Team Fortress 2 Design Theory

Team Fortress 2 is a highly diversified multiplayer game, and well-designed maps that accommodate all of the player classes equally are critically important to it. Unfortunately while understanding how the game plays is one thing, creating a quality map that compliments it is quite another.

• Your map needs to be fast and fun to play on. The best maps can run on a 24/7 server without getting boring even after the second or third reload.
• Your map needs to accommodate every class. If a class is useless on a map, players who prefer are liable to disconnect when your work comes up in a server's rotation.
• Your map should be designed, not simply constructed. If all you are doing is re-creating the surface appearance of another map, you're highly unlikely to create something worth playing in its own right.

Gametype

The first step in creating a TF2 map is choosing a gametype. Five are supported:

CTF - Capture The Flag

In CTF, each team has a "flag", an intelligence briefcase, and a capture point. Players need to take the enemy's intelligence back to their own capture point.

It is common for the flag points and capture points to be located in the same place but they don't have to be. Separating the flag and capture points can create interesting map designs where the teams have two areas to attack and defend. This creates many "jobs" for the players so, it's generally a good idea to use larger maps in this case.

2fort's Blue entrance.

2fort's Red entrance.

CTF tends to be the easiest style of gameplay to design maps for, as its maps are generally small and symmetrical in layout. ctf_2fort is the classic example of this: it consists of two bases directly opposite one another, each with the same layout. The only difference between them is decor. The pictures on the right show how both sides look very different from one another even though their layouts are the same.

The easiest way to make a symmetric CTF map is to build the basic layout for half of your map, create a copy and rotate the copy 180 degrees and merge them face to face. Then you can customize and re-texture it to your liking.

If you choose to make a non-symmetrical map, you have to make sure no unfair advantages is given to either team. It should take roughly the same amount of time and effort for either team to defend or to capture.

Also bear in mind that having to make a long journey to and from the enemy flag can make a map get very boring very quickly. It's recommended that you keep map sizes to a minimum and include lots of obstacles and alternate routes.

Advantages

Design is generally easier than the other two gameplay styles.

Map design can be simplified using symmetry between the two sides.

Disadvantages

Non-symmetric maps can be very difficult and time-consuming to balance.

With a symmetric design, any changes you make to the layout of one side have to be duplicated on the other side.

CP - Control Point

Control Point maps require players to capture at least one instance of their namesake from the enemy team. The precise mechanic that leads to a team's victory is up to you, but it usually involves one team capturing all of the CPs on a map, with the last one being the closest to the enemy's spawn.

There are two ways of handling this:

Assault

Interior of Dustbowl 1-1. Grenades can easily be thrown in for massive damage.

Dustbowl 3-2, the final CP. Very open, and with just two small corridors leading into it.

Assault CP maps cast one team as the attacker (in Valve's maps, always Blue) and the other as the defender. Once a control point in an assault map is captured it is locked to prevent the defenders from pushing back, and the attackers win the match by capturing all of them.

cp_dustbowl and cp_gravelpit are the prime examples of this map type. There is no symmetry in them, and most points are designed to be easier for one team to control than the other - normally so that the attackers have a harder time as they push further in. For example the control point areas in Dustbowl get larger and the paths between them get narrower as a match progresses.

Control points and their surroundings are best designed to give each one a different flavor during play. Provide opportunities for each class to achieve something the others can't: sentry spots for Engineers, open windows for Demos, high-up platforms for Soldier/Demos, less-traveled alternative routes for Spies, a series of high pillars for a Scout to jump between, and so on. The interplay of these elements defines each area's character.

An assault map can (and if it's long enough should, to avoid player burnout) be split into rounds. This simply means creating several distinct areas, and once the CPs in one have been captured resetting everyone and starting a new round in the next. It's a good idea to overlap the start and end of each area to give a sense of continuity: note how Valve always give attackers the defenders' last spawn room for their own.

Advantages

More variety

Sense of progress

Better control of pacing

Popular with players

Disadvantages

Much more work

Much harder to balance

Symmetric

Granary's central, symmetrical CP.

Symmetric CP maps allow either team to attack or defend as they please, and are won when one or the other holds every point. cp_well, cp_granary and cp_badlands are the main examples. In them, both teams begin with the two points on their side of the map and start by fighting over the neutral middle point. Since the maps are symmetrical, whichever team holds the middle point is generally winning the game.

Traditionally, only two points are ever unlocked in symmetric maps. This focuses the fight in one area and allows players to concentrate on the matter at hand, without worrying that a pesky scout has slipped past them and is going to take an undefended point far behind their lines.

Advantages

Symmetry halves design work

Disadvantages

Only truly popular in competitive play

PL - Payload

Goldrush 3-1. Note the adjacent tunnel.

Payload is an assault gametype in which control points are captured with a moving bomb cart instead of players. Attacking players 'push' the cart along a rail track and over the timer-extending CP's by standing nearby, while defending players stop it either by keeping attackers away from it or by standing near it themselves. The gametype was introduced with pl_goldrush, which quickly became TF2's most popular map.

Payload has many similarities to CP assault, but also some subtle differences.

Todo: Someone who knows about them needs to tell us what they are!

