Best map release practices?

Best map release practices?

Discuss maps & map creation - from concept to execution to the ever elusive release.

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ansiktsburk
Posts: 7
Joined: 28 Dec 2009, 03:42

Best map release practices?

Post by ansiktsburk »

Having just released my first map (Arctic Inferno) after a couple of test versions, the thought struck me that whilst there are good tutorials on mapmaking, there are some mistakes that are easy to make but just as easy to avoid, if you have some good practices:

- Do not give the test versions the same name you want the final one to have because players get a lot of unnecessary synch issues if there are multiple maps with the same name.

- In fact, don't call them anything that even resembles that name so that !map on autohosts doesn't result in multiple undesirable hits. A test version might end up being listed by springie due to springdownloader.

- No spaces in the filename since !maplink in springie cannot handle them.

- More issues...?

Maybe this could be made a sticky later?
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Das Bruce
Posts: 3544
Joined: 23 Nov 2005, 06:16

Re: Best map release practices?

Post by Das Bruce »

ansiktsburk wrote:after a couple of test versions
I like you already, this is probably the biggest thing.
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Beherith
Posts: 5145
Joined: 26 Oct 2007, 16:21

Re: Best map release practices?

Post by Beherith »

The basic rule is get it right the first time around. But Im incapable of adhering to that.
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Gota
Posts: 7151
Joined: 11 Jan 2008, 16:55

Re: Best map release practices?

Post by Gota »

Beherith wrote:The basic rule is get it right the first time around. But Im incapable of adhering to that.
It's impossible...at least you have to release some sort of blueprint to test gameplay but to get players to test it has to look acceptable as well so you might as well texture it and everything form the first go and just keep releasing versions till its right.
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SirArtturi
Posts: 1164
Joined: 23 Jan 2008, 18:29

Re: Best map release practices?

Post by SirArtturi »

Well, what I've learned, Is that its better to keep the project open, archive the source files, keep the .psd's and maintain it regularly if necessary than closing it up. Never claim it as a final, because its quite hard to keep that promise or "overrule" it.

Beta version are great thing, but its hard to get proper testing for it. Especially for balance, You need to run the map several times.

What we need is mutators, and luckily we have some sort of them now. The problem however lies in mapformat, which actually doesnt allow you to change the smt and smt reasonably, but only way to change the visual aspects or the heightmap is by revisioning the whole damn thing. And usually maps tend to be at least over 20mbs for this map format.

I also recommend every mapper to license their work at least in some way, so that they can be easily used or contradictory not abused.
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hunterw
Posts: 1838
Joined: 14 May 2006, 12:22

Re: Best map release practices?

Post by hunterw »

for ut2004 onslaught mappers always released public betas which were hosted and playtested

it worked great
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SirArtturi
Posts: 1164
Joined: 23 Jan 2008, 18:29

Re: Best map release practices?

Post by SirArtturi »

One more really important point! Take the god damn screens! I see shitloads of maps on springfiles getting released but without screens. Do you really think im going to download them blindfolded?

If its not just your personal retribution but rather ment to be played at large, why bother spending hours of work on a map itself but not couple seconds for taking the screenshots?
ansiktsburk
Posts: 7
Joined: 28 Dec 2009, 03:42

Re: Best map release practices?

Post by ansiktsburk »

I agree about screenies and will upload some as soon (had slight problems with springfiles). I have one question, though: How do I get a minimap on the site? A minimap is maybe even more important than screenshots.
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Gota
Posts: 7151
Joined: 11 Jan 2008, 16:55

Re: Best map release practices?

Post by Gota »

Anyway its kinda pointless to shout out the issues you encountered since this thread is just gonna get lost in the forum and all these notes will be forgotten and will not be available for the people who really need them,the ones that have not yet made a single map.

Maybe add your observations somewhere in the wiki?
Last edited by Gota on 18 Feb 2010, 14:58, edited 1 time in total.
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SinbadEV
Posts: 6475
Joined: 02 May 2005, 03:56

Re: Best map release practices?

Post by SinbadEV »

ansiktsburk wrote:I agree about screenies and will upload some as soon (had slight problems with springfiles). I have one question, though: How do I get a minimap on the site? A minimap is maybe even more important than screenshots.
TabView+Hidden Interface Is good for minimap
TabView+hidden interface+metalmapView Is good for metal map

Also, the various lobbies can show us the minimap, you can save your height field as png and upload that too.

Also, You can resize the minimap still right? just stretch it a little bigger and screenshot then crop.
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PicassoCT
Journeywar Developer & Mapper
Posts: 10450
Joined: 24 Jan 2006, 21:12

Re: Best map release practices?

Post by PicassoCT »

shotgun method, spray creative maps allover- if one really matters to people they will debug and fix it for you ;)
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