Looking for help with some very stupid noobs questions

[JackKerouac]

Hey everyone,

I've got some pretty stupid questions to ask about team fortress 2. My father and I are very interested in playing this game, but there are a few issues I'm confused/need to know about
All noob stuff

1. We tried playing tonight, and just about every server we joined we just found ourselves getting destroyed. While i know this is normal and going to occur when first joining a game untill you get the hang of things, but is there any servers out there that you guys would recommend for new players? Aka any noob havens around?

2. The server list no matter how many times i click "refresh server" only brings up like 10 valve rotation map servers, and the rest are all those no picture, downloadable maps. While downloadable maps are all and good, I'd like to get a hang of the original content before downloading crazy stuff. Are there seriously only that many servers with normal rotation, out of so many players?

3. LAST QUESTION! : ) I'm really excited about these "finding random weapons and hats" part of the game, and love some of the new weapons. While i know everyones a little confused about the process of this, and it being kinda buggy, A lot of the servers i've played on say "server currently not connected to steam, so layout will not be available" Should I even bother playing on these servers? Will i still find weapons? I played for around hour and half today and still havent found anything.


Thank you so much for your help, and i realize these are pretty lame questions so thanks even more.

 

[Viperidae]

Hi!

1. There are some servers that have 'noob/new players only' in the title. These servers are supposed to cater to new players (at least, they claim they do). While such servers may try to, there's still nothing that prevents regular players from coming in and playing without mercy. My best advice is to play the Medic class at first, just healing other players. As long as you're healing at least someone it's hard to not be useful as Medic. Follow the people you're healing and watch what they do, how they play. Eventually you'll get the hang of things.

2. There should be a lot of regular rotation servers. It may be that your server list is filtering things oddly. Try turning off the image-based server list (can't remember what it's called right now) and organising by ping (lower is better). Then look for one that's not empty but not full and that's using a regular map. That's how I do it. Eventually you'll just remember most of the regular rotation maps, like cp_dustbowl, cp_granary, cp_gravelpit, ctf_2fort. I honestly don't know much about the image-based server list as I never use it.

3. Yeah the server will have to be on Valve's whitelist (a 'pure' server) for unlocks to work. Most servers can get on the whitelist easily enough, however sometimes the whitelist server is down and nobody can get unlocks to work on servers, or find new ones. In these cases there's nothing to do but wait for it to come back up. For the time being I'd concentrate on learning the game mechanics and not worrying about the (mostly unessential) unlocks.

 

[JackKerouac]

Thank you

My Steam is Jay219 if you ever want to play

 

[Adabiviak]

Add me as a friend, and look me up if you ever find me online. I can set up a quick 'test' server so you can flex your legs without having to dodge fire. I've eased two of my rookie friends into TF2.

 

[Great Grizzly]

The post above are spot on. I would actually stay away from the noob servers because the noob servers are filled with very good players whose only intention is to do some noobstomping.

If you want, I can teach you a few things. My name is GreatGrizzly on steam.

 

[JackKerouac]

Added you on steam greatgrizzly

Adabiviak, tried adding you on steam but steam didnt register your name as a known user?

 

[Vegeta897]

You can just click his steam id in the top right of his post and add him through his page.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Hello Jack,

With regard to noob friendly servers, you can find them but they are few and far between. What I would recommend is to learn one of the major maps like cp_dustbowl, pl_goldrush or ctf_2fort. Once you know your way round perfectly you'll find playing much easier (knowing where health is, ammo, hiding spots etc.)

I would also recommend two classes to use mostly. Medic to heal people, and pyro to run at the other team and burn them. Get the hang of these, and move onto soldier or sniper.

With regard to server filtering, untick the button which shows picture servers or whatever it says. Get the long server list, which is just text and filter for any of the maps I suggested above. Look for servers with 24 slots too (32 players is a little crazy!). Also low ping!

Lastly, most servers should be connected properly. After a few hours play you should start unlocking some items. Join the HL2.net Steam group, and drop into our chat room for help or to join other user's games. Good luck!

http://www.steamcommunity.com/groups/halflife2

 

[JackKerouac]

Thank you

Unchecking the server button that shows the servers in map picture format helped a lot. Shows a whole lot more servers now.

Thank you all so much feel free to invite me into a game if you see me on.