Team Fortress 2 now Free!

[3 Justin 3]

Not sure if it deserves it's own thread, but Team Fortress 2 is now Free to Play.

:)

[Lionel Steel]

I posted this in the Video Game thread, but I think it deserves it's own thread.

I just started playing today and this game is amazing. The best multiplayer shooter I've played in a long time.

I've only done the tutorials and a few games against bots, but I'll start playing online soon.

Highly suggest trying it out.

[Hanni]

Absolutely love this game, I'm excited for all the fresh meat for me to kill.

[WilsonFourTwo]

^ Yup.

The fresh meat will lure me back for a while! This is such a good/fun game!

[burn_this_city]

Maybe I should give it a whirl, I played CS and Source religiously for years, but I never tried TF..

[GoinAllTheWay]

Maybe I should give it a whirl, I played CS and Source religiously for years, but I never tried TF..

You've been missing out then my friend. This is a solid, solid game. I've played this game since it came out, few are more mindless fun than TF2. Goldrush is by far one of the most fun maps I've ever played.

[Hack&Lube]

I stopped playing when hats came out and all the classes got a bunch of weapons and unique items and then it became an MMORPG complete with cash shop. I don't feel like grinding achievements to unlock new weapons for every class.

What the game has turned into is not something I enjoy very much anymore I was a big fan of Team Fortress Classic that came with Half-Life and played that quite a bit. TF2 never lived up to that for me.

I still miss the Classic Dustbowl and Avanti maps instead of the aberrations that are their TF2 counterparts. The gameplay has never been as exciting as TFC even though TF2 is much more polished and good looking.

[burn_this_city]

You have to unlock stuff? I hate that, especially when the game has been around forever. I'm still going to try it though, if its still super popular there has to be a reason.

[Hanni]

There are a few achievement based items, but only a few. Pretty well every item in the game will drop randomly and you pretty quickly end up with an assortment of weapons for doing nothing but playing. There is a store where you can buy items, but all items do randomly for free so you don't need to buy anything.

If anyone does start playing and would like some free stuff shoot me a pm and I'll do what I can to give you some items. After a while of playing you end up with duplicates of many items and I have no use for most of them. Obviously I don't have an unlimited number so it would need to be first come first serve.

[photon]

You don't have to unlock stuff at all.

There are other weapons than your default set of weapons but what they are and how to get them differs greatly from an unlock system.

First, there are multiple ways to get them. You can unlock some of them via achivements if you wish. Many achievements are easy to get just during normal play, or if you really want to there are achievement servers where people go to help each other get them.

Or you can just wait, just playing the game gives you random drops of weapons. Getting a few per play-session is common, and again if you really want you can go on an idle server where you just sit in game for forever doing nothing but getting the random drops.

And you can craft the desired weapons as well. If you get random drops of items you already have, you can craft those into metal and then use the metal to craft new weapons.

Or you can trade for them. If you have an extra weapon of one kind and someone has an extra of another kind, you can just trade.

So getting the extra weapons is pretty easy, the update came out last night and I already have 4 of the new weapons from crafting and playing a bit.

Second, it's not like some shooters where you have to unlock weapons to get the decent ones, the default weapons are still pretty much the best ones to have. In a few cases a different weapon is a pure upgrade, but mostly they are just supportive of different play styles or different player skills. Most are too gimicky for a serious player to use and are actually a disadvantage to use, or at best are very situational.

The Pyro for example gets a default flame thrower. There's two other ones, one does more damage if you burn the guy from behind, but uses up far more ammo to do the airblast (reflect projectile weapons). This sucks for the most part as getting behind a good team is quite difficult, but on some maps at some points there are great opportunities for ambushes so this works in some situations. The other does less damage but gives you faster weapon switch speed. Again supports a specific style of play where you use your melee weapon a lot, which puts you in close and more vulnerable.

Almost all the weapons are like this, very specific tradeoffs. I play mostly on a server where the guys are pretty competitive (some play in leagues and competitive play) and with all the variety and choices you'd be surprised that a good deal of the time the best players use default weapons.

Give it a try, and don't worry so much about the unlocks. By the time you really understand the benefit or need for a specific unlock, you'll probably have the means to get it. I'm a pack rat and have to get all the weapons and I usually have them a few weeks after they're released with little extra effort.

[photon]

Oh and I'm mixed about free to play. I tried playing last night but there's nothing more frustrating than playing with n00bs. I mean I'm not the greatest player, but when the n00b medic doesn't heal and the rest of your team is snipers and spys it's not very fun.

[Tinordi]

What server you play on Pho?

