Unreal Tournament 3 - CTF-React

Unreal Tournament 3 - CTF-React

The structural arch, first used in the Middle East as early as the 2nd millennium B.C., has the remarkable ability of being able to withstand vast amounts of weight. This trait is useful for bridges, doorways, or processing facilities carved into the sides of cliffs under tons of rock. Yeah, especially that last one.

Make Something Unreal Submission:

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Phase 1: Best CTF Level

The idea for this map actually came from watching the discovery channel. There was this show about massive tunnel-boring machines being used to make underground highways, and one of the things they were talking about was the architecture involved with keeping the tunnels safe from collapse. I then began to think about how cool it would be to put flag bases carved into the sides of opposite cliffs. The arches emerged from this idea. The map has a subtle irony about it, since some old, run-down, industrial crap-hole has stood the pressure of tons of rock over the years only because of a simple architectural concept, and yet at the same time it is a high-tech war zone filled with fancy gadgets and weapons. Technology may advance, but sometimes the simplest concepts can be the most important. In this case, the bases would have long since collapsed if it weren't for the simple semicircular arch.

The basic premise of the map is that it's entirely designed around the risk/reward mentality. The fastest flag running route only takes 12-15 seconds but requires two hammer jumps and only has the sniper rifle along the way. The longer routes have armor, health, good weapons, as well as a lot more cover but obviously they take more time.

Another key aspect of the map is that it's designed to be really fast-paced. I've been playing a lot of UT3 CTF recently and one thing I noticed is that there's not as much emphasis on covering the flag carrier as there is in other games. This map essentially requires you to have a full-time flag carrier cover person since there are so many entrances into every room and an ambush could be around every corner, so once again it makes for a huge risk/reward balance - do I cover my flag carrier or do I go after the enemy flag carrier? I deliberately designed the map to be a little shorter from base to base to make this decision a little more interesting.

Not only this, but the map is a little more standoff-oriented compared to most others. This isn't the kind of map where your flag will stay on its base when your team has the enemy flag. In fact, the map is designed to encourage just the opposite.

As for the name, very early into the layout design I knew that it was going to be the kind of map I described above, and I knew that reaction time and quick thinking were going to be paramount. The name React emerged from this idea and I think it suits the map well.

In the end I hope the result is the type of environment that will reward teamwork during slower, more calculated flag runs but can make the last-second, overtime-forcing flag runs possible as well. Most of all, I hope you have fun playing it!