Changes in the "Meet Your Match" update directly related to MvM

MvM-related bug fixes

Fixed airblasts sometimes sending reflected projectiles toward friendly players, buildings, and projectile shields



Fixed multiple Mann vs. Machine bugs caused by bot AI functions being executing after the bots have died

(This eliminates rare cases where engiebot sentries/teles could survive after the wave end)

(This fixes that glitch with the invisible ghost bomb carrier that could happen between waves)

Fixed Medics sometimes instantly reviving players in Mann vs. Machine (this refers to the random bug that could cause instant revives, not the intentional instant revives from ubers and whatnot)



Improved Flamethrower flame performance in Mann vs. Machine on clients and servers by up to +500% (previously, missions with lots of AlwaysFireWeapon pyro bots would lag up the server really badly)

New "air raid siren" sound effect

Originally posted by Video description: This will only be interesting to people who obsess over possible future MvM content updates. Basically: Valve added this new, unused sound file in the update, and the most likely purpose of it is to be used in a (speculated) new MvM map in the future.



We've already found out in other recent TF2 updates that Valve added some hidden new MvM-related features, such as adding various pieces of functionality to enable bots to use the BASE Jumper parachute item.



This new effect sounds like an air raid siren. Air raid sirens are used to warn people about an incoming air raid. An air raid which maybe, just maybe, could involve EVIL ROBOTS who parachute down from the sky to invade Mann Co... and then probably just plant a bomb that they could have dropped directly from a bomber in the first place.



Obviously this is pretty much just gratuitous speculation. But it's fun to try to figure out what new, possibly idiotic gimmicks Valve are currently in the process of thinking up.



Also: if we are lucky, maybe they will jump out of blimps.



The blimp thing is an obscure mvm_mannhattan reference.

More hints about Mann Up contracts

[gist.github.com]

(No Tour; Intermediate) Mannhattan: Big Apple Barricade



Mannhattan: Big Apple Barricade (No Tour; Intermediate) Rottenburg: Village Vanguard



