By John Walker on August 12th, 2008 at 8:39 pm.
Update: Thanks to reader Theory who points out that the TF2 Blog is now describing the five new maps for the new game mode as “five new arenas”. What does that suggest to you?
Valve have begun the Heavy update news, but they’re being dreadful teases. Revealing a detail per day until Friday, and then more on Monday and Tuesday next week, it seems there are big plans afoot. Shack News are reporting that there will be the user map, a new “special edition” Meet The Team video, a new Payload map, and most of all, five new Valve-made maps designed for the brand new game mode. What this may be, we don’t know yet. But it’s the biggest change to TF2 since launch.
For today, it’s information on a new community map, CP_STEEL.
Created by Jamie “Fishbus” Manson, the first revealed map is a dynamic Attack/Defense map, where the available routes change as control points are captured. Valve explain in more detail:
“A complex Attack/Defense control point map, with some unique gameplay. Unlike most TF2 maps, capturing a control point modifies the layout of the map, opening and closing routes for each team. As a result, the offensive team has a wide variety of tactical choices around how they’d like to assault the final point. Should they use Scouts and Soldiers to rush the final point with only the routes they start with? Should they go for the side control points and open up more routes to the final? Should they capture extra points to shut down the defender’s routes? The many choices keep the map interesting for a long time, providing a wide variety of experiences in a game.”
Tune in tomorrow as we inevitably feed Valve’s insatiable desire for our attention by reporting the next update. In the meantime, go on, what are you guesses/desperate desires for the Heavy’s new bits? Oh, and the new game mode?
12/08/2008 at 20:42 cyrenic says:
I <3 Valve. Tons of new maps, and new achievements and weapons for my favorite class, all for free.
I’m wondering if the new mode will be a VIP mode, as teased in the “Meet the Sniper” video. I think the new “Meet the” video will introduce the new game mode, whatever it ends up being.
12/08/2008 at 20:46 Wizumer says:
Heavy has got to get some sort of shield and smaller weapon combo to combat Snipers. As a person more from the Sniper side of things, this will be painful, but I also feel it’s necessary. Obviously the shield would be lowered for shooting otherwise it might be a bit overpowered, but it would help them get into a position to use a medic’s uber rather than getting killed just before it goes up.
And for some reason I really hope they get an extendo-fist a la Looney Tunes cartoons as their optional melee weapon.
12/08/2008 at 20:49 scopie says:
Man these days I need an hour of TF2 after work like a smoker needs that first cig in the morning.
Heavy is one of my least played classes, but it’s the one with all of my records (most damage, points, kills, etc.) I find the actual fragging not to be the difference between a great and mediocre heavy, but rather knowing when to bow out and refill ammo/health and keeping your pretty face away from those snipers.
Definitely excited to see what the Valve Gods have in store.
12/08/2008 at 20:57 James says:
I expect VALVE will follow the same approach used with the Pyro and Medic released, and provide a secondary weapon for each achievement waypoint.
Playing as a Heavy, there are a few things which can cause issues. First is the Sentry, which at medium range will push you back and kill you without an ubercharge, and merely be repaired as you chip away merrily at it. I expect some sort of EMP-round firing main weapon that does lots of damage against Engineer equipment to break the first-point stalemate.
The second will be a massive hand-cannon esque revolver a la Dirty Harry, with a mirror bodged onto the gun to show sneaky spies sneaking up for a stealthy backstab.
The third will be a chainsaw, which is large enough to slow the Heavy to a crawl, but insta-crits on everything in its short range.
Watch!
12/08/2008 at 20:58 Rook says:
I always find it’s not so much that Heavies are crap against snipers, it’s that the rest of your team has decided to play Pyros which can do fuck all against snipers. Just a couple of Soldiers or demo men are usually enough to provide covering fire.
12/08/2008 at 21:03 Man Raised By Puffins says:
I’m not a big fan of Steel, but it’s good to see Valve giving it the nod. In related news Chris Livingston (of Concerned and not actually making a TF2 comic after all fame) did a nice interview a while back with the guy who made the map.
12/08/2008 at 21:03 controle says:
I wonder if those new maps will be completely new or rehashed version of older ones for the new game mode. Valve has released 2 entirely new maps (badlands and goldrush) and certainly took their time with them – and now they suddenly crank out 6 at once?
