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.

Saxton Hale's Abilities

• 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 RED 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.
• Weighdown: Whenever Saxton Hale presses the button bound for the "Medic!" voice command he will drop to the ground. This allows him to escape from damage while airborne.

Balance Specifics

Saxton Hale's 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*(n+250)]^1.12, where n is the initial number of players on RED.

Some weapons equipped by players on RED will be forced changed into their default counterparts or edited for balance issues:

• Natascha can't be used. If a Heavy has it equipped it is swapped for the regular Minigun.
• Single clip weapons such as the Flamethrower have half their ammo reserve.
• All non-backstab melee weapons will always perform Crits, to reward the player for taking risks with close range combat.
• A Backstab from the Knife deals roughly 10% of Hale's max health in damage.
• Soldiers can't use their Battalion's Backup. If it is equipped it is swapped for a Shotgun.
• Some class limits are enforced.
• The Sniper will always perform Crits with his rifles.

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.
• In some versions of the mod there is a 1/10 chance a Vagineer will appear instead, with faster attacks.
• It is also possible for players to become a smaller version of the Horseless Headless Horsemann known as the Horseless Headless Horsemann Junior.
• The Scream Fortress Event was remarkably similar to the Saxton Hale Mod.

External Links

• Random Fortress Forum
• Relevant SPUF thread
• Mod Credits
• Saxton Hale Update — the unofficial update