Ibuprofen from the forums continues to do our job for us with this amusing image breaking down the appeal of each Team Fortress 2 class:

Some of you may have heard that CEVO is banning the Sandman, Natascha, and the Wrangler for the upcoming season, a decision that’s met with a lot of controversy. The arguments against banning them are rather obvious, but between CEVO’s forum and a topic on our own forum, a few excellent explanations have popped up to explain why they’ve chosen to ban these weapons

Starting off general with a theme that covers two of these bans, from Ubercharged forum member ibuprofen:

Didn’t the competitive scene say that Scouts are borderline overpowered?

The quote was that Scout is the only “borderline overpowered” class. This means that if a player can hit every meatshot, He is overpowered compared to any other class that can get every shot, i.e a Sniper getting headshots with every shot will not be as effective as a Scout hitting every shot.

Also, for those who don’t agree with Natascha being banned, think of it like this. There are 5 combat classes on a team of 6. One of them is running Natascha. This player has begun to attack an enemy. This enemy’s mobility is now non-existent. Not only can they not escape, but they are a piss easy target for the 4 other players on a team. Competitive players aren’t like your usual pub player; we hit our shots. Therefore, imagine being the enemy when a single bullet begins a cycle of helplessness.

TF2 is a game of momentum and mobility. If one player can destroy the mobility of every class on the enemy team, that team will probably take mid and gain major momentum. This is a major game breaker. Note how every class (not Medic obviously) that is standard in comp play is extremely maneuverable or has a method of gaining instant mobility.

A response to “Well, can’t the enemy just use a Sniper and easily counter the Heavy using Natascha?” again from ibuprofen.

OK, I’ll break it down for you to understand it better.

The Sniper’s advantage is that he can eliminate targets from range. His damage does not amplify depending on distance. He is able to get “picks;” kills that allow the pushing team an advantage of having a player over them. The best “pick” is a medic pick, where a medic is eliminated from the enemy team. Snipers can do this at a range, which is why they are favorable. However, this is the only thing they are able to do; frag. Scouts can frag as well. However, Scouts move extremely fast, have a double jump, are able to outmaneuverer explosives classes and fight through spam. They can also avoid a Soldier juggle. Scouts can insert themselves into a battle, complete their objective, and remove themselves just as easily and quickly. Scouts capture at 2x the regular rate. A Sniper can do none of these things.

The mid fight is very important in competitive play, because the game is about momentum, as I mentioned. However, problematically, the Sniper is always late to the mid fight, which means the team’s Scout has a 1v2 fight at mid against the other team’s scouts. He also has to protect the team’s Demo and flank the enemy Demo, both of which are at mid. If you just don’t run scouts at all, first of all, your team’s Demo is dead instantly. Second, by the time your powerhouse gets to the fight, the point is already half capped. Thirdly, the enemy Demo will have stickies up the exits, trapping the combo. The enemy scouts will also have an advantage on the flank, etc.. etc… the list goes on. So, the team’s Scout is fucked at mid when you’re running a Sniper, jeopardizing the mid fight. That’s point #1.

The Sniper must be protected at all times. If a Soldier knocks him up in the air with a rocket, there is literally NOTHING the Sniper can do, as he cannot scope in nor outstrafe the extremely easily second rocket to complete the juggle. If the Sniper is ambushed from a blind spot by a Scout, he is dead before he came humanly react. Before you say, NO NO I’M A 1337 SNIPER I GET ALL THE SHOTS, keep in mind it takes 200ms for your shots to register as 150dmg headshots and not as null 50dmg bodyshots regardless. Add reaction time and lag (avg on central servers is 70ms) and you begin to realize how weak the Sniper is. The enemy team has TWO of these flanking classes, so if they ambush you at the same time, which they often do, you are dead before you can kill either. So essentially, you’re playing two classes down when you run a Sniper, since one has to babysit him. That is point #2.

The Sniper can do 150dmg a pop with a quickscope. This takes out unbuffed Scouts and Medics. In less time than it takes to do this, a Scout can deal two meatshots. Therefore, in the same time, the Scout could have killed any Scout (Buffed or otherwise), a Medic, an unbuffed Soldier, an unbuffed Demo, and put a buffed Demo in red to be pistoled easily. The Sniper can charge up, however, for 450 dmg. However, this takes four seconds. In these four seconds, the Scout can have popped out much more than 450 dmg. This is point #3.

Moving on to the Wrangler, here again from ibuprofen

This is just typical competitive crap. Why would a competitive clan/league or whatever ban weapons that provide a TACTICAL ADVANTAGE. Nat Heavies can be damn useful in a defense. The Sandman was damn useful before it got nerfed to oblivion and The Wrangler opened up a new skillset for the Engie.

This is what I don’t understand about competitive teams, they’re always banging on about skill yet when a weapon comes along that gives less experienced players an advantage over them, they’re quick to call for nerfs and bans as opposed to – oh I dunno… avoiding them?

I talked about the Natascha early on, but on the Wrangler, it makes a lot of sense. I’m not going to go to far into it, but in competitive play, sentries exist only to make enemies pop their uber early. Picture the Badlands choke when the offensive team is pushing out from yard after losing the mid fight. They have to fight uphill (THE worst position you could ever be in) and it is a back and forth struggle to peak out and get a pick so that their team could move in. Players flank from the house and scouts sneak in from the back side to ninja cap.

Now, what the team that has middle can do is they can run an Engineer and set up a level 3 sentry on the train car and wrangle it. This effectively shuts down both chokes and makes it impossible for the other team to push out. If they push out of the usual choke, they will get spammed in by a Sentry with a 66% damage reduction shield (seven stickybombs to frag) and double fire rate. If they try to push out house, the Sentry can just turn to the left and cover that too. So really, their only option is to push from valley (the area under the bridge), and this is a SEVERE disadvantage. Remember what I said about uphill fights behind the worst possible obstacle you could face? The valley is ten times more steep than the choke. Even when pushing out from here, the Sentry can still target you if you pop out. It will take literally the entire length of an ubercharge to kill a sentry. Which is not fair considering how fast the Engineer can build and maintain a sentry.

Like I said, I won’t go too far into it (there are loads of other problems), but to summarize, the Wrangler makes chokes impossible to push through and the entire game becomes a steamroll for whatever team wins mid.

Bellsprout, also from the UC forums, outlines the main reasons behind all three bans.

The only strategies that these weapons are good for are that of stalemating the game. The game revolves around Ubers, right? The Sandman is able to stun the Medic before he can Uber meaning he’ll be die. Or it can be used to stun the Soldier while he’s building Uber leaving the Medic defenceless. I should mention that by stun in those sentences I mean the speed nerf/unable to use weapons state.

The Natascha means that that an Ubered pair will go in and HAVE to focus that Heavy with 450 health, else he’ll stop any retreat. If there’s two of them then you’re just being stalemated as it is pretty much impossible to kill the two – especially if there’s a Medic with Uber. However because the team has two heavies it’s very difficult to push second. meaning stalemate.

The Wrangler means that an Uber is necessary to JUST kill the sentry. If there’s another engineer with another Wrangled sentry then you will lose. Simple. Once again, pushing to second is very difficult.

French Toast, one of our authors particularly well known for being part of the comp guide adds a side note about why guaranteeing that someone will die is so taboo.

The issue stems from the size difference between the average pub game and the average competitive game. When I stress to say “every little thing matters 10x more in a game with half the players”, I literally mean everything. It’s hard for a player used to comparatively large games to wrap their minds around because losing one or two guys in a pub only means another filling his place. If you’re down a man in 6s, that one man you just lost means a lot more in terms of fire power and coverage.

