- Feb 25, 2019
- 359
- 287
Introduction
Hi there, over the years many maps and modes have been, uhm, neglected by Valve, this might sound similar to another thread I did a while ago about forgotten gamemodes, but this time I want to talk more about the future of some modes and maps, and if we can expect to see something from them.This time I'll do the opposite, I'll start from the oldest to the newest one.
Territorial Control
Of course our first stop is TC. In short this mode was added from the very first day and nothing came out of it since, not even from the community, there are barely 30 maps on the website and I think only 1 of them is completely finished, it certainly isn't a mode people like too much.
So the question is, does this gamemode have a future? Well in 2023 we got a new Control Point (Centralized-Style) map, it took them 15 years to add a map for that gamemode again so time doesn't seem to matter. The main problem here is that is too confusing to many players, over the years some people have tried to improve TC, like TC Domination, and while it has a better reception from the players, in the workshop right now there is no tag for Territorial Control, which makes me think that Valve doesn't want another TC at all.
Now not having a tag doesn't necessarily mean we can't get a new TC, for a long time PD didn't have a tag, but many maps have made their way into the game, however PD is a very popular mode, while TC is not, is more a curiosity of TF2 old days. I think that the only chance to get a new TC map is with TC Domination, while I dont think we’ll get its own section in casual, maybe we could get a halloween or smissmas map.
Asteroid & Cactus Canyon
Hey look is Asteroid & Cactus Canyon 10th anniversary… of being unfinished. So in 2014 Valve released these 2 maps for players to playtest, they were obviously unfinished and well after all these years they still are unfinished.
So what happened? Well apparently it's from an ex employee from Valve, and they can no longer keep developing these 2 maps, meaning that will be forever unfinished. The interesting thing about this is that the game mode RD got caught up right here, meaning that the only RD map will always be unfinished.
Although I do think there is still potential, RD does have a tag in the workshop, so maybe even if the map is unfinished, the mode is finished, and that's where the community comes in. I checked the workshop and I only saw 1 finished RD map, so maybe if there were more maps, Valve would consider adding a RD section to casual, I certainly would like that.
Arena in casual
This is a weird one because Valve still adds new Arena maps sometimes, the last one was added in 2023 for halloween, but this is more about Arena being playable in casual. Since the Meet Your Match update, the way to join servers have changed, and Arena no longer is available to play in casual.
Apparently this was because the logic for Arena isn't compatible with casual, so they entirely dropped the mode itself. And you might be wondering how the halloween Arena works in casual. Well that's because they use what i call “Fake Arena” logic, basically they recreate the logic of Arena using other entities, which does not have any issues to run in casual. But because of that it is not 100% the same as normal Arena (the HUD is a bit messy).
As I see it there are only 2 solutions, either Valve figures out the issue with the normal Arena logic or they just update all the Arena maps with the fake Arena logic. But considering the reception of the game mode, it's probably not worth it for them to spend time fixing this issue. I do think we might get more Arena maps using the fake Arena logic, but unless Arena suddenly becomes extremely popular, I don't see a casual section for Arena.
SD / PASS / Mannpower
These might look like I just picked 3 random modes, but they basically share the same issue. They were created and basically forgotten right away, not to mention PASS and Mannpower dont have the best reception, especially Mannpower.
PASS also has a copyright issue, since third parties own part of the game mode and one of them has closed since, so it’s basically impossible to add a new map for this mode. This is probably the only mode on this list that will never get a map.
SD is probably the one that has the highest chance to get another map, is more popular than the other 2, but checking the workshop, I don't see many maps, so probably if there were more maps Valve would consider adding a new one. It’s a bit sad that these modes ended like this, especially since they have tags meaning that Valve probably have more hopes for these modes than TC, but in the end they had the same fate as TC.
The Heavy Update
The last point I wanna talk about is the Heavy Update. We have been waiting 7 years for it, and we got nothing so far. However an interesting point about it is, what would the Heavy Update contain?
Updates like these usually come with cosmetics, or weapons, and of course new maps, I think pretty much every update like this has 1 map made by Valve. So maybe this could be the chance for the stuff I mentioned previously like, or even stuff they never released. Powerhouse is a map done in 2007 but was never released until 2015, so maybe we could see some of the leaked maps finished, there was a cool PLR map that would be nice to have in game. Or have Arena fixed, it would be very appropriate considering that the original Heavy update introduced Arena mode.
Of course the Heavy Update could just consist of maps made by the community, but it would be a very good opportunity to complete some unfinished stuff that was left behind.
Conclusion
After so many years, the stuff i mentioned here hasn't got anything (if they did i wouldnt be making this thread lol), but that doesn't mean we won't get anything.We have done a few things regarding these modes, we did TC Domination, PD is based in RD, we made 2 arena maps compatible with casual. Some of the stuff I mentioned is up to Valve, like finishing Asteroid (although someone did a finished version in the workshop) or the Heavy Update, but we certainly can make new content for these modes, and with a bit of luck maybe get it officially in TF2.
Anyways, thanks for reading all this bunch of words together!
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