ubercharged.net

Apologies for the slowness! New content will be on the way shortly.

In the meantime, we’ve updated our servers’ IP addresses to make them far more memorable, in case they got accidentally removed from your faves list (though the old IP’s still work). Here’s the low-down on the public UC servers.

To connect to one of the servers, open up the development console in TF2 and type in

connect [ip address]

Alternately, of course, you could just click one of the server banners on the right.

EDIT: I LIED. I LIED. Only mumble.ubercharged.net is working as of 12:56 AM GMT, September 28th. uc1, uc2, and uc3.ubercharged.net are still down.

Ubercharged #1 (Official Cult of the Locomotive) is located in California, USA. The IP address is

uc1.ubercharged.net:27015

The server runs an almost-vanilla configuration, though alltalk is on. The map rotation consists mostly of official Valve maps, with the addition of a few of the better custom maps.

Ubercharged #2 (Esteemed Disciples of the English Muffin) is now located in London, UK, to better serve our European clientele. Its IP address is

uc2.ubercharged.net:27015

This server is slightly modded – expect to see some really funky stuff going on here with your weapons, but only occasionally. The majority of the time, it’s vanilla. Expect to play a pretty even mix of official maps and good custom maps.

Ubercharged #3 (AH MEN Leisure Lounge) is located in Texas, USA; however, it may move to Chicago. The IP address is, who woulda thunk it,

uc3.ubercharged.net:27015

This server, unlike the other ones, is geared toward competition. This server has a rotation composed mostly of competitive league maps (five-CP maps, Turbine, and some 3-CP maps like Gravelpit).

New! Mumble server

Huge thanks to like 45 ninjas for donating a Mumble server to ubercharged! For those who aren’t in the know, Mumble is a voice-chat client (the open-source equivalent of Ventrilo).

To get it working, first head over to the Mumble website and download the client. Once you have it installed, fill out the following server information:

Label: Ubercharged
Address: mumble.ubercharged.net
Port: 64738 [the default port]
Username: [the name you want to connect with, i.e. himmelstoss]
Password: [leave blank]

Don’t forget to set up your microphone with the audio wizard. Also, set Mumble up as a push-to-talk system, to prevent noise. If you want to stay sane, it may be helpful to turn off text-to-speech (Audio menu -> uncheck Text-to-Speech).

Obviously, rules apply. Don’t spam or say things that you wouldn’t say in a social setting. If the admins don’t like you, you’ll be muted, kicked, or banned. That said, if you have a mic, we invite you to try it out.

There are already some great articles out there about how to play sniper, but I wanted to focus a little more on one aspect of sniping. As a sniper, there come unfortunate times where you must fight classes one on one. This becomes exceptionally difficult for you, because your main weapon is extremely hard to use at close ranges consistently, so I’m here to give you some tips on how to fight each class one on one from both a distance and close quarters. Note: This guide assumes you’re using the standard weapons for sniper.

Scout

Scouts are the fastest class in the game, so hitting their heads is a bit of a problem. At long ranges, it’s best to go for body shots rather than headshots. Scouts only have 125 health, so you don’t even need to fully charge a shot to kill them in one hit. If you’re having trouble hitting them, or you’re not very good at aiming, try to go for multiple quick body shots. Without charging, your rifle does 50 damage, so if you can get 3 fast shots off against him, he’ll be dead. Even if you can only get 1 or 2 shots off, it dramatically increases your chances of killing him with your SMG when he gets close to you.

At close ranges, your chances of hitting a Scout with a sniper are slim to none. Whip out your SMG and fire at him while backpedaling and dodging to the nearest medpak. Both of you have extremely low health, so health is extremely valuable in this situation. If the scout tries to make a run for the nearest medpack before you,  it probably means he’s at a very low health. This is the point where you should whip out your rifle. You should know where the medpack is, so scope in to it, and prepare to snipe the scout right before he actually gets the medpak. DON’T waste a shot trying to go for the headshot on the Scout, because chances are that he’ll die from the partially charged body shot anyway.

Soldier

Soldiers are fairly easy to snipe, because of their slow speed and relatively large heads. However, in a one on one situation, your task becomes a lot harder, because they can rocket jump and cover large distances very quickly. From a distance, you’ll want to go for headshots or charged body shots. If he rocket jumps towards you, and he probably will, DO NOT stand there and try to snipe him in the air. If you do this, you just become a sitting duck for him as he flies towards you from above. Contrary to what your common sense would tell you, run TOWARDS him if he would land on top of you, or PERPENDICULAR to him if he’s not that close. Doing this will create the largest gap between you and him. If you pass directly under him while he is rocket jumping, he will have to turn 180 degrees and re-aim at you. This gives you time to get away from him, and prepare for a rifle shot.

