CTF_JustBad
A short log of my attempts to create an absolutely awful CTF map (on purpose).
Initial Plans
Ground Floor
The ground floor as I originally envisioned it. My initial calculations in terms of room size were a little off - turns out twelve metres is really, really big for a spawn room. Who'da thunk it.
I tried to take a lot of cues from 2Fort, Turbine, and a little from Doublecross. There was one thing that I wanted to try that isn't seen in either of these maps, though, which is putting the intel and the capture area in two separate rooms. I'm not entirely sure what this'd do, but it seems interesting to me.
One-way and single-team gates were of interest to me, too, because of the way they restrict player movement and choices. Having blind areas that allow you to make upward pushes seemed interesting - although I wonder if such structures would actually be enticing without much direct incentive (like health).
Upper Floor
The upper floor as I originally envisioned it.
One thing that I really liked from Turbine is the vents. People are always falling out of them or dying in them or building sentries in them or encountering classes who really shouldn't be in there. It's very funny when it's not endlessly frustrating. I figure the only thing that would make them better/worse is if you didn't have to run all the way across the big atrium/courtyard/whatever to get there in the first place. So I placed small spawn rooms at the top and included a round-about path that leads into a purpose-built vent that pops out directly next to the intel.
You know what else is fun? People standing in high places, and people falling off. The obvious way to enable this is to build a catwalk without railings. Not sure who ends up in the favourable position there tbh, but so long as it's one side or the other then it'll be funny.
Early Building
I'm here now! ATM I'm just finishing up the blocking stage, with most basic walls/floors/ceilings, doors, and spawn rooms functional. The map is however very ugly. So many dev textures. And I keep getting lost in my own creation due to no signage :)
One of the things that became apparent early was that the atrium area was way too small. You'd think sixteen metres would be wide enough, but it's really not. I ended up extending it out to maybe double its size? Which made it feel much more in scale.
I ended up dividing up the spawns 8-6-2, with 8 being the L-shaped spawn, 6 being the square one, and 2 being the upper floor one. This actually makes it more likely that someone will spawn in the upper rooms as compared to if I'd only done spawns for a 24-person server rather than a 32-person one.
WHen I implemented the vents, I found that due to the height it was possible for an Atomiser Scout to make the jump into them (though AFAIK not a Winger Scout). I decided to put grates in the front rather than leaving them open, and wired them up to a slow open speed, which means that while Scouts and very precise BASE jumpers can get in (and perhaps Engineers?), general explosive jumps will fail because you'll just face-plant into the grate. This makes the vents almost one-way, but not quite. Which I think is funny.