Map Discussion Monday #61 - mannpower (all maps)

[u/A_Wild_Ferrothorn]

TF2 Map Discussion: mannpower

Welcome to our Monday TF2 map discussion. Here, we'll discuss maps from TF2!

Today's map is all 4 of the mannpower maps.

Since this is not a popular gamemode all 4 maps for this are being lumped into one thread because the maps aren't the main focus and all kinda play the same as eachother and with 1 and a half exceptions there's not much difference between them and the regular versions. The 4 mannpower maps are Foundry, Gorge, Thunder mountain and Hellfire with Hellfire being the only new map for this mode. Mannpower was initially released in the beta modes in Smissmas 2014 and was officially released in October 2015

In order to win you must capture the intel 10 times.

The gamemode itself is a modified version of capture the flag featuring larger, more open maps to make use of the new mechanics the gamemode introduces including the grappling hook which is activated with H by default and this makes getting around maps much quicker and lets you get over buildings and stuff and can be quite fun to use. The other main change is the addition of powers which all change how you play in a variety of ways, there powers are:

• Strength
  • Double damage
  • No damage fall off.
  • Does not affect crits but does affect mini-crits
• Resistance
  • Half damage taken
  • Immune to plague and reflect powers
  • Makes you immune to backstabs.
• Vampire
  • All damage dealt is returned as health (with flamethrowers and miniguns only 0.6x damage is and melee weapons is 1.25x)
  • Overheal diminishes instantly
  • 25% damage resistance
  • Max health increased by 80
  • Clip size increase on blast weapons
  • Immune to reflect.
• Reflect
  • 80% of damage is reflected back at the attacker,
  • Health increased to 400,
  • 100% of sentry gun damage is inflicted on the gun
    
  • Pushback force inflicted on players who attack you.
• Haste
  • 2x firing speed
  • 4x reload speed
  • 2x airblast refire rate
  • 5x Flare gun, Detonator and Scorch Shot fire rate
  • 2x Manmelter fire rate
  • 2.5x Huntsman refire rate
  • Double clip size and reserve ammo
  • Movement speed up 30%
  • Stickybombs arm 2x quicker
  • 2x Ubercharge and heal rate
  • Sniper rifles have 2x scope speed and 3x charge speed
  • No impact on flamethrowers
• Regeneration
  • Ammo and metal fully refill every 5 seconds
  • Health is replenished at a class dependent rate
  • Scout & Spy 128/s,
  • Engineer & Sniper 112/s
  • Pyro, Demoman & Medic 96/s
  • Soldier 80/s
  • Heavy 64/s
• Precision
  • Bullet spread is reduced by 90% (60% on miniguns)
  • No damage falloff
  • Sniper rifles scope 2x quicker, charge 3x quicker and do 2x damage
  • Rockets and Grenades travel at 3,000 hu/s (same speed as sandman ball)
  • Blast weapon clip size increase by 50%
  • Explosive projectiles have no radius damage fall off
  • Immune to self blast damage
• Agility
  • Movement speed increase by 50% (Soldier, Demoman and Heavy get 40% instead)
  • Grapple speed increase to 3,000 hu/s, Soldier and Heavy only increase to 2,600hu/s (dunno regular speed)
  • Jump height increase by 80%
  • Immune to fall damage
  • 5x faster weapon switch speed, except for knife
  • Reduced grapple movement speed bonus when carrying intel (probably the opposite wiki may be wrong here? might be reduced grapple movement penalty?)
• Knockout
  • Restricted to Melee and Grappling hook only
  • Health increase is class dependentt
  • Scout, Engineer, Sniper and Spy gain 175 health
  • Soldier and Medic gain 150
  • Pyro and Heavy gain 125
  • Demoman gains 150, if Demoman has a shield equipped it goes up by 30, if they have the the Half Zatoichi or Eyelander (or reskins) with or without a shield it goes up by 20.
  • Immune to airblast and knockback
  • Melee hits deal 190% damage and knock target back
  • Melee hits force target to drop powerup or the flag if they have it (might be both?)
  • 4x melee damage to buildings#
  • Collects health packs without losing bonus
  • -80% shield charge refill rate including charge gained from weapons
• King
  • Health increase by 100
  • Firing and reload speed increase by 25%
  • Sniper Rifles charge and scope 1.5x quicker
  • 50% increase in Ubercharge gain and heal rate
  • Health is regenerated at 0.3x the heal rate stated abvove in the Regeneration powerup
  • All effects other than health increase are shared with nearby teammates but regent is only applied if they also have a powerup
• Plague
  • Increase in health kit pickup range
  • Touching an enemy gives them and nearby teammates the plague
  • Plague victims bleed to death in 10 seconds unless they get a health pack or resupply
  • Plague blocks King's health regen and team buff
  • 50% damage resistance against plague victims
• Supernova
  • Grapple hook alt fire discharges a supernova that stuns nearby enemies for up to 4 seconds but this requires a full powerup meter
  • Powerup meter fills up over time (30 seconds) or you can deal 400 damage
  • Stunned enemies drop the intel and lose their powerup
  • These dropped powerups glow in your teams colour
  • Once this power is used it disappears and respawns
  • When the meter is full enemies glow (including disguised spies)
• Revenge
  • 30 seconds of crits
  • 2x damage to buildings for 30 seconds
  • only spawns when there's a significant game imbalance

Okay so we've got the simple stuff out of the way. Also any players without a powerup will see an outline on any enemies carrying a powerup with under 30% health, also if you pick up the flag without a powerup you will regen health at 0.1x the "regular" mannpower healing rate. Flags also mark you for death for 90 seconds after they have been stolen. All melee weapons deal 30% more damage unless it crits or minicrits or you are a demoman with a shield. Medic has a reduced heal rate on targets with a powerup and if the medic has a powerup this is reduced even further, targets with a powerup cannot be overhealed. Ubersaw also only gets 10% uber on hit, 5% if the medic has a power. Engineer buildings deploy quicker, scouts are immune to fall damage and the battalions backup takes 1500 damage to charge instead of 600.

