Team Fortress 2 Preview

What in the hell is going on with Team Fortress 2!? I've browsed my butt off looking for some relevant and fresh information, but to my disappointment, I could only find a few scarce leads and comments on the latest in TF2 development... It seems that most of Valve's PR work is handled by one of the creators of the TF mod, Robin Walker, who is incidentally busy working on the stand-alone TF2 product. You can imagine how active the guy is, having to implement all those lines of code, and on top of that, having to calmly answer all the questions of the nosy media, and demanding fans. Valve was a no-show at E3 2000, but they got to show some of the voice communication features at the September '99 presentation in London. I was thoroughly impressed then, and I'm thoroughly impressed now by the voice-com capabilities, but we all got to see very little of the actual maps, and classes, little lone gameplay... Since then, apart from a few movie clips I had very little hands-on contact with the game, and what's worst, I've heard precious little about it. Most of the info has come from various Robin Walker/Yahn Bernier interviews. Apart from reading paper publications, it's obvious that the online community is lacking some fleshy info on the game. Even as I write this article, we're trying to get in touch with Robin to see if he can answer some of our questions.

Since this is actiontrip's first article on Team Fortress 2, I thought I'd give you a "little" rundown of the data that I've managed to collect thus far...

It All Started With the Original TF Mod...

Before the sequel, there was the original. About 5 years ago, two Australian coders, Robin Walker, and John Cook created the original TF mod for Quake. The sucker took off like a pack of free condoms on a gay parade, capturing the hearts and minds of online shooter fans across the globe. It became one of the most popular mods ever, alongside CTF. TF introduced entirely new concepts into the fairly conservative FPS community --- like the word - community - for instance! The term "online community" applies to a bunch of "players" fragging each other in a casual deathmatch game as much as it does to a clan of CTF players coordinating an assault. A community by its nature is not dependant on the number of its members, but rather on the level of interactivity it provides for them. Team Fortress managed to create a micro community of people depending on each other, and in that way, it introduced the highest level of interaction between its members. Suddenly, in order to win you had to have a team - your own little micro community in which player efficiency and suitability for a specific role were essential for team's success. The next logical step in FPS online gaming...

TF2 Basics...

The easiest way to explain Team Fortress 2 gameplay would be to compare it with a basketball team of ten players, physician, and a coach. Providing you don't have to deal with Bobby Knight, the coach is the one that doesn't score baskets; he sets the tactical plays and assesses the situation on the court. The physician is there to mend the wounds of the poor players unlucky enough to have Bobby for their coach. Of course, you don't get to shoot baskets... It's humans you're after, and you get to do it in a military style, modern-day-weapons operations. Like in basketball though, you wouldn't send your point to guard Shaquille. Members of the team have their specific roles, and none of them is capable of getting the job done on their own. Mister know-it-all commandos like John Rambo need not apply. In TF2 a group of twelve soldiers, each representing a different military class will get to carry out assignments or flat out annihilate the other group of soldiers in what proves to be the first true, next-generation online FPS game.

The Classes

TF2 features twelve soldier classes in all... Each of them is like a chess piece, tied together by a common goal and complimentary abilities.

Commander class is the link between TF2's FPS and strategy elements. From what I could gather, this is one of the more distinct units in the game. Commander is not directly involved in the action. His main choir is to set the tactics, and make quick decisions. Commander is overseeing the action through a birds-eye camera view, or through shoulder-mounted teammate cameras... During the last IGNPC interview session with Robin Walker, he mentioned that most recently he's been working on the HUD radar, attempting to cram more information into it for the player. The work on the HUD radar directly relates to the Commander class. It will be very interesting to see if Valve can pull off a smooth and intuitive interface that manages to incorporate a number of strategy elements into this intense action game. Of course, voice communication and advanced hand gestures by players add a lot to the quality of communication and the implementation of different tactics.

The other classes include Engineer with his ability to construct various offensive and defensive structures, and equipment (his most famous creations being the sentry guns), Pyro is equipped with the flame-thrower, which is in many ways crucial to victory in TF2 --- Valve decided to introduce the volumetric weapon effect, meaning that the flame from Pyro's weapon will fill up a volume of space. If you shoot the flame-thrower into a tight corridor, the flame gets propelled further then if shot into a large room. Like the commander, Instructor is not involved directly in the action. His main task is to train inexperienced players and prepare them for combat. Officer is your key unit in the field. Valve is adding a "Roman Scipio" ability here, making the officer's proximity to his men directly proportional to the height of their morale, and shooting accuracy... Spy uses stealth and cunning to infiltrate enemy lines and make diversions, while Commando plays the demolition-man. Commando is loaded with heavy explosives, but he needs time and cover to set the charges. Always attacking from a distance due to vulnerability, the Sniper can take down the opposition before they even know what hit them.

Three of the most typical field units include the Marine, Machine Gunner and Ranger. Marine plays the "standard" soldier role, good for assault and defensive assignments, the machine gunner is providing for some tight backup, while the ranger represents the fast-moving forward, scouting class. Finally, if enemy shrapnel shreds any of the units in the field they can shout Medic, and expect to be "risen from the dead". The folks at Valve found out through playtesting that people loved reviving others, and that others liked being revived. As a result, they've decided to add features to the Medic's radar, and to the Commander's HUD, to find the nearest team-members who need healing. Medic is the other atypical unit, besides the commander that kinda sets the whole tone of TF2 battles. The officer unit also sounds very interesting, because of the sheer tactical possibilities it adds to the game design. Also, every class will get to carry a secondary weapon, adding even more tactical elements into the action.

