Note to the pro's and old school clanners.

[o_3xternal]

I heard of the game thru freinds at school. Started playing in middle school/early high school. Started on Dial-up , then moved to cable modem. First clan was so far back I can't remember thier name, but was led by tony montana. I later joined Vx. and played 9v9. I have been in B|3 and in =WaR=. I have played STA 5v5, 9v9, OGL 5v5, and TFL 5v5. I have continued to play for a grande total of like 5 years, back when the updates were rolling out about once every 2-3months and people were still using gamespy. I was not around pre 1.6, so i missed some history there.

I have gone by the names: John Galt, Nuclear Winter, ExternalCombustionEngine (the old pyro days), TimeGiven, and 3Xternal. I mostly pub now-a-days as "teh Master Chief" (aptly nick named teh Master n00b). I hate OVO and snipers. I enjoy movement thru the game almost more than combat, TFC allows alot of grace. MY pet peeve is watching a sniper take the grens, then get head shot and the bag is wasted. My fav thing, is taking all three dustbowel caps. Especially the final, with a nade jump from the pit entrance to the cap.

[o_vertical]

I started TFC way back when, been playing since it was on the HL engine. (Not when it was FIRST released, but not to long after that) TFC has always been my favorite HL mod, and I couldn't wait to get home every day from school to play it, I'd play for hours and hours and hours, and couldn't see how it would ever get boring or i'd ever stop. My friend introduced me to the game and I went over to his house to check it out, I was amazed! to say the least. Within a few days I had it, and played on the same server he'd been playing on (Keegs TF Server which is still up btw @ www.keegs.com) I played at that one server mainly up until I stopped playing tfc toward the end of last summer last year. During my days at Keegs, I met many great online friends most of Which where from PoW (Penguins of War) which disbanned a few months after I began playing, I also knew many of the uZ. UberZone guys, though I knew eltranced the best (uZ. eL) I'm sure at least someone in this forum has heard of him/them it was great fun to play with him he got so addicted to the game and became so good at it, that he finally had to stop playing about 2 years ago. (I've still talked with him a bit via aim since then, though not lately). After PoW disbanned, me and my friend remained clanless for a period of time, (now I can't remember which came first) but I think my friend joined a new clan called F3 (Function Three) which was mainly all of the "Old School" keeg's tf players the best of the best on the server. They where a pretty good clan and lasted a good while. After F3 finally ended, I started a clan called Ao- (Allied Opposition) with a few of the old F3 members (the best of the best from F3 for the most part imo) as well as my friend (F3. ReAp / ReApEr) for some reason, the clan didn't last long, but the games we did play where undefeated 3-0 :P somewhere during this same amount of time, (again, I can't remember) was BoS (Balls Of Steel) which I know existed at the same time as F3 because alot of the members had trouble with eachother at first... however, BoS outlasted F3 by far (Which some members of F3 never believed would happen) I was in BoS well, I guess I still am in BoS... sorta... lol? they merged with the MDO (Modern Day Outlaws) to form SO (Steel Outlaws) [which occured just at the end of last year] I believe they still play matches with UGC 7v7 though I havn't really kept up to date. I am so busy with school and work these days its very hard to stay on a clan schedule. After I became inactive with BoS, I started www.hlevolve.com approx 2 years ago this month. Which took up whatever remaining free-time I had. I've been doing this in my spare time since. I work on it usually once per day at least. When FF is released, I will be out of college (if I don't decide to go back for my BACH in Computer Science which I might do... but I think I'll wait a year or two) which will leave me with alot more free time to play so I'm really looking forward to playing with you guys

[o_azlan]

Like many others, my obsession with FPS games started with the superb N64 game, Goldeneye. I had wanted a computer my whole life, but my parents were too poor to get one for me. When I turned 18, I was able to get a loan from MNBA to get a Gateway system. I had recently read a magazine that had an article about Half-Life. At the time, my favorite genre was RPG's, specifically Squaresoft's FF series, but that would soon change. Unlike some of the TFC community, I actually bought Half-Life with no prior knowledge of the online aspects of it. I played and was flabbergasted at how incredible the single player game was. It was so immersive and obviously playtested that I didn't want it to end.

