————

While the latest DayZ Meetup was not quite what I expected, everyone involved said they had a really good time. We ended having a full roster of 12, plus myself (which I stupidly forgot to screencap) and I was amazed that we only had a single casualty the whole night (due to friendly fire, no less).
That being said, there were many things that went wrong on Friday, and most of them were my own fault. First, while I was able to eventually get everyone’s game up and running who showed up to the event, and we are glad that everyone was able to make it, it was at the expense of everyone else who was on time, resulting in what someone lovingly dubbed “BarnCon 2012″.

Shortly after everyone was finally assembled, I began experiencing constant connection problems. Here, I really have to thank Caigan, Purplecat, and Bunnys (sorry if I got the name wrong!) for providing a measure of leadership for much of the event. By this time, everyone was rather restless from the festivities of BarnCon, and, instead of the stealth-heavy, tatical northern approach I had envisioned for the event, I suggested we instead set our sights south to Chernogorsk, the largest city in the game, and burn it to the ground. Here, my compatriots did not disappoint.
After picking the city clean of medical supplies and military hardware, we struck out for the nearby town of Balota, and it’s loot-rich airstrip and military camp. It was on the way to these that the second error I had made came to bite us: I did not clearly indicate which version of the game we would be playing, which caused much of the waiting and confusion as some people were forced to upgrade and others were forced to downgrade just to get on the same server. In our case, the server we had been using for the event shut down on our way to the airstrip to update itself to the version we weren’t playing. Another half-hour later, we finally found another server running the appropriate version and everyone regrouped around a convenient haybale. Our group set upon the airfield at last, coming out of the ordeal with naught but a few broken legs, and we turned our sights south to the tent camp. A few people changed weapons and, just for kicks, we decided to head back to Cherno (as we were now on a new server), but not before I snapped a group shot.

This time around, the city was somewhat less fruitful, and it was suggested to simply go for the grand prize: the Northwest Airfield – the most dangerous PVP area in the game, with loot second only to the elusive crashed helicopter. Sadly, my connection problems worsened around this time, and I was running behind the group for most of the rest of the night. I did manage to grab this shot of us all huddled in a barn north of Vysota, just as we’d left Chernogorsk behind.

We stopped off in Kozlovka to scavenge for food and to see if, by chance, a bus had spawned, where further tragedy befell me: a single zombie lying in wait in a garage got off a lucky hit, and I caught a infection, slowly draining me to half-health. From here on, I had to maintain a safe distance from the rest of the party, lest they catch the same disease. The group continued north at a run, with me keeping up as best I could, skirting around Green Mountain and pausing briefly at a pond northwest of Pogorevka, where I caught the last picture of us all assembled:

After a short rest to refill our collective canteens, the trek resumed. We arrived in Vybor, the town nearest the North West Airfield, and picked the grocery store there clean. From there, it was a short jog to the first of the military barracks, holding some of the best loot spawns in the game. From here, the group began systematically checking the hangars and the ATC tower, and it was here, at the end of the night, that we had our unfortunate friendly fire accident.
Undeterred by the loss, and armed with an entire airfield’s worth of hardware, someone made the bold suggestion of returning to Cherno to terrorize the Bean Coast once more, and it was here that my crappy connection could finally take no more, and I was finally forced to call it a night. I like to believe that somewhere, there is still a roving gang a dozen strong setting Chernarus on fire, and laughing all the while.
I’d like to give a huge thanks to everyone who made it: Caigan, Purplecat, Pathia, blueskydragon, Salem, Moonstruck, Ageia, Sivren, Bunnys, and whomever else I’m forgetting. The event didn’t go quite how I’d planned, but it was excellent nonetheless.
As for future events, I believe they would work better if they were smaller, but held more often, as there were several people in chat that either did not know an event was going on or showed up after the roster was capped. For me, personally, I don’t know when I’ll be able to host another event due to my horribad connection. For now, though, I just want to say that I love the community that has grown up around this game, and especially the response you lot have shown for my silly little squad nights. Until next time!

Anthrocon 2012 Meetup!

So it is time again for Anthrocon! This year we will be holding our 4th annual TFP Meetup in the Zoo and hope to see even more folks there this year! Last year we had around 50 people show up, we ended up taking over an entire corner of the zoo!

Due to how packed the schedule is this year, we had to select a time a bit later than usual. This years Meetup will be held at 6:10 pm on Saturday in the Zoo. This is directly following Matthew Ebel’s show in the main ballroom, and an hour and a half before Kage’s show in the same location. This should give us enough time to have our meetup and people still attend the shows they want to see. Once again we will have our TFP Flag at the table so that you can find us. Just look for the largest group of people you can find and that’s probably TFP.

Once again, that is Saturday at 6:10 pm in the Zoo.

TFP’s 1st DayZ Event – Recap aka How TFP caused 2 server admins to rage crash their servers

So normally I don’t do detailed Recap’s of our various events, but this is an exception. For those that don’t know, DayZ is a hardcore survival Zombie Apocalypse modification for the military simulator, ARMA 2. It is incredibly difficult and features no rules governing player interaction, which means anyone could be a bandit trying to kill you for your sweet items. The following is a recap of our first event that was held Wednesday, the 30th. Players involved were Reverend Browning (Event Leader), Sekh (Event Helper), Purplecat, Python, Caigan, Snookers, Sivren. We had a few others but they left very early.