Looking at the big picture, it becomes clear that TF2 is far from being "just a FPS" in terms of gameplay. More than anything, it's an extremely dynamic tactical game, where communication and teamwork play a vital role in the overall mission success.

Communicate!

Having read all sorts of info on TF2, the complexity and the size of the whole project make me shudder from the amount of responsibility resting on Valve's shoulders, especially with the added pressure of "Half Life follow-up" performance anxiety. There is a billion pieces of the puzzle, and each needs to be fitted into its proper place. One thing is certain though. The whole gameplay concept will fall apart if the in-game communication fails to be anything but 100% simple and effective. Starsiege Tribes had a relatively complex setup. One of the main reasons why it failed as a tactical online shooter is the lack of proper communication between the players on the net. The lack of communication created confusion and made the game tougher to play. Team Fortress 2 is striving to achieve an even greater level of complexity, but they'll absolutely need great communication, both in the sense of technology and game design for the concept to truly work. The technical side of the issue is handled by Powerplay, a set of standards created by Valve (in cooperation with Cisco) in order to improve the voice communication data transfer, even on dial-up modems. What it is really, is an invention by Cisco that sort of filters the data important for the voice communication, therefore reducing the amount of overall data needed for a steady connection over the net.

The game design area of the in-game communication is Valve programmers' personal nightmare (Yahn Bernier's in particular). Voice communication, coupled with selective voice communication and hand gestures through advanced player communication, present a monstrous analytical challenge for any serious game designer. As I said, not only will the players be able to communicate by speaking to each other across the net, Valve actually plans to enable transmission of specific communiqués to a specific player/group of players. In terms of tactics and gameplay, that's an excellent decision, but in terms of game design, well... huh... it sounds complicated.

That's not the end of voice communication troubles though... Try to imagine all the social issues that could arise from having a bunch of people from different countries, ages 12-25 going up against each other... There is the issue of muting, age difference, cheating by playing loud, high fidelity sounds, and God knows what else people are capable of coming up with...

The Power Behind TF2...

As most of you know already, Valve decided to scrap the whole heavily modified Quake 1, then Quake 2 engine business, and go for their proprietary 3D technology. This is an excellent decision by the team, although it will most certainly cause further delays in game development (TF2 is currently scheduled for a late 2001 release). The new engine offers unlimited (re)design flexibility, as the programmers don't have to concern themselves with other people's coding... Team Fortress 2 sports a new technology that it has licensed from Intel called MRM (multi resolution mesh). A system allows the software to scan a computer's CPU power and accordingly scale the quality of models in the game. Combined with the new features, the much-ballyhooed skeletal-based parametric animation, and the added potency of the proprietary technology, Team Fortress 2 promises incredibly detailed and polygon-rich models, as well as a solid overall performance across numerous PC platforms. When asked about what their new engine can do, Robin simply replied, "better ask what it can't do". I must admit I felt a bit in awe after such a statement, wondering what in the world can those half lifers come up with next.

Some Other TF2 Gameplay Elements, Modes of Play...

There is so much more to be said about TF2 I feel I just can't cram all the info without going for a full-blown essay... Other basic gameplay features include various modes of play, BOT AI (done by Steve Bond - the same guy that did the Half Life AI.), and a team-based scoring system (the players will be able to view individual stats in the game though).

TF2 will feature some of the usual modes of play, like CTF, although there'll be no TFC, 2fort-inspired fortress mods. Valve plans to introduce some very interesting gameplay concepts though. The teams will get to infiltrate enemy bases and look for key objects, hunt down powerful dictators, and even play an elaborate Command and Conquer map. Yes, you'll start with a couple of Engineers, constructing different structures in order to "unlock" increasingly powerful units available for your team. Just like in any resource-collecting RTS game...

The gameplay scenario will even include a 3-map campaign called Saving Private Ryan --- you know, Tom Hanks style. Each team will start from a different location working their way through different maps, whilst at all times relying on other teams' support. As it is evident from this example, TF2 will feature a possibility of more than two teams playing simultaneously in the game.

On top of all that, if your bandwidth is less than satisfactory, and even Powerplay doesn't do the trick, you can always rely on Steve to provide some incredibly challenging AI. By his own admission, TF2 AI will far exceed the one in Half Life, featuring BOT learning --- Engineers will be able to memorize the best locations for sentry guns, Commanders will learn from their previous tactical mistakes etc. Usually, when people talk about the "incredible AI features" I kinda take it with a grain of salt. Having in mind Steve's previous track record, I think I'll be a true believer this time around.

One more general note about TF2 gameplay before I go... Although all of this might sound complex and overly demanding, you can rest assured that Valve is doing their best to create a breezy gameplay experience. Medics will be able to revive players (accent on revive), and as Robin Walker said: "Valve is not going all out on the realism factor ---they will make the game realistic only if it adds to the gameplay. For example, if you shoot a guy in the leg, he might limp away, but the player himself isn't actually affected, because it isn't much fun to move at a crawl, to bleed to death, or to get killed by one lucky shot to the head." This means that we can expect some major testing on the part of Valve before they even think about releasing the game. When it comes down to it it's always about the ease of use and fun, no matter how complex the inner-workings of the project might be. I'm sure the creators of the "best action game ever" are well aware of that, and they'll do all in their power to provide us with an incredible ride into the world of Team Fortress 2...