Bigger Maps
With the Overwatch Year of the Rooster event in full swing, one of the newest and most exciting features added in was a Capture the Flag game mode. This new game type, featured in the Arcade section, challenges two teams of six to capture the enemy flag three times across three different alterations of the Lijiang Tower map.
In Blizzard’s development diary released yesterday, Overwatch’s Game Director Jeff Kaplan acknowledges the mode’s long creation process. It’s also important to note that Capture the Flag is a brawl, meaning it may never enter the true competitive space and may only be relegated to a side activity. This trial period is more of a test to see how the community reacts to this game mode, and while the long-awaited addition is incredibly fun at times, there are some rather noticeable problems beginning to creep up.
One of the biggest issues that the Overwatch Capture the Flag mode faces is the actual map designs, because as it stands two of the three levels are way too small. Given how far away each team spawns from their flag, it’s fairly easy for a team to “snowball” from one capture to the next. This means that when a team secures the enemy point, they can effectively hold this area off and capture one flag after another. Given the close proximity of each base, it doesn’t take long to capture the actual flag. This can lead to frustrating matches where your team is spawn camped by the opposition, giving you no chance at winning or even coming back.
Increasing the map size would alleviate an enemy team’s ability to just sit on your point indefinitely, keeping enemy players away from objectives for a longer length of time. This would also create more chokepoints and allow for some breathing room if your team loses a fight somewhere in the middle of the map. A larger level would also allow for players to recapture the flag if it’s stolen from their base, as users usually have a very, very limited window before it’s lost forever.
