Originally Posted by Sirusblk

That should never happen. If there's a teleporter down the whole team should know about it. And if the whole team knows about it the heavy should communicate ahead of time, "Hey doc I'll meet you at the exit". The Medic then should run to the exit. The medic has time to ask where it is in case they don't know.

Common I thought TG was about communication.

See the thing is that who should use the teleporter isn't exactly a cut and dried thing, and while communication is good it can sometimes be too late by the time you hit the 'V' key and start to say 'Hey man maybe......' your teammate is already whisked away to parts unknown right after stepping on a primed teleport pad.

We've kinda strayed a bit from the original concept in this thread which was, "You might not want to be on the red team and have blue sparklies all around you cause it gives you away." And sorta keeping with that theme, there isn't one single answer for who should use the teleporter at a given time. Instead people should just remember to think about the situation before just blindly hopping on the pad.

In some of the examples people have already given there are obvious caveats to those examples where you would want to do exactly what might not make sense in the normal course of action.

For example, if your team has three teleporters all charged right outside your spawn and you're the only one dead and recently respawned you could easily feel confident in using a teleporter even if you're a fast class like a Scout. Instant travel is still faster then really fast travel, and if no one would miss out on being able to use the teleporter due to your use of it, then you would be remiss not to use it.

Another scenario is when a spawn wave hits and it's just a lone heavy and medic. When the two of you come to the teleporter you have essentially three choices: let the Medic use the teleporter, let the Heavy use the teleporter, or neither use the teleporter. Well, you can make cases for each of these options for the "best thing to do" in the moment based on many other factors. If you have an extended front line with no medics, lots of hurt people, and plenty of firepower it might be the best thing for the medic to use the teleporter to shore up the lines and link up with the Heavy when he gets there. Or, if your lines are collapsing and you need instant firepower and there is some one else for the medic to charge off of while he is running to the front then the Heavy would be the best choice. Lastly, if there is noone else around for the Medic to charge off of while he runs to the front it might be a good thing for both of them to bypass the teleporter and no one use it so that both the Medic and the Heavy get to the front lines as a unit and the Medic mostly charged.

Just keep in mind what kit you're playing and how your team can maximize the use of your assests at a given time. Due to the nature of different walkng speeds and the fact that slower classes typically represent more firepower it might be a good idea to prioritize teleporter use toward the classes that teleportation benefit the most, but in some cases you would be wasting an asset if it went unused or there might be a legitimate reason for bypassing it entirely. Take a second to consider if stepping on that pad is helping your team the most at the moment.

This is also true if there is a specific kit needed to solve a problem that is plagueing your team due to the rock/paper/scissors nature of the different kits. If there is a bunch of turrets you can't get past let the Sniper, Spy, and/or Soldiers get on that pad. Or if your team is getting ripped up by spies on the front line it might be a good idea to let that Pyro use the teleporter to burn those sneaks out. If there is a problem to be solved sometimes getting the best person to it quickly would be worth it to have that Heavy take a little longer to get to the front if a better situation would await him when he arrived.

I tend to go past the teleporter if I look around and see that there are people around that could benefit from it's use more then me, but if I'm alone in the respawn area and haven't seen alot of friendly death spam I'll generally jump on it regardless of what class I am. I'll even move off it while it's charging if some one that I think could use it more spawns behind me.

As a side note: Engineers, please, please, use the right click ability when you are viewing blueprints. I can't count the amount of times I use a teleporter to zip in facing a wall or corner. The way a person is facing when they come out of the teleporter is the nominal "front" of the exit when you place it. If you run into a corner and drop the exit every single person that comes out of that teleporter will be situationally unaware when they exit. If you right click twice while the teleporter exit is in blueprint mode its "front" will be facting you then drop it in a corner and everyone that pops out will be facing away from the corner and ready to go right then.