Capture the Flag

[wonderweiss]

That's right. You heard me. Capture the flag. No twists, and no story (unless ya wanna come up with one).

It's become evident that lately, no events have kicked into focus. So, I've taken it upon myself to come up with three events and hope that one of them goes through. First game: Simple Capture the Flag.

Rules:
You should know it and if you don't, the game is self-explanatory: Somehow infiltrate the other team's area, capture their flag, then run like hell to the other side.

There are going to be two teams: the Bird Tengus and the Wolf Tengus. There will be two areas for each team. How big will they be? It'll be a vote between as small as the Hakurei shrine for each team, or as large as the entire Youkai mountain for both of them. Instead of flags, there will be wool on fences, black for the Bird Tengu team and white for the Wolf Tengu team. However, if you are hit by an opposing team member while in their territory, you are out. The 'flag' will be located in the center of a 9x9 area, marked by a fence in each corner. Only the opposing team can go inside that area, known as the 'safe zone.' There, an opposing team member can break the wool, collect the flag, and stay in the safe zone for as long as they want, but the minute they step out of the area, they are vulnerable to getting tagged.

If you are out, you will be sent to the jail area, a 9x9 iron-clad building with an iron door. There will be a lever to open the door in order to open and close it from the outside only. However, a teammate can go to the jail area and open the lever to set their friends free. The round is over when someone brings a flag from the opposing team safely to their own area without getting tagged. However, if there is any griefing or any other major offenses, you are out. As in out of play. As in you're fired. And yes, this is a survival thing. Tell me what you think in the poll.

[Katrix]

I'm in for any community events.

It will also help me gather more video footage, although I'm to lazy to edit what I have already.

[Cucoo5]

I keep seeing a pattern in anything I notice where people (especially me) come up with great ideas but then no one follows through.

So I'm going to help work out an autonomous capture the flag system.

Because I have no idea on what plugins are available and because I'm horrid at setting plugins outside of basic commands, I'm going to work off the premise of command blocks.

Registration Terminal

Ok first thing first: a system to automatically sort a small number of players into a match.

Step 1: Determine # of players

- Room 1: a platform with about say 20 switches. Players stand on the piston and press a switch to confirm with the system their existence. Once all players (of any number) register a final confirmation switch can be pressed.

Step 2: Determine game mode capable of being played with the # of players

- Room 2: This is where the system (based on the activated command block circuit from room 1) will determine what game modes are available.

What do you mean by "game modes"?

Simple: Capture the flag can be possibly rigged so that it can be a co-op game against hostile mobs. A raid if you will. this would be the 2nd game mode type the system would choose if an odd number of players are registered*.

*Concept: numbers that can be evenly divided by 3 may yield the possibility of a 3 way match...this is completely possible.
*Concept 2: another possible means is to have a 1 vs x players match...this I would need suggestions on.

Step 3: Team selection
- Room 3: Based on the game mode selected (by majority vote is a possibility) the system would then move players to a team select room. Self explanatory here. players go to the side of the room they wish and register. Preventing lopsided teams would be a challenge, suggestions welcome.

Match Mechanics

Here's the fun part, how to rig up the match to work with minimal need to reset the map.

First off, lets consider the basic mechanics: moving through a map to another base to get a flag and then return it to the home base.
There's a few possibilities in order to make this work, but to minimalize damage to the map and allow it to be locked so that it cannot be damaged I have the following possible solution.

- Flags: decorative in nature, a switch would be at the base that triggers a command block that gives the player a "flag item." Now if it's possible to make the system look for this specific item on the player would allow for more interesting concepts. but for now the basic would be this: if flag is captured, activate flag return and opponent flag capture "slots".

- Capture/Return: a few possibilities, but if we were to prevent dropping of the item (unless there is another way of going about this...) then the player would have to activate a command block that clears inv. of the flag item and activates redstone circuitry to reactivate the flag system so that it can be captured again.

*Issue #1: There would have to be a way to make the system able to identify friendly and enemies. This would most likely require groups which would bring up a issue with plugins and the server. If it were possible to make a temporary system that switches the player to a player system that allows the command blocks to check who is pressing the flag switches would be one possible solution.

- Mobs for difficulty: Because there isn't too many of us here, this would make single player and 2 vs 2 matches more...interesting. Primary thought would be to have a command block spawn a few ghasts and skeletons (if single player or raid mode) and then another to kill them all when the match is done.

*Note: in order for the map to be autonomous, I would think having it so that the maps cannot be damaged by anything (player or mob) would need to be set. unless...other options are available...

- Match Timer: No idea how this could work w/o a MASSIVE redstone circuit...suggestions welcome.

-------

Ok so I think I hit the main key points that have to be built in. One major aspect of gameplay would most likely have to be set via plugins.

[wonderweiss]

... Wow. I have never seen someone as dedicated to my idea as you. Take it away. I'll be waiting for part 2.

