Team Fortress 2 Megathread!

[ktr]

Developer - Valve Corporation
Publisher - Worldwide Valve Corporation (Steam)
Distributor - Worldwide; Electronic Arts
Designer - Robin Walker, John Cook
Engine - Source engine
Release date - Q3 2007 (Fall '07; will be released with Half-Life 2: Episode Two and Portal)
Genre - First-person shooter
Mode - Multiplayer
Platform - PC, Xbox 360, PS3

About

Team Fortress 2 is the long-anticipated sequel to the original Team Fortress mod for Quake being developed by Valve Corporation. It is a multiplayer team-based first-person shooter with strategy elements. The game has been through various concepts and designs: in 1999 the game appeared to be deviating from the original Team Fortress by heading toward a more realistic and militaristic style of gameplay, and the design metamorphosed further over the game's seven-year development. The final rendition of Team Fortress 2 currently appears to bear more resemblance to the original Team Fortress design, and sports a distinctive, cartoonish visual style which hasn't been seen in a first-person shooter since 2004's XIII.

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

As of August 24, 2006, two trailers for Team Fortress 2 have been released and are widely available on various gaming-related websites and 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."

Gameplay

Just like its predecessor, Team Fortress 2 players will be able to choose to play as one of several archetypal classes at the start of a match, each with its own unique strengths and weaknesses. While it is unknown if the abilities of each class will be similar to the original Team Fortress, all indications so far are that the basic elements will remain the same: Heavy Weapons characters will have huge guns with incredible firepower but will have a slow walking speed, scouts will be able to move very quickly, but are lightly armoured, and so on. While it is unclear at this time what sort of game types will be included upon release, capture the flag and control point matches are likely to return.

Graphics

Team Fortress 2 will not opt for the realistic graphical approaches taken by the official Valve games Day of Defeat and Counter-Strike. Rather, it will use a more stylized, cartoon-like approach. The effect seems to have been achieved using a special Valve in-house rendering and lighting technique making extensive use of Phong shading [3]. The game will debut the Source engine's new dynamic lighting, shadowing and soft particle technologies, among many other unannounced features, alongside Half-Life 2: Episode Two. It should be noted however, that the depth of field and motion blur effects seen in the game's trailers cannot feasibly be rendered during gameplay[4] unless inferior approximations, such as vector motion blur or image -space depth of field, were to be used.

Classes

Nine playable classes have been confirmed, all returning from the original Team Fortress. Robin Walker has discussed the possibility of introducing new classes over time, but the initial release is expected to include only the 'classic' set:

Soldier
Perhaps the most traditional FPS class, the soldier is equipped with a rocket launcher which can also be used to rocketjump.

Medic
Valve has confirmed that this class will retain its important support role of healing other players. They have also said that the medic will be one of the most radically changed classes in terms of gameplay mechanics from the original game (rejecting the original mechanics of requiring physical contact to heal as well as the ability to infect opposing team members with a contagious disease) but have not released further information on exactly how.

Heavy (formerly Heavy Weapons Guy)
Valve have said that this class is perhaps the most faithful to the original and among the easiest for new players to learn how to use. The Heavy is very slow moving with a powerful gatling gun that requires a short period to "spin up" to full power.

Spy
Primarily used to infiltrate enemy territory, Valve have shown the spy class using a cloaking technique and attacking from behind with a balisong, or "butterfly knife". They have also discussed the use of disguises as well as the ability to "feign" death, both returning from the original game but are still debating exactly how these abilities should work.

Scout
An extremely swift class capable of rushing past enemy defences and achieving objectives. The scout has a baseball bat as a melee weapon. Valve has also confirmed that some sort of concussion grenade will return for the scout from the original game.

Pyro
Little information has been released concerning this class other than its use of a flame-thrower.

Demoman
Valve has stated that the increased use of physics in the gameplay world has changed the way this class plays. The Demoman is equipped with a pipe bomb launcher that can detonate its ammunition on command as well as throw sticks of dynamite which explode in two stages much like the MIRV weapon from the original game.

Engineer
Equipped with a shotgun and a wrench, the engineer is capable of building autonomous turrets which can defend areas of the map. As with the original team fortress, turrets can be upgraded and repaired if they sustain non-critical damage. Valve has also suggested that the engineer can build other structures and sometimes alter areas of the map, but have not released any further details.

Sniper
Snipers can achieve kills from long distances with a scope and a high damage rifle. The scope appears to use a slight fisheye lens effect.



Collage of different Team Fortress 2 classes in action.

Top row: (left to right) Demoman, Engineer, Heavy; Middle row: (left to right) Medic, Pyro, Scout; Bottom row: (left to right) Sniper, Soldier, Spy.

History

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, then merely Valve Software. At the point of Team Fortress Software's acquisition production moved up a notch and the game was promoted to a standalone, retail product; to tide fans over (since, as well as time issues, much of TF's player base had purchased Half-Life solely in anticipation of TF2's free release), work began on a simple port of the game which was released in 1999 as the free Team Fortress Classic. Notably, TFC was built entirely within the publicly available Half-Life SDK as an example to the community and industry of its flexibility.

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 that planted the game, quite literally, years ahead of its time.

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. 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, and Intel's Multi-resolution mesh technology dynamically reduced the detail of on-screen elements as they became more distant to improve performance (a technique today known as Level of Detail). At this point, the game's release date had not been defined yet.

In mid-2000, Valve announced that development of TF2 had been delayed for a second time. 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 (see 'Release' section). 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.

