The Drone

I have to admit, I haven't been playing a lot of TF2 lately. Between my computer's basic unreliability in the arena of "not catching on fire" and a million new games to distract me, I just haven't been thinking about it as much as I did when I started this blog in 2011. I picked up a new shooter, Plants Versus Zombies: Garden Warfare, which scratches that "colorful shooter" itch pretty nicely. However, that doesn't mean I've totally forgotten about my favorite, and PVZ has something I thought might be fun to try and adapt to TF2: the Drone. Used by the Cactus and the Engineer Zombie, the drone weapons are the most interesting gadget designs in that game.

Melee Weapon: The Light Touch
Replaces the Sentry Gun with the Hornet Dock.
Alt Fire while near Hornet Dock: Manually pilot The Hornet
Cannot Haul Buildings

Building: Hornet Dock
HP: 150 / 180 / 215
Battery: 30/60/90

The Hornet Dock is a stationary building from which Hornets are deployed. As soon as it builds, it will deploy its first Hornet, and subsequent Hornets will be deployed within ten seconds of the previous one exploding. The Engineer must use alt-fire on this to pilot the Hornet. While the piloting functions are being used, the Dock will drain battery: one second per unit of battery, plus an additional third of a unit of battery while ascending/descending. When the batteries are spent, the remote uplink will shut down and the Hornet will freeze in place wherever it is.


Sapping this building disables both the unit itself and the Hornet.

Building 2: Hornet
HP: 10
Primary Weapon: Nailgun (fires gently arced rapidfire projectiles)
Maximum DPS: 50 / 75 / 100
WASD controls. Crouch to descend, jump to ascend.
M1: Fire Primary Weapon
Taunt: Laser Light Show Aerial Taunt
M2 / Primary Slot Button / Secondary Slot Button / Melee Slot Button: Exit Pilot Mode

The Hornet is the actual drone sentry controlled by remote uplink. It will hover indefinitely in its current location whenever not being actively piloted. Park these in surprising locations to surprise enemies, or to distract them from fights on the ground.

Attachable to Buildings

The Carrying Crate
Secondary: Building Attachment
Attach this to a building with M1. Press and hold M2: building becomes magnetic, attaching to friendly ally. M2 again to deploy item where the friendly unit is standing.

Meant to promote base mobility and lateral movement. The focus was meant to allow defenders to move teleporters between multiple defensible locations, especially on maps like Gravelpit. I'm still looking to balance this unlock better, as I think it promotes more sneak teleporting than lateral movement.

The Stinger

Secondary: Building Attachable

Attach to a building with M1. That building's usage charges a defending gun. When the building is not in use (not healing / teleporting / recharging) the gun will attack encroaching enemies.

Meant to provide wider base defense AND subtly encourage engineers and allies to move away from dispensers periodically.

The idea here are sapper-style items that replace the Engineer's pistol. He can then attach them to buildings to grant them unique abilities, to change his strategy, or offer bonuses. It's an unlock type that I would like to see explored because it's something I think hasn't been proposed very much in the past, and because I like the idea of extra buildings.

Some balancing thoughts: "friendly sappers" should not cause buildings to run counter to their primary mission: while the Stinger can open up new locations for a building, it shouldn't encourage Engineers to stop using their dispensers or teleporters as dispensers or teleporters. So I think the "friendly sapper" drawing charge from buildings functioning, not interrupting the primary building's function, and working best when the building is not in use are good strategies.

Post your own ideas for balance or attachables in the comments!

Prairie Fort Companion

The Prairie Fort Companion
Split Level Sentry Pod

The first pod costs 125 metal, with subsequent pods costing a mere 75. You can build up to 3. Once at least one pod has been laid, it will activate a Gun. Once the gun is active, it will travel to whichever pod has enemies the nearest, and attack them. When a pod reaches 25% health, the gun will retreat to a different pod and attack from there.

This allows an engineer to patrol multiple areas at once, although he won't be able to secure any area as strongly. It's like a sentry gun crossed with an ender man. A minisentry gun that takes a little bit more time to set up.

This is based on an old, old idea I had that has long since been deleted from the SPUF.

Scout Buildings

Brainstorming All-Class PDAs, because obsessive completionism and machines are more fun than working game mechanics. These are designed specifically for MvM, where the smaller playercounts make all-class sentries a workable idea. This is an idea that keeps reverberating in my head, buildings for all classes as designed by the Engineer, because I want the engineer to design more things. I hunger for them. Admittedly most of these have more in common with the "character" of each merc than their class, but then this is a fun exercise more than a serious game changer.

Non-engie buildings are, in this vision, not upgradeable or repairable partially to avoid the visual incongruity of fixing a things by hitting them with swords, baseball bats, or whatever.

Ultimately, these ideas turn TF2 into a Orcs Must Die style castle defense/action title, and that sounds like a freaking awesome idea to me.

First up is the Scout.

PDA: Simple, gameboy-like PDA (credit where it's due)

Offense: The Pitching Arm
Fires stun baseballs
Looks like the sentry, but with a horizontal spinning wheel over the ammo feed to fire baseballs. And a modified barrel. Obviously.

Support: The Second Phase
Allies moving near this building charge it, eventually activating a phase ability that minimizes damage
An handheld cooler containing bonk. The lid is wired with a timer, and when it reaches zero the lid opens and allies are phased.





Transportation: The Plate
A directional plate that gives classes running over it a speed boost.
Looks like home plate.

The Combat Mini-Sentry Robot

So, after posting that last one I realized I never actually posted my dear friend the Combat Mini-Sentry Co-Op Robot to this blog! I love doing portmanteau art, combining similar or separate concepts into one design. I do it a lot with TF2, having done combos of Team Fortress and Portal several times, as well as Bioshock, Minecraft, Left 4 Dead, Orcs Must Die, and on one weird occasion, Shadow of the Colossus.

This guy here is a Portal co-op android, but also a combat mini-sentry. He was designed to solve complicated riddles, such as "What are the effects of bullets on human flesh" and "At what frequency do bullet-riddled humans beg for their lives." He is, and I quote, a "cute little gun".