Overview
TDM pits two teams against each other to be the first to get a set number of kills or to get the most kills before the match timer runs out. It is the second most common game mode found in FPS games behind Deathmatch.As with DM, TDM is intended to be a fast-paced, run and gun game type. TDM is somewhat better suited to sniper and CQB players than DM, since they have support of rifleman and artilleryman classes. In Far Cry 2, supporting Capture the Diamond or Uprising automatically includes support for TDM, since the requirements for both of those game modes are supersets of the requirements for TDM.
A big change from Far Cry: Instincts and Far Cry Instincts: Predator is that TDM shares its spawns with the other team game modes, rather than the DM spawns. While I think this is an improvement, it also has the drawback of de-emphasizing the importance of TDM spawns when either CTD or Uprising is also supported.
Validation Requirements
- At least 8 and no more than 64 UFLL Spawn Points
- 1 UFLL base
- At least 8 and no more than 64 APR Spawn Points
- 1 APR base
- At least 2 and no more than 64 Spectator Cameras
Objects Unique to TDM
- Multiplayer -> UFLL Spawn Point
- Multiplayer -> APR Spawn Point
- Multiplayer -> APR Base Marker
- Multiplayer -> UFLL Base Marker
Objects that don't appear during DM
- Multiplayer -> Signs -> Sign CTF (White Diamond)
- Multiplayer -> Signs -> Sign VIP (White silouhette of man with rifle)
- Multiplayer -> Signs -> APR Sign CTF (Red Diamond)
- Multiplayer -> Signs -> APR Sign VIP (Red silouhette of man with rifle)
- Multiplayer -> Signs -> Sign CTF (Yellow Diamond)
- Multiplayer -> Signs -> Sign VIP (Yellow silouhette of man with rifle)
- Multiplayer -> Spawn Point
- Multiplayer -> UFLL Diamond Station
- Multiplayer -> APR Diamond Station
- Multiplayer -> Control Point (all)
Map Topology Concerns
Just like DM, the TDM game mode is well-suited to almost every map topology. In general, TDM maps work best when the pace is fast and your players can get into the action quickly after re-spawning without having to worry about excessive spawn killing. In addition, if your players know how to exercise good team skills, their experience will be improved if they can quickly reunite with team members after a re-spawn.Given that, there are a few topologies where TDM doesn't work well:
- Shotgun topologies
Just as we found with DM, this topology tends to not work well for TDM, but for slightly different reasons.
While choke points become more clearable, the opportunities for the match to form kill clusters escalate and the entire match devolves into an SKD (Spawn, Kill, Die) death spiral. This effect tends to be worse if a Base Cluster spawn strategy is used.
This is basically a small room where only the Blob Cluster spawn strategy is valid. Maps of this type are designed to become instant SKD-fests and should be avoided.
Spawn placement strategies
I'm going to repeat some of the things stated in Part 2, because the basic concepts surrounding spawn placement are so important.Ideally, you should be designing your map around a particular spawn strategy rather than making your map and then attempting to place your spawns. A map supporting TDM should have been designed with TDM uppermost in the mind of the designer.
When you are placing your spawns, ask yourself: "Is this spawn going to be annoying when I re-spawn from the Death Room?" Note that we don't care about the first spawn so much as the re-spawn, and that's the key -- the most common spawn placement mistake that most map designers make is that they are thinking about the first spawn onto the map and not considering what happens to the player after they've been killed and get re-spawned.
One of the sad realities is that on maps that support TDM it is the most played game mode -- but the spawns were usually placed to support CTD or Uprising. This means that most of the time your map is being played in a mode that it wasn't tuned to support. Depending on what you intended for your map, you may want to seriously consider not supporting CTD and Uprising on your map so that it can provide an optimal TDM experience.
Some of you may be wondering at this point what the big deal is -- so what if we are playing TDM using CTD spawns? It comes down to my statement above in the orange italic text -- what is the player's experience when he re-spawns in a TDM match that used spawn points intended for CTD? We'll explore this as we look at the various spawn strategies used for TDM.
Base Cluster (okay)
In this strategy, all of a team's spawns are placed in or around the team base. While this is usually a good spawn strategy for CTD maps, it really isn't the best choice for TDM. The main drawback for TDM is that the player spawns in the base, but there is usually no motivation for a TDM battle to flow into the bases -- the action tends to stay near the center of the map. So a re-spawning player has to often spend a great deal of time running back to the battlefield.
An advantage to this method, though, is that a player is often re-spawning with teammates. Players with good team skills will take advantage of this as they return to the battle.
Base Cluster with Support (okay)
This is a slightly modified version of the Base Cluster strategy. In this case, most of the spawns are near the base, with a few support spawns placed in other strategic areas around the map. This is generally considered to be a stronger spawn strategy for CTD maps, but it has many of the same issues for TDM as the traditional Base Cluster. And in some ways, it is worse, because team members spawning in the strategic areas will often spawn alone and have to enter the battle by themselves.
On the other hand, any player that does spawn from one of the support spawns will usually be nearer the battle than players spawning at the base, so for lone wolf players, this will be a bonus.
Monte Carlo (good)
Monte Carlo spawns serve the same purpose in TDM as they do in DM -- they get players into the battle area quickly. In addition, a Monte Carlo strategy can put players in more interesting portions of the map, prompting them to explore it and make use of all the goodies you may have build into your map.
Monte Carlo does suffer from one big problem in TDM, though: it doesn't promote team play. All of the spawns are "lone wolf" spawns and players are often in the thick of the battle before they have a chance to hook up with other players and organize a plan of attack.
Tactical Monte Carlo Cluster (best)
By far the best spawn strategy for TDM is the Tactical Monte Carlo Cluster (TMCC.) It is the same as Monte Carlo, with the difference that spawns occur in small groups of 3 or 4 distributed around the map. This strategy has all the advantages of Monte Carlo and adds the ability to create small tactical strike groups. The Far Cry 2 game engine seems to be aware of this strategy -- when using a TMCC layout, players on the same team will tend to spawn together.
There is another side bonus to this spawn strategy: it also works very well for the Uprising game mode on maps that were designed for it. Since the team spawns are shared between these two game modes, TDM and Uprising maps both benefit from following this strategy.
Blob Cluster (bad)
For TDM, a blob cluster will typically take one of two forms: both teams will be fully intermixed or the two teams will spawn facing immediately across from each other.
As stated above, this is just a bad idea. Unless you really think that SKD game play is enjoyable, this strategy should be avoided.
Rules & Tips
For the most part, the rules and tips for Deathmatch apply to Team Deathmatch as well.Have a suggestion? Please leave a comment!
Other articles in this series:
- Part 1: Introduction
- Part 2: Deathmatch
- Part 4: Capture the Diamond
- Part 5: Uprising
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