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 HL2's release. This did not happen; nor was any news released in a timely manner after Lombardi's similar claim during an early interview regarding Half-Life 2: Episode One, then known as Half-Life 2: Aftermath. Near the time of Episode One's release Valve's Gabe Newell again claimed that news on Team Fortress 2 would be forthcoming—and this time it was. Team Fortress 2 was re-unveiled a month later at the July 2006 EA Summer Showcase event.

Due to the game's engine switches and 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 'old' Team Fortress 2 is quite possibly the only game to have spawned a thriving sub-genre without ever being released itself.

Media

First Trailer: http://storefront.steampowered.com/v...game&AppId=923
Second Trailer: http://storefront.steampowered.com/v...game&AppId=931







^^^Original TF2 of 1999^^^



Concept Art:

(2/25/2007) Sentry Guns...





http://ktr.waits.for.tf2.com/

source: wiki

NEWS
------
3/29/2007:
Game Informer has a interview and a hands on, good intel on the game!

interview:
part1 - http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Sto...1849.05812.htm
part2 - http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Sto...1745.51023.htm

hands-on:
http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Sto...1722.34101.htm













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3/26/2007:

some new intel from a German site.

here is the major pts translated:

General

* There won't be "normal" grenades anymore. Valve thinks that they unify the different classes too much.

* Unlike in Fortress Forever, teleporters are kept in Team Fortress 2. The ammo dispenser will make a comeback as well.

* There will be a personalized statistics system. For example, you could see an in-game message like "Hey, you've never played your class as well as today - keep it up!"

* Valve thinks that classes in other games are a joke. "Where's the difference between me choosing a M16 or an AK-47 rifle?", asks Robin Walker.

* It would be technically feasible to let owners of a PC, XBOX 360 and PS3 play against each other. Whether this feature makes it into the final game is still uncertain and depends on Sony and Microsoft.

* Valve received very few threatening letters because of TF2's comic design.

* Owners of multicore processors will get additional, undisclosed, graphics details.



Classes

* The Scout can perform a double jump, as known from the Unreal games. That is, he'll be able to jump a second time while in the air.

* The Medic can heal team members from long distances, as long as they are in sight. Furthermore, he can make himself and his patients invulnerable for 10 seconds.

* Every class has a unique close-combat weapon. Even the secondary weapons differ from each other often times. Following is a list of classes with their primary, secondary and close-combat weapons:

* Scout: Shotgun, pistol, baseball bat.
* Soldier: Rocket launcher, shotgun, shovel.
* Pyro: Flamethrower, shotgun, fire axe.
* Demo Man: Sticky bomb slingshot, grenade thrower, broken bottle.
* Heavy Weapons Guy: Machine gun (mini gun), shotgun, fists.
* Engineer: Shotgun, pistol, wrench.
* Medic: Machine pistol, healing ray, bone saw.
* Sniper: Sniper rifle, machine pistol, club.
* Spy: Revolver, cigar case (PDA for switching your disguise), knife.



Maps & Gameplay

* Apart from 2Fort, there'll be a remake of Well.

* There will be completely new maps for the game mode "Territorial Control". It will be randomly decided which area of a map is supposed to be conquered and the team in possession of that area will assume the role of defenders.

* There will be trains rolling through the map Well, which should be avoided by players.

* Capture The Flag becomes Capture The Documents. Instead of capturing a flag, you'll have to capture a briefcase from the opponent's base.

original source: http://www.hlportal.de/?site=news&do...s&news_id=5054 ; translation source: http://www.halflife2.net/forums/show...7&postcount=16

[tigger]

that looks SCHWEEEEEEET

cant wait til hl2 ep2/team fortress2/portal comes out

[ktr]

I gonna try to keep this thread up-to-date...

This game is going to be the best and most fun multiplayer fps!

[Pinchy]

Originally Posted by tigger69

that looks SCHWEEEEEEET

cant wait til hl2 ep2/team fortress2/portal comes out

same

[Tomcat81970]

im not exactly sure if im a fan of the new "cartoonyness" but I was a huge fan of the origional.

[ktr]

Originally Posted by Tomcat81970

im not exactly sure if im a fan of the new "cartoonyness" but I was a huge fan of the origional.

Thats the problem with most fans...

Personally, I like it...i hate dark themed games. That's why i like PVKII...

[technicks]

I like it also. It's different for once.

[ktr]

News update...look at the bottom of orginal post!

main points are...

* Black box will be released at the end of september 07
* There will be no more grenades for all player classes besides the demo man.
* Capture the flag is now known as "capture the documents". You have to steal an executive case.
* Scout can make double-jumps like in UT games.
* Medics can heal over great distances and make you invulnerable for 10 seconds

[randomperson21]

BLARG I WANT THIS GAME SO BADLY! its driving me nuts!

[Chewy]

Cartoonish can be fun, reminded me of ArmyMen on playstation... that was a fun cartoonish game.

I dident really read about this game but will sometime.

[ktr]

Game Informer has a interview and a hands on, good intel on the game!

interview:
part1 - http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Sto...1849.05812.htm
part2 - http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Sto...1745.51023.htm

hands-on:
http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Sto...1722.34101.htm

[Ravenas]

Very nice job KTR.

[ktr]

...

Why did you bump this year old thread

Any who, thanks anyways.

[Ravenas]

LOL. B.c I never saw it and just recently saw it on the bottom of a thread in the "related thread section". I had no idea it was that old, but still, I like it brother.

[ktr]

Its nothing special...lol, i just copied the wikipedia

[Ravenas]

Originally Posted by ktr

Its nothing special...lol, i just copied the wikipedia

Bleh, you have to understand that Team Fortress is one of my loves in life. You remember waiting up for TF2 beta all night I'm sure. Lol, type of story I would like to tell my kids if they are ever playing TF5.

[BloodTotal]

WOW this thread is OLD