Well, I've kind of brought this up before, but I don't recall getting a solid response to it.

The problem:
The length of a game is nor proportional to how unbalanced the game is. That is, an extremely one-sided game will take just as long as an evenly matched game.

Why this happens:
In the current iteration of SF (along with many other games) the game (effectively) only ends when time runs out. Barring one team getting 1000 points, both teams will have to wait until that time runs out for the game to end (or rtv, which is what many seem to resort to nowadays)

There are a number of possible solutions to this, some reasonably small and some that would require deep integration into the game, but before I spend an hour going into them, I'd first like to ask what the dev's have already come up with in regards to this issue. Anything worth sharing?

As a server admin what i would love to have is the option of doing say first to 3 capps.

Games usually fail because one side is far better than the other and the losing side rages. If it was first to 3 if one side was getting owned the game would end quicker, keeping the players in.

You know that you can change the score limit?
Set it to 300 and the game ends after one team reaches 3 caps, or 300 touches...

We've done nothing as as we've stated a miraculous amount of times, 194 is a fix and polish. No new features. However, since you raised the issue, it may be worth considering a new default value for sf_scorelimit.

And before anyone says "No this is for 2.0.0", then it's a wasted post for reasons I stated in the grenade thread.

Obviously, this is a 2.0 discussion, which is why I specifically asked how you planned to fix the issue. "It's a different game" wasn't quite the answer I was looking for, given that the question is "how is it different." Not sure why the discussion turned to 19x; I only brought it up as a point of contrast.

On that note, however, the difference between one cap and ten caps is only a matter of time and patience; there is a much larger gap between 0 caps and one cap, but there is absolutely nothing anyone can do to fix that in the current game. A default of 4-5 would make winning by caps a whole lot more feasible, but wouldn't really solve anything.

Eh, the time limit is fine IMO. Its not too uncommon that there is a comeback late in the second combat phase.

Stalemated circumstances, or the prevention of them in this case, will be forced through defined classes each with important roles in certain situations. 19x lacks this at the moment. There are two classes that actually have a constant role, two that have a role in rare circumstances, and one that is generally useless. The game doesn't have the means to forumlate a consistant attack due to a combination of the classes, the way block damage and healing works, and therefore map design. Blocks take a large amount of damage to destroy, meaning that to have any kind of effective assault on them forts must be at essentially point blank range. Even with this range the problem is still apparent, but if block damage were to be decreased any further, forts would be essentially useless due to splash damage.

In v2.0.0, an important thing to note is that (and this is subject to change) a single powerful assault will be sufficient to break through a wall. This is obviously dependant on player skill and team work. There will be means to encourage and reward team work (think of the medic in tf2 - NO, there are no plans for a medic class, but the idea of being rewarded [through score or other means] for a team mates frags and efforts due to passive assistance).

So in theory, what we have is a game in which rounds can be won within 30 seconds. That may sound terrible at first, but it is an extreme result. If you think about other succesful FPS' that aren't simply deathmatch, it is often the case. Counter-strike Source and Team Fortress 2 are two examples that spring to mind. Both can be over within seconds if one team doesn't play together (or are just bad), though this is rarely the case. SourceForts V2.0.0 will be a comlpete inversion of 19X in terms of attack VS defence. In 19x you must put fourth a constant, solid offence to win. A team can have frequent blotches in their defence and still be comfortable. In v2.0.0, consistant defence will be far more important than consistant offence.

I'm in the middle of a lot of things, so I apologise if that was quite a scrambled post. I kept stopping and coming back, somewhat losing my place. You asked a rather broad question, so if you want to take what I said as a basis and ask me more specific questions I'll see what I can do.

So in other words, no timed rounds?

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No. The CTF mode will have a time limit as well as a capture limit. The game ending due to time limit will be far less common than cap limit, though.

The blocks should just gradually start declining in health from the beginning of the game. No stalemates there.