Dang DM - you are so cool. I've been meaning to try out the whole pug thing, but I've been worried about sucking too badly
There is also a scrim channel where you can look for a team of 6 to go against your team of 6 which sounds fun.
Thanks for the map guides, I'll check it out and give you my thoughts. I've been watching some vids on getting to mid, it is a bit tougher as a soldier since some rocket jumps are required to get there. (you can use sv_cheats 1 in the console and then hurtme -99999 to get some practice in without killing yourself).
For anyone who is interested, here is the assorted info I have on pugs and the channels etc:
Scrim channel on IRC: #tf2scrim
How to get a tf2 pug:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cjZJqzwQ7Ihttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCPB8VTbiwkmibbit.com is a good irc client
A friend of Community Fortress, 550 aka Cinq-Cinq, has developed a TF2 pugbot that seeks to rectify some of the issues with the gather channel. He posted the following on the GotFrag forums:
I am starting a new PUG channel (#tf2.pug.na on irc.gamesurge.net) with a bot I made. I hope you guys will join and add this channel to your favorites.
I have put a lot of time in the making of the bot and sorting out all the stuff to makes this thing real. For now we have 2 servers, one NJ and one Chicago but we should get more going since a server provider agreed to help us with a bunch of 1000FPS servers. Those are on the way and should be up this weekend.
Since we are new we are seeking for admins. Anybody is invited to ask us about it. So, if your team is playing over .500 in any decent league you have great chances to get 2 spots in.
The following is the documentation provided by 550 for the new pugbot. It highlights some if its unique features...
Normal Mode
Teams are built randomly but you can add friends during the building process, which gives you good chances to play with them. In this mode there is two add options. You either add as a normal player or as a medic. As a medic you get 1 more friend slot and you are the first to be picked up. So your chances to play with your friends are almost at 100%. If you like playing this class and know what you are doing with it we encourage you to join as it.
Commands
!add
Add yourself to a recently started game. The only option this command have is the medic option. Which allow you to add to the PUG as a medic.
Examples :
!add
!add medic
!addfriend, !addfriends
Saves your friends to a list that the bot is going to read when you are getting added to a team. You can have 1 friend as any other class than medic and 2 friends as a medic. Note that you need to add your friends at every game building process, since the list is not save definitely. And adding friends improve your chance to play with them in the same team but never guarantee you to.
Examples :
!addfriend reptile
!addfriends glue carnage
!remove
Cancel your participation from a PUG you just subscribed. Note that you can't remove after the PUG has been filled to 12 players, so if you want to remove after that process you have to get yourself a substitute player. Ask the game admin about it.
Example :
!remove
Captain Mode
Teams are built by two captains that are selected by the bot, which are authorized turn by turn to pick a player to add to their teams. Both captains are selected randomly from the players that added to the PUG as medics. As a player you add to the PUG and when 12 players joined the process you simply wait to get picked by a captain. It is recommended to stay in the channel during this process in order to speak with your captain about your class preferences. When you add to a captain game you are strongly suggested to add as a class to help the captains to select the right players as the right class. Keep in mind that is not guaranteed you are going to get the spot as the class you requested. So, it is suggested to add more class choices if you feel comfortable with more than just one. Note that this mode doesn't allow the friend option from the normal mode. If you prefer to play with an other player you can either play as medic or talk about it to your captain.
Commands
!add
Add yourself to a recently started game. Specify the classes you prefer to play as if you want to improve your chances to get picked by a captain as one of them. Available choices are : demo, medic, scout, soldier.
Examples :
!add
!add demo
!add soldier demo
!pick
This command is reserved to captains. If you are a captain, you can use this command to add a player to your team. But this command works only during your picking turn. So, wait until the other captain has made his choice before using it. And when it's your turn, pay attention to the information the bot is sending you.
Examples :
!pick 2 soldier
!pick reptile scout
!pick demo enigma
!remove
Cancel your participation from a PUG you just subscribed. Note that you can't remove after the PUG has been filled to 12 players, so if you want to remove after that process you have to get yourself a substitute player. Ask the game admin about it.
Example :
!remove
General
Many general commands are available to get information about the ongoing process or to interact with the other users in the channel.
Commands
!ip
Gives you the game server IP and password for the next match.
Example :
!ip
!voice
Gives you the voice server IP, server port, server password password and some information about the voice program which allow you to access the server.
Example :
!voice
!vote
Allow you to rate an other IRC user. The rating has to be a numeric value ranging from 0 to 10. We recommend you to vote good behaviours as much as bad ones. Note that you can vote many times a user but it only updates the rating you gave him.
Example :
!vote peej11 0
