(03 Mar 21, 01:25AM)RandomPanda Wrote: ... what is the point of an official AC map if it's lacking flags...
Even though CTF is kind of the main game mode today, it wasn't like that back in the days and there is no, and in my opinion shouldn't ever be a 'hard' rule all maps have to feature flags in order to support CTF mode.
When creating a map particularly for T/OSOK or FFA the layout demands are quite different from what you'd expect from a CTF map. It can work well for either mode category at the same time, but sometimes that's simply not the case. Then, why not just leave the flags out and make it obvious to everyone the map wasn't designed for CTF.
I think eventually most mappers, including me, started adding flags routinely to every map they built, regardless the game mode it was initially designed for. Simply because this raises the overall probability for the map getting played.
Therefore, adding flags to ac_desert makes no sense to me, since it most certainly wasn't built with CTF in mind and I personally can't picture it working out in that mode.
Actually, I believe it might even help the diversity in terms of game modes, at least to some extend, when not every map can be played in CTF.
Welp, ac_douze is a whole story on its own. It was built as a typical arena map for Cube. When ported to AC the obligatory flags got added, because why not, right?
In my opinion, ac_douze doesn't work in any team mode to begin with, let alone CTF. Yeah, ac_douze in CTF is this silly kind of fun, which I too welcome as a refreshing change from the core game play every now and again. Unfortunately people have a tendency to grind exclusively on the silly stuff 24/7. Hence, that map/mode combo became that much overplayed, eventually someone felt the need to pull the plug and remove the flags.
Personally, I'm not too fond of putting the flags back into the official map, because this would be the worst possible representation of what CTF in AC is about. However, if people really want to play ac_douze in CTF, they still can do so. *cough*ac_douzectf*cough*