Thursday, 31 May 2001 0608Z
Hanging Up -PainKilleR-[CE]

I don't know why I keep doing this, but I've realized that I stretched myself too thin. I thought it would be ok, most of the PFL stuff stays on Monday nites (yeah right), TFTech is a matter of answering a few (*cough*as long as there isn't a patch*cough*) emails a day, which usually only take a minute or two each, I'd get to updating the page eventually. The TFC Reform page couldn't be much different, so I can handle that, too. What's an editorial once in a while?

Well, I've realized something. The only reason I installed Half-life on my system the last time I formatted my hard drive was to spectate matches and watch demos for the PFL. I haven't done a single thing but answer a couple of emails and collect them for TFC Reform so far, and TFTech hasn't been updated in so long that the copyright notice on the page is 2 years old and most of the links to patches and tweaks are dead.

The game itself doesn't do much for me any more. A random pub server is a constant reminder of what Valve still needs to fix in this game, since the llamas really love the stupid pet tricks that we call bugs. The pubs I used to frequent, generally filled with well skilled clan level players, tend to bring a share of bunnyhoppers and cheaters. Watching demos on a weekly basis, I can now provide a decent list of problems with the 'fixed' demo playback in TFC. Well, at least the demos play back.

I sincerely apologize to Slick (Warthog? yeah, and this message is coming to you from Vizeroth, thanks; sorry man, you're still Slick and I'm still PainKilleR, it's awefully hard to change these things) and everyone else here for saying I'd do these things when I should've known I could not handle them. I apologize even more that you'll have to read this in the same place that everyone else will.

Starting tomorrow evening, I'm not going to bother answering the emails sent to the tftech and reform addresses. I hate to do that to those people looking for help, but I really can't stand the questions any more, and I won't be able to keep up when another patch or two come along and the game generates even more errors, without fixing the old ones. I'll be filtering through the email at [email protected] and getting back to anyone that needs any information I may have regarding tftech and TFC Reform until such time as someone sees fit to shut off the email address on planetfortress' side.

Final notes:

-apologies to Valve, this is the second time I've taken a position in which I was given what could have been good connections with you guys to take care of some of the things that's wrong with your game, and then dropped the ball on my end. I'll try not to do it again ;)

-I no longer wish to have anything to do with GSI. They've shown to me repeatedly that the communities that form around their sites don't mean a damned thing to them. If they knew a little more about marketing and public relations they'd be dangerous, but they don't, so they just come off as what they are: a bunch of people trying to hard and far too often taking the wrong turn and just barely finding their way back.

-And my final apologies: sorry to anyone here at planetfortress that catches hell for this last pair of notes. PF's been a great place, but GSI's sucking the soul out of it, just as they did most of the other sites in their network.

Monday, 21 May 2001 1330Z
Comments... -Teatime

Okay, back to business. I think it's about time to say a few words about those last two articles.

Female Gamers in TFC

This one spawned quite some reactions, ranging from positive to negative (and some even beyond negative). Let me address a few points of the various emails or discussions (in random order):

- The guest editorial of Battle Angel was not intended to complain or to whine. It was a statement about what kind of behaviour a lot of female players meet when playing TFC. IMO anybody who mistake the description of a grievance for 'whining' should grow a few more braincells first before attempting to speak. And quite frankly it's uncalled for. I'm sure a lot of people who labeled this editorial as 'whining' would be the first to complain about stupid newbies asking stupid questions and lamers doing nonsense, because it would annoy them. Guess what: Female gamers just don't need any kind of annoying bullshit as well. But I guess for a lot of people it's always a different thing what they do and what the others do.

