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
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 CTFPUG_With_Guns#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.[1]
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 CTFPUG With Guns#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.[2]
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.
Players
The CTFPUG community started with a diverse cast of players that has dwindled over the years. Here are some of them:
- Cydonis
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.[3]
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.[4]
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.[5]