Team Fortress II: Class Parity

One of the biggest problems that people always had when I was playing WoW PVP was how difficult it was to defeat a specific class with a specific build 1v1. If you specced your character a certain way, no matter how skilled you were, the other guy would likely beat you by following a particular formula.

This problem exists anytime you play a game with more than one class. TFII has 9 classes, and there is definitely class parity here. Ever try to take down a heavy with a pyro? Or a soldier with a scout? Yes, if you can ambush a person you have a great chance of taking them down. But in a one on one showdown, the demoman is going to kill the spy 98 times out of 100.

So why is this not a big deal in TF2? The primary reason is that people can change classes on a whim. If the heavy is pwning you as a scout, then go spy or sniper and kick his ass.

I get a lot of enjoyment out of playing each class, when the situation calls for it. When I connect to a game, I get two pieces of information: 1. the map I'm on, and 2. the classes that everyone else is playing. Using these, I decide what class to play. Here are my thoughts on when each class is most important, and when I switch to them.

Scout: Usually a poor choice quite frankly. Unless the opposing team has very few good engineers, this will be a difficult choice to make. However, if the map is very wide open, and there are plenty of the other classes, I will go scout. Scouts are great if you know the map that you are playing on. If you can get behind the opposition, and kill the medics, snipers and engineers (before they create a turret), it can make them play a lot more defensively. Two scouts working together are lethal against a team without any sentry guns up.

Soldier: A great choice if the map features a lot of long corridors, and if the team has few soldiers or snipers. Every team needs someone able to fire from afar, so if everyone is playing pyro and heavy, soldier is a great choice. Soldiers are also great with medics with a kritzkrieg and not quite as good teamed up with a medic uber. Finally, if there are great positions to rocket jump to, soldier is a great choice simply because of their ability to get somewhere unexpected. It's hard to stand your ground when rockets are being flung your way, so even if you aren't getting any kills, soldiers make the enemy run for cover - a valuable thing when attacking or defending.

Pyro: Contrary to the soldier that loves long corridors, pyros thrive around corners. They are great for sneaking up behind enemies, especially with the backburner. Pyros are one of the best uber targets, since they have practically unlimited ammo and if they can get in range, will destroy most fortifications. On the other side, the only true way to defend against an uber pyro is a pyro with the compression blast. The best counter to an uber-heavy team is a pyro with compression blast. Finally, pyros are great spy checkers - spies hate pyros.

Demomen: I love the demomen - they have rocket jumps like soldiers when used right. They can plant traps for the opposition very easily. A team with 3 demos playing defense is almost unpenetrable. Demos are great defending a small area with one entrance. They are also excellent destroyers of sentries, so on offense if the opposition has tons of sentries, sometimes all it takes is an uberred demo since you can toss your stickies out and blow everything up at once. Demos are great for offense too, since you can fire blindly from behind cliffs and ledges without taking fire from the opposition. Great teamed up with a medic.

Heavy: A heavy is an easy decision. If you have medics and engineers and no heavies, your team is retarded. A heavy is a fantastic medic and engineer friend. On offense, it means teleports and ubers. On defense, it means unlimited ammo from a dispenser and uber-counters. Nothing frustrates an offensive uber more than a defensive uber two seconds later. Not great against good enemy spies or snipers, but against everything else, if you can get your minigun spinning fast enough, you can hold ground exceptionally well.

Engineer: If you don't have any engineers, this is the most important job to have (toss up between medic). You provide teleports to get your allies closer to the action more quickly. You can defend a spot very easily. You provide more ammo and health for those who need it. The key to an offensive engineer is getting teleporters up quickly, watching for spies, and defending against the overzealous enemy trying to get behind everyone on your team (usually a scout or pyro). The key to a defending engineer is keeping a sentry up, watching for spies, and preventing any non-uberred opponents from killing you or your sentry. Also, help your fellow engineers! A level 3 sentry is better than 2 level one sentries. Work together to win.

