Teamplay

Teamplay is one of the three game modes that will be in Survarium.

Overview
Teamplay is the main adversarial mode in Survarium, featuring two different varieties. The basis of the mode is two teams of up to 8 players facing off in smaller, combat-oriented maps. Each team has a set of spawn points, or bases, on opposite ends of the map and rounds last up to 15 minutes at a time. It shares similarities with typical Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag modes found in other games.

Protective Device
The Protective Device variation focuses on teams collecting 10 batteries scattered throughout the map. Teams must spread out across the map, locating and retrieving batteries, whilst preventing the opposing team from doing the same. The winner is the team that collects the most batteries before time runs out. Additionally, if a team is able to secure all 10 batteries then they will immediately win the round.

Batteries
To retrieve a battery, players must interact with it to pick it up and physically carry it back to their base. During this time, the player is unable to sprint or draw a weapon. In order to defend themselves from opponents, the player must drop the battery they are carrying to allow them to regain use of their weapons. As such, it's usually beneficial to move in pairs when collecting batteries so one player can cover the other while they carry it back to their base.

While carrying a battery, an indicator is displayed both on the team's map and in their first-person view. This indicator persists on batteries even after they've been dropped by players. This means that even if a player is not in a position to carry a battery all the way back to their base, they can still leave a marker by taking and immediately dropping the battery. When picked up by an opposing team member, battery markers disappear and switch over to the enemy team's map and vision.

Bases
In order to secure batteries, they must be placed in a container at the team's base by interacting with it while carrying a battery. Both the team's and opponent's containers are marked on the map, where the opponent's is in red. An important note to make is that once batteries have been placed in a team's container, they are not out of play. Batteries can be stolen from the opponent's base and brought back to their teams' at any point during the match.

Each base also has a supply box which is marked on the map with an ammo box icon. This can be interacted with to restore the player's supply of ammo and items, provided they have enough of the supplies needed in their inventory storage. This process takes a short amount of time, approximately 3-5 seconds, during which the player is vulnerable to attack.

Random Batteries
The first variant of Protective Device was the first mode available. In it, all 10 batteries are spawned when the round begins and are scattered across random locations in the middle of the map with no indicators. Action starts off slow as teams spread out to search for batteries and gradually ramps up as more and more are amassed in each team's base, drawing players to these two areas.

Charging Stations
Introduced in 0.24a, this variant places emphasis on 2 or 3 charging stations located in the centre of the map. These stations are marked on the map for both teams and spawn the 10 batteries over the course of the round. The batteries spawn in a random charger approximately every minute. This means that teams end up trying to control key parts of the map and lends to more focused action during the beginning of the match.

Team Deathmatch
This game mode is already implemented in Survarium. Two teams fight until the complete destruction of the opposing team. Each team has a counter that is decremented by killing players of the team. When the counter reaches zero, the possibility of respawn is disabled but surviving players retain the ability to fight to the last and lead your team to victory. If before the expiration of the timer either team fails to win, the victory is awarded to the team with the higher score.

At the moment there are some problems with the fact that the battle is often shifted to one end of the map. We are looking for ways out of this situation to ensure that the battle was over a larger area and not only in the area of the base. The solution of random spawn points would not be effective as it results in many disoriented players.

Debuting in 0.26a, the Team Deathmatch variation strips out the battery-collecting mechanic in favour of a straight battle for supremacy. Teams start out with 100-150 tickets, depending on the map. For every opponent killed the enemy team loses one ticket. The winner is the team with the most tickets remaining at the end of the round. If one team manages to deplete all of the other's tickets and wipe out the remaining players, they will be able to achieve an early victory.

Tickets
There are no side-objectives to distract players from each other, meaning that players must use only the map and their equipment to outplay the opponent. The main aim of the mode is survival, as every death brings the opponent one step closer to victory. This means that working together as a team is even more important. Where as single flanking manoeuvres can occasionally pay off hugely in Protective Device, the risk of being outnumbered and surrounded in Team Deathmatch is often not worth the reward.

When a team has lost all of their tickets, their ticket bar is replaced by a head count showing the remaining number of living players on that team. During this period, members of the team can no longer respawn if they die. It's important for surviving players to make their lives count during this final phase, as it can be the difference between victory and defeat depending on how evenly matched they are with the opponents.



Research
Two teams fight for control of mobile research facilities. Each installation under the control of the team gives a small contribution to the study of abnormal activity. The winner is the team that collects the necessary information first. This mode is very similar to many familiar modes with capture points, except with one big difference. The team does not require control of all installations, each installation will individually contribute to the total. That means even controlling one installation of the three at the end of the battle, the team can win if it made a good start in the beginning of the fight. They are also considering the possibility of adding special missions, depending on the map, that can give great bonuses to the research total.

Storm
This mode is an evolution of the previous system for the collection of protective devices and replaces it. There is an approaching storm and the only way to survive is to build a special protective device that reduces the impact of the storm. The approaching storm has a significant impact on gameplay. Two of the most notable phenomena players will encounter is the increase in time of respawn, as well as increasing the number of random anomalies. Also, on some levels, static anomalies become even more deadly.

When the storm reaches its peak the respawning of players will be disabled but there will be practically no places where players could avoid abnormal damage anyway. The winner will be the team that will be able to live longer. The collection of the protective devices will reduce the damage from anomalies in a small area around its base. Full protection can only be obtained by gathering all devices, leading to an early victory.

Artifact Hunt
In this mode, two teams compete for the rare and very powerful artifact named "Shining of the Forest". Unlike most artifacts this one has no negative effects and does not create an anomaly around it. Players can collect and carry it without a container designed for artifacts. The appearance of the artifact is accompanied by a powerful flash and it cannot be determined in advance. Once an artifact is detected, all players can see its position on the minimap. The winner is the first team who is able to find and bring to their base three such artifacts. The artifacts that have already brought to the base can't be stolen from it. There can be only one "Shining of the Forest" at any one time. If the match times out then the winner is the team that has managed to collect more artifacts.

Sabotage
The aim of the game is to destroy the enemy base by using an explosive device. In the beginning of the match explosives are in neutral territory, at equal distances from the bases of both teams. The position of the explosives known to all players throughout the match. After the explosives are delivered to the enemy base, a timer is started counting down to detonation, during which the explosives can be defused.

Seek’n’Destroy
In this mode the goal of the two teams are different. The attacking team must destroy one of the two key points with explosives, which can be found near the base of the attacking team. The goal of the defending team to defend both points from destruction. The battle is divided into ten rounds, with respawn only possible in the early rounds. After five rounds the defending and attacking teams switch places. The winner is the team that will be able to achieve its goal in most the rounds.

Trivia

 * Teamplay was the first mode playable in Survarium, intended to be a testing bed for fundamental game mechanics.