Seems like many maps in the top 10 played or rated maps have been abandoned by their original developers; specifically Desert Strike and Special Forces are maps that haven't received updates in a very long time. Newer versions of both of them exist, made by people involved in their original teams, but they have no chance to get play time while the originals exist and people just keep jumping to their bookmarks.
I understand it wouldn't be fair to necessarily remove the work on someone who worked hard on their map, so honestly I'm not sure what the right course of action would be. Maybe maps automatically become unpublished if they don't receive any updates after six months, or players should be able to mark a map as "abandoned" so it can be manually removed by a staff member when a new version is present.
@Lucavious: Go I agree older lobbies should stay on top of the new ones, but I don't think it will do wonders for unpopular maps. We've been bashing blizzard all this time saying the popularity system was broken. Now we have open lobbies and some people insist to say its broken. Some wont be satisfied until their maps get popular somehow, THAT line of thought is broken.
I know my map will never be a popular map, so if I want a popular map I'd better start working on a new map that suits what the majority of players want to play. It's simple like that.
Indeed, I'm seeing a bit of that too. No matter what Blizzard does, I do think people need to remember that it's always been very difficult to get your map played by people.
Right now Blizzard is closer, but I just wish they'd talk to someone who really has their finger on the community's pulse instead of trying to make guesses at what we want or how we want it. Like just sit down and have a long, detailed conversation.
I don't agree that these small changes are the root of the problem, I think that people are always going to whine and complain because a lot of the people who play Starcraft are really stupid. Honestly, everyone is playing Starcraft for instant gratification, Blizzard made a really big and awesome change but they forgot to idiotproof it, which means that most of the community is stupid and won't try new things. Another big problem is what I call the Big Hyprocicy, there are idiots out there who hate the system and still won't spend 10 minutes of their time to wait for games. I think that if people start seeing that waiting is helpful, then they will wait longer. When the arcade was released, people were waiting a long time for games, the wait times are very similar to WC3 and honestly if your map is niche and no one wants to play then don't expect popularity, expect a niche community.
In Warcraft III if your room wasn't filled in about two minutes you generally weren't going to fill it because your map wasn't on the game list anymore. I don't think people are stupid for not sitting around doing nothing for 10 minutes. Who wants to do that in a videogame?
You can't blame an entire community for simply using the interface the way it was designed.
Might as well update progress. Second level working flawlessly. Redid all the triggers for spawning so that a single loop handles every round, just need to reassign the variables each time to define the monsters, spawn points, spawn frequency, and location.
If you are thinking about jumping in to help, I could use someone to add a unit or two, maybe design some monster waves, or just create some spawning rooms in the terrain editor. Any small amount helps :)
I can help with hero kits ability ideas. Instead of simply fighting waves of eniemies you should incorporate puzzle rooms etc. I recall a running man style game being created before.
Maybe. I'm starting with a very simple idea to begin with. Rounds of enemies, class changing, lots of killing, etc. because when I plan big I tend to give up after a while. So I'll make this simple and fun map, and if I get that done then I'll start adding more complex things to it like puzzle rooms, big boss battles, etc.
If you wanted to just goof around and make some unit classes to morph into I'd be all for that.
The lobby definitely needs changing. Firstly it needs to show oldest lobbies first so people don't sit around with half a lobby for 20 minutes waiting for someone to join because they fell off the list.
Secondly the "open games" button needs to be more prominent. Most people are still going straight to the most played list, nullifying the point of even having open games. I think the fact that the top rated and top played lists rarely change is proof enough they don't really know about the open games button.
Honestly whoever is in charge of these decisions does need to be fired or demoted. They're incompetent. It took more than two years to get this and it still isn't done right, even though the community has made it plenty clear that live game lobbies were the most important aspect missing from battle.net 2.0. There's no excuse for these problems at this point.
Updated. Got more things done today. Once again even though I can certainly finish this map on my own, if anyone is bored and know's the editor well enough I'd be happy to have the help.
- Round 1 wave works; spawns zerglings continuously until timer runs out, then arena opens up to let players shop
- Class changing shop works complete with dialogs for choosing and animated portrait windows.
- Every player starts with a basic marine for the first round but can upgrade into a Ghost, Zealot, or Medic afterward
Mechanics for class upgrading and wave spawning are pretty much done. Now to actually add the wave units, classes, and make another dialog tree for upgrading things like damage and health.
I wanna play Smash TV damnit and nobody has made anything that resembles it for Starcraft II. If you played custom maps during the original Starcraft days then you know exactly what I'm talking about.
If you're not familiar, essentially a group of players moves from room to room with constantly spawning enemies killing bad guys, getting money, changing into different units, and eventually killing the boss round at the end of the level. It's a lot of fun.
