Booty

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Booty (bt_mapname) is a game mode available in Pirates, Vikings and Knights II. It's among the most popular game modes to play in the mod. Its core gameplay resembles that to many classic Capture the Flag games in games like Quake and/or Team Fortress 2, though the game mode was heavily modified in order to stand out from regular CTF games. The main goal of all teams is to get the timer to reach zero, by grabing, stealing and defend the treasure chests scattered around in the level. The more chests the team gets, the faster the timer runs out.

History

Chests

The treasure chests represent the flags, like in a Capture the Flag game, but with several different attributes.

Chest Carriers

while the flag carrier can use any of its weapons while evading, the chest carrier is completely vulnerable to any enemy attack, since in real life it's impossible to carry a chest and weapons with your hands at the same time, and the chest itself gives more weight to the player, therefore running slower. As a result there are three ways for the chest carrier to defend itself. The special meter is used for the most part in offensive strategies, but a defensive one is also present; once the meter is full, the chest carrier can press the special attack button to gain a speed boost for a limited time, leaving the enemies behind; using the Berserker's rage and the Man-at-Arms' fart attack triggered before carrying a chest will also give a speed boost though it's not as fast. The kicks aren't the most effective way for the chest carrier to defend itself, but it may be useful in locations like cliffs or passing the enemy to a teammate to be finished off. Throwing the chest can deal with a decent amount of damage to the enemy player as long the chest is targeted correctly; once the chest is thrown the carrier can attack the player; this strategy works the best if the enemy player is low on health. The chest can be thrown to a teammate, like a courier, giving more chances of taking the chest to their base.

Chests and Timers

Even after they're brought to an enemy base, the chests can be taken back, unlike flags in CTF. A map has a limit of chests and timer in order to maintain the rounds nicely paced and the chest areas to look less cluttered. In all Booty maps, a team's timer drains by the second when all chests are placed in their area; the timer makes the countdown once every two seconds when half of the chests are inside the area. As a result the Knights' timer in Island lasts twice as long due to its possession of all six chests.

The average number of chests that mappers put in a level are six, both for balancing teams and the round's pace. Some official maps make use of even less chests, such as Townsquare and Pinegrove, which often has to do with the level design of said levels. Mappers can have fun and put a big load of chests in the level, but not only the stack up of the chests inside the area can be an extreme task, but the time it taker for the timer to count down can be abysmal for teams with fewer chests, making a round last longer than your average Booty match.

Chest Locations

One team can start the round with one or more chests, all of them or none; the number of chests inside a team's area can make the difference between a balanced round and a completely unfair one if all teams' timers are equally as screwed up. As for scattered chests, it's all up to the mapper to invent locations to place those that weren't picked up. It's often ideal to place them either in the center of the level or in the middle of paths between bases.

Designing Booty Maps