Jump to content

Team Fortress 2

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Zquack (talk | contribs) at 09:24, 4 October 2007 (Pointed Portal link to the game page not the disambiguation page.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2 retail is bundled as part of The Orange Box.
Developer(s)Valve Corporation
Publisher(s)Template:Country data World Valve Corporation (Steam)
Designer(s)Robin Walker, John Cook
Composer(s)
EngineSource engine
Platform(s)PC, Xbox 360, PS3
ReleaseOctober 10 2007 (Steam)
October 12 2007 (retail, in The Orange Box SKU)[1]
Genre(s)First-person shooter
Mode(s)Multiplayer

Team Fortress 2 (TF2) is a multiplayer team-based first-person shooter with strategy elements, being developed by Valve Corporation.

The game was announced in 1998 as a sequel to the original Team Fortress mod for Quake, but has since been through various concepts and designs. In 1999 the game appeared to be deviating from the original Team Fortress (and Valve's own Team Fortress Classic, a mod for Half-Life) by heading toward a more realistic and militaristic style of gameplay, but the design metamorphosed further over the game's seven-year development. The final rendition of Team Fortress 2 bears more resemblance to the original Team Fortress and Team Fortress Classic games, and sports a cartoon-like visual style, based on the art of J. C. Leyendecker[3], following a popular trend in recent CGI films (in particular, films recently made by Pixar/Disney, such as The Incredibles).

The lack of information or apparent progress for six years of the game's development caused it to be labeled as vaporware, and it was regularly featured in Wired News' annual vaporware list among other ignominies.[4]

The beta release of Team Fortress 2 for pre-purchasers of the The Orange Box is now available on Steam.

Release

During the July 2006 Electronic Arts press conference, Valve revealed that Team Fortress 2 would ship as the multiplayer component of Half-Life 2: Episode Two. A conference trailer demonstrated the game's new graphical style featuring all of the original Team Fortress classes, points towards a more light-hearted and whimsical visual style as opposed to the dark, somewhat more traditional military simulation that had originally been shown. Gabe Newell, the managing director of Valve, has said their goal is to create "the best looking and best-playing class-based multiplayer game." The game will be sold retail as part of The Orange Box. He also stated on a video interview with IGN, that the game will be available on Steam on October 10, 2007.

A beta for Team Fortress 2 was released on Steam on September 17, 2007, for customers who pre-purchased the Orange Box and those who activated their Black Box coupon which was included with the ATI HD 2900XT Graphics cards. As well as Orange Box customers, LAN gaming centers using the Steam for Cafe system have the game installed and ready to play.

When released, Team Fortress will retail for $29.95. It is also part of the Orange Box, a game bundle-pack priced at $49.95 The Orange Box contains Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal. If pre-purchased over Steam before October 10th, there is a $5 discount, and the Orange Box is available for $44.95

Gameplay

As in the game's predecessor, Team Fortress Classic, Team Fortress 2 players can choose to play as one of nine classes,[5][6] each with their own unique strengths and weaknesses. Some class abilities have changed from the original Team Fortress, but the basic elements of each class have remained: the Heavy class is slow, but heavily armored, while the Scout class is quick, but lightly armored. Only the Capture the Flag and Control Point game modes will be available at launch.[7]

There are also several features to enhance gameplay. Classes are designed to be balanced. Effective strategies result from using a variety of the different classes. Some classes work well together, such as Soldier and Demoman, or Heavy and Medic.[8] Armor has been removed. Each class has a unique number of starting health points ranging from 125 for the Scout, Spy, Sniper and Engineer to 300 for the Heavy.[8] Each class has different health amounts which determine their survivability; it is not simply a percentage.[9]

Engineers can pick up enemy weapons to replenish their "metal" count, which is the engineer's building resource. Other classes can also pick up dropped weapons to replenish their ammunition supply. Ammunition is universal, in that a player does not need to find specific ammo types.[9] Spawn rooms feature an equipment locker to restock ammo and items while standing in front of it, instead of the bags as in previous versions.[9] Grenades have been removed from all classes, with the exception of the Demoman's regular weapons. This effectively limits grenade "spamming" and grenade jumping to the Demoman class.[8]

The game includes detailed charts showing time played as each class, average points, maximum points, most damage, and many other variables when a map is being loaded. Persistent statistics tell the player how they are improving, for example telling them if they came close to their record number of kills with that class.[7] The game only displays "points" to other players, instead of displaying each player's kills and deaths. The distinction encourages non-combat classes to stay out of combat: the Medic class will receive points for enemies killed by the player he is healing. Each player can see his own stats on the scoreboard.[citation needed] Players are able to spectate a game, including the option of spectating in first-person.[7] A freeze-cam allows a player to see who killed them.[7][6]

