It's like Christmas morning!
May 30, 2014 2:44 AM Subscribe
Team Service Announcements is a series of short skits demonstrating basic principles of Team Fortress 2 tactics and strategy.
Best thing on the internet today.
posted by Twain Device at 4:41 AM on May 30, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Twain Device at 4:41 AM on May 30, 2014 [1 favorite]
ENTIRE TEAM IS BABIES
posted by fight or flight at 5:07 AM on May 30, 2014
posted by fight or flight at 5:07 AM on May 30, 2014
Can an initiate please give some insight as to who made these, how they made them, and what's behind the humor of some of the more obscure features (unicorns, frog, rocket launcher arms, demoknight, etc?). Wonderful little pieces of direction and comic timing.
posted by oneironaut at 7:05 AM on May 30, 2014
posted by oneironaut at 7:05 AM on May 30, 2014
I'll field one. The unicorn is Ballonicorn, from Pyroland, a world of rainbows and sunshine.
posted by leotrotsky at 7:33 AM on May 30, 2014
posted by leotrotsky at 7:33 AM on May 30, 2014
I am still so very bad at TF2 but I love singing the punchline from Medkits.
posted by zix at 8:08 AM on May 30, 2014
posted by zix at 8:08 AM on May 30, 2014
♫ I fuckin' cracked up! ♫
posted by cmfletcher at 9:58 AM on May 30, 2014
posted by cmfletcher at 9:58 AM on May 30, 2014
Can an initiate please give some insight as to who made these, how they made them, and what's behind the humor of some of the more obscure features (unicorns, frog, rocket launcher arms, demoknight, etc?). Wonderful little pieces of direction and comic timing.
I help with some of that, because I've had a half-finished Team Service Announcements post in the works for months!
Let's get started.....
I can't say much about creator anangrysockpuppet, but they were made with Source Filmmaker, Valve's free and awesome tool for using their game engine to create good-quality machinima. Source Filmmaker projects automatically get access to all the resources of any Source games on your system, and Team Fortress 2 is free. There's a lot of voice samples for the characters in TF2, which if edited properly can give you a good amount of text to work with.
Here are details on the individual shorts, and what TF2 gameplay mechanics they demonstrate. I'll do a few of these at a time--
CLASS BALANCE -- TF2 has nine classes, and each is designed to have large strengths and weaknesses. That strong asymmetry is one of the most interesting things about the game, but it also means that if everyone picks the same popular class -- like 1.Sniper (Australian gunman) -- those classes that have strengths against it -- like 2.Spy (French guy who can become invisible) -- will have a field day.
BUILDING PLACEMENT -- 3.Engineer's (Texan guy with a wrench) strength is in constructing stationary objects his teammates can make use of. These buildings are most useful when spread out over a wide area, and additionally, putting them close to each other makes them all vulnerable at once to single explosions, like the 4.Demoman's (Scottish guy with an eyepatch) sticky bombs.
MINIGUN SPINUP -- The most powerful class in terms of sheer offensive strength is the 5.Heavy (bug Russian guy with big gun). Yet Heavy is usually thought of as a defensive class, because he's so slow, and he's even slower when spinning up his gigantic, loud minigun for ready access to shooting. Both of these attributes are made even worse when using his special alternate Brass Beast weapon, like he is here. Slow loud classes are sitting ducks for Spy and Sniper, which is pointed out comically here.
COMPRESSION BLAST -- Many weapons have an "alternate fire" mode. For 6.Pyro (short muffle-voiced guy[?] in gas mask), this is a blast of compressed air. This option has limited offensive use (it can force enemies away but does no damage), but helpfully can put out fires on teammates, like 7.Medic (tall German guy in medical scrubs). Medics are important team members to keep alive, so by all means, use what tools you have to protect them.
POCKET MEDICS -- That's a game term for a Medic that sticks with one player and keeps him alive. Some classes are helped immeasureably by a pocket Medic, like (as shown here) Heavy, and it's not a bad tactic overall, but TF2 is designed particularly to be a team game, and you'll almost always do better if your whole team is kept healthy, especially if it won't cost you very much to do so!
RANGED COMBAT -- TF2 is made so that each class has its own area of expertise. In many times these areas overlap -- all classes have ways to shoot at distant foes -- but some are much better at it than others. "Jarate," by the way, is an unlockable alternate "weapon" for Sniper, a jar of a DISGUSTING YELLOW LIQUID that causes an enemy to take much higher damage when ("eugh!") coated with it.