Laerin from our forums explains the “cannot move hence death” aspect a little more clearly

It’s been mentioned time and time again how the Natascha’s slowdown leaves players completely at the mercy of others. The scout, soldier and demoman are used instead of say two heavies becuase of their speed and versatility. The heavy is meant to be a tank with a high DPS and large amount of health but by trading off it’s speed. But the Natascha robs other classes of their speed and manueverability; the most important thing they have over the heavy. A soldier cannot rocket jump away. A scout cannot run away – or even get close to him. In one-on-one situations, unless you are right beside a means of escape, your two options are either to kill the heavy (the class with the higher DPS and health) or die. In most cases however, you will be a sitting duck to the other classes and your set of options will have dwindled by one.

This last one is from Sigma, over the CEVO forums

Quote: Originally Posted by Hawkeye
The Natascha ban is simply idiotic. It’s been around for a few seasons, used, no one had issues with it, it is not over-powered otherwise we would’ve seen the Heavy/Natascha a whole lot more then on maps to fend off scouts and more teams winning maps running Natascha heavies.
Natascha heavies came out on every map this season in invite (and almost every match of the lan, often doubled up). It’s to the point that even mid fights, where the heavy is traditionally terrible due to his speed, would see a heavy showing up. The increased speed + reduced spin time turned heavy from situational to crazy good. I don’t know about open or other leagues, but if players there aren’t using it it’s a result of not trying it and seeing how broken it is. Scouts pretty much cannot make any plays once a natascha heavy is spun up. They get hit by 1 bullet, are totally frozen + get directed + die. Soldiers and demomen can’t peek corners, because the bullet stream will cause them to be too slow to escape from the return spam. As a medic, you pretty much have to treat the natascha heavy as a sniper — once he slows you, you take damage from almost every rocket, so you have to stay out of LoS. If you suggest getting a heavy of your own or a sniper to counter it, sure, that works, but the game slows to a crawl and is no longer fun.

On the other hand, heavies are extremely effective for creating a health advantage through sandvich use and following up pushes with the huge 450hp buff. This remains unchanged with the regular minigun (and is in fact more exciting, because the heavy exchange happens much faster). The heavy can still hold the flank 1v2, but only if he has good tracking — as opposed to the natascha version, where he can sit spun up on a corner and get a guaranteed kill on any scout that peeks it.

AG used natascha heavies as much or more than the other invite teams, and all of us agree that the weapon is way too strong. By the end of the season Otter refused to use it in scrims because it was so lame, and it was so easy to use that there was no point in practicing it.

Quote:Originally Posted by Bodknocks
Banning Wrangler just seems really odd. I feel like it’s a huge knee-jerk reaction to the item. I don’t really know what else to say other than that, did people honestly think Engie would start being main classed and that Wrangler was going to dominate the scene? I just don’t really understand why this is supposedly overpowered in 6v6 environment, it’s definitely an upgrade from the pistol (lol) but that’s not a good reason to have it banned.
It only takes a couple scrims on gpit to see what’s wrong with it. Sentries have no damage falloff. This is fine if they have limited range, but when you can put a gun in a sniper’s position and spam huge damage from long range, then pick up said gun and hide it once it (eventually) gets damaged, the attacking team has no counter. The engy can sit at spawn with his gun, get free damage on any team that decides to push through C, then pick it up, teleport to B, and put it super far away from the doors to spam more long-range damage. You can try things like double-DHing it, but you still need 6 or more rockets to bring it down (thanks to the ridiculous shield), and the engy can easily just pick it up and hide it, the shield will let it live long enough. Heck, you could even rocket jump a teleporter to the roof and teleport your gun (and team) up there (without having to deal with the old problems of taking a long time to get up and being vulnerable to snipers). Who wants to push B with a heavy, level 3 infinite range sentry, sniper, demo, med, soldier all sitting on the roof? I know I don’t.

Hopefully, this helps you better understand CEVO’s decision. If not, however, let me just close with a couple of choice comments from French Toast

The minute people stop thinking of competitive player as this separate group of completely foreign players, the sooner you realize that everyone plays the same game. It’s the same thing as some people liking 32 man, roll the dice servers, or other people preferring 18 man 24/7 arena servers. Competitive players are just another bunch that like to play the game the way they like, and it happens that the leagues agree that it’s the most competitive way to play, so they host tournaments for that style.

It’s our little corner of the world, and the actions the leagues take are our concerns. If you can’t accept our reasoning, which has been rather beautifully laid out before you in this thread, for following certain rules, and banning the use of certain weapons, we don’t care. Why? It doesn’t affect you, it’s our little corner of the TF2 world and we enjoy it the way we have it.

In this instalment of How It’s Done, I have interviewed Benjamuffin, one half of the duo that created the Dalokohs Bar (as SamMunRawr had been away). The Dalokohs Bar was released in the first wave of community content, and introduced the concept of a temporary max health increase.

How did you get into Modelling?

Benjamuffin: Well, as I’ve said on the wiki, modelling is more Sam’s latest experiment in media. He, like I, like to learn how things are made, then work on the process of doing that thing ourselves. For me, modelling has probably got to be the one thing I have yet to try properly. The closest I’ve come is playing around in Blender a couple of months ago. As far as I know, modelling for Sam however was one of those things you feel you’d like to pick up and learn. Somewhat like a guitar I suppose, you see or hear someone playing something you like, and you wish you could just pick up that instrument and do it to at your leisure. That’s how I feel about most things I’m capable of using at a impressive level in media, and I think that’s likely the same case for him too. Especially seeing as most of his work these days goes to his deviantart rather than being used for anything.

Ah, I see. You did the Dalokohs Bar co-operatively, didn’t you? How did that process work?

Benjamuffin: Well the process was a little bit of fun really. We never thought anything would come of it. The two of us are close friends, and one night while talking on Skype, we were discussing the contribute page and the fact that I had recently released a Coach Heavy skin. Someone mentioned on the skin release that a chocolate bar would go great with the Coach Heavy, and I simply said to Sam. “Hey… how about we make the chocolate bar, then submit it to the contribute page?”. At this point Sam was pretty playful when approaching modelling, and shunned the thought a little of doing something serious so soon. But nevertheless, we sat and did it all in one night. Sam opened up the program, and I described how it should look (given it was intended for my skin release). So we sat and discussed exotic chocolate styles, and such, until we eventually came up with the chunky shape you see now. Needless to say we slept like logs during the morning of that day. So, to summarize my ability to digress beyond a simple answer: Sam modelled, and I supplied direction. I then worked around Sam’s rather “out there” texture map, and did the business in photoshop, which is where I am at home (having used it for about 5 years or so).

So the actual process of idea creation didn’t take very long at all?

Benjamuffin: I suppose not. We’re just fond of the playful side of Team Fortress 2, and wanted to contribute something that would support that. It would have likely been out of character for us to make a weapon, not unless it had fuzzy spheres on springs, and fuzzy dice attached to it. That and the weapon would have to fire cake or something. We wanted something we could use when we were just stood around playing with other users, rather than something that would go unnoticed during the heat of the battle. Everyone likes Sandvich Parties, so we figured, why not give him some more things to eat?

I’d use a cake gun anyday.

Benjamuffin: Hmm, maybe we made the wrong item… . Noted for the future.

Many would-be modellers and designers find it difficult to get into because the software choice is so large, and that the better quality options are a lot more expensive. What software do you and Sam use, and do you think it’s worth paying so much for the good stuff?

Benjamuffin: I suppose it all comes down to how talented you are to in some respects. For example, good video editors can create something in windows movie maker and people would be none the wiser, whereas a bad video editor will make it strikingly obvious. The same applies to software. If you have the willpower and the ability to understand where and when something is going wrong, and the ability to pick something up, then the free 3D modelling programs are fine for anyone. I’ve seen some brilliant things done with Blender. However when it comes to choosing something to model in, you can’t really go wrong with 3D studio Max. It’s the most commonly used application among the public as far as I know, and offers the most versatility. However in comparison to the free options, it comes with the hefty price tag, and it obviously isn’t as easy to pick up. However, if one works there way up from the bottom, following tutorials along the way, one can’t go wrong. Experimenting in free time is probably the best way. Forget official guide books. You can get a much better feel of your surroundings if you just run the program, and figure out everythings purpose. It’s how I was with photoshop, and I’ve never looked back. It also helps to find applications that have similar layouts. There’s no point in finding a rather indie and unknown 3D program, learning it’s layout, then finding the standard 3D applications use a different layout.