- It was pointed out that females players would invite that kind of behaviour by giving their gender away with their player name. True enough, and I'm sure the big majority of females players is using neutral or even male player names for exactly that reason. Brave new world, isn't it? Women have enough shit to deal with in Real Life™ (not every woman, but far too many of them) and they cannot even play a bloody online game without males acting like assholes once more. Oh, does this sound like whining again? Well, people, a suggestion: Ask your girlfriend about all those small and not-so-small incidents, little remarks or plain harassment they have to go through every day. Or your mother, or sister, or wife. Ask them how wonderful it is to live in a world where far too many males let their dicks do the thinking.
So the point is not that female players could avoid any stupid remarks and behaviour by not revealing their gender, but the sad fact that we as community are unable to provide an environment which allows them to play as females without being treated different to the male players. So that this happens is not the fault of the women but the fault of everyone of us allowing this to happen. And with that I don't mean to get protective for female players, but to show that we don't tolerate any kind of harassment and lame behaviour in the game.

- On a more general note: It seems to me many males are intimidated or even scared by females acting strong and independent. Maybe it should occur to those people that the problem are not women, but their own weak ego.

KEA shuts down

- I'm increasingly worried about where the game and the community is heading. People are more and more adapting a "winning at all cost"-mentality, dominating not only clan matches but also the pubs. I'm wondering why we have so many discussions about issues like chasing or all-D games lately. Something has changed. Something is different than 2 years ago, or even one year ago. Actually the games themselves are not very much different (on the pubs), but the attitude behind the game is changing and affecting the game and the community. Maybe this has to do with TFC coming to age, but while this surely is one reason I somehow suspect that there is a general change, or shifting in attitude, in online games.

What do you think ... ?

Friday, 18 May 2001 1900Z
A quick note and a remarkable decision... -Teatime

Sorry for the lack of updates, I was quite busy the last few days. The editorial of Battle Angel spawned some discussions and a number of emails. I hope I will get around to write a comment on all of it this weekend.

Meanwhile I'll go the easy way to add some content by quoting here a post done by CENSORED@#$!*KEA* on the PF Forums

[...] Granted KEA isn't the best clan in the world and granted we haven't won every single game we are currently 20-5 in last 25 and we are in OGL Expert Ladder as well as you put it Elite gay league, or elite gay llama's but ya know what FUCK you... You ask ANY clan that KEA has ever played and you will get the same thing KEA has class, and they have heart, they are a stand up clan, wish there are more clans like them out there ETC ETC ETC..But the reason KEA has never been a top10 clan is because I and my TEAM my friends and family REFUSE to cheat and DO anything and EVERYTHING as YOU so called TOP10 clans are so often being accused of and caught doing! So sit back for a fucking second and re-think what you say before you say it. [...]

As far as the TFC community as a whole im sickend to death of watching good people lose to cheating assholes that do anything and everything to win, no matter the cost. As a result of the cheating and the bashings and you dickheads out there KEA is closing shop. I can no longer be in a game or community where cheating and winning MEANS more to everyone then fair play and honor and honesty! My league TFCS is gone i closed it down today, and as for EGL they will be looking for different hosting as I will no longer host them or EGL in any way shape or form and am resigning from any and all responsibilities as it concerns to TFC or this lame community of fools, you all have my pity... Maybe someday when gaming is about fun, Honor and fair play, you may see a return of KEA.... and my guys as well as others will don the tag *KEA* at the end of their game names to where with respect and honor for what Kill Em All clan stood for and means to many clan goers everywhere. And to those that have supported TFCS, EGL, and KEA thank you, i personally respect you and wish you all the success in the future of this corrupt community and maybe if enough of you people will stand up for what is true and just we might all someday be able to be proud of what we accomplished and not be ashamed to be a part of something so ugly.

I admit I'm not familiar with the TFC clan scene, but if the situation is indeed as bad as described here (and from the comments to this post it looks like it) then a lot of people should really evaluate why they play this game. My respect for that decision, KEA, I'm sure it wasn't an easy one.

Monday, 14 May 2001 1900Z
Female gamers in TFC... -Teatime

Today I have the pleasure to present you a guest editorial by Battle Angel, a female TFC player who is very committed to the problems of women playing such a male-dominated game like TFC (and I assume the situation is not any different in other first-person-shooters) and also a member of Babes in Boyland, a guide composed by female gamers. This is a good but also sad read of what women have to endure while playing a game where the sex of the player should be completely unimportant ...

