Siege Beta: guide/explanation (wip)

[Ozin]

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Siege Beta
The basics

• Siege mode now supports multiple flags.
• The goal for attackers is still the same; capture the castle.
• All flags must be capture before the time limit is reached for attackers to win.
• Flag layers:
  
  • The map maker will be free to group flags into layers/groups, where all flags in the first layer must be captured by attackers before the next layer opens up.
  • No limit on how many flags there are per layer. There can be completely open maps where all flags are capturable from the start, or in the opposite case, maps that are completely linear (one flag per layer).
    
  • Minimum amount of layers is 1, meaning all flags would be capturable. There is no upper limit.
• Spawn points: Individual spawns linked to each flag. Attackers and defenders have separate spawn points. Players will spawn away from enemies if a suitable spawn point linked to the selected flag is available.
• Spawn menu/map:
  
  • Opened by pressing M (also closes it, as does Space), selecting the "Select spawn" option in main menu, or when closing equipment screen.
  • Hover mouse close to flag to see it's name (if it has one).
  • Click on a flag (or attacker spawn if you are attacker) to select it as your spawn location. This will be remembered, unless your team loses control of it. You do not need to reselect the same spawn each time you die.
  • Icons:
    In short, the color displays if your team controls the flag or not, the foreground what state it is in (captured, active, inactive). Orange color = neutral. Enemies can spawn at flags marked by red icons, your team can spawn at blue icons.
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     Capturable flag, from attackers point of view.
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     Capturable flag, from defenders point of view.
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     Uncapturable flag (not yet capturable), attackers pov
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      Uncapturable flag (not yet capturable), defenders pov
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     Captured flag, attackers pov.
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     Captured flag, defenders pov.
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     Neutral flag (capturable for both teams, no spawning on this. Usually means that there is fighting going on here, or it's in the process of being captured by attackers)
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     Marks the previously selected flag. If you close the menu with space/M, this will be kept as your selected spawn.
    The green arrow marks your current location and rotation if you are alive.
    
    Example screenshots, taken at the same time during a round but from different points of view:
    
    (click to show/hide)

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    (click to show/hide)

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• 3D map (left-alt menu): Intended to help players with navigation and flag information. Look at a flag to display the flag's name, the distance to it, and the icon to determine it's current status. Uses the same icons as the spawn menu.
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• Compass: Integrated into the 3D map menu. Points in the direction of the closest capturable or neutral flag from your location. Usually not a bad idea to follow this.
• Classic maps: Old siege maps are supported. Should work close to how the old siege was, with some adjustments. Spawn selection menu disabled.
• Custom time limit: Round time limit can now be set per map by the map maker
• Custom defender respawn penalty: Penalty can be set per map by the map maker.

Flag capture behaviour
I've made the entire flag handling script from scratch, so they behave a bit differently from the old ones.
Once attackers bring the flag all the way to the bottom, it changes to the attacker's banner and becomes neutral. When a flag is in a neutral state, the attackers now pull the flag up, and defenders pull it down. If attackers pull it all the way to the top, the flag is fully captured. Defenders can not recapture a flag that attackers have fully captured.
If defenders manage to pull the neutral flag down to the bottom, the flag comes back in the possession of the defenders.
No players of any team can spawn on a neutral flag. Attackers have to capture it fully, or defenders need to retake it.

A few notes
There are still some serious bugs around for this mode, and I'm working on fixing them. Hopefully I can get some fixes in before I leave for the mocap event this weekend.
WSE1 users (anyone not running the crpg client): The spawn menu won't display correctly for you. When you are in spec mode, or not alive, the camera won't be moved to the correct position/rotation. You should however be able to rotate the view around by moving your mouse to the screen edges.
About xp: I'm well aware that the current xp/gold system doesn't work well with this mode. I'm working on sketching up a new system for all gamemodes. No ETA on this.

That's it for now. I've probably forgotten to include some stuff, I'll have a look at it tomorrow.

Edit: Map makers' guide

[Ronin]

Can you post the entrpoint numbers for sceners as you promised. So we, the mappers can start making good maps for this gamemode?

[Ozin]

Yeah, tomorrow. Nothing is stopping you from completing 95% of your map until then though.

[Ronin]

Yeah good idea. Starting right away

[Casimir]

Gotta say that this is a whole lotta fun.

Hope to see some well made maps for this soon, currently it seems a little unintuitive and to heavily favour defenders.  Not sure if its game mode or just map design as of yet but hopefully with some more maps we can see.

Great work ozin, really innovative, can't wait to play more.

[Jarold]

Looking forward to making maps on this. 

[kasMVC]

The whole experience was quite awesome or maybe that was the 30 minutes of x4. However, I picked a spawn and ended up in a wall. Moving around eventually left me stuck in a huge enclosure. If you weren't aware of this I hope it helps!

[Ronin]

and, if not fixed yet, the slot system is not working as intended on the game mode. It was using the duel slot system last I played. (I was having 1 slot shield and 1 slot sword, picked a pike from the ground. No equipment dropped to the ground, I could even sheath the pike)

[Jarold]

If we make a map for this new game mode, are there no more siege towers and ladders?

[Ozin]

If we make a map for this new game mode, are there no more siege towers and ladders?

Siege towers and ladders work exactly the same as before.

[kinngrimm]

i like the constant slaughter nice mod.

As mentioned already, there is an issue but with the xp gain. This should perhaps differ.

F.e. you could get multiplier by the amount of flags you would hold.

Or you have additional to a higher base mulitplier(x2-x3) additionally XP for killing/damaging helping killing/damaging enemies(please introduce a reduction for teamhits please please please!!! or mod independent Hall of Shame website tab for those who do the most team damage)

also atm it seems there is not really an option to win the current maps as attacker, at least the couple of games i did in this new mod it never happened. if you need to take the flags in a certain order, then there are chokepoints the defenders are easily able to hold and going around to get in their back just takes too much time. Also to coordinate such an approach is in pub matches just not doable, you can try to do it in clan teams but that may not be enough.

EDIT: perhaps a limited amount of ladders to spawn with may be a good thing

[Ozin]

It is true that the maps available favor the defending team. But please keep in mind that the maps are new as well. In the current version, both maps seem to have defender respawn penalty too low (they spawn only 3 seconds slower than attackers). Once the maps are updated, it should become more balanced.

[Fips]

Yes!
Can't wait to use this for my helms deep-map!

[Tydeus]

I'm not sure how it works, if only one team can do it or what, but it's possible to spawn at any flag in your posession, even if a swarm of enemies are currently trying to take it down and are standing on top of it. Instant spawns in this case just don't work. Either that, or you simply shouldn't be able to spawn there, which is the easier fix.

[Taser]

Yes!
Can't wait to use this for my helms deep-map!

Holy shit that would be epic.

On topic.. I love it so far. Glad to see conquest introduced. Definitely some bugs to work out but its awesome so far.

I do want to know how you plan to work with multis. I'd be happy with attackers starting at x1 and defenders starting at x5 with it increasing/decreasing with every flag you take/lose. However this only works with 4 flags, especially since defenders cannot retake lost flags. So I'm not sure how you want to have conquest work with multis or if you even want that taken into account.