Fortress Forever

Infobox VG
title = Fortress Forever


caption =
developer = [http://www.fortress-forever.com/devteam/ Fortress Forever Development Team]
publisher =
distributor =
designer =
series =
engine = Source engine
version =
released = 2007-09-13Fortress Forever news (2007-09-13). [http://www.fortress-forever.com/ Official release date: September 13th] . Retrieved 2007-09-13.]
genre = First-person shooter
modes = Multiplayer
ratings =
platforms = Microsoft Windows
media =
requirements = [http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Source_SDK_Base Source SDK Base]
(i.e. Half Life 2)
input = Keyboard, mouse
footnotes =

"Fortress Forever" is a "Half-Life 2" mod that uses the game's Source Engine. The game is based on Team Fortress, but has been created entirely from scratch by the "Fortress Forever" development team. The intended scope of "Fortress Forever" is to please older "Team Fortress Classic" fans, while at the same time creating a game enjoyable enough to players new to "Team Fortress" styled games.

"Fortress Forever" was released on September 13, 2007.Fortress Forever news (2007-09-13). [http://www.fortress-forever.com/ Official release date: September 13th] . Retrieved 2007-09-13.] The game is freely available to all who have purchased "Half-Life 2". As of September 12th 2008, "Fortress Forever" is on build 2.1.

Differences from Valve's Team Fortress Classic

New or changed class abilities

* Buildable teleporters are not included in "Fortress Forever".
* The Engineer's railgun charges up, and overcharging gives the engineer 40 cells. A fully charged shot from the railgun is explosive.
* The Sniper's auto-rifle (AR) has reduced accuracy, a slower rate of fire, and his sniper rifle can now radio tag enemy players, marking their position on the HUD of teammates even through walls.
* The Civilian can only be damaged by the sniper rifle, melee weapons(crowbar or knife), and the spy's Tranq Gun.
* The Soldier's rockets have an increased hitbox.
* The grenade's splash radius is decreased.
* The Heavy Weapons Guy's assault cannon has reduced power. The AC is now limited by an overheating mechanism that the longer it fires the bigger the cone of fire therefore less accurate over long distances.
* The Scout's caltrops have been removed in favor of a buildable jumppad.
* The Pyro's Incendiary Cannon, which, though similar to the standard Soldier's rocket launcher, differs in that it fires in an arc, and enemies caught in its radius are lit on fire. Also, the Incendiary Cannon is not as useful for a rocketjump.

Gameplay mechanics differences

Bunnyhopping in "Fortress Forever" differs from "Team Fortress Classic"'s current system of bunnyhopping (allowing for a maximum of 170% speed limit). In "Fortress Forever", the need for Jump-scripts (Macros which use the jump function multiple times for each keypress) has been removed with the addition of Quake-style jump stacking. This simply means that pressing and holding jump in mid air causes you to perfectly jump as soon as you touch the ground, removing the aforementioned need for scripts and allowing jump timing to be much easier. The developers have stated the difference should please veterans and newcomers alike. Bunnyhopping can't be changed server-side. Bunnyhopping is capped, but in a much smoother way than "TFC"'s instant-cap.

In addition, "Fortress Forever" includes a "Quake" style of jumping called trimping. (Ramp sliding is still available, but you have to choose which to use prior to hitting the ramp.) Another change is that Sentry Guns, dispensers, and detpacks are in weapons slots (as well as in the command menu list, or GUI). The Sentry guns are more intelligent than their "Team Fortress Classic" counterparts, according to its developers.

A visual grenade timer is included, as well as a selection of audible grenade timers. Finally, players are no longer able to pick up resupply bags if they already have a full stock of ammo (same for grenade bags).

GUI and coding differences

"Fortress Forever" utilizes Lua scripting for its map gameplay setups, allowing maps to be much more customizable than "TFC" with its goal entity system (which is still very customizable compared to many other games). The game also includes vectorized crosshairs with "inner" and "outer" pieces for something close to 1,248 combinations (24 inner x 52 outer). Color, scale, and translucency is also customizable. There is no mouth movement on player models when in-game voice transmission is used (unlike "TFC"'s newer models). The nail grenade glitch has also been fixed.