One can "dominate" a player by killing him 3 times in a row, then the dominated player can get a "revenge kill", leading to more points.[citation needed] Critical hit shots are chosen based on a player's momentum on the scoreboard, causing a player's rockets, bullets and grenades to become visibly coloured blue or red - depending which team the player is on - and to fire with an electrical charge sound. It is important to note the that the sound means that a shot is critical, not the hit, so a player could miss a critical hit if he misses the shot. Melee weapons can also be Critical hit charged. Critical hits can also be scored with a Headshot. When you hit someone with a critical hit, a text icon appears over their head.[9] Characters respond to the environment dynamically with dialogue, such as when on fire, when destroying enemy structures, when invulnerable, or at the start of the round. When one hits an enemy he will shout in pain, giving instant audio feedback.

In Capture the Flag mode, flags/intelligence dropped by the enemy team take 1-2 minutes to return to base, and display a timer over them. A friendly can't return the flag by touching it, as in other games, but the enemy can still take it from its new location. The defending team must hold the flag from being captured for 60 seconds.[10] In Control Point Match mode, if a point is partially captured, it takes time to reset, giving the team time to get someone else there to finish the capture.[10]

Graphics

Team Fortress 2 does not opt for the realistic graphical approaches taken by the official Valve mods Day of Defeat and Counter-Strike. Rather, it uses a more stylized, cartoon-like approach "heavily influenced by early 20th century commercial illustrations".[11] The effect is achieved using a special Valve in-house rendering and lighting technique making extensive use of Phong shading.[12][6] The game debuts with the Source engine's new dynamic lighting, shadowing and soft particle technologies, among many other unannounced features, alongside Half-Life 2: Episode Two. Team Fortress 2 was also the first game to implement the Source engine's new Facial animation 3 features.

Classes

The nine playable classes have all returned from the original Team Fortress, with the possibility of new classes being introduced after the initial release.[13] Classes are grouped into three categories to help new players but can be played in any role; they are offense, defense, and support.[7] One difference between Team Fortress 2 and the original is that each class is more unique and abilities have been added, changed and removed to make each class a completely different playing experience.[7] One of the most prominent of these changes is the removal of hand-thrown grenades from every class.[7] The class information shown below is from the current beta version and as such may be changed in the final release.

File:Pyrotf2class.jpg
The pyro

Scout

The scout has 125 hit points and is displayed as a young Boston man, wearing a baseball cap with a thin headset, dog tags and carrying a messenger bag over a team-colored t-shirt. The fastest class in the game, the scout's role is to capture objectives once enemy defenses have been disabled and as such a scout represents two players when capturing points.[8] Scouts are able to double jump, giving extra height to a leap and allowing a change of direction in mid-air, and when combined with his natural speed this makes the scout a difficult target to hit. Armed with a underlever shotgun, a pistol and an aluminium baseball bat, the scout is able to deliver significantly more damage at close range than in previous Team Fortress incarnations.[8]

Soldier

The soldier is a slow moving class, but has 200 hit points and can boost himself to higher platforms by rocket jumping. Speaking with a barrel-chested military drawl -- a nod towards George C. Scott's performance in the film Patton -- the soldier wears a team-colored American World War II army uniform and carries a rocket launcher, a shotgun and can use an entrenching tool for melee attacks. Used for spearheading offensives through firepower, the soldier is most suited to combat over short to medium ranges as his rockets travel slowly.[8]

Pyro

The pyro is an offensive class with 175 hit points. Pyros are dressed in an all-over costume with a rubber gas mask, and as such speak in a muffled voice similar to that of the fictional character Kenny McCormick from the South Park. Equipped with a short-range flamethrower, a shotgun and a fire axe. The flamethrower is one of the more powerful, short range weapons in the game, able to set enemies on fire to cause additional damage over time. To extinguish the flames, players must fully submerge themselves in water, pick up a health pack, receive healing from a medic or engineer's dispenser or simply wait out the flames and take the damage. Other pyros cannot be set alight, but will still take damage from the initial attack.[8] Due to the short range of the flamethrower, the pyro relies on ambushing enemies to achieve the full effect of his weapon.