So you want to know what it is like for a female playing Team Fortress Classic. Well I asked some of my fellow female friends from the Bombshells, female guilds and girls that play in co-ed clans and boy were they all but to happy to respond to this one. I guess it is like any other sport a girl would play. It's degrading, self-challenging and not to mention, just plain fun.

Lets talk about the degrading part and get the fun stuff out of the way. The most common response I got from the girls was " I would of quit along time ago if it wasn't for…" Let's face it, more than all to often female players have been called, bitches, dykes, lesbos, stupid and ugly. I don't know how they could figure out we were ugly, I mean how did they know that I didn't wash my hair and put on my war paint before sitting down to play a good game of TFC but ok . And the sexual taunts, comments like "come here little girl let me show you my rocket launcher" or ones that aren't so bad like " hey baby you can come over here and heal me anytime". It takes all I've got not to say "You can take that rocket launcher and shove it up your…" well you guys can finish the rest but you get my point. Which brings us to the self-challenging topic.

When we don't respond to those nasty comments it can be quite a challenge on our part. I mean how long do we take the name calling and blatant degrading remarks? I would like to that think that the girls have acquired the great art of holding their tongues. If we responded to them with nasty comments wouldn't we just be putting ourselves in those nasty little dwellings that they crawled out of. You can't be a wuss and play this game, you have to be a thick skinned. And what better way to get revenge when someone is making fun of that cute little name that took you hours to pick out then by shoving a rocket where their sun doesn't shine. And man isn't that revenge sweet.

But the main reason we play is, well, it is just so much fun when you get to open a can of whoop ass on someone. I mean who can resist putting your little red dot between someone's eyes and blow their brains out left and right. Or taking out a sentry gun with your rocket launcher. And the high your get when you finally learn to conch as a medic, no pun intended. I bet those are all reasons why the guys play this game as well.

I also would of given up on this game if I had not found a wonderful bunch of girls to play with. But it also wouldn't be fair if I didn't mention the tons of support I have been given by many many male players, and you guys know who you are **wink wink**. So watch out guys we are aren't going anywhere, and we are coming to a server near you with our med packs, EMPS, rocket launchers and grenades in hand!

I'm sure Battle Angel would be interested in feedback from other female players as well as mature responses from male gamers. But feel free to write me as well. Maybe this can help to create a bit more awareness on a problem which I haven't seen discussed to any satisfying degree yet.

Valve have finally taken a stand on the Bunnyhopping issue, though once again in their own way.
Eric Johnson was reported to have visited the #hlds on gamesnet last week to answer questions and stated on the issue of bunnyhopping that Valve intends to remove BH with the next client patch. To my knowledge no further information were given how Valve will achieve this, but apparently Erik said it would have no effect on concjumping. It's unsure though if the intended fix will have any effect on related movement techniques like gliding and strafejumping.

Of course once more I wonder why we have to learn such things from an IRC log instead of Valve releasing an official note on things they intend to change with a future client patch. PR has never been Valve's strong side and this is just another incident proving that Valve don't realize that running the largest gaming platform on the net does also require a bit more mutual information exchange between them and the different communities.
PFL has already decided to ban BH, and I'm sure some other leagues are considering to follow this example as well, but maybe shying away from the disagreements and discussions preceding and following such a decision. But now Valve has provided at least something similar to an official standpoint declaring BH as the exploit it is and therefore as an unfair (and kind of 'against the rules') movement technique. Still I'd wish Valve would say so in a real statement instead of just declaring it on IRC. With that leagues have the proper argument to go ahead and ban a technique which will be (hopefully ultimately) removed in the near future anyway.

This decision by Valve will have a number of consequences and implications for the TFC community (don't know about the other MOD's, I'm sure it will have some impact on CS as well). So why the heck does Valve always shy away from making such statements officially in the first place? They will receive their fair share of hate-mail anyway. It would make a lot of discussions much easier if it was a little clearer which elements of the game were intended or at least accepted by Valve (like cjumping which was not intended, but finally accepted) and which are not.

