Should Valve make zombie fortress (ZF) official?

[Numerous]

Now, I know that a bunch of people will read that and instantly say "NO!" and not think any further, but seriously, I think it should.
Basically, I think pretty much everyone who's played a decent ZF map (opinions vary here, I think lake or industry are good maps though) will agree it's better than the standard "zombie mod" or "infection" for whatever other games people play (CS much). I'm going to assume anyone who's reading right now has played it, and played it on a decent map and server. If you haven't go play it and come back.

Basically;


Pros:

• Fun mode, which is (as far as I know) unique to TF2 (not the "zombie mod" concept, just the classes). (technically 2 points but whatever)
• Much harder for the survivors to win by camping than normal zombie mods, which means there's a lot less in terms of annoying stalemates
• Generally well planned out (pretty good game design for a zombie mod, survivors are pretty well balanced and still need to coordinate and cooperate).
• Is a plugin and could be added to TF2 without much difficulty (compared to an entire mod).

Cons:

• Valve already has a zombie game
• Much more different than other game modes
• Might confuse newbies since there are differences between the weapons
• The majority of ZF maps are crappy custom maps, with very few (compared to normal modes) good maps and no official maps full stop (this can obviously be changed, if ZF is made official)
• Might need tweaking
• Certain inherent flaws don't make the game quite Valve's style (then again, I'd say there are certain inherent flaws in Counterstrike, but that didn't stop Valve, did it) such as rocket/sticky jumping being easily abusable on some maps (which could be stopped by avoiding ledges when mapping, and isn't too much of a problem thanks to Heavy's POW taunt).
• Lacks polish (then again, thats because it's a plugin, and they're restricted like hell)

Knowing Valve time, I reckon it could be added in by halloween.

I think the pros outweigh the cons, and ZF could be added in officially if it got polished up a bit.
Let the flame war (not) proceed!

 

[gamemaster1996]

I think if valve took it up it would be good as they could make it look better however on the other hand why would they want to implement a zombie gamemode into tf2 if they've got zombie games like l4d and l4d2 which rule over zombie fortress by miles?

 

[Randdalf]

No. It's not fun, it's stupid, it's mindless, and it's not even anything to do with zombies.

 

[Nutomic]

No, just no.

Seriously, what does this have to do with tf2? It may use the models, but thats it, it just doesnt fit into the world of tf2.

 

[Bermuda Cake]

xD I love it, but I don't think it has a wide enough audience that it's worth making official.

 

[The Political Gamer]

No, leave the zombies to l4d.

 

[DaBeatzProject]

No, leave the zombies to Ellis.

Fix'd.

 

[gamemaster1996]

How i <3 Pwnshop, even when i had a sucky PC it made tf2 fun.
Ofcourse now i play on any good server but that's not the point.

 

[owly-oop]

The ZF mod consist of people hiding in a building protecting the only doorway to it.

Just like the CS one.

 

[Numerous]

The ZF mod consist of people hiding in a building protecting the only doorway to it.

Just like the CS one.

Then I go spy, with DR, go right thru, and backstab the engi and medic. Then people just rush, and they're all screwed. If they're camping, you can POW taunt.

Besides, that's like saying that TF2 is retarded after playing cp_hotelhell (complete with both teams being fairly easily spawn camped and a massive, easily spammed, unavoidable choke point near the blu base). It's actually pretty easily fixed with decent mapping (protip: don't add big rooms with only 1 easily defended entrance. if you only add 1 entrance, then make sure the room is small and the exit is hard to defend).

And by the way, I am aware of L4D and L4D2, but the fact is they're totally different to ZF. Put it like this:
L4D/L4D2:

• Has only 1 type of class, which can equip different weapons
• Has masses and masses of normal infected which die easily
• Special infected take ages to kill survivors if the survivors are half decent and watch eachother's back, and cannot insta-kill
• Have completely different weapons, mainly the SMG, shotgun, hunting rifle, and upgrades of them (pretty much built for mowing down basic "zerg rush" style enemies).