[Tinordi]

I stopped playing when hats came out and all the classes got a bunch of weapons and unique items and then it became an MMORPG complete with cash shop. I don't feel like grinding achievements to unlock new weapons for every class.

What the game has turned into is not something I enjoy very much anymore I was a big fan of Team Fortress Classic that came with Half-Life and played that quite a bit. TF2 never lived up to that for me.

I still miss the Classic Dustbowl and Avanti maps instead of the aberrations that are their TF2 counterparts. The gameplay has never been as exciting as TFC even though TF2 is much more polished and good looking.
Gotta disagree with this. After new drops and hats came out it was a bit of a scene but the community has settled down and the game still plays very traditionally. The new weapons really haven't changed how the game is played at a fundamental level at all. If anything it's more fun than ever (except with all the noobs now coming in).

[photon]

What server you play on Pho?

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/arsclantf2

sasha.arsclan.net:27015

Most of the time there. Have a bunch of others that I frequent when I'm not on there, but can't remember their names.

[RW99]

I agree with Hack for the most part. I haven't kept up with all the new weapons. Sometimes I wonder how the heck I get killed and it's usually a newer weapon that cancels out what would have been my advantage.

I still play a fair bit though as I have a bunch of online friends I play with. But I rarely play on a random pub. You can usually find me on a Lotus Clan server.

[photon]

Yeah the lotus clan servers are ok, go there sometimes.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Can't remember the last time I played a FPS on a PC, well, any game. Played a bit of this early this morning, seems fun.

[RedJester]

Just a heads up to you new guys; I have never played a video game that has filled me with more rage as TF2. You will constantly be presented with moments where you're left wondering "how the bloody ****ing hell that just happened."

It's okay, because those moments are as equally as common as the fun ones, because I have also never had as much fun playing a video game than I have while playing TF2.

Valve is great at balancing weapons and classes, and the game itself doesn't take itself too seriously. It's hard to get too upset about all the bad stuff in this game, because you're often left laughing afterwards.

[BlackArcher101]

LOL, so I got labelled as one of the noobs today. Apparently I don't know how to use the medic because I'm not following just the Heavy. How dare I heal others on the team instead of just one.

And I get this a lot. *facepalm*

Nothing irritates me more than when I'm playing a non-medic role and need to be healed. Medic is standing right beside me, but ignores my call because he's busy healing a Heavy that isn't injured. And won't leave the guy for even a second to heal others. Fuuuuuuuuuu Worse when 3 of them do it. I can understand if you have an ubercharge ready and want to be ready at a moments notice, but that doesn't apply in these cases.

[Hack&Lube]

For new players, make sure you increase your field of view from default 75 to 90. You'll get more peripheral vision.

[RedJester]

LOL, so I got labelled as one of the noobs today. Apparently I don't know how to use the medic because I'm not following just the Heavy. How dare I heal others on the team instead of just one.

And I get this a lot. *facepalm*

Nothing irritates me more than when I'm playing a non-medic role and need to be healed. Medic is standing right beside me, but ignores my call because he's busy healing a Heavy that isn't injured. And won't leave the guy for even a second to heal others. Fuuuuuuuuuu Worse when 3 of them do it. I can understand if you have an ubercharge ready and want to be ready at a moments notice, but that doesn't apply in these cases.

"I have the Medi Gun, I make the rules." Standard principle for any game of TF2. Seriously. People don't treat their Medics very nicely. Although I did once get invited to try out for a Game Battles team as a Medic a couple of years ago, because I would routinely keep the Scout's health topped off while Kritzing the Heavy on Granary. I think I got something like 64 assists before I died.

But yeah, for you new guys: Don't call for a Medic and then start taking damage the Medic starts healing you. It takes time to bring your health back up... and they especially don't like it when you let the Pyros and Spies take a giant crap on them.

[Lionel Steel]

As a noob, I've found if I stick to a non-strategic class like the Soldier, people usually hate me less haha

[3 Justin 3]

Ok so I downloaded it like 3 days ago now and I have tried to play it every day but it just won't launch. I go to steam and press "play" then a pop-up comes up saying "Steam is preparing to launch Team Fortress 2...", then it just does nothing. Same thing if I use the short-cut, just takes me to Steam (obviously).

Anyone have any suggestions on what to do?

[burn_this_city]

Check your downloads to see if its totally installed.

[3 Justin 3]

It seems like it is. I think it even downloaded an update today.

It isn't in my downloads, and it says it under "Installed". Bad Company 2 works.

I just uninstalled it and am downloading it again. Hopefully that works.

[burn_this_city]

Just played for the first time 7 kills, 21 deaths.. Yikes. Teams were stacked brutally though, we didnt win any rounds. The game speed reminds me of action half life from the old engine.

