VS Saxton Hale Mode (custom game mode)

Demonstration

“

Me, I'd rather get down there and tell them myself... with my BARE HANDS! — Saxton Hale on communication

”

VS Saxton Hale Mod is a Juggernaut style mod of Arena that pits the TF2 mercenaries on RED against the Mann Co. CEO, Saxton Hale on BLU. Armed with plenty of health and his bare hands, the player taking control of Saxton Hale must eliminate all of RED to win, while they attempt to kill him.

Gameplay

The mod has the same base rules as Arena, in that there is no respawning until the next round. BLU, however, is composed of just a single player as Saxton Hale. His traits include increased health, a few special abilities and can only use melee weapons.

Many actions that would instantly kill a normal player, such as backstabs and taunt kills, will only deal a large amount of damage to the player playing Saxton Hale, rather than kill him outright.

Abilities

Saxton Hale

• Superjump: The player must crouch on the spot, look up and release crouch. This will send him flying up into the air. This ability has a 5 second cooldown.
• Rage: When Saxton Hale has taken enough damage, about 1,900, his rage meter will have been filled up. By taunting, all enemy players in close proximity will become stunned similar to how the Ghosts in Harvest and the Horseless Headless Horsemann do on their respective Halloween maps. Saxton Hale's taunt however also affects Sentry Guns.
• Equalizer effect: move speed increases as Hale becomes injured.

Vagineer

• Superjump: The player must crouch on the spot, look up and release crouch. This will send him flying up into the air. This ability has a 5 second cooldown.
• Rage: When Vagineer has taken enough damage, about 1,900, his rage meter will have been filled up. By taunting, Vagineer will become ÜberCharge-charged for 8.5 seconds. Vagineer's taunt slows the afflicted players movement, rather than stunning.
• Equalizer effect: move speed increases as Vagineer becomes injured.

Horseless Headless Horsemann Junior

• Teleport: The player must crouch on the spot, look up and release crouch. This will send him to random enemy. This ability has a 50 second cooldown.
• Rage: See Saxton Hale
• Equalizer effect: move speed increases as HHHjr becomes injured.

Balance Specifics

• Saxton Hale's (HHHjr's and Vagineer's too) health follows a formula based upon the inital number of players on RED at the start of the round. His health is calculated as [(n+250)*n]^1,155, 'where n is the initial number of players on RED'. For HHHjr: when n>10, he has this formula: n=n-(n-10)/3.
• Some weapons equipped by players on RED will be forced changed into their default counterparts or edited for balance issues:
• All classes: non-backstab melee weapons will always perform Crits, to reward the player for taking risks with close range combat.
• Scout: The Crit-a-Cola gives criticals instead of Mini-Crits.
• Soldier: The Battalion's Backup is replaced with a Shotgun. Jumper is not allowed (replaced with default Rocket Launcher)
• Pyro: Starts with 100 ammo.
• Demoman: The Chargin' Targe blocks one hit from Saxton. Jumper is not allowed (replaced with default Sticky Launcher)
• Heavy: Natascha can't be used. If a Heavy has it equipped it is swapped for the regular Minigun. Starts with 100 ammo
• Engineer: Only small metal packs. Start with 158 metal. Recommended classlimit is 3.
• Medic: Spawn with 40 percent of charge. 150 percent after activation. Primary weapons is critical.
• Sniper's shots will always perform Crits. Jarate is not allowed (replaced with the SMG).
• Spy: A Backstab from the Knife deals roughly 10% of Hale's max health in damage. Upon a successful backstab, you are cloaked, and a message stating that Hale was stabbed is shown to the players and Hale

Strategy

• Scout
  • Saxton Hale can be stunned but will take in less damage. Keep this in mind when using the Sandman.
  • The Force-a-Nature knocks back Saxton Hale. Try to aim him into chasms or away from vital teammates.
  • As an emergency weapon, Bonk Atomic Punch can help you get away from close encounters.
  • Bonk can also help stall and distract him enough for your team to attack him.
  • Crit-a-Cola is quite useful for high damage scouts as one hit from Saxton Hale will kill you without a mini-crit penalty anyways.
  • On a team without Medics, Mad milk will help your team get much needed health back from close encounters with Saxton Hale.
  • Use the Shortstop when Saxton is far away from you.
• Soldier
  • The Direct Hit is very useful for Soldiers with the Buff Banner as the higher damage output helps build rage faster.
  • Use your rocket launcher's knockback to knock away Saxton Hale from your team.
  • Spamming rockets can help distract Saxton Hale for a moment , helping your team attack him.
  • In this mod, the Equalizer becomes more of an escaping weapon rather than a high damage weapon.
  • The Pain Train becomes a very useful capping weapon as there are no possible sources of bullet damage.
  • The Black Box is very useful on a team without Medics as it will let you heal when you hit Saxton.
  • Be sure to have a good healing source nearby when you use the Battalion's Backup as Saxton Hale's punch does a lot of damage on your health and he is bound to give you another unless distracted with something else.
• Pyro
  • Be careful when using your Flamethrower as Saxton Hale can easily go through your fire.
  • Your Flamethrower and Degreaser's airblast can prove to be invaluable. keep in mind, however, the short range of it.
  • Some players cannot see Saxton Hale easily due to glitches, slow computers etc. Use your Fire to light him up for all to see.
  • Beware of maps with water. Saxton can easily drop in and extinguish your fire.
  • You only have 100 ammo to use. keep this in mind when attempting to juggle or burn.
  • The Flare Gun is very useful as it can burn Saxton from far away.
  • The Axetinguisher becomes a risky weapon as you have to be very close up to him. burning him will make Saxton aware of your presence.
  • The Gas Jockey's gear's speed boost may prove to be useful in escapes.
  • Although the Powerjack's health bonus becomes useless, the extra 25% damage becomes very useful.
• Demoman
  • The Loch-N-Load becomes a very high damage output weapon not to be randomly spammed.
  • Don't use the Charge-n-Targe to attack Saxton Hale as he can easily hit you.
  • Instead, use the Targe as an escaping weapon as Saxton cannot keep up with the Targe's speed.

Trivia

• The Saxton Hale model is forced over a Soldier player, using the same animations and skeletal model. From the first person perspective the BLU player will have a Shovel. Occasionally there are graphical glitches and the RED team will see a Soldier clipped into Saxton Hale.
  • Because of this it is possible to get Soldier, Demoman and Engineer's achievements while playing as Hale, the Horseless Headless Horsemann Junior and the Vagineer.
• There is a 2/15 chance a Vagineer will appear instead and 2/15 - for HHHjr.
• The Horseless Headless Horsemann from the Scream Fortress Event is remarkably similar to the Saxton Hale Mod. It follows the same format of a player or NPC with high health and damage levels, which must be destroyed by the rest of the players.
• Saxton Hale can still be taunt attacked but will only take 500 damage.
• He can still be stunned with The Sandman baseballs or if he is Huntsman taunted (Skewer) or is Übersaw taunted (Spinal Tap).

Bugs

• It is possible for two players to spawn as Hale on the same team.

External Links

• Random Fortress Forum
• Official group
• Relevant SPUF thread
• Mod Credits
• The unofficial Saxton Hale Update
• News on Kotaku.com