The mysteries & theories of CP_Cloak, the weird TF2 test map that Valve & nobody talks about.

wadmodder1999

L1: Registered
Feb 1, 2020
5
2
We are all more or less familiar with the weird test map included with Team Fortress 2 since the SteamPipe update of May 2013. That map of course is CP_Cloak, a map criticized by player for it's poor design, undetailed geometry & brushes, bad lighting, the crappy skybox with those weird boxes & all nine classes in a void, one control point, and other things. Comparing the map with other Valve-designed maps or the community maps included in later updates of TF2, the quality of the map is way inferior to the official supported maps, probably not a good idea or a good map to be included in a retail Valve product.

But this discussion talks about the mysteries about CP_Cloak that have never been solved by the community ever since. There are lots of theories regarding it's purpose but without any correct answers, and it remains a mystery what CP_Cloak's main purpose is supposed to be or when the map was originally compiled or timestamped.

Many possible theories do exist with numorous evidence towards & against the map's main purpose. These include but not limited to:

Evidence towards what it's main purpose is supposed to be:

- The map was used to testing facial animations of the nine classes, mainly the mouths & eyes for each of the classes. The models might likely be Hardware-Morph models which have more facial features than the standard Source engine & TF2 models.
- The map was used to testing skybox scaling, which would explain the faces & weird boxes in the skybox void.
- The map was probably a joke map made during development of TF2 by the map makers just for fun, similar to those weird maps included in the Half-Life 2 beta leaked back in 2003.
- The map was designed to test the single control point game modes Arena & King of the Hill, both later introduced in the Heavy Update in 2008 for the former, and the Classless Update in 2009 for the latter.

Unknown and/or Disputed evidence:

- The map was made during the development of the final design of TF2 between 2005 to 2007, or during the development & production of the Meet the Team shorts between 2007 to 2012, which could explain why the lighting is completely rendered differently, as different branches of the Source engine are all to often sometimes or sometimes not forward & backward compatible with each other. It could also explain why there is a missing texture in the map.
- The map was likely designed to test the Spy's cloaking textures and how it was to be applied to maps and wrapped around a map, but it's kind of hard to tell or this probably wouldn't be the case at all.
- The map was likely to be made for a prison server feature for TF2, but likely got scrapped, probably because they didn't want to break VAC-Protected servers running SourceMod-based game modes like Randomizer, Death Run, TF2Ware or Verses Saxton Hale/Freak Fortress 2. Probably was to be used as a prison server feature for the Quickplay system between 2007 until 2016, when Quickplay was replaced with the Casual & Competitive game modes. This possibly proposed prison server feature could likely be reintroduced for the Casual & Competitive game modes in a future bug fix update, mainly to punish idlers & bot accounts.

Evidence against what it's main purpose is supposed to be:

- Valve employees declining or refusing to acknowledge the map's existence in TF2's map & game files, probably because it's already an unsupported map for an unsupported game mode, much like Background01, a main menu background map unused in the PC version (except during the official Pre-Release Beta builds of 2007) but used in the PS3 & Xbox 360 versions of TF2. So emailing any one of the Valve employees isn't going to give you any answers at all.
- The map probably doesn't have any comments on any of the brushes, walls, entities and other editable entries for the Hammer Editor, which probably won't give you any clues for it's main purpose or when it was compiled either. Even MVM_Example, another test map made in 2012 for the Mann Vs Machine game mode with the release of the Mann Vs Machine Update but only included in the Source SDK had comments on what it's purpose is supposed to be in it's VMF file.

As far as we know, the mysteries & theories of CP_Cloak is anything but solvable, and it likely will be forever unsolved. If a Valve employee sees this TF2Maps forum thread, they could likely provide evidence & answers regarding CP_Cloak, but any chances of that ever happening is pretty much slim to none.
 

Startacker!

WANT ME TO BE REAL? MAKE ME.
aa
Jun 15, 2013
647
1,197
Sadly there's not much exciting about Cloak other than it being a test map Valve used for a number of TF2-specific features. It got included in the game at some early point by mistake and was never removed. There's been plenty of other test maps like Cloak, but the one we see ingame is just the one that made it through.

- Valve employees declining or refusing to acknowledge the map's existence in TF2's map & game files, probably because it's already an unsupported map for an unsupported game mode, much like Background01, a main menu background map unused in the PC version (except during the official Pre-Release Beta builds of 2007) but used in the PS3 & Xbox 360 versions of TF2. So emailing any one of the Valve employees isn't going to give you any answers at all.

This honestly reads as creepypasta-tier exposition lmao


- The map probably doesn't have any comments on any of the brushes, walls, entities and other editable entries for the Hammer Editor, which probably won't give you any clues for it's main purpose or when it was compiled either. Even MVM_Example, another test map made in 2012 for the Mann Vs Machine game mode with the release of the Mann Vs Machine Update but only included in the Source SDK had comments on what it's purpose is supposed to be in it's VMF file.

This is because mvm_example comes with its base VMF, which retains the comments. Decompiling a bsp loses you those comments. Cloak wouldn't need to be commented since the team could also just talk to each other.
 

cnub66

Banned
Aug 2, 2019
13
86
cp cloak is a virtual Dybbuk Box containing the ghost of robin walker's dead brother. decompile it and you break the spiritual seal allowing him to haunt you. i can't elaborate further or he will come for me
 

Tuaam

L6: Sharp Member
Jun 26, 2015
376
248
I thought it was pretty obvious that the map was used to test various functionalities within the source engine (As you pointed out, skybox scaling). It's not a mystery, it's just something people make into a mystery because it's fun to make conspiracies

It's nothing more than a test level which virtually every game uses