When designing the Dalokohs Bar, did you have any idea about what attributes it should have? Valve insist it’s not up to the creators to fulfil that goal, but some people do so anyway, or (unknowingly) make their contributions based on those ideas.

Benjamuffin: Not at all unfortunately. We never gave it a thought due to the fact that we didn’t think it would make it in given the many REALLY good modellers out there, and we were just doing it for a friendly bit of fun. There was also the aspect that we figured if it DID make it in, then we’d be fine with the fact it was in the game, regardless of what it did. Looking back however, I do wish that we had been able to put a little input into it. The publics reactions among the angsty teeny gaming community hasn’t been exactly 100% pleasant. People seem to forget, we’re only responsible for the item itself. When asked people think it looks great as a Team Fortress 2 chocolate bar, but most people tend to judge it on what it does. And now, what with the latest update to the Sandvich and Dalokohs, people seem to hate the bar even more. It’s a little saddening, but at the end of the day, we?re still very proud of the achievement. I wanted to say something about me being happy to help, in a humorous way, but my mind is lacking. So I shall just say “Jolly good!” and look the other way.

You currently maintain the Dalokohs’ respective page on the Official Team Fortress Wiki. To negate the fact that most people dislike its use over the Sandvich, can you recommend any good tips or times/situations to use it in?

Benjamuffin: Well initially I would say to casual people, “Most of you only use the Sandvich for eating in groups. Isn’t chocolate better?”, but since the downgrade I suppose a legitimate time would be if you are challenged by another Heavy several times. Or just as a buff in general. People claim the Sandvich is better due to the health gain, but I rarely see it used, and with the new cooldown, the Dalokohs is somewhat more useful. If used before battle. The Sandvich is pretty quick and just as useless in the heat of battle, as it can’t prolong your life when being attacked as it used to. So to summarize once more, if the threat demands you outlive a clashing opponent, or if in general you need a health boost. It’s a weapon about choosing your battles, and making your future ones more successful. Nothing more I can add really. People will think what they want to think at the end of the day. All weapons are situational, that is in essence the point of having different unlocks, yet people seem adamant on claiming things such as the Natascha or the Backburner are completely useless and that only noobs use them. It’s a little strange really.

When did you find out the Dalokohs was going to be implemented? Did Valve let you know a short time before the update, or was it a case of simply opening up the game and finding it there, or the steam forums revealing it? And also, when did you get your selfmade items, instantaneously or soon after?

Benjamuffin: Surprisingly Valve said nothing, even though there is an email section when submitting something. Even to this day we received nothing official stating we were in. Sam called me up in the middle of the night, in a hyped up mood, and told me to go and look in the GCF. Naturally, I was a little confused and annoyed, being woken up to look through files and folders of a game I regularly check the GCF for (for base skin files). He showed me c_chocolate. I got excited, but waited until I opened it up in the model viewer first. It was our bar. We were stunned and childlike about it all. This was during the night before it was released. But the first moment I stepped into TF2 in that area of time, I received the Self-Made Dalokohs Bar. The server I was on had about 3 people on it, who I don’t even remember anymore. But there you go. Kind of wish I’d gone on a busy server really. Also the map was 2fort. I was outside the red spawn room. There’s some random Trivia. Also I was Heavy. Wait… that was obvious, scratch that.

When someone’s trying to get into Modelling or Editing, can you recommend any resources you found useful?

Benjamuffin: With texture work, a lot of people advising others wishing to learn tell them to use VTFedit and Gimp, among several other applications. If you’re completely set on only using free programs, this is the way to go, but it’s a chore to do it that way. So many steps, and so many programs to go through. Photoshop is the best bet for anything graphical really. With the VTF plugin you’re good to go. When you get used to photoshop it’s a pretty straight forward program. Though following tutorials is a good way to learn. Not tutorials explaining the program, but tutorials that show you how to create a certain effect on a picture, or how to replicate a logo. Things slowly become second nature after doing those for a while, and it also comes with the benefit of creating decent looking work, when you’re only a novice. For 3D, as I’ve said, Blender is a great place to learn. It’s free and there are even tutorials on the Steam forums on how to model hats in it. So you’re covered on that one. Another program that has some uses for Team Fortress 2 texture making is a program called Corel Painter. It is laid out very much like photoshop, and has the ability to simulate real life painting. It’s the kind of program Valve switched to when they stopped painting giant textures then scanning them in. It gives clarity, and avoids photo artifacts. I haven’t used it beyond painting pictures, but it’s great to get that patchy hand painted look for Team Fortress 2. It’s a lot of fun to use, but a bit awkward (Painter). There are some amazing artwork pieces out there made in it, that you would SWEAR were painted with real paint. Anyone can pick that one up and create something.

If there is one thing you learnt when modelling/texturing for TF2, what would you pass on? So far, New has said it’s key to get your project ingame to check it looks alright. What can you add?

Benjamuffin: That’s a good piece of advice. And I would agree, the model viewer has limitations. What looks fine outside the game can have unexpected problems ingame. It can be tedious going back and forth, but it’s better in the long run. You should see my desktop. It’s cluttered with copies of the same file, material structured folders (ready for drag dropping into a copy of TF2). The two things I hate are pixel stretching and doing two things for alpha channels. For pixel stretching an example would be that I had to do stripes on something, and the right looking size came out at 1 pixel in width. The model, then causes the texture to stretch in places sometimes, which means it’s wider than one pixel on the model. Now the problem with that, is photoshop can’t go smaller than a pixel in width for a brush. So you have to then make the texture bigger, which can cause peoples computers to go a bit odd if it’s not up to scratch. It’s a very annoying process when you come across something like that. The other thing is alpha channels as said. If I have something that needs to light up, and have a normals map too, I end up tyng myself in knots and making a mess as it means I need more than one alpha channel somewhere. It just confuses me. So I guess what you could take from this is: If you come across pixel stretching issues, resize your texture to be large. Providing the scale is the same, the game will make everything look right. Just don’t make it TOO big, or people will hate you for it. And if you’re stuck on alpha channels… don’t ask me as I’ll probably mess something up, because I never remember the details of that that until I’m stuck into it.

Is there any interesting trivia about the bar you could share?

Benjamuffin: Well most people have figured out that it’s Shokolad spelt backwards. And the other stuff such as the slogan which is cut off by the wrapper, which is now on the Wiki trivia thanks to me. But I suppose if people didn’t know, the bar originally had a normals map, and was submitted in blue without team colors. So it originally looked a lot more detailed in some ways, and the BLU team can now either rejoice, or explode with anger. It’s their bar, they should deal with it. Eat it, I mean… Oh! And people always mess up how to pronounce the name. It’s a European bar, so it has no rounded vowels. People like to say Dah-low-cuss. It’s as I wrote on the Wiki, Dah-loh-cuss, or Dah-lock-uss. I just hope the Valve team get it right if they ever get round to giving the Heavy some lines for it. Another small bit of trivia, though it’s not as important, is that I like to change the bar’s lore at random when on servers. I find that being the creator, people take it as fact until I change my mind. It’s a little bit of fun.

When will we have our official WHITE Dalokohs Bar? We know you have it hidden somewhere, and some people (including myself) would prefer a lighter variety.

