VanillaTF2

With great power comes great responsibility.

You’ll probably recognize the mundane quote from the first Spider Man movie. It doesn’t exactly take a great mind to come up with such a word of wisdom. Nevertheless it perfectly describes a challenge for any institution of authority or influence. -Be it ETF2L or this very site.

Essentially, both our services are the products of passionate souls doing free work with the best of intentions. But yes, both of us have established a responsibility for fair treatment. And for this site, a dilemma shows it’s face when having to judge what to publish and what to censor.

My latest dilemma concerns both of the mentioned institutions. A player contacted me with frustrations of the ETF2L anti cheat team seemingly doing unfair treatment, supplied with a couple of examples. On one hand [as this site stands as an independent institution] we’re the last instance to be able to voice one’s opinion and share information. But on the other hand, some accusations (confirmed or unconfirmed) can be damaging and should be handled with care.

So in an effort to pretend to be a decent journalist (yesyes, laugh) , I contacted new head admin of ETF2L, Racio to shed some light on the cases in question.

by Torden

One of our least not unpopular features is back: The rant. This writers takes a journey back to try and pick up on some loose ends about unlocks.

Banning/restricting weapons has always been cause for a huge debate, especially when Division 1 decided to have a gentleman’s agreement and only use regular weapons + the Medic unlocks. Curious to their mindset for this, I asked one of the most experienced Div1 players which weapons should be banned and why. Today’s class is the Scout:

“For the Scout, I would ban the Force-a-Nature, Crit-a-Cola and the Sandman. The Force-a-Nature because it has no real positive use in the game. Bouncing people around the map is frustrating for everyone involved – frustrating for the player being bounced, frustrating for the FaN scout’s partner as he tries to finish him off and can’t, etc. In some situations it’s imbalanced, in other situations it’s nothing short of retarded.
I would ban Crit-a-Cola because scouts hit hard enough as it is! Sure, the Crit-a-Cola effect means the scout takes huge damage from rockets and pipes, but in the time it takes for a Soldier/Demo to see a Scout and fire two rockets at him, the Scout will likely have been able to fire at least 2, more likely 3 mini-crit shots, which could would likely total around 200 damage even from mid range. When you add in the fact that it can be used with über, it becomes pretty clear that it shouldn’t be allowed in competitive play.
Sandman, urgh, so many reasons to ban it. It was originally a stun effect, now it’s a disarm and slow effect. Those effects should only be found in RPGs. They completely break the flow of the game and achieve a far too significant effect for a relatively minor action. BAN!”

“It’s just DM”

The charge laid at the feet of koth_viaduct and in the past, the mid point of cp_well. What does it mean? Is it true that these maps are so far removed from the standard Team Fortress 2 gameplay that all they promote is the random fragging of opponents?

Snowie takes on the discussion, with a comprehensive look at “then” and “now”, click “continue reading” for a well written article.

Our favourite ranter is back with more words that form sentences. Having had the questionable pleasure of reading it through, let me be the first to recommend not pressing the “continue reading” button.

Remember my expose on the greatest demo of all time, Line (who is currently available for a div1 team)? That piece of writing caused major political reforms in 23 separate countries, eradicated religious extremism, invented the cure for cancer and stopped famine outright. And now, the story is being turned into a movie starring Daniel Radcliffe as Line and Laurence Fishburne as Loco. But enough about the past. Now, it’s time to look at the information I just received. It took five months, thirteen days to arrive on horseback from Kazakhstan, but now my sealed package is finally here, I can reveal the shocking truth:

A MOVIE STAR has been playing in the TF2 community undetected for years!

It’s time for another rant. This guy want’s to delve into the challenges of A/D maps once more. May the debate of the strong willed internet people commence!

By many, A/D is considered a very interesting game mode, allowing for a different flow in the game from 6v6, and many find it a test if skill to see how teams adapt to the different dynamics of play. There are several new challenges present, and the unpredictability of the match is also a component in making A/D intense. But is it actually a good mode for competitive TF2?

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One of our rant superstars returns with another chapter. Hurray.

I return, on the topic of TF2DM.

Deathmatch is an excellent way to practice your aim, and is responsible along with ammomod for the influx of players who, despite their killer aim, still fall for my patented “hide round the corner with equalizer then spike it into their face when they chase me” strat.  For many players, DM is integral to their warmup or practice routines, and without it they would dissolve into a skill less failure, missing their shots in matches, crying about how much they suck at the game.

So, lets have a gander at some of it’s problems and annoyances.

The king of useless posts returns to tell a story about an “emperor”. God help us all.

I’ve had lots of positive feedback on my expose on the greatest/sexiest player of all time (http://vanillatf2.org/2010/03/the-rant-chapter-1-the-greatest-kill-in-history/), and have been asked/nagged many times since to write another article, so when GibbZ approached me with a story, I jumped on it like Loco into a rocket.