ZCTC - Version 4.1 Released!!

[Wills]

Alright, here's the revised version of my second map, included with the other maps I made so everyone can see them. I completely retextured it and made it about twice as big. Check it out.

[HotWax]

I don't think the flashing player effect is necessary, and here's why:

1: The player already spawns feathers behind him while he's running around with the chicken. Admittedly, he can stand still to stop this from happening but... duh! He's standing still. It's a trade-off.

2: The player already makes random clucking sounds while he has the chicken. This cannot be stopped by standing still.

3: The player is still an enemy to all other players, so even in the event that he's sitting crouched in some corner of the map (this is also why smaller maps are better for CTC), not dropping feathers and has somehow managed to not draw attention with the clucking sounds, any players catching a glimpse of him are likely going to unload on him anyway.

Good players will be able to identify the chicken holder very quickly and if they're smart, they will ignore the other players while they take out the carrier... they then of course will beat the hell out of each other getting to the dropped chicken, but that's the point.

Players not being able to immediately tell who's got the chicken at a glance is an intended feature of the game, in my opinion. It adds to the chaos of the game, as players will run into a room, see two people, shoot the wrong one, who then turns on him and goes WTF!!! and starts returning fire while the chicken carrier quickly makes a getaway. It adds to the chaos and hilarity of playing the game.

Making the carrier 10 feet tall, flashing random colors, glowing with the intensity of 3 red giant stars, and bearing a banner over their head that says "KILL ME" might make it harder for the carrier to get away, but in the end all it will do is make the game less fun to play.

[/my two cents]

[Shadelight]

Those are some very good points there HotWax.

[Xaser]

I kinda agree with HotWax on this one... the flashing thingy is a bit too much, as it adds to the game in not knowing exactly who the carrier is.

Also, Cutty, I apologize but that version of the map was loaded with bugs (try starting a multiplayer game... not a single item appears). I've re-uploaded it for justice, link

What times are you usually available online? I generally never appear until around 8:00 my time (-6 GMT) and don't stay past 10... which is odd but that's the way the cookie crumbles.

[Zippy]

Some good points

I'll go with some of that. I've never actually seen the feather dropping or heard the clucking since I haven't played it yet (getting my friends together for a game of anything has been hard to do as of late. We were supposed to do a co-op romp through the 4 major Doom iwads with some custom weapons and monsters two weeks ago, but that hasn't even happened yet.) How much or how little you want to promote which player has the chicken is really just a matter of design choice. Depends what kind of game you are trying to create, partially also with how you expect it to be played.

In terms of my personal tastes and choices, the way I see it is like this: since there is a single objective which can only be handled by one player at a time, there's a clear divsion between player who has the objective, and players who want the objective. In order to make very fast and dynamic gameplay (which I would consider exciting), the burden of challenge goes on the player holding the objective, then. Things should be made very hard for that player. There should be a significant amount of things hindering the player enough that their loss of the objective is pretty much a guarenteed certainty within a relatively short period of time (they just have to try and do every last possible thing they can to maximize their time.) Meanwhile, the remaining players have more of a burden of strategy. They shouldn't have any significantly difficult challenge hounding them. Their concerns should be very tactical. Figure out not only how to get a hold of the objective from the player who has it, but how to go about doing it in a way which maximizes the time they'll be able hold onto the objective when the challenge does come to them. To these ends, use these players to create the main challenge to the objective player: Let them easily find and track the objective player.

This is the kind of way I like games like this. It combines a good chunk of heartpounding action and along with providing benefits to doing some good planning. I also like it because it can be very discouraging of allowing a single player to dominate things easily, since the only thing that will get you points puts you against very overwhelming odds, so it's hopefully unlikely that someone'll get a long string of points that is difficult to catch up with.

So in my opinion, interestingly, making it harder for a carrier to get away is precisely something that would make it more fun to play.

[Cutmanmike]

Well i've already taken the highlight off so i'll pretend I just read Zippy and Hotwax's posts .

What times are you usually available online? I generally never appear until around 8:00 my time (-6 GMT) and don't stay past 10... which is odd but that's the way the cookie crumbles.

I'm usually back from work at 6.00PM (GMT), and if my girlfriend isn't dragging me out i'm usually on until 12.00PM.[/quote]

[Shadelight]

I got to try this mod out on a LAN game last night, I must say, it's pretty fun!

[Cutmanmike]

Gwah. Well I don't know what to do with Xaser's map. It's huge and complex and i'm not sure if it would work right for CTC. Someone's gotta test that.

I haven't looked at Wills' fixed map yet.

And i've removed the flashing.

Also, I may have a way around our little pit problem. If you've noticed, with terrain effects some projectiles shot at water/lava etc vanish. Would that happen with monsters too? Is there some sort of flag I can use?

[edward850]

Don’t worry; your chicken won’t drown (I checked it)

[Cutmanmike]

Btw you might want to see the original CTC. It's rules are quite different from this ones. But who cares.

http://chicken.planetquake.gamespy.com/features.html

[Cutmanmike]

Adding wills' maps in. Xaser, your map STILL has bugs. I keep walking into invisible barriers or something. I think it has something to do with those big lazers overhead. Sort it out willya?

[edward850]

You will see my map back soon, its taking so long because school is being a son of a *****

**text removed**

[TheDarkArchon]

*tumbleweed rolls lazily across the forums*

[edward850]

ok, so maby it never happend, I wanted to know what the next post would of been like, so now I know

[Phobus]

I'll ruin the surprise and tell everyone I've made map that's already in tjhere along with Wills' stuff and the original four