- Jul 6, 2009
- 35
- 13
First I'd like to say, I'm honored to be allowed to be part of this community that hosts so many talented and generous individuals; all that's left to say is: let's hope I don't ruin it...
Anyways, I'd like to use my first post to talk about a growing phenomenon in all TF2 maps in all sorts of servers; vanilla or instant respawn. It's something that the regulars at CnB have called the Ramrod.
The Ramrod is simply an amazing amount of sentries, built and defended by a very motivated and focused group made mostly out of engineers. The ramrod takes many forms all aggravating, anyone who has played TF2 has seen some form it; a clear example it's the secondth control point in the first stage of Dustbowl, we all know where all the sentries are going to be and how "complicated" it can get to get through even with a solid team.
There's also the typical sentry cluster in the high ground on Badwater Basin and on top of RED spawn in the first stage of Goldrush, or the standard Ramrod practice of custom maps like Junction or Hoodoo.
The Ramrod assumes it's most powerful and ruthless form in instant respawn-32 man servers; sure those customizations aren't how TF2 is meant to be played, however it's hard to deny the popularity of that kind of servers and how "willingly" they add custom maps to their rotation.
Just how powerful can the ramrod be? Well imagine a team made of five or seven engineers with specific roles, such as building, maintenance and metal delivery. Lead by veteran ramroders who tell the inductees how far each sentry must be from each other so stickies destroy at much one sentry; you don't have to be an engineer to be part of the ramrod, just by spy checking you are ramrod; but the ultimate upgrade is an airblast pyro, a single pyro can render any amount of ubers helpless; and even if you have really good uber targets and manage to clear the sentries the ramrod is far from being defeated.
If the sentries are destroyed, you are left with five or seven very disgruntled engineers and at least one or two pyros, whatever RED happens to have alive, and no loaded guns for BLU to keep attacking. It is a well known fact that the average ramrod engineer is proficient in several forms of wrench-foo, he's seventh dan in wrenchate, has a 12 PhD in crits generation and mastered wrenchdo. All those portmanteau simply to tell "you're effed!" running away won't save you from the wrench rage that's about to come at you, and by the time you are finished respawning and back at the front lines there will be five or seven level three sentries....again.
If you're too lazy to read through my ranting; my point is:
No amount of sentries should be able to turn any capture impossible
TF2 is reaching a point where the defense is all about either spaming pyros or Ramroding, how fun is that? for any part? build a drone to fight for me? Fight an army of drones to win?. Setting a limit for the amount of classes is not the solution, changing official Valve maps to avoid the ramrod is a no-no; I honestly don't know how much time TF2 will be profitable, but it's abusive to expect Valve alone to come up with a solution (to what maybe I alone think it's a problem).
Instead, the mapping community could make an effort to design the maps in a way that the main goal of the map is to capture the points or get the intel and not play sentry demolition fortress 2, maybe make the maps and control points in such a way that "sure you can build 20 sentries there, but the point can still be captured and the sentries can do very little or nothing about it"
But hell that's just me a single player who fought the ramrod in the servers and lost. Now I'm going to fight the ramrod with Hammer!
PS: yes, TF2 is VERY serious business
Anyways, I'd like to use my first post to talk about a growing phenomenon in all TF2 maps in all sorts of servers; vanilla or instant respawn. It's something that the regulars at CnB have called the Ramrod.
The Ramrod is simply an amazing amount of sentries, built and defended by a very motivated and focused group made mostly out of engineers. The ramrod takes many forms all aggravating, anyone who has played TF2 has seen some form it; a clear example it's the secondth control point in the first stage of Dustbowl, we all know where all the sentries are going to be and how "complicated" it can get to get through even with a solid team.
There's also the typical sentry cluster in the high ground on Badwater Basin and on top of RED spawn in the first stage of Goldrush, or the standard Ramrod practice of custom maps like Junction or Hoodoo.
The Ramrod assumes it's most powerful and ruthless form in instant respawn-32 man servers; sure those customizations aren't how TF2 is meant to be played, however it's hard to deny the popularity of that kind of servers and how "willingly" they add custom maps to their rotation.
Just how powerful can the ramrod be? Well imagine a team made of five or seven engineers with specific roles, such as building, maintenance and metal delivery. Lead by veteran ramroders who tell the inductees how far each sentry must be from each other so stickies destroy at much one sentry; you don't have to be an engineer to be part of the ramrod, just by spy checking you are ramrod; but the ultimate upgrade is an airblast pyro, a single pyro can render any amount of ubers helpless; and even if you have really good uber targets and manage to clear the sentries the ramrod is far from being defeated.
If the sentries are destroyed, you are left with five or seven very disgruntled engineers and at least one or two pyros, whatever RED happens to have alive, and no loaded guns for BLU to keep attacking. It is a well known fact that the average ramrod engineer is proficient in several forms of wrench-foo, he's seventh dan in wrenchate, has a 12 PhD in crits generation and mastered wrenchdo. All those portmanteau simply to tell "you're effed!" running away won't save you from the wrench rage that's about to come at you, and by the time you are finished respawning and back at the front lines there will be five or seven level three sentries....again.
If you're too lazy to read through my ranting; my point is:
No amount of sentries should be able to turn any capture impossible
TF2 is reaching a point where the defense is all about either spaming pyros or Ramroding, how fun is that? for any part? build a drone to fight for me? Fight an army of drones to win?. Setting a limit for the amount of classes is not the solution, changing official Valve maps to avoid the ramrod is a no-no; I honestly don't know how much time TF2 will be profitable, but it's abusive to expect Valve alone to come up with a solution (to what maybe I alone think it's a problem).
Instead, the mapping community could make an effort to design the maps in a way that the main goal of the map is to capture the points or get the intel and not play sentry demolition fortress 2, maybe make the maps and control points in such a way that "sure you can build 20 sentries there, but the point can still be captured and the sentries can do very little or nothing about it"
But hell that's just me a single player who fought the ramrod in the servers and lost. Now I'm going to fight the ramrod with Hammer!
PS: yes, TF2 is VERY serious business
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