PropHunt
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PropHunt is a TF2 gameplay modification originally written and released by Darkimmortal with a set of accompanying maps developed by various authors. The unranked copy of the SourceMod plugin is currently available for server administrators through AlliedModders. The ranked copy is available on request from the Geit or Darkimmortal via GamingMasters.co.uk.
There is also a SourceOP LUA rewrite of the plugin that is used privately on the SourceOP servers.
Gameplay
On the RED team all players are forced to play as a common map prop with the moving ability of a Scout. The BLU team remains restricted to Pyro, Heavy, Sniper, Demoman, Engineer,Soldier and Medic; The Spy being the only class which is not used. Many however, choose to play as Pyro as it is the default class. As with Arena mode on which PropHunt is based, no respawns are allowed during the round. At the end of each round the teams are swapped; BLU to RED and vice versa. During setup time, each member of the RED team takes the appearance of a prop. These may be prop items commonly appearing on the map. The RED team is allowed 30 seconds to find an appropriate place to blend in and hide. During this time the BLU team will have been rooted in place at their own spawn. Some maps have open spawn doors, resulting in Pyros being able to see certain parts of the map and any props that decide to hide there. When setup ends, the BLU team must find and kill every enemy player. To all players, the RED team appear only as props.
There are various conditions with dictate the game play:
- The BLU team is granted full use of most of their weapons; however, each weapons discharge will result in a loss of health to the player. This forces players to conserve ammunition and not fire bullets everywhere hoping for a kill.
- BLU team receives a minor speed increase for every kill or assist they make
- Props are permitted the full use of the Scout's movement(i.e. double-jump, fastest running speed).
- Pyros are given extra "flight" capacity by firing their Flamethrower while they jump, blasting them up in the air.
- The RED team has no weapons until there is only one prop alive. At this time the announcer indicates "last man standing" and the final RED player is granted the use of all his weapons.
- Health packs appear very rarely throughout the maps. The only other way to restore health is to run over the control point. The control point acts as a large health pack and ammo pack for players on both teams, but can only be used once every 55 seconds.
Maps
These maps are the current official maps that have been approved by the mod's authors and are distributed with the plugin to potential server hosts.
- Basalt - S.W.A.T.Y
- Brawl - Jazz
- Canyon - Albatross (Modified by Shinkz)
- Cargo - Combatfetus
- Cliff Face - gRiMrEaPeRsco
- Concord - zephyrak
- Cyberpunk - Xenon (Modified by Spykodemon and Shinkz)
- Desolation - Jamie "Mr. Happy" Lea
- Devils Canyon - Soylent Robot
- Farm - Geit
- Farm Feud - Archanor
- Goldtooth - Chuck "Atrocity" Wilson (Modified by Shinkz)
- Grassland - Mr. Late (Modified by Shinkz)
- Harvest - Heyo
- Headquarters - Combatfetus
- Lumberyard - Valve (Modified by Shinkz)
- Maze - LabelMaker (Assisted by Geit)
- Mountain - Austria_Phantom
- North Ural - Flanker (Modified by Shinkz)
- Oasis - Tyb00 (Modified by Shinkz)
- Other Side - Vincent (Modified by Shinkz)
- Range - Pascal
- Ravage - Mehby
- Sawmill - Valve (Modified by gRiMrEaPeRsco)
- Spooky Ravine - Valve & Malachi
- Storm - Ikem
- Switcheroo - insta (Modified by Coffejunky)
- Timbertown - Unknown (Modified by Shinkz)
- Train Set - Johnny
- Warehouse - Geit
- Watch Tower - Joshua ‘JoshuaC’ Shiflet (Modified by gRiMrEaPeRsco)
History
TF2 PropHunt was first shown to the public on 22/07/2009 after a GamingMasters user posted information on CS:S PropHunt a day earlier and Darkimmortal took it upon himself to convert the game style to TF2 using his brother, Bluepanther, as a source of information while he was coding it. There was almost an immediate roadblock as the map that the mode should use was undecided and most of the TF2 stock maps were completely unsuited to PropHunt due to their size or their lack of props. Darkimmortal then tried arena_sawmill and it was an instant hit. The arena base reduced work required to make the plugin work, the map was a perfect size, and had the perfect amount of clutter. Work was then started on finding other suitable arena maps. Those that did not already suit PropHunt were slightly modified to be so.
PropHunt was kept in closed beta for 3 months with Geit working on getting other servers involved in the beta with Alpha-Omega becoming the US host and various clans becoming hosts for other parts of the world. On the 7th of October, PropHunt's big break came as it went viral due to Criken's youtube video being posted on many news sites such as Rock, Paper, Shotgun and Shacknews. Many clans soon attempted to obtain the plugin for their servers. The mod's creators were flamed for their apparent greediness and selfishness after being unable to respond to all of the requests and release the plugin publicly. This resulted in a final development rush to iron out all of the closed beta's bugs. PropHunt 1.0(officially known as v0.0.6) was released to the public via AlliedModders on the 22nd of October. Development continued on PropHunt and to date there have been 18 major version upgrades, including bug fixes, feature additions and code clean ups. Version 1.8 is currently under development and is expected to be the final major release and the end of PropHunt's active development cycle, nearly one year after being started.