If his rocket jump is successful, and he gets close to you, don’t pull out your SMG or kukri. The soldier has too much health to be killed quickly with an SMG, and the kukri is basically useless because it’s impossible to get close enough to use it. Even if you do get close enough to use the kukri, the soldier has more health than you, so a point blank rocket will kill you and leave the soldier still alive. The best bet at this point is to use the rifle, and to just take really fast quickscope shots at him. Because of his slow speed, his head shouldn’t be hard to hit, and because he took damage from the rocket jump, it should usually almost kill him. If it doesn’t, at this point it is okay to use the SMG and finish him off. However, when trying to snipe him, don’t spend too long aiming at his head, because you just become an easy target for his powerful rockets. Take very fast shots at his head, and if you miss, dodge and try again. These battles are usually the fastest of the one on ones, and it won’t make a difference if you try and make a run for the nearest medpak.

Pyro

Pyros are, in my opinion, one of the easier classes to kill as sniper. At long range, there is nothing they can do except dodge and shoot flares at you. Dodge the flares and headshot them. ‘Nuff said.

At close range, all 3 weapons are equally good against the pyro. Personally, I like to pull out my rifle and just headshot them, and maybe finish them off with the SMG. This is generally easy to do, because many pyros don’t strafe or jump very much, which makes it easy to shoot their head. If you’re on fire while this is happening though, aim for their chests. The fire causes you to automatically recoil, and with luck, it will recoil into their heads. If it doesn’t recoil, you will at least hit their chest and cause enough damage that you can finish them off with the any of the 3 weapons. Also, while you’re doing this, try to head towards a medpak, but don’t stop shooting at him, because chances are you’re going to die unless you kill him first.

Demo

All right. Basically, demo is the exact same thing as soldier. They have a little less health than the soldier, and are a little faster, but the exact same tactics apply to taking them on one on one.

Heavy

Everybody would almost universally agree that heavies are the easiest class to snipe. At long ranges, their minigun is still very accurate, and all you have to do is hide behind cover until you see them stop shooting, and the pop out for an easy headshot with your rifle.

Heavies have the most health in the game, so the only way to make a significant dent in his health is to use your sniper rifle. At close quarters, the best thing to do is to just run away from the heavy while firing your SMG at him. Once you are at a safe distance, try to find cover and headshot him. Remember, he will be wounded from your SMG, so one charged headshot will kill him. He is too slow to keep up with you, so if he ever gets to close, simply run away and try and snipe him again. Also, because he can’t keep up with you, you can run to the nearest medpak and heal up, no problem.

Engi

Engis are probably the 2nd easiest class to kill. At long ranges, their weapons are basically useless, and it is very easy to snipe them while they’re standing still trying to harass you with their pistol, or when they’re working on their buildings. There’s really nothing they can do to stop you, so just dodge a little and headshot them.

In close quarters combat, it is similar to if you were fighting a scout, except slower. You have the choice of using any of your 3 weapons this time, and you can use either the pyro or the scout strategy for fighting them. Just like the scout, you should also run towards a medpak, because you both have low health.

Medic

Yet again, I’m just going to be lazy, and say that medics are just like engis or pyros in long range combat. The needlegun actually does quite a bit of damage to you, so when you’re trying to snipe medics, don’t stand in place too long, because you can die very easily from a mass of needles.

Medics are really quite annoying when it comes to fighting them in close combat though. Your main close quarters combat weapon, the SMG, is nearly useless against their powerful needlegun. Their needlegun does even more damage than your SMG and it gets even worse, because they have more health than you. If they happen to have the blutsauger equipped, which many of them do, you’re at even more of a loss, because they can regain almost half of the health they do to you. The other weapon that is useless against a medic is the kukri. If they’re decent at melee combat, you’re basically dead because it only takes 2 hits from a saw to kill you, but it takes 3 hits from a kukri to kill them. The best thing that you can do to kill a medic is to try your luck at close quarters sniping. A single headshot will kill them, and if you can get off a few body shots, that should kill them as well. These battles are also fast in comparison to the soldier, so don’t bother going to the nearest medpak, unless it’s close.

Sniper

There is only one real strategy to winning a one on one fight with another sniper. If in doubt, assume that they have both better aiming skills than you, and they have a better reaction time. The best thing to do, is to jump around and dodge, and randomly take extremely quick shots at their head. Immediately after you shoot at them, crouch, even if you think you hit them. If they happen to be aiming at your head, and you miss, your crouching may throw off their aim and make them miss the shot. If you did hit them, then you crouched for nothing, but it’s not like it really matters.

There’s an art even to being a weighted companion sniper.

When fighting one on one with a sniper, anything goes. You can try and close quarters snipe them, kukri them to death, or kill them with the SMG. It’s the same as fighting an engi, except they don’t have a shotgun to point blank you with. Health is also a big issue here, and just like the engi and the scout, try and head towards the nearest medpak, but remember, don’t just travel in a straight line path. That just spells headshot.

Spy

Spies are very similar to engineers in the respect that they stand still often while trying to shoot you. The same tactics apply to them as sniping an engi, except they do have a very powerful ambassador that can headshot. As long as you don’t stand still, you should be fine.

