Part 18

Explore Team Fortress Classic skill measurement systems like ratio, +/-, and team points. Discover the author's personal point system for accurate skill assessment.

Several methods exist to measure skill in Team Fortress Classic, each with its own limitations.

Ratio System: This system tracks kills versus deaths. While an improvement, it doesn't fully capture skill. For example, a Scout might sacrifice lives to capture control points (CPs), leading to a lower ratio, while a Heavy (HW) staying in the base killing Scouts could achieve a high ratio with minimal effort. Similarly, a careful Sniper with 12 kills and 0 deaths might have a perfect ratio but have contributed relatively little.

+/- System: Similar to sports scoring, this system calculates your points minus your kills. However, it can be easily manipulated. A Scout capturing an unguarded flagroom or a defensive Engineer in Dustbowl could achieve a high +/- rating without necessarily demonstrating overall skill.

Team Points: This method measures how often your team wins. It's flawed because individual skill can be overshadowed by a less skilled team, making wins difficult regardless of personal performance.

Author's Point System: The author devised a personal system believed to be the most accurate measure of skill. This method involves playing on a variety of servers (ranging from easy to servers used for best practice like Phat Farm, and including servers like ThOl, HomeLan, GF Games Dustbowl/Avanti, and Vendetta's Blood Feud), recording kills, deaths, class used, server type, and team win status. Scores with too many easy captures or high ping are discarded, as are the top five and bottom five scores. After over 50 trials, the author achieved a ratio of 3.97:1, a +/- rating of +476, and wins roughly 7.5 out of 10 times. This system accounts for a wide range of performance, from exceptional scores like 102-5 on Dustbowl to poor scores on servers like Phat Farm, providing a more reliable assessment of skill over time.

FAQ

When I'm a Sniper, how do I make the Red Dot appear?
Select weapon number 2 and hold down your primary fire button (default key: left mouse button). The dot will appear.

Where do I put the flag?
Read the level summary that pops up before the match begins. That will tell you.

Why do I keep dying?
Whenever you die, the type of weapon that killed you is shown in the upper right corner of the screen. If you cannot identify the weapon, it was likely a Sniper or a Spy.

I keep losing health but no one is hitting me. What's happening?
You have likely been poisoned by a Medic. When a Medic uses their Medkit on an enemy, it poisons them, causing periodic health loss until death. A mask-looking icon flashing on and off in the lower left corner of your screen indicates poison. Avoid teammates, as it can infect them. The poison can only be cured by dying or being healed by a friendly Medic. Medics cannot infect other Medics. Switching teams and back can also remove the poison, though this is considered a cheap tactic.

Occasionally I see people flying through the air at high speeds. How do I do that?
Medics, Scouts, Demos, and Soldiers can launch themselves or others. Refer to the Scout, Demo, and Soldier sections of the Class Guide for instructions.

How do I spray paint?
The default key is T. You can change your spray paint in the Customize menu under Multiplayer when you first start the Team Fortress Classic application. You can also create your own spray; see section VI of this strategy guide.