[Yeef]

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:

1. Defensive Buff - Reduces damage taken (applies to nearby robots as well)
2. Regeneration - Bomb-carrier gains health every second.
3. 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/2180...stening-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.

[NSQuote]

QUOTE'S POST OF THINGS THAT KILL PEOPLE PRETTY ABOVE AVERAGE:

Engineer with Level 3: You really can't go wrong with a Level 3 Engineer. His Sentry has an extremely high dps and with the Wrangler you can take out faraway enemies picking at your Sentry and focus down Sentry Busters. His Dispenser can be upgraded to have a larger radius and quickly resupplies teammates on the front lines, and his Teleporters can be upgraded into two way Teleporters, allowwing you to quickly defend the back field and front field and upgrade without the long trek back and forth. In my opinion Wrench attack speed and maximum metal are two of the most important things to upgrade: you can upgrade and repair Sentries extremely fast, tanking massive amounts of damage. From there I would suggest upgrading building passives such as Sentry health and firing speed, Dispenser radius, and two way teleporters. If you plan to roam a little bit the Widowmaker is perfect: with 600 ammo (a 30 clip size), penetration, and increased firing speed you can quickly deal damage and regain metal. I recommend against the Disposable Sentry and Mini Sentries in general, as it is a large investment that does very little damage.

Demoknight: You might be thinking to yourself, "Demoknight, really? The guy who walks at people with a sword and can be beaten by moving out of the way?" but just wait until you see how powerful he is fully upgraded with the Targe and Eyelander. For every kill you get 100 health back, you deal double damage, swing 40% faster, run 30% faster on top of your Eyelander boost, and most importantly after every kill have 4 seconds of critical hits. One critical hit deals 390 damage, enough to kill a Heavy in one swing. Once you get your crits from a single kill you shred absolutely everything into ribbons. Plus, you still have your passive Targe resistances which you can upgrade even further.

Beggar's Bazooka Soldier: Hold M1 to load up to eleven rockets out of your fifty into your tube at extremely fast speeds and release them in a hellish barrage at Direct Hit speeds and boosted damage. Apply a Kritz Canteen and let go, turning everything in front of you into chunky salsa. Repeat with your now filled Buff Banner to turn everything into slightly less chunky salsa and help your other teammates on the front lines. Keep in mind you can't gain ammo from Dispensers, so roam a bit for ammo packs and ask your teammates to use the Dispenser in exchange for glorious mini crits.

Mad Milk Scout: Mad Milk Scouts have two important jobs: collect all the credits so you can upgrade further and gain credit bonuses and slow waves with your quickly regenerating Mad Milk and Sandman balls. Mad Milk takes about five second to regenerate, slows enemies 35%, and makes it so your teammates gain back 60% of the damage they deal as health. Your Sandman balls can stun enemies, mark them for death, and you can have seven balls at a time. Plus, instant respawns so you can clear the backfield and health rewarded on credit pickup to further increase survivability. Adding onto your movement speed and jump height allows you to become Sanic the Hadgehog, if Sanic threw bottles of Milk at people.

Heavy Weapons Guy: He's Heavy, you know what to do (hint: w and m1). Upgrade your Minigun so it has a larger ammo pool, deals more damage, penetrates targets, and shoots down projectiles. Do Heavy things. Press M2 to throw your Sandvich to a dying teammate and they will love you forever.

[∀ Narayan]

Cool thread! I've yet to try this mode out, but it would be nice to play it with some GAFers.

[Jake Tower]

MvM has Giant Flare Pyros... wearing sombreros.

Pic to come!

[Nekofrog]

Fully upgraded Mad Milk is straight OP. Regen time of like 5 seconds, adds +35% slow to anything it hits (and has splash), plus the default heal affect for anyone who damages a splashed target.

Never had a single sentry buster or oversized mob with a bomb make it past us in a whole night if I used my milk.

[Jake Tower]

connect 76.12.190.168:27015; password r00tacc3ss

Need one more for ADVANCED MODE MADNESS!

[BlueSteel]

connect 76.12.190.168:27015; password r00tacc3ss Need one more for ADVANCED MODE MADNESS!

Yes please. We need one more person C:

[Perfect Cha0s]

Yes please. We need one more person C:

Did everyone leave? I went to answer the call and the server's empty. :3

[Htown]

It looks like the matchmaking is un-fucked now, so I guess the patch helped. Also not getting the glitch where the round continues after you fail the wave.

[davonaytor]

Does this mode add new Achievements?

