LAST WEEK, Valve released “The Replay Update†for Team Fortress 2, adding the ability to record, edit and upload game clips to your YouTube account. As with any major patch, I suspect a lot of people fired up TF2 to check out the new stuff, and I can only wonder how many people were disappointed with what they found. Team Fortress 2, which I’ve long considered one of the best multiplayer games ever made, has become a frustrating experience where almost every game makes you want to throttle someone.
And you might wonder, “why should I care about a game that’s nearly four years old?†Because at the moment, Team Fortress 2 is one of the only multiplayer shooters still worth a damn for the PC. Gone are the days when we had Quakes and Unreals dueling for our gaming time. At the moment, the only other real alternatives are the Call of Duty games, which bring their own baggage (that’s an entirely separate article), something more co-op in focus like the Left 4 Dead series, or the hope that upcoming games like Brink, Duke Nukem Forever (yes, really) or Battlefield 3 might have some staying power.
Or, Valve could just fix Team Fortress 2, either via updates or an all-new game. It wouldn’t be all that hard. But before I can explain how to fix it, I need to explain why it’s broke.
TEAM FORTRESS 2 is what you’d call a “spammy†game. Because all the action is typically focused on one spot, whether it’s a control point, the Payload cart, or a choke point leading to the enemy’s flag room, teams will often just blanket that spot with gunfire and grenades, making it near-impossible for anyone to slip through. With so many players crowding a concentrated area, it’s common to get blown to bits by random fire from players not even aiming for you. Trying to get through a contested area in TF2 is about as safe as crossing a Los Angeles freeway on foot. Blindfolded.
And so TF2 becomes a numbers game, where owning an area is often a simple question of who can flood it with more players. If the opponent has 6 people guarding a control point and you send in one or two at a time, you lose. Trying to finish off a map like Dustbowl or Goldrush usually boils down to whether or not the attackers have teleporters to cut down running time. You don’t necessarily need a team of all-stars, but when half your team isn’t even paying attention to the current objective, you’re boned.
The problem is that TF2 is such a complex game, loaded with so many choices and strategies, that it’s too easy for players to remove themselves from the equation and make themselves about as useful as an AFK. TF2 doesn’t just give players enough rope to hang themselves with, but to hang their teammates as well.
For instance, consider the following common scenarios: A sniper has zero points in ten minutes and never considers switching classes; an engineer goes an entire round without building a single thing; a medic holds his ubercharge forever and dies without deploying it; a heavy inexplicably ignores a teleporter and wastes 45 seconds jogging to the end of a map. There’s an old quote that goes “80% of success is showing up,†and it’s entirely true in TF2: when success is dictated by the team who can spam an area with the most players, matches often boil down to not which team has the most skilled players, but the fewest dumbasses.
IT DOESN’T HELP that a lot of players seem indifferent to winning. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen players yelling at each other and one will respond, “u guyz care 2 much, im here 2 have fun.†I know it’s not the Super Bowl, but do you feel guilty at all for not even trying? And Valve’s just as much to blame here, by not providing enough incentive for players to win, for making the individual classes so much fun and not doing enough to promote teamplay.
And then there’s the wonderful subject of autobalance. When you FINALLY find a half-decent game where both teams are evenly matched, you fight and claw your way towards a hard-earned victory, only to get switched to the other team in the final seconds when there’s nothing you can do to affect the outcome. After so many matches where you’re saddled with teams of Ralph Wiggums, it seems TF2 isn’t happy unless it’s kicking you in the junk.
And so, how to fix all this? Easy!
More Points for Team Goals: Step 1 in straightening out this mess is stronger encouragement to play the game right. Give more points for destroying sentries within range of an objective. Give more points for smuggling a flag out of the enemy base, even if you’re not the person to cap it. Increase the points you get for pushing the Payload cart or for fragging someone on it. Give extra points for winning. It might not persuade everyone, but any improvement here would be welcome.
