In my opinion 6 official maps are not enough to keep up the play value for a long time. I heard that splash damge is working on the MP of Doom 3 at the moment, so I undertand that they can´t concentrate on two things at the same time and that they prefer Doom 3 to a free game. But many really good custom maps came out the last coupple of weeks( for instance rhine bridge, tc_bunker etc.) and I thinks they deserve to be official maps. There aren`t that many custom maps server, so we would have more server with those maps, if they were official. furthermore it would be more interesting for clan wars if we have more maps to choose from. Is there any possibility, that it could happen. maybe splash damage annouced something concerning custom maps, which haven´t come to my ear so far.
new official maps
yeah I thought about that too it’s a good idea…unfortunately there aren’t that many good custom maps out there especially when compared to the official ones. Even the maps that are looking good right now still have little bugs here and there but I think it’s an idea worth pursuing…i say we have a vote on which maps are best.
Yes we need more standard way to distribute custom maps and releasing a pack of custom maps would do the trick. I do not think the Splash Damage would have time to assemble maps so I suggest we create official Splash Damage Forum map pak. That will have ie. 6 best custom map released.
I think we could make poll or some sort of democratic way to decided what maps are selected and how the campaings are assembled. when we have decided what maps, which order and in what campaings. We need the authors permissions of course and finally do playtest before final release.
I don’t think the best custom maps for ET are out yet…I know maps under development that look very good. Good maps take a long time to do and I think right now we’re still seeing the mediocre maps come out. I say give it another month or two.
Just take a look to map “Venice” at http://www.chavo-one.com or to “Watch Am Rheim” at http://www.farmingtonco.com/ro/.
These are the best two maps in my opinion, and they are no yet released, but they look very good. 
I think the map transmitter can be very good, lets wait for the final version.
I don’t think you nimrods would know a good custom map if it slapped you in the face. Also how in the hell could you make a claim that a certain map is the best custom in ET if its not out yet by looking at screenshots? Not saying they won’t be but thats a stupid statement. Maybe you should check out some sites as to what players like that are out…doh
I totally agree that we should wait for some maps to enter final stage. but we can initially start discussion which one we want to see in map pack.
So we have two map suggestions:
-Chavo-one’s Venice
-Watch Am Rheim
I personally would want to see the
-evillair’s flak cannon
-drakir’s fliegerhorst
I know that by looking screenshots then you ply them and mybe the map is a shit, but looking a t screenshots you can made a general idea of the map, and if the map has been worked on for 3 months and has that good looking shots, i guess it will be a great map, the we must play them to see how playable they are.
Sorry for my bad english 
DOn’t forget transmitter, as a suggestion.
In final version it is allready released Temple2, i think its a great map.
The trouble is that screenshots ignore so many of the things essential for a decent (let alone a brilliant) map, that while they may get us salivating, they are essentially worthless as to a judge of how a map will actually play.
The trouble is, not one of us here does anywhere close to the amount of testing you can bet SD did on their official maps, and some of them STILL have issues.
What this means is that the only way for a map to get enough playability / bug testing is for it to be released, and all feedback incorporated. By which time of course it’s been released and there’s no point in making it ‘official’ no matter how good it is.
Custom maps will NEVER become official, because official implies some form of quality control and technical assistance to it, which of course they’ll never get.
What you CAN try to do is get people to make a standard map-pack of the ‘best’ maps, but you’ll always run into people crying foul when one of their favourite maps is excluded, and then they’ll probably tweak the map pack to include it, so you have multiple versions of the same file roaming around on servers / on the net etc. etc.
One thing you could do, which RTCWFiles used to do successfully for RTCW, was to bundle up a month’s releases into a single download and make that available. It makes it easy for people to get virtually all the maps, and is just a once-a-month download, so relatively simple.
Of course, THAT only works on final maps, and we currently have far too many maps coming out in a silly amount of variants…
I agree of that the quality is not all in the beauty of the map. And the balance and fun factor is as inportant.
So should we create somekind of compromize that we publish map pack once a while? But I still have a dream of one beautiful .pk3 file in my etmail directory that would be somekind of standard. Of course one would not be enough because there will be other new maps. I just think we could have this deluxe splash damage forum map pak vol.1
You are better off trying to convince one of the mod makers to run a map pack affiliated with their mods than SD - they may be the people to hassle 
Maps do take a long time to complete. It takes time to construct, optimize, and beta test before a solid release is ready. Although construction does go more smoothly with a well set plan before you actually start building. I’m thankful progress on my current map is been great so far. I have had to make only minor changes. No need to worry though, the maps are coming. :drink:
Some of the goods are already out. Look at resurrection or ML_Church.
Some are on the way. Menzels , chavo ones, and Hummers. And theres tank coming also
ML_Church and Resurrection coul be in the “paranormal” campaign, and would need another map based on paranomal matters ( X Files) 
I personally dont like this kind of maps but I cant say they aren’t very well done 
, and I have seen few times allies win on ML_church
ok…
level headed conversation time
“official map pack” can be conclusive to become…oh…i don’t know…
MapPack1 : eastern europe
MapPack2 : western europe
MapPack3 : southern europe and northern africa
MapPack4 : northern europe and jupiter if you wanted
having a map pack does not mean…lets pick 5 or 6 maps. It means if there are 24 great maps that people enjoy in one way or another make 4 packs of 6 or 6 packs of 4 or do something reasonable…
peace out! 
You are better off trying to convince one of the mod makers to run a map pack affiliated with their mods than SD - they may be the people to hassle
Hmm… I was thinking that we do not hassle with SD, but WE the loyal ET fans here in forum create our own map pack. It is not so official but I think this forum has lot of influence out there.
I am willing to gather and create a final pack, but if some more experienced person wants to do that or help me i am not offended
Map suggestions so far:
-Chavo-one’s Venice
-Watch Am Rheim
-evillair’s flak cannon
-drakir’s fliegerhorst
-transmitter
-drakir’s Rhineland bridge
- resurrection
- ML_church
Im not to sure about hummers map??, Ive watched his site for any updates, and since he went and got a paying job there hasent been any updates on his site!!!, I hope he will finnish his work on that map.
There are alot of of great custom maps out there, ones that are mentioned here and ones that havent, the players will let you know which ones they want, I run each custom map 2-3 days and see.