Capture the Flag Mode?

[Little Helper]

Can we  create a capture the flag mode in glest? So like...There is a flag on your side and on the enemey so if an enemey takes your flag and runs off with it you gotta kill him before he reaches his goal and if he does game over! But if you manage to kill him you gotta retrieve it! To capture the enemy flag you gotta like um...press " R " for example and click on or near the enemy's flag or the way you press "A" to attack anyways you gotta back to your goal and maybe the map editor should have a flag brush max of 2 or 1 per team just like the player brush and maybe the flag should like be in the tile set !

[Hectate]

While CTF games exist in a top down view game like Glest, I don't think that any are built as a RTS. There are several issues.
1. Units wouldn't be likely to get caught if they had already cleared out the path TO the flag. This means that the goal simply becomes "Get to the flag and wait for it to get back to my base."
2. If units do reach a flag, in the enemy's base, why bother sending them all back to the base? In a CTF it would be spawn-camping, but is normal in an RTS - destroy the enemy's base is the goal. In essence, you've just told the player to ignore the flag almost completely and play it as a regular RTS. Making a CTF mode redundant.

There are other issues - code, engine, and faction - but from the above you should be able to see why a CTF mode wouldn't be beneficial to Glest.

[Little Helper]

Well its a great idea to me and my friends since there was an RTS game that had capture the flag. You are right though... I am just pointing out " hey maybe glest should of certain game type modes?" 

[Hectate]

I'm fine with admitting that I could be wrong. I'm sure smarter people than I could make CTF work. Personally though I don't think it's a good game design match for at least the reasons I mentioned.

[zombiepirate]

It could be workable with single capture win mode rather then for example, first to three to prevent spawn camping. The flag could also slow down the unit carrying the flag which would significantly increase the difficulty of getting the flag back to your base. It could also introduce a whole new dynamic to the game: defending a slow moving object rather then a stationary base. The scenario could also possibly have indestructible unit producing and economy buildings to prevent just destroying the enemy base and taking the flag.

However,

There are other issues - code, engine, and faction

and I don't think anyone is going to start making a CTF mode any time soon.

[Little Helper]

Ok ok lets not do capture the flag mode?

[Hectate]

You know I couldn't stop thinking about this late last night while I was getting ready for bed. So I started categorizing the different CTF style games I've played and I started to notice a few things.

1. Some sort of flag-carrier downgrade is utilized (slower movement as ZP posted, lack of attack ability, etc) to make it more difficult. This is particularly important if all units move at/close to the same speed usually. Example: In Halo your attacks are limited to melee.
2. Many CTF games utilize upgrades and powerups to increase the diversity of the different players. Speed, Attack, Defense, and Health upgrades all are common to CTF games. Example: Quake Live utilizes "runes" to upgrade the individual players.
3. CTF sometimes is reversed into a "push" mode instead. In this style the players have to take a flag (or something else) to the player's base. Example: Certain TFC maps utilize multiple flags in this fashion.

Also, I remembered that Multiwinia has a "CTF" mode that works great for a psuedo-RTS. You have to capture a very large statue. The more guys that help - the faster it moves. Of course, they cannot attack while moving it so you have to balance progress with defending the moving crew. It still takes some time and the statues get a lot of attention. It's pretty cool and worth checking out.

[ElimiNator]

The only CTF game I have played are FPS.

[Vaylon]

While it is standard for flags to be located in the base camps of teams, I think it it would also be possible to place the flags somewhere else and make the camps themselves indestructable.

If the camps are indestructable (which means that enemy forces can not enter the camp at all), there is no way to really stop production of new units and therefore there should be lots of battles on the map.

A capture the flag map could be like this:

Code: [Select]

   A
F     F
   B
Where A and B are the two base camps and F are the flag-positions.
Whenever a unit tries to get from one F to the other F, it is very likely, that it is exposed to enemy forces.

[modman]

How would you win?  First to three or five or seven captures?  I like this idea.

Generally in CTF, there is a "jail" were players need to go if captured or tagged.  But in RTS, it might just be easier to make another unit instead of capturing it, so I propose that if you kill a unit, the cost of the unit is passed on somehow  to the team who killed the unit.  This makes winning battles very important, and gives you a huge advantage after doing so.

I think that it would be good if buildings were indestructible, but on the flip side, it would also be good to make a limit to the number which could be built.

Another possibility would be that there are only certain units which can capture the flag.  They have a specific command "capture", just like a Swordsman has an attack command.  These "capturers" could be killed, which brings military back into the picture.  It would be wise to bring military along to guard the capturer ("Guard" is even a command in GAE!  Brilliant!), and battles would certainly ensue over this.

I like Vaylon's (welcome to the forums, by the way) idea of flag locations, but another possibility would be that we can choose where to hide the flag, as long as it fits certain parameters (enough space around the spot, etc.  Maybe locations should be tagged in the map editor, making flag placement less guesswork ingame.  I want to make sure that there is a little hide-and-seek game going on to actually find the map, because that is a part of the fun!

A final note I have to offer is that it may be wise to make capturers a later-game unit, so some dominance must be asserted before any capturing can go on.

[Little Helper]

Great Idea! Better than Capture The Flag!