The thing about software, and especially games is, they are never truly finished. There is always something to adjust.
... If anyone's wondering about my contribution to the RTC: I've thrown away a lot of ideas now and now I've turned to the most simple: Bossfights. So imagine a typical co-op map like Rifts to Korhal, but instead of destroying Void Shards you kill bosses. Will be a while before I can post screenshots; too much real-life stuff to do :)
I've played this map a few times now and I've seen some excellent progress. Map has a good vibe and with some more polishing I am sure can make the top 10. I also like that CybrosX is willing to make some drastic changes with terrain and gameplay if he sees something's not working right.
If anyone's interested here are a few ideas I've dismissed so far:
Idea: Have a bunch of enemies spawn every X minutes on a random location on the map. Players and the enemy have to rush in to kill them. Whoever kills a certain amount of them first wins.
Dismissed: I couldn't find a logical explanation as to why these enemies would appear there, at least not with the setting I had in mind. I'm also afraid that the battles would have gotten confusing in a 2v1v1 scenario.
Idea: Support a neutral boss unit in defeating an enemy boss unit. As the enemy boss unit loses life, it will draw back into enemy territory. Enemy forces will occasionally attack the neutral boss. Losing him means losing the map.
Dismissed: The neutral boss was a ground unit which led to a lot of pathing issues, especially when bein blocked by player buildings. Also I found that he was quite boring to look at in a duel.
Idea(s): Have enemy bosses duel in a city, kill them to prevent them from destroying too many buildings/Enemy bosses are spread around a city and need to be killed before they destroy too many buildings/Destroy a fixed number of buildings before the enemy does.
Dismissed: More or less because of the setting. Blizzard already has some city-based coop maps. Also I could never really think of a reason why the players would have to destroy the buildings (can be infected.... but Blizzard is already making the Left 2 Die map)...
Idea: Different phases: First, protect a certain unit, then escort it to defeat a boss, then protect it again, and then escort it again to defeat a boss.
Dismissed: Even when removing the second set of protect/escort/defeat the objectives felt too complicated and the map layout required to do this was either too big or didn't quite feel right.
You could say that a lot of these ideas are viable as long as I fix 1 or 2 things, but since it's still early in the competition I want to explore alternatives.
My current idea is a very simplified version of one of the ones I mentioned. While there's still time to explore ideas, I believe , in the end, it doesn't matter much which one I pick, it matters what I make of it.
Your Gladiators idea sounds like something I'm working on, including the Tileset^^, but it will not be as "crazy". Accessibility is a huge factor here. If you add too many features players might not know what is expected of them. E.g. if you add multiple enemy races people might get confused as to which one they have to fight (as there is also one ally that might be the same race as the enemy).
Generally I'm not sure how crazy a mission should be. I think Blizzard will want something "standard", but polished as much as possible, so it works with many Mutators and all Commanders, and then players will want something more "Arcade", like your ideas.
I'll definitely continue to visit this thread. Can never have enough inspiration.
I didn't mean to criticise. Blizzard created these maps with certain design principles in mind:
- Replayability: Not only can you play with almost a dozen sub-factions, but as far as I know, the enemy's race and waves also change each time you play, and then there are the mutators
- Accessibility: Clear and simple objectives, with 1-2 bonus objectives at most, 1 enemy per map afaik
- Time limit: So no player can drag the map out endlessly and annoy the other player
- Very simple story (non-canon) and basically no cinematics, so players don't have to watch and listen to the same things over and over
Instead of changing these things I would make sure I would incorporate them into my own map.
I actually played the Oblivion Express mission at Gamescom before LotV was released, but I was dissapointed as it was only a rehashed campaign map. I am glad to see not all maps feel like that. After creating around 90 campaign maps and 10 co-op maps, I think Blizzard is mostly looking for new ideas. I mean, try to come up with something that follows the above principles but is also entirely new. It will be very, very hard.
I need to play the rest of the maps (6/10 now) before I start working on my own ideas.
In preparation for my own entry (not confirmed I'll really do it - still too early) I've now played 5 of the 10 existing co-op maps. They feel stripped down compared to my own maps. Blizzard has to make each map usable for all 3 races (which includes 11 sub-factions), base-building has to be included, they can't last too long (around 25-30 minutes), there aren't any real cinematics and just minor story-telling, and many, many other minor things.
