CATEGORY: TF2C

Team Fortress turns 30 years old this week, and so far, we have received three presents. The first and the biggest one came from the developer team behind Team Fortress 2 Classified (TF2C), a.k.a. Eminoma, who released the Team Fortress 30th update. The update introduces a holiday feature to TF2C that will be active every year from August 23^rd to 25^th. During those three days, features like ported old-school maps will be available in the game. This year we got Fortress Forever’s Dustbowl, QuakeWorld Team Fortress’ (QWTF) Canal Zone, and two more maps from Team Fortress Classic. The update also introduces the Classic Vision feature, allowing players to see all the classes and Sentry Guns using their QWTF models. Unlike the holiday, this feature is not time-limited, and can be enabled at any point from now on.

Perhaps even more intriguing, especially for the romantics and the historians, is the masterfully created update page. Its timeline takes you through almost all the major Team Fortress mods. It is reminiscent of what united.tf hoped to achieve with The Wall, but Eminoma’s timeline comes with the team’s usual level of visuals and presentation– makes it genuinely difficult to believe that this is the work of a non-commercial mod rather than an official sequel. And then there are the old teamfortress.com-styled links at the bottom of the page– a small detail, but an absolute delight to see. TF2C takes one for the whole team, honoring the 30^th anniversary by releasing a major update packed with phenomenal content and paying the utmost respect to the legacy on behalf of us all.

30 years of TF is actually 30 years of QuakeWorld TF. And if hard forks are set aside (MegaTF, CuTF, AGR etc.), the only active public (casual) game community that has survived around it is QWTF.RU. They gather every Tuesday and Thursday night in the European time zone; follow their Discord server for notifications. HaMMeR and other members of the community prepared a delightful article with a special focus on the Moscow TF League that lasted longer than other local efforts. The article also points to other worthwhile pieces of TF history, so you can dig even deeper.

The final surprise is a genuine public game session in QWTF Live (formerly known as FortressOne), a 2019 fork of QWTF. Modernized, fast-paced, and enhanced with anti-lag tech making intercontinental play smoother than ever. These days, QWTF Live is organized only around pickup games (competitive sessions) through its Discord server, but the young folks at Old Fortress Collective (OFC) Discord server have decided to change that for one day: September 5^th. To join, mind that you first need to obtain a token from the QWTF Live Discord server and associate it with your FortressOne client before connecting the server. Any technical or gameplay questions can be directed to the OFC or QWTF Live Discord servers. They hope to see you there– in the game that started the saga 30 years ago.

The developer team behind Team Fortress 2 Classified, EMINOMA, has partnered with the independent TF2C Mapping Community (TF2CMC) -supported and led by the very same host of AltTAB servers- to organize the first official TF2 Classified mapping contest. Following the footsteps of the 2010 art pass competition of TF2, the participants are tasked with taking a de-artpassed version of a map originally created by Waugh101, now renamed arena_competition_template, and using it as a blank canvas to create their own art passed version, under an original name. The winner will have their version hosted on AltTAB Standard and VaultF4 Custom Maps servers for the forseeable future, in addition to receiving supporter perks on both servers.

The contest was announced on TF2CMC Discord server three days ago on July 6, with submission due six weeks later, on August 24. There are already around a dozen submissions on the #artpass-contest-submissions channel of the Discord server, where mapmakers are sharing their work in progress. Themes range from Yukon-like Canadian environment to industrial harbor. The map is relatively compact, so there is still plenty of time for mappers to join the contest and present their own vision of what the level could become. Even if you are not a mapper, the TF2CMC Discord is a great place to admire these new creations and join the weekly playtests with a community of creative individuals.

Note that, just two days before the contest was announced, TF2 Classified released its Modding Tools–a small but thoughtful gift to mappers and modders alike.

Thanks to the release of these tools on Steam, it’s now easier than ever to get started using Hammer for TF2C. Eminoma’s provided guides and example VMFs are perfect for learning TF2C’s style, and this contest is a great opportunity to have a go yourself. – Jaws, TF2CMC Lead and AltTAB Owner