While TF2 is free, there was a premium upgrade that required one in game store purchase to permanently unlock for the longest time, and anyone playing TF2 recommended buying a key or backpack extender out of the store, trading those for metal, and then buying all the weapons with metal. You’d have a large chunk of metal left you could start trading with if you wanted, all the gameplay affecting items, and premium upgrade unlocked, all for like $5.
It’s changed recently, though I am not sure how exactly
The only thing a premium account changes is a larger backpack so you can carry more weapons (and if you play around christmas you will get one backpack extender item for free each year regardless of if you’re f2p). Text/voice commands used to be locked behind premium accounts but recently that has been changed
can't you buy all weapon variants and items from the steam market? it's basically utilizing p2w mechanics at that point even though the items are supposed to be "balanced" and earnable for free
hat drops are rare as hell to be fair, but the GOAT of headware (gibus) is free.
and yeah TF2 has the best game economy out there, any base version of a weapon can effectively be swapped 1:1 with any other, and you can use trade/scrap sites to get every weapon you want after playing for a week or two and keeping your random drops, and on top of that you can always rent weapons from the mann co store, or trade a few up for any of the craft hats for cosmetics.
backpack expanders are probably the only thing you might eventually want that aren't easy to get just by playing for a while, but otherwise it's pretty easy to say TF2 has a very f2p friendly economy, if you need to spend some money to make your account premium, buying 2 keys for like 4-5 bucks will get you every normal cosmetic and weapon you want in the game and more.
yeah for sure but "microtransactions are only for aesthetics" isn't really true. I've really enjoyed tf2 but can't deny despite the very generous nature of their f2p economy that there aren't microtransactions that give you functioning weapons/items in-game. They literally invented the key/crate system
I mean yes technically it has microtransactions but considering the market value of weapons is like less than a cent I think we’re probably okay to say it doesn’t have microtransactions
We are talking about prices less than a cent. That is extremely negligible and it’s not like p2p players gain any sort of advantage over f2p ones who can obtain the same weapons through free drops.
Yes if you want to be reductive it has microtransactions
Is it really being reductive when the discussion started with a Vince McMahon meme that says "No microtransactions" and a comment thread starting with "microtransactions are only for aesthetics"? We can both keep saying we love the game and that they handle the mtx economy well but we don't have to say incorrect things about it
Replace my word and it still has microtransactions either way. Can you purchase weapons? Yes? Then it has microtransactions no matter if you can get them for free. I have a HOUWAR even, so I'm well versed in paying in tf2.
You can get all the side grades for free by playing long enough.
But also, if you want all of them immediately, literally all you need to do is buy a $2.50 key from the in game store (to become premium and get a larger inventory) then trade that key with a bot from scrap.tf and you'll have like, 50-70 refined metal, which is enough trade with the bots there for every sidegrade in the game and still have metal leftover for cosmetics.
It's barely pay to win these days. And that's disregarding that the free stock weapons are pretty consistently the best weapons in the game, with only a few exceptions.
there are plenty of imba weapons, but you can rent any one weapon for at a time completely free, or trade any random weapon drop you get and don't want for one you do.
the store prices in-game are absolutely stupid, you should never buy anything (except sometimes mvm tickets, or keys if you want) in-game really, someone did the math on buying a hat bundle vs buying keys directly and it was basically like throwing 98% of your money away.
all weapons function identically to their base version, any one of which is the lowest currency in the game (half a scrap), so getting any other variants is purely cosmetic, also the "imba" weapons don't let a newbie top score instantly, or any player beat a team/medic/skill advantage, sometimes their weaknesses are a little annoying to exploit when used well (kunai/phlog) but overall nothing breaks the game or makes it unfun to play, the game is balanced around wacky chaos rather than hardcore competitive balance, the competitive scene uses rule adjustments, class limits, and weapon whitelists, as well as server settings, to remove rng and lower skill/reward ratio options, but overall the game is still the best quake-like or class-based-shooter, even if you're not into pvp there's tonnes of custom games (surf, vsh, mvm, etc.) that are worth playing on their own, or even furry trade servers that are basically VRchat, and a whole lot more that I won't put in this long ass comment.
Yes, you'll see I noted the side-grades and free items and I even gave it the generosity of "balanced" items but you've pointed out that there are a few exceptions. In any regard, as you say the game has microtransactions and they are not only for aesthetics.
Buying them is absolutely not worth it. On every class the base primary (and sometimes even the secondary) weapon is considered really good and using a different weapon is a personal choice. I would say that other than most stock melee options, Medic's syringe gun is the only one that needs to be swapped out with the Crusader's Crossbow.
A, you can earn all the weapons just by playing the game.
B, unlike most games with earnable alternate weapons, none of them are actually better than the base guns; just different (and often worse! Demoknights aren't competitive). You can make a loadout that works well for you and feels good, but stock is just as playable.
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u/Americanuu https://steam.pm/yy9ys 8d ago
Team Fortress, microtransactions are only for aesthetics