Our story begins with everyone on the coastline of Chernarus, spread out and alone. Browning and Python manage to link up at the large lighthouse on the south coast. Sekh and Sivren link up in the far West and other players are spread few and far between. Immediately the party at the Lighthouse comes under sniper fire. Unable to locate the shooter they proceed to take cover, taking intermitent gunfire over the course of the next 20 minutes. Fortunately the sniper had a bolt action and was a terrible shot. Sekh and Sivren begin the long run from their spawn location to the lighthouse, which took at least 20 minutes. Upon arriving Python and Browning perform a diversion in an attempt to help the other group locate the sniper, Python is slain but Sekh and Sivren locate the group, which consisted of a sniper and his guard. Getting the drop on them they easily take the two enemies down, and move to loot their weapons. Not 5 seconds later the server dies mysteriously. We have assumed at this point that the two people killed were server admins or some form of hackers, and rage crashed after dieing in such an undignified manner.

After a brief excursion into a nearby city which wasted nearly everyone’s ammo and blood fighting a near infinite horde of Zombies, the entire group linked up in Castle Rog. Sekh was ambushed while checking a small room and nearly killed by a survivor with a pistol. In the ensuing firefight Browning and Snookers were slain, one by the survivor and one by the massive Zombie horde they attracted, but not before killing the survivor in response. Fortunately they spawned nearby and proceeded to link up with us at Rog. Here is a picture of our dangerous party before we set forth!

At this point the sun is going down, so we crack our glowsticks and proceed to move towards Berezino. Due to the time we lost a few people, leaving only Browning, Sekh, Python, Sivren and Snookers left. While attempting to refill our canteens Python fired his Lee Enfield rifle in an attempt to kill a Zombie and thus attracted every zombie in a 5 mile radius to his position. We watched in horror as he was devoured, nothing any of us could do to the sheer number of zombies he brought upon his head.

Finally reaching Berezino, we replenished our medical supplies and ammo, and then using all the ammo on the subsequent massive horde of zombies, we finally scrambled in an attempt to ambush a car as it zoomed past. Unable to steal the vehicle, we proceeded to our final destination, the North East Airfield. While walking, we discussed the topic of crashed helicopters and the wonderful military loot they usually have, to which Snookers responded, “What, like that?” and lo and behold, not 10 feet away was a crashed Huey. We cleared out the incredibly high amount of zombies milling about it in an attempt to find sweet military gear, but it seems someone had arrived before us. Still, we have an awesome picture of it.

Following a bit of shuffling, we finally reached our destination. The Northeast Airfield, with some of the best military loot in Chernarus. As we begin to loot it, someone hears something strange. “Is that a…car…?” Browning asks. “Extinguish glowsticks!” he shouts, just as a car rolls up to our position in the Air Control Tower. At this point it is too late. We are spotted. Three men jump out of the vehicle and open fire on our position. Everyone hits the deck as automatic fire rips over our head. Seconds later every window in the tower is blown out as a frag grenade goes off just outside our position. Sivren is covering the stairs while Browning and Snookers return fire. Sekh moves inbetween the levels assisting. As they reload, Snookers stands up and drops one with a single shot from his Lee Enfield. At this point we notice we are engaging the administrators of the server we are on. Sivren goes down in a hail of gunfire on the bottom floor, but not before returning fire with his AK. Sekh peeks around the corner, face first into an enemy wearing Nightvision Goggles. Fortunately, Sivrens fire had blinded the man due to his muzzle flash and Sekh was able to drop him with a barrage of AK fire. At this point, Snookers stands once again and drops the final enemy with another precision Enfield shot. Sekh moves to loot the body infront of him, taking his Backpack, Night Vision and Silenced M4 assault rifle. Again, not 10 seconds after the final target goes down, THIS server mysteriously shuts off (a different server from the previous one).

When it comes back, the only players that rejoin are the dead admins, and our party. All the loot is gone. We proceed to loot their car, leaving it on the tarmac as our small group has no need for a noisy vehicle. Crossing the airstip, it begins to pour down rain. We make our escape into the darkness, lightning all around us.  We stop miles from the airfield and inspect the few things Sekh managed to loot from the one body. Inside the backpack we find an M249 SAW Light Machine gun, which is given to Browning. Snookers takes one final picture before we log off.

The color saturation is due to the Glowsticks we were carrying and the rain, as well as Snookers high GAMMA to see at night.

In the end, the final tally for TFP was

Casualties – 5, 1 to Zombies, 4 to Survivors

Kills – 6 – 5 Military geared survivors, 1 low tier survivor

Zombie Kills – Too damn many

Server’s destroyed by Admin rage after dieing to us – 2

We hope to run another event in the future, we had a ton of fun. Probably after AC!

Hope you folks enjoyed my incredibly wordy story recapping our DayZ event. Next time we will take more pictures. I hope to see a lot of people at Anthrocon this year! Look for our TFP Flag!

Newsletter

Events, New Games, Fun servers, AC Recap, Website Revision

Alright, so here we are for another newsletter issue, slightly late but that is to be expected. This time around we are going to talk about some of the upcoming events, server changes, a revision to the main TFP Webpage and other odds and ends, as well as a short recap of the Anthrocon 2011 meetup that took place in June!

