Custom TF2 game mode (Bot Defend) - Needs public testing

[FeisEater]

I've been working on a custom game mode for a while now, and it's in a state where I would like to test it publicly if it's fun enough to play and worth improving on.

I'm able to host a server myself. I'm not an expert on this, but I'm sure hosting a server with 10 players and a 33 tickrate shouldn't be a problem with my bandwidth.

So if you guys are interested in testing my little TF2 modification, please join my steam group: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/BotDefend

I apologise in advance if this was not the correct forum section to start this kind of topic or even not a correct site to ask for this kind of help. Please do recommend me another place where I could get volunteers to test my game mode if that's the case.

Edit: It's best if you live in the Europe area so our timezones would match and the ping wouldn't rise ridiculously high.

Overview of the game:
Players are divided to two teams. The blue team players are forced to play the medic class, red team plays as scouts. Server also spawn a bot.
No one in this game can die except for the bot. When the bot dies, red team wins. If bot survives the round, blue team wins. Bot dies from a single hit (one pistol shot is enough).
So in order to keep the bot alive, medics are forced to continuously keep the bot invulnerable. Getting charged by healing team mates is not an efficient method, so medics chase the scouts to hit them with ubersaws. Because real players cannot die, scouts cannot fend medics off with weapons, so they must avoid them as much as they can. If scouts are succesful, the medics won't get the charge in time and the bot will have a moment of uninvulnerability. This is enough time for the scouts to take him out. Also, by changing the plugin settings, server may spawn a second bot that tries to kill the first bot by continuously firing at him.

 

[Wilson]

To be honest, it sounds like more boring version of VIP gamemode from CS, not to mention your VIP is bot that is bound to usually do some really dumb things.

 

[FeisEater]

Well it's not really an escort mission like the one in Team Fortress Classic had with the civilian class.

The bot is a stationary object that is held in place with invisible brushes. Also the map itself is really small so there is no progression from cap point to cap point. It's essentially a game of tag between the teams.

Maybe this does sound incredibly boring I don't know, but I'd like to find out.

 

[Wilson]

Well it's not really an escort mission like the one in Team Fortress Classic had with the civilian class.

The bot is a stationary object that is held in place with invisible brushes. Also the map itself is really small so there is no progression from cap point to cap point. It's essentially a game of tag between the teams.

Maybe this does sound incredibly boring I don't know, but I'd like to find out.

Well it does sound incredibly boring now.
It is just 12 medics healing bot standing still vs 12 scouts and nobody can kill anyone but the bot.

Least let people kill each other or something, otherwise it is going to get old pretty quickly.

 

[stegarootbeer]

Sounds like cow_dustbowl a little.

 

[FeisEater]

Could you link me for more info on the cow_dustbowl map? My google refuses to return any results on this.

 

[Fruity Snacks]

Whilst, I like the idea and the basic premise, there is room for improvement.

1. My suggestions is to let players kill each-other (but no crits. at all)
2. Let players play any/all classes - This adds diversity to the gamemode, and makes open to more people (since not everyone enjoys scout or medic)
3. Make the bot have a LOT of health, rather than just 1 OR Have a LOT of bots (Bots should be denoted with an arrow or something over their head. much like when you get jarated you get the jarate jar over your head)
   ----> Having a lot of bots mean that you could assign "Lanes" or multiple paths to groups of bots while they try and reach an apposing side. That lets teams split up and make decisions. (Think Dota, LoL or Monday night combat)
4. Bots could, as they go along paths, run over capture points (and also fight back in certain areas). After a certain amount of bots pass over the CP's, the CP is capped for the pushing team

I think I basically just described a TF2 DotA mod. But what ev's

EDIT: Also, your name "FeisEater" Where does it come from. because i know that a Feis is an Irish Dancing competition.

