Offline Team Fortress

If you’re as unlucky as I am, not having internet connection for a while is a regular occurrence. Sometimes it lasts no more than a few minutes, other times, you’re detached from the interwebz for a good couple of days. While I generally have other things to do, such as studying, working, cleaning or making weapons out of cardboard, some of you might be desperate to get your TF2 fix. Here’s some hints and tips for you.

A note before we start, most of these use TF2 bots or something similar. I’ll give you the main console commands here, but here’s the official wiki article on bots for more information.

Game the first: Bog-Standard Offline/Training Mode
A lot of people complain about the TF2 bots, but really, they’re quite smart. Take that with a pinch of salt, but at least they’ll put up some sort of a fight, rather than sitting AFK in the spawn room. Not much to say here, apart from the fact that Expert Spies can see you no matter what. For those who want more choice apart from the basic training maps, remember that only KOTH and PL maps are fully functional, linear Attack/Defend maps work, CTF is meh and everything else is glitchy.

Required console commands:
tf_bot_add 23 expert; //feel free to change the number and difficulty.

Game the second: ‘Solo’ Mann VS Machine
Mann VS Machine doesn’t work well with bots. Which is weird, because the robots use exactly the same AI and they quite happily wander off to deploy that bomb. You could theoretically push a bot or two onto a teleporter and they will shoot at things, but by the time you’ve managed that, well… Oh well. The only class that does work is the Spy. So, spawn yourself 5 RED Spies, give yourself cheats if you wish and get started. Of course, your team mates won’t buy upgrades, so they’ll be pretty useless later on, but it’s all a bit of fun.

Required console commands:
tf_bot_add 5 Spy red expert; tf_bot_keep_class_after_death 1;

Optional console commands:
sv_cheats 1; buddha; currency_give 10000;

Game the third: Medic Stampede
Medic bots are probably the stupidest of the bunch, but don’t worry, because that means they’ll follow you no matter what, as long as you’re the only non-Medic on the team. Pit yourself against an enemy bot of your choice and fight your way to victory. I really recommend koth_badlands or koth_viaduct for this one. A note, the commands below assume you’re joining RED.

Required console commands:
tf_bot_add 11 medic red easy; tf_bot_add 11 medic blue easy; tf_bot_add 1 demoman blue expert; tf_bot_keep_class_after_death 1;

Optional console commands:
sv_cheats 1; thirdperson; //So you can see the awesomeness that is being Ubered by large numbers of Medics.

Game the Fourth: HALLOWEEN BOSSES!
I liked all the bosses from Scream Fortress, but they can be fiddly to work with in Offline mode. Monoculous though works no matter what map you’re playing on. Merasmus is rather temperamental but the Headless Horseless Horsemann will work as long as bots work. I think. It all depends on the map, but the official Halloween maps always seem to work anyway.

Required console commands:
sv_cheats 1; tf_bot_add 23; ent_create headless_hatman; //spawns the Horsemann
sv_cheats 1; tf_bot_add 23; ent_create eyeball_boss; ent_create eyeball_boss teamnum 2; //spawns 2 Monoculous bosses, one for each team.

Optional console commands:
tf_forced_holiday 2; //sets Halloween mode! mp_teams_unbalance_limit 24; //Sets it so you can have as many bots as you want on your team, so you don’t need to worry about enemies.

Game the Fifth: Rocket Hell
Once upon a time, annoyed that I wasn’t dodging things consistently enough, I decided to make both teams consist of Soldiers while I played another class. It was probably one of the most fun and terrifying things I have done with bots in ages. The amount of rockets flying around was much like that of a Soldier-ridden MvM wave, but with some of those rockets being on your side. The best maps to use for this are again KOTH maps, so everyone has a turn at attacking and defending. It also means that the direction of the next incoming rocket strike is less obvious. For maximum dodging lessons, play as Scout. In order to recreate that awesome feeling in Meet the Medic, use the Overdose, Quick Fix and Solemn Vow.

Required console commands:
tf_bot_add 22 Soldier expert;  tf_bot_keep_class_after_death 1;

Optional console commands:
tf_weapon_criticals 0; //Turn off random crits.

 

Welp, that’s all for now. Hopefully, you’ll never need to play these as your internet connection is probably better than mine, but you never know…