Note to the pro's and old school clanners.

[o_priest]

Wow...just found out about this mod...recognize some names on staff...this makes me happy.

I started playing TFC in July of '99 with a bunch of buddies at work. By September, IIRC, we wondered how far we could get in league play since we played with each other all the time, and clan -SIN- was born, founded originally by Psycho_man, Immy and me. Shortly after, our first of I think 5 original servers, -SIN-Cathedral, went up. I can't even remember the specs or the map cycle. Shortly thereafter, we played our first OGL match vs. a team called SU6, and won. 10 matches later we took our first loss to bM, but remained in the top 10.

-SIN- had it's ups and downs, and frankly, it's been too long to really recap, but as far as I know, they are still around, and still being run by an original member (and provider of our first big piece of hardware, -SIN-Alpha), Vandamaged.

Fast forward a while, and Kruunch from CE messaged me out of the blue one day on IM and asked if I would be interested in a casual play team, and I joined my 2nd and last clan, DAr`, made up of a lot of old CE players and a few from some other teams. Eventually K left (for DAoC, I believe), we started dropping members, and it just kinda fizzled. Was fun while it lasted, though.

The last time I really played seriously was the first time (last? dunno) the CPL held a money tournament for TFC. I played for Azlans second teams, WoG, and had a blast. Met a ton of people I had played with over the years, including Ecks and Dospac, and had an all around good time of it. After playing actual matches in a LAN environment, playing online seemed to pale in comparision, and I just sorta moved on to other games, but just reading about this Mod has me wanting to re-install and see if I can still tell one end of a rocket launcher from the other.

Best of luck guys...I'll be looking forward to it

[o_vs. tear]

Originally Posted by rebo

One thing I really hope you will take on board is the utmost importance to cultivate , encourage, and accept newbies and other potential players to these forums. Your combined knowledge of the game can be a bit daunting for a new player, some may come up with ideas that in reality wont work, or have an understanding of TFC that isnt 100% correct. However these are things we can be encouraged by because they show there is still interest in this style of gameplay which we all love.

New players are the life blood of the game lets make this forum as welcoming to them as possible and in return they will reward you by learning skills becoming community/clan members and ensuring the game thrives as it deserves to.

That is probably the most insightful post about keeping a game alive that I have ever read. You preach a powerful sermon, rebo. Everyone should read and understand your words very carefully if they want their game to succeed. Many games have come and gone because of elitist attitudes that breed llamas, lamers, and wankers.

I played Quake first and learned about TF from there. Soon afterwards came Quake MegaTF (airmirv!). Half-Life was released and begat Team Fortress Classic which occupied several thousand hours of my life over a 2 year span. After TF2 turned to vaporware several years in a row, I downloaded a free copy of America's Army and never looked back.

It warmed my heart to see this site. Keep up the great work.

Truly,

vs. Tear
http://clanversus.com

[o_georgie]

I first started playing TFC on my old P150 (o/c to 180) with my S3 Virge with 2 voodoo 2's in SLI (Talk about a beast or what!!), my only previous PC gaming experience being 20 mins or so of Wolfenstein 3D and watching a mate play Rise of the Triads.

I used to play on the demon servers with the name [C3]george. Essentially it was just a tag to help the other 2 people I knew online find me ingame (short for Craptacular 3).

After a few weeks I used to find myself regularly being stalked by two players called "BareNakedLady" and "MrTFC". It didn't take long for them to persuade me to play for the Mercenaries Under Fire clan and [MUF]georgie was born, I didn't even know there was such thing as a "scene" before that. People came and people went, but the majority of MUF stayed there for a good few years, and what bloody good fun it was too.

I eventually left MUF to go play DAOC, but it seems they just couldn't bear to be away from me and half of the buggers followed me. Have recently started playing EverQuest 2, but to be honest, my heart will always belong to TFC. I'm really hoping you guys can do the business with this one and captivate the essence of what made the game great for me initially.

<wave to anyone that remembers me>

[Defrag]

Hey georgie

[o_georgie]

Hehe, ewwo Fraggles.

I must say I was chuffed to buggery when I saw this mod was in development and how great it was to see so many of the old faces still around. Nice to see lots of new names too mind you.

