Surfing

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Revision as of 17:48, 7 June 2012 by Darkid (talk | contribs) (Map types: Clarifying.)
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Surfing preview

Surfing is a popular modification/mini-game for Team Fortress 2, and is also the term used for gliding into slanted walls or surf ramps. Maps are very diverse and the true objective is usually to travel through the slanted walls, usually for practice, and at other times to create a different type of combat. Most commonly though, the objective is to get to the end of the map by gliding on the surf ramps. The servers that host surf maps have altered physics to make surfing smoother. A basic walkthrough can be found here.

Surfing originated from Counter-Strike, making it easy to implement with TF2 being in the same engine as Counter-Strike: Source.

Map dynamics

Surf Ramps

Surf ramps are slanted walls which a player must strafe against using the A or D keys. This is also how a player must get to the end of a map. Surf ramps can loop, curve or slant in almost any direction. Usually, the W key is never used, because upon its trigger, it causes the player to instantly lose traction with the surf ramp, and thus slide downwards.

Jail

A very notable part of any surf map is the Jail. Whenever a player must stray away from the surf ramps or fall onto the map floor, a player must are then most likely to end up in jail. Jails can usually be operated in different spots, but most often situated where the opposing team may be able to kill victims, often in a remote place. Commonly, there is a kill button (that kills everyone instantly or over time) and a free button that opens an exit, allowing players to continue surfing on the regular map.

Spawn

BLU and RED Spawns may be as close or as far away from each other as possible. Forgiving maps may respawn a player here if they fall off too early.

Top

The Top is a peak of a map. It may be near the spawns.

End

Whenever a player reaches the specified End to the map, a player can usually be teleported to a multitude of places. These places could be the top of jail, where one may be able to score frags, unique locations that contain specific reward triggers, or a variable of other places.

Map types

Regular Surf

Regular Surf maps can have a variety of objectives such as:

These maps generally contain a jail and a top.

Arena Surf

Arena Surf maps are designed for deathmatch. Surfing is meager, with little or no clear goals, and is mainly for faster travel around the map. Falling off will teleport the player into the center of the map, usually where other players are. Akin to Arena mode, players will not respawn after death. These maps generally do not contain a jail, top, or end.

Skill Surf

Skill Surf maps are purely surfing, and as such have little or no fighting. Maps greatly range in difficulty, and rarely contain a jail or central region. Many of these maps will have multiple routes, and some servers disable weapons are occasionally disabled on more challenging surf servers to promote surfing over miscellaneous combat. These maps rarely contain a jail, top, or end.

Strategy

  • In case a player must want just to get to the end of the map, select the Soldier and equip the Rocket Jumper or the Gunboats and keep rocket-jumping on the ramps, this type of equipment may allow a player to gain more control over their environment.
  • Alternatively, select the Scout, equip the Atomizer and try walk on the top of the ramps. If a player must fall, do the triple jump and try to reach the top again. This may be a slower approach however, as the distance between ramps may differ greatly.
  • Most maps are usually unique in nature. Experienced surfers can get used to them quicker whilst new players will probably struggle, although eventually improve with their muscle memory.