New Game Mode: Free-For-All Capture The Flag

[Lamron]

New Game Mode: Free-For-All Capture The Flag

CTF Mode is a separate game mode and does not run concurrently with normal play.

Here's how it works:
Somewhere on the map there is a flag. It will be easy to find because there is an objective icon on your minimap. Simply walk over it to pick it up. You will see a flag icon near your ammo HUD to confirm that you have the flag in your possession. The minimap will show everyone where the flag (and you) are at all times. A Flag Goal will appear somewhere in the map. Everyone else will see an area marked on the minimap showing generally where it is. The flag bearer will see a more precise green map icon labeled "FLAG GOAL".

There are two ways to score. You can either go on the run and try to stay alive as long as possible, or you can attempt to deliver the flag to FLAG GOAL. Remember that everyone can see both you and the goal.

- While you have possession of the flag, you will receive +5 points every 10 seconds.
- Successfully delivering it to FLAG GOAL will get you +75 points.
- No points are awarded for killing players! The flag is the only way to score points.
- Being killed penalizes you -5 points.

If the flag bearer is killed, the flag will be planted on that spot and can be picked up by anyone. However, the FLAG GOAL will move every time the flag is picked up by a new player. So you can't just kill the flag bearer close to the goal and get full points for carrying it the last few feet.


LOADOUT:

CTF mode conflicts with some other parts of the mod, so many things are disabled in this mode.

Primary Weapon: select as usual
Secondary Weapon: select as usual
Lethal Device: Frag Grenade
Tactical Device: EMP (There is important CTF info displayed on the minimap. Losing it definitely hurts you!)
Equipment: Minimap showing objective markers
Perk One: Steady Aim
Perk Two: Scavenger
Killstreak: Mortar Barrage

There are NO CLAYMORES FOR ANYONE. They would all be set at the pickup or destination points anyway.

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Safe-Guards:

- The script can detect and survive flag bearer disconnecting from server. Flag will be reset at the next location.
- It is possible for the flag to end up in an inaccessible location if the flag bearer dies someplace odd. If a dropped flag is not picked up within 60 seconds, it will automatically move to the next location. Normal flag pickup spots are all known good locations, so it will stay there until someone picks it up.
- There is a list of usable locations for each map. The flag pickup location is randomly selected, but the FLAG GOAL is always the location that is farthest away. The flag bearer will never get lucky and have a goal nearby. He will have to work for the score reward and other players will have plenty of opportunity to prevent him from reaching it.

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ADMIN:
The admin menu has the option under "Game Modes" to select "Capture The Flag" mode. When selected the map will restart (stay on the current map) and you will be in CTF mode. Several script decisions have to be made at the very start of a map, so you can't switch on the fly. It will always require a map restart. CTF mode is available on all of the maps that had Caches (it uses the same locations). If the menu button says "CTF Not Available", there are no usable locations for the current map. You'll have to go to a different map to play. Generally, all stock maps are usable, with some of the custom maps setup correctly. CTF mode defaults to OFF at map changes, so you'll never accidentally get stuck on an unusable map.

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Subject To Change:

I used my best judgement to set several of the parameters, but some things will be discovered while playing that will require adjustment for good gameplay. Here are some of the things I anticipate may need some tweaking:

- Score amount for survival over time.
- Score amount for successful delivery to FLAG GOAL.
- Visibility of certain elements to certain players.
- Loadout


Let me know if anything does not work as I've described, or if you have ideas for improvement.

[Lamron]

The script works as designed with no bugs so far. Made a couple tweaks tonight.

Point reward for reaching FLAG GOAL was reduced to 50. The previous 75 was equivalent to staying alive 2:30, nearly impossible with someone hunting you. Going for the goal was always the better choice. With 50 points, the reaching the goal is equivalent to staying alive 1:40. This makes the option to try to survive as long as possible more viable. If going for the goal is always better, then other players will immediately run towards the goal to defend it. If the two choices are more equal, the flag bearer's decision is less predictable.

I also improved the FLAG GOAL location selection process. I had it picking the farthest possible point from you. This made the two farthest corners of the map the most frequent spots. I was getting tired of running to the same spots over and over again, and you could predict where it would be if you saw the flag on the other side of the map. The new process finds the four most distant locations from the pickup point and chooses randomly from them. The math to make that work had me scratching my head for a while. This should provide more variety in destinations, particularly on larger maps.

[RedRock]

I hadn't seen this before you offered to play it last night. Sorry I didn't stick around to try it. I expect I'll still get slaughtered, but at least there's points for trying to hold it, sort of like the bomb game but with instant gratification.

So, there's a game mode BEL (behind enemy lines), where evasion and hiding and surviving, without killing enemies, gets points. Sort of like FFA-CTF but without the Flag. What do you think about that on the LP server? Sorry, don't know if it's there already, but never played it there so far.