Team Fortress 2 Mann vs. Machine “Tour of Duty” ticket explained

Brian Ambrozy 15 Aug, 2012 at 10:21pm ET Article published in Gaming

Thrax did a flowchart explaining Mann Vs. Machine’s slightly confusing “Tour of Duty” ticket system.

To clear up any confusion: You do not need to pay to play Mann Vs. Machine.

If you want to participate in a “Tour of Duty”, a multi-map campaign similar to the way campaigns work in Left 4 Dead, you need a ticket to play each mission on the official Mann Co. servers (Valve servers). This ticket buys you into a single mission. If you complete it, you get a special reward, and your ticket is consumed. If you want to play the same mission again, you do not have to pay for it. If you want to play the next mission in a Tour, you’ll need to buy another ticket.

A Tour of Duty in the Mann Up (paid) mode consists of six missions:

Mann vs Machine Mann Up Mode

This means Valve will be getting $6 per person for a Tour of Duty; $36 per game. This is fascinating from a game monetization standpoint.

You get a random item drop at the end of each mission. If you buy a Squad Surplus ticket ($1.99), every member of the squad gets an addition extra random item at the end.

This is all subject to change while we’re figure all of this stuff out. The Valve servers are slammed right now, and as I write this, I saw queues of over 10,000 players with 40+ minute wait times.

Mann up!

Comments

15 Aug 2012 ~ 11:12pm Garg Can you finish one mission, stop playing, and play the next mission in the tour later with different squadmates? I'm guessing yes, but I don't play L4D and I want to make sure I got the fundamentals.

Does the squad surplus ticket grant an extra item at the end of the tour, a single mission, or every mission of the tour?
15 Aug 2012 ~ 11:18pm Thrax Surplus ticket grants an extra item for the entire party at the end of the mission it is used on. You can play each mission with a different party.
15 Aug 2012 ~ 11:20pm RahnalH102
This is all subject to change while we’re figure all of this stuff out. The Valve servers are slammed right now, and as I write this, I saw queues of over 10,000 players with 40+ minute wait times.
That's probably why my update is taking forever. Why did work have to be extra long today?!
15 Aug 2012 ~ 11:38pm trooster89 So is it free to play on non-official servers without rewards?
15 Aug 2012 ~ 11:40pm Thrax Yes. You simply won't receive the unique cosmetic item at the end of a tour.
15 Aug 2012 ~ 11:44pm shwaip Anyone want to put together a group for tomorrow evening / night?

After @primesuspect rejected me, I think I'll just try out CS:GO for the evening.
15 Aug 2012 ~ 11:46pm primesuspect Mantequilla, Bobbydigi, Pirateninja, Xena's Subtext, HonestMike, and myself played "Lobby" for 45 minutes and then gave up. It's like the early days of L4D!
15 Aug 2012 ~ 11:58pm Garg
Anyone want to put together a group for tomorrow evening / night?

After @primesuspect rejected me, I think I'll just try out CS:GO for the evening.
INNNNNN.
16 Aug 2012 ~ 12:04am Theironhand Well this sucks lol, it kept saying "Not able to checkout now, please try again" so I kept trying to check out and it bought me 3 of those ticket things....and It said there's a 37 wait time to find a server .
16 Aug 2012 ~ 12:15am cola I'm in for a MvM night tomorrow, just give me a time
16 Aug 2012 ~ 12:27am Theironhand Yeah I think I might try tomorrow instead, it's taking forever today.
16 Aug 2012 ~ 12:48am Bandrik 50 minute wait for me and a buddy. No thanks.

And now the Mann Co. Store is closed. I didn't know digital stores closed. Not sure if story element... or just busy server.

Edit: the latter. Store's up again. I was hoping it was more of the story coming out. =P
16 Aug 2012 ~ 1:01am BobbyDigi I've tried for the last hour with Xena's Subtext, HonestMike. No go. Mike got in. I'm solo trying now. I WILL KILL SOME ROBOTS TONIGHT!
16 Aug 2012 ~ 10:10am d3k0y Any interest on setting the Icrontic server over to a non-official server. That way we can actually play tonight?
16 Aug 2012 ~ 11:02am Tushon I think you mean: any interest in picking another server to play on tonight?
17 Aug 2012 ~ 2:30am Thrax
18 Aug 2012 ~ 9:33am flufo Hey Thrax, do you have any idea how to change the difficulty to advanced in self-made server?
18 Aug 2012 ~ 11:55am ErrorNullTurnip *Playing on private local server*
sv_cheats 1
currency_give 10000
...
Profit?