In addition to the "%a" and "%h" chat tokens (representing the player's armor and health, respectively), "Fortress Forever" includes "%l" and "%c", which relay your location and class, respectively. The developers have also expressed intent to include a built-in bot system called "Omni-bot" in a future release. The in-game text has been localized in all the "main languages." .

imilarities to Valve's Team Fortress Classic

Though "Fortress Forever" is not a direct port of "TFC", major gameplay dynamics do not change, except for the features noted above. "Fortress Forever" includes all 10 classes (which includes the Civilian who has been modified to resemble Winston Churchill in "Fortress Forever"). "Fortress Forever" also includes other game types besides the typical capture the flag (CTF) style (see maps below).

History

According to a developer team member, "Fortress Forever" was in development (planning phase) for more than a year before the Half-Life 2 SDK was released. [The Far2Cool Network forums. [http://forums.far2cool.com/topic.aspx?PID=768351 TFC:S 3rd Party MOD - Fortress Forever Announced] . Retrieved 2007-03-23.] [The Catacombs forums. [http://forums.thecatacombs.net/showthread.php?t=63837 Fortress Forever - A Team Fortress Mod for HL2] . Retrieved 2007-03-23.] Unfortunately it released at the same time as Team Fortress 2 and was ignored by the majority of the gaming community. The release of Team Fortress 2 is mostly credited for the small community, though one or two full servers can usually be found.

Maps by Fortress Forever

A list of maps created by "Fortress Forever" which are included with the mod:

Capture the Flag

* 2Fort
* [http://www.fortress-forever.com/?a=media&s=18 Bases]
* [http://www.fortress-forever.com/?a=media&s=1 Crossover]
* [http://www.fortress-forever.com/?a=media&s=44 Monkey]
* [http://www.fortress-forever.com/?a=media&s=41 Openfire]
* [http://www.fortress-forever.com/?a=media&s=20 Rock2]
* [http://www.fortress-forever.com/?a=media&s=7 Shutdown2]
* [http://www.fortress-forever.com/?a=media&s=6 Uno]
* [http://www.fortress-forever.com/?a=media&s=31 Well]

Attack and Defend

* Avanti
* [http://www.fortress-forever.com/?a=media&s=30 Cornfield]
* [http://www.fortress-forever.com/?a=media&s=49 Dustbowl]
* [http://www.fortress-forever.com/?a=media&s=48 Palermo]

Other

* [http://www.fortress-forever.com/?a=media&s=17 Canalzone2] (Command point style)
* [http://www.fortress-forever.com/?a=media&s=15 Hunted] (Hunted style)
* dm (Team Deathmatch style)
* Murderball (Sports war style)
* [http://www.fortress-forever.com/?a=media&s=23 Push] (Sports war style)

Notable mentions

* Article in [http://www.trepid.net/images/ff_cgw2.jpgComputer Gaming World] from October 2006, page 77 the US edition.
* Article in [http://www.trepid.net/images/ff_pcgamer.jpgPCGamer] from December 2006, page 128 the US edition.
* [http://features.moddb.com/218/mods-of-2005/?fpage=5 Feature: Mods of 2005 - Mod DB]
* Best Mod of 2007 in PC Gamer magazine. [http://fortress-forever.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14244] [http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y94/KillerBob12/scan0001.jpg?t=1201982874] [http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/3576/scan0001jl6.jpg]

Reviews
* [http://www.halflife2.net/2007/09/20/fortress-forever-v1-review/ Halflife2.net] (2007-09-20)
* [http://planethalflife.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Reviews.Detail&id=38 Planet Half-Life] (2007-09-21)
* [http://planethalflife.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Reviews.Detail&id=56 Planet Half-Life] (2008-03-12)

ee also

* Team Fortress
* Team Fortress Classic
* Team Fortress 2

References

External links

* [http://www.fortress-forever.com/ Fortress Forever Homepage]
* [http://www.fortress-forever.com/wiki/Main_Page Fortress Forever wiki]
* [http://ff.sta-league.org STA-FF] , a Fortress Forever league for clans
* [http://ff.tfleague.com/ TFL-FF] , a Fortress Forever league for clans
* [http://www.ugcleague.com/home_ff5.cfm UGC-FF] , a Fortress Forever league for clans