12/08/2008 at 21:06 Chris Evans says:
Oh how the gods that are known as Valve smile down upon us =]
12/08/2008 at 21:07 jon says:
James, that Dirty Harry revolver with added mirror would be incredible
12/08/2008 at 21:09 Chris Evans says:
New game mode and new Meet The Team related shenanigans? Yeah this is going to be one big, fat, juicy update.
12/08/2008 at 21:19 Theory says:
The TF2 Blog post just got updated. It now says five new “arenas”, not maps.
Deathmatch. :-)
12/08/2008 at 21:22 roBurky says:
I think I might not mind being part of the inevitable heavy-rush in this one. Being a heavy against a team full of heavies sounds like a lot of fun, actually.
12/08/2008 at 21:29 Nero says:
So excited about this update. I have quite recently began to play a heavy more (medic still is my main). Can’t wait for the Meet the Team video either. I’ve played cp_steel a few times and it’s a pretty fun map so I’m glad to see it there. Bring on more info Valve! :D
12/08/2008 at 21:46 Andrew says:
I will be a sniper when this update is released. This I know.
12/08/2008 at 21:46 Theory says:
The video isn’t a Meet the Team this time.
12/08/2008 at 21:50 John Walker says:
From where are you getting this info, Theory?
12/08/2008 at 21:56 Theory says:
http://www.gamecyte.com/2008/07/16/e3-2008-valve-interview-left-4-dead-and-team-fortress-too/2148
My money is on a Pyro gender reveal. :)
Edit: Hmm, Shacknews’ post probably trumps that.
12/08/2008 at 22:03 Chris Evans says:
“as well as a special installment to the “Meet the Team” series of video shorts.”
From the press release ;)
12/08/2008 at 22:07 Man Raised By Puffins says:
Meet the Train Driver?
12/08/2008 at 22:07 asdf says:
I hear that the Heavy is actually a lady in disguise
12/08/2008 at 22:10 John Walker says:
Yeah Chris, but the press release says it’s a “Meet the Team” video, you see. Special or not.
12/08/2008 at 22:14 Chris Evans says:
So I am discounting what Theory said about it not being a ‘Meet The Team’ thing.
/suspicious eyes
12/08/2008 at 22:17 CrashT says:
Meet the VIP?
12/08/2008 at 22:18 KindredPhantom says:
They will release this on the 19th! I bet you that they will, look at the release dates of the previous two unlock packs.
Also why haven’t you guys said anything about this yet? I was expecting it to make at least a few lines in a post.
http://www.halflife2.net/2008/08/11/synergy-this-friday/
12/08/2008 at 22:29 AciD says:
So many little man on this site!
Great news!
12/08/2008 at 22:54 SuperNashwan says:
The only thing that makes sense of “arenas” to me is if they were to make a game mode out of rocket/sticky jumping, like a race to the top. Wouldn’t be too much time to create five courses for that. Doesn’t really fit the TF2 ethos but it’s something one of the team could’ve come up with quickly and they decided it was fun enough to polish and release.
12/08/2008 at 23:02 Legandir says:
I remember seeing some news (i think it was on shacknews but i cant be sure) that there wouldn’t be a meet the team video but that there would be something similar. If it turns out to be a “meet the vip” then that’d fit
12/08/2008 at 23:24 Fumarole says:
Please let it be Hunted please let it be Hunted please let it be Hunted…
12/08/2008 at 23:30 J. Prevost says:
Mainly, I just like to say “Level 5 Lunch”.
12/08/2008 at 23:42 roBurky says:
Yeh, the sandwich idea for self-healing is my favourite. It’s what the heavy really needs.
12/08/2008 at 23:45 RichPowers says:
Hunted would be a fiasco. The entire game depends on the competency of just one player. Get a bad prez and the game sucks.
12/08/2008 at 23:49 Fumarole says:
Conversely, get a good one and the awesomeness that is TF2 doubles.
12/08/2008 at 23:59 CrashT says:
Given the use of the word Arena I wonder if they are considering some kind of straight Team-DM, or maybe a King Of The Hill style Single Control point affair.
The video could well be a “Meet The Team” as in meet the entire team, some kind of behind the scenes thing, like a Mockumentary with interviews and footage of everybody talking about everybody else.
13/08/2008 at 00:01 Dorsch says:
I don’t think it will be Hunted because they said that Gold Rush is sort of a twenty-first-century-version of Hunted. My guess/hope is a counterstrike-like sudden death gametype where you have an objective (maybe a cp), but when you die, you stay dead, on maps that don’t encourage turtling. I really like sudden death rounds.
13/08/2008 at 00:11 Erlam says:
If they add any DM, I probably will stop playing.