File:Heavyclasstf2.jpg
The heavy

Demoman

The demoman is a defensive class with 175 hit points. Speaking with an intoxicated Scottish accent, the demoman wears a wooly hat, an eyepatch and a team-coloured bomb disposal outfit. Demomen are armed with a timed detonation grenade launcher, a remote detonation sticky bomb launcher and use a Scotch bottle for melee attacks. The demoman can use these grenade launchers to fire grenades over obstacles and around corners. Sticky bombs can also be used in a defensive role for setting traps and mining routes, although the opposing team can displace them with most weapons. The demoman can only have a maximum of eight active sticky bombs at any one time and placing more sticky bombs with eight already in place will begin detonating previously-deployed bombs in the order they were launched. Demomen can also use their explosives to jump. The demoman moves slightly slower than most other classes. [8]

An interesting side note, many of the demoman's lines and speech are based on a character from the movie The 51st State, a movie where Samuel L. Jackson wears a kilt most of the movie, and is implied to be Scottish.[citation needed]

Heavy

The Heavy Weapons Guy (Heavy for short) is the toughest class in the game with 300 hit points. This large character speaks with a thick Slavic accent and carries a large, heavy and very powerful minigun, called "Sasha". His secondary weapons are a shotgun and his bare fists. The slowest class of the nine, the heavy is used for both offensive and defensive purposes. The minigun itself has a short wind-up time and its low accuracy limits a heavy to medium and short range combat. The combination of high health, a large body and a powerful weapon make the heavy ideal for medics to hide behind.[8].

Engineer

Engineers are used to defend bases and passageways, as well as to supply and transport the team. With 125 hit points, the engineer wears a construction hat and team-coloured overalls and speaks with a Texan accent. The engineer is able to build various structures through "metal" points to support the team: a sentry gun that can be upgraded through three stages of effectiveness, a teleporter matrix consisting of an entry and exit facility and an ammunition and health dispenser. Whilst its supplies are infinite the dispenser requires time to regenerate metal and ammunition supplies[8]. Metal is collected from resupply points, dispensers, the weapons of fallen players and even the debris of destroyed structures. Engineers are armed with a shotgun and a pistol in addition to a monkey wrench that doubles as a melee weapon and the means to repair and upgrade structures.

Medic

Medics have 150 hit points and are tasked with keeping other players alive. Clothed in a doctor's labcoat and thick team-colored rubber gloves, the medic speaks with a German accent. Armed with a healing gun, the medic is able to quickly and continuously regenerate a teammate's health up to 150% of their initial health. The medic can also use the healing gun to "Übercharge" other players after using the device for a certain amount of time. Übercharge renders the medic and the targeted teammate invulnerable for ten seconds. The healing gun cannot be used in offensive capabilities, although the medic is equipped with a syringe-gun and a bonesaw to defend himself. Medics are able to slowly regenerate their own health passively and move slightly faster than most other classes[8]

File:Spytf2class.jpg
The spy

Sniper

Snipers are a support class with 125 hit points. An Australian character, the sniper wears an Akubra of Australian military Slouch Hat style[14] with yellow tinted shooter's glasses. Carrying a bolt-actioned sniper rifle, the sniper is able to kill most classes instantly with a shot to the head, and can charge his rifle for further damage. However, the rifle leaves a visible team-colored laser dot where it is aimed. For closer combat, the sniper is armed with a submachine gun and a machete[8]

Spy

The spy has 125 hit points and is used for infiltrating, assassinating and sabotaging the enemy team and is capable of diguising himself as any class on the other side. When undisguised, the spy speaks with a Franco-Spanish accent and wears a team-coloured, pin-stripe suit with a team-coloured, full-face balaclava. He chain smokes even when in disguise. While disguised, allies perceive the spy as usual but with a paper mask of the class he is disguised as over his face. Spies randomly use an alias name of an enemy of the same class, occasionally having his cover blown by the player he is mimicking. Spies can take damage when disguised but do not show blood. Spies also have the ability to cloak for a maximum of ten seconds. This cloak must recharge after use[8], and can be disrupted by enemy fire, contact with an enemy player or by being set alight. Spies cannot attack through the cloak, but using the combination of cloaking and disguises can infiltrate the enemy team with little trouble. Armed with a powerful revolver[8] and a butterfly knife that can kill instantly if used from behind, a spy loses their disguise the moment they attack. Spies also carry electronic sappers that are placed on enemy structures, disabling them and slowly damaging them to destruction unless an engineer repairs their sabotaged equipment[8].

Maps

The game ships with six maps[7] with more planned for future updates.[7] 2 Fort is the only capture the flag map initially available. The maps included in the initial release are:

  • ctf_2Fort
  • cp_Dustbowl
  • cp_Granary
  • cp_GravelPit
  • tc_Hydro
  • cp_Well

An introductory video shows how to complete map objectives.[7]

Map player limits are 24 on the PC (although it has been increased to 32 by the community) and likely 16 on consoles.[15] Control point match maps will also feature a timer after which the game enters sudden death, which is also timed, where no respawns are allowed in an effort to ensure there are no stalemates between two particular points (although stalemates do happen if the clock runs out).[16]

History

Origins

File:Tf2box.jpg
A box art design for the 'old' Team Fortress 2.