Right Before the kill

In close combat, they’re pretty much just like fighting a sniper or an engi. All 3 weapons will work fine, but remember to not turn your back towards the spy. Doing so will just set him up for a backstab.

Well, that’s it for this tutorial, and I hoped you gained some valuable tips for taking on people in 1v1 battles. Take this advice on to the battlefield, and hopefully you will win that next mano-a-mano deathmatch.

Team Fortress 2 was released October 10, 2007, bundled with the Half-Life 2 series and Portal. Portal was the immediate standout, pretty much stealing the Orange Box show. Yet here we are, almost two years later, and Team Fortress 2 has become an insane success. If you were to show almost any gamer a screen shot from Team Fortress 2, I’d say there would be an extremely high likelihood that they’d be able to identify it in seconds. Team Fortress 2 has a massive, growing community, is more popular than Rick Rolls (according to Google Trends), and can pretty much be considered the definition of commercial success (as long as you stay away from the Steam Forums). So what happened? What went right and allowed such success? Well, there are three unique things that put Team Fortress 2 where it is today: the Art Direction, the fact that it’s Dynamic, and the brilliant Internet Advertising.

The Art Direction

(Image courtesy of Gameogre.com and google image search.)

This is a perfect example of some of the stylistic elements that make Team Fortress 2 so visually distinct. No other game looks anything like Team Fortress 2, and the style is very intricate and hard to replicate, as anyone who has ever tried their hand at mapping will tell you. “Pixar movie from hell” doesn’t exactly do it justice. I’d say it’s more like playing a game set in a retro propaganda poster, and in fact, Valve has outright stated that they based the characters on the art styles of people like J.C. Leyendecker and Norman Rockwell.

How does this key in to Team Fortress 2’s success? Well, there are a few ways it helped out. One, it’s eye-catching; I was initially drawn to Team Fortress 2 based on the fact that it just looked so nice in addition to the fact that it was made by Valve. Two, it’s distinct; you are never going to mistake Team Fortress 2 for Call of Duty, or Halo, or any other generic multiplayer game. Three, the art makes Team Fortress 2 one of the clearest and easily understandable games out there. Despite there being so much going on in Team Fortress 2, the art allows it all to be clearly presented. Each class looks distinct, each weapon is distinct, and the plethora of visual cues in the maps make it so that even if you have never played Team Fortress 2 before, you can jump in and understand what is happening in a matter of seconds. For example, the first time I played, I was unlucky enough to be up against a very skilled spy. I was totally psyched out the first time I saw myself running towards me across the battlefield, and even more confused when I walked past myself and ended up with a knife in my back a few seconds later. Then, when I respawned, I saw a friendly spy running around in a paper mask, and I immediately understood what had happened.

The Dynamic Evolution

The main reason that Team Fortress 2 has done so well is the class updates. Had it not been for the class updates, Team Fortress 2 wouldn’t even be close to how popular it is today. So far, we have received six major updates, and almost each time there was an update, Team Fortress 2 experienced a huge influx of new players. One of the most brilliant marketing moves Valve has ever pulled were the free weekends. I myself joined during the first free weekend, and in the subsequent ones I have convinced various friends to give Team Fortress 2 a try, and every one of them immediately went purchased TF2 after the weekend was over.

Furthermore, despite all the badmouth and controversy surrounding achievements, they (and the unlockable weapons they bring with them) are the main contributors to Team Fortress 2’s success. Call it grinding, call it unfair, call it gimmicky, you went out and did everything you could to get those achievements didn’t you? They made you play the game, from a marketing perspective, that’s a success. This is why the random drop system is such a bad idea, it led to idling, which means people aren’t playing the game. I know this argument has been made before, but when a gameplay mechanic leads to your players not playing, you need to remove that mechanic.

But I’m not here to debate whether or not random items, idling, or achievements are good ideas. So let’s take a look at this whole “Dynamic Evolution”. That is a pretty redundant phrase, though it sound intelligent so I’m going to stick with it. Essentially, what I mean by saying it is that Team Fortress changes and well, evolves as time goes on. Seriously, those of you that have been around for a while, just think about what has changed since you started playing. I bet you can’t name every change, there are just so many. Anyone remember the glory of the Backburner’s “Pluse 50 Health Boost”? How about when the only gamemodes were CP, CTF, and TC? This constant shifting means that Team Fortress 2 never becomes truly repetitive. Just as a mechanic starts to get dull and predictable, it changes or is removed. Growth of the game over the long term means that it can grab hold of players and won’t let go.Valve is in and interesting position now, they could sustain Team Fortress 2 for as long as they want, provided they keep updating. Eventually, the size of the game files will become an issue, or the graphics will become dated, but I would say that Valve could continue updating Team Fortress 2 for at least another three years and it would still be practical from a business standpoint. And even after that, the community is strong enough that Team Fortress 2 could keep going on for quite a while before fading away. I’d say that it’s ultimate lifespan is about nine years, as long as it took to make. That’s pretty good, I can’t even remember what games I was playing nine years ago, they’ve all faded out of memory.

