- Jul 30, 2021
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When making a custom map that uses flags in some way, have you ever stopped to ask yourself "Hmm... maybe I should debuff the flag carrier to make them work with their team?" Or perhaps in an Invade CTF map, you've observed that carrying the flag makes you a dispenser for your team? Well my friend, you've just thought about Flag Desirability! Flag desirability is an important part in constructing a flag-based map; While it's more important in certain modes than others, there's no doubt that any flag mode can utilize it!
So how do we quantify this a little bit? Well, let's take the example of one of the biggest examples of Flag Desirability that I can think of: ctf_hades_b5.
Notice how none of these seem very nice to be afflicted with when holding the flag? Notice how the third point sounds suspiciously similar to PASS Time's J.A.C.K.? Well, that feeling of the flag being unfun to hold means that the flag is undesirable. Nobody's going to want to hold an objective that actively debuffs you! That's why the J.A.C.K. in PASS Time is so universally hated! This is what we call Negative Flag Desirability. Negative Flag Desirability is always a bad thing because, well, you're making the objective of the map itself undesirable. This means that nobody will want to actually pick up the flag, which makes your map much more likely to just turn into deathmatch central for the game.
Let me introduce you to our control value now: A flag with no desirability or undesirability, what you would call the normal flag.
The normal flag is exactly what it sounds like, it is JUST a normal flag. No gimmicks, no crazyness, just grab-n-go. And it's what you'll see most often, as there's nothing wrong with letting the flag stay as it is normally. This is what we'd call Neutral Flag Desirability, as the desirability of the flag is neither positive (as in, it doesn't grant buffs), nor is it negative (it doesn't grant debuffs).
And finally, we can explore Positive Flag Desirability:
By buffing both the player AND their team when someone holds a flag, you increase the desirability of the flag while ALSO making the flag even more integral to gameplay. This is particularly advantageous in Invade CTF or CTK, as it makes moving alongside your team much more beneficial (which is ideal for the mode.) Any kind of buff to the flag-holder automatically makes the flag more desirable.
So now that we've explained what Flag Desirability is, how do we achieve it? Well, if you want positive flag desirability, you can do a few things (and they don't necessarily have to all be in the same package):
These four things, while not something I will always recommend to a CTF map, are absolutely ways to increase your flag's desirability. Remember: A flag being desirable will make more people play your map in the intended way. And now let's cover some ways that a flag could be made less desirable:
All of these things make the flag carrier themselves much more of a sitting duck than they already are by being the flag carrier itself, and should be avoided whenever possible. When you include something that makes the flag undesirable, you increase the likelihood that your map will be either disliked (because it gives credence to people who already dislike CTF, and due to the objective being unfun, means it will much more commonly make people dislike the mode and thus your map for having said mode) or your map will become, like what was said in the beginning of the article, a deathmatch central where the objective of the map is completely ignored. This is often not ideal because you want people to enjoy your mode for the gameplay you constructed it for, right? Exactly.
tl;dr, don't make your flag bad!
(ps thank you for reading)
So how do we quantify this a little bit? Well, let's take the example of one of the biggest examples of Flag Desirability that I can think of: ctf_hades_b5.
Notice how none of these seem very nice to be afflicted with when holding the flag? Notice how the third point sounds suspiciously similar to PASS Time's J.A.C.K.? Well, that feeling of the flag being unfun to hold means that the flag is undesirable. Nobody's going to want to hold an objective that actively debuffs you! That's why the J.A.C.K. in PASS Time is so universally hated! This is what we call Negative Flag Desirability. Negative Flag Desirability is always a bad thing because, well, you're making the objective of the map itself undesirable. This means that nobody will want to actually pick up the flag, which makes your map much more likely to just turn into deathmatch central for the game.
Let me introduce you to our control value now: A flag with no desirability or undesirability, what you would call the normal flag.
The normal flag is exactly what it sounds like, it is JUST a normal flag. No gimmicks, no crazyness, just grab-n-go. And it's what you'll see most often, as there's nothing wrong with letting the flag stay as it is normally. This is what we'd call Neutral Flag Desirability, as the desirability of the flag is neither positive (as in, it doesn't grant buffs), nor is it negative (it doesn't grant debuffs).
And finally, we can explore Positive Flag Desirability:
By buffing both the player AND their team when someone holds a flag, you increase the desirability of the flag while ALSO making the flag even more integral to gameplay. This is particularly advantageous in Invade CTF or CTK, as it makes moving alongside your team much more beneficial (which is ideal for the mode.) Any kind of buff to the flag-holder automatically makes the flag more desirable.
So now that we've explained what Flag Desirability is, how do we achieve it? Well, if you want positive flag desirability, you can do a few things (and they don't necessarily have to all be in the same package):
- Giving players health while holding the flag
- Increasing the speed of the flag-holder
- Granting crits or mini-crits to the flag holder (does not have to be a constant)
- Making the flag a friendly dispenser
These four things, while not something I will always recommend to a CTF map, are absolutely ways to increase your flag's desirability. Remember: A flag being desirable will make more people play your map in the intended way. And now let's cover some ways that a flag could be made less desirable:
- Applying Marked-for-Death to the flag carrier
- Restricting the movement capabilities of the flag carrier
- Making the flag carrier unable to attack
All of these things make the flag carrier themselves much more of a sitting duck than they already are by being the flag carrier itself, and should be avoided whenever possible. When you include something that makes the flag undesirable, you increase the likelihood that your map will be either disliked (because it gives credence to people who already dislike CTF, and due to the objective being unfun, means it will much more commonly make people dislike the mode and thus your map for having said mode) or your map will become, like what was said in the beginning of the article, a deathmatch central where the objective of the map is completely ignored. This is often not ideal because you want people to enjoy your mode for the gameplay you constructed it for, right? Exactly.
tl;dr, don't make your flag bad!
(ps thank you for reading)