[Cucoo5]

Ya ive had ideas for Walfas that... Have been neglected. This idea on the other hand shouldn't be as it is easily do-able and something I can see in the server as a separate minigame world. Now I hate working on things alone, so unless someone can rig up a vanilla server so that I and anyone that wants to work on it can work on it...
But alas.

I'll start working on a prototype system tomorrow. I'll see to it this gets made.

Pessimist in me thinks that I can make it but then it would not get implemented.

Optimist in me says gimme 2 good days and some luck and it'll be fully functional and ready for abuse.


EDIT added the final part to my idea post.

[Cucoo5]

I'm goin to keep a progress record here for the project.

Now I don't know if my port forwarding is working, but if ye wish to join and help work on this, Contact me here or ingame if I'm on.

------------------------------

Day 1 (8/19):

Begin prototype of room 1 of registration terminal.

Registration terminal prototype:







Currently it's real rough, the switches that say you registered are currently just for show, could be rigged so that they change your gamemode and group.
the 4 switch sets near the middle on the black wool are the final confirmation which tps anyone on the platform.

[BlockCat]

Commandblocks didn't work on bukkit servers, right?

[Cucoo5]

The server I was prototyping on was a bukkit server.
In short: they do work.

[BlockCat]

Cool, always thought they didn't.
If you need help with building, I can help!

[Cucoo5]

any help is appreciated, though first i'll check with Sekibanki (since we're now working on this on his server).

---
In other news:
I'm also considering on making, after this, a gensokyo minigame system based on the terminal made for CTF. Ranging from a foot/pig riding race (Tour de Gensokyo anyone?) to a ghost hunters (Finding Myon) minigame. I'm really confident that this can work.

[Tenko]

any help is appreciated, though first i'll check with Sekibanki (since we're now working on this on his server).

---
In other news:
I'm also considering on making, after this, a gensokyo minigame system based on the terminal made for CTF. Ranging from a foot/pig riding race (Tour de Gensokyo anyone?) to a ghost hunters (Finding Myon) minigame. I'm really confident that this can work.

Nice going so far . How would capping flag work though?
And a bit off-topic but could you make your signature a bit smaller? Just my request though; I don't think there's any rules on signatures besides things obvious like nothing that violates the law or is NSFW.

[Cucoo5]

no problem, I'll shrink my sig down (I just like to make a big statement at times...)

and for capping flag? (i'm gonna assume capturing the flag) I think I detailed a possible way of doing it. what would happen is that if the opponent flag is taken (via command block atm though other means could be used...) it would open a "capture" slot in your base which, when the flag bearer triggers the (for-the-time-being) command block system which confirms that the player has the specified item, would either end the match or if possible would add a point for the team.

I've seen things in other servers where the system can tell if someone picks up or drops a specific item and can keep score based on a specific event. would be interesting to try and implement if possible.

[Cucoo5]

Progress made during day 2:



Room 1:






The center of the room is a switch that teleports the player to the next room

Room 2:





Now this is where I hit a roadblock and I'm hitting my head against a wall on trying to create a counting system that works...



This is the best possibility, just have to make it so that 1: it resets and 2: doesn't activate prior levels. i.e. activate the tp command block for 1 when 2 are present.

After this, it should be straight forward for making a game select room and then the actual capture the flag map.

HERE'S THE FUN PART THAT ANYONE CAN PITCH IN ON!

maps.
yes maps.
we need some Gensokyo styled maps for this.
b4 I was going to copy and paste elements from the permagensokyo file, might still do that to save time but I want to keep things open ended here.

Now the plan pipeline has this in mind:

Small map type 1: Moriya VS Hakurei
- the two shrines are closer than before due to trollukari Yukari's gaps. This incident happens during a heated argument between Reimu and Sanae over a precious object that the other has... and now they are preparing for war and they're dragging everyone else into it.

Medium map type 1: SDM Battle Royale
- Flandre and Remi are playing keep-away in the Mansion (how cute~) *ahem* and you have this irresistible urge to play along...
But the object the adorable sisters are playing with...something is amiss here.

Small (or Medium?) map type 2: Trouble in Kappa Valley
- everyone is in a very...strange mood. Two kappa factions have formed protecting these two halves of a machine from the other side. If they aren't put back together soon things can get ugly...

Super Large map type 1: Moriya VS Hakurei: Episode 2 - The Shrine Wars
- Those silly shrine maidens are at it again. Except this time there's no gaps to shorten the distance between the two shrines. The Hakurei Republic has taken the Human village as a front line of defense against The Moriya Rebels, who have stationed sentries along the misty lake and are using the SDM as a frontline fortress.

[Cucoo5]

Day 3:
Not much happened, other than me deciding to f*ck the counting system and just make everything ready for possibly tinkering with plugins (the terminal will have some gaps instead of a lonely switch for teleporting reasons...)

What I need some advice on:
Mind the Gap: What plugin is used for them so I know what to look up for commands and ultimately settings.
Team Groups: How tricky would it be to set a temporary group change so that teams can be created, friendly-fire can be disabled, and possibly have mobs aggro against specific groups (to add some chaos and keep lag low-ish rather than using NPCs)

Everything else I'll look up.