Team Fortress 2 - Concept Paper

Team Fortress 2 is a videogame that shows what it means to be on a team and work together. If a few people stray from their team within a game, they could lose. Team Fortress 2 –or TF2 for short—must have players willing to play with teamwork in order to beat the other team.

While there are four types of game play within TF2, there is only one that uses teamwork the most: Control Points (or CP for short). Within the game, there are two teams called RED (which stands for Reliable Excavation Demolition) and BLU (which stands for Builders League United). The RED team must defend their Control Points while BLU must attack and try and capture the Points. BLU teammates capture the Points by standing on them. BLU must capture the CP before the time runs out. If time runs out while a CP is being captured, the round will go into overtime. BLU must stay on the CP in order to win. If RED manages to kill the enemies that are on their CP, then they win the round. Then the teams switch, RED becoming BLU and vice versa.

Both these teams have the same nine possible characters to play as: the Offensive team members Scout, Soldier, and Pyro; the Defensive team members Demoman, Heavy, and Engineer; and the Supportive team members Medic, Sniper, and Spy. Each teammate has unique abilities and weapons specifically for their class that can help their teammates win the round in which they are playing.

The first Offensive team member is Scout. He has three possible secondary weapons: a Pistol, Bonk! Atomic Punch, and Crit-a-Cola. The Bonk! Atomic punch makes the player immune to all damage for a short while, and the Crit-a-Cola makes all shots by the player mini-crits (add an extra 35% damage to a weapon's base-damage) for six seconds. These drinks help in capturing points by killing enemies easier. In a random item drop –which is when players can obtain weapons, hats, and miscellaneous items through playing and achievements—Scout can get the Sandman. The Sandman allows the player to hit a baseball at the enemy and stun them for 1 to 8 seconds and also takes off 15 HP (Health Points) of the enemy, which can allow the Scout or another player to finish off the stunned enemy. Scout is the fastest in the game and is also the only class that can double jump. This is very helpful in any of the game modes, but most helpful in Capture the Flag, another game mode. Scout also counts as two people when taking a Control Point in-game.

The next Offensive class is Soldier. The Soldier carries a Rocket Launcher as his primary weapon, and has three different secondary weapons. His original secondary weapon is a shotgun, and through the drop system can get Rocket Boots (which saves him from receiving damage when rocket jumping) and the Buff Banner which grants 10 seconds of mini-crits to any players around the Soldier when he blows the horn. This is a good thing to save until the team is ready to ambush the Control Points. The mini-crits will likely kill off many of the enemies guarding the Points. His melee weapons are a shovel, the Equalizer, and the Pain Train. The Equalizer deals more damage to an enemy the less health the wearer has, which is good for killing off enemies. The Pain Train gives the Soldier double the capture power just like the Scout has. This double capture helps just like the Scout does. If a team strategizes well enough, they can easily win a round using the Solider and Scout. The rocket jumping the Soldier does is good for reaching high places. While in these places, the Soldier can pick off enemies with ease, and not get caught for awhile. This makes him a good offensive class in-game.

The last Offensive class is Pyro. The Pyro has a hand-made flamethrower that is useful against Spies, projectiles, and unsuspecting enemies. A Pyro can spy-check by using the flame of his weapon. He can spray the flame over a friendly Engineer’s teleporters, dispensers, and sentry guns to check for cloaked or disguised spies. This helps out Engineers so that Spies don’t sap their buildings (Spies use a sapper that makes the buildings malfunction and blow up). The flamethrower also has an air compressor which can blast air. This is helpful against projectiles or bombs coming at the Pyro and his teammates. He air blasts them away, and they become dangerous for the other team. If there are sticky bombs (bombs that stick to things and can be later deployed) on a Control Point, a Pyro can simply air blast them away. As for unsuspecting enemies, a Pyro can hide at a corner and light enemies on fire as they come around a corner.

The Defensive class is important when dealing with the CP game, especially if the player is on RED. The first Defensive character is the Demoman. The Demoman has bombs as his main weapons. He can shoot both grenades and sticky bombs from his two different launchers. The grenades are good for immediately blowing up enemies. The sticky bombs are excellent for both offensive and defensive strategy. A Demoman can plant sticky bombs everywhere. Good spots for strategy are on Control Points or around doorways. When the enemy runs near the bombs, the Demoman just hits a button and “KABLOOIE!”, the enemy is out for the count.

