- Mar 3, 2013
- 33
- 7
If Team Fortress 2 had three teams, how would that affect objectives and map balancing? I've been ruminating on this for awhile now, and here's some of the thoughts I've written down about it. If you have anything to add to this hypothetical exercise, feel free to reply.
In General:
-Places would have to be made a hell of a lot more defensible; the team currently defending now has two teams to defend against.
-A lot of otherwise-stalemate battles could be won by letting the other two teams whittle each other down, then pulling a Johanna Mason on the lot of them. Map balancing and play areas would have to be designed to account for this.
Control Points, 5CP:
-5CP would have to be made into 7CP, all radially symmetrical, in order to give Green some land.
-Each team would probably start with a base and a forward, and all three pile on to take Mid.
-Only by owning Mid can a team begin capturing either of the two enemies' forward points.
-Lose your base point, and your team loses. Obviously. But how would Humiliation of a losing team work when the other two are still going at it?
-If Red just capped Green's forward and are working on Green's base, what happens when Blue suddenly takes Mid? Can they suddenly ninja all of Red's home points? Would Red still be able to push for Green's base despite not owning Mid anymore?
Verdict: Three-team 7CP would be vaguely workable. Considerable playtesting would have to go into rules for capping points, Mid especially.
Control Points, A/D :
-Having one team attacking two different teams, or two teams attacking the third, would be obviously lopsided. At least the former would make some sense: Red and Blue attack, Green is caught defending themselves in the middle.
-Or, would Red attack Green attack Blue attack Red? That would turn into a giant game of Cyclic Control Points. That gamemode is hard enough to map and balance for with two teams, try the utter melee of three!
Verdict: Three-team A/D would barely work. Gravelpit style CP is completely out.
King of the Hill:
-As if that needed to be an even greater bloodbath. Wouldn't be much different otherwise though.
Payload:
-This. This is where I think a three-team fight would truly shine. Red and Blue are both trying to Payload-bomb Green, but it's also a race between Red and Blue.
Capture the Flag:
-Another possibility for potential three-teaming. Flags would certainly not stay in teams' basements as long as they do on stock CTF maps; however, once the flag is out, the attackers will inevitably bicker over who should cap it.
-Scoring is a biggie, though. Is the winning team the one with the most captures at the end of time? First to a certain number of captures? Or does a team automatically lose when their flag is captured so many times?
-An Afterthought: What if, instead of capping in your own base, in a three-team CTF, you had to capture in the other enemy's base? For example, Green can either run Red's flag to Blue's base, or vice versa. This might very well reduce the turtlefest commonly seen in CTF games.
In General:
-Places would have to be made a hell of a lot more defensible; the team currently defending now has two teams to defend against.
-A lot of otherwise-stalemate battles could be won by letting the other two teams whittle each other down, then pulling a Johanna Mason on the lot of them. Map balancing and play areas would have to be designed to account for this.
Control Points, 5CP:
-5CP would have to be made into 7CP, all radially symmetrical, in order to give Green some land.
-Each team would probably start with a base and a forward, and all three pile on to take Mid.
-Only by owning Mid can a team begin capturing either of the two enemies' forward points.
-Lose your base point, and your team loses. Obviously. But how would Humiliation of a losing team work when the other two are still going at it?
-If Red just capped Green's forward and are working on Green's base, what happens when Blue suddenly takes Mid? Can they suddenly ninja all of Red's home points? Would Red still be able to push for Green's base despite not owning Mid anymore?
Verdict: Three-team 7CP would be vaguely workable. Considerable playtesting would have to go into rules for capping points, Mid especially.
Control Points, A/D :
-Having one team attacking two different teams, or two teams attacking the third, would be obviously lopsided. At least the former would make some sense: Red and Blue attack, Green is caught defending themselves in the middle.
-Or, would Red attack Green attack Blue attack Red? That would turn into a giant game of Cyclic Control Points. That gamemode is hard enough to map and balance for with two teams, try the utter melee of three!
Verdict: Three-team A/D would barely work. Gravelpit style CP is completely out.
King of the Hill:
-As if that needed to be an even greater bloodbath. Wouldn't be much different otherwise though.
Payload:
-This. This is where I think a three-team fight would truly shine. Red and Blue are both trying to Payload-bomb Green, but it's also a race between Red and Blue.
Capture the Flag:
-Another possibility for potential three-teaming. Flags would certainly not stay in teams' basements as long as they do on stock CTF maps; however, once the flag is out, the attackers will inevitably bicker over who should cap it.
-Scoring is a biggie, though. Is the winning team the one with the most captures at the end of time? First to a certain number of captures? Or does a team automatically lose when their flag is captured so many times?
-An Afterthought: What if, instead of capping in your own base, in a three-team CTF, you had to capture in the other enemy's base? For example, Green can either run Red's flag to Blue's base, or vice versa. This might very well reduce the turtlefest commonly seen in CTF games.
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