DM modes have essentially made me ever even trying CS again impossible.
TF2 is a team game. I cannot see them removing the entire point of the game from one of the modes.
13/08/2008 at 01:10 Konky Dong IV: Deli of Death says:
The prez from the old Hunted mode was an easter egg in the recent Meet the Sniper video, so it’s possible we’ll get a Hunted variant of some sort.
13/08/2008 at 01:51 malkav11 says:
Team deathmatch is both deathmatch and team-based.
That said, modes with a bit more in the way of objectives would seem far more interesting.
13/08/2008 at 03:00 Y3k-Bug says:
@Konky Dong
Thats quite a logical leap you’re making.
I thought it was simply a reference to TFC.
The Sniper’s comment of “Boom. Headshot.”, it being a bobble HEAD, the Hunted gametype being one in which a team of Snipers had to kill the VIP featured as the bobble head.
Also, why are people assuming its a deathmatch gametype based on one word? And since when were deathmatch maps called arenas?
13/08/2008 at 03:21 icegreentea says:
@Y3k-Bug
Unreal Tournament I would think.
13/08/2008 at 03:23 MeestaNob! says:
Arenas = Capture the Hill.
This is gonna get bloody.
13/08/2008 at 05:08 Y3k-Bug says:
@icegreentea
Oh, does it now? I stand corrected. Never played that series.
But I would highly doubt TF2 would go the DM route. That would be rather odd to say the least.
13/08/2008 at 07:34 sigma83 says:
Mostly I just have faith in Valve’s ability to release really entertaining stuff.
13/08/2008 at 09:14 craip says:
It won’t be DM: the class limitations means Medics and Spies (maybe Scouts) would be at a natural disadvantage. The word “arenas” is just another way of saying “levels” or “maps” to me.
13/08/2008 at 11:13 Cigol says:
arena might also be used to emphasise a change in environment.
13/08/2008 at 11:58 monkeymonster says:
I’d say “arena’s” implies no ending or start points (bar entrance) – so the capture the hill type play would fit the description….
13/08/2008 at 12:28 Alex says:
The video: Meet The Overlady?
13/08/2008 at 12:32 MeestaNob! says:
@Cigol
Possibly. Their blog discusses the difficulty in creating settings that fit the current 60s/70s motif.
I’d like to see a Moonraker style space station. Teams have to set the other team’s spaceships’ self-destruct, the other team can choose to fight off the rapidly spawning attackers or escape to another area by accruing ‘escape points’ allowing them to escape (think of other time accruing based multi player games, I think UT called them domination). This allows the attacking engys to have something to do/protect rather than build teles and then sit about watching the others.
13/08/2008 at 13:26 Flubb says:
@James:
There’s no need for more anti-spy measures. We already have crap health, crap delayed stab animations and crap invisible cloaks that last barely long enough to make it halfway across a map assuming you don’t bump into someone crammed into the doorways on maps meant for 16 people, but instead have 24-32.
13/08/2008 at 14:27 iainl says:
Remind me to bring up the subject of all this awesome free stuff the next time you people start whining about a game being a whole pound more expensive than the XBox 360 version. You gits.
13/08/2008 at 18:05 phuzz says:
When I heard 5 ‘arenas’, I assumed a big map with multiple sections, ala goldrush
13/08/2008 at 19:09 RichPowers says:
Speaking of Gold Rush, Valve should really balance the map to give the attackers a better shot at winning. According to Valve’s official TF2 stats, RED wins over 80% of the time! Even so, Gold Rush remains the most-played map, closely followed by Dustbowl (where RED wins over 60% of the time).
Gold Rush is one of my favorites, but the majority of rounds never make it past stage 2.
13/08/2008 at 19:45 Flubb says:
The reason red wins most of the time is that the servers screw around with
a) the number of players on a map and
b) the respawn rate
which completely obviates the game mechanics. If you play on normal spawn rate servers you’ll see blue win a lot more :\
14/08/2008 at 00:41 GeorgeR says:
Cannot wait. I haven’t been playing TF2 enough and feeling bad about it. But man, i have to get ramped up for this.
14/08/2008 at 10:10 Little Green Man says:
Mmmmmmm. I wanna Sandvich.
19/08/2008 at 04:36 AlexRide says:
new game mode is arena (like sudden death), and shotgun replacement is…get this, a sanvitch :\ I couldnt believe it either but I have proof right here.
http://tf2wiki.net/wiki/Heavy (go to the bottom)