Community Discord Roundup

[Leslie Clarke]

Aug 2, 2024 0:00:00 GMT hunterbunney said:

Whoever said Discord was "the embodiment of chaos" and "a demigod of mischief and trickery" and "voiced by John de Lancie" may have been two-thirds onto something. That said, Discord is also a great tool for community organization — something we struggled (and failed) to spotlight in our community roundups, which have mostly featured Gamebanana uploads or creative work sent to us directly.

To reattain balance (and hopefully close the book on this "monthly roundup" thing so we can make them more irregular, and thus more impactful), let's talk about two of our big ones.

TF2C Competitive (link)​

Yes, there's a TF2 Classic competitive scene! 6s, Highlander, and MGE (under maintenance, so I'm told) are all on the table, marrying traditional comp gamerules with the bespoke features and vastly improved game-feel of TF2C.

The only negative thing to be said about competitive TF2C is there often aren't enough players — so that's your responsibility to fix. Pick-up games are hosted irregularly each week based on availability (but usually on Fridays or weekends), and what this subcommunity needs more than anything are some warm, eager bodies. If you're in North America and are seeing this the day it was posted, there might be a game's worth of people ready to go.

TF2C Mapping Community (link)​

Our broader level-design community also hosts weekly games (EU and NA) through its Discord. That is to say, you're welcome to join as just a now-and-then playtester, even if you have no interest in making maps.

Veteran mapmakers, and Hammer-teurs alike, operate in the TF2C Mapping server, and there's an emphasis on how TF2C level design diverges from live TF2 — both in terms of exclusive gamemodes, and designing around our unique weapons and traversal tools that Valve couldn't have anticipated.

Here's a quick rundown of a few maps in their test shuffle:

• Dynamo (Capture the Flag), a visual overhaul of Turbine where the main item of review is the slick artpass;
• Ember (Payload), a single-stage payload map in a seaside town, with an emphasis on ground-level cover in wide fightyards;
• Mirages (Medieval Mode/Control Points), where narrow walkways lend the Brick's knockback some devastating utility;
• Bloinkus (Four Team/Arena), whose nauseatingly tight layout circles in on itself like a racetrack, blending the teams up into chaotic four-way brawls;
• and Export (Four Team/Domination), which splits four teams across three points — RED and BLU fight over theirs, GRN and YLW fight over theirs, and the real prize is the point in the middle.

(...and so, so many more.)

Give each of these servers a shot! Joining is free. The worst you can do is lurk, right?