how many maps

(madoule) #21

right, that could work if SD is up for that.
i wonder what steam (if it proves to become the sever platform) offers in terms of limitations and/or opportunities concerning user created content.

(tokamak) #22

[QUOTE=madoule;247686]i’d prefer quality over quantity.
i do not know how custom maps can be made availabe thru steam. is there an option? can somebody enlighten me?[/QUOTE]

You don’t need steam for that. Steam however, can supply the dev tools alongside the game.

(LyndonL) #23

It’s no skin off Steam’s back if they go down the DLC path. It’s simply a game update that SD would upload to the Valve servers and then it is automatically propogated to all the clients when they connect next.

Other than that, sites such as ModDB.com etc host user created maps/campaigns for games, and provided the game itself has a user friendly method of playing these extra maps/campaigns all is sweet. L4D impliments it beautifully. You simply save the campaign to your Add-Ons folder in Steam, and then it is automatically added to the map list when you start the game up next.

The UI is what will make or break the popularity of custom maps.

(madoule) #24

thx for the insight!
really gotta read up on those topics.

(SockDog) #25

I agree that this is most important and I hope this is one of the things that differenciates the pc version from the consoles. I actually wonder why there isn’t more use of meta fields in custom maps that the game can read and pull content, updates etc and so alleviate most of the user’s need to hunt down and install maps etc.

(.Chris.) #26

Anyone would think custom content only arrived after steam was invented from reading this thread…

(SockDog) #27

Many people who even use Steam are unaware of what it does and doesn’t do. People are also very much tuned to the DLC map pack as being the ONLY means of getting new maps. Sad but true.

Again I hope the PC sees some experienced custom content controls built in and not sidelined in some convoluted process as an afterthought.

I’m guessing if Brink is successful we’d get the opportunity of maybe seeing popular community maps ported to the consoles as DLC.

(Optical_Fibre) #28

I can’t see as custom maps are going to be viable as this game will not feature the kind of game modes custom map support. Unless the dev kit allows for objectives to be created.

(.Chris.) #29

http://www.splashdamage.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=15

http://www.splashdamage.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=8

As you can see, people have been making maps for quite some times that have objectives in them…

(murka) #30

I /facepalm’d

(Optical_Fibre) #31

[QUOTE=.Chris.;247837]http://www.splashdamage.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=15

http://www.splashdamage.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=8

As you can see, people have been making maps for quite some times that have objectives in them…[/QUOTE]

I cant find anything there that indicates that custom maps will be able to be made for brink.
Brink is going to merge single - coop - multi player into one. And the maps are going to have many many objectives all running simultaneously. Each player will have the choice of about 5 objectives at any 1 point.
This seems a lot for a modder to deliver. I am not saying its impossible, and SD may have set objectives that are available to all modders but its gunna be a tall order.

(Nail) #32

modders make mods, mappers make maps, it’s not the same thing, and the mappers around here are very skilled at making multiple objective maps on both SD’s idtech 3 and idtech 4 games. Difficult yes, but doable by some of the talented folk that frequent these pages

(Optical_Fibre) #33

Cool. I think I will get ETQW soon so I can try them out :slight_smile:

(LyndonL) #34

Don’t forget… of those 5 objectives, many are dynamic… such as “buff a teammate” etc. There will only be a few main objectives per map, which won’t be hard to do.

The fact that it’s singleplayer, coop AND MP all in one actually makes it EASIER for a mapper since they don’t need to create 2 versions of each map (see L4D mapping). The engine controls what the bots all do, so it’s only the level layout, and the objectives that need to be created.

I’m not saying that that’s easy, but for someone with the talent it is definitely within reach.

(.Chris.) #35

Not really, you still need to prep the maps for bot support and add lots of bot related stuff, I never bothered with my own ET:QW maps as its takes too darn long and in that game it wasn’t essential in order to make good map.

(LyndonL) #36

Oh yeah, you need navmeshing etc but what I meant was the bots are autonomous so long as they know where they can go and what the objectives are.

(.Chris.) #37

I don’t know how far they have advanced bots AI since ET:QW but you still had to set a lot of stuff for bots in the map script for them to know how to behave for each stage and at certain events during the map.

(Crytiqal) #38

What kind of game modes does a custom map support then? lol

(Donnovan) #39

I played Team Fortress for Quake 1 for years, 90% of the time on the map 2fort5.

I don’t mind about quantity, but if they can have many quality maps, why not? HAHAHAHA!

Also, I believe that make custom cmaps for Quake Wars is far more difiicult than make it for Starcraft 2. Not obstant, we have many good maps done, enough for lots of pos-entertaiment.