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Fazer linked to a great scout 2fort technique video in the comments from The Evil Force That Makes Your Doublejump Fail On 2fort. It was made originally by bassdass.

A little video i put together for those that are new to the game and maybe needs some help on this particular map. Hope it will inspire you to practice this class.

By the way, using the bat isnt the most effective way to go, i just did it in the vid to show you a “funny” way to take down snipers, but its far from the most effective. To increase your chances of getting them i would simply recommend the “scattergun”.

Music by “Porcupine Tree”, The track is called “Orchidia”.

Please comment, they are well appreciated, and tell me if there is anything i could do better, or forgot.

I’m all for anyone who messes up a sniper’s day.

Another happy christmas down. I’ve still got no idea what is happening in TF2 land after being out of the loop staying at my wife’s parents’ place, so this is another lame “madlep whining about his life” ego post.

I managed to royally screw up my flight schedule. $1000 later, I’m re-booked, and flying the next day. I didn’t even get a flight with Qantas (I’m in their business lounge club), so I’m on Air New Zealand, which means having to slum it through the slow regular check in lines, and wait in the cattle class gate lounge. Yuck. At least Wellington airport has free wireless now, so it’s not too bad.

Speaking of Wellington airport - this is the kind of fun you can have there:

I figure it’s actually safer. Most plane crashes are due to human error, and the pilots have got to be paying more attention in those conditions.

The dumbest thing in airport security in recent times has got to be the ban on liquids once you get past security. My water bottle got confiscated. You can buy water once you get past security - but $4 a bottle? I reckon the beverage companies are lobbying for these regulations, its really nothing to do with terrorism.

Anyway, back to normal life. So I’ll play some TF2, catch up on the gossip, and post some of the rants I’ve been writing up in the off time.

Well, apparently the whole internet shuts down at christmas, so I’m outta here for a week or so (back to the homeland to see the family unit).

In the meantime, hope all the regulars and the randoms reading have a nice xmas and new year. Play some TF2, and try not to die too much.

If you’re still reading this, I don’t really have anything interesting today, but the Control Point guys do have a selection of holiday cheer on their TF2 christmas carol podcast (its worth listening just for the pyro version of jingle bells).

Kojaimea has posted a great video on how to play sniper. I’m a crap sniper (I’m not patient enough to play it properly, and I’m too lazy to find new sniper spots once I get a few kills), so I got a lot out of it.

A guide to some of the small tips and tricks i use whenever i play sniper. Obviously the intricacies of timings to charge up certain damages couldnt be put on the video, it would take forever, but theres a lot here =]

You may remember a few weeks back Team Roomba shocked the world with their hilarious TF2 griefing vid.

Well, they’re back with more anti-social BS designed to piss off as many public server plebs as possible. I’m not one to condone this crap when it happens (especially to me), but its funny as hell watching it happen to other people. The funniest parts are still everyone complaining about it on voice comms. I loved the english guy swearing his nut off at them.

TF2 trivia: Of the 7 wonders of the world, what is the only one still standing?

If you don’t know you’ll be spending a long time in the spawn room.

TEAM ROOMBA PRESENTS: More Team Fortress 2 Griefing from FLOOR MASTER on Vimeo.

Mike F writes in with this complaint:

I play pyro defensively, ie. I set people on fire and run away, sending them running back to their lines for a medpack. Sometimes I get a kill out of this. But what makes me angry is what some smartass soldiers and demomen have realized they can do with their splash damage. Say I commit to a kill and run after a guy, flaming all the way. The victim turns a corner, sees no medpac and dies. Okay, tough shit I killed you. Well here is where it gets just plain ugly.

I was dominating a guy as a pyro on dustbowl. Every time he ran into the tunnels I ended up flaming him. Apparently, he got fed up and decided to flip a bitch on me. First he gets revenge. Next time I see him I set him on fire, and, angry at his insubordination, decide to hunt him down. I follow him to a dead end, and put his back to a wall. His health hits 25 and I know I have him. I keep him in his corner, and keep my distance, enjoying his slow burning death. The guy looks at me, then at the ground. He shoots one solitary stickybomb, AND DETONATES IT (sorry caps are necessary). He gets a suicide, and I lose a hard earned point. I know it doesn’t help him and it doesn’t hurt my team, but that’s just poor sportsmanship. After that his entire team catches on too and I have to change class just to get some points so I don’t end up kicked for sucking after the game. Sorry, rant over.

Mike F.

Hell yeah. Fair enough to get annoyed I say. But is there anything you can do about it? Nope, not really. It sucks, but there are jerks online. After serious consultation with my shrink, it turns out that the only thing you can alter in this situation is your own attitude.

This is important when you are playing the pyro. The pyro is a rock star. A born rock star. To get in the mode and rise above the plebs, you too have to be a rock star!

Don’t give a damn about what everyone thinks

A real rock star does his own damn thing and doesn’t let anyone sway his thinking. He’s a rebel, an original thinker. So some guy decided to suicide and deny you a point? Who cares?! You can set the world on fire! Why should you care about one lame ass soldier? Just do a pyro taunt, rock out, and carry on. Show the world you don’t care what it thinks.

Ultimately though, the guy is dead, so at the end of the day, you got what you wanted. Sure, you didn’t get the points and your position on the player list didn’t go up, but lets face it - that would just be selling out. The best rock stars languish in obscurity and do their best music while they are unknown and playing in seedy highway reststop bars. As soon as they get the success it all goes to their heads and the music goes to crap. They start pumping out self-indulgent turd-fare set to vast orchestral scores. And before you know it, they are selling concert tickets to 60 year olds for $300 a pop to play in some upper class vineyard so all those pensioners can relive their pathetic privileged youth. Blech.

Set the world on fire, trash your hotel room, then leave town in a hurry

Life on the road while touring is tough, but it’s in a pyros blood. A rock star is in a new town every few days. They turn up, do a blazing show and burn things up, trash their hotel room, set their TV on fire and throw it out the window, leave town in a trail of dust. F**k yeah!

Then do it all again somewhere else tomorrow night! You don’t even know where you are half the time. You’re moving around so much, going at full speed the whole time it all blurs in together.

Pyros have to be the same way - you gotta get in quick. Do a killer rock show, set everyone on fire, party hard, trash some stuff, then get out and try to recover a little from it all before doing it again. Pyros and rock stars both have a hard life from all their partying. Finding a good doctor can help prolong the ride in both cases.

(I wish someone would do a hotel room mod for TF2 with destructable TVs. PYRO HEAVEN!)

Live fast, die young, leave a beautiful corpse

Pyros really don’t have a long life expectancy. By their nature, they are forced to get down and dirty up close. This fits perfectly with the rock star ethos. You’re pushing things to the limit. Living on the edge. Taking risks, and to hell with the consequences.

Of course, the consequences are that you end up eating a lot of rockets at point blank range. So you die a lot and spend a lot of time in respawn. Its a scientific fact that pyros have the shortest life span after medics (who are #1 target for most players) and spies (90% of whom suck and die quick anyway). SO WHAT? That is what being pyro is all about. Party hard, and keep going till you burn out. If you rock out hard enough you might just do enough damage to change the world and leave a lasting legacy (like messing up an entire attacking party, giving your team enough time to group up and win the match).

Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, and Jim Morrison all died by 27. On the other hand, Tom Jones, Rod Stewart, and Barry Manilow are all still going strong. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions there.

So what was the point again?

I don’t actually think there was a point to all this rambling. I guess its really just to say that other people are dicks. Especially anyone on a public server. You can’t really do much about it except to just go with the flow and rock out. Playing pyro is all about rocking out. Anytime you forget that, just do a pyro taunt, and it will all come back.

Ok, so the guys from the Control Point podcast were saying that they don’t get any love from ubercharged anymore, and yeah, its pretty much like they said. I figured everyone who reads here probably already knows about Control Point anyway, and I’ve been a slack ass and haven’t been posting everything that has been happening in the TF2 world.

