13 replies to this topic

[Krysic]

I'm just wondering if and when you guys are planning to open up to the community in regards to designing maps and such. There are thousands of free person hours of work out there you're not accessing. I feel that is a terrible waste of enthusiasm and creative energy. (Not to mention how beautifully it will affect your bottom line.)

Does anyone have this information? Have I missed it somewhere? Once the game is on steam it would be nice to see the workshop fill up fast.

[sycocys]

My understanding is that this wasn't something they were ever interested in for whatever reason.

[Rhaythe]

Insofar as I can remember, the official answer to this has always been, "No".

[Mechteric]

Rhaythe, on 23 March 2015 - 10:20 AM, said:

Insofar as I can remember, the official answer to this has always been, "No".

I'm sure they would if they felt they could, but the answer of "No" would likely have to be expanded with ", because the extra resources (people) to deal with that community involvement would be significant and they don't have the spare resources."

Edited by CapperDeluxe, 23 March 2015 - 11:25 AM.

[MechWarrior3671771]

Plus, I've been part of such a group once, and inside info tends to get leaked to favored peeps. Then you wind up with teams taking advantage of game mechanics the others don't have access too.

[KamikazeRat]

CapperDeluxe, on 23 March 2015 - 11:25 AM, said:

I'm sure they would if they felt they could, but the answer of "No" would likely have to be expanded with ", because the extra resources (people) to deal with that community involvement would be significant and they don't have the spare resources."

DING DING DING

i think we have a winner right here.... it would probably take more man-hours to pour over community based content and fix it, than to just make new content.

[ThirtyOughtSix]

KamikazeRat, on 23 March 2015 - 02:09 PM, said:

DING DING DING

i think we have a winner right here.... it would probably take more man-hours to pour over community based content and fix it, than to just make new content.

Was going to say...I wouldn't like playing on some half assed map that Ricky Jr. Plopped out in 12 hours after drinking a 12 pack of Mountain Dew.

Would like to add - would be nice to see more content though!

[MoonUnitBeta]

What I know from the Town Halls, is that it's not something they're looking into. They know that it's going to be a lot of work to support. Maps have to get verified.

PGI wants to keep map quality high (visually and functionally). It’s difficult to ensure the same quality (to their standards) without first implementing a lot of backend and front end systems to encorporate user created content. It’s also a matter of creating tools for the community.

Personally, I’d prefer PGI to stick to rehashing assets and generating maps on an accelerated rate for now. They know how to do it, so nothing wrong with letting them. It’s just it would take so much time to actually design tools and support player made maps. Not to mention if something doesn’t work well, or isn’t how people think it should be, you just know that it’s another thing that players would want fixed and updated, on top of the game itself.
It’s a lot more work, and that’s not something I’d like to see PGI take on at this point.

[0rionsbane]

Honestly pgi needs to let go of some of their map design elements (limiting engagement ranges etc), their map quality visually is quite high, but I've seen consistently less bugs on community driven maps with more people testing them, at the very least what they could do is make a better community involvement in testing their maps for the less obvious collision mesh mistakes and other things where you can tell they used a generator to make it.

As it is i doubt they will use the community for any design issues they are very focused on their core design goals for good or bad (aka how can i make money off this). the best we could hope for is to try and get in the back door and do some testing. on the plus side this game should be around for a while im sure its paying the bills.

Edited by 0rionsbane, 23 March 2015 - 03:25 PM.

[Jetfire]

I was pretty sure I saw something in the not too distant past that post CW it was something they were interested in but that they need to have sufficient manpower to vet the maps and that manpower is already dedicated 100% to CW maps to build up the pool asap.

In years past they had said it simply wasn't viable but this was during the IGP days.

Edited by Jetfire, 23 March 2015 - 03:28 PM.

[ThisMachineKillsFascists]

MoonUnitBeta, on 23 March 2015 - 03:05 PM, said:

PGI wants to keep map quality high (visually and functionally).

°cough cough°

i didnt even notice that the ingame maps have a high quality. i must be playing a different game years long

[Kiiyor]

KamikazeRat, on 23 March 2015 - 02:09 PM, said:

DING DING DING

i think we have a winner right here.... it would probably take more man-hours to pour over community based content and fix it, than to just make new content.

The devs have actually alluded to this several times when questioned about it. Checking hitboxes, making sure performance was up to snuff etc. It would apparently take almost as long to vet the maps as it does to design them. Makes sense.

It would be something nice for the future though, if more resources became available. Maybe PGI could make a bi-monthly competition about it or something.

"here are the design principles and the palette and map assets... may the best map win!"

[LordKnightFandragon]

Rhaythe, on 23 March 2015 - 10:20 AM, said:

Insofar as I can remember, the official answer to this has always been, "No".

Sad thing to, this game could get ALOT of much needed, VERY nice maps made...maybe PGI is afraid of the community showing up their supposedly college educated devs?

Hell, the community could prolly overhaul all existing maps and make them 100x better.

I would have fun in a map editor.

Edited by LordKnightFandragon, 23 March 2015 - 05:34 PM.

[MoonUnitBeta]

ThisMachineKillsFascists, on 23 March 2015 - 03:29 PM, said:

°cough cough°

i didnt even notice that the ingame maps have a high quality. i must be playing a different game years long

I figured someone would comment about that. The matter of fact is that they have a standard that they want to keep. The maps themselves aren't bad at all. Some are pretty small, but reasons being they were 8v8 maps. The problem actually stems from a lot of different things that maps alone can't fix. It doesn't matter if you're going up, down, or around something, everyone's just going to ball up and sit at the choke points.
I don't know what people are seeing about player created maps that would be so great or any different than what we have now. What I really think it is about, is people just wanting variety/quantity, and it's not actually about "better" maps.

inb4 youtube link to MW:LL map.
Bigger maps don't solve anything. No one is going to spread out when everyone only has one or four lives in a match. MW:LL maps worked for MW:LL because the gameplay is different than MWO. It was a huge server/map, with respawns, tanks, planes, with 1v1 battles or small lance skirmishes happening all over the place. It wasn't like MWO where you are match made into a game with 1-4 lives and that's the end of the objective. MW:LL maps would work better if MWO was like Planetside 2.

Edited by MoonUnitBeta, 23 March 2015 - 05:56 PM.