Official Team Fortress 2 Game Nights (PC)

Hydro would be the main culprit for that.

turbocopland wrote:

I can't imagine some of those maps are any fun at all on the 360 because of team size.

Team size is the least of the 360 version's worries. The framerate is neutered and the network performance is pure crap. It's very sad because I was looking forward to playing the game on both systems a ton. The game plays just as well on the 360, but the performance problems ruin the experience.

Thanks guys, I was finally able to get the "With Friends Like These" achievement last night.

By the way, Atlas, I tried several times to add you to my friends list, but I keep getting a generic error ("Failed to add [unknown] to friends list" I believe).

McChuck wrote:

First, the opposing team went one way and we went the other, completely bypassing each other. Teammates at our cap are yelling, "They're rushing." While they got to our cap first, they had only one initially while we had three for the win.

That was pretty funny, red took the sneaky way through the vents, and blue took the straight-forward way through the tunnel. Fortunately, red left only a single engineer on defense (who hadn't managed to build a sentry) and enough of our team was defending to delay red's capture.

McChuck wrote:

It's just dead which makes me more nervous. I proceed to the point and twiddle my thumbs. Another soldier joins me. We finally get attacked. I'm blanking at the moment, but I think I survived long enough to cap.

That was me, you survived it completely as I remember. A heavy/medic combo came rushing back from the middle of the map, but we capped the point before he was able to get his minigun up to speed. I believe what happened then was that their entire team rushed, and all of blue except us two were caught defending our cap. You and I took the long way around, and the entire red team was occupied fighting, dead, or too far away to defend their cap.

Tannhauser wrote:

I believe what happened then was that their entire team rushed, and all of blue except us two were caught defending our cap. You and I took the long way around, and the entire red team was occupied fighting, dead, or too far away to defend their cap.

Yes, I was one of the defenders, and HOLY CRAP. It's a shame you guys missed out on it because it was one hell of a fun defense even if it only lasted 45 seconds or so. But then again, you guys being over there won the match for us, so...

Screenshot time.

Gaald revenging my death on 2fort:
IMAGE(http://www.lysator.liu.se/~nossid/mr.%20big%20red%20is%20looking%20good!.png)

Uber pyro, that's like cheating isn't it?
IMAGE(http://www.lysator.liu.se/~nossid/shyn%20darkly%20is%20looking%20good!.png)

ShynDarkly sticky bombing my ass.
IMAGE(http://www.lysator.liu.se/~nossid/Shyn%20Darkly%20is%20looking%20good!_0000.png)

Good games as usual. I usually switch classes to what's needed, except for on 2fort. I just love snipin' there a bit too much, but I'd like to think that I'm at least pulling my weight doing it.

The observant reader might notice that I'm using the DX8 renderer, despite now having a newish graphics card. Getting rid of the horrible lens effects on the sniper rifle is worth losing some eye candy over.

nossid wrote:

A bunch of pics without Anti-Aliasing

MY EYES!!!

Tannhauser wrote:

By the way, Atlas, I tried several times to add you to my friends list, but I keep getting a generic error ("Failed to add [unknown] to friends list" I believe).

I will try it again.

GG's tonight all. Teams were both very strong.

Dysplastic wrote:
nossid wrote:

A bunch of pics without Anti-Aliasing

MY EYES!!!

Pffft. If I run out of ammo I just grab some jagged edges and keep shooting, cause that's how I roll!

Hmm. I didn't see this posted anywhere else... but this popped up in my Steam news last night:

New achievement packs will be added to Team Fortress 2 in the coming weeks. First up: a batch of 36 achievements for all the hard-working medics out there. Here's a sneak peek:

IMAGE(http://storefront.steampowered.com/Steam/Marketing/message/1346/img/TF2achievements.jpg)

This is just sick of valve.
Right before exams too those bastards.
These achievements monopolize my time more than meth.