The Advertising

The days before any major update have become rather formulaic by this point. There are four to seven days during which Valve releases small bits of information about the update, and slowly builds up excitement. The speculation and anticipation builds up, reaching a peak the day before the update is released. Imagine if the updates were just released, no build-up, no waiting, just churned out as soon as Valve was finished. Sure, the existing playerbase would be happy, but would it draw in nearly as many new players? During the last two updates, popular gaming site Kotaku posted at least one article each time Valve added new material to the page. That’s free advertising some companies would kill for. And Kotaku isn’t the only site that did it, many others did as well.

And then there are the Meet the Class videos. Each one of them is a short, hilarious, memematic piece of marketing brilliance, Meet the Spy being the crowning jewel of them. I have seen each video multiple times, and they never seem to lose their humor value. But more importantly, I’ve sent the videos to various friends, who then sent it to their friends. Sure, it’s simple viral advertising, but it worked fantastically. The fact that the Meet the Spy video was leaked actually worked in Valve’s favor. Not only was clever, funny, and amazingly well done, it also was surrounded in the controversy of being leaked. And of course, Team Fortress 2 fanboys were going berserk sending it to everyone they knew. The night of the leak, if you searched “Meet the Spy” on YouTube, about seven pages of identical videos turned up, it was as though everyone and their mother had uploaded the video.

In conclusion, Team Fortress 2 is an experiment. It’s a test, a trial run. Valve has used Team Fortress 2 to try out a large variety of things that they wouldn’t dare try anywhere else. When you are a company like Valve, and you are held to such high standards, you can’t afford to make mistakes. But because of what they did with Team Fortress 2, they can make mistakes with it, so long as they fix them. They can try out mechanics and concepts, and learn from the reactions that they get. And with that knowledge, they can expand, make things better. Most importantly, they can be original. They don’t have to worry about ruining a game with a bad mechanic, because they can simply go in and fix it. So they aren’t bound by the fear of ruining the game, and as such they don’t have to adhere to the formula of what has been done in the past. Has this worked? So far, has their experiment, been a success? They’ve given us a game where you can shoot arrows into the skull of a massive Russian who is eating a sandwich while invisible, paper-masked spies run around trying to avoid the licking flames of a raving lunatic, and somehow, they’ve made it all work perfectly. I’d say that’s a success.

It is all about hats these days. How to find hats – how to make hats – it makes me sick that Valve could not implement my original idea of giving everyone a new haircut – likely due to lack of good programmers  – and opted to hand out bunch of strange hats instead.

And the propaganda – how hats are symbol of power and class and such. Has it come to this? Hats dignifying or disgracing us? Facial hair has been a symbol of power and manliness for much longer than hats. Man had facial hair before he had fire. So, as a proud member of Beard Team USA,  I took the initiative to draw mustaches on all classes, not to mock them, but to bless them with character.

Below you will find my humble attempts at avatars for a Mustache Team BLU, a dark and chillingly cool counterpart to Valve’s fiery favorite Team RED, for I am tired of everyone loving RED over BLU and for I always have the utmost sympathy for the underdog.

Grow that ’stache above your upper lips and women will not care if your MD diploma is real or not.

Most women say that mustaches are ‘eww’. In truth most women had mustached fathers and secretly they admire it, according to Freud.

Our beloved soldier in his younger days, here seen taking a break from breaking bones in France,  during WWII.

Real spies do not use fake beards or cameras. They blend in with a beautiful mustache.

Scout was an aspiring police officer before he was ‘hired’ by BLU. “The Officer” is a mustache style famous for instilling fear in criminals and diner owners.

It is no secret Pyro is a woman. Well, Pyro can not sport a mustache so even if he’s a he, he won’t ever be manly enough, so I chose to picture him/her in a feminine environment.

A proper mustache is to the Australian what red wine is to the French. Ask madlep, our resident Australian if you don’t take my word for it.

Mutton chops are back in fashion, and are great at adorning big chins. Does this guy not inspire awe in you or am I terribly terminally obsessed with facial hair?

And finally, we have everyone’s favorite, Samuel Jackson, thankfully already bearing some great chops, so I spared him of my hairy wrath.

Thank you for your time, and please consider participating in No Shave November and reconnecting with your testosterone whichever sex you belong to.

So, we got linked by valve… again.

This is becoming kind of fun to wake up in the morning and see a nice little traffic bump that lasts a few days.

Anyway, welcome to all the new readers. If you haven’t seen the site before, I don’t blame you if you run scared after reading a few posts. Especially stay away from the universally despised competitive guide, and the forums. Doubly so if you are suffer back problems, heart conditions, nausea, dizziness, or are pregnant.

We’ve had reports that the ubercharged twitter feed is plagued by spam #hashtag promotions, Evony ads, and tweets about cornflakes. So avoid that as well.