[Yeef]

Does this mode add new Achievements?

Yup. You can see them here at the bottom: http://www.teamfortress.com/mvm/bounty/

[ArtistDude88]

To anyone who goes Heavy and gets the push back rage meter, press your taunt button to activate it! (I had to ask to find this out) Just don't taunt before the meter's full or you will actually taunt (and probably die). Extremely helpful for pushing back giants with the bomb or pinning the Sentry Busters in a corner! Just make sure you have an Uber canteen or 2 :P

[thetrin]

Love playing MvM with gaffers. Might hop on in a bit. I'm still missing one of the basic mission completions for the achievement.

[Dusk Golem]

I have found great success by using the Heavy with The Huo Long Heatmaker. It consumes ammo quickly, but you can increase the capacity to 500 and setting all the robots on fire around you (especially all those nasty charging scouts) is credit to team (an ammo canteen is also helpful, especially if you have a medic to aid you with the crits and ubers).

I've been having a lot of fun in this mode with friends, we recently started doing the advanced maps.

[Perfect Cha0s]

Nothing quite like running around with the maxed out run speed sawing down giant soldiers as a medic! lol

[RobotHaus]

The only time I've been in a decent game was when I was playing as a Heavy. I did standard equipment and Natascha with some ammo in the canteen. I can slow things down and shoot multiple people at the same time. You'd be surprised how few people try to actually slow down things in this mode.

[BlueSteel]

oof we'll get'em next time guys.

[thetrin]

Argh, I really just want to do Manoveurs. It's the only basic mission I'm still missing for that achievement. It's killing me!

[Sgt.Pepper]

Fuck those Steel Gauntles. Also, more people need to learn how play engie, it reduces my picks a lot.

[Jake Tower]

MvM has Giant Flare Pyros... wearing sombreros. Pic to come!

[speedpop]

If Speedy Gonzales was a robot with a flare gun....

[TheOGB]

Thank you OP and NSQuote for illuminating facts and tactics that will greatly help me in this mode.

Mann-Up Mode sounds unnecessarily convoluted in its execution, but I get it now. Shit is fun all the same. Although now I have a bad habit of yelling "Oh dear god the robots are gonna kill us all" now. :P

[Jaagen]

Tried to connect to a random server last night and it was 13 minutes of waiting time before I could connect, so I ended up playing a regular game instead. But thanks for the GAF server list. I'll add those.

[Acerac]

Tried to connect to a random server last night and it was 13 minutes of waiting time before I could connect, so I ended up playing a regular game instead. But thanks for the GAF server list. I'll add those.

Queuing up normally is rather slow. Use the server list for faster access.

[JustinBB7]

Maybe worth noting in the OP that Mann Up mode is a shit ton harder then normal mode.

I only played 1 map in normal mode and it had 7 waves (which was easy as fuck), then I tried Mann Up and it had 8 (took us 2 hours to get to wave 8, then hl2.exe crashed for me). Does it depend on map or does Mann Up mode just get 1 more wave?

[spindoctor]

How many missions are there in the complete tour of duty? As in, how many tickets do you need to buy to complete it.

[Dreams-Visions]

How many missions are there in the complete tour of duty? As in, how many tickets do you need to buy to complete it.

6 missions of varying wave length. some missions have 3 waves. some have 8. seems completely random.

also,

Mann Up frustration paid off.

Got a Strange Gold Botkiller Flamethrower. Seems to be very rare indeed.

[duckroll]

Yay! An OT!

[derFeef]

Joined my first game. Midgame Wave 5, soldiers and demos raining down carnage, unbeatable holy shit.

[sophora]

Joined my first game. Midgame Wave 5, soldiers and demos raining down carnage, unbeatable holy shit.

There is something amazing and terrifying when I see a wave of nothing but Demobots and the rain of grenades from their launchers.

[Dreams-Visions]

Joined my first game. Midgame Wave 5, soldiers and demos raining down carnage, unbeatable holy shit.

canteen + uber + brass beast leveled up = dead soldiers and demos

or

demo + kritz medic. have him kritz you while you drop your stickies before the match starts. switch back to your primary weapon and don't detonate the kritz stickies until the demo/soldier wave are right on top of them. THEY ALL DIE. rinse and repeat.

[Aaron]

Finished all 7 waves. Oddly hardest wave was #2. Got junk I'll never use for prizes though.