Upcoming Server Additions

For a long time now, we have been getting requests for both an American server similar to server #3, as well as a server that runs the Saxton Hale and TF2 ware gametypes. Security issues with the former prevented us from running it until recently when those issues were fixed, and the demand for this type of server doesn’t seem to have disappeared in the meantime, so we are happy to announce that in the near future, we should have a new US based “Fun” server up and running, once we can make all the plugins place nice together. What you can expect from this server:

• Vs. Saxton Hale gametype
• TF2 Ware gametype
• More leniant map selection, expect some more goofy maps that you won’t see on other servers
• 25 – 30 minute map timer, slightly more than 6, but less than 4/5
• Possibly interesting events being run due to more allowance for dumb experiments

Upcoming Server/Game Events

With more and more items and weapons being added to TF2, we get a lot of complaints about how X is unbalanced or Y breaks the game, which may or may not be true. In an effort to make the game more fun for people that think this way, we have announced our next event, happening later this week, which is the TFP Wayback Machine, circa 2007. This event will be run on server #6, and will consist of locking out all items that were not around at the launch of the game in 2007. (Exceptions for Hats and Strange Weapons that are of Default weapons). We will be running this event all weekend, and hope folks enjoy playing old school TF2 like many of us remember from years ago.

We are also intending to run a few more similar events in the coming weeks, and plans have already been made for a “Pre Polycount” event, banning all Player submitted weapons and promotional weapons that were added to the game after the final Valve Class update, the Engineer. Once again, Strange Weapon versions of the time periods items and Hats are not affected.

New TFP Game/Server

As part of our ever expanding, ever hopeful dreams of bringing a long term TFP server to another game, we are once again launching a new server simultaneous to the release of Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad. We have noticed a large number of players have purchased this game, and hope that we will have a server active and playable on launch day. For those that don’t know, RO2: Heroes of Stalingrad is a realistic WW2 FPS, based off the successful Red Orchestra Unreal Tournament mod. The server information will be posted prior to launch and we expect to be running an event on it later that week.

The server will be running Realistic settings, with an exception made for kill notifications if possible. More information on server settings to be posted when it is launched!

Minecraft Information

With the upcoming 1.8 patch, many members of our Minecraft community are already aware of the changes coming to the TFP server, but incase you are not aware, here is what you can expect.

With 1.8 the TFP Minecraft server is going to be reset, due to the large number of changes being made to the world engine that require a complete map change to take affect.  Normally Caigan would be here to make sure everything moves smoothly but he is currently away from his computer and won’t be around for a little while. Until then, all players need to be patient while we try to migrate everything properly ourselves and hopefully not break anything in the process.

The Furry Pound Website Revision

For a long time now we have had this fancy website, but it is admittedly a little hard to use and not particularly user friendly for the submission of content. In the next month we hope to change all that when we launch the major website and forum revisions currently being worked on by admin-cat Salen. It is our hope that when we launch the new website that our players can submit their own articles to be published on the site, and we can reach a larger amount of our players!

The forums are currently under possible revision as well, which we hope will provide our players with better connectivity with each other. We are investigating a method of allowing our players to connect their forum account directly with their steam account, making it easier for people to find each other, keep track of each other over the forums, and allow new members to be easily invited to the group. The forum changes if they are accepted should be launched a little after the website changes, stay tuned for more information on it!

The Furry Pound 2011 Anthrocon Meetup – Recap

Our final topic is the recap of our 2011 Anthrocon Meetup, which was held once again in the Zoo area of the Westin Hotel during Anthrocon last June. In 2010, we had around 28 members show up and hang out with us, which we felt was a pretty good number. This year I am proud to announce we had over 50 members show up, filling an entire corner of the Zoo. The meetup somehow lasted for a full hour of people listening to this Bird ramble about stuff, which I have no idea how that happened but apparently people were entertained. I tried to get our signup sheet to as many people as I could, but I know I missed a few folks, so I apologize! I don’t have a scanner here, but I did take a picture of the final signup sheet with my terrible phone for those that want to see it!

Anthrocon Signin Sheet

We hope to see an even larger turnout next year at the 2012 Meetup, keep an eye out for the big TFP flag which will be making its second appearance!

The Future

As TFP gets larger and the interest of our players spreads out, it is hard for us to predict what people will be interested in, like or dislike. We try to make the best guesses we can but we never actually know if something we plan out is going to really connect with people. We hope with the relaunching of our website to be more user friendly and allow for more custom content created by our players that we can find the things people want to play and provide it to them. As always, this community benefits the most from the players in it, who help out the new people (including the furries that have joined us through the new TF2 – F2P system), help keep the servers clean of trolls and other trash, and introduce themselves to the new people who have decided to brave the chatroom or post on the Shout section of the steam page. We thank everyone for continuing to keep this community the best private furry gaming group on the internet and hope that folks will continue to help keep it that way.

Newsletter!

Replays, Servers and Maps!

Hey folks, I think I finally figured out how to make these without stretching to find content. I’m gonna try to make them every quarter or so, unless something super fancy shows up and I need to make one right then. I have a couple different topics to hit on this newsletter, mainly upcoming changes to server 6, various plugin functionality on all TF2 servers, a new TFP server, and information regarding our 3rd annual Anthrocon Meetup!