Persistent Player Profiles and Ratings. Step 2 is to make those points matter. World of Warcraft has arena ratings that more or less represent a player’s skill level; if Team Fortress 2 had global ratings that were affected by things like points-per-minute, kill/death ratio, win/loss record and MVPs, along with stiff penalties for ragequits, you can bet players would start trying a heck of a lot harder and bail on matches less. Just the simple act of having persistent ratings and requiring people to finish matches to get credit would dramatically improve matches overnight.
Ranked Servers. Take a cue from StarCraft II: once you have persistent player rankings, don’t mix experts and beginners. That sniper with two points in three rounds should not playing in the same game as me. Create tiers where players have to perform well to graduate to harder competition, which would lead to more even matches all around.
Performance Bonuses. Once you’ve got player ratings in place, surely Valve can part with some digital goodies as incentive for players to get better. Give rewards for moving up in tiers or being proficient at multiple classes. Surely players will work harder to get MVPs if they know OMG FREE HATS are on the line.
Fix Autobalance! I’m all for trying to keep teams even, especially considering how much TF2 relies on strength in numbers. But don’t switch people in the final 30 seconds of a match or when the cart is a foot from the finish line, and don’t switch the MVP – switch the guy who just joined or has the least points. People get invested in matches: when someone carries a team of chumps to victory and has the rug pulled out at the last second, you just feel cheated.
Class Restrictions. Should any team ever have 4 snipers? 5 engineers? Impose some limits already. If too many people want to play a certain class, give preference to the player with the better rating for that class. And if someone’s not performing (engy not building anything, medic not healing, sniper not killing), force the player to switch classes. Maybe this restriction doesn’t exist at the beginner tier, but some kind of limit should be imposed for veteran servers.
This isn’t that complex, right? Maybe not the kind of thing that could be rolled out as an update for TF2, but would be trivial to include in a Team Fortress 3. Do it, Valve! Restore this game to its proper glory!
How I’d Fix Team Fortress 2
LAST WEEK, Valve released “The Replay Update†for Team Fortress 2, adding the ability to record, edit and upload game clips to your YouTube account. As with any major patch, I suspect a lot of people fired up TF2 to check out the new stuff, and I can only wonder how many people were disappointed with what they found. Team Fortress 2, which I’ve long considered one of the best multiplayer games ever made, has become a frustrating experience where almost every game makes you want to throttle someone.
And you might wonder, “why should I care about a game that’s nearly four years old?†Because at the moment, Team Fortress 2 is one of the only multiplayer shooters still worth a damn for the PC. Gone are the days when we had Quakes and Unreals dueling for our gaming time. At the moment, the only other real alternatives are the Call of Duty games, which bring their own baggage (that’s an entirely separate article), something more co-op in focus like the Left 4 Dead series, or the hope that upcoming games like Brink, Duke Nukem Forever (yes, really) or Battlefield 3 might have some staying power.
Or, Valve could just fix Team Fortress 2, either via updates or an all-new game. It wouldn’t be all that hard. But before I can explain how to fix it, I need to explain why it’s broke.
TEAM FORTRESS 2 is what you’d call a “spammy†game. Because all the action is typically focused on one spot, whether it’s a control point, the Payload cart, or a choke point leading to the enemy’s flag room, teams will often just blanket that spot with gunfire and grenades, making it near-impossible for anyone to slip through. With so many players crowding a concentrated area, it’s common to get blown to bits by random fire from players not even aiming for you. Trying to get through a contested area in TF2 is about as safe as crossing a Los Angeles freeway on foot. Blindfolded.
And so TF2 becomes a numbers game, where owning an area is often a simple question of who can flood it with more players. If the opponent has 6 people guarding a control point and you send in one or two at a time, you lose. Trying to finish off a map like Dustbowl or Goldrush usually boils down to whether or not the attackers have teleporters to cut down running time. You don’t necessarily need a team of all-stars, but when half your team isn’t even paying attention to the current objective, you’re boned.
