Map pack of month?

(Drakir) #1

I know that people loves playing custom made maps, the problem is that servers rarely put em on their servers.

So i have had an idea on how to work around this. How about releasing a new patch both serverside and client every month? This way servers have to update and so would the players.

I know that this would take some time that you guys may not have (Splash Damage). But how about just putting up a web page that u let the community runs, i dont know but i think that alot of community guys would love to be on the board of selecting maps of the month and run the site for you.

All you have to do is release the pack every month to all distributing channels, like planetwolfenstein and selected gamingnews pages.

Well actually 2 patches would have to be created each month, a full install and a update. But that would not take that much time from you and would contribute to the community alot.

(Pog'S) #2

That’s a really good idea : D. The problem of “officiallity” of maps is found on all games and is really annoying.
I think SD could themselves select the best maps for ET from time to time and make them official by releasing a MapPack Upgrade that would be downloadable automatically when launching ET (just as PB…)

(Drakir) #3

Anyone else got anything to say in this matter? I was hoping for a :moo: to say something we all wanted hear hint

But i understand the difficulty of having to go through Activision every time you are gonna release anything to the public.

But i still think an update monthly with a map-pack would be great for the game.

(Pog'S) #4

The problem is that i don’t think SD will work anymore on ET once map tools and docs are out as they are surely on other things now… Money, money…

(sock) #5

As far as I’m aware all patches will be to fix issues with ET. This does not mean the idea is not going to happen but if there was a good site for reviewing/downloading of maps/campaigns then people would know where to get them from. The ET system does support re-direction for downloads so that the game server will not bashed by everyone downloading the maps as well as playing it.

Alot of server admins and clans atm seem to be interested in helping out with testing of new maps. If the quality of the maps are good enough I imagine they will get plenty of public play. Groups of mappers could apply for http://www.planetwolfenstein.com/ space and if accepted could get news sites to help promote their maps. This certainly happened in the Q3 community and was very successful.

Check the following link if you are interested in applying for hosting. http://www.planetwolfenstein.com/community/gethosted.shtml

Sock
Feel the :moo:
EDIT: need more coffee …

(Pog'S) #6

Yeah the re-direction is indeed a very powerfull feature that must not be underestimate :slight_smile:

I will register to PlanetW and ask a webspace. I hope other people will join me and my friends…

(Drakir) #7

I understand the problem with booth money and time. But i know for a fact that most server ops start their servers with default settings and then leave them as that.

As you said the url to a DL place is a very nice feature. But that doesnt put maps on the server.

(Pog'S) #8

Perfectly true. I forgot this “details” :frowning:

(sock) #9

If server admins want to add support for a custom made map, they will. Alot of server admins have already setup the feature for 6/10 map campaigns which require additional media files. (pk3’s) Its hardly a great leap to add custom made maps to this download area. But if you don’t let the community know about your map then it is unlikely your map will appear on public servers.

Sock
Feel the :moo:

(Drakir) #10

Well we have to see what happens, hopefully ET server admins will have the currage to put community maps on their servers.
I say currage because most admins wants players on the server, and if the players aint got the map they cannot join.

So theres why i wanted an official DL for custom maps, selected by a fine group.

I dont think any game has doen this before and as ET is totally free it could be a huge success if you kept the game alive with new maps every now and then.

(Vengeance) #11

I would like to see an official DL site for custom maps as well. I remember on RTCW there were lots of really good maps but hardly any server used them.

I hope the ET server admins will as you say be brave and put these new maps up because you can only play the same maps for so long.

Finnally I just wanna say I have a lot of respect for you mapper guys and i really look forward to trying out your maps, keep up the good work :slight_smile:

(OneFootInTheGrave) #12

I just registred to say this:

You don’t have to do map pack of the month - do it just once, after some time, decide what are the best three maps community has developed and just release an offical patch that will add those three maps to the game, so that everyone will have to download and “upgrade”.

If you do this - everyone playing ET will have 50% more map content in the game, it might not be easy to persuade the paymasters that this is really neccessary, but you will give a huge boost to your great creation with this relatively cheap act.

I am not sure whether you can afford yourself to put the time and money into this effort as (whoever pays the bills) is not getting any straightforward cash back. But it would certainly give you even more goodwill among the gameplayers which will one day hopefully turn into something tangible :beer: