Where is the TFC Medic?.. and other TFC Merc thoughts

The Team Fortress Classic mercenaries have long been thought dead, despite the fact that Team Fortress Classic itself is still playable (as is Fortress Forever, but that’s a whole separate thing!) and all that, with a tight knit community that will kick newbies’ asses from here to kingdom come. Point is, they’ve been alive the entire time despite looking like they came from the future. And the TF Comic series, which introduced us to more of the TFC mercs last time and proved that TFC Pyro was female, has been doing a fine job of getting them more time in… [Continue Reading]

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Looking for a new leash on life

I’ve been Medic for a long time. A very long time. So long in fact that I’ve become disillusioned with the class. I have more hours as Medic than any other class, perhaps more than all 8 other classes combined. I’ve also come to some rather big conclusions as well. It’s time for me to move on, I think. Thing is, Medic is actually a really easy class to play as. All those claims that Medic as a class was overpowered? They’re completely, 100% true. But Medic NEEDS to be overpowered and simple to play, otherwise no one plays as… [Continue Reading]

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A really simple way to fix class classification.

Everything is argued about and scrutinized in Team Fortress 2. Whether it’s new hats, new weapons, new maps, old maps, old weapons, old hats or the classes themselves, they get picked over by us ravenous bastards. Even how the classes are classified and laid out is a problem to some people. There is actually a genuine argument to be had with class classification. Does each class actually fit in its given classification? Most wouldn’t really give it more than a passing thought, but there are issues with the current classification system. Let’s take Demoman as an example. Like Heavy and… [Continue Reading]

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TF2vOW: Scout versus Tracer

Welcome to the first-ever edition of the “TEAM FORTRESS 2 VERSUS OVERWATCH” series.  Inspired by the ongoing flamewars between the two fandoms and Screwattacks own “Death Battle” series on Youtube, TF2 vs OW is where I theoretically pit one or more of your favorite TF2 classes against their counterparts from Blizzard’s upcoming TF2 rip-off (and revenge for Valve stealing DOTA): Overwatch! We’re probably never going to be able to see this in this reality, so doing it here will be the next best thing!  I will try to go through each characters weapons and abilities as objectively as possible in order to decide who would win… [Continue Reading]

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How to understand your Medic

Occasionally, a really good SPUF thread will pop up out of the blue. It’s up to us to keep these threads safe. One such thread is Understanding Your Medic by chibi_charon. While the thread covers the basics incredibly well, I felt it was worth expanding this concept a bit, especially since the thread is two years old. Although little has happened in that time, it’s always good to refresh people’s minds. Because I’m a sucker for homages, let’s stick to the question and answer thing. Here’s a bunch of ways to better understand your Medic buddies. Q. Why is my… [Continue Reading]

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Beings who would be great friends with the Medic

It must get boring being the Medic sometimes. Especially during times of peace. You’re stuck there with 8 other men, many of whom are often sweaty, stupid or both. It’s not fun. You could be at home with your wife. Instead you have to babysit a bunch of morons because Engineer’s working for the Administrator and Spy’s a prissy little bitch who you want to punch repeatedly. What can you do? Not much, really. You’ve got to stick around because no one else is going to hire you. Well, apart from the Team Fortress Classic team, but that’s beside the point.… [Continue Reading]

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On Tentacles and Lasers

I am shit at RTS MOBA games. There’s simply too much to learn. Too much effort for too little gain. That hasn’t stopped me attempting to play Dota 2 and dicking around in League of Legends though. Weirdly though, I understand a lot of the mechanics, but my dumb fingers can’t react in time. Hence I end up playing support. I’ve always been a supporting person. In League of Legends (or League of Leg-Ends, as it says on my desktop), there’s three types of support: Healing helping people like Sona, Tank-All-The-Damage-And-Start-Fights people like Leona and Initiate-With-Some-Sort-Of-Assistance people like Thresh and… [Continue Reading]

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Saxton Hale – The Tenth Class

Preface You know, after all this time, I would have thought someone would have been able to come up with a legitimate class description for the one and only Saxton Hale.  I’ve searched the SPUF archives,  and while there are some interesting ideas for non–core TF2, as far as I know, there is no actual proposal for Saxton Hale to join the Nine on the battlefield! This cannot continue.  Every day I ask myself: “What Would Saxton Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-(breath)-Aaaaaaaaaale Do? (WWSHaaaaaD?)” and while the answer is usually “Grow a Moustache, you hippy!” today the answer to that question is “Try to Make Saxton Hale a Balanced Class in Team Fortress… [Continue Reading]

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The Unbalanced Infinite-Hitscan-Range-Man

Walking along Frontier, trying to actually do the objective, and then bam. Sniper headshots you from across the map, and proceeds to taunt, because “Snipin’ gud job m8.” I’m sure everybody who has ever played TF2 has experienced this pain at least once. My opinion has always been that the Australian Camper Van Man has been unbalanced, and some people could argue that he isn’t unbalanced because his weakness is close range, well heads up, the Jaratewacka combo exists. OK, enough talk, let’s get into why he’s unbalanced. 1. Sniper effectively counters everybody Really the only class that moves fast enough on the ground to… [Continue Reading]

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Grappling Hooks would be balanced in Medieval Mode

Grappling hooks would be balanced in Medieval Mode. Seriously. Alright, why are we discussing this? Why bother considering balance in a stupid game mode? Why bother discussing Medieval Mode at all? Because 1. it’s fun and 2. it’s currently a very one-sided game mode because the only classes with mobility are Scout and Demoman, and the only classes with range are Medic and Sniper. Of course, Medieval Mode’s one single official map doesn’t help. It has giant walls. Really high walls. The RED team are locked up safe inside until they venture outside, and once they do, there’s no way… [Continue Reading]

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