US, March 25, 2008 - The months that lead up to the release of Valve's Orange Box were met with much anticipation. The game package included Half-Life 2: Episode 2, which offered fans the opportunity to again gun down aliens as iconic crowbar-wielding Gordon Freeman, as well as check out an at the time curious and unknown puzzle game called Portal. Arguably one of the most anticipated pieces of the Box was Team Fortress 2, which had been in development for years and undergone several facelifts.
Upon release, the Orange Box and Team Fortress 2 were met with heaps of praise from the gaming press and community alike, and both have kept a close watch on Valve's updates over the past few months. We had the opportunity to send a few questions to Valve designer and programmer Robin Walker about what to expect in Team Fortress 2's future. The exchange was conducted through email.
IGN: When might we start seeing the unlockable item updates mentioned a while back? What classes are being focused on right now? Is the Medic still planned as the first update to roll out?
Robin Walker: We're almost done. The Medic is still planned as the first update, but we'll be pushing into the other classes pretty quickly. Much of the time we've been taking has been on the backend work, so we won't have to do that work again.
IGN: What types of items can players expect to unlock with the Medic and other classes? Can you give a few specific examples?
Robin Walker: We'll be shipping an unlockable version of each Medic weapon. Our focus has been to produce weapons which have both pros and cons, so they're not a straight win when equipped. Much like the TF classes are aimed at different players, where the "best" class varies depending on the player's skill, we want the "best" weapon to vary based on the player's playing style. So we want players thinking about what kind of player they are, and what strategies they like to use, and trying out different weapon loadouts to see what works best. As an example of these tradeoffs, the unlockable medigun we're play testing right now switches out the 10 second invulnerability effect for 10 seconds of 100% chance of critical hits. It's the source of much debate internally as to whether it's better or worse than invulnerability, and under what circumstances it's better or worse. This is the kind of weapon we're aiming for, where you can think of many cases where it's better, and many cases where it's worse. It also affects the play of the Medic and his partner a lot, which is another goal for us. If the unlockable weapons don't significantly impact player's play style, they're not worth doing.
IGN: How do you actually unlock the items?
Robin Walker: They're tied to achievement progress. So you unlock the first Medic unlockable when you complete 12 of the 36 Medic achievements, the second at 24, and the third at 36. We're also looking at other ways to unlock weapons too, so that everyone gets to be involved in the weapon selection process.
IGN: Why was it decided to include unlockable items in the game? Was it something the player base wanted or something that was always planned to be included but wasn't polished / balanced enough for launch?
Robin Walker: The additional weaponry is part of a set of additional gameplay pieces we've been planning to add to the TF2 core from the beginning. We've learned many things over the years of shipping multiplayer titles, and one of them is that players want new content. TF2 is the first multiplayer game we've shipped where we outlined our future content plans some time before we shipped, which allowed us to lay the groundwork in the initial release.
IGN: If some players are running around with unlocked items and some aren't, how are you taking steps to assure the gameplay remains balanced between classes?
Robin Walker: One of the core design philosophies in TF2 is that of tradeoffs. When you're making a choice about what class you'd like to play, you're making a tradeoff between the abilities you'd like, and the penalties you pay to get them. So you can have the Heavy's big minigun, but you'll pay for it with a slow movement speed. These tradeoffs are made more interesting by focusing different abilities & penalties around different play styles, which ensures that the "right" class choice varies based on the skill set of the player making the choice. This approach to class design is the same approach we've taken to the new weapon designs. Each of the new weapons forces players to make tradeoffs between its pros and cons, which we've used to make each weapon relatively self-balancing. Looking at the previous example of the new medigun that grants 100% critical hits, you can see that approach at work. Sure, you can kill a lot of enemies when you're firing nothing but crits, but you can also get killed yourself, unlike the invulnerability charge. Is this weapon better than the base invulnerability medigun? The answer varies dramatically across games, depending a lot on the skills of the player being charged, the skills of the Medic doing the charging, and the skills and makeup of the enemies they're fighting.
IGN: When might we see Goldrush release? Can you briefly describe the type of gameplay mode players should expect to see on this map?
Robin Walker: Goldrush is looking like it'll come out along with the Medic achievements and unlockable weaponry. It's the first map in a new game mode we're calling "Payload", where the Blu team escorts a cart loaded with explosives into a Red base. The cart moves faster the more Blu players are near it, and contains a handy dispenser to heal and resupply them as they escort it. The Red team wins if they can keep the cart from reaching their base. Goldrush is also the first map where we've used the cinematic physics technology from Half-Life 2: Episode 2 in a multiplayer environment, and we're really happy with the results.
IGN: Will the console versions ever see these updates? If not, why? If so, when?
Robin Walker: We're still trying to figure that out. Right now we're working on a map pack that we hope will contain Goldrush and the rest of the maps we've shipped to the PC customers so far.
IGN: Thank you for your time.
