VS Saxton Hale Mode (custom game mode)

Saxton Hale as he appears in the mod.

“

The name's Saxton Hale! Australian, C.E.O. of MANN Co. and the man who's gonna burn this place to the ground! Click to listen — Saxton Hale

”

The VS Saxton Hale Mode is an unofficial "Juggernaut" variation of Arena Mode, in which teams RED and BLU are pitted against each other in a battle to the death. Whilst the primary rules of kill or be killed still apply, the modification involves one player, taking on the role of an overpowered Saxton Hale, on one team contending against the rest of the other team. Occasionally the roles may switch, as there are team-colored models for Vagineer and Christian Brutal Sniper. The mod was created by Dr. Eggman in October 2010. Some updates (August/September 2010) to the mod were done in collaboration with FlaminSarge.

Gameplay

This mode is similar to Arena: if a player dies, they will not respawn until the round has ended. On vsh maps, every player (save for one) is put onto RED, leaving the remaining BLU player in the role of Saxton Hale. Arena maps, however, will place Hale on a random team. Hale has unique stats which give him an advantage (such as increased health and a special jump ability), but can only use melee attacks to kill the other players, albeit with a 210% damage bonus. Because of this significant increase, most of Hale's attacks are one-hit kills.

A control point on the map will either enable after a certain elapsed time, or when the number of RED team players has dropped to a certain amount. At this point, either team is able to capture the control point and win the round.

In order to reward risky close-range combat with Hale, all melee weapons (barring the Spy's melee weapons) are given a Crit boost. Many actions that would instantly kill a normal player, such as a backstab or a kill taunt, will only deal a large amount of damage to Hale rather than killing him outright. Some servers have "Goomba Stomp" enabled, where if players jump and land on Saxton Hale and vice versa, a large amount of damage is applied, as well as in the chat, "Player Name" has goomba stomped "Saxton player name".

In addition, there is a chance that the single BLU player will become a different boss; most of these alternate bosses are varieties of internet memes or fads. Whilst several exclusive skins appear on specific servers (such as the Demopan), the core version of the mod includes a playable Horseless Headless Horsemann Junior (a smaller, player-sized HHH), the Vagineer, and the Christian Brutal Sniper. Meanwhile, other bosses have been created and developed based on Internet celebrities (Dr Octagonapus), Valve characters (Wheatley), other TF2 NPCs (TF2 Announcer) and others.

Boss Abilities

In order to provide balance for the greatly outnumbered boss, several abilities (most of which are from numerous classes) are available to the boss player. These include:

• Superjump: By crouching or alt-firing, looking up and releasing crouch/alt-fire, the player will be propelled upwards.
  • The Horseless Headless Horsemann Jr.'s Superjump teleports the boss to a random enemy. The boss is stunned for a few seconds, giving his prey a chance to escape.
• Super Duper Jump: A variation of the "Superjump" that protects Hale from instant death or becoming trapped by falling into a precipice.
  • The Horseless Headless Horsemann Jr.'s super duper jump as a teleport that stuns him longer than a normal teleport.
• Rage: When a boss has taken a set amount of damage (usually 1,900), his rage meter will be full. Taunting with a full rage meter will stun all nearby players and Sentry Guns, similarly to the Ghost.
  • The Vagineer's rage ability stuns players in a smaller range than Hale's and grants him an ÜberCharge which combines the Medi Gun invulnerability and the Quick-Fix Knock Back immunity.
  • The Christian Brutal Sniper's rage ability gives him a modified Huntsman that allows him full movement speed while charging up an arrow, but also has a small stun range.
• Equalizer Effect: All bosses' movement speed increases as they take more damage.
• Mantreads Effect: Falling onto players will deal damage similar in strength to a hit from Hale's fists.
• Weighdown: The ability to fall quickly, as to prevent getting stuck from Sentry Gun or Heavies Minigun recoil.

Strategy

Main article: Community VS Saxton Hale strategy

Balancing specifics

The bosses' health increases based on the number of players taking part in the game. The health follows a formula based upon the initial number of players on the enemy team at the start of the round. Health is calculated as [(760+n)×n]^1.04, where n is the initial number of players on the enemy team. When n<5, n increments by 2.

