A required update for Team Fortress 2 is now available. The specific changes include:

Engine (CS:S, DoD:S, TF2, HL2:DM)
- Removed the rate limit for the « status » command when entered into the server console.
- Fixed an exploit that allowed people to send fake server messages to clients.
- Significantly improved engine vertex compression (large reduction in per-model memory usage).

Team Fortress 2
- Added TF2Maps.net Art-pass contest winners:
– Mountain Lab
– Mann Manor
- Halloween 2010 Event
– Mann Manor is haunted by the Horseless Headless Horsemann.
– Random gift drop in Mann Manor.
– 4 new Halloween achievements.
– Added new Halloween hats.
– Added a new Halloween weapon.
- Added Gift Wrapping of gifts to the store.
- Added Custom Description tag to the store.
- Added the community created « Swamp Theme » assets, so all maps can use it:
– See http://swamp.tf2maps.net/ for full details.
- Updated cp_coldfront with the latest changes from the community creator (Icarus):
– Improved visibility on last CP.
– Moved second CP slightly closer to the attacker’s side.
– Added cover for players queuing up the health pack on the second CP.
– Improved clipping on the zig-zag ramp to middle CP.
– Teams that capture the middle CP are now awarded with faster spawn times.
- Added a health penalty to the Rocket Jumper.
- Added the Sticky Jumper for Demomen to practice jumping.
- Fixed the Sandvich charge meter.
- Fixed glows not drawing correctly when using antialiasing on some computers.
- Improved the checks that trigger mp_scrambleteams_auto.
- Added console commands to initiate trades directly (cl_trade/cl_trade_steamid) to help people running trading servers.

Jason

Required updates for Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch are now available. The specific changes include:

Shared changes (CS:S, DoD:S, HL2:DM, and TF2)
* ServerBrowser now sorts by ping by default once again.
* Fixed Mac crash on launch when running Mac OSX 10.5.8.
* Fixed spectator bug where spectating a Sniper looking through scope didn’t zoom fov.

Team Fortress 2
General Fixes
* Fixed an issue that caused some old demos to crash.
* The server browser now sorts by ping by default.
* The Trading dialog now starts with the chat window having focus.
* Fixed a bug that caused overheal to not work properly.
* Fixed the Sandvich cooldown not occurring when the Heavy is hurt.
* Fixed the Heavy’s hands being invisible.
* Soldiers no longer maintain their rage level when changing loadout.
* Alerts now sort on top of achievement status.
* Prevented a bad state occurring when someone tried to trade with themselves.
* Fixed a dueling related crash caused by custom scoreboard UIs.
* Fixed players not being able to set their default FOV correctly.
* Fixed being unable to equip customized shotguns & pistols on some classes.
* Improved the explanation of the item set bonus in set item descriptions.
* Fixed a bug where items with particle systems would show up at the player’s feet or pelvis.
* Fixed the wrench number for the Golden Wrench not displaying properly.
* Fixed the medal number for the Gentle Manne’s Service Medal not displaying properly.
* Fixed client seeing incorrect message when changing team while participating in a duel.

Economy Changes
* Added Remove Name and Remove Paint features.
* Achievement items and store promotion items are now usable in crafting.
* Gifted items are now craftable and tradable.
* Attempting to craft a non tradable item will result in a warning that the items produced by the craft will also be marked as non tradable.
* Community, Self-Made, and Valve items are not tradable or usable in crafting.
* Changed « Not Craftable » description to « Not Usable in Crafting » to increase clarity.

Item Changes
* The TF badge on the Glengarry Bonnet is no longer team colored.
* Restored the missing PDA2 Slot Token.
* Restored the appearance of the Tippler’s Tricorne to the version prior to the Mannconomy Update. This item is now paintable.
* Added a new paintable hat, the ‘Rimmed Raincatcher’ that has a new Tricorne style appearance.
* The Earbuds are now nameable.
* Duel fixes:
* Fixed Dueling badges using the wrong texture.
* Fixed an issue where dueling stats did not show up on dueling badges above Bronze.
* During a duel, the Dueling mini-game item used to initiate the duel cannot be deleted, traded or crafted.
* The following hats now allow the paint to affect their color more (colors should not be washed out):
* The Pugilist’s Protector, The Hard Counter, The Bombing Run, Football Helmet, Fancy Fedora, Cowboy Hat, Engineer’s Cap, Viking Helm, Respectless Rubber Glove, Batter’s Helmet, Brigade Helm, Master’s Yellow Belt, Killer’s Kabuto, Backbiter’s Billycock
* Dueling Mini-Game now drops with 5 uses.

