CTF in TF2 is dead.

Vilepickle August 13, 2008 Maps, Team Fortress 2

I remember when Fortress was all CTF.  That’s changed, and I feel like I’m the only one that’s sad about it.  I loved the fast action packed CTF of Q3F and ETF.  There are a lot of telltale signs to me that CTF is finally on its death bed.  Mach has been out nearly a year, and as the most prominent CTF map, it still fails to allow some people to enjoy the game.  I’m not even sure why some people don’t enjoy CTF, even though it is somewhat watered down in TF2.  The game mode just isn’t doing it for the majority of the TF2 fan base.

The CAL forums are loaded with people who absolutely despise Mach.  It’s hard to see through their childish and immature comments sometimes, but it just seems like CTF is dead to them.  They hate the game mode.  I wish I was more enlightened on that, but having come from a clan background and playing TF2 competitively, I see nothing wrong with CTF besides that it takes different tactics to succeed.  Perhaps people don’t understand those tactics.  On Mach, for example, the best way to win a 6v6 or 8v8 is to dominate the middle area.  If a team is bent on defending, they need to re-evaluate what they’re doing, as they’ve already lost.  So you need to play better than the other team to get the middle.  Why is that so terribly unfun?  What’s different about that then 5 point CP maps or anything else played in competition?  Not much, really.  I guess some people see it differently.

I would like to personally discourage anyone from making a map with the CTF game mode.  You are doomed to have an unplayed map, no matter how well you do it.  Those are the facts of TF2.  I would also stray away from 5 point CP maps, because those are extremely unpopular on public servers.  They are good for competition, which is very fun if you play it, but you’ll have to deal with the most obnoxious players in TF2 when attempting to get it played.  They almost always prefer stock maps anyway.  The best you could do is to create an A/D map or a Payload map.  I personally hate these spammy cluster maps, especially since I play scout, but it seems like everyone loves them (except comp. players).  That’s a mystery for another day.

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7 Responses to “CTF in TF2 is dead.”

  1. CyberGlitch said:

    Aug 15, 08 at 3:20 am

    Gee, it’s sad to here this from you, Vilepickle. I have a blast playing Mach with my friends or even on public servers. 2fort is still one of my favorite maps.

    Capture the flag really is still my favorite game mode. It’s flaw is that it requires a small playing field, which means that the same areas are fought on repeatedly. On the plus side you are almost always a part of the action.

    I think that part of the loss in popularity is Valve’s lack of official CTF maps. I’m very glad that Turbine was included as one, but I’d like to see what the creative minds at Valve can come up with to reinvent CTF.

    Hopefully a coming update will have a killer CTF map, and being official it will spark people’s interest in the mode again.

  2. Vilepickle said:

    Aug 15, 08 at 11:36 am

    Perhaps. There is that remote possibility. In the competitive arena, though, the game mode is very very uncommon. I see Mach (the only CTF map taken seriously) pushed out of league rotations more and more.

    It’d be nice if they came up with some way to make it as fun as it USED to be in past Fortress games. I still enjoy it in TF2 too, but sadly the majority does not.

  3. |TFR|root said:

    Aug 16, 08 at 10:02 am

    Vile - I’ve played most of your TF2 maps and they’re all excellent. We run impact2, chaos and mach4 on my server and they’re all popular. Don’t give up on CTI - a lot of us prefer it to CP (although castle4 is popular with my members). I run a small-time TF2 league and our next season will be entirely CTI maps.

    That said, if you happen to make any payload maps, I’ll certainly be adding them to my server.

    Keep up the good work and don’t let the whining naysayers get you down!

  4. networkdump said:

    Aug 16, 08 at 11:20 am

    I’m from the old Q3F. I totaly agree with you about CTF, when I bought TF2 I was suprised about the low number of CTF map included.

    PS, I have two personnal request

    -Are you planning to port stag to ctf? Like it used to be ;)
    -On the same note, I’m missing Cbase, which used to be a nice map like well.

  5. Bilge said:

    Aug 18, 08 at 2:58 am

    I would be sad about it if they hadn’t noobed CTF mode by making the capture point that same as the intelligence spawn location. In TFC, of course, you had a dedicated capture spot. I guess Valve thought that would confuse the noobs too much, though, to carry that through to TF2.

  6. Vilepickle said:

    Aug 18, 08 at 11:55 am

    Root, I don’t think I’ll ever make a Payload map. I really don’t like that game mode at all. It just isn’t really fun for me.

    Networkdump:
    Stag as CTF would be pretty turtle-tastic to say the least. I donno, if this “arena” game mode makes it so I have to change my maps to work with it, I may end up getting creative with Stag, and I’ll definitely update some stuff in Mach.

  7. [TuN] Fear said:

    Sep 27, 08 at 10:53 am

    I too am sad with the demise of the CTF format in competition. I feel that Valves lack of creativity in designing new CTF maps for TF2 is partly to blame. The other part of the blame is the lack of co-ordination and team work in players, to be successful in CTF it takes ALOT more teamwork than CP. 2fort has always been and will always be one of my favorite maps, Mach4 is right there with it. As in most CTF maps out there if you control the middle then you control the game.

    This is for |TFR|root what is the site for your small time CFI league?

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