I can do this map on my own, but in the interest of completing it faster I'd love some help from people who would like to see the map brought to Starcraft II as much as I do.
I've already completed the basic functions for spawning rounds and the map is playable, though features are pretty bare. I need to create dialog menus for upgrading your unit into different unit types and buying upgrades. Then there's the basic work of making the units and abilities in data editor.
I hope I'm not doing something wrong, but when I try to launch Galaxy Editor after installing I get an error after about 20 seconds saying it has stopped working and allows me to report the problem. I installed XNA 3.1 per the original post so I'm not sure what else to do. Currently running Windows 7 32 bit.
Thanks for any help!
Also I have no idea why my text is green. It looks plain here...
edit: Solved by running in Windows Vista compatibility mode and running as administrator. Weird.
@Taintedwisp: Go Lol yeah, Now that you are finished they should release 1.5 so people can go through that Mapp store and find your map. What are we waiting for? Marine Arena and Monobattles? Pfffff :-D
I think Marine Arena is a fantastic game right guys >_>
Could be that they invited specific publishers of popular maps so that the top maps would be 1.5 ready when it launched since it needs a lot of new artwork and content to make it all look right.
EDIT: Since I can't find any mention of an NDA I'll share a little of what I've played with so far:
- Changelogs included as part of the map. I'm not going to be using them unless it's changed because right now you have to click a button, type one line of the changelog, then click again to add a new line. This could take an hour or more if you have big changelogs like I do.
- Each map is more or less like an app you'd see on Android or iOS. There are screenshots you can include in your map publish now as well as specific fields to fill in like "how to play", "victory conditions", and "advanced tips".
- You can upload a second map with your original as a "tutorial map" where players can play a special version you make to show them how your game works.
- There's reviews and ratings now.
- Blizzard wants thumbnail artwork so that your map shows on the Arcade like an image instead of as a plain title that people click on.
I only played with it for about an hour, but my main concern is this: Why are authors being subjected to all this extra work on top of being critically reviewed by users when our maps are played for free? The worst situation I could imagine is someone spending hundreds of hours on a map and then ending up with 1 star rating because the first round of players didn't like it, further ensuring it never gets play time.
WoW, have you truly digged into the UI stuff? I'm sure there are some features which would get 90% people excited. They just hide in deep. And you need to figure them out ...
And there far more than the UI stuff of course. If some one could confirm it is allowed, I could make a list of all new features I found.
I don't see the issue given all the notes were sent to us in an email before we were asked to agree to any kind of NDA. I would have thought they'd make it very explicit if all of this was intended to be kept under wraps, but in both emails I received I saw nothing about keeping a secret.
It's not really worth getting excited over. Spent some time last night getting my map published with the new features and as someone said earlier, it's the same system we have now with prettier borders. Blizzard... What are you guys doing? Half these new things I don't think anyone was asking for :/
Nothing in the email indicated to me that they would have any live lobbies, once again proving they still don't have a clue why players don't like it. Looks more like they want it to be like an app market. Which would be fine if the games didn't rely on a lobby full of players in real time.
0
Seems like many maps in the top 10 played or rated maps have been abandoned by their original developers; specifically Desert Strike and Special Forces are maps that haven't received updates in a very long time. Newer versions of both of them exist, made by people involved in their original teams, but they have no chance to get play time while the originals exist and people just keep jumping to their bookmarks.
I understand it wouldn't be fair to necessarily remove the work on someone who worked hard on their map, so honestly I'm not sure what the right course of action would be. Maybe maps automatically become unpublished if they don't receive any updates after six months, or players should be able to mark a map as "abandoned" so it can be manually removed by a staff member when a new version is present.
Thoughts?
0
Indeed, I'm seeing a bit of that too. No matter what Blizzard does, I do think people need to remember that it's always been very difficult to get your map played by people.
Right now Blizzard is closer, but I just wish they'd talk to someone who really has their finger on the community's pulse instead of trying to make guesses at what we want or how we want it. Like just sit down and have a long, detailed conversation.
0
In Warcraft III if your room wasn't filled in about two minutes you generally weren't going to fill it because your map wasn't on the game list anymore. I don't think people are stupid for not sitting around doing nothing for 10 minutes. Who wants to do that in a videogame?
You can't blame an entire community for simply using the interface the way it was designed.
0
Might as well update progress. Second level working flawlessly. Redid all the triggers for spawning so that a single loop handles every round, just need to reassign the variables each time to define the monsters, spawn points, spawn frequency, and location.