[o_autospike]

Howdy,

My venture into FPS began with the original Wolfenstein. Later, we setup multiplayer doom at the office. We played a lot of coop Doom.
I wonder if that makes me an old fart?

At any rate, I started playing TFC in '99. I was instantly hooked. I've played under several boring and unoriginal names: "bladerunner", "autospike", to name a few. I'll play any class, though I prefer Soldier or Engineer.

In the beginning, I played a lot on AREA51 servers. But I found my home on the Girlpower servers. They seemed to have more players my age and it was a great community. They also had 0 tolerance for idiots.

It was like going to a bar after work. People would drop in and play and talk about all kinds of things. But, they WERE playing. You couldn't just "hang out" and chitchat. Some of those players were incredible. The best sniper I've ever seen hung out there.

I manage an IT department at a University, so somewhere around 2000 I snagged a linux "test server", threw TFC on it and created "Blade's Edge" aka "Splashdamage". NOBODY played on my box, even though it was sitting on a T3.

So, I went around to other severs and found clans that looked decent but had no home server.

My offer was simple: I gave them a server to call home and play their matches on if they would help me admin it when I was not around. THey also had to absolutely be friendly and helpful to every newbie and non clan member that played on it.

I was never in a TFC clan.

While my box was up and running, I hosted two different clans. The first one fell apart pretty quickly but the second one hung around for a while (Somebody should do a research paper on what makes clans thrive or fail).

Once I got the clans on there practicing and having matches, people started playing quite a bit.

At some point, we had only Attack / Defend maps (dustbowl, avanti, etc.). Usage on the server skyrocketed. I would have to kick folks if I wanted to play on my own server. (I was still playing on girlpower a lot).

Eventually, I had to shut that box down. I kept playing online until around 2002.

I've played other games since then. But none of them have even come close to my experience with TFC.

The gameplay (classes, weapons, maps, skills, etc.) got me playing and the community kept me coming back.

I've really missed it. I hope that Fortress-Forever will be here soon.

[o_boutain]

Starting off as a total n00b back in 2000, on of my best friends DEE previously of DDT showed me the wonder that is TFC. Being a playstation convert, all I could see for the future of gaming was consoles. DEE bought himself a PC, and before long started playing TFC, he would preach to me "man you've got to see this game!" and I poo-pooed it for a while until I actually got to sit down and have a go, then, all was lost.

Within 2 weeks I had a kick ass rig and a £50 per month BT Openworld 512k ADSL connection, then that was it, totally lost to the game. In all my years as a serious gamer I had never found anything like this, counterstrike sucked because of the loooong wait for re-spawn, but this was something else.

I started playin on the Royston Vasey server, where after many many hours of play and discussions (online and in forums) I became an admin, and a very fair one i like to think.

Maps like Badlands, Dustbowl, Shutdown 2, 2fort, Monkey_l hours and hours of fun, I did 18 hours straight one day, beer, pizza and occasional breaks for the loo.

The sense of community for TFC players was unrivaled anywhere else, with IRC channels, you very soon had a wicked group of friends online @ whatever time u chose to log on.

Hopefully FF will be able to restore that feeling of fun and belonging, which in my opinion was lost when WON fell by the wayside. TFC's gameplay was second to none, thats why it was so popular for so long, what I humbly reckon you modders should do is; give it a visual overhaul, work out any problems, keep those classic maps, maybe a few added extras, but keep that gameplay just as it was, and we all love.

Peace out

Bout ,)

[o_cyrus]

Started out playing doom2 on a lan at college.. fun stuff but short lived

Got hl early on when all you had was single player and hldm.. played hldm on my isdn line with a 500 ping for about 6 months.. then tfc came out. I played here and there learning the game.. lots of 24 player 2fort pubs. Finally stumbled upon clans and joined one.. learned the ropes and when it closed down i met GHOB.. who recruited me into AOD.. who was 3rd on the ogl ladder at the time.
Over the years myself and the game changed a lot. I played for 3 noob-level clans.. 3 championship teams.. joined a medic and a demoman guild... was an admin on the Catacombs for a long time.. played the best and worst clans and people TFC had to offer in North America, even played some vs the manky euro m0ngs here and there.
I love tfc.. but tfc is not about a game.. it is about the friendships earned while playing.. it is about the fun had on match night: before, during, and after the match. It is about the community. I hope this mod catches on and builds just such a community, i see you have some good people on your team.. if you ever need any help with the gameplay testing dospac or defrag.. i could lend a crowbar or conc

