We've been getting some emails asking a lot of the same questions answered on the Mann-Conomy F.A.Q., so we thought we'd go ahead and send the link around again for those who missed it.

One of the interesting side effects of shipping free updates for Team Fortress 2 over the years has been a large and devoted group of people who write us asking if they can simply buy game items directly. We also get regular feedback from the bean counters on our fourth floor, who -- after watching with tooth-grinding irritation as we shipped over 120 free updates to a three-year-old game -- gently suggested that we "make some f$*&ing money already."

Then it hit us: it'd make everybody happy if we really DID let players buy items directly. Players'd be happy because we actually listened to them for once, and the bean counters would be happy because in-game stores are the future of everything, including making some f$*&ing money already.

<a href="http://www.teamfortress.com/mannconomy"><img src="http://www.teamfortress.com/images/posts/mannconomy_update.jpg" width="420" height="282" border="0"></a>

Flash forward a few months, and we're proud to introduce the <a href="http://www.teamfortress.com/mannconomy">in-game Mann Co. Store</a>. And, because we'd hate to satisfy the bean counters completely, we've decided community item contributors will get paid based on the sales of their items. So you can make some f$*&ing money already too.

Now, I'm sure you have dozens of questions, so just this once we put together a nifty <a href="http://www.teamfortress.com/mannconomy/FAQ">F.A.Q.</a> Of course the best way to find out more is to fire up the game yourself and check out the new Mann Co. Store for yourselves!

One of the interesting side effects of shipping free updates for Team Fortress 2 over the years has been a large and devoted group of people who write us asking if they can simply buy game items directly. We also get regular feedback from the bean counters on our fourth floor, who -- after watching with tooth-grinding irritation as we shipped over 120 free updates to a three-year-old game -- gently suggested that we "make some f$*&ing money already."

Then it hit us: it'd make everybody happy if we really DID let players buy items directly. Players'd be happy because we actually listened to them for once, and the bean counters would be happy because in-game stores are the future of everything, including making some f$*&ing money already.



Flash forward a few months, and we're proud to introduce the in-game Mann Co. Store. And, because we'd hate to satisfy the bean counters completely, we've decided community item contributors will get paid based on the sales of their items. So you can make some f$*&ing money already too.

Now, I'm sure you have dozens of questions, so just this once we put together a nifty F.A.Q. Of course the best way to find out more is to fire up the game yourself and check out the new Mann Co. Store for yourselves!

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Team Fortress 2

• 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 (CS:S, DoD:S, TF2, HL2:DM)

• 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"
  

Other Games

• Half-Life 2: Deathmatch
  
  • Updated to run on the Orange Box engine with CS:S, DoD:S, and TF2
    

<a href="http://www.teamfortress.com/bidwells_big_plan/"><img src="http://www.teamfortress.com/images/posts/saxton_smash.jpg" width="420" height="485" border="0"></a>
<br /><br />

Updates to Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source and Day of Defeat: Source have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Source Engine Changes (CS:S, DoD:S, TF2)

• Optimizations to multi-core rendering
  
• Removed -heapsize command line argument. Some detail: This command made sense in Half-Life 1’s memory manager. The current engine manages memory in a way that doesn’t need it specified. Under some circumstances, specifying a non-optimal heapsize causes crashes and/or reduced performance
  
• Fixed an exploit that allowed people to send fake VAC messages to clients
  

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Engine (CS:S, DoD:S, TF2)

• Fixed clients locking up while attempting to load the game and re-enabled signature checking
  

Team Fortress 2

• Fixed a case where some items would display an empty string for their name
  

Updates to Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source and Day of Defeat: Source have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Source Engine Changes (CS:S, DoD:S, TF2)

• Disabled signature checking to determine if it's the source of some reported launch issues
  

Updates to Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source and Day of Defeat: Source have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Source Engine Changes (CS:S, DoD:S, TF2)

• Disabled clients loading server plug-ins unless the plug-ins are signed by Steam or the client is running in insecure mode.
  
• Added a checkbox to the Options->Audio dialog to control muting the audio when the game window is in the background.
  

Counter-Strike: Source

• Fixed crash in custom maps using the trigger_camera entity.
  

Team Fortress 2

• Fixed another bug in the Steamworks internal stats reporting.
  
• Updated the localization files.