ZF:

• Has majorly different classes on both sides, all of which can kill in a short time.
• Both teams are made up of only player characters, and the zombies can be hard to kill.
• Zombies have "special abilities", involving buffing health, regeneration, invisibility, etc.
• Survivors have a much wider variety of weapons, with bows and arrows, grenade launchers, sticky bombs, rockets, mediguns, sentries, etc.
• Survivors are just as likely to lose as zombies, and are much weaker than L4D's survivors. No incaps here (really really obvious one).
• If I could be f:blink:ked, I'd point out all the other differences, but it's not really necessary.

The point is, they're completely different games with no real similarities beyond both being "zombie mods", and both generally having features to combat the major problems with survivors camping etc..

Besides, ZF is more like a multiplayer gamemode than a game, and L4D and L4D2 are entire games in themselves. And just because there's 1 "zombie game" supported by valve, doesn't mean that they can't support 1 gamemode for TF2 thats an "infection" gametype. Next you'll be telling me that Infinity ward can only have 1 WW2 game.

 

[Terr]

Dyeeahhh no.

I don't think it's worth Valve's time to purchase and officialize the ZF mod. It doesn't fit to the strengths of TF2's art assets and design, and I can't see it being a benefit more than a burden for them to take it on.

 

[Ida]

Even if Zombie Fortress had something resembling Valve-like quality, there is no chance of adding it because of a simple little thing: TF2 is based around the core gameplay of the nine different classes and two teams. No matter what map or mode you play, the classes and teams never ever change. This makes the game simple and easy to learn. ZF breaks this rule. It would be confusing and doesn't make much sense in the setting, which is the opposite of Valve's design philosophy. Ergo, 'tis impossible.

 

[Numerous]

I think that Zombie Fortress is a gem in the rough though, and one of it's main drawbacks is it's lack of solid, glitch-free, well-known maps.
Maybe you're right, maybe you're not, but Zombie Fortress does have potential and I can't think of a better way to get more support, and thus better maps for it.

 

[Pilk]

Absolutely terrible game mode.

It's just arena where one side only has melee weapons.

I always ragequit when it comes up. Same with PropHunt now the novelty has worn off.

 

[FaTony]

Well, Zombie Mod is now official with Counter-Strike:Online. So they might do it with TF2:Online....wait what....oh crap, OH CRAP. TF2 is already f*cking MMORPG. Numerous, you, sir, are genius.

 

[Numerous]

Well, Zombie Mod is now official with Counter-Strike:Online. So they might do it with TF2:Online....wait what....oh crap, OH CRAP. TF2 is already f*cking MMORPG. Numerous, you, sir, are genius.

Great, tell me when they release a +5 Shield of anti-rage is released.

And by the way, it isn't "arena with 1 team melee-only", because there are various abilities for both the zombies and survivors, disabilities for the survivors, and any survivor who dies becomes a zombie.

 

[Randdalf]

Arguing its case is pointless. It's poorly made and it's not fun to play.

 

[lana]

If it fit into TF2 it wouldn't need so many shitty modifications to work properly.

 

[YM]

New question:

Should numerous stop asking stupid questions?

ZF official?: uuuuh no
Is he the only one who likes Gman?: Uh are you retarded or something? who doesn't
Ultimate melee weapon?: Chainsaw/gravgun whatever, a thread full of scoped crowbars is just retarded
Possible back burner fix?: uh in case you hadn't realised, SPUF is over there -> *points to log out button*
Horrible gaming trend of EXTRA stuff for pre-orders?: uhhh no, thats how pre-orders should be, discounts or cool free stuff.


Anyhow. I've made my point. Stop making billions of really stupid threads asking really stupid stuff.

 

[Fenderic]

personally i like zombiefortress,
it can be a lot of fun if you play fortress/asylum/cliff/lake
it is far too different from the regular gamemodes, and i don't think it should be an official gamemode.