I'm still playing ut99 GOTY with my son (yeah, I'm that old)... and nothing else matterrrrrrrrrrrr
This part is one of the features that doesn't seem to get mentioned enough. Unreal Tournament was one of the first franchises to have bot behavior that was well thought out, relatively realistic and challenging, and most importantly worked for every single one of the game types included (including multi-player team objectives).
In addition to just being able to play single player in what would have normally required a functioning online environment and WWW connection for other franchises, you could also fill out large teams with bot players if you could not find enough actual humans to log in and join your game.
Gametypes like Team Deathmatch and Assault were then viable for single or small groups even when you didn't have a great (or completed lacked) WWW connection.
I remember modding the homing missile gun (forgot its name) to be more agile around corners and building obstacles courses in Unreal Editor for DM-Morpheus to shoot the missiles through. Modding Unreal games was always a great time considering the technology back then.
I only really played ut2k4 not 99, but in the 2k4 Face map there was a "ledge" (I don't know the term, like a stray polygon edge or something) out of sight on one side where you could fake like you had fallen off, land on the ledge, wait a couple seconds and then crouch or do whatever it was that made you drop the flag.
The game would show the message "so and so dropped the flag" which IIRC was the same message it shows when you die while holding the flag, and to most people it seems like you fell into the void and died, but you're actually just hanging out on the ledge.
There wasn't a way back up from the ledge, so you can't do this to shake people chasing you and then go score, but if you do this while you're ahead, the other team can't score until they get their flag back...
okay that's not really "strategy", it's super cheap.
Fuck, CTF-Face was a vibe.
People all over the house shouting and laughing.
I have a distinct memory of someone attempting what you just described, but my friend just happened to be ready and he sniped the redeemer right as it was shot. Big explosion and nothing left of the player but a scorch mark on the building. I laughed myself to tears. Good times.
... except fun.
But guess what metric matters most?
Enjoy the memories.
There was no wasting time figuring out what style of play you wanted to go for. You just picked a game mode and went for it.
And as you said, maps were changing very quickly depending on how the game mode was set up.
Plus, so many exploding bodies
And wine made it playable on FreeBSD which was quite something to behold.
Especially when my friend launched it on the 256 color, literal X term I had at home. Solid 0.2 FPS over the network.