Fish #641

Points: 2,875, Level: 34

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I'm not convinced that 45 seconds is the right amount of time. Even at halftime, we've rarely used more than 30 seconds, and that was discussing the culmination of ~5 rounds. However, I do believe both ways should be tried. I'm just afraid of taking away the flow of the game.

Edit: Also, most comebacks that I've seen (where a team is down before halftime and wins), happen either before or after the actual half time. It's rare that I see a team be 0-4, and then win 5. It's usually 3-0, they win one, it goes half, and then they win 4 more. I'm not saying that it doesn't happen, but what from what I've seen, it isn't a statistically significant difference.

Hawkeye

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Yeah, that is the aspect that I am concerned with, overall I think I am going to have two options as viable, one with a half, one without and let individual leagues/lans make those decisions as to how they want to proceed for them.

The 45 seconds was design around 30 seconds of Add then 15 seconds for the broadcasters to have a bumper. It may be to long, 20 might work also, I assume we would see 1 round, commentary, 1 round, ads, 1 round commentary or some type of format to break things up a bit and keep people in the flow.

And we haven't even started to discuss Koth/CTF/Attack-Defend yet :-)

improperdancing

Points: 380, Level: 7

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I agree that 45 seconds is too much. 30 is more than enough for any planning, and really I think 15 to 20 would be plenty. It'd just be nice to have that buffer at the start where we can decide, "Hey, should I run gunboats?" or "I'm going to switch to Bonk."

Hawkeye

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Moving onto the next subject..

I don't think we'll see CTF to soon, and see no issue with the current accepted format for Attack/Defend..

KOTH.

Again, the debate on halfs, what the scoring should be.

improperdancing

Points: 380, Level: 7

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Seeing as we only have one playable koth map right now, scoring isn't a huge issue, but I generally think it should be the same as push maps. First to five. Twenty or thirty minute halves.

brute-

Points: 1,773, Level: 25

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Summary: Option B, halftimes are important: read on if you wish :P

I dont understand why half time is so confusing to you all!?!

Whats so hard about switching colors.... there's only two of them? The time it takes? sometimes 30 seconds some times 5 minutes if someone wants to stock up on food or take a pee brake... is this really a killer?

I value half times very much, as a medic perhaps I just like not having to constantly freak out over healing or being able to take a deep breath and go into detail about why the half went as it did.

Its not like typing .ready or asking if the other 6 are good to go is that difficult a task, i'd understand if server switching and whatnot were involved but honestly half really isnt that big of a problem to knix if in favor of 45 second breaks between rounds where very little discussion can be had, refills or drains are obviously rushed/not happening.

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I think it'd make much more sense to just go with half at 3, leagues that arnt esea should be using the matchmod for the ease of player use and go from there. If some taems dont see the value in using half to discuss the situation and gear up to go again then we just have different uses for that time but i feel like thats what its there for and those who use it shouldnt be robbed of it.

And I fully agree with shdw.puppet (mayb its a med thing?) that the nit pickign things about the differences are worthy enough for the color change. I love to have my demo use the sticky spots on mid badlands that the red team has, or harrass from house with the holes in the houses roof that only red has.... stupid things that make a difference.

long rant over. sorry for the blob but i had a lot to say, didnt sleep last night, and have 4 hours of classes to go to :( fml.

ranga

Points: 567, Level: 11

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Option B definitely sounds like a config that leagues should start adapting. Halftime just makes sense.

Fish #641

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I'm a medic and I loath halftime. I'm always assessing the game as it goes along, and I really just need the time to articulate what needs to happen.

jiggawhat

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People need half time to take a piss

Hawkeye

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If you need to piss every 30 minutes, you need to see a doctor or grab some depends or something.

But the deal with Halftime, it's not confusing for us, but it really seems, in my opinion, pretty needless to go through the hassles of it.

Also, from a viewer standpoint, if the teams suddenly swithed sides (to the casual viewer) it somewhat complex and hard to explain. When watching Baseball or NFL< the jerseys stay the same so the change of direction is pretty meaningless from a casual viewers standpoint, but in TF2 the players will trade their Jerseys making the casual viewer pretty confused.

That and for the most part, I simply do not see a need to have the teams swap sides.


I designed XPLs TF2 gameplay/format around actual match time being about an hour per week for matches much like most recreational leagues of Soccer, Football and others. So using the hour to cover two maps made more sense then a half since it gave the players the break to switch maps, grab a drink, whatever they needed to do. Breaking the action mid-way when your only talking 30 minutes seems like such a waste of time to me.

As far as KOTH, I would go shorter then 5 or 6 since the rounds could be relatively long, I generally try to keep 30 minutes in mind for any map. I assume about 5 minutes per round on average so scoring 6 times in 30 minutes is possible with a relatively good paced game. KOTH I assume the same, but has more chance to go longer, but if we match Push and say 6 rounds total, with half at 3 rounds or 20 minutes, that could work, but keep in mind the players on that one.

improperdancing

Points: 380, Level: 7

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There's not really a difference in halftime between two twenty to thirty minute halves on the same map or two thirty minute halves on different maps. Either way you've still got a few minutes between halves to talk it over, take a pee break, or grab another beer.

Hawkeye

Points: 5,566, Level: 51

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Agree there, but the given the context of a single map, I don't see the point of it, it makes more sense to play your 30, break then play a different map. More fun also.