MOD NOTE: I understand that I am not using the suggested template and that was done on purpose for the enrichening of the suggestion. Otherwise, it would devalue the suggestion. Thank you for understanding.
Hello everyone, I think most players at this point have a pretty negative experience around Capture Flag. However, I believe I can create a guide on how to fix it. This post is supposed to act as a solution while maintaining the integrity of the game. Let’s dive into it!
NOTE: It’s important to understand that I am approaching this post from neither the Casual or Competitive sides of the community and am choosing to represent the middle ground while trying to appeal everyone.
To paint the full picture, here is a micro history lesson. Capture the Flag was released with the Arcade back in 2022 along with Bridge, Block Drop, and Ground Wars (permanently). Ironically enough, Capture the Flag was kept a secret unlike the other games until the release of the update, yet it was by far the most popular and frankly the most fun. Releasing with 3 Classic Maps. However, it has “gone down the drain over the years” according to most players.
Now, let’s fast forward to today. I’ll be highlighting its current issues and finding solutions aswell.
Issue 1. “Sweats”
- It’s clear looking back on the early days of the game this wasn’t a major problem unlike today. However, I find this to be a pretty simple solution to fix. The issue isn’t necessarily the sweats, it’s the parties. You may be saying “But Champ! You can’t remove parties from Capture the Flag, I want to play with my friends”, well yes, I agree, we can’t do that. But we can limit how many party members show up on the same team. I would like to suggest an ELO stat that has certain milestones with each being hit decreasing the max party size that can appear on your team, with the lowest being TWO. So, you can still play with all your friends, but you might have to face off against them. Additionally, ELO can be used to balance out teams to make games fairer for everyone. Do not mistake this for Skill Based matchmaking as this is NOT that.
Issue 2. Queuing
- Moving on, queuing has two major issues, Mid-match requeuing and Queue Dodging. I have solutions for both. We could tackle Mid-match requeuing in many ways, only awarding experience if you play through the whole game, and more. But I think the best way to handle this is by providing a punishment, not only would you lose double ELO but also have a suspension from queuing other matches. On the other hand, Queue Dodging can be simply dealt by hiding player skins and names like bridge solos before match making was taken away. Plus, I am pretty confident the party and ELO changes above would significantly decrease this happening.
Issue 3. Maps
- This is a hard one to talk about as this relies on the core of the game. But its pretty simple, big maps suck. Capture the Flag achieves its goal as a game mode when maps are small, not when it’s bigger than some survival games maps (ahem, Pirate’s Paradise). The trend overtime seems to be bigger and bigger maps, and we need the opposite of that. Below I have issued each map a category and some positive feedback on how they could improve.
Perfect Maps, these show competitive viability and all around nice to play on.
- Ashram, extremely well designed
- Empire, very good for competitive play
- Lago, making the sides more viable would nice here
- Oryx, the flag room is just slight awkward but it’s good
- Rift, perfect map size however the castle layout should be looked at
- Unearth, fan favorite
Alright Maps, these are pretty fun but could use some touch ups.
- Altara, some of the launch pads feel off
- Campsite, the cave should be more worthwhile traveling through
- Lunala, this one was almost one I wanted Scrapped however, I think it has some untapped potential, but the middle needs a serious redesign
- Prismaris, this one is almost there, just a little too big, I would remove a few areas
- Solarscape, I don’t have much to say here but it’s just not that great
- Valley, this one is missing character, I also don’t quite get the placements of the campfires and the fences around the flag.
Bad Map, these should be Vaulted, Scrapped or completed redone from the ground up, terrible to play on.
- Mall, this needs a redesign, the idea is phenomenal but playing on the map just isn’t very fun.
- Pirate’s Paradise, F tier map I will requeue this map 110% of the times I get it, back to the drawing board with this one please. WAY TO BIG
- Prosperity, this one shouldn’t deserve to be here but the vertically is awkward and is really lacking some clear spaces
Issue 4. Various Improvements
- Nothing has been introduced to Capture the Flag since the Flag Curse which was shortly after the initial release, believe it or not that was over FOUR years ago. Adding items like the newly added Spring from Bedwars Season 5, or Traps from Murder Mystery would fit right into the game allowing for more dynamic matches. You could even have them even rotate in and out of the shop per game, make each game feel unique. Another thing that Hive struggles with is new levels; everyone wants them but then they add to many. Level 20 to 50 is a big jump. Personally, I would much rather see small increases of 10 to 15 but much more frequent.
Alright, that’s all I got for Capture the Flag, hopefully Splodger, or any other Team Member can push this feedback post to the Team and can apply some change or reply with their thoughts. If you have any comments, questions, or general feedback. I invite you to respectfully post your thoughts down below. Additionally, if you think I should give others games the same treatment let me know. Thanks for reading!