The next Defensive class is the Heavy. Heavy is the class with the most HP and is also the biggest. He is a good defensive player because he is so big, and so can protect other players from attacks. Other classes can hide behind him as enemies attack. He is a good player to have to do major attacks on large groups of enemies. The Heavy can take people out very easily with his Minigun. The Heavy’s weakness, however, is being very slow. This makes him an easy target for Snipers, Spies, and sneaky enemies.

The last Defensive class is Engineer. He is one of the most crucial parts of the team. He builds machines that help the team: Sentry Guns, Dispensers, and Teleporters. The Sentry Guns have a field of view that detects enemies nearby. When a Sentry Gun finds an enemy, it shoots a rain of bullets and rockets at the enemy, effectively killing them in a matter of seconds. This is good for CP game play because an engineer can set up a Sentry Gun near a CP and kill all enemies that try to take it. Dispensers are also a critical part of defense. Once built, they can replenish both health and ammo for nearby teammates. This is important if there aren’t health or ammo packs around for teammates to grab. Engineers also build Teleporters. These help his teammates get across game maps easier. They charge up and in an instant a player can be all the way on the other side of the map.

The last parts of the team are the Supporting Teammates. These teammates are some of the most important players. They help the rest of the team by staying in the background, but still have as much impact as everyone else. The first teammate of the Support is the Medic. The Medic heals teammates who call for help. If a teammate does not need healing, the Medic can still heal him, giving him extra health to go into battle with. This is helpful for Soldiers who like to rocket jump because having the extra health means they don’t have to waste their regular health to get up to high places. The Medic also has an ability to make teammates invulnerable for 10 seconds, called the Übercharge. This is helpful in Control Point stages when teammates need to get past enemies without dying. Having an Übercharge deployed on a teammate is also helpful for taking out sentries that are around a CP. Taking these out gives the rest of the team a chance to make it to the CP before an Engineer builds another sentry. The Medic is the only class that regenerates health over time, which makes him useful in long periods of combat.

The next Supporting class is the Sniper. The Sniper is has the advantage over many players because he is usually up in places where he can shoot his enemies, but they can’t get at him easily. He is a good teammate to have because he can pick off targets from a distance, giving his team a chance to do their job. He has a secondary weapon called Jarate, which is a jar of urine. Tossing this onto an enemy leaves them drenched in urine, and also more vulnerable. The urine gives the Sniper’s team mini-crits on the drenched enemy, making it easier to kill them. Snipers are useful in Control Point games because they can pick off enemies as they guard the Control Points, giving his teammates a chance to grab it.

The last Supporting teammate is the Spy. The Spy is the most complicated class in the game. He can backstab enemies, disguise himself as an enemy, cloak himself by becoming invisible, and use a sapper to sap enemy machines. Using all these things helps in all game modes. A Spy can cloak himself, go into the enemy’s area, disguise himself as one of the enemy, uncloak, and literally backstab an unsuspecting enemy.

A Spy is also good for getting rid of enemy machines like sentry guns, dispensers, and teleporters. While disguised as the enemy, a Spy can use his Sapper to sap the machines an enemy Engineer has built. The Sapper slowly drains the health of the machine, making it malfunction and finally explode. If an Engineer does not come in time to fix the machine, it gives the Spy’s team a chance to capture the Control Point.

All the teammates help in different ways, but all have a common goal in a Control Point game: to stop the other team from winning. Joining and taking the other team out together makes Team Fortress 2 such a great game; a player needs his or her teammates in order to defeat the other team. Whether RED or BLU, using teamwork and strategy in-game will give the player’s team a great advantage when trying to defeat their common enemy.
- - -
This concept paper could be better written, but with the time I had, it's fine. It's also 3 1/4 over whatr we were supposed to write XD (its 6 1/4 pages long in word). There were pictures with it, showing a CP, the Defensive, offensive, and supportive teammates, and a spy backstabbing a soldier. But since its mibba, I can't really put pictures in. Let me know what you think?