An online n00b's experience: Team Fortress 2

[Spleeni]

I killed someone in Lazytown by standing in between ramps when they had the third point; and I just spammed it at the ramps.

 

[roo18]

However, the community is a 2 way thing and it sometimes it takes a little consideration from oneself, but is worth the effort.

a) Politely greet everyone upon entering the lobby, or "Hi team, who has mics?" if the game is underway
b) Ask who is doing what to get an idea of how you can best contribute yourself
c) Ask how you can help others
d) Or tell the team how you intend to contribute, people may change class to help you!

I totally agree. TF2 on Xbox live, people are generally really nice!

This really takes me back to my first online play of TF2.

One thing has always stuck in my mind though, is my first or second match, one guy repeating, "Give it up, heavy." I did have my headset on, although I didn't say a word for the first few days, so I knew he was talking to me. I immediately quit the match and played Kameo for a while (I had very limited games).

I just had this sense that if I went back and played online, I'd be letting down my team because I sucked. Really badly. But eventually I got over it and now its the primary Xbox Live game I play.

Nice review!

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

Heavy: Shoot everything you see! Right click to spin your barrel without shooting (useful when going around corners).

There's more to it than that,

Heavy: Try to fire into narrow areas and groups where your high dispersion firepower is hard to avoid, remember to use your Shotgun when facing single opponents that are faster than you. Find a Medic, be best friends with him.

 

[Ixus Illwrath]

I love the hell out of this game, but it doesn't even come close to how amazing COD4 is.

 

[mjhhiv]

Hey, glad to see you enjoyed it. Yeah, TF2 is a great game to get acquainted with the FPS genre. If you have any questions feel free to ask me. Below I will give some tips:

---Classes:
Scout: Do NOT play on servers with more than 20 people. Also, be aware of ranges, your scattergun (the primary shotgun) is not good for distances over about 20 feet. For long range, switch to your secondary weapon, the pistol

Soldier: Aim at peoples feet, not their heads. The rockets cause splash damage and so aiming at their feet will hurt them, but you may miss and cause no harm if you aim at their head.

Pyro: As you said, this is a teamwork game, and the Pyro is a good example of that. Your flamethrower will set people alight, and the afterburn causes 50 damage. This is where you leave the fray, so that another class with more killing power can finish the job. Basically, hide, ambush, set everyone alight, run while they burn. If they are beyond the range of your flamethrower, switch to shotgun.

Demoman: You are the only character with grenades, use them wisely! What I usually do is shoot them around corners or like artillery (over obstacles, etc.). Your secondary weapon shoots sticky-grenades. Shoot some of these onto a control point or cart (depending on the map) and right-click when an enemy steps on them. You can have 8 lying around at any one time.

Heavy: Shoot everything you see! Right click to spin your barrel without shooting (useful when going around corners).

Engineer: You are weak. You have little firepower. However, you compensate by being able to build 4 buildings. Build teleports to bring your allies to the front line. Build dispensers to provide your team with health and ammo (and you with metal to build buildings). Lastly, build sentry guns to defend the area. Beware, sentries have a limited range. Fix buildings by hitting them with your wrench. The sentry can be upgraded first to gatteling guns, then by adding rockets. It costs 200 metal per upgrade. I really don't recommend this class for a beginner.

Sniper: Right click to zoom, then aim at peoples heads or chests and fire away! Beware, the middle of your crosshair emits a laser, which is visible to the enemy team and will give you away. Hide it by pointing it off to one side (example: if aiming through a doorway, aim at the frame and only move to take your shot when someone appears).

Medic: As soon as you spawn, switch to your secondary weapon. Aim at your team mates and left click. They will be healed. Give priority to the ones asking for assistance (they have a speech bubble with a red cross above their heads). You can "over-heal" people to 150% of their normal health. Only use your primary weapon if no one else is around and someone is bothering you. Beware, it shoots in an arc, not straight like other weapons. After healing for a while, you will have charged your "uber-charge." aim at a heavy, demo, soldier, or pyro (on occasion), and right-click.

Spy: Do NOT play this class. It is way too complicated. Even I am still trying to master it.


---Terms:
Spawn: The place where you appear.

Uber-Charge: if you ever see an ally or enemy that is glowing blue or red (depending on team), this is an uber-charge (this is what the Swedish guy was talking about). The uber-charge means for 10 seconds you are invincible. People use this to charge forth into enemy lines and wreak havoc.

Critical Hits, or "Crits": Occasionally, you will fire "critical" ordinance along with your normal ammo. These do a lot more damage than normal, and usually kill in the cases of a crit-rocket or grenade. They are characterized by glowing red or blue (depending on team) and emit a lightning sound when fired. The exception are critical melee hits. These don't glow, they just hurt!

Taunts: Pressing 'g' will cause you to do a weapon-specific taunt. It is usually a bad idea to do mid-battle as you lose control of your character for a few seconds.

Melee: Your third weapon in most classes this only affects the people adjacent to you.

Point: those circles with the red or blue hologram in the middle. These are the crux of "control" maps. By standing on an enemy or neutral CP, you can convert it to your own.

Cart: in "payload" maps, the cart in the track with the 1940's-style atomic bomb in it. By standing next to it if you are blue team, you can push it forward. The goal is to get it to the other side of the map

Intelligence: in "Capture the flag" maps, its the briefcase with the papers falling out. In your control room there is this briefcase, the enemy will try to come and get it, and you should go and try to get theirs. The point is to grab it and bring it back to your own intelligence room alive. If you die, you drop it where you died and it then counts down for a minute or two. If no one picks it up before it runs out of time, it returns to its original location.

---Game-Related:
Teams: It is a typical Red vs. Blue game. The two teams represent two warring corporations that are involved in demolitions, mining, construction, etc. and this is reflected in the maps. Blue is the attacking team, Red is the defending.

Maps:
-Gravelpit: Diamond shaped map. Blue starts at the bottom, red starts at the top and controls the two side points. The point here is for blue to take the two side points and then converge on the top. Red's goal is to hold out until the time is out.
-Hydro: Totally random in almost every way. If you listen to the commentary, this is intentional.
-2Fort: Red and Blue each own a fort separated by a common moat and bridge. This is s "capture the flag" map.
-Dustbowl: This is actually 4 different maps all combined into one. You only play one section at a time. The different sections are separated by walls and doors that only open to one map at a time, and as such, if you look through the fences you can see other areas of the map that you can play, just not during that round. This is the typical "control" map.
-Goldrush: This is like Dustbowl; 4 maps in one. Except here it is a "payload" map, not a "control" map.

Hotkeys (or at least how I set them, I forget what default is, its pretty close):
-W: Foward
-A: Strafe left
-S: Backwards
-D: Strafe right
-E: Call for medic
-R: reload
-G: taunt
-T: Spray your spray, upload one in "options"
-Y: All speak (both teams can read what you say)
-U: Team speak (only your team sees it)
-V: Voice (if you have a mic, it is recommended you do)
-CTRL: Crouch
-SPACE: Jump
-ENTER: sent what you typed if you opened up chat
-TAB: Check player stats, like their score, ranking, and what class they are if they are on your team
-Z, X, C: pre-coded vocal commands, such as "help!" "sentry ahead!" or "Thanks!"
-Left-click: fire primary weapon
-Right-click: alternative command, such as activate uber-charge or zoom in on sniper rifle
-Scroll Wheel: Alternate between weapons, left click to make your selection
-Q: Switch between your current weapon and your last. If you only have had one weapon out, this switches to your secondary and back.
-1-5: switch between weapons 1-5. Most classes only have 3, but the engineer has 5 and the spy has 4.



Well I think that about covers it. Again, feel free to PM me if you have any questions. Happy Hunting!

PS: just a little trivia, each character has a unique accent.
Scout: Boston
Soldier: Standard American Sergent (read: Full Metal Jacket)
Pyro: No one really knows... My personal guess is he is from the West Coast, but that's just me
Demoman: Even though he is black, he's Scottish
Heavy: Russian brute
Engineer: Texan
Medic: German
Sniper: Australian
Spy: South English

Is the spy thing some ploy to have the class all to yourself? Spy is one of the best classes.

 

[The Wooster]

What the fuck? The spy is god damn French. That's fightin' talk.

 

[_Serendipity_]

Spy is fun, but I sort of see his point in that it's really not an easy class to play well. However, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't experiment with it, or how else would you ever learn?

Personally, I hope the Escapist's TF2 servers re-appear online soon so I can... well... be shot to pieces by you guys...

Edit: And yeah, the Spy is French. I'm from the South of England (about as South as you can be, actually) and, as much as I would love a Devonian/Cornish spy ("'ello moi lovers! I be sappin' yuur sentry!"), he's French.

