I agree, instant respawn is a little too quick, but my sweet is 5 seconds. I can tolerate 10, but it's pushing it a little bit.

Oh, I hate when I have to sit around for 20+ seconds to respawn...knowing I could assist my team if I was alive.

But of course, I shouldn't have died in the first place...and any time less than Valve's respawn timer will screw up the balance of the game.

Ever wonder why the defending team is owning and you're sucking it up? It could be because your team sucks, but it could also be because their base is right outside their respawn, whereas you have to trek for a mile after you both instantly respawn.

And then people learn to hate the game because it's not working for them, and then they quit. Sometimes a shorter spawn won't matter much, but it definitely screws with the balance Valve set for the game.

I hate instarespawn too.  Infact I don't even like fast spawning,  it messes up the balance of the game entirely.  20second wait fort the defending team is fine with me.

Maps - Now I pretty much play 75% 2fort, 20% dustbowl, and 5% rest.  Dustbowl used to be my favorite until I realized the joy of 2fort.  2fort is a great map.  All classes have a use on that map, and its by far the most teamplay oriented out of valves official maps.  Its really a great achievement when your team gets in their base and bring back their intelligence.  You need to get on a 24/7 2fort server and take your time though, rotation servers have crappy players that usually compain how boring 2fort is.

I've given up on Granary Well Hydro and Badlands.  These maps are too dynamic and open-spaced to come up with team based strategy.  They are flawed by design and usually end up in a one sided push or stalemates.  Garbage maps.

I have hope for goldrush as I see its a 3 sector map like dustbowl.

There's just no way that any offense can break through a competent defense with a respawn time of 5 seconds. The respawn timer defaults are what they are for a very good reason, which BenKenobi already laid out. It does your offense no good to blow away half the defending team when they're just going to come tromping out of the resupply door with full health right away.

I'm with you on Granary, Well, and Badlands (I haven't actually played the new CTF version of Well yet), but I like Hydro.  It's got a lot of variety, and it's much better laid out than the straight CP maps.  Still gives too much of an edge to the winning team, though.  Scouts don't seem to completely dominate Hydro the way they completely dominate the other CP maps.

Triage: Deploy an uber-charge on a teammate less than a second before they're hit by a critical explosive.

Holy crap, are they serious? That's like, a one in a million chance.

But man do those new weapons look sweet!

Hydro is a mixed bag for me.
I just find it extremely difficult to even get close to the cap point which is right next to their main spawn usually with a Sentry or two locking it down. Hydro seems to end in a stalement too often.
Then theres those other times where the round ends in literally 10 seconds which makes me think about the balance of this map.
Oh and the 'deadend sections' that last 20 seconds max.

If Hydro was Blu-Attack Red-Defecd type it may be interesting.

This probably happens fairly often on Dustbowl.

Or at the beginning of Gravelpit, which nobody has mentioned yet, my favorite map...though I'm starting to like Dustbowl a little more...if it wasn't for the second cap on the first attack on Dustbowl, I hate that choke point.

ok I did some mind simulation and some of these achivements aren't harder than they seem. Heres my plan to get some of these.

Quadruple Bypass: Heal a teammate who's taking fire from 4 enemies at once.
-get behind a heavy at bridge in insta respawn 2fort server
Group Health: Work with 2 other medics to deploy 3 simultaneous uber-charges.
-Just follow another 100% uber medic and wait for him to use his, then activate your uber and quickly shift targets
Autoclave: Assist in burning 8 enemies with a single uber-charge on a pyro.
-best bet would be the begenning of dustbowl stage 2 where all the BLUs are crammed.
Intern: Accumulate 7000 heal points in a single life.
Specialist: Accumulate 10000 heal points health in a single life.
-I'm hoping this doesn't mean actual damage. If it counts healing a full health target, I can just sit in the intel room in 2fort healing a camping engineer.
Bedside Manner: Be healing a teammate as he achieves an achievement of his own.
-If you have a friend that would cooperate with you this is really easy.
All you need to do is heal each other in the set-up time of gravelpit or dustbowl and get the Surgical Prep achievement, then both of you should get bedside manner

I'm not even going to try the ones where you uber another class because they're simply IMPOSSIBLE to achieve under a normal match.

Uber a scout and get 4 kills?  WHy would you waste a uber on a scout thats way too weak to kill 4 people in 10 seconds.
Punch 4 people with Heavy? Good luck even getting close to them.
Destroy 8 buildings with Demoman? Opponent team has to be retarded to cram 8 buildings nearby.

I always liked Valve but this...what the hell are they thinking.