Critical Hits

[Absinthe]

And the other thing about crits is that everybody gets them, so it all evens out.

There's a big difference between critting some lone engi in 2fort's sewers and wiping out an entire protected flagroom. Both are products of sheer luck, but they don't necessarily even out a lot of the time.

Oh yeah, and crits during SD suck as well. But SD is piss any way, so I guess that's another story.

 

[Warbie]

I get more annoyed by the randomness of the game. Other than the scout or sniper, there's little need for any precision - it's spamming. Rockets are flying everywhere, people running into them, discovering sentry guns and sticky nades through hindsight (sticky nades are the worst - there's often zero chance of survival). While there's certainly skill involved, it's not what i'd call a skill based fps. There's a degree chance involved in almost every aspect of TF2. Whats worse - a blind fired rocket/nade that hits you in the face, or a well placed rocket crit?

More often than not you or your team have a chance to kill an opponent whether they crit or not. Sure, there's the odd rocket crit opener (the only example that can piss me off), but otherwise, in a game that celebrates chaos and shit blowing up everywhere, crits add to the fun and unpredictability. As a scout, dancing through the enemy team and always inches from death, every crit is well earned!

 

[DevgruSeal]

I'm like Absinthe...I might not get as angered by my own crit rocket killing somebody, but its a sort of reminder that I'll be shot down the same way, later on in the game.

And I would play more aggressively, if it weren't for crits. I'm usually afraid to run out in the open, unless theres 50 bajillion of us, because I know something out there is waiting to take me down instantly with a critical hit.

 

[morgs]

If the player is doing well and progressing fast up the scoreboard, they deserve crits for their efforts.

 

[Qonfused]

But its very unpredictability can also have very damaging (and undeserved) consequences depending on context. So while I may not place much importance on my personal scoring, I still get pissed when all my hard work goes goes for shit due to some random freak occurence.

Saying TF2 is just about fun doesn't really help at all, because it's not fun when they throw the game out of whack. Not for me at least. And I've grown to dislike my own crits as well because I know that the guy on the receiving end often doesn't stand a solitary chance in Hell of surviving when he otherwise would have.

Yes, you still need to actually be hit by the projectiles in the first place for it to all even matter. But come on. Sometimes an effective, aggressive strategy requires you to take a few hits. Slapping that behavior down with a crit in the face does not strike me as a good time.

Bah, I dunno. In other games I usually get pissed when something that seems "unfair" happens. In CS:S, a couple people whoring the AWP pisses me off; if a jet keeps bombing my squad in BF2. TF2 is just different for me I guess. Don't get confused, I can understand why someone would be irked by crits, I just guess I'm not one of them.

 

[Absinthe]

Yeah, I can understand entirely why other people like crits.

I just wish Valve had them as a variable.

 

[Warbie]

I'd be happier if it was impossible to open with a crit. They should all be earned by doing damage or scoring points.

 

[Seagull]

It has a 5% base chance, and after you get a series of kills (like a multikill) it jumps up to 20% chance. And @ Absinthe, there is a plugin out that unlocks a lot of variables (TFtrue) including critical hit percentages, but you'll have to search through them to find one that has no crits. (You can sort the plugin out by clicking on Game type. It has a different name.)

 

[DevgruSeal]

[...]if a jet keeps bombing my squad in BF2.[...]

I'll agree with you on how aggravating that is, but it's also not completely unfair. After all, the other team is using a strategy, and the pilot of that jet is skilled enough to make strafing runs on your squad.

And there is also a counter-bombing strategy - that squad could stay spread out, and not as many will die - especially with a medic to revive (given the bomb didn't completely annihilate a player or the medic to start).

My point is, a counter-attack evens it out. 2 AWPs on the enemy team? Counter-AWP them. Or get close enough to them and take them down in close quarters.

What can you do to prevent criticals from ruining your strategy? Sure, you can dodge them, but the blast damage from a critical rocket isn't going to leave you sitting pretty, regardless of whether you thought you dodged it or not.

Or maybe you have the best defense, but some critical rockets come whizzing by, knocking out most of your defenses. The enemy team hasn't made it past by using teamwork or strategy, they simply took out the defense with a couple of criticals. Not exactly balanced is that?

 

[Destructo-Bot]

Or maybe you have the best defense, but some critical rockets come whizzing by, knocking out most of your defenses. The enemy team hasn't made it past by using teamwork or strategy, they simply took out the defense with a couple of criticals. Not exactly balanced is that?

If you had good defense, they wouldn't be that far into your base. They only get the chance to knock down your defenses if your team is all huddled in the base and not running point checks. One Engineer and a pyro in the base with any demos having stickies on the point and then moving out, everyone else should be out side keeping the other team as far away as possible. The playing field is level crit wise out there, so the only way they knock out your defenses is if they are already winning by pushing your team back into the base.

 

[Jintor]

If you had good defense, they wouldn't be that far into your base. They only get the chance to knock down your defenses if your team is all huddled in the base and not running point checks. One Engineer and a pyro in the base with any demos having stickies on the point and then moving out, everyone else should be out side keeping the other team as far away as possible. The playing field is level crit wise out there, so the only way they knock out your defenses is if they are already winning by pushing your team back into the base.

In this case though crits are actually more helpful to the attacking team because they are, well, the attacking team. If the defenders get criticals, it just pushes them back to spawn; if the attackers get criticals, they can do some serious damage, destroying sentries and crap that take forever to set up, and opening the area to a push.

Generally though this only really seems to happen if both teams are of equal skill and stalemate one another though. In my experience, if one side is getting slaughtered, they stay slaughtered. (Bar the time I just snuck past the entire enemy team and captured the control point by myself as a spy. )