In November of 1999, I discovered Half-Life's online components, specifically HLDM (which I didn't play much), and Team Fortress Classic. I was so excited that you could play a game with 31 other people at the same time (at the time I had no concept of team play, lag, and other things I would learn later) and it sent chills down my spine. I had been playing video games since I was 5 years old and had always wanted to compete against other great players (I generally only had my family or friends to play against). Almost overnight, I became obsessed and that obsession didn't end until September 10th, 2003, when I officially retired the clan I had put my whole life into.

This is what I posted regarding my clan, the Gods of War on that sad day:

When I set out to create a clan in 1999 I never expected or dreamed I would carry this on for so long. What this clan has meant to me has altered and changed over the years, but throughout it all I wanted to impact TFC to some degree. Since I was a kid I always wanted to play the hero in every situation. The clan was built upon my own personal integrity, honor, and belief systems and most of the past members can attest to that. That was my overall goal in the beginning, although I did not realize exactly what I was trying to do. I wanted to create a clan that people looked forward to playing. I wanted to create the clan that most people respected because of their integrity, not because of how many wins they had. From the very beginning, I never put a large emphasize on winning because it simply was not that important to me. Those who know me in real life know how reserved I can be. This carries over into all aspects of my life, and in regards to TFC, it means winning isn’t very high on my totem pole. Although, it is ironic that this is true, yet I am fascinated by the statistics that are calculated every week at the KSE. For most people that read the numbers there, they are simply a bunch of meaningless data compiled. However, I feel that the memories and impact clans have had on TFC transcend those numbers and still influence some of us today.

Yet, leading a clan has been one of the most rewarding, lasting, and mentally exhausting experiences I’ve had in this lifetime. The good friends I’ve made really do go past the boundaries of the internet. The in’s and out’s of leading will stick with me for a very long time to come. However, the downside of leading a clan is all of the negative energy you will get. It’s almost been four years since the clan started and we’ve been whored by a small percentage of the community. We’ve had a handful of folks who hate us and everything we stand for. I’ve been the subject of personal scrutiny for many years now and have been given very little slack. Although all of these things at one time bothered me, they simply slide off my mind they moment they come up these days. I cared about TFC a great deal a year ago, and my love for it was outrageous the previous two before it. I will admit that playing this game still gives me some level of pleasure still, but I feel as if it’s just because it’s comfortable.

These days my life is very stable. I have a well paying job that I actually enjoy for the most part. I am doing well in school, and like work, am enjoying it for the first time in a very long time. I am ready physiologically and emotionally to give this addiction up so that I may focus most of my time to school and work. I truly feel that to lead a clan that will last so long, one must give everything or nothing at all. I know that I gave my clan everything and I hope that anyone in the clan these past four years can tell you that too. The strain of leadership and the ideal of not caring about TFC like I used to is really the reason behind closing shop. Most of my long time members are of similar feelings. It is highly plausible that if I desired to, I could lead the clan for another three years into whatever game TFC becomes in the next few years. For the first time in four years, I feel that I must delete this priority from my life and replace it with something that will impact my future in a positive manner. Namely my studies will become my life. Whether or not I continue to play TFC in any other aspect will depend on many different things which those who know me well know of. It has been a very long and rewarding road, but I have grown weary of leading and I don’t feel comfortable handing my clan over to anyone else. I do have certain personal regrets, but leading the clan is not among them. It has been a unique experience that will last a lifetime. (...)

The above was the reason behind my leaving TFC, even though I did go on to join a few of my most respected teams, /tmp/ and AGT. In 2004, I played TFC a total of five or six times.

My own personal retirement post with thank you's and what not is here: http://www.thecatacombs.net/forums/s...threadid=39423

I am very excited about Fortress Forever, because for the first time it will bring Europe and the United States together under one great roof. I can not say that I will ever lead a clan again, since my girlfriend, my dogs, my job, and school keep me constantly busy. I have begun mapping, something I had always wanted to do, so hopefully I will be able to contribute to FF in that arena.

