I started CTF_Staredown last November when my friends and I were playing Team Fortress 2 basically every free moment. Unfortunately, all the maps were Control Point/Assault style maps as opposed to Capture the Flag. What this means is, I end up playing a LOT of CTF_2Fort. I can’t escape it, especially when my friends feel nostalgic for the TFC glory days. So after a swift kick in the pants, I have decided to build a map to put the CTF back in TFC.
The work project is nearly complete, and my schedule has opened up enough for me to focus on putting the finish touches on Staredown. I'd love to know what you think can be improved and what you'd like to see more of before I do the final detail and lighting pass.
What I would like is to take the hilarity of having two enemy bases practically adjacent to one another to a new extreme. The guiding theme is that RED and BLU have tunneled into opposite sides of a mountain and have created Flag Rooms that are quite literally connected. An impenetrable glass wall separates the two rooms, but removes privacy. It is my hope that this will increase the communication between offense and defense as well as change the way defenders think about base defense. Hopefully defenses will be built further out and engineers/demomen will push forward to aggressively defend their base.
Second, the most exciting part of Capture the flag is actually running back to the base with the flag, not just penetrating defenses. With that in mind, I want to create a slightly longer return path. This gives the forward defenders a chance to rally around a dropped flag and encourages the offense to squad up to ensure the safe passage of the flag carrier. Hopefully this also allows the “lone wolf” player plenty of opportunities for ambushing.
My last major goal is to make this map as beautiful as possible. I’m not talking about lots of hi-res props beautiful here, I’m talking epic landscape beautiful. Like first day of spring, first time seeing a sky scraper sort of beautiful. The kind of jaw dropping majesty that begs to be explored. This runs a bit counter to industrial stylings of TF2, but I believe enough elements of the two can be mixed.
You can find a gallery of images here
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View the Design History
Each base has two spawn rooms. The one at the top lets you quickly assess the condition of both inner and outer defenses. The one ground level (bottom right) is connected to the enemy spawn room the two teams are separated by glass. There is a team only quick exit door that drops players into the ramp outside, but the main exit takes you to the trees.
Here is the Capture point. There are two entry points on the left and right. Once again, the enemy team can see in this area. It is my hope that this will push defenders forward making combat much more intense. Or that defenders will communicate more with attackers to let them know of weaknesses in enemy defense.
Slightly out of the way back door to the base is a great spot to regroup
Out front of each base there are trees and a small forward base with health and ammo. From here there is a ramp down to the lower area, a bridge across, and a cave that goes behind the waterfall.
While the middle area looks large, it can be traversed in as little as 15s (Soldier), longer routes are safer, but it lets the player choose between taking a little damage to achieve a faster route. (The core of rocket jumping) Also, the bridge is a fun place for class jousting.
Under the waterfall there is a little water and small dilapidated shack.
Looking down from the cave behind the waterfall, you can look into the shack as well as see a lot of both ramps. There is no health or ammo up there and most of the shots are pretty difficult snipers may find themselves having to drop down the waterfall, or running back to the forward base. Either way they are in motion, and exposed.
Always finish with the artsy shot ^.^
Let me know what you think, any advice, comments, criticizm or anything is really appreciated. Thanks!
You've probably noticed the new pine trees, they would look a million times better even if they're a bit small.