So BH will be removed in the next client patch.
Now we know Valve for bundling their patches on bugfixes with new content (maps or new features). Maps and new features usually require playtests. Depending on those features a lot of playtests (I just remember how long it took until the 1.1.0.0 patch was finished). While Valve releases smaller server patches once in a while to address bugs which can be fixed server side, client patches are rather rare.
Why does it has to be that way all the time? While I understand that Valve is hesitant to release more patches than necessary (because each patch means to change a working program which could as well introduce new bugs and errors) I don't quite see why we should have to wait for bug fixes which are ready to be applied until Valve is finished testing their new toys for us (nothing against new features, though).

So why not take the decision of removing BH as an opportunity to release a small patch containing only bug fixes! No new maps, no fancy new features, just a few megabytes of new code to bring the game up to date. I'm sure once the new content is ready to ship there will be enough new bugs which require fixing to wrap up the package. The list on the TFC Reform Project is long enough, I strongly doubt Valve will run out bugs to fix any time soon :-p

Wednesday, 09 May 2001 1350Z
Phat Dragon ... -Teatime

Okay, you people in TFC-land. Let's take a short break from all these serious discussions and allow me to bring back to you a masterpiece of TF humor.

Does anybody remember Phat Dragon? He was a ... ahem ... prominent figure in the good old TF-days and also active for some time in the early TFC days. Most of his, well, contributions and achievements precedes my time in the community. So ask your local TF-veteran about Phat Dragon (or Fat Dragon in those early days) and let them tell you hilarious stories of times long gone.

I dug up this document describing Phat Dragon playing 2fort (back in the QWTF days) which had me ROFL when I initially read it. I have no idea who wrote it (as the author claims using "The Watcher" as an alias), so I can't give proper credit to this gem. Anyway, it's a great piece of work.

So, ladies and gentlemen, fasten your seatbelts and prepare for the worst, as The Fort proudly presents: True Stories of the Fat Dragon

BTW, if any TF-Veteran feels has to share a few stories either of or about Phat Dragon I would love to hear them.

Monday, 07 May 2001 1450Z
Mindsets... -Teatime

Well, various discussions on the PF forums as well as a few emails pointed out not to tell people how to play the game. While this sentiment is fair enough it has a major flaw: Most of us are telling people how to play the game!

I think the vast majority of TFC players will agree not to accept cheating. Consequently we tell people willing to cheat to play the game in a different way as they would like to. Much the same goes for indisputable lamers, such as teamkillers, people deliberately infecting teammates or building sentries to block doors. We tell them how to play the game (or rather how not to play the game).

If we continue to respawn camping we will still have a - hopefully - large number of people condemning RC, but even here it starts to get harder. The majority is not as apparent as with cheating and lamerism (and of course it is a different matter to distinguish it from these two). But still many people feel entitled to tell others how to play the game (and to my knowledge it's even frowned upon in clan matches).

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, let's take one step back. In various discussions I had voiced opinions about a number of lame behaviour and questionable tactics. This eventually looks like a complex rulebook of do's and don'ts which is more annoying than helpful, especially since such opinions include tactics and moves which appear to be perfectly valid (I just think of the medic-discussion we had on the forums one or two weeks ago). The main problem is that people just see the facade either unable or unwilling to look behind it and grasp the underlying issue. So maybe I should approach the whole affair from another angle.

If we ignore cheating and obvious lamish behaviour (like described above) I'm basically attacking and condemning two mindsets, both sadly very common:

1) Winning at all cost and by all means.

2) Playing the game to satisfy ones personal pleasure by annoying and pissing off people.

While (1) is a problem for both clan matches and pub games (2) is just an issue in pub games. But as usual I will only look at pub games in the following.

Under the first category fall such tactics like chasing, turtling, all-D games or - at some extend - respawn camping. Some people feel all these tactics and others are valid and using them is completely justified by the goal of winning the game. To these people the victory is more important than anything else, and they are willing to sacrifice the overall fun of the game to achieve this victory. In my editorial Wargames I tried to point out the foolishness of this attitude, especially since victory in pub games is fleeting and holds little value (and depending on the circumstances is no achievement at all, e.g. winning a game with 8 to 4 people, or a team composed of skilled players against a bunch of newbies). And even victory in the fiercest game on the highest level of gameplay is shallow if people didn't enjoy the game. Just yesterday I was in a game which slowly turned into an all-D game by both teams which eventually was unsatisfying and annoying for both sides. So was it worth to defend both our flags so effectively when it killed the fun?

