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@heat511: Go
Yeah it does need a lot more functionality. I think a ratings system would be stupendous. Players can rate the map after they play it and then you can sort by # of plays and rating. Many systems use both a popularity and rating system.
In addition, I would like a "new release" section & a random "active lobby" join section. New release is self-explanatory; by random "active lobby" I essentially mean the SC & WC3 system. I daresay that SC & WC3's great lasting power resulted from the custom map scene (how many copies of WC3 sold because of dota?), so I simply can't imagine they don't improve their system eventually. And there's no reason they can't have these many options.
At some point though, the mapmaker needs to take some responsibility for advertising their own map. Make some friends and get them started playing on it. If your map is really good, they'll keep playing it and invite their friends and etc, etc. Or post it around the various mapmaking sites that will exist. If your map is quality, it'll get noticed :>
I don't think number of games started in the last hour is really indicative of popularity in the first place. Number of games started * average number of players per game * average game length would be a much better approximation of a given map's popularity. The reason Battlecraft is at the top is because most games last 2 minutes and only 4 people can play, so new games get started every second. Meanwhile, hour long 12+ player maps like Risk get stuck at the bottom.
A somewhat randomized popularity sort would be good; give more popular maps more chances to be ranked high, but don't guarantee it. Something with popularity of 1024 could be only 2x more likely to be ranked higher than a 512 popularity map, and only 6x more likely to be ranked higher than a 16 popularity map. Since there are more unpopular maps, they'd fill most of your slots.
Of course... during beta, the mapmakers who put in the most effort are the ones who advertise heavily. After release, the number of mapmakers will explode and any individual mapmaker would be drowned out by the noise...
pfft.... i think i put just as much effort as the next guy into my map but i can't get the damn thing to show up on the list. I even tried cheating the system and hosting a ton of games myself... nothing. If this were WC3 i could just host my map and people would see it and join and the thing would spread like wildfire because its fricken line tower wars, but right now there's no way to get people to join.
Why dont they just make it so the list of custom games is made up of maps being played then you click on that map and it opens up another list of all games of that map being played atm.
Also, i'm only advertising the sh*t out of my map series on mapster until b.net is released. I refuse to shrink the file size bc my map is heaivly dependent on sound/environment. I shrunk all the sound files to try to publish it to b.net and im sorry you would be better putting a live fly in each ear, sealing it shut with duct tape(BZZZAZAAZZZZZZAAA!) then hearing my map with compressed sounds. Even when i do publish it, its only going to be a dumbed down multiplayer version.. mapster = greatest place for single player experience maps.
Save yourself the effort; just don't make or release anything until Blizzard decides to hire someone who actually knows how custom maps work. Until then, boycott them.
I think a "maps being hosted right now" sort in order of time would work. This would almost work like Warcraft III, except that, say, Dota would take one slot that would usually be on top, but not always.
I still don't understand the popularity algorithm. My horribly broken (CRASH ON LOADING SCREEN) version of Evolves Redux is the one that reached the top 10 on the US list. The many versions before and after that broken one are not popular, but the one that instantly crashes rose to the top 10 very quickly.
agreed, the current system sucks balls. How come we can search for a map to host by typing the name in the searchbox, yet this function isnt available for joining games.......
Yea, I have put many hours into my map but have slowed down a lot recently now that i realize that it probably wont get popular at all....
There's a few sorts/selections which would be useful.
Category - When you make a map you're able to give it a category so why not have a menu to limit by it (To easily find TD's, Hero Maps, whatever you like).
Current Games - All not full lobbied games should be chucked into this list in a random order so people can go fill up the slots. This should be the standard display.
Age - So you can grab a list of the latest uploaded maps & play them.
Search - Of course an easy search method for specific maps should be available, as well as a favourite's system so any maps that YOU play on a lot can be pulled up quickly, as often they are what you'll be looking for anyway.
Additionally if they do wish to have some sort of 'popularity' option it should be a rating instead, such that only the maps people actually enjoy are at the top of the list not just the ones which got lucky & ended up there basically by accident, and also because then maps would be able to get kicked out of the top few by being shit :P
I'm fairly sure how the algorithm works, but someone should make sure im getting this right...
First, a map starts at 0 popularity at the bottom of the list (as stated). After a group of people play it, its popularity rises, either by the number of games or players. As more players play a game, its popularity rises even more. The higher it is on the list, the more people play it, making an almost permanent list that was started from the last reset. Also, when a map doesnt last very long (eg crashes on start) more people may (try to) replay it, again increasing its popularity (therefore it goes up on list, more people play it, and so on).
Thus, a bulleted list (please add more points if you wish):
On a side note, you must look through the whole popularity list to find the newest maps, all the way at the bottom. The create map screen does not have a search all function.
I scrapped my plans for an epic tower capture 6v6 with a deforming arena and strategic gameplay, and went with (currently) a 3v3 which may turn all the way into a FFA 4 player deathmatch that lasts 10 minutes.
No sense making a deep map. Hail Battlecraft. Hail instant gratification.
I'm probably going to stick with singleplayer experiences until this system gets better.
Singleplayer stuff can still get extremely popular through these awesome sites :)
Isn't the popularity system asking for exploitation? An automated (and it will happen if popularity continues) hoster that drops out after starting the game could easily add it to the top list, especially with multiple friends.
@Windexglow: Go
I feel like I should say this... the "games created" is simply a count of games made public.
So, if you want to artificially boost your game's popularity, all you need to do is create your game then make it public then quit. You don't even need to START the game. That counts as one hit.
Thus, if you use an automated macro program (like Quick Macro), you can start it up and step away and add 1 to your popularity count about every 5 seconds, depending on how long it takes you to load the lobby. So, from a single person auto-hosting, you can get a popularity of about 500 games/hour.
As happy I am to learn about this new method that xenrathe just said above... it makes me very sad that because of this knowledge, the custom map list will not really be the list of most popular maps. It will become the list of people who spent the most time promoting their maps.
I want Brood War's Battle.net.
@xenrathe: Go
Oh geeze, if you're right I really want to know what blizzard was smoking when they did it. With the beta ending (and having no intention to buy a cd-key) I might just see if it is possible to exploit this.
Hell, even a simple mouse-click macro could do this..
Thanks for the tip. If they don't care about their game, I won't care either. That's exactly what I'm going to do after release. :D
So do I :(
But I still want to keep SC2's party system.