Mann VS Machine! What do you think so far?

[SuperSuperSuperGuy]

I like it, but those damn Fist of Steel robots are a pain to deal with. That's the only robot type that I've really had trouble with so far. They swarm you and kill you quickly, preventing you from getting to the bomb carrier, and no one seems to realize that the only effective way to hurt them is to use your melee. Sentry guns are useless because they can't deal any real damage to them. If anyone's thought of a good way to take them out without Ubercharge, let me know.

Also, the upgrade system is quite restrictive and needs one (or two) of four things:
1. A "redistribute upgrades" option, possibly for a price
2. Cheaper upgrades
3. Higher money drops
4. Each of your classes having an individual credit count

If another class would be more helpful in the situation than the one you're playing, you can't just switch and upgrade the new class. All of the upgrades stay on the old class and all of the money you spent on them is still gone. If you intend to switch for just this one wave, you're better off either not switching, not upgrading or staying as this new class for the rest of the game.

EDIT: I'm also quite fond of how things like the Fan O'War are actually useful. Usually, it's a crappy weapon due to how you can kill a Heavy in 2 melee-range Scattergun shots with or without Mini-Crits, but against enemies with a higher HP count, the marked for death status that it inflicts really helps your damage output.

 

[La Barata]

I use Hamachi to run my own MvM server. I play with a full team every night, and I fucking love it.

 

[deathninja]

Looks fun, but I'm so far behind with TF2 that I just don't think it's worth the hassle.

Every server I've been on I either get screamed at or booted for picking a class that wasn't 'assigned' to me, and there doesn't seem to be any way of learning the game; it's like EVE but with people being even bigger pricks.

 

[Arakasi]

I tried to join, but I have no friends so it won't let me.
...

 

[Kashim117]

After spending the last hour trying to find a server that actually is 'near' me, I've had enough for one night.
The damn search settings for Man-Up servers needs to be selectable. Given the hectic nature of this game mode playing with a ping of 150+ makes you pretty useless.

Other than that I do enjoy it.

 

[V8 Ninja]

I like the mode a lot. It's quite fun and it does feel new enough to refresh my TF2 experience. However, the mode does feel restrictive. The reason for that is that the mode mostly comes down to picking a class and sticking with it if you want to succeed. There's no re-spec option and that means that I never actually get to try some of my uncommon classes (spy, medic, and pyro), which really sucks. Overall, I do like the mode.

 

[Aprilgold]

I *think* that the Mann Up mode might be slightly overtuned. Slightly.

Largely it's the snipers essentially campspawning you, or the super scouts who decide to ignore Natascha's slow effect and just romp to base with the bomb.

Have either a Spy or Scout (or Sniper, but Snipers are too weak in MvM for me to recommend having them) take out the Snipers. Those two classes are the best for picking up the money anyway (though I'd say Spies are more useful overall for their ability to sap enemies and easily take out Medics).

Another useful way to take out snipers is to have a teleporter set up that leads behind where they spawn or camp. Enemies don't shoot teles, so you don't have to worry about it being taken down unless it is also right next to a sentry (which is shouldn't be). I just finished a Mann Up game tonight on Decoy in which our Engie did exactly that. Very useful.

I can agree with this, the spy is a very good debuffer [slows giants and stops small groups of enemies for a few seconds] and I also agree with what you said about the scout. Any close quaters class can do what the scout can do with their base weapons and three times better. [R/TF2 apparently thinks Scout is the single best class in all situations, just... Just don't go to that subreddit if you are on reddit wanting to take a game seriously]

Pyro has a much higher damage output, can push back the bomb carrier, has two guns that can shoot enemies back, can push back the bomb carrier. The scout can't do this.

Spy can sap large groups including the bomb carrier and debuff entire groups of enemies with a singular weapon where the scout can only slow them down.

In general, if you honestly can not W+M1 or W+M2 for shit, then go scout, otherwise your not doing anything that is actually contributing to the team*.

*Yes, you get a bonus if you collect all the money but it is really easy to collect the money as a pyro or spy.

the waiting system is so stupid, me and my friend can never get in a match, when we do it either disconnect us or says its an older version something like that, normally we have to wait 30 minutes, then when it gets to 1 it changes to 15 etc.

