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- Joined
- Jul 16, 2008
- Messages
- 1,113
Sometimes, especially after a patch or an update, the complaints get hard and loud... some class is overpowered, or another class is crap, or TF2 sucks for reasons X, Y, and Z, yadda, yadda, yadda.
But I want to do something different. I want to lay out various features of TF2 that I believe TF2 does right, especially after playing a few other team/online based shooters.
This is not to say that other games haven't had features such as these. I just wanted to pat TF2 on the back again... if if Steam refuses to let me actually play the game today for some silly reason.
Kill Assists
Nothing is more depressing, to me, in Day of Defeat then charging at a group of people with a Browning Auto Rifle, filling 'em full of lead, getting shot and dying, and having a teammate behind me pick 'em off with one pistol shot apiece.
Now, I don't care about points, per se, but I always seem to be the vanguard guy racking up the damage but never actually completing the sale, and then the obituaries in the top right proclaim that somebody else gets the kill.
It's a bit of a backpat from the game to be told that you destroyed somebody else, and to have that withhold for various reasons is sad.
But, on the other hand, the deal closer also deserves credit for actually finishing the guy off.
By giving kudos to both the deal closer and the guy who recently riddled the guy with lead keeps both parties happy.
NEWB SIDE EFFECT: Newbs are redshirts when they first join a game. By giving them assists, even when they barely had an effect before they died, keeps them involved and happy playing the game, to the point where they can start closing deals.
Critical Hits
I hear a lot of complaints about crits. As the saying goes, Crit Happens. If you just accept it as a game mechanic, it won't piss you off.
Sure, it's like a double lucky shot. Not only did he HAPPEN to send a rocket over there, but it also HAPPENED to be a crit.
The key is, though, that crits are very rare UNLESS you rack up the damage. 2% for guns and 15% for melee? How fast does melee actually "fire"? Most RPG systems have a crit mechanic; it's basically a really lucky shot.
Crits can be earned, however, by doing more damage in a short time, which is why a soldier can get lots of crits quickly. Again, the game is rewarding you for your ability by giving you more power to keep your roll going, if you use it.
Crits are a random factor that can change the tide of individual skirmishes without necessarily changing the tide of battle (except for Kritzkreig).
As your chance of dishing out crits is the same as anyone else, only hinged on your skill to CONTINUE to kill people, it's really not so bad. It's only really bad on all-crit mode servers.
NEWB SIDE EFFECT: When somebody starts playing TF2... they might have trouble actually killing people. Uncharged sniper body shots, rockets not aimed for splash damage, bad sticky placement, etc. However, occasionally, one of those bad shots are a crit, and it still destroys the bad guy. This encourages the newb to keep playing the game, as they "don't suck and never get a kill." On the other hand, they can't depend on crits, so they do become better at the game.
Chatty Characters
In many other games, all the other characters (except for their death screams) are generally strong silent-types who are BORING. Team Fortress 2 uses Source's algorithmic system to cause the players around you to chat at you while they play. Cheers and jeers, thanks and gripes, spy reports and building iteneraries, it's all there. Not saying that voice chat and text chat isn't useful, but it's really nice when a player is really busy for his character to still shout out "Zank you my hurd-hadded freund!"
This adds life to the game, and makes the characters that much more fun.
STEREOTYPES
Every character is a stereotype, and that makes it fun. I mean, really, what's more stereotypical than "classes?" I mean, the game already assumes that all Engineers act alike, and look alike, so why not sound alike and be a really silly stereotype?
This is extended with the bad accents; close but not technically accurate, like the accents you'd get on a Saturday Morning Cartoon. The Sniper is obviously Australian, but the accent is wrong. The demoman's "Scottish Accent" is more "Mr. Scott" from Star Trek than any really Scott I've ever met. The Engineer has just about every Texan stereotype I've ever heard of (other than the cowboy hat, but I'm sure he's got one back in his pickup truck on his ranch).
TAUNTS
It fits the idea of TF2 too well. Not only can you kill somebody in a humiliating way, but you can then taunt them hilariously.
MEDICS
First off, the design of the Medic is very team friendly. Switching heal targets is easy, you heal fast, you get Kritz or Uber, and you're very fast.
It's Newb friendly too. This is not to say that it's a NEWB CLASS OMG. There is a lot of skill involved in being a Medic. But while somebody may gripe about a bad Engineer or a stupid Scout... nobody ever says no to a Medic.
Also, as a Medic, you can observe the people you heal. Good people show you how to play, people who get you killed show you how to avoid death.
SNIPERS CANT GO PRONE
A prone sniper, in a well designed game, is nearly impossible to find without a killcam, another sniper, or luck. You have to watch for flashes... great for a tactical shooter, but off pissing for newbs and pros alike.
While it's annoying for anyone to be killed by a Sniper, at least in TF2 they have to stay standing and/or crouching, but at least they're still findable.
SCOPE FLOAT
Sure, it takes away from the realism... but TF2 is about the carnage, not the realism. Scope Float takes away from the fun of the sniper class in every game I play. TF2, however, just takes that superfluousness.
KILL CAMS
Nothing is more frustrating than dying without knowing where death came from. However, while other games have Killcams... none of them are as good as a killcam shot of a sniper taunting you just before getting backstabbed.
TEAM EFFECTS
As your team starts kicking butts, the game starts altering stats in your favor, a little bit. Not a whole bunch, but a noticeable amount. As you gain control points and dominations, things start going your way. You get more crits, you do more damage, caps are a bit faster, respawns are faster. The other way is true as well; as your team starts losing, everything stops going your way.
At first glance, this is really unfair. But think about it. First off, it's a tangible benefet to kicking butt. Secondly, it keeps game momentum going.
It also rewards teamwork. A team with an uber sniper who shoots tons of doods, but who doesn't actually help the team move forward, will start being penalized. Mr. Sniper will notice it's not as fun being a sniper, and on teams without zombies, it'll encourage players to work for the team.
The extra special bonus bit is, when you're being spawn controlled and the other guys are capping your last point, and you break through, decimate their line, and take back the point, the switch gets thrown the other way, and now suddenly YOU are the team with all the advantages. If you've ever gone from almost dead to certain victory, it's that boost you get for banding together in your hour of need and kicking butt!
These are just a few of my favorite things, things that always bring me back to TF2 after playing other games. It's newb friendly, while also having plenty of depth for veterans.
But I want to do something different. I want to lay out various features of TF2 that I believe TF2 does right, especially after playing a few other team/online based shooters.
This is not to say that other games haven't had features such as these. I just wanted to pat TF2 on the back again... if if Steam refuses to let me actually play the game today for some silly reason.
Kill Assists
Nothing is more depressing, to me, in Day of Defeat then charging at a group of people with a Browning Auto Rifle, filling 'em full of lead, getting shot and dying, and having a teammate behind me pick 'em off with one pistol shot apiece.
Now, I don't care about points, per se, but I always seem to be the vanguard guy racking up the damage but never actually completing the sale, and then the obituaries in the top right proclaim that somebody else gets the kill.
It's a bit of a backpat from the game to be told that you destroyed somebody else, and to have that withhold for various reasons is sad.
But, on the other hand, the deal closer also deserves credit for actually finishing the guy off.
By giving kudos to both the deal closer and the guy who recently riddled the guy with lead keeps both parties happy.
NEWB SIDE EFFECT: Newbs are redshirts when they first join a game. By giving them assists, even when they barely had an effect before they died, keeps them involved and happy playing the game, to the point where they can start closing deals.
Critical Hits
I hear a lot of complaints about crits. As the saying goes, Crit Happens. If you just accept it as a game mechanic, it won't piss you off.
Sure, it's like a double lucky shot. Not only did he HAPPEN to send a rocket over there, but it also HAPPENED to be a crit.
The key is, though, that crits are very rare UNLESS you rack up the damage. 2% for guns and 15% for melee? How fast does melee actually "fire"? Most RPG systems have a crit mechanic; it's basically a really lucky shot.
Crits can be earned, however, by doing more damage in a short time, which is why a soldier can get lots of crits quickly. Again, the game is rewarding you for your ability by giving you more power to keep your roll going, if you use it.
Crits are a random factor that can change the tide of individual skirmishes without necessarily changing the tide of battle (except for Kritzkreig).
As your chance of dishing out crits is the same as anyone else, only hinged on your skill to CONTINUE to kill people, it's really not so bad. It's only really bad on all-crit mode servers.
NEWB SIDE EFFECT: When somebody starts playing TF2... they might have trouble actually killing people. Uncharged sniper body shots, rockets not aimed for splash damage, bad sticky placement, etc. However, occasionally, one of those bad shots are a crit, and it still destroys the bad guy. This encourages the newb to keep playing the game, as they "don't suck and never get a kill." On the other hand, they can't depend on crits, so they do become better at the game.
Chatty Characters
In many other games, all the other characters (except for their death screams) are generally strong silent-types who are BORING. Team Fortress 2 uses Source's algorithmic system to cause the players around you to chat at you while they play. Cheers and jeers, thanks and gripes, spy reports and building iteneraries, it's all there. Not saying that voice chat and text chat isn't useful, but it's really nice when a player is really busy for his character to still shout out "Zank you my hurd-hadded freund!"
This adds life to the game, and makes the characters that much more fun.
STEREOTYPES
Every character is a stereotype, and that makes it fun. I mean, really, what's more stereotypical than "classes?" I mean, the game already assumes that all Engineers act alike, and look alike, so why not sound alike and be a really silly stereotype?
This is extended with the bad accents; close but not technically accurate, like the accents you'd get on a Saturday Morning Cartoon. The Sniper is obviously Australian, but the accent is wrong. The demoman's "Scottish Accent" is more "Mr. Scott" from Star Trek than any really Scott I've ever met. The Engineer has just about every Texan stereotype I've ever heard of (other than the cowboy hat, but I'm sure he's got one back in his pickup truck on his ranch).
TAUNTS
It fits the idea of TF2 too well. Not only can you kill somebody in a humiliating way, but you can then taunt them hilariously.
MEDICS
First off, the design of the Medic is very team friendly. Switching heal targets is easy, you heal fast, you get Kritz or Uber, and you're very fast.
It's Newb friendly too. This is not to say that it's a NEWB CLASS OMG. There is a lot of skill involved in being a Medic. But while somebody may gripe about a bad Engineer or a stupid Scout... nobody ever says no to a Medic.
Also, as a Medic, you can observe the people you heal. Good people show you how to play, people who get you killed show you how to avoid death.
SNIPERS CANT GO PRONE
A prone sniper, in a well designed game, is nearly impossible to find without a killcam, another sniper, or luck. You have to watch for flashes... great for a tactical shooter, but off pissing for newbs and pros alike.
While it's annoying for anyone to be killed by a Sniper, at least in TF2 they have to stay standing and/or crouching, but at least they're still findable.
SCOPE FLOAT
Sure, it takes away from the realism... but TF2 is about the carnage, not the realism. Scope Float takes away from the fun of the sniper class in every game I play. TF2, however, just takes that superfluousness.
KILL CAMS
Nothing is more frustrating than dying without knowing where death came from. However, while other games have Killcams... none of them are as good as a killcam shot of a sniper taunting you just before getting backstabbed.
TEAM EFFECTS
As your team starts kicking butts, the game starts altering stats in your favor, a little bit. Not a whole bunch, but a noticeable amount. As you gain control points and dominations, things start going your way. You get more crits, you do more damage, caps are a bit faster, respawns are faster. The other way is true as well; as your team starts losing, everything stops going your way.
At first glance, this is really unfair. But think about it. First off, it's a tangible benefet to kicking butt. Secondly, it keeps game momentum going.
It also rewards teamwork. A team with an uber sniper who shoots tons of doods, but who doesn't actually help the team move forward, will start being penalized. Mr. Sniper will notice it's not as fun being a sniper, and on teams without zombies, it'll encourage players to work for the team.
The extra special bonus bit is, when you're being spawn controlled and the other guys are capping your last point, and you break through, decimate their line, and take back the point, the switch gets thrown the other way, and now suddenly YOU are the team with all the advantages. If you've ever gone from almost dead to certain victory, it's that boost you get for banding together in your hour of need and kicking butt!
These are just a few of my favorite things, things that always bring me back to TF2 after playing other games. It's newb friendly, while also having plenty of depth for veterans.
Last edited:
Nice post
