name, icon, and description of the unusual/ hat at hand.

·         Don’t fall for cute tricks. This guy offered to give me a couple of weapons for being so patient with him. Thing is, he was a fast swapper, he pushed the Spartan out, replacing it with a Purple Confetti one, and added 7 items to cover up his tracks by pushing up the REMOVED DEFIANT SPARTAN text and the ADDED DEFIANT SPARTAN. At the same time, I got an invite to a new steam group which I did look at. This is a bad omen as well.

·         When you click the “Ready to Trade” checkmark, it does not initiate the trade. Take the time to go over and examine every item in the trade, both yours and his. If he changes the trade in anyway, the trade undoes your checkmark.

·         There is no need to be excited when trading. Take your time. It’s not that hard to get caught up in the moment and accept it. If the effect does change don’t let the guy sucker you into saying “Oh TF2’s server is being stupid. Don’t worry about it.” Tell him you’ll trade when it stops, or something else. Nothing is worth loosing that much money in that much time.

·         Report the guy afterwards. Going under their profile after this scumbag tries to steal your livelihood and sending a report to Valve isn’t a bad plan. I personally record every large trade that involves more than an Earbud. I have the guy’s account name, steam URL, what he offered, what I offered, what happened with the trade, and possible course of action.

So, what ended up happening? I looked at the unusual. I saw the effect had changed. I felt sad. That hat really could have pushed me closer to my end goal. So, I told him “Hey, you got some quick fingers, but you seem to have changed effects there.” He knew I caught him, so he instantly disbanded the trade, and removed me from his friends list. I calmly opened up my Steam Overlay, went to his profile, and reported him, and that was the end of that. I never got the unusual, but at least I’m getting closer to my goal. So, stay safe kids, the playground isn’t always full of nice kids.

--Santa

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