HANGING BACK -- The song, of course, is from Spongebob Squarepants. A couple of classes in TF2 are most effective when relatively far from the action. That's good, but don't go too far back, or you won't be helping out the rest of the team -- and they won't be helping you, which makes you vulnerable to Spies.
posted by JHarris at 11:12 AM on May 30, 2014 [2 favorites]
I help with some of that, because I've had a half-finished Team Service Announcements post in the works for months!
Let's get started.....
I can't say much about creator anangrysockpuppet, but they were made with Source Filmmaker, Valve's free and awesome tool for using their game engine to create good-quality machinima. Source Filmmaker projects automatically get access to all the resources of any Source games on your system, and Team Fortress 2 is free. There's a lot of voice samples for the characters in TF2, which if edited properly can give you a good amount of text to work with.
Here are details on the individual shorts, and what TF2 gameplay mechanics they demonstrate. I'll do a few of these at a time--
CLASS BALANCE -- TF2 has nine classes, and each is designed to have large strengths and weaknesses. That strong asymmetry is one of the most interesting things about the game, but it also means that if everyone picks the same popular class -- like 1.Sniper (Australian gunman) -- those classes that have strengths against it -- like 2.Spy (French guy who can become invisible) -- will have a field day.
BUILDING PLACEMENT -- 3.Engineer's (Texan guy with a wrench) strength is in constructing stationary objects his teammates can make use of. These buildings are most useful when spread out over a wide area, and additionally, putting them close to each other makes them all vulnerable at once to single explosions, like the 4.Demoman's (Scottish guy with an eyepatch) sticky bombs.
MINIGUN SPINUP -- The most powerful class in terms of sheer offensive strength is the 5.Heavy (bug Russian guy with big gun). Yet Heavy is usually thought of as a defensive class, because he's so slow, and he's even slower when spinning up his gigantic, loud minigun for ready access to shooting. Both of these attributes are made even worse when using his special alternate Brass Beast weapon, like he is here. Slow loud classes are sitting ducks for Spy and Sniper, which is pointed out comically here.
COMPRESSION BLAST -- Many weapons have an "alternate fire" mode. For 6.Pyro (short muffle-voiced guy[?] in gas mask), this is a blast of compressed air. This option has limited offensive use (it can force enemies away but does no damage), but helpfully can put out fires on teammates, like 7.Medic (tall German guy in medical scrubs). Medics are important team members to keep alive, so by all means, use what tools you have to protect them.
POCKET MEDICS -- That's a game term for a Medic that sticks with one player and keeps him alive. Some classes are helped immeasureably by a pocket Medic, like (as shown here) Heavy, and it's not a bad tactic overall, but TF2 is designed particularly to be a team game, and you'll almost always do better if your whole team is kept healthy, especially if it won't cost you very much to do so!
RANGED COMBAT -- TF2 is made so that each class has its own area of expertise. In many times these areas overlap -- all classes have ways to shoot at distant foes -- but some are much better at it than others. "Jarate," by the way, is an unlockable alternate "weapon" for Sniper, a jar of a DISGUSTING YELLOW LIQUID that causes an enemy to take much higher damage when ("eugh!") coated with it.
HANGING BACK -- The song, of course, is from Spongebob Squarepants. A couple of classes in TF2 are most effective when relatively far from the action. That's good, but don't go too far back, or you won't be helping out the rest of the team -- and they won't be helping you, which makes you vulnerable to Spies.
posted by JHarris at 11:12 AM on May 30, 2014 [2 favorites]
OVEREXTENDING AND OVERCOMMITTING -- Many classes will live much longer with the help of a pocket Medic, classes like 8.Soldier (Patton-style drill sergeant), but even a Medic won't keep you standing for long against strong enemy opposition; in this case, it'll just get you both killed. One should learn to pick his battles, for his own sake and that of his teammates.
METAL AND DISPENSERS -- Setup time, a period before the match starts where RED team sometimes gets to run around and do things to prepare for BLUE's assault, means different things to different classes. For many classes, it's just a time to run around goofing off and taunting, but Engineer's job at this time is to run around and prepare the map for his friends. To build his buildings he needs metal, which comes from weapon pickups. Here, Soldier thoughtlessly consumes a whole pickup to refill his rocket launcher, which he doesn't even need before the fight starts, and prevents Engineer from making all the buildings he could have while safe during Setup.
