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THE TIME: Saturday December 14 at 6pm GMT THE PLACE: SPUF Regular server Who doesn’t love Medieval Mode? I love Medieval Mode. I just get tired of DeGrootKeep after a while. So, this tournament is going to involve non-medieval maps played with Medieval mode enabled! (The theme is “Maps ruined by mini-sentries”) Current Map rotation: koth_king, sd_doomsday, and for the tiebreaker/fun round plr_hightower_event (for those of you who’ve wanted to try Medieval with spells ;). After that we’ll be taking requests for other maps the participants might want to play. More information: -There will be 8 players per team -All… [Continue Reading]
Valve have recently rolled out an awesome MvM update – Two Cities. For most part it’s great – Medic and Soldier buffs, killstreak weapons (that don’t look too good in most occasions but some are really awesome), Rottenburg. On the downside there is Empire Escalation Wave 4. But that’s later.
Since it’s a blog, it’s kinda logical for someone to get their opinion here, or maybe a story, if they have anything to share, so I’ll do exactly this thing.
Rotternburg is a beautiful map. Unlike the sad, concrete lump that is Mannhatten, which unfortunately fails to be particularly Mannhatten-y, Rotternburg fills its expectations of being a pretty village in the middle of nowhere. But there’s a lot more to Rotternburg than meets the eye…
Howdy! First post on the SPUF blog here, and since I noticed a certain lack of Spy posts, here’s one about possibly the most unloved (and probably least mentioned!) weapon in TF2:
The Cloak ‘n’ Dagger.
At first, it seems like a straight upgrade, but when moving it actually drains cloak faster than you’d think, certainly faster than the Invis Watch, and it refuses to collect ammo. Most people just craft it off or let it be as a keepsake or a Spy weapon to collect, but it’s actually damn useful at times. Here’s why.
If you haven’t guessed by now, I have something of a fondness for horrible unbalanced maps. With the right loadouts, you can become the undisputed king of these horrible spamfests, it just requires a significant amount of time playing them with an open mind, and always trying new things.
For example, when I’m flying around this map with my Sticky Jumper, for once my trusty Locomotive Pain Train is no use considering there are no control points. So instead I bust out the Ullapool Caber for this first tip:
Last time I wrote, I mentioned that the ramps on cp_orange_x3 were unevenly spaced apart from the spawn rooms, allowing BLU team to jump back into spawn from the railing but not RED team.
Well, I’ve since learned about a number of other extremely small differences between sides of supposedly symmetrical maps that favor one team over the other. Let’s go over some.
Heights and ledges are a major part of any map. Everybody who isn’t a scout, soldier, or demoman is going to find something that limits their movement, and learning to find a way around that is a part of every learning curve.
Except when it isn’t. Sometimes there is a trick to reaching faraway places. Here’s a few of them.
Competitive Team Fortress 2 is an odd beast. On one hand, its goal is to quantify the most skill-based aspects of our beloved game to create an environment where the most skilled teams can prove it to their peers. Unfortunately, in order to do this they have to contend with the incredible amounts of unbalanced stuff that are hallmarks of the game; the unlocks are designed to be swapped out for the right situations, most of the classes are not designed to be played the whole time, and many of the maps give unfair advantages to offense, defense, or whichever team gains an early advantage. 6v6 deals with this by banning a fair amount of weapons and playing mostly 5CP, Highlander deals with this by restricting class switching and playing mainly payload.
Then there’s Ultiduo. One (specialized) map. One Soldier and Medic per team. The absolute core of the entire game. Can your combo beat the other combo when everything else is balanced to laboratory conditions?
Obviously this is not for everyone, but I’ve always had a blast playing Ultiduo. And considering its the third-most popular competitive format, I’m not alone. But since I can’t find anything on the internet giving advice on how to play it, I decided to write up a guide myself.
A while ago, I made a blog post about a popular derp map cp_orange_x3. I laid out a specific loadout that makes it quite easy to win.
Well, here’s another one! Balloon race is a popular game mode where teams race to capture points on a circular donut-shaped map with plenty of map obstacles in the way. Every point captured increases your balloon speed, and the balloon is (supposed to be) the only thing allowing you to continue forward on the map due to large pitfalls between checkpoints. It’s a shame there’s no class designed to fly incredible distances without losing all of his health.
Oh, wait, there is one. And its the exact same one that beat cp_orange_x3.
Boy oh boy do I love me some payload. At times I suspect it’s the most popular game mode in Team Fortress 2, probably because its asymmetrical nature keeps the battlefield fresh and changing, or because it always has the most visually exciting and dynamic map designs, or because it ends with a massive explosion.
Almost every payload comes with a particularly tough stretch. This is the hardest stretch for the attacking team, and usually pops up somewhere around the penultimate check point. It’s usually the longest stretch, and often the final stretch before the offensive spawn moves forward. All of these aspects are screaming “NEED A TELEPORTER HERE,” and everyone (including the defense) knows it. Here are some spots on popular payload maps that work brilliantly for you to stick your teleporter.
Each of these spots must fulfill three aspects: (1) They must be close enough to the final checkpoint so as to be useful to your teammates pushing the cart, (2) they must be moderately easy for you to defend, I’m thinking you should get at least 30 teleports in before anyone can kill you, (3) they must be hidden, to make #2 easier and just in general to keep enemies from knocking on your front door every five minutes.