I think you’re all forgetting the fact that incendiary rockets sucked balls, their damage from a direct hit was somewhere in the ballpark of 15HP followed by a burn duration much shorter than getting hit by the flamethrower.
The only legitimate use of the incendiary rocket was in conjunction with an exploit or code deficiency where the “on fire” AOE damage went through the battlements and pissed off snipers by damaging them through the wall they ducked behind for cover; this was fixed in TFC.
Their only real use in the early TFC days was, as aluded to earlier, lagging the fuck out of people who’s video cards had problems rendering the torrent of shitty sprites popping all over their screen. Although it was comedy enough to see that crap spewing from the Gluon Gun view model, I couldn’t consider that a redeeming factor.
The pyro was the only class I never, ever saw used in a clan match. People got damn good with the Spy tranq and Engineer offense with EMP/Ammo pack scripts, but the Pyro was always deficient on O & D.
I’m curious as the maps sound a lot tighter, are there opportunitues for offensive sniping? One of my favorite tactics was to hop the bridge and sit under the enemy battlements or in their front lawn, beading in for a headshot on the back of their skulls as they imagined they were in for a safe crossing.
I find it strange that they allowed the spy to retain so many of his abilities when they were stripped of so many others… no detpack, no infection mechanic for the medic, no incendiary grenades, etc. It sounds like they even added a specific gizmo for him to use against engineer builds? On the one hand I can understand this, as one of the main ways to kill an SG was with grenades, especially secondaries… but really, it sounds like it put him over the edge in terms of defensive saboteur.
There is room for offensive sniping but the new Death Shot makes that quite difficult. When someone kills you, the camera zooms to that person and shows a freeze frame of them for 2-5s so you can take a screenshot. The off shoot of this is that it shows you EXACTLY where they are standing (if you know the map). So an offensive sniper is going to be moving a lot to avoid getting reamed by those they kill and/or spies.
Spies are quite powerful right now and I think they will get toned down a little. The sapper charges are the bane of an engineer and it’s easy to remove it but they are entirely too easy to place. They need a cooldown and/or a placing timer. As they stand, a spy can run through the back line if they are cloaked and sap an entire row of SGs/Disp; granted, it won’t work if the engys are paying attention but its a bit too easy to do.
I like the oil slick idea, but what they need is an oil slick that reduces ground friction, not increase it…
Then the pyro could lay down a slick and people could jump off a wall, onto the slick, maintaining their velocity and go screaming past, and then, since they couldn’t turn, fall into a pit and die, or go right past sentry guns.
Fun for laying the groundwork for fast offense, as well as a trap for a good defense. It would probably break all kinds of levels though.
Is there a good place to learn the basics of each class and get tutorials in their use? Reading this thread has been very informative, but I want something along the lines of the Quake Wars for Newbies site that has helped me so much.
I’m totally terrible at this game, and would like to get some skills so I can at least play one or two roles somewhat effectively.
I’d love to get a game of this, but every time without fail, one minute after connecting I suffer a “connection problem” and get dropped from the server.
I had this problem yesterday for like 6 hours. If you manage to read the text that is written in light gray way-too-close-to-the-background-gray-color in the error box, it says “unable to verify User ID ticket” or something like that. It’s a Steam error. It magically went away for me after a while, but for a good chunk of yesterday I was unable to enter a game at all.
The rockets might have sucked balls in TFC, but this isn’t TFC. Surely, from the 8 years or so TFC has been played they know the pyro had some major weaknesses as a class, so why not make the rockets good? Or do something to make him, you know, fun? Evidently they knew how the game turned into a lame grenade spamfest, so they designed it without grenades. Do the same thing, except with a pyro. Or just get rid of the poor guy.
But maybe I am not seeing something. Who knows, it’s technically a beta.
Also, I read some comments on some sites from hardcore TFC players, evidently this game is not as warm a reception from them as one may think. I guess that’s not too surprising… there’s that other mod that is closer to TFC for those people.
Honestly I’d say that a lot depends on the class you choose. An Eng is going to need to know the map so they can put SGs and Dispensers and Teleporters up in the right spots. A Demoman will need to know routes people will take so they can set traps up.
A Medic is going to be pretty useful on any map. Just find where people are and heal them, and keep an eye out for spies. Soldier and Heavy are also pretty simple to play if your team needs extra umph.
Gave the various classes a whirl today. I do have to agree that the Pyro is pretty weak. The range on the flame thrower can easily be outdistanced by simply backpedaling. Scouts are suprisingly nasty with their quick movement and shotgun. A HW with a medic is a PITA. Engineer is very fun. I noticed that two dispensers located right next to each other will replenish someone twice as fast, but they take a while to set up. I like that I don’t have to replenish the dispenser itself. Soldier is good in a pinch, to help protect chokepoints, but the splash damage is underwhelming. Medic and Spy require some nuance.
Also:
[-] September 20, 2007 - Current Release
Changes/Additions
Linux Dedicated Server beta release
Disabled the loading of background maps
Bug fixes
Fixed not being able to issue rcon commands with empty strings like: rcon sv_password
Fixed refresh rate video mode issue
Fixed crash on opening the scoreboard after having changed between windowed and fullscreen
Fixed a hitch problem related to mouse updates happening too frequently
Fixed sentry muzzleflashes not drawing unless sentry was near the map origin
Fixed a crash during loading while starting the game in fullscreen mode
Exploit fix related to “join_team”.
If nothing else, I’ve found the Pyro is definitely a useful class to have around on 2Fort. If you’re a Scout trying to navigate those tight passages and run into a Pyro, you’re pretty much toast. They’re also great to have if you’re trying to protect a dropped case that’s still in your own base.
Some things I’m trying to figure out:
a) is there a way to turn off player nametags? I’m trying to take screens, especially in the death scenes, but I’d like them a lot more if they didn’t always have something like OMGSUCKMYJIMMYHAT front and center.
b) what exactly triggers map rotation? I was playing on 2Fort, we got our three caps, and the map started again. And then eventually, after another match or two (maybe 3?), the map finally switched. On Granary, we can play a flurry of games (6? 8?) and never really be sure what triggers the map actually ending. And while I love the fact that the game goes to sudden death if both teams are stalemating, I’d love to have an overall timer for the map (maybe it exists and I just don’t see it?)
I was getting some odd stuttering in Well anytime I was outside of my base and looking at the enemy’s base. If I turned around it would go away, though. Weird.
I also got hit by the train three times. Where’s the achievement for that?
You know, now that achievements are a fairly standard concept in games it really is time for some sort of sarcastic raspberry achievements. Get killed by a train X times in a single round. Die from falling X times in a round. Get killed by the same turret X times in a round.
I know I’d get a chuckle out of accidentally getting one of these.
Yeah, I think he’s good when he gets up in close. It’s just kind of an insult to leave him hanging with a shot gun when the sniper gets that sweet SMG for close range (which is rather effective for a sniper forced into close range combat). It’s sad to see the pyro with any real use outside his niche role; Which, others can perform nearly as well in many circumstances.
