OK, so the Orange Box was a gift I received for Christmas, and I of course am going to start messing around with Team Fortress 2. Seeing as how I have little experience with this title and its original incarnation, I'm looking for helpful tips and advice so I don't severely piss off my teammates. XBL is being uncooperative right now, so I have some time.

So you got the Xbox360 version of TF2 I take it? Does it have that 16 player limit? Because 32 player games on the PC is where TF2 really gets intense.

I believe there is a 16 player limit for Senor 360, I haven't seen any bigger games than that so far.

Makes sense, without dedicated servers it's hard to have people host such large games.

As for tips, I'm not sure how different TF2 is compared to TFC, so I don't want to steer you wrong. Generally in TFC a common courtesy was to not grab nades if you're a class that doesn't particularly need them (like sniper). I'm pretty sure I've heard TF2 doesn't even have nades though, so that's out. Basically, just try and help the team, work toward the objective for a given map, and don't be a dick.

Exchange it for the PC version, quick. >.>

I never played the original TF but as far as I know its pretty hard to piss off a TF2 team without losing a lot.

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Yeah....therein lies the main limitation to having a Mac for your personal computer...

Mb got it to work on his macbook the other day apparently.

MacBook or MacBook Pro? I ask because I've tried messing around with HL2 through Boot Camp, and she didn't have the juice.

I think he has a pro.

And I'm fairly sure he got it running on OSX or whatever the kak macs use now.

Yeah, he has a Pro.

Scout: You pretty much can't do wrong, but my suggestion is to run to the second flag, ignore getting damaged, and hide until the first flag is captured. Don't be a scout if you're defending. Don't take portals.

Soldier: Don't be afraid to rush in and die, because that's your primary job. You're a kamikaze.

Pyro: You're an engineers best friend, and on spy duty. Splash everyone with a little fire to be sure you're among friends.

Demolition: 3 stickies blows up a turret even if it's being repaired. Remember this! It's easier to sticky 3 times then explode than to try and damage it while it's being repaired.

Heavy: Find a medic, be his buddy, and try to cover as much ground while firing as possible.

Engineer: You might want to play a while before dedicating to the engineer. There are some major placement points, and until you learn the effective ones, you're going to annoy a lot of people by making bad turret placements. Try to get all of your buildings built, because a portal can be the difference between winning and losing. Also, you've got some pretty capable weapons, so don't forget to use them.

Medic: Uber: Heavies, Soldiers and Pyros. Heavies for high enemy concentration, soldier for last ditch defense, and pyros for concentrated enemies or a known turret. While people might get angry, don't risk your neck running out without an uber.

Sniper: Believe it or not, snipers are good at taking out enemy buildings. They're also great at stopping an uber before it happens by sniping the medic before he ubers. Your secondary weapon is actually pretty useful if you get cornered. WATCH YOUR BACK. Spys are almost always going to try to be a sniper first round, and they'll hand out around you like they're waiting to snipe.

Spy: I'm horrible at spy, but they can work as a good way of capturing an unguarded second flag, similar to my prior suggestion. There's lots of tricks to it, but I'm horrible at it. B changes to your last outfit.

OK I've read around, and saw what Kirby wrote but I cannot figure out for the life of me what this "uber" bit is. I'm assuming it's some type of invincibility?

Uber means double damage for all the classes except Medic, whose uber allows him to be invincible for 10 seconds, along with whoever he is healing.

As a medic, when you heal people, you accumulate "points". The more damage you heal, the faster you get points. When you reach 100, you get to temporarily make yourself and your target invincible.

I'd say spies are also awesome for taking out enemy turrets etc, but you have to be sneaky about it.

GOD DAMN SPIES DESTROY EVERYTHING I CREATE

so my steam install randomly got corrupted and its having me reinstall all the games i had on there. that really cheeses me.

Heres a tip for any team members that comes near your turrets:

SHOTGUN: APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD.

I too just got the orange box via steam for Christmas. So far I'm loving TF2. My favorite class is the Pyro because it's a riot to run around setting people on fire and shouting like you're Kenny from South Park

Scouts (good ones) are amazing at defense. I love playing defense as a scout. You can get to a base and stop a capture before anyone else, and your speed allows you to really sidetrack and annoy people. It's amazing what people will go through to go after a scout rather than the primary objective. I've actually held off half of a team before at a choke point. Not because I was amazing, but because my hit and run attacks just scared the crap out of them.



