Team Fortress Classic

Team Fortress Classic (TFC) is a popular multiplayer mod for the first-person shooter computer game Half-Life that allows teams of players to compete on the Internet in action packed games of capture the flag, escorting a VIP, territory control, and many other missions. It was ported to Half-Life by the developers of the Team Fortress mod for Quake in collaboration with Valve Software.

Classes
The most interesting aspect of TFC is the class-based interdependence it breeds amongst teammates. After picking a team (i.e., the red team or the blue team), players pick a "class." Before spawning, and after dying (which happens often), players have the opportunity to pick a class. Each class, detailed below, has its own unique strengths and weaknesses, which are offset by certain other classes. For example, the Scout is the fastest class in the game, but with its weak armor and weaponry, is easily fragged (killed) by a Heavy Weapons Guy (HWGuy) under the right circumstances. An Engineer can cause massive damage to an HWGuy with his EMP grenades, which have little effect on Scouts. Snipers can kill any class with just one charged shot, but are vulnerable to getting stabbed in the back by a Spy. But the Spy's disguise can be exposed by a Scout. This interdependence makes each class important, and creates a Rock, Paper, Scissors scenario where each of the classes offers important counters to each other.

Although this works in theory, the reality is nothing like it. Games where professional players fight it out (clan matches and public servers where clan members play seriously) are dominated by Soldiers, Engineers and Medics. This list describes the strengths and weaknesses of each class:

Scout
The fastest class, but weakly armed and armored, can strip a spy of its disguise, and can defuse Demoman charges. Armed with crowbar, single-barreled shotgun, nailgun, caltrops and concussion grenades.

Coupled with his concussion grenades, concjumping Scouts are very hard to defeat unless you have a sentry gun or something to block him with. A Scout's weapons are ineffective against other players, and offer no chance at all against a skilled Engineer + Soldier combo. There is often one on each team in clan matches, generally devoted to flag-capturing and little else.

Some players of this class choose to limit themselves to using only the scout's crowbar as a weapon, whether for personal challenge or merely for the entertainment of other players; such individuals are known as "crowbar scouts." Players who adopt the crowbar scout mentality are usually especially skilled at concjumping and therefore adept at achieving whatever objective the map in question uses (e.g., flagrunning on 2fort-style maps).

Sniper
A very popular class but tricky to play and can be a serious foe or almost useless. Armed with a deadly sniper rifle with a zoom, a crowbar, a nailgun, and an alt-fire mode on his rifle that turns it into an automatic weapon. Has medium speed, and is armed with only normal grenades. His special skill gives him a zoomed-in view through the sniper rifle's scope.

The Sniper has one of the game's two one-hit-kill weapons (aside from Spy's knife) which is arguably the game's only viable ranged weapon; most of TFC's other guns either ineffective over long distances (shotguns) or are slow moving enough to be dodged easily at long distances (nailguns, grenades, rockets, etc.). He works best from concealment; stealth is his only defense. Once exposed, he is easily defeated by most any class: his autorifle is not particularly damaging and its ammo supply is limited; his only other defense is his grenades, which will often kill both players thanks to their large damage radius.

In theory, this class is very dangerous. However, a number of gameplay elements are designed to limit the Sniper's effectiveness. When "zoomed in", the sniper's movement is slowed to a crawl and their peripheral vision is greatly reduced ("Tunnel-visioned"). In this state they can be highly vulnerable. The sniper rifle takes several seconds to fully charge to inflict maximum damage. While this is happening they are also vulnerable. The "red dot" of the snipers' laser sight can also give away their presence if not positions. TFC maps are often designed with prominent and easy-to-find "sniper decks" whose occupants are highly exposed, thus compromising the Sniper's only defense: stealth. Nevertheless, most Snipers have no choice but to use these locations, where they are easily targeted by opposing Snipers, shooting from their base's sniper deck. (This page's screenshot, a picture of the Red base in the map 2Fort, shows just how exposed the second-story sniper balcony is. For the record, it was taken from the Blue base's sniper balcony; a player standing in the parallel position would be perched above the left doorway.)  The Sniper, thus killed, vows revenge. Immediately a so-called "sniper-war" breaks out, a test of reflexes and latency values, with opposing Snipers targeting each other to the exclusion of all other classes, making them superfluous, contributing nothing to the actual flow of the gameplay. For this reason, some servers limit the number of Snipers, and they are almost totally ignored in clan games. Occasionally, though, a creative player finds himself an alternative hiding place, and until he is discovered and killed, he will often dominate games, exactly the way he is meant to in theory. In practice, however, some players find Snipers to be little more than pests.