MEDKITS -- To understand this one you have to know a few things. Heavy has the largest health pool in the game, and the small Medkit he's about to pick up won't help him much. The Medic is better served picking up the Medkit, because he can't heal himself, it'll be a large percentage of his total health, and will instantly put out his fire. But even better! The Heavy has an unlockable secondary "weapon" called the Sandvich which, in exchange for being stuck in place for like 10 seconds, will completely refill his health. The "ding" heard in the video signals that Heavy Sandvich has just recharged. The Sandvich can be thrown to another teammate to heal him and put out his fire, then the Medic heals Heavy, and the Heavy can then pick up the Medkit, which instantly recharges his Sandvich (note the second "ding" when he picks it up).
BODY BLOCKING -- All objectives are blocked if any enemy team member is in the way. Even if that team member is invisible or disguised as a member of your own team (like a Spy). If somehow you can't achieve the objective, check for traitors.
MELEE (or "Frog") -- A simple moral is obscured, a bit, by a silly in-joke. Someone asked the series creator about "frog change" when hitting in melee. He meant to say "frag chance," but actually in game terminology he should have said critical hit, or crit change. The guy was tickled enough that he made a silly video about it.
THE REVOLVER -- Spy's main function is to backstab enemies that don't see it coming. If the enemy is facing you, your instakill dagger becomes a butterknife. But they aren't defenseless in these cases, they still have their Revolver, which has a high critical hit rate. So if you're discovered, use it!
ATTENTION AND INITIATIVE -- Simply put, if you see your team getting pwned, don't just stand there, do something about it! At least tell them what's happening!
ENTRANCES AND EXITS -- Demoman's best used by staying off the front lines, finding a way to attack when not seen. When the Medic says "I am fully charged," it means he has an Ubercharge ready, which can be applied in most cases to make both the Medic and his patient (the person he's healing) invulnerable for about 10 seconds. It takes time to build though, hence his and Demo's strange journey. The music is from the Gameboy game Super Mario Land, BTW.
TELEPORTERS -- Engineer has four buildings he can make. The use of the Sentry gun is obvious, the Dispenser really helps for holding points, but the Teleporter Entrances and Exits are more subtle. Basically, it enables the Engineer to connect nearly any two points on the map for the advantage of his teammates. This can be an incredibly powerful advantage, letting teammates get back to the front lines nearly instantly instead of having to trek across the map. But teleporters take time to recharge after each use. This video illustrates the order that classes should use the teleporter. Note, particularly, the 9.Scout (thin fast kid in baseball cap with Brooklyn accent) shouldn't use them at all, because he's so much faster than the other team members he doesn't need it.
posted by JHarris at 11:39 AM on May 30, 2014 [4 favorites]
METAL AND DISPENSERS -- Setup time, a period before the match starts where RED team sometimes gets to run around and do things to prepare for BLUE's assault, means different things to different classes. For many classes, it's just a time to run around goofing off and taunting, but Engineer's job at this time is to run around and prepare the map for his friends. To build his buildings he needs metal, which comes from weapon pickups. Here, Soldier thoughtlessly consumes a whole pickup to refill his rocket launcher, which he doesn't even need before the fight starts, and prevents Engineer from making all the buildings he could have while safe during Setup.
MEDKITS -- To understand this one you have to know a few things. Heavy has the largest health pool in the game, and the small Medkit he's about to pick up won't help him much. The Medic is better served picking up the Medkit, because he can't heal himself, it'll be a large percentage of his total health, and will instantly put out his fire. But even better! The Heavy has an unlockable secondary "weapon" called the Sandvich which, in exchange for being stuck in place for like 10 seconds, will completely refill his health. The "ding" heard in the video signals that Heavy Sandvich has just recharged. The Sandvich can be thrown to another teammate to heal him and put out his fire, then the Medic heals Heavy, and the Heavy can then pick up the Medkit, which instantly recharges his Sandvich (note the second "ding" when he picks it up).
BODY BLOCKING -- All objectives are blocked if any enemy team member is in the way. Even if that team member is invisible or disguised as a member of your own team (like a Spy). If somehow you can't achieve the objective, check for traitors.
