Poll: A Team Fortress 2 rant

[the_carrot]

So, I play this a lot. No secret there. I'm pretty fucking pissed off about it right now. No, not about the amount of time I play, but about the way some people play. The game is really well balanced, and can be a huge amount of fun...Except when...You have five spies on your team and none of them will change classes, or five snipers, or five pyros, or five demomen. I like demomen, and pyros, but having a wave of several of them come at you just sucks. It seems like people want the easy kills and will use them that way, and nothing will make them change classes. Demomen aren't as bad, but for some reason it seems like it's getting to be like that, just a huge number of people suddenly realized how much damage they can do, and that's all they'll play. A demoman can affect a large area really easily, and the stickies can take you out at a good distance. A bunch of stickies can take out a lot of players. Again I like them, but when you face a team that has half a dozen of them, you spend all of your time dancing around trying to advance, and all of the balance of the game gets lost. Yes I'm complaining about getting killed, scratch that, no I'm not. It's most apparent when you're being killed because of it, but there are other things too. Like when you need to push and all but 3 players are playing snipers and lurking around the first control point, or a bunch of spies is much the same, looking for something to put a sapper on when you're enemy doesn't have an engineer, they can't backstab because they get spotted, or the enemy checks for spies. A better balanced force will win out over these situations, most of the time at any rate. But a well balance team is hard to find on any given server. I know you like playing this or that, I have my favorites too. I find myself playing medic a lot, or a soldier, since that always seems to be what teams are in need of.

In tournament play, the numbers of any given class are usually restricted, because they know an imbalaced game can pretty much take a chunck out of the ass of the game. And respawning into whatever to suit the circumstance is great, but seriously a team of pyros is obnoxious.

/comment.

 

[Thegreatoz]

yeah people dont understand that you need both defence and ofence in this game. Either you get a bunch of campers playing the sniper and never move 10 feet from your base....while your assaulting, or you get a pack of suicidal Pyros who needlessly throw themselves at the enemies meatgrinder while they should be playing house and protecting the base.

 

[the_carrot]

yeah people dont understand that you need both defence and ofence in this game. Either you get a bunch of campers playing the sniper and never move 10 feet from your base....while your assaulting, or you get a pack of suicidal Pyros who needlessly throw themselves at the enemies meatgrinder while they should be playing house and protecting the base.

For serious. I actually don't mind a or a small number of pyros wreaking havoc. An ubered pyro is hell on earth (Don't take that too seriously) and I think it's a great game dynamic to have it happen every once in a while. But I wholeheartdly agree with you about the snipers. I was playing lazytown, and alsmot half the team played sniper and camped our last control point. While the enemy had a good amount of trouble getting in, we couldn't hold any other points!!!! Too many spies can be just as bad.

 

[the_carrot]

And medic who won't heal anybody but the one person they're planning on ubering. Holy fucking shit! Go play DOA if you want to be the sole winner of the game, what the fuck! Or medics who don't have the presence of mind to heal other medics...OMFG

 

[Esta]

Team Fortress 2 is without a doubt the best, evenly based FPS out to date.
It never get's old.

Spy is my class.

 

[the_carrot]

And Engineers who build their dispensers solely for personal use. In a place I have to rocket jump to get to (That will kill me, of course). And teleporters on stairs AAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[the_carrot]

Team Fortress 2 is without a doubt the best, evenly based FPS out to date.
It never get's old.

Spy is my class.

There is more than one class...

 

[edinflames]

I hear the arguments here, imo a balanced team always wins vs the spam teams if the classes are used properly. Sucks if your on that team though.

Regardless, i love the game.

//edit// my time is spread across soldier (one class beats all), medic, demoman, engineer, with pyro being my newest folly

 

[the_carrot]

I hear the arguments here, imo a balanced team always wins vs the spam teams if the classes are used properly. Sucks if your on that team though.

Regardless, i love the game.

I love the game too, but you don't know what you're getting into on a public server. It's a total crapshoot.

 

[Joe]

Yeah, I picked up a few favorite servers in beta, and they've been mercifully idiot-free now that the game's out. I also managed to make a couple friends by virtue of my stabstabstab, so I have access to some decent private servers, too.

But it's not much different than TFC - if you randomly join from the public list, you've got a 70% chance of landing in a version of class-based team deathmatch. Sucks.

Oh, and I roll spy/engineer/soldier/demoman. I'll play other classes as necessary, but I've found the spy to be so versatile I usually don't need to.

 

[the_carrot]

my time is spread across soldier (one class beats all), medic, demoman, engineer, with pyro being my newest folly

Having another soldier on the team rarely imbalances gameplay, nor another medic. And I'm right with you on those. I love playing demoman, it has a really cool dynamic that I think is great, large area effects, and a direct hit will kill you. I really like them a lot. It seems like all the people who play have finally figured out the kind of damage they can do and want to play solely that, it's turned me off to it. I play a pyro every once in a while and like I said, they can really wreak havoc on the other team, and it's hilarious to set a whole team on fire because they're bunched up on a control point, or similar suches. But a team relying on them, half the team being pyros...I just get pissed.

 

[Count_de_Monet]

I had to quit TF2 because I got fed up with the sentry guns. It was bad enough that the bastards took away my grenades but did they really have to make the sentry guns into godly machines of death? Sure, one is ok and I can run back to kill it (since you always die before having a chance to react) but when people set up two or three they damn things are nearly impossible to take down.