Originally planned as a free mod for Quake II, development on Team Fortress 2 switched to the GoldSrc/Half-Life engine in 1998 after the development team (Team Fortress Software, consisting of Robin Walker and John Cook) were first contracted and finally outright employed by Valve Corporation.[17] At the point of Team Fortress Software's acquisition production moved up a notch and the game was promoted to a standalone, retail product;[17] to tide fans over—since, as well as time issues, much of the Team Fortress player base had purchased Half-Life solely in anticipation of the free release of Team Fortress 2—work began on a simple port of the game which was released in 1999 as the free Team Fortress Classic (TFC).[18] Notably, TFC was built entirely within the publicly available Half-Life SDK as an example to the community and industry of its flexibility.[19]

Walker and Cook had been heavily influenced by their three-month contractual stint at Valve, and now they were working full-time on their design, which was undergoing rapid metamorphosis. TF2 was to be a modern war game, with a command hierarchy including a commander with a bird's-eye view of the battlefield, parachute drops over enemy territory, networked voice communication and numerous other innovations.[20]

E3 1999

The new design was revealed to the public at the 1999 E3, where it earned several awards including Best Online Game> and Best Action Game.[21] By this time TF2 had gained a new subtitle, Brotherhood of Arms, and the results of Walker and Cook working at Valve were becoming clear. Several new and at the time unprecedented technologies on show: Parametric animation seamlessly blended animations for smoother, more life-like movement,[22] and Intel's Multi-resolution mesh[22] technology dynamically reduced the detail of on-screen elements as they became more distant to improve performance[22] (a technique made obsolete by decreasing memory costs; today games use a technique known as level of detail, which uses more memory but less processing power). No date was given at the exposition.

In mid-2000, Valve announced that development of TF2 had been delayed for a second time.[23] They put the news down to development switching to an in-house, proprietary engine that is today known as the Source engine. It was at around this time that all news ran dry and TF2 entered its notorious six-year radio silence, which was to last until July 13, 2006. During that time, both Walker and Cook worked on various other Valve projects—Walker was project lead on Half-Life 2: Episode One and Cook became a Steam developer, among other tasks—raising doubts that Team Fortress 2 was really the active project that would be repeatedly described.

"Invasion" Design

When the Half-Life 2 source tree was leaked in late 2003 three TF2 models were included, along with direct references to the game in the stolen source code. They consisted of an alien, Combine-like grunt and a very cartoon-like and out-of-proportion soldier. The code was interpreted by fans as making references to the Seven Hour War, an integral part of the Half-Life story; however, the two leaked player models did not look combine or human.[citation needed]

The Source SDK was released with the Half-Life 2 source code, and also provided references to the game.[24] Some code merely confirmed what was already believed, but other segments provided completely new information, such as the presence of NPCs in multiplayer matches, the possibility of the game taking place in the Half-Life 2 universe, fixed plasma gun and missile launcher emplacements, and more.

None of the leaked information appears to have any bearing on today's version of the game. This iteration was mentioned in an August 2007 interview with Gabe Newell by GameTrailers, in which he mentions "Invasion" as being the second-phase of Team Fortress 2's development under Valve Software.[25]

Final design

The next significant public development occurred in the run up to Half-Life 2's 2004 release: Valve's Director of Marketing Doug Lombardi claimed both that TF2 was still in development and that information concerning it would come after HL2s release. This did not happen; nor was any news released after Lombardi's similar claim during an early interview regarding Half-Life 2: Episode One, then known as Half-Life 2: Aftermath.[citation needed] Near the time of Episode Ones release Gabe Newell again claimed that news on Team Fortress 2 would be forthcoming[citation needed]—and this time it was. Team Fortress 2 was re-unveiled a month later at the July 2006 EA Summer Showcase event.[5]

Walker revealed in March 2007 that Valve had quietly built "probably three to four different games" before settling on their final design.[26] Due to the game's lengthy development cycle it is often mentioned alongside Duke Nukem Forever, another long-anticipated game that has seen many years of protracted development and engine changes.

The beta features three multiplayer maps which contain commentary on the game design, level design and character design, and provide more information on the history behind the development.[27] The commentary suggests that part of the reason for the intentionally cartoonish style was the difficulty in explaining the maps and characters in realistic terms -- questions like "Why would two teams put their bases so close to each other?" become more relevant when there is an emphasis on realism in a game.

