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Ah, ive been getting a weird bug where i occasionally get crit rockets on match servers and thought it might be something similair

Quoted from Bontsa

I’ve heard about some sort of downloadable fix that makes CowM. projectiles back to normal particle effect mayhem as they were, but is using this kind of things legit? Sorry that I dont have any links to provide in this case, but its just something I’ve heard when not paying attention to it.

That is correct. It won’t be usable in a competitive setting though.

This is the update history of the Cow Mangler effects:

July 22: Optimized many particle effects related to the Cow Mangler 5000.
September 15: Updated the particle effects for the Cow Mangler 5000 and the Righteous Bison.
October 27: Updated effects for The Cow Mangler 5000.

As infinite12 said, whatever lag or projectile problems we’ve had might be fixed (or will be in the future seeing as they keep updating it).

The Enforcer.
It has no negative when used with the Dead Ringer, and still proves itself to be a bit too powerful.

Possibly the Reserve Shooter.
It has too many bugs. For example, if a Pyro were to airblast someone downward while they were on the ground, the Reserve Shooter will still minicrit them until they jump into the air and hit the ground again. Also something about stairs.

The Detonator.
You can switch weapons while the flare is flying, allowing it to crit burning players, as opposed to minicrit.

No other weapons have bugs or exploits as loud as these Pyro weapons. The Spy’s Enforcer is simply too powerful, and you can easily negate the only negative by being a semi-competent Dead Ringer.

just so you know, we are looking into these weapons but awaiting feedback from the first week before making any decisions.

Quoted from bpc908

leave all weapons unbanned. Have a nice normal TF2 match.

+1

Quoted from Tehgnarr

Enforcer – way, waaay 2stronk. Give the spy a scattergun, why dont ya.

Scattergun with at least 40, up to 70 damage per shot. And perfectly accurate shots (I remember to be told that bullet spread doesn’t affect Spy primaries when there’s “fixed spread”?) Who needs to get to melee range anymore when Spy can now often 2-hit kill Medic from medium distance anyway :’DD

Screw helping Engineer out as Pyro, gotta spycheck every single spot within medium to medium-long range around Medic 150% of the time :3

Also whats all this commotion about Wrangler .__. It’s shield is bit too much yes but in the end of the day I think it’s the best unlock for Engineer so far, almost only thing that makes him useful in tense combat and defense situations.

Quoted from infinite12

Current UGC bans-

1. Reserve Shooter – Remember how bugged the direct hit was when it first came out? This weapon shares similar bugs in that crits are given to people who jump, who fall off cliffs, and who are simply standing on staircases higher than the player with the reserve shooter. It is absolutely bugged and we have contacted valve about fixing it.

2. The Enforcer – This is the only weapon we have banned because it is Overpowered. This weapon has zero real drawbacks (0.5 sec cloak delay is negligible at best). From our experience when this is allowed spies become battle spies and resemble Clint Eastwood rather than a silent stealth ninja like Jackie Chan..wait that one doesnt work. This weapon totally changes the roll of the spy. Why attempt backstabs when you can 2 sot someone?

3. Cow Mangler 5000 – This one is currently being looked at again since the graphics were changed a few patches ago. We may allow this in the future.

4. Machina – A fully charged shot travels through ubered players. No other weapon in the game shoots through ubers so we feel this is a bug even though a small one.

5. Detonator – A quickswitch bug exists that bypasses the mini-crit and delivers a full crit. This is bugged and we have contacted valve about switching.

Besides the (now outdated) ban on the Cow Mangler, I think UGC unlock rules really nailed it, especially in their decision to ban the Enforcer.

There are also some issues with the Bombonomicon. Much like the old Cow Mangler effects, the explosions cause severe framerate drops if triggered in succession.

It is an item intended for mere amusement value, but it’s also a free upgrade for dead ringer spies, as it removes all telltale signs by destroying the corpse and sending the fake weapon flying.

Last but not least, the massive colorful explosions during fights are both distracting and annoying to the extreme.

Quoted from Selek

The Bombinomicon is allowed, right? Essentially, it is a misc. anti-Spy gadget. By the huge explosion people who don’t listen to the loud scream of the backstabbed character (or player ;) ) will SEE the exploding teammate and immediately know of the Spy behind them. Even worse, YER backstabs are not silent at all, provided a Spy uses it, of course. Spying against a well-communicating team is hard enough even without it, so please consider disallowing it.

The question is what do we make out of misc items. The sign-ups for the highlander season started on the 16th of October.
And the rules say:

2.2.1 All Current Unlocks allowed. Unlocks released during the season are banned.

All unlocks are currently allowed. Weapons that are released after sign-ups for the season opened, will be banned for the duration of the season.

The Bombinomicon was included into the game on the 27th, so during the sign-ups. The rules also name unlocks, but later on it says weapons.
Under 2.2.2 it also says:

All other hats and misc items are allowed.

Which would include the Bombinomicon then. So yeah, have teams agree on it? Have a poll? Allow it on base of the rules or ban it on base of the rules?
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