Benjamuffin: Funny you should say that! I’ve been emailing Robin about that one on and off. He’s a bit of a promise breaker somewhat. Now and then, I will email him about Dalokohs changes. Textures and such (the white one being one of the main ones). And every time, he has turned round and said they will try and get it in. That’s the impression of most of his emails. Then nothing happens. He is a busy man though, so I’m not surprised if he forgets it about it. However, at one point I did suggest the Self-made one could be the only white one. But that’s just me, heh heh heh. I do love white chocolate. My hopes are that someday the Dalokohs will make it into a Meet The… video. Even if it’s just a background prop. Until then I can’t wait for new Heavy lines. I can guarantee that will go as my phone ringtone.

A Heavy with his gun and full of chocolate is a happy Heavy.

Thank you very much for the interview, it’s been informative.

Benjamuffin: Cheers.

Lessons Learnt:
-If collaborating with another person on your submission, make sure that you discuss the details and clearly get what you want from them across.
-Don’t end up relying on guides and tutorials. They may be good for learning the very basics of a software package, but try to get a feel for it yourself once you’ve got those and simply learn by doing.
-If using Photoshop, try to find plugins for editing .vtf files, the primary filetype used for Valve’s textures.
-Remember that when applying a texture a model, the texture’s features may appear uniform but on the model can be distorted. To remedy this, either edit the texture so that the composed model looks how you want it to, or alter the model slightly to acommodate the texture’s details. In the event that you can’t make any details smaller, increase the size of the entire texture.

Credits: Benjamuffin for the Interview and for filling in for Sam somewhat.
The Official Team Fortress Wiki for providing Dalokohs and Heavy pictures.

…And there’s the knowhow behind the Dalokohs Bar! Join us next time for an interview with the creator of the Frenchman’s Beret.

Thanks to Bazinga for sending this in. YouTube user thejazzman9475 has been hard at work creating some of the best TF2 videos ever made. Ever. So far, they’re unfinished, but they’re already dripping with freshly painted win.

There are a couple other ones in the works too, featuring the Pyro, the Sniper, and the Engineer. There’s also one with a surprisingly risqué Heavy/Medic pairs dance sequence. I, for one, can’t wait for these to be finished.

It is now nearly twelve weeks since the disaster at a Gray Gravel (GG) site in the badlands of New Mexico. In mid-April, a gravel pit exploded in an alleged assault on a weapons facility hidden there. Still the dire repercussions of the catastrophe linger. Gone are the familiar sounds of eagles calling and gunfights raging; the only thing one can hear is the relentless crunch crunch crunch of the unrefined gravel that continues to spill into the countryside. In whatever direction one cares to look, the vista is the same.

It is not just the scenic mesas and suspicious-looking industrial sites that are being overwhelmed. The very livelihoods of the locals have been utterly swamped by a torrent of small stones. Over 86% of New Mexico’s workforce are employed as mercenaries by Builders League United and Reliable Excavation & Demolition, the two giants of New Mexican industry. With their usual battlegrounds buried under up to two feet of gravel, these mercenaries are unable to work.

“Have you ever tried walking through this much unrefined gravel?” Asked one such employee, Dell Conagher. “You’re just constantly sliding and stumbling. And I can tell you: falling on that stuff hurts.” He raises his hands, which are visibly imprinted by the tiny stones. “Now imagine fighting in it. It’s out of the question.”

Instead, these soldiers of fortune must occupy themselves with clearing the badlands of the ocean of gravel that stretches to the horizon. It’s backbreaking labour, and the pay – provided by Gray Gravel co. as part of the compulsory reparations programme hurriedly rushed through Congress – is much less than they are used to. Another victim, a Scottish expatriate, has had to sell his luxurious mansion to fund his alcoholism, which it can only be assumed was triggered by the crisis.

It seems the mercenaries will continue to shovel for quite some time, too, as even three months after the explosion, gravel continues to pour from the pit. GG have faced stern criticism from both locals and the Government for their failure to stem the deluge, but company representatives blame the difficult terrain and constant industrial warfare. Mr Conagher is not convinced:-

“Industrial warfare? There ain’t been any industrial warfare! Not since we’re all cleaning up this goddamn gravel. Sure, there’s the banditos that occasionally come up from the south, but that’s nothing a few well-trained mercenary squads couldn’t crush. As for the terrain, have they ever thought of flying stuff in on one of those blimps the Australians have been conjuring up? I’ll tell you what the problem is: those moustache-twirling Brits don’t want to pay up.”

Indeed, a lot of local ire has focused on the fact that GG is originally a British company, and its current CEO is an Englishman, Isambard Beaufort Gray. Mr Gray was unavailable for comment, as he was having his moustache recurled. It has been claimed, however, that GG is simply a front, a cover organisation for a secret offshoot of Builder’s League United, but BLU representatives have declined to comment.

There is a growing consensus that such an incident should never be allowed to happen again. President Kennedy has called for a total end to building gravel pits so deep in the dangerous badlands, pending a review into the environmental and social impacts such ventures can have. This has displeased other gravel corporations, who say that the rising price and dwindling reserves of gravel worldwide force them to delve ever further into previously impractical locations.

But what of the present situation? Non-mercenary locals are worried about the potential health risks associated with being exposed to unrefined gravel. GG has made several official press conferences reassuring the people that the gravel is harmless “unless ingested”. Health officials, however are more cautious, urging people to remain indoors. Some commentators have even reignited rumours – denied for over a century – that New Mexico gravel is in fact “fool’s gravel”, which is toxic. The International Gravel Standards Agency is currently conducting trials.

In a large house near the afflicted Badwater Basin, I came across a single mother and her young son. Concerned for his health, she will not allow him to play in the gravel. The boy, clearly devastated by his confinement, was alternating between hyperactive pacing and sucking his thumb. I asked the lady how she was coping:-

“Well, obviously it’s not ideal – my son always likes to go out to play with his little friends. It’s no fun for him and it’s no fun for me.  He’s just hanging around at home, which is not something I want when I have visitors. I’ve had to put my own life on hold.”

As I depart into the gravel-tinged sunset, I see yet another truck, full to bursting with gravel. I watch it struggle its way across the stony ground towards the coast, where it will be shipped to Canada and dumped in the lakes and national parks. Oddly, no-one has yet criticised GG for its method of disposal.

Picture credits: Tygrys; Scout’s Mom model: Rebbacus.

Rage. It causes servers to empty, people to get banned, and competitive teams to break up. Team Fortress 2 probably spawns a little more rage than the average shooter, since it has a heavy focus on teamplay. Clutch plays are more difficult in TF2 than in other games, so if your team sucks, you’re going to get burned for it, even if you’re good.

That said, the root of rage, then, is a feeling that you didn’t deserve to die. This often arises from the fact that certain weapons allow players who lack your level of skill to kill you anyway.

I hereby dedicate this article to the idiot who came up with the Sandman. Please don’t pass your genes on to the next generation, whoever you are.

Honorable Mention: Backburner

Well, in light of the fact that there are MANY rageworthy ways to die in TF2, let’s give a quick shoutout to one that doesn’t make the top 5 list: the Backburner. There’s no airblast on this thing, and it has a good damage boost over the regular flame thrower.

Come on. This thing has W+M1 written all over it.

Which is why dying to a Backburner user feels extraordinarily humiliating. When fighting regular Pyros as Soldier, I usually wait until they airblast and then fire a rocket, or fire slightly to the side of the Pyro so that the rocket can’t be reflected back at me. However, you can’t quite tell which variety they’re using when they’re charging at you, and if you use the aforementioned fancy tactics, you’ll take much more damage than you deserve to take.

And before someone asks about the Sandman, it’s not on this list either, though at one point, it would have been. Heavy nerfing has (fortunately) caused the use of the Sandman to drop to near zero.

5. Level 1 Sentry

If you die to one of these, it’s all your fault. Sorry. As if the beep-beep sound isn’t enough to tip you off, it also takes a few seconds to kill you. That’s usually ample time to figure out where the infernal construction is (hell, you even get little directional hit graphics on the screen to tip you off) and get behind cover.