Advantages

See Assault CP

A 'smoother' experience. Progress is gradual, instead of the sudden lurches of CP maps.

Disadvantages

See Assault CP

TC - Territory Control

A inner CP on Hydro, currently owned by Blue.

A outer CP on Hydro, raised up above a radar dish. Height becomes an issue here.

Territory Control can be thought of roughly as linear, round-based CP on a nonlinear map. Four cross-connected areas are fought over two-by-two until one team controls all, at which point a one-way assault into their "headquarters" launches. If this seems confusing, play a few rounds of tc_hydro and you'll soon get the hang of it.

If neither team capture an area within a time limit the round is declared a draw and, if the server has it enabled, sudden death mode begins. This will happen quite a lot, unfortunately, since the four main areas can be played in any order so all need to be balanced against each other.

This also makes TC maps the hardest to create, since you've got 3*3 = 9 possible combination's to cater for! Texturing can also be challenging since each area can be owned by either team, leading to a predominance of Grey and white tones.

On top of all this, hydro is unpopular on servers thanks to the number of stalemates it leads to. You might have trouble getting server operators to include your map in their rotation

Advantages

Um, very few are made so there's less competition?

Disadvantages

Very difficult to balance four different areas against each other

Visual design difficulties

You're entering stalemate country, boy

Design

There is a great deal that can be said on this subject, so consider the following a brief introduction only.

Tip:Try sketching your layout idea with pen and paper first. It's much faster than building something in Hammer only to discover that it doesn't work, or that you want to do something else.

Class abilities

The key to a fun map is playing off each class' abilities against the others'. Height, sight lanes, windows, cover and arena size are just a few of the tools you have at your disposal.

Objective location

Where to place flags, control points or the payload track is the most important decision you'll make. Closed spaces are generally harder to defend than open spaces, unless that space is so open sniping becomes viable. Raising the objective up makes approaching it a more delicate (and potentially frustrating) act, while lowering it allows players to pound whoever is down there from a height.

Entrances/exits

Never, never, EVER leave a team with only one entrance or exit to or from a location, unless it's at the very start or end of a map. Doing this invites grinding, griefing and general misery.

Equally important is the balance of entrances/exits for each team. If one team has three choices of approach while another has ten, the second team has an obvious advantage (which may be what you want).

Detail

Don't choke your map with detail. That approach might work in story-driven single-player games, but in TF2 clarity is everything and detail only serves to slow the eye down.

Look at others' work, keep playing the game and keep making maps, and eventually you'll have an understanding of TF2 map design.

Case study: GravelPit B

Only Soldiers, Demos and Scouts can reach the roof of point B.

• Gravelpit B has a well-balanced mix of outdoor and indoor combat, spiked with a rooftop that is only accessible to sticky/rocket jumping Soldiers and Demos. However, health and ammo can only be found by descending. If players on the roof are prepared to crouch down and stand on the rim of the bell tower they can fire down directly into about half of the CP's floorspace.
• There is a raised platform to the left that can only be mounted by Soldiers/Demos and Scouts; other classes must run around the other side of the building, or else go in the front.
• There are windows in the CP building to lob grenades through, the left of which reveal walls which allow Soldiers to deal splash damage to players or buildings sheltering nearby.
• Elsewhere a small shack can provide shelter for an attacking Engineer's buildings, but an unbreakable window allows defenders to see what's happening inside.
• There is a ring of rock spires, roofs and thin wooden walls that Scouts can use to leap about on, though very few players actually do this.
• Lastly, a raised walkway on the left edge of the arena provides cover for snipers, albeit with limited visibility.

Construction

See Basic Map Construction for details on how to create each component of a TF2 map. This section gives only general advice.

Signage

TF2 maps have lots of signs in them that guide new players in the right direction. They take the form of models that you can place with the prop_static entity, are located in the props_gameplay/ folder, and all start with 'sign_'. Use the model browser's Skins tab to select the appropriate message and team color.

The big arrows seen in Valve's maps are materials, which can be used as decals or by applying them to brushes. Hydro's round arrow sign can be found at props_hydro/cap_point_arrow, and will need a floating func_brush with the appropriate material placed in front of them.

Clipping

Use player clip brushes to stop players from getting stuck on complex walls.

Clipping is the process of creating invisible walls in places where you don't want players, buildings, or both, to go. You should always associate one with a visual effect that lets players see that they can't go that way, unless it's in the sky or another location where people shouldn't be unless they've found a map exploit. Since rocket/sticky jumping can launch players high into the air, you need to be extra careful about doing this correctly!

Warning:Beware creating 'perch points'. These happen when one object or clip brush sticks out from what's above it, by even the tiniest amount, allowing players to stand halfway up a wall.

There are three types of clip. Each are made by applying a certain material to a brush:

tools/toolsclip

Stops anything from entering the volume, including weapons fire and engineer buildings

tools/toolsplayerclip

Stops players from entering the volume

It's a good idea to playerclip the roofs of buildings and any small ledges unless you specifically want players to be able to access them. You should also use playerclip on 'rough' surfaces that they might otherwise get stuck on when sliding along.

See also

• Team Fortress 2
• What makes a good level?
• Optimization (level design)