NO. Rushing in and dying is a horrible waste of your abilities and time. Soldiers are the second slowest class, so it takes forever to get back into the fight.

Soldiers are amazing at taking out buildings, getting to hard-to-reach places, and laying down concentrated damage. Find a choke point and clear it out.



Also be warned that a couple of ubered pyros can totally change the tide of war. Do not underestimate them, they can own you.



Always take out the dispensers first. Engineers have a fit and are nearly useless without metal to rebuild. If you can take out a turret and dispenser at the same time, all the better.



On some rounds, heavies can be amazing at defense. Stick them next to a dispenser and just let them lay down an infinite stream of lead. Doing this makes them one of the best spy-killers also. If you cover the area properly, spies can't get through without blowing their cloak and taking damage.

Also, when staring down the barrel of a sniper, CROUCH. They'll blow their shot into your chest or above your head, giving you a chance to get some cover.



Always, always, ALWAYS build a tele entrance at the spawn point, then run back for a refill of metal. After that, always, ALWAYS build a dispenser. They'll allow you to get that sentry up much quicker, and benefits the entire team.

Don't be afraid to be a little offensive with your placements. A sentry placed in a choke point can put down a lot of heat. Always build near ammo spawns if you can, so you can easily grab extra metal. Once your dispenser has topped off, you can repair your turret for a nearly-indefinite amount of time.



Do not forget demos. On a couple places in dustbowl, the only way to really make it forward is to have a couple demomen ubered to rush through and take out the entrenched team.

And I also say that medics SHOULD run into the fray, and often. Medics are the second fastest class, they can dodge shots really effectively. Combine that with their regenerative ability, and they're like a fast-moving tank sometimes.



Only bother sniping lvl1 sentries and dispensers, which you can take out with 1-2 shots.

Pay attention to the charge meter. Even a headshot is not enough to kill a heavy at a low charge.

Also, as far as spies, other common choices are demomen and pyros.



I refuse to acknowledge the existance of this broken class.

No but really, spies are insane and can really screw up a team.

I love charging in as a Medic. I can get some nice surprise kills with the needles and bonesaw.

I haven't played for a few months. Is the regenerative ability something new? I don't remember it, but I do love it.

Soldiers should focus on killing lightweight classes, as medics, engineers, spies and scouts tend to die in one-to-two rocket hits. When it comes to heavies and other soldiers, it really boils down to who strikes first. Soldiers also are good at keeping pyros off teammates and themselves, just aim for the ground around you.



It depends really. I've seen pyro rushes fail when they confront 2 or more SGs. Best at chokepoints and narrow hallways.



This is true.



To add to that, don't be affraid to use the dispenser as a "side-sheild". The thing can take a few hits without blowing up, which can save some health.



Really, I don't see how teams can move past the second cap on round 2 of dustbowl. All the engineers build SGs and dispensers often in that ONE corner. When there is like 4 SGs there, even a ubered heavy can't do any serious damage.



I don't really agree on "fast-moving tank". But I will say that no truly successfull advancing team has no medics on their side. And a medic on defense can do wonders; I don't see why some people think they are only good for offense.



There are so many spy and anti-spy tricks that I can go on and on listing them all. Really, you can make so many kills in you pay attention to group behavior and know when to strike. In fact, my steam ID is this: http://steamcommunity.com/id/spy_questionmark/ I love playing the spy class.

Here's my tips on choosing what to disguise as/what to look out for:

Medic: A easy give away. Medics are, most of the time, healing people so its odd for one to go fighting alone. If you see a medic in a group or near people BUT you don't see him producing a "heal-gun heal trail," I say its suspicious.

Pryo: It's good choice to diguise as one. It won't be terribly suspicious to see one not shooting flames often because some like to conserve ammo. To add to that, they are often looking around for spies and suspicious activity so its not uncommon to see a regular pyro running back to base and waiting in corners.