The problem is that TF2 is such a complex game, loaded with so many choices and strategies, that it’s too easy for players to remove themselves from the equation and make themselves about as useful as an AFK. TF2 doesn’t just give players enough rope to hang themselves with, but to hang their teammates as well.
For instance, consider the following common scenarios: A sniper has zero points in ten minutes and never considers switching classes; an engineer goes an entire round without building a single thing; a medic holds his ubercharge forever and dies without deploying it; a heavy inexplicably ignores a teleporter and wastes 45 seconds jogging to the end of a map. There’s an old quote that goes “80% of success is showing up,†and it’s entirely true in TF2: when success is dictated by the team who can spam an area with the most players, matches often boil down to not which team has the most skilled players, but the fewest dumbasses.
IT DOESN’T HELP that a lot of players seem indifferent to winning. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen players yelling at each other and one will respond, “u guyz care 2 much, im here 2 have fun.†I know it’s not the Super Bowl, but do you feel guilty at all for not even trying? And Valve’s just as much to blame here, by not providing enough incentive for players to win, for making the individual classes so much fun and not doing enough to promote teamplay.
And then there’s the wonderful subject of autobalance. When you FINALLY find a half-decent game where both teams are evenly matched, you fight and claw your way towards a hard-earned victory, only to get switched to the other team in the final seconds when there’s nothing you can do to affect the outcome. After so many matches where you’re saddled with teams of Ralph Wiggums, it seems TF2 isn’t happy unless it’s kicking you in the junk.
And so, how to fix all this? Easy!
More Points for Team Goals: Step 1 in straightening out this mess is stronger encouragement to play the game right. Give more points for destroying sentries within range of an objective. Give more points for smuggling a flag out of the enemy base, even if you’re not the person to cap it. Increase the points you get for pushing the Payload cart or for fragging someone on it. Give extra points for winning. It might not persuade everyone, but any improvement here would be welcome.
Persistent Player Profiles and Ratings. Step 2 is to make those points matter. World of Warcraft has arena ratings that more or less represent a player’s skill level; if Team Fortress 2 had global ratings that were affected by things like points-per-minute, kill/death ratio, win/loss record and MVPs, along with stiff penalties for ragequits, you can bet players would start trying a heck of a lot harder and bail on matches less. Just the simple act of having persistent ratings and requiring people to finish matches to get credit would dramatically improve matches overnight.
Ranked Servers. Take a cue from StarCraft II: once you have persistent player rankings, don’t mix experts and beginners. That sniper with two points in three rounds should not playing in the same game as me. Create tiers where players have to perform well to graduate to harder competition, which would lead to more even matches all around.
Performance Bonuses. Once you’ve got player ratings in place, surely Valve can part with some digital goodies as incentive for players to get better. Give rewards for moving up in tiers or being proficient at multiple classes. Surely players will work harder to get MVPs if they know OMG FREE HATS are on the line.
Fix Autobalance! I’m all for trying to keep teams even, especially considering how much TF2 relies on strength in numbers. But don’t switch people in the final 30 seconds of a match or when the cart is a foot from the finish line, and don’t switch the MVP – switch the guy who just joined or has the least points. People get invested in matches: when someone carries a team of chumps to victory and has the rug pulled out at the last second, you just feel cheated.
Class Restrictions. Should any team ever have 4 snipers? 5 engineers? Impose some limits already. If too many people want to play a certain class, give preference to the player with the better rating for that class. And if someone’s not performing (engy not building anything, medic not healing, sniper not killing), force the player to switch classes. Maybe this restriction doesn’t exist at the beginner tier, but some kind of limit should be imposed for veteran servers.
This isn’t that complex, right? Maybe not the kind of thing that could be rolled out as an update for TF2, but would be trivial to include in a Team Fortress 3. Do it, Valve! Restore this game to its proper glory!