Halloween 2013 event question

[tc566]

Hi all,

I just want to ask about Valve Halloween event, I see people in the server I used to play for all of them have weird hats, I have not seen them before wearing hats, did they all get them from this event?

Once I joined TF2 after this event started I was given a taunt magazine so I added it to my action slot, then what? what do I need to do to make use of this event, I have no clue, do I have to join special maps or just press g in any server?

Would appreciate if someone could tell what to do to make the best of this event.

Than you

[ApatheticMango]

Once in a while you'll get a message saying a mysterious present has appeared. It's somewhere on the map and you have to go find it. If it's the current event map (Helltower) then it'll appear at either the Tower overlooking both cap points or in front of the building with the Full Health kit. If it's on the Spire, it'll be at the top where the big health pack spawns. You need to touch the present before the "The Mysterious Present is gone" message appears.

In these presents, you can get costumes. Some will be hats, others will be misc items. These items are Halloween/Full Moon locked, meaning you can only use them during the Halloween event, and whenever they decide there's a full moon (fairly often). You can also find Spell Pages.

The magazine that you get when you first log in allows you to get the spell books that appear on the map. Those will let you cast the Halloween Spells(duh). You can have one type of spell at a time, it's random which spell you get, and some spells you can cast twice before it's empty.

At the very end of Hell Tower, all players are warped to "Hell". Here, your goal is to be the first to reach the Necronomicon at the far side of the map. There will be a gate that prevents you to from reaching it at first. You are also pitted against the opposing team, and whoever won the map earlier gets a Health boost. This round is also in Arena mode, meaning you get one life, and if you die you stay dead. I don't think there are health/ammo packs around the map. If you can reach the Necronomicon, then you get an achievement and a Spell Book(Misc item). The Spell Pages that you can get present are put into the book, and it just makes it fancier as far as I know. The Book can be used as a Misc item like the magazine.

I think that's all of the event. I know the 2nd server goes into Halloween maps other than Hell Tower, but those are the old events and I'll assume you know about them already.

Forgot to mention, every once in a while you'll see a purpley spell book lying around. You can get one if you kill the Green Skeleton boss that appears in the first part of Hell Tower. Those spell books gives you special rare spells to cast. I think one of the spells makes Skeletons of your teams color, and it attacks the enemy team. They have pretty low HP, but they break into smaller skeletons that still attack.

ALSO: You can get special items from the Presents other than hats, misc items, and spell pages. Usually you can sell these for a decent amount of metal, or use them for a fancy effect. If you find one, watch out for people trying to lowball you.

[chuy409]

wow really? I better hop on the holloween event then. I havent even played a single round this event... havent had the time

[tc566]

Thanks ApatheticMango for the detailed info

I did not get everything you said (there is a lot of details) but I got the big picture, I never joined a valve event before, I recently joined the map that has big skull in the background but that was way before this Halloween, that's confusing, I guess I did not see the Halloween maps yet, I thought I needed to join specific Valve servers to join this event.

Thank you for the help 

[ApatheticMango]

I know what you mean. I've spent the last couple weeks at school working on assignments. Finally caved and these last few days I've been playing a bit.

[ApatheticMango]

Nope. Any server can access Halloween maps from any year. I think there's a Halloween version for Harvest, Viaduct, Hightower, and one other (the one for the big eye boss). All of them are King of the Hill style(One cap point at the center of the map, both teams try to cap the point by standing on it and stay capped for 3 minutes. First team to 3 minutes wins), except for Hightower (this years) which is payload race (Both teams race to push the payload to the end. More players standing near the cart means more speed). If you want to know anything else, just ask. People are pretty helpful here.

[tc566]

Oh OK, thanks! that explains many things, to make sure I understood it fully:

There are unique Halloween maps (what are there names?) and few modified maps for the Halloween (like Harvest, Viaduct, Hightower) so you can't apply Halloween mode to any map, you need to load certain maps, right?

[ApatheticMango]

Yup. I think most of them just have another tag with event added to the end, like koth_harvest_event, same with Viaduct.

[Plasma]

Hey tc566,

Mango already pretty much explained how the Halloween event works in TF2, but if you want to see what its about, you can jump on our Halloween server right now. The server goes through every single Halloween map with this year's HellTower every 30min or so.  Our IP: 66.151.138.182:27085

Of course, you can also join the Quickplay Halloween queue and you'll be sent to another Halloween server. The map list for Halloween maps is:
cp_manor_event
koth_harvest_event
koth_lakeside_event
koth_viaduct_event
plr_hightower_event (this year's event)

All the new Halloween hats/items can be found in these gifts on plr_hightower_event (HellTower). The other maps will only have older content. I hope that helps a bit.

[tc566]

Thank you all for the help, that helped a lot, it's more complicated than I thought   

I tried to join your servers but it seems it has high ping for me, higher than all the servers I join, I will try again when I subscribe to a new ISP, hope this will be soon.

Thank you again, looking forward to that.

[Plasma]

Hmm, where are playing from?
Our servers are in San Jose, CA.

[tc566]

Hmm, where are playing from?
Our servers are in San Jose, CA.

I sent you a private message a day ago about that, you forgot me just have a look at my current IP 

USA is too far for me, west coast is even worse, I usually find good servers in UK but I think my internet has quality issues not just high ping because I remember being able to play on high ping before as long as the connection is stable and fast.

[Plasma]

Yes, I received your email. I understand now.
Hopefully, when you find a better ISP, you'll be able to play with us

We do run a high ping kicker though. We'll have to see if you get kicked or not when you switch ISP.