This tutorial will show you how to make a map in which you have to get into the enemy base and retrieve their flag, and bring it back to your capture point. Like the other tutorials, this one will only show you the very basics of creating this kind of map, see the forthcoming tutorials on using sounds and messages to players with the TF entities. You can get my example map here.
This is probably the easiest of the TF maps that I have come across to date. It only requires 4 entities specific to the map to make it work. You will need others of course, such as the spawn points and ammo, and ones that tell you that doors don't work. During the construction of this map you will need:
Once you have the layout of your map made, you need to place in the entities which will make the CTF part work. These are:
I will cover making the flags first, and then the capture points. To make the flags, you need to create an item_tfgoal for each one. Do this, then set up the properties of them as follows:
| Property | Blue flag | Red flag |
| Goal # | 1 | 2 |
| Model path/name.mdl | models/flag.mdl | |
| Model skin | Blue | Red |
| Goal activation bitfields | 4788 | |
| Team | Red | Blue |
| Pause (stays on ground) seconds | 60 | |
| Highlight HUD items bitvalue | 131072 - Blue | 262144 - Red |
Ooo, look at that, you've got yourself two flags! We now need to make the points where they are dropped off, these are defined by i_t_gs. Create a brush where you want each flag to be taken to, and turn it into an i_t_g. Then edit each ones properties as follows:
| Property | Blue capture point | Red capture point |
| Goal activation bitfields | 1 - player touch | |
| Team | Blue | Red |
| Has item # | 2 | 1 |
| Return item # | 2 | 1 |
| Point gain | (blue) 10 | (red) 10 |
That's all you need to make a map that works. To turn it into a good map, however, you need to use messages and sounds to inform players of when their team has the flag, what the status of their flag is etc. These will all be covered in the Sounds and Messages with TF entities tutorial, coming soon ( unless I've written it by the time you read this, in which case go look now ). Unfortunately, this site won't be reviewing normal CTF maps, but the ideas used in this tutorial could be used in making other maps. For example, a map like the Attackers v Defenders released with TF 1.5 could be made using the ideas in here, with a few other options, such as 'moving' spawn points. Anyway, that's enough of me rambling along, go make yer map!
Az.
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