That doesn’t make it any less irritating when you die to one. Like the Backburner, it takes little skill to set up a Sentry. When an Engineer sets one up in the middle of a fierce firefight, he’s almost guaranteed to get some kills, since people greatly misunderestimate the Sentry’s killing potential. I feel that Level 1 Sentry-based rage arises from the fact that to a Ninjaneer, the Sentry is entirely disposable. It takes five seconds to set one up, and it just doesn’t matter when one goes down. There’s just no satisfaction in taking a Level 1 Sentry down, since in the long run, it changes nothing.

4. Reflected Rocket (when you didn’t fire it)

So when you die to one of these, you just don’t deserve it. At all. It’s only thanks to that dumbass Soldier on your team that your virtual body is lying in little bloody giblets. I mean, seriously, why did he have to spam the rocket? You were going to kill the Pyro anyway. Gosh.

It’s definitely quite lulzworthy when you’re the Pyro who got the kill, though. Vid courtesy of TMP, who gets one too many of these kills on me.

3. Facestab

Well, this one’s a glitch that supposedly was fixed innumerable times. It’s a more-or-less unavoidable side-effect of lag compensation, with the game corresponding the position of the knife at some point in time with the position of the back at a different point in time. It’s still a pretty big issue, and is probably a meme by this point.

Unfortunately, I’m almost always on the receiving end of these buggers. Yet another reason to hate AT&T and its disadvantageous DSL.

2. Random Critical

Along with the Sandman, this is definitely not one of the TF2 team’s best brainwaves. Random crits cut fun and intense firefights short; they’re very unsatisfying to get kills with (since you didn’t really deserve the kill), and they’re positively rageworthy when you get killed  by one.

The principle behind the crit is reasonable, I suppose. It’s basically there so that unskilled players or a losing team can tip the balance. What the TF2 team probably didn’t grasp is the fact that they act both ways; both teams can get crits. Crits don’t make a last-stage offensive on Dustbowl any easier.

Crits are almost always disabled in tournaments (with the exception of some BS tourneys, notably the Escapist tournament last year). While situational criticals do make for some excellent strategy ( they’re the only reason the Kritzkrieg and the Backburner make any sense, after all), random criticals are just downright painful.

The fact is, whatever arguments you might make for why the critical hit is good absolutely vanish when you walk around a corner into the face of a crocket.

1. Natascha

Sometimes, when I’m going around kicking ass as Scout (in truth, this doesn’t happen very often), I hear a dakka-dakka sound, and my heart sinks.

Look at that smug face. There’s just nothing to love about this weapon when you’re on the receiving end. Consider this from the point of view of a Scout fighting a Heavy. At close range, where the Scout actually can do significant damage, the Minigun will rip the Scout to pieces; at that kind of range, the Heavy definitely has the upper hand in terms of damage output. So the only chance a Scout has is to dance around the Heavy landing meatshots.

The Natascha, in spite of the damage reduction, is still a solid upgrade. If the Heavy catches the Scout in his sights for even a split second, the slowdown will kick in and the Scout will be finished. Against all other classes, the Natascha fairs comparably well. The slowdown makes it far easier for one to keep their sights squared on the enemy. In addition – and very importantly – it keeps enemies in the open. The best way to take down a Heavy is to fire off some shots and then dart back into cover, but the Natascha makes this an impossibility, making potential assailants sitting ducks for the rest of the Heavy’s team. In fact, there are only two scenarios where a Natascha-wielding Heavy will be at a disadvantage–when attacking sentries and when in open combat with another Heavy–and in practice, these are fairly uncommon.

Until this thing’s slowdown is nerfed, the Natascha will remain grossly overpowered and pathetically easy to use. The Natascha is TF2’s equivalent of the CSS autoshotty – the perfect n00bcannon. As long as it stays that way, it will continue to irritate people.

Plus, I mean, the Natascha is the Heavy’s mistress. You don’t want to encourage infidelity, do you?

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past week or so, you will know that the Heavy has received significant buffs to spinup time and movement speed while revved. These have made several players very upset, and they are now adamant that the Heavy is overpowered and Team Fortress 2 is, for the 119th time, ruined forever.

The problem, in fact, is that what with everyone playing Heavies because they’re oh so fresh, people are neglecting their one true counter: the Civilian. The Civilian has always been something of an “evil opposite” to the Heavy, having a mere 1/6 of Heavy’s health, and no weapons, animations or even voice acting, compared to the Heavy’s high damage weapons, which are second only to Demomen, and his distinctive Russian outbursts. The Civilian, however, has one main advantage: speed. Even with the Heavy’s buff in speed while revved, he cannot keep up with the veritable speed demon that is the Civilian, in fact, only Scouts and Medics could hope to beat a Civilian in a foot race, and over long distances, even a Chargin’ Targe Demoman’s speed boosts will not be enough.

“But,” you may be saying in disbelief around about now “speed alone cannot defeat a Heavy! Especially not with the reduced spinup time!” Well, that’s where the element of surprise comes in. Civilians typically use the Scout model, and as any experienced Spy will tell you, Scouts have smaller profiles than any other class and thus are harder to spot. This, combined with the Civilian’s total lack of voice acting or distinctive sounds makes them the stealthiest class in the game, more so than the Spy because his cloak makes a rather easy to notice sound. Those Civilians who do not use the Scout’s model have it just as easy, though they need to employ different tactics: no-one expects that “Pyro” to actually be able to counter their Heavy. They expect him to charge and die horribly, whereas the truth is much more dangerous: he is a Civilian.

So, we’ve gone from what seems like a one-sided battle with the Heavy coming out on top every time to something a little more complex. The Heavy has more damage capability and more health, but the Civilian has the advantage in Speed and in Stealth. Ubercharges, perhaps, are the decider. As anyone who has been assaulted by an Uber Spycrab will tell you, part of the power of Ubercharges is their unexpectedness. Everyone hears the Medic shout “I am fully charged!” and starts to prepare for a Soldier, Demoman, Heavy or perhaps a Pyro to come rampaging in and brutally murder everyone. How many people expect an invincible Civilian? None. Speed, again, is paramount. You only get ten seconds to play with, and half that time will be spent getting there with the Heavy. Furthermore, even fewer classes are expected to be Kritz targets, generally it is reserved for Soldiers and Demomen, so it’s even more of a surprise when a Civilian, charged with amazing power enters the scene, dealing a whopping x3 damage with every single shot. Clearly then, in the realm of Ubercharges, the Civilian comes out on top.

Yet another advantage the Civilian has over the Heavy is that he will never run out of ammo, doubly so against a Heavy that has the Sandvich or Dalokoh’s Bar rather than the Shotgun. This makes an already strong class even stronger: hit the Heavy when he has run out of ammo and is retreating and restricted to melee range, and you can finish him off without there being a chance of retaliation. If he has a Medic buddy, don’t fret, just work on the Heavy once you’ve taken down the Medic and victory will be all the sweeter. Just make sure that during this attack that the Heavy doesn’t manage to refill his ammo, because although it’s easy to dodge a Heavy, while you’re busy dealing with his Medic, he might be able to hit you once or twice, dealing around 6 damage, which is just an inconvenience.

A mistake that many newbie Medics make when choosing who to pocket is going for classes like Heavy and Soldier, or occasionally Demoman, who are all slower than the Medic and just hold him up when he’s trying to reach the frontlines. Around halfway to the front, a Medic will begin to outrun a Heavy or Soldier, and he will no longer be able to charge uber on them on his way to battle, thus depriving his team of that ubercharge, which just five seconds earlier, could win them the game. Of course, the Civilian is still a little slower than the Medic, with 100% speed compared to the Medic’s 107%, but this difference is negligible unless you are playing a map with an incredibly long path from spawn to the frontlines: a well known design flaw in maps. Of course, this small difference in speed is not ideal, but the Civilian’s ability to defend a Medic against Heavies, where all other potential pockets fail is well worth it.

