I’d want to hear everyone’s thoughts on the idea of adding more game modes to TF2 (whether it is HL or 6s).
For the longest time ever, the only game modes played in both formats were payload, cp and koth. Then they removed cp from HL because it “sucked”.
Where to begin… well, first, I’d want to say that it sounds kind of hypocritical to only play 2.5 (yes 2.5 you will understand later) gamemodes because the other ones “suck”. If we are going to take a game and make to “competitive”, shouldn’t we try our best to incorporate all of them? I can understand that a lot of maps are okay-ish in pubs, but once you throw 6 or 9 players in them it turns into a shit fest, but then, why can’t we just make more maps, or try some other ones?
I know that a lot of people will just reply to this thread saying that “they suck”, but I’d like for you to think for a moment, we still play cp_steel. It’s the only cp map we play in HL. I get that a lot of people won’t want to just play cp_process again, or gullywash. I know that a bunch of maps were tested for HL “back in the days” (how long ago really was that, 6-8 years ago, lol?) The game hasn’t fundamentally changed, but since the beginning of comp TF2 I don’t recall anyone ever trying to play things like payload race, CTF was taken away really early (by people who most likely don’t even play the game anymore).
Maybe if we encouraged these game modes more instead of shutting them down for being “horrible”, map makers would spend more time, let’s say, trying to figure out how to make a CTF map for highlander, or another cp map like steel, instead of making more payload maps and koth maps that are “annoying” to play. That’s a word I hear very often, “annoying”. Look at the maps we are playing, we are literally playing default valve maps, which are far from being perfect, and the most known HL map (product) is a “simple” edit of a valve pub map.
How many of you guys have actually played CTF? How many of you guys have actually tried PL race? The mapping tool is horrible, but mappers now have so much more knowledge and talent than in the past (go boot up cp_science, I dare you), I don’t understand how it would not be possible to at least give it a test run. The game is already stale as it is right now, it seems like a logical thing to expand on the game modes we already have in the game rather than just spam the same 10 maps over and over then shit on valve for not updating their game.
And this doesn’t stop there. Look at the current halloween event, there is a fucking map where you can 3v3. It’s literally an MGE inside of koth. Imagine if you added that to 6s, or even HL. Wouldn’t that already make it more appealing in a way (not 3v3, but it would be possible to change it to 2v2). What about a mode where it’s just a kill fest where people collect points and need to score them? Isn’t koth one big DM fest anyways? Wouldn’t that just come to the same point in the end? Teams being able to DM and coordinate at the same time. And that’s just to name a few.
Once again, I get that a lot of the default valve maps just suck once you fit only a handful of players in them, but I still think that with a collective effort it would be something to try. I know most invite players / advanced will probably turn these ideas down, call them stupid and that they “suck” but you also have you remind yourself that you are now a minority. Most players in RGL right now are not coming from 2014-2015, or even earlier. They’re from 2018-19-20, they haven’t seen UGC, they haven’t had to experience the horrible admins back then (sorry), the horrible maps, the horrible dev work, etc.
Imagine a season where your team not only has to prepare for these koth maps, these payload maps, but you also have to practice your MGE even more for that 2v2 gamemodes, to practice your team coordination for PL race, etc. This applies to both 6s and HL. We need innovation, and I don’t think spamming more koth maps or pl maps is the answer, we already have enough of those, people aren’t going to want to learn yet another shitty variation of upward or ashville, people want new stuff to play, people want to get that adrenaline rush from playing something new and feeling like they’re having fun.