CTF Summer 2020 Update

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Coming August 3rd...

We're introducing a bunch of changes, geared mostly towards the competitive scene, ranging from gameplay to cosmetics to quality of life and more!

☰ Boosters​

Old Map Booster
We've refreshed the maps to newer variants of the old maps, so you can finally stop leaving the server when someone buys one

• Removed 40 maps, swapped out 10 of them, and added 17 more

[xD] Map Booster
Just like the Old Map Booster, except it queues April Fool's maps instead, so you have a new map booster to hate!

• Can only be used on the weekends, and has a cooldown between usages. Cannot be used during Old Map Booster

Color Booster
Woo! New thing! Shiny! This booster grants you access to recoloring the teams and even maps once per match!

• Comes with the /colorize command, a new GUI that lets you pick the colors (but not too similar colors, certified by our resident colorblind person!)
• Also gives staff an /uncolor command, for during moments when it may be necessary to tone down the hype a bit

☰ Class Changes​

Archer
The moment you've all been waiting for!

• Removed instakill We just removed the debuff and 2x damage multiplier against Chemist, which might feel like removing instakill for Chemist mains anyways

Assassin
Just as it was in testing!

• Removed Medic restore of Assassinate
• No longer regain Assassinate upon death/respawn
• Assassinate cooldown decreased 20s >> 15s
• Vulnerability period from Assassinate decreased 3s >> 2s to match Assassinate time
• Gain Strength II for 9 seconds upon a successful assassination

Chemist
Also favored from testing:

• Removed Resistance I and added Protection I on chestplate and boots

Elf
Couldn't help myself here..

• Made flying with wind element a little more reliable
• Disable getting frenzied while in water

Engineer
Still not renamed to Demoman, but getting a buff..

• Heal Aura now gives constant Regeneration III when held
  • "Activate Heal Aura" achievements modified to be activated when you switch to Heal Aura, but this only counts once per 5 seconds, so don't think you can get the coveted Bomberman tag in seconds by scrolling a bunch
  • A Heal Pulse fires every 5 seconds after the Aura is activated, removing Death Tag effect from teammates
• Increased TNT cooldown 3.5s >> 6.5s
• Replaced Knockback I on the pickaxe with Sharpness I instead

Mage
Yeah.. we hate Mage mains.. what about it?

• Increased Freeze Spell cooldown 5s >> 8s

Medic
Yes, these were certified by a Medic main, believe it or not (sometimes I wonder how I got pudgy to agree to this)

• If you are on restore cooldown, when hit by a Medic you receive a little notification in the actionbar telling you the remaining time
• Removed the per-Medic restore cooldown, so now you can't be on restore for one Medic and get restored by another
  • Otherwise that notification above wouldn't be very meaningful, should also help stalemates
• Can only have 3 webs active on the field now, if you throw more, the oldest webs vanish (sayonara, webspam!)
• Can no longer heal the Death Tag effect off someone
  • We felt this would help motivate using other classes that perform this role

Necro
Also as it was in testing (did anyone even notice?)

• Decreased Revival Tag usage cooldown 20s >> 15s
• Necro no longer regains Revival Tag upon death/respawn
• Revive effect remains applied to teammate after Necro death
• Skulls are now perfectly accurate

Ninja
Hope we didn't inadvertently buff Ninja, that'd be a mistake

• Egg mana. I prefer my eggs scrambled, not spammed.
• Disable pearling out of spawn. You can leave Blackout spawn like the rest of us, hmmph
• Made Invisibility more responsive (how does instant sound?)

Scout
Another déjà vu from testing

• Medic can no longer restore Death Tag item
• Death Tag cooldown decreased 20s >> 15s
• Death Tag damage multiplier is now by class
  • (1.15x) Assassin, Ninja, Scout
  • (1.25x) Elf, Medic, Pyro, Archer, Engineer, Mage, Chemist
  • (1.50x) Soldier, Heavy, Dwarf, Necro

☰ Ping/Callout System​

Pings
Now you can stop trying to normalize excommunicating mutes

• Now double-dropping (qq'ing) an item does more than just telling the wrong person to wait up!
• Alerts your teammates to an enemy or a position in your line of sight, up to a 40 block radius
  • Note: they have to be in that 40 block radius
• Comes with
  • Colored particle sphere to match your team color
  • Directional sound cues (CTF Marco Polo, anyone?)
  • Message with helpful contextual information about callouts and flag carriers
  • Arrow pointing to off-screen pings
• Creative players can @everyone with a qq, helpful for referees
• Spectators can ping other spectators, just double left-click instead!
• Change settings with /pingoptions
  • Text must be in chat or actionbar (or both)
  • Can toggle sound
  • Can toggle arrow pointing to callout on your screen
  • On casual: Can disable pings altogether
• New /fov command
  • Used for showing ping arrow
  • /fov shows your current set FOV in preferences (defaults to 70)
  • Input your Minecraft FOV with /fov <degrees> for best results

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Callouts
Now you can find your way, even if your monitor is off! (ok, maybe not..)

