Unreal Editor Maximum [unrealism.com/unrealedmax] -CAPTURE THE FLAG

CAPTURE THE FLAG

INTRODUCTION

This is just a basic tutorial showing you how to set up a CTF map. You should have your level all worked out and just want to configure the map for CTF. To identify the red and blue bases use the CTF textures provided.

STEPS INVOLVED IN CTF

1. First you need to place the flags, locate them from under Navigation Point. Expand Navigation Point and locate Flag Base. Go to your red base and right click and hit add flag base wherever you want it (both the flag bases will appear as blue in the editor so don't worry about that).
2. Open up the Flag Bases advanced properties and expand Flag Base. Check that team number is zero.
3. Now put one more flag base in the blue base and and set the team number under Flag Base to 1.
4. If that was the end of it there really wouldn't have been any need for a tutorial, now would there?. Since this is a team game all the players on the same team must be spawned in the same area. If the maximum amount of teams that your map can handle is 10 put 5 player starts (located by expanding Navigation Point) in and around the blue base and another 5 in and around the red base. Select all the 5 player starts for the blue base and under its advanced properties expand Player Start you guessed it set the team number to 1 so that all players on the same team are spawned from the same area. Remember you need to do this for every team game. You don't need to bother about the Tournament Team Game (Death Match that is) the game uses the normal player starts, i.e. random spawning for all teams.
5. It goes without saying I think :), that you should use red lights in or near the red base and blue lights in the blue base. To do so under a lights properties just change light hue to 255 and saturation to around 130 to get red and for blue the light hue is 160 and 170 (nice colors that is).
7. That's still not the end of this tutorial! Imagine this situation - your bot teammate or your teammate has got the other teams flag and is getting his ass kicked. At this point he asks you for backup (using the voice menu probably), but how the hell do you know where he is located, not to fear help is on hand. Ok this part is really simple actually you just need to place in ZoneInfos. This would be easier to explain with a simple example. Say you have a three room CTF map - room one is the red base, the middle room we will call center Hall and the last room is the blue base and they are connected by a hole in the wall. You need to completely seal the three rooms into zones. Just place a sheet brush slightly larger than the hole in the wall connecting room one and the center hall and hit the add special button (5th button third row) in the pull down menu just choose zone portal, check 2-sided below and hit add special. Do this again in the hole in the wall connecting the center hall to the blue base. Now that the three rooms are separate zone expand Info under classes and select a Zone Info (don't expand it) and add three ZoneInfos into the three rooms. Go to the ZoneInfos advanced properties and expand Location Strings in Zone Name enter Red Base. In the same way enter Center Hall in the Zone Info in the center room and Blue Base in the third room. Now when your teammate is getting his ass kicked and asks for backup watch the voice menu on your HUD, it'll be in the form - Othello (Blue Base): I need some backup. So now you know where to go. This can also be a life saver for you when you need backup. Use this in all the team games.

I find a lot of people seem to be ignoring this. Its really irritating having your team mate shout - I've got the flag, I need some backup and not knowing where to go to help out.
8. Locate Defense Point under Navigation Point|Ambush Point. And set them in appropriate places in your base. Using the overhead view rotate them so that you have them facing the direction in which you want it. These are the points that will be defended by bots when given the order defend the base. Dont forget to set team number to 1 (under adv. prop.|Defense Point) while placing the defense points in the blue base. This may sound stupid but don't forget to save your map as CTF-x, hit F6 and in the level properties set the default game type as CTFGame (located under info, game info, tournament game info, death match plus, team game plus).

NOTE : There's a very interesting option under the flag bases advanced properties. Expand Movement and you should see an entry for Attach Tag. This is not used in any of the maps that came with Unreal Tournament, but I like to use this a lot. I usually create a round rotating object (read the Rotating Object tutorial on this site), and since this is a mover it will keep rotating in the game . I set its Events|Tag to a unique name then under the flag bases Advanced Properties|Movement in the attach tag I enter this name. Naturally I also place the flag base on the mover. Now in the game you should see the flag rotating instead of just sitting there. But be careful that you place it properly i.e. its not touching the wall or anything or you'll keep getting a message on the screen that the blue (or red) flag was returned). Don't forget you can use any mover :).