Team Fortress 2 - HELP!
Alright, so I read that TF2 thread that was made just before the move, and decided to finally give in and get that darn game.
But I have no idea what to DO!
I mean, join server is as far as I got - when I saw the list, I thought what? Which one should I pick? Control Point, Capture The Flag, what's the game for a noob to start out with? And what level, for that matter?
Help me, Halforumites!
Try to find a server with low ping (under 50 if possible, under 100 if not, though personally I find anything under 200 to be playable) and playing the standard Valve maps. The reason is that the official maps from Valve tend to be of higher quality, though of course opinions vary. Also, the official maps are already pre-loaded on your computer, unlike user-made community maps, which have to be downloaded from the server. This takes time.
As for what each map mode is:
Arena: Players are divided into two teams, first team to kill everyone else wins. Dead players don't respawn until the round is over. I'd suggest avoiding Arena servers at first, because you'll get killed lots and end up spending most of your time waiting for the round to finish so you can respawn.
Capture the Flag: Teach team has an intelligence briefcase, and your objective is to bring the enemy's briefcase back to your own briefcase spawn point. This is quite intuitive, and I think newbies can handle it quite easily.
Control Point: On these maps, there are big round glowing "control points" which can be captured. If players from a team stand on the point long enough, the point is given to them. Enemy players can interrupt the capture by standing on the point themselves, or killing their opponents mid-capture. CP maps are further divided into two main types: The first is symmetrical CP maps, which generally feature five points, each team starts out with two already captured, with the middle one neutral. The first team to grab all five points wins. Points taken by one team can be retaken by the other team. Examples include Badlands and Granary. The other type is attack/defend CP maps, such as Dustbowl and Gravelpit. In these maps, the defending team starts out with all points captured, and the attacking team tries to take the points. Here, if the attackers claim a point, it cannot be retaken by the defenders. There's a third type, called territorial control, and only one map uses it (Hydro).
Payload: This map features a bomb cart on railway tracks, which the attacking team can "push" by standing close to the cart. The objective is to push the cart to a checkpoint. Payload is further divided into two types, attack/defend and payload race. In attack/defend maps, there's one cart, and the attacking team tries to push it to a destination while the defenders try to stop them. In payload race, there are two carts, and each team tries to push their cart to a destination while simultaneously trying to stop the other team.
King of the Hill: This is the newest game mode, basically there's one single control point. Both teams try to capture the point and hold it for three minutes.
All this sounds a bit complicated, but really it's quite intuitive once you get into the game and try it out. Just find a server that looks good to you, log in, and start playing. It'll all work out all right from there.
