Capture the Flag (Multiplayer Twist to the Game)

**DarkKnight** · January 02, 2007, 02:35 PM

M2TW Capture the Flag is here!

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE BETA

First of all you are probably asking yourself, "what is capture the flag?" Or you are simply asking yourself, "what does capture the flag have to do with TW?"

Capture the flag was a popular game, part of the KoL Mappack (released last summer), for the original MTW.

The possibilities for capture the flag are so much greater in M2TW due to the increased moddability. Instead of just being a map, there are modifications to the game which make it WAY more exciting.

Before I get too carried away, I'll explain to you what exactly capture the flag is in TW.

There are two teams and one outpost per team (outpost = flag). The goal of the game is to have one of your men touch the enemies outpost. The moment one of your men touch the outpost the game is over, you win. If the enemy touch your outpost first, then you lose. The map is designed with many obstacles and cover to allow for a dynamic game of stealthily manuvering. All of the things that giveaway your position have been modded out such as banners, radar, tooltips, and cursor changes. You have to carefully be on the lookout or else the enemy might slip right by you!

The point of the game isn't to rush or group up and conventionally attack the enemy in the field. While those are viable options, it should be more appealing to sneak around the map, give distractions, and pop that one unit out of no where to snag the flag (if I designed the game properly).

Of course there need to be some rules in place:
1. No tampering with the modded files or cfg to enable the things disabled
2. Capture the enemy outpost to win
3. No babysitting the outpost. Unless there is a direct and immediate threat of the outpost being captured, you may not position any units on the hill which the outpost is on. This will have to be enforced by the honor system. Remember, if you babysit, you are cheating. There is no honor in cheating. If you catch someone breaking this rule, remind them of it in case they forgot. If someone consistently violates this rule, call them out, so there reputation is damaged and people will know not to play them because they are a cheater.
4. Play with restricted camera

These are the changes that have been modded in:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

How to install, run, and uninstall the game:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

FAQ

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Q: Where are the modded files? All I see is the bat file.
A: To minimize the number of cheaters I have intentionally made it so that the files cannot be seen normally in windows explorer. The tech savy people will probably figure out how to access them, so we will have to rely on the honors system for them. Or even better hopefully those who try to cheat will recieve a version conflict and not be able to join with the moddified files. If you figure out how to access them please to not spread how to do it. The fewer who know how to change them the fewer cheaters there will be and the more enjoyable the games will be.
Q: What if I want to increase or decrease the graphics?
A: I set the graphics at mid level. This makes them look good, but should allow them to run smoothly on most computers. If you want better graphics and you can't figure out how to change them, my response will generally be, live with it. The graphics levels have almost no effect on the gameplay of this, and mid level are good enough. If your computer isn't so great, and can't run mid level graphics smoothly, then contact me, DarkKnight, at TWC (http://www.twcenter.net) and I will assist you in lowering the graphics.
Q: What if I want to uninstall? I can't find the files to delete!
A: Run the uninstaller.

Q: How come there I have no radar?
A: This is to make stealth all the much more enjoyable. You actually have to be aware and spot the enemy on the map.

Q: How come I have minimal UI? I like the regular better.
A: The only way to disable radar is with minimal UI enabled.

Q: How come there are no banners on the units?
A: The answer is for many reasons. One reason is to help conceal units. It doesn't do you much good to send a unit through a shallow ravine, if there is a huge flag sticking up above blowing your position. Secondly is to make it hard to differentiate between teams. You can tell the team by looking at the color of the men, but someone who isn't paying close attention, you may be able to pose as an enemy unit to get closer to the flag! Make sure you are paying close attention to which side each unit is on.

Q: How come it appears I can't attack an enemy?
A: You actually can. Everything is normal. All I did was replace the "sword" icon and "bow" icon that appear when you hover your mouse over the enemy with the default "move" icon. This makes it so if you hover your mouse over an enemy hidden from sight, it won't blow it's position by changing the cursor. If you order a unit to attack an enemy, it still will attack normally, even though the standard cursor doesn't appear.

Q: What was changed with the movement penalties?
A: I increased the penalty for travelling through sand and mud to make the map more dynamic. While a sandy area may offer good cover, you have to take into account that it will take longer to traverse it.

Q: Are there going to be more maps? And are there going to be 1v1, 2v2, and 4v4's available?
A: Yes, pending the popularity of this first one. With the original MTW, capture the flag was a popular game and six maps ended up being designed for it. MTW2 makes capture the flag so much more exciting because it's modability allowed me to make the game more stealthy.

Screenshots:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

What I need is beta testers right now to go online and play the game and send me the replays and some feedback. As it hasn't been played online yet, there will for sure have to be a lot of balancing as far as what units to give each player. I want the game to be more inclined towards sneaking units around rather than massing and attacking.

I would also like to know any other problems, comments, and feedback people have about it.

Games will probably have to be set up via pm until more people have it.

**Ronin** · January 02, 2007, 02:41 PM

If you could increase the lethality of the troops it would make the game more frantic and add a defensive side to things?

Just a suggestion for maybe a future release.

Novel idea by the way, good job!

**DarkKnight** · January 02, 2007, 02:50 PM

Originally Posted by Ronin

If you could increase the lethality of the troops it would make the game more frantic and add a defensive side to things?

Just a suggestion for maybe a future release.

Novel idea by the way, good job!

Great idea, never thought of that... and that is now easy to do with MTW2. With the mod switch modding that has no effect on how easy it is to start the game. With MTW everyone would have had to switch between the modded crusader_unit_prod when they wanted to play it. As simple as that is, adding one small nussance step can make a lot of players get lost.

I think I will include your suggestion in the next release. THANKS

Also let me know what you think about having the horse archers. I was skeptical at first, but in the end decided to give each team two of them. Here is an example of a use for them. The enemy has a scout placed on top of a hill to get a better view of the battlefield. You could use the horse archers to harrass that scout to make them leave their position. What I don't want horse archers to be used for is to simply go up and eliminate the enemy infantry. Maybe I could mod the swiss pikemens missle defense in the next release to reduce that.

**|C|GOS|{Prince}Angus** · January 06, 2007, 02:34 PM

Darkknight!!!!!!!
Hail m8..did not know you hit the m2tw scene..you in a clan?
Yous should join us if not..i know from previous experience you are a great field gen and pretty cool dude...we had some vgg's when i was in GO and we were on TS..was Trask back then if you remember..anyways join us m8...I'm also gettin hvy into modiing and you would be a very welcome member of CGOS and our new modding team i am forming