And you shouldn’t go near the ubercharged.net TF2 servers either (unless you’re a train fan and/or lover of shenanigans)

Please direct all complaints to Robin Walker and the Valve TF2 team for sending you here. ubercharged.net denies all responsibility for any injury real, imagined, or virtual.

In fact, I’d just leave now and avoid the hassle.

DISCLAIMER: I may be completely wrong about all of this. If you haven’t been an Ubercharged patron for a while you may not know that I am not very good at predicting things.

I think we all are aware of the upcoming update (be it Soldier, Engineer, or Demoman) and the promise it holds.  Included in it will be a way to get some of the most coveted items in TF2–items that were previously reserved for the very lucky and the obsessed. I am of course referring to hats.

From the clues we have been given on the Valve blog, the system that will be implemented will involve crafting weapons you already have into ones you don’t or into hats. Now, there are several angles this system can work on so I decided to write a “pre-update” guide on all the possible ways it can work.

Option 1 (Points):

Each item is worth a certain amount of points. You can “melt” these items down for the points and spend them on any hat or other unlockables you want.

Example

Lets say I find a Sandman while playing. Instead of the normal options I would see (i.e. “destroy”,”keep”, “equip now”) There would be a fourth option called “melt for points”. This option would allow me to add the points the Sandman is worth to my pool of points which I can spend on any item I want.

How to Prepare:

This is the easiest one to prepare for beforehand because you simply need to collect items. This may, however, have something to do with the levels assigned to the weapons so be sure to take higher leveled weapons over lower leveled ones.

Option 2 (The Blender):

This system would be made in a way that if someone wanted to get a hat for a specific class, they would need to mix several items for that class together.

Example:

Lets say I want the Masters Yellow Belt for the Sniper. I would acquire this item by taking 4 Jarates, 3 Huntsmen and a Razorback (or something like that) and mixing them into the hat.

How To Prepare:

Decide what class you want to get a hat for before the update comes out. Then collect the items for that class you get randomly and keep them in your backpack. When the system comes out you can mix them into hats. (It is recommended you combine this strategy with the strategy for option 1 just to have your bases covered)

Option 3 (Item Levels):

It is possible that items would start to level up as you use them in a way that once you get a level 100 item you can trade it in for a hat

Example:

I have a level 98 Axetinguisher and in a round I get 8 kills with it. It will then be a level 100 Axetinguisher and I would have the option of either trading it for a hat or resetting its level for a hat. This system would need to be implemented in a way that makes farming impossible.

How to Prepare:

Unfortunately, this system does not seem like you could prepare beforehand unless you can “blend” two of the same item together to make a higher leveled weapon.

I am personally preparing for the item creation by getting 2 of every item to start. Then I am going to collect Heavy items so I can get my Ushanka.

“And then he herded 2 of every item into his backpack and he beat the crap out of every single one!” -The Soldier

If you’ve been lurking ubercharged for a long time, you should no doubt know how to make your own Bonk! Atomic Punch soda.How about making your own jarate? In just three steps, too!

And for the record, those three steps do not involve pissing in a jar, closing the jar, and throwing the jar at people.

Credit to ubercharged’s own Pyrit for the original artwork

Ben over at NerdBalloon came up with an (alcoholic) cocktail that, in appearance, at least, resembles the Jarate we know so well. And yes, I’m aware this is old news, but sending them a little traffic isn’t a bad thing. You’ll need ten cans of apple juice, a cup of honey, and ten days of sitting tight while you wait for the concoction to ferment. If all goes well, you should end up with a bit of bottled urine hard cider.

#1. Buy 10 cans of apple juice ( pure pressed ) and pour 9 of them into a suitable container. You must be able to keep the container airtight, so using a carboy (large glass bottle) is best. You can use a large pot or bucket and cover the top with plastic wrap.

#2. Heat up the last can of juice to a near boil, then add 1 cup of honey or sugar and dissolve.

#3. Add the hot sweet mix to the rest of the juice, then add bread yeast to the now warm mixture. Be certain to poke a small hole in the plastic, or plug the top of your carboy with an airlock device ( this allows the CO₂ that is generated during fermentation to escape, and it keeps the oxygen out.)

That’s it! in 10 days time the yeast will have fermented the mixture down to an alcoholic beverage (6-7%) that your friends will think is pee. Keep extra Jarate in mason jars next to your computer, because you never know when you’ll need a sip. Duty!

Notes: The longer you wait the better it tastes and the clearer it looks. Using wine yeast or champagne yeast ( $.80 a package ) produces a fairer tasting Jarate. Adding more sugar will boost the final alcohol content, but too much will kill the yeast so be modest. Do not bottle the Jarate before the recommended fermentation period; otherwise you could explode your bottles due to excess carbonation.

Via NerdBalloon. Be a good reader and pay them a visit already.

Ubercharged takes no responsibility for any unwanted pregnancies that may arise as a result of drinking this. You have been warned.

