TeamFortress news

  Recent News    

  16.12.1997    


    Yes, we are working on TeamFortress II, and have been for a couple of months now. The design is 90% completed, and classes, weapons, etc have been decided. Please do not mail us with questions about TFII design at the moment... you will simply be slowing down our development process.
    We will release info on the TFII design when we're ready to do so.
    As a side result, we will be answering less of our email over the next couple of months, and we apologise in advance for that. You are welcome to mail us suggestions for TFII, but we cannot guarantee we'll reply.

  30.11.1997    
    2Fort5 released  
    2fort5 is the new version of the 2forts series of maps. Download 2fort5 (396K).

  6.11.1997    
    QW Patch Statistics  
    Another side project we've been planning on the side here at TFS has been completed. We were interested to know how well our patch was doing around the world, so we modified the excellent qstat program written by Steve Jankowski to produce TFStat.

    For the past couple of weeks we've been running TFStat every hour, polling every QW server registered on the QW masters, and gathering a database of the number of players on each one.
    The few people we mentioned this to were interested to see the results, so we've written up a bit of a report on the resulting statistics, and provided the raw data for download.

    Check out the report.


    TF 2.65 Bugfix  
    The TF 2.65 Bugfix is still in beta... a few more bugs were found which need fixing and testing, and hence slows the release. QW 2.1 seems to also be causing one specific problem which may require changes to TF, and we don't want to release until this has been resolved, whether by us or by Zoid.
    Sorry for the delay... but waiting an extra week here may save us from having to make another release immediately after this one.

  17.10.1997    

    TFS Movie #2 : Damian Scott's Quake Intro  
    One of the side projects here at TFS has been completed. Damian's always ranted to us about how disappointed he was with quake "intro", or lack thereof, and kept threatening to make his own.

    A couple of weeks ago he finally got around to scripting it, and started filming. We learnt a lot from doing the TF promo/movie... and we still had our demo editing tools, so making this intro was a lot less painful, and the results are a lot 'cleaner'.

    You can read the readme, or go straight to the Downloads page to get it.


  13.10.1997    

    TeamFortress 2.65 BugFix  
    The TF 2.65 BugFix is in testing and you'll probably see it running on various servers within the hour. It fixes most, if not all, of the known cheats in TF. It is not an official release yet... and won't be until we're sure it fixes all the cheats.
    You can do your bit by playing on BugFix servers and keeping an eye out for anyone cheating.

    Please don't mail us reports of people cheating on non 2.65 Bugfix servers... we know it's possible, and we know how it's done.

    Official release should be within the next couple of days.


  23.08.1997    

    TeamFortress 2.6 Final Release  
    Ok, the TF 2.6 Final Release has been finished, so unless there's horrendous bugs in it, this will be the last version you'll see from us for a while. We'll give out some info on what we're working on over the next couple of months.
    You can read the version info, or go straight to the Downloads page to get it.

    TeamFortress's 1st Birthday  
    Yep, tomorrow, on 24th August 1997, TF turns 1.
    To celebrate the occasion, TFS'll be wandering around various TF servers on the net, so make sure you check out a few servers. And keep an eye out for anything interesting... ;)

  17.08.1997    

    The Future of TF 1  
    We're ripping 90% of the class alterations in 2.6 out, and reverting them to the 2.5 state. There's a lot of reasons why we're doing this, so I'll just mention the main ones:

    1. I'm sick of getting 200 opinionated emails a day from people who think we've got a hatred for their favourite class. The attitude of the email is what's important here. People seemed to have ceased to ask/recommend/offer thoughts... now they insist and tell.

      I don't like making examples of people, but this one was too good to ignore: Some fool threatened to get all his friends together and continuously spam all of TFS with email until we put the detpack back to it's original form.
      Did he seriously think this was going to help his cause?

      We're all sick of people spamming all 6 members of TFS with the same email. This is one of the most irritating things people can possibly do... it wastes our time and prevents us getting our work done.

    2. We don't like the attitude of much of the quake/TF community. Too many players these days seem to think patch makers owe them something. The bottom line is that patch makers do it because its fun for them. When it ceases to be fun, they're under no obligation to continue.
      You piss them off too much, and they'll just get up and walk away, taking their source code/models/sounds/etc with them.

    3. We've been trying to decrease the work being done on TF for a while now, but we keep finding new and interesting things to add. We're drawing the line now. No more additions. It's time to take a leaf out of Zoid's book and realise our product has gone as far as it will go. Adding more classes to TF is not a good way to make it better.