MELEE (or "Frog") -- A simple moral is obscured, a bit, by a silly in-joke. Someone asked the series creator about "frog change" when hitting in melee. He meant to say "frag chance," but actually in game terminology he should have said critical hit, or crit change. The guy was tickled enough that he made a silly video about it.
THE REVOLVER -- Spy's main function is to backstab enemies that don't see it coming. If the enemy is facing you, your instakill dagger becomes a butterknife. But they aren't defenseless in these cases, they still have their Revolver, which has a high critical hit rate. So if you're discovered, use it!
ATTENTION AND INITIATIVE -- Simply put, if you see your team getting pwned, don't just stand there, do something about it! At least tell them what's happening!
ENTRANCES AND EXITS -- Demoman's best used by staying off the front lines, finding a way to attack when not seen. When the Medic says "I am fully charged," it means he has an Ubercharge ready, which can be applied in most cases to make both the Medic and his patient (the person he's healing) invulnerable for about 10 seconds. It takes time to build though, hence his and Demo's strange journey. The music is from the Gameboy game Super Mario Land, BTW.
TELEPORTERS -- Engineer has four buildings he can make. The use of the Sentry gun is obvious, the Dispenser really helps for holding points, but the Teleporter Entrances and Exits are more subtle. Basically, it enables the Engineer to connect nearly any two points on the map for the advantage of his teammates. This can be an incredibly powerful advantage, letting teammates get back to the front lines nearly instantly instead of having to trek across the map. But teleporters take time to recharge after each use. This video illustrates the order that classes should use the teleporter. Note, particularly, the 9.Scout (thin fast kid in baseball cap with Brooklyn accent) shouldn't use them at all, because he's so much faster than the other team members he doesn't need it.
posted by JHarris at 11:39 AM on May 30, 2014 [4 favorites]
>zix
I am still so very bad at TF2 but I love singing the punchline from Medkits .
That's from the song Fuck Her Gently by the 'D! Link is language NSFW.
Thanks for the post, I didn't realise there were so many of these up! All good advice, man I love TF2. Mikurski may play some TF2 tonight, but I play it EVERY NIGHT.
posted by wyndham at 11:40 AM on May 30, 2014
I am still so very bad at TF2 but I love singing the punchline from Medkits .
That's from the song Fuck Her Gently by the 'D! Link is language NSFW.
Thanks for the post, I didn't realise there were so many of these up! All good advice, man I love TF2. Mikurski may play some TF2 tonight, but I play it EVERY NIGHT.
posted by wyndham at 11:40 AM on May 30, 2014
(I'll do the rest later, it's really not my intent to monopolize the thread. Note, each video has extensive explanatory information in the video details section.)
posted by JHarris at 11:40 AM on May 30, 2014
posted by JHarris at 11:40 AM on May 30, 2014
BTW everyone, don't forget that site adjunct MeFightClub has a weekly TF2 gaming session every Thursday.
posted by JHarris at 11:50 AM on May 30, 2014
posted by JHarris at 11:50 AM on May 30, 2014
it's really not my intent to monopolize the thread
Dude, you're way better at this than I am!
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:48 PM on May 30, 2014
Dude, you're way better at this than I am!
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:48 PM on May 30, 2014
This is not helping my TF2 addiction. Or my increasingly frequent thoughts of joining MeFightClub
posted by Twain Device at 12:53 PM on May 30, 2014
posted by Twain Device at 12:53 PM on May 30, 2014
Or my increasingly frequent thoughts of joining MeFightClub
Please do.
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:23 PM on May 30, 2014
Please do.
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:23 PM on May 30, 2014
Thanks everyone! And, I haven't been on for awhile, but MeFightClub is the best.
posted by oneironaut at 11:22 AM on May 31, 2014
posted by oneironaut at 11:22 AM on May 31, 2014
TF2 fans, come join the good folks at MeFightClub! I am truly terrible but I try to always pop on for at least 30 minutes of the regularly scheduled Thursday night games.
posted by rossination at 3:05 PM on May 31, 2014
posted by rossination at 3:05 PM on May 31, 2014
Let's finish the list --
SENTRY KNOCKBACK -- Heavy is glowing here, meaning he's under the effects of a Medic's invulnerabity Ubercharge. A popular use for such a charge is taking out a sentry gun in a key place. However, a mitigating factor is that, while it protects against numerical damage, the shots and rockets still knock you around. Unless the Medic who is giving you the Ubercharge, who is also invulnerable, stands in the way and absorbs the impact. He takes the projectile momentum (Sentries attack the closest target), his patient takes out the gun. But do it fast: Ubers don't last long.
