Parkour Fortress: A Guide

Parkour Fortress is a mod by Mecha the Slag, and can be found on certain SLAG Gaming servers. This guide will help you take your first steps into the mod and help you learn what to expect!

How to Play

Parkour Fortress is a mod about parkour, as evident by the name. It is heavily influenced by EA's game "Mirror's Edge," and as such does not play as a standard first person shooter. The game itself is very simple, but practice is necessary before you start posting top times. Before we get into that, let me explain how Parkour Fortress works as a gamemode.

• Parkour Fortress is about getting from the spawn point to the end point in the quickest time possible.
  
• There are many obstacles in the way that can be surpassed by using various moves, which I will explain later.
  
• The teams are not important, and the character is always the Scout.
  
• To "win," you must get the fastest time of the current map run. The top five times of the run are displayed on the side. Times are reset after the map ends.
  
• There is no fighting between anyone, with the exception of the "Points" map, which I will explain later.

Your HUD and You

In order to get a better idea of what is going on, I will show you a simple screenshot and point out the various things within it.


And now, by using my paint wizardry, I will (soon!) label the parts I wish to point out.


Assuming you already understand the basics of the Team Fortress 2 HUD, here are the biggest things to look for in the Parkour Fortress HUD.

A: Times

Here you can see the standard Team Fortress 2 timer, positioned above. This counts down to zero, when the map ends and rotates. Below you can see your current best time for the round, as well as your current time for the run. If you have not completed the map within the round, you will not have a best time displayed.

B: Model

This is the model that normally displays your weapon in-game. Because Parkour Fortress generally does not have weapons, the models are supposed to switch out with alternate ones to make it look like you are actually parkouring. Ever since the Steampipe update, this has become a little more random, and it is not certain that you will have the correct model displayed. In this screenshot, the incorrect one is displayed.

C: Top Times

As mentioned above, this sidebar shows the top five times of the round. Each person can have only one top time, so if you gain the top time, and then best that time, you will only display the new best time rather than both your previous best and new best.

How to Control your Character

The whole point of Parkour Fortress is to parkour, and as such you have a myraid of parkour moves with which to use. As a note, crouching will dismount you from most parkour moves.

Standard Movement
Moving around normally is just like the vanilla game, and the only difference is that you will start moving slower than normal.

Sprinting
Sprinting isn't defined by any keypresses, but is attained. To get to sprinting speed, simply keep moving forward. As long as you continue to move and do not stop or strafe (move left or right by keypress), you will move faster until you peak at your top speed, wherein you will see the particle effect of the Disciplinary Action's special ability.

Jumping
Jumping is also normal. The only difference is that, although you can double jump, if you wait too long (about one second), you will no longer be able to use your second jump. You can also perform a long jump if you are sprinting by using your Mouse 2 command. The long jump is a jump slightly longer than a full length double jump.

Sliding
To slide, simply gain enough speed and crouch. You will start to slide. When you lose enough speed, you will start crouch walking. If you are on a slope that is angled enough, you can slide down the slope and gain speed.

Rolling
Rolling is, as stated, the act of rolling when you hit the ground to maintain speed and prevent damage. If you fall from a large enough height, simply crouch right before you hit the ground to do a roll. If you fall from too high of a height, you will be unable to do a roll. Failing to do a roll may result in being stunned for a period of time or death.

Wall Hanging
To hang off of the edge of a wall, simply get close enough to the wall and fall. If you are close enough, high enough, and the wall is not at too large of an angle, you will automatically grab the edge. Simply jump, and you will jump up in the direction of your camera.

Pipe Climbing
To climb a pipe, simply run in front of the pipe and you will automatically grab it. At this point, hold forward to climb the pipe and backward to slide down the pipe. You can jump off of the pipe by pressing your jump button.

Zipline
Certain maps have lines, cords, wires, etc. strung about. You can zip along these lines at high speeds. To mount a line, simply jump into it. If you do not dismount, you will automatically dismount at the end of the line.

Wall Climbing
To perform a wall climb, look at the wall you wish to climb up. Press forward and jump, and you will snap to the wall and climb up it to a hight greater than a full-height double jump. You will stop climbing at a certain height, and you can jump off of the wall by looking where you want to go and jumping.

Wall Running
This is generally the hardest move for beginners to perform. To do a wall run, face parallel to the wall you wish to run along. Hold forward, the strafe button the wall is on (e.g. WASD controls: wall on left, hold A, wall on right, hold D), and jump. After you snap to the wall, you can release the buttons. Like the wall climb, you can jump off at any time by looking where you want to jump and jumping.