Then what should we make of all this? Is the Heavy buff too much? Perhaps it is. Can we still cope? Of course. We just need to stop neglecting that so often neglected class, the Civilian, and start to play counters to enemy team composition rather than play such obviously countered classes like the Spy, Sniper and Demoman. Memorise the above graphs, they will come in handy when you are told to “play something useful”. Perhaps you may want to set one as your spray.

To conclude:
Civilian is OP. Nerf Civilian.

Every once and a while, a video shows up that’s so good that we’re willing to risk the reader’s ire by putting up another video post. This is definitely one of those videos.

Quick update: The creator has uploaded a comparison reel, for those who didn’t see the original trailer or who just wanted to be even more blown away by the shot-for-shot accuracy.

A long while ago in March 2009, I remember reading a rant about how useless the Heavy is, how easily attacks are countered and how he fancies himself as a sentry with legs. “What utter rubbish” I thought – and went back to playing as a Heavy on my clan’s pub, or to dominate the hell out of a insta-respawn 2fort server; depending on my mood…

Here’s the thing: a lot of players that play the Heavy are new to the game. Look at the packaging and look at the store page on Steam and what do you see? Naturally, your attention is drawn to the Heavy. So new players will play him, get owned hard and never touch him again.

If you’re sitting there thinking “I’m skilled with another class so why would I be interested in playing the Heavy?” Well here’s my answer – most people don’t fully understand the importance of strategy and teamwork. Strategy plays an important role in Heavy gameplay; every decision you make has to be criticized to achieve the best outcomes. The other thing that plays an important role in Heavy gameplay is communication and not just with a Medic. Theoretically, learning how to play a Heavy well should improve your overall understanding of this game’s logic and strategy – no matter what class you’re playing. Yeah, cool ‘eh? Now let’s get cracking, there’s a lot of stuff to cover.

1. Think before you shoot

How many times have you heard a whirring noise followed by the cries of a slain Heavy? For me, loads of times. Those players make the most fatal mistake any Heavy can make: Revving in the wrong place. I know you’ve done it before – you’ll wind up your gun and walk to defend or attack whatever it is you’re attacking or defending.

The reason this is such a bad idea is obvious – every enemy and his dog will prepare for a Heavy encounter if they hear you revving your gun in the distance and will make detours to avoid/kill you. Never alert enemies of your presence until they’re in range.

So where is the right place to rev? If at least one of these is true, you know you’re in a good place:

• You are in the open and as close as you can get to your foes
• You are in (or at the end of) a corridor with enemies that can be killed before they can fall back into cover
• You are in a blindspot (e.g. a place where a cursory glance won’t reveal your location)
• You are above unaware enemies (e.g. on a bridge or the opening of a tunnel)
• You are near Health and Ammo supplies (e.g. the centre hut on Dustbowl, Level 2-CP 2)

Before you fight the enemy, weigh up the chances of you winning the battle. These can be varied by the number of hostiles in the area, whether you have a medic, the skill of the enemy/enemies you’re fighting, whether you have your gun spinning, how much Health you have and so on. If you know you can’t win, retreat or approach from another angle – don’t bite off more than you can chew or you’ll be eating “Crocket & Winbomb Stew a la Facestab” for dinner.

Medium range is the most ideal place to be, but nothing trumps close range combat more than a volley of point blank minigun rounds. Think it’s hard to get at close range with the big guy? Think again! Say you were overlooking the tunnel exit on Badwater Basin – you can jump down while revving and you’ll be ready to fire before you land. Overhealed Soldiers and Heavies will be shredded in seconds, but be warned that most classes will find it easier to hit you due to your huge frame and poor manoeuvrability – and will wise up after the initial chaos dies down.

2. Pay attention to your surroundings

Pay close attention to the sights, sounds and things around you – for example, memorize the locations of health and ammo so you can fall back on them when you need to, learn the locations of Snipers just by peering out from an opening then move around them, listen out for the decloak sound on a Spy’s watch. This information should already be second nature to the more seasoned players, but is all the more important for a Heavy.

Take each death as a lesson of the things you did wrong and learn from them. Here’s a typical scenario you’ll face as a Heavy: Think back to a time when a Spy seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, now think about how he got there. Was he waiting around the corner waiting for you to go past? Was he crouching on top of some crates out of the way where you would normally fire your gun? Did he convince you with a cunning disguise? You’re a 300 pound mountain of Russian who eats forty cakes a day so how did a skinny dork in a monkey-suit top you? Now you have an idea on how he did it, take steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

The other thing you need to pay attention to are your hit indicators – they show up on your HUD in the direction the impact came from; the larger the indicator, the greater the damage.

3. Befriending a Buddy

Before you shoot off a comment about the Heavy always needing a Medic, don’t – allow me to explain. The Heavy is a defensive class by nature, therefore it is his main job to defend – period. However, when a Heavy is on the offensive he can quickly become a sitting duck by every Tom, Dick and Harry on the other team. Very quickly, your concerns shift towards getting enough health and ammo to survive. When a Medic works with a Heavy he takes away the a lot of the Health concerns, leaving you to just worry about getting enough ammo to do your job – and since you’ll kill plenty of enemies you’ll be up to your knees in ammo. (and bodies)

One essential tool you’ll need when playing Medic buddy is the microphone – you need to efficiently impart enemy locations in order to keep you, your Medic and the rest of your team safe. I personally use Mumble because it’s free and most clans and communities host servers for them, it has an overlay which displays who is talking and it’s customizable. Otherwise, there’s nothing wrong with using the in-game VOIP.

Your Medic should never stay glued to you the entire time, so bring him to the frontline and let the Medic heal your pals – remember that everyone wins in the end, they get their health and the Medic gets his uber much quicker. Spread the love, don’t hog it all. And don’t hog the health if your Medic is in desperate need of it, the Medigun won’t heal its user.

Most players will attempt to kill your Medic if you’re not paying attention, so if your gun is spinning and the Medic’s health starts dropping, turn round and kill whoever it is attempting to plug your mate. Have your Medic spot threats to both of you instead of having him sit there like a goofy German duck gawking at you until either of you die.

Pay attention to your own health too – if you see your health going down quickly retreat into cover and let the Medic heal you. Don’t pick up health packs if you can help it, you’ll help your Medic build the Uber much quicker and he’ll be able to fall back on it if he needs it.

4. Ubercharges and Kritzkriegs

Whichever Medigun your Medics are carrying into battle will come with two very different game-plans. With an Uber, you can charge straight into the fray and tear up a defensive team, taking out Sentries and high priority targets such as Demomen, Pyros, Heavies and Soldiers – provided they don’t quickly run away or use an uber to counter-attack.

Kritz on the other hand require you to protect your Medic even after he activates the charge. The 10 seconds of non-stop critical hits from your minigun will still be effective at long range since falloff doesn’t affect their trajectory.

Usually, I’ll ask the Medic to equip whatever floats his boat, but when a situation starts to rear its ugly head I won’t hesitate to ask them to switch.

5. Going solo

A Medic can be useful, but sometimes you will be faced with the task of coping without him. This video demonstrates Heavy gameplay with rare assistance from a Medic who didn’t know how to ubercharge, I highly recommend it.

Here’s the gist of the video for the benefit of the guide:

• Without a Medic, stay on defence (that doesn’t mean sitting at a dispenser shooting at nothing)
• Stay somewhere where health and ammo is in plentiful supply and deter enemies from taking the route you’re covering
• Offensives on your own are suicide, use the prescience of attacking units to push forward to compensate for the lack of a Medic

6. Your secondary and melee weapons

The Heavy loves his Sandvich, in fact he loved it so much when it was announced as a weapon he would often die eating his last meal. Now witnessing a large Russian stopping in the middle of a battlefield to eat a ham, cheese, lettuce and tomato sandwich on white bread with no concern for the danger around him is no longer a joke – provided he pulls it off.

