System

CTF System rc

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Ravidge

Grand Vizier
aa
May 14, 2008
1,544
2,818
ctf_system
A capture the flag map.

Spytech theme with desert outdoors. Not based on any real location.

Story:
Red team has decided to build a secret hideout. Of course it would have to be in a inconspicious location, a place where no one would ever look. Once a suitable location had been found, construction began (in utmost secrecy, naturally). The Red base was nearly finished when suddenly a blue shovel came trough the outer wall...
It was then the Red team noticed that they weren't alone in this mountain. But who could these trespassers be? What did they know? Did they build an identical hideout next to Reds? It's time to steal some papers and get answers the only way they know how.

Objective: Steal the intelligence from the enemy, and bring it back to yours.

Twist: The intelligence is moving.


Credits:
A Boojum Snark made improvements to the intellligence parenting mechanism.
Karmakaze Inspired me with his version of moving intel.
III_Demon made the 45° curves and 32 unit tracks. link: here.
Big Rexy for the custom Ibeam models.
 
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Ravidge

Grand Vizier
aa
May 14, 2008
1,544
2,818
Cool concept. Is the capture zone also moving?

Looking very sexy for a [somewhat] dev texture version.

Yes. The capturezone is also moving together with the cart. I figured that was the first place people would try to capture at (your own intel).

I have also tried to name the different rooms in the bases, and since both carts (red and blue) movement is syncronized the defence can keep the offensive players updated where the enemy cart is. I hope the names will make it easier to memorize the layout and diffrentiate the gray rooms from eachother.
 

Phobos

L3: Member
Feb 22, 2009
130
50
The moving intel is a very interesting idea, a different approach to sentry camping.
I have also tried to name the different rooms in the bases, and since both carts (red and blue) movement is syncronized the defence can keep the offensive players updated where the enemy cart is
Good concept! Will never work in pubs though.
My first impression was that the map is huge. But once I roamed around a bit, the map 'shrunk'. Navigating between the bases became easy.
The signs with the room names do their job, but you could add a spotlight on them to highlight them more.
 

Ravidge

Grand Vizier
aa
May 14, 2008
1,544
2,818
Yeah, I only found that the map might be on the larger scale after I duplicated the base. I have been looking at various ways to fix this but so far I got nothing. I have to think about optimization and sightlines, location of spawn so that I dont force attackers to move past it to get into the base, distance to travel to get to the intel from any given point (and time!), Escape routes and alternative paths.

Just squishing them together would result in a horrible mess, but I'm seriously looking for a solution to this non-confirmed issue. :)

I think the defence-reporting-to-offence tactic will work pretty well on pubs WITH alltalk on, for some reason :p
There's always the ctf hud arrow to follow if nothing else works.
 

Ravidge

Grand Vizier
aa
May 14, 2008
1,544
2,818
I just ended a ~2 hour playtest of this map (hosted by me).

things I/we noticed:
Outdoor area isnt used.
Distance between bases is slightly too long.
Might need some more health in the bases. (unsure)
Impossible to guard all entrances to the base. (good thing)
Sentries are not the best defence, i'd say heavy or demoman does the job much better.


A big thanks to all who joined the server! The [TE] clan members, Chrono, Void and all the funky guys who stayed on long enough to download the map (and then actually played for over 1 hour!).
 

Fireman

L4: Comfortable Member
Mar 21, 2008
150
59
I just ended a ~2 hour playtest of this map (hosted by me).

things I/we noticed:
Outdoor area isnt used.
Distance between bases is slightly too long.
Might need some more health in the bases. (unsure)
Impossible to guard all entrances to the base. (good thing)
Sentries are not the best defence, i'd say heavy or demoman does the job much better.


A big thanks to all who joined the server! The [TE] clan members, Chrono, Void and all the funky guys who stayed on long enough to download the map (and then actually played for over 1 hour!).

