Contracts drawer
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| “ | This contract's big. Don't pass this up.
Click to listen
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The Contracts Drawer was a contract management system introduced in the 2015 Gun Mettle Update to manage premium Gun Mettle Campaign contracts. It was subsequently used for premium Tough Break Campaign contracts in the 2015 Tough Break Update (wherein the drawer appeared as Miss Pauling's luggage) as well as for free Merasmission Contracts during Scream Fortress 2015 and Scream Fortress 2016. The contract drawer system was replaced by the ConTracker in the 2017 Jungle Inferno Update.
In the contracts drawer system, players received random contracts in their contract drawer, which could hold up to two contracts. As each contract was completed, a position in the contract drawer was emptied. As along as contract drawer had empty positions in the drawer, the owning player could receive additional contracts as they were distributed. On the bottom of the contracts drawer, players could see how many of contracts they had completed and how many contract points they had accumulated.
Players could receive a set number of contracts over a period during Campaigns or Events. Contracts were distributed weekly (Campaigns) or daily (Events). In Campaigns, a new pair of Contracts was available for delivery to each player's contract drawer each week; while in Events, one new Contract was available each day. Players who missed the beginning weeks or days of the period or who were slow in completing Contracts received their backlog of contracts at an accelerated rate as they managed to turn in contracts.
Contracts were received "coded" and a player could open ("decode") them to reveal the objectives. Once opened, the status of the contract was indicated on the player's HUD until it was completed and turned in. The contract would be indicated as "inactive" if the player's condition did not meet the requirements of the contract (e.g., not on the require map or not playing the required class).
Completed contracts could be turned in for Decorated weapons (Campaigns) or Halloween cosmetics (Events).
Players received audio responses from Miss Pauling or Merasmus when contracts were opened, as they were completed, and as they were turned in.
Contract farming
Players learned that they could effectively "farm" or "cheese" most contracts by locating empty Valve servers and cooperating with one or a very few other players to complete the contracts much more quickly than could be done in a full server (for example, taking turns being an easy target). The July 2016 Meet Your Match Update introduced the Casual Mode, which only places players on Valve servers. Furthermore, the October 2017 Jungle Inferno Update introduced the ConTracker system, which restricts activation of contracts to playing on Valve servers assigned through Casual Mode matchmaking. With the addition of the abandonment restrictions, players can no longer effectively intentionally seek empty Valve servers for this type of co-oping. A different form of co-oping has been embodied in the ConTracker system, as Friendly-Fire rewards use of the Casual Mode matchmacking with significant acceleration of contracts as well encouraging combat effectiveness that comes from coordination of teamplay.