Medic: If your team has no medics, do it. It's not a glamourous job, but an absolutely necessary one. Don't go medic if your entire team is engineers, snipers, and scouts. They are all retards - you need some heavy hitters like soldiers, pyros, demos, and heavys to do anything well. But assuming you have some of these, go medic. Your team will be much more effective than if you do anything else. Use your ubers wisely to take down opposing sentries or defending against other ubers. Use kritzkriegs when necessary (rarely are they better than ubers). Heal anyone who needs it, and make sure you don't die unnecessarily, unless you just finished an uber - dying at 90% ubercharge is frustrating as hell.

Sniper: I'm not very good as a sniper for the most part, but you have no snipers and the opposition has none, sniper is perfect. Nothing makes people duck for cover more than being one shotted from afar. If the opposition has a bunch of snipers, go spy instead. If you have two snipers or more, play something else.

Spy: If you don't have one, this is a fun class to play. If you have a lot of spies on your side, unless you coordinate it will likely be best to try another class. Spy checking comes in spurts - if there are a lot of you, they will watch more. Spies are integral to destroying opposing engineer stuff and killing snipers. They are also great against dumb medic/heavy combos who aren't paying attention.

Your individual role is very important. I think that everyone should learn how to play every class so they can figure out what their team needs the most. A team with 5 engineers should have a heavy or pyro so they can spy check. A team with a bunch of heavies really needs some medics. Hopefully I'll be able to post more often and talk about more about specific strategies, but remember to choose your class wisely - it may be the difference between success and failure for your whole team.

Actually, yes I am that busy

Seriously. We have a lot of important things that we are doing here at Ethix Systems.

1. Scratching ourselves
2. Playing Team Fortress II
3. Working on the business itself

I'll make this brief, because Nick is gazing at me like my head is going to come off if I don't get back to work. We're not only very busy working on projects for clients, but we are also building our business infrastructure. We are planning on hiring an intern, which is taking a lot of time to work out. We are developing a support contract for our existing clients so we can help them budget their software expenses. And we are developing a newsletter to tell people about the kinds of projects we are working on. (If you want to receive it, I'm sending out the first one today. Send me an email at decarr@ethixsystems.com)

But the kicker is that I'll be starting to teach a web programming class for 5 weeks at Saint Vincent on Tuesday. So things are going a little crazy.

Not to fear - I'll be back. I have much TF2 to discuss, and I'll hopefully have some other things to share. But lately, it's been mostly business and I haven't had much interesting to share.

Don't stop visiting please. Just be patient!

Dan

Team Fortress II: Meet the Scout

In an effort to rejuvenate my blog posts, I thought I would post in here about the game that I'm easily playing the most these days.

Team Fortress II is a very fast paced game FPS with a twist. There are 9 classes to choose from, each with benefits and downsides. I'm going to start with the most difficult to play (in my opinion) and give some tips.

The Scout.

Read more: http://tf2wiki.net/wiki/Scout

The site probably says a lot of stuff that I'm going to say, but...I'll say it anyway.

The scout is a lightweight, fast-moving killer when used properly. One on one against a heavy, pyro, soldier, or most of the other common classes, you don't stand too much of a chance. Engineer turrets? You can just about forget it.

But there are some things that scouts are great at - speed and maneuverability. Your double jumps allows you to get some places that only soldiers and demos can get to. On top of buildings and ledges are great places to shoot from unnoticed.

But the very best thing that a scout can do is run behind enemy lines and wreck havoc. With an open battlefield, plenty of things to hide behind, and lots of health packs, a scout can suppress an enemy charge very well.

Scouts are excellent in melee since their bats hit quickly, and you can finish off a sniper or medic this way often before they even realize you are there. Hiding behind corners, killing one or two people, and moving on. That's what makes a great scout. You can't hold a single position for very long. If you get caught on fire, you will probably die. A shotgun blast to the face may do it too. You have to move, fire, and get out.

So in my opinion, the best scouts are the ones that sneak along behind the enemy and kill the little guys. If you can down a sniper or a medic, often that will change a game. But you have to be very careful not to stare down a heavy. Fire and run, and get to the healthpacks first, and you'll be fine.

Not the best class to start playing TF2 with. Position is everything, and you need to know your maps very well.

