MAP36: Castle Clash (Strife: Veteran Edition)

MAP36: Castle Clash is the first Capture the Chalice map included with Strife: Veteran Edition. It was designed by James Haley (Quasar) and uses the music track "Strike".



Overview
The map is based on, with two copies of the map attached end-to-end, one rotated 180 degrees relative to the map's normal orientation. The two are joined at the gate and along the circumambulatory catwalks. The left half of the map serves as the red team base, while the right half serves as the blue team base. The spawning areas and flag bases are inside each castle's respective command bunker area, while the medic areas serve to provide rapid deployment via teleporters into the caves, central structures, and "intel/ops" buildings of the respective bases.

Due to the relatively large size of the map, six- to eight-player matches are recommended.

Primary routes of attack are along the catwalks, through the central structures, and by crossing the bridges.

Other points of interest
Each base contains a computer screen and sacrificial altar where the Programmer ostensibly offers players penitence. There is no strategic benefit to activating these, however.

Deathmatch
Source ports which offer the ability to play normal deathmatch games on Capture the Flag maps will allow deathmatch play on this map. All required spawn spots are provided. Strife: Veteran Edition itself always enables Capture the Chalice play when the blue and red team spawn spots are present.

Player spawns
This level contains eight deathmatch spawn points:
 * 1) facing west. (thing 49)
 * 2) facing north. (thing 53)
 * 3) facing north. (thing 54)
 * 4) facing west. (thing 56)
 * 5) facing north. (thing 57)
 * 6) facing south. (thing 123)
 * 7) facing south. (thing 124)
 * 8) facing south. (thing 125)

It contains eleven Team Blue spawn points:
 * 1) facing south. (thing 90)
 * 2) facing south. (thing 113)
 * 3) facing south. (thing 114)
 * 4) facing south. (thing 115)
 * 5) facing south. (thing 116)
 * 6) facing south-east. (thing 117)
 * 7) facing south-west. (thing 118)
 * 8) facing west. (thing 119)
 * 9) facing east. (thing 120)
 * 10) facing north-east. (thing 121)
 * 11) facing north-west. (thing 122)

And it contains eleven Team Red spawn points:
 * 1) facing north. (thing 48)
 * 2) facing north. (thing 58)
 * 3) facing north. (thing 59)
 * 4) facing east. (thing 60)
 * 5) facing west. (thing 66)
 * 6) facing south-west. (thing 67)
 * 7) facing south-east. (thing 68)
 * 8) facing north-west. (thing 69)
 * 9) facing north-east. (thing 70)
 * 10) facing north. (thing 71)
 * 11) facing north. (thing 75)

Things
This level contains the following numbers of things per skill level:

Inspiration and development
The map went through three iterations during development. The first build was a simple test of concept with the two bases directly facing each other across a river, with one in the normal location of the blue team base and the other in place of the hospital building. This level was too small for practical gameplay. The next build used the "two castles" idea, but the castles were to the north and south of each other, and routing and strategies were less than obvious. Input from Samuel Villarreal (Kaiser) and Sarah Mancuso (esselfortium) resulted in the final layout.