VCTF is Epic's forgotten gametype with no official support or maps. It's up to the community to provide the content. Unfortunately, the community cannot be trusted to handle this on their own, so here's a valuable guide on things you should not do when making new maps. Let's examine several popular maps learn some important lessons from the pros:
Face2K4 - Continuing the popular tradition of ripping off other peoples' ideas, Face2K4 is a remake of Face2K3, which in itself was a remix of the original Face. This map is reasonably well designed, but has a glaring flaw. Up on the tower there is a plasma turret, which rains down death on anyone below. Since there are no vehicles in this map to speak of, and no alternate routes, your only option is to run directly under this turret. More often than not, you die horribly.
Lesson 1: Do not place overwhelmingly powerful defenses around the flag, this only pisses people off.
Known offenders:
Lonesome Glen features tanks, trucks, scorpions, and Avrils all packed around the base.
UP-MilitaryFortPT parks an Ion Tank next to the flag. For God's sake, VCTF does NOT need an Ion Tank, leave it for Assault.
Surripere-SE - This map was converted over from the Onslaught gametype, continuing the popular tradition of directly stealing other peoples' hard work. Surripere is a beautiful well-designed map that makes for a great game of Onslaught. When converted to VCTF, it is an absolute disaster.
Not only is this map is gigantic, but it has an assload of buildings in it. This means if the enemy escapes the base with your flag, you will never, ever find them. Even with your entire team searching, a clever player can disappear for the remainder of the round.
Lesson 2: Do not make your map the size of Canada and fill it with a thousand hiding spots.
Known offenders:
A5NoMoreCops is twice as large as it really needed to be
AlienValley has miles and miles of pointless underground sewers that flagcarriers can hide in forever
Boom Boom Bridge - This map clearly believes in style over substance. Although it looks great, it is a pain in the ass to play. There is one, count it, ONE way to get to the flag area, and that's up a mile-long flight of stairs. The defenders have access to plenty of health, plus a rack of spider mines to booby-trap the stairs with. Essentially, it's next to impossible to get the flag.
Known offenders:
CS-Dust places the flag in a sheltered cove with a Hellbender nearby - bad idea, as constant shock-spamming ensues.
But that's not the only mapping sin on display, you also get the bonus effect of giant pits of deadly lava, placed throughout the map for no apparent reason at all. Deranged mapmakers love to fill their map with inanimate objects that can kill you, it's like a compulsion. The map also features Avrils, even though there's no vehicles to shoot with them. Hmmm.
Lesson 3: Always have more than one path to the flag. Stalemates are not fun.
Lesson 4: Spider-mines are an absolute pain in the ass, avoid them whenever possible.
Lesson 5: Cut it out with the giants pits of deadly lava already.
CrashVally
Lesson 6: Learn to spell, moron.
Known offenders:
ChainIsileFinal
Additional notes that I don't have an example for:
7: If the spawn points are a mile away from the flag, the defenders will just give up in disgust, as once they die, they have little chance of ever catching the flagcarrier. Likewise, if they're too close, the flagcarrier will have to deal with an undying army. Place your spawns moderately close to the flag, and have them somewhat in-between the two bases.
8: Speaking of spawn points, placing each spawn far apart, with one weapon and one vehicle nearby is a popular, yet foolish idea. Do not do this. More often than not, the vehicle that should be nearby is abandoned or stolen, leaving you with a long walk to the next one.
9: Be knowledgeable about Manta Runs. Capturing the flag from a Manta wing has become the most dominant offensive tactic in the game. Decide early on whether you're going to allow Manta Running in your map, and build obstacles around the flag if you aren't. If you do allow it, give the defenders some Avrils or Raptors to stop them with.
10: Whatever you do, don't make a map like FacingAss. FacingAss is one big square room with no weapons and a tank. Noobs love this map, since everyone else plays as handicapped as they do. Remember, if you like FacingAss - face it, you're an ass.
