CTFPUG

CTFPUG is a derivative of both Capture the Flag and PUG played historically in both Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy with full force abilities and guns allowed.

CTFPUG matches are a way of playing CTF somewhat competitively. The skill level in PUG games is generally much higher than on public servers, and games move much faster. "Puggers" enjoy playing on specialized custom maps which make competitive play more balanced, usually by removing most health packs and shields, replacing lifts with jump pads, and usually adding additional pits.

Forming PUG teams

Modern method

The current method for team selection in Jedi Academy CTFPUG is via an account system facilitated by a combination of Mods. Teams are generated based on the verified accounts present on the server using a series of interactive chat commands, starting with "?s". The "teamgen" account system generates potential teams, potential positions, statistics, and more, decreasing the amount of time required to start a PUG from sometimes 20-30 minutes or more in the traditional method to less than 10 on average.

Traditional method

Traditionally in order to form a PUG, two players (team captains) duel each other to determine who gets to make the first "pick" (player selection). Instead of saber-dueling, the duel is usually done with the pistol and the two players stay in the middle of the map rather than running around it. Once one player wins, they pick a player from spectator to join their team, and the two captains then alternate picks until their team is full. PUGs are usually played with 3 or 4 players per team (occasionally more or less are also played). At this point, each captain assigns their players to a position in team-chat (see Basic Strategy). Once both teams are ready, a vote to restart the map is called, which will fairly respawn everyone at the same time in their base, without having to wait for the map to reload. If a player has to leave mid-match ("RQ") or otherwise has a problem (bad connection, etc.), a player in spectator mode can substitute for them by joining the appropriate team. Occasionally, no substitute can be found, at which time the match is basically dead.

Basic Strategy

It's generally best, if you have multiple useful people on your team, to split the players into offense and defense. The offensive players are responsible for stealing the enemy flag and bringing it back to the base. The defensive players are responsible for guarding the flag, and chasing down any enemy attacker who grabs it. This way, once the offensive player returns with the flag, they can simply wait on (or near) their flag stand until their flag is returned and immediately score. If there are multiple defensive players, it can also be extremely helpful to have some of them sit back at their base and wait for the offensive player to return with the flag and help keep them from dying to the enemy defense, as well as keeping any enemy offense from waiting around for the flag to be returned to immediately grab it again.

These positions are usually called offense (O), chase defense (chase), and base defense (base). Competitive CTF matches generally have 4 on 4 players, with two players on offense, one chase defense and one base defense per team.

But first, a quick note on speed. In Capture the Flag, speed makes a huge difference. A split second can be the difference between a cap and having to wait for your flag to be returned again. For this reason, all players in Capture the Flag will use whatever tactics they can to increase their speed. (There is an entire Speed section devoted to just this topic.) Since all players will be moving fast, your saber will be mostly useless as an assault weapon, since it is only helpful at close range. For this reason, guns are the weapon of choice for dealing out damage in CTF. The lightsaber is still invaluable though, as a shield. It is capable of blocking many types of weapon shots near-perfectly.

Force Powers

Unlike most first-person shooters, Jedi Knight games add the concept of force powers, which adds another unique dimension to gameplay. If used correctly, force powers can be even more effective than any traditional weapon. Depending on server settings, you are given a certain amount of points to allocate across the different force powers. Each force power has 3 different levels you can allocate to it, with higher levels making the force power more powerful.

Speed

In Capture the Flag, speed is incredibly important. Players travelling fast can easily outrun or at least dodge most direct shots. The less time it takes an offensive player to traverse the map, the less time the other team has to react, and to run into their base and steal their flag in order to prevent a cap. Defensive players also need speed to be able to catch up to offensive players - a chase defense needs speed to catch up to the enemy flag carrier, and a base defense needs speed to be able to get to his flag carrier fast enough to provide them with support to keep them from dying.

The simplest way of getting to different spots on the map may not be the most obvious: selfkilling. The game provides a way to instantly kill yourself, by typing /kill into your console (or more commonly, by binding it to a key on your keyboard). You will be able to instantly respawn at a random spawn point on the map. These are usually distributed along different routes in your base (no, you can't respawn into the enemy base in most cases). Doing this as a flag carrier is unwise though, since the flag will be returned instantly instead of respawning along with you. But for all other players, selfkilling is an important aspect of the game. Many players will repeatedly selfkill in order to cycle through the different spawn points until they arrive at a favorable one. Keep in mind, you will also lose any weapons, ammo, and shields that you picked up (for this reason, players infrequently hoard a lot of ammo at once). However, you will be restored to full health and force points. An advanced strategy is that if you selfkill while holding a picked-up weapon, that weapon will be dropped at the point that you killed yourself at, and can be picked up with as much ammo as it would have if it were freshly spawned (regardless of how much ammo it had left when you selfkilled). This, for instance, is an easy way to keep a constant supply of trip mines as a base defense player.