I'm glad having a few official game nights is getting everyone back in the swing of things. I tried to join for about 10 minutes last night before I moved on, so I guess it's working

Were you set to auto-join, Certis? Because someone else on my friends got on before you, but they had fired up TF2 after you.

merphle wrote:

Hmm. I didn't see this posted anywhere else... but this popped up in my Steam news last night:

New achievement packs will be added to Team Fortress 2 in the coming weeks. First up: a batch of 36 achievements for all the hard-working medics out there. Here's a sneak peek:

IMAGE(http://storefront.steampowered.com/Steam/Marketing/message/1346/img/TF2achievements.jpg)

Does this include new maps too? I hope? Please? Dear God Please give us new maps?

McChuck wrote:

Were you set to auto-join, Certis? Because someone else on my friends got on before you, but they had fired up TF2 after you.

Yep. I don't recall how patient I was feeling at the moment though, I just went and played CoD4

TF2 will get another shot in the arm when Valve releases more maps, and especially when the Hunted game type comes as part of one of them.

Gaald was on fire last night.I was playing scout on 2fort opposite Gaald who was sniping. I tried to make my way across the top of the bridge and was met with a sniper bullet to the head. I tried it again, only this time I decided to put the moves on him (not gay) and double jump my way across the bridge. Not a good idea, as I died again. I tried... 7 or so more times only to die every time. Probably wasn't a good idea to try so many times...

Fun games last night!

*Legion* wrote:

TF2 will get another shot in the arm when Valve releases more maps, and especially when the Hunted game type comes as part of one of them.

Care to elaborate? on the "hunted" part specifically?
Having a great time playing with you guys, I'm not much of a comlink fella but I try to follow the general swing of the hive-mind strategys (and my spoken english is bad at best) See ya on the Capture Point

Hunted is a map type from Team Fortress where one team is comprised of soldiers, medics, heavy weapon guys, and a VIP. They had to escort the VIP from one side of the map to the other in order to get a point. The other team were all snipers and had to take out the VIP. Usually the maps were asymmetric and had higher vantage points for the snipers. It's basically VIP from Counter-strike.

Completely forgot about this game type. It would be awesome if they implement it into TF2.

subaltern wrote:

Completely forgot about this game type. It would be awesome if they implement it into TF2.

I don't have the link anymore, but someone confirmed in an interview that the Hunted game type is in fact currently in the works. We don't know if it will be in the first batch of new TF2 content or not, but it's coming. Hopefully sooner rather than later!

Good games tonight, folks. Had lots of fun, even on Granary.

I got iced in at a friend's place (love this Western PA weather...) so I was in game as Terin. Nothing like playing on someone else's rig to screw up your game...

Certis's invite was unusually effective. Should use that tactic more often.

That was an interesting phenomenon, MyBrainHz and Redhwk were on the server alone for about ten minutes, and after I wrapped up some business I joined them hoping that other people would show up. People started dribbling in slowly, and then suddenly the server filled up completely. I was a bit taken aback at the speed of it all, until Certis started inquiring into how effective his invite was.

Though one thing that has irked me have been teleporters, as a dedicated TF2 engineer, I can't stress enough how important teleporters can be; after all, you've likely heard me complain about it. Many people neglect them, and focus nearly entirely on sentry guns. Teleporters are just, if not more, important. They shave off crucial time for your team to get back to the front line, and can really make or brake your team's offensive. The cumulative effect of a good teleporter can vastly outway the benefit of a sentry gun. At the very least, drop a teleporter entrance when you first exit the spawn, run back to refill or hit ammo boxes on the way; and then place the exit when you have your sentry completely built up.