    By the way, we're not reverting TF because everyone hated 2.6. I've received as much mail from people who like 2.6 as I have from people who hated it... it's not so much the type of mail that's irritating us, its the sheer volume.
    If ScatterBlak wants to play "mail-quote-wars", I'm up for it anytime ;)


    So what's this mean?  
    TF 2.6 will be the last version of TF 1, addition wise. There'll most likely be a few maintenance versions for TF map makers, and to fix any bugs found.
    So don't send us your latest class idea, don't mail me to ask what kind of modem I think you should buy, don't ask Ian if he thinks a p200 MMX is better than a ppro200, stop bugging Damian about installing TF, quit asking TyR when Twin Peaks is going to be released, and don't even think about sending your mail to all 6 of us.

    What are we doing now?  
    We're working fulltime on TF II, for Quake 2, and on our commercial project. They're both tentatively slated for release around April/May next year. Don't mail asking for details, because you won't get any. We might release some info as we work on it.
    If we get some peace, we might be able to make TF II as good as we'd like it to be. We will probably release a couple of new TF maps in a month or two, hopefully including StrongHold and a new map by TyR. No promises.
    We've finally realised why id disappears off the face of the earth while they're working on their games. It's so they don't have to spend 4 hours a day to answer their email.

    On a side note, John's email box died, and he's lost the last 3 weeks of mail, so if it's obscenely important, mail it to him again.


    TF Ports, Part 2  
    Since we released our opinion on TF Ports (see 13.07.1997 below) a few people have commented that they don't understand why we release the source code. One guy seemed to think we were stupid to release the source code if we didn't want people to use it. He seems to have completely misunderstood what we're on about, so I'll try to explain it.

    We learnt qc by example. When we started, there were no qc www pages, there were no beginner guides to qc, there was nothing except a few hundred people all trying to unlock it's secrets. People released their source code because it helped other people learn. Dennis Noordsij was the first to figure out how to do multiple skins on a model, so he released Multiskin, with the source code included. Now, skins are pretty simple things to do... but imagine if they weren't?
    TF might not have had class skins. CTF might not have had team skins. FvF might not have had class skins. And so on.
    Releasing the TF source code is our way of giving a bit back to the qc community, who gave us so much when we started.

    If no qc patches ever released their source code, do you think half of today's patches would exist?

    We release the TF source so fledgling qc coders have more example qc to look through and learn from. We don't release it so people can play cut'n'paste to make their own patch.


  13.08.1997    

    TeamFortress 2.6 Final Beta  
    Ok, the final beta is complete, although there will be a few tweaks, including some new models, in the final release. We've released the server zip and the client zip seperately. You can read the version info, or go straight to the Downloads page.

  31.07.1997    

    Armageddon 3  
    We just got back from spending a week up in Brisbane for Armageddon 3, which was Australia's answer to QuakeCon. It was a large (~230) computer quakefest, with individual,clan, and interstate competitions planned... due to time constraints, only the Individual competition was held, and it was won by Robin (Bro) from TFS.
    We've written up a bit of a report/criticism of it, and you can read this, and see some of the photos/demos from it, right here.

    TF 2.6 - The Clan Update  
    We had hoped to release a final version of 2.6 before leaving for A3, but ran out of time. Now that we're back, we were planning to release 2.6 almost immediately... but, it seems the new version of QuakeWorld has some features in it which will help TF a lot. First and foremost, it has a function which we can use to completely prevent speed cheating. Among other things, it also allows players to move faster than 320, so the scout will get his original speed back.

    So, instead of releasing 2.6 now, we've decided we'll wait for the new version of QuakeWorld, which we've heard is in beta testing this week. It's not worth making a release which might only be used for a week.

    Since we're pushing the release back a bit, we might throw in a couple of new surprises :)


  13.07.1997    

    TF 2.6 - The Clan Update  
    TF 2.6 should be out within a week or so, unless we run across some major bugs, and it'll probably be co-released with Twin Peaks.
    Also, keep an eye out for 2fort5... John's been improving 2fort4 a bit.

    The TF Birthday  
    TeamFortress v1.0 was released on the 24th August last year, so next month we'd like to celebrate it's birthday in some way. Currently, we've got a couple of ideas... but if you've got any good ideas on what you'd like to see for the TF Birthday, send them to Ian.

    The TF Troubleshooting FAQ  
    The Troubleshooting FAQ has been updated a bit, now featuring solutions to the more frequents problems and questions that plague TF players.
    We'd appreciate it if a few of the TF news pages sported links to it.

    TF Ports  
    Since a few people have contacted us about using the TF code to write their own patches, and even more people are tweaking TF statistically, we'd just like to state our official stand on TF ports.
    There's essentially two different types of TF Ports:

    • Tweaked TF

        These are alterations of the TF code with relatively small changes, like tweaking the damage done by a weapon, or changing the behaviour of a couple of the grenades.

