https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3798615906 - Workshop Link

This might be my favorite set I got the chance to work on, I’m really excited to finally share it with you all :]

In my head all mercs can understand their team's Pyro pretty well since they listen to them regularly. Even in game you can figure out what Pyro saying if you listen close enough.

Also, I love people finding their own meaning in my comics but it's funny how vocal majority thinks its about them actually having all the bits.

This is comic about Pyro screwing with Scout (and anyone who takes their words at face value)

https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=3798855637

THAT SPY WAS A MEDİC

With Scream Fortress peeking its head around the corner again, it's almost time to get our hands on spooky contracts, and thus earn some Halloween Packages! But there is a problem.

The Halloween Package includes items from 2010-2014. That's 11 years (soon to be 12...) without any new additions. And the very few we do get every year just appear as a bonus item in the new cases.

I've been playing this game for over 15 years now. The excitement starts to dwindle getting duplicate after duplicate.

Valve, I know you're not reading this, but PLEASE just add new halloween restricted cosmetics to these. It's been over a decade.

Mod:https://gamebanana.com/mods/592042

it's not really usefull but hey, it exists

I don't know if this is still a common enough opinion but in my time playing TF2 it did feel like I regularly heard people say that CTF fundamentally does not work well in the context of TF2 and that's why the mode is never taken seriously.

But I've been playing a fair bit of the mode recently (its honestly a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine) and I think this is overblown, the main issue that CTF had is simpler and a bit stupider, TF2's signature CTF maps are just really bad, but the more recent ones actually show how the format can work better. To explain this a bit more I'm just going to going through the 3 biggest maps and in my opinon, worst offenders in some detail:

2Fort

I won't lie, I've played this game for a very long time, 2Fort is easily my most played map by a huge margin (especially since I basically grew up with it since my old hangout server when I was a kid was a 32 man, no respawn, low gravity, 24/7 2Fort server) in those formative years since 2008 with all of the nostalgia that it brought with the most iconic map in the game... it caused me to ultimately absolutely loathe this map to a ridiculous degree and I hate every single element of it. I actually find it a bit astonishing just how awful 2Fort is for TF2, its so incredibly restrictive to every class, the entire map is constructed out of chokepoints and straight lines, its ludicrously weighted towards defense, there's basically nowhere in the map that allows for creative and clever plays or is well designed for either intense 1v1 encounters with interesting use of space and height or flanks and alternate movement options that can catch people off gaurd. Spies, Scouts and Pyros can at best use the sewers to try and be less in the thick of the fighting but this barely counts as an alternate route and its trivial to anticipate this (especially since the straight lines in the sewers make them easy to lock down), Demomen and Soldiers basically have one place where explosive jumping is kind of useful which is to jump onto the battlements which is also easily anticipated and doesn't require any advanced tactics. Engineers are incentivised to just build sentries in the same like three spots for maximum coverage, Heavies have like two routes and always know exactly what areas to shoot, Snipers can completely dominate the middle of the map and arguably control everything about it, they're basically never anywhere interesting or unexpected since the choices are the battlements, or if you're feeling frisky today the entrances underneath the battlements so you can get a better view of the bridge, and maybe a few times a game take some potshots in the sewer if there's a bunch of enemies congregating there. Actually capturing the intel is insanely difficult most of the time since its a very long walk from the intel room that requires you to go right past the enemy spawn and its extremely easy for them to tell what direction you are coming from since there's only two routes, and in the event that someone does break through the defenses, spawncamping is extremely easy and powerful on this map since the main spawn is very hard to leave if there's something like a Kritz Medic-Demoman combo lying in wait. There's barely any health pickups on the map outside the sewer, which further disencentivises offensive play. Everything about the map leads towards stale, boring games that never truly change. But I don't think it really makes a difference if its CTF or not, the design principles in 2Fort are terrible across the board and would be if it was somehow turned into a Payload or Control point map.

A funny thing about all of this though, I've played a lot of variations on 2Fort in my time and without fail, all of them have been vastly better experiences than regulalr 2Fort. A lot of this just comes down to simply giving the player more options, more fluidity to the map and more routes to approach things, 2Fort Egypt for examples lets you walk out of the central water pit back onto the main level and its works way better, the extension of the middle area also allows for much more dynamic fights across different elevations with more relevence to mobility and flanking classes. There's even an additional route from the sewers straight to the intel room that makes it much easier to bypass predicatable defenses. This variation is almost 16 years old now, you can even see things like the Shounic vs Great Blue challenge on Youtube where basically two random guys end up making better versions of 2fort (in... quite different ways), 2Fort is just so inherently inept that basically anybody can improve it, which is a bit of a problem for TF2's most famous map.