COOPERATIVE ENGINEERING -- Engineers can repair each other's buildings, even if (as with the one with the mechanical arm here, a "Gunslinger" Engineer, using a special "weapon") he can't build it himself. Two or three Engineers working closely together can be formidable.
SUBTLETY -- Mostly obvious. Sneaky classes like Spies try to attack from unexpected directions, so to help them out, don't try to "help them out." Don't draw attention to them.
POP IT, DON'T DROP IT -- The Medic's Ubercharge meter takes time to build. It's always best, of course, to use it on a teammate, who will almost certainly have better offensive capability than you. But even if one's not available, it's better to use it alone, and survive, than get killed and have to wait to respawn and trek back to the front. You're a Medic -- you're much more useful to the team alive than dead, because that way they'll be alive more often too.
UNLOCKABLE WEAPONS -- One of the most brilliant things about Team Fortress 2 is that the many unlockable weapons don't make your character better! Instead, they make him different. They give you advantages in some ways and disadvantages in others, varying the threat posed to your enemies and making you useful in different ways than normal. Some of the most interesting such weapons nearly make you into a new class, a hybrid of your nominal class and another, or giving you an ability that exists nowhere else in the game. In these cases though, remember to play as your complete self, and not as a stock example of the class. The examples given here:
Soldier's Buff Banner (the bugle): When you do damage, a "Rage Meter" builds. When full, toot the horn and all allies in range do substantial increased damage ("mini-crits"). In exchange, it replaces your secondary weapon Shotgun. (Unfortuately: critical hits don't work against Sentry guns! Maybe this is an error.)
Sniper's Bushwhacka (big knife): When it would ordinarily mini-crit (like from the Buff Banner or Jarate) it will instead do a full critical hit, probably killing your opponent. But when you have it, you take greater damage from fire, so look out for Pyros.
Heavy's Brass Beast: Does (even higher) higher damage, but takes longer to spin up and you can't move as fast. (Contrary to what I said before, looking at the TF2 wiki, it doesn't seem to indicate being louder than the normal minigun, although how it slows you down still makes you an easier target.)
SCOUT COMBAT -- Scout is a difficult class to play well. I know I myself have yet to get the knack of it. You're much faster than the other classes, and can double-jump, and have a surprisingly effective primary weapon in the Scattergun if you can get in close. In contrast, you have about as much damage-taking potential as a wet paper towel. Your survival, and thus your deadliness, depends on making yourself a difficult target for your enemies. Don't run at them in a straight line to get into Scattergun range, bob, weave, jump and ambush from behind corners!
W+M1 -- W is the Walk Forward key, M1 is the left mouse button. Basically, it means to attack the enemy by running at them blindly and shooting, with no attempt to hide, dodge, seek cover, or really apply any skill at all. Not a good way to play a Pyro, who depends on getting in really close.
OBJECTIVES -- Team Fortress 2 is rarely played as a straight deathmatch-style game. Instead, your team has objectives to achieve in order to win. Your team could take heavy causalities while your opponent is unscratched, but if your team makes the objectives then your team wins the game. Remember this! It's fun, and it can be helpful sometimes, to run around the map and pick off enemies, or spawn camp, but if you aren't guarding the Control Point or Cart Destination, you're asking for a stealthier class to come in and take it from you, win the match, and then the opponents will become invulnerable for a while at the end of the match and take out their frustrations on you.
FAKE PLAYERS -- Not so much something you should do when playing as an alert about some community-run Team Fortress 2 servers. Some servers use ads to try to earn some income, or try to convince players to pony up some money for advantages, or are just desperate for players, and so to provide the illusion of a thriving, ongoing game, they put in AI-run automated players, AKA bots, and pretending they're humans. This video shows you a few ways to recognize bots: rarely wears decorative items, usually doesn't use special equipment, sometimes showing inhuman reaction speed (note the enemy Pyro reflecting the rocket) while other times walking into walls, now making obvious choices for personal well-being, and classes being used in un-class-like ways.
THE GRENADE LAUNCHER -- The default Demoman loadout has three weapons: the normal Grenade Launcher, Sticky Bombs that can be triggered with the right mouse button, and a melee weapon, a bottle. Sticky Bombs are many a Demo's favorite weapon, but don't forget about the primary Grenades themselves, which do high splash damage on contact with the enemy.
