DODS/Creating cap zones

Cap zones in Day of Defeat: Source are the locations in which players stand to capture an area for their team. Every cap zone should have a flag near its centre to make it clear who is in control of the zone, and where the zone is. Cap zones can be configured to take longer or shorter amounts of time and to require different numbers of friendly soldiers to capture.

A cap zone consists of two entities:

• dod_capture_area
  

  A cap zone in Hammer
  • Brush entity
  • Defines the area the cap zone will cover
  • Defines the time needed to cap
  • Defines the number of soldiers needed to cap
  • Defines which flag (dod_control_point) it refers to
  • Must be textured with a trigger texture, such as tools/toolstrigger
• dod_control_point
  • Point entity
  • Displays the cap zone's flag
  • Must have a unique index point number
  • Stores the cap zone's name
  • Defines sound to play (e.g. "Area secure!") when zone is capped
  • Defines the flag icon to display in the HUD

Every DoD Source map also requires a single dod_control_point_master, to define any round timers and do various other things behind the scenes.

When placing cap zones, take great care to ensure they are balanced between the two teams. A map with every flag in the Axis spawn isn't going to be much fun! You can achieve balance through positioning, tweaking the number of soldiers needed to cap and/or the amount of time needed to cap for each team, or even making a cap zone inactive until another cap zone is taken, creating a chain.

Tips

• Always provide some form of cover at a cap zone, unless you specifically want there to be none
• Try to put cap zones in locations that a platoon would logically want to have in their possession