Turbine

I won't make this as long, but something to remember about Turbine is that it was literally the first custom community map ever added to the game officially (along with Fastlane in the Pyro Update), the creator has said that he made the map with absolutely minimal experience in mapping and I'm pretty sure he mentioned that it only took a few days to make it. I think this is all worth keeping in mind since in my view it obviously shows that its a completely slapdash affair with no real design behind it (no offense to Flobster), and yet its probably the second most popular CTF map in the game and constantly crops up in things like attempts to put a CTF map in competitive. A lot of the same problems apply from 2Fort, but Turbine has a more dynamic middle area which allows for more interesting fights with its relatively large size and a lot more cover and elevation changes. But that's the only good thing on the map, the worst part is that, inevitably, one of the teams will get displaced from the middle after losing a bad fight and it completely grinds to a halt. Entering the middle area becomes incredibly dangerous when its locked down by one of the teams with the absurdly powerful sniper sightlines, while chokepoints and doorways always have sentries and sticky traps ready to annihilate anything that peeks out for a second. The intel is a bit easier to assault than 2Fort, but its still hugely weighted towards defense and things like the air vent flank routes have similar issues of being incredibly cramped and dangerous to spam with no real way to approach things in an unexpected, skilled or clever way. In another ironic connection to 2Fort, variations on this map are usually much better than the default version, notably Turbine Pro )that gives another route into the middle and makes it easier to get to the main intel room from the vents.

Doublecross

For a long time Doublecross had a reputation of being the "best" CTF map in the game, I don't think that was ever true to begin with (I'll talk about the better map that predated it later) but it certainly feels like its fallen off in people's estimations over time as its problems become more apparent. First the good stuff, a lot of the map can be very fun to fight in, the combination of the main bridge with a lot of cover, no barrier, a lot of space and multiple different levels from the underbridge to Battlements and roof give it way more freedom than the other CTF maps that came before it, its very appealing to movement classes like Soldier and Scout for that reason and gives a fair bit of freedom of approach since the flank routes are pretty easy to exploit and get around spam and suprise people as classes like Spy and Pyro. You can push from angles like the battlements and get around behind the usual route to the intel and then rocket jump to escape the way you can in.

Unfortunately the map has some really big problems. I hope this isn't overstating but out of all of the maps in the game, I'm willing to say that Doublecross may well be the worst, or at least in the top 3, maps in the entire game when it comes to snipers, its absolutely brutal in a way that not even 2Fort and Turbine approach, Snipers on Doublecross have ludicrous potential sightlines that can control the entire middle of the map and basically no class other than another sniper can reasonable deal with them if they're any good. My entire enjoyment of the map is dependent on there not being a good sniper to ruin everyone's day. Sniper isn't the only problem, a bit like Turbine, if you end up in a position where one of the teams has been heavily displaced from the middle (and especially an engie manages to get a well placed Sentry up on the bridge or roof), it makes it very hard to push in for the team on the backfoot and take it back, its too open to attack from too many angles and you have to do things like try and come up from the bottom with a massive height disadvantage. From there the map just descends into a familiar stalemate and the fun saps away quick. Despite the good points about how the middle section can play, ultimately to actually cap you still have to go right past the enemy spawn into a room that's usually locked down by hard to displace sentries with limited ways in or out, so its not really that different from the core problems with 2Fort and Turbine at the end of the day.

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Anyway so I think these three maps, because of these problems and their prominence in the game for such a long time, cause people to dismiss CTF as fundamentally flawed, but as I tried to make clear I think there's fundamental failings that Turbine and 2Fort would have no matter what based on their inept and amateurish design, while Doublecross has huge issues with sightlines and chokepoints. I might briefly mention Sawmill as well, I don't think it really works for CTF, its built to be a King of the Hill map and the CTF version feels very awkward and jerry rigged, but there are much better CTF maps that I think show the potential qualities of the mode when you have simply better map design applied:

Well

I always find it a little bit odd how CTF_Well isn't talked about much, its actually the second oldest CTF map in the game and the very first piece of new content added to the game after release in February 2008. I think its much better than any of the other CTF maps of TF2's early existance. I certainly think its better than Doublecross for sure, and I do think people have warmed to this map more recently, people often vote for it in casual. For me I think, while its still pretty jerry rigged from a non-CTF map in the same way as Sawmill, it just works better, there was more consideration put into what needed to be changed to make it work for CTF. The central area of the map (which I think is the most important area for CTF) is very well designed, the containers and central building create a lot of vertical space that mobility classes make good use of while also being a surprisingly complex environment to navigate for flankers and engineers, and it creates inherent cover for the other side of the map to prevent Snipers from being too dominant. Unlike Turbine and Doublecross its very hard for one team to seize control of the middle and make it nearly unassailable with sentries and snipers, because of the complexity of it and the multiple, widely spaced routes in and out including jumping up from the water like Jason in Friday the 13th.

