Right now there's a 20 file upload limit to battle.net. Recently the file size limit was raised from 150mb to 300mb. It'd be great to see the file limit raised too. Uploading already takes a while and doubling that per account each time a mod file or map file needs to be updated is inefficient.
Reasons to do this;
Mapmakers could use the extra space. Anyone who is making a campaign (of which there are many) or enjoys producing melee-arcade hybrids (Starbow for example) would benefit from this, instead of having to resort to user-made installers or splitting maps across half a dozen accounts.
There are fewer active mapmakers these days. The upload limit doesn't need to be as tight.
Mapmakers, myself included, will become more open to creating lighter projects without having to worry over the map upload limit. These light projects can enjoy a very high amount of traffic sometimes, and more of them can only draw people into the arcade.
The fact that many custom campaigns remain off the arcade shows that the upload limit is a problem. These campaigns, such as Mass Recall, have huge exposure, appearing in many popular gaming articles (http://www.pcgamer.com/play-the-original-starcraft-and-brood-war-in-starcraft-2/) and anything that helps preserve and expose these projects can only be good for the arcade.
Although I agree with what you propose, do keep in mind two things
1) Number of active mapmakers is irrelevant. They either allocate the space/records for every paid account, or the number of maps is simply stored in a database, and has no bearing what so ever on the player count.
2) People often use up slots simply because many of us, for a variety of reasons, do not use other peoples hosted files, so we end up reinventing the wheel a TON. Though this is not entirely the modders fault, they are not software people by profession usually, and thus such practices are unknown to them.
I vote yes to map size and file size. Campaigns deserve to be on the arcade.
Personally I'm against it.
There's lag even if you're the only player.
You can't create a manual save, and have to rely on trigger/bank saving instead. This would increase the work that has to be done for campaings that do have data that carries over maps.
The project is inaccessible for other mapmakers and becomes lost once the original creator becomes inactive. Let the original file upload on SC2Mapster be gone as well and it's gone forever!
Don't even get me started of the inability to load a new map after the first one finished. A player could search for the next map in the arcade and start it - but let's face it, many people will quit if the first mission wasn't convincing enough.
Remember, you can't use cheats in the Arcade. If a player is stuck because it is too difficult (not every custom campaign allows for difficulty selection), or the map is broken in some way, then that's it.
There's so much we sacrifice for the convenience of having the stuff on the cloud (aka Arcade), I don't think it's worth it. But maybe that's just me.
EDIT: I do agree that the file limit should be increased though. Perhaps it should be at least doubled to 40 files per account.
This is only an issue if the mapmaker locks the map. Really mapmakers shouldn't.
You can use cheats, you just have to enable them in triggers (Allow/Disallow Cheat, you can set which cheats you want to allow).
They have indicate they will be working on allowing loading of multiple maps. Now, I can hear it now "They said that before...." This time however, is slightly different, in that they have added a SP category to the Arcade, and also the work they've done for Allied Commanders (which has a screen to select the maps in a campaign)
It would be great if Blizzard could prove me wrong. Most of my experience comes from pre-2015 playing sessions in the arcade, but if Legacy of the Void has/can improve on things, all the better.
While saving can be an issue, I think you shouldn't make your maps incredibly long either. Also don't stack the hardest stuff at the end of the map. And of course you can always release your maps both in arcade and local so people can choose which they prefer.
I would love a reasonable way for people to play Antioch on the Arcade. I'd guess that we average around 50 audio files per map (with a lot of variance), plus we use custom music, models, etc. Uncompressed, the campaign and all our supporting mods is about 1GB, spanning (currently) 25 maps. I guess I'm just not sure what it would take for the Arcade to actually let people play it in the way we intended.
There should be some reward program for successful Arcade maps which award their creator's account more storage space and map slots.
To prevent robotic farming abuse this is based on the number of unique accounts and total play time of each for any account holding a SC2 licence (not free accounts). For very popular maps then storage space for the developer would be less of a concern.
Blizzard has stated many time recently that they would like to work with mapmakers on an individual basis. I think it that this should be a part of that. If TYA has many popular games on the arcade, blizzard should look at them and say, "Hey, for this individual case, we should work with this mapmaker to ensure they are able to continue their mapping." The same should go for campaigns. If a well made campaign is made; blizzard should would with that individual to ensure the world gets to play their creation.
This is idealisitc, sure, and arguably unfair for some people. If Blizzard decides to work with any mapmaker on a specific project (arcade highlights) than that project is being treated above the rest. This is the real world though; not everyone gets a trophy.
Someone who knows how to get Blizz attention, run this by them, see what they think.