Server Changes and Replay!

First things first, we have just finished adding Replay functionality to all our servers! We had to hold off until Valve fixed a bug with Linux servers which prevented us from being able to run it stably, but all is well now and you should be able to record your kills and fails with ease now! Please shoot us a message if something breaks or it starts causing issues so we can look into it!

TFP Server #6 Changes

Next are upcoming changes to TFP Server #6, which will be having a overhaul of its current maplist, as well as some plugin additions over the next week. I’ve been trying to keep track of which maps are getting played and nominated, as well as which maps have a tendency to vacate the server when they are voted on, so the following is a list of all the map changes currently being implemented.

Maps for Removal – CP_Stag (Not played at all), CP_Wildmire (Most folks consider it unfun), CP_Titan (Broken by the latest Valve Patch) CTF_Casbah (Generally hated), PL_Pharaoh (Considered too large/chokepointy). TC_Hydro (Yea I know. It kills the server, and everyone hates it, so off it goes.)

Maps for Adjustment – CP_Redfort (Now Medieval mode, reduced to 15 minutes max), CTF_Moonbase (Reduced to 15 minute timer), PL_Whalerace (Reduced to 2 full rounds, or 12 minutes, that is about as much as people want of Whalerace)

Map Additions – And here are the new maps! I am taking a Cave Johnson approach to maptesting this time around, in other words “We are throwing maps at the wall here and seeing what sticks.” so the maps might be enjoyed or hated, the bad ones will be removed within a week or so. I will list the names here and a link at the end to a forum post with all the download links for those that wish to download it early.

CP_Crossroads, CP_Antiquity, CP_Karst, CP_Teddy, KOTH_Gatehouse (12 minute timer), Koth_Ashville, PL_Salvage, PL_Mesa, CTF_Landfall, CTF_THISISASURPRISE

As well as the return of (limited) Arena maps, in the form of arena_lumbermill, arena_offblast, and arena_hardhat – All set to 12 minute timers with no sitting out.

Download the new maps from this forum post – http://www.hiddendisguises.com/Forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=78&p=21042#p21042

Last I am investigating the possibility of adding some fun plugins to #6 which can be triggered by any Admin in your game, including Roll the Dice, which is a popular random gameplay adjusting mod. All fun plugins will be limited to admin triggering them to avoid them becoming stale or taking over the server, and will only last until they are turned off again.

TFP Brink #1

With a number of our players picking up Brink, and the games easily set up server configuration, we have recently launched a Brink server for testing to see if folks are interested in using it! The server is located at – 72.22.219.149:27018, which can be entered into either your Steam server browser, or the ingame direct connection option. You might need to leave the port off, so test it either way. We will be scheduling a get together this weekend on the server to test it out with a large group of TFP members, check your events for more info!

ANTHROCON 2011 MEETUP!

Alright! Next month is Anthrocon, and for the 3rd year in a row we are going to be having our annual TFP Meetup! I just wanted to remind folks to be thinking of this as they make their plans, and to stay tuned for more information to come later this month on our plans. We are trying to get something new and interesting to happen this year, but we are waiting a bit longer to make sure everything is in place. Stay tuned to the TFP News section once we are ready to make an announcement about the meetup location, time and all that. Hope to exceed last years meetup of 30 people this year!

The Future

Nothin fancy this time around, we are just trying to make sure everything is running smoothly and that each valve update doesn’t set the servers on fire with some new broken who-sa-whatsit. We hope to talk with players at Anthrocon this year about the Future of TFP, including games folks are interested, as well as changes they would like to see. Last years meet up resulted in Server #6, which has since become one of the most popular TFP servers we have, so who knows what new ideas folks will have this year!

One Year Anniversary!

So here we are! One year after starting my semi-bi-annually-maybe-sometimes newsletter, I’ve made it an entire year! That’s a full year of random information! I am so proud. I hope you folks are enjoying these, or at the very least getting the information you are looking for about the servers! This month we have a good deal of technical and server related information for everyone, since we’ve had some changes and a couple other folks would like more information on the state of various servers. A small upcoming event, and a new server in the works as well!

Upcoming Events:

No exceedingly large upcoming events this month, we just finished up a maptest and those maps that won will be slowly working their way onto the servers. I have a smallish event planned for possibly later this month, but it’s a surprise so I guess you all will have to keep an eye out.

Server Information and Changes

So lets get started on the servers. I’ll break it down into server groups so that it is easier to read and understand.

Server’s #1 is currently down due to damage to the server boxes and a change in location. We do not currently have an ETA on its return, it could be very soon, it might not be for awhile. Until then we encourage folks to use servers #6 and #5, as they are running almost identical map cycles as servers #1/#2. We apologize but Act’s of God are hard to predict. Server #2 was just returned to us today, and has a new IP of 72.22.219.149:27016 please keep us informed on the how well you guys think the new server is running!

Server #4 and to some extent #5 are experiencing lag issues. We are aware of these issues and are attempting to solve them. They are a particularly irritating sort of issue that comes and go seemingly at random, so bear with us as we attempt to lock this down. To this end however, we understand that #4 is possibly the most popular server we have, so we have worked up a temporary solution which is…….

Server #7 is now a Stock server. For those of you that have previously played on #7, understand that it is now an entirely new server. It is in a different, more viable location (Chicago), and is running an alternate map cycle (Stock). Please update your favorites accordingly and try using it when server #4 is inevitably full. It’s new IP address is 74.94.122.126:27015 or you can find it by clicking this here image!

We hope you folks will be patient with us while we work out the kinks in our servers. Remember that we still have servers #6 and #7, which are running optimally, and server #5 which hasn’t really acted up yet, though we are watching it carefully.

As for other servers..

TFP Minecraft Server will be returning to active duty very soon. You all built so much stuff that the harddrive that was storing it started to die. It was unable to save fast enough to be of any use, so sys admin Sumigaki has purchased an entire NEW harddrive just for the Minecraft server. Caigan, the other minecraft admin is investigating the use of mods on the server since Minecraft has now been put into Beta and there are all sorts of interesting mods floating around. Expect more information soon.

TFP Monday Night Combat Server – We are currently investigating the possibility of adding a Monday Night Combat server to our lineup. A large portion of the admins have been playing it together and find it absolutely hilarious. The servers are small and easy to admin, so when the game is finally released in full, we might put up a public server for everyone, I for one would like to not have to deal with the random pubbers so we will see!

Finally as a last little change, we will be changing the MOTD that you folks have seen every time you log into the servers a bit. It will still have TFP’s lovely mascots, but soon it will also have relevant new information such as IP changes, events, etc. We will attempt to make them eye catching enough so that you notice it when we change them, but this way we can inform folks of IP changes to the servers much faster and more efficiently. The rotating advertisement plugin on the servers will be getting an update as well.

The Future!

Sorry for the rather dry newsletter this month folks, but we are working on getting the groups servers repaired so no major events planned for January. I hope to have some more fun things to talk about next time…maybe in February. There’s a major convention coming up in March (Furry Weekend Atlanta) that a number of us will be attending, so we might make a little TFP meeting out of it if folks were interested. Other than that, just keep telling us what you guys enjoy and we will attempt to get it done!

Subjects:
Prologue
Steel Cap D
Steel Cap E

Cold Steel

(BLU Offense, Part II)

When last we left off, your team had just gained C cap and were thrusting into RED’s stronghold to take the last two…wow, this has been a long match.  There’s been a few big updates and a lot of changes to TF2 since then, so while we’ll jump in I’ll try my best to incorporate pertinent new stuff.

With the fall of C, the bridge walkway granting access to E for the less mobile classes is now available, opening the third way to get to D.  RED has less space to work with now, but will be determined to lock out D and E as best they can.

Interior D:  Drawn and Quartered…

fig. a.1

D Cap.  An enclosed, close- to mid-quarter zone where you now have four access points to get in from.  The closer quarters will work for and against you: you’ll have better control of explosions in halls and corridors, but if a fight comes down to CQC you’ll have less maneuvering room.  Concerning enemy Engineers, the most effective places to build a covered sentry will be atop the spawn-ramp stair, on the ground before the spawn facing the point and far entrance, and in the entryway that leads from E.

With the proper cover and quick edging (popping out of cover just long enough to throw a sticky and duck back), these risky positions can be addressed from attack route 1. You might not even need an Übercharge.  Remember however that from the position in figure a.1, you are in the vicinity of the enemy’s spawn room and they can exit it to attack you at any time, so caution is always necessary. Note that RED is vulnerable from attacks coming from the upper spawn door landing leading into D from C, so your preference for attack should be that direction (unless enemy concentration is focused there).  In that case, attacking from the far west entryways (attack route 2) are a viable way to go as they can provide adequate cover and are often a less-heeded threat than the upper spawn landing.  it’s good for getting close as an Übercharged pair, popping out and flinging a few bombs into a crowd that’s competing on the cap, or to get some explosives onto the upper landing to deal with enemies and hardware there.

fig. a.2

Upon taking the point, if you are granted a brief respite from fighting, you’ll need to decide quick where best to place your stickies as a trap.  Respawning enemies, 8 times out of 10, will be coming straight from the upper landing spawn doors, so leaving trap stickies where they’ll be unexpected is a good idea (I’m avoiding situations where one commits spawn camping; opinions vary, but my personal philosophy is choosing to resort to spawn-killing doesn’t teach you much).    The enemy does not have a clear shot at the point from the spawn, so performing a fake out–acting as if you don’t see them coming by not looking at them or acknowledging their maneuvering to attack you–is an effective setup for the bombs placed in the locations in figure a.2.

In the case of the 2 out of 10 who will leave the E-side spawn door and attack D from E (or possibly defenders coming from E), their direct access is the E Entryway.  Sticky-trapping this entry is ideal, but you must be wise in trapping here as splitting stickies between  it and your traps on the upper landing will make both less effective.  Furthermore, the medium health kit in the entryway is there to heal a survivor.

Entering D from E, an enemy will either immediately cut in front of the crates and engage you, or slip behind the crates to round to the other side.  So be prepared for the possibility of attacks from E, the worst case scenario being a Heavy, Scout or Pyro suddenly popping into view at mid- to close range.  Stickies hidden as noted can damage or kill most classes, and having your grenade launcher trained in that direction can put down the wounded and suppress its backup.  Being alone on D cap is a terrible situation, but it’s possible if you are creative with your stickies, conservative of your ammo, and remain observant of the three primary entryways RED will use to come kill you.