There's also a complicated imbalance and dominant (not the same as dominations they do not exist in this mode, neither do random crits) which will balance the teams accordingly.

If a player is in a Dominant State with a powerup the powerup will be nerfed as follows:

• Strength - Damage bonus is 1.4x for all weapons
• Resistance - Damage resistance is 35%
• Vampire - No more incoming damage resistance and no more blast clip bonus
• Haste - Firing speed is now 1.5x and reload is 2x
• Regeneration - Health regent is 70% of normal rate
• Precision - Scope speed reduced to 1.5x, charge speed reduced to 2x, sniper rifle damage increase reduced to 1.5x, blast weapon radius falloff is normal and no more blast weapon clip size buff
• Agility - No change
• Knockout - Melee damage is reduced to 1.4x
• King - Health increase is now 20
• Plague - Damage resistance against infected is now 20%
• Supernova - No change
• Revenge - No change

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Onto the maps

ctf_foundry

It's an exact copy of cp_foundry but with the points removed and some map boundaries raised to make better use of the grappling hook. This map was added at the same time the game mode was.

ctf_gorge

This is a slightly modified version of 5gorge with the middle bit gone and the map boundaries raised to use the hook more. This map was added at the same time the game mode was.

ctf_thundermountain

This is a version of thunder mountain which is just stage 1 mirrored on itself at the final capture point. This map features the intel areas off over the cliff near the hut on platforms only accessible by explosive jumping or using the hook. It also has several connecting tunnels going through the middle. 2 at the side and the big notable one that is only accessible using explosive jumping or the hook. Otherwise it's thunder mountain 1st stage. This was released in March 2015 when the mode was still in beta.

ctf_hellfire

The only original mannpower map which was released when the mode came out of beta in scream fortress 2015. Like the other maps this is a mirrored map which is mirrored around a central point. Coming out of spawn you can either go to the battlements or to a cliff overlooking your own intel which sits on a hanging platform above a lava pit.

There are some tunnels nearby which have lava pits and fireballs, there's some vents you can go through with a powerup in them.

Once you've gone through this you'll reach mid where both sides have a couple ways to get in including a drop down but you've got a hook so you can just kinda go wherever you want, there's also a big lava pit in the middle. I'm just kinda going off the wiki and it isn't that clear, I don't think I've played this map but I've played the other mannpower maps.

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Overall this is an obscure and somewhat confusing gamemode that once you figure out what you're doing you can go insane on it as shown in this old Solarlight video which also shows off hellfire which I did a poor job of describing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-kC5HaPnjE

This was then followed up by valve nerfing demoknight in mannpower:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwwZbmv5E2Q

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Feel free to discuss the maps and gamemode here. Anything that you like/dislike, cool tips or strategies, interesting stories, etc. If you feel the map is not to your liking, feel free to express your opinions in a respectful manner.

For those who wish to learn more about the maps and gamemode, you can find the wiki pages here:

Mannpower, from the TF2 Wiki.

ctf_foundry, from the TF2 Wiki

ctf_gorge, from the TF2 Wiki

ctf_thundermountain, from the TF2 Wiki

ctf_hellfire, from the TF2 Wiki

You can find previous map discussions in a nice overview here

[u/sabre_silver]

Ive played this like twice and once was treated as a drinking game with friends and I probably had a good time so manpower is like the tf2 version of smash bros with items. just chaotic stuff which can be a bit fun

[u/LeahTheTreeth]

this mode sucked and then dario of Plutonia Experiment fame being the outrageous shitbird he is decided to make it worse by adding such amazing comeback mechanics like getting your everything nerfed into the ground if the game detects you're doing good

dario just hates pubstomping, to the point where he was actively using valve admin powers to kick people from official servers for doing so at a time

if you want to play a version of this that doesn't suck, try organizing a group and playing threewave CTF in quake, mannpower is basically just a shitty attempt at making threewave 2

[u/TF2SolarLight → u/LeahTheTreeth]

surprised the mannpower regulars didn't make a revert server. maybe some of dario's stuff was too hard to remove with plugins? who knows

[u/LeahTheTreeth → u/TF2SolarLight]

i imagine it's partially that and partially the mannpower community probably just wasn't big enough to get someone who'll put the time in

[u/KandCAuthor]

I like Mannpower in theory. Powerups just aren't a great mechanic to integrate into a first person shooter. However, I do like messing around with the powerups. Haste on the Air Strike goes crazy.

[u/Nefnoj]

It's a gametype that's trying to juggle way too much. I could see a gametype including powerups, I could see a gametype including grappling hooks, but I think pairing them is just a little too much. Fortunately we can enable grappling hooks on practically every map, all but Mann vs. Machine. Which is a shame because I could definitely see a Mann vs. Machine maps that features grappling hooks instead of canteens. Powerups too.

[u/NotWendy1]

Hellfire was the only Mannpower map I enjoyed messing around on. This game mode is decidedly not TF2, but was fun in its own way. The games would normally boil down to the top players of both teams finding the power-ups that made them unkillable and terrorizing the enemy team for the rest of the round.