Anything new you get, be it via drop or purchase, is then yours until you trade it away, craft it into something else, or use it up (if it’s a limited-use item).
You have a “backpack” where all your stuff sits, and you can swap items out of your class loadout screen. Most, if not all, weapons are class specific. Some hats are class specific, others are swappable between classes.
The TF2 experiment has been seemingly wildly successful so far. On a typical weekend primetime you night see 25k people playing TF2… today it hit 98k. Apparently there are indeed large masses of people in there that want to rush in to try tf2, but didn’t think it was worth a few bucks for years. Steam hit a new high of 3.6 million simultaneous which is probably due to the interest in tf2.
The official TF2 wiki has everything you’d want to know in thorough detail.
There’s seven types of maps:
Capture the Flag, which works the same as in any other game and tends to be the weakest of the game modes for TF2
Attack/Defend, where BLU team tries to capture fixed locations from RED, and teams switch once the attack is finished through all stages of the map, or is stopped completely.
Payload, where BLU team tries to push a mine cart (carrying a giant bomb) down a track into the enemy base to blow it up.
Payload Race, where both teams have a bomb cart and first one to push theirs to its destination wins.
Control Point Push, where the map has fixed locations (usually mirrored around the center of the map) that both teams can capture, pushing towards the enemy’s side to eventually capture all of them.
King of the Hill, where the map has a single control point that one of the teams has to hold for a certain amount of time.
Arena, where players are randomly sorted into two teams and fight to the death with one life only.
As for high jumping, while a scout can simply jump twice naturally, everyone else has to use explosives to propel themselves. Jump, make something blow up underneath you, and you have instant propulsion, maybe even in the direction you wanted to go.
Despite everyone hating on it, my favourite map is 2Fort. I love it to bitty bits and spend most of my time playing it. That’s one of the capture the flag maps, though the flag is a briefcase of “Intel” that you’ve got to cap off the other team.
I predominantly play defensive Heavy, though I have managed to cap a couple of times (more through good luck than good management)
[Edit]: Because I mostly play a Heavy, I find life scarying and confusing when I try to play a scout 
Free?!?! Now that’s something I can afford! Downloading now!
Well one thing the update brought that’s certainly awesome is the new demoman set. It takes the demoknight thing and goes full on with it - you don’t even have any sort of launcher, just your sword and the ability to charge. You get health from ammo packs instead of ammo, your charge meter refills at twice the rate and you keep the remaining charge if your charge is interrupted (I kept charging at a pyro who blasted me back 4 times and still got him) and you do more damage from charge impacts (already got a few kills that way)… it’s a really fun way to play.
I made a video from a pub game on our server where I was trying out the new set.
Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. Whoa. Whoa.
OK, you don’t have to pay to get and play the game now, I get that. But, did they eliminate that store-thing they had where you bought stuff? Is it still there and you can buy stuff, is it gone, or is it still there now with free stuff?
I got TF2 in the Orange Box when it first came out. They did a good job with it: great stylized graphics, humor, etc. It felt too slow for me though, and at it’s heart, it was still a game with 1999 sensibilities. Simple. I played it for about ten hours. I haven’t played it since before they introduced that store.
The store is still there.
Played around a while yesterday and started to feel comfortable with a few of the classes. Right now, Pyro is shaping up to be one of my favorites but I haven’t even tried about half of the classes yet.
I wasn’t feeling insanely outclassed yesterday despite by noobness and wonder if it’s not because of the huge influx of new players. So I’m inexperienced but then so is 60% of everyone else. If so, I guess I picked the right time to start.
I even got one drop from playing offline with bots.
Pretty much, Jophiel. There’s going to be a huge lot of new players, so it’s evened the playing field out a fair bit.
Zoid, TF2Wikiis a great place to catch up, learn the classes and weapon info, and get general knowhow on how to play.
As for jumping, it depends on the player type. A Demo can launch himself using his sticky bombs, detonating them just at the right time when they’re underneath them. A Soldier can do the same thing similarly using his rocket launcher. Both classes take damage from using their weapons to propel themselves. A Scout can naturally double jump. You just have to jump, and jump again in midair. He can even use the second jump to jump in a different direction, which is great for avoiding enemy fire. He can do a triple jump using the Force of Nature gun (do a double jump, then shoot at the ground with the gun to propel further- no damage taken!) I guess there’s even a new item to make the scout triple jump without needing to use the gun. I think it’s another Scout drink or something, I have yet to see it.
We’re going to have another private SDMB game on the server tonight at 8pm eastern as we do most tuesdays. Everyone is invited. Those of you who just got around to installing the game, this is a good time to start, people can answer your questions and give you spare weapons and such. Instructions for joining us are up thread, but if you have any problems just add me to your friends list on steam - same name.
Oh, and I may have mentioned this upthread, but if the server is locked, the password is always cecil.
I may have been wrong about my theories that people too cheap to buy the game will never spend money on it. I’ve seen a few people get really into the game really fast and start buying stuff out of the Mann Store, so maybe they’ll make more money this way.
The game has been pretty busy, hitting between 90k-100k people max per day and somewhere around 80k average I’d say. Which is about 4-5x the previous normal numbers.
The new people haven’t been as obnoxious and annoying as I thought they might be … yet.
Anyway, this thread will start dying down so make sure you subscribe to the SDMB TF2 server thread if you want to play with us.
Shameless self promo: Also check out my awesome shield bash kill video and please thumbs up if you like it. Or my other videos - they all involve SDMB games. If I get enough view counts/likes on my videos I’ll make more.
We’ll be having a big locked private SDMB game at 8pm eastern tonight as per usual on Saturday. Join us. If the server is locked the password is always cecil.
Excuse me while I ramble.
Like Munch I’ve never really played FPSes before (I tried CSS a few years ago but I kept dying too quickly and it made me dizzy for some reason). But I started playing this a week ago and I’m really enjoying it. My reflexes and hand-eye coordination has always sucked which is why I’ve never found FPSes to be much fun but that doesn’t seem to be the case, here. Someone mentioned in-game that playing Heavy was anti-FPS and lame but I think it’s a good way to transition into the environment.
I’ve experienced a LOT more lag on Valve’s servers compared to the SDMB one - maybe the little bit people are noticing is par-for-the-course?
Anyways, despite the wiki, information about the game is surprisingly difficult to come by - took me ages to figure out you had to press ‘v’ in order to use the mic (probably a good thing). I had a few of questions:
Thanks for posting that this game went free-to-play! I’m pretty cheap, though if I’d known I’d enjoy an FPS, I’d have shelled out. I think Valve made a wise decision here, since I’m actually considering spending at least $5 if those benefits are for real. Not bad for a four year old game.
For other new players, I found thishelpful (changing some of the default settings).
You might want to check out the Free-to-Play FAQ. To answer your first question, if you spend any amount at the Mann Co. store, you’ll be upgraded to a Premium account. That’s any amount. Just like Steam, the Mann Co. store is also having a summer sale, so go spend $0.99 on those sunglasses.
That’s the catch, you can’t spend just 99 cents on anything. The minimum amount you can put in your Steam wallet is $5.00.
Aha! The FAQ doesn’t tell you that important thing, does it? I guess it’s technically correct, since you can put in $5, but you don’t have to spend it all.
You can put 5 into your wallet, spend .50 on a weapon, and then spend the other $4.50 on buying games on steam.