 

[The Wooster]

Spy is fun, but I sort of see his point in that it's really not an easy class to play well. However, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't experiment with it, or how else would you ever learn?

Personally, I hope the Escapist's TF2 servers re-appear online soon so I can... well... be shot to pieces by you guys...

The spy is a suprisingly easy choice once you've got the very basics down. I went from sucking to generally lurking at the top of the leaderboard in an afternoon. The hardest classses to be decent with are the very specialised ones. Demoman and Sniper stand out as two classes you'll get totally owned as when you first start using them.

"'Ow about some jellied eels eh guvnor?" *stab*

 

[_Serendipity_]

Weirdly, Sniper is my second-least played class (a meager 21 minutes...), but has the greatest kills in one life (17, most of which were head-shots).

 

[mjhhiv]

Spy is fun, but I sort of see his point in that it's really not an easy class to play well. However, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't experiment with it, or how else would you ever learn?

Personally, I hope the Escapist's TF2 servers re-appear online soon so I can... well... be shot to pieces by you guys...

The spy is a suprisingly easy choice once you've got the very basics down. I went from sucking to generally lurking at the top of the leaderboard in an afternoon. The hardest classses to be decent with are the very specialised ones. Demoman and Sniper stand out as two classes you'll get totally owned as when you first start using them.

"'Ow about some jellied eels eh guvnor?" *stab*

That about sums it up - though I'd mention that it's really hard to be a great soldier. It's easy to be a decent one, but hard to be terrific. I usually stick to Heavy/Engineer... Ya know, so I don't have to think as hard.

 

[Manfesto]

I think I've been playing it for 1-2 months now... and I still suck. I keep trying tough but I think I'm not gonna get any better.

 

[Unmannedperson]

There be many a word here...

Is the spy thing some ploy to have the class all to yourself? Spy is one of the best classes.

No. I just didn't want to take up 3 pages explaining cloaking and disguises and disguising as your own team and sapping and when to use your pistol and where to stand for the best backstab and how to get behind enemy lines etc. etc. etc.

 

[mjhhiv]

There be many a word here...

Is the spy thing some ploy to have the class all to yourself? Spy is one of the best classes.

No. I just didn't want to take up 3 pages explaining cloaking and disguises and disguising as your own team and sapping and when to use your pistol and where to stand for the best backstab and how to get behind enemy lines etc. etc. etc.

OK, I see what you're saying, and I most definitely wouldn't want to have to write that up either. Saying to not play the class at all is a little weird, though.

 

[meatloaf231]

TF2 isn't for everybody, which is good because it immediately puts up a small blockade towards the people who are all about solo play and being the MVP.

And that is why we love it so.

 

[[Gavo]]

Well...this game is really great for the first 50 hours. Then you get bored and good. Like me. (95+ hours total :x) Then again, this was the only game I played for months so...

Anyways, good review. Try all the classes if you can. If you don't like a class but have barely played as them, force yourself to play as them for a while. My friend used to hate the Heavy, now he loves him.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

What the fuck? The spy is god damn French. That's fightin' talk.

Of course he's French, he's never without his Cigarette.

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

Oh, I swear there was a tutorial when you start a game, maybe it's different now.

Also, remember, you can learn a lot from spectating!

 

[Melaisis]

I really, really liked it. Some of the points - especially for a newcomer - were uncannily accurate.

 

[Lord Krunk]

Spy is fun, but I sort of see his point in that it's really not an easy class to play well. However, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't experiment with it, or how else would you ever learn?

Personally, I hope the Escapist's TF2 servers re-appear online soon so I can... well... be shot to pieces by you guys...

Edit: And yeah, the Spy is French. I'm from the South of England (about as South as you can be, actually) and, as much as I would love a Devonian/Cornish spy ("'ello moi lovers! I be sappin' yuur sentry!"), he's French.

Wait, wait. There's an Escapist TF2 Server? And no-one told me this beforehand?

 

[TOGSolid]

I love the hell out of this game, but it doesn't even come close to how amazing COD4 is.

COD 4 is good, but Infinity Ward is terrible at glitch fixing, balancing tweaking, etc.
COD 4 has been out for how long now and they still haven't fixed the fully automatic semi-automatics (G3/m14/pistols/etc.) among other issues?

Valve is quick to fix things and pays attention to the community. TF2 is infinitely more polished than COD4 will ever be.

Oh and isn't the Pyro supposed to be Italian?