Rottenburg: Village Vanguard (Oil Spill) Decoy: Doe's Doom



Decoy: Doe's Doom (Oil Spill) Decoy: Day of Wreckening



Decoy: Day of Wreckening (Oil Spill) Coaltown: Cave-in



Coaltown: Cave-in (Oil Spill) Coaltown: Quarry



Coaltown: Quarry (Oil Spill) Mannworks: Mean Machines



Mannworks: Mean Machines (Oil Spill) Mannworks: Mannhunt



Mannworks: Mannhunt (Gear Grinder) Decoy: Desperation



Decoy: Desperation (Gear Grinder) Coaltown: Cataclysm



Coaltown: Cataclysm (Gear Grinder) Mannworks: Mannslaughter

(No Tour; Nightmare) Ghost Town: Caliginous Caper



Ghost Town: Caliginous Caper (No Tour; Normal) Bigrock: Benign Infiltration



Bigrock: Benign Infiltration (No Tour; Normal) Decoy: Doe's Drill



Decoy: Doe's Drill (No Tour; Normal) Coaltown: Crash Course



Coaltown: Crash Course (No Tour; Normal) Mannworks: Mann-euvers



Mannworks: Mann-euvers (Steel Trap) Decoy: Disk Deletion



Decoy: Disk Deletion (Steel Trap) Decoy: Data Demolition



Decoy: Data Demolition (Steel Trap) Coaltown: Ctrl+Alt+Destruction



Coaltown: Ctrl+Alt+Destruction (Steel Trap) Coaltown: CPU Slaughter



Coaltown: CPU Slaughter (Steel Trap) Mannworks: Machine Massacre



Mannworks: Machine Massacre (Steel Trap) Mannworks: Mech Mutilation



Mannworks: Mech Mutilation (Mecha Engine) Bigrock: Broken Parts



Bigrock: Broken Parts (Mecha Engine) Bigrock: Bone Shaker



Bigrock: Bone Shaker (Mecha Engine) Decoy: Disintegration



Decoy: Disintegration (Two Cities) Mannhattan: Empire Escalation



Mannhattan: Empire Escalation (Two Cities) Mannhattan: Metro Malice



Mannhattan: Metro Malice (Two Cities) Rottenburg: Hamlet Hostility



Rottenburg: Hamlet Hostility (Two Cities) Rottenburg: Bavarian Botbash

I'm sure you know that Meet Your Match changed a bunch of weapons in various ways and that this will have effects on MvM gameplay. And of course they've ♥♥♥♥ed over various aspects of the matchmaking system recently, and that affects MvM too.But I wanted to make a post where I go into details on just the things that this update changed that wererelated to Mann vs Machine, particularly anything that might hint at a possible future MvM update.Obviously from the update notes, you'll have seen that there were a number of bug fixes that I sent in and got accepted, most of which were MvM-related:But aside from those changes, were there any other undocumented MvM-related tweaks or changes, possibly including any hints at a future MvM update? Well, there are a couple of small things, but overall not as much as in previous updates, like Halloween 2015. Let's take a look.Valve added a new sound to the game files in the sound/mvm directory, as well as a corresponding sound script reference for it in game_sounds_mvm.txt. I've put the audio and text for that into a convenient video:I'll quote the video description, because I basically did a write-up about the sound file there:So, there's that. I'm not necessarily gung-ho about parachute-oriented MvM gameplay personally, because frankly I think it's really gimmicky and will surely end up being problematic in various ways... but in any case, this seems to add slightly more evidence that if we get an MvM update, it'll involve that somehow.This doesn't involve any super-new information, but I just had a new idea. Maybe they'll only use the parachutes in the spawn area for cinematic effect: instead of the bots spawning in the carrier tank thing and then walking to the dropdown point as in current maps, they'll spawn the bots up high in the spawn zone (ostensibly jumping out of an aircraft) and have them parachute down, and then as soon as they hit the ground, they'll disable the bots' parachute ability and so it'll effectively be normal MvM gameplay once they actually leave the spawn and you can attack them.(It's worth noting that around the same time that the code was added to make bots know how to use parachutes, Valve also added an undocumented "parachute_disable" attribute, plus a new "trigger_add_or_remove_tf_player_attributes" entity, both of which don't have any other existing purpose in the game as far as I know. So they could totally just put a trigger brush at the bottom of the bot spawn area, set it to give them the "parachute_disable" attribute, and it would accomplish what I'm describing.)Back in the Tough Break update, I dug up some stuff in the game code indicating that Mann Up contracts are something that was/is being considered at some point. Read this post for the details on what I found back then. What's new is that in the item schema update for the Meet Your Match update, they put in "mannup_points" fields for some of the MvM missions. Here's that portion of the item schema if you want to look at exactly what they did.All of the places where they added a "mannup_points" field, the value is 1. So I'm thinking that it'sa boolean (e.g. 1 = "this mission gives points", 0 = "this mission doesn't give points") sort of thing, rather than an actual numerical value (e.g. 1 = "this mission gives 1 point").Missions that were given "mannup_points" 1:Missions that weren't given "mannup_points" 1 (which is equivalent to it being 0):There's a pattern here: all of the missions with Intermediate or Expert difficulty were given "mannup_points" 1, and all missions with Normal/Advanced/Nightmare were not.So what they might be doing here is trying to come up with a way to do the usual sort of "easy objective / extra objective" two-level thing they like to do with contracts, by perhaps making "complete an Intermediate mission" be the easy objective and "complete an Expert mission" be the hard objective.It's funny to note that they gave "mannup_points" 1 to the two Intermediate missions which are not actually on Mann Up (the tour-less easy missions from the Two Cities maps). Nice work.Note that, as always, this doesn't necessarily have any bearing on how the final Mann Up contracts will work (if indeed they ever happen); Valve could change this stuff at any time.