One day a while ago, I was looking through the Sauerbraten game files, and I found something that I found interesting. In Sauerbraten\src\fpsgame\ctf there's a line:
static const int HOLDFLAGS = 1;
I interpreted this to mean "A player can only hold one flag at a time." I do not know if that is what this line of code actually means, but i don't think it pertains to Hold gamemode, because that uses capture bases.
Regardless of its actual meaning, it got me thinking. Can a team in CTF have more than one flag? If not, why specify how many flags a player could hold? I had to test this out.
To that end, I made a CTF map where each team had two flags. The map itself was almost a flat field, nothing interesting about it. However, I figured out a few things:
-Yes, a player can only hold one enemy flag at a time.
-You can score by bringing any one enemy flag back to any one of your flags, regardless of whether your other flag or the enemy's other flag is safe.
Anyway, that was a while ago. I moved on to other things, but soon came back to the idea. I wanted to make a viable map with two flags for each team. I drew ideas, I started on a map. Then I stopped, because I had started to make an incredibly elaborate map, which in addition to two flags, had altogether too many paths and was built mainly on a diagonal, requiring structures to be built at 45 degrees to normal orientation (very annoying). So I abandoned that idea.
A few days ago, I wanted to examine the idea again, but I no longer had the original map file on my laptop. The solution, build the double-flag test map again.
This time, the map approaches something much closer to playable. It's not very pretty, and I made no attempt to make any of the ceilings in the tunnels high enough for jumping, but unlike it's previous version, this map has some actual cover and scenery, and enough ammo to support an actual small match. Playing (with bots) on this map, I found out something else that I suspected:
-You cannot pick up more than one of your own team's flag in Protect gamemode.
So anyway people, here is a conceptual map exploring an idea I had that, with a good design, I think could work well. The possibilities are very intriguing, it would certainly make CTF and Protect more exciting. (Protect especially - I've found Protect to normally be low-scoring and boring)
What do you think?

Note: I know that this map is not very good, the (possible) value here is the idea, making a map was mainly to show the idea in action. (I think that just posting the description in the forums wouldn't have been as useful for exploring the idea, with this map, interested people can in just a couple minutes see the idea for themselves instead of making a map themselves if they wanted to test it out.) Please do not viciously attack the map, because I already know what's bad about it!