I'm not quite sure what the reason is for that attitude ...
Is it the determination from clan matches which influences the pub games? Is it the increasing obsession with skills which causes people to show these skills at any time and any opportunity, regardless of the circumstances? Is it a lack of self-consciousness so people cannot accept defeat, unless they used all means and every tactic in their arsenal?
Whatever the reasons may be, often enough it is not improving a pub game at all, but rather turn it into an unpleasant game. I don't say you should not play to win and to play with skill and determination. Just keep in mind that others want to enjoy that game as well. And frankly, if you are unable to enjoy a pub game unless you win I pity you for your narrow-mindedness.

The second category is a little more complicated, and likely even more flame-material than the first one.

"Playing to satisfy ones personal pleasure by annoying and pissing off people" comes in many ways and many flavors, some of them looking perfectly valid on the outside. In my book this category contains behaviour like the bad kind of respawn camping, sentries in enemy bases, camping and spamming or 'infect and run' (just to name a few). Now I'm sure a lot of you will start to take this all apart and nitpicking, this or that could impossibly be lame.

So, in big lettered words: I do not attack the tactic, I'm attacking the mindset which abuses this tactic.

Those people I criticize are not interested in the game, or their team, or the goal of the map. They want to piss off people. Just the same as the usual lamer does, who infects his teammates. However, this breed of lamers are disguising themselves by relying on apparently valid behaviour and tactics. It's a bit like crossing a cheater - who likes to succeed without being exposed - with a lamer: The attitude of a lamer with the caution of a cheater. With that mindset these people camp respawns. Not because the want to contain the enemy D while their offense goes for the flag. No, just for the fun to blow up everyone coming through that door. If possible, repeatedly. But hey, he is still helping his team, isn't he? But is he? I have seen people trying to RC the 2fort respawn repeatedly while no one from their team was going for the flag. I have seen people spamming and camping in well's attic while the flagroom was unguarded and the spammer could as well have grabbed the flag and scored some points for his team. I have seen medics ignoring the nearby enemy flag just to go on to infect other players.
All these things are lame in my opinion as they have nothing to do with the game itself. It's just a more discreet mean to satisfy the lamer's ego.

The main problem with that is to distinguish between the same tactic serving a valid purpose and a lame purpose. At one side you have the lame respawn camper as described. On the other end of the spectrum you have someone who validly guards the respawn while the medic is escaping with the flag. So the same tactic can be right or wrong. It all depends on the context and the intention. And between both extremes is a large gray area which often enough is bound to be misinterpreted.

Yet I think we should not accept a lamer even if he sticks to 'valid' tactics. A respawn camper isn't helping his team. All he cares for is to kill as many people as possible, either for his score or just because it gives him the kicks when the enemy is complaining or bitching. He will not help to take out sentries when needed. He will not assist to take out the HWG or soldier at the flag. He will not help out at D when needed.

Variations of this kind of lamerism can be found on many occasions. I suspect many of these are only part-time lamers, living out their dark side on occasion. They often follow this dark side when given the opportunity - be it a low populated server which makes much of this behaviour very easy, or a weaker enemy team which is easier to push around.

But most people don't care to differentiate. On behalf of these people I have to admit that a lot of stupid complaining, whining and bitching - either in game or in chats or forums - is only blurring up things and blowing up issues out of proportion. Some people complain about spamming when you drop two instead of one grenade. Some people accuse you of camping when you use a pipetrap in a completely valid situation.

So many people are tired of discussing certain tactics because it all comes down on the context, and often enough the context is misinterpreted. Yet I don't think we should accept lamerism of any kind, even when it comes in disguise. Those people have no respect for the game and they have no respect for the people they play with (yep, I know I sound like a broken record). So don't just shrug it all off because it's a bit more difficult to identify as the lamerism it is.

