10second crit boost for ctf maps

Ezekel

L11: Posh Member
Dec 16, 2008
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...and why i feel it should be optional (i.e. at the mapper's and/or server owner's discretion:

the decision is i assume an attempt to reinvigorate the game mode.
truth: many ctf maps suffer from a stalemate, and get drawn out.

however i don't believe that this is due to people not wanting to capture. and if you have the intel, capping it is surely incentive enough. why create this team wide crit boost?
what more reward do you need when you have that suitcase on your back, then bringing your team 1/3 of the way closer to victory?

on a map like 2fort, on a pub server, this will have basically negligable effects. on a smaller map like turbine, you will almost certainly see a capping team pushing hard, and quite likely capping again soon after.
on the competitive scene, i can see this as being used to lock players into their spawn, or out of their own intel room, as a competitive team coordinates an intel cap with position of their fellow teammates. again this gives the capping team a huge advantage.

now lets look at something else: the assault-style ctf maps in the tf2maps contest - for many of them, it's quite possible to travel between 2 points in 10 seconds. that means that the scouts and pyros and spies of the attacking team can make use of the critboost to cripple any defense plans before they can set up (i.e. sentries and snipers).

now i'm not saying this is a terrible idea. obviously valve have playtested this (on 2fort, ctf_well and ctf_sawmill most likely), and it's worked within the scope of testing, but i honestly feel that the problem with ctf as a gamemode in tf2 was not the gamemode mechanics but rather the map designs not accomodating tf2 properly.
as i've said before, i firmly believe that the action for ctf on tf2 should be out in the field, fighting over the intels, rather than seeing which team can turtle better than the other while a couple of scouts run around trying to cap the intel.
the crit boost will clearly upset that balance on smaller maps (and yes i am thinking about the map i released today in particular as an example).

so could it not become an optional situation? does anyone else agree, or do you unanimously support unilateral team-critboosting on all maps with an intelligence present
 

TMP

Ancient Pyro Main
aa
Aug 11, 2008
947
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THIS JUST IN: All CTF maps are banned from competitive play!

EDIT: Hopefully controlled by a cvar.
 

Ezekel

L11: Posh Member
Dec 16, 2008
818
246
Are you sure it applies to "push" flag maps?

from what i can work out, it's triggered by a capture. so i believe it will.
 

Shmitz

Old Hat
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Nov 12, 2007
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It's a moot point from the competitive angle since they'd generally have crits turned off anyway. Otherwise, I'm going to wait and see. It's not like a team-wide First Blood effect, so I imagine the advantage will be significantly more subtle. As for whether or not this will still be too much of an advantage in an A/D CTF setting, I'm not going to theorycraft on that until I see what happens in-game.
 

Rikka

L5: Dapper Member
Feb 10, 2009
208
388
Shmitz, have you played a CTF map yet? It's a exactly like a team-wide First Blood effect, only longer.

And I'm not as nice as you, this is definitely a terrible idea. The purpose seems to be to break the stalemates CTF is known for, but it's not worth it if it manages to make the game less fun, which I think it does.

And yes, it is too early to call it definite. I don't care.
 

uma plata

L6: Sharp Member
Jan 20, 2009
294
93
One of the few changes in this update I don't like at all. It doesn't help the mode, just seems gimmicky

If they want more players in CTF, they should take a good hard look at map design

They should definitely put in cvars to disable this and first blood.
 

frothy

L2: Junior Member
Mar 3, 2009
87
21
I found it somewhat hilarious, especially when a teammate yelled, "I got the flag, get ready for crits!"

I kinda like it.
 

evanonline

L420: High Member
Mar 15, 2009
485
273
In before capping the intel causes mass bannings on 24/7 2fort servers

I think it's a good idea. Not as incentive to cap, but to give the winning team the ability to make another push with a little more ease as a reward.
 

drp

aa
Oct 25, 2007
2,273
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its not that big of a deal. i played some ctf last night, and at most, the capping team got 1 or 2 kills.. the non capping team knows to hide after their flag is too far gone.
 

Ida

deer
aa
Jan 6, 2008
2,289
1,372
Jonah has said that the boost only occurs on the final cap of a stage in an ADCTF map, thereby nullifying any affect it would have on that mode.

Part of the implementation of the A/D CTF mode in TF2, I guess. I mean, they made the HUD and all, I'm sure they didn't want to give us one thing and break another. Either way, good thing Valve didn't think of this critboost earlier. :p

I dunno what to think about it... It seems rather useless, but I'm honestly not bothered by it. Neat little award, I guess.