[SUGGESTION] Payload-like (TF2) Game Mode For Xonotic

I saw a post about some people considering making a TF2 clone in Xonotic... which is not what I am interested in directly. I am interested in how easy it would be to make a game mode that was inspired by payload but was thoroughly Xonotic. The below graphic basically explains the entire game mode.

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A tweak that might be fun if it was possible to code would be having the amount of momentum you have when you hit the button actually transfer into how fast the cart goes, so coming at the cart button fast and hard is better than just camping the bombcart and stomping the button with no speed built up.

In general, maybe weapons and health would be out at the edges of the level so players would have to balance getting items and weapons with protecting the cart in the center of the level.

Are you referring this forum thread? I think hardest part would be cart physics. This gamemode seems to be some mix of payload and king of the hill from TF2.

Are you referring this forum thread? I think hardest part would be cart physics. This gamemode seems to be some mix of payload and king of the hill from TF2.

Yes! Thank you for linking it.

I don't have much experience modding, but I certainly could give it a try attempting to make a mod for this gamemode but I am unsure if having a moving cart that is controlled by player activated buttons (and presumably has fairly accurate and consistent collision tracking with all players) is possible and a reasonable amount of work to program in darkplaces/xonotic.

I think Xonotic could use some more team modes and while I like CTF in theory it often feels like the best one or two players completely dominate the game and move so fast that newbies feel like they are toddlers chasing around after the action only to repeatedly be left behind.

I love payload because it provides a natural focus to team gameplay and strikes a good balance between creating situations where an individual player's actions can be crucial to the success or failure of a team while also making it feel like everybody on the team can contribute meaningfully to winning even if they aren't that good. The problem with payload though is that it doesn't directly interface with the joy of movement in Xonotic, which I think is vital to a game mode feeling fun or not. Having the bomb cart not be controlled by simple proximity of players camping the bomb cart (which would likely just devolve into rocket and nex spam in Xonotic), but rather by players using advanced movement to swoop behind enemy lines and come *back* at the bomb cart with speed to hit a button (forcing the player to put their back to enemies to achieve their objective) would potentially make a really tight gameplay loop for a team based Xonotic game mode that encouraged dynamic movement rather than camping an objective. The blaster is also already well situated to be a utility tool for players to swat attacking players away before they hit the button (one could actually imagine this gametype working with no weapons at all, just blasters that do no damage).

The elektro mines would pose a balance issue, but maybe the bomb cart could be on slightly elevated rails leaving nowhere for elektro alt fire balls to be stashed close enough to kill a player activating the button on the bomb cart.

Conversely if players camping the bomb cart slowed down gameplay too much perhaps the cart track rails could be elevated plasma-lasers that kill players on touch so that it was dangerous to hang out directly along the line of the bomb cart track (as you might get knocked into the plasma-lasers by weapon fire).

The bomb cart wouldn't have to look like TF2's bomb cart or my "illustration" at all, it could be radically different such as being simply a large hoop (think the Stargate from Stargate but on a track) that players have to strafe jump through going towards their base in order to make the "bombcart" hoop move towards the enemy base. I don't know if I can really visualize ahead of time what the best shape would be without playing around with different ones and seeing what fit best with Xonotic's core movement and gunplay.




**Also** I am not expecting anyone to do the work to create this mod, I understand this is an open source project and I deeply appreciate all the joy the devs and maintainers of Xonotic have brought me!