[derFeef]

Would gladly play with the gaffers in Mann Up mode later.
But is it just me or is the bot movement a bit janky? I suspected them to be slower and not as twitchy, a bit weird but I guess I will get used to.

[Dakota47]

In my humble opinion this is the best thing has happened to TF2 since payload-mode. It's glorious. I really enjoy the challenge of Mann Up mode. It's tough as nails. Only finished one official mission thus far, but it felt like a real achievement.

[Dog Problems]

This is all I played Wednesday night and throughout Thursday but I've gotten bored with the three maps already. Still, it has so much potential and I look forward to more maps being added.

[Dandare4444]

Anybody up for some slaughter? i'm tired with randoms. Steam name is the same as my GAF name

[Boss Doggie]

So I take it I won't get those "drops" in non-official servers?

[Gowans]

Awesome, we have a OT!

I'll have to add the GAF servers to my favourites. Had a lot of fun playing this since launch.

The random games I've been in I've played engineer and the breakers are BRUTAL!

[Javaman]

6 missions of varying wave length. some missions have 3 waves. some have 8. seems completely random. also, Mann Up frustration paid off. Got a Strange Gold Botkiller Flamethrower. Seems to be very rare indeed.

Were you playing pyro during that round?

[Htown]

Guys.

Beggar's Bazooka.

[SteelAttack]

Great OT! :D

Played some awesome matches with GAF peeps last night. Hopefully I'll be able to join you guys again tonight.

[Jake Tower]

We need a crew of hardasses to beat Advanced Mode (free version of Mann Up).

Advanced Mode made us its bitch last night.

[NSQuote]

Anyone want to organize a Mann Up game for this afternoon? We've got a game planned for tonight, but I'm free all day. We can easily organize teams here on the forums, no last minute scrambling required.

TIME: 10 PM
MAP: Mannworks
MISSION: Machine Massacre
PLAYERS: NSQuote
Javaman
Fallengorn
Matt
Spaceb0y
Accidante

TIME: Some time today
MAP: Coaltown or Decoy
MISSION: Whichever none of us have beaten
PLAYERS: NSQuote
________
________
________
________
________

Quote this post and add your name to the second list if you would like to play.

[NihonTiger90]

Anyone want to organize a Mann Up game for this afternoon? We've got a game planned for tonight, but I'm free all day. We can easily organize teams here on the forums, no last minute scrambling required. TIME: 10 PM MAP: Mannworks MISSION: Machine Massacre PLAYERS: NSQuote Javaman Fallengorn Matt Spaceb0y Accidante TIME: Some time today MAP: Coaltown or Decoy MISSION: Whichever none of us have beaten PLAYERS: NSQuote NihonTiger ________ ________ ________ ________ Quote this post and add your name to the second list if you would like to play.

I'm down. Going to try to get some more MvM practice in first.

[Proven]

God dammit, I can't do anymore Mann Up until tomorrow night. And I missed last night!

Edit: Quote, if you start by 2pm EST today I can join.

[Razek]

Is this worth playing at all if I'm not interested in paying for Mann up mode? (Is it going to be too easy?)

[Frankenstrat]

Is this worth playing at all if I'm not interested in paying for Mann up mode? (Is it going to be too easy?)

If you're playing a public game, then mileage may vary on difficulty. If you have a team with enough engineers, then yes, it will be easy.

[NSQuote]

God dammit, I can't do anymore Mann Up until tomorrow night. And I missed last night! Edit: Quote, if you start by 2pm EST today I can join.

Yeah, I'm aiming for asap, we'll definitely have a full house by 2pm.

[Alienups]

Anyone want to organize a Mann Up game for this afternoon? We've got a game planned for tonight, but I'm free all day. We can easily organize teams here on the forums, no last minute scrambling required. TIME: 10 PM MAP: Mannworks MISSION: Machine Massacre PLAYERS: NSQuote Javaman Fallengorn Matt Spaceb0y Accidante TIME: Some time today MAP: Coaltown or Decoy MISSION: Whichever none of us have beaten PLAYERS: NSQuote Nihontiger Alien ________ ________ ________ Quote this post and add your name to the second list if you would like to play.

kk

[Jake Tower]

Is this worth playing at all if I'm not interested in paying for Mann up mode? (Is it going to be too easy?)

You can play the free version of Mann Up Mode, it is identical, you just don't get 'rare' loot drops or stat tracking.

Speaking of which, we need four players, RIGHT NOW! NO WAITING IN QUEUE!

connect 76.12.190.168:27035; password r00tacc3ss