Team Arena Map Pack 2

Believe it or not, this map pack started at the same time as Team Arena Map Pack 1. Three of the maps in the pack had been part of the initial selection process. Unfortunately, that’s out of six that we originally selected to be used. We lost a few maps along the way and the second pack just did not go as smoothly as the first. Anyone who has worked on a mod for a game could have told us that we had been lucky with the first set. But there are still four maps in the pack. The fourth was a wonderful find, already designed for Team Arena, which came from the Quake3World Level Editing forum. We discovered it at a time when we were casting about for that final map that would return us to an even four.

As before, this pack contains four team-style maps approved for use with id Software’s Quake III: Team Arena™ computer game. Also, as before, their creators are some of the most talented mapmakers in the Quake community. Working together with id designer Paul Jaquays, Quake3World Webmaster, and Level Editing forum moderator AstroCreep, and Mr. Elusive, the bot A.I. programmer for both Quake III Arena and Quake III: Team Arena, these artisans have created some truly fine playgrounds for Team Arena.

Once again, players who download user-community made Capture the Flag maps for Quake III Arena will recognize that three of these maps are enhanced versions of the authors’ original CTF creations. These three (Smear Campaign, Courtyard Conundrum, and Dynatron) were selected at the same time as the maps in the first map pack. As before, they are not exactly the same as their Q3A counterparts, though the number and degree of changes varies from map to map. The fourth, Pyrmageddon, was a made-for-Team Arena map. The author was kind enough to yank the beta and we helped him to finalize it. It makes its first, non-beta appearance in this map pack.

Each of these maps can be played in all four of the Team Arena team game styles of Capture the Flag, One Flag CTF, Harvester, and Overload. Each of the maps works with bots.

Smear Campaign TA by Carson “riscchip” Utz (riscctf1_ta.bsp)
This gargantuan base-style map appealed to me from the very first. And of course, our instructions to the author were to make it even BIGGER by adding in a more complex central area to accommodate the white flag and the Harvester obelisk. Yet, despite its size, this map can move quite quickly in play.
Courtyard Conundrum by Casey (cas1_ta.bsp)
Almost immediately after id shipped the original Quake III Arena game, the guys at Threewave (who are credited with creating Capture the Flag for Quake in the first place) came out with a collection of three large CTF maps that immediately became classics. Players have come to expect good things from Threewave, and the maps were no exception. Of the three, Courtyard Conundrum was my personal favorite, both for architectural design and style of play. Despite being involved with a major mapping and mod project with Threewave, Casey agreed to make the changes we requested in Courtyard Conundrum to make it a Team Arena compatible map.
Dynatron 2 TA by Keith “Ned Man” Bell (nedsctf2_ta.bsp)
Dynatron was a small, relatively simple map that just played well. We caught the author already at work on a slightly larger version of his Q3A original and Dynatron 2 TA is the outgrowth of that.
Pyrmageddon by Yuri “DYV” Davidoff (pyrmageddon_ta.bsp)
Pyrmageddon is the only made-for-Team Arena map in the collection. It nicely combines the dangerous openness of the space map with the challenge of storming a well-defended fortress. It moves fast and offers a variety of play style opportunities. The current version, developed by AstroCreep and Paul Jaquays, varies from the author’s original, but not by much. Players who enjoy making trick moves will find some special rewards here.
You will find more specific details about each map in the authors’ accompanying “readme” files.

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