SD: Hire custom mappers from ET and RTCW

(potty200) #21

[QUOTE=ailmanki;510378]Its still breathing and alive.

I would love to see pure blockout maps. And I don’t mean see it now, and on next patch its already had its art pass. Nope I mean experiment with that blockout for 6monthes.

For et and its custom maps, usually only pub servers have those custom maps, in pro environment most aren’t good enough. There is only supply coming to my mind which is a custom map played in pro. The other ones had been ported from rtcw. And for the maps by SD, lets just say 50% is really excellent. Yet that is a better quota then the custom maps, as there are over 4000 maps. And only a hundred or so are played, even less are played regularly.[/QUOTE]

We was told to expect blockout maps in the near future like 12-18 months ago right? :smiley:

(k0k0nat) #22

At least we have Dome now. And this is finally one solid map.
I just bump this we because we desperately need more of this map-type.

And Raste’s map also looks very promising… PUT IT IN! ( hehehehe )

(potty200) #23

[QUOTE=k0k0nat;510392]At least we have Dome now. And this is finally one solid map.
I just bump this we because we desperately need more of this map-type.

And Raste’s map also looks very promising… PUT IT IN! ( hehehehe )[/QUOTE]

I still havent had the chance to play it and I really wanna! Who knows, I might have to bring some organised 5on5 games back so we can play these maps the way they should be!!!

(k0k0nat) #24

jop jop jop…maybe I would stop playing Destiny for an hour or so :smiley:

I only experienced 8vs8 on this map, which still feels very awkward in terms of testing it for competitive gameplay.
The other maps are just a pain with 16 ppl. on it.

(chippy) #25

+1

Not only that, but they tend to release updates to the maps they’re working on more often and usually combine that with a night of a few mixes/gathers on that particular map so they recieve almost constant instant feedback from the players on every single iteration of the map.

(Violator) #26

The custom content boat seemed to sail when Nexon came aboard…

(RasteRayzeR) #27

I believe one of the best example is UT4. Though ultra liberal they do end up getting really high quality content from their community. It’s an open competition between the modders, concept & level & audio designers. However the very important part of this is that the professionals @EPIC have shown what they expect from a map and have set the guidelines. This is not done yet with DB’s maps as the movement evolves (as Anti said).

Before allowing the community to make maps, SD should be sure to have a set of original maps the mappers can take as examples. This is not the case right now.

#28

I do get what you are saying, but I dont agree with you.

Its not a technical issue. Its something else. Its not because game settings arent done yet.
Imo the DB maps mostly fail to deliver the basics in “flow of teamplay”, and for that you only need blocks/walls.

(RasteRayzeR) #29

[QUOTE=JBRAA;510401]I do get what you are saying, but I dont agree with you.

Its not a technical issue. Its something else. Its not that game settings arent done yet.
Imo the DB maps mostly fail to deliver the basics in “flow of teamplay”, and for that you only need blocks/walls.[/QUOTE]

Sounds like a summary of all maps-related feedback for the past year. Cut these maps open and use block layout parts in them to test the modifications quickly. IMO the biggest problem is that SD want to polish everything way too much before releasing it for us to test. Results are changes set in stone that are unlikely to change in the future.

Would have been fine if we were still in alpha, like the game is supposed to be.

(Glottis-3D) #30

[QUOTE=RasteRayzeR;510403]Sounds like a summary of all maps-related feedback for the past year. Cut these maps open and use block layout parts in them to test the modifications quickly. IMO the biggest problem is that SD want to polish everything way too much before releasing it for us to test. Results are changes set in stone that are unlikely to change in the future.

Would have been fine if we were still in alpha, like the game is supposed to be.[/QUOTE]
tube-design with self moving spawns proved themselfs to be very boring and anti-intuitial.
who could thought??

(tokamak) #31

This is because there’s an entire team working on the game simultaneously.

The environment artists can’t wait for a map to be fully polished gameplay-wise. Giving blockouts an art-pass isn’t there to just make the map seem more polished. It’s also there for the artists to experiment with styles, create re-usable assets and textures.

(Glottis-3D) #32

What is SD’s thought on mappers’ contest in the future? ID software does those for quakelive, and that old game does get new cool maps out of these contests.

(warbie) #33

[QUOTE=tokamak;510406]This is because there’s an entire team working on the game simultaneously.

The environment artists can’t wait for a map to be fully polished gameplay-wise. Giving blockouts an art-pass isn’t there to just make the map seem more polished. It’s also there for the artists to experiment with styles, create re-usable assets and textures.[/QUOTE]

But giving obviously broken maps art pass after art pass after art pass, which is exactly what was happening, made no sense and just cemented all of us into testing something that didn’t and on the whole still doesn’t work. So much wasted time. Too much was committed to way too early. And again, all of this has been used to build current game mechanics on. And when it comes to maps - you shouldn’t have an entire team working simultaneously. Imagine if we’d had the chance to block out the current maps for half the time this beta has been going and letting the artists in for the second half. I’ve no doubt that everything, not just the maps, would be in a much better state.

//edit - I don’t want this to come across to negatively as I think the artists are doing good work. The game looks great. Gameplay has never flowed though. Areas are too small and narrow for the speed. There’s clutter everywhere to get stuck on. Too many attempted fixes have been shoehorned in after the fact. Elements that just plain worked from previous games - mostly relating to spawn times and forward spawns - have been dropped without giving them a chance.

(tokamak) #34

You’re right, but I think that’s an issue that lies more on the side of the mentality of the testers. Like, seeing fancy looking environments as set in stone, rather than SD being unwilling to change the maps.

The first art-passed version of Train Yard was aesthetically similar to the current one. Bit rough, but most of the assets, textures were already there. Then the map took an 360 turn gameplay wise and still retained it’s aesthetic value because artists were able to recycle what they’ve already made.

So this is a mental problem. Grey blocks convey that everything is open while art-passed, however rough, convey that it’s already set. The actual difference in flexibility is still there but it’s much lower than we may think due to us not accounting for the fact that the art team isn’t entirely the same as the testing/map block group (large overlap ofc but still).

(warbie) #35

You’re being selective - look at all the maps pre Train Yard. But yeah, not point flogging a dead horse. I think this process is committed down a path now, for better or worse.

(Anti) #36

Closing the thread before it gets too tetchy, good points have been made and are being considered. We certainly like the idea of custom content like community maps but there is a lot to consider and do before a system like that could be added to the game, very much one for the future if all goes well.