Civilian

This article is about the scrapped class known as the Civilian and the Civilian community fad. For the weapon skin grade, see Decorated.

Civilian
Basic Information
Icon:	N/A
Type:	N/A
Health:	50 /75
Speed:	100%

“

Stop the courier! Click to listen — The Administrator

”

The Civilian is a scrapped class in Team Fortress 2. He is the unfinished equivalent of the Civilian class from Team Fortress and Team Fortress Classic.

Civilian class

By default, the Civilian class shares the Scout class model, though this can be changed to other class models. He possesses very low health – the lowest of any class – and the same as the Civilian from the Team Fortress Classic series of the game. He does not have any weapons and cannot attack, lacks both voice commands and taunts, and uses generic speech files when he is wounded or killed. Civilians do not possess animations except for the ragdoll or gibbing effect upon death, and therefore appear to glide along the ground in a reference pose when moving. The Civilian was originally able to be selected by typing join_class civilian into the console upon joining a game.

The existence of the Civilian class seems to indicate a planned updated version of the VIP Escort game mode from the Team Fortress classic series of games. Alternatively, the class may have been included in the game files so that independent map makers and modders could add this feature. Additionally, a sound file exists in the VPK in which the Administrator commands the team to "Stop the courier!", suggesting an official Hunted game mode was in the works at some point.

Tenth class legacy

While the Civilian class may have been removed from the final release, the possibility remains that a tenth class may or may not arrive in the future. In an interview with Escapist Magazine in 2009, Robin Walker said:

“

Walker says they haven't made any decisions about adding new classes yet, but that doesn't mean they're not considering them. "We've got several new class designs floating around, some of which we like a lot, but right now we're focusing on the broadening of our existing classes through the addition of the unlockables" — Robin Walker in an interview with Escapist Magazine's Nathan Meunier

”

However, in a later interview with TFPortal.de, Walker redacted his point on the matter:

“

TFPortal.de: In another interview, you mentioned about a 10th Class for Team Fortress 2? Do you think that would be a good idea? We have now 3 Supporter Classes, 3 Offense Classes, and 3 Defense Classes. Also the part of 9 Classes which we got in Team Fortress Classic. Robin Walker: We've got some ideas for further classes, but right now we're focusing on new game modes and items that are additive to all classes. A 10th class is something we'd really like to do, it's just an order of magnitude more work than adding a new unlockable. Also, the 9 classes provide a wide spread of gameplay for us, and often we find that new class ideas are more like subclasses of an existing class. In some cases, we're able to design an unlockable that provides a boost to that style of play, essentially creating the subclass in the game. — Robin Walker in an interview with tfportal.de

”

Since the release of Team Fortress 2, the Tenth Class, while teased during development, had become a running joke with the developers, beleaguering the community even more.

The Guard Dog, a proposed fake Tenth Class.

“

TUESDAY, APRIL 6th, 2010 ...Big team meeting today. I came prepared. I've been programming a playable demo version of TF2 with an entirely new tenth class. I had to teach myself programming, modeling, level design, character design, and about twenty other skills, but I think the results speak for themselves. Everybody took a crack at playing it. "This is pretty balanced gameplay," admitted Robin. "I like how we haven't found any hats yet," said Brandon Reinhart. "It sets up the suspense better. I'm all, 'When am I going to find a hat already?'" Everyone laughed. "I hope it's soon, I can't wait much longer," said Corey Peters. "Look how stupid this tenth class's bare head looks!" More big laughs. "Actually, there aren't any hats in this demo," I said, chuckling. Deathly silence. Then everybody got up at once and stopped playing. Eric Smith got really mad and threw his keyboard through a wall, then stormed out and went home. Robin asked to speak to me privately. — TF2 Blog's A Week in the Life of the TF2 Team blog entry

”

The joke has not escaped the fans either. The idea of a new member to enter the fray has inspired the community to search through for clues in each game patch and even design their own idea of a tenth class; The most well-known would be the Guard Dog Update, a fan-made update by graphic designer Diogo Lima. The idea proposed of a dog fitted with a machine to help be a suitable contributing mercenary in battle; this design with its attention to detail, imitated TF2 style and convincing character model took the community by storm and even got the attention of Valve, sending a very (jokingly) passive-aggressive thank you letter from Saxton Hale himself.

Additionally, several maps like Harvest Event and Sandcastle contain a tombstone that reads "RIP The Tenth Class".

The reference pose

The reference pose is often referred to as a few nicknames, such as "the Civilian", "T-posing", or "A-posing." It places the player in a state with no weapons or animations. Being in a reference pose does not affect class-specific stats or abilities (such as the Scout's double jump). The reference pose also quite rarely occurs to players of any class whose connection to a server lags before or during spawning.

