Yes, but clearly people (idiots) don’t see it that way.
Ok, moving the discussion here from the Bargain thread, I tried Team Fortress 2 for the first time today.
At first it was pretty awesome. I fired it up, and it popped up a little bubble saying something like “I notice it’s your first time playing Team Fortress 2. Why don’t you try the tutorial?” and it pointed down to a button. So I played through the tutorial, and learned about the soldier. Then it told me I should play a game with bots, so I did that on dustbowl, as a soldier.
Then I was ready to start, so I figured I’d play Dustbowl as a soldier. There seemed to be only one game in the server browser that said Dustbowl, so I chose that.
Wow, then the game started losing me. I had an okay time I guess. I killed a lot of people, and we prevented Blu team from taking the second control point because my team was well organized at the back and I had rockets ready for anyone that came into any of the three chokepoint tunnels. But the game is just so big and chaotic with 16 people on each side. I think the server was also modded to have lots of items, every time I died it kept telling me that the person who killed me was carrying some sort of item with certain properties or something? I’m not sure. It was a bit confusing. After that round was over, it was going to start me on another one, but I was pretty bored so I quit out.
I tried finding another server playing Dustbowl, but was unable to find one. Is it just a really unpopular map? Also, BobJustBob said something in the bargain bin thread about playing on Valve’s and Lotus servers or something? How do I find those? I tried typing in Dustbowl into the search criteria, and it just filtered it down to the one game which I had just quit. So that means there’s no one else playing that map? Or am I doing something wrong?
If I want to find an official Valve server with no mods then do I type in Valve into the filter? Or something else?
Also, what I really wanted to find was some kind of smaller game. Maybe 8v8 or 4v4? I could be wrong, but it doesn’t seem to me that dustbowl is designed for 16v16 players. (And if it is, then it’s pretty poorly designed, I’d say).
Yes it can get a bit spammy. But often times keeping your corner clear of enemies, even if the front moves around for a few minutes can be tremendously satisfying.
12 x 12 is fine for dustbowl because it a more positional game, less of a rugby scrum. The type of game (rush in and kill or sit and strategize) you may feel like playing at that exact minute also depends on how long the respawn is set at and how far from the action your respawn is.
edit: I meant to say is that: “Yes, I’m almost positive that 16x16 players is mod and not the default setting. And yes that would be a turnoff and not representative of an enjoyable environment your first time out”
Those were items they have collected over the years and most liekly not a server setting. They will start popping up in your inventory as well.
You’re obviously in a state of shock from all the excitement
There are lots of items that have been added to the game to replace elements of the basic loadout, as well as cosmetic stuff, hats and the like. You will unlock them randomly through accumulation of play time, and you can earn specific ones by getting milestone achievements for classes (which are earned for a specific # of other achievements).
I tried finding another server playing Dustbowl, but was unable to find one. Is it just a really unpopular map? Also, BobJustBob said something in the bargain bin thread about playing on Valve’s and Lotus servers or something? How do I find those? I tried typing in Dustbowl into the search criteria, and it just filtered it down to the one game which I had just quit. So that means there’s no one else playing that map? Or am I doing something wrong?
I’ve never been able to get the search box to work very well. What you want to do is use the column sort buttons to decide what you’re looking for. If you want servers running dustbowl, click the Map column then scroll down to the section for cp_dustbowl. I guarantee you there were other servers running it, as I think dustbowl is probably the single most popular map in the game. A lot of servers keep it in their rotation because it’s a good way to get player population up when people see it running.
If I want to find an official Valve server with no mods then do I type in Valve into the filter? Or something else?
I’ve never found a very good solution to this. I just tend to look at the stuff over on the right side and join if there isn’t too much extraneous crap running. Some stuff like HLStatsX is very non-intrusive (doesn’t change gameplay, just keeps score and an all-time server ranking), some stuff like nocrits and norespawntime makes it a completely different game and I tend to stay away from servers running it.
Also, what I really wanted to find was some kind of smaller game. Maybe 8v8 or 4v4? I could be wrong, but it doesn’t seem to me that dustbowl is designed for 16v16 players. (And if it is, then it’s pretty poorly designed, I’d say).
Any map w/ more than 24 players is running above Valve’s designed limit. It can be fun, but it will certainly be chaotic. You can select for number of players by using that column to sort servers. Also you might want to disable empty and full servers from showing.
Also, if you want, add me as a Steam friend (Funkula) and I can show you around some of the better maps/servers.
