12 replies to this topic

[Crockdaddy]

It seems to me like it would be a great business decision to open up MWO, especially the Faction Play side to player created maps. Set up a voting system to vote for the great maps.. This would free up resources needed for development and put the power of creation into the hands of the players. Most successful games have something like this already.

[Carl Vickers]

It would be great and would solve a few issues, one of which is the apparent $250k price tag to produce a map.

I think it has been suggested numerous times but PGI is unwilling, remember, they know whats best for the game.

[Crockdaddy]

Carl Vickers, on 31 July 2017 - 03:59 PM, said:

It would be great and would solve a few issues, one of which is the apparent $250k price tag to produce a map.

I think it has been suggested numerous times but PGI is unwilling, remember, they know whats best for the game.

Its just basically so many other games do this already. The sheer creativity of the players I think could come up with some potentially great maps. So much passion in this game which could be steered to good use.

[Carl Vickers]

Crockdaddy, on 31 July 2017 - 07:20 PM, said:

Its just basically so many other games do this already. The sheer creativity of the players I think could come up with some potentially great maps. So much passion in this game which could be steered to good use.

I think the player base could come up with better maps than PGI could without a doubt. I am reminded of a Han Solo quote, 'I stopped turning down free help years ago'. Make use of the community PGI, said community will reward you for it.

[50 50]

I don't see why the maps couldn't be trialed in the Private Lobby under a specific menu option.
If there was an option there for 'Player Created Content' that let you look at a folder on your computer, all you then need is an online repository for the maps that players can upload to and download from.
Anyone wanting to play in the private lobby on those maps needs to have that map downloaded.
Little voting/ranking option on the webpage and these maps can be elevated to the regular queues after PGI reviews them etc.

Is it possible with the CryEngine though?

[Carl Vickers]

50 50, on 31 July 2017 - 07:33 PM, said:

I don't see why the maps couldn't be trialed in the Private Lobby under a specific menu option.
If there was an option there for 'Player Created Content' that let you look at a folder on your computer, all you then need is an online repository for the maps that players can upload to and download from.
Anyone wanting to play in the private lobby on those maps needs to have that map downloaded.
Little voting/ranking option on the webpage and these maps can be elevated to the regular queues after PGI reviews them etc.

Is it possible with the CryEngine though?

Making things a little over complicated 50 50. Its pretty simple, there is some kind of editor which the player base gets access too. Players create maps, PGI reviews them, cleans them up somewhat and puts them into circulation.

All of PGI's effort is in having a look at the completed maps, cleaning up if needed then putting them into the game.

[50 50]

Carl Vickers, on 31 July 2017 - 07:38 PM, said:

Making things a little over complicated 50 50. Its pretty simple, there is some kind of editor which the player base gets access too. Players create maps, PGI reviews them, cleans them up somewhat and puts them into circulation.

All of PGI's effort is in having a look at the completed maps, cleaning up if needed then putting them into the game.

Oh, well I was hoping we might get a chance to test them out and the most popular ones get put forward instead of PGI using a RNG to select one.

[Carