Documentation on the discontinuation of unusual miscs in tf2.

Welcome to insanity, we're here to chase down when miscs stopped being unbox-able.

Search for all unusual miscs (not quickswitch): https://next.backpack.tf/almanac/search?itemName=Captain%20Space%20Mann&itemName=Antlers&itemName=HazMat%20Headcase&itemName=Polar%20Pullover&itemName=Virtual%20Viewfinder&itemName=Bonk%20Boy&itemName=Exquisite%20Rack&itemName=Soldier%27s%20Stash&itemName=Pyromancer%27s%20Mask&itemName=Coffin%20Kit&itemName=Large%20Luchadore&itemName=Pencil%20Pusher&itemName=Brainiac%20Hairpiece&itemName=Mining%20Light&itemName=Blighted%20Beak&itemName=Das%20Hazmattenhatten&itemName=Villain%27s%20Veil&itemName=Master%27s%20Yellow%20Belt&itemName=Soldered%20Sensei&itemName=Le%20Party%20Phantom&itemName=Noh%20Mercy&itemName=Coldfront%20Curbstompers&itemName=Sleeveless%20in%20Siberia&itemName=Hunter%20Heavy&quality=5

More readable version of all the miscs are:
* Captain Space Mann
* Antlers
* HazMat Headcase
* Polar Pullover
* Virtual Viewfinder
* Bonk Boy
* Exquisite Rack
* Soldier's Stash
* Pyromancer's Mask
* Coffin Kit
* Large Luchadore
* Pencil Pusher
* Brainiac Hairpiece
* Mining Light
* Blighted Beak
* Das Hazmattenhatten
* Villain's Veil
* Master's Yellow Belt
* Soldered Sensei
* Le Party Phantom
* Noh Mercy
* Coldfront Curbstompers
* Sleeveless in Siberia
* Hunter Heavy

Initial conclusions:
* Miscs were unboxable up to item id 5.1735 billion (any ids after this are probably in gift wrap or maybe a dead one reappeared since I wrote this).
	* This conflicts with an answer seen somewhere else that unlocked cosmetic crates were the end of unusual miscs since the self-made unlocked crates have ids of 4.95 billion, meaning around 60 miscs were unboxed after they were added.
* No unusual miscs appeared from unlocked crates since they would have had the gifted origin. The only gifted origin miscs are halloween ones that came from the unlocked creepy crates.
	* https://imgur.com/5rEltEv proof of gifts coming from them since their introduction


Further investigation:
5.1735 billion is ~October 15/16, 2016 https://imgur.com/MSpXG1J
	* This does not correlate to a specific update, however the next update was October 21, or SF VIII https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/October_21,_2016_Patch

https://next.backpack.tf/almanac/search?itemName=Antlers&itemName=HazMat%20Headcase&itemName=Polar%20Pullover&itemName=Bonk%20Boy&itemName=Soldier%27s%20Stash&itemName=Coffin%20Kit&itemName=Pencil%20Pusher&itemName=Brainiac%20Hairpiece&itemName=Master%27s%20Yellow%20Belt&itemName=Le%20Party%20Phantom&itemName=Noh%20Mercy&origin=8
Modifying our search by taking out all the items that could still be unboxed in unique quality, we find 2 unique antlers that should have been unusual as they were found in crates. These have an upper id of 5.1899 billion which can be pinned to Oct 22, 2016 https://imgur.com/jqhTFog https://imgur.com/DxfP3Mm as well as a lower id 5.1851 billion which I can only give a range between Oct 21-22, 2016 https://imgur.com/4qVeImY

Connecting the dots, two antlers that were supposed to be unusual were unboxed after the SF8 update which cements this update as the one to kill unusual miscs.



BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE
Some miscs were removed from the pool prior to this change.
The ones that were unboxable up until SF8 are:
* Virtual Viewfinder
* Das Hazmattenhatten
* Blighted Beak
* Polar Pullover
* Soldered Sensei
* Brainiac Hairpiece
* Le Party Phantom
* Large Luchadore
* Antlers
* Master's Yellow Belt
* Pencil Pusher
* Pyromancer's Mask
These items all had 5.1 billion ids which is close enough to the cutoff point that we can assume SF8 killed them.
Additionally:
* Bonk Boy
* Exquisite Rack
Both had item ids of 5.08 billion which we can also consider close enough, since they did not have equip region changes in 2016 (5.08b roughly equates to early september or late august 2016).

The remaining 10 unusual miscs were not unboxable leading up to SF8

Starting off, the most common confusion I've seen about unusual miscs is that the invasion update killed them since the Captain Space Mann was the last unusual misc to be added, however the space mann was released as a hat and changed to a face misc April 25, 2016. This corresponds to the last id of the unusual space mann's at 4.7606 billion https://imgur.com/DYmnXT3 https://imgur.com/M1wQT6J

The next youngest miscs before the spacemann were the trio of bugged EOTL shirts and boots
* Coldfront Curbstompers
* Sleeveless in Siberia
* Hunter Heavy
This was a same-day-fixed bug as the equip regions on these were set as hat on release.


Unfortunately my inventory history only goes back to 2014 at 2.5 billion so we will have to use archive data of tf2tools item id graph, although this graph was a lot more accurate for these early ids than it was for the ids after JI. The oldest snapshot of the graph can be found here: https://web.archive.org/web/20150509162155/http://www.tf2tools.net:80/articles/itemids and it will be used for the remaining unusuals. Using the code `Highcharts.charts[0].options.series[1].data` in console you can extract exact dates. Convert the unix time stamp here https://www.unixtimestamp.com/


The Villain's Veil is the next youngest with the youngest id being 1.9027 billion. The upper limit can be seen in array 1946 which is Aug 28, 2013, and the lower bound in the prior array being Aug 27, 2013. Unfortunately there are patches for both of these dates, however the 27th patch added the strangifier for it and so we can probably assume it was this patch that removed it from the unusual pool.

Next up are the Soldier's Stash and Mining Light. These are retired hats and their item ids of 1.418 billion corresponds perfectly to the day they were retired (January 25, 2013)

The coffin kit is next with ids of 1.2915 billion that correspond to the November 29, 2012 patch (which already has this as an undocumented change at time of writing)

The HazMat Headcase is the next one and has a youngest id of 1.1913 billion which has an upper bound of Oct 26, 2012, and a lower bound of Oct 25, 2012. This corresponds to the SF4 update on Oct 26, and looking at the diff generated the item_slot flag was removed which probably means that update removed it from the pool.

Finally the oldest retired unusual misc is the Noh Mercy which has a youngest id of 512.48 million which correlates to the Oct 13, 2011 when it had an undocumented change to the misc slot.


IN SUMMARY
Of the 24 unusual miscs:
* 14 were unboxable in unusual quality until Scream fortress 8
* 3 of them are EOTL bugs removed from the pool in a same day patch
* 1 of them had their region updated making them a retroactive misc
* 2 of them were retired hats
* 3 of them had patches that changed one of their tags that probably took them out of the pool (possibly making them miscs retroactively)
* 1 of them is the villain's veil that was removed for getting a strangifier?