It's all about the objectives and the theme. And then they polish these to perfection. ...This is actually a good thing. Were these maps as complicated as campaign maps it might have been to much work for me.
I wonder how much data can be customized until Blizzard says it's too much, also how "random" the enemies can be. I'm looking forward to the sample map Blizzard promised.
Outsider u going to join in on the fun? U practically made co-op before blizzard did. I bet they had the idea from your campaign!
I am installing SC2 right now. I will have a look some maps of my campaign (the ones with base-building elements) to see if the would make good foundations for the type of map Blizzard wants. If they don't I might create a new one from scratch.
Funny thing is... I'Ve never played a single co-op map by Blizzard (until a few minutes ago). I'll need to spend some time figuring out how they work.
I like the idea behind Sombra: Capture health packs and annoy enemies. though, she's hard to figure out how to play well.
I've tried out all game modes. 1v1 and 3v3 are really cool and exactly what I had hoped for.
I was against bringing in hero limit into quick play at first, but seeing how annoying it could become I guess it's OK to have a separate game mode named "All Heroes". At least for the time being there are still enough players to maintain so many game modes.
Most of the random brawls are cool, but I wish some of them wouldn't repeat as often as they do. One "High Noon" (6v6 all McCree on Route66) is enough for a night (or longer^^)....
From a feature perspective the update is really, really cool, bringing in lots of new things. My frustration is because of the balancing. As someone who mains tanks and specializes in Zarya I feel like being hit by a train. I do less damage and my ultimate now needs way too long to charge (always felt Zarya's ultimate needed a lot longer to charge then others'). I feel like I need to relearn too many things now. I'd rather wait for Season 3 to start fresh.
I was about to say they could just disable the Test Document function in their maps, but what's preventing a mapper from just copying everything he sees into another map?
0
The thing about software, and especially games is, they are never truly finished. There is always something to adjust.
... If anyone's wondering about my contribution to the RTC: I've thrown away a lot of ideas now and now I've turned to the most simple: Bossfights. So imagine a typical co-op map like Rifts to Korhal, but instead of destroying Void Shards you kill bosses. Will be a while before I can post screenshots; too much real-life stuff to do :)
0
I've played this map a few times now and I've seen some excellent progress. Map has a good vibe and with some more polishing I am sure can make the top 10. I also like that CybrosX is willing to make some drastic changes with terrain and gameplay if he sees something's not working right.
0
If anyone's interested here are a few ideas I've dismissed so far:
Idea: Have a bunch of enemies spawn every X minutes on a random location on the map. Players and the enemy have to rush in to kill them. Whoever kills a certain amount of them first wins.
Dismissed: I couldn't find a logical explanation as to why these enemies would appear there, at least not with the setting I had in mind. I'm also afraid that the battles would have gotten confusing in a 2v1v1 scenario.
Idea: Support a neutral boss unit in defeating an enemy boss unit. As the enemy boss unit loses life, it will draw back into enemy territory. Enemy forces will occasionally attack the neutral boss. Losing him means losing the map.
Dismissed: The neutral boss was a ground unit which led to a lot of pathing issues, especially when bein blocked by player buildings. Also I found that he was quite boring to look at in a duel.
Idea(s): Have enemy bosses duel in a city, kill them to prevent them from destroying too many buildings/Enemy bosses are spread around a city and need to be killed before they destroy too many buildings/Destroy a fixed number of buildings before the enemy does.
Dismissed: More or less because of the setting. Blizzard already has some city-based coop maps. Also I could never really think of a reason why the players would have to destroy the buildings (can be infected.... but Blizzard is already making the Left 2 Die map)...
Idea: Different phases: First, protect a certain unit, then escort it to defeat a boss, then protect it again, and then escort it again to defeat a boss.
Dismissed: Even when removing the second set of protect/escort/defeat the objectives felt too complicated and the map layout required to do this was either too big or didn't quite feel right.
You could say that a lot of these ideas are viable as long as I fix 1 or 2 things, but since it's still early in the competition I want to explore alternatives.
My current idea is a very simplified version of one of the ones I mentioned. While there's still time to explore ideas, I believe , in the end, it doesn't matter much which one I pick, it matters what I make of it.
