CTF-Deceitful
Map Info
	File Name ctf-deceitful.zip Author Cyberia-Mix_{Track-04}<-- Gametype UT Capture the Flag Date Added 08-03-2005 File Version 2.00 File Size 1.54 mb Player Count 10-14 Map Description Medium sized high-tech arena where the bases are 'stacked'. The main entrance of each base is separated from the flag by a window which forces the attackers to go round to enter the base, and enables the defensers to see which way take the flag carriers to escape on the other hand. Taking the flag is quite a challenge, fortunately, attackers can use the teleporter at the end of each base which leads to 3 differents spots, preventing from teleporter camping and flag carriers to be followed (or covered). Have faith in your skills ! Review Rating 6 User Rating 6.5 Overall Rating 6
Review
Reviewer ArcadiaVincennes Awe Score:  2.0/3 Date 08-09-2005 Build Score:  2.0/3 Review Schema Cast Score:  2.0/3 User Point:  0 Overall Score:  6/10 CTF-Deceitful (UT99) A layout and theme not seen much in UT maps of any kind. The flags are located vertically above each other and it's about equally difficult to reach one as the other, with notable exceptions. The theme is one that is not much seen outside of the retail maps and is a little refreshing to see. AWE: 2.0 The overall theme is reminiscent of, say, DM-Zeto, or CTF-Command, where the walls are etched concrete and the lighting colors the bland texture pallette with light rather than color inherent in the textures themselves. The texturing here is pretty good, especially considering the variety of brush shapes the author used. Alignment is good overall although there are misalignments necessitated by brush orientation and shape. But nothing's so glaring that it will stop you in the midst of play. The only exception to this is the non-alignment in the curved stairwells. It's obvious the author made the decision to align them the way they are, but it seems like something different could have been done. The texture choices are good, in keeping with the theme, and all work against and with each other well. The lighting is fairly good as well, though not quite as good as the texturing. Many places seem a little ambient lit and lack shadow or hotspot definition. Many, many light actors were used and I can certainly understand their placement, but with this many, I would have expected better use of them. Still, no place is too dark, and no place is overbright, so you'll never have difficulty seeing your opponent because of the lighting. Because most of the wall, floor, and ceiling textures are grey concrete, the lighting colors are what brings out the depth and variety between locations. In this fashion, the lighting is successful, although I am surprised by this considering the amount of white, or near-white lighting used. Combined with the texturing, the architecture is very reminiscent of the previously mentioned maps; slanted walls, slanted support struts, concave ceilings, railinged ledges and alcoves stuffed with pickups. My only complaint would perhaps be the lack of variation in all the connecting corridors. They look the same except for lighting changes and so can be a little confusing. I also missed some trim on certain features. But overall, the architecture is clean and harkens back to a more innocent UT age. In general the texturing is good, although the palette could have been expanded upon, and the few misalignments were mostly done on purpose. The lighting is okay, with room for improvement, and the architecture is good, if a little too consistent through the map. BUILD: 2.0 The build here is fairly good. All the BSP is worked competently with few brushes not aligned to the grid. The water volume works fine, as do the teleporters. The map is appropriately zoned, but this did not prevent some FPS drops. Perhaps using semisolids on many of the architectural details could have reduced the overall poly count, thereby increasing the FPS. The bots traveled the map effectively and were pathed decently. Defense points and alternate paths were used to good effect. One problem with the pathing is that pathnodes in some areas are overused. There are way too many in specific locations. The soundscaping was somewhat adequately done. There are good general ambient noises, as well as locational ones. I did miss triggered sounds, however, I would be hard-pressed to conceive of where to put them. In general a good build marred a bit by some sound and pathnoding deficiencies. CAST: 2.0 The first thing I feel I ought to talk about is the layout. It’s not something tried very often, and even less often with much success, but here the author has located the flags directly above each other. This usually means the layout is quite vertical and the play is unbalanced by the lower team having the advantage of a quick descent with the flag. Here the author has offset this by forcing the action horizontally. The players must travel away from the bases via somewhat gentle slopes and some stairwells to a midpoint junction, or close to it, that is positioned vertically half-way between the bases. The lower team still has the advantage of gravity on their side when returning with the flag, but this advantage is so reduced that it’s almost non-existent. So despite their relative closeness, one must travel a surprising amount of map in order to travel from one flag to the other. As for the spaces the players travel, there are a few different routes and there are some interchanges, but overall the map suffers a bit from RCR syndrome. It does not affect gameplay as much as some other, worse, offenders, but it does put them emphasis on splash-damage weapons as one travels through many of the corridors. At least the corridors do twist and turn a bit so the FC isn’t also exposed to long-shot hitscan fire. The hitscan weapons are reduced to a few ‘intersection’ rooms and the flagrooms. This does separate the two weapon type preferences into two almost totally distinct play areas, which is not such a good thing. Another important item of note in terms of layout is that the bases, although at first glance, seem symmetrical, they are not. The red base’s flag rest upon the ground, and the blue base’s flag rests on a platform half-way up the wall. Also, the bottom of the blue base is filled with water and provides an extra means of egress that the red base doesn’t have. Now, granted the blue flag is more difficult to cap because of its position, balancing this with an extra exit could be a plausible reason for giving the blue base an extra exit. However, since this extra exit is filled with water, it makes it very difficult for a flag capper to exit, which unbalances the gameplay again. In general the bases really should have been symmetrical. One final layout item of note is that in the rear of each base is