Now I admit Ive only tried it once, but I'm not sure if TF2 needs a Counterstrike style mode. One well defended sentry and it's all over.
And whilst no-one can deliberately team stack on it, it doesnt stop stacked teams.

And consider Valve eventually had to include a cvar to turn off sudden death...

Personally i dont like it, as you say it just seems to be counterstrike, but worse since crits are even more game deciding than they usually are, plus mechanics such as setting up traps and charging ubers cant really come into play.

Plus sitting out waiting and watching other people play? i thought i left that in css

I love the new gamemode.
Makes thigns really tense and exciting, makes engis dispensers more useful and spies very useful (surprisingly)
Spiderbloke says that he doesn't like how traps (level 3 sentries in his example) are too easy to set, but Extra thinks it's too hard to do that?

I think that when an arena map comes on the server should automatically disable crits. I personally don't mind sitting out after my team loses but with all the moaning going on, someone will either write a mod so that no-one has to sit out of a round (unless they are killed during that round) or Valve will give server admins the option themselves.

Perhaps as well as having crits turned off during arena maps, the maptime could be reduced to 15-20 minutes? The gamemode works best as a breather between 'proper' maps.

I'm thinking of redesigning the middle point of lockdown and turning it into an arena map, and perhaps also decompiling Fatlane and turning it into arena. Anyone interested in this?

Having never played CS I can't draw any comparisons but I really like arena.

I've probably only played 20 odd games so far but from what I've seen it makes spy and pyro mych more viable classes, the kritz is supreme (if you can keep you medic alive ofc) and there's plenty of scope for flanking/ambushing. Engineers seem next to useless though.

I don't mind sitting out between rounds either tbh. Its extra incentive to win and gives you a chance to make a plan for the next round.

CS is miles away from tf2 arena, in cs its just throw grenade round corridor, scope and get leet headshots, rinse repeat feel your e-peen getting bigger

I love the new game mode. You don't need to sit out if you never lose. I went heavy yesterday and I got 23 kills and 3 deaths. And before that I had played heavy for 5 hours.
The teams could be bigger though...

You would love CS then, dieing within the first 30 seconds, then sitting through a 2 minute camp-a-thon.
Plenty of time to think about how you can get killed randomly next round.

Sentry wise, if your team is uncommunicative, then they can all just walk into a sentry, leaving one or two left with a whole enemy team to face.

And people moan about it because they don't want to sit out the whole round just because they got killed by a crit rocket someone just randomly fired round a corner.
But, I'm not really moaning about it myself, I just have little intention of playing this mode. It doesnt appeal to me and as I see it, doesnt really suit TF2.

I love the new mod and will be on there 24/7 once I get better.

Like I said before I really like it too.
You cant intentionally teamstack and the teams get scrambled automatically once in a while, that's pretty much as good as it gets.

Also the new maps (ravine and lumberyard, is it?) are great for seperating medics from their buddies and seperating people in general so you can take them out easier.

And last but not least you dont have to sit out nearly as much as in CS because the rounds are shorter (can't really camp allthough people try)...unless you and your team suck a huuuuge nutsack, then you gotta wait for scramble.

(I'd like to add that while in spec one might even learn a thing or two by speccing others, not like you sit there staring at a black background....enemy positions, maybe a new route to go, whuteva...not all that bad imo)

The thing no of you mentioned is leave the sg there whats it gonig to do ? You jsut avoid it then cap the point if you can kill it.

I liek this mode as its good for learning survival and teamwork you need a medic or you lose you need to stick with your team or you get killed 1 by 1
It makes spies and snipers prioritise over who to shoot to give the team and advantage, your jsut looking at it the rambo teamworkless play that you want on a pub, like i said youvve got to learn when to pull back and survive, thats the only reason my kpd is any where near as high as what it is most of the time, becasue i dont die stupid deaths or go in rambo, this game mode helps you learn that.

Also average round time of one of these is 50 seconds if you dont have the pacence to sit through that then go see a doctor seriously

And yeah the server could may be done bigger for it like 18 slot for 3 teams of 6, in a 6vs6 with 1 team specing, or mayby 21 slot with 2 teams of 7 etc as i was palying on a 8vs8 and it still worked really well which was quite suprising with the map sizes

tbh all youve gone and done is played it for 5 minutes and not actually looked at it properly, you cant sit there and whore all the medics as your team need them you cant hide at the back and leave people to die it goes on but you shouldnt judge it so soon

And Sam i would expect Fastlane will lbe remde for it by valve if people like the game mode