Why CTF is designed for small games

Honestly, it seems to me that this is such an obvious point that I'm surprised I have only seen myself mention it on these forums. So here I am sharing this idea with the world (of CTFers who actually read forums).

Now, before I begin, allow me to put the very small idea of the topic into a very large-titled spoiler for all you people out there who absolutely despise reading informational posts.

The Idea of This Thread in a Sentence!

Spoiler: Topic

CTF is broken with its classes designed for big games, and the game is better off with fewer players.

The general idea is that official team matches are usually small numbers of people for a reason: that's the way the game is designed to be played. Furthermore, class limits are enforced to balance the game as much as possible.

Want to hear my actual opinion?

Spoiler: Pookey's Ideas

It's not that CTF in its current state was built and detailed to be played in small matches. Of course, the very concept of instant kills is ridiculous no matter what the game size is, and anyway the classes' abilities are designed to be able to be played in large games. But that's for a very clear reason: the average game in CTF is quite large, especially when you have 93/50 people playing! Of course, CTF isn't changing to work specifically for small games anytime soon with its current popularity**; this whole post is merely to explain to people just why CTF is broken, since it seems to me that so many are so lost in their view of the unbalance of the game that they blame it entirely on class abilities.

Classes can be tweaked and reworked to better fit small games without removing them entirely (maybe except engineer, dwarf, and arguably assassin), but no matter how you slice it, creating a balanced Capture the Flag game with large numbers of people is incredibly difficult, if not impossible with the varying skills of individuals and unpredictable metagame, etc.

**This could actually be fixed if the server size limits were lowered and enforced, as well as if a bunch more CTF servers were opened to allow for many more small games at once; perhaps one server could allow larger games to take in the excess of those who couldn't fit in other servers.

I won't go into detail describing bit by bit how the connections in CTF are unbalanced and potential fixes for them, but rather I'll do this class by class in short/medium descriptions. Allow me to list off some classes which are covered by the usual official CTF match rules:

• Ninja
• Chemist
• Pyro
• Archer
• Assassin
• Medic
• Engineer
• Necro
• Dwarf

Huh, come to think of it, that's a lot of classes. CTF is generally broken, anyway--but allow me to explain how the official-match restrictions on these classes are mainly due to large games! (tl;dr's for each section! )

Ninja tl;dr: Ninjas can ruin the fun of small games without enough players to oppose their quick capping.

Spoiler: Real words about Ninja

For ninja, the mandatory rule in official matches forbids "ghost capping," i.e. throwing the pearl, going to the enemy flag, and picking up the flag before your pearl lands, then teleporting out. Some matches also forbid throwing the pearl until you have the flag, and some even ban ninja capturing entirely. Why? Because ninja capturing is a stealthy, quick way to go, and in large games it's a great way to avoid the mass of opposing players. In small games, there is no mass of players to stand a chance of stopping the ninja, which ends games very quickly and ruins the fun.

Chemist tl;dr: Chemist needs more potions for more people in a game, but in small games it is absolutely unnecessary.

Spoiler: Real words about Chemist

Match rules are greatly against potion spamming from chemists. Though I would argue the primary reason is that it forces a skill requirement for the (broken) class in skilled matches, the secondary reason is that extra-heavy usage of potions are much less necessary in small games than in large ones. In big games, the flag room can be packed, and a good deal of knockback--I mean, damage potions is required to get in and out alive. In smaller games, more distance in a flag room can be covered without encountering players. Hence, a chemist has lots of healing and damage potions to help it deal with large games and large amounts of people to fight.

Pyro tl;dr: You should read this one, it's not that long.

Spoiler: Pyro

In large games, five pyros in a flag room can be quite annoying. Though in small games, only one pyro is necessary while every other player can be allocated to other useful aspects of defense, midfield, and offense. The idea of a powerful class being a staple part of defense makes absolute sense, but pyro's absurd power comes from its need to compensate for the massive flow of players into the flag room in large games.

Archer tl;dr: A lot of archers is annoying, but the way roles balances out in small matches leaves archers in small numbers.

Spoiler: Archer

Similarly to pyro, a very powerful class is necessary to cover a wide expanse of midfield when there are not enough players to help it do that. Also, small recovery teams can use some help getting their flag back, and sniping from a distance discourages camping in one place with the flag (on well-designed maps). With large games, a thousand archers raining down instant-kill arrows can wreck the game, but when just one or two archers are responsible for an entire map (while everyone else attacks or defends), things get much more balanced.