The art style for game was inspired by J. C. Leyendecker, as well as Dean Cornwell and Norman Rockwell[28]. Their distinctive styles of strong silhouettes and shading to draw attention to specific details were adapted in order to make the models distinct, with a focus on making the characters' team, class and current weapon distinct and easily identifiable.

The commentary also explains why the commander (a single player who sees a top-down map and is responsible for organizing the team) was not included in the final design: it was too hard to make the experience fun given a poor team and a good commander, or a good team and a poor commander.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Gabe Newell interview; Episode Two pack on Steam first". Evil Avatar (referencing Heise Online). 2007-08-28. Retrieved 2007-08-29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ "EXCLUSIVE: Half-Life 2 The Orange Box System Requirements!". YouGamers. 2007-08-22. Retrieved 2007-08-29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ http://www.valvesoftware.com/publications/2007/NPAR07_IllustrativeRenderingInTeamFortress2.pdf
  4. ^ "Vaporware: Better Late Than Never". Wired News. 2006-02-06. Retrieved 2007-05-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ a b "Half-Life 2: Episode Two - The Return of Team Fortress 2 and Other Surprises". Gamespot. 2006-07-13. Retrieved 2007-08-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ a b c Berghammer, Billy (2007-03-28). "Team Fortress 2 Hands-On Preview". gameinformer.com. Retrieved 2007-04-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Berghammer, Billy (2007-03-27). "The Team Fortress 2 Interview: The Evolution". gameinformer.com. Retrieved 2007-04-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Goldstein, Hilary (2007-05-23). "Team Fortress 2: Class Warfare". IGN.com. Retrieved 2007-09-21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ a b c d Onyett, Charles (2007-04-13). "Team Fortress 2 Hands-On". ign.com. Retrieved 2007-04-15. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ a b Bramwell, Tom (2007-05-22). "Team Fortress 2 First Impressions". eurogamer.net. Retrieved 2007-05-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ Mitchell, Jason; Francke, Moby; Eng, Dhabih (2007-08-06), "Illustrative Rendering in Team Fortress 2" (PDF), SIGGRAPH 2007, Valve Software {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) -- Video Summary (WMV, 75.4MB)
  12. ^ Roper, Chris (2006-07-14). "Team Fortress 2 Teaser Impressions". IGN.com. Retrieved 2006-07-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ "1UP Show: Inside Valve Software". 1up.com. 2006-09-08. Retrieved 2007-04-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^ http://www.firstaif.info/images/asstd/akubrainfantry.jpg
  15. ^ "Team Fortress 2 Interview". IGN. 2007-04-10. Retrieved 2007-08-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ Onyett, Charles (2007-04-10). "Team Fortress 2 Interview". ign.com. Retrieved 2007-04-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ a b Dunkin, Alan (1998-06-01). "Team Fortress Full Speed Ahead". GameSpot. Retrieved 2006-06-12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. ^ "Team Fortress Classic (overview)]". Planet Half-Life. unknown date. Retrieved 2006-12-02. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ "About Team Fortress Classic". PlanetFortress. unknown date. Retrieved 2006-12-02. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ Dawson, Ed (2000-11-11). "Team Fortress 2 Q&A". GameSpot.com. Retrieved 2006-12-02. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. ^ "Past Winners". gamecriticsawards.com. unknown date. Retrieved 2006-07-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  22. ^ a b c "TF2: Technology". PlanetFortress. unknown date. Retrieved 2007-04-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  23. ^ Park, Andrew Seyoon (2000-06-21). "New Engine for Team Fortress 2". GameSpot. Retrieved 2006-07-12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  24. ^ "TF2 snippets". Steam User Forums. 2005-10-08. Retrieved 2006-07-12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  25. ^ "Orange Box Interview". Game Trailers. 2007-8-29. Retrieved 2007-8-29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  26. ^ Berghammer, Billy (2007-03-26). "The History Of Team Fortress 2". Game Informer. Retrieved 2007-04-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  27. ^ "Team Fortress 2 audio commentary". Retrieved 2007-09-25.
  28. ^ http://www.valvesoftware.com/publications/2007/NPAR07_IllustrativeRenderingInTeamFortress2.pdf
Official
Community Websites
Media
  • PlanetFortress: The only remaining fansite for the "original" Team Fortress 2 to follow TFC, which differs significantly from the current product. Not maintained, but still available.
  • Overview of the nine classes
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Team_Fortress_2&oldid=162205452"