I recently had to get a new work laptop, and one of the restrictions on my purchase is that it had to be able to run Minecraft* on it. Also, I remember that Team Fortress 2 was free to download and play, so I did that. I went through the training, which is pretty rudimentary, but good for highlighting differences and what not amongst the classes.
Coming from the console world, I have issues with using the keyboard and mouse. It takes some getting used to, and I’ve been contemplating getting a wired Xbox controller so I can speed up the learning curve.
Each individual match takes a long time. That’s been my problem with the game so far, that I don’t know anyone playing it, don’t quite feel up to speed because of my lack of map knowledge and general unease with it, by the time I get done defending or attacking and switching over to the other team, I lose interest and disconnect. If anyone’s interested in playing a night or three if I’m available, I’d totally be up for that.
*Can’t wait for that to come on the console either. Hurry up, dammit.
96.44.142.243:27017
That is the IP address for the SDMB server. Games tend to be run on Tuesdays and Saturdays, but of course can have people join it any other time. There is no one in the server right now though.
EDIT: And here is the Team Fortress 2 thread, lots of strategy talk and links to various videos. And other people to get in touch with through Steam to maybe try and jump start a small game or two when you’re free.
Even with prior experience with consoles, you’ll very quickly find that a mouse is far superior for this sort of game. If you try to use a console controller with a computer version of a game, you’ll probably do even worse than you’re doing now with the mouse: Most console games have some degree of auto-aiming to compensate for the inferior controls, but a PC version won’t have that.
I don’t mean to sound like a PC snob, here, BTW: Both control schemes have their advantages. But the main advantage to the console controls is that you can use them flopped on a couch without a desk in front of you. When that’s not an issue, you’ll almost always want to use a mouse.
Translation: Make fun of you better (in a good natured way).
I don’t think you’ll be competitive with a controller on most classes. Consoles have large hit boxes and varying degrees of aim assists to compensate for trying to aim with two analog sticks.
But maybe the heavy might work?
You might want to give that class a shot with a controller. If you already have a wireless xbox gamepad, you pick up a wireless adapter for the PC from amazon for like $20.
I jumped on after getting a mouse to play. The games take too long, but that went well, I think. I was top five in whatever team I was in, even after team shuffling with a sniper.
What sort of game were you playing? If you want something short, King of the Hill games tend to be quickest in my experience. That is, assuming both sides are competent – any game can be over lickity-split if one side gets steamrolled.
It was probably attack/defend maps, like Badwater Basin or Dustbowl. Or possibly Gold Rush or Upward, the former can take a really long time for even one team to win.
Five point control point maps or king of the hill would be faster, king of the hill as mentioned can go pretty damn quickly.
Yeah…multi-stage maps can take an eternity, and there are some seriously stalemate-y maps out there. Or it could’ve been CTF. Those always feel like a choke-point fest.
KotH games are usually 5-10 minutes long. Depends on how long it takes for someone to cap the point in the beginning and whether or not you waste a lot of time in overtime. On the short end, you’re looking at 3:30, on the long end I don’t think I’ve seen a game go over 12min and that’s a long game.
You may joined a 24/7 specific map server; there’s a lot of those out there. And yeah, just the same round-after-round stuff gets boring quite fast, in my opinion. I’d encourage you to hop around and try some other servers. As mentioned upthread, there’s also several Dopers who play (myself included) and might be able to suggest good servers to try out.
Do we still have SDMB people playing this game on a regular basis? I’m a little worn out on BF3 and lately I’ve been playing TF2 again, but I haven’t really being seeing too many regulars from before.
There is a game type called “Arena” but it is still team based and those games are a lot more difficult to find.
The way it works is that you die once and you sit in spectator mode until one team either captures one point in the middle of the map or until every person on one team is dead. Then you all respawn and start over, sometimes though you have to sit out a round if the server player limit has been reached and there are people waiting in line.
Not really a good format for newer players because it is very easy to die unless you have a medic following you around. Suggested more for people who are good at staying alive without a medic or have enough skills to keep a medic alive while he’s following you around.
But the game type is somewhat there for you if you wanna hunt down an Arena server.