 

[the_carrot]

Yeah, I picked up a few favorite servers in beta, and they've been mercifully idiot-free now that the game's out. I also managed to make a couple friends by virtue of my stabstabstab, so I have access to some decent private servers, too.

But it's not much different than TFC - if you randomly join from the public list, you've got a 70% chance of landing in a version of class-based team deathmatch. Sucks.

Oh, and I roll spy/engineer/soldier/demoman. I'll play other classes as necessary, but I've found the spy to be so versatile I usually don't need to.

Not all servers are created equally, they should tell the guys in the factories. I like all of the classes, I really do. I've played almost no spy I have to admit, and very little sniper either. A good spy or sniper is a great thing. Either a great ally or tough adversary, it's just that some people overdo it.

 

[the_carrot]

I had to quit TF2 because I got fed up with the sentry guns. It was bad enough that the bastards took away my grenades but did they really have to make the sentry guns into godly machines of death? Sure, one is ok and I can run back to kill it (since you always die before having a chance to react) but when people set up two or three the damn things are nearly impossible to take down.

I definitely feel you, I guess it doesn't bother me as much as some of the other stuff. An ubered soldier or heavy can likely take the stuff down with a little backup. or a good spy can get you through that. But once again it relies on team play, which I think is foreign to a lot of players.

 

[General Ma Chao]

The only alternative is to restrict how many people can select a class or use a certain weapon. The only multiplayer FPS game I've seen that hardcoded restrictions from the start is Red Orchestra. It's a solution, but not without downsides.

Pros
1) Encourages (forces) teamwork.
2) Discourages class spam which is a big contributor to stalemates.

Cons
1) You won't always get to play what you want. In RO if you want to be in a tank, but there's enough tank crewmen, you're SOL until a tank crewman leaves or switches to something else. Count on being whatever the basic "rifleman" class happens to be a whole lot as the specialized roles will nearly always be filled.
2) You're forced to integrate tactics with people who probably don't want to work together. "Teams" on a public server are just herds of cats going at each other. They don't want to listen to a self appointed commander. They want to do what they want to do, everyone else be damned. This isn't really much of a con if you're with a clan, however. In a clan there's an understanding that real teamwork is required.

 

[FatRabidRamboCow]

I think my class time order is Scout, Pyro then Spy. Everything after that is sort of only one or two hours with the Demoman being about 15 minutes.

I play whatever is usually needed, but try to keep to what I enjoy playing. Since there are no stats, I'm not really bothered about winning or losing (Although winning is preferred ) so I just play what I want to at the time. So long as I kill something...

 

[the_carrot]

The o "Teams" on a public server are just herds of cats going at each other. They don't want to listen to a self appointed commander.

This is very true, but everyone wants to be in charge at times. I've been asked to do stupid shit, just so one guy can get a chance to be ubered and do a little damage. Seriously I ditch them behind enemy lines, people need to check their egos at the door in games like this.

 

[JakubK666]

I don't feel that any of the classes is overpowered. In fact Pyro deserve a longer range for their flamers.I also don't mind having 4-5 Pyros on a team. In 24 player games that doesn't make much difference and certain classes are just better at certain maps.

The only thing I really hate is losing because my retard team had seven snipers, three spies and two offensive classes. I call it an Orange_x syndrome and everybody who played that bloody map will sure know what I'm talking about.

Also I am one of those suicidal pyros.I always engage multiple enemies in crowded spaces because even if I die, most of them will burn to death.



PS: 2fort nightmare - 5 ENGIES TURTLING INTELLIGENCE!

 

[General Ma Chao]

PS: 2fort nightmare - 5 ENGIES TURTLING INTELLIGENCE!

Couldn't agree more. I have to wonder how matches on 2fort go between two well organized clans though. Too many engineers on both teams plus the choke points of the base courtyards and intelligence rooms equals long, boring stalemates with no one getting any points for captures.

 

[GrowlersAtSea]

I play almost exclusively the Medic these days, I think that's probably the most important but often underused classes in the game. Having another Sniper or Demoman will rarely make the difference, but having another Medic with an Ubercharge can help make that break you need in an enemy to get a win.

I've often gotten on teams of a full 12 or 16 players, and discovered that I'm the only Medic running around, which can be worrisome because of the enemy makes an Ubercharge rush on us, it won't be easy to block.

The trouble is, the Medic isn't always the most interesting class to play. I've gotten great scores (can often finish on top of a team in a public match), healed over 10,000hp in a single life and even racked up some decent kills with the Bonesaw's critical hits and good use of the syringe gun. Constantly switching targets to keep everyone's health buffed, using the Ubercharge on a smart player (love the Pyros for that) and getting tons of assist while dodging enemy fire can be quite fun.

But if your team doesn't have a strong offense, Medic can be mercilessly boring, just healing your few offensive classes as you all charge to your deaths. The Medic+Heavy combo I find to be just so insanely boring, where it just looks like I'm Dr. Spengler from Ghostbusters fruitlessly trying to capture the wayward soul of a Heavy. As a result, I think a lot of players go for the Sniper, or Demoman, or even Engineer as more interesting choices.

It's a fun class with a good team and played right, or very boring and pointless with a bad player or team.