Fistful of Frags News

Howdy partners, as you may guessed by now, FoF is like Covid19: seems like it may be gone forever one day... and the next is surprising you with a new feature ːsteamhappyː I'll talk today about some recent updates that bring an almost-new playarea and some fancy respawn system for Shootout modes.

[h2]FOF_NEST[/h2]
https://youtu.be/OQepn2iMmR4

We had a small version of this map, recreated as a nocturnal, 12 slots level from a former version originally made by Resi. There was some community interest in having some more night maps, so I decided to create a full version that adds undergrounds, a large elevator and a better crafted flow among other things. Hope you enjoy it.

Other maps also received small updates to improve navigation, respawn room, aesthetics or layout tweaks. The list may include: revenge, overtop, depot and impact. Be sure to check them out!


[h2]ONCE UPON A TIME, RESPAWNING IN THE WEST[/h2]


Respawns in FoF never resulted easy for anyone, except for the cheeky bastards that may have exploited the system to farm frags. I know who you are ːsteamfacepalmː This ain't a goddam joke, people should not only die in peace but respawn in peace too!

In my defence, FoF maps are too intricate and tight packed to just slap a "normal" respawn system and call it a day, so the old system tried really hard but it never came to the state that something so important should get. It also was performance hungry, as it involved many calculations to figure out walking distances. With all those issues in mind a better replacement wasn't that easy, so things kept going... until now.

The new system pre-generates such walk-based calculations so they aren't executed realtime, it's much lighter for servers out there. It controls all respawn points in real-time though, so this way it knows how dangerous is each respawn area and how much benefit could a player obtain from starting there (for instance: a near crate or being into a highly travelled area). There are several key gameplay related advantages from this approach:

[h3]almost instant[/h3] since the game already knows which spots are free at any time
[h3]more fair[/h3] as the system has memory it tries to even out advantages or disadvantages between each players' respawns. Check end game console stats to know such details.
[h3]less repetitive[/h3] saves you from visiting the same locations because it tracks all pasts respawns for each player and weights them along other variables.



However, the new system requires some fine-tuning to correct certain issues that may arise after the automatic pre-generation phase, so if you notice enemies too close from your respawn point make a capture and post it on our boards. Also check this respawn bug catching contest out!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2082863666

Bringing-back a classic version of one of the core maps - "Robert Lee".
That is the side-wheeler steam-ship map.
We always liked the older version of the map from earlier-on in the game's history.
Weasel found an old copy of the map, extracted it, did some re-packaging tweaks on it, and renamed it to avoid any conflict with the current stock version.
Fully tested and now uploaded across all following servers:

[F+M] Two-Team / Dual-Faction
162.248.88.40:6311, or
Games.FreaksMisfits.club:6311

[F+M] Three-Team / Tri-Faction
162.248.88.40:6313, or
Games.FreaksMisfits.club:6313

[F+M] Four-Team / Quad-Faction
162.248.88.40:6315, or
Games.FreaksMisfits.club:6315

[h3]Additional Notes:[/h3]

• Players may use the !soundoff to disable custom music playback.
  
• Updated the map rotation for each server to be 50% fof_robertlee_goty and 50% rotating other stock maps.
  
• Stay tuned for more since more custom maps may be upcoming on his community servers.
  

Howdy! Around October 22 update things started to change, quite a lot. Let me list the meaty part of them:



These changes focus mostly on Shootout/Team Shootout and their variants. If they could be summarized, I guess the intention here is to bring some more diversity to the table while limiting certain underlying issues. Predominant tactics make games stale, more predictable, over the time. These defects could be appreciated in FoF in the form of: all over jump-kicking, left handed revolvers and 1-shot weapons.


This maneuver isn't wrong by itself, it's just bad because lag and how internet things work. Multiplayer games try to convince you that other players are where you see them on your screen, but they aren't, they are generally closer than they appear so they can hit you from relatively far away due lag and false perception. Duck-jump makes this issue worse, by making you completely defenseless while the other player gets a minimal risk at doing this action.

So these recent changes made things a bit harder in this regard by limiting forward push and giving players the option to back at higher speed. Do you think it is too much, too little, well, I tried to make my point.

There also was big speed loss over certain things as multiple jumps or receiving damage, specially from shotguns.Those limitations have been reduced as became unnecessary now due other changes (jump) or because they give too much significance to first attack.