Well, himmelstoss and I noticed a series of comments which asked what made us qualified to write about competitive TF2. Well, we play it, and we know the theories and strategies behind competitive games (which is what this guide is all about, anyway). Neither of us claim to be professionals, and there are certainly better players than us. But apparently we just weren’t good enough for some of you people. So, we went around and got advice from other competitive TF2 players – players who are certainly far better than you naysayers.

Soldier Tips from Jaeger

Jaeger, a mighty good soldier who played for the professional team Pandemic, and who now plays for Loaded, gave some great tips via the comments section of the Soldier article:

When doing these “long jumps” it is important to control your height so as not to take fall damage. This is a common mistake I see inexperienced competitive soldiers making.

There is also another jump which I suppose you might call a short jump. These are fast, low 27 damage rocket dashes. These are useful for catching up with your team, blocking capture points, denying health packs to enemies, accessing health packs which require a rocket jump when low on life, and chasing down a fleeing opponent.

In competition a soldier is often limited by his ability to kill before having to reload. Almost invariably you will kill someone and be rushed by an enemy scout while you’re weapons are empty. It is thus important to not overkill an enemy.

Make it a habit to use one rocket and one shotgun to kill unbuffed light classes and two rockets and a shotgun to kill unbuffed soldiers. After getting the kill with your shotgun switch back to your rocket launcher without reloading the shotgun until there is a lull in the action. A common mistake I see is for soldiers to only switch to their shotgun in desperate situations when they are caught without any rockets loaded. When switching from rocket launcher to shotgun make sure you press your key to switch to shotgun immediately after you fire your rocket, otherwise it will take too long to be able to shoot your shotgun and you might die or miss and easy kill shot while the enemy is recovering from the rocket hit.

Prefiring/spamming rockets at choke points or long range opponents is a common practice for soldiers and a good one. When doing this make sure to keep at least one rocket loaded to defend against unseen threats like scouts or spies.

Direct rockets do substantially more damage than splash rockets. When aiming at an enemy try to aim for the ground about a foot behind them. This will let you hit them directly and pop them up if you predict their movement correctly and if you miss slightly still give you good splash damage. A common mistake I see is people shooting rockets directly at the feet and allowing a mostly well-aimed rocket to fall just short of the enemy letting them get away with only splash damage taken instead of direct damage.

In general I try to fire one rocket and reload it before firing again if I’m shooting at targets that I’m not likely to immediately kill such as far away targets. You should note that a rocket finishes reloading before the animation of the reloading completes. Practice consistently firing one rocket as fast as possible after reloading it so you always have at least 3 ready for more immediate threats and opportunities.

Medic Tips from Sigma

Sigma played medic for the competitive TF2 team Overthrow, and is currently a backup for Reverse Harem; in addition, he hosts the competitive TF2 podcast Friendly Fire.

When talking about healing order, it might be helpful to note that you should change your priorities based on the map and position. Soldiers are lumbering spam-cannons on Badlands mid, and the Scouts/Demo are much more important; however, on Granary, you absolutely need to control the boxes, so getting a Soldier up to ~250 is more important than healing a scout (usually).

To some extent this depends on the style of team, but those examples are pretty important in my opinion. Having Sollies in the red and overhealed Scouts is great on Badlands, but you want the opposite on Granary.

With regards to calls, it’d be good to explicitly say where you are when you’re alone, and in general, you should say what you’re going to do/where you’re going (at least when alone. If you’re not leading the team, I suppose you’re just following the Solly making the calls once you group up. I prefer to have the medic make all push calls, but that’s again a style choice).

It’s important to realize that your uber doesn’t increase the damage people do (obviously), so instead of just ubering whoever is dishing out the damage (Soldier/Demo), flick your uber to whoever is going to take damage next.

Popping earlier is not a problem at all if you took less damage before you popped and you end on the high ground. Notably Well’s mid — a lot of people just drop their uber, but popping just so you can hold the point is completely fine. They have to waste their entire charge just getting past the door spam/up the ramp if they try to pull back then uber into you.

You die in 1 shot from 100-110 hp, so you should pop then because it’s always better to pop at >100 hp and block a rocket than let it hit you and still have <100 after it wears off.

Credit to French Toast for the picture.

You can hold mouse2 (or whatever your +attack2) is before you get uber, and you’ll pop as soon as you have it.

The healing rate speeds up after 10 seconds without taking damage. You should always abuse this fact when you know someone escaped from an engagement a while ago and is coming back for health (usually scouts), or just watch for when you’re healing someone fast and take them to 150% then rather than spreading heals.

Whew! Thanks for the contributions, Jaeger and Sigma!

So that wraps up the competitive TF2 guide. It was a blast writing for you guys over the last nine articles – thanks for being great readers! From clubtheseals, himmelstoss, French Toast, and our guest authors – Jaeger, Sigma, and The Black Watch – we thank ye kindly. Signing off.

In competitive gaming, your fragging proficiency and ability to work with a team represent the two most important skills you can have. At the same time, configuring your game for competition can give you an edge in tight situations. Welcome to part eight of the competitive TF2 guide.

