Team Fortress Classic

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Team Fortress Classic is a multi-player only commercial add-on to Half-Life.

When Team Fortress 2, the sequel to the Quake mod Team Fortress (that in a sense invented CTF games) was delayed, Valve started to work an a semi-port of the original mod to the GoldSRC engine (hence the classic in the game name). TFC was developed together with Half-Life. All the changes it has compared to regular Half-Life engine can be modded, and TFC helped Valve in developing the Half-Life SDK.

TFC was originally distributed together with Half-Life as a free mod, but since the Steamification of Half-Life it has gained independent status and runs standalone. It can be bought as part of the Half-Life Anthology package or by itself.

As of 2007, many servers contain bots only (although not to the same extent as Day of Defeat).

A special aspect of TFC is the way grenade throwing is handled; unlike Half-Life or Counter-Strike, where grenades are weapons of their own, in TFC a player never needs to switch between weapons to throw a grenade. Using the F and G buttons (by default) a primary and secondary grenade type can be thrown. By holding said buttons the player can hold on to grenades, expecially handy for Concussion Grenades and Conc jumping.

Bunny hopping was a part of the game until it was removed together with the Steamification of Half-Life. While this did much to remove glitches, many players still think it ruined their Team Fortress. Many other features that would in other games be considered glitches (such as rocket jumping) are still part of TFC.

Popular maps

Below is a list of the most popular TFC maps.

2Fort

Overhead picture of the 2Fort bridge.

A simple CTF map. Consists of two forts with a bridge between them. Both forts have two entrances, one main entrance at either side of the bridge, and one entrance in the water under the bridge. A player can also gain access to the enemy fort by using Rocket Jumping or Conc Jumping to get to the second floor balcony, a typical place for Snipers to lurk in.

The end of Stage One of Dustbowl.

Dustbowl

A Territorial Control map. The game mode consists of one Attacker team and one Defender team. The Sttacker team must bring their flag to a control point held by the Defender team. Upon reaching the control point, the map moves on to the next stage. Dustbowl has three stages. In the beginning of a map, the Defender team usually bombard the exits to the Attacker base with heavy fire, preventing the Defender team to get out. This is referred to as Dustbowl Spamming. Dustbowl is set in a desert theme, reusing many Half-Life textures.

The Civilian.

Hunted

On Hunted, one team takes the role of bodyguards, and the other takes the part of Assassins. The Assassins must kill the lone member of team three, The Civilian, while the Bodyguards must prevent that from happening. The Assassins can only play as Snipers and the Bodyguards can only play as Medics, Heavy Weapon Guys or Soldiers, giving a very special map experience. Hunted isn't really that popular, but deserves a mention for it's special game type.

The layout of Hunted is exactly the same as a map of the Forget About Freeman! chapter in Half-Life.

Classes

The classic model for the Heavy Weapons Guy.

Heavy Weapons Guy

The typical tank class of TFC and a perfect defender. A Heavy Weapon Guy's equipment consists of a Minigun-style heavy rotating machine gun (named Sasha in Team Fortress 2), a double-barrelled shotgun and the signature crowbar. A Heavy Weapon Guy has a maximum of 100 health and 300 armor, giving the highest damage resistance of any class in the game. At the cost of being sturdiest, the HWG is also slower and has no special abilities.

Scout.

Scout

A typical flag carrier. Moves faster than any other class of the game and carries a Nailgun, a single-barrelled shotgun and the signature crowbar. Noteworthy is also the fact that the Scout is one of the two classes to have Concussion Grenades, giving it the ability to Conc Jump. Being the good attacker it is, the Scout is mostly worthless at defending and should be kept out of direct battle situations.

Engineer with a level one sentry gun to the left.

Engineer

A sturdy defender class. A engineer carries a double-barrelled shotgun, a laser pistol and a wrench. The wrench uses Resources as it's ammo, having 200 as max. Interesting to note is that a Engineer is the only class to carry EMP Grenades, shutting off enemy Sentry Guns and Teleporters for a short period of time. Distinguished from the other classes by its ability to build things, the Engineer can build the following items:

Sentry Gun

A minigun-equipped cannon. When a Sentry Gun discovers an enemy, it beeps loudly, giving said enemy a chance to notice the Sentry Gun and giving it a chance to get out of sight. Has almost perfect accuracy at close ranges and deals high damage over short periods of time. A Sentry gun can also be upgraded by any Engineer on the same team as the building one. Upgrading a Sentry Gun to it's next form costs 120 Resources. A Sentry Gun can be upgraded to three forms. A level three Sentry Gun has rocket launchers. Typically seen on Stage Three of Dustbowl.

Teleporter

Needed for Territorial Control maps. For the cost of 120 Resources, a Engineer can build either a Entrance or Exit of a teleporter. When both these are put up, any allied player can enter the entrance of the teleporter and instantaneously appear at the other side. When a player has been teleported, the Teleporter must recharge for a short moment, preventing large amounts of players to go through at the same time.