Observe Adapt Overcome
Cyrus

[o_darkside]

First sorry for flaming on that "Looks Awesome" thread, it was my first one.
Anyway I got into FPS games back in 98 when my friends introduced me to LAN zones in europe, those of you who know what im talkin about know that there is lan zones all over the place in Europe some with 4 computers in a basement.. others in a nice office building with around 90-100 computers, AC, a bar.. etc. Anyway it was REALLY fun back then the game to play was Quake 3 arena, even though it was just 2 maps and 4 weapons. hehehe.. When i moved to the US i bought a computer and played Q3A in several tournaments 2nd place in a nationwide online one, and 1st at a lan tournament in CA with a 1000 $ cash prize. Anyway in highschool a friend of mine was telling me i would get "owned" in TFC on HL1. SO i bought the game and practiced for a weekend, then played with him and ended up joining his clan. a small one that lasted about 2 or 3 yrs [NSS] since then i played TFC for about 4 years and had some of the best experiences ever. I think TFC is soooo great cuz of 2 things. Community, and Tactics.... there is nothing like learning/inventing new ways to get into the enemy base, jumping higher, killing faster. etc. Cant wait for this mod to come out, but like i said b4 ill wait as long as it takes for this to blow everything else outta the water.

[o_rebo]

Darkside you wasnt flaming at all dont worry!

Storm was just saying that there were quite a few "looks awesome/good job" threads about and that some people might be critical of your thread because of that. He tho wasnt bothered by your thread and was glad to welcome you to the forum. So its cool man and Im really glad to hear your FPS history above.


Welcome to the forums.

[o_hail to the king]

I'll just keep this relatively short.

I started playing TFC around 1998-99, when I was sick of playing Diablo 2 and Starcraft and I was bored, so I decided to see what the TFC mod that came with my HL game was like. I played on a few servers and loved it. Over time hooked up with some clans and guilds. I've played leagues off and on, but I mostly like TFC for public play. Some of the first few clan/guild type groups I joined back around 1999 are the ones i'm still in now and they are still alive today, some more alive than others but still here. :P

[o_donny]

I started 2004 spring at the same day when we FINALLY got a fast connection to replace that sucky old modem.
I have had played Splinter Cell reasently and tought that spy would be a cool charter to practise on.
Day went by and I became good in spy role. In some day the spy's were all full and I couldn't join as that charter, I tought to try medic, but I couldnt hande it.
Then I noticed the cool glasses of HWguy and as a joke I tought to try it. I fell in love with it in the same day. From that day I have played as HWguy. By the past days as spy I now knowed who is spy, I just noticed it by how they moved, and how they tryed to get away from enemy cursors and eyes, then when my summer holiday was over I desided to take some brake from TFC, but before I noticed, I didn't have time for TFC, and I didnt play it for half years... Then by accident I noticed a link in Steam that told something about Fortress, I decided to look it and I have never regret.

That's my story. If you see [FIN]EvilSeeD anywhere It's me, or if you have seen [FIN]MasterChief that was me. I chainged my name because Halo has same name and ppl started to think that I am a halo fan :E

I once belong in to a clan but they never contacted me ever sence for clan match. I quess the clan broke or something...

[o_mastiff]

Lo all . I started playing TFC as soon as it was available .
I had played some Doom style games but TFC was my first ever serious online game.

I did try others including C.S and recently played DOD on recommendation . Both times I thought ' what ' how do these games compare to TFC ?

I gave up TFC about three years ago as I live in the countryside and couldnt get Broadband or even ISDN. 56K was just getting impossible especially if you wanted to play in matches.

My first and very best clan was [POP] , partisans of pleasure if I remember rightly though I did play for two others towards my ' 56K end'

I find TFC unique in that it can be played as fast pace , it can be played with stealth and of course without team co-op it is nothing. TFC on public servers has been ruined by the ' i've got the highest score' types who only have the highest score because they make no sacrifices for the team goal.