Weapon Changes
* The Battalion’s Backup no longer gives rage for falling damage.
* The Shortstop is now affected by tf_use_fixed_weaponspreads.
* The Gloves of Running Urgently now using the boxing taunt and boxing glove weapons are now of the type « Boxing Gloves » instead of « Fists. »
* Your Eternal Reward no longer disguises the Spy if the victim survives the backstabbing attempt (because of Ubercharge, The Razorback, etc)
* Your Eternal Reward no longer disguises the Spy if they are carrying the flag.
* The Holy Mackerel no longer displays a fish hit message when a Spy disguised as the attacker’s team is hit.
* The Holy Mackerel no longer triggers other death events (like achievements or stats mods) improperly.
* The Sydney Sleeper no longer penetrates targets.
* The Sydney Sleeper no longer randomly crits.
* Milk will no longer spray from the barrels of other Scout weapons when switching from the Mad Milk.

TF2
———–
Added the Mann-conomy.
– Added 65 new items (hats, weapons, tools, minigames, gifts, crates).
– Added the Mann Co. Store & Catalog.
– Added Trading.
– Added Item customization.

Additional TF2 features:
– Added new auto-team-scramble system:
Set mp_scrambleteams_auto to 1 (default) to automatically scramble the teams if the criteria is met
Set mp_scrambleteams_auto_windifference to set the number of round wins a team must lead by in order to trigger an auto scramble (default is 2)
– Updated how Spy disguise targets are selected to more randomly distribute the selections
– Fixed the FreezePanel background not using the correct color if you were killed by a player or building on your own team
– Server browser tweaks:
It will now encourage you to add servers to Favorites or Blacklists after you have a good/bad experience on them.
The Server Browser now automatically closes after successfully connecting to a server (opt-out via the Options-Multiplayer->Advanced dialog)

Achievement tuning:
– Demoman achievement « The Stickening » changed to 3 from 5.
– Heavy achievement « Krazy Ivan » changed to 50 from 100.
– Medic achievement « Consultation » changed to 3 from 5.
– Medic achievement « Peer Review » changed to 10 from 50.
– Medic achievement « Placebo Effect » changed to 2 from from 5.
– Medic achievement « FYI I am A Medic » changed to 1 from 5.
– Medic achievement « Family Practice » changed to 5 from 10.
– Soldier achievement « Geneva Contravention » changed to 3 from 5.
– Scout achievement « Strike Zone » now counts assists.
– Scout achievements « Fall Classic » and « Foul Territory » are fixed.

Engine changes (CS:S, DoD:S, HL2:DM, and TF2)
———–
– Added sv_alltalk to the list of convars that are checked for the sv_tags list.
– Fixed a model instance crash.
– Removed engine ConVar « r_ForceRestore ».

Updates to Left 4 Dead 2 have been released. The major changes include:

*Addons*

– Client’s custom HUDs will be reloaded when changing between Official
and Non-official servers.

*GamePlay*

– Bullets that first pass through an infected character before striking a
Survivor are now ignored as friendly fire.
– Fix for survivors speaking The Passing Finale lines in other campaigns.

*Versus*

– Charger now receives 300 points for any Survivor that is insta-killed.
– Charger now receives 100 points for any Survivor that is insta-incapped
by a charge.
– Any infected that causes a Survivor to stumble into a « ledge hang »
situation will receive 50 points.

*Tank*

– Tanks go into a stasis when they spawn and leave stasis when the human
player takes over.
– Tanks in stasis are invisible but still show a glow to the infected
team.
– Tanks do not attack when they are in stasis.
– Tanks in stasis cannot be set on fire or damaged.

*SDK Tools*

– Fixed crash whenever a VMT was loaded in L4D2 tools mode.

A required update to Team Fortress 2 is now available. Please run hldsupdatetool to receive the update. The specific changes include:

Engine:
– Increased the resilience of client/server data table mismatches when playing back demos. This will make most old demo files playable again, but with potential visual side effects.

Team Fortress 2:
– Updated CP_Coldfront
– Added map to the default mapcycle and motd files.
– Fixed a server crash issue related to increased maxplayer servers.
– Fixed a couple Engineer building exploits.
– Updated the localization files.
– Improved the performance of the critboost particle effect.
– Fixed a server crash related to carrying buildings at round start.
– Fixed players picking up buildings before a round has started.
– Fixed an exploit where Engineers could create level 3 mini-sentries.

