Team Fortress 2

[taolurker]

TF2 updated when I opened steam, and now all the servers won't let me connect with the message:

The server is running an older protocol.

Very cool.... NOT!

[schild]

We're already updating.

[Slayerik]

Is there any interest for some more highly competitive gameplay? I would be interested in Scrimming against F13 once a week on either ours or one of the f13 servers. I would really like to mess around against some real competition...as fun as it is, pug's getting raped can get a little old.

something like a 7 on 7 or 10 on 10 ...

So, who is up for some organized killin?

I'm going to throw out a tenative date/time of Sunday at 8pm EST

[bhodi]

Do we *have* 7 active players on at Sunday 8, EST? I can probably make it, that's a good time for me.

[MrHat]

I don't like the added performance pressure of scrims.

[schild]

Shutup Hat. We'll do this and love it. With spies like us, who needs medics? Slayerik, we get Freshfruit.

[Slayerik]

Shutup Hat. We'll do this and love it. With spies like us, who needs medics? Slayerik, we get Freshfruit.

Ok then, we get mkvenner :)

[Slayerik]

Do we *have* 7 active players on at Sunday 8, EST? I can probably make it, that's a good time for me.

Well, this is plenty of warning for you to get 7+ players :) You could even add something in steam saying it is a scheduled event and whatnot.

Either way, it will be fun and a nice change.

[Megrim]

I'd be in for this, as long as you don't kick people with 300+ ping. I can play a medic or engineer with that much lag just fine.

[WayAbvPar]

I will happily play as the handicap to the better team to even things out.

[Ookii]

I'd be in for this, as long as you don't kick people with 300+ ping. I can play a medic or engineer with that much lag just fine.

Do you play on our servers?  They autokick above 200ms now, if you give me your SteamID (the number) I can add you to the exception list.

[Phildo]

I can play too, but I don't think I qualify as "more highly competitive"

[Prospero]

I'd be down for some organized butt kicking, but not this Sunday.

[Slayerik]

I can play too, but I don't think I qualify as "more highly competitive"

Hell, the MNM crew is just some fuckers who played MMOs starting with Shadowbane through WoW

We are by no means an FPS clan. Some of us can scrap well though.

[trias_e]

If I get some redbull (vodka optional) and focus I can play pretty well.  I'd definitely like to do some competitive scrimmaging or whatnot.  Could be fun.

[schild]

I'm gonna make a new thread about Sunday.

[Samwise]

Do "competitive" TF2 games involve all the same fake gaywad scrub rules that "competitive" TFC games do?  Or has that not migrated over yet?

[Slayerik]

IMO, standard rules...

The only other thing that to me would be cool is....9 vrs 9 , 1 of each class only.

[bhodi]

I just kind of read it as a game where, you know, everyone works out what they are doing ahead of time... we're going to likely get rolled, but it'll be fun without the engineers building teleporters to their sentry.

"My sentry and I will be down guarding the flag room, along with the pyro on D" "I'll be medic on the heavy" "I'll be heavy, going offense" "I'll be spying, and I'll follow cloaked right ahead of you guys to disable any sentries, co-ordinating over voicechat"

[SnakeCharmer]

I can play too, but I don't think I qualify as "more highly competitive"

Heh.  That's me.

I can function just fine as the obligatory meatshield to run into a blind area to die and yell over VOIP "hai guyz they are in here!"

[Megrim]

I'd be in for this, as long as you don't kick people with 300+ ping. I can play a medic or engineer with that much lag just fine.

Do you play on our servers?  They autokick above 200ms now, if you give me your SteamID (the number) I can add you to the exception list.

Steam id sent, check your messages.

[Ookii]

I'd be in for this, as long as you don't kick people with 300+ ping. I can play a medic or engineer with that much lag just fine.

Do you play on our servers?  They autokick above 200ms now, if you give me your SteamID (the number) I can add you to the exception list.

