Interview - 22 July, 1998 - Robin Walker



Will the classes in Team Fortress 2 have some weapon restriction like in TeamFortress for Quake?



Yes. All classes have their own weaponry, and they're limited to that weaponry. Apart from making it easier to balance the classes, this also allows us to provide specific roles for each class.



We recently heard that there was another class that has been dropped. Can you comment on which one it is and why? Was it for the same reasons as for the Pyro in Team Fortress for Quake?



The medium infantry was merged with the medic. The reasoning behind this was similar to the Pyro, yes. The medic and the medium infantry just weren't different enough in role to warrant the need for two classes.



In Team Fortress 2, will there be new "items" you can use, such as a silencer for some weapons?



There are a couple of items, but they're built into the class and weaponry. e.g. the Spy has a silenced pistol, the light infantry has an underslung grenade launcher on his sub-machinegun, and so on. There aren't any "powerups" that work on any class, but it'd be a simple matter for a mapmaker to create some on his/her map.



How will playing the commander work? Will you have a heads up display with different windows open to see what is happening? Will it be possible to send "private" message to one of the team members? Will the commander have everyone's status?



The Commander's entire screen is like a large status bar, with all the details (health, armor, ammo, items, squad, etc) of the current object the Commander's viewing through. Sending private messages to members of his/her team is completely customizable, allowing him to send messages and orders to his/her squad leaders, current viewpoint, and squad members. He can organise players much like RTS games allow you to group units, and send commands to them.



Do you have a price range for Team Fortress 2 if it is not included with Half-Life?



I'm not really involved in the marketing, so I don't know, sorry.



How did you manage to force the players to play more strategic and not just "running and shooting" as it was in most of the Quake Team Fortress games?



We make classes rely on other classes to support them, and we provide more maps with varying goals that can't be completed anywhere near as easily by lone gunmen as it can be by a group. Most of all, we make it easier to communicate with your team. We believe it is more fun working together to defeat a common enemy than it is to work alone, and working with a team isn't half as fun if everyone's just quiet. By providing easier and more powerful communication, we allow teams that have stronger strategy to defeat more powerful teams with less coordination. A team's coordination, or more specifically a team's ability to dynamically respond to new threats, is almost directly related to its ability to communicate.



Where or when do you think the "one life mode" game settings will be "turned on"? Do you think it will only be for special events (i.e. tournaments or LAN parties), or there is a slight chance that we, players, could find a few good servers having this option turned on?



We'll provide the ability for serverops to turn on this mode, among others, whenever they like. A mapmaker could enforce rules like this on his/her map if they wanted to. Mapmakers can pretty much create their own rules on their map if they want to.



What do you think makes a better game or add-on, realism or action -- what are the advantages and disadvantages of each?



I don't think either of them makes a good add-on on their own. Realism or Action, or anything, doesn't make a good add-on unless its fun to play. I don't think Realism and Action are mutually exclusive though... with TF2, we're going for a more realistic feel, but only where it fits with the gameplay we want. All our weaponry is _based_ on real weaponry, but its far from being a perfectly accurate virtual armory. Its just a matter of finding a good balance between fun and realism.



Since Team Fortress 2 now is officially a commercial product, will it have an introduction sequence? Will it come with some specialised music?



TF2 has its own soundtrack. It may have an intro sequence... we're not sure yet.



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