First off, I would like to thank everyone for all the positive feedback I’ve got for my first map, which really motivates me to make more. This thread is for people interested in participating in the development of Tactical Mod by helping me make a map tailored for TG TacMod players.

I’ve been thinking about this map ever since I finished Inishail, trying to find unique and more objective based ways of making a map. Playing Steel Thunder yesterday inspired me to incorporate 2 different types of gameplay in the same map, similar to the way Unreal Tournament’s “Assault” game mode works (but to a much lesser extent obviously due to the limitations of BF2). This is an ambitious map, I have no interest in making Strike at Karkand 17 and doing something unique is the only way to stay above the sea of generic custom map floating around in the community. Almost every gameplay element in this project is already possible in BF2 so I know it’s not too ambitious.

Operation Phoenix
Setting: Middle-East, mid-day. A mix of GRAW’s city/slums maps and Sharqi’s “resort” environments.
Mission Briefing: After months of campaign in the Middle-East, US armed forces are closing in on the region’s most valuable assets and are launching Operation Phoenix, a series of air insertions by the Marines to secure the areas surrounding the Middle-East’s urban centers.

This map has 3 distinctive stages to provide 3 gameplay types and a better sense of assault/defense instead of randomly running around to capture flags. All 3 of the stages are meant to provide a new and unique experience.
(Bear with me here, there’s a reason I asked for help to make Photoshop billboards as you will see in the following “illustrations” )


Stage 1: The paratrooper insertion

The US will spawn in a cargo plane (the one from SF), possibly 2 planes for size issues and to provide a secondary drop point so it’s harder for the MEC to defend. They will drop onto a large trainyard with a lot of buildings and cover. The train terminal (the airport terminal from SF with all the windows) will be the main point of interest, with the flag inside. This flag starts as a MEC flag but is only capturable by the USMC, effectively making it their UCB when they capture it. I liked the idea that you needed to capture your own UCB before you could use it. The idea is that the MEC has many AA sites set up around the base and on the terminal roof, preventing USMC from airdropping hardware at low-altitude. USMC must take control of the terminal and wipe out the AA threat.

This stage will hopefully look really cool due to the mass airdrop and will start off the map with a bang, with the entire MEC team fighting off the entire USMC team. I’ll make it hard to defend for the MEC so the map doesn’t stall there.


Stage 2: The tank wars


Reference of the environment I want for golf course/fields (hopefully no tanks get stuck in-game )
This stage exists solely because I played Steel Thunder in TacMod . Upon capturing the trainyard and making it their UCB, the skies are secure for hardware airdrops. The MEC is pushed back to the MEC Outpost which is situated near the “back entrance” of the city. The main entrance to the city is blocked off to any vehicle type by a large roadblock.

This is where it gets fun. 16 tanks (2 people per tank) spawn on each side, at the trainyard and the MEC outpost. These tanks will only spawn once. The spawn time will be set so high that they won’t ever respawn by the time the map is over. The USMC’s tanks will be airdropped if I can get it working (like a vehicle drop but controlled by the capture of the CP), if I can’t get airdrops, they will spawn in 2 large warehouses. Now, since these tanks only spawn once, it’s important that they don’t get destroyed by lingering MEC forces inside the trainyard. For this reason, there will be a 60 seconds delay between the capture of the CP by USMC and the time they spawn, giving them time to clear out the warehouses and remove any mines left by the MEC. Multiple Humvees will spawn about 2 minutes after the CP is captured, forcing people to use the tanks right away for the upcoming tank wars. There will basically be a really large 16 vs 16 tank battle over the fields and golf course, ultimately leading up to Stage 3. The goal of Stage 2 is for USMC to capture the MEC outpost, which will then turn into a second UCB for the USMC. Note that both the Terminal and the MEC Outpost will not count towards the bleed. Only the 5 CPs in the city will.


Stage 3: Tactical urban infantry-only combat:

“Concept” screenshots of the kind of look I hope to recreate throughout the city. A “downtown” feel inspired by Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter’s mexico city levels.

Following Stage 2, three scenarios are possible. 2-3 tanks remaining on either side or MEC wipeout resulting in 10+ US tanks remaining or vice versa. In the case of one team having 2-3 tanks left, it shouldn’t be a problem for infantry to take out. In the case of USMC having 10+ tanks left, the only vehicle access into the city will be through the “backdoor” past the MEC outpost. This route will go straight through the slums, which will have a single narrow path that is ideal for ambush by the MEC Reference picture of the slums route. The tanks will be very vulnerable going through the slums and the few that get through will eventually be destroyed in the fight for the city. In the case of MEC having 10+ tanks left, I’m still not sure how I’ll take care of that. Humvees would be fodder to the tanks. I might try to place a few TOWs around the field/golf course for people to sneak to and take out the tanks with.

Now, I don’t have the city laid out yet but it will have the parking garage from SF. The city will have a lot of cover and no roofs will be accessible (or very very few). Keeping with the idea of GRAW’s levels, it’ll have wide streets with cover to force people to use smoke to cross and slow the gameplay down. Tactical movement and flanking will be the emphasis. The middle flag of the city will have no spawn points and will be a large plaza with the tower from Ghost Town in SF and a mosque. You will have to reinforce it from another CP.

The city is where most of the map will take place. Only the 5 city CPs will count towards bleed. Keep in mind the map will be huge (Daqing size) so there’s plenty of room for the tank battle.

Note that you won’t need SF to play it, the SF assets will be included in the map. Apparently you can use anything from the expansion as long as it’s on an unranked server or something.

Whew that was long. For the 3 of you that actually made it to this line, what possible issues do you see with this scenario? What about possible imbalances/exploits? The airdrop will be low enough so that you’re forced to fight for the Terminal and not glide all the way to the city/MEC outpost. The tank spawns will be on a delay so that they don’t get mined and instantly destroyed as they spawn. The city will be hard to enter with vehicles so that there’s no huge armor column in the city...what else?