Crystal Shards by Dr. Pimento on May 30, 2002

Capture and Hold Capture the Flag Deathmatch Siege Volcanic Clear Bots Night

What can you do to destroy a Diamond Sword world? It already looks like Hell.. what's left to do to it? When the Diamond Sword troops came home, at first glance, everything was as they had left it. It soon became apparent, however, that nothing at all remained unsoiled by a pillaging Horde detachment. Even the air stank of the enemy, and few now will live, even on the sites of their homes.

Crystal Shards brings an interesting twist to gameplay. In all game types, the two main ForceField bridges are able to be brought down with a few well-placed shots: Defenders can drop the bridge and watch as their enemies plummit to their doom, or attackers can burn bridges behind them, and force enemy snipers to do the chasing while the Heavy Armor has to sit at home and sulk. All one must do is destroy one side of the bridge's pair of generators: they are linked in damage.

CTF is largely dependent on ones use of flares.. whoever holds the center base is in possesion of 4 missile turrets, in strategic placement to gun down high-flying Armors.

Perhaps, however, the most unique aspect of the map is its Siege game. In a twist to normal play, the objective is not to capture a FlipFlop, but rather to repair a destroyed base.

Offense and Defense both start in the same room, with ForceFields blocking all exits. Inventories belong to Defense, but the Offense has a safe Cache Room, with ample weapons and major packs therein. The first objective is to destroy the Generator in this room: the closed spaces and open Generator placement make for a melee like none other. If the Offense can keep the generator down for 30 seconds, the ForceFields come down, and they become the owners of the Stations.

Next is to capture the second base. Once the bridge to the Center is repaired, the Offense can move heavy troops across.. but they need some covering fire to protect the Center side of the bridge's generator pair. No sense in watching your teammates fall to their death, is there?

After the center is captured, it's on to the final stage. Just repair the two waypointed Generators, and the game is yours! Easy? Not by half. Fun? Yes. Again, be sure to guard the other side of the Bridge..

To aid players, there are in-game text prompts, and the waypoints will appear when it's time to focus on them.

Major thanks to Fragment, Golarth and Morgoth_Bauglir for testing, Dev for scripting (again) and StarStriker, for saying nice things about it.