Saxton Hale (and other bosses) Health Number of players on the server Modifier (n) Max (spawn) health of boss 1 3 2046 10 10 9871 20 20 21761 23 23 25447 30 30 34232 31 31 35507 Some weapons equipped by players on RED will be changed into their default counterparts or edited for balance issues: Scout The Crit-a-Cola grants full Crits instead of Mini-Crits. The Fan O' War removes 5% of the enemy character's rage per hit. The Candy Cane causes a health pack to appear on hit. All Pistols deal Mini-Crits. The Shortstop's reload penalty is removed. The Wrap Assassin can now be thrown twice before having to recharge. Soldier All Soldier primary and secondary weapons (excluding the Dr. Grordbort's Victory Pack weapons) will perform Mini-Crits against an airborne boss (the weapons Mini-Crit airborne targets for up to 99999 seconds after weapon switch). The Direct Hit performs Crits in place of Mini-Crits. The Reserve Shooter has a much faster weapon switch speed and a slight damage buff. The Rocket Jumper is not allowed and is replaced with the default Rocket Launcher. The Battalion's Backup gives a +10 max health boost and, when used, will block a massive amount of damage from bosses. The Mantreads and the Gunboats reduce fall damage by 90%. Mantreads increase rocket jump distance. The Half-Zatoichi heals 35 health on hit and can overheal the player by up to 25 health. The weapon can be holstered after a hit. Pyro The Flare Gun and Detonator are replaced with a "Mega-Detonator", a customized Flare Gun that behaves like a Detonator, but allows for a very large Flare Jump at the expense of greater self-damage from explosions. The flare jump will propel the user a large distance regardless of whether it is detonated via alt-fire or via the flare exploding on contact with an object. The Axtinguisher and Postal Pummeler behave like the normal Fire Axe. The Powerjack gives the Pyro 25 health on hit and can overheal the player up to 50 health. When a Compression Blast is used on any boss, that boss's rage meter will increase slightly. In addition, using the Compression Blast on the Vagineer while he is UberCharged will take extra ammo and will lengthen the time of the Vagineer's rage. Demoman The Chargin' Targe and Splendid Screen block one hit from any boss, after which they are removed from the player for the duration of the round. Both weapons also grant the user Crits on all weapons. The Sticky Jumper is not allowed and is replaced with the default Stickybomb Launcher. The Half-Zatoichi heals 35 health on hit and can overheal the player by up to 25 health. The weapon can be holstered after a hit. The Eyelander, Horseless Headless Horsemann's Headtaker, and Nessie's Nine Iron gain heads on hit instead of on kill. Heavy Natascha is not allowed and is replaced with the Minigun. The Fists of Steel are not allowed and are replaced with Fists. The Killing Gloves of Boxing and the Gloves of Running Urgently are modified to allow the Heavy to run at 50% greater speed, but deal 7 damage per second while active. As Heavies are able to punch while stunned by a boss's rage, the Holiday Punch removes the stun effect if the Heavy is able to punch the boss. Engineer Metal is hard to find, as only small metal boxes are available. You may also get metal from your Dispenser. The Frontier Justice deals Crits as long as the Engineer's Sentry Gun is targeting the boss. All Pistols deal Crits. The Eureka Effect is not allowed and is replaced with the Wrench. Medic All Syringe Guns are replaced with a customized Syringe Gun that grants 5% Übercharge on hit. The Crusader's Crossbow always performs Critical hits, deals 150% extra damage, and gains 10% ÜberCharge on each successful hit. All secondary weapons are replaced with a customized Kritzkrieg that has a 25% faster Übercharge rate. ÜberCharge grants both invulnerability and critical hits to both the Medic and the patient, and lasts 50% longer than a normal Übercharge. The Medic spawns with 40% ÜberCharge, and after each ÜberCharge, gains 