It was a really weird reverse situation. Whenever I was playing a flanking class, pyro, scout, spy, whatever, I'd tend towards the middle, since I knew the majority of both teams would be pushing up the sides. Honestly, I didn't really see this as a bad thing.
 

Void

Local Man Unable To Map, Sources Say
aa
Sep 14, 2008
1,865
2,971
Fun map, fairly balanced, make the center prettier and more people might use it! Put a nice centerpiece in it once you start detailing.
 

Ravidge

Grand Vizier
aa
May 14, 2008
1,544
2,818
I'm leaving the server up and running until I notice it's dead. So far it's steady at 20-24 players almost always, probably because of free weekend.

ctf_system_a1 is played every 3rd mapchange. So If you want to just pop in and take a look at it, feel free to join my server

ip: 80.216.242.159:27015
 

Ravidge

Grand Vizier
aa
May 14, 2008
1,544
2,818
a1 -> a2 changes:

Middle is 512 units shorter!
Added medium health in the center section (in the bases).
No more getting stuck on cart!
CTF hud hopefully bug free.
Quick 3d skybox added.

Special thanks to A Boojum Snark for lending me his intel parenting entity setup :)
 
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Zeewier

L9: Fashionable Member
Sep 20, 2008
619
262
Shouldn't you be using the waste tracks? (or havnt i posted them yet?)
 

Ravidge

Grand Vizier
aa
May 14, 2008
1,544
2,818
Z33: I haven't seen them, do they have 45° turns and 32 unit long parts too? If not, I'll probably stick with what I got right now.
 

DaFatCat

L3: Member
Apr 19, 2009
129
11
I love the idea of a moving intel cart, adds some new strategy.
 

Ravidge

Grand Vizier
aa
May 14, 2008
1,544
2,818
Gameday Bump!

Firstly: I'll lower the flag return time from 60 to 30... that should fix a few things.
Anything else that you noticed? Did you all like the idea?
 
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Connect_Four

L2: Junior Member
Jan 28, 2009
57
23
Vroooooooooooooooom Vraaaaaaaaa Vroooommm, riding the cart was the best :p

That was a fun map. I love the concept, and it did work out how I expected it to. I didn't really notice many flaws in it. I like how you prevented stickies on the cart, very smart. Reducing the return time would help fortify the whole system of a moving intel. I didn't go outside into the main area that much, so my thoughts about snipers being over powered were put to rest. Keep up the good work, I really like the map :thumbup1:
 

Rexy

The Kwisatz Haderach
aa
Dec 22, 2008
1,798
2,533
Very cool concept, I like maps that try to accelerate ctf gameplay, since a lot of the time it tends to be stale(mate).

I'd also like to point out that even though there was an outside section of the map, I never went out there. That's not a problem by any means, I just found it interesting that I was able to play and travel to the other base without ever seeing daylight.

If you want players to travel there, maybe reward them with some ammo or health in that area. Just as suggestion.

And as I mentioned to you during gameday, shortening the intel return time will have some interesting gameplay effects.
 

Ravidge

Grand Vizier
aa
May 14, 2008
1,544
2,818
The outside area was added in very late, I was originally going for a completely indoors map, But decided that a change of atmosphere is good every now and then. I dont think the lack of use in the middle is a problem, right now it acts as a big wide connector to everything... going there gives you a lot of movement freedom.

Seeing as I have 3 paths between the bases (sides+middle) ppl can get a little too spread out, I'm going to take a close look at the sourceTV demo and see if this is either a good or bad thing.
If I find it's a problem I'm going to add oneway doors in the side tunnels, forcing you to go the other side, or taking a detour trough the middle ground.

Thanks for the feedback!
 

Shadow Hog

L1: Registered
May 28, 2009
15
2
Map was definitely incredible fun. Can't wait to see it with proper texturing.

Somebody suggested a Dispenser on the cart, a la Payload. This might be worth experimenting with.