Scream Fortress VIII has arrived!
All servers have been restarted.








--------------------------------------------------

Scream Fortress VIII has arrived!
- Featuring 3 new community maps: Brimstone, Pit of Death, and Maple Ridge Event
- Added the Creepy Crawly Case
- Contains 22 new community-created items that make-up the Creepy Crawly Collection
- Has a chance to give one of 3 community-created Halloween-restricted items as a bonus item
- Has a chance to give a taunt Unusualifier as a bonus item
- Added a taunt Unusualifier
- A new tool that will Unusualify the specified taunt with the Unusual effect listed in the tool's description
- Can be found as a random bonus item when opening a Creepy Crawly Case
- Added two new taunts to the Mann Co. Store
- Taunt: The Victory Lap
- Taunt: Second Rate Sorcery (community-created)
- Added 8 new community-created Unusual effects
- 4 new effects for Unusual hats
- 4 new effects for Unusual taunts
- Continue last year's event by collecting the souls of dead players for your Soul Gargoyle by killing enemies, doing map objectives, or collecting the Soul Gargoyles that spawn in the maps
- Join Halloween matches by selecting the "Halloween" category in Casual
- Scream Fortress VIII runs through November 9th, 2016

During Scream Fortress VIII
- All players who launch the game will receive a Soul Gargoyle if they don't already have one from last year's event
- Grants access to Merasmissions and Halloween item transmutations
- Tracks Merasmissions completed and souls collected
- Added 3 new Merasmissions for the featured maps
- Completing a Merasmission will give players a classic Halloween item and the chance for a Creepy Crawly Case
- The chance to receive an Unusual item from a case opening has been increased during the event
- All cases and Mann Co. Supply Crates will grant Halloween 2016 Unusual effects instead of their normal Unusual effects

Matchmaking
- The Competitive maps list has been updated
- Added pl_badwater and ctf_turbine
- Disabled cp_granary and cp_badlands
- Maps will continue to enter and exit this list over time
- Added "Load Saved Settings" and "Save Current Settings" buttons to the Casual mode Map Selection menu
- Search criteria is now manually saved to give players more control over the default settings when the game is launched
- XP earned in Casual matches has been adjusted to reward players more for their personal contribution to the match
- XP per point has returned to 6.5 XP per point
- XP earned for match completion and objective completion now scales based on your score relative to total amount of points scored by everyone in the match
- Increased the matchmaker's priority of matches with imbalanced teams
- This should reduce the occurrence of extended imbalanced matches when multiple players leave

General
- Added the AsiaFortress Cup Season 10 tournament medals
- Added LBTF2 6v6 Season 13 tournament medals
- Improved several aspects of texture handling for OS X and Linux clients
- This should reduce the rate of "Out of memory" errors for players on high texture settings, especially on level change
- Players still encountering this error can reduce texture quality to medium or lower to greatly improve stability pending further improvements
- Fixed a missing material issue on cp_sunshine
- Fixed players not taking damage when exploding as a bombhead without stunning Merasmus
- Fixed Mann vs. Machine zombies not using the correct skin in Ghost Town outside of the Halloween event
- Fixed a bug with the vote-kick timer in Mann vs. Machine mode
- Fixed taunts not restoring the proper weapon when the taunts are finished
- Fixed the Pomson 6000 playing the shotgun reload sound
- Updated the sounds made when the Scout shoves someone while using the Shortstop
- Updated some Merasmus audio files that weren't playing properly
- Updated the localization files

Restarting all servers







--------------------------------------------------

- Players will now be randomly selected to participate in a survey at the end of Casual and Competitive matches
- Ongoing improvements to the matchmaking backend to improve match quality and reduce wait times
- Fixed air-blasts sometimes sending deflected projectiles in random directions when the Pyro is close to enemy players
- Fixed a case where players joining community bootcamp servers via the server-browser could not select a team
- Reduced the rate at which players can earn bonus points for extinguishing teammates
- Fixed a case where players could use the Halloween teleport spell to get outside the map
- Updated the localization files
- Community requests
- Fixed Merasmus not being stunned by bomb-head players on community Halloween maps
- Added the ability for community Halloween maps to call a truce during a Monoculus or Merasmus fight
- Can be set via the game rules entity using the SetMapForcedTruceDuringBossFight input
- Fixed energy weapons not hitting pumpkin bombs, Merasmus props, and RD robots
- Mann vs. Machine update
- Fixed the Sentry Buster sound being orphaned if the Sentry Buster detonates while invulnerable
- Fixed zombies not using the correct skin in Ghost Town
- Updated cp_snakewater_final1
- Changes based on community feedback
- Updated pl_millstone_event
- Updated bot navigation file, bots now use all routes, won't get stuck so easily and are smarter
- Fixed woodpile spot where HHH could get stuck
- Improved clipping on wood piles
- Fixed missing rooftop texture
- Fixed a few props flashing at certain angles
- Fixed a spot in the last area where you could place stickies underground
- Fixed Monoculus not getting stunned when hit by players exiting purgatory
- Updated cp_sunshine
- Blockbulleted spiral staircase on the back of second
- Added medium ammo to mid near choke
- Removed clipping over wooden arch going into second from valley
- Reduced the size of the wooden arch
- Blockbulleted a few undersides of staircases on last that could catch projectiles
- Removed a ladder on last

Restarting all servers









------------------------------------------------------------

- Fixed the Short Circuit causing lag compensation problems on the server
- Fixed sappers sometimes only being applied to one Engineer teleporter
- Weapons can no longer be juggled to bypass the weapon's re-fire rate
- Fixed a server crash related to sending an invalid client command
- Fixed players being able to teleport out of the spawn room using the Eureka Effect at the beginning of a round
- Fixed Mann vs. Machine players receiving abandon penalties after playing at least one wave
- Fixed Refill Ammo canteens not refilling the ammo for all weapons in Mann vs. Machine
- Fixed mini-sentries not having full health when they are built quickly during the setup time on Mann vs. Machine maps
- Fixed the scoreboard badge panels not updating properly when teams would change sides on attack/defend maps
- Fixed Casual and Competitive mode badges incorrectly displaying the level 1 badge when at max level
- Updated the materials for the Mistaken Movember to fix a transparency problem
- Updated the model for the Pretty Boy's Pocket Pistol to fix a problem with shading
- Updated the Frontier Justice so the "Revenge crits are lost on death" attribute is displayed as a negative
- Strange Part: Allies Extinguished can now be applied to Strange Sydney Sleeper rifles
- Added the Tip of the Hats 2016 community event medals
- Updated the Salty Dog to hide the Scout's headphones
- Fixed the Borneo map stamp using the incorrect image in the Mann Co. Store
- Fixed the game not properly honoring the steam per-game language setting
- Fixed a bug with the Cow Mangler 5000 reload speed
- Updated the localization files

Restarting all servers





------------------------------------------------------------

- Added "Party Hat" and "Noise Maker - TF Birthday" item grants to players who don't already have them during TF2's birthday
- Fixed some classes not displaying the particles when using the "Noise Maker - TF Birthday" item

Restarting all servers










------------------------------------------------------------

- Fixed map objectives (e.g. flags, capture points, carts) sometimes
becoming unresponsive in Casual Mode games
- Fixed a case where players could be late-joined into games playing a
map that they didn't have selected
- Updated the tooltips for the Sticky and Rocket Jumper to include the
PASS Time JACK in the list of items that can't be picked up while they
are equipped
- More fixes and improvements to weapon viewmodels when using
wider/larger weapon field-of-view settings