Respawning
If you wish to respawn and try your run again, you have two options. You can die, or you can call for medic. When you hit your "medic" key, instead of calling medic, you will instantly teleport to spawn and have your time reset, so you can try again without wasting any time.

Firing your "Weapon"
Except in the map "Points," you can use your primary fire button to perform an action wherein your character points, gives the thumbs up, and shouts a "good job" voice command.

The Special Case, Points

The map by the name of "Points" is a special map. It takes the parkour and mixes it with combat. You can perform all of your moves, but you can also fire weapons! These are some things to note when playing on "Points."

• "Points" is not based on time, but rather based on which team wins.
  
• To win, your team needs to have all of the intelligence and gather the three carriers in one place.
  
• Your fists are very powerful! If you are sprinting, they gain an instant-crit swing, which kills on hit, but takes away your speed.
  
• Guns are scattered around the map. Be on the lookout!
  
• The sniper rifle can scope with secondary fire, if you needed to know.
  
• There is a special gun that has only one bullet. It is not an instant-kill gun, but rather a grappling hook. Fire it at a wall, and you will zipline over there.

Tips and Tricks

I might not be a developer of the mod, but I think I can let you in on a few tips.

• Don't be afraid to experiment. The times are temporary, so any falters you have will be reset once the map is done, and any new paths you find won't.
  
• Don't be afraid to restart your run. You will always preserve your best time (until reset), so if you are going for a top time, restarting might give you a few more runs if you don't think you can best your current best.
  
• There is always a faster path. We all make mistakes, so even an impossible looking time can be beaten by even the smallest amount.
  
• If you don't know where to go, watch others. Chances are, someone knows the map enough to get to where you are and past it. Who knows, you might even find someone who knows how to skip a section.
  
• Don't forget how to dismount! This can help you get a faster time, and there are a few maps where death awaits those who hang on too long.
  
• It is alright if you don't get a time on a map. Only the top five are displayed, and there are plenty of maps that are really hard (I'm looking at you, Meatsaw).
  
• Some maps have secret areas. I won't tell you which ones or where, but maybe you can find them...

As a Note

Thank you for reading my guide on how to play Mecha the Slag's amazing mod!

You can find the main server for Parkour Fortress here: 66.150.121.42:27015
There is only one other official SLAG server, but it is called "#4" for some reason. Anyways, you can find that one here: 64.74.97.79:27015

Please comment and tell me anything I can do better, if I have any information wrong, or if I even had a small grammatical error.

Be sure to give the mod a try!

Also, be sure to check out Mirror's Edge, it is a very good game, even if the combat isn't very good.

Again, thank you for reading, and be sure to comment!

My Personal Top Times

If you want to try and best my top times, I will have a list here of all the maps (after this guide's creation) I have run on. This list will be updated "whenever I feel like playing Parkour Fortress."

Most recent Parkour Update: 11/15/14

• pf_airspace_r6: 1:12.93
  
• pf_cave_b4: 2:06.40
  
• pf_dark_meat: 1:58.20
  
• pf_dimension_s4: 1:06.82
  
• pf_factory_office_b10: 1:40.48
  
• pf_foundry_v1: 1:28.76
  
• pf_hekto_b5: 1:27:95
  
• pf_kijun_b4: 1:55.71
  
• pf_koosu_s8: 2:00.53
  
• pf_miles_b7: 1:25.84
  
• pf_new_world_r4: 0:43.40
  
• pf_offshore_v3: 2:22.43
  
• pf_redux_b4: 0:47.07
  
• pf_repairkour_b9: 2:45:53
  
• pf_stormdrains_b3: 1:18.66
  
• pf_temple_b3: 4:37.53
  
• pf_werbad_b9: 1:12.51

[rabby]

why is there a big error on my screen

[Ok then]

This is pretty much the only thing that I had to learn off of while playing a round for the first time. It's a great guide.

[Kægrul]

Oh nooooooo

[[MK] Ziri_Z3R0]

the servers gone I'm pretty sure. Disappeared from my favorites and everything.

[catr]

oh

[Arkive]

It's been a long time since I've hopped on the servers. There could be many reasons why not. The servers might no longer be around. Maybe you don't have server downloads enabled. Maybe TF2's just acting up. I'm afraid I don't know if it's even possible to play this mod anymore.

[catr]

why i cant join?

[[MK] Ziri_Z3R0]

some reason I can't join in anymore. Was working yesterday but is now giving me missing map errors.

[Kægrul]

But yet even if am new there it doesn't matter if it's "broken" still love it and idea

[Kægrul]

Oh, that's sad😕