Having said all this about category 2 I will also try not to blow things out of proportion myself. While this kind of lamerism isn't rare at all it's not common enough to be too big a problem. But I think we should keep it in the back of our minds when evaluating certain situations. And we should make a clear stand on the game we love and should not allow people to abuse it to satisfy their own twisted needs. The game and the community can do very well without them.

So, now I'm looking forward to all the people telling me that respawn camping and infecting people and whatever other tactic comes to mind are perfectly valid under all circumstances ...

Saturday, 05 May 2001 1930Z
Warpath... -PainKilleR

Here I thought I didn't have much to write about, though I'm not exactly happy with the way the game is at the moment, I'm not all that angry about it, either, and then here comes Teatime's Epicenter rant...

First, the roof, well, someone HAD to put the roof there to begin with, you don't get a rooftop in a map if the map's author doesn't put one in there. Yes, they really do need to fix the ability to shoot into (and out of!) the respawn there, and it'd be nice if it had a cleaner look to the area, but still, the roof didn't just appear there by itself. If you take into account the lack of conc jumps as well, then it makes sense to not have a ladder there, as you force people to use some life (rocket/pipe/gren jump) to get up there. It's a good position for defense and offense alike, when used properly. Great for killing sentries and for taking that long jump to the point.
As for the fence and the ability to jump over it, I'll be the first to admit I'm one of the ones that has no problems repeatedly doing this in pub games, but I must say it's nearly impossible to do when the map is defended properly (something rarely seen). Quite frankly, I think the biggest mistake people make is trying to defend the map with sentry guns, as a pair of hwguys and a soldier or two can lock it down quite easily (and again, I've been known to defend the map as an engineer quite often as well). There are no really good positions for a gun on this map, plus, especially with conc jumps, the engineer's going to have medics in his face while he's trying to build if the rest of the defense can't manage to keep them away. As a conc jumping medic it takes just as long to get to the APC near the enemy base as it does for the defending engineer. That's why there's a delay on the flag gates opening, to give the defense some chance of setting up, and a large part of the map's strategic value (what little there is) comes on the part of the offense that aren't dedicated to capping the flag, the job of which should be to suppress the defense until the flag capper gets there.

The sad fact of the matter is that, while the map is fairly well balanced, a good flag capper is never going to get a positive score greater than zero on this map. I sometimes wonder how many people out there cap on it simply to hear people whine and complain about having to restart the whole mess all over again. Most of the time this map seems to draw out the people saying 'no caps' and turns into a deathmatch brawl, and the whole point of the reset is lost on those that have trouble grasping the map's balances. Personally, I'd just like to see them fix the roof so that the respawn is not open to bombardment (and outside people not open to interior sentry guns mowing them down unseen). As the map currently is, a lone scout cannot break a well placed defense, but can absolutely destroy the standard pub setup in a heartbeat. Scouts can't get past guns that are set well, nor do they stand a chance against an hwguy, and if you move to medic you need to be sure that your defense is doing better than the enemy's defense. If you don't want people jumping the fence, ask a teammate to stand in front of it and shoot people, it's really not that hard.

As for dustbowl, I think the map's author should be burned, but cjumping isn't really a problem anyway, since you're never going to find a scout or medic that can wrestle the lone gren bag from the sniper. Warpath's all about the hwguys, engineers, and snipers having a big TFC Arena fragfest at CP 3, and it's quite rare for a scout or medic to have a chance at hitting the far 2 points anyway, let alone manage the 2 quick conc jumps required to cap the last one before the 2nd to last is available. Besides, good teamwork would mean that you could get to the last one and have your teammate cap the 2nd to last while you're standing on the thing, instead of going at it alone.

Of course, we could always get a couple of bunnyhopping hwguys in there and really have some fun, all three of these maps are good for that.

Friday, 04 May 2001 1250Z
Epicenter... -Teatime

From the looks of it I'd say the creator of epicenter either didn't knew about some powerjumps or he deliberately didn't take them into account.

