The TF2 retrospective series is meant to recount the major updates to Team Fortress 2 in order to help newer players understand how much has changed over the years. They will provide some background context and explanations about the environment in which the updates were released and estimations on what the general response was to each update. Think of it as a very loose and informal "history."
The Gold Rush Update (4/29/08)
Overview
Ah, the first of the class updates. We've come a long way since then, as you can probably tell from the numerous differences between this one and the more recent class updates. For one, the update is named after the new map instead of the Medic class, which may a holdover from the last big update, the Badlands Update. The Update page itself is also hosted on steamgames.com instead of teamfortress.com, as are the next two class updates. Indeed, the TF2 blog and teamfortress.com didn't come about until The Pyro Update. All in all, the Gold Rush Update introduced the payload gamemode with pl_goldrush, class pack achievements for the Medic, the beginnings of the item system, and three new items for the Medic.
It is worth noting that Team Fortress 2 owes a lot of its success to The Gold Rush Update. Prior to The Gold Rush Update's release, interest in TF2 had begun to decline despite the numerous bug fixes, rebalancing (like the Soldier and Demoman ammunition changes), and small updates (like the Badlands Update). The number of active players were dropping almost to the levels of Day of Defeat: Source. The Gold Rush Update changed all that. The massive excitement over the new item system and the expectations of future class updates essentially ensured Team Fortress 2's longetivity. Despite the Gold Rush Update's flaws, it is arguably one of the most important updates in TF2 history.
Maps
Gold Rush released as the first payload map, featuring a three-stage style game remniscent of cp_dustbowl. Being the first payload map, pl_goldrush released with quite a few balance issues, and the map itself has been modified and rebalanced a few times over its lifetime, mostly on the first stage. At its worst, the official TF2 stats page reported an 80% victory rate for RED, and there were anecdotes about players not knowing that Gold Rush was a multi-stage map because they had never seen a victory for BLU on the first stage. The current version of the map seems much more balanced, with the official TF2 stats page reporting a much more reasonable victory rate for RED at about 55-60%.
Achievements
To this day, the Medic achievements are considered the overall hardest pack of achievements to obtain. Interestingly enough, the Medic achievemnts used to be even harder, and were made easier before the Update's release. For example, Blunt Trauma used to require 4 enemies instead of 2, and Medical Breakthrough used to require 8 destructions instead of 5. The Medic achievement pack's unusual difficulty is likely due to the TF2 team's inexperience with achievements at the time of The Gold Rush Update, and later achievement packs were much more reasonable.
However, it is worth noting that the Medic achievement pack is the only pack that does not require the use of any of the unlock weapons for any of its achievements, though several achievements are admittedly much harder to obtain with the default loadout compared to an unlock.
One of the most surprising details at the Gold Rush Update's release was the fact that completion of achievements was required to unlock the Medic's new items. Though details about the items and Medic achievements had been announced, few, if any, had ever expected that the achievements and items would be linked. Many players felt frustrated by this situation, as they wanted to test the new items immediately rather than unlock every single one of the new achievements to gain the Ubersaw. The Blutsauger and Ubersaw items were also seen as straight upgrades, and many complained that this achievement-based system gave some players unfair advantages.
This led to the birth of the every popular "achievement servers," where players would gather on a map designed to help them grind achievements and simply unlock achievements. Despite the changes to the achievement requirements and the introduction of the drop system, achievement servers still see a fair bit of use by those who want to unlock items as soon as possible.
Items
Discussion of the new Medic items began with the TF2 team's announcement of the Overhealer idea. The Overhealer was to be a new Medigun that overhealed to 200% instead of 150% without any overheal decay, with a much slower ubercharge rate or not ubercharge rate as a possible downside. The Overhealer idea was scrapped due to reported balance issues and replaced with mentions of an alternate ubercharge that gave critical hits instead of invulnerability. There was no announcement or mentions of the Blutsauger and Ubersaw before the Update released.
Being the first group of new items, the Medic items did suffer from a few balance issues. The Blutsauger and Kritzkrieg have changed a bit since their original release, though you can still read about their original attributes on the Update page as those pages aren't updated as the items are tweaked.