Soldier
The Soldier (Solly) is the mobile, armored heavy artillery of TFC. Has a deadly RPG launcher, heavily armored. Also armed with crowbar, single and double-barreled (super) shotguns, normal grenades and nail grenades. These explode to release a stream of nail-like shrapnel in all directions damaging all in their path.

The most balanced overall class, plentiful armor and health, powerful weapons (in the hands of skilled players), slow yet acceptable speed, many grenades, highly mobile thanks to rocketjumping. Very common in games, almost never limited. The majority of the team in clan play.

The chief weakness of this class, apart from being relatively slow, is both main weapons require reloading often. The RPG launcher can hold only four rounds which can disappear very quickly in a heated battle. The super shotgun can only hold sixteen rounds max. Consequently their Special Skill button reloads their selected weapon. A smart, skilled Soldier will reload early and often and also know when to switch between RPG and shotgun.

But Soldier is still a good introductory class.

Demoman
Can lay pipebombs and detpacks (large, timed bombs). Armed with crowbar, single-barreled shotgun, grenade launcher, pipebomb launcher, normal grenades and MIRV grenades, which are especially powerful. They explode twice, the first explosion sends out 4 submunitions or MIRVs which then explode together to devastate a wide radius.

The Demoman can break through defenses with his powerful explosives, and can also defend with them. His weakness is close combat though, and in most cases he will lose against a Soldier. One exception is if the Demoman has mastered the grenade launcher, which is very powerful when properly used. Each team in a clan match might have one, offense or defense. Their special skill detonates pipebombs. Pipebombs also automatically detonate when the Demoman dies or two minutes after they are laid.

Certain maps are designed with strategic use of the detpack in mind. Usually a secondary route into each base may be blocked with a grate or pile of rubble, which can be blasted open (and sometimes closed) by the Demoman, but other destroyable features have been seen. For example, spotlights in the base entryway might be shut down if a skilled Demoman can reach the basement and use his detpack to sabotage a generator.

When the words FIRE IN THE HOLE appear on screen a detpack has been set.

Medic
Armed with a medkit, single and double-barreled shotguns, a "super" nail gun, and concussion and normal grenades.

Has decent weapons and armor, the second-highest speed and great mobility. But can be vulnerable against the Soldier's rockets, unless relying on grenades. Despite his profession and the bright red cross on his chest, he is the offense in clan matches. Like the Scout, he can also concjump.

The medkit has several uses. It automatically heals him over time, two health points every two seconds. Used on a team member it boosts health, even raising it past the maximum to provide a bonus that gradually fades back to full health. Using it on an enemy gives him a contagious infection which slowly reduces their health, can be spread to other players on contact and can only be cured by that team's medic. Medics, of course, are immune to infection. This is a good class for newbies.

HWGuy (Heavy Weapons Guy)
Is often referred to as the tank of the TFC universe, and sometimes the less endearing "Fat Guy." Heavy armor, extremely slow, his powerful gatling gun (or Assault Cannon/AC) slows him down even more when in use. It can inflict devastating damage at close range but its high rate of fire eats up lots of ammo very quickly. Also armed with crowbar, single and double-barreled shotguns, normal grenades and MIRV grenades.

Very powerful and hard to kill, a skilled player can kill any class at close range, most classes at medium range but few at long range, which is its greatest weakness. His slow speed makes him better suited for defense, but still quite effective in a support role. In clan matches each team will have one at defense, possibly more if allowed.

This is an excellent introductory class for new players to learn the game's basics.

Pyro
The Pyro is armed with a flamethrower, an incendiary rocket cannon, normal grenades, and napalm grenades. Also armed with a single-barrel shotgun and a crowbar.

Sort of a jack of all trades, medium speed and only slightly weaker armored than the Soldier, the Pyro is best suited for assault support. Be warned, however, that when using a Pyro on offense you will be highly vulnerable to Engineer's EMP grenades, the bane of the Pyro. The Pyro is also respectable at midline defense due to his relatively high speed and exceptional disruptive ability, and in this role you are much less likely to have a live EMP grenade tossed at you.

The Pyro's napalm grenades create a temporary field of flame that will ignite any enemies passing through it, causing damage to them for as long as they linger in the flames. Slow-moving HWGuys are particularly vulnerable to a direct napalm grenade (especially when firing their chaingun), while speedy scouts can often make it through with limited damage.

The Pyro's primary weapon, the flamethrower, has a very short range, but has a high firing rate and large ammunition reserve, so don't worry about holding down the trigger. Any player struck by a flame will be set on fire and will take minimal but continuous damage until extinguished. Water, and a friendly medic's medkit are the quickest ways to extinguish the fire, but it will die out on its own after a time.

