What is Mann vs. Machine?
Mann vs. Machine (MvM) is the co-op mode for Team Fortress. Rather than having players battle one another, they join forces against an army of robots lead by Gray Mann.
The official web site for MvM can be found here: http://www.teamfortress.com/mvm/
Servers:
A list of GAF-hosted MvM servers can be found here: http://pastebin.com/X07u1Sn0
The list is maintained by Proven, so if you have any questions or comments, contact him.
How is MvM different from normal TF2?
MvM is a co-op mode where players work together against masses of computer-controlled opponents. Unlike standard TF2, MvM is limited to 6 human players. By picking up the money dropped destroyed robots, players can purchase upgrades for their characters and weapons. Players can also spend money to fill their canteens.
Robot attacks are broken down into waves. During a wave, players cannot change their classes or loadouts. Between waves, engineer buildings build instantly at max level. Mediguns also charge at a greatly increased rate.
Classes
The 9 classes are Scout, Soldier, Pyro, Demoman, Heavy, Engineer, Medic, Sniper and Spy. For more details on the classes, visit the linked wiki pages or see the Team Fortress 2 Official Thread.
Upgrades
Upgrades allow you to augment your character's normal abilities to even the odds a bit. Upgrades are class-specific and weapon-specific, so if you switch classes and/or weapons mid-game you won't be able to take advantage of the upgrades that you've already purchased. However, upgrades are persistent, so if you switch back to the class and/or weapon you switched away from later, you'll still retain any upgrades that you already had.
Canteens are single-use power ups that you can purchase with your currency. Canteens give you temporary, but powerful bonuses that can help with fighting the robot hordes. A canteen can hold only a single ability, but up may hold up to three uses of that ability. Currently, the available abilities are:
- Crit Charge - Gives you full Crits for a few seconds
- Uber Charge - Makes you invulnerable for a few seconds
- Ammo Refill - Instantly refills your loaded and reserve ammo for all weapons.
- Teleport - Teleports you back to the spawn room.
- Building (Engineer only) - Instantly upgrades all of your buildings to their maximum level.
To use a canteen, you must equip it on your "Action" slot in the loadout menu. During the game, pressing the action key (default 'H') will use a canteen charge. Players are awarded a free canteen for completing their first MvM mission, however, for the impatient, they can also be crafted using 4 scrap metal.
Robots and Waves
With one exception, the robots are all based on the normal classes. Their goal is to deliver a bomb to the player spawn and make it explode. Your goal is to stop them. The robot carrying the bomb will move at half of its normal speed, however, as long as the same robot is carrying the bomb, that robot will taunt every few seconds, giving itself a power-up that lasts until it is killed. It is important to kill the carrier as quickly as possible to keep it from activating all of the power-ups. The carrier bonuses are:
- Defensive Buff - Reduces damage taken (applies to nearby robots as well)
- Regeneration - Bomb-carrier gains health every second.
- Crits - Bomb-carrier gets full crits.
On the bottom of the screen, there is a display showing which power-ups the bomb carrier has active as well as a meter that shows how close it is to getting the next power-up.
In addition to the normal robots, there are also giant robots as well as tanks. Giant robots are exactly what they sound like. They're larger versions of the normal robots. Giant robots have increased health and armor and tend to have other bonuses and modifications as well (for example, there is one Giant Soldier Robot that gets full crits). When giant bots are carrying the bomb, they won't get the normal bomb-carrying bonuses.
Tanks are passive, moving vehicles with massive amounts of health. Tanks don't attack at all and are immune to status effects. All tanks carry a bomb beneath their hull. If a tank makes it all the way to the delivery site, it'll open its hull to drop the bomb, securing victory for the robots. The only way to stop a tank is to chip its massive health down to 0 before it makes it to the delivery site.
Maps, Missions and Difficulty
Currently, there are three official maps for MvM: Mannworks, Coal Town and Decoy. Each map has three 'missions' available by default. A mission is, simply, a number of waves designed as a single game. Most missions have 6 to 8 waves, though some have fewer. You can change missions via a vote or by having the server admin manually load a mission. It is possible (and relatively easy) to create your own missions. If you'd like to know how, skip ahead to the "Server Owners" section.