[o_antonbear]

i started a few years ago, dont remember exactly, but when i first got half life i could only get to the blast pit level, because i didnt know how to kill the giant worm thing, but i just used to start a new game and play up to blast pit for about a year continuosly. sad i know but i loved it. i could never play tfc at first coz i only had 56k and when ever i tried to download the update i would get cut off after 2 hours and then would have to start all over again but after a while i got cable and was able to download it. i was hooked instantly. i used to play in an american server called Drippys 2fort my ping was shocking but i didnt know anything about it, i thought my lag was the norm and i used to always be a pyro or a sniper. being a n00b was awesome! i didnt even realise there was more than one map for a month but eventually i started playing more and more and my best friend did as well. we tried making our own clan once or twice but only got a few members each time. then we joined two different clans in the UKTFCL. eventually my friend who was at this time calling himself Duk joined [.com] and i followed suit those were my best days of tfc. but eventually everyone else in the clan got good and learnt how to bhop and i couldnt so i stopped playing tfc and uninstalled half life. it was like the dark ages all over again. i still stayed in touch with all the community though through IRC and msn and did for months until i lost my internet connection for about 6 months. when i returned everything was no more. but then HL2 came out and i have been unwillingly playing cs:s to void the gap between completing the hl2 single player(which i thought was shocking compared to half life 1, what a pants ending) and for a tfc mod to come out. so i have high hopes for this baby. and thats pretty much about everything

[o_fathom]

I started playing in 1999. My friend told me the "best route" to get to the flag in 2fort. LoL. (Go water, go up stairs, take a left at the hallway, go all the way down, Note. If someone sees you... keep going.. Go up the left ramp across the bridge and down the ele to reach the flag.) I swear it worked everytime for about 2 days.. I loved the game. I joined a clan called [BR]z. I met the leader... just none of the other members. As a tryout, I sent him screenshots of me sniping... and one was of me dieing :/. I later moved on to a clan called -uF-, they were fun... I was pretty good a dm because of past duke3d experience.. but i couldnt do anything else. They taught me to Water conc (conc in well and 2fort). This was where i was first introduced to mirc also. On java... ugh. Then 1.5 came out. uF died. I joined [MaTrIx] along with ag-projectile and a couple of others. Matrix died, because of a car crash. One of our team mates was in a car wreck and could no longer play. We turned into Sacrifice.. which was pretty much the same people... with a few additions. Blah blah blah... anyway to get this reply overwith, I was getting to the part where the people kept me in this game for so long, 5 years now. || Charsteel

[o_d]

azlan your post speaks for many of us leaders and past leaders.

[o_flare]

Started out in July of '99 when a friend of mine from Cali (|NULL|Damien) showed me TFC. Played sniper for 4 hours straight at his house.

Mostly played sniper on pubs for the next 6 months; joined a few retarded clans that didn't actually have a recruitment or a league (played a lot of 2morfort on [DiRe]'s server). Never bothered to join a legit clan till I got Cable in January of '00.

I remember trying out and getting into [BlkSun] in February of '00. But unfortunately for them, EQ came out around the same time. Quit that game about 3 months later, reinstalled TFC, joined [GoW] in June of '00. Left [GoW] in August (took me awhile to realize how newb Azlan was). Joined a bunch of random clans that never lasted more than a few weeks till I joined [DO] sometime in Nov/Dec of '00. Been playin with my jewish Koron for 2-3 years since then till I retired from TFC.

[o_returner]

Originally Posted by Azlan

I am very excited about Fortress Forever, because for the first time it will bring Europe and the United States together under one great roof.

Uh... how? FF won't affect network latencies in any way.

I think people take clans too seriously. It's not that dramatic (as Azlan writes). If running a game clan is one of the most emotionally exhausting thing you've ever experienced, then it really is clearly time to dump TFC and experience the real world.

I think clans just get in the way of actually playing the game. Rivalries, power struggles and conflicts was all I ever saw in clans. And these days we have these so-called professional clans that develop carpal tunnel syndrome for a living. No thanks, I'll stick to public servers.

[o_sobe green]

Originally Posted by Returner

Uh... how? FF won't affect network latencies in any way.

I think people take clans too seriously. It's not that dramatic (as Azlan writes). If running a game clan is one of the most emotionally exhausting thing you've ever experienced, then it really is clearly time to dump TFC and experience the real world.

I think clans just get in the way of actually playing the game. Rivalries, power struggles and conflicts was all I ever saw in clans. And these days we have these so-called professional clans that develop carpal tunnel syndrome for a living. No thanks, I'll stick to public servers.