The incendiary cannon is the Pyro's only long-range weapon, and it's a rather limited one at that. Doing little direct damage, the advantage of this bastardized rocket launcher is that its slow-moving rocket ignites enemy players within its fairly large blast radius (even through walls, floors and doors), and the fact that it doesn't need to be reloaded. Most effectively used as suppressive fire against Snipers.

While ablaze, either from a napalm grenade, flamethrower, or incendiary cannon, an enemy player's display will be obscured with large pixelated flames, making it difficult to aim and navigate. This is particularly frustrating for Snipers, who are all but useless while on fire. This can be worked around with a little determination, though the flames are as good as a concussion grenade when it comes to confusing some players.

Rarely used in clan matches, equally effective (but not dominant) at defense or offense, its peculiar weapons make it a tough class to master, and the Pyro is very rarely chosen. However, for those who have mastered the class, Pyros have a unique disruptive effect on the enemy, surpassing even that of the medic's "infection."

Spy
The stealth assassin/saboteur of TFC. Can disguise as a member of an opposing team, can remove enemy Spy's disguises, can feign death, can kill with one well-placed stab with his knife. Firing a weapon causes the spy to lose his disguise, but is able to toss grenades while maintaining his disguise. Also armed with double-barreled shotgun, nail gun, tranquilizer pistol, normal grenades and gas grenades. Moves at medium speed. Special Skill button brings up the disguise menu.

The primary use of the Spy is as an effective countermeasure against the Engineer's sentry gun (or SG), which will not fire on them while disguised. In clan matches this class is often sent in against entrenched defenses. Clan rules often forbid defending with a Spy.

The gas grenade produces a mild hallucinatory effect with the sufferer seeing explosions, flames and grenades coming out of nowhere. It fades off in a short time and most players will simply ignore the effects, which can make it much easier to suffer grenade damage. In large doses, spy gas (or Fairy Dust) can severely injure or kill.

The Spy is one of the more challenging classes to play, and is not recommended for newbies. Spies are not particularly fast or powerful in straight combat. They must rely on stealth and surprise. When these elements are lost the effectiveness of a Spy can be seriously compromised.

Engineer
Moving at medium speed, but with very light armor and health, Engineers are not well suited for offense, but form the backbone of a team's defense, able to defend two points at the same time. They can build powerful automatic sentry guns, one-way teleporters, ammunition dispensers, can repair teammates' armor by hitting them with his wrench/spanner, can carry up to four EMP grenades, which are devastating against certain heavily armored classes. EMP grenades do not explode themselves, but release a powerful Electro-Magnetic Pulse (hence EMP) which detonates any unexploded ammo within their radius. The Engineer is also armed with a double-barreled shotgun and a "railgun" (not to be mistaken for the Q3A weapon of the same name) that fires slow green projectiles using nail ammunition.

The Engineer's greatest strength is a well-placed sentry gun (SG), which is a very effective defender; the only targets they don't shoot at are disguised enemy Spies, even the mighty HWGuy can be chewed up and spit out in a matter of seconds. Most teams have at least one Engineer on duty in their base solely for this purpose, sometimes paired with a HWGuy or Soldier, though defensive pairings with Demomen or Pyros can also be effective. Entire teams consisting of nothing but Engineers have also been known to occur, though the class limits in place on most servers prevent this. Usually two engineers working closely together for a 10-player team will make the flag very difficult to grab for enemy players in a CTF map.

Sentry guns are also the Engineer's greatest weakness. They must not only be placed well, but carefully sighted so they scan and cover vital areas. Once built they must be quickly upgraded to the highest level (the third) and once fully upgraded they must be reloaded, repaired and maintained. Most of this can be accomplished with a whack of a wrench but it requires a lot of metal cells (130 to build or upgrade to next level) and ammo packs to build, upgrade and maintain an SG especially in a heavily disputed area. SGs must also be protected from spies and enemies who try and take them down from their blind spots. SGs can scan a 90 degree arch, on the other 270 degrees they are pretty much blind. For this reason they are often placed in corners, or on high places where they can command a wide area yet be relatively safe.

An Engineer's EMP grenades detonate cell, rocket, and shell ammunition within their radius, and are extremely damaging to classes like Pyros and Demomen who carry a large amount of cells. Most multikill EMPs are due to enemies clustered too closely to a Pyro or a Demoman. Other vulnerable classes are Soldiers, HWGuys, and other Engineers. Classes that don't use explosive ammo, such as Scouts (barring the exception below), Snipers, and Medics (to a lesser extent), can waltz right through an EMP grenade's area of effect with only minor damage. Ammo and armor Dispensers, however, can be used to block entryways, while also serving as a trap to enemies who come in contact with the dispenser, as the Engineer receives a warning when an enemy touches the dispenser, and usually detonates it to inflict harm on the enemy. Even fast, lightly-armed classes are vulnerable to these traps.