    • Full TF Ports

        These are major alterations of the TF code to create new classes, new weaponry, but they still contain some of the TF classes/weaponry and they're still built upon the TF code, keeping the existing Map Code, etc.

    If you're creating a Tweaked version, then we ask you not to distribute it. We already receive enough email from players confused about the differences between Lan and Net versions of TF... if a few TF variations with tweaked statistics get passed around, it'll get even worse.

    If you're creating a Full TF Port... we'd prefer you didn't.
    We don't really want to see other patches floating around with 2 or 3 new classes added and the Scout removed. It's not that we don't want competition for TF... it's just that we don't want to see other patches that are built on the TF base.
    And promising us that you'll remove all TF's existing classes and create new ones doesn't help... you're still using the TF foundation code, with the inbuilt map code, etc. And if you're not using that, why not just write your own mod from scratch?

    We will still continue to release the TF source code, because we still believe it's useful to others out there. We learnt qc by example, and we want to help other qc coders.
    If there's something in TF that you want to use in your own patch, such as the menu system, etc, then by all means use our code. We're just trying to discourage others from using the TF code as the entire base for building their own patch.

    Of course, we realise we can't stop anyone from going ahead with a TF port anyway... but bear in mind it'll definately affect our decision to continue releasing the TF source code.

    We're also aware that some of this contradicts a statement we made on the TF mailing list recently... sorry, but we've reconsidered.
    This is where we stand now.


  20.06.1997    

    TF 2.6 - The Clan Update  
    The next version of TF will be 2.6, and it'll be specifically aimed at Clan Battles. Apart from the usual assortment of tweaks, bug fixes, and map code additions, there'll be various features designed to make customisation and execution of Clan Battles simpler. It'll be released sometime in the next few weeks.

    We'd be grateful for suggestions from anyone who runs TF Clan Battles, and has a particular feature they'd like to see. Mail Robin with the details.


    TF Map Pak  
    We're also working on a TF map pak. It'll contain an undetermined number of maps, from various authors. Maps included will be one from John (creator of 2fort4 and havoc6), two from TyR (co-creator of 2fort32, and creator of the soon-to-be-released Twin Peaks), one from Robin (his first map), and several others.

    It'll feature President, Capture The Flag, Command & Conquer, Ramirez's Command Point System, and various other map styles.


    TFS and the TF Community  
    With the explosion of the TF community in the recent week or two, there's been a bit of misrepresentation that we'd like to clear up. TFS supports anyone contributing to the TF community... but we don't endorse certain people above others. The reason for this stance is that we are not involved enough in the community to make fair choices.

    Recently, the TFL has been claiming that we endorse/support them, going so far as to say they're the official League, and that they'll be the official testers for TF 2.6, the Clan Update.

    This is not so... we support them because they're contributing to the TF community, but we don't support them any more than we support the International TF League, the TF Veterans, or the TF Clans. All of these people have put lots of effort in... who are we to decide who is more worthy?

    And as for beta testers, we don't have official testers. We test internally, and just before release. We've used Braveheart's servers a bit because Gudlyf has been online when we were releasing.

    So please, do us a favour, and don't ask us to endorse you. We'll support you by answering questions, discussing additions to the code, and adding you to our links page... but we'll give just the same to every other TF page.


  15.06.1997    

    GLQuakeWorld fix for TF 2.5  
    Thanks to Jack "Morbid" Mathews, we've found the problems with the 2.5 mdls that caused GLQW to crash. We've fixed that, and also replaced the tf_flag.mdl with the correct one, so even if you don't run GLQW, it's worth downloading it anyway.

    You can download the fix here (33k)

    Unzip the zip into your fortress directory, and you're ready to go.


    TeamFortress 2.5 Promo  
    A few people have said they can't get the TF 2.5 promo/demo to run.
    The promo should start as soon as quake runs with -game fortress, but this won't happen if you jump straight into a map or server.
    You can force the demo to run by typing, in the console:

      playdemo demo1

    I suggest you don't run it in a high-res mode tho, because the music lags behind the action, and since it was cut to fit the music perfectly, it loses a lot of it's appeal.


  13.06.1997    

    Team Fortress Version 2.5 Final Release  
    Yes, it's finally here. Download TF 2.5.
    The zip file contains all versions, normal and QW, client and server. And the promo.

    Well, we're going out to get absolutely legless, and we're not going to be back for 2 days.
    So if you find a bug, tell it to someone who cares.

    Team Fortress Demo Competition  
    The TF Demo competition is now open. Show the world how good a TF player you are, or better yet, get some friends over and show the world how well you can work together.
    Details are here.

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