That's an easy trap to fall into as an author, but the maps that are up there didn't get there by accident.
I've watched a lot of maps rise and fall. Getting to page 1 isn't easy, but it is doable (reliably so) if you understand the factors that go into it, and are willing to put in the work to bring those things together in one place.
In no particular order:
Fun
Novelty
Accessibility
Polish
Promotion
Replayability
The maps that are up there may not be the best games ever made, but they do hit most or all of those points above.
You know it's an early preview, right? This is them showing it to us and saying "hey, here's a look at the direction we're going with this. Tell us what you think."
Did you not read the OP and how it even gave a direct email address for feedback? It sounds like they're really looking for mapper input on this.
Instead of flipping out, why not make a list of the stuff you don't like or feel could be better and send it in to them?
Yeah I actually see Hard difficulty being quite...err..hard. I've been unable to win in 3 successive attempts with random people, usually because one person wasted a bunch of resources >_>
The attacks are absolutely relentless and if you start to fall behind it's a slow (potentially >1hr) and painful death from there. You might want to consider some degree of difficulty adjustment based on player success level. Either quickly wipe out teams who are struggling too much, or give them some additional breathing room to catch up.
Interesting game overall, though. You've done quite a few things I like here.
Yeah you could use a hacky method like invisible units that are killed once they enter vision range of your units, but I expect that would be a bit glitchy and may have performance implications.
I'd also be curious if there's a "smarter" way to do this with validators or something.
I'm having something of a debate with a friend and hoping to prove him wrong. He claims that few people would want to spend the time making a "good" map or set of maps in the "single player/campaign" style because those kind of maps are consumed once and never played again.
I know they're out there and I'd very much like to prove him wrong, but my direct experience with such maps is pretty minimal.
Can any of you name and possibly link to some examples so I can go "look, see? there's lots of awesome stuff here that people have put a ton of time into and is really fun". I'd like to gather a number of examples to help support my point if possible :)
I wasn't serious, but be careful with the "she wasn't mad" stuff. This tends to backfire, if she really had an issue with you going there.
This man is wise. If a woman is angry, she'll tell you. But if she's truly hurt, she'll say nothing until she has the opportunity to pay you back appropriately.
...And, well, it kinda sounds like you've got it coming >_>
It sounds like there are actually some pretty substantial changes planned with Swarm, both in terms of editor improvements and pop system improvements.
I don't have links off the top of my head, but you should be able to find the Blizzcon coverage on Youtube.
I would argue that the player's failure to understand is the fault of the person who designed the game.
If you need a wall of text on the loading screen to teach people the rules, that's probably a sign that your game needs to be more intuitive or needs to do a better job of teaching while you play.
This game I think may change the way MMO's are played...... we can hope anyways....
Wouldn't it have to be something more than a highly polished WoW clone to do that?
Granted, the quest experiences seem to be really heavily developed from what I've seen. I'm curious if they can maintain that level of quality and still deliver content patches in a timely manner going forward.
At any rate, if a game is going to change the face of MMOs, it's going to need to introduce entirely new ways to play - new types of content. Try to imagine an MMO without a traditional "quest" structure that still has a strong story experience and a sense of incremental character progression.
Or alternatively, I'd love to see an MMO that figures out how to take advantage of user-generated content without breaking the character progression model.
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@playlessNamer:
That's an easy trap to fall into as an author, but the maps that are up there didn't get there by accident.
I've watched a lot of maps rise and fall. Getting to page 1 isn't easy, but it is doable (reliably so) if you understand the factors that go into it, and are willing to put in the work to bring those things together in one place.
In no particular order:
The maps that are up there may not be the best games ever made, but they do hit most or all of those points above.
0
@Taintedwisp:
Or we could consider the possibility that your map disappeared due to an unintended problem or error.
I know that's crazy and nothing like that would ever happen on an Alpha server, but I figured I'd throw it out there.
(In all seriousness, I'm pretty sure they would've included something that major in the patch notes. It's probably just a bug.)
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@Karawasa:
They're mockups. Basically his suggestion for how he'd alter it if it were up to him.
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@Hookah604:
You know it's an early preview, right? This is them showing it to us and saying "hey, here's a look at the direction we're going with this. Tell us what you think."
Did you not read the OP and how it even gave a direct email address for feedback? It sounds like they're really looking for mapper input on this.
Instead of flipping out, why not make a list of the stuff you don't like or feel could be better and send it in to them?
@Thorgan8:
Yeah they did: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/4592755
They're calling it an alpha so I wouldn't worry about missing features just yet. At least not until they start calling it a beta >_>
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@A1win: Go
Yeah I actually see Hard difficulty being quite...err..hard. I've been unable to win in 3 successive attempts with random people, usually because one person wasted a bunch of resources >_>
The attacks are absolutely relentless and if you start to fall behind it's a slow (potentially >1hr) and painful death from there. You might want to consider some degree of difficulty adjustment based on player success level. Either quickly wipe out teams who are struggling too much, or give them some additional breathing room to catch up.
Interesting game overall, though. You've done quite a few things I like here.
0
Yeah you could use a hacky method like invisible units that are killed once they enter vision range of your units, but I expect that would be a bit glitchy and may have performance implications.
I'd also be curious if there's a "smarter" way to do this with validators or something.
0
Cool thanks :)
Any other recommendations? It sounds like I really should take some time to try the SC1 remakes.
0
Hey guys,
I'm having something of a debate with a friend and hoping to prove him wrong. He claims that few people would want to spend the time making a "good" map or set of maps in the "single player/campaign" style because those kind of maps are consumed once and never played again.
I know they're out there and I'd very much like to prove him wrong, but my direct experience with such maps is pretty minimal.
Can any of you name and possibly link to some examples so I can go "look, see? there's lots of awesome stuff here that people have put a ton of time into and is really fun". I'd like to gather a number of examples to help support my point if possible :)
Thanks!
0
This man is wise. If a woman is angry, she'll tell you. But if she's truly hurt, she'll say nothing until she has the opportunity to pay you back appropriately.
...And, well, it kinda sounds like you've got it coming >_>
0
It sounds like there are actually some pretty substantial changes planned with Swarm, both in terms of editor improvements and pop system improvements.
I don't have links off the top of my head, but you should be able to find the Blizzcon coverage on Youtube.
0
@Rice87: Go
It sounds like you want to be modifying their Maximum life, rather than their Current life.
0
@Kabelkorven: Go
Are you trying to apply the Warp In animation as opposed to just making them appear? (it seems odd to warp in an already-burrowed unit in that sense)
Any reason you wouldn't want to just create them using a "Create Unit at Point" trigger action?
0
@Hookah604: Go
I would argue that the player's failure to understand is the fault of the person who designed the game.
If you need a wall of text on the loading screen to teach people the rules, that's probably a sign that your game needs to be more intuitive or needs to do a better job of teaching while you play.
0
Oh that's really cool.
Thanks for putting it together! :)
0
Wouldn't it have to be something more than a highly polished WoW clone to do that?
Granted, the quest experiences seem to be really heavily developed from what I've seen. I'm curious if they can maintain that level of quality and still deliver content patches in a timely manner going forward.
At any rate, if a game is going to change the face of MMOs, it's going to need to introduce entirely new ways to play - new types of content. Try to imagine an MMO without a traditional "quest" structure that still has a strong story experience and a sense of incremental character progression.
Or alternatively, I'd love to see an MMO that figures out how to take advantage of user-generated content without breaking the character progression model.