Cathedral

Cathedral is a Last Team Standing created by Jarhhur, who also created another popular LTS map, Arena, and it was released in the Beta 2.1 update. Alongside Arena they are the most popular maps of said game mode, as well two of the most popular maps in the mod.

Stats

• Map file: lts_cathedral (formerly pvk_cathedral)
• Mode: Last Team Standing
• Author: Jahhur and YeeHaa
• Release Date: Beta 2.1 (July 2008)
• Theme: Medieval
• Timer:
• Sudden Death Timer:
• Pick-ups: Food (x2), Armor (x2), and Ammo (x2)
• Stage Hazards: Botomless pit, pillars and blizzards (Sudden Death, only)

Overview

Like it's older brother Arena, Cathedral has a rounded layout, however the center of the map is located at a much lower level than two of the spawn areas. The bottomless pit serves as the only stage hazard outside the Sudden Death mode, which itself has a plank over it for players to take a shorter walk. Pickups are scattered around the map, making use of the map's decaying presentation. Since the Pirates' spawn is located at a lower level than both the Vikings and the Knights' spawn, there are two staircases on both sides which lead to one another; Cathedral's Sudden Death mode has several objects falling from the ceiling, most precisely pieces of collapsing pillars. If any player avoids the pillars the big gates at the edges of the map open with the brute force of a killing blizzard which forces players to go to the middle of the map. With all of those hazards, finding a safe spot in the map is hard.

Presentation

Like the name suggests the players face each other inside a huge decaying gothic cathedral supported by massive pillars which can't hold the structure for much longer. The amount of wreckage found in the floor is proof of this building's rustic nature.

History

The map's original release was less detailed and it had different lightning, and during Sudden Death, the wrecked pillars would fall unrealistically slower; in a later update the physics of the pillars were improved in order to make the mode even more challenging. On Beta 3.0 the map got some updated visuals and new layout tweaks. As far visuals go, a new and more natural lightning illuminates the map, as well new props like a bigger statue at the northen edge of the map, as well the introduction of new staircases placed inside corridors near the Pirates' spawn, giving a bigger advantage for all three teams to evade attacks.

Trivia

• Since the pillars don't have a specific pattern on where they fall, sometimes a giant piece of a pillar can block the Pirates' spawn area and it's impossible to reach, leading the round to a draw. The big change from the Beta 3.0 update, which added stairs for a quick escape for the Pirates, indirectly fixed that issue;

• Due to it's high difficulty at forcing a player to die with the blizzard, the achievement “Otzi the Iceman” was so far only achieved by 4.3% of all Steam users who play the mod. Despite that, it's one of the map-themed achievements with biggest number of players being successful at achieving it, alongside "Got a Crush on You" (also Cathedral) and "Sand Blasted" (Sandstorm);

• Like in Forgotten, torches could cause instant kills to anyone who steps over it during a jump. It is unknown in which update it was fixed;