The idea of a closed arena mode, with 9 players on each team - Games

Lately, I've been thinking that Team Fortress 2 has such a huge teamwork potential. This idea is also inspired by [URL]http://www.tf2mixup.com[/URL]. The kind of teamwork potential the game has though, is something you don't experience often enough in public games. Scouts not standing near the cart, or capturing the intel, Pyros not extinguishing burning teammates, Engineers not building teleporters, Medics who hug their Heavies and ignore the burning Scout next to them, Snipers sniping nothing else but other snipers, and spies not sapping the sentries that are blocking the way to the intel. These are the kinda things you see, and much of the time, it is because there are no medics on the team to heal it, and there are no Pyros to airblast the stickies that are about to blow up the Engineer's base. I think, that if the games were more of a closed arena, that is, where no players join during a game, and the players are more likely to stay until the game is over, people might feel more like a team and actually work together. Other than that, I find it obvious to, in such a mode, have 9 players on each team. Each player plays a different class for the whole game. This way, you always have a medic, who will be responsible for healing all other 8 players while übercharging the Heavy. You'd have a Scout hugging the cart or points to make sure you capture faster, and the Sniper will be standing in the back, assisting the team by taking out the Heavy the moment the Medic stops healing him. I do understand, that this doesn't go well with the feel Team Fortress 2 currently has, where it's more of a game, where you just jump in, shoot some people until you are satisfied, and then you can just leave freely, but I personally would in many cases prefer a server like this to play on. But I imagine this being possible with a server mod. The games won't start until 18 people are on the server. Each player is given a random class, and the class limit on all classes is one, so during the game, you can't change your class. Possibly, when a player leaves, a bot with the same class could take his place. While the bot might not be as good at working together with the team, it's better than lacking that player. A form of system where if you leave too many times, you'll get a temporary ban, could be made. The server doesn't have to have a player limit of 18, it could have 24 or even more. The other players would simply sit on spectate until the game is over, and all player on spectate would be distributed on the 2 teams, and random players who played the last game will be added to fill up the teams. That way, the spectating players are always sure to play in the next game. What do you think of this idea?

Surely this is the existing Highlander mode with some feature to stop players from connecting and disconnecting from the server mid-game. If any players crashed, as people do oh so frequently after Valve's constant tampering with the game, though, a team would be down one or more players that can't be replaced.

[QUOTE=Pocket Medic;36973959]Surely this is the existing Highlander mode with some feature to stop players from connecting and disconnecting from the server mid-game. If any players crashed, as people do oh so frequently after Valve's constant tampering with the game, though, a team would be down one or more players that can't be replaced.[/QUOTE] It's not like the TF team would be smart enough to have the foresight to impose some sort of requirement upon connecting to the server to verify that they should have access to it. Some sort of keyword or phrase that allows them to bypass that lock such that they can participate in the game.

[QUOTE=Pocket Medic;36973959]Surely this is the existing Highlander mode with some feature to stop players from connecting and disconnecting from the server mid-game. If any players crashed, as people do oh so frequently after Valve's constant tampering with the game, though, a team would be down one or more players that can't be replaced.[/QUOTE] Yes. The problem with Highlander mode would be that if it starts before there are 9 players, the medic will be the last class to be picked, and my point that all classes are required in order to have the full teamwork that is possible, wouldn't really be there. You are right about the crashing, and a way for players to reconnect would be required. Alternatively, if there are players on spectate, they could be put in that spot, and otherwise the team would have to do with a bot.

what happened to Arena anyway? it gets as much love as Territory Control these days

[QUOTE=no-named;36973990]Yes. The problem with Highlander mode would be that if it starts before there are 9 players, the medic will be the last class to be picked, and my point that all classes are required in order to have the full teamwork that is possible, wouldn't really be there. You are right about the crashing, and a way for players to reconnect would be required. Alternatively, if there are players on spectate, they could be put in that spot, and otherwise the team would have to do with a bot.[/QUOTE] So we have now deduced that the game will be a pre-planned Highlander match on a passworded server, with bots enabled in it to allow for full gameplay even after disconnects

[QUOTE=no-named;36973990]Yes. The problem with Highlander mode would be that if it starts before there are 9 players, the medic will be the last class to be picked, and my point that all classes are required in order to have the full teamwork that is possible, wouldn't really be there. You are right about the crashing, and a way for players to reconnect would be required. Alternatively, if there are players on spectate, they could be put in that spot, and otherwise the team would have to do with a bot.[/QUOTE] You underestimate how many people actually like to play as Medic. They just prefer to not be playing with a bunch of doorknobs that don't know how to protect them or use voice communication. [QUOTE=Sardonus;36973993]what happened to Arena anyway? it gets as much love as Territory Control these days[/QUOTE] A gamemode where you get only 1 life isn't exactly the best of modes for a class-based team game. Not all of the classes fight in the same way, and the surprises that may occur (stickytraps, headshots, backstabs) cannot be made up for after a respawn. In other modes, surprises like that give the other team a significant advantage for 15-20 seconds. In arena mode, that's a permanent advantage -- either the team with the downside will buckle with that loss or has to fight a completely-uphill battle.

[QUOTE=Psychopath12;36974054]You underestimate how many people actually like to play as Medic. They just prefer to not be playing with a bunch of doorknobs that don't know how to protect them or use voice communication.[/QUOTE] This is true, I suppose, I do usually play the support classes myself, including the Medic. But again, if this idea would work as I hope, and it would encourage team work, the medics might have an easier time. You bring up another interesting point, which is voice communication. That would indeed make team work easier, and it might be more acceptable in a mode like this. I feel that on a public server, using voice communation isn't worth it, because the players are so spread out on the map, not always working towards the objective.

[QUOTE=Psychopath12;36974054]A gamemode where you get only 1 life isn't exactly the best of modes for a class-based team game. Not all of the classes fight in the same way, and the surprises that may occur (stickytraps, headshots, backstabs) cannot be made up for after a respawn. In other modes, surprises like that give the other team a significant advantage for 15-20 seconds. In arena mode, that's a permanent advantage -- either the team with the downside will buckle with that loss or has to fight a completely-uphill battle.[/QUOTE] The beauty of Arena mode (to me, at least) is that you have to actually have a strategy. If you just mindlessly run into the enemy, you will be out of the game for (possibly) quite a while and your team will be weaker. It encourages actual thinking and teamplay.

[QUOTE=Kapellmeister;36974226]The beauty of Arena mode (to me, at least) is that you have to actually have a strategy. If you just mindlessly run into the enemy, you will be out of the game for (possibly) quite a while and your team will be weaker. It encourages actual thinking and teamplay.[/QUOTE] That's the thing with a [I]lot[/I] of TF2's concepts. That includes classes, maps, weapons, etc. They require team-work to be useful, but if you try to use strategy and convince other people to work with you, they'll just ignore you and say the old "it's just a game" line, forcing weapons like the Buff Banner to be forgotten and unused.

[QUOTE=Kapellmeister;36974226]The beauty of Arena mode (to me, at least) is that you have to actually have a strategy. If you just mindlessly run into the enemy, you will be out of the game for (possibly) quite a while and your team will be weaker. It encourages actual thinking and teamplay.[/QUOTE] The thing is, nobody plays strategically. All your teammates rush in and die ten seconds into the round, leaving you vs the entire enemy team. That's why I don't play arena.

the very best moments you can get in tf2 come actually when you can coordinate with other team members and do amazing stuff. even agaisnt the odds.

[QUOTE=Baboo00;37004318]The thing is, nobody plays strategically. All your teammates rush in and die ten seconds into the round, leaving you vs the entire enemy team. That's why I don't play arena.[/QUOTE] You shouldn't play on shit servers then. The Arena server I frequent has an actually capable small community. Even the newest of the new have at least some grasp of not-getting-killed-in-the-first-ten-seconds.