I re entered TFC a few months ago after B.T raised the line limits and have a superb connection and play most days though not for a clan.
Usually playing my old class on NG but I play spy and scout quite a bit.

My biggest hope is that the Forever mod encourages a new breed of
' TEAM ' players who dont play for there own score but play for the team win. Without that I wont be interested at all . I hope that the game takes off enough for clans to be formed out of TFC old timers like me aND newcomers who are keen anf friendly . If this doesnt happen I'll be looking elsewhere , if it does I'll be straight back in to clan play which to me you can't beat if theyre a good bunch.

POP R.I.P

[o_landshark]

hullo! Just registered.
'Ello to anyone I played with TA and later SHS. No game or community's managed to be as much fun as TFC was. I can't play it these days, I kinda miss bunnyhopping and having a clan too much
I originally quit to play DAoC and avoid failing my A-levels, then never really picked it back up. Still been playing the odd FPS though, and FF + the team behind look fantastic.

Have to say, I'm very curious about how the movement physics will be in this mod. Lately I've been playing Q3 CPMA (www.promode.org) lately so I'm hoping to find out there'll be at least bunnyhopping in FF, but whatever

[o_georgie]

omg, they're all crawling out from the woodwork now. :P

<waves at LS>

[o_darthgreg]

Here's my story, mostly for the "newbies" and those unfamiliar with the community.

Well-a-well, my name's Greg and I'm in my 3rd year at Erskine College in Due West, SC, despite having started playing TFC in the middle of my high school years. I picked it up for the first time in the summer of 2000 and never played a day pre-TF 1.5. I loaded it up out of curiousity after seeing it in my Half-Life mods list one day after getting bored of playing UT and Q3 offline, typed in my baddass-sounding name (DarthGreg, lol), and was instantly hooked.

Unlike many others, I had no online history, TF or otherwise, before TFC - it was my first multiplayer game. At the time I was still on the family PC on AOL 56k dialup, and TFC was the first game that was playable, thanks to the TF 1.5 netcode. That whole summer I played as much as I possibly could, which wasn't much due to having to share the PC with my brother, 2 sisters, and each of my parents. In September I started looking into the clanning community, and eventually found Clan =1='s website. I told the recruiter that I was interested in joining as a HW, and when he asked for a secondary class I told him I could play a good scout, but I couldn't conc jump. When the time had come for my tryout I had started another class, and so I made it into my first TFC clan as a high-ping offensive soldier.

All of the people in that clan helped me form my idea of what a clan ought to be, and when things in [=1=] started going south in February of 2001, myself and 3 friends founded a new clan, mH (Misdirected Hostility). Aided by a recent family upgrade to DSL, I set about building that clan from scratch, with no contacts. 3 months later, we entered a then-new 5v5 league as a way to market ourselves to potential recruits, and at the end of 6 months we entered our first 9v9 league.

5 months ago, in September of 2004 - 3.5 years, 62 players, 1 disbandment/reform, 13 titles, and over 250 matches later - I finally closed the doors on mH permanently. During our time we competed with the best, and players from mH have gone on to play with the best clans in the game, past and present. We, and I personally, have forged friendships that will last well beyond the life of this game and the next. We made our mark on the community, with an initial core of nothing but the hopes and dreams of 4 newbies. I made it into a soldier guild that distinguished the best in the game from the rest, and almost exactly a year ago played with team USA in an international tournament between countries in Europe and North America. Right now I'm playing more casually with friends in [TDA] and waiting on FF.

It sounds crazy, and even fanatical, but not until the past few years, when I got my own computer, was I even able to play more than an hour or two per day. Anyone can do what I've done, and this great community makes it possible. I've lived in 5 different places in the last 5 years, and throughout that time this community has been like a home away from home for me. I can't say enough good things about TFC, and I have full confidence in the FF team to not only faithfully translate what makes TF and TFC awesome into the new game, but also to fix all the imbalances and bugs that have gone overlooked by Valve for so many years. If anyone can do it, they can.