Assassin tl;dr: See pyro.

Spoiler: Assassin

Assassin is similar to pyro in that only one is necessary (usually 2 is the maximum in match rules). I've heard that assassin is just a bandage class, which makes sense because it's actually a bit difficult to argue its validity in large or small matches. Basically, it's a combination of ninja (speed) and archer (very fast kills), so of course it's better off in small numbers and small games than in large numbers in large games.

Medic tl;dr: Supply & demand, larger games need more medics, smaller games need fewer medics.

Spoiler: Medic

The number of medics in a match is restricted due to its ability to heal any number of players. It's a Supply & Demand principle: with more players in larger matches, more medics are needed to heal them; with fewer players in smaller matches, not only are fewer medics needed, but too many medics would end up with players being healed too often and lives would last too long. Medic's ability to infinitely heal is designed to compensate for large games, though it could be changed to better fit smaller games.

Engineer tl;dr: You should read this one, too; not very long.

Spoiler: Engineer

Engineer turrets are awful substitutes for damage-dealing players, though I believe it's the teleporters that make engineer any kind of a class. However, for the same reason as described with ninja, rapid transportation is only necessary in large games, and ruins small games.

Necro tl;dr: Necro shouldn't even be banned in matches, actually xD

Spoiler: Necro (Shortest one, actually)

I'm not sure why necro is even banned in CTF's current state. Zombies don't do anything and it could at least serve as a severely nerfed heavy in the game if someone wanted to have fun.

Dwarf tl;dr: It's entirely a large-game class, it makes no sense to add it to a formula of impenetrable defense for a small offense.

Spoiler: Dwarf

Dwarf is a class that simply makes no sense in small games. With pyros, assassins, and even potentially buffed heavies defending, a small offense stands little chance against such a defense with a dwarf added to the mix. The idea of a very powerful class which does nothing but sit at the flag and kill people is of course meant for large games, where the number of attacking players can get a little overwhelming.

@LordChaos_92 @Admiral_Munson
Ik you two know how to read and respond to CTF things.

 

@Sir_Inge I see your meaning, but I'd like to address the fact that teamwork is hardly ever used in a regular CTF game unless people are in a Skype call or etc., since chatting in-game is a very inefficient way to communicate in a fast-paced task like capturing a flag. And anyway, the sheer number of flag captures in the history of CTF that involved zero teamwork casts quite a looming shadow over the very idea of teamwork in a regular game. In official matches, teamwork and organization makes sense because the higher concentration of skilled players presents more of a challenge to each individual, which means it's far more difficult to get things done alone.

This thread was not at all to encourage more teamwork in regular games, though. The idea behind this is to make games much more manageable, to reduce the chaos that can rage about in a single game (i.e 50-60+ players). Say one team in a large game has a large number of archers; by decreasing the total number of players in that game, while the percentage of archers will remain about the same, the total number of archers will also go down. The same applies to chemists, assassins, etc., until you're left with, in my opinion, a less chaotic and more playable game.

I will mention, though, that the idea of lag (@LordChaos_92) didn't even occur to me while I made the post, but it is also a major factor in large games. I agree with Chaos in that Brawl should allocate more resources to CTF servers so that their supposed recommended-max-players can still be playable for most people.

However (I'm now responding directly to you, Chaos), I believe that if Brawl ends up deciding that smaller games are better, they could both buff their servers and spread out the games. Although the player count should remain about the same, the added virtual servers and the additional Minecraft world-rendering and such would put more stress on the CTF branch of the Brawl network. As a matter of fact, CTF would just be best off if Brawl buffed their servers no matter what.

 

I'm not exactly accusing you of bias, but that's especially true through the eyes of an archer. But you know what's also not fun, is when a thousand people are also killing you. It's especially unfriendly to newbies.

 

Actually I do believe the skill of newbies has a fair relationship with the player count. When a new person comes in and has no idea what they're doing, then decides to stride out into the midfield, they get mobbed by archer arrows, pyros, assassins, engineers, all that fun stuff. There would be a much smaller chance of that happening with fewer players crowding the server.

I'm only using this as an example: not everyone decides to type /archer and go find an unreachable perch to snipe from without getting killed.