Letting the rules change the fight

Update — 25 October 2026: SHADOWFRAG now includes Shogun conquest, Shogun Highlands and Precision Dojo. Read why we describe it as a Movement FPS and explore the current 21-map roster.

When I added Capture the Flag, Scroll and Demolition, I had to decide how much of a match should be determined by its map. I wanted players to be able to return to a familiar arena and give themselves a different problem to solve. I kept the objective, equipment and protection rules separate, with the same movement controls underneath them.

The October 18 work tested those combinations in the game and with bots. It also exposed bot behavior that needed fixing: adding an objective to a menu was not enough if the bots did not know how to play it.

Choosing what wins the match

Deathmatch supports free-for-all, teams and a two-player duel. In Capture the Flag, bringing back the enemy flag only scores if your own flag is home. Last Ninja / Scroll lets you win either by holding the scroll for 60 uninterrupted seconds or by becoming the last survivor. In Demolition, attackers carry a bomb and defenders protect two sites.

Protection changes how risky those objectives are to pursue. You can play without shields, give players a shield only when they spawn, or let kills recharge shields. Armor adds one layer above a shield, so incoming hits work through armor, then shield, then the kill. Armor cannot stack, and picking it up does not repair a broken shield. An unprotected player dies from one damaging hit.

Those settings change the decisions inside the same arena. A player with kill-recharged shields has a reason to keep a successful fight going. With classic instagib rules and no protection, every exposed crossing risks ending in a single hit.

Choosing how to fight

Rail, Bow, Stars, Shrapnel and Melee can be enabled independently, as long as at least one damaging weapon is available. The optional net slows an opponent's horizontal movement for two seconds, then takes 40 seconds before it can be used again. Access to shadow grenades is another separate choice; the shared jumps remain the foundation.

The weapons ask different things of a route. Drawing a bow lets you choose when to release and affects the arrow's speed. Stars give you four quick throws before a reload. Shrapnel bursts on contact, but cover blocks its fragments. A doorway that suits one weapon may be a poor place to fight with another, even though getting there uses the same controls.

The later server testing established a limit of 64 players including bots. That limit is applied both when setting up a match and when admitting players. Within it, the aim is to let you choose a set of rules that works together and save it for the next session.