Steam id sent, check your messages.

Received sir.  In the future you might want to upgrade from 56k.

[Megrim]

I'd be in for this, as long as you don't kick people with 300+ ping. I can play a medic or engineer with that much lag just fine.

Do you play on our servers?  They autokick above 200ms now, if you give me your SteamID (the number) I can add you to the exception list.

Steam id sent, check your messages.

Received sir.  In the future you might want to upgrade from 56k.

lol, that's not 56k - that's playing from Australia.

[Soln]

Alright.

So how do you play a Spy?  How do you cloak?  Is the backstab crit for all classes or has a max dmg only?  Finding it very inconsistent.

[bhodi]

how to play a spy:

select 4 to choose a disguise ... pick spy, engineer, pyro, or soldier, sniper, whatever class you want.  Be aware if you pick solider/heavy/demoman you will run slower (that character's speed) while in costume. Note this doesn't work in reverse; you don't get a speed boost as a scout (and observant enemies will notice you are moving too slow to be a real scout). It takes about 2 seconds to switch disguises, and during that time you have grey smoke around you (cloaked or not, so be careful). You can do this while cloaked.

You use right mouse button to cloak. Click to turn on, click to turn off. You can notice your little avatar in the lower left corner if you want to see how visibile you are. It takes about 2 seconds to fully cloak and uncloak. You've got about 10 seconds of cloak time, you can see it by your model wristwatch or the bar on the lower right. It slowly refills.

Cloak to get past the main combat areas and come in from behind. Take an alternate entrance if possible. Be aware that people can see you as a shimmer in the air if they are close enough (about pyro flame range, maybe a tiny bit more) and can also bump into you.

Backstabs are a 180 degree arc behind people and will kill in one hit (you can almost backstab from the side, basically). You cannot backstab while cloaked -- you must uncloak.

You can tell you're lined up for a backstab because you will reverse the knife handle for a downward stroke -- however, this is NOT necessary to get a backstab off -- you can run up to them and, if you time it right, any normal 'slash' from your knife can trigger a backstab as long as it hits them from the rear half.

Your primary job is to kill sentries, teleporter entrances (this one is easy and it really helps your team), snipers, and heavy/medic combos. Snipers and heavies are easy prey -- in the heavy/medic combo, go for the heavy -- the medic often moves around too much and you can easily miss your backstab. You can kill him, re-cloak and run off before the medic can even switch weapons.

Only go for one backstab chance (unless you are killing up a line). When someone turns to face you / you are discovered, switch to your revolver. It does a lot of damage, and your knife does pitiful damage from the front. Learn to use the 'q' key to switch to previous weapon quickly, between the knife and the gun. Once you swing your knife, your disguise is dropped.

Sapping does damage over time to sentries and cannot be done while cloaked. Sapping does not break your disguise. You can continually reapply the sap as long as you are in melee range of the sentry. This will ultimately kill the sentry, as long as you can stay alive (good engineers will try and kill you fast and THEN repair the sentry -- often times you end up trading your life for the sentry going down. That's why, If you're after a sentry, try and run in right before your teammates to sap the sentry. This disables it and often a solider will just lob a rocket or two and it goes down. You can also sap, switch to revolver, and shoot it twice. Tapping can be tough or very easy depending on the engineer and his position. It takes two wrenches to remove a sap (one to stop the DoT, one to remove the sap) and two more to repair it to full health. If you go for the engineer, you'd better be fast, since the sentry will track you after you kill him -- get behind the engineer, sap, switch to knife with q, then backstab the engineer. This can be tricky to pull off.

Use 'b' to re-disguise as your previous character. Do NOT do this unless you are completely unobserved, since you will have a grey cloud appear around you that can be seen by all.

There are tricks, but you can basically act like one of them -- kill a sniper, assume a sniper disguise, wait for someone else to run by, kill them. Beware staying in one place for too long, since the guy you killed will come to find you.