You now have the option to drop the snack to the life of your Medic or another near-death comrade, aim using the crosshairs and drop it so the target walks into it. Just remember to stop by another health pack at full HP to get your lunch back. It’s also useful if you’re being chased by enemies if you’re low on health – just equip the Sandvich, drop it, nom it and equip your gun. The Sandvich is one heck of a lifeline, as well as tasty.

If you would prefer to have something other than your fists to defend yourself with when you run out of ammo, or need to shoot enemies when you don’t have time to rev up – bring your shotgun. It usually catches people unaware whilst you are moving as they expect you to just rev your minigun. It is also handy for retreating while laying down suppressive fire.

The gloves are risky, but if you can pull off a punch you have a limited time to rain hell on the other team. If you’re planning on taking the gloves, equip the shotgun and not the Sandvich – you’ll waste three seconds equipping and revving up the minigun, as opposed to equipping the shotgun which gets you more bang for your buck (unless you happen to kill two guys with the KGB of course). Likewise, use the fists if you’re planning on taking the Sandvich – people will do their best to gank you if they see you eating, the fists swing quicker which gives you more of a fighting chance.

7. Class Matchups

Knowing how the enemy will attack you will make a big difference. So here I’ve listed all the classes and how they usually attack you, and how best to deal with them. To quote Sun Tzu: “Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories.”

Scout

Scouts are the polar-opposite of the Heavy. They will attempt to flank you when the opportunity arises and will gun for your Medic. They will also attempt to irritate you by jumping around your head like a maniac or just strafing around you at point blank plugging you in the guts or allowing other classes to take pot-shots at you while you’re distracted.

The best way to kill Scouts is to get them in the open and mow them down at medium range before they attempt to do anything. If a Scout is abusing cover with the FaN, just don’t challenge them. They’ll simply push you away from where you want to go every time. Just wait until they’re in the open and he’ll wish he had the other gun once you rip him to shreds.

Scouts with the Sandman will have less health, so do your best to avoid his stun balls and mow him down when he realises his tactic didn’t work.

Soldier

The Solly is big and slow just like you, but he makes up for this with his agility and his ability to fire from cover. A full volley of four direct hits will kill a Heavy without a Medic, so do your best to avoid them and kill him at medium range.

Soldiers are usual culprits for abusing cover since their stock rocket launcher can hit you with splash damage while they’re around a corner. Not only that but Stock and Direct Hit Soldiers give anyone a hard time in corridors, but you especially because of your huge physique and slow speed. Plan ahead to avoid situations like this.

Soldiers will try to gain a height advantage by rocket jumping, if he gets to higher ground you become an easier target to hit and you will have trouble hitting him back. Put a stop to this by shooting them while they’re airborne – with luck he won’t be able to make the connection with the higher ground due to the knockback and either way he’ll lose ammo and health. If he does make the connection, try to finish him off or call to your teammates to do it for you. Alternatively, you can occupy the higher ground he’s trying to reach so you can kill him while he’s weakened. Just be ready for him and don’t take too long about it.

Pyro

Obviously the typical W+M1 strategy employed by noob Pyros will be of no concern to you as long as you’re prepared and even when you aren’t you’ll probably trump him if you’re at full health. You’ll need to be worried when he tries to flank you and use his Backburner.

Smarter Pyros will airblast you away from key areas or when you’re Ubered, or even use the airblast sting combo (ignite, AB, Axtinguish), so just tear into them with the minigun at mid-range before they have a chance to puff you around like a meaty-or.

Demomen

Besides Snipers and Spies, these guys will be giving you the most trouble. They’re very similar to Soldiers but have the benefits of indirect fire. The Demoman can fire four grenades and a full volley of four direct hits will kill a Heavy without a Medic. Deal with them like you would with Soldiers. Kill at close to medium range and quickly. If you’re dealing with a charge swordsman, he doesn’t pose more of a threat but keep both eyes out for him. Similarly if he tries to gain a height advantage rev up and shoot them while they’re airborne and weakened.

Watch out for sticky carpets, if you see a Demoman laying a sticky carpet at your feet, unrev and get out of there. Even with a Medic helping you, you will not survive the damage. If you jump on your way out, it might soften the blow and propel yourself to safety.

Don’t get lured into a sticky trap. If you see him retreating into a tunnel or a corridor (even when he’s spent his pipe ammo), assume he’s luring you into a trap. Keep in mind your minigun is suitable for nullifying the threat of sticky bombs if you ignore this. Alternatively, you can go back and approach the situation another way.

Heavy

A simple head on battle between two Heavies produces mixed results every time. It all depends on certain factors such as who winds up first, who has more health, who has more backup and so on.

If you come across a Natasha wielding Heavy, wind up and kill them if they’re in range, otherwise just get in cover. Their bullets can render you almost immobile Also, don’t try and wind up if a nearby enemy Heavy is revving his gun in your direction, just get into cover. If you can, wait until he unrevs and kill him then.

Engineer

Engineers are silly men with silly hats and even sillier guns, so they often rely on their sentries to do all the work for them.

On its own a Sentry is not too much a problem if you have Medic, but it’s a bigger problem if an Engie is repairing the sentry from behind. Ideally, you want to be as close as possible to the gun so you can destroy it. If you have a Medic with an uber ready, tell him to use it and run towards the sentry while you’re linked. Since the Sentry is programmed to target the nearest threat, you’ll find it easier to walk up as close as you need to get, rev and kill the sentry.

Note: A Kritz charge will not kill sentries or other buildings faster.

Once their sentries are down, they have a few options. First, they can run away really fast; just mow them down. Second, they can stand there and get shredded while sitting there fixing nothing. And finally third (and this never gets old) discover new-found superhuman powers and decide to charge you with the plan of braining you with a lucky wrench crit… In any case you won’t have problems with the silly suicidal super-hero engies.

Medic

Medics don’t usually attack other people; they are often helping others to stay alive. This makes your job harder, so they should be prime targets.

When he Ubercharges, you have little chance of evading his target’s path of destruction. While it is possible to escape, your most likely option is to either slow the enemy down by getting in their way, giving them less time to cause havoc, or simply get your Medic to Uber you too. This usually results in the Ubered pair to retreat… AT SPEED!

The only other thing he can do to annoy you is running around you at melee range using the Ubersaw. Don’t bother getting your fists out – the Medic is much quicker than you and will avoid your punches with relative ease. Just rev up for the two seconds because the Ubersaw has its own swing delay.

Sniper

Snipers are almost always present at battlements where they have optimal view of area to cover, and will be too far away for the minigun to do any good damage. So never attack from his range – it’s a stupid idea. Just avoid their line of sight and you should be fine, learn about their movements and compensate. You don’t have to fight every battle to win a war.

If you really have a burning desire to kill Snipers, the best way to do this is to plan a route to them while they’re busy sniping. It can’t be done on open planned maps like Badwater, but it works wonders in 2Fort and incites torrents of rage.

Spy

Spies will always cloak around you and attack from behind, that is unless the Spy is played by an idiot.

Spies love attacking from blindspots, and most love slow, easy targets like Heavies. Be wary of these places and come prepared. Regularly check behind you or have people report sightings of Spies. They will be less likely to attack you and everyone else appears to know what’s going on behind you. Then again, just appearing to know doesn’t make it 100% safe, so listen out for decloaks and footfalls when you know people aren’t around.

Oh yeah, class by class analyses are only good for dealing with individual battles so if you engage more foes than one think about who poses more of a threat and take them out.

Conclusion

The Heavy is an easy target to bash by careless players because of how supposedly “useless” he is, despite the huge contribution he makes to his team. He is underplayed, underrated, and underestimated. In the right hands however…

He becomes the underdog…
The dark horse…
The Heavy Weapons Guy!