a teleporter. These teleporters drop the player at three different locations on the respective side of the map to prevent spawn-camping. This is a good method, it works well, and even though the teleporter allows the player to bypass some of the map, and would therefore normally be an overly advantageous route to take, this is wisely balanced by placing the teleporter entries in the back of the base which is therefore a bit more challenging to reach seeing as you’re running into the maw of your opposition. However, this goes back to being unbalanced by the fact that it deposits the player, again, in one of three locations. So even players following the FC, have a 1 in 3 chance of landing in the same location, which gives the FC a pretty good head start – especially if no one lands in the same teleporter spot. I think it would have been a better idea to reduce the exit numbers to two rather than have three. This would still prevent spawn camping, yet also not be quite as unfair to those pursuing the FC by giving them a 50% chance rather than a 33.33% chance. The weapon layout is decent enough. I can’t really think of anything to recommend or chide regarding the author’s layout decisions. It doesn’t seem terribly perfect, but definitely not flawed. The shield belt pickup is in a decent enough place. It’s in the mid-point of the map, and is located such that one has to make a small detour to grab it. However, the detour originates from the ‘red side’ of the map, and although the entrance is near the centerpoint, it does weigh slightly favorably in the red team’s direction. Put together, this is a map that makes an uncommon and relatively unsuccessful layout work fairly well. Forcing the gameplay horizontally despite the verticality was a very wise move and the overall layout, except for the flag rooms, doesn’t give either team much of an advantage over the other. The teleporter use was wise, but could be improved, and the flagroom layout really should have been symmetrical. The bots will challenge you and you’ll have a fairly good time overall. CTF-Deceitful is a fairly good map overall. The layout is an interesting twist that this author makes work where others have failed. By drawing out the gameplay horizontally, the layout manages to avoid giving FCs an easy ride back down, or a difficult ride back up. The visuals aren’t really that stunning, but it’s a return to a theme we don’t see too often and really brought me back. A little better development all around is what I would suggest. As for other people, I would recommend CTF fans take this for a spin and check out the vertical flag positioning. For players who prefer other gametypes, this may be a miss for you, but if you’ve got nothing else to do, give it a whiz. Maybe you’ll be deceived into playing CTF again.
Map Comments
kais 08-03-2005 04:24 AM MDT Rating: 6.5   The map looks ok, lighting is done pretty well, Maybe a bit sloppy here and there. But it doesn't really play that well, the hallways are to narrow there is one more way to leave the blue base then the red, wich isn't really fair. I'm also not so sure about the weapon placement And the biggest problem imo; its more like a maze. I walked around for ages befor I found the blue base. EDIT: After playing it for a wile I can find my way around, but i still think it has to many hallways. A good thing is that the bots seem to work well in the map, wich is always fun. John DiFool 08-03-2005 08:15 PM MDT Rating: 5   Definitely an interesting and unique layout which I didn't find too tight. Sure there are a few unnecessary hallways but you can find your way around pretty well. The bot pathing certainly needs work tho-too many times I saw bots doing the "shuffle", and the blue ones can't even get out of the water tube underneath their flag. I guess kais is talking about that route, which will get a Red player killed if he tries to use it for ingress, and is iffy for an exit. Fix the pathing and I'll bump up the score 1-2 points. [Edit] I'm sure one of the bot pathing gurus here might be willing to help you out. Cyberia-Mix_{Track-04}<-- 08-10-2005 10:49 AM MDT   Well, I'm sorry about the bots but I really can't do better than that... I should have released the map 2 or 3 weeks earlier if I hadn't (again...) tried to correct bothpathing for a 'final decent result' ('cuz I played the map with bots since near 2 years then...). But I never obtained the results I was looking for... -_- So bots can't exit the water-tunnel on the 'Pyramid' side (I guess the ceiling is too low for them but I've already heightened it too much anyway so...), they don't use all paths (despite my efforts...), and they can get blocked in the Blue Main Entrance sometimes (it's caused by the teleporter but it don't happen on the red side despite the setting is the same, I can't explain why...). Anyway, when I began this map I had no experience so I think now that the map started on wrong bases, but I tried to correct that as much as possible. However, that don't mean the map is not playable (and for the time I spent testing I can tell it is). Now that I have a little more experience, I can hope making better CTF maps ! :) > About the water-tunnel : since the blue flag is harder to take than the red one, I thought red attackers needed another way to escape. As you can see this way should only be chosen as last hope, and there's no way it can be used as an entrance. Thanks for your comments anyway. ;) EDIT : whoah !! Thanks for this review Arcadia ! - just a point :p > I should have made the bases symmetrical but I coudn't due to the window. :) Anyway, thanks a million times ! tgm79 08-03-2005 07:35 PM MDT Rating: 7   Not very stunning visually but the layout is great and the gameplay is fun. Lok 08-03-2005 07:46 PM MDT Rating: 6.5   Hey pas mauvais vraiment pas mauvais ;) Quelques textures sont désalignés, le lightning est p-e unpeu trop clair a mon gout, le gameplay n'est pas mal , p-e aussi unpeu trop de couloir pour rien mais ¸au bout du compte je vais garder cette map quant meme parceque jaime vraiment le style qui nest plus vraiment utilisé de nos jours. Place a amélioration pour le layout , le bot pathing p-e, et p-e aussi le texturing. tout leffort que tu as ds ton lightning a certaines place donne un resultat assez genial quant meme. Continue ton bon travail. This map are not that bad, yes , some misaligned textures, bot pathing are strange , the lightning too bright and maybe too much of these pathway. But this map have this theme thats nobody try to use again now. I love it, the architecture is sample and effective ( oldskool style IMO)I'll keep it for a while because of the old theme thats nobody use these days :)... It refreshing to see that map, remind me the old bunch of epicgames's maps , these maps that maybe some people forgot.