Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Duke 2.0]

 So I realized just now that I can craft a few things that don't want to drop for me, like the Phlog, and the Widowmaker.

 Holy shit these things are obscene.

 The Phlog I'm sorta okay with because it really changes how the pyro plays. You exchange an ability you can use anytime that provides an incredibly powerful survival tool for a tool under a bit of a cooldown that provides the ability to absolutely destroy anything around you. I'll even excuse the ability to do it when you are about to die for some free health and a getaway tool because generally the airblast would have saved you so many more times and so much more health.

 But jesus christ ambushes with this thing

[Siquo]

The teleporter is the engi's #1 weapon, especially if you play a lot on instant-respawn maps (which I tend to do because I hate waiting).

[MrWiggles]

I dont like Instant respawn maps. It fucks with the balance of the maps and game types. (Unless, it was a map where it was designed with instant respawn in mind.)

[Strangething]

Too many engi players insist on playing the boring way. Especially on attack/defend and payload maps. They build a sentry and a dispenser up to level three on the very last point, then sit and twiddle their thumbs until Blu fights their way to it. Which always happens, since Red was effectively short a team member.

Last night I was on a three-member team. When the payload was close to the final checkpoint, they both swapped to engi, and neither one was worth a damn at it. Only one dispenser between them, and it was nowhere near the action. One of them never got his sentry past level two because he spent so much time running back for metal.

I was playing Heavy, and my plan was to stand by a dispenser and hose down the cart. No such luck, unless I wanted to do so from a mile away.

More and more frequently I find myself groping through the voice commands for "Put dispenser here!" and "Put teleporter here!" Sometimes they listen.

[MrWiggles]

I was recently playing a payload map, and one engy was holding off a demo and soldier (me). We were staggering in our attacks, due the spawn. He used the frontier justice and mini turrets on us, and it was surprising effective. He would stay out of site, until the turret was busted and hunt us down with crits.

[PTTG??]

I was on a pub cp_5gorge map with a truly terrible team. We were just barely holding the last point and an engie set up a turret and started wrangling it. I switched to engie to set up a dispenser and start supplying his sentry, and for a few minutes it worked. Then the rest of our team fell asleep and the other side pushed, took us out, and won the game with one half-dead medic on the point.

[jc6036]

I recently played on a server which I guess was a public clan gathering spot, so they were all pretty experienced. It was 2fort, and it was one of my first times playing 2fort (though of course now I could draw the map from memory).  I mean, I would step out on the embattlements and BAM! there goes my head, sniped.  But somehow, through some miracle, I got two intel captures with the scout when both teams were stuck battling eachother into a stalemate.  Twas Glorious.

[Telgin]

Too many engi players insist on playing the boring way. Especially on attack/defend and payload maps. They build a sentry and a dispenser up to level three on the very last point, then sit and twiddle their thumbs until Blu fights their way to it. Which always happens, since Red was effectively short a team member.

At least I don't do that.  I instead build sentries in stupid indefensible positions on these maps, although I do make an effort to build them close to the action.

[Werdna]

Quick tip for those die-hard O players in CTF pub maps where you're facing a turtle defense, particularly 2fort, and you're practically the only one making flag attempts - its boring sitting in the flagroom on D if nothing is coming.  So stop coming for awhile.  When an engineer is sitting in the basement bored to death and racking up 0 kills, he typically ditches his stuff and goes roaming or tries to do something cute like set up a tele into the enemy basement.  DM in middle for awhile until you start seeing the guys from the basement poking their heads outside for some action, then kill their ass and make a dive for the flag*.  If you bore the defense long enough, you'll see D players switch to deathmatch mode, or to less effective D like sniper, or maybe even offense. 

* thanks to 2fort's lousy design, you'll probably have to kill them a 2nd time on the way back out, but that's just a day in the life for an O player.

[PTTG??]

2Fort really, really needs a second entrance to the basement.