There are primarily 2 spots on each side of the map which makes me think so: One is the roof of the building in which the teams respawn in, the other one is the fence near the APC.
The first one is actually quite easy. The roof is not finished. There is only a section creating some kind of ledge which can be reached by most power jumps (even with a simple RJ). But the rest of the roof is not visible. You will just see the skybox and you can't move over the rest of that roof (but sadly enough you can throw grenadews from the roof into the respawn). If we assume the mapmaker wasn't a complete newbie I'm sure he would have created that roof section properly if he had expected players to reach it. Additionally I think if this part of the map should have been able to be used strategically the mapmaker would have added another means of access (e.g. a ladder). However, I was told that Valve was aware that this section was accessible by powerjumps during the betatests for the TF 1.5 patch which shipped this map, so the question is why this was never addressed (heck, if they want the roof to stay accessible just put a damn wall to separate the ledge from the rest of the roof).

The fence on the other hand is more complicated. IMO it was never intended that a cjumper could make a jump over the fence right to the APC. The fence itself is a misconstruction in the context of the APC-area. I think the mapmaker wanted the APC to be defendable, but OTOH make this area accessible enough to give the offense a chance to break down D and to cap. The fence IMO should give the offense the chance to take out sentries and defenders with nailguns, rockets or grenades. Maybe - but just maybe - the mapmaker wanted to create an additional attackroute for RJumping soldiers to clear enemy D. But I'm pretty sure it was never intended that a cjumper could jump from the ledge on the ruins or the area in front of the fence to the APC. When done correctly the cjumper will be able to bypass any number of sentries and land directly on the cappoint.

But maybe there is a reason for that flaw.

During the betatests for TF 1.5 Valve removed cjumping completely. When the new maps (epicenter, warpath and dustbowl) were playtested there was no cjumping. Looking at those maps I'd like to assume the maps were created with that decision in mind. As an example: I'm sure it is by design that on warpath you can't reach the final CP by running without the prior CP being open again. IMO that was intended to be a safeguard so a single scout cannot make it through all points in a single run without the enemy team to be able to counter. Dustbowl would also have some problems with cjumping if the sky wasn't so low.
It was much later, almost near the end of the betatests, that Valve decided to reintegrate cjumping as drop-and-jump-variant (I don't think they realized at that time that handheld jumps still work). I can't help but thinking that they failed to realize the consequences of the reintroduction of cjumping to those maps, especially to epicenter.

Personally I would like to see a revision of epicenter which would make the roof part inaccessible at all and somehow altered the fence so you could still shoot or lob grenades over it, but you would not be able to jump over the fence. Sure, this would make offense a lot more difficult, but I'd rather see offense requiring teamwork to succeed than a scout or medic breaking through heavy D without any trouble (and I have seen a number of people doing exactly that).

Ack, now where did Tot put all the asbestos suits? He can't have used them up all ...

Thursday, 03 May 2001 1215Z
Snipers - the communicating class ... -Teatime

Disclaimer: Blatant generalization ahead ... :-p

Is it just me or are snipers really always talking? In far too many games I see them bragging about their l33t skills, or teasing the other snipers, sometimes they even congratulate each other (though I might have dreamed that one) and usually they comment each time they got killed (and if they were killed by another sniper this comment is usually "lag!").

So am I right to assume that during all that serious shooting snipers obviously still have a lot of time to type messages. Repeatedly, if necessary. Throughout the game.

But why can these snipers not only ONCE send useful messages to their team? It's obviously not that they lack the time or opportunity, and in many maps they are in the best position to spot incoming enemies and the route they take.

So snipers, either become teamplayers or piss off to play sniper-maps exclusively. But the way it is you are more often an embarrassment to the game than not.

Wednesday, 02 May 2001 1750Z
Wargames... -Teatime

Last week we had some animated discussions about whether or not TFC was a wargame on the PF forums. I will not rehash that discussion. Let me just say one word why I think TFC is not a war game: Push.

But right now I'd rather take a look at why certain people are so persistent in claiming TFC was about war.

