Desertruin

Desertruin is a Trinket Wars map. It's one of the five original maps of the mod, as well one of a handful of maps from Pirates, Vikings and Knights to be remade for the sequel.

Stats

• Map file: tw_desertruin (formerly pvk_desertruin and hg_deserteuin)
• Mode: Trinket Wars
• Author: YeeHaa
• Release Date: Beta 1.0 (January 2007)
• Theme: Ruins
• Pick-ups: Food (x ), Armor (x ), and Ammo (x )
• Stage Hazards: none

Overview

Desertruin's layout is quite complex in comparison to other maps of said game mode. It only has one landmark and it s planned like a chaotic urban environment, as opposed to other urban maps that have basic paths, such as Tortuga. As a result the map is a mix between wide open areas, tight corridors and platforms to jump over, completed with several staircases and several props for players to take cover. The big landmark, the tower, used to serve as the capture point when Desertruin used to be a Territory map, but since the introduction of Holy Grail that it now only has decorative purposes.

Presentation

Claimed to be located in the middle of the ruins of an unknown civilization, similar to the map Forgotten, the map contains rustic-looking buildings that resemble a mix between roman and arab architecture; despite the unknown name of the civilization, a pyramid can be found in the horizon, which chould lead to the theory of being a marginal group that failed building its own society alongside the egyptians. The soft clouds in the sky indicate how little to no rainfall, however, the sun appears to be far away in the sky, suggesting that the map takes place somewhere in the Saharan Desert during winter.

History

A screenshot of a work-in-progress version of Latteh's overhaul of Desertruin.

The original release of Desertruin was, in a way, similar to its PVK1 counterpart, with the tower in the center of the map and spawn areas surrounding it, but as time went on the map's layout started to evolve faster with each new update. Beta 2.0 made the whole map wider to concentrate more players, while new paths were added. The inclusion of a second tower is the biggest change in the map, giving more capturing area for players. The release of Beta 2.3 turned Desertruin into a Holy Grail map due to the new updates regarding the Territory game mode, introduced in Sandstorm, which itself borrows many visual aspects from Desertruin. As a result, the tower could no longer be climbed by players because it would give a big advantage for ranged classes and for being a pointless battlement, and it was changed to one tower instead of two. Aside from the introduction of Trinket Wars, the map received very minor updates in recent years, with its patches only focused in optimization fixes.

On May 2015, it was revealed that Desertruin is currently receiving a massive overhaul similar to Sandstorm's[1], as well a change of themes, making use of egyptian architecture instead of a made-up civilization. On June 2015 an unfinished version was released by accident in the Beta 3.2 version and it was removed from the mod with a patch released shortly after; despite the accident, players enjoyed playing the map and they're excited to see the final version. As of January 2016, the final version is yet to be revealed and published.

On March 2016 the original Desertruin map from Pirates, Vikings and Knights was ported onto the Source mod by CrazyTalk.[2]

Trivia

• It is to date the only official map with no stage hazards;
• A version of Desertruin that uses the original Territory game mode can be downloaded as a custom map. Due to several gameplay changes, including the kick feature, this version can end up being extremely unbalanced, giving bigger advantage for those defending the towers;

Official Maps

Booty	Forgotten - Island - Pinegrove - Townsquare
Trinket Wars	Desertruin - Fort - Frostbite - Temple - Tortuga
Last Team Standing	Arena - Cathedral - Gravedanger - Town
Territory	Cara - Sandstorm - Tortuga
Deathmatch	Fort