0
Your Gladiators idea sounds like something I'm working on, including the Tileset^^, but it will not be as "crazy". Accessibility is a huge factor here. If you add too many features players might not know what is expected of them. E.g. if you add multiple enemy races people might get confused as to which one they have to fight (as there is also one ally that might be the same race as the enemy).
Generally I'm not sure how crazy a mission should be. I think Blizzard will want something "standard", but polished as much as possible, so it works with many Mutators and all Commanders, and then players will want something more "Arcade", like your ideas.
I'll definitely continue to visit this thread. Can never have enough inspiration.
0
I didn't mean to criticise. Blizzard created these maps with certain design principles in mind:
- Replayability: Not only can you play with almost a dozen sub-factions, but as far as I know, the enemy's race and waves also change each time you play, and then there are the mutators
- Accessibility: Clear and simple objectives, with 1-2 bonus objectives at most, 1 enemy per map afaik
- Time limit: So no player can drag the map out endlessly and annoy the other player
- Very simple story (non-canon) and basically no cinematics, so players don't have to watch and listen to the same things over and over
Instead of changing these things I would make sure I would incorporate them into my own map.
I actually played the Oblivion Express mission at Gamescom before LotV was released, but I was dissapointed as it was only a rehashed campaign map. I am glad to see not all maps feel like that. After creating around 90 campaign maps and 10 co-op maps, I think Blizzard is mostly looking for new ideas. I mean, try to come up with something that follows the above principles but is also entirely new. It will be very, very hard.
I need to play the rest of the maps (6/10 now) before I start working on my own ideas.
0
Haha.
In preparation for my own entry (not confirmed I'll really do it - still too early) I've now played 5 of the 10 existing co-op maps. They feel stripped down compared to my own maps. Blizzard has to make each map usable for all 3 races (which includes 11 sub-factions), base-building has to be included, they can't last too long (around 25-30 minutes), there aren't any real cinematics and just minor story-telling, and many, many other minor things.
It's all about the objectives and the theme. And then they polish these to perfection. ...This is actually a good thing. Were these maps as complicated as campaign maps it might have been to much work for me.
I wonder how much data can be customized until Blizzard says it's too much, also how "random" the enemies can be. I'm looking forward to the sample map Blizzard promised.
0
I am installing SC2 right now. I will have a look some maps of my campaign (the ones with base-building elements) to see if the would make good foundations for the type of map Blizzard wants. If they don't I might create a new one from scratch.
Funny thing is... I'Ve never played a single co-op map by Blizzard (until a few minutes ago). I'll need to spend some time figuring out how they work.
0
Well, well...
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Hmm what? There is a new website?
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I would play multiplayer but it's way too fast since LotV :(
Also no interest in mapping anymore. Maybe one more small update for my campaign...
But I'm looking forward to the Nova mission pack. One last ride...
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I like the idea behind Sombra: Capture health packs and annoy enemies. though, she's hard to figure out how to play well.
I've tried out all game modes. 1v1 and 3v3 are really cool and exactly what I had hoped for.
I was against bringing in hero limit into quick play at first, but seeing how annoying it could become I guess it's OK to have a separate game mode named "All Heroes". At least for the time being there are still enough players to maintain so many game modes.
Most of the random brawls are cool, but I wish some of them wouldn't repeat as often as they do. One "High Noon" (6v6 all McCree on Route66) is enough for a night (or longer^^)....
From a feature perspective the update is really, really cool, bringing in lots of new things. My frustration is because of the balancing. As someone who mains tanks and specializes in Zarya I feel like being hit by a train. I do less damage and my ultimate now needs way too long to charge (always felt Zarya's ultimate needed a lot longer to charge then others'). I feel like I need to relearn too many things now. I'd rather wait for Season 3 to start fresh.
0
This update...
I went from 3340 to under 3100 with a record of 1 win, 2 draws, and over 10 losses.... And that one win was because of leavers on the opposite team.
Uninstalled for now^^
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I was about to say they could just disable the Test Document function in their maps, but what's preventing a mapper from just copying everything he sees into another map?
0
Another co-op campaign on the arcade? Have to check it out! (making a sticky of this thread now)
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Just passing by to check my own amount of posts...
Congratulations to DrSuperEvil! It's rare to see someone stay that active for that long.