(note that achievements and such are disabled with sv_cheats 1)
24 Aug 2012 ~ 8:07pm MiracleManS As a person who was initially excited, I just realized that the only way folks I know are playing is with the ticket. The idea that I have to spend money to play to get a benefit bothers me. At least before it was a matter of a marginal amount of time playing.

Now, it's simply easiest to spend $0.99 and get tons of items potentially if someone is willing to spend $1.99.

I wish that the tickets were a rare drop and you could simply get them for $0.99 as a guarantee and there was no "bonus" to item drops for anyone.
24 Aug 2012 ~ 9:33pm Thrax You can easily play without paying. Our dudes just want #hats.
24 Aug 2012 ~ 9:37pm MiracleManS
You can easily play without paying. Our dudes just want #hats.
I think that's a part of my gripe. The benefit from buying a $0.99 ticket is huge. If it were less (aka you just got your next stage sooner or a single drop) I'd be cool.
24 Aug 2012 ~ 9:38pm Thrax But hats have no benefit?
24 Aug 2012 ~ 9:56pm primesuspect There is another benefit to buying a ticket, and this one is huger than hats. If you don't have a ticket, good luck getting in with a good group of friends. Most of the core IC TF2 players are playing for hats, and aren't taking people without tickets.

It'll fade, I'm sure, especially once everybody has a tour or two under their belts, but for now, people want to play the Mann Up mode, get their Tours of Duty done, and get hats.
25 Aug 2012 ~ 3:09pm ErrorNullTurnip
25 Aug 2012 ~ 5:04pm cola As I believe @Digi has pointed out, you don't have to spend money at all if you use the Mannconomy model of using scrap metal as currency.
25 Aug 2012 ~ 5:11pm BobbyDigi Yup, tickets are easy to pick up for trade. I've made two trades for tickets. 4 refined for 2 tickets and just this morning 2 craftable hats for 2 tickets. The hat trade was a steal as they are only worth about 1.3 refined each.

The game has evolved and Mann Up mode simply takes more than just joining a server. You will either have to get involved with the community and trade for one or throw a buck at Valve. Even if it is just the loot you are after you don't even have to play MvM at all. Everything involved you can trade for.
25 Aug 2012 ~ 5:25pm MiracleManS I understand that it can be traded, but its unavailable outside of trading unless you spend money. To this point, almost all the money stuff has been cosmetically inclined. Hats could only be gotten from uncrating which was a key. No problem here because its cosmetic. Even weapons from crates, at least it was a drop you could get.

You're pretty much locked out of a lucrative mode unless you spend $0.99, that's my only problem. Yes, I can play on unofficial servers, but there is a distinct benefit that you can pay to get. As far as I know, these items don't count against your weekly drop rate, so people who pay can get as many drops as they want.
26 Aug 2012 ~ 12:12am Jude hmm actually I tried playing mann up MvM on a map I already finished, and it keeps redirecting me to the mann co store can someone clear this up for me?
26 Aug 2012 ~ 5:29am BobbyDigi To play Mann Up mode at all you need to have a ToD ticket in your backpack. If you beat a mission you already beat on your current tour, then your ticket is not consumed at the end and you do not receive a random item. You will however receive any items from Surplus tickets that may have been in play.

Here is an example where player Ilryas played and won on a map he had already beaten on his current tour. His ticket not consumed and his spoils displayed from the three Surplus tickets in play.
7 Sep 2012 ~ 5:18pm midga @MiracleMannS If you want to play, just schedule something in the MvM Matchmaking thread and specify that it's a Non-Mann-Up game. Also, there are enough of us willing to share tickets that you could likely get in on a game anyway if you wanted. To medic behind you is easily worth some dimes and pennies to me ;3
7 Sep 2012 ~ 7:04pm Ilriyas I have spare tickets on me so if you do want to mann up just shoot me a message and I'll send you one or two.
7 Sep 2012 ~ 7:32pm primesuspect Also, the three Boot Camp training missions (Doe's Drill, Crash Course, and Manouvers) are all really good ways to get into the game. They're free to play, relatively easy for a competent team, and by the end of all three you'll BE part of a competent team and you'll get an achievement.
9 Sep 2012 ~ 5:40pm midga I've never tried those...
15 Apr 2014 ~ 11:39am Dr.Vox
So when u win the mvm your ticket us gonna be conumed right and u say that we could still play the mission but will we still receive an item?
15 Apr 2014 ~ 3:52pm Koreish
You only get an item if the ticket is consumed. It's the reason why Squad Surplus tickets exist.