Use the server browser, you'll find a server there much quicker than you would queueing for it.

Remember, every time you do this and succeed, your pushing one person [or more, if your in a group] back into the queue system.

It's brilliant fun but...

[HEADING=2]Good gods it's hard.[/HEADING]

It probably doesn't help that I played with total TF2 noobs so far, but still... Especially Rapid Fire Demomen give me nightmares. Even as a Sniper. Their range is just...insane.

But the rather broken matchmaking makes me sad.

Fucking hard? I've been pubbing it since it came out and it has been so easy that I pretty much can sit back and watch. However, I play engie which is pretty much breaking the entire gamemode, however I also did a demoknight and a heavy and didn't have any more problems. [note, I mean all pubs, there were three or four games I didn't win but that is because we didn't have a engie and as soon as we had one that team won again]

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It's OK but it is far from being difficult if you simply roll out a Soldier + Heavy + Engineer class.

Scout it useless, sure, you can shoot through guys for 50 damage, good on you. You see that entire group of fisicuff heavies right there? Yeah one shot from my rocket launcher will kill them instantly, nice try though kid.

Sniper can output a ton of damage but since he is pretty much reliant on getting headshots to kill groups he isn't as useful as he should be.

Pyro is bloody ridiculous and if your a W+M1 pyro your pretty much god here.

Spy is really useful, however the fact that he doesn't get assists for sapping robots pisses me off to no extent.

These four can be useful [spy in all cases and pyro in every single one because of raw damage and debuff ratios] however the scout and sniper I feel need some type of buff but that is just me.

I hear Mann Up mode is harder but oh my gawd that is another can of worms entirely, I'm not paying to play on servers which may or may not have people just for added difficulty that should have been there in the first place.

If you played Freak Fortress, that was kinda what I was hoping Mann Vs Machine would be, but sadly its just a wave-based survival game, three of which I own are better [L4D2, Payday the Heist and Killing Floor.... I need some dosh right now...] and I would rather play those then another wave based game that isn't that well designed.

There are better wave survival games. Much better ones.
Also I was semi excited for red and blue teaming up but that was taken out.
I was told it was because the playtesters complained about constantly shooting each other but I have no idea if its true.

I can agree with this but I can understand why that happened. Due to the fact that Red and Blu have been shooting each-other for so long its kinda hard to get players to stop.

 

[BeerTent]

It's fun, replayable, you never go through the same strategies and power-ups, very centered around teamwork, mildly frustrating compared to its difficulty.

I don't like the limitation and weaknesses of certain classes and weapons, and the inability to remove powerups. Unless you have class X, you aren't going to win; if class Y doesn't have weapon A equipped, they're pissing in the wind; if class Z thinks about buying upgrade A, they're wasting money. Buy health on kill, more ammo, bigger clip sizes, more damage, faster reload on ONLY your primary weapon. Never upgrade your melee unless you're a Scout using the Sandman or Wrap Assassin. Demoknights, fat Scout, Sniper in general, Axetinguisher Pyro, Gunslinger Engineer aren't worth shit and will die quickly. If you start the game as this class, you have to stay that class, because you can't remove your $1500 worth of upgrades* for the wave is too beefy for a Pyro.

But yeah. Lots of fun. Thought I bet you in a few weeks, I'll be back to almost 24/7 CP maps.

I completely disagree...

Our team is pretty ram-shackle... And while I agree that you should probably have an engineer every game, any of the other classes are up for debate. (Engineer(Stock), Pyro**(Degrease/Flare/Mail), Spy(?), Sniper(Heatmaker/?), Heavy(Stock/?), and we won MannWorks Normal.) And not once as a Pyro, have I actually said "I need Health for Kills, or passive health Regeneration." It's always, "Fuck me! I need to increase my max fuel!!"

Also, It's so fucking easy to create your own Popfile. I hope to create and test some interesting waves.

P.S. *This... I'll agree with. The fact you can't sell your old upgrades is pretty shitty. but there isn't anything too beefy for a Pyro, unless they're a Wm1 Pyro.

