Elimination

Elimination (g_gametype 8) is very similar to the popular Clan Arena mode available in the famous mods OSP and Rocket Arena 3 for Quake III.

A CTF Elimination variant is also available. Last Man Standing is similar, too, but there players are not divided into teams and some rules are slightly different.

Gameplay

In Elimination two teams fight each other in a number of rounds.

All players start with all weapons, health and armor. There are no pickups. If a player dies he stays dead until the end of the round.

By default both self and team damage are off.

If the map has team spawn points they will be used and the teams will change side every round.

A team will need to win by at least 2 rounds. This allows also the use of "unfair" maps, where their design will make one team advantaged in one round, and disadvantaged in the next. For some examples of how such maps could be, take a look to the Map styles section below.

Tie break

If the roundtime runs out the game will be decided by the following rules:

Highest percent of survivors. The team with the highest ratio between players at the start of a round (including disconnects but not connects!) and the number of players as time reach 0 wins the round.

Most health. The team there the players has the most health remaining wins. Health is _NOT_ divided by number of players. No negative health (from dead players) is counted.

Otherwise the game ends in a draw.

CVARs

The gametype has some relevant CVARs usually prefixed with elimination_ all are defined on the server side.

Here you can see the elimination variables with their default values in OpenArena 0.8.5.

elimination_warmup "7" // seconds between rounds, must at least be 2 and higher than elimination_activewarmup
elimination_roundtime "120" // round duration, in seconds
elimination_startArmor "150" // start armor in elimination
elimination_startHealth "200" // start health in elimination
elimination_selfdamage "0" // 0 = no self/team damage, 1 = damage to self, 2 damage to self and team
elimination_activewarmup "5" // time (in seconds) to roam before weapons activate, must at least be 1 and lower than elimination warmup
elimination_grapple "0" // enables (1) or disables (0) offhand grapple
elimination_ctf_oneway "0" // used in CTF Elimination game mode, not in standard "Elimination" mode.
elimination_lockspectator "0" // 0 = No lock (can follow enemy, see health), 1 = Cannot follow enemy (cannot see health), 2 = Must follow friend

Starting ammo

0 = disabled, 999+ = unlimited

elimination_machinegun "500"
elimination_shotgun "500"
elimination_grenade "100"
elimination_rocket "50"
elimination_lightning "300"
elimination_railgun "20"
elimination_plasmagun "200"
elimination_bfg "0"
elimination_nail "0"
elimination_mine "0"
elimination_chain "0"

Related CVARs

timelimit "20" // total match duration, in minutes^[1].
capturelimit "8" // when a team wins "X" rounds, wins the match^[1].

Hints

In this mode, you can move fast around the arena using "rocket jump" techinque without getting damage (having \elimination_selfdamage 0).
You can use some features from Elimination/CTF Elimination/Last Man Standing modes within other game modes (for example Free For All); you can use \g_elimination 1 to do this: you will enter the game with the weapons set for Elimination mode, you will be able to rocket-jump without hurting yourself, you will not find items (like ammo boxes and health) around the arena. You may also want to try \g_vampire or \g_regen to get health when using it. Please read Special game options for more info.
You can find some examples of special configurations obtained using "elimination_" variables (like All weapons or Weapon rotation) in "Configuration examples" page.

Map styles

Elimination mode can be applied to very different kinds of maps, giving different gameplay experiences, that may very from something extremely similar to the Clan Arena mode included with some famous mods, up to something that vaguely remembers the Assault mode included in Unreal Tournament.

If you plan to create maps for Elimination mode, first read its section in the Mapping information for special gametypes page, then come back here.

Here below you can find some ideas do design different kinds of maps for Elimination.

1) A map similar to a Free For All (Deathmatch) map (usually asymmetric), with some large places where players can use rocket jumps as shortcuts to reach higher floors or distant plaforms, and with players spawning randomly around the map. Here you will have a classic Clan Arena map.
2) A map like in the first example, but with all players of each team spawing in the same zone of the map, allowing them to choose if they want to move in group or to spread out.
3) A variation from the second example, using a map (if you want, also a symmetric CTF map should work, even if players should ignore the colors of the bases, since they will be inverted each round) designed in a way to have the two teams starting from two places, and suggesting the players to move in group (for example, having one or two possible paths only), so the two teams will then meet in a central room, where they all will fight.
4) An "unfair" map, where the players of a team will spawn on the "easy" side and the others in the "hard" side. For example, the "hard" side may include some traps, and the other not.
5) A variation from the fourth example, a map where a team will spawn in a very priviledged position, like on an upper place, maybe partially covered by defensive walls (for example on a tower, or in a castle), while the other team will have to cross an uncovered (or semi-uncovered) open space to reach them, probably arriving face-to-face with lower energy, a real challenge for them.
6) A variation from the fifth example, with the addition of one or two buttons that the disadvantaged team will have to push or to shoot at in order to open a gate and enter the "castle".
7) A variation from the sixth example, but placing all the team in the "castle" in one room (or some rooms) from which they cannot exit (even with crouching or rocket jumping), but can only shoot at the enemy using some loopholes. The other team, instead, will be more exposed to the fire, and will have to reach a final button that, once pressed, will activate a trap that will instantly kill all the players of the first team.

The examples 5, 6 and 7 are something resembling the Assault gametype in Unreal Tournament. Whn creating the map, consider that the bots aren't expressly programmed for this, thus they could have problems in doing too complicated actions... and this is Elimination, so the players do not respawn when they are killed. This simply to say that you may have to do some tests with bots and real players to be sure that your map will be playable (and that both teams have chances to win), but if you succed, you will probably have created a great map! PS: Obviously, the server admin may heavily influence the final result by changing the starting arsenal.

Notes

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Remember that in Elimination mode you need to end with a difference of at least two rounds. Match will continue after timelimit/capturelimit is reached, until this difference is reached.