Well you have to understand, for some reason America is always doing things differently than everybody else or vice versa. I think what he meant was that things like footsteps for example will be the same for everyone. Not all of the developing team is from a certain region which means the community won't be "Americans" and "Euros". We'll all be playing by the same rules for the most part.

[o_three_gunn]

Originally Posted by MorgZ

some really cool stuff posted guys, will post my *history* with tfc when i have some free time :P

...yeah, what he said. just reading everyones history with TFC brings up enough nostalgia to last me a good week or two. gets me all teary eyed knowing there are plenty of dedicated TFC'ers still hanging around.

edit: allright i'll give it a shot. i found out about TFC as a stand alone game. i never even heard of half-life. one day in 1999 after getting tired of starsiege: tribes i was going through download.com to look for a game demo i could try out. i came across team fortress classic. this was when real player was supporting it or sponsoring it or something. anyway, i downloaded the trial version...hopped onto a 2fort server and was immediately addicted to its fast paced, high adrenaline tempo. i loved how simple it was to choosing a class and getting down and dirty the moment i set foot outside of respawn. i loved how it had that deathmatch feel but with objectives and strategy. engy was the first class i learned. i stuck with it for a few months until i was finally recruited by a clan called =LNX= ...the most classy bunch of guys i ever ran with. they've been around for quite sometime(way before i was recruited) and they are still standing to this day. and like most of us...real life caught up with me and i had to leave. i stay in touch with them from time to time but havent competed side by side with them for a couple years now. along with =LNX= i mainly frequent the ville forums and their servers. and when DoD came around and everyone started playing it..i tried it as well. it was fun...but it was no replacement for TFC by far. i dont know how else to explain it. i guess because it didnt give me that unique feel. i honestly cant think of another game that can closesly resemble TFC. where you can play fresh off a downloaded trial or play to gain extreme skills in things that were never meant to be part of the game. i know i can hop into any server and start defending and cappin' like the old days...but its all bittersweet. because the early days with all my old friends and regulars is what i miss the most.

Originally Posted by Nuggs

Well the first and only demo I downloaded was RealNetworks demo of Team Fortress Classic. I loaded up the TFC compleate with three maps, and I was submerged into a brand new world.

LOL! NICE...for a loooong time..i thought i was the only one that had the realnetworks stand alone version. even my old =LNX= clanmates would clown on me. i had to eventually buy half-life because realnetworkds stopped providing patch updates. GG on realnetworks! hehe

[o_sambo4283]

Originally Posted by D

azlan your post speaks for many of us leaders and past leaders.

ditto man

I loved tfc from the moment I first saw it at my buddys house. Its almost like every other game is a fling but when its all said and done I come home to tfc. First clan I ever joined was a Low Grav clan called [Drastic.com] Way back in the spring of 2000. It was a decent clan but over time it just became a huge pub clan full of newbies and I wanted more. Right before I quit that clan, That fall the leader made me co-leader but instead of trying to focus my efforts on a lost cause I decided to leave, while offering many of the senior members a home, to found Low grav clan -=TnD=- .

I loved -=TnD=- and I still do to this day even though its failing. As its founding leader I put a great deal of my time and money into her..roughly a 1k I'd say from purchasing frontpage to give her a website to providing her with a server with little or no funds donated from other memebers. Even though there were times when I was afk for long periods due to loss of internet and things of that nature the driving force behind alot of my actions were to get back to her and my clanmates. Pretty crazy looking back on it but it was the best of times. I was with that clan for about 4 years before I left last summer and I still look at it as my own even though im no longer a part of it. Low Gravity All The Way People!

[o_silver]

it aint dead yet Sam

hopefully it will live to FF release

[o_l3onheart]

Originally Posted by Saintrancid-TPF-

why did i play TFC for 2+ years? because of the community. period

Ditto

[o_absolute zero]

Incredible.

If anyone remembers 'masterMAN' or Corpse-Squadron [CS], that is who I am. I started playing games back when Dark Reign was released or a little before Warcraft 1 and my friend showed me Half-Life. Besides Doom it was my first FPS game and I had been playing it shortly after it's release. After some DMing I got bored and wanted to look more on the teamwork aspect and found TFC. I have never been so addicted to a game in my life.