DEMOKNIGHTS AND BATTLE MEDICS -- Above I mentioned some unlockable items that so change a class that it's almost like a different class altogether. This has given us the phenomenon of the Demoknight, a Demoman that has given up his Sticky Bombs for a shield, and his bottle for a sword. Of all the classes in TF2, this is the closest thing to a melee specialist (Spies don't really count), and they can do well, especially since the swords increase your abilities with every kill you get with them. Some of them, however, once you start using them cannot be put away until you kill someone. But they can be useful in some situations. ("NOO SHOES" refers to wearing Ali Baba's Wee Booties, which also replaces your primary Grenade Launcher, basically forcing you to melee!) Battle Medics forsake healing for trying to kill opponents, and are a less valid loadout choice.
THE KRITZKRIEG -- I've mentioned the Medic's invulnerability Ubercharge a couple of times. Well, that's just the basic behavior. There are also alternate Mediguns a Medic can use, that also can Ubercharge, but which provides different effects. The Kritzkrieg may be the most commonly used of these. A player under a Kritzkrieg Ubercharge is not invulnerable, but does charge faster, and it grants the Uber'd patient 100% critical hit chance, which can situationally be extremely powerful. Just remember: critical hits never work on buildings, like Sentry Guns.
SOLDIERS VS. PYROS -- The natural bane of the Soldier is the Pyro, which can use the compression blast alternate function to reflect the Soldier's bread-and-butter rockets. Once bounced back, the rockets effectively switch sides and can harm the firer and even teammates. To counter this, try attacking from above (like from rocket jumps), or attack nearby surfaces to the Pyro to do splash damage. Or just keep blasting, dodging the reflected shots, for the compression blast uses a lot of ammo and so the Pyro can't do it forever without finding more ammo.
posted by JHarris at 10:53 PM on May 31, 2014 [2 favorites]
SENTRY KNOCKBACK -- Heavy is glowing here, meaning he's under the effects of a Medic's invulnerabity Ubercharge. A popular use for such a charge is taking out a sentry gun in a key place. However, a mitigating factor is that, while it protects against numerical damage, the shots and rockets still knock you around. Unless the Medic who is giving you the Ubercharge, who is also invulnerable, stands in the way and absorbs the impact. He takes the projectile momentum (Sentries attack the closest target), his patient takes out the gun. But do it fast: Ubers don't last long.
COOPERATIVE ENGINEERING -- Engineers can repair each other's buildings, even if (as with the one with the mechanical arm here, a "Gunslinger" Engineer, using a special "weapon") he can't build it himself. Two or three Engineers working closely together can be formidable.
SUBTLETY -- Mostly obvious. Sneaky classes like Spies try to attack from unexpected directions, so to help them out, don't try to "help them out." Don't draw attention to them.
POP IT, DON'T DROP IT -- The Medic's Ubercharge meter takes time to build. It's always best, of course, to use it on a teammate, who will almost certainly have better offensive capability than you. But even if one's not available, it's better to use it alone, and survive, than get killed and have to wait to respawn and trek back to the front. You're a Medic -- you're much more useful to the team alive than dead, because that way they'll be alive more often too.
UNLOCKABLE WEAPONS -- One of the most brilliant things about Team Fortress 2 is that the many unlockable weapons don't make your character better! Instead, they make him different. They give you advantages in some ways and disadvantages in others, varying the threat posed to your enemies and making you useful in different ways than normal. Some of the most interesting such weapons nearly make you into a new class, a hybrid of your nominal class and another, or giving you an ability that exists nowhere else in the game. In these cases though, remember to play as your complete self, and not as a stock example of the class. The examples given here:
Soldier's Buff Banner (the bugle): When you do damage, a "Rage Meter" builds. When full, toot the horn and all allies in range do substantial increased damage ("mini-crits"). In exchange, it replaces your secondary weapon Shotgun. (Unfortuately: critical hits don't work against Sentry guns! Maybe this is an error.)
Sniper's Bushwhacka (big knife): When it would ordinarily mini-crit (like from the Buff Banner or Jarate) it will instead do a full critical hit, probably killing your opponent. But when you have it, you take greater damage from fire, so look out for Pyros.