Game Settings

There’s a number of simple game settings that will improve your gaming experience.

Use a custom crosshair. Under Options->Multiplayer, you can find a dialog for changing your crosshair. The exact crosshair you use is really up to you (I personally use the + shaped one), but it’s worth changing it from the default for consistency’s sake. You can change the color of the crosshair there, too. I’d recommend using a green crosshair, because green contrasts strongly against the red- and blue-dominated color schemes so prevalent in the game. As you can see in the above screenshot, blue does not work well as a crosshair. Go green.

Turn on autoreload, under Options->Multiplayer->Advanced. Even the best of us forget to reload our weapons sometimes. Auto-reload, as the name implies, automatically reloads your weapons. For one, it’s a definite upgrade; there are absolutely no disadvantages to using it since you can interrupt the reload animation of any weapon to immediately fire it. It’s great stuff, and since it renders the reload key redundant, it frees the key you previously had bound to “+reload” for other useful binds (I’ll get to that in a moment).

Turn off the auto-rescope function. This one’s optional and is also located under Options->Multiplayer->Advanced. Scoping in takes time, and when you’re  a competitive sniper, you need to choose your shots very precisely. Turning off the auto-rescope simply means that if you miss a shot, you have a split-second more to react. It may save your skin.

Optimize your game. This one is a biggie. When you’re being hunted by two scouts, you need fast, accurate, lag-free aiming. If you experience an FPS drop in the middle of a battle and die as a result, you will rage. I would know – this happens to me a lot. Avoid my predicament and dial down the video settings (if possible ) until you get playable FPS in all situations. Amazing graphics really don’t matter in competition, especially if it’s slowing your framerate down a lot.

Open up the Task Manager. Before you launch the game, open up the Task Manager (Ctrl-Alt-Delete), go to Processes, and start ending processes that you know aren’t necessary. In particular, SearchIndexer.exe (on Vista) can cause huge framerate drops (I often drop to about 3 fps periodically if SearchIndexer is running). Other processes, such as updaters, can start downloading files in the middle of your match, sending your ping sky-high.If you’re really paranoid about framerate, kill your security software as well (I have yet to hear about a virus that delivers itself using TF2).

Adjust your sensitivity. This is an extremely important setting to adjust, and this takes the most time to perfect. It is key that you find a sensitivity that allows you to look around quickly (especially if you play heavy or soldier) but still be precise. Your eyes will need time to adjust to your new sensitivity, so you’ll just have to slowly try things until you find a setting that works for you.

Turn on fast weapon switch. This one’s highly recommended – find the option under Options->Keyboard->Advanced. This removes the useless pictorial weapon select menu from the side of your screen and allows you to equip the weapon immediately.

Binds

Binds allow you to attach any command to any key. To bind a key, tap ~ to open up the developer’s console (if you haven’t enabled it yet, do so at Options->Keyboard->Advanced->Enable console), and type in something like this:
bind <key> "<command>"

For me, one of the most useful commands is “say_team”; say_team is the equivalent of typing something out in team chat. say_team binds allow my team to receive important information even if they didn’t register it over voice com. For instance, here’s a possible bind:

bind v "say_team *** UBERCHARGE READY ***"

Thus, if you press V, they will know that you have your Ubercharge ready.

Other useful messages you could bind include “I need someone to heal!”, “I’m lit!”, “Using Ubercharge”, or “Enemy medic down!”

There’s nothing limiting you to say_team, either. You can bind any console command, so use and abuse as you see fit.

Configs/Scripts

Open up your /steamapps//team fortress 2/tf/cfg directory. You’ll find a number of files, such as “demoman.cfg.” What this means is, whenever you swap class to Demoman, any console commands you list in that file will be executed. What can you do with this? Lots. You could try putting class-specific say_team binds in there (for instance, an “UBERCHARGE DEPLOYED” bind for Medic) and other cool stuff like that.

Here’s a really neat piece of work for you. Rythyrix came up with a great script that allows you execute any custom command when you take out any weapon (check it out on the forums). Copy/paste the following into any of the .cfg files I was mentioning.