A few other things, just general advice to those people playing engineers, which you may or may not need. Engineers should drop dispensers before sentry guns, except in areas with abundant ammo; especially when there are multiple engineers working in an area. Two engineers working off a single dispenser increases the total time for them to build up everything immensely. If multiple engineers are working in an area, they should build up one sentry gun at a time. A level two sentry is more formidable than two level ones. It is usually better to place your dispenser in a place where it is convenient for your team to access it, as it really helps out your team-mates. This can limit your placement of a sentry gun, but overall team health is more important. In Overtime, make sure to place your dispenser somewhere obvious to your team, or tell them of it's location. Medics and dispensers are the only source of health, so it is an important thing for your team to be aware of.

To add to Tannhauser's engineering tips, here are a few basic tips that I've heard people ask about recently in-game:

If you stand on the point (within the area labeled "Capture Zone" on the ground) while the opposing team is attempting to capture it, you will block their capture. Makes for a tight-quarters fight for defenders, but it might just delay long enough to get backup there.

If you are trying to use voice and/or chatting while dead, you're only talking to your dead teammates. Those who are alive cannot hear you or see your messages.

On Gravel Pit, when the attackers capture a point, the defenders can't capture it back. That is purely a defense situation. In addition, sequential points, when a padlock symbol appears on the point's cap indicator on your HUD, (they also show up on Gravel Pit's indicators) that means you cannot capture that point until the preceding point has been captured.

The final tip, Pyros are the worst class and you should never play them under any circumstance. Ever. You hear me? Never.

From what I've gathered while playing, Eng are the most important class in tf2. Their job is to slowly move your line of defense forward suffocating the attackers/defenders ability to move. As the map progresses, Eng build teleports to bring units to that spot, the teleport is defended by the sentry and a pyro(spy check). if an eng dies or he loses his buildings the team needs to become more defensive and let the eng(s) regroup.

nsmike wrote:

If you are trying to use voice and/or chatting while dead, you're only talking to your dead teammates. Those who are alive cannot hear you or see your messages.

Still doesn't prevent me from attempting to project thoughts to the living: "Look out! Distant's behind you!" It's like yelling at the people on a game show. You know they can't hear you, but you just can't help it.

Shwingo!

Couple of questions for those of you who regularly play. I just got the Orange Box, and finished Portal. I was looking around TF2, and realized, except for jumping into one of the many open servers, there's not much of a chance of figuring out how to play otherwise (no bots). Is that the best way? I don't want to take a spot in the GwJ server, and then run around in circles while my team suffers.

My other question is this: does EVERYONE who plays have a microphone? If you don't are you pretty much useless in the strategy portion of the game with your team?

Stan's Lounge (Jakelegg's GWJ server) is open to newcomers and veterans alike. You're been around here longer that most of us anyways - I can't see how you'd be unwelcome.

Furthermore, this may not have been obvious from the thousands of TF2-related posts in the last few months, but we recently had a spat where the servers were empty most nights. The organized nights grew directly out of that.

I'd guess that playing on the GWJ server is one of the better places to learn. We will talk, identify when the opposing team is making a concentrated attack on a certain location and generally have friendly banter going. I'd hate for someone's TF2 experience to be hurt by jumping in a public game only to be met with "lern2paly noob" and worse.

As for microphones: It's safe to say that more than a majority of the players in Stan's Lounge have mics. Some use them more often than others.
The truth is that as you're learning to play you probably won't have much to add to the strategy part - you don't yet know what to call a certain location in a map to ask for reinforcements there or to call out "So and So is a spy!"

The fact that many of us do have mics, and use them, really adds to our ability to communicate and hopefully hearing it will help you improve more quickly and learn what kind of information is valuable to pass along. And to cuss when you get backstabbed with 98% of your ubercharge ready (if you're playing a medic).

Scaphism wrote:

And to cuss when you get backstabbed with 98% of your ubercharge ready (if you're playing a medic).

By Distantsound might I add!!!!! Then you will know that you have been welcomed to the server. LOL!!!!! Until then........ Keep your back against the wall.

Certis wrote:

Yep. I don't recall how patient I was feeling at the moment though, I just went and played CoD4 ;)

*pfft* Certis is awesome!