Next time: The Soldier.

Will Activision Ruin Blizzard?

When this was announced, tons of people (including myself) were worried about what might happen to Blizzards' three touted franchises. There are two ways of looking at this situation. The first is that Activision will be ruining Blizzard, and the second is that Blizzard will bring Activision back from the depths of EA-level production.

I personally in light of new events would like to support the argument that Blizzard ain't going nowhere, and that Activision might actually learn something from Vivendi.

• Blizzard's reputation speaks for itself. Any gaming company would like to have Blizzard's sterling reputation, including EA and Activision. When announced, Vivendi and Activision were adamant that each would continue to develop games separately - as in Vivendi will continue to work on Starcraft, WoW, etc. and Activision will continue to work on Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, etc. Why do you think that they did this? Because Blizzard fans were so paranoid that Activision would ruin Blizzard's games. It wasn't because all those Call of Duty fans were worried about Blizzard ruining their game. With this in mind, Activision and Blizzard seem to already know about each others' reputations, and will likely work hard to maintain Blizzard's good reputation, while working hard to improve Activision's. Whether that will work remains to be seen.
• Blizzard at one time had been working on a two year cycle (approximately). Over a span of twelve years, they had released 6 major new titles (Warcraft II in 1995, Diablo in 1996, Starcraft in 1998, Diablo II in 2000, Warcraft III in 2002, World of Warcraft in 2004.) Now, about a year apart, Blizzard announced Starcraft II and then Diablo III, two highly anticipated games from titles that are 10 and 8 years old, respectively. Not to mention yet another expansion for WoW and rumors of yet another big MMO. This deal with Activision will allow Blizzard to make more quality games, because they can actually afford to work on more than one big title at a time without worrying about a flop like Starcraft Ghost bankrupting them.
• Now that Guitar Hero IV has been announced, I was interested to hear that it is taking on Rock Band directly by adding drums. People are getting pissed off about this, because "it's copying" and "it will be bad for consumers because we'll have to buy both." Well, why do you have to buy both? I think that it's a good thing, because it will mean direct competition from both. If Guitar Hero IV kept with its two guitars, would Rock Band feel pressure to improve their game at all? Probably not. I blame the bad blood between the two companies more than the direct competition for any technical issues. I agree that Activision has made some questionable company decisions. But now Vivendi has controlling interest in the companies, and business decisions will be run through Vivendi and the new higher-ups. I hope to see a newer company attitude from this. Will this stop the blood feud between Harmonix and Activision? Probably not. But still, I think that it is better to see Guitar Hero directly challenging Rock Band in this way. I guess we shall see.

Honestly though, I like this merger. Activision has produced some cliche games from movies, and they aren't as buggy or as poorly put together as EA's have been. Blizzard now has resources to tap into the console market where it might be appropriate (though likely not for any of the main three franchises). I expect to see better things from Activision and to continue to see marvelous things from Blizzard. (And I sure hope I'm right.)

Diablo III Announced

Boy Blizzard has been busy. First Starcraft II, and now Diablo III.

http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/

It looks awesome.

A Few Free Demos

I don't have a lot of time, so I'll make it brief.

Team Fortress II Free Trial

This weekend, play Team Fortress II for free. Only this weekend though. If you haven't tried it, you ought to. Just as a note though, prepare to be frustrated initially. Lots of people are really really good, and it takes some time to learn the maps and the classes. If you're worried about survival and learning, try being a medic, find a big guy to heal, and stay out of the line of fire. That's usually the best way to start out. Or start out as a soldier. But watch out for spies! Download Steam to try it out.

Spore Creature Creator

The makers of spore have introduced their creature creator. I haven't tried it yet, but it's a sample from the game, and probably the first time to really get an idea of what the game is about. Download it at www.spore.com.

Have fun, and have a great weekend. Hopefully I can post more soon.

Portal Trial

http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php

Play the first 11 levels of Portal just by downloading Steam.

Steam is kinda resource intense (it's a chat client for gaming), but...for the first 11 levels of Portal, it's definitely worth trying out.