• New sign format to use on your maps!
• Gives a name to a particular location of a map, up to 15 blocks in radius
  • Callout names are not required to be unique, so if you want to coat an entire area in the same name, you can
  • Optionally belong to team (name gets colored accordingly) or neutral (white)
  • Inappropriate names are not added to the map callouts
• Quick commands that had location indicators now also use callouts (like /md Medic!)
• Maps in rotation and a few often-used competitive maps have been given provisional callouts, if your map is in rotation, feel free to go mark it up however you'd like!

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☰ Competitive Changes​

Match Server
I don't know what joke to write here..

• All classes free, except Fashionista
• Timer locked by default and set to 15s
• Disabled some problematic Quick commands
  • /L /gf /wp /ez
• Ghost capping automatically disabled
• Ninja caps limited to 1 by default
• Locking/unlocking the timer notifies everyone

MMR
Y'all are gonna get so nostalgic for the times you Ninja stole, then had to stop and hand the flag back

• Disabled burning the flag post
• Disabled webbing the flag post
• Disabled Ninja pearling out of Mage ice
• New /ninjacaps command
  • As a player: Will show information about the ninja capping rules and how many your team has used
  • As a spectator: Will show the rules as well as how many ninja caps each team has used
  • As staff: Will show all of the above, plus a help menu to help you configure a match
  • If your team has reached the ninja cap limit, a ninja can neither pick up nor steal the flag
  • If ghosting is disabled, a ninja cannot steal the flag without their pearl being in their inventory

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• New /limits command
  • As a player: Will show the limits as well as who is filling the roles. Cannot show other team roster
  • As a spectator: Will show the generic limits. Use /limits <team> to view the roster of each team
  • As staff: Can do all of the above. /limits -p will show the generic limits to everyone, great for pre-match roles! (Will also remind you if you forgot to set limits, you forgetful bunch!)

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Other New Commands
Hopefully CMS can find a use for these or something, idk

• /maps or /scores
  • Match server: Shows scores for all active or past maps, as well as the upcoming maps
  • Casual: Shows scores for all active or past maps, omits future maps so you can't dodge them
  • Clicking on a past game takes you to the stats page

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• /flaghistory or /fh
  • Shows the history of flag holders after a steal for each team (no history if the flag is at home)

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Staff Command Upgrades
Yeah, I know you can't use these but I'm putting them here anyways

• Classmanager
  • Now comes with a help menu, so you can learn all its functions
  • Limits parser now takes basically anything, so you can copy and paste with ease
    • You can format your PPM announcements however you'd like, even with emojis (go crazy, Hamza!)
• Testing
  • Testing command now shows available keys with Tab and autocompletes them, so Necro testing will no longer get outshone by Assassin, sobbing noises

☰ Miscellaneous​

Flag Recovery Sound
For the few of you who play with game sounds

• You and your homies get an XP ding when your flag is recovered
• Toggle preference available under /options or /flagsound

More Credits
Because you guys totally needed them

• Doing /gg post-game now gives you 2 credits, once per map
• Voting on a map with /y and /n now gives you 10 credits, also once per map

Projectiles
Mage buffs are bad PR, so I made you wait until the end to see this

• Projectiles (except Necro Skull and potions) now pass through teammates
• Damage tick no longer negates Scout Swap or Mage Freeze ("1.16 backend" my !@#$)

Sprays
They're back mid-match now

• Projectiles pass through sprays
• Sprays cannot be placed on Medic webs

Bug Fixes
Squashed!

• Wiping stats of a match no longer causes the server to crash
• Can no longer bypass class limits pre-game or with default classes
• Fixed "<Kill/Recover/Capture> as All Classes" achievements not completing due to having used experimental classes
• Fixed team flags getting flipped sometimes when maps were added to the game

Happy Capturing (or Recovering, if that's what you're into)!
- The CTF Staff Team