I'll shorten things a bit.

I played solo with one of my best friends AlphaTronics until we met Rid and Crashy and joined [CS]. I played with them for 4 years and the clan went through some heavy stuff and had some difficulty keeping things together. We were almost always the underdogs because we were a clan struggling to survive and seeing everyone come back together on here without Valve's help is just an inspiration. I have always helped out newbs and many of the newbs I helped went on to join some of the most prestigous/successful clans.

[Dospac]

Crashy was a PCXL hopeful before he did [CS]. That was years ago. I spoke with him mebbe 2 years ago? Haven't heard from him since.

And I remember masterman, not sure how though.

[o_godlysnipz]

I started out in 99 i think, when i bought HL for the singleplayer, then i got into CS... cause it was so popular, then when i heard about tfc me and my friends left and immediately became addictive as a Med in tfc.

I played with XW first way back in day there were awesome and had nicest group of guys and best server....

Then i joined *TG* and was with them for like 4 years, along with PoW and many others.... TFC was my LIFE in HS but now im a junior in college and cant wait for this game, i havent played HL2 but my laptop is only a 2.4 P4 64meg and i doubt i could run it well, so im gonna wait oput for FF then buy a desktop...

TFC was soo good because of the community like everyone said... everyone was so kind and like a family and if youve ever played CS youll know its exact opposite.... keep up the good work i just heard of this today and got all pmped..

[o_killacockney]

I first read the review of TFC in UK PC Gamer, and thought it'd be cool to play, I didn't have a worthy PC at the time (P75!!) nor the internet. Then I went to a mates house and watched him play CZ2 and I loved it, then he got me to do certain keyboard tasks for him. Then when he wen't to the loo I stole the seat and didn't move for what seemed like hours, I sucked at it so badly, but somehow this game grabbed my soul.

Flash forward a bit, to March 2000. Now in possession of a spanking pc (p3 500) and the internet (it was a 19.2k connection cos of our crappy phone line, but it didn't matter) and all I would do was play TFC. Every chance I got, because there were always people round to help me, always new ideas to explore, always new classes to play with and new maps to fight on. I started becoming a decent scout because of my ping, anything that required shooting was out (pings of 300) but flag capping and concing was easy.

It wasn't long before I found this great tool called Roger Wilco and joined a TFC channel on a random server. Armed with this, ICQ, and TFC I managed to find a decent group of servers and players to play with, and slowly the community took a hold of me, these people were always helpful, polite, and well mannered. I found a clan and trialled for it (it was called Massive Attack - [MA] ) and got into their offence. After a few more months training (and a healthy boost given by my newly gained ISDN. Ahhhh the old netcode that gave me sub 50 pings on UK servers with 64k!) I became the offence captain, and learned of Team Play First from my predecessor. This was an idea I really liked, and I found out more and joined the PlanetFortress/TPF web forums, although I never said much there, instead I chose to spread the word and the help of TPF, and even today (in any team game in fact) I still wear my -TPF- badge with pride!

Ok, in hindsight [MA] never went anywhere, but it was fun /because of the people/.

After [MA] folded, I got dragged into CS beta 6, and played that for a year, forming a clan called ^UN^ (Unclaimed N00biz, note the at-the-time rare ^ ^ brackets ) which eventually collapsed as CS got worse and worse, and as it happed most of the decent members were people I used to play TFC with back on UK Sutton (ahhhh Mr Kitty, but the IP eludes me right now even though I'll remember it instantly when I finish this rant), and so ^UN^ became a TFC clan in 2002.

Armed with little real knowledge, and a passion for the game, we had a laugh, got in a few leagues and played. In between expansions, me leaving the game due to college and exams, and other events, we still hang out in our channel. A lot of the members and my friends went on to other clans or games, but the team spirit is still there.

I carried on playing all the way to meeting my girlfriend, and always loved it. Right up until steam arrived, and with it came some changes, and the teleporters *spits at valve*. Even at university I still play it although being behind a HTTPS proxy, the oppotunities are rare.

It is the game that I always come back to when I leave it for another game, it is the game that I always play and love, even though most of my friends,(in part) the community, the players, the servers, and valve, have moved on, I never have. I will always be true to TFC, it is the only multiplayer game I always want to play.