I wonder if these are the same people who were angrily demanding the removal of the Apple logos from their Steam clients the day Steam went live for OS X. I swear, there was one guy who started half a dozen angry threads about this in the first three hours. :P
16v16 does usually devolve into a spamming match on both sides (particularly on dustbowl) It’s a good way to experiment with the classes though. Try cp_gravepit, it’s a bit more open than dustbowl. Also, try arena maps for a nice change of pace (no respawn until end of round, no medpacks.)
While it’s nice that they’re adding tutorials you’ll still probably want to check out some of the community made resources, especially the how to play videos. There’s no real reason to just restrict yourself to the Soldier, though as a rule of thumb new players should put off playing as a Scout, Spy or Sniper until they’ve learned the ropes. The Medic is a great newbie class and very useful to boot!
Keep an eye out for games on pl_goldrush or pl_badwater as well. Payload involves one team pushing a cart from one point to another just by standing near it, so it’s pretty much an A to B map that’s very easy to grasp compared to some of the complex capture point stages.
Also, be sure to mess around with the voice commands and taunts a little because TF2 has more personality in it’s little finger than every modern grey/brown shooter combined!
Make sure you uncheck the “show map list” option so you can see the real server browser.
Strato
3809
Personally, I don’t consider Dustbowl to be much of a good map. The third map itself with the hugely narrow chokepoints lends itself to being a spam fest as a demo or soldier. One game I played as a red medic, on the third map it was easy to build up the uber (using the kritzkreig) and giving to a soldier, and the opposition had no chance, I was up to 10 dominations active (on a 12 per side) by the end of the match.
I’ll second recommendations for payload maps. They are very easy for both offense and defence, except pipeline which is a payload race, still a lot of fun though. In fact, Badwater is my most played map, for the reason in that it is good to play as any class. Oh, the other nice thing about payload maps is earning points for pushing the cart, so if by chance I’m having a bad night playing, I can push ze cart and still appear to be contributing. Heh, I don’t know why people place so much emphasis on score, but they do. Gotta keep that scoreboard ticking over somehow.
I actually think Goldrush has much worse choke points than Dustbowl. It’s not uncommon to have both sides trade back and forth on the first map, where one side will reach the first checkpoint and stall out, followed by the other side doing exactly the same. With Dustbowl, it goes to the final cap point maybe half to 2/3rds the time in my experience, and stymying the enemy on the first map is a rarity caused by horribly unbalanced teams. On the other hand, Badwater is probably my favorite map in the whole game, so it’s not an inherent problem with payload.
I’ve played TF 2 quite a bit on the Xbox 360 but downloaded it today for my Mac. So much more fun on Steam - fewer retards on the mike, plus all the crazy items are available. So I was sporting my new earbuds, which attracted questions like “how do you play without right click?”
I have noticed in the server browser maps that I don’t have (which seem to be variants of existing maps). I wasn’t able to download them from the client - where would I get them?
XPav
3812
First time I’ve played TF2 on the Mac. Played it like, once, on the 360.
Something’s really odd though – my mouse 2, not even an Apple mouse, doesn’t like Mouse 2. It does the action on the release… so that it doesn’t actually work properly.
I actually just thought of something else that might be actually be helpful. Before launching TF2 spend a little time browsing servers or collecting server addresses without entering the game.
The trick is that when you are in regular old Steam go to the View pulldown menu, select Servers, set your TF2 filters (I have not full, not empty and not passworded) and then just cruise through looking for potential servers you might enjoy based on max player size, cleverness of name, Mod descriptions, map rotation and ping. Then just batch together a bunch into your favorites. If they don’t “fit” your style you can always delete them later.
I have about 50 servers in my Favorite file. It much easier to pick from that list rather than waiting for teh whole internet list to refresh. Every now and then I’ll take a dip from the big list for some fresh locations. I recently came across two that I have added to the rotation that are relatively rage free
Casual Domination at 64.34.179.212:27016
Fragfest in the Forest at 208.100.45.163:27015
Rock8man:
Dustbowl is probably the most intense TF2 map. It really concentrates the fighting and keeps it constant. It can be pretty overwhelming and exhausting.
On the server browser: I think it defaults now to a simplified view that only shows one server for each map, each in a big box. There’ll be some kind of advanced button you can click to get the regular browser.
The TF2 comes to apple video on the TF2 blog.
Try fpsbanana, they have a lot of TF2 stuff for download.
Delta
3820
Well, I’ve had a good go now, after migrating over from the 360 - TF2’s always been one of my favourite games, and my first impressions are as though it’s just got better. The offline mode is great too, if you want 10 minutes of something a little less chaotic, and the ‘new’ standout map for me was Egypt by far. What a map.
