TF2 Arena Project: Part 1 - Analysing the new game mode

Given the stupidly high amount of time my job takes up these days, I've found relatively little time to either play TF2 or map for it. However, the new update that Valve are planning has perked my interest up once again with yesterday's announcement of the Arena game mode.

In short, it appears that Valve are to release a game mode suited to smaller teams and shorter rounds where the emphasis of the game falls on the strategies used to kill the other team, rather than gain a specific area. It also aims to make the players think about their class choices and how best they can defeat the other team with the limited (from 3v3 to 12v12) players they have.

I think that this is a great idea, given how I was beginning to grow tired of the older game types. I also think that this could create some actual tension in TF2 - something that for me has been sorely lacking, and one of the reasons I've been replacing my TF2 gibbage for CoD4 in recent weeks.

Anyway, given the lack of activity on my part, and the apparent feverish goings on at Valve to make this all happen so quickly after the Pyro pack, I felt as if I should at least attempt to give something back, in the form of a map designed specifically for the Arena game mode.

The first step is to look at this new game mode and what we want to acheive from it. Here's what Valve have to say:
TF2 Arena keeps the class diversity of Team Fortress 2 while focusing goals around combat between two teams. Where other game modes lean towards a broad overall strategy for the team over a number of lives, Arena concentrates on the specific tactical choices the teams make in a single fight.

This immediately brings a few things to my mind:

• Each 'Arena' has to accomodate each of the classes - this means wide open spaces as well as claustrophobic corridors and a multitude of levels that some classes (Scouts, Soldiers and Demomen, primarily) can reach while others cannot.
• However, where before open areas could be charged into in the safe knowledge that if you meet heavy resistance you can respawn a few seconds later, this time you have to forego the 'trial and error' method of reconnaissance in favour of more careful movements with back-up, or getting a Scout of Spy to get a closer look and report back.
• Corridors were previously only really used to create chokepoints where a well-placed sentry gun or Heavy and Medic combo could cause devestation - in the Arena game mode, on the other hand, such an action could spell disaster for one team as they are not only being held up, but their lives are at stake. Therefore, if they come across a corridor with a level 3 sentry placed at the end, they are more likely to try to find another way around than to take down the sentry head-on. This means more alternative routes might be a good idea,
  
• Stalemates are obviously more likely in the Arena mode, with the ability to win without aggressively taking points leading to more reluctance to take risks, at least for the first minute before the capture point is unlocked. As a result, the maps have to be built with this in mind, and use other reasons for the players to move forwards. Examples of these might include more chances to allow the players to see the enemy movements from safety (from, say, behind bulletproof glass), and give them some incentive to chase after them.
• While the game mode does have similarities to CSS (as many angry-internet-types have pointed out), I believe that the range of classes and the style of play already in TF2 will stop it from becoming all about the reflexes. For example - you can have the fastest reflexes in the world, but as a heavy you're still going to be vulnerable to a sneaky spy or fast moving scout with a bat, waiting to cave in your skull. The only way it will move more towards CSS in terms of gameplay is, I believe, the tension (which I have already mentioned) leading to slightly slower, more cautious movement.
• The map should be well catered for this change in pace (something I'm not too sure the reworked Well, Granary and Badlands will do well) - as it is more likely to have more slow periods punctuated with intense action sequences in place of the more constant barrage of the other game modes. This means less visibility (so the teams aren't aware of the others' locations all the time) and more enclosed spaces interspersed with wider open areas with a limited number of levels around the edges to make the possibility of attack always present.

These are just a few preliminary ideas I've come up with, and are by no means set in stone (or, indeed, right). But it gives me a focus to work from and build upon. The next part should have more firm ideas and possibly some sketches of what I'm beginning to have planned in my head.