Due to a bug where Scouts cannot drop cells they pick up, Scouts explode into a shower of gibs if they get hit with an EMP after picking up an ammo pack.

With the move to Valve's Steam platform, the Engineer has gained the ability to construct one-way teleporter pads. These are extremely useful for offense, though they are about as fragile as a dispenser. Defending against even a semi-coordinated team using teleporters can be frustratingly difficult, excruciatingly so if they have multiple teleporters running, and so regular patrols and checks are advised.

Engineer can pose a serious challenge for begginers as well as being seriously challenging for them to play.

Civilian
Only found in "VIP escort" type maps and other special modes. A weak, slow speed character armed with just an umbrella, the functional equivalent of a crowbar, he requires the protection of his teammates in order to complete a map's objectives.

Game types
The multitude of ways entities can interact in Team Fortress and Team Fortress Classic allow for an almost limitless amount of different game modes. This is one of the reasons the mods were so successful. This is a list of some of the major game modes, complete with examples of popular maps.

Capture the flag
Capture the flag (CTF) is a simple mode where players must get a flag from the enemies' base and return it to your own base to score. Several game modes based on CTF exist, including some variations where players instead have to take their flag to the enemies' base and modes with multiple flags.

Territory control
Territory control maps consist of several command points that a player can capture by either standing on it or bringing a flag there (depending on the map). A team scores by controlling all command points.

Invade/defend
One team defends a base and another team tries to capture that base by bringing a flag to multiple capture points situated deep inside the base.

Hunted-style
One player is the VIP/Civilian class (usually blue team). He needs to traverse the map to get to an escape zone without being killed by the assassin team. The other (usually red) team are bodyguards trying to protect and escort the VIP.

Shutdown-style
Shutdown is a variation of capture the flag where the players must first complete an objective (such as disabling a laser by pressing a button) before gaining access to the flag.

Skill maps
Skill maps or practice maps are for perfecting certain skills, such as concjumping, rocketjumping, and strafe-jumping, and climbing. These maps consist of increasingly hard jumps that players have to complete to reach the end of the map. Most maps have some kind of reward in the end.

Team Deathmatch maps
Often called DMs. Two to four teams (these maps often have yellow and green teams as well) fight for frags instead of flags. Whomever kills the most enemies wins. Most all regular Half-Life DM maps can be played as TFC DMs too. They can make for an enjoyable change of pace and also allow players to sharpen their combat skills without worrying about flags or other objectives.

Sniper War maps
Are a variation on Team Deathmatch but each team consists of Snipers only.

Sports War maps
These maps based on popular sports, are true bloodsports, where flags and command points are replaced by some sort of ball. Push, for instance, is a soccer game where both teams try to grab the ball and bring it to the enemy's goal. In Murderball, four teams try to grab the ball and hold it for as long as possible. For each second a team member holds the ball, a point is scored for the entire team. If the ball holder is killed the ball instantly returns to mid-field. So it can become a bloody game of Hide and Seek or Hot Potato.

Competition
Several online gaming leagues exist, where players compete each week for dominance with their team, or clan. Since TFC is naturally a team game, it lends itself well to this aspect.

But you don't have to be in a formal team to play TFC right now. All you need is a copy of Half-Life to join any public server. It is likely populated with players like you&mdash;if not, pick another&mdash;and start shooting away. For beginners, a durable class like Soldier or HWGuy is recommended.

American leagues include:
 * UGC
 * STA
 * TFL

European leagues include:
 * UKTFCL
 * WPTFCL
 * NTFCL
 * VTFL/V-Ladder

Oceanic (Australia and New Zealand) leagues include:
 * ozfl (ozfortress league)
 * MLF (Major League Fortress)
 * SoO (State of Origin)
 * ADL (Attack, Defence League)
 * ozfortress cup (International tournament)
 * RvB (Red vs Blue community challenge)

These are found at http://www.ozfortress.com

Over the past years there have been several national TFC tournaments, centered around Europe but also including team USA and team Canada, called ECTFC. This is one of the most respectable TFC competitions, with only the best players playing for their country. The leagues include live shoutcast play by play commentary and often HLTV's, which can accommodate more than 200 spectators for the more important games.

