Capture the Flag on Hive right now has a problem where the entire game turns into a stalemate as a result of the feature where you can’t capture a flag unless you have your team’s flag at your base. To me, it doesn’t really add much to the game and only makes it less fun to play, since if you have the flag, you’re just sitting at your base waiting for your team’s flag to return, which is painfully boring. So, I am here to propose a few ideas that could help fix this issue, and prevent matches from turning into boring stalemates. The first one of course being…
Allow captures regardless of whether or not your team’s flag is taken by the enemy team
This is a relatively simple, but effective change, since its removing the source of the stalemate problem. While this change certainly helps with preventing stalemates, it could also result in games going by a bit too quick, resulting in less fights between players. And since getting flags is a quick process on Hive, it could make getting flags a bit too easy and not much of a challenge. So, I came up with another idea to fix that.
Make flag captures themselves more challenging
Essentially, something I thought would be a good solution for preventing flag captures from being too quick is to make it so it takes 3 seconds to take the other team’s flag. This will make it so you have to come up with a plan to keep the other team at bay before getting a flag instead of just being able to instantly rush in and get the flag without worrying about anyone behind you, and it would also make it more viable to actively defend your flag in the process. And as I said before, it would also prevent matches from going too quick if we were to allow captures regardless of whether or not your flag is safe.
Conclusion
In my opinion, these simple changes will not only improve the pacing of Capture the Flag, but they would also make it much more fun to play without making it too easy and quick. With that said, feel free to share your thoughts on whether or not this is a good idea. If you have any ideas on how this suggestion could be improved, please feel free to let me know.
I’ve seen a post like this before but I’m not gonna look for it. This is a bad idea since it would just make the game into bridge with extra steps.
6 Likes
How exactly would it be Bridge with extra steps? The only way I could see that being the case is if the map layouts were similar (which they aren’t). And tbh, I don’t see how removing stalemates would make this more like Bridge, since in Bridge you are sent right back to spawn after you score. That wouldn’t happen in CTF either way, so I personally don’t see how you can come to the conclusion that this would be Bridge with extra steps if stalemates were removed.
And while doing some more recent digging, I did find a post that had the idea of allowing captures regardless of your team’s flag position. Granted, it didn’t include my idea for grabbing flags taking 3 seconds. So I’ll bunp that post and get this suggestion removed.
Instead of the enemy’s goal being on their island, it’s on yours. You retrieve their flag and then run to your goal (extra step). The only differences are that you have more teammates, there are now spawn killers, and there’s no void to knock people into to stop them from winning without fighting.
1 Like
Well if you explain it like that then wouldn’t it technically already be Bridge with extra steps now? The requirement for you to keep your flag at your base would technically also be an extra step in the process. You could also argue that SkyWars is SG with extra steps since bridging is now involved and you mine ores to get loot. The goal remains the same, that being ‘be the last player standing to win, kill all the other players’
1 Like
That’s the unique mechanic that separates it from bridge. Bridge’s gameplay is just running to the goal as fast as possible. If you can’t score because your flag is gone, then the gameplay is fundamentally different.
SG has cache cows, chests, loot drops, and a deathmatch. Skywars only has ores, the mystery chest, and normal/ender chests. The gameplay is very different.
2 Likes
Based on those arguments with SG and SkyWars being different, CTF has a coin system, upgrades, an item shop, and different ways to get around the map with multiple routes to take (Bridge is linear). If you look at other servers that don’t have the stalemate rule in their version of CTF, the gameplay is still vastly different because of the fact that you can stop the enemy team from scoring once they got to your goal. You can’t do that in Bridge. Once they get to your goal, they score, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
2 Likes
You have actually changed my mind about this. I think it would still be easier for sweats but it would also be easier for casual players as well. I’ll vote on the original though, not this one. 
