a map idea, and will it work?

[cornontheCoD]

I came up with a map idea, but I am not sure if it will work. Basically, I want it to be like dustbowl, but instead of CP's it will just have a flag that attacking team has to take to the end. The respawn time of the flag would get longer for the flag as it got further. I know this probably sounds easy, but since this will be my first TF2 map, I dont know if it would work well.

would I do a CTF mode, or a attack/defend mode?

with ctf mode, I could just have a red flag in an unaccessible room and on red team winning it would cap. would that work? the hardest part would be having it cap when the time runs out, because red is defending, and different server times would be hard to detect. Also I want it to be able to switch levels like dustbowl

one more thing. Do I need to learn about areaportals and hintbrushes right now, or can I do it after I finish the layout of the map?

 

[drp]

in tfc, dustbowl was a cap the flag map.

 

[cornontheCoD]

yeah, I had heard about that, but didnt you have to get the flag to 2 CP's?

with this one the flag just has to get to the end, and the respawn time for it gets longer

 

[Pseudo]

By respawn time of the flag, you mean the time it takes for it to return after it is dropped? As far as I know, this cannot be changed during gameplay.

You should probably leave the item_teamflag set to "CTF" mode because the other modes do not work correctly.

You wouldn't need to have a red flag at all. You would have a team_round_timer that counts down and tells a game_round_win to make Red win when it finishes.

I don't think that multiple-round (like Dustbowl) CTF works very well. To have multiple rounds, control points are needed. And if there are control points in the level, the HUD will show the status of those control points instead of the flag HUD. Without the flag HUD there is not any flag indicators like the arrow pointing to the flag.

 

[cornontheCoD]

ok, thanks for the help. Darn, I really wanted to make it so the respawn timer of the flag could get longer as it goes further.

 

[grazr]

Does TF2 even support the gameplay style that was Dustbowl/Avanti on TFC?

 

[Pseudo]

Actually, I now have reason to believe that your idea of flag return time increasing based on distance may be very possible. I'm going to test a couple ideas then get back to you.

 

[cornontheCoD]

awesome. I think that would make the level really fun and add a sense of progression for the attacking team

I could still do 3 levels like dustbowl though, right? I would just have to switch up the respawns and doors at certain caps? I'm not too familiar with TF2 mapping (I barely started one map, but then scrapped the idea), but I have done some portal mapping before

 

[Pseudo]

Modifying flag return time based on distance

I figured out how to modify the flag's return time during gameplay. The "AddOutput" input can be used on any entity to modify its keyvalues. Sending an item_teamflag the input AddOutput with a parameter of ReturnTime 10 modifies that keyvalue, even though the item_teamflag doesn't have a specific input for that setting.

You can then use point_proximity_sensor to calculate the distance between the flag's starting point and the flag's current position. This number can be sent to a series of logic_compares that will alter the return time based on the distance value.

Attached is a working example of this setup. There is one flag that Blu can take to the other end of a long hallway to score. The short walls are the approximate boundaries where the return timer is modified. I used nine logic_compare to create ranges of distance to convert to flag return time. For example, if the flag is between 256 and 512 units away from its starting point, it will return 5 seconds after it is dropped. If it is 6144 to 8192 units, it takes 60 seconds. You can map whatever distances to whatever times you want.

 

[cornontheCoD]

you are awesome. thank you so much

 

[Cpt Raem]

This deserves a thanks. It'll be likely that I use this in the near future.

 

[cornontheCoD]

This is cool and all, but since I will be doing it in CTF mode, how would I make the scoring and switching teams like attack/defend? could I do it?

 

[Pseudo]

Two game_round_win, one for RED and one for BLU. game_round_win have an option for switching teams on map reset. RED's win will be triggered by team_round_timer and BLU's win will be triggered by func_capturezone.