The next best thing is to use the force. There are two force powers that increase your speed: force speed and force rage. Force speed is by far the more commonly used power, since force rage drains your health while active and doesn't speed you up as much. Force speed, on the other hand, purely speeds you up (and by a lot). Both force powers take 50 force points (half of your overall force points), so you must be very careful about tracking your force point level so that you don't get stuck without the ability to use force speed at a bad time. With enough experience, you will be able to get a sense for when your force speed is about to run out.

The final, and perhaps most important, method of speeding up is called strafe jumping. It is a bit complicated to explain, but due to how the game physics works, by moving in a specific way, it's possible to travel faster than the game's linear player speed limit. In fact, it's possible to exceed the limit significantly, with enough practice. Basically how it works is: step one, "bunny hopping". The idea here is to make your player be always in the air (in which there is no friction), by tapping jump (spacebar) every time your player is about to hit the ground. As long as you immediately re-jump, your player won't incur any ground friction and will be able to maintain any acceleration beyond the speed cap (typically 250ups) indefinitely. The other concept is that, by moving at an angle to your trajectory, you will accelerate, and by alternating the angle on either side, you will accelerate forwards. How this works out is basically that you alternate holding down forward+left and forward+right. Mouse movement is important to maximize your acceleration: when you hold down forward+left, you should face slightly to the left initially and then slowly increase your angle even more left, and likewise for the right side. There are some videos online that demonstrate this.

Weapons

Choosing the right weapon is a crucial part of game strategy. Different maps may not have every weapon available, so it's important to know the map you're playing on, in order to adjust your strategy as needed. Some useful guides are available online to provide more information about weapon utility.

Configuration and Mods

Choosing the right configuration and mods for your game can make a big difference in the quality of your gameplay. You can change a handful of game settings via the in-game menus, but to unlock the game's full potential, you must learn to take advantage of the base game's console, and any mods or commands. As of 2023, all of the CTFPUG community benefits from some combination and varying version of base_enhanced (serverside mod), NewJK (engine mod), and/or Newmod (clientside mod). These are used together or separately to provide a modern, meta-complimentary setup.

Some useful guides are available online to provide more information about optimal configuration.

Meta

The meta of CTFPUG has gone through various phases over the years.

CTFPUG Meta Eras

• release-2007 (?) - The Honor Meta
  • Mostly based on speed and accuracy with little emphasis on force power usage (outside of force speed), the best players during this era were either very fast (for their time), very accurate, or a combination of both. Usage of force powers such as rage, protect, absorb, etc. were common but took a backseat and were not utilized effectively. Many players frowned upon excessive usage of certain force powers (rage, pull, etc.), saying "no honor" or "dishonorable" when they were used.
• 2007-2011 (?) - The Wallhack Meta
  • This era saw many players using wallhacks and steadily increasing in the ability of other force power usage.
• 2011-2013 (?) - The Spam Meta
  • This era saw many restrictions and bans placed on wallhackers and a general strive for improvement in force usage tactics and speed. The result of improvements in force usage tactics were strategies such as "rage-swapping" and "protspam". Gameplay revolved around which base defense could feed their offense enough team energize to allow the offense to survive indefinitely with protect. At the time this was difficult to counter these strategies due to poor accuracy, poor countering tactics, and players voting for maps that promoted the usage of such strategies.
• 2013-2020 (?) - The Tactical Meta
  • Heralding the birth of modern tactics, this era saw the best players not being the most speedy or the most accurate (though there were certainly some who stood out), but the most tactical in their gameplay. Timing, positioning, force management, and exploitation of map differences became key.
• 2020-current (?) - The Perfection Meta
  • The current era so far has seen what is striving for perfection in both tactics (like those mentioned above) and mechanics (speed and accuracy) among most players, with those that don't adapt to shifting tactical discoveries falling further and further behind. Due to this, mistakes are highlighted far more frequently than before, and even the smallest one can mean the difference between a team capturing the flag or not. Players and community members attempt to also perfect map and engine/mod dynamics.

Maps

Map selection plays a significant role in what strategies are successful in any given CTFPUG game.

Players

The CTFPUG community started with a diverse cast of players that has dwindled over time.

Asia

• Leotrex (aka "Slizer")

Australia/Oceania

• FLK (aka "2 dogs" or "qdos10")

Europe

• Hannah

North America

• Cydonis (aka "Panic")

South America

• Skiboda

Positions

Base Defense

The objective of playing base defense is to stay in your own base area, and assist the chase defense and offense when needed.

Chase Defense

The objective of playing chase defense is to defend your flag, and chase down the enemy flag carrier and kill them to return your flag back to your base.

Offense

The objective of playing offense is to capture the enemy flag, scoring your team points. Note, in order to capture the enemy flag, you must take it from their base all the way back to your base, and touch your flag stand while your flag is on it.