TF2's Heavy class to get new upgrade

By Robert Purchese Published 3 July, 2008

Valve seeking inspiration from gamers.

The next Team Fortress 2 class to be given some new toys will be the Heavy, and Valve wants your help to dream up ideas.

"The next class pack will focus on the Heavy," said Robin Walker, TF2 designer, on the official game blog. "For the Medic and Pyro packs we kept our goals for the pack pretty close to our chest, but for the Heavy we've decided to open up the process a little.

"Our hope is that you'll get a better insight into how we approach design problems, and have some fun thinking about the problem yourself."

Robin Walker outlines your goal as making the Heavy "more viable" when there is no Medic around the pair up with. The Heavy, in case you had forgotten, is the enormous mini-gun wielding brute.

The changes shouldn't "significantly" alter the role of the Heavy, we're told, nor result in a Medic and Heavy pairing becoming super-powered.

There's lots of points worth considering in the post by Robin Walker; those of you familiar with the Heavy and how he works will clearly be at a bit of an advantage.

Previously the Medic and the Pyro classes have been given additional weapons you can unlock by earning class achievements. The Pyro was recently treated to a Flare Gun that set enemies on fire from long range but requires significant accuracy, for instance.

It also got an axe that produces critical hits on enemies ablaze, but is much weaker on non-flaming opponents. The third weapon was a flamethrower that does double damage on those with their backs turned to you.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (20) Latest comment 4 years ago

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  • dsmx #1 4 years ago

    I don't see how it's possible to make the heavy better at fighting alone and not give them a huge advantage when a medic heals them, which seems to be what valve are aiming for.

  • a8a #2 4 years ago

    The key here is that it shouldnt give them a BIGGER advantage than they already have when a medic heals them. Of course 2 players together are always going to be at a significant advantage.

  • Dynamize #3 4 years ago

    After the Pyro update, which included the glaring bug of the backburner not actually working properly (checking only once to see if an enemy's back was to the player), I think I'd prefer it if they didn't bother, at least for a while. They seem to be rushing them out, compromising quality control.

    I love playing Heavy. When they release this crumby content, every bugger and his dog'll be Heavy for a couple of weeks, farming the sodding all-important achievements. Load of piss.

  • dsmx #4 4 years ago

    A patch was just released to fix that glaring problem with the backburner

  • DFawkes #5 4 years ago

    The only thing I can think of is having a more powerful gun if you're not being healed, and weakened if you are. Even that would cause a bit of misbalance.

  • Cpt_Fluffy #6 4 years ago

    dsmx: but regardless of the patch coming later, there was a weekend of 80% of players using an obviously bugged weapon to farm achievements (and unlocks). And that's not cool.

  • Xeaon #7 4 years ago

    Hmm. Heavy already seems incredibly powerful at close range, they can melt my soldier near instantly now. Sure it never used to be like that :(

  • Rirekon #8 4 years ago

    1. The time between updates is no indication of when or how long any given update has been in production. They don't finish one update and then start the next.

    2. Can't wait, with the Pyro update I got a load of kills as Engineer, this update will give me plenty of Spy practice heh

  • DFawkes #9 4 years ago

    I like the idea jstar. Then you'd be forced to work more in unison with a medic, having him only heal you when you're pointing in the right direction. You could still hold choke points and bases, but couldn't charge around mowing everyone down.

  • Tuffty #10 4 years ago

    I'm new to Team Fortress 2 and just want to know if these upgrades are implemented to the console versions at all, (I have the 360 version of The Orange Box) or is it just PC only? Cause I haven't seen at any time the opportunity to download an update, although it mentioned in the article that Pyro's can do double damage to anyone with their backs turned to them, and I swear last night I used the flamethrower with someone's back to me and I scored a long number of successive critical hits.

    Or has that always been the case, and I'm showing off my noobish knowledge of the game? :)

  • Danoxth #11 4 years ago

    Quicker turn rate is what I'd imagine they'll go for. I'm just dreading the "Spy" update >.

  • Krelle #12 4 years ago

    lolz, jstar solved it.

  • Nithron #13 4 years ago

    Hmm.. Perhaps some kind of riot shield could work. While equipped, it reduces damage taken from the front, but still lets people hit you with full damage from the sides and the back. Plus, it's inpenetrable to medic beams, so they could only heal you from the same directions everyone can shoot you from.

  • Crovax20 #14 4 years ago

    meh, probably going to be another crit happy update. Valve are slowly killing the game imho. I hope my clan will host TF2 without weapon unlocks soon.

  • Sorbicol #15 4 years ago

    I'm not convinced that there is much change for the heavy tbh. Maybe he could duel wield a less powerful but more accurate rifle or something, but I'm not sure what else there is.

  • Mudo #16 4 years ago

    jstar's idea is not viable - the challenge is to come up with new equipment or weapons which would be unlocked similar to the Pyro and Medic unlockables. Not just a patch to change the base character.
    It also has to be still worthwhile to choose to use the original weapons once you've unlocked the new ones.

  • stallion185 #17 4 years ago

    As Mudo said, the changes have to centre around the weapons and only take effect if a particular weapon is equipped.

    I guess an idea could be a new minigun that when equipped, the heavy can maintain his normal running speed whilst firing the weapon but at a reduced damage and/or crit rate.

    Or for the heavy's melee option (fists), maybe some brass knuckles could be added, which when used they could dish out increased damage compared to bare fists but perhaps hit at a lower or even non existant crit rate.

    Just ideas...
    Edited by stallion185 at 04/07/08 @ 02:04

  • cw- #18 4 years ago

    They're sooooooo going to add something that gives 100% crit, and I bet they do it for every class.

    I don't see how it's possible to make the heavy better at fighting alone and not give them a huge advantage when a medic heals them, which seems to be what valve are aiming for.
    And that's why you're not a game designer :p

  • subtlesnake #19 4 years ago

    How about a tripod mounted chaingun, with increased accuracy and fire rate, but carrying it reduces your health? You can still be healed by a medic, but you're more vulnerable because you're a stationary target and have less health.

  • sgtmchale #20 4 years ago

    I play the Heavy class a LOT. It happens to be my favorite class next to the Sniper class. The problem is that the pyro seems to have overcome the Heavy's original job, and that was the Mow Down class. People tend to use him as a meat shield more so than a "mow down" class, due to the pyro's new weapons, the pyro is often taking the place of the heavy's damage output.

    What the Heavy needs is a new main weapon that allows knock back. I'm imagining something like a hand carried vulcan auto cannon, it fires half the speed of the mini gun, but has the knock back capability of a a lvl 2 sentry. Not too powerful, less than the minigun but it gives a slight boost to the Heavy's health as compensation (say 350hp MAX!).

    His second weapon could be something simple, since the Heavy is all about "Heavy weapons" why not treat him to an Auto-shotgun. Damage is the same, but it fires faster than normal (thats it)

    His melee could be replaced with something that could lessen pojectil damage (NOT STOP IT). I know a lot might object, but what about a shield similar to Counterstrike Ground Zero. However to fix this "unstoppable wall" the heavy can take damage from any direction the shield is not facing. The other thing is since he is so big, (and unfortunatly there are no custom 6'4 tall shields) the shield only comes up from his knees to just under his shit collar. This exposes his upper shoulders, head (to snipers) and feet (allowing him to still be "juggled" by explosions)