News: Q&A 4 – 2.1, HW Guy, Pon Pon Pata Pon!
Welcome to Week 4 of community Q&A! We love listening to your questions and we’d love to see more – send ‘em our way in this thread:
http://www.fortress-forever.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16481
Now onto Q&A 4…
Question 1 ([AE] 82694):
What plan does the Dev team have for FF after the 2.1 release?
1) Will you be concentrating on models.
2) More maps with all the new mappers the Dev team has.
3) What your plans for FF in general are.
Answer 1 (-pF-)
1) There will be changes to the models. From what it looks like right now, there will be tweaks in size and proportion to help distinguish classes. Also, we will probably switch to a new skeleton to facilitate the addition of new animations. Finally, we’d like to retexture some, if not all of the models. So texture artists with prior experience in texturing characters, please apply (like, now)!
2) There’s a few really good brand new maps being made up by beta testers and devs alike. When 2.1 comes out, you’ll enjoy them for sure!
3) We plan to keep refining the game and make it as fun and balanced as possible. We’d also like to add features to help new players understand the Fortress genre better.
Question 2 (cfive):
Why don’t you just make hardcap a serverside thing so people can choose?
Answer 2 (Nezumi):
Since this question has been asked and answered many times in the past, I’ll answer again now: different bhop mechanics in different servers would divide the community, and segregate people to their own prefered play style, which we don’t want. We want everyone to learn to play together. It’s okay for maps to have different and interesting playstyles, but the basic look and feel of the game should stay roughly the same no matter what you’re playing.
Question 3 (cfive):
I want to help FF gain popularity, is there anyway I could join the PR team?
Answer 3 (Implode, Iggy):
We do not have any specific plans for community involvement ready at this time, but they are being worked on. When we have something we need you guys to do we’ll let you know about it! However, please feel free to continue to invite new potential players to the mod. Basically, tell your friends, and try to get them interested. Hopefully they will like it, and do the same.
Question 4 (reaper1):
What changes, if any, have been made to the Heavy Weapons Guy?
Answer 4 (Ihmhi):
I’m just going to paraphrase the general reaction of the beta testers for this question: “Holy shit, the HW Guy destroys now!”He’s not overpowered, but he’s not a pansy anymore.
Question 5 (reaper1):
Have any core changes to the mod been made that have had an effect on the frames per second for clients?
Answer 5 (-insert any mapper here-):
As for maps, any FF mapper can tell you this: framerates are a result of map optimization. That said, Elmo- has busted his butt improving the FPS for Monkey. Waterpolo no longer drives your FPS into the ground. Most other dev maps are getting little FPS improvements here and there.
And as for code, we haven’t focused very much on optimizations, but rather fixes, tweaks, and additions. We’re going to wait to do a lot of code optimizations until the Orange Box is our code base, simply so we don’t have to do a lot of Orange Box merging once again and so we don’t spend a lot of time fixing what Orange Box might have already fixed.
B-B-Bonus Content:
This week, we have an interview with one of the devs. Ihmhi asked Pon (one of our Lua guys) some questions about Lua and his experiences with FF in general. If he can wrangle the devs into a corner for a few minutes in the future, we hope for this to be a regular feature until we run out of devs.
So with that, here’s the interview!
Ihmhi: We’ll start with an easy question: describe your position on the Dev Team.
Pon.id: Well, my position is that of an Lua scripter. Generally, our mappers come to me, ask if ’such and such’ a feature can be done with Lua, and if it can, can I get to work on it. If it can’t, I tell them to bug the programmers until it can
Ihmhi: How did you manage to join the dev team? Did you apply, or did someone invite you?
Pon.id: I was invitied by squeek., who seemed to notice the work I was trying to do to help community mappers with their Lua, I guess.
Ihmhi: A lot of people, including myself, view Lua as this sort of mystical language invented by insane people. Could you give us a little insight into how Lua works with FF maps and why it’s such a powerful tool for us?
Pon.id: Well, insane is a bit strong… close, but a bit strong The main reason it’s so useful and is a powerful tool, in my opinion, is the control over damn near everything it gives you. You can use it to dictate how most everything in FF should work if you want, from map entities to the damage dealt by each weapon. Alongside that, you can customise the feedback your map gives the player via the HUD. Most importantly though, you can use it to build pretty much any gamemode you can think of. Technically you could have a Fortess Forever map that plays like Counterstrike, for example.
Ihmhi: Is there anything you can’t conceivably do with Lua in FF?
Pon.id: Hmm, well, yes, I guess there will be. Most everything has limits. But, given that FF is in active development, anything that can’t be done, and is needed, can be added. For example, for one map, it was nessecary that the player’s health be drained, which currently wasn’t possible. So, someone set the AddHealth function to accept negative values, and that was it, job done. So, I guess that, conceivably, I can’t think of anything that can’t at the very least be added if needed.
Ihmhi: So if FF’s lua functionality can’t do something, the other devs can code it in for you?
Pon.id: Yeah, pretty much. It’s also something I should learn to do myself as well, I guess.
