CTF was incredibly fun and popular when it was released in November 2010; hundreds were playing at a time in different matches with up to like 50 people each, however because of a lot of abuse and unfair advantages in the game along with the gralat sink and other factors, the game died within less than 2 weeks. It's now currently only played when an admin requests it or when a large group of friends randomly decide to join.

Here's how it can be fixed:

map design:

The current map is flawed in several ways. For one it looks bad, but that's not the main problem. The main problem is it's very exploited and contains a lot of useless area. One of the teams can block the main path to capture the flag in one location in the water so enemies have to take the long path. Sure there is a vote kick option but it doesn't always work. There are too many choke points so defending is repetitive- to defend the flag you spam sword on the hill thing.

An ideal map would be mirrored on both sides, contain no choke points around the flag, not have unnecessary areas, and be incapable of being exploited.

It would also be nice to see a rotation of a large selection of maps, but that can come later. It would provide a fresh feeling. The more maps the better. If it feels that the map is always different then it will probably never die along with these other updates. Adding a new map every month or so would be amazing.

Incentive to play
Currently it costs 10 gralats to play, and the winning team earns 80% of the combined gralats split among the players. Overall you lose money unless you're somehow good enough to carry your team every game. Playing should be free, and it would be nice to see a small reward like 20 gralats for winning and 10 for losing(much slower than farming but a nice little bonus) but if Stefan wont approve it then no reward would be fine.

Statistics
Leaderboards are also an incentive to play as players enjoy raising their rank and compare their stats with others. Perhaps even have statistics in another page of their profile for ctf. The current "leaderboards" expire when the player leaves the game. I was incredibly disappointed when I found out the stats were temporary. Leaderboards and statistics really help content to be played more; guild forts have been incredibly active and pking has increases since the pking leaderboards were added. People like to go for goals.

some stats to see:
kills/"frags"(all kills in ctf)
denies-how many players currently carrying a flag killed.
wins-how many games of ctf you have won
captures-flags captured. Still a bit concerned about this one as it may encourage griefing and arguments over who carries the flag.

I really want to see ctf revived as it was incredibly fun to play but the griefers and cheaters killed it. Post your ideas here. I may post concepts for map design and me as well as others can make maps, maybe there can even be a ctf map competition!

Edit: Based on ideas by other people in this thread, guild based ctf would also be great in addition to the revamp. Maybe have a solo queue for players who don't have a guild in addition to being able to choose to be in the same game/team as their friend, but also a guild ctf event with say a 6v6 and 12v12 mode.  

agreed  

I would love it if they had guild CTF. Something more to do than GS or towers. Plus, you can earn money.  

Exactly I said in another thread if they made it guild based people might play more.
People dont want to be split up randomly into teams, they wanna play with their friends and people they know.

Plus everything else in the thread, most importantly the incentive and new maps.  

Make a monthly Guild CTF tournament.


Profit.  

Rather than just having guild ctf I would rather have the option to queue with friends. This means the server will place you on the same team and game as friends you chose, perhaps up to 8 or so preventing people from gathering a bunch of pros and stomping on noob players. The server will auto balance/scramble teams the best it can while keeping friends together, to ensure fair games and allowing people to play together. Perhaps even have the option for private, unrated games with no rewards or stats(to prevent boosting) so we can play for fun competitively vs friends.

As for guild ctf there can be a queue for say 6v6 and 10v10, and have stats like guild sparring. I'm pretty sure this would die fast however, as guild spars aren't very easy to find except prior to the gst when everyone is trying to get a high enough rating.  

Posted by Rezon

Make a monthly Guild CTF tournament.


Profit.

That'd be fun  

Posted by Remorse

That'd be fun

Agreed. Only problem is you would probably need more than 5 people on a team for ctf, and getting a large amount of members on at the right time could be difficult. as the game is more balanced around play with a large amount of players on a team  

having more then one map makes it fun  

Posted by topsamman

having more then one map makes it fun

Agreed. I was thinking that after the revamp only one map would be needed initially as it would stay alive regardless, but if the leveling team gets ahead of the scripting team(should be easy to script tho just some changes), then more maps would be nice. I was thinking start with one map then add a new map once a month or so. Or start with 3 to prove it has map rotation and add a new map every month.  

yeh great idea!  

Posted by Skill

I was thinking start with one map then add a new map once a month or so.

^^^THIS, They could get the staff to hype it up each month or so sending out mass message say like "look out for the new awesome CTF map. Coming Soon..." or they could post a screen shot like a week before they release and get only staff to play. Some people would go crazy with that. or they could have a comp somehow and the winners get to be first to play.  

bamp  

I love the idea of it being another guild-based idea.  

bump, still really wanna see this I'd help if I could