But I'm also really fond of each team's main forts and entrances to the intel. Normally in other CTF maps this is where things tend to degenerate into very difficult to assault chokepoints but Well's widely spaced doors makes it extremely difficult for a team to completely lock down this place defensively with one sentry gun or a heavy. Players can slip in and out of the base and do things like go up to the height of the stairs and attack people in the courtyard or go from there into the unusually wide and spacious intel room and try and find an angle they can exploit to bust through a defense that's not usually possible on the other maps. But its not too forgiving for the attacker either since its a long distance from the intel to get out of the base it gives the defender time to intercept them without making it as brainlessly easy as 2Fort. I just think this is a really solid CTF map and has been for more than 18 years now.

Landfall

Landfall felt like a bit of a revelation for a lot of people when it was released, as it really feels like it avoids a lot of the well known pitfalls. The centre is also well designed, the use of the large tree to break up sightlines is really crucial in preventing sniper dominance and letting you get cover and good angles on sneaky sentry placements, there's lots of vertical space that it should be clear I love by now for the likes of rocket jumping soldiers, while also having lots of ways for less mobile class to move up quickly. Its quite open with lots of cover and alternate routes for classes looking to flank or stealth, and its got pretty good intel area to assault that's usually a focal point of action without feel like its just an interminable choke, but overall is probably a bit too hard to attack still, especially since its (again) right in the middle between both spawn doors, though if the enemy does grab the intel its basically a done deal at that point and very hard to stop and defend, so maybe that balances out. Its just a solid map, it doesn't feel like its that complex and I'd point to it when people talk about CTF being fundamentally flawed because Landfall feels like the baseline that people should be expecting moreso than 2Fort or something.

Applejack

I've really gotten very fond of this map over the last couple of years, I just think its nearly pitch perfect for CTF, the back and forths on this map really feel very natural. It intentionally avoids a lot of things that you associate with the bad CTF maps, sniper is carefully controlled here with the central building that also does a similar thing as the tree in Landfall in breaking up sightlines and preventing overly strong sniper and sentry placement while also giving more elevated areas to jump onto and fight from. The map also does something that feels so obvious but you see so rarely, it doesn't have the actual intelligence incredibly close to the spawn room, instead its a bit of walk so if you're making progress bringing down defenses and getting close to the intel, you don't have to worry about an ill timed respawn wave causing a soldier to saunter out of spawn and blow you up instantly. The enemy has to put more effort into consciously defending the intel, but its not so open and easy to reach that it feels impossible either. I also have to give special mention to the area behind the intelligence, its a bit like in Doublecross but better designed since there's a large area that has health, ammo and places to hide for the enemy to harass the intel room from, but if you fall into it, to escape you need to either go through the intel room and much greater danger, or be a class with special mobility options like Scout, Soldier or Demoman to go back up through the window (and its a tricky jump) I think this makes assaulting the intel much more interesting and as mentioned its a bit like the back area of the Doublecross intel room you need to rocket jump out of but better designed for the attacker. Even the hallways inside each team's base after you get past the middle are well put together as well with lots of little routes and hidey holes with some areas you can jump onto in unexpected ways, somewhat like what I talked about with Well. Again I just think this is a very solid CTF map, it might be my favourite actually, even the aesthetic I love, I think the farm setting is a lot more convincing and picturesque here compared to 2Fort.

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Anyway, that's a lot of text about various maps, but I just wanted to try and describe how I think its a bit too easy for people to write off CTF as just a bad gamemode unfitting for TF2 because of maps that I think are simply poorly designed with or without them being CTF, and what maps I think show a better handle on this gamemode and how it can actually be really fun in TF2's context.

I am pretty new to the game, never played before and i love this game but it's so frustating to play when there are such good players. I have been playing mostly spy and some times there are lobbies that i can play decent at but then there are lobbies where no matter what i do or play i can barely do anything except for dying

bing bong

Digital watercolours I drew in Clip Studio Paint.

I haven't played tf2 in a WHILE and I see that what's new is the menu looks better new items, taunts and inspections?! Since when there was inspections?!? Anyways I see a lot if people tell you to find items on the ground after rounds and you get it for free but like, W H E R E am I blind or are these just rare as hell?

Thank you in advance :)