How to make a good 3-CP map?

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Truckojr

L3: Member
Feb 23, 2019
126
67
I'm currently working on a map right now (cp gold valley) and I want to know how a good 3-cp map is made. I wanted to post this incase there is something that could be very useful to me when making it.
 

Aapelikaeki

L3: Member
Feb 24, 2018
148
135
I made a symmetrical 3cp as my second map which I developed to Alpha 7 before moving on. (Here if you wanna take a look)
Here's some of the problems I had:

Stalemates:
At first I had no timer like Powerhouse, but I quickly got a lot of feedback to add it. With the timer came the problem of stalemates (basically everyone loses and the round restarts) which was fun for nobody and just added frustration.

Layout:
There's a lot of koth guides and not many 3cp ones, so at first I designed the layout more like a koth map than a 3cp one. This doesn't work very well.

Comparisons:
Being my second tf2 map and having just discovered the decompiled Valve map vmfs, I compared it to Powerhouse too much.
Powerhouse is an okay starting point, but even tho it's a Valve map, it has a lot of problems.

These are my experiences from only one map so they might not apply to your map or style of mapping, but I hope I helped nonetheless :jimijam:
 

Truckojr

L3: Member
Feb 23, 2019
126
67
Sorry, but I meant attack/defend 3-cp maps (like mountain lab or mercenary park). Sorry that I didn't clarify that.
 

RevolutionTeam

L4: Comfortable Member
May 19, 2019
173
45
Play the maps, take every flank...

Learn the map, memorize it...

AND LEARN it.
 

DrSquishy

we've all had better times to die
aa
Feb 10, 2017
1,297
974
This doesn't just apply to 3CP, but unifying all of your routes together after each point is a good idea. Also, once red loses a point they should be pushed back, with combat not happening right after the point.
Another thing you'll probably want to keep in mind - it's nice to have a difficulty curve of sorts between the three points, with A being the easiest, B being harder and C being the hardest. It seems obvious when you think about it, but I keep seeing 3CP maps in which B is either an awful choke (and you never see C, and it feels like you should just cut out C and make B the new last), or B is lost immediately to blu because red can't establish a hold (and again, it feels barely worth keeping it as 3CP over 2CP). In my opinion, getting a good balance between red being able to hold B and blu being able to capture in a certain timerame is one of the harder bits to balance when you're making a 3CP A/D map, and it might be worth just making it as 2CP A/D if you don't want to worry about that (but once you've got that balance it's super neat, and I personally prefer a good 3CP over a good 2CP because of the B point)
 
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Idolon

they/them
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Feb 7, 2008
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