30% Übercharge automatically. When healing any target, if the target is currently Critboosted, will result in that target also dealing Mini-Crit damage for indirect forms of damage (such as Sentry Guns and Afterburn). Healing a Scout will cause a Medic to gain the Disciplinary Action speed boost effect, causing the Medic to gain Scout speed. Sniper All usable Sniper weapons perform Critical Hits. The Bazaar Bargain is not allowed and is replaced with the Sniper Rifle. The Sydney Sleeper will not apply Jarate to bosses. The Sniper Rifle causes the boss to glow (so that other players can see him through walls) for several seconds. The time added to the glow timer scales based on the charge of the shot. The Huntsman deals 50% extra damage. The Razorback and Darwin's Danger Shield are replaced with the SMG. The Jarate removes 8% of the enemy character's rage, removes one arrow from the Christian Brutal Sniper if he has any, and reduces the duration of the Vagineer's uber. Spy All primary weapons deal Mini-Crits. A backstab from any melee weapon deals roughly 10% of the enemy character's max health in damage. Upon a successful backstab, both the Spy and the boss are alerted, and a Razorback effect is applied to the Spy, disabling attack for two seconds. A successful backstab with Your Eternal Reward or Wanga Prick disguises the Spy as a random teammate. A successful backstab with the Conniver's Kunai adds 100 health to the Spy, and overheals up to 270 health. The Cloak and Dagger is not allowed and is replaced with the Invisibility Watch or Enthusiast's Timepiece. The Dead Ringer, when activated by an attack by any boss, will cause the player to take approximately 62 damage, instead of 10% of the boss's punch damage. Remember however that balance specifics such as boss speed, rage taunt damage, rage taunt distance, and appearance of characters other than Saxton Hale may vary from server to server, as these specifics are adjustable via server console variables. Plugin Information Current version: 1.38 Required SourceMod extensions: TF2Items, SDKHooks The plugin is available for download on the Allied Modders Forum, as of 2 January 2011. It was previously available since 31 December 2010 on the Random Fortress Forum. Changelog Changelog: Version 1.38 Bots will use rage Doors only forced open on specified maps CBS spawns more during Winter holidays Deathspam for teamswitch gone More notice for next Hale Wrap Assassin has 2 ammo Holiday Punch slightly disorients Hale (if stunned Heavy punches Hale, removes stun) Mantreads increase rocketjump distance Fixed CBS Huntsman rate of fire Fixed permanent invuln Vagineer glitch Jarate removes some Vagineer uber time and 1 CBS arrow Low-end Medic assist damage now counted Hitting Dead Ringers does more damage (as balancing) Eureka Effect temporarily removed HHH won't get stuck in ceilings when teleporting Further updates pending Version 1.37b The Fan O' War no longer mistakenly adds the MarkedForDeath condition. The music forward now fires consistently even if there's no music. Improvements. Version 1.37 Fixed taunt/rage Fixed rage+high five hale_circuit_stun - Circuit Stun time (0 to disable) Fixed coaching bug Config file for map doors Fixed floor-Hale Fixed Circuit stun Fixed negative health bug hale_enabled isn't a dummy cvar anymore hale_special cmd fixes 1st-round cap enables after 1 min. More invalid Hale checks. Backstabs act like Razorbackstab (2s) Fixed map check error Wanga Prick -> Eternal Reward effect Jarate removes 8% of Hale's rage meter The Fan O' War removes 5% of the rage meter on hit Removed Shortstop reload penalty VSH_OnMusic forward added Version 1.369 Fixed spawn door blocking. Cleaned up HUD text (health, etc). VSH_OnDoJump now has a bool for superduper. !halenoclass changed to !haleclassinfotoggle. Fixed invalid clients becoming Hale Removed teamscramble from first round. Vagineer noises: Nope for no Gottam/mottag (same as jump but quieter) for Move Up Hurr for everything else All map dispensers will be on the