[3 Justin 3]

Sweet, I got it working.

[Hanni]

All you noob's are getting on my nerves, being on a team where almost no one knows what they are doing is frustrating. All my favorite servers are jam packed now and extremely difficult to get in to.

[burn_this_city]

All you noob's are getting on my nerves, being on a team where almost no one knows what they are doing is frustrating. All my favorite servers are jam packed now and extremely difficult to get in to.

I've started following the better players trying to complete the objective, I agree though, most people stand around near base unsure what they should be doing.

[Hanni]

I've started following the better players trying to complete the objective, I agree though, most people stand around near base unsure what they should be doing.

Everyone is like that when they first start, I was the same. It's just really frustrating when it's 75% of your team. Or like Photon said earlier, everyone wants to be the "cool" classes so you end up with 5 snipers and 4 spies.

[photon]

Yeah I was playing the other night when I was the only offense class on my team (soldier for a while then demo man), which is usually a recipe for disaster, but I had a good pocket medic and the other team was all bad snipers and bad spies so we still won lol.

[photon]

Free 2 Play in a nutshell:

sxM5cNP36TA

[Yasa]

It's like playing Bad Company 2 and everyone on your team is a sniper. Booooring!

[burn_this_city]

The server I was on only had a couple spies/snipers, most people were scouts, heavy's and soldiers, and the hated pyro.

How do you disable the engineered weapons? I was going straight for the engineer, but will the tripod remain after he's dead?

[RW99]

The server I was on only had a couple spies/snipers, most people were scouts, heavy's and soldiers, and the hated pyro.

How do you disable the engineered weapons? I was going straight for the engineer, but will the tripod remain after he's dead?

Haters gonna Hate! /pyro player :D

Unless it's sudden death overtime, an engineer's stuff will stay up while he's dead. Other than shooting/blowing it up, become a spy and zap it :) If you are shooting it, try and see if you can come up to it from behind. It takes a second for it to turn around. If you really have skillz, you can run up and melee it while running around in a circle just in front of the line of fire :D

[RedJester]

How do you disable the engineered weapons? I was going straight for the engineer, but will the tripod remain after he's dead?

Nope, his stuff will stay there even if he's dead.

Engy is definitely one of the easier classes to learn the game with. As an Engineer, you can manually detonate them by pressing 5, or you can right click on them and move them (one at a time,) to a new position. You move slower however, unless you're moving a Mini-Sentry. They'll still be there if you die, although probably not for long if you're not there to knock off Sappers with your wrench.

[Tinordi]

Blowing up noobs with the oldest sticky traps in the game is pretty fun.

[GoinAllTheWay]

LOL, so I got labelled as one of the noobs today. Apparently I don't know how to use the medic because I'm not following just the Heavy. How dare I heal others on the team instead of just one.

And I get this a lot. *facepalm*

Nothing irritates me more than when I'm playing a non-medic role and need to be healed. Medic is standing right beside me, but ignores my call because he's busy healing a Heavy that isn't injured. And won't leave the guy for even a second to heal others. Fuuuuuuuuuu Worse when 3 of them do it. I can understand if you have an ubercharge ready and want to be ready at a moments notice, but that doesn't apply in these cases.

While I see where your argument is coming from, the other side of that is the Heavy you were just healing (despite being uninjured) is going to assume that when he moves, you are going to come with him. people get pissed if you stop for a second to heal other around you, he takes off and you don't notice and lose track of him. He may not notice you aren't on him anymore and he gets killed and then you get the "what the hell happened to my medic?" Medics can sometimes be in a no win situation...they just have to do the best they can. There are times I like to focus my efforts on a heavy/demo man that knows what he is doing instead of trying to heal up everyone around me.

[Tinordi]

Good heavies recognize when they're no longer being healed. Good heavies recognize that the job of the medic isn't to just heal them.

[RedJester]

^ And Great Heavys give a Medic a Sandvich when their health gets low.

[Hanni]

Heavies need to be less selfish, Demomen are much better to uber to take out a sentry position.

That being said it really depends on the quality of the player, class doesn't matter if an uber is wasted on a crappy player who does nothing.

[Hanni]

Also, thoughts on posting your Steam username so those in the CP steam group know who you are/who they are playing with? Some are the same as on CP but most are not, mine is Hannibal.

Edit: Just to clarify it's easiest to just join the CP group on steam, the list of people then shows up at the bottom of your friends list.

[3 Justin 3]

My Steam username is JPeeper, but when I play in TF2 is my last name. I think I have to change it in TF2, which I will to JPeeper.

I'm not the greatest, but it'd be cool to play with people from CP. I usually am medic, soldier, scout, or heavy. I am a terrible spy.

