Xeh speaks about ETF

Today I will try to introduce to you a forsaken mod. ETF (Enemy Territory Fortress) is a free modification for the popular free game Wolfenstein Enemy Territory. This mod is actually a direct port of the once very popular Quake 3 Fortress mod in it's prime version of 2.3. The first ETF mod was released in January 2005.


For those who had not yet well understood what is ETF, I put a video from the mod in it's 1.0 version :




Can you introduce yourself a bit for the etpro community ?
My name is Darren Daly, im 38 live in Telford, England and basically i enjoy gaming, football, usualy guy stuff.


How and when did you discover about etf ?
I've played Fortress from the start in around 1998/99 to now. I've played through Quakeworld Team Fortress with the uk clan Alien Raiders where I was a member, which then moved to Quake 3 Fortess where I became the 2nd in command with my friend Lightning who is actually Vicki, a gaming female (a rare thing in those days). She was the leader and she began the clan back in QWTF, during the Q3F Days the players numbers became less and less and we merged with Clan Nice to become Clan Second Wave. In 2005 it was annouced that Q3F was to be ported to the free Enemy Territory Engine to try and boost player numbers and it worked for a couple of years but as more and more games came out less players as it is with any game eventually they move on. But there is still a number of hardcore players as there is for any mod, game who love it unconditionally.


Besides etf do you play an other games ?
I've played a lot of TF2, we did venture into the clan side at the beginning but everything we knew about fortress had to be rewritten to tf2. It's a entirely different game and set of rules. I play fifa and football manager games a lot, I am a big fan of the old game red alert part of the command and conquer series that on a lan game is some fun stuff. I'm not a fanboy of every new game that comes out they are much of a muchness.


What do you love about etf ?
Well, the community for one is so tight of course, we have the moaners like everyone has no names mentioned but we all get on, stick together have a laugh and enjoy the game, and of course the game itself. It's so fast, action packed, ETF has evolved into something quite different than anything else I've played, in a split second in a team game if you make the wrong choice it can have quite a change on your teams fortunes. You need to play as a team or you have no chance, the game is so fast. Even the slowest class can get up a real speed on some maps, of course reducing health as you go, with grenade and rocket jumps, concussion/stun grenades for the faster offence classes it all adds up to one hell of a ride. You can watch this video :
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1732267869928602594#


Explain us how etf gather is working ?
ETFgather is basically a gather/pickup as we are a small community we reside in that channel, you have a empty topic and can set it to anything upto 16 players 2v2,3v3,4v4,6v6 or 8v8 the latter being how clangames used to be. There are different sized maps which depending on the player numbers you can chose from by voting for them as you add yourself to the topic. When the topic is filled the bot picks 2 sets of teams and off to the server you go. Normally we play 2 x 15 mins rounds one team defends while the other attacks then after 15 mins you swap over and whoever has the most caps or points depending on the mapstyle wins. Or in a 8v8 game you play a full 30 min round with both teams attacking and defending at the same time, its very exhilirating as the scores are constantly changing.


Did ETF have any active tournament or cup at the moment ? If no, do you think you can run one so etpro players can discover the game ?
Currently there is a small 2v2 cup going on, but we have had a few different tournaments with 2v2 and 4v4 teams. The player numbers are not as high as we would like, if any ETPro players wish to try the game then we welcome everyone. We always have and always will, ETF does has a steep learning curve but we can help everyone and depending on how many newcomers we get, we can even try to have a newplayer cup or league for teams to try it out if need be.


What is the best moment/action you remember in the game or in a war ?
Best moment, action ... Well in some clan games there has been some last second caps, once I remember on forts we were behind by 1 cap and our medic concussion stunned jumped from the water to the flag capture point on the forts sniperdeck to tie the game with seconds left. In the latter stages of ETF towards the end of the full 8v8 league I was playing for a team who hadn't won all season and we played AGO one of the better teams on a map called Crossfire 2. Somehow we managed to pull out a win and that was a memorable acheivement, I'm always one for a underdog :)


What are your favorite players or lineup ?
Well actually there is a game being arranged at the moment which is sweden vs rest of the world.
Swe Team : (Scandanavian)
Sock - Flo - Killah - Molle - Hufs - Scyth - Oson - DjRun
vs
'Rest of World' :
/ Wort - KaOs - Haunter - Sharky - Toes - Paski - BC1 - sash

The finns used to domainate but they all moved onto tf2 bar one or two and now the swedes rules all nice guys and most have been playing for as long as I have.


What have you done/achieve for etf ?
Well before #etfgather we had #kgather where I was part of the admin team, same sort of setup and that run for a few years. We've kept etf alive really with the small community we have, still have gathers,pickup games every day, cups and tournamnets. In the future we hope to build the playerbase up, in our eyes every new player must be treated with a good manner, respect and a friendly, helpful attitude ...


Do you think ETPro players will like etf ?
"ETpro" guys should enjoy ETF as it has 9 different classes each with its own unique abilitys, its quick, fast, fun and different from what they are used to. If say a clan of ETpro guys try the mod out one evening all together, you tend to get a better feel for the game with a full server than you would running round on your own. The mod has basic bots but they are nothing like the bots nowadays.


Can you describe fast each classes ?
- The recon is a fast athletic type class, low armor and speedy to run in grab the flag and run out. He has the fastest speed of all the classes but also carries a concussion/stun grenade to do conc/stun jumps
- The sniper carries a normal grenade which you can do jumps with but vastly reduce his health, the soldier has tough armor and can either grenade or rocketjump or even both to get highup, all the classes can bunnyhop as well which makes you go even faster after you start moving, you dont hold down your forward key but jump instead. This way you get air control using strafe and turning mouse slightly that works both in conc/stun jumps or bunnyhopping
- The grenadier/demoman uses his grenades as most classes or his pipebombs to jump as well or again a mixture of the two
- The medic has a normal grenade and stun/conc grenade he and the solder are the two most used offence classes as he can get around maps quickly and cause damage as can the soldier
- The flamer can use his normal gren for jumps and his flaming rocket launcher to help him jump and bunnyhop not as much as the soldier but with practice you can master it.
- The minigunner is the slowest class of all but as he is the most armoured he can do 2-3 grenjumps to get round on some open maps he can be a good offence class to power forward do some heavy damage for the faster classes to exploit the agent and engineer both carry grenades as normal and can use then to greande jump then bunnyhop around the map
You get a better list of the classes here on the old official site via the waybackmachines website : http://web.archive.org/web/20050403162654/http://www.etfgame.com/guides/classes.shtml


Alright, I don't think I have more questions for now but if you want to add something :
Get your friends, clan mates together, try etf for one night as a group, see how fun it is and spread the word, it may not be a eye candy top of the range shooter but its fast, fun and is still being played, how many other games have died a death and been shelved "try it you never know you might like it".




And for more infos : http://www.crossfire.nu/?x=news&mode=item&id=7389