Left-handed gave a 30% accuracy bonus at the expense of having terrible dual-wield accuracy. The thing is accuracy is mostly preferred over dual-wield, so other handgun skills were irrelevant for the most part. The changes make things less white-black, as left-handed still gives the quickest time to stop and shoot, while right-handed can be used for a more fluid movement, and fanning skill gives a sensation of uncontrolled power that I personally like to use from time to time.

Walking allows you to shoot semi-accurately without stopping completely. I think it simply was too good, too easy, too limiting in the diversify department. Changes make it only usable for very close range, but still is feasible.


Previous scale gave 4 points to top tier weapons and 15 to fists. The gap was simply too wide, if you wanted to score there wasn't much of a point in getting even mid-tier weapons. I don't even think top tier weapons were so "over the top" anyway, even Walker isn't invincible.

New scale starts at 9 points and ends at 20, so the respective order doesn't change much. It's just stock tier weapons may give a 50% bonus over top tier instead 100%. There are a few attacks that got lower or higher compared to previous scale, for instance: kicks reward less, smaller guns and melee throws reward a bit better.


Removing Schofield and Smith from stock selection on team enabled Shootout/Elimination was a hard decision, not because they belong there but there was a point in making certain mid-tier weapons more available as there was some initial concern regards how players could access to better weapons. Since chest system was revamped that concern isn't there anymore. Getting weapons that grant an edge from the start seems illogical regarding player progression, yet I still see reasons to keep Schofield at least.

Sawed-off shotgun got a small boost, this is a problematic weapon because no one really uses it when it's a tad underpowered, and once you bump it a bit then becomes an annoyance. Well, I've seen it worse.

Bow got a tiny rate of fire boost and higher damage from close, nothing huge but it felt like a small boost would make it better.

Removal of whiskey jug is easy to explain. Team Shootout may feature teams but isn't a mode for teamplay, jug didn't offer any significant advantage for the player using it and I couldn't see one other than self-healing. So it was a bit alien among other perks.

And Yellowboy, this is a major change aimed towards those who like to snipe. The problem with Smith carbine was that it was good as basic sniper but also pretty good for close combat. The weapon in itself fills a niche that is alright, it's just there shouldn't be such stock weapon that offers this wide range of attacks. Yellowboy as is now allows some decent midrange options, but it gets lot of riskier when moving into rooms and small corridors. So it feels better, a small gripe is its excessive clip, it would be better with 10 rounds max let's say.


Fistful of Frags never got stale in its 11 years history I don't think it should get as long it stays alive. This recent changes made the game richer in many aspects, and more fair too. Your complaints may be right too, and things may still change over the time to alleviate future issues.

Howdy! There's no shortage of news these days, good news fortunately. The FoF community keeps producing content and creating new venues for competitive gaming, and it should be known. I'll present you a new weapon -already available- and an initiative to keep the competitive spirit alive.


If you ever wanted a small and blazing fast revolver in Fistful of Frags, this is for you. Relatively cheap and underpowered, Hammerless is great as secondary handgun, but more radical players may attempt to use it as primary attack.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1545377138
https://youtu.be/bqzt0p3Ww1c
Full update notes



FFA Shootout didn't get much love competitively speaking, until now. Here's a few highlights of the 1st tournament, played recently. Check the FoFCL community group for more info.

This is also a bit older news, but as you can see, game was taking place in a official map called Impact, created by Resi and added to game this past summer. Also worth to check!

https://youtu.be/0flskSRPoVg
Link to the full game (note this was taken from a SourceTV demo which may present certain flaws)

Howdy partners, as it's tradition, Halloween themed maps and game mode "Ghost Town" have been added to the base game for a limited time. This year's update comes with two additional levels, gt_overtop and gt_nest. Don't miss the chance to play!


For those new or that may have forgotten, Ghost Town is a variation of our classic Team Shootout mode that brings a few important combat and navigation related additions as:

Wild wild butt-jumping charge
Refill your charge meter drinking potion from cauldrons or bottles dropped by dead players, when bar is full you'll enter in a special 'butt-jumping' movement mode and two revolvers that need no reload are granted.

Ghost sawed-off shotgun
This gun causes little damage but allows players to propel themselves by jumping and then shooting at near surfaces (as walls or ground). Note that you'll have to aim at the opposite direction you want to move. It'll also eject enemies when shot from close.

Ghost Gun can be obtained from golden skulls, and those spawn from thunder strikes.

Ghosts
These free roaming ghosts may be a tad annoying but do not cause any trouble. However, they can be farmed to get free potions when killed. Ghosts only die to explosives or fire.