The original Blutsauger added +3 health on each successful hit but removed random critical hits. Despite the fact that Blutsauger wielding Medics wouldn't be able to do this the Blutsauger was immediately labeled as a clear upgrade, and to this day "can't crit so it's balanced" remains a popular joke in unlock suggestions and discussions. The Blutsauger was eventually reworked along with the Medic's regeneration. Previously, the Medic regenerated 1 health per second, which gradually increased to 3 if he didn't taken any additional damage. The current Medic regenerates 3 health per second which increases to 6, and the current Blutsauger's downside is -2 health per second, effectively lower his regeneration from 3-6 to 1-4. The Syringe-Blutsauger balance is much better, though the Blutsauger equip rate still seems to be a great deal higher. I would attribute this more to simple habit and most Medic's lack of faith in his teammate's ability to protect them (especially in public servers) than to an imbalance.
The original Kritzkrieg's ubercharge granted Critical hits instead of invulnerability, and charged 10% faster than the Medigun (The current version charges 25% faster). The very first version of the Kritzkrieg also did not affect melee weapons with its critboost ubercharge, though that was quickly fixed. The original Kritzkrieg also lacked the unique "Oktoberfest" taunt that heals 10 health, which the current version has. In sharp contrast as to the Blutsauger and Ubersaw, the Kritzkrieg was considered a straight downgrade. Invulnerability was (and often still is) judged as being much more useful than the critboost, with the +10% charge rate being negligable. For a while, the "correct" Medic loadout was Blutsauger/Medigun/Ubersaw. The balance was improved when the ubercharge build rate was changed to be 25% faster, but, there are still many that consider the Kritzkrieg as a downgrade or more difficult to use effectively.
The Ubersaw, which grants 25% ubercharge on a successful hit and swings 20% slower than the Bonesaw, is still considered a straight upgrade. The only real change it ever experienced was a side-effect of an improvement to the Spy's disguise system that removed "On Hit" effects occuring while the Spy is disguised. Several more balanced versions of the Ubersaw are reportedly being worked on by the TF2 team. The Ubersaw's taunt was originally similar to the Bonesaw's "violin" taunt, only with a much lower and deeper sound, with the "Spinal Tap" taunt kill added much later.
Bonus
Meet the Scout was also released alongside The Gold Rush Update as the first Meet the Team video since Meet the Demoman released in October 9, 2007.
Also fun were several short-lived bug. For a brief time it was possible to unlock Medic achievements through console commands, allowing Medics to run around wielding the Ubersaw mere minutes after the update released. When this was patched out, steam also relocked achievements that had been unlocked through the console commands, though a few lucky players had legitimate achievements relocked as well. I say lucky because the TF2 team later unlocked all the Medic achievements for them as an apology. Another brief bug allowed a Medic to give himself an infinite invulnerability ubercharge by switching between the Medigun and Kritzkrieg in the middle of an ubercharge.
Suggestions for the Future
While the lower milestones and the random drop system has made the difficulty of the Medic achievements much less important, making several of the more difficult achievements more "achievable" would be a welcome update. Indeed, several of the Medic achievements have already been modified from their original versions in The Gold Rush Update. Big Pharma used to require 20 assists instead of 10 to unlock.
Improvements to the Kritzkrieg/Medigun and Bonesaw/Ubersaw balance would also be welcome. Personally, for the Bonesaw/Ubersaw balance, I would suggest a route similar to the Syringe/Blutsauger situation through a slightly slower ubercharge build rate or a slightly shorter ubercharge duration when the Ubersaw is equipped. Alternatively, it may be interesting to accentuate the Ubersaw's high-risk/high-reward ubercharge building role by giving it a massive damage reduction and removal of random critical hits. In this situation, the Ubersaw would be very effective in building an ubercharge as the enemy would be unlikely to die while this occured, with the downside being that the Medic would lose a powerful self-defense weapon and put himself at risk while building ubercharge due to the unlikelihood of killing the enemy while doing so.
For the Kritzkrieg/Medigun, I would suggest giving the Medic more personal benefit for using the Kritzkrieg. Note that the Medigun ubercharge grants invulnerability both to the Medic and his healing target, while the Kritzkrieg ubercharge can only affect the healing target. Consequently, it is possible for a Medigun-wielding Medic to use his ubercharge to save his own life, whereas a Kritzkrieg-wielding Medic has no such real ability. Perhaps a damage reduction on the Medic or perhaps even outright invulnerability for the Medic alone during a Kritzkrieg ubercharge might improve the Kritzkrieg/Medigun balance and give Medics more of a reason to use the Kritzkrieg.
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