Questions for map-makers

(oldchap1972) #1

Hello map-makers :slight_smile:
First of all : THANK YOU all mappers for having made the ET-maps which I have enjoyed since the beginning of the game (2004 ?).

Some years ago I made a site for maps in wolfenstein enemy territory (wolfmaps.dk). The site makes it possible for me and some others to upload a pk3-file to the server. The server will then extract the content and try to analyze its content in order to display the objective of the map and various other stuff (pictures/sound-files) on the webpage.

Before I started my site, I asked a mapper I knew for his opinion of doing that and he said something like : “hell yes please do it”.

Now I want to modernize the site a bit and add some features. This will take some time for me, so before I begin I have some questions for you mappers:

Should I allow download of the maps? - Or do maps-makers want to reserve this to other places like trackbase…?

  • Hot-linking (direct link). I don’t mind giving bandwidth for map-downloads, but I wonder if the mapmakers would like to have more control over this distribution ?
  • Beta-version ? (My current map-parser processes and publishes the map-content just after my pk3-upload-button is pressed). I remember once reading in some “read-me”-file that “This map is exclusively release to server XX and server owner YY” while it is in a test-phase. Once the map is released to just ONE server it is hard to take it back because the pk3-file is already distributed to a number of pc’s. Still, I would like to respect some kind of testing period before it is published. Today, the map-parser looks at the creation-date of the “arena-files” found, so I could limit the publishing on a criteria based on that date.

Color-codes: In the current version of wolfmaps.dk i tried to respect the colors that was embedded in the map (map-title, content of objectives…). This however meant that I had to choose a background and text color on the webpage that would not be in conflict with the content of any of the pk3s. The result is (I admit it) not very pretty. The maps from for example [UJE] and MLB seems to make a great effort of making the color-codes part of the title.
So my question is, is these color-codes kind of sacred to the map-makers ?

Credits: Mappers deserves all the credit in the world for having made these maps and I’d like to pass those credits in the webpage. In various files in the pk3’s (read-me, objdata-files, arena-files,…) I (or my map-parser) can find both email-addresses and url’s to websites. Some map-makers already tried to obfuscate the email-address like “oldchap[at]wolfmaps.dk”. But, if I can read it, some bot-spammer-engine can probably also read it.
So, how much of that data is fair/safe to publish ?

Thanks for any feedback I get.

/Old-Chap :slight_smile:

(WuTangH) #2

Downloads - I was always happy when others provided downloads for my maps. Sometimes websites go offline and things get lost. When I look at my SD posts about map releases, most of the links dont work anymore. It is good to have as much links as you can get imo.

Beta-versions - Thats a very specific case imo. I think most maps that are called “Beta” are intended for public play. To me, it happened that my map got uploaded to a public-downloads website while I was still testing its early-access version on a server. But thats on me too, as I already version’d it as _b1 instead of _ea or something like that, and played it on a public server for two days. Mapper should realize that every player downloads the map and it gets distributed quickly. Making it exclusive to one server doesnt really work in ET… But if it is a new map and youre not sure, just ask the mapmaker whether the map is still in test phase or it’s ready-to-play.

Color-codes are, imo, only for the game, not websites.

Credits: For a website, imo authors nickname is enough. Contacts in readme are usually there to report bugs and other feedback. But I dont mind if they get extracted to the website if you want to do it, otherwise it wouldnt be part of the readme.

(oldchap1972) #3

Thanks WuTangH
I was worried if I had asked too many questions and had made the post tooooo long.
But you gave a useful answer to all of the questions, thanks a lot for that :slight_smile:

/old-chap