There are two types of 'difficulty' in MvM. Mission difficulty and Bot difficulty.
Generally, if someone is talking about difficulty, they'll be talking about mission difficulty. The default missions that Valve has created for each map are broken down into 2 difficulties (Normal and Advanced). Missions don't actually have a hard-coded difficulty, however. Valve has simply chosen to classify their missions that way.
The bots themselves also have difficulty levels. At lower levels, bots will be more oblivious and their aim won't be as good. At higher levels the bots will have great accuracy and awareness. Currently, bots are always set to medium, regardless of the mission. It is possible for a server admin to set the difficulty level of the bots to make the game harder or easier. Note: Changing the bot skill is flagged as a 'cheat', which means achievements can't be earned if the bot level is changed.
Joining a Game
To join a MvM game you can either use matchmaking, the server browser, connect directly or host your own game.
Matchmaking is the easiest way to find a game with available spots. You can create a party or enter the matchmaking pool solo. You then choose your mode (Mann-Up or Boot Camp), map and mission and hit search. The game will search for an available server and you'll join it with the rest of your party when your turn comes up in the queue.
The server browser allows you to search all available servers using filters and sorting to find one that fits the game you're interested in playing. It also allows you to bookmark your favorite servers so you can find them again easily.
Connecting directly requires you to activate and open the developers console ('~' by default) and know the IP address of the server you'd like to connect to. Simply type 'connect [ip]' in the console, replacing [ip] with the server IP address.
Hosting your own game is as simple as clicking the "+" on the server button to create your own server. If you want people from the internet to be able to join, you'll have to do forward some ports and change a few settings. For more information, check here: http://bryancao.tumblr.com/post/2180848795/hosting-a-team-fortress-2-listening-server
Mann-Up Mode
Mann-up mode is a paid version of MvM that allows players to win items. Players can buy tickets ($0.99 each) and vouchers ($1.99 each) to obtain items. In order to play Mann-Up you must have a ticket. Upon successfully completing a Mann-Up mission, a ticket is consumed and you're given an item. Vouchers can also be used to increase the number of items awarded to the party. If you lose or quit, your tickets and vouchers are not consumed.
The items received from Mann-Up mode are the same ones available in the random drop system. Namely, weapons that are abundant and easily obtainable. However, by completing a "Tour" (six different missions) in Mann-Up mode, you can earn a random, cosmetic item as well as a badge (also cosmetic).
The important thing to note is that all missions found in Mann-Up mode are also available in normal games. Mann-Up mode is strictly for those who want to earn cosmetic items.
Server Owners
Mission Files, Mission Cycle & Custom Missions
In MvM, mission cycles replace the normal map cycle. The default mission cycle is tf_mvm_missioncycle.res. The mission cycle determines which order missions and maps are played in should no one vote to change them.
Mission files are simple text files with the .pop extension. They are located in the tf/scripts/population directory. In the 'example' directory there is an example file that outlines the syntax of the population files. File names must be the same as the map name (i.e. mvm_mannworks.pop), but can have additional text, separated by an underscore (i.e. mvm_manworks_advanced.pop). If you want to create your own missions, grab your favorite text editor and get to work!
To load the new missions, players can vote for it as normal, or you can use the tf_mvm_popfile cvar.
To change the overall difficulty of the bots, you can set tf_mvm_skill. By default, it's set to 3. The limits are 1 (easy) and 5 (hard). This cvar is flagged as a cheat, so to change it you must enable sv_cheats. To change the difficulty without allowing your users to use cheats type sv_cheats 1; tf_mvm_skill #;sv_cheats 0 all on a single line (replacing # with your number of choice).
Some other cvars you may want to change are listed below:
- tf_mvm_min_players_to_start - This determines how many people are required before you can start the game. By default this is set to 3. If you want to try going it alone, you can set this to 1. If you want to ONLY play with a full team, you can set this to 6.
- mp_allowspectators - It's recommended you set this to 0. Only 6 people can play at a time. Anyone else is moved to spectator. Spectating players still occupy server slots and, therefore, can mess with the bot spawns (bots use server slots as well).
- mp_timelimit - It's recommended you set this to 0. This sets the time limit of the map in minutes. Setting it to 0 means the map won't change until a map change is voted for or a group finishes a mission.
