Comments on: TF2 – Friendly Fire Being Removed

By: Kadayi

Kadayi — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 19:38:39 +0000

Glad it’s been removed, I couldn’t see any real benefits to it save that it made it a hell of a lot easier for spies to move amongst the enemy undetected rather than having to use the cloak and costumes in tandem (like a smart spy does). As for competitive play, that’s a small market of players Vs the great majority who are casual gamers. Truth is TF2 is about fun and FF on may be considered more ‘challenging’ by some, but it certainly isn’t as much fun or as entertaining as carefree FF off. It may share the same roots as CS or DoD but TF2 is a game built around a different player experience, and one that is about having a good time regardless of how your team is doing, rather than the grim intensity that constitutes the atmosphere of your usual CS match (tense affairs, I’m sure you’ll all agree until the win is in the bag).

By: Man Raised By Puffins

Man Raised By Puffins — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 15:15:03 +0000

Bit late now, they removed it this morning.

“Removed mp_friendlyfire cvar for servers. Team Fortress 2 breaks in a number of ways if this is on”

By: b.r.

b.r. — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:54:38 +0000

I really enjoyed Friendly Fire. Please leave it as an option, Valve. Not the default, but it’s a lot of fun.

By: Ian Dorsch

Ian Dorsch — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 18:48:40 +0000

To clarify, I’m standing up for the dev’s prerogative to release the game they intended to release, not expressing a preference for FF on vs. FF off. To play a game other than that which the developer intended to release: that’s what mods are for, and since we’re all clearly playing on PC, I’m sure we’ll be indulged in that respect.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 16:55:31 +0000

I see their point, especially since the balance compared to TFC highly makes accidental kills very likely if you can kill team mates. Also, I am sure pyro’s can hurt (but not burn) allies with FF on too, and sentry guns love to shoot through a player standing in the way, which doesn’t help things.

Just because FPS’s usually are tested for FF rules (and usually are more realistic and have more accurate weapons!) doesn’t mean all of them have to be.

When I did try a few FF on games, it did feel utterly wrong, and spies were utterly powerful too, heh.

By: John Walker

John Walker — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 16:53:22 +0000

Aw. somebody didn’t get the same game again.

By: Mujadaddy

Mujadaddy — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 16:28:55 +0000

Attention: “friendly fire is the only true way to play!”

“”TF2 isn’t a game designed to accomodate it. They haven’t tested it with FF, balanced it for it, or bug tested it. “”

So, the developers are morons? Excuse me, cartoon morons?

By: John Walker

John Walker — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 16:20:43 +0000

To clear this up, they’re not removing FF purely because it’s less fun, but because TF2 isn’t a game designed to accomodate it. They haven’t tested it with FF, balanced it for it, or bug tested it. They don’t want their code to be broken by an option they never intended to run with. All these things that go wrong add up to it being less fun.

By: Xerxes

Xerxes — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 15:18:40 +0000

The issue here though, is that the option to have FF on or off exists in the game, and now it is being removed because of how the developers feel it doesn’t fit their image of the game.

Should people have to try and mod their way round this recent change, when all it currently requires is setting a CVAR to 1 instead of 0. They will remove that CVAR and then people have to go about re-enabling it.

Would you say there is “no compelling reason for outrage” if it was being locked to FF on?
FF on isn’t for you Ian, but to just dismiss the issue people are having is hardly fair.

FF on isn’t just about competitive play, I don’t play competitively, but I like FF on, and I like it off. I like the choice. I don’t see why they can not just offer the choice.

Sarble, I must have missed the meeting where it was written cartoony games can’t have friendly fire… Might want to tell the developers to patch Lego Star Wars to remove that then.

By: Sarble

Sarble — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 15:04:50 +0000

TF2 is a cartoony game, friendly fire is for realistic games. Or to put it another way:
TF2 +FF = LOL
TF2 – FF = ROFLMAO

By: Ian Dorsch

Ian Dorsch — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 15:01:50 +0000

But Julian, why is it critical? If the designers feel that FF unbalances the game and breaks the way certain classes were intended to be played, isn’t it actually more like the opposite of critical?

Besides, as others have mentioned, the game can and will be modded, and you can bet that a FF mod will be one of the first to surface. I just don’t see any compelling reason for outrage here.

By: Stick

Stick — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 14:35:23 +0000

“We shipped [FF] by mistake, as it wasn’t something we wanted to be a part of the game. We haven’t built the game around having it in, and it just stops it from working.”

So: what if the “competitive play” shoe simply does not fit?

We can always mod stuff. I just think it’s kind of unreasonable to expect all FPS games to conform to the same notions of “serious gaming”.