[DarkerDark]

I like playing on CTF maps, they make for good warmup maps before moving on to something more team-oriented. I like 2fort for it's hectic spam and Death Match style gameplay, it makes it a perfect map to get your blood pumping. Doublecross is a lot better in terms of class balance, the map is set up in such a way that it allows every class to really show their strengths. Turbine is alright, but usually victory goes to the first team that can get sentries set up in the middle. Sawmill however, is pretty terrible if you only need 3 caps to win. There's a reason why hardly any servers run that map, it's way too easy to capture the intelligence. Servers that are set at 7 caps to win makes the map slightly better.

Once I start craving something that requires a little more teamwork, I switch to Control Point maps. I usually find myself willing to play on any CP map except for Badlands. In my opinion, it seems like Badlands was created with the competitive 6v6 in mind. The map is set in such a way that it's a dream come true for soldiers and scouts. Picking any other class with the exception of demo and medic will end up hurting your team unless you already have more soldiers and scouts than the opposing team.

I don't like playing Payload or Attack and Defend maps unless the teams are really well balanced. I find it incredibly boring if the defenders end up completely dominating the offense. It means the match will go on for the full duration without any way to end it quickly. At least with every other gametype, you can end the round quickly and force a team scramble to attempt to balance the teams.

[PTTG??]

Doublecross is a sticky-jumper's dream. First, get two or three guys. Second, wait for an opening in the enemy sniper row. Now, using the sticky-jumper, cross the gap and get into the enemy battlements. Go to the back door to the flag, spam the sentries down, grab the intel, and sticky-jump back.

Against a disorganized team, you could do it with one.

[Metalax]

2Fort really, really needs a second entrance to the basement.

The problem is where to put the entry to another route into the basement, such that it doesn't simply shortcut the other routes.

[DarkerDark]

Yeah, sticky-jumpers and scouts with the FaN/triple jump can capture the flag really quick in doublecross. I usually counter sticky-jumpers by always displacing my sentry gun after every kill and then covering it from a distance or from an ambush position. I don't hug the gun, nor do I attempt to keep it repaired if he's spamming, I just keep the pressure on the demoman. Killing the sticky-jumper is my #1 priority. If he concentrates on you, retreat, if he concentrates on the gun, attack. The trick is to get the drop on him when he's occupied with your gun. Usually what happens, is he'll destroy the gun, but then in turn will die to my conventional weapons. Having a dispenser hidden nearby allows me to set up a new sentry before the sticky-jumper can respawn and make it back.

Of course, if you're dealing with a real pro demoman, then it's probably best to switch classes entirely and go with something like the scout, engaging him as soon as he touches down on your rooftop/battlements.

But, yeah, I usually find myself switching to Engineer to defend the intel because of pesky sticky/rocket jumpers and scouts. They're annoying to say the least.

[Werdna]

I think one of the best improvements TF2 made on TFC is to change the victory method.  In TFC, CTF was nothing more than a time limit and whomever had the most caps at the end of the time (usually a half hour) won.  If your team was awful you had to sit there and take a drubbing for all map_timelimit.  If their team was up by 3 caps and decided to turtle, you had to bash your head in for the full time limit on a wall of D.  By adding a X-caps-to-win model, they inherently eliminate turtling.  Turtling was an awful problem in TFC.  You can still turtle a lead in TF2, but there's way more incentive to just get another cap or two to finish the game.

The other great improvement TF2 made was to make other game modes beside CTF seriously popular... they had a few good A/D maps toward the end of TFC but TF2 really matured them.  CP and A/D I think is TF at its best because your whole team works together, instead of splitting into separate O and D teams that sometimes work to cross purposes (anyone here remember 'no chasing' or 'no midfield DM'?)

Personally, I'd fix 2fort by connecting water route to lower spiral, instead of coming out near the front door.  Currently its a long route for little reward.  Connecting it to spiral would force it to be defended, which forces one defender away from ramp room or flag room.  Imagine the underwater fights, when dragging a flag back out this way.  Even this suggestion would suck for comp play though, it'd probably end up similar to the old Well where teams would stick a heavy in the pipe to lock it down all game. 

2fort is simply too narrow for offense, with the tight halls and ceilings all over the place - its a dream for stickies, sgs, heavies, and soldiers to nail down.  What can a scout do in such a tight space?