Dispenser

A simple ammo box. Interestingly enough these are rarely used as ammo boxes, and moreso as path blockers or bombs to prevent enemies from passing by.

A spy.

Spy

The Spy is a good class for both attack and defence. A spy relies on other players trusting their own team. The weaponry of a Spy contains a knife (that instantly kills backstabbed enemies), a Dart Gun (containing poisonous darts to slow enemies down), a double-barrelled shotgun and a nail gun. A Spy also carries Gas Grenades, giving enemies the impression of gunshots and explosions going off around them. Th most interesting aspect of the spy, however lies in it's ability to Disguise. This allows the Spy to after a short period of time take the shape of any other class in the game. Te Spy can choose to take the colour of the enemy or allied team as well, but Friendly Fire stays, giving enemies the ability to shoot the Spy even if it has disguised itself as a member of the enemy team and vice versa.

A Soldier.

Soldier

The Soldier is an all-round class good for all kinds of battle situations. A Soldier carries a Rocket Launcher, with low-damage rockets allowing the Soldier to Rocket Jump easily, a double-barrelled shotgun, a single-barrelled shotgun and the signature crowbar. A Soldier, like the HWG, also carries MIRV Grenades, a thrown disc that shoots hundreds of darts when thrown into a room. If one was to ask the Team Fortress community what class to start off with as a newcomer to the game, Soldier would be the most common answer. It's quite easy-to-use weapons and moderate damage allows it to score points to the worst of players. Having that said, the Soldier is not a class only played by newbies - a good Soldier can outplay most classes.

A Medic.

Medic

The Medic is a good defending class. Carrying no melee weapon, rather using a Medpack to heal allies and infect enemies with viruses that harm them, the Medic has a hard time damaging enemies. A medic also carries double-barrelled and single-barrelled shotguns and a machine gun, similar but slightly stronger than the nail gun. A ally hit by the Medpack will be restores to full health with one hit, and after that gain five additional health to the maximum for each shot - giving up to 150% health. A enemy hit by the medpack will slowly lose health over time, until said enemy dies or is healed by a allied medic. The infection carries on to allies, giving room for griefing.

A pyro carrying the Flame Thrower.

Pyro

The pyro is a hardto-play all round class. A Pyro carries a Flamethrower (with a model similar to the Gluon Gun in Half-Life) that can set enemies on fire for a period of time depending on how long they're exposed to the blast of the gun - the best way to set out a Pyro's flames is to go underwater. The Pyro also carries a Rocket Launcher firing flame projectiles that damage enemies, setting them on fire for a short period of time. Grenade-wise, the pyro carries usual frag grenades and Napalm Grenades, the latter setting the ground in a small area on fire for a time. It can effectively be used to seal off tunnels to prevent enemy breakthrough.

A TFC Sniper, aiming the Sniper Rifle.

Sniper

A Sniper is good for defence. The main weapon of a Sniper is a Sniper Rifle. When the trigger of a Sniper Rifle is held for a long period of time, the movement of the Sniper slows down and a laser dot appears on the target. A headshot when in this mode means instant death. The downside of the Sniper Rifle is that it has to be fired when the Sniper has both feet on the ground. A Sniper also carries a Sub-machine gun that uses the same model and ammo as the Sniper Rifle, giving some confusion. The SMG fires notably faster and easier than the Sniper Rifle. A Sniper also carries a nailgun and the signature Crowbar.

A Demoman.

Demoman

The Demoman is a good defence-style class. The weaponry of a Demoman (or Demo, as they're occationally called) contains two types of Grenade Launchers - the first one fires grenades that are set to automatically explode after four seconds, and the second fires grenades that the Demo detonates manually with the right mouse button. The Demoman also carries a single-barrelled shotgun and the signature crowbar. The special ability of the demoman is to set Demolition Packs, that explode after either five, thirty or sixty seconds, depending on the Demoman's choice. Demopacks are needed to open passages on maps such as Dustbowl.

Weapons

Several weapons are, as you may have read, shared between classes. They will be dealt with below.

Single-Barrelled Shotgun

A fast-firing shotgun. Uses the same ammo as the double-barrelled variant, but fires slightly faster and deals slightly less damage.

Double-Barrelled Shotgun

A shotgun. Uses the same ammo as the single-barrelled variant, but fires slightly slower and deals slightly more damage.

Crowbar

Exactly the same as Half-Lifes.

Nailgun

Fires nails at a fast rate. These nails don't deal that much damage, and can be dodged quite easily, but the gun's rate of fire and ability to not have to reload makes up for it.

Links

[1] - Planet Half-Life site

[2] - Planet Fortress - fan page for TF, TFC and TF2