It's sort of a compromise between flags and no flags. The field is empty, but you are given a superflag on spawn. You can drop it, of course, but this is ill-advised since you won't get another one until you die and spawn again.
I see this as a benefit because it focuses the game directly on combat instead of getting a good flag, without losing the "fun factor" and variety of superflags. Plus, in CTF games, I think it emphasizes the CTF aspect over racking up an individual score.
Because of this mechanism, there are a few necessary restrictions for gameplay, IMO:
- No bad flags.
- No Useless flag.
- No Identify flag.
- Lower frequency of flags that are not normally helpful, like PZ, for instance.
- Lower frequency of very powerful flags (GM, L, WG).
- Intelligent selection- spawn some STs when there's a GM about, etc.
The only major disadvantage I see is not being able to kill someone and take his/her flag. Any ideas on this would be appreciated.
Overall, though, I think that this could be a very useful thing for a lot of games. Plus, variation on this concept could lead to whole new "styles". Such variants are already in the planning stages for mofo servers. However, it will all take a lot of refinement to run smoothly and play well.