Seriously competing clans have seen the rise of playing for money in tournaments like the CPL. However, TFC's popularity has probably seen its peak, and CPL prizes have not seen the heights of $100,000 for the Counter-Strike champion.

History
Since its release in 1999, Valve has introduced various changes into the game. Perhaps the most momentous was TFC 1.5 (released on June 8th, 2000), which, amongst other things, increased the Pyro's flame damage, reduced the HWGuy's AC damage, introduced new maps and map types such as Dustbowl, a new GUI menu interface and optimized the game's code for smoother, faster play. With this release, the game was officially named Team Fortress 1.5 to distinguish it from earlier versions. However, most players and fans still referred to it as TFC. Valve's last major revision to TFC 1.5 was released in October 2001. It was with this release that Valve began the long transition to its Steam system, which was finally completed in July 2004. Before this Valve released a Steam-Only version 1.6, which also introduced the Engineers' teleporters and a single new map (Ravelin, which was Valve's first new map release in nearly 3 years). Despite this, TFC 1.5 remains popular especially among veteran players, some of whom have found ways to port the teleporters and Ravelin over to 1.5. For much of its early history, TFC was second only to Counter-Strike as the most played and popular of online games. For a long time afterwards it consistently ranked among the top 5 or top 10.

Before TFC there was Team Fortress, a 1996 QuakeWorld mod. TF's developers were working on Team Fortress 2 as a standalone game, but later joined Valve Software and ported the original as a mod for Half-Life called Team Fortress Classic in April of 1999. Despite the company's 1998 statement that Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms would be released "soon," the game is still supposedly in development and has been on Wired magazine's top ten vaporware list every year since 2001.

A similar game to Team Fortress is Weapons Factory Arena (WFA) for Quake 3, and it has been ported to Quake 2, Unreal Tournament (1999), and Half-Life (1998). WFA has much in common with TF, although there is one significant change; the demolition man has been replaced by a suicidal "Cyborg."

NeoTF
NeoTF is a popular server-side enhancement for Team Fortress Classic. First appearing in 2002, NeoTF adds many new elements to the game which can turn it into a completely different experience. Engineers, for instance, in addition to the usual Sentry Guns can also build Multi-Guns (MGs). A newly built MG is inert and must be upgraded by a non-Engineer teammate, who can accomplish this task simply by running up and touching it. The type of MG it upgrades to depends on which class touches it. If a Pyro upgrades it becomes a flamegun. If a medic touches it; a plague gun (from which even enemy medics are not immune). Soldiers can turn them into rocket launching guns, etc. Inert MGs may also be captured by the enemy if they manage to upgrade them first.

Other features of NeoTF (NTF) include: Spies can call airstrikes which can devastate outside areas. They can also fly on hoverboards and listen into the opposing teams' private chat. Soldiers can launch remote helicopters with deadly missiles, which they can pilot as well as build SAM launchers to shoot down enemy remotes. Snipers can build anti-rockets shields to protect themselves from Soldiers' and Pyros' long range weapons. Demomen can build mines. HWGuys can build mortars. Pyros have freeze rays and jetpacks. Scouts can build teleport disks or become invisible, for a short time, to enemy SGs. Medics can launch deadly, insect-like creatures called Snarks and build anti-grenade pods which can also heal teammates.

From this partial description of only some of NeoTF's features it can be seen how it can add considerably to the fun of TFC and greatly increase its already very high replayability. Thus NTF has contributed greatly to TFC's enduring popularity. Several of the early members of the NTF development team are now at work on the Half-Life 2 mod Fortress Forever.

But while NTF adds new layers of fun it also adds new levels of complexity, especially for newbies. For instance, those unfamilar with the game's console (an interface which allows commands to be executed via a command line prompt) or the concept of binding a command or function to a key using the console, will find themselves lost in an already complex game, since one must at least know how to bind a key to use any of the special features in NTF. It is, therefore, highly recommended that beginners familiarize themselves well with regular TFC before seriously attempting play on a NeoTF server.

Contemporary issues
TFC can no longer be played on the WON network (unless you know the IP of the server you want to play on) as Valve Software has shut it down. In order to play TFC, users must now use the Steam platform. Although a WON2 network is rumored to exist. The advantages and disadvantages of WON vs Steam remain controversial issues within the TFC and Half-Life communities.

Like Counter-Strike, there are a few bots (AI opponents and teammates) for online multiplayer and offline single play. Some of the most famous bots for TFC are:


 * 1) FoxBots are considered the best TFC bots
 * 2) OddBot An early bot which is no longer supported.
 * 3) HPB Bot The original bots for Half-Life