Conquest Announced! news

The conquest gametype has been around for quite a long time, and probably the major game series everyone recognizes it from is Battlefield. However, due to how Movie Battles plays it is near impossible to create those large environments and play them in under 5 minutes. So this is a modified, and maybe even a more complex version of conquest.

I will also be showing off a Work In Progress version of Backstreets throughout!

The first location you will see to feature conquest is Backstreets. Backstreets is a location created by Nozyspy a while back for BaseJKA.

Original Backstreets by Nozyspy

However, Plasma and I gained permission from Nozy to modify it and create a Movie Battles II map using it. The first few variants were not that successful as they used the same old set of objectives that we are all used to, and a similar layout which largely favored Mandalorians, and of course Jedi and Sith. While that was still undoubtedly fun, it was not as unique and would not really catch the communities eye enough.

Original Backstreets Assault Layout by Plasma

After those first few tests and layout variants Plasma and I decided that it would be a good idea to rework the map entirely. After a discussion on IRC with Zudni and Frost we came up with the idea of creating a Conquest-esque gametype for it. It also required another new layout to accompany that mode.

Lets first go into details of conquest mode itself:

As we all know, Movie Battles II does not have unlimited reinforcements and it has a 5 minute round limit. This will play a large part in the strategy of playing a conquest map. Unlike games like Battlefield you cannot throw yourself into the capture area, it requires a lot more strategy and teamwork.

Another difference is purely visual. We aren't treating each capture point as a single capture point but we are rather treating it as sectors or regions of control. So essentially you are fighting to control the entire location.

We can also control many variables for each point. As mentioned earlier it is possible to require multiple people for the control point to begin capturing. In addition to that, we have multipliers that increase the rate of capture based on the number of people in your team within the radius. However, that also has a maximum capture rate. All of these will be controllable by the mapper. We can also increase/decrease the starting capture rate for more important objectives or less important ones. A few more major variables that we can control are requirements for an info_siege_objective such as requiring a datapad to be within the radius. Or we can require an NPC, or even a certain class.

Overlooking Imperial Spawn and Initial Capture Point in the WIP Backstreets Conquest map.

There is also another very important property of the capture entities itself. When capturing you of course have a progress bar that appears on your hud. However, if you leave the radius there are two things that can happen. The progress bar can slowly go back to its initial position/checkpoint or it can instantly go back to that point. So look at that like this: You go to capture point A (Which is Neutral) and you stay within the radius until just before it is fully capped and then you leave the radius. The progress on the capture can slowly go back to neutral after you left it, in which case you would be able to re-enter the capture radius and continue from the point it is currently at. OR when you leave the radius the capture progress goes straight back to zero and you would have to start capturing all over again. This design is completely controlled by the level designer, so you have the choice of what you want!

The radius of the entity is also important as it is also controllable by the level designer. However, it is more advanced than just a simple spherical radius. Some may remember the older battlefield games (Up until 2142 I believe) which had capture points with spherical radius. Some may have also noticed that that had changed in Battlefield 3 and had specific areas where you could actually cap which were farther away than certain areas in which you could not cap. It is a similar system here. The radius is controlled by an entity known as Trigger_Conquest. Since it is a trigger entity, and like all other triggers it uses brushes, you are able to set the radius of the flag by the size and shape of the trigger itself. Pretty neat huh?

Overlooking Rebel Spawn and Initial Capture Point in the WIP Backstreets Conquest map.

Now, some of you may be asking: How do we win or lose the round?

Answering that is fairly simple. The quickest way to win the round is to capture every point on the map for your team. That will instantly end the round and win it for you. Otherwise, it kinda sorta works a bit more like domination in terms of score but its a little bit different. I personally designed it around the World In Conflict variant, which also includes the UI. In such, that the person who has controlled the majority of flags for the most amount of time will win the match. Both teams start with an obvious 50/50 split.

Another question may be: What do the flags look like?

Well, think of the Battlefront hologram technique, with a bit of modification. That is the most basic way to describe it.

In addition to the variability that I talked about earlier in regard to conquest mode itself, this new set of entities can go even farther beyond that.

Lets first start of with saying that like almost every other entity, you can disable or enable the capture entities if you need to if you would like to make that capture require yet another objective. (Such as a hack)

Secondly, you can also pair it with Min and Max Players which allows you to set say the minimum amount of players needed in the round for it to be activated.

The conquest entities do not even need to be paired with a conquest map! One way to do this is to put it in a regular assault map, and use the capture of the flag to change a spawn location. This is what I personally did when I designed Kashyyyk: Order 66. This is one of my favorite things about this system, it is so versatile.

It could even be used to make a domination gametype with quicker flag captures and tiny capture radii.

Lastly, these entities can go even further than that! How may you ask? Well, we can use it to create another gametype titled Balance of Power. I will discuss more about Balance of Power here: (Link)

Thanks to everyone that has been involved in creating this amazing and well thought, variable, and unique gametype. Thanks to Nozyspy for allowing us to use his map! Thanks to Plasma, Zudni, and Frost for helping me flesh out this idea even farther! Thanks to Lervish for the Hologram models! Thanks to Zudni for all your coding efforts to get this working! And of course thanks to the testing staff and the rest of the team for feedback!