non-Hale team (fixes health bug) Fixed command flags on overlay command Fixed soldier shotgun not dealing midair minicrits. Fixed invalid weapons on clients Damage indicator (+spec damage indicator) Hale speed remains during humiliation time SuperDuperTele for HHH stuns for 4s instead of regular 2 Battalion's Backup adds +10 max hp, but still only overheal to 300 Full rage meter when hit by Hale. Buff causes drastic defense boost. Fixed a telefrag glitch Powerjack is now +25hp on hit, heal up to +50 overheal Backstab now shows the regular hit indicator (like other weapons do) Kunai adds 100hp on backstab, up to 270 FaN/Scout crit knockback not nerfed to oblivion anymore Removed Short Circuit stun (better effect being made) Version 1.368 Now FaN and Scout crit knockback is REALLY lessened. Medic says 'I'm charged' when he gets 100%% uber-charge with syringegun. Added support of VSH achievements. Team will scramble in 1st round, if 1st round is default arena. Now client can disable info about changes of classes, displayed when round started. Powerjack adds 50HPs per hit. Short Circuit stuns Hale for 2.0 seconds. Vagineer says "hurr" Version 1.367 Map-specific fixes: Oilrig's pit no longer allows HHH to instatele Arakawa's pit damage drastically lessened General map fixes: disable spawn-blocking walls Cap point now properly un/locks instead of fake-unlocking. Tried fixing double-music playing. Fixed Eternal Reward disguise glitch - edge case. Help menus no longer glitch votes. Version 1.366 Fixed superjump velocity code. Fixed replaced Rocket Jumpers not minicritting Hale in midair. Version 1.365 Half-Zatoichi is now allowed. Heal 35 health on hit, but must hit Hale to remove Honorbound. Can add up to 25 overheal Starts the round bloodied. Fixed Hale not building rage when only Scouts remain. Tried fixing Hale disconnect/nextround glitches (including music). Candycane spawns healthpack on hit. Version 1.364 Added convar hale_first_round (default 0). If it's 0, first round will be default arena. Added more translations. Version 1.363 Fixed a queue point exploit (VoiDeD is mean) HHH has backstab/death sound now First rounds are normal arena Some weapon replacements still apply! Teambalance is still off, too. Fixed arena_ maps not switching teams occasionally After 3 rounds with a team, has a chance to switch Will add a cvar to keep Hale always blue/force team, soon Fixed pit damage Version 1.362 Sounds are not .mdl anymore, they are .wav. Fixed minor issue about /halemusic Version 1.361 Christian Brutal Sniper music. Soldiers Mini-Crit Hale while he's in mid-air. Direct Hit Crits where it would Mini-Crit. Reserve Shooter has faster weapons switch and +10% damage. Added hale_stop_music for admins to stop current music for all players. Force-A-Nature and Scout Crit knockback is lessened. Your halemusic/halevoice settings are saved. Version 1.36 MEGA UPDATE! SUGGEST MANNO-TECH WEAPON CHANGES! Updated Christian Brutal Sniper model. Fixed last man alive sound. Removed broken Hale line, fixed one. New Horseless Headless Horsemann Jr. rage sound. Horseless Headless Horsemann Jr. music (/halemusic). Christian Brutal Sniper jump noise. /halevoice and /halemusic to turn off voice/music. Updated natives/forwards (can change rage distance in fwd). Change hale_crits cvar to turn off Hale random Crits. Fixed Sentries not repairing when raged. Set hale_ragesentrydamagemode to 0 to force the Engineer to pick up the Sentry to repair it. Now uses sourcemod autoconfig (tf/cfg/sourcemod/). No longer requires saxton_hale_points.cfg file. Now using clientprefs for queue points. When on a non-VSH map, team switch does not occur so often. Should have full replay compatibility. Bots work with queue, are Hale less often. Hale's health increased by 1 (in code). Many, many, many, many, many fixes. Crossbow: +150% damage, +10 Ubercharge on hit. Syringe Gun has Overdose speed boost. Sniper glow time scales with charge (2 to 8 seconds). Eyelander/Horseless Headless Horsemann's Headtaker/Nessie's Nine Iron add heads on hit. Axtinguisher/Postal Pummeler use Fire Axe attributes. Gloves of Running Urgently/Killing Gloves of Boxing is +50% speed but -7hp/s. Airblasting boss adds rage (no Airblast reload, though). Airblasting Ubercharged Vagineer adds time to the Ubercharge and takes extra ammo. Frontier Justice allowed, Crits only when players Sentry sees Hale. Boss Weighdown (Look down and crouch) after 5 seconds in midair. Force-A-Nature is back. Scout Crits/Mini-Crits do less knockback if not melee. Saxton has his own fists. Unlimited /halehp but after 3, longer cooldown. Fist kill icons. Fixed Christian Brutal Sniper arrow count (start at 9, but if less than 9 players, uses only that number of players) Spy primary Mini-Crits. Dead Ringer fixed. Flare Gun replaced with the Detonator. Has large jump but more self-damage (like old Detonator beta). Your Eternal Reward backstab disguises as random faster classes. Conniver's Kunai adds 60 health on backstab. Randomizer compatibility. Medic Ubercharge works as normal with Crits added (multiple targets, etc). Crits stay when being healed, but adds Mini-Crits too (for sentry, etc). Fixed Sniper back weapon replacement. Vagineer "NOPE" and "Well Don't That Beat All!" Telefrags do 9001 damage. Speed boost when healing Scouts (like the Quick-Fix). Rage builds (VERY slowly) if there are only Scouts left. Healing assist damage split between healers. Fixed backstab assist damage. Fixed Horseless Headless Horsemann Jr. attacking during teleport. Soldier boots - 1/10th fall damage. AND MORE! (I forget all of them.) Versions:1.35_2 and 1.35_3 Fixed bugs about damage, the Medic's Ubercharge, the queue, and others. Version:1.35_1 Added point system (/halenext). Added [VSH] tag to VSH messages. Removed native VSH_GetSaxtonHaleHealth() added native VSH_GetRoundState(). There is Mini-Crits for the Scout's pistols. Not full Crits, like before. Fixed issues associated with Crits. Added FORCE_GENERATION flag to stop errorlogs. Version:1.35 Special crits will not removed by Medic. Sniper's glow is working again. No errors in console. Less messages in chat. Added more natives. "Over 9000" sound returns! Thx you, FlaminSarge. Version:1.34_1 Fixed airblast reload when VSH is disabled. Fixed airblast reload after detonator's alt-fire. Airblast reload time reduced to 3 seconds. hale_special 3 is disabled. Version:1.34 Biohazard Christian Brutal Sniper! He's about 20% cooler! TF2_IsPlayerInCondition() returns! Fixed some bugs associated with this. Now sniper rifle must be 100perc.charged to glow Hale. Fixed Vagineer's model (there isn't spam on console and fire on ground). Added Natives. Hunstman deals more damage. Added reload time (5sec) for Pyro's airblast. Fixed hale_special X admin command. Version:1.33 Fixed bugs, associated with Uber-update. FaN replaced with Soda Popper. Bazaar Bargain replaced with Sniper Rifle. Sniper Rifle adding glow to Hale - anyone can see him for 5 seconds. Crusader's Crossbow deals more damage. Plugin uses TF2_IsPlayerInCondition(). Other code optimizing. Version:1.32_1 Fixed bug with replay. Fixed bug with help menu Version:1.32 added new Saxton's lines on... *round start *jump *backstab *destroy Sentry *kill Scout, Pyro, Heavy, Engineer, Spy *Last man standing *killing spree Fixed bugged count of CBS' arrows. Reduced Hale's damage versus DR by 20 HPs. Now two specials can not be at a stretch. Version:1.30 & 1.31 Bug Fixes Version:1.29 Fixed random crashes associated with CBS. Now Hale's HP formula is ((760+x-1)*(x-1))^1.04 Added hale_special0. Use it to change next boss to Hale. CBS has 9 arrows for bow-rage. Also he has stun rage, but on little distantion. Teammates gets 2 scores per each 600 damage. Demoman with Targe has crits on his primary weapon. Removed support of non-Arena maps, because nobody did't use it and they were buggy. Pistol/Lugermorph has crits. Version:1.28 Christian Brutal Sniper is a regular character. CBS has 3 melee weapons ad bow-rage. Added new lines for Vagineer. Now Mode uses in-game model change function. (Attachables are broken from Hatless Update) Version:1.27 Many bug fixes and code optimization. Version:1.26 Added the second URL for auto-update. Fixed problems, when auto-update was corrupt plugin. Added a question for the next Hale, if he want to be him. (/haleme) Eyelander and Half-Zatoichi was replaced with Claidheamh Mor. Dispenser and TP won't be destoyed after Engineer's death. Mode uses the localization file. Saxton Hale will be choosed randomly for the first 3 rounds (then by queue). Fan O'War replaced with Sandman Version 1.25 Fixed silent HHHjr's rage. Now bots (sourcetv too) will not be Hale. Fixed invalid uber on Vagineer's head. Fixed other little bugs. Version 1.24 Fixed destroyed buildables associated with spy's fake death. Syringe Gun replaced with Blutsauger. Blutsauger, on hit: +3 to uber-charge. Removed crits from Blutsauger. CnD replaced with Invis Watch. Fr.Justice replaced with shotgun. Fists of steel replaced with fists. KGB replaced with GRU. Added /haleclass. Version 1.23 Added Super Duper Jump to rescue Hale from pit. Removed pyro's ammolimit. Fixed little bugs. Version 1.22 Now it's working. Also little optimize about player count. Version 1.21 Point will be enabled when X or less players be alive. Version 1.20 Added new Hale's phrases. More bugfixes Improved super-jump. Coming soon: point will be disabled until last X living players. Version 1.12 More bugfixes. Now "(Hale)<mapname>" can be nominated for nextmap. Medigun's uber gets uber and crits for Medic and his target. Fixed infinite Specials. Now gamemode's ConVars saves in file (addons\sourcemod\configs\saxton_hale_config.c fg) And more bugfixes. Version 1.11 Fixed immortal spy. Fixed crashes associated with classlimits. Version 1.10 Added hale_enabled convar. Fixed bug, when all hats was removed...why? Version 1.00 Release!!! Saxton Hale dialogue For version 1.20, many new custom lines of dialogue were added to the mod. These additional Saxton Hale responses take place during specific events. Bugs When Saxton is defeated, he will leave behind a Soldier ragdoll. This is the same case with Vagineer, Horseless Headless Horsemann Junior, and Christian Brutal Sniper. They will leave an Engineer, Demoman, and Sniper ragdoll respectively. If one uses the command explode in console, no gibs will result from it. The Schadenfreude, Director's Vision, and High Five taunts can be used by all of the boss characters, albeit without any facial movement. Occasionally, when a player's distance from Hale is too great to render him, the outline caused by the Sniper Rifle will stay in place instead of following Hale's position. Jarate is not immediately removed from Hale, but rather removed after a fifth of a second. Thus, Hale may take Mini-Crit damage for that small duration any time the Jarate effect is applied to him. When Saxton Hale scares an Engineer wearing the Hotrod, the mask flips down. When Class and Team switching whilst in spectate mode, it is occasionally possible to spawn when a game is in progress. The Festive Sniper Rifle does not perform Critical hits other than a Headshot. Trivia Saxton Hale's line "Screw gravity!" is a reference to asdfmovie3, a popular flash video by Thomas Ridgewell. Another of Saxton's lines "WELCOME TO DA TUTORIAL LEVEL!" is a reference to Awesome Gaiden, a popular animation by Arin Hanson. The mod was created by Dr. Eggman in October 2010. Some updates (August/September 2010) to the mod were done in collaboration with FlaminSarge. Gallery Christian Brutal Sniper's model with the Huntsman equipped. The Horseless Headless Horsemann's model. Saxton Hale's model. The Vagineer's model. Update history April 14, 2011 Patch (Hatless Update) Server-side model attachments are now entirely disabled. Now it uses in-game model change function. See also Community fads Hidden External links VS Saxton Hale Mode on AlliedMods Random Fortress Forum Official Steam Group Mode Credits Thread on Steam Forums News on Kotaku.com Christian Brutal Sniper