TF2 Thread, now featuring HALLOWEEN!

Played a bit of this last night as well. Finished the first two maps after MANY repeated failures on a single wave (which, by the way, restarts you on the same wave). The tower/defense type upgrades are really central to this mode; more-so than a lot of the people I played with think(instant ready-up without buying any). Some of the waves are outright impossible without some sort of resistance buff. Of course, then there are BS stages where giant scouts repeatedly rush the point after stealing the bomb. These "hoards" are by no means the popcorn you see in many other games and can hit really hard. The only things you should really invest in are primary weapon and base buffs from what little experience I've had with Heavy, Medic, and Solider.

As for gameplay modes in general, I think this was a very nice addition; as it does not overlap any of the existing mod modes. I initially thought this would sort of overlap with one of the zombie type mods, but it really doesn't since this isn't about survival, but defense. I've played several modded game-modes before, and looking back at those, some of them might stand for an official release; if only to improve the UI and remove some questionable content so more people can try the concept. Heck, in context with cannon, I even have an idea of how one or two of them could become this Halloween's event.

 Massive Mod Analysis

Zombie Fortress Played quite a bit of this one as it seems closest to balanced as the game goes on. New weapons do tend to throw it off fairly often though. Basically, it is Survival mode with stacked difficulty as the game goes on. Once the survivors loses a player, they are assigned to the opposing team. There are perk and no perk versions where the perks are fairly similar to upgrades in MVM, but you choose at time of spawn and only choose one. They sort of break down to classes in and of themselves. This is different enough from the MVM mode to remain it's own thing since it is a survival variation, rather than defense, and allows you to play on both teams, with both mindsets (stick together/draw one out to isolate). My estimate of the likelihood of an official form: Fairly high, but I doubt that it would remain in it's current state. Even the concept of zombies can be removed for the stacked difficulty to be a core "team" concept. Also, the perk system and balance would need a huge overall to become official.

Zom Mod No it isn't the same thing as Zombie Fortress. This is basically a turtling trainer. Whereas ZF has perks to counter the turtle strategy, this mode only enforces it. The main reason being, a single melee hit turns a living survivor into a living zombie (as in not re-spawning). Once a zombie enters a base and hits one person, it almost instantly ends. But getting there takes forever and is boring as the survivors camp in tiny rooms with one entry point constantly spamming attacks on it. A majority of the game is either holding one key down, or dying, re-spawning, then walking a long distance to die again. My estimate of the likelihood of an official form: Unlikely. It isn't balanced or really even fun (excluding when drunk). I suppose it is nice for those who want to grind their strange weapons... but there are servers for that as well.

Super Zombie Fortress Yeah, another one. I haven't played much of this, but it seems to be intended to imitate L4D, except with the whole Zombie concept of changing sides upon death. My estimate of the likelihood of an official form: Can't really say since I haven't played enough to know what the skills do. But really, if valve wanted to do something this close to L4D; why not just update that? (Assuming they don't already have such a VS. mode, I don't own the game, so my knowledge is limited).

Versus Saxton Hale I've only played one match, and observed two more of this mode to find out a couple of things. 1.) It's popular since there are usually 10 or so servers of it at any given time where I am. 2.) The modders are silly. In all seriousness though, once you get past their choice of levels and particularly their modeling work..., you actually have a decent concept for a game mode here. Basically, one player is picked at random to be Hale. Everyone else fights him in an arena type fight (no re-spawns). Hale is ridiculously overpowered to make up for this, but as I recall, can only use melee and a special taunt skill. My estimate of the likelihood of an official form: Not likely as it stands; but with a few changes, maybe. First and foremost, I doubt Valve would like the idea of a single player conquering the rest, seeing as it is "Team" Fortress. That, and no-one can BE Hale. So if they were to implement something like this, it would have to be downgraded to boss mode. Second, remove a few of the models: I'm looking at you Engie. Beyond that, I just think that a pure survival boss mode would be a nice addition that could fit in with the recent addition of co-op defense.

Fort Wars (or something) You get placed in a giant box and create structures out of TF2 objects on your side of the setup, and then go for a capture the flag. My estimate of the likelihood of an official form: Not happening. It's an OK concept and all, and can be fun, but it just belongs in another game.

Prop Hunt Hide and Seek w/fire. My estimate of the likelihood of an official form: ... This is just for goofing off, I don't see it as even conceivable.

Freezertag Kind of fell through a while ago, but the concept was that death wasn't absolute. Once dead, you would stand in a bonked blue state where you died with a ring around you and a timer. If a teammate stands within range, the ring will get smaller, and if they can stick around long enough for the ring to vanish, the player would be re-spawned right there. If they can't make it in time, they would re-spawn per normal, granted with a much larger time waiting to re-spawn. This was typically played on CP maps leading to sort of waves pushed by teams as they froze all opponents and got their own team thawed. My estimate of the likelihood of an official form: Doubt it. Reviving teammates is used in so many other games, that I just don't see valve throwing that mechanic in and calling it a new game-mode.

Other There are more out there I'm sure, but I haven't heard of them or seen them in my server list. If popularity is any sign of direction though, I'd say that puts the remaining pretty far down on the likelihood list.

Halloween 2012 Harebrained Idea
Merasmus the Magician comes back from some sort of vacation just to see the teams together and fighting the robots and somehow (insert valve logic) gets aggravated by the situation and decides to have another trip, this time by traveling through time (he was responsible for the DeGroot Keep map's time travel as well, remember? Beyond that, how does an entire castle disappear in one night[Oct. 2011 comic]? Time travel, simple, filled with plot holes, and comedic as need be.) Anyway, it just so happens he was being followed on his way back from his trip by Saxton Hale; viewing him as a hippy to beat up. Time travel screwed up in a confrontation; they wind up in the future, and find a wasteland where Grey has won, but no longer occupies the area. Just loads of broken robots and fallen Mercs. The magician, doing what he does best when angry, gets pissed and pulls together robot parts and Merc Gibs (namely the arms at least to lower the modeling work) to go and beat up on Hale. And viola! Official version VSH release. Swap around the sides winning in the future and you could have a zombie version.
Insert catchphrase: "Don't you dare call them zombies! They're golems who just so happen to be partially composed of human flesh!"