Ihmhi: One of my personal peeves with Lua (and coding in general) is uncommented code. Pretty much all of the core lua files and nearly every single released map’s Lua is uncommented. Will there ever be an effort to get the Lua code commented so it’s easier for people new to Lua to get a handle on it?
Pon.id: Hopefully. It would would be useful to a lot of mappers, I think.
Ihmhi: What was the hardest bit of Lua coding that you’ve had to do recently?
Pon.id: Probably for a map called Impact which is currently in development. Without wanting to give too much away, the main problem was to have a system in place that allowed for multiple flags to be in play at any one time, without spawning a new one every time one was needed and being a massive resource drain. And that also switched teams each round.
Ihmhi: Last question (and make it quick as I have to leave for work now). Did you ever regret mercilessly beating on chickens in a Legend of Zelda game?
Pon.id: Never.
Ihmhi: Thanks a bunch!
Tags: fortress-forever.comAugust 10th, 2008Team Fortress NewsRead More >No Comments
Episode 42 – The Oprah Trump Gates Episode
We’re trying something new to help out with the load of the mp3’s. You can either d/l it normally on the feed, or the link below is on a different server. Don’t forget to send in your tips and tricks for next week’s podcast!
- Thread of the Week: Goldrush Tactics
- [VIDEO] Meet the Dispenser (by Ubertoast)
- [GAME] A TF2 Card Game (by Neutron Cow)
- TF2 Wiki: Control Point Podcast page
- Listener Contributions
- AND DON’T FORGET TO DIGG THIS EPISODE!
- and much much more!
Download – Episode 42 (59:14)
Tags: deadworkers.comAugust 6th, 2008Team Fortress NewsRead More >No Comments
News: Q&A 3 – P.R., the Spy, and other wonderful things
Welcome to this week’s Q&A, where the devs answer your questions! If you would like to ask the devs a question, just register for the forums and go to this thread:
http://www.fortress-forever.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16481
The best questions will be picked out by a certain dev and submitted to the devs for their responses.
Question 1(Rutabeggar):
A lot of the people I know have written off FF since they played it way back in 1.0, is the dev team is planning to reach out to the players that was so unjustly isolated by the majority of the first team and new players in general, we all talk about “PR” but what kind of “PR” is being planned, if any?
Answer 1 (Implode):
We have recently created an active “PR” department that has already begun working on several things…just a few of these include: Getting FF listed on the 3rd Party mod, an update notification on steam list, and also advertising on national gaming and CPU sites. And of course, answering questions for people, just like yours.
Question 2 (Rocketrunner):
I don’t know if this has been asked before, but, in 2.1, will the Nailgun and Super Nailgun have individual pros and cons so that, nobody keeps using medic ALL the time?
Answer 2 (squeek.):
No changes to the nailgun or super nailgun are being made in 2.1.
Question 3 (reaper18):
Will there be more notification of players who accomplish goals?
For example, who captured the flag, or who secured Command Point X?
Answer 3 (squeek.):
We have talked about this a bit, but it will likely not be implemented in 2.1.
Question 4 (reaper18 / im2cool4uroflolz):
Also, are the tranq effects going to eventually resemble TFC more so than they do? Like giving hallucinations of bullet impacts, grenades, gunshots, and explosions? What changes have been made to the spy cloak and are there any more planned features/optimizations? What sort of changes will be made to the Spy in 2.1?
Answer 4 (squeek.):
These questions are very similar, so they’ve been grouped together as one. When reaper18 says “tranq effects”, I believe he is referring to the hallucination effects of the TFC Spy’s gas grenades. There will likely not be any changes to the effects of the Spy’s gas grenades this patch.
The Spy’s cloak and disguise dynamics have changed a bit regarding Sentry Guns in 2.1. When you are disguised as the enemy and cloaked, enemy Sentry Guns will not see you. Being cloaked and disguised as the wrong team or just being cloaked will still result in the Sentry shooting you.
The spy is 100% invisible when cloaked and standing still. No shadow, no talk icon, nothing.
Question 5 (Hammock):
Would it be at all possible to display the Time Remaining of the current map when selecting the option “View Server”. It displays the players, their scores and how long they’ve been in the server.
But there’s been many times I don’t want to join a server playing a map I don’t care for. It’d be nice to know how much longer the map has without actually joining the server, or maybe you can’t join cause it’s full and know the best time to join is during a map change, also good to know when that map change will occur.
Answer 5 (dt):
“It might be possible to show the time and other game info in the server browser, but that’s something we really haven’t messed with yet. Our coding staff is working hard on things with a higher priority and this is something we might get into a future patch if it can be coded.”
August 2nd, 2008Team Fortress NewsRead More >No Comments
TF2 Blog Updated!
Once again, Valve is asking for people to brainstorm on ways to implement new TF2 environments and gameplay options! EXCITING!
Check out this post and discuss it on our forums!
Tags: deadworkers.com
August 1st, 2008Team Fortress NewsRead More >No Comments
TF2 Environments
One of the things we’re looking at for the next update is the creation of a new type of environment for our levels to be built in. We’re pretty happy with the way our environments have turned out so far, but as we create more and more maps with these achievement packs, we want our level designers to have more to work with in terms of giving their settings a unique look.
