Hi I'm United_Strafes or you can call me Travis...or Mr. Strafes if you prefer.
Anyway I'm writing an article on Community maps for http://www.gamereplays.org/portals.php
I have a ton of questions about the mapmaking process and what you need to do when you want to submit your map, and reasons why maps would be denied. Also would like someone to answer the question of if your map is not accepted is that it? Is there no way at all to have your map played if it is not accepted?
What are the five basic steps you need to go through once you complete a map?
Hopefully if things go well then I'll be writing about and featuring community made stuff every couple weeks.
Any and all replies are welcome and when answering any questions please assume I have no clue about the map making and submission process....cause I don't.
Maps don't have to be approved. When you upload your map to Battle.net everything is automated. The map will be available to public pretty much instantly.
However, if some user reports the map to Blizzard for behind inappropriate then the map will be checked. If it is found inappropriate then it will be deleted.
So basically I could host a completely empty map and still everyone could play it.
The reason why maps don't get played right now, and why many mapmakers are discouraged, is simply the bad Populary system that Blizzard's got in place.
In case you don't know:
The current system sorts all maps by popularity. The more times a map is hosted per hour the higher it is placed. Thus the first few pages of the Custom Game list are filled with very frequently played maps (with the convenient side effect that these games fill up with players real quick).
However, when you publish a new map it starts with zero popularity, as it has never been played until now. As a result your map will appear on the 50th page of the game list. No one looking for new UMS maps will bother scrolling down till there. Your map will never be played, thus never get popular, thus never be played. A vicious circle indeed.
Your only chance is to have a lot of friends who can help you boost the popularity or to post your map on Starcraft sites such as Mapster. Basically the only maps to escape this vicious circle are top most awesome incredible maps that make you want to play them by just looking at them.
@ mm2jswizzy Thats a great video...thanks for the help!
@s3rius
Also many thanks...exactly what I was looking for. I can see how that can be discouraging to mapmakers. So maybe if more people knew that maps in the top popularity spots aren't necissarilly going to be the most fun they're just the most played.
Also I have 1 more question i forgot....
If you submit your map through say the EU region servers will it only be available to players in the same region?
@ mm2jswizzy Thats a great video...thanks for the help!
@s3rius Also many thanks...exactly what I was looking for. I can see how that can be discouraging to mapmakers. So maybe if more people knew that maps in the top popularity spots aren't necissarilly going to be the most fun they're just the most played.
Also I have 1 more question i forgot.... If you submit your map through say the EU region servers will it only be available to players in the same region?
Yes, if you publish a map on the EU server it will only be available on the EU server unless you upload it to the other servers too (or get someone else to do it for you if you don't want to spend another $60). Currently, in most peoples opinions, the custom map pool is more or less gimped. New maps never surface because of the popularity system. Blizzard is hopefully working on a new system for the first content patch.
Hi I'm United_Strafes or you can call me Travis...or Mr. Strafes if you prefer.
Anyway I'm writing an article on Community maps for http://www.gamereplays.org/portals.php I have a ton of questions about the mapmaking process and what you need to do when you want to submit your map, and reasons why maps would be denied. Also would like someone to answer the question of if your map is not accepted is that it? Is there no way at all to have your map played if it is not accepted?
What are the five basic steps you need to go through once you complete a map?
Hopefully if things go well then I'll be writing about and featuring community made stuff every couple weeks.
Any and all replies are welcome and when answering any questions please assume I have no clue about the map making and submission process....cause I don't.
Thanks alot!
@UnitedStrafes: Go
Onetwo made a video on map publishing, I assume it is still valid
http:www.youtube.com/user/OneTwoSC#p/c/CF248D5926AFA543
Maps don't have to be approved. When you upload your map to Battle.net everything is automated. The map will be available to public pretty much instantly.
However, if some user reports the map to Blizzard for behind inappropriate then the map will be checked. If it is found inappropriate then it will be deleted.
So basically I could host a completely empty map and still everyone could play it.
The reason why maps don't get played right now, and why many mapmakers are discouraged, is simply the bad Populary system that Blizzard's got in place.
In case you don't know:
The current system sorts all maps by popularity. The more times a map is hosted per hour the higher it is placed. Thus the first few pages of the Custom Game list are filled with very frequently played maps (with the convenient side effect that these games fill up with players real quick).
However, when you publish a new map it starts with zero popularity, as it has never been played until now. As a result your map will appear on the 50th page of the game list. No one looking for new UMS maps will bother scrolling down till there. Your map will never be played, thus never get popular, thus never be played. A vicious circle indeed.
Your only chance is to have a lot of friends who can help you boost the popularity or to post your map on Starcraft sites such as Mapster. Basically the only maps to escape this vicious circle are top most awesome incredible maps that make you want to play them by just looking at them.
@ mm2jswizzy Thats a great video...thanks for the help!
@s3rius Also many thanks...exactly what I was looking for. I can see how that can be discouraging to mapmakers. So maybe if more people knew that maps in the top popularity spots aren't necissarilly going to be the most fun they're just the most played.
Also I have 1 more question i forgot.... If you submit your map through say the EU region servers will it only be available to players in the same region?
Yes, if you publish a map on the EU server it will only be available on the EU server unless you upload it to the other servers too (or get someone else to do it for you if you don't want to spend another $60). Currently, in most peoples opinions, the custom map pool is more or less gimped. New maps never surface because of the popularity system. Blizzard is hopefully working on a new system for the first content patch.
@ST4RKiLL3R: GoThanks alot, the popularity system not being all it should be is definately something I want to talk about in the article.