I think CTF in TF2 has the potential to be fun but in its current state it is dogtrash and noone plays it.
So I made a plugin to fix some problems with its ruleset: https://github.com/mikejsavage/tf2-ctftrue
You can't capture without having your flag at home. This prevents teams just trading caps forever and avoiding confrontation.
Touch returns for the defending team. A 60s timer allows teams to bomb onto the flag/uncloak a spy on top of it forever until they finally man up and grab it for real. I'm not sure if touch returns is the best solution as it allows bombing onto the carrier for the return. So...
Adjustable flag return time. 10s timer stops a team from homoing the flag to their goal and stops soldiers from homoreturning it.
Throwable flag. its kinda fun 8) i can take it out if it sucks (doesn't really work atm anyway)
Other low hanging fruit: noone but shitlords wants to play with engi/pyro/heavy at the best of times so obviously limit0 them here
The plugin by itself isn't enough though because apparently noone in the TF2 mapping community has any clue how to make a CTF map that isn't appalling.
I'm going to bring up maps from Warsow (wsw CTF is bad I know but their maps are very good and it's the FPS I know best) to use as examples.
yea my screenshots are horrible just dl the game and look around
wctf1
http://youtu.be/VtskQrUcyCA
http://youtu.be/VxzpMMRtfF0
This is a good map. There is a pair of parallel low routes through mid entirely shielded from each other, then attackers need to ascend the base to the flag room at the very top. There is a 1way teleport from the top to the bottom and a 2way tele from below the flag to across from the flag.
wctf4
http://i.imgur.com/dALOn6x.jpg (mid overhead)
http://i.imgur.com/wlG4rvC.jpg (standing in mid, there is another route which goes behind me)
This is a decent map. There is a low route through mid, 2 mid level routes and a high route all mostly shielded from each other. These all converge in the flag room. The sightlines are enormous and the routes are all too easy to accelerate in so rails/1200ups carriers get tiresome.
wctf6
http://i.imgur.com/cjlJTiS.jpg (mid, showing the 3 routes)
This is a good map. There are 3 parallel routes through mid, 2 high and a low all mostly shielded from each other. The bases also have a high and low level with the flag being on the upper level at the back of the base. There is a 1way tele from the flag room to just before mid and another 1way tele from the last tele to the upper level near the flagroom.
wctf2
http://i.imgur.com/O79deDH.jpg (mid)
This map is awful. The screenshot is of the only route through mid. It plays like every TF2 CTF map where the stronger team holds the single route through mid and the weaker team holds the single route into their flagroom forever and nothing happens and it's a total shitfest.
old wctf5
(i don't have any screenshots and this map is no longer in the game)
This map sucked. There were 2 routes through mid but one of them was on top of the other (like doublecross) and the flagroom was deep++ inside the base with basically one route to it. iCTF was ok on this map because a sufficiently good carrier would have 8 people's worth of fun while everyone else sat on their hands. With stock weapons you couldn't hit the same tricks or speeds, the flagroom was too hard to get into and all the spawns were between mid and the flagroom so it played like 2fort.
The points I am trying to make with this:
Stop making idiotic terrible maps with a single route through mid and add routes to the flag room that don't go straight past the defensive spawns. Ideally the safer route should be longer so you can actually intercept the flag if they want to be scared.
Teleports are cool and I'd like to see someone try a map with them in TF2. They give the carrier a break a break where they aren't visible or taking damage from direct chasers and allow creative interceptions. On the other hand the TF2's simplicity is one of it's strong points and they might end up being stupid.
Turbine gets things partially right but not enough. Attacking is almost always go in and out of lower and defending is always hold middle. mach4 looks like it might actually be playable.
The bright side: I just told you how to make good maps so you can go do it now. Some of the existing CP maps also have nice layouts for CTF and I believe it's possible to make a plugin to make CTF playable on CP maps although I am not as familiar with mapping as I was when I quit 4 years ago so I could be wrong. http://tf2.gamebanana.com/maps/75513 would probably honestly be playable in regular TF2 but recompiling maps shits up the lighting so everyone would QQ, but this is the kind of thing I mean.
I think CTF in TF2 has the potential to be fun but in its current state it is dogtrash and noone plays it.
