[Phoenix #2] The Updates That Never Happen

Rising from the Ashes of a dead newsletter comes the third in a long series of Inactivity!

The CTF Team Tourney!​

There was once a tourney held on MCPVP which never saw a true end to it's tale.@aRandomBob157 as well as the other mods have finally organized a rebirth with the CTF Tourney V2! 16 teams will play against each other with static rules to streamline the event. Tourney matches will run throughout January, will be a Best of 2 8v8 match, and will follow mandatory match rules as well as limit Pyro/Assassin/Medic to one class. Each round will have 3 specific maps chosen to be played for round in contrast to the randomized map system used in the previous tourney.

The Holiday Update!​

This Holiday season comes with a surprising update that finally brings upon change to the deathly starved CTF community. This update brings is a rebalance of 3 core classes: Pyro, Soldier, and Chemist. These classes have been taken into much consideration by the moderators and has been painstakingly coded by@NomNuggetNom himself to bring upon an era of balance (at least closer to balance). The most notable change: Pyro's instakill is removed.

Pyro now does true damage to players on fire, and can activate Frenzy Mode.Frenzy Mode is represented by an XP gauge and is gained by attacking players. Frenzy Mode sets everybody in a certain radius ablaze and allows Pyro to dealdouble true damage for a brief Period of time. This rework was aimed towards keeping Pyro a defensive Powerhouse whilst giving it a better skill curve.

Soldier now has a wall climb limited to 7 climbs. This change was meant to keep soldier fast paced while adding a bit more strategy to wall climbing.

Chemist uses twice as much mana throwing Damage Potions. Healing and Regeneration has also been toned down. This nerfs Chemist absurd healthpool and capability to potspam.

This is the first time in a long time that CTF has had major balancing updates since the inclusion of Elf. A big thank you should be given to Nom, as he also recoded CTF from the ground up to make updating classes easier than ever.

Festive Maps!​

Even though slightly late to the parade, Festive Maps have been added to the rotation to celebrate the Holidays temporarily:
Clocktower IV, Dragon Valley I, Night Raid II, and Norse Dominionhave been added the rotation as Festive Maps.
Parklife and Woodland have been removed from rotation whilst Soul and Subzero will be removed once the seasonal rotation has been phased out.

Interview With NomNuggetNom!​

↑
Due to the grand news of an actual balance update, I decided to interview Nom in anticipation of this update. I was able to get a rather comedic live Interview with Nom as well as a more in depth interview through Discord.
: How did you get into CTF?
: I googled HG back in the day and- actually no- unrelated I decided I wanted to play CTF and I googled Minecraft CTF.
: How did you get into the Forums?
: It's been something I do, registering on the forums and stuff.
: That's something a nerd would say
: You didn't... have to go there.
: Can you disclose how you became a Coder?
: There was a coding quiz roughly a year ago, I took it. I later found out my score was far from the best but it was too late hclewk hired me anyway
: Why do you only play Free Classes?
: Well, back in the day when I was playing I saw how OP the paid classes were. It was a challenge I gave myself to get good with only the free classes. And since that was the first time I was playing I never played the paid classes
: Aren't you supposed to be selling the paid classes
: I regret that decision because the paid classes offer a variety of gameplay styles for the low cost of $2.50 at shop.brawl.com
: How did you come up with the current reworks?
: The Frenzy idea was suggested by Quar (I believe), it was the first time we seriously considered reworking Pyro and that was the first time we were figuring things out after quite some times. We spent pretty much months trying to decide (if not years) how we would nerf it. By then it was up to whenever I could code CTF.
: Burps
: What do you have to say about Chap wanting to destroy Instakills forever????
: It disgusts me, I can’t believe it. He doesn’t even know anything about CTF
: Opens a pack of 6 Month Old Fruit Snacks Do you think these go bad? They smell good, I'm gonna eat them. I mean, it has natural flavoring so it might go bad.
: Does it smell natural
: Mhm eats fruit snacks They seem fine, I think they're ok.
: If I die tomorrow, tell the CTF community I always hated them
: How's you come up with your username?
: I hate this question it’s so lame.
: How was your experience Recoding all of CTF?
: Terrible.
: Why don't you ever update CTF????
: I hate CTF

Spoiler: real interview

How did you get into CTF?
I loved playing capture the flag in real life, I thought it would be cool to play it in Minecraft too. So I googled for it, and MCPVP’s was the first that popped up.
How did you get into the forums?
I almost always register on the forums of games I play, especially if I want to be involved in the community. Fun fact: The first thing I ever posted on YAF was a suggestion to nerf pyro.
How did you become a Coder?
Around exactly a year ago, hclewk posted a public coding challenge on the MCPVP forums: calculate the square root of 2 to 10,000 decimal places. I was selected as the coder, even though I didn’t get the best time, mainly due to my work on the official MCPVP mod. I first got introduced to the concept of coding via ComputerCraft, a mod for Minecraft where you can program Turtles to do your bidding.
Why do you only play Free Classes?
It was something I challenged myself to do when I first started playing, and have stuck with it ever since.
How did you come up with the reworks?
Lots and lots of arguing. Going through idea after idea, keeping what was liked and getting rid of what wasn’t. Gradual refinement until we finally agreed on an idea that was our “best bet” and just gave it a try.
What do you have to say about Chap wanting to destroy Instakills forever?
I completely support getting rid of instakills. I think this pyro rework proves that we can keep classes fast paced and powerful without needing them to be instakills.
How’d you come up with your username?
I don’t like this question. My answer is lame.
Why don’t you ever update CTF?
Usually because I am working on other things.
Like Skywars check that out in the brawl servers!

Map Reviews!​

Airlock
Miskey & aefrogdog
This airlock rework manages to make the map feel much less cramped and blends the outside and inside of the maps much better than most airlock reworks. Sadly, the flagroom has become even more Defense biased as there are less platforms for Soldier to traverse along with a much safer flag defense that prevents anything mid/long ranged from distracting it. Pair this with the exits to the flagroom being far from the initial flag area and you have a very irritating time for offense. If the Flag would be brought to the center it would remedy a lot of the issues.

Pagodas Rework
GeeAiJo and ByzakaByzantine
This rework takes Pagodas and cuts down a lot of bulk whilst keeping the traditional Pagodas feel as well as fixing the problems the original Pagodas had. It improves the Original Pagodas by switching Spawn and the Flagroom which prevents the stalemates that used to occur. The flagroom consists of enough opening to allow a closed flagroom without it being too harsh for offence to bypass. In comparison to Pagodas Symmetrical, recover is much fairer to Non-Soldiers as many structures are easier to access. The maps biggest flaw at first glance is surely the size, which may hinder the maps playability greatly.

Insurrection
Krabzz
Insurrection has a nice feel but would benefit from being revamped into a shortened map. The Map overall feels rather huge with its giant flagroom and lack of sponges dont help. With the Flagroom exits being rather far and the distance to reach the enemy flagroom it makes offense rather tedious and futile. Shortening the map length and making the roof easier to access would benefit the map, but revamping the map with the same thing but smaller scale could make the map even better than it currently is.

That's all for this edition of The Phoenix, for now I will ask only one question:

What do you think of the new Reworks?