Interesting thread. First I'm going to comment on the shield in my level, since FS and SJ have both discussed it. I want to illustrate why, and how much gameplay influences this sort of thing, rather than theme.

I considered using a water shield in my level, since indeed, it would be theme-appropriate. However, gameplay considerations overruled thematic ones. The main question is this: why use a shield at all? There can be three answers: (a) in order to give players a powerful weapon, which would mean a water shield is the best choice, (b) in order to give players a powerful defense, which makes fire or plasma the best choice, and (c) for both reasons, which again makes a water shield ideal.

In my level, the shield mainly serves a defensive purpose, hence plasma (the weapon is nice too, but you are still better off spamming bouncers or RFs if you want to kill things). You might notice that the bases in my level are very easy to defend. And while it is unlikely for a team to be this organized, it is possible to almost "lock down" your own base (you need at least two players devoted to defense for this to work, strategically positioned). What the shield does is it allows you to run past any defense, and hopefully allow your teammates to follow - the 40 second timer is long enough to allow that. This gameplay function can sort of be compared to ubercharges work in TF2.

And while a water shield would have also worked defensively, I feel it would have been too powerful offensively, especially in the middle area where the layout is very open. Players would be encouraged to grab it simply because it is the best weapon in the game. I wanted to narrow the use a bit, and actually make players think of using it as more of a tool than as a weapon (and encourage players to use it in the bases rather than in the middle area). In a way, it's a bit psychological (a fire shield would work even better, but the level has water). It's all about guiding the player subconsciously, sort of like how ammo pickups can be used to draw the player along certain routes.

In retrospect, the 3 minute respawn time on it might be a bit too long for what I am trying to accomplish; I'm considering lowering it to around 160 seconds.

Of course there's still room for disagreement here, but my point is this: even in minor decisions like what kind of shield to use, a lot of thought and theory can go into the decision. Changing something for thematic reasons (or even for reasons like "because it's more powerful") can actually have a much bigger impact than it seems. Gameplay should always be considered first.

This is also why my level has pepper spray but no electro blasters. There really aren't very many walls you'd want to shoot through, and for the ones that can be, bouncers are good enough. On the other hand, there are a lot of places where pepper spray can be used to "snipe" players (RF missiles have good speed, but actually have poor range in comparison). Still not an excellent weapon, but it has its place in a level like this.

Anyway I got a little sidetracked there, but get the point.


CTF duels are played because good CTF levels are more common than good battle levels, and a lot of people (including me) prefer JJ2 with 3 hearts rather than 5 (and there aren't any battle levels designed for 3h). Also having bases changes the dynamic quite a bit since you often know exactly what your opponent is heading for (CTF has more goals than just killing your opponent). CTF also tends to play a lot faster than battle. It's really just a matter of preference. As a side note, 1vs1 CTF does exist in a few other games. I remember it being present in Quake 3, at least.


Disclaimer: this post only applies to MP levels. My opinions on singleplayer are pretty much the opposite.