The answer is quite simple. The saying goes 'All is fair in love and war'. So if one relates to TFC as war one can argue that while playing TFC all means are justified to achieve the victory. On base of that one can easily justify every tactic short of cheating, and every kind of behaviour.

Respawn Camping, Chasing, Turtling, Bunnyhopping ... all valid because it's winning that counts. Fairness? Sportsmanship? Since when has a war been fair? What place has sportsmanship in a war? Both will only restrict ones ability to win. Being fair means being weak.

In that discussion the motto of 'survival of the fittest' was mentioned. The strongest and the most ruthless will succeed. The party which is willing to take any means necessary will come out victorious of the battle.

A valid point of view, you think? Well, I think it's bullshit!

It's sad enough that clans feel to play the game not caring about sportsmanship. I'm quite sure that sportsmanship and competitive gameplay are no contradictions. I'm not familiar with the clan scene, but I'm sure there are a lot of clans proving all the time that a clan can be successful while being sportsmanlike and by trying to avoid certain - IMO lame - behavior. My respect for all those clans.

But when it comes to pub games the notion to war not only gets ridiculous, but it usually shows the disrespect of people for their fellow players.

During mentioned discussion someone very correctly pointed out that we have approx. 1260 servers running TFC (according to Gamespy). With the standard running time for a map of 30 minutes this makes 60480 games each day. Now if you only count one half of that (to make up for empty servers or servers running only part of the day) you would still have more than 30000 games each day.

So what fucking war are we fighting here? What makes one of these 30000 games so important that justifies to use 'all means necessary'. What remains of that victory in that single game that you would retreat on Chasing and Respawn Camping to win it? Will anybody remember the next week? Heck, there aren't even any stats for TFC to reflect such efforts (and now don't make a fool out of yourself by mentioning CLQ).

So is there one good reason to annoy or piss off the other players in a pub game by insisting on using questionable (read: lame) tactics? Just so you can satisfy your ego? So you can be like those lamers who say "I win" at the end of a map?

Referring to a game of TFC as war is far too often just a poor excuse to be allowed to act like an ass and to disrespect the people one plays with. Pub games are not about winning or losing, they are about having fun (and if you can't keep apart one from the other I pity you).

And - as mentioned before - it is by no means necessary to have as well an enjoyable as a competitive and thrilling game. Usually quite the opposite: When you feel Respawn Camping is necessary to successfully get the enemy flag just consider the challenge to get it without RC. If the enemy O is that strong rather see the challenge in either creating an appropriate defense or an equally efficient offense instead of retreating to a half-baked solution of chasing.

Instead of focusing on the fleeting end result of a map rather make the game itself count.

Tuesday, 01 May 2001 1750Z
PFL bans Bunnyhopping... -Teatime

Maybe no news to many readers, but I thought I'd comment it anyway.

The ProFortress League (PFL) has announced that Bunnyhopping will be banned in future matches. With that decision finally a TFC league took a stand on BH, which will hopefully serve as an example not only to other leagues but will also set a signal to the community that exploits of that kind are not in the spirit of the game.

To quote PainKiller-[CE], the PFL Commissioner, explaining the reasons behind that decision:

I also hope that Valve is paying attention, because up until now they've treated this issue far too lightly in my opinion, and it's starting to get to be a real problem. I hope that we can be successful with this ban, and set an example for the rest of the leagues, and for the clans themselves. We should be able to see for ourselves when something breaks the game we've all been playing for so long, and not have to wait for Valve to fix it,
but instead fix it ourselves and unify our voices in asking them to finish what we've started.

I'm sure that this decision will be debated very controversially inside and outside PFL, and I'm sure PFL will take heavy fire for pulling that off. The more I congratulate the PFL commission as well as all clans in PFL supporting that decision for making that step, as well as I hope that all clans in PFL will help to show that competitive gameplay on the highest level doesn't require the use of exploits!

And I also hope that this will cause the community to reevaluate its opinion on BH. Don't let yourself be fooled by skill. An exploit is an exploit, regardless of the skill it requires. And last but not least I hope Valve gets up its ass to address that problem in an appropriate way.