Melee Fort

T

The Asylum

So it appears as though the Gun Mettle update un-broke Melee Fort.

Remember way back, when the Pretty Boy's Pocket Pistol FUBAR'd the resupply lockers? Yeah, now Valve's gone and taken away the health bonus that scouts exploited with the weapon stripper to gain millions of HP.

I bet you'd expect me to be doing a little dance of joy. Well, all you're getting is a shrug.

I've been doing this damn thing for over 4 years now. 5 if you count my recent sabbatical. And comparing the TF2 landscape of yesteryear to present day, the funmap scene just seems.... dead. 2f2f is in shambles, calculatedChaos is all but barren, and the other "Fun" severs just seem to be running whatever shitty orange map 24/7.

Sad as it is to admit, there may just not be that niche market for maps like Melee Fort anymore.

Maybe it's time to grow up.
 
T

The Asylum

Indeed, it is. I so dearly wanted Melee Fort to thrive, but I think all the important developments (Engineer building, failsafe system, etc) just came too late. I may release just one more build, peddle my wares around the web, and see what takes root. Otherwise, I think I'll be having to wait for Team Fortress 3.

Then again, I may just completely re-design Melee Fort with all gametypes considered, instead of cannibalising old gametypes to repurpose them into newer ones. We'll see.
 
T

The Asylum

WISE FWOM YOUR GWAVE

After a very extended absence, Melee Fort made it's return to April Foolsday, and the old bird's age it seems has finally caught up to her. Melee Fort's delinquent elder brother Meleefort began in 2008, 2 years before being scrapped and reborn as Melee Fort. People were wondering what this relic of a map was doing in 2019, and I was lost for an answer.

The variant we played was CP, one that I really wanted to see how the relocated 2nd-last points worked out. My intention to draw more people into the L-Hallways worked like a charm- but getting people to find the point in the first place was a bit of a doozy. Back in the day, I was elated to cannibalize and repurpose existing Melee Fort gametypes into new ones like PLR and SD and brag about my mapping prowess. Now, I'm seeing the error of my ways.

Perhaps one of the reasons why Melee Fort had difficulty catching on was that nobody really knew what it wanted to be. Using one restrictive layout may have worked for one gametype, but would end up crippling others and robbing them of what they could have potentially been. Had I made them all separate maps, all separate identities, I could have done more things with them. Things that don't exist- things that couldn't exist, within the confines of Melee Fort. Perhaps less really is more.

Will we be seeing a revival of Melee Fort? No, not in the foreseeable future, anyway. The TF2 era of Melee Fort is finally done for good.

Goodnight, sweet prince. And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
 

Spipper

Former cheese man Gorgonzola
aa
Feb 18, 2012
246
407
After all these years, I'm glad I finally got the chance to play it this April Foolsday.
It always felt like one of those arcane, cornerstone TF2 maps you kept seeing over the years, but you never had the chance to try out.