If you are thinking about jumping in to help, I could use someone to add a unit or two, maybe design some monster waves, or just create some spawning rooms in the terrain editor. Any small amount helps :)
0
Maybe. I'm starting with a very simple idea to begin with. Rounds of enemies, class changing, lots of killing, etc. because when I plan big I tend to give up after a while. So I'll make this simple and fun map, and if I get that done then I'll start adding more complex things to it like puzzle rooms, big boss battles, etc.
If you wanted to just goof around and make some unit classes to morph into I'd be all for that.
0
The lobby definitely needs changing. Firstly it needs to show oldest lobbies first so people don't sit around with half a lobby for 20 minutes waiting for someone to join because they fell off the list.
Secondly the "open games" button needs to be more prominent. Most people are still going straight to the most played list, nullifying the point of even having open games. I think the fact that the top rated and top played lists rarely change is proof enough they don't really know about the open games button.
Honestly whoever is in charge of these decisions does need to be fired or demoted. They're incompetent. It took more than two years to get this and it still isn't done right, even though the community has made it plenty clear that live game lobbies were the most important aspect missing from battle.net 2.0. There's no excuse for these problems at this point.
0
Updated. Got more things done today. Once again even though I can certainly finish this map on my own, if anyone is bored and know's the editor well enough I'd be happy to have the help.
- Round 1 wave works; spawns zerglings continuously until timer runs out, then arena opens up to let players shop
- Class changing shop works complete with dialogs for choosing and animated portrait windows.
- Every player starts with a basic marine for the first round but can upgrade into a Ghost, Zealot, or Medic afterward
Mechanics for class upgrading and wave spawning are pretty much done. Now to actually add the wave units, classes, and make another dialog tree for upgrading things like damage and health.
0
I wanna play Smash TV damnit and nobody has made anything that resembles it for Starcraft II. If you played custom maps during the original Starcraft days then you know exactly what I'm talking about.
If you're not familiar, essentially a group of players moves from room to room with constantly spawning enemies killing bad guys, getting money, changing into different units, and eventually killing the boss round at the end of the level. It's a lot of fun.
I can do this map on my own, but in the interest of completing it faster I'd love some help from people who would like to see the map brought to Starcraft II as much as I do.
I've already completed the basic functions for spawning rounds and the map is playable, though features are pretty bare. I need to create dialog menus for upgrading your unit into different unit types and buying upgrades. Then there's the basic work of making the units and abilities in data editor.
Any good help is appreciated.
0
I hope I'm not doing something wrong, but when I try to launch Galaxy Editor after installing I get an error after about 20 seconds saying it has stopped working and allows me to report the problem. I installed XNA 3.1 per the original post so I'm not sure what else to do. Currently running Windows 7 32 bit.
Thanks for any help!
Also I have no idea why my text is green. It looks plain here...
edit: Solved by running in Windows Vista compatibility mode and running as administrator. Weird.
0
I think Marine Arena is a fantastic game right guys >_>
0
@TheAlmaity: Go
Could be that they invited specific publishers of popular maps so that the top maps would be 1.5 ready when it launched since it needs a lot of new artwork and content to make it all look right.
EDIT: Since I can't find any mention of an NDA I'll share a little of what I've played with so far:
- Changelogs included as part of the map. I'm not going to be using them unless it's changed because right now you have to click a button, type one line of the changelog, then click again to add a new line. This could take an hour or more if you have big changelogs like I do.
- Each map is more or less like an app you'd see on Android or iOS. There are screenshots you can include in your map publish now as well as specific fields to fill in like "how to play", "victory conditions", and "advanced tips".
- You can upload a second map with your original as a "tutorial map" where players can play a special version you make to show them how your game works.
- There's reviews and ratings now.
- Blizzard wants thumbnail artwork so that your map shows on the Arcade like an image instead of as a plain title that people click on.
I only played with it for about an hour, but my main concern is this: Why are authors being subjected to all this extra work on top of being critically reviewed by users when our maps are played for free? The worst situation I could imagine is someone spending hundreds of hours on a map and then ending up with 1 star rating because the first round of players didn't like it, further ensuring it never gets play time.
0
I don't see the issue given all the notes were sent to us in an email before we were asked to agree to any kind of NDA. I would have thought they'd make it very explicit if all of this was intended to be kept under wraps, but in both emails I received I saw nothing about keeping a secret.
0
It's not really worth getting excited over. Spent some time last night getting my map published with the new features and as someone said earlier, it's the same system we have now with prettier borders. Blizzard... What are you guys doing? Half these new things I don't think anyone was asking for :/
0
Nothing in the email indicated to me that they would have any live lobbies, once again proving they still don't have a clue why players don't like it. Looks more like they want it to be like an app market. Which would be fine if the games didn't rely on a lobby full of players in real time.
0
Is there any reason to think only mappers got invited? That'd be cool :)