So it seems like some Reflex community members got together, got a couple of servers, and have made an effort to get regular games happening. It started pretty slow but has actually picked up now a bit and there's people playing a lot of the time in the evenings. The main server is called "Reflex Newbie Nights at 9PM CST" and sometimes there's a 2nd server with a similar name. They mostly play free for all deathmatch which is exactly what I want from Reflex (as opposed to getting all hardcore into 1v1 duels which is what most of the servers are running). So if you're like me in this regard and just wanna casually frag some folks please stop by and play -- It's really fun!

Oh yeah Reflex is 10 bucks. For that price you basically can't go wrong. If you like the feel of fighting in TF2 then you will most likely feel right at home in this modern Quake remake.\

edit: you can play any time not just 9 CST

Yo I'm sorry if I used the wrong language and it sends some kind of false expectations. He's certainly experienced compared to me.

These dudes are young but really cool. Op stepped into a leadership role after trouble on the previous iteration of the team and has been doing well. He's super nice, smart, and very capable (experienced CSGO'er). Whsh sounds like (and basically is) a child but has quite a bit of experience and dm for his level and a ton of potential. I don't really know puzza but he seems cool.

I'm willing to help mentor this team and help in any way I can as I have in its previous forms.

Keith pretty much said everything right. Apparently he must have been the biggest shit head to earn his rep but since I never knew him back then I can't hold it against him. When I've pugged and scrimmed with him he's been pretty much nothing but nice and pleasant (Canadian virtues?). He has a good attitude and has the right tools to be either pocket or roamer. His actual experience is very limited but considering that he's super good for where he is. Yeah some of the cohesion and main calling won't be ideal until a bit more experience comes his way but that's how it goes. At least he's vocal and trying which is a lot more than many other people do. He understands his shortcomings and isn't utterly oblivious.

I don't condone being the one weak player (due to captaining) in the middle of an invite pug nor any of the other shifty pug behaviors but that stuff seems to be well in the past. People like to pick fights and attack him over nothing at al and one common thing I hear is that he's a bad captain. I'm sure there have been some trash games (who hasn't had those?) but his captain record is overwhelmingly positive. It's an objective fact that he tends to pick good teams that win.

He's High open/Low IM capable and deserves your tryout and consideration.

Played the map tonight a bunch and while the rotation of the point structure was subtle I think it does improve access to the point very slightly. The map looks good and plays distinctly enough (and not terribly) so it seems like it's about done. I'll definitely add this to our rotation of maps when ultiduoing with friends.

Super good and really very nice guy. He's another person who keeps some really shady company which will cast a bit of a shadow. Really though he'd be a top notch IM med.

It's cool that you're trying all these variants and it is great fun to experiment. That said, mostly as predicted, this tree in the middle is so frustrating. It becomes this corner peeking + against-the-tree-juggling annoying game for soldier and for medic it's extra easy to lose your soldier and generally lose track of what's going on as the line of sight is broken so easily. This is still somewhat tough or dangerous to negotiate your way up to the point as med, which could be fine, but combining that with the tree is just really maddening I think.

The other changes are fine. The ammo pack is good. Not sure about the tall walls, probably ok. The tall wall by the low spawn is weird and less useful. Running behind it puts you into this narrow corridor of doom that's hard to dodge in and easy to splash against the back wall.

Initial impression: Looks neat, but basically a variant of baloo. Not sure if the jurf things are useful, haven't played it enough. The large nipple is pretty frustrating from a medic's pov as you can't get up there so it's super easy to get out of beam. The little side ramps on the nipple seem to have some neat implications but med is still frustrating. You can cap and block from the low ground but it's super inconsistent (only some spots work as you circle around while touching the nipple). It needs to be expanded slightly.

We gave up playing pretty quick though when we realized the base respawn time is something like 10 seconds. Why are all the new ultiduo maps like this? Are you guys just copying the default parameters for a koth map? Please make the spawns as short as possible, like instant basicallym esp. if you don't own the point. (http://www.teamfortress.tv/post/637937/planning-ultiduo-map).

I'm a bit pessimistic that this will mostly play like baloo at which point why bother, but I'll hold my final judgement until it is actually playable.

Cool dude. He had a summer team that recently ended their UGC season and took 3rd in iron. That doesn't say much but there was a reason they were cruising through iron - they were way too good for it. Hunter was a good fit for his team and they ended up having some really good scrims against middish open ESEA teams which shows at least some level of competence and awareness. He's pretty level headed and well rounded for the small amount of experience he has. Also he has good dm and is a wicked pipe machine (scouts beware). Assuming his schedule allows it he would be an awesome addition to a low-mid open team.

On the standard ultiduo map (koth_utliduo_b_r7) it puts the ball in the attackers' court once they die and the other team then owns the point. The fight winners had to go to the low ground to capture that point. I don't see this as a bad thing as the whole map promotes movement around the map as well as moments of fine timing. Does the respawning team always just go and wreck the defenders who are stuck on the low ground and instantly recap and then the process repeats the other way? Certainly not. The team that won the fight will usually get both players on the cap asap and then when it's ~75% capped the medic starts running up the side ramp that is deemed best and the soldier finishes the cap by himself and then quickly rocket jumps to his med (if whip is allowed it's very useful here). Then both players are back up on the high ground which people tend to prefer, somewhat understandably. But there's many times when you might not have the time to make it back up top (and you certainly don't want to get caught on the ramp of doom) so you stay below. You can use the bridge to break line of sight and kite around below. Just because the enemy is right above you on the bridge doesn't mean they can necessarily score easy hits on you or that they will always win the ensuing fight. I remember one of the ulti tournaments was won by asianriceguy (and I think caboose on med?) with them just staying on the low ground and using a mix of good delay tactics and directs/ammomod skill to win.

So first of all that a6v2 was an interesting experiment but ultimately there was simply nothing to that map. The high ground was too far from the fast-capping point and really it was just a featureless, uninteresting ammomod style flat ground battle with some annoying rocks and bushes and logs in the way.

This a7 is definitely the most interesting and best of all the versions so far. There's a bunch of interesting ways to move around the map now and generally every aspect is improved. In the occasional instances when ammo runs out I still think that the packs are super far away and only give you 4 rockets for your efforts. If you keep them there then consider making them medium ammo packs. Otherwise it would be nice to have small ammo packs closer/more centered (there's tons of places they could be put). I don't really understand the height blocks next to the high stumps but it does occasionally help with medic dodging and juking so maybe that's the point. Finally it might be interesting to see the point structure rotated 30-45 degrees clockwise which would again change ease of access to the ramp. The only sad thing about that is it would kinda ruin the cool new path to point using the stack of crates.

It's been great fun testing this and I definitely look forward to playing it more soon. It's great to see this thing shaping up into something unique and good so thanks again for your efforts and willingness to work with feedback.

Good at everything. Great player. Particularly great at scout and demo. Generally a really nice dude too but he associates himself with some really shitty people on a regular basis. Eventually, even if only by association, that shit ends up rubbing off on you... But yeah he's the beast from the east as far as pwnage at TF2.

I played in the game talked-about in the post above and also watched some other gamers play it and will now combine the feedback here.

5 minute limit please. There's no reason for 6.

Skybox needs to be higher. One surf + one airshot to the legs from the point and you're easily slamming into it.

Try rotating the whole point structure 90 degrees. Right now you have to walk in front of it and then to the left a bit to walk up the ramp. If the ramp was more easily accessible from the front that might help. It's tough to heal a your soldier up there, especially before you go up there yourself... and it's hard to get up there. I realize that is part of the design but I think it could be made a bit smoother with this suggestion.

The map looks cool and is certainly unique which is a plus. The big ass trees (and some of the props) really limit the useable floor space though even though sometimes it's cool to dodge around them and stuff. It's usually a no brainer where to place the rocket against people on foot who approach the point (like the med, always). He'll always walk between the tree and the stump, for example. To counter being spammed I suppose the soldier on the attacking team can jump sooner and harder and force the defending soldier's attention but then the med has to run and catch up and struggle to make it to the point as noted previously. It would take making the whole area bigger in order to space the trees and stuff out more which could be worth a shot or it could ruin the whole vibe you already have going on here.

Sort of the opposite issue occurs with the two tall platforms. Initially I thought they would be the centrally contested part of the map but it's surprising how not useful they seem to be. It's very difficult for the med to heal his soldier up there and for the soldier it's tough to place good spam down at the point since the point area is so wide. If the point was really small, like a more normal nipple, then you couldn't avoid the splash from on high but right now it's very avoidable. In fact it seems like you're in more danger up there with arrows and direct rockets constantly coming at you than you are a threat to people on the point. Placing these two pieces of high ground closer to the point could make them more useful and used but would definitely change the feel of the map. Worth trying I think.

The little ammo packs are far to the sides and only give you, what, 4 or 5 rockets? Most of the time you rely on ammo from the enemies you kill, which is fine, but these side packs don't seem useful. One spawning right in the middle of the point, like in koth_ultiduo_r_b7 could be good, or perhaps atop the two high stumps to incentivize them a bit.

Ryan is awesome. I've played with him for several seasons in a row now. Ryan was a last-minute roamer pickup who was pretty inexperienced and weak at first, but now, seasons later, is really good. He is super smart about the game but also his personal dm power has become quite strong. My team mostly went their own ways after this last season and Ryan also wanted to try something different--On my teams he was usually limited to a very conservative flank defender style of play which is often not easy but he stepped up and did it very well. Anyway I love this dude. He's a great friend and I hope he finds a good team to roam for that will let him keep developing as a player. \o/

I don't think a large map is necessarily a bad thing. It has its disadvantages but also upsides. All of my map ideas (including the finished one: http://www.teamfortress.tv/35172/ultiduo-sacred ) have been quite large. This naturally means that it takes longer for the respawning team to come out of spawn and move forward to the point or wherever the other dudes are holding. The way it seems to work on all ultiduo maps is the team that doesn't own the point respawns damn near as instantly as possible while the team that does own it is a bit longer (maybe double?) which allows the attackers time to stand on the point and cap after killing the defenders.

I would see just how short you can make the respawn timer for the team who does own the point. If it's so short that they can quickly come out and defend the point from the attackers capping then it might be too short. If there's no such issue then you should be good. Basically make them all as short as possible and adjust from there imo...