Tags: teamfortress.comAugust 1st, 2008Team Fortress NewsRead More >No Comments
Episode 41 – The Kyle Kainer Episode
We had some buttons returned that were sent for a donation, and I don’t know how to get in touch with him, so why not just name the episode after him? He’s got to listen in now, right? Well, that’s not all we talk about, so here’s a few more things:
- Thread of the Week: Team Stacking
- [VIDEO] Meet the Sentry (by Captain iPirate)
- [VIDEO] Meet the Music Montage (by St Nicky)
- TF2 Wiki: Control Point Podcast page
- Listener Contributions
- AND DON’T FORGET TO DIGG THIS EPISODE!
- and much much more!
Download – Episode 41 (43:27)
Tags: deadworkers.comJuly 30th, 2008Team Fortress NewsRead More >No Comments
News: Q&A 2 – the Engineer, resupplies, and some AvD lovin’.
Here’s this week’s Q&A, brought to you remarkably late on account of every dev is too damn busy to talk to me. As always, remember to hop over to the FF Q&A thread and ask more questions: http://www.fortress-forever.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16481
Question 1 (Rutabeggar):
What would you say are the most stark contrasts between 2.1 and the mods previous patches as in are there any new game breaking/making things being added such as the heavy becoming important again?
Answer 1 (Circuitous):
For starters, the HW is much more useful now. We are still working on some of the finer points of the class but overall it is better than the 2.0 HW. The Engineers will be able to resupply a bit easier. (This is expanded upon in Question 2.) The Pyros are slightly less spammy, and the flamethrower’s push has been notched up a bit. Snipers are more efficient than their 2.0 predecessors.
Question 2 (Agent Buckshot Moose):
What’s going on with the Engineer in 2.1?
Answer 2 (Circuitous):
This is an interesting list.
- Dispensers now start with ammo and armor, regenerate twice as much per tick, dispense twice as much per tick, and dispense faster than before.
- Carrying your Railgun regenerate rails.
- Railgun Charging is quite different,
— each charge level only takes 1 second and 1 rail,
— after fully charging, you can continue to hold it for up to 3 seconds,
— after 3 seconds, the Railgun overcharges. This costs an additional rail, but gives you 40 Cells. Great for SG spots that don’t have handy resupplies.
— overcharging in this way does not hurt you anymore.
- lastly, and this may not make it to patch time, we want dispensers to “pick up” any bags dropped nearby.
Question 3 (Gwarsbane):
Will there be more no build stuff put into all the official maps to stop people from building stuff in the spawn rooms and in doors? Will all the spawn areas in official maps that don’t have them get the no grenade code? Well and Aardvark come to mind as they seem to be the ones spammed the most.
Answer 3 (Circuitous)
They absolutely should, but it’s a matter of what we have access to now. All of the new maps, and any maps that are actively being worked on or reconstructed, have nobuilds and noannoyances where needed. We’ll see what we can do.
Question 4 (Gwarsbane)
Will spawn bags ever heal broken legs, medic infections, tracer tags, put out flames and stuff like that? That would help in most cases against people spamming the spawn room with spy gas, or a medic running in, or a scout concing the spawn room.
Answer 4 (Circuitous)
Will they ever? I think they should. Do they now? Not yet.
The good news is this should just be a Lua change – it’d be quite easy to do. Assuming no one finds a reason not to, this should be in the next patch.
Question 5 (Tsukasa)
Whats the status on all the AvD maps?
Answer 5 (Circuitous, squeek., Nezumi)
Dustbowl has been re-optimized, and now includes HDR and a slew of bugfixes.
squeek. is working on the updated version of cornfield. There are some minor changes to the map that should make gameplay a little more interesting: the cap triggers are now 1 unit above the cap point, and the defender’s spawn points are moved forward.
The AvD crowd will be glad to hear that they will be getting a brand new map in 2.1. Nezumi has an awesome new AvD map called anticitizen. It’s currently being playtested to death and it’s a lot of fun.
Tags: engineer, fortress-forever.com, heavy, maps, medic, mods, pyro, scout, sniper, spyJuly 28th, 2008Team Fortress NewsRead More >No Comments
TF2 Blog Updated!
Trading Cards – Part 3
There’s new trading cards posted over at the Team Fortess 2 Blog, featuring the Pyro!
Discuss it on our forums!
July 25th, 2008Team Fortress NewsRead More >No Comments
TF2 Trading Cards – Part 3
For this week’s update, we’ve got another set of trading card images to take a look at. The focus of our most recent achievement update, the Pyro is a character that players may have seeing a lot of lately – making life a nightmare inferno for both the Spy and Medic.
Tags: medic, pyro, spy, teamfortress.comJuly 24th, 2008Team Fortress NewsRead More >No Comments
Dev. Journal: squeek.
So, there have been some cool new things added recently to 2.1. I thought I’d just show some quick screenshots of one of those things: the Objective Icon. Pretty self-explanatory, so here are the pitchers:
Oh, yeah, and that’s ff_bases.
July 23rd, 2008Team Fortress NewsRead More >No Comments