Heavy: Not a great idea to disguise. THey are constantly shooting and their walk speed makes it hard to catch up and stab people. You might trick a medic into healing you, as a heavy and a medic make a great gay couple, but you will get followed by him.

Scout: A dead give away. Watching a scout run in "slow-mo" attracts more than enough attention.

Engineer: A really great disguise, especially when it comes to sapping SGs and stuff. This is probably the most disguise I choose. It's not uncommon to see engineers running back and forth on a map or investigating all sorts of places on the map. THey are also bad at gunning it out, so they have to rely on groups of teammates. Thus, that's good for you if you are going to make group kills or just trying to blend in with a crowd.

Spy: Worst class to disguise. You don't often see spies running around trying to gun down people. And its so easy to disguise and cloak, seeing a undisguised spy is just odd. Even if you are good at aiming, the spy pistol is fairly weak and ineffective at taking on an advancing team so being a pistol-focused shooting-spy is a stupid idea.

Disgusing as a sniper really helps at times because half the time you can hang back behind the enemy team and take out their defense.

Also the spy pistol is pretty powerful in my book.

But fact of the matter is, the knife is more effective than the pistol. Even if the pistol can do some damage, it has a relatively low rate of fire and the spy himself can't withstand much frontal attacks.

Thats why I aim for the head.

>.>

I'll agree with the scout being a good defensive class. I can bumble-bee pretty well if I am balls-to-the-wall with my usual pyro or engineer.

And I'd have to say I'm best as engineer. I can defend a point on my own against anything but ubers, as I've gotten rather good at tactical placement, as well as using my normal weapons to kill the enemy. The engineer pistol is awesome.

I love seeing my name on the screen when I kill a heavy with the pistol as an engineer. Makes it all worth while.

That's probably what she said.

I haven't gotten around to buyin' TF2 yet, but my brother loves it.

I once got 10 kills, 17 or 18 points, just from bonesaw kills in a game of cp_lazytown.

The players in the game afterwards dubbed it the "pwnsaw".

Well, spent a lot of hours playing since yesterday, and the advice given here was much appreciated, and very useful. Started off as Medic because that seemed to be a nice way to glide into the whole process, and I felt a great deal of immense satisfaction of sitting next to a heavy and racking up the assist kills.

Played around with basically all the classes except Engineers, Enjoyed playing as the Scout a great deal, Spy was interesting, think that will take some more time to really utilize the proper strategy with it. Pyro, damn, setting things on fire while laughing maniacally has never been so fun.

Overall, really feel that the existence of those classes adds a great amount of depth to the gameplay. I so rarely play online in the first place mostly because I didn't feel like getting my *** handed to me on a daily basis by players who have been doing it for years and years. Sure some people are just better than others, but I don't get the sense that just one person can walk in and dominate, hence making the teamplay aspect so very unique. Probably sounds obvious to everyone but me, but it's been really nice to see so far, and more importantly, a hell of a fun time.

I did get it running on my Macbook Pro. I was using a program called Crossover which just emulates windows. It didnt work perfectly, but it worked.

Yeah, that's what's awesome about the game. No obsessive KDR. The key is to win the round, and this encourages team play above all else.

I understand where you're coming from, and having played CS for many many years it's a wonderful change of pace. I can see why all the CS servers died after TF2 came out now.

Also, spy is awesome but you gotta know, mainly, when to cloak and when to uncloak and how to best utilize your cloak. You can disguise as your own team to fool the other team into thinking you're not a spy coming, cloak, then change disguises while cloaked and uncloak behind enemy lines. Also, after you kill, cloak always so they won't see you hopefully. I once got 8 backstabs in a row just by kill, cloak, kill, cloak, move around like a ****ing butterfly in the wind. You just have to steer clear of pyros, kill them first if possible, though there's just something about killing a heavy that makes me all fuzzy and warm inside.

God I need to get my computer up and running so I can get that game going.

How long can one remain cloaked?

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 20, 25 seconds? Google would help better with that.

There is a bar indicating on the bottom of the screen,

Wait, how do you disguise as your own team?

Actually I think it's 10 seconds. It just feels longer when you're ingame. It's just barely long enough to go from one side to the other on 2fort.

The cloak charges really slowly though