1 Like
Cubecraft I think has all of these, so adding these features makes sense. Don’t think we should make games “unique” by breaking the gameplay
2 Likes
no dont you were right before
1 Like
The current system is good as is and stalemates aren’t inherently bad, more like an obstacle one must overcome to win the game. It seems less like an actual problem and more like a pet peeve of yours. Sure, they drag the game out, but there are ways of dealing with it. You just have to be better than your opponents.
A better way of dealing with stalemates is making flag curse reduce health to 5 hearts not 3, that way good players can actually take fights with curse and potentially break stalemates by returning the flag and grabbing it again without worrying about dying in 2 hits (itd be 4 instead, which is much better but not game breaking).
This suggestion is also just a terrible idea. It would make it so much harder for solo players to play the game as you would have to stand on the flag for 3 seconds and if ur getting 4v1d u can’t stand still for that long.
All in all, you have not presented a reason significant enough to warrant a change to the game, and you have not presented a change worth implementing. I will save my vote on this one.
3 Likes
If a game is forcing you to play a waiting game whilist having little control over the situation, then that’s just bad game design. It may not be as bad if you aren’t the one with the flag, but if you just so happen to be the one holding the flag, then there’s really no other option than to sit there and wait for your teammates to kill the person with your flag.
Game progress should not be haulted by an obstacle that you have little control over. There’s a good reason why people tend to leave midway through the game, it gets boring having to fight the same people over and over just for the game to progress. In order for a game to be fun and engaging, it needs good pacing, and Hive’s CTF unfortunately does not have good pacing, so matches feel way longer than they should since most of the time, people just stand there camping at their bases. And thanks to that, this is already the WORST version of CTF to solo queue in. This was never a problem in any other version of CTF I tried.
CubeCraft for example has similar implementation to my idea, and I can still have fun solo queuing there since the game isn’t slowed to a crawl when two people from opposing teams have a flag. I can see how the flag taking 3 seconds to pick up could be annoying, but it encourages you to better prepare to get the flag instead of mindlessly rushing in and instantly getting it. I personally don’t see how you can say removing stalemates and adding a 3 second pickup delay would make Hive CTF worse to solo queue when its already terrible to solo queue to begin with because of the stalemates.
Hive has some really good stuff going for their version of CTF. Good maps, a good coin system, and a fun upgrade system. But the pacing is so bad that I can’t stand playing for 2 minutes without getting bored and feel like leaving to do something else, and it really shouldn’t feel like that. Its true that I can just play CubeCraft CTF instead of doing this, but Hive CTF has so much potential to be the best version of CTF, and that potential should not go to waste. I want this game to be good, but right now its just not there.
1 Like
Maybe as an LTM gamemode this would be alright I guess.
Make it an ltm isn’t a solution to everything lol. Imagine how disappointing it would be if hive came out like “New ltm, CTF but you don’t need the flag at your base to capture it other than that still 100% identical to CTF, please just play it we’re desperate”
2 Likes
Agreed. LTMs were the reason why we had a lack of permenant content in the past. Making more of those would only hinder the progress of future updates.
1 Like
True, but if it was too disliked they could just remove it because its an LTM, and if people liked it they could make it permanent.
1 Like
A better way to show players new changes without forcing it upon them would be the update previews they did in the past for Treasure Wars and SG. If people disliked a change, they would do patches that would fix it. LTMs just aren’t a good way to get people excited for new changes, and as I said, they hinder the progress of future updates.
2 Likes
lol
Yeah ok this does also make sense.
Seeing as I only have <3/4 of my original votes I think I’ll take that one back. 
2 Likes
That is simply not true, thats part of the game and not bad game design, especially if you can actually do stuff in that time. Your point of having to wait without being able to do anything being bad game design is wild to me as a hide and seek player because for so many people thats the appeal of hide. Part of CTF is having to kill the other person with the flag which makes this game alot more balanced. Without this feature way more people who ignore fights and play this game like they play the bridge (blockspam past you/over you, grab the flag, run away without fighting), and I get that these people already exist but bro they’re annoying lets not encourage them?
4 Likes