Valve is currently "plugging away" at the ninth and final (maybe) class update for Team Fortress 2, giving every defensive player's favorite class, the Engineer, a batch of unlockable weapons and buildings. How's it goin'?
Brandon Reinhart from Valve writes in great detail about one of the developer's failures thus far, the now aborted Repair Node. Reinhart explains why the Repair Node—a building unit that automatically repaired other building units within range—didn't make the cut. Oh, it's an extensive update, but the short of it is that it was never quite balanced, detracted from the Engineer's other reliable building units and was simply "too heavy-handed a solution" for the class's main problem, his attachment to his base.
A damn fine read if you want to learn more about how things go down at Valve, but, even better, a positive sign that Team Fortress 2's next update is that much closer.
Dammit dammit dammit dammit! [Team Fortress Blog]


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