So I made a plugin to fix some problems with its ruleset: https://github.com/mikejsavage/tf2-ctftrue
You can't capture without having your flag at home. This prevents teams just trading caps forever and avoiding confrontation.
Touch returns for the defending team. A 60s timer allows teams to bomb onto the flag/uncloak a spy on top of it forever until they finally man up and grab it for real. I'm not sure if touch returns is the best solution as it allows bombing onto the carrier for the return. So...
Adjustable flag return time. 10s timer stops a team from homoing the flag to their goal and stops soldiers from homoreturning it.
Throwable flag. its kinda fun 8) i can take it out if it sucks (doesn't really work atm anyway)
Other low hanging fruit: noone but shitlords wants to play with engi/pyro/heavy at the best of times so obviously limit0 them here
The plugin by itself isn't enough though because apparently noone in the TF2 mapping community has any clue how to make a CTF map that isn't appalling.
I'm going to bring up maps from Warsow (wsw CTF is bad I know but their maps are very good and it's the FPS I know best) to use as examples.
[size=11]yea my screenshots are horrible just dl the game and look around[/size]
[b]wctf1[/b]
http://youtu.be/VtskQrUcyCA
http://youtu.be/VxzpMMRtfF0
This is a good map. There is a pair of parallel low routes through mid entirely shielded from each other, then attackers need to ascend the base to the flag room at the very top. There is a 1way teleport from the top to the bottom and a 2way tele from below the flag to across from the flag.
[b]wctf4[/b]
http://i.imgur.com/dALOn6x.jpg (mid overhead)
http://i.imgur.com/wlG4rvC.jpg (standing in mid, there is another route which goes behind me)
This is a decent map. There is a low route through mid, 2 mid level routes and a high route all mostly shielded from each other. These all converge in the flag room. The sightlines are enormous and the routes are all too easy to accelerate in so rails/1200ups carriers get tiresome.
[b]wctf6[/b]
http://i.imgur.com/cjlJTiS.jpg (mid, showing the 3 routes)
This is a good map. There are 3 parallel routes through mid, 2 high and a low all mostly shielded from each other. The bases also have a high and low level with the flag being on the upper level at the back of the base. There is a 1way tele from the flag room to just before mid and another 1way tele from the last tele to the upper level near the flagroom.
[b]wctf2[/b]
http://i.imgur.com/O79deDH.jpg (mid)
This map is awful. The screenshot is of the only route through mid. It plays like every TF2 CTF map where the stronger team holds the single route through mid and the weaker team holds the single route into their flagroom forever and nothing happens and it's a total shitfest.
[b]old wctf5[/b]
(i don't have any screenshots and this map is no longer in the game)
This map sucked. There were 2 routes through mid but one of them was on top of the other (like doublecross) and the flagroom was deep++ inside the base with basically one route to it. iCTF was ok on this map because a sufficiently good carrier would have 8 people's worth of fun while everyone else sat on their hands. With stock weapons you couldn't hit the same tricks or speeds, the flagroom was too hard to get into and all the spawns were between mid and the flagroom so it played like 2fort.
The points I am trying to make with this:
Stop making idiotic terrible maps with a single route through mid and add routes to the flag room that don't go straight past the defensive spawns. Ideally the safer route should be longer so you can actually intercept the flag if they want to be scared.
Teleports are cool and I'd like to see someone try a map with them in TF2. They give the carrier a break a break where they aren't visible or taking damage from direct chasers and allow creative interceptions. On the other hand the TF2's simplicity is one of it's strong points and they might end up being stupid.
Turbine gets things partially right but not enough. Attacking is almost always go in and out of lower and defending is always hold middle. mach4 looks like it might actually be playable.
The bright side: I just told you how to make good maps so you can go do it now. Some of the existing CP maps also have nice layouts for CTF and I believe it's possible to make a plugin to make CTF playable on CP maps although I am not as familiar with mapping as I was when I quit 4 years ago so I could be wrong. http://tf2.gamebanana.com/maps/75513 would probably honestly be playable in regular TF2 but recompiling maps shits up the lighting so everyone would QQ, but this is the kind of thing I mean.