Team Fortress

Team Fortress is a team- and class-based online multiplayer video game mod based on id Software's Quake. Team Fortress was designed and written by Robin Walker, John Cook, and Ian Caughley in 1996. An official sequel developed by Valve Corporation was hinted at for many years, and was finally released in November of 2007.

Gameplay

This section requires expansion.

The premise of the game is a class-based battle between opposing sides, Red and Blue. Players are defined by which class they select (e.g., Medic, Sniper, Soldier, Demoman, Pyro, Spy, Heavy, Scout, Engineer), with each class having strengths and weaknesses. Each class also has unique weapons (e.g., Pyro has the flamethrower and Heavy has the minigun) and abilities (e.g., being able to run faster). A player can either choose to be on the red or on the blue team. The objectives can vary. You can be battling to gain control of an area, or you could be trying to capture the flag.

Evolution

Team Fortress has evolved into an entire genre as fans of the original modification have created a multitude of slightly different versions for various games:

• Fortress Evolution for Quake III Arena was intended to create a very close replica of the original QWTF, but was canceled and last released as an alpha build. It has recently returned as a standalone mod built upon Evolution Q3, but as a completely different project.
• A mod titled Q3F, for Quake III Fortress, was developed for Quake III Arena in 2001. This mod was further developed into the Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory mod Enemy Territory Fortress, or ETF, in 2005; it had a notable initial following and many servers still operate, though it has since receded considerably in popularity.
• Team Fortress Classic was an extremely popular mod for Half-Life created in April 1999. There are still servers for and players of Team Fortress Classic today.
• NeoTF is a modification of Team Fortress Classic, originally created by BillDoor and further developed by Hitokiri_Battousai in 2001. NeoTF adds many new elements to the game that can turn it into a completely different experience. After Hitokiri_Battousai (HB) took over, he added many new features and created a larger fan-base than the original creator. There are still many servers still hosting this once-famous modification.
• Unreal Fortress (abbreviated as UnF) existed for Unreal Tournament. Unf was heavily modified version of TF, with a strong emphasis on team rather than individual play. Thus scoring was not for flags retrieved but for individual class effort. Each class was renamed and heavily modified, like MegaTF classes had a wide range of capabilities, and were designed to help each other rather being a variation on the soldier class, for instance turrets could be upgraded by various classes.
• Unreal Fortress: Evolution first started out as UnF 2003 for Unreal Tournament 2003, but has been made into a mod for Unreal Tournament 2004 when Epic released the newer version of the game. It has never left the beta stage.
• Another evolution of TF is the multi-games mod Weapons Factory that has several considerable modifications to TF classes which results in different gameplay, resulting in many servers having to put limits on specialists (non-soldier classes).
• There is also a large Custom TF community presently active. Custom TF by Bill Kerney (aka Shaka[UVM]) has the normal classes of TF but also includes a "custom" option, where players have a set amount of money with which to buy weapons, armour, and skills.
• MegaTF was another popular Team Fortress mod which featured new enhancements to each class like proximity mines, laser drones, and airMirvs. The community slimmed after the popular East Coast and West Coast Biscuit servers were shut down for unknown reasons. There is a MegaTF mod currently in development for the Amnesia server called "MegaTF United" being developed by XavioR and other Team Fortress modders.
• Fortress Forever is a mod for the Source engine heavily influenced by Team Fortress Classic.
• Team Fortress 2 is a stand-alone multiplayer game created by the original designers who now work for Valve Software. The game has a cartoon-like look to it. Team Fortress 2 was in development for more than nine years, and has had many changes to it along the way.
• AvP2 Team Fortress is a mod that brings Team Fortress like gameplay and character classes to the Aliens versus Predator 2 game. The game modes are slightly different than Team Fortress Classic but they still rely heavily on teamwork. What's notable about this mod is that various classes are assigned to various species (ie. the scout is an alien runner, predators act as spies and so on).
• Quake 4 Fortress for Quake 4, was a mod based on the fast paced action of the original Team Fortress. Originally intended as a modification for Doom 3, development was transitioned to the Quake4 engine due to a lack of network support. An early beta was released however the mod was never completed.
• Gang Garrison 2 is an open source demake of Team Fortress 2.
• The yet unreleased Korean game H.A.V.E. Online appears to be heavily influenced by Team Fortress 2.

External links

• CustomTF forums

News

• PlanetFortress
• Team Fortress HeadQuarter's (French)
• Teamfortress (pl) (Polish)
• TFPortal (bilingual - English/German)
• Team-Fortress .ES (Spanish)
• TeamFortressXtreme
• OnlineGamerTF(swe) (Swedish)

Software

• Oz Team Fortress at the Internet Archive at archive.org
• Custom TF (server mod based on Team Fortress)
• Weapons Factory Arena (mod for Quake III Arena)
• Enemy Territory Fortress (mod for Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory)
• Team Elite (mod for Star Trek: Voyager: Elite Force)
• Fortress Forever (mod for Half-Life 2)
• AvP2 Team Fortress (mod for Aliens versus Predator 2)
• Quake 4 Fortress (mod for Quake 4)