Sometimes being a spy is tough if they are alert/good players/small maps with one entrance. Spy isn't really for beginners, but it is fun to play.

[Strazos]

Spy also sucks when they are people who will randomly shoot anyone.

[schild]

If you start firing immediately after the sap. It takes 3 shots.

The hardest part about being a spy is pretending you're actuall the class you're dressed up as.

Easy:
Pyro - they die a lot and kill a lot. You can be anywhere, just act like you're a complete noob and everyone will assume you are one. And since their chic at the moment, your odds of running into someone with the same name is... low.ube

Sniper - They stand still a lot and on most stages, their near the spawn point or the entrance from there. Getting behind the sniper and uncloaking is key, because their almost always zoomed it.

Start with those.

[Trippy]

If you start firing immediately after the sap. It takes 3 shots.

The hardest part about being a spy is pretending you're actuall the class you're dressed up as.

Easy:
Pyro - they die a lot and kill a lot. You can be anywhere, just act like you're a complete noob and everyone will assume you are one. And since their chic at the moment, your odds of running into someone with the same name is... low.ube

A "non-twitchy" Pyro on D is a suspicious Pyro. On D, Pyro's are expected to Spy check and if they aren't firing off their weapon at their teammates or even at nothing it's a dead giveaway. If you are trailing behind a group that's attacking your CP/base it's okay if you aren't firing as a Pyro.

Sniper - They stand still a lot and on most stages, their near the spawn point or the entrance from there. Getting behind the sniper and uncloaking is key, because their almost always zoomed it.

Sniper is a good disguise if you can manage to get that far behind enemy lines without some twitchy Engineer (or worse Pyro) shooting at you.

Medic is another class that's usually bad to disguise as since people expect you to be healing them even if they aren't wounded so that you can build up your uber charge. If there are a lot of enemy Medics running around, though, it can work.

If you take a teleporter as a Spy don't cloak or try to disguise as an enemy class until the teleporter trail wears off.

If you are playing 2fort, make sure you are fully cloaked while still behind the cover in the battlements before jumping off. It's fun picking off Spies who haven't fully cloaked as they jump off. I'm sure some of them are thinking "OMIGOD HAXOR" when they die.

Edit: Pyros are a Spy's worst nightmare. If you see an enemy Pyro heading towards you assume he's going to flame you as a Spy check so cloak and get the heck out of there.

[Soln]

Excellent advice and tutorial.  Thank ye. 

[Strazos]

Yes, I love sniping spies who think they are slick. Especially the ones who jump off the battlements in 2fort while disguised.

[Triforcer]

Something that has more situational use than people think is the friendly disguise.  On a place like the 2fort sewers, I often enter as a soldier.  When I peek around the corner and me and another person see each other, I immediately pull back, cloak, and then run by the guy that is on the other side.  If you did this in an enemy uniform, they'd know you were a spy and back way up.  If they think you are a soldier and that the problem is in front of them, much easier to dodge and backstab.

[squirrel]

On my crappy cell browser so can't quote but Triforcer's idea/tactic above is smart - I never thought of that but I can see it working awesomely. As a blue soldier any red player is expecting a certain threat profile that a spy can totally exploit. Thanks - gonna try that. And yes I've filed yet another "doh, why didn't I think of that".

[Der Helm]

How'd you do that ? I thought you could just disguise in enemy colours.

[schild]

There is no friendly disguise. If there was, shittttttttttttt that would be awesome. Snipers and scouts scatter when a pyro appears.

[Trippy]

How'd you do that ? I thought you could just disguise in enemy colours.

Press - on the disguise screen. It says it right on the screen though a lot of people miss it. It's easier if you make up keybinds for all that stuff, though. I use the numpad to quickly switch between 6 enemy classes and 3 friendly ones as a Spy.

There is no friendly disguise. If there was, shittttttttttttt that would be awesome. Snipers and scouts scatter when a pyro appears.

Huh?