[photon]

Heh spy is the one class I almost NEVER play. There's one or two maps where the spy works very well to spycap the first point and I'll do that from time to time, but otherwise I just don't "get" spy. At all.

Heavy/Demo for Uber sentry duty depends on the situation, a good team with a wrangled sentry can be very very hard for a demo, where if the heavy can get close can take it out fast if they can get the jump on the pyro.

I like to go soldier if I know an uber is going in, and sometimes I'll take out the sentry from long distances while they're distracted (or just take it out any time if the engineer doesn't know the map very well).

[Hack&Lube]

I have a friend who is a pure spy. He is basically a ninja who can always get behind the enemy somehow and takes perverse pleasure in backstabbing and causing problems for the other team and generally being an Esa Tikkanen/Ruutu of TF2. I don't know how he does it. He has the patience to wait forever just for the right moment. I just play TF2 like I have ADD.

Still miss Team Fortress Classic though. I wish they would officially port Avanti.

[Hack&Lube]

I guess for new players, I can repost this classic moment.

29RE0blCV84

[photon]

A good spy can decimate a team, even a good team. On the server I play on there's 3 or 4 guys that when I'm playing I'll eventually choose to go on their team (rather than just picking a random team) just to stop getting stabbed all the time.

[Tinordi]

Good spies are countered pretty easily by a good pyro.

[photon]

To be a good anti-spy pyro I think you have to be a good spy, and I'm a terrible spy.

But even a good pyro can only do so much, there's a couple of amazing pyros on the server I play on and even then the awesome spies can make the difference between winning and losing, since they'll go after the medics first.

Oh and I finally crafted the new Demo boots. With the new boots, shield, and sword, the Demo is melee only, but completely overpowered. Metal converts to health so after every kill you get healed back up, and you start out with 200hp. I played it for like 10 minutes and was already feeling bad, a skilled melee person could go crazy with it.

They'll nerf it for sure, and the new heavy gun too, no spinup = win.

[photon]

_aqxiw7efqE

[FunkMasterFlame]

Playing spy effectively is like playing an entirely different game. Nothing better than lining up a couple medics and heavies/soldiers and getting 3 or even 4 backstabs in a row.

[gottabekd]

Playing spy effectively is like playing an entirely different game. Nothing better than lining up a couple medics and heavies/soldiers and getting 3 or even 4 backstabs in a row.

I think my best is 6 backstabs in about 4 seconds. It was absolutely glorious.

The most frustrating thing about playing spy is that when you start doing good, two people on your team switch to spy, rendering your efforts, and your team, useless.

[Hack&Lube]

I think my best is 6 backstabs in about 4 seconds. It was absolutely glorious.

The most frustrating thing about playing spy is that when you start doing good, two people on your team switch to spy, rendering your efforts, and your team, useless.

LOL, yeah, they switch to spy which means your team loses important classes for attacking/defending. Then other team all switches to pyro.

[RedJester]

XxEXNYEnyFs

I've gone on sprees better than this one with Spy, but those servers, (inconveniently,) never had replays activated.

Pulled this off last night though. Spy was my least played class, and for good reason, but after Free 2 Play went live I haven't been able to stop playing it.

[Lionel Steel]

http://i.imgur.com/HvPGd.jpg

[SebC]

Lol, if it's hats on both axises, the Valve graph should be a straight diagonal line! :ph34r:

[Hack&Lube]

h
a != hats
t
s

[SebC]

h
a != hats
t
sProve it.

[Hanni]

Meet the Medic: Behind the Scenes

http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=5816

[photon]

So the guy that voices the sniper wrote a book:

http://www.amazon.com/Dancing-Eternity-John-Patrick-Lowrie/dp/1603818103/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1?tag=vglnk-c21-20%22

The funny part is to read the reviews:

Even if cannot read, you will like. Book is heavy so I throw at spy. He will never ever walk again.

Mra mreananna menrannen mrrnin mroonh. Mah mranahhana mrorm mre maranahananranmnh mron mrnmrhn mrnmrnre.

Mranaro mrit mroons mrrrah.

Mrumanhanna muranna mrunahhmphna mrump. Mrumnamahanna.

[Tinordi]

Haven't seen a bump for the entirely new game mode Mann vs. Machine. I'm really liking it actually, a breath of fresh air for a gameplay that was getting stale for me after what 5 year?

Anyone else tried it?

[GoinAllTheWay]

Haven't even heard of it. Used to play the game for hours almost every night but even the best grow old after a while.

What's this new mode all about?

[Hemi-Cuda]

tried to play it, but don't have the patience to wait 15-20 minutes for it to connect me to a game