Mix into this history, the learning of the ettiquette ('unwritten' or 'gentlemans' ) rules, which I love and will always play by, even if the server doesn't. Changing passion to defense, and playing solly and demoman, and also developing the ultimate communications script that featured an ingenious series of up to 16 messages bound to a single key that covered almost every situation I could think of in a game, and changed depending on your map and class (man that was some heavy aliasing, binding, scripting and configing) that would have revolutionised the game... until voice comms became built into the game

And when I discovered FF, my joy was insane. I swore I would never buy HL2 until it went to budget, thinking that nobody would make a TF mod (for some reason!) and if valve did it'd be rubbish. Well I will, just to play FF.
Also next year I leave the universitys accomodation and pants HTTPS proxy, and get 2meg DSL to play it on

May Team Fortress prevail, so even if the cockroaches inherit the earth, they have something worthwhile to occupy their time.

(Apologies, I realise that this is rather long. So anybody who has read all the way down to here, I thank you for your patience)

The above is such a small part of what I could say...
In short, I love TFC because of the players, the community, and the game itself.

Killacockney-TPF-

[o_frankengoof]

First started playing tfc in August 1999 with my brother, we both originally used the same name of Blackjoy. we're from australia, but for some reason only ever played in the Kali hunted server (gogo 1000ping!). short while after we decided to get our own names, and he became Hunter_Devourer and i became FrankenGoof.

Soon after that we discovered that there were australian servers and we learnt of the existence of clans! I remember refreshing the old Eisa TFC server constantly until a place became availably just to play with some random dudes from [CSM], [Vn] or [WTF].

Joined a few random public server clans in a period of about 2months, till i joined my first serious clan, [UFN] - The Underground Fragging Network. Stayed in this clan for about 10months till the leaders and most of the players became more and more involved in counter-strike. So me and fellow tfc leader Spawny decided to leave UFN and make another clan. =AF= - armed fury, didnt last long, we played flagrun against every clan and won almost every time, apart from that we usually lost everything badly ;].

around February 2001 =AF= disbanded and i was quickly poached by [LEGION], one of the better clans in australian TFC. played with LEGION for about 18months and was some of the most memorable times in TFC i can remember. playing with guys like schmuck, force, DB7, whoCares, zero just to name a few was mad fun.

near the end of 2002 i left LEGION for a brief stint in [+AmS+] so i could play tfc with a mate from school. didnt last long as i found tfc wasn't the same without the idiots from LEGION, so in early 2003 i rejoined LEGION (and was the first and only player who was ever allowed back in after quitting [i think]). more fun followed.

near the end of 2003 i left all things internet for a year to concentrate for my final year of school, after my yr12 exams had finished, i returned to tfc to discover that LEGION had died, most of the clans (BBQ, E4E, iRG, etc.) had also drifted away, and the only people i really knew in TFC were in clan RoK - a few old LEGION bums and some fellas from =AF=. i joined rok and am there today, attempting to play offense with the likes of force, noclip, hatzor, spawny and depops... and filling in for defense when players like bl1tzen, shard, silv3r, ashen, fiery_isles, ressah, hman, kerns dont show up. think thats pretty much the current active RoK squad.

thats my TFC career in a nutshell, im sure like most of us here, we could go on for pages and pages about the characters, maps, clans, experiences we've had from TFC, but that'll have to do for now ;].

[o_soulcutter]

I remember [CS]. Good times. I'm pretty sure I'd played against them a couple of times in eXeL or perhaps -=DoM=- which was the lower level clan I joined after eXeL. I THINK anyways, I know I remember the clan regardless of whether or not I played in the matches.

[o_conor]

started playing tfc with my brother(StormTrooper & RogueTrooper respectively) in the old ign(irish gaming network)server christmas 99. Played against some of the old greats of irish (and a few english)clans such as KBT,SOF(the grand-fathers of -RvR- ,probably the best irish clan there has been),IAR and CsS.
When CS started to become more popular the community started to diminish,
nowadays you might see "one of the old gang" once in a while on some server but mostly its cs now.
(blasphemy:i was showin one of my friends tfc in an internet café and some little kid came up and asked "is that a cs mod?",nearly struck him down where he stood...)