Team Fortress 2

– Fixed an exploit that allowed Engineers to build level 2/3 mini sentries.
– Fixed a bug that allowed sapped buildings to be picked up by the Engineer.
– Fixed a bug where Wrangled level 3 sentryguns would still fire rockets when they were out of ammo.
– Fixed a bug where players would go into reference poses when switching classes while carrying a building.
– Fixed seeing the changeclass label in the spectator HUD when using cl_hud_minmode.
– The amount of revenge crits a player can have at one time is now capped at 35.
– The Wrangler no longer shows the shotgun’s ammo count.
– Engineers can no longer pick up buildings while stunned or in loser state.
– Fixed Engineer shotgun and piston not using team skins for the Engineer’s arms.
– Fixed an issue where Wrangled sentrygun effects wouldn’t be attached to the sentrygun.
– The Gunslinger 3 hit combo now only increments the combo count when hitting enemy players.
– Fixed a crash in the control point progress bar.
– Fixed a server crash in the player death code, related to building carrying.
– Fixing performance spikes that occur at round start, and after each point capture, when TFBots are present in the server.
– Achievement fixes:
– The « Rio Grind » achievement limit is now correctly set to 50.
– Fixed a typo in Six-String Stinger achievement name.
– Fixed a bug in the « Death Metal » achievement that caused it to rapidly complete itself.
– Fixed getting the Six-String Stinger achievement without playing the guitar.
– Fixed sentrygun detection code in « Best Little Slaughterhouse in Texas » and « Deputized ».
– Missed notes from yesterday’s release:
– New response rules and sounds added for some classes

Required update for Team Fortress 2 and Day of Defeat: Source are now available. The updates to Counter-Strike: Source are optional. The specific changes include:

Engine:
– Fixed client crash related flashlight usage.
– Fixed several issues related to alt-tabbing (invisible players, etc).

Team Fortress 2:
– Added The Frontier Justice.
– Added The Wrangler.
– Added The Gunslinger.
– Added The Southern Hospitality.
– Added 35 Engineer achievements.
– Engineers can now pickup & move their buildings.
– Added Engineer main menu music.
– Added 4 new maps:
– Thunder Mountain, a 3 stage Payload map.
– Hightower, a Payload Race map.
– Upward, a Payload map.
– ColdFront, a community built Capture Point map.
– Item tuning:
– The Sandvich now uses a cooldown timer, instead of the health pack recharge mechanic.
– The Gunboats now reduce self-damage by 60% (was 75%)
– The Tribalman’s Shiv bleed duration reduced to 6 second (was 8), and its damage penalty increased to 50% (was 35%).
– Added better feedback sound for Pyros on when their flamethrower is doing damage.
– Fixed blood effect on bleeding player.
– Added a glow effect to Payload carts.
– Added Romanian language support.

From Jason Ruymen

A required update for Team Fortress 2 is now available. Please run hldsupdatetool to receive it. The specific changes include:

Added new community weapons and hats.
Updated CP_Gorge
– Added nobuilds to the awnings outside BLU’s forward spawn to preventing players building up there.
– More clip work and model collision work based on community feedback.
– Fixed BLU forward spawn door appearing through roof.
Updated PLR_Pipeline
– Added new stairwell in Stage 1 and window access to both teams’ platforms by main choke point to help alleviate stalemates.
– Reverted the starting position for the cart in Stage 3 if a team had won the first 2 stages to where you no longer get a big cart-start-position advantage.
– Fixed rare cases where stage would break when cart had no nearby capper(s).
– Fixed carts not always moving to their starting locations correctly.
– Fixed respawn times in Stage 3 not being set to the proper values.
– Fixed the map not finishing correctly in Stage 3 if the two teams capture the final point at the same time.
Removed sv_showhitboxes to avoid players confusing it with the method by which we do hit detection (see http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Source_Multiplayer_Networking for info)

Jason

From Jason Ruymen

Required updates for Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike: Source Beta are now available. Please run hldsupdatetool to receive the updates. The specific changes include:

Engine:
- Improved crash reporting system to enable more detailed crash reports
- Fixed a client crash caused by a buffer overflow while processing temp entities

Counter-Strike: Source Beta:
- blabla on s’en cogne

Team Fortress 2:
- Fixed a case where the Spy could start taunting and cloak at the same time
Flamethrower changes:
– Increased base damage 10%
– Afterburn duration increased (from 6 to 10)
– Flares that hit a burning player at mid-to-long range will crit
– Reduced Backburner damage bonus from 20% to 15%

Jason