**And you thought Axtinguisher/Mailbox was useless! BAH! I upgraded the fire rate on that thing and saved assloads of gas!... err, fuel, Ammo... You know...



EDIT:

On the main topic of difficulty... In MvM, just like the rest of the game, you need to know your role! If you don't run to recover from a bad situation the entire team in MvM is taken down a peg, but if you do shit right, everyone benefits from the kills.

My group of friends knows what we're doing. So this is probably why we're so capable of winning most games. (Yeah, we lose some too. We're not THAT fucking good!!)

 

[DugMachine]

The community servers are a blast and playing it with friends is so much fun. Trying out different classes and powering up different weapons always keeps it fresh. Me personally I love demoknighting for the lulz.

The Mann Up servers on the other hand... ugh I bought 6 tickets but the matchmaking system is so broken and takes forever. It's tuned to a much higher difficulty and when you're like me and have cheap friends who refuse to buy tickets I gotta play with complete strangers who rage quit 9/10 times or voteban when you try to offer advise. And i'll probably never get to use those damn tickets so waste of 6 dollars yay.

 

[DugMachine]

I bloody love it but the matchmaking system is so broken it makes me want to cry, also the manual servers don't seem to stick by the 'only 6 people in a team rule' which makes me think it will be too easy.

It sticks to the only 6 people per team. Extra players can only spectate... unless private servers can have more than 6 but I haven't heard of that.

 

[Wisq]

The lack of usefulness of the Demoknight makes me sad.

Heck no -- demoknight is one of the most powerful classes once upgraded, at least on normal difficulties.

The key is that for 700 credits, you've got 4 seconds of crits after every kill, which means you get more kills (typically one hit each), which means you get more crits. For 400 credits, you've got +100 health on kill (half price for melee weapons), which means you'll soon be overhealed 100% of the time. With the targe fully upgraded, you can spend more time charging than not, which helps you get that first kill and get the chain rolling, or get away if things go bad, or catch up with enemies that make it past the front lines. And because you're mixing it up with the robots at melee range, you're also picking up all the cash from every kill.

Sure, it's a little hard to bootstrap with only 400 credits to start, but after that first round, you're far from useless.

 

[Fijiman]

It makes me wish that I had a half decent computer that I could trust for gaming and a more reliable internet connection. Even more so than the Pyro update.

 

[Tohuvabohu]

The lack of usefulness of the Demoknight makes me sad.

Heck no -- demoknight is one of the most powerful classes once upgraded, at least on normal difficulties.

The key is that for 700 credits, you've got 4 seconds of crits after every kill, which means you get more kills (typically one hit each), which means you get more crits. For 400 credits, you've got +100 health on kill (half price for melee weapons), which means you'll soon be overhealed 100% of the time. With the targe fully upgraded, you can spend more time charging than not, which helps you get that first kill and get the chain rolling, or get away if things go bad, or catch up with enemies that make it past the front lines. And because you're mixing it up with the robots at melee range, you're also picking up all the cash from every kill.

Sure, it's a little hard to bootstrap with only 400 credits to start, but after that first round, you're far from useless.

We had a full-on Demoknight on our team during a Mann Up match on Mannworks... The entire game was pretty disastrous, the team I had was mostly shit - But I think that Demoknight was dragging us down the most. Eventually, most of the losers I was with quit and were replaced with competent players. I dunno why, but I've had really bad luck on every Mannworks challenge.

I think it would've helped us all if he at least brought his grenade launcher. Although I did see a video of 6 demoknights cheesing an entire Mann Up game together, so I dunno.

I finally completed my final map on Mann Up last night... the Endurance challenge on Mannworks. Fuck that challenge. So many quitters, map restarts, and hl2.exe has stopped workings. 2 hours later (That's, 2 hours spent in one functioning match.) I finally completed the endurance challenge and got my botkiller.

Spoiler

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[MEDIA=youtube]P3ALwKeSEYs[/MEDIA]

I might get started on another tour this weekend. But I think I need a break from slaying robots for a day or two.

 

[Davey Woo]

I tried to get into a game the other day, after sitting for 20 minutes watching the 'queue length' slow down, and the 'queue time' go up from 6 minutes to 45, I gave up and played something else.