I think we got mentioned like 3 times in their last podcast, so you should go listen to it (it’s always great value anyway). It keeps my ipod going for a couple of train commutes each week. I’m sure that people look at me funny at the station when I’m smirking away to myself when they’re goofing off talking about stuff.

Anyway, go check out the latest episode:

Episode 9 - The Demoman

Today we talk about the demoma** KA-BOOM!**

Here’s just a tidbit of what you can expect:

• The Demoman Class
• CP Server Update
• More Female Models
• Saving Private Ryan - TF2 style
• Upcoming Half Life 3
• Early present from Mija Win
• Season 2 CEVO changes
• Medic / Soldier Duo tourney at OZfortress
• Listener Contributions
• and much much more!

Download - Episode 9 (77:04)

Max wrote in discussing the problems around landing the scout’s doublejump when going from the bridge onto the enemy sniper deck in 2fort.

His plan is sound. However, if the team you are playing is employing more devious means to prevent you landing the jump, you’re still in trouble. There have been rumours of disreputable clans using banned Combine force field technology to defend the battlements. Note that this is considered an exploit by Valve, and will result in immediate re-education at Nova Prospekt if caught. Hopefully it’ll get ironed out in the next patch.

The enemy intelligence lies on the enemy sniper deck after a failed attack. The time indicator is nearly empty, it be returned in a couple of seconds.

You are a scout trying desperately to save the intelligence. You run on the sniper deck of your base, jump on the roof of the middle bridge. A sniper tries to kill you, but you dodge all his shots. A soldier stands directly in front of the briefcase you want to get. While dodging his rockets you are able to fire enough lead into his stomach to kill him.

With 50 HP remaining are on the end of the bridge - only 2 meters between you and the intelligence. You smile - the intelligence is yours. No enemies in sight. You make the first jump - only some inches between you and the enemy files. You tap spacebar another time and prepare to turn by 180° after picking the the intelligence. Nothing happens, you fall on the ground. The enemy intelligence has been returned into a room full of Sentry Guns and Stickies.

Why did that $#&? doublejump not work? Everyone else is able to jump on the sniper deck without problems, but your doublejump on 2fort fails most of the times. No, it’s not a bug and it’s not because of your keyboard. It’s because you start your first jump too late:

Make sure you jump for the first time, while your feet still on the bridge, or elsewise, you run past the bridge, fall, but jump instantly - you don’t feel any difference, but when jumping too late, your doublejump is already used up. You don’t have to jump directly on the
edge, with a double-(crouch)-jump, you can always easily reach the sniper deck.

Cheers Max. I’ll just add to also angle your first jump out at a 45 degree angle from the bridge, toward the centre of the deck entrance. Then re-orientate in the air, and do your doublejump when you’re directly facing the deck opening. Remember that scouts can change direction mid-air when they doublejump. The first jump gets you into position, then the second jump lines you up and takes you home.

I’m crap at scout, and I always forget this stuff. Scout is easily my least played class.

Fluffy Tiger Plushie has posted the first few comics of “Ivan & Tex”. It’s a new webcomic based on Team Fortress 2, made with Garrys Mod. You’ve got Ivan (the heavy weapons guy) and Tex (the engineer), and their adventures.

From Team Fortress 2 Fort:

IVAN & TEX
The Fortress Team

Come in and enjoy watching the long-time buddies Ivan and Tex and their comrades Chad, Glenn, Kenny, Angus, Rudiger, Sheen and Gerrard from RED at their daily no-so-usual happenings. Including their everlasting rivalry with BLU, the neverending circle of tex mocking ivan and ivan hurting tex and of course the mishaps and stupidities of everyone… As god said: “Because it’s so much fun watchin. …lulz!”

tehPete has posted a great spy tutorial video.

..just a little something I’ve been working on for the last couple of weeks in my time off (after being inspired by EvilDaedalus’s vid); I’ve spent far too much time playing as a Spy, so I thought I’d throw together another video covering a few of the tactics I use

Most of the tactics are pretty well known by now, but there is still some excellent spy action in this one, and they’re all strung together and combined really well.

tehPete has some crazy spy skills. There are some amazing backstab chains taking out like 6 players at a time.