this was originally a reply in another thread about advertising, but I think it's more appropriate here:

Putting myself in a new player's shoes, If I came to this site I'm not sure what would draw me in to it. The front page is basically a news feed for what's happening in the competitive leagues. All of the articles are about predictions for those leagues. Good for competitive players, but not so interesting for players outside of the competitive scene even if they have some interest in learning how to play at that level.

What has drawn me into to other game's competitive community sites was really their guides, walkthroughs and 'expert' tips. As a new player outside of the comp scene your first interest is usually in how to take your game to the next level. There's a wealth of knowledge from the players on this site but from a visit to the front page you wouldn't know where to get it. There's a guide link but that is not currently active.

I think if the goal is to drive new players into comp, a standing "intro to competitive tf2" feature and some prominent advanced tips or training tutorials would be a really nice permanent addition to the front page. I know the content exists but it could do a lot of good to bring focus to it.

Off the top of my head, Looking at the typical or even above average pubber they most likely put themselves at an immediate disadvantage by not optimizing the following, and they probably don't even know it because a lot of it is tribal knowledge:

fov 75-> 90
fps configs/dx level (guidelines for good fps)
viewmodel visibility
info about vsync/raw input
suboptimal setup of their binds/sensitivity/huds (ultimately preference, but some general guidelines can help people out)
cl_interp/interp_ratio settings
gear/hardware recommendations/guidelines

Bonus- fewer monthly posts on half of these topics!

That's a snippet, but I think features and walkthroughs like that would really do a lot to bring in new players that take an interest in comp play.

is a gremlin in possession of the shorter tf.tv domain? That would be nice to get to forward to this site.

I'm really surprised noone has used this for advertising, actually.

Putting myself in a new players shoes though, if I came to this site I'm not sure what would draw me in to it. The front page is basically a news feed for what's happening in the competitive leagues. All of the articles are about predictions for those leagues. Good for competitive players, but not so good for players outside of the competitive scene even if they have some interest in learning.

From my own personal experience in other game communities what drew me into particular sites was really their guides, walkthroughs and 'expert' tips. There's a wealth of knowledge from the players on this site but from a visit to the front page you really wouldn't be aware of where to get it. There's a guide section but that is not currently active.

I think if the goal is to drive new players into comp there could be a lot more emphasis on the front page of this site to guiding them in. Like a standing "intro to competitive tf2" feature or whatnot.

They are the newer ivy's, but there's a couple different product lines to keep in mind.

What you have, the 3930K, is based on the xeon server products which have a different schedule than the mainstream desktop products. (it's based on a die that has more cores, that's how you have a 6 core part).

As an example an Ivy bridge product has still not been released on socket 2011 for xeon server products yet, even though Haswell for mainstream desktop/mobile is going to be releasing in a few months.

Your chip would be referred to as Sandy Bridge-E, Ivy Bridge-E hasn't even released yet, and Haswell-E would be the follow-on. Assuming you want to keep a 6 core setup you probably won't have a reason to upgrade until Haswell-E, which is probably not till late 2014.

the majority of people at least see it in game, It's better than any other advertising I can think of.

It's not a bad idea to try a few, just have to make a concise message that makes the average player want to check it out.

i.e.
www.teamfortress.tv tips from the pros

or www.teamfortress.tv take your game to the next level
Basically, lie to them.

From 3930k? Unless you are fretting about power consumption you really shouldn't. 3930k is pretty beast. Haswell is mostly targeted towards mobile and efficiency rather than high end desktop performance. That won't change until Haswell-E comes out which is probably a year later.

Haswell will be out early June, I wouldn't expect huge leaps in performance over Ivy clock for clock (5-15%) but it would be enough to wait those few months for, at least to see the benchmarks coming out and how well it overclocks.
Either way you'll want to opt for an i7 if you really want to maximize streaming capability.

I'm not sure why someone downvoted my question as it's a relevant one to ask for us folk w/ older LCD monitors, but thanks for answering it. It sounds like it's just something you won't be totally aware of until you try a low lag monitor.

As it stands I attribute certain issues to shitty netcode or hit reg but perhaps some of those are symptoms are actually contributed to by high input lag. I guess I'll find out when I make the switch down the road.

from a pure publicity standpoint wouldn't 20k in prize pool for a non-lan tournament run by the community be 10x bigger as far as exposure than 20k to be able to send a few teams to europe?

it's hard to tell from those few screenshots, but the sightlines are not really that huge actually, also with the relation of blue spawn to the base and spawn times I don't foresee a sniper really causing too many issues- They can certainly be effective though.

Why Offense vs Defense?

From an organized teamplay standpoint this eliminates the compromise of having to play defense at the same time as offense as a unit. When on offense all players on the team are now focused on the same goal- get the flag and bring it to the capture point, and try to get as many captures as possible during the round. Without the threat of the other team steamrolling back into your base you can take a lot more risks on offense. More aggression on offense makes for more entertaining exchanges.

Likewise for defense. Lock them down, get flag returns by preventing any further touches, 'reset' your defense if they do cap to prevent a string of caps.

The more you can intercept the offense before their jump the longer you can prevent them from capping. There are multiple routes they can jump the flag to your pit from so you want to have some forward defense. It's disadvantageous to just pile on the cap point.

The second reason for OvD is you can adjust spawn times independently for defenders vs offensive players. Since there are no concussion grenades to bring the offense to the front lines so quickly compared to the defenders, you need to provide a more equal footing via spawn times. In general both sides benefit from shorter spawn times. Dying still puts you at a disadvantage, but it's not so massively punished that you do absolutely anything to avoid it. This is not a careful battle for picks and incremental advantages with methodical pushes, this is a cap battle where high risk high reward plays (should) have bigger benefits.

On my particular map the Intelligence capture (destruction) area is a small above ground pit. This leads to more interesting and frantic holds near the cap point, and increases the skill required for a perfect capture amidst alive defenders. The offensive team would likely have a main flag runner most often (probably demoman or soldier for jumping), but if it's dropped near the point everyone will be trying to make plays on it. The other thing the small above ground pit does is make it so it's not a sure thing you can cap just because you get the intelligence close.

I don't expect a lot of positive feedback here. It goes against the established meta game of 6's, but for those interested in trying something different I'd appreciate your takes.

ctf_torch2_a2

Map download Link:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/100731267/ctf_torch2_a2.bsp.bz2

Yard:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/100731267/ss/2013-02-27_00004.jpg

Inside the base:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/100731267/ss/2013-03-03_00006.jpg

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/100731267/ss/2013-03-03_00012.jpg

overview:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/100731267/ss/2013-03-03_00022.jpg

There's been some interest from this forum in the past in trying to make CTF work in TF2.

I've been working intermittently on a CTF map+gamemode with the aim to address some of the shortcomings of CTF in TF2, and bring back some of the elements that made it so fun in TF/TFC.

This particular map is reverse CTF map designed for offense vs defense, 10 minute rounds then switching sides. Most caps at the end wins.

Since this is both a new map AND a new game mode, it would be really helpful to try and separate out game mode flaws from map construction flaws. I'm sure both need fine tuning- Probably the map more than the game mode. I will be carrying this type of game mode to a regular CTF situation next.

get a free replacement from logitech support. They are excellent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27LLPANAgzw

Out of curiosity were you aware of how much it was affecting you at the time or was it more of a eye opener after you tried something much better?

A lot of people game on older possibly crappier LCD's. Mine is likely one of them and really I would have a hard time attributing anything to my monitor, then again I don't have anything to compare it to.