alias wep1 "slot1; wep1com; alias mouseup wep-3; alias mousedown wep2; alias quickswap wep-3; alias lastwep wep1; keybind1"
alias wep2 "slot2; wep2com; alias mouseup wep-1; alias mousedown wep3; alias quickswap wep-1; alias lastwep wep2; keybind2"
alias wep3 "slot3; wep3com; alias mouseup wep-2; alias mousedown wep1; alias quickswap wep-2; alias lastwep wep3; keybind3"
alias wep-1 "slot1; wep1com; alias mouseup wep-3; alias mousedown wep2; alias quickswap wep2; alias lastwep wep-1; keybind-1"
alias wep-2 "slot2; wep2com; alias mouseup wep-1; alias mousedown wep3; alias quickswap wep3; alias lastwep wep-2; keybind-2"
alias wep-3 "slot3; wep3com; alias mouseup wep-2; alias mousedown wep1; alias quickswap wep1; alias lastwep wep-3; keybind-3"
alias keybind1 "alias key1 wep1; alias key2 mousedown; alias key3 mouseup"
alias keybind2 "alias key1 mouseup; alias key2 wep2; alias key3 mousedown"
alias keybind3 "alias key1 mousedown; alias key2 mouseup; alias key3 wep3"
alias keybind-1 "alias key1 wep-1; alias key2 mousedown; alias key3 mouseup"
alias keybind-2 "alias key1 mouseup; alias key2 wep-2; alias key3 mousedown"
alias keybind-3 "alias key1 mousedown; alias key2 mouseup; alias key3 wep-3"
alias mouseup "wep-3"
alias mousedown "wep2"
alias quickswap "lastwep"
alias lastwep "wep2"
alias key1 "wep1"
alias key2 "mousedown"
alias key3 "mouseup"
alias key4 "slot4; extrakey"
alias key5 "slot5; extrakey"
alias extrakey "alias mouseup wep-3; alias mousedown wep1; alias quickswap lastwep; alias lastwep wep3"
// DO NOT MESS WITH THE ABOVE STUFF
// EDIT THE FOLLOWING ALIASES, SEE DESCRIPTION BELOW
alias wep1com ""
alias wep2com ""
alias wep3com ""
//BACKUP
bind MWHEELUP mouseup
bind MWHEELDOWN mousedown
bind Q quickswap
bind 1 key1
bind 2 key2
bind 3 key3
bind 4 key4
bind 5 key5

Now, put all the commands you want executed in after the wep1com, wep2com, or wep3com aliases. Check out TF2Wiki for a full list of commands you can have the script execute on weapon switch (but note that some of the commands are cheat commands and will thus not work in multiplayer games; others, such as “wait”, are disabled by some servers). Rythyrix uses the script to change his crosshair size and shape upon switching weapons, but there’s plenty of stuff you can do (change your field of view, for instance, or hide the weapon model). Note that dying without your primary weapon out or running out of ammo on any weapon will break the script temporarily – you will need to press the weapon select button twice in order for it to work again.

Scripts can be useful, as they allow you to execute a number of commands in order. However, I’d strongly discourage the use of rocket jumping scripts, sticky spam scripts, and the like. They’ll make you worse at the game – I guarantee it. Plus, heavy script users are almost always looked down upon by the community. Personally, I don’t use any scripts at all, but they do help some people – it’s a matter of preference.

If you’re interested in scripting, look at the Scripting article on TF2wiki.

Custom HUDs

Many users don’t realize that they have a choice when it comes to Heads-Up Displays, or HUDs. Most users play with the default HUD; others use the minimal HUD also included in the game. I use neither.

That’s mine. It’s a mildly modified version of essobie’s competitive HUD, and it is absolutely glorious. Oh, and ignore the vanilla crosshair – I don’t use it any more.

As you might figure, modifying your HUD allows you to put whatever you like wherever you like. It’s daunting at first, but it’s really not too bad; a number of fine tutorials for doing so exist out there. Essobie’s HUD is a great start if you’re looking to make your own HUD. Be aware, though, that you may need to update your HUD when large updates roll around.

In the end, though, configurations aren’t going to help you very much if you aren’t willing to work with your team. Still, they’re worth looking into.

Let me tell you a story.

Once upon a time there was a game company called VALVe. They made a game mechanic. This was a nice system, but there were a few people that complained. Then they made a new mechanic, which made even more people complain. Then people found a way of exploiting the mechanic. Then VALVe punished them for it. RAEG levels reached apocalyptic.

Now, can anyone guess what I’m talking about here?

That’s right! Everything that VALVe has ever done! But in this case, the halo!

Now, the anti-halo people have got some good arguments if you dig through the millions of layers of “V4LV3 R FCK1NG F4G075 I W1L L1K3 N3V3R H33L 4NN3ONE W1T H4L0 1N F4CT 1 4M 70741Y B0YC07ING UR G43MS 4EVA I’M G01NG BAK 2 C0UN73R-S7R1K3″. The best one that I’ve read was one saying that the halos were a bad solution to a minor problem (idling) instead of a good solution to a terrible problem (random hat drops).

Now, these arguments do sway me. They really do. But, you see, there’s one thing that they ignore. One thing which makes me throw all my support behind VALVe.

I have a hat.

Disclaimer; this is not actually me

Never mind that it looks terrible, or that its glowy effect is severely broken.

Never mind that 95.5% of the rest of the TF2 community have this hat already (and I do believe this figure, since 90% of these people are inconsequentials like myself).

Never mind that I only play TF2 once every couple of months, when I can get to a decent computer.

Never mind that I would have idled if I actually had the game.

I have a hat.

And it is glorious.

In conclusion;

VALVe are awesome, the halo is awesome, random drops are awesome, the FaN, Sandman, Ambassador and Huntsman are all awesome, and I want to have Gabe Newell’s man babies.

But I still think that my unlock system was a better idea.

Hint hint.