Class	Method
Scout	Equip and switch to the Flying Guillotine, Mad Milk, or Bonk! Atomic Punch. Walk outside of your spawn room and type kill in the console. When you respawn, quickly go back to your dropped weapon. Switch to the same weapon and use it by holding down primary fire. While still holding down primary fire, pick up the dropped item. You are now in the reference pose, indicated by a bugged viewmodel.
Soldier
	Equip and switch to the Beggar's Bazooka. Walk outside of your spawn room and type kill in the console. When you respawn, quickly go back to your dropped Beggar's Bazooka. Switch to it and empty its ammo by holding down primary fire. The last rocket cannot be a misfire. While still holding down primary fire, pick up the dropped Beggar's Bazooka. You are now in the reference pose, indicated by a bugged viewmodel.
	By equipping the Cow Mangler 5000 and the Mantreads, then rocket jumping high enough to take fall damage, you may occasionally switch to the reference pose until you land on either the ground or another player.
	You can use any of the three banners and the B.A.S.E. Jumper to enter the reference pose. Equip any of the banners, then charge them up by damaging another player; once charged, go into your loadout and equip the B.A.S.E. Jumper. Once done, use the banner by holding down primary fire. Now return to the spawn and simply walk into the Resupply Cabinet. You are now in the reference pose indicated by a bugged viewmodel.  You will not have the effects of the banner you are using, but you can use the B.A.S.E. Jumper's parachute.
Pyro
	Equip and switch to any primary that can airblast. Walk outside of your spawn room and type kill in the console. When you respawn, quickly go back to your dropped primary. Switch to it and empty its ammo by holding down alt-fire. While still holding down alt-fire, pick up the dropped primary. You are now in the reference pose, indicated by a bugged viewmodel.
	Zombie Infection only If you use the Thermal Thruster just as you get turned into the first Zombie, you enter the reference pose.
Demoman
	Equip the B.A.S.E. Jumper and any non-shield secondary. With your secondary weapon out, switch to any shield and refresh your loadout by either swapping the weapons in spawn or touching the Resupply cabinet. You are now in the reference pose, indicated by a bugged viewmodel.  You will not be able to charge with your shield while in the reference pose, but you can use the B.A.S.E. Jumper's parachute.
Heavy
	Equip and switch to any primary (the Huo-Long Heater is recommended due to its increased ammo consumption rate). Type kill in the console. When you respawn, quickly go back to your dropped primary. Empty your current weapon by holding primary fire. While still holding down primary fire, pick up the weapon you dropped when you died. You are now in the reference pose, indicated by a bugged viewmodel.
	Zombie Infection only If you unrev your primary just as you get turned into the first Zombie, you will enter the reference pose.
Sniper	Equip and switch to the Jarate. Walk outside of your spawn room and type kill in the console. When you respawn, quickly go back to your dropped weapon. Switch to the same weapon and use it by holding down primary fire. While still holding down primary fire, pick up the dropped item. You are now in the reference pose, indicated by a bugged viewmodel.
All classes	While playing any class, find a friendly Engineer's Dispenser. Get close to their Dispenser and type kill in console. After respawning, run over and pick up your recently dropped weapon to reset its disappear timer. Try to pick it up while standing in the Dispenser (easier to do if the Dispenser is up against a wall).
	Versus Saxton Hale only While in Setup time, use the command autoteam and then select the class you were playing as to enter the reference pose.
	Mann vs. Machine only While playing as any class, equip a weapon that you can taunt with. Walk outside of the spawn room and equip a different weapon that you can also taunt with. Go back into the spawn room and make sure you have enough money left for an upgrade. While holding the item, go towards the Upgrade Station then taunt. While the taunt is playing, get an upgrade. When you get out of the Upgrade Station, you are in the reference pose as indicated by the bugged viewmodel.  If done with a consumable, you can only equip a similar consumable (e.g. if you equip a Sandvich, you have to equip another food item).

Update history

December 20, 2007 Patch

• Prevented players from playing the Civilian class.

July 22, 2011 Patch

• [Undocumented] Fixed players going in the reference pose when changing the currently-held weapon and taunting near a resupply locker.

August 23, 2011 Patch

• Fixed supply closets regenerating players while they are taunting.

March 29, 2018 Patch

• Fixed Scouts taking to the skies

Trivia

• The Sniper keeps a bobblehead of the Civilian from the Team Fortress classic series of games in his RV. This made a brief cameo appearance at the beginning of Meet the Sniper.
• The original Civilian class possesses 5 completely unique death screams and 2 Medic calls, reused from Day of Defeat: Source. These sounds can still be found in the game files under crit_death1-5.wav in the player folder. These were also the death sounds for all classes before they were given unique voice acting: One, Two, Three, Four, Five.

Gallery

• 

  The Civilian in RED.

• 

  The original Civilian class from the Team Fortress classic series of games.

• 

  A caricature of the Civilian (Classic) on the right as seen in Meet the Sniper.

See also

• Civilian (Classic)
• Team Fortress 2 Classic
• The Hunted
• Unused content
• Glitches
• Griefing
• Exploits
• Community fads