Using ff.pickup
Before starting
You should first have played Fortress Forever in public games for about a month to learn all the in's and out's of the game.
Also, spectate a pickup before playing one. Join the #ff.pickup server when it has players in, and join the spectator team. The password for the pickup is "pickup". It's just there to stop new players wandering in by accident. Set your name to "[spec] <name>" or "[spectator] <name>". This will stop confusion when the pickup teams are being picked. Never use all team chat when spectating a game. Just use the spectator only (team) chat, as this will prevent you putting off the players in the pickup. Although pickup games don't really mean anything, people take them very seriously (most of the time).
Make sure to remember the following rules:
- No snipers or pyros
- No HWGuys on offence
- No going into yard on defence
- No cheating (kinda obvious)
- No deliberate team killing once the game has started.
Remember that friendly fire is on in a pickup, too! Don't spam grenades, or you may kill a teammate...
Using #ff.pickup
Either use an IRC client on QuakeNet to join #ff.pickup, or use this link: http://webchat.quakenet.org/?channels=ff.pickup
First, type in "!teams". This asks the Pickup Bot whether a pickup is waiting for players.
If Pickup Bot says "No pickup has been started", type "!last". This asks when the last pickup started.
If it is less than 40 minutes ago, wait, as pickups last 40 minutes. Generally, when the pickup ends, some of the players will to play another pickup.
If a pickup is waiting for players, and you want to join it, make sure to check you can play non-stop for the next hour. If you can't, don't join a match, or you may have to leave your team, and ruin the game for the other players.
If you're sure you're ready, type "!add". You will be added to the pickup players, and can now wait until the pickup starts. Make sure to check #ff.pickup regularly, as if you leave it, you may miss the start of the game, and you will be temporarily banned for not joining the pickup game.
If you want to, type "!nominate <mapname>". This will nominate a map for the map voting.
When the player list is full, the admin will take the game off of hold.
Then, the map voting will start. Type '1', '2' or '3' based on what map you want to vote for. Every now and again, the Pickup Bot will say how many votes have been entered.
You can re-vote at any time, by typing the number of the map you want to vote for instead.
Once the map votes are done, you will be sent a message from the Pickup Bot that looks like this: "connect 66.150.121.73:27015;password pickup"
Press the ` key in Fortress Forever, and copy and paste that line into your console. Alternatively, just join the pickup server normally, and use the password "pickup".
When you're in the game
If the map is "ff_dm_squeek", you can just mess around until the map switches.
When the map changes to the one voted for, mess around until the captains are ready (generally, if you end up as a captain, the regular players will notice you are new, and someone else will become a captain).
Then, everyone will switch to the Spectator team except for the two captains.
First, the Blue captain will pick a player. Then, the Red captain will pick two players. (to balance the teams, as Blue gets first pick) It carries on with each captain picking a player until the teams are full.
If your name is said, go to the team of the player who said it.
See 'Class Picking' below to decide which class to pick.
The other players will start using their microphones to discuss classes, tactics, etc. Try to listen to it all, but if you don't understand, just stay out of their way. ;P
Take the "prematch" time to use your console (`) and type:
bind "<key>" "say_team Incoming: %l"
This makes it so when you hit <key> (which you should have replaced with a letter), a message will be sent to your team in chat saying 'Incoming: <the location you're in>'. If you're playing as Engineer, and your SG is being destroyed (or it has been), hit the key, and someone will probably come and help.
Also remember to throw the flag if you're going to die. And make sure not to conc-jump into the flag if you don't know the layout of the map, or you may end up taking the flag further into the enemy base.
Class Set-ups
The following is a selection of common set-ups for a 4v4 pickup in order of how regularly they are used:
Offence:
- 2 Scouts, 2 Medic
- 3 Scouts, 1 Medic
- 2 Scouts, 1 Medic, 1 Soldier / Demoman
Defence:
- 1 Soldier, 1 HWGuy, 1 Demoman, 1 Engineer
- 2 Soldiers, 1 Demoman, 1 Engineer
- 1 Soldier, 1 HWGuy, 2 Demomen
For more information, go to: http://www.ffpickup.com/