Team Fortress 2 takes place in the sixties. Everyone knows this. But RED and BLU aren’t new creations. They didn’t come about around that time. No, the Team Fortress 2 that we know is only a single chapter in a war that has spanned centuries. It spanned back… to medieval times…

Some of the tools of war from those times long since passed survive in the current incarnation of this never ending war. And using these tools, we here at ubercharged.net labs have recreated the war as it was hundreds of years ago. We have recreated…

MEDIEVAL FORTRESS 2

Medieval Fortress 2 is an update of a classic mod found on ubercharged.net Server 1. This update is a complete rework of the plugin, and includes TARGELANDER DEMOS and EQUALIZER SOLDIERS.

“But DPErny, what IS Medieval Fortress 2? I’ve never heard of it.”

Medieval Fortress 2 is what it says on the cover: it’s a Sourcemod plugin that creates a Medieval theme in Team Fortress 2.

THE STORY
Europe was a bloody, gory place since the fall of the Roman empire. For centuries, feudal states grabbed for whatever partition of the former empire that they could. Rulers, sometimes fair, sometimes tyrants, came and went. Then, word of a new king spread. A powerful, wise ruler known as King Manne was fighting to unite the world under his rule. He succeeded in uniting most of Europe, and then ceased his conquest to manage the empire he had accrued. During this rule, there was a time of great peace and many hats.

But then, King Manne fell ill. He no longer had the strength to run his kingdom. He left the day to day running of the Kingdom to his most trusted aide, Saxtonnious Hale. But Saxtonnious could not run it either, not without the guidance and wisdom of King Manne. The land began to fall apart.

Now, King Manne had two handsome, dashing sons. Blutonious and Lord Redwall, as they were called, were fiercely competitive. Each was always trying to outdo the other. When their father fell ill, Blutonious and Redwall each felt that they were entitled to the throne. One can only imagine their anger when Saxtonious was put into power. But Blutonious and Lord Redwall were not stupid. They watched as their father’s kingdom fell to ruin. Blutonious fled to the lands in the east, and Redwall went west. Each began amassing an army of supporters from their father’s former force.

Then, one day, the conflict finally erupted. Blutonious and Redwall each declared their land a sovereign state, named Blubaria and Redland respectively. Great battles were fought in the name of these two powers, and the very planet shook under the conflict.

THE CLASSES

The Archer

Ye Olde Kindom of Manne spared no expense when selecting its Archers. The most talented marksmen in the land were much prized during the great fissure; Redwall and Blutnoius each scrambled to win the favor of the kingdom’s Archers, knowing how important they’d be in the later battles. The Archers were often taught the then fledgling art of Jarate, a method of defence conceived by those strange peoples of the Far East. While most fierce with a bow in hand, Archers are a formidable warrior with a blade as well.

The Knight

No medieval war would be complete without knights, but these were far from chivalrous. These fierce warriors from the land of the Scotts were a force to be reckoned with. Hardened in battle and wielding cursed swords of unimaginable power, the Knights make up the backbone of any assault. They had been known to charge at their foes with reckless abandon, shouting a bloodcurdling battle cry. These fearsome Scottsmen are widely known for their lethal decapitations.

The Berserker

Tales were told of fearsome warriors from the Scandinavian regions that were but ordinary miners in times of peace. When times of war dawn, however, they were far from peaceful. These men revel in pain, and fight to the death without retreat. Travelers from the northern regions say that these Berserkers fight more fiercely as they sustain wounds, and that the most heavily wounded often take down foes with one swing of their mighty pickaxe. Berserkers occasionally carry in to battle a horn of war, which they blow to rally their fellows into the same frenzy.

The Bear

These strange men from cold regions to the east were as strong as they were stupid. Discovered by the Mannish traders, these hulking brutes knew no weapons. They fought with their bare hands alone, crushing their foes with but a swing of a mighty fist. The harsh landscape of Siberia trained them to withstand punishment far beyond that of a normal warrior. They also brought with them from their native lands a culinary dish with amazing medicinal properties. This meal of bread, meat, and vegtables serves to heal the brutes should they sustain damage. They have also been known to lend it to ailing comrades in times of great need.

The field of battle

Currently, the known battles of Medieval Fortress were fought at the castle Redfort. This tall structure, on the border between Redland and Blubaria, was held fiercely by the Redlandians. The Blubarians, attacking from a cave just outside of the castle, stormmed the gates and fought their way through the castle.

The Real Story

Medieval Fortress came about of the first time during the summer of 2009. After a rousing game of shenanigans, I decided that it was time to learn Sourcemod, and bringing Medieval Fortress to the non-administrated masses would be an excellent project. I began working on Medieval Fortress immediately.

I started my adventures in Sourcemod by reading the AlliedModder’s Wiki, and by reading Sirot’s Zombie Fortress plugin. These two sources helped me tremendously, and before long I was making headway on Medieval Fortress. Despite numerous bugs, glitches, and setbacks, I managed to choke out a working version of the plugin I intended. The final product was terribly unorganised, completely unoptimized, and it barely passed AlliedModders aproval, but it worked. About a month after the original Medieval Fortress had been put on, the new plugin was on Server 1.

Medieval Fortress was an instant success. It was played often, and for a while it was hard to get into a game that was hosting Medieval Fortress. Most of the server population loved it. Soon, however, after the fun had worn off, Medieval Fortress was taken off rotation and forgotten.

Fast forward to December of 2009, and the Demo vs Soldier update. As soon as the public caught glimpse of the Eyelander, the forums were alight with people asking for Medieval Fortress to get an update. People who had never heard of my plugin were demanding it. Several threads cropped up on the Steam Forums asking for someone to make a medieval game mode. Interest in the subject soared. I stepped back and analyzed the situation; people demanded it, I would provide. Before the update had even been released, I began work on Medieval Fortress 2.

This time around, I was more experienced in Sourcemod, and I could recognise the disaster that was my first plugin. Considering this, I decided that Medieval Fortress 2 would be a complete recode. I rebuilt my entire plugin from the ground up, starting with nothing but a blank notepad screen. When a problem arose, I asked for help. Before the end of December, Medieval Fortress 2 was ready for release. It was put up on Server 1, and playtesting helped me to iron out the one major bug in the programming.

And, now, two months after the completion of Medieval Fortress, I am ready to release it to the public at large. The source code, the program, everything that a server operator needs to host Medieval Fortress is available right now. What’s more, so long as even 1 server operator hosts Medieval Fortress, I will continue to keep it up-to-date and ready for more challenges. As time goes by, I will release more features, and the bare-bones plugin you see today will be a far more in depth game mode.

The Technical Details

Today’s Medieval Fortress allows for four classes, as previously stated. The Knight is a Demoman. He is allowed only the Eyelander, the Bottle, and the Targe. The Archer is Medieval Fortress’ default class. Anyone trying to switch to an unallowed class will be redirected to this tweak on the Sniper. He is allowed only the Huntsman, Jarate, the Razorback (which, although useless now, I plan on adding features for later), and his Kukri. The Berserker is simply a the Soldier with all non-melee weapons stripped, excluding the Buff Banner. The Bear is the same with a Heavy; all non-melee weapons are stripped excepting the Sandvich.

To set up map to automatically play Medieval Fortress, simply erase the map’s existing prefix and affix “mf_” to the beginning. For example, on UC server 1, we use Redfort under the name “mf_redfort_b3″. Alternatively, Medieval Fortress can be enabled on any map by typing “sm_mf_enable” into the console (changemap admin flags required). While Medieval Fortress will automatically disable itself at the end of a map, it can be turned off manually by typing “sm_mf_disable” into the console (also requires changemap).

Download

Source code: Medieval Fortress 2

Plugin: MF2

Credits

I have to give credit to tons of people for this, because it really isn’t original. First off, credit goes to Phoenix, the ubercharged.net editor, for the original Medieval Fortress. He got the ball rolling. Next, credit to mrmof for making the map we play on. More credit goes to everyone on the ubercharged.net forum for making this work.