Heavy's Brass Beast: Does (even higher) higher damage, but takes longer to spin up and you can't move as fast. (Contrary to what I said before, looking at the TF2 wiki, it doesn't seem to indicate being louder than the normal minigun, although how it slows you down still makes you an easier target.)
SCOUT COMBAT -- Scout is a difficult class to play well. I know I myself have yet to get the knack of it. You're much faster than the other classes, and can double-jump, and have a surprisingly effective primary weapon in the Scattergun if you can get in close. In contrast, you have about as much damage-taking potential as a wet paper towel. Your survival, and thus your deadliness, depends on making yourself a difficult target for your enemies. Don't run at them in a straight line to get into Scattergun range, bob, weave, jump and ambush from behind corners!
W+M1 -- W is the Walk Forward key, M1 is the left mouse button. Basically, it means to attack the enemy by running at them blindly and shooting, with no attempt to hide, dodge, seek cover, or really apply any skill at all. Not a good way to play a Pyro, who depends on getting in really close.
OBJECTIVES -- Team Fortress 2 is rarely played as a straight deathmatch-style game. Instead, your team has objectives to achieve in order to win. Your team could take heavy causalities while your opponent is unscratched, but if your team makes the objectives then your team wins the game. Remember this! It's fun, and it can be helpful sometimes, to run around the map and pick off enemies, or spawn camp, but if you aren't guarding the Control Point or Cart Destination, you're asking for a stealthier class to come in and take it from you, win the match, and then the opponents will become invulnerable for a while at the end of the match and take out their frustrations on you.
FAKE PLAYERS -- Not so much something you should do when playing as an alert about some community-run Team Fortress 2 servers. Some servers use ads to try to earn some income, or try to convince players to pony up some money for advantages, or are just desperate for players, and so to provide the illusion of a thriving, ongoing game, they put in AI-run automated players, AKA bots, and pretending they're humans. This video shows you a few ways to recognize bots: rarely wears decorative items, usually doesn't use special equipment, sometimes showing inhuman reaction speed (note the enemy Pyro reflecting the rocket) while other times walking into walls, now making obvious choices for personal well-being, and classes being used in un-class-like ways.
THE GRENADE LAUNCHER -- The default Demoman loadout has three weapons: the normal Grenade Launcher, Sticky Bombs that can be triggered with the right mouse button, and a melee weapon, a bottle. Sticky Bombs are many a Demo's favorite weapon, but don't forget about the primary Grenades themselves, which do high splash damage on contact with the enemy.
DEMOKNIGHTS AND BATTLE MEDICS -- Above I mentioned some unlockable items that so change a class that it's almost like a different class altogether. This has given us the phenomenon of the Demoknight, a Demoman that has given up his Sticky Bombs for a shield, and his bottle for a sword. Of all the classes in TF2, this is the closest thing to a melee specialist (Spies don't really count), and they can do well, especially since the swords increase your abilities with every kill you get with them. Some of them, however, once you start using them cannot be put away until you kill someone. But they can be useful in some situations. ("NOO SHOES" refers to wearing Ali Baba's Wee Booties, which also replaces your primary Grenade Launcher, basically forcing you to melee!) Battle Medics forsake healing for trying to kill opponents, and are a less valid loadout choice.
THE KRITZKRIEG -- I've mentioned the Medic's invulnerability Ubercharge a couple of times. Well, that's just the basic behavior. There are also alternate Mediguns a Medic can use, that also can Ubercharge, but which provides different effects. The Kritzkrieg may be the most commonly used of these. A player under a Kritzkrieg Ubercharge is not invulnerable, but does charge faster, and it grants the Uber'd patient 100% critical hit chance, which can situationally be extremely powerful. Just remember: critical hits never work on buildings, like Sentry Guns.
SOLDIERS VS. PYROS -- The natural bane of the Soldier is the Pyro, which can use the compression blast alternate function to reflect the Soldier's bread-and-butter rockets. Once bounced back, the rockets effectively switch sides and can harm the firer and even teammates. To counter this, try attacking from above (like from rocket jumps), or attack nearby surfaces to the Pyro to do splash damage. Or just keep blasting, dodging the reflected shots, for the compression blast uses a lot of ammo and so the Pyro can't do it forever without finding more ammo.
posted by JHarris at 10:53 PM on May 31, 2014 [2 favorites]
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posted by robocop is bleeding at 3:43 AM on May 30, 2014