CTF haters, why do you hate CTF??

[XFunc_CaRteR]

The basic problem with CTF is you have two teams chasing after different objectives. It doesn't match classic strategy. Classic strategy is two teams struggling over a single objective.

Imagine a football game with two footballs? Both teams trying to run their ball into the end zone simultaneously. Chaos.

Or a baseball game where both sides are at bat at the same time?

Or imagine D-Day where the Allies are trying to land on the beach and the Germans are landing on a beach at England? Sure that might happen, but the battle of D-Day is a struggle for one beach. Who takes the field? That kind of thing.

CTF is fundamentally a confused and unfocused play mode.

 

[Nutomic]

The basic problem with CTF is you have two teams chasing after different objectives. It doesn't match classic strategy. Classic strategy is two teams struggling over a different objective.

Imagine a football game with two footballs? Both teams trying to run their ball into the end zone.

Or a baseball game where both sides are at bat at the same time?

Or imagine D-Day where the Allies are trying to land on the beach and the Germans are trying to invade England?

It's fundamentally a confused and unfocused play mode.

Thats a really good point, never thought of that yet.

 

[Dr. Spud]

Or imagine capture the flag in every other game ever, where it works.

 

[Locutus]

I think that we as mappers should work on putting the intel in an area that isn't so easy to capture.

The only other thing I can think of, is that the CTF should be more like Quake/UT where if it gets dropped a player whose flag it belongs to can return it to base.

 

[Terr]

The only other thing I can think of, is that the CTF should be more like Quake/UT where if it gets dropped a player whose flag it belongs to can return it to base.

That'd make it even harder to cap, since the time taken to walk the flag back would generally be less than the time limit before it returns on its own, and even if the guy was intercepted he'd be closer to his base than where it was dropped.

Oh, and don't forget the griefing as someone deliberately carries it deep into the enemy base while spycrabbing as the rest of his own team rages in impotent fury.

 

[Mr.M]

Many people complain about engies.Whether you like them or not,engies and their inevitable sentrys are very important for other players enjoying the game, especially in CTF. Not only does it act as a high point when you manage to take one out, it allows for the rest of the team to focus on attacking instead of defending.

I actually really enjoy CTF (especially on 2Fort) but understand peoples hates with it. I think we don't need to change the style of gameplay, just introduce better level design. (Such as respawn room placement, possible entrances and optimal sentry placement).

When I relase my ctf map hopefully it will change all of your hate towards the game type.

 

[Vilepickle]

People have been talking about how bad TF2 CTF is since the game came out. And they've been blaming maps and waiting for a "good CTF map" because of the hundreds that have been released there still isn't a good CTF map after all this time.

I don't think it's the maps.

 

[Icarus]

I think it's just because TF2 wasn't built for CTF. Slower pace, clearer frontlines, and the changes in the classes are all geared around CP.

CTF in TF2 is just not fun. Don't blame the maps.

 

[grazr]

Fun is relative. I enjoy 32 player 2fort on defualt spawn times. Capping the flag is not impossible, i do it regularly, and witness others doing it regularly also.

People have built a myriad of ctf maps, even specifically trying to address the TF2 ctf issues, but none without understanding the key gameplay mechanics. The main issue is with the spawn placement. The rest are all variables that require balancing.

CTF needs a similar timer to CP whereby it adds time on each cap.Instead of a "30 minutes, that's it" one could try "20 minutes+5~ for each capture". You may think battling in the same place for up to an hour is boring and monotonous but some people don't mind or even like it. Hence 24/7 "insert map name here" servers. At least this way if the game stalemates it resolves via sudden death after a reasonable amount of time, if it progresses, it is allowed to reach an eventual satisfactory conclusion of a win/loss scenario.

In addition players need more incentive to capture the flag. Crits was one incentive that has recently been added, but most players care too much about their personal score to worry about how the team is doing. Rewarding players with a lot of points for a flag capture promotes capturing the flag. Crits also increase the possibility of breaking a stalemate forcing the losing team to react more appropriately to this threat. Like get some medics out. Capping the flag and recieving 3 lousy points is something of a dissapointment if it wasn't for the 16 kills and 4 assists i got on the way in and out balancing my score with-effort somewhat, but the only reason i try that hard is to shock the enemy team and even my own; who were too concerned with killing people on the bridge.

Most of the issues are based on core game elements such as the focus on combat rather than objectives with the introduction of dominations, revenges and numerous kill based achievements. Most of these can how ever be addressed on some level or another by the level designer. You may not hope to resolve any issue totally, but you can still make the mode close to what it was supposed to be, if you paid attention to the right areas.

 

[The Political Gamer]

Bumping this for the contest.