[o_laozi2]

I got TFC with half life, and never really looked at it till i finished HL

I installed it, and played it, and i was shocked to my foundations, it was the best thing since sliced bread. I played for a year, but it started to get boring, thats when i was first introduced to the "fun" servers (TDO knows) like the Silly Zone, but that died, not sure why, then TSZS, that died too, and although not related but still the same game style, The Yay Pit, these servers have kept my intrest in TFC for so long (3.2 years). I even enjoy mapping for them, and not doing deathmatch crap.

Unlike some others, i didnt get a helping hand when i started, i joined a server and i was thrown into new stuff (i never played anything prior to TFC) but i survived, and im glad.

Major props for the FF team

[o_kashew]

well i dont really now when i discovered TFC, i was big into it from 6th grade until 9th grade. then i went to a boarding school that was ALL counter-strike. when i played TFC, i loved it. i first rocked it up on area51live.com. i played all their tournaments and loved it. i soon discovered KEEGS and i LOVED that server. keeg and i became friends and i soon became and admin. I miss badlands and running the canyon as a pyro and annoying the hell out of people while our snipers took them out for me. <sigh> where did those says go? i miss pressing "Z"!!!! MEDIC!!!!

[o_pinkymcdoogle]

TFC...ahh...Best. Game. Ever.

It all started with Half-Life. See, I had this hot new Pentium 166 and a 3D Voodoo Banshee card (it was a 3D "accelerator" AND a 2D card...sweeeeeet!) and I had this hot new game, Half-Life, that I had been nerdily waiting for since I read the first preview of it a year earlier. Bought it the day it came out and had my friends over to play some hot-seat deathmatch the next day. We were never the same again.

We'd talk about things that happened in deathmatch as if they were real life, telling stories from first person perspectives as if we'd really jumped over a ledge and "popped some n00b in the face with the gauss gun." After growing dominant with the shotgun on Datacore and the crossbow on BootCamp, we began to tire just a bit of deathmatch...all twitch. Soon, though, TFC hit the net and that's when the REAL fun began.

We were awful to start with but the possibilities were mind boggling. Different classes, strategies, teamwork...the design was brilliant. I knew a little about QWTF but hadn't played it. From my first cap as a spy on 2Fort (brilliantly using the water to escape to 'trick' the other team!) I was hooked. Six years later, I'm still playing...with a major break or two in there.

The community really is where it's at...but for me it wasn't just a community of online friends but of my flesh-and-blood buddies...we'd set up Lan clans and hop online to whoop people en masse from one location, laughing and narrating our exploits in person. We'd talk about it at school, we kept in touch with online games while we were scattered across the country at different colleges, we actually hijaked one of our computer classes when still in high school and steered its devolution into a TFC Class that the teacher even got in on nearly every day. Hell, I mentioned TFC (partly in jest...but only partly) at my best friend's wedding...

I never was as into clans as my best bud (who I had turned onto the game) ended up getting. I was involved in too many extra-cirriculars and had too many jobs and responsibilities to allow me to get that involved...but I love TFC with every ounce of my being. TFC, to me, represents everything about my friends and about my high school life and about my hometown that I care about...there isn't much about that period for me that conjures positive memories. TFC conjures up more than "positive memories"...it conjures pure happiness. TFC is magic.

Just as throughout your TFC career you begin to add skills and proficiencies naturally through practice--the game grows organically--I grew as a person with it. Corny? Hell yes. But I don't care. I love this game.

I have no desire to see the elegance of TFC ruined with hitscan machine guns, more "realistic" additions, or any sort of economic system. TFC is the most skilled online game in existence, a game that rewards practice, curiousity, and talent more than any I've ever played. It does this thanks to a delicate balance of weaponry and player physics...I have no desire to see most of these things changed because I honestly don't feel they need changing. I hope FortressForever breathes some new life into Team Fortress and I hope it, above all else, retains the flavor of the game I love.

[o_bluntz]

I started playing around 98/99, having got TFC from a PC Gamer demo disc. Played until early 2003 I think, having been in half a dozen or more clans, eventually tiring of TFC and trying Q3 mods like RA3/cpma and playing a bit of CS. I never found another gaming community as close and friendly, even to an ass like I was a few years ago :P, and have subsequently posted irregularly on a TFC forum. I'm waiting eagerly for FF, as I hope I will meet a lot of ex-TFC players, and play in pickups etc with all the people again. Hi LS as well, used to play a bit of RA3 with you and westie.