[INFO] trigger_capture_area time settings

A Boojum Snark

Toraipoddodezain Mazahabado
aa
Nov 2, 2007
4,775
7,670
- Number of TEAM players to cap (numplayers from here on)
- Time to cap (sec). (captime from here on)
If you've ever set these or looked at the ones in valve maps they may have seemed odd. I set out to determine how they, as well as how multiple people on the point, influence the capture time.

The base formula for time period for one player (non-scout) is 2 * captime * numplayers. For example with captime set to 4 seconds and numplayers set to 3 (this is the settings for the Well/Granary center points), if one person stands on the point it will take 2*4*3 = 24 seconds for the point to be captured. That's easy enough, multiple cappers is where it gets funky...

Though my timing method was as accurate as I could get it, there were some discrepancies and the times were all around odd enough that I didn't feel like spending the time to figure out a formula, but I did gain useful approximations.
With an x2 capper count (2 people or 1 scout), the time drops by just more than one third, so in the previous example it would only take ~15.9 seconds.
x3 and x4 are just on either side of half the time of the original, making our example time be ~13 and ~11.5 seconds, respectively.

From here on the diminishing returns get bad enough it takes many many people to put a dent in the time.
x5 drops our time to ~10.5 seconds
x10 yields ~8.1 seconds
x15 yields ~7.2 seconds

So in the end the things to remember are:
- A: 2 * captime * numplayers = One player capture time
- B: Two players is about two-thirds of A
- C: Four players is about half of A
- D: 80% of the team scout rushing on Granary is not that useful.
001_tt2.gif
 
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Logo

L3: Member
Oct 25, 2007
115
26
So what's the difference, if any, between making a cap point that is 12sec captime and 2 num players or 6 second cap time and 4 num players.

My theory is that the smaller num players is the less of an impact each additional player will have on the capture time but that's just a hunch.
 

A Boojum Snark

Toraipoddodezain Mazahabado
aa
Nov 2, 2007
4,775
7,670
There is no difference, or if there is, it is negligible. That is one of the things I checked for and made sure I timed a full block of data for (I extrapolated a bunch of my chart once I had the key areas).
 

[O]

L3: Member
Mar 21, 2009
121
27
BUMP

an interesting thread i thought we could blow some dust off of.

perhaps some of the veterans have gained new insight into the forumla?

i for one want to understand, finally, how changing NUMBER OF TEAM PLAYERS TO CAP impacts the time.
 

[O]

L3: Member
Mar 21, 2009
121
27
Umm... I said how in the first post? It hasn't changed since I wrote it.

actually in your first post you said that you had an idea of how it worked btu werent sure how exactly. you discovered the forumla for 1person on cap but it wouldnt work for 2, 3, and up.

anyway, i guess noones figured it out exactly yet.
 

Icarus

aa
Sep 10, 2008
2,245
1,210
I'm pretty sure it's around the same for capture speeds as payloads

Control Points

1x = 50% (2xcaptimexnumplayers)
2x = 75%
3x = 100% (captimexnumplayers)
4x = 125%
5x = [Negligible difference]
...

Payloads

1x = 55%
2x = 77%
3x = 100%
4x = [No difference]
...

Number of team players to cap sounds like an obsolete feature during development. They probably had a similar CP system used in DODS, where some CPs you cannot capture unless you had at least X players on it, but the cap times were very short.
 
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A Boojum Snark

Toraipoddodezain Mazahabado
aa
Nov 2, 2007
4,775
7,670
eh... not really. Here is the data I collected when I made this. "player" column refers to numplayers, *x refers to capper count on the point.

captimes.png


the tiny descrepancies between "pairs" in the last box I put to just being an issue of the accuracy of the timing system I built.
 
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Tapp

L10: Glamorous Member
Jan 26, 2009
776
215
So, the general rule is to set the num players to cap at 0.5, and then the cap time will be accurate for 1 person. I shall find this useful.