[Gamemode Concept] Keep Away, a point-based variant on PL Tug-of-War

[SnickerPuffs]

Forward
This concept is in the *very* early stages of development, so much so that this write-up (and the image attached) is the only work I've done on it. The purpose of this thread is to open up a discussion on this concept, to get feedback on how it could be improved, and to gauge the mapping community's opinion on the gamemode as a whole.

Gamemode Concept
Keep Away (shortened to 'ka' or 'kapl') is a variant of Payload Tug-of-War, wherein a Player/Robot Destruction-style point system is used instead of the standard cap-based system.

As with a standard Tug-of-War map, both teams fight over a single, neutral payload cart in the center of the map. Unlike other Payload-based gamemodes however, they must bring it back to their own base, opposed to pushing it to the enemy team's base, in order to gain points. This mechanic gives the gamemode it's namesake.

Once the cart has left the starting area, it will begin generating points for the team pushing it at a rate of 1/s. As a reward for pushing further into their base, the team will gain "multipliers" that increase the number of points generated per second, reaching a maximum of 4/s when the cart has reached the end of the track.

The HUD
The HUD has been heavily modified to better fit the gamemode. The track's position has been raised, and the scoring zones are implemented directly into the track's progress bar. The flipped PD/RD HUD shows each team's point total, as well as their current point multiplier.

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Round Length
Rounds will have a timer length of 20 minutes, although most matches should end before then. Given the logic in place, rounds have a shorter "effective timer" based on the number of points generated per second and how evenly matched the teams are. The following are round length estimates for a 500-point game, if one team remains uncontested. Expect double these times when teams are evenly matched, excluding the time it takes for the cart to move between bases.

Spoiler: "Effective" Round Lengths

~ If only one team gets the cart, and stays at the initial x1 multiplier, the round will last roughly 8:20​

~ If only one team gets the cart, and reaches the x2 multiplier, the round will last roughly 4:00
~ If only one team gets the cart, and reaches the x3 multiplier, the round will last roughly 2:45
~ If only one team gets the cart, and reaches the x4 multiplier, the round will last roughly 2:00

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[Zeus]

After having worked on siege; I can tell you that as described, this HUD is not possible with the current set of logic entites.

You would prob want to have this driven as a pl hud with either ent_text or env_screenoverlays to drive the over values.

Also a quirk that you'll need to get around is: if the map doesnt start with "pl_" then the func_tracktrain will cause players to get stuck in it.


This kind of custom game mode could be addressed by this if we can get valve to pick it up: https://tf2maps.net/threads/custom-gamemode-entity-a-proposal-for-valve.43868/

 

[Izotope]

Very interesting idea, my only complaint would be keeping it in your own base, it makes it very easy for the first team to get the cart going to end up winning.
Because as more time passes, it'll be easier to defend in your own base, and harder to attack having to push into the enemy base.
So keeping it away (haha get it?) from your own base would make more sense imo.

Also a quirk that you'll need to get around is: if the map doesnt start with "pl_" then the func_tracktrain will cause players to get stuck in it.

Not quite, the trainwatcher is responsible for that, as I've tested it on an arena map. (although it does break arena at that point)

 

[Zepavil]

I could see this working with progressively easier methods to get into the enemy base and increased respawn times for the team with the advantage depending on the multipliers active. Might give it a shot when I'm more experienced!

 

[Tiftid]

I know other people have said this, but it seems like a waste of potential to not make teams push it into the enemy base, since it gets progressively harder for them to continue to earn points as they earn points, which provides better balance in the case of stacked teams, and unlike standard TOW, this can't stalemate (or, it really shouldn't), since as long as a team owns the cart, they're speeding towards victory.

Less obvious questions/worries:
- How do you decide when a team should be earning points if both teams have players on the cart? The most obvious solution is to make it so that neither team earns points while it's contested, but this makes it so that 500-point rounds would be a grueling slog and probably hit the 20-minute time limit. This makes me assume that you want the team who first touches the cart to own it until it stops.

- How do people stop the enemy team from winning? If teams earn points simply by owning the cart, and you can't stop the enemy team from earning points without fully clearing them off the cart, then contesting can't force any kind of overtime or anything. The end of rounds would have no tension.
(If the team who owns the cart gets a dispenser, this could accentuate this, since it becomes harder to clear them off the cart)

- It'd probably be possible for teams to edge the cart such that it doesn't move from mid but they still earn points - this is probably preferable to pushing it into the enemy base and risking losing it. I doubt this'd be an issue in pubs since people would never be able to coordinate their team enough to do it, but in competitive, it could be a real problem. This, of course, means nothing if you don't want this to be a competitive gamemode.

- If the cart is in the enemy base, what rate do you earn points at? I'm assuming by asking this that when the enemy owns the cart and it's in their base, you can gain ownership of it and start pulling it towards your base. But your proposed model only specifies rates for the path between mid and your own base.

(I really hope that explanation isn't confusing)

- Rounds would follow a rather low-variance gameplay loop of "win the fight at mid, grab the cart, keep it" or "win the fight at mid, push the cart into the enemy base, lose it, repeat", all occupying the same regions of the map each round and each life. This concern is admittedly a bit of a nitpick, since as a player, low-variance gameplay loops can be avoided by just playing a different map - all the mapper needs to do is make something that can entertain someone for 30 minutes, and hope people don't like the map enough to play it on 24/7 servers or just queue into it really often in Casual. However, people fairly consistently get tired of any single KOTH map after fewer than 30 minutes, and KOTH notably has one of the lowest-variance gameplay loops of any gamemode.