If you’re fortunate to survive long enough to score a capture of D, you’ve essentially trapped RED to roughly one half of a room that they have to fight to turn into one whole locked-down room if they wish to survive.  It’s time to push the full of your team into the grinder.

Launch Chamber E: “You Shall Not Pass!”

fig. b.1

E-cap Rocket Chamber: A nightmare for Redmond’s boys to defend from Blutarch’s determined and wily team.  It’s a sweet spot of a cap point to attack.  If there is a sentry in the hall from D to E, you can easily edge it to destroy it.  Barring enemy Snipers across the way and enemy Spies who have the full range of the base to get at you, you have more cover here than most any other cap save for B, and it’s all because of the little sub-ledge that lay just beneath the Engineering deck on RED’s side.  Arrows lead into it from B door and C basement.  This oft-overlooked platform has a slight lip that can allow you to safely chuck stickies up onto the ceiling above the Engineering deck and on top of Engy buildings; three to five spaced about in afoot-wide cluster will be sufficient to kill the Engineer and anything he has built there often times without the Engy or his sentry even being aware.  Talk about convenient!

Furthermore, RED defenders who are swarming a capture point are most likely looking at the B-C joint entryway that is level with the cap itself, expecting an attack from B or even the far A-side access.  Four grenades into a cluster of RED defenders fighting or swarming that cap will make sure that everything there has a bad day.

fig. b.2

But let’s say your team has made a push straight from D into E corridor and, for the time being, owns RED’s landing territory.  This is where you can be the single most important defender for the team, the block from which the enemy must pay hell just to pass.  Take a look: hanging back on the Engineer deck gives you an overlook of the entryway leading into D and any other way RED might come to attack those on the point.  RED attackers cannot use the resupply doors facing E due to the doors locking down when D is capped, so it’s likely they will approach from D.  Sticky-trapping the hell out of the entryway is an excellent way to ensure that RED cannot reach your teammates in time.  Like locking down D, the Scottish Resistance would shine in this situation, but the classic launcher is fine.

You have many options, all more efficient than D’s:  making visible stickies will be a deterrent and cause the enemy to hesitate.  Hiding trap stickies will lull the enemy into rushing the corridor, carrying them right into an unexpected detonation.  Stickies cannot grab the catwalks, so you can roll them to the ends to stick to the landing or the cap itself and be a trap for Spies or other enemies that attack your teammates directly; You’re on the platform to defend them, after all.  The staple of your combat ability is area denial; use it.  If you can coerce a Medic into hanging out with you on the Engy deck, do so, but it’s not really crucial; the Sniper cabin has sufficient health and ammo for you.

Beware of bombs or rockets coming from the sub-level beneath you, and watch out for enemies firing down the hall at you, especially Snipers.  Always have grenades in the chamber in case you need to fire down the stairs or sticky-trap the stairs itself.  One Demo playing gatekeeper can ensure that the BLUs huddled on the point have minimal threat to deal with.

If you cannot afford to play gatekeeper, you’ll need to place your bombs with an eye towards possible avenues RED will attack from.  The little window in the figure is a favored firing spot of Snipers, Heavies, Soldiers, Demomen…it offers nice protection from the point.

That is why it must be sticky-trapped.

If your ‘nade aim isn’t up to snuff to make the hole from the point, leave stickies above and behind the heads of anyone who would stand in that alcove and fire at the point.  Enough to kill a Heavy and with a 1-foot spread to catch more people.  The Engineer deck must not be allowed to be occupied by enemies.  This whole area is a stretch to defend like D is, and taking it by your own against numerous enemies is almost guaranteed to fail.  So be sure to have backup, or at least a Medic to keep you alive while capping.

The key to E is locking RED out of getting firing solutions on the cap, if not out of the room itself.  If you can succeed in this, then cheers, mate: Victory is yours. And thus, the end of this tutorial.  I hope my approaches to Steel help at least some of you, and you can come up with different and maybe even superior tactics for yourself.  It’s all in how you approach a problem, boyo!

Thank you for reading! Next time, we’ll tackle another difficult map as this most versatile class! Feedback for The DemoVixen’s How-To is totally welcome either here or on Niko’s Steam Communities profile page.

- Voop Out

Winners!

First I’d like to thank everyone that entered the contest, we had some really good entries and I was really impressed with everyone who took the time to enter! Second I’d like to thank our 6 volunteer and/or coerced judges! The 3 admins – Jinx, Akita and Austin, and the 3 players, Aznhax, Munch and Rev. Browning, you guys were great!

So now! The winners!

First place – This one really blew folks away with how well it was done, it was very smooth and had a good Halloween vibe to it. First place goes to MASTERFURRYX’s Halloween Engi and Crew!

Second Place – Following that one, the judges decided on Otterwolfy’s scary pyro image! They really liked how simple and to the point the image was, with the good backdrop and the fact that we all know pyro is just a scary monster anyways.

Third Place – Finally, our last screenshot winner goes to Rikes! The final screen shot was selected because…well…what do you think when you see this? Nicely done Rikes, the judges found your image funny enough to be our final winner!