 

[FeisEater]

Thanks for your suggestions, but I feel that it would change the original game idea too much.
1. When a scout dies, he's not in the room anymore for a period of time. This would be a disadvantage for medics, because they need the scouts to get uber from them.
When medic dies, I think that would give scouts too much advantage. I think that chasing after scouts and managing to hit them multiple times to get an ubercharge in time is hard enough. To let scouts kill you in defence would be too much I think.
2. I have implemented a feature in my plugin to restrict teams to different classes or not restrict at all. But I think restricting one team to medics and other team to scouts makes most sense for this game mode. Medic is the only class in TF2 that can give proper invulnerability. Scouts are agile, and double jumping over chasing enemies would be fun, I would imagine. (Also you can set your bots to different classes as well, plugin restricts their class separately from players)
3. Maybe spawning more bots or one bot having more health would give medics more chances to fail (if I understood your thought correctly). I don't know, I need to host a game to test how hard it is to play for both teams. Also keeping multiple bots invulnerable at the same time I think would be very difficult.
As for lanes and the fourth suggestion, that would require a lot more coding and a lot more testing. I'd like to start with a simple concept and see where it goes from there. And I don't really see the game evolving into any grand projects. When I started working on this, I was thinking of a small Fun-typed minigame, like the dodgeball mod. Or something that could be part of the TF2ware games.

As for my name, 'Feis' is just misspelled Face. I had no idea it ment anything

 

[Fruity Snacks]

That sound quite reasonable. The suggestions we're merely making are just suggestions to expand on, make the mod have more fun. Possibly you can do that later when you feel more comfortable doing it.

I guess the main issue of the gamemode though is the coordination between medics, since you have to keep the bot constantly ubered, you need to find a way for medics to communicate. I think that is the most major issue you should try and think of a solution for. It gets very frustrating when 2 medics pull an uber at once, and you basically waste 1 uber.

You may also want to try and make it so that the bot can take maybe 2 hits, that will help promote teamwork on the scouts side.

Maintaining your original idea, I think it is a pretty okay gamemode idea, but could use a few tweeks (like the ones mentioned above).

Also: Feis wikipedia page

 

[FeisEater]

I was thinking that the kind of players that would play a game mode like this would be more then willing to use microphones and actively communicate with each other. I guess I could add a feature where some kind of a pop up notifies every medic the very moment when someone hits 100% uber.
I can easily code the bot to die from multiple hits. I can even set up a convar that regulates how many hits he can take. Although I don't quite follow how it would promote scouts' teamwork?

And I REALLY hope I haven't offended any scots with this nickname :S

 

[Fruity Snacks]

And I REALLY hope I haven't offended any scots with this nickname :S

You haven't.

 

[LeSwordfish]

As a point of interest, have you ever played the game where you have to count to ten?
A whole bunch of people have to count to ten. No conferring is allowed, all you can do is say numbers. (At my drama group, we arent even allowed to make eye contact) If someone says the wrong number, or two people say the same number at the same time, or you take too long to say a number, you have to start again. Usually it goes like

"One"
"Two" "Two"
"Sorry. One"
"Two"
"Three" "Three"
"Sorry! One" "One"
*sigh* "One"

Try and avoid it becoming like that, basically. You see how it could be like that? Two medics uber at the same time, or one takes too long, or whatever.

There was a brilliant version of this on a DOTA2 forum where ten keys were available for the first ten people to manage this. It took them 1700 posts.

 

[FeisEater]

I understand that that flaw could potentially cripple the whole game. I just hope there will be enough people actively communicating via microphone during the game, so this wouldn't be that big of an issue. It doesn't even have to be relying on everyone to have mics, even if a small portion is speaking would help a lot with coordination. I have also noticed that generally people playing mods rather than the proper game tend to be more talkative.
Also the "body language" would help just as much as communicating through a microphone. I could see medics getting in line quite literally to deploy their charge. Jumping around, using voice commands like "Ubercharge ready", "Need charge", "yes" or "no" etc.
Again, these are just my assumptions. I have no idea how this mod plays. That's why I posted here to get some people together and test this out. Seeing this mod play out in a group would also give me ideas on how to fix these issues if they indeed are present.
Lastly, I think screwing up like that as a medic would add charm to this game