I was doing a little testing with uber durations today (due to a thread in the steam forums). I had some interesting results, so I thought I'd post them on here and share them.

My SPUF post:
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What I found was that ubering one person is a standard charge, and ubering one person and stopping is a slighty faster drain (less time), about 1-2 seconds less time. Ubering nobody produces the same uber duration as ubering one person and then stopping. This makes sense: the game punishes you for popping uber onto nobody, since you're supposed to use it on someone. Even if you uber onto the same guy again, you lose part of the charge due to the increased drain rate.

If you take uber and switch it to someone else, the uber drain rate takes a hit because you stopped ubering someone, and because you're ubering two people. The two people drain rate is about twice as fast (a 4-6 second uber if both are *constantly* uber), but if you stop ubering one of them, the increased drain goes away once they stop glowing (about 1-1.5 seconds after you stop).

This is where things get interesting. Because you stopped ubering the first guy, you're still taking the increased drain from stopping an uber. So even if you only *just* uber that second guy by tapping him with the beam, you lose a bit of charge for having two guys uber, and a little more for stopping the beam.

Three people is even faster. When I did my test, I was still trying to tag the bots a second or two after the uber faded because I subconsciously expected the uber to last at least another second or two. Fortunately, if you stop ubering one of them, the drain returns to the normal (minus the penalty for stopping uber).

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The tl;dr is that:

-Standard uber is 8-10 seconds
-Slight penalty for not healing someone during the entire duration of the uber (if at any time you break beam/the beam is not on someone, you lose about a second of charge)
-Ubering multiple people incurs an additional penalty of approx. 1.5-2 times drain rate, for as long as that person is uber.
-If the person stops being ubered, the drain rate returns to normal once they stop glowing (approx. 1-1.5 seconds after you stop)
-More than 2 people uber at once drains a phenomenal charge rate, but stops if someone is no longer uber.
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I'm not sure if all these are accurate. Upon second and third rounds of testing, I'm starting to believe that the "not ubering anyone" drain increase goes away if you re-uber the same patient, but not if you uber a second one at any time.

There are some parts that I wanted to test more closely, but I did my inital testing by watching the demo with a stopwatch and pressing buttons (which is admittedly inaccurate). I'm wondering if any of you know a way to track he percent drain rate based off of a demo (so basically I can get a little number in the corner showing % drained/second)?

inb4 Sigma

Edit: the following is wrong.

Afaik it's just 12.5%/s when one person is flashed, 25%/s when two or more people are flashed. Though I admit I've never tested ubering someone and dropping the beam, because, uh... why would you do that?

I'll probably test this again tonight (like I do every few months when I feel like I don't know it well enough), but if anyone would like to obtain precise results in the meantime, note the remaining % and demo tic at the start of a beam drop, then see what the % is 66 tics later.

Edit: the following is wrong

Looked into this. The faster drain you experience for dropping the beam from someone does indeed exist. The rate at which ubers drain can be described concisely by:

If one or more players are invulnerable as a result of your uber and you are not currently healing them, your uber drains at 25%/s. Otherwise, it drains at 12.5%/s.

So, even if you don't flash someone else, removing your beam from a player gives you a second of faster drain (unless you manage to reattach it).

Wait so Sigma, if you keep 2 people ubered for the full duration (are flashing both before the uber, then uber and continue to keep both fully ubered), does it last the entire time, or is there still an extra drain?

might be a stupid question, but does this apply to kritskrieg too?

Edit: the following is wrong.

Wait so Sigma, if you keep 2 people ubered for the full duration (are flashing both before the uber, then uber and continue to keep both fully ubered), does it last the entire time, or is there still an extra drain?
There's an extra drain. When you're healing one, the other is flashing, so you meet the "one or more players invulnerable as a result of your uber who you are not currently healing" criteria and drain at 25%/s.

might be a stupid question, but does this apply to kritskrieg too?
Good question. Kritz doesn't flash, but I think it actually does drain faster if you switch it. Not entirely sure on that, though. I'll check tonight unless someone feels like verifying it first.

Edit: This also applies to kritz.

Someone from the SPUF emailed Robin Walker about the mechanic
Response:
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Hi Stuart.

You pay a 50% base drain cost for every extra person being affected by the uber. So the formula is:

Drain amount = (base drain) + (0.5 * base drain * (num ubered players -1))

You only pay 50% for the extras because we wanted to still reward juggling.

Robin.
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Of course, if you have to uber three people at once, you're doing something wrong, but I thought it'd be interesting to share.

Response:
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Hi Stuart.

You pay a 50% base drain cost for every extra person being affected by the uber. So the formula is:

Drain amount = (base drain) + (0.5 * base drain * (num ubered players -1))

You only pay 50% for the extras because we wanted to still reward juggling.

Robin.
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Edit: the following is wrong. The response is indeed how it works.

Haha, what? That's not how it works. Line up some bots, record a demo of yourself splitting fully 2, 3, and 4 ways, then re-watch slowly to check the tics. All of these are around 300 tics (hit 0% at 270, another half second flashing before it's gone). I should really just publish a video of this.

Sigma,

You may have actually found a bug if the intended function is as Robin describes, might be worth getting a clarification.

Oh good, it isn't just me then :P
I went to check that last night and it didn't quite add up.

EDIT: Also, I think I speak for quite a few of us low medics when I say I'd love a video :)

Er. All my posts in this thread are wrong. More thorough testing revealed that the description from Robin Walker is correct, that is how it works.

Of course, if you have to uber three people at once, you're doing something wrong, but I thought it'd be interesting to share.
I don't have any competitive experience, so I'm not sure how often it is really done...but I've watched a couple of demos where three people have been ubered at once, and it had to have been planned. All the times I've seen it done is on Badlands pushing from 2 to 3.

It went along the lines of:

Uber Popped Onto Soldier #1
Soldier #1 Jumps
Uber moved to Soldier #2
Soldier #2 jumps
Uber moved to Demoman.


I'd say you could probably get to the demo before the second of uber is over on the first Soldier. For albeit for a very short time, you'd have three people ubered at the same time. I can't see that working without knowing you had an uber advantage or the other team was running Kritzkrieg though.

Where was the other team situated? If they were in yard near choke the soldiers should be able to force the pop and deal enough damage that if the push fails the medic should be reasonably safe if they retreat and the demo has stickies laid on corner. Its only really bad to run out of uber first if you end up in a position where your team is vulnerable in the open, and the enemy isn't.

Also, if there are 2 soldiers jumping, and pills coming from choke, there's a good chance the enemy medic will have to share the uber with more than one person to keep them alive.

hahaha what....

Just uber Reptile and you be good

Does Reptile have little turtles running around that we can adopt? Otherwise, I think we'll have to stick to ubering teammates.

On topic though, I wonder why Kritz has the same drain rate as regular Uber. Kritz doesn't have any bonus after the medic leaves you. Although I suppose you could just cycle through your teammates unrealistically fast, giving them all Kritz, if there wasn't the limiting drain rate. Any other opinions?

If a demo started charging a sticky with krits on, then the medic switched off him, would the sticky still be crit? If the demo started charging before the medic hit it, does the sticky then become crit even if it was already prepared? Also, is there a lingering krit the same way there is lingering uber?

No.
Yes.
No.

http://tf2wiki.net/wiki/Uber