All in all, we had some great entries, but these folks stood out the most to our judges. I want to thank everyone who took the time to enter, you all did great. If folks become more interested in events like this, we might try again come December or New Years!

If you were one of the winners, please contact me at your convenience on Steam, you should know me, I am Sekh, you can find me on the admin list if you haven’t already so we can get you guys your prizes!

Because I was so happy with everyone’s entries though, I would like to extend the prizes to everyone who entered, at least some form of “door prize” for entering. So if you submitted an image at all, shoot me a message on steam!

For those interested in seeing all the entries, I’ve created a rar which can be found here.

Halloween Edition!

So it’s October once again! The month where we’ve traditionally had some of best community events of the year! This year we are trying to bring you the same fun events and mods, but with a couple new things to mix it up, so read on below to find out!

The Haunted Pound!

So every Halloween since TFP was founded we’ve tried to host a Halloween fun event for our players. This has traditionally consisted of running ZombieFort on one of our servers and just goofing off. This year we are expanding our event a bit!

• Zombie Fort is Back! We are bringing back Zombiefort to be run on server #8 and a yet to be determined secondary server, which we will announce shortly! For those that haven’t played it before, Zombiefort pit’s a small team of survivors against an ever growing Undead Army. This time Zombiefort comes with Perks and special abilities to help the survivors last a bit longer! We encourage you guys to try out the mod, as it’s been a community favorite every year! ZF will be hosted 24/7 on #8, and intermittently on #6 whenever the maps are voted to be played.
  

• Halloween Screenshot Contest! So we wanted to try and make this years October event bigger, with something new and interesting for the community. To this end we have decided to hold a Halloween themed Screenshot contest for the community, complete with prizes! Full rules will be detailed below!

• New and Interesting maps and mods for Alien Swarm and L4D! While we can’t actually host a server for these two games, due to having such a large community and the servers being so small, we can help raise awareness about extremely good maps and mods for them, and give you guys the links to try them out yourselves! This being the scary Halloween event time, we thought these two games fit in nicely, so here’s our list of the best Mods and Maps for these games!

Alien Swarm Maps

Tears for Tarnor

Lana’s Escape

Paranoia Part One
Paranoia Part Two
Paranoia Part Three

Left 4 Dead 2 Maps

Detour Ahead

2 Evil Eyes

Halloween SCREAMshot Contest!

Alright! So this is our big contest we’ve been planning! Are you interested in showing off your artistic talent? Want one of those fancy polycount hats you see everyone wearin’? Then you should try entering our TFP Screenshot Contest! Rules are pretty simple!

Goal: To make the best Halloween Themed in-game Screenshot you can think of! It can be scary, comical, anything you like so long as it involves TF2 or Garry’s Mod!

Media Used: Screenshot must be taken in either TF2 or Garry’s Mod! Going the extra distance for style and setup is preferred! Photo manipulation and other various methods of “arting” up the screenshots are allowed, but we would really like to see what people can do without Photoshop and similar programs!

Submission Rules: ONE (1) Submission per person only, sent to tfpscreenshot@gmail.com.  Each submission received will be given a number which is sent back to the creator, judges will not have the names of who submitted each image, just their corresponding number. Please provide your Steam ID when you submit your image, if you don’t know your Steam ID, use this webpage to get it!

Deadline: Deadline for submission will be the 29th of October, winners will be announced on the 31st!

Judging:  Judges will be selected randomly from 3 admins who wish to participate, and 3 members who wish to participate as well. If you wish to be one of the judges, send me a message on steam and I will add you to the list of candidates. Of course judges will not be allowed to submit an image, sorry!

Since the addition of trading, we can now give out Prizes!

First Place: One Full Polycount Set of the Winners Choice! Including the HAT!

Second Place: One Hat and One Paintcan of their choosing from our supply of donated hats!

Third Place: One Nametag and One Paintcan of their choosing.

We encourage everyone to submit something and try to win the prizes! Other things might show up while playing on the event servers, who knows what we might do!

*     *     *

Upcoming Server Changes

No huge radical changes this month for the how the servers work. I tweaked the maplist on server #6 to reflect the opinions I have been getting from players on some of the maps, so if you play on #6 consistently you might see some of the maps which no one enjoyed are now gone.

TFP Minecraft Server

So we know many of you are anxious about the status of the TFP Minecraft server, since it hsa been down for the last week or so, but I am here to tell you that we are fixing it, and it should soon be up on a separate server than where it was before. Sumigaki is currently in the process of transferring all the relevant files over to a new box and should be hosting it soon! More information to come as we have it!  Also Caigan would like you all to know that asking him about the Minecraft server will result in him bludgeoning you with a Creeper. That is all.

TFP Public Service Announcement

Alright, so we’ve got a few issues we’d like to sort out with folks on the servers, so we’ve made this helpful little section!

• Trading on the Servers: Please do not join the servers just to spam that you are looking for trades. We’ve set up a lovely trading forum here. If you have to trade in the server, please do it while dead or during setup as to not penalize your team for your wanton trading ways!
• Glitching: Fun “glitches” and bugs that appear after each patch. We are not in the habit of making announcements every time Valve breaks the game with their latest patch. If you’ve heard of a glitch or bug which allows you to do things way outside of what you are supposed to be doing, please do not test it on our servers. We do not like it when people abuse bugs and glitches on our server, ESPECIALLY if it is a bug which can possibly crash the servers. We do not warn for these things, we assume our players are intelligent enough to not use the glitches on our servers. If we catch you doing things which could be deemed harmful to the servers, you could very quickly find your TFP privileges revoked.  If you simply MUST test the glitches, we suggest other servers for that. :)

The Future!

So next up for us, after we finish the Halloween event should be another maptest. Our last maptest was in June, so we are due to add some new fresh maps to the servers for folks to test out. We are always looking for new maps and ideas, and if you have something you think would fit well with the TFP servers, we encourage you to hit up the forums and submit it to us here! Other than that, we are still seeking new and interesting games to expand into, and should have more information on that next time. Finally, I am offically switching the newsletter over to an every other month newsletter, since that is how I seem to be writing it anyways, and it’s really hard to find cool stuff to talk about EVERY month! We need rest too! Anyways, hope you enjoy the events!

- Sekh the Scribe Burd

Newsletter!

Lazy Bird of Summer Edition!

Alright, so here we go again! Time for the latest edition of the TFP Newsletter, this month with all sorts of cool information on new servers, upcoming events, and other various bits of information here and there!

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Upcoming Server Changes:

Alright folks, so if you hang around the main TFP chat for the last few weeks, you’ve probably heard me talking about the changes myself and fellow admin Sumigaki have been trying to get set up on server 6. Last week we launched the server and it’s been getting really good reviews from the people that have been frequenting it, so I encourage everyone to try it out if they have the chance! Details of the various changes that 6 has undergone are below!

• Server map timer is reduced from 40 minutes to 20 minutes, with a possible final reduction to 15 minutes per map. This allows for faster rotation through the maps, and steam rolls are less frustrating due to the rapid rotation to a new map, and new team.
• Mix of stock maps (no arena), popular custom maps from the main TFP servers, a few custom maps I’ve chosen myself, and a small number of “fun” maps such as the wacky races and whale race maps from the older server #3.
• Future addition of a cvar activated members only script such as the on server #5 used to have, to allow for members only nights!

All these things combine to make a rather different style of server from the other main TFP servers.

IP for TFP #6 – 68.232.166.231:27015

P.S. – Silly things can happen on some of the maps, since admins have the ability to choose special maps from a seperate list, such as this video made by Devvy of Munch being “abused” on Pacman – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB3BlJcyMzM

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Our second edition this month is that TFP has gone full International! In the first entry by someone other than myself, the new owner of TFP’s Australian/Oceania server has written up an entry on what his server is about for you folks to read! With this server, we now have a server in almost every major geographic zone from which our players hail from! So, here is Leon, the owner and head admin of TFP #10, the AU server!

“Well TFP’s second (group) anniversary has been and gone and with it came a new TF2 server! All the Aussie furs out there will be pleased to know that TFP’s 10^th server is a 24 slot server hosted in Sydney. It is hoped this will provide a place for Oceania and South Asia furries to play with better pings.

So what maps and mods will this server be running I hear you say? Well I’m glad you asked! Presently TFP runs servers of different sorts, some with custom maps and some without. The AU server for the foreseeable future will not be running any custom maps, the main reason for this being that Australian players have internet quotas and players who have gone over their quota would have to wait 20-60 minutes for a custom map to download.

However, to make up for the lack of custom maps, the AU server will be running special weekend events where different server side mods will run on Friday and for the duration of the weekend (For instance the popular presents mod that was running on the opening day). This allows the server to be unique and fun without players needing to wait for large map downloads. On top of this the AU server will run the standard set of mods such as RTV and Scramble etc.

If you have any suggestions or feedback, please poke one of the TFP admins or myself about it, we’d love to hear from you!

With all that being said, Look forward to seeing you on the AU server and hope you’ll have a great time :3

-Leon”

IP for Server #10 – 202.157.179.70:27053

So there you folks have it! The two major server updates for TFP this month! Hope you guys take some time to check out the changes!

Upcoming TFP Events:

No events this month folks, as its a little late to do an announcement for one anyways. However, we will be having our annual TFP Halloween event in October, so look for more information on that soon!

TFP Staff Additions

So, with the addition of new servers and the return to school for many staffers, we’ve expanded the TFP staff again to encompass three new members. In a hilarious stroke of luck, they all happen to be Birds, so my dreams of a bird TFP army continue! Your new staffers are as follows! Be nice to these guys, they are around to keep the servers clean :)

• Griffin
• Sparra
• Jouster

Also, a number of moderators were promoted to full administrator, meaning they are now fully available to answer any questions you have, and help with any problems you have (We do continue to ask, if you have a problem on the servers to record demos and submit them to sourcebans, we’ve received a large number of ban submissions, we do watch these demos you folks attach, and have banned a good number of hackers and griefers with you guys help! Thanks again!)

The Future!

So we’ve been working really hard keeping things running smoothly around here, trying to find new and interesting events for you guys to enjoy, it’s tough trying not to repeat ourselves too much! We are looking into running Randomizer in September sometime, or possibly as part of the October event. Other things are the possible return of Prophunt in the near future, as it was an incredibly popular mod, so that is something that could show up soon as well! Until next month, enjoy the new servers and keep us informed on what you guys want to see! See you…sometime….ish….in September!

- Sekh the Scribe Burd