A TF2 thought

There are no bad classes in TF2, only bad players.  

This occurred to me watching Chan, who’s frighteningly good as a sniper, playing scout (on Mach4 with just 2 players per team).  I kinda like playing scout, but I never thought of it as a terribly effective class: he’s made of paper and his shotgun is not that deadly.  But it was an education to watch Chan— he had no fear of the level 3 sentry defending the intel.  I’m not sure how he did it, though part of it is his incredible aim.  The shottie is effective if it always hits…

 

Mental health break

I like the sprays that my friend Leth came up with, especially the TF2 ones:

http://www.massivecrits.com/?p=88#more-88

 

Team Fortress Almea

Coming soon from Valve, when some tricky negotiating points are resolved, such as them not even being aware of who I am.  Click to enlarge.

The classes are, left to right:

• Flaming oil thrower 
• Trapmaker
• Archer
• Rogue
• Barbarian
• Wizard
• Grenadier
• Skirmisher
• Hand Cannoneer

For Almea fans, more info here: http://www.almeopedia.com/index.php/Team_Fortress_Almea

 

Deathcam

The first few times TF2 invited me to save deathcam shots, it seemed kind of mean– I already knew I sucked, I didn’t need reminders.  But I have to admit that it sometimes comes up with pretty cool images.  Click the thumbnails to enlarge.

(The fourth pic isn’t a death pic, just a silly moment on the MeFi servers: an all-medic round on Hydro.)

 

Gogolrush

For the two TF2 fans who haven’t already seen this:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6v3cg_gogolrush_videogames

Quite lovely character animation for machinima.  You gotta feel for that demoman.

Also the opportunity to learn two useful French terms: bêtisier “gag reel”, and gogol “tard”.

 

Defeat the Pyro

Desperate for one more hour of TF2, I tried a new server last night– all Badwater all the time.  The quality of play was markedly lower than on MeFi… I was amazed to run up to the building in the middle that normally sports a horrible sentry nest and find nothing.

I was also treated to a long rant about pyros from some guy.  He hates them, they’re too powerful, they’re a newbie class, there’s no counter to them, blah blah. 

Now it’s true that a good pyro can be very scary.  I’m a middling pyro, so I can cause moderate devastation, especially to spies, scouts, and medics, and those foolish enough to be ahead of me.  But there are definite counters to pyros.  An incomplete list:

• The muscle classes.  It’s not a great idea to dash right toward heavy, soldier, or demoman.
• Distance.  The pyro’s built-in limitation is the short range of his flamethrower.  I rarely start out next to you; why’d you let me get close enough to burn you?
• Demomen in general.  Heavies are at least less numerous, and easier to avoid.
• Chan. 
• Sentry guns.  Good excuse to switch to Soldier.
• Maps which encourage knotting up the team, like certain payload maps.  Pyros are at their best a little separated from the team: either behind it, clearing out spies and scouts, or ahead of it, ambushing the enemy from behind.  On most payload maps I end up playing medic or soldier instead.
• Maps with a lot of open space.  (Contrariwise, pyro heaven is a map with lots of narrow passages and alternate routes.)

I don’t think any class is particularly under- or overpowered, as shown by the fact that on a good server you’ll see a mix of everything.  I’ve tried them all, but I am no damn good at sniper or demoman, and extremely no damn good at spy. 

Sometimes, especially on a small team, there are curious lacks… often, no one’s playing Heavy.  I dunno, maybe experienced players disdain the big clumsy Russky.  But a teamful of engies and spies aren’t gonna move little cart.

 

You are all bleeders!

It’s best to be modest when talking about one’s gaming prowess, and I have much to be modest about.  But sometimes it just all comes together.  Last night we were defending on the third stage of Dustbowl.  Blue has a narrow bottleneck to come out of, shown at left; they have an alternate door, which you can see here, but it doesn’t get them much farther.

The capture point is around that building to the left; below is Red’s point of view, showing the point, looking back at the same alternate door.  This was about where I was stationed, as a Soldier.

There were about half a dozen of us, and we had about 13 minutes… an eternity to hold this position, but we got into a great flow.  I’d fire my four rockets and back off– the Soldier reloads very slowly– occasionally jumping up into the building to get more ammo.  My friend Stavros had a good sentry post off to the left; there was another Soldier, a Pyro, and a Medic, and we got into a nice flow– if anyone got through, they were quickly eliminated.  Soldier is very powerful if you have some distance, and I racked up 4286 damage and 10 kills, which is incredible for me.

We failed, in the end– I think they ubered or double-ubered through, and then got very quickly to the last point.  So it was kind of our Thermopylae, a glorious battle though regrettably lost.

Ultimately, of course, I blame Red management for always building its bases a hundred yards away from Blue’s.  You’d think they’d learn.

 

Achiever

Chris writes about an achievement generator for TF2.  At first I thought you could actually add custom achievements, which would be geeky awesome, but you can just make graphics.  Still, it’s a fun idea.

 

Nom nom nom

So, more TF2.  Do you know, I dreamed about TF2 the other night.  I was on the blue team, which lost, and the red CEO (he looked craggy, skin and suit the color of the red spy’s outfit) was giving a pep talk to his team motivating them to search out the survivors and kill them.  I managed to get away with several close shaves. 

Anyway, I think I’m solidly mediocre now.  Thanks to some small-team games with Frohman and others, I’ve been trying out the other classes.  Medic is pretty good, especially with a good partner (i.e. one who doesn’t forget that his medic buddy is made of styrofoam); it’s also an almost cheap way to rack up points.  Soldier is good when there’s someone to take care of long distance.  I kinda like playing Scout too, especially on CTF maps, or to sneak up behind the enemy. 

The new Arena mode is extremely well designed to showcase my faults, especially dying early and often.  But Badwater Basin is great.

 

Signs that you’re playing TF2 too much

1. Seeing a lanky guy in a red T-shirt at the grocery store and immediately thinking, Scout.

2. Carrying a flamethrower at all times.  Oops!  Hope he respawns OK.