Design for All Team Arena Game Types

We encourage designers to make their maps compatible with all “team” style games. Team DM and Tournament are the exceptions here. Experience shows that balanced CTF style maps do not make great (or even good) Team DM maps. To do this, you will need to mark some of the team game entities for multiple game types. An example is the obelisk used in Overload. The entity is also used to mark the location of the skull-receiving base in Harvester. If your Overload obelisk and your Harvester base are to be in the same location give the entity a key/value of “gametype/obelisk, harvester”. If you choose to place the entities in different locations in each game type, you will need to place separate entities and mark them appropriately.

Placing Common Entities for all Game types

Typically, the player start, respawn, power-ups, ammo and weapon placement are the same for each game type. It helps players if they don’t have to remember a lot of placement locations from game to game. But this doesn’t have to be the case. Use the gametype key to control placement if you want them different between game types.

Place team_CTF_blueplayer entities in the locations where you want blue team members to join the game and team_CTF_redplayer entities in the locations where you want red team members to join the game. You should place enough of these to accommodate the maximum number of players that will be on a side (though usually no more than 8 to a side in a “normal” map and as many as 32 in an extremely large terrain map). If you place too few, teammates are likely to telefrag each other as they join the game.

Place team_CTF_bluespawn entities in the locations where you want blue team members to respawn when they die in the game. Place team_CTF_redspawn entities in the locations where you want red team members to respawn when they die in the game. You should place enough of these to accommodate the maximum number of players that will be on a side (though usually no more than 8 to a side).

Place the four persistent power-ups (guard, doubler, scout, and ammo_regen) in or near the bases of each team. On the blue side, check the BLUETEAM spawn flag box for each entity. On the red side, check the REDTEAM spawn flag box for each entity. Place (and center) the appropriate spawn spot model beneath each power-up (spawn.md3 on the blue side, spawn_red.md3 on the red side).

Placing Game-type Specific Entities

Each of the four team-style game types has a set of associated entities that go with it, whether it’s the flags and bases in Capture the Flag, or the obelisk in Overload.

Capture the Flag (required entities)

This corresponds to the cvar: “/g_gametype 4” when entered in the console.

Entities in this game must have a value/key setting of “gametype/ctf”

Place a team_CTF_blueflag in the blue base.

Place a team_CTF_redflag in the red base.

Place a team_blueobelisk in the blue base where the goal should be. Give it a facing angle. This forms the flag base. Do not mark any gametype.

Place a team_redobelisk in the red base where the goal should be. Give it a facing angle. This forms the flag base. Do not mark any gametype.

One Flag CTF (required entities)

This corresponds to the cvar: “/g_gametype 5” when entered in the console.

Entities in this game must have a value/key setting of “gametype/oneflag”

Place a team_CTF_blueflag in the blue base.

Place a team_CTF_redflag in the red base.

Place a team_blueobelisk in the blue base where the goal should be. Give it a facing angle. This forms the flag base. Do not mark any gametype.

Place a team_redobelisk in the red base where the goal should be. Give it a facing angle. This forms the flag base. Do not mark any gametype.

Place a team_neutralflag some place in the neutral area of the map, preferably equidistant from both bases.

Overload (required entities)

This corresponds to the cvar: “/g_gametype 6” when entered in the console.

Entities in this game must have a value/key setting of “gametype/obelisk”

Place a team_blueobelisk in the blue base where the goal should be. Give it a facing angle. Do not mark any gametype.

Place a team_redobelisk in the red base where the goal should be. Give it a facing angle. Do not mark any gametype.

Harvester (required entities)

This corresponds to the cvar: “/g_gametype 7” when entered in the console.

Entities in this game must have a value/key setting of “gametype/harvester”

Place a team_blueobelisk in the blue base. Do not mark any gametype.

Place a team_redobelisk in the red base. Do not mark any gametype.

Place a team_neutralobelisk some place in the neutral area of the map, preferably equidistant from both bases.

Using Entities for All Gametypes

This assumes that the designer will use the same entities, in the same locations for all gametypes. Mark the gametypes on each entity as noted:

Place a team_CTF_blueflag in the blue base.

Gametype: ctf, oneflag

Place a team_CTF_redflag in the red base.

Gametype: ctf, oneflag

Place a team_blueobelisk in the blue base where the goal should be. Give it a facing angle. This forms the flag base.

Gametype: Do not mark any gametype.

Place a team_redobelisk in the red base where the goal should be. Give it a facing angle. This forms the flag base.

Gametype: Do not mark any gametype.

Place a team_neutralobelisk some place in the neutral area of the map, preferably equidistant from both bases.

Gametype: harvester

Place a team_neutralflag some place in the neutral area of the map, preferably equidistant from both bases.

Gametype: oneflag

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