Blizzard has stated many time recently that they would like to work with mapmakers on an individual basis. I think it that this should be a part of that. If TYA has many popular games on the arcade, blizzard should look at them and say, "Hey, for this individual case, we should work with this mapmaker to ensure they are able to continue their mapping." The same should go for campaigns. If a well made campaign is made; blizzard should would with that individual to ensure the world gets to play their creation.
This is idealisitc, sure, and arguably unfair for some people. If Blizzard decides to work with any mapmaker on a specific project (arcade highlights) than that project is being treated above the rest. This is the real world though; not everyone gets a trophy.
Someone who knows how to get Blizz attention, run this by them, see what they think.
Well, there are a number of outstanding campaigns, but it's not a big one. They could honestly just work with all of us [if you'll pardon my hubris] to get set up on the Arcade. Of course, they'll need to fix my editor, first...
Right now there's a 20 file upload limit to battle.net. Recently the file size limit was raised from 150mb to 300mb. It'd be great to see the file limit raised too. Uploading already takes a while and doubling that per account each time a mod file or map file needs to be updated is inefficient.
Reasons to do this;
The fact that many custom campaigns remain off the arcade shows that the upload limit is a problem. These campaigns, such as Mass Recall, have huge exposure, appearing in many popular gaming articles (http://www.pcgamer.com/play-the-original-starcraft-and-brood-war-in-starcraft-2/) and anything that helps preserve and expose these projects can only be good for the arcade.
I vote yes to map size and file size. Campaigns deserve to be on the arcade.
@TyaArcade: Go
Although I agree with what you propose, do keep in mind two things
1) Number of active mapmakers is irrelevant. They either allocate the space/records for every paid account, or the number of maps is simply stored in a database, and has no bearing what so ever on the player count.
2) People often use up slots simply because many of us, for a variety of reasons, do not use other peoples hosted files, so we end up reinventing the wheel a TON. Though this is not entirely the modders fault, they are not software people by profession usually, and thus such practices are unknown to them.
Personally I'm against it.
There's so much we sacrifice for the convenience of having the stuff on the cloud (aka Arcade), I don't think it's worth it. But maybe that's just me.
EDIT: I do agree that the file limit should be increased though. Perhaps it should be at least doubled to 40 files per account.
@TheAzureguy: Go
The lag has been reduced considerably
Saving is indeed an issue
This is only an issue if the mapmaker locks the map. Really mapmakers shouldn't.
You can use cheats, you just have to enable them in triggers (Allow/Disallow Cheat, you can set which cheats you want to allow).
They have indicate they will be working on allowing loading of multiple maps. Now, I can hear it now "They said that before...." This time however, is slightly different, in that they have added a SP category to the Arcade, and also the work they've done for Allied Commanders (which has a screen to select the maps in a campaign)
@ArcaneDurandel: Go
It would be great if Blizzard could prove me wrong. Most of my experience comes from pre-2015 playing sessions in the arcade, but if Legacy of the Void has/can improve on things, all the better.
While saving can be an issue, I think you shouldn't make your maps incredibly long either. Also don't stack the hardest stuff at the end of the map. And of course you can always release your maps both in arcade and local so people can choose which they prefer.
I would love a reasonable way for people to play Antioch on the Arcade. I'd guess that we average around 50 audio files per map (with a lot of variance), plus we use custom music, models, etc. Uncompressed, the campaign and all our supporting mods is about 1GB, spanning (currently) 25 maps. I guess I'm just not sure what it would take for the Arcade to actually let people play it in the way we intended.
There should be some reward program for successful Arcade maps which award their creator's account more storage space and map slots.
To prevent robotic farming abuse this is based on the number of unique accounts and total play time of each for any account holding a SC2 licence (not free accounts). For very popular maps then storage space for the developer would be less of a concern.
Blizzard has stated many time recently that they would like to work with mapmakers on an individual basis. I think it that this should be a part of that. If TYA has many popular games on the arcade, blizzard should look at them and say, "Hey, for this individual case, we should work with this mapmaker to ensure they are able to continue their mapping." The same should go for campaigns. If a well made campaign is made; blizzard should would with that individual to ensure the world gets to play their creation.
This is idealisitc, sure, and arguably unfair for some people. If Blizzard decides to work with any mapmaker on a specific project (arcade highlights) than that project is being treated above the rest. This is the real world though; not everyone gets a trophy.
Someone who knows how to get Blizz attention, run this by them, see what they think.
Skype: [email protected] Current Project: Custom Hero Arena! US: battlenet:://starcraft/map/1/263274 EU: battlenet:://starcraft/map/2/186418
Well, there are a number of outstanding campaigns, but it's not a big one. They could honestly just work with all of us [if you'll pardon my hubris] to get set up on the Arcade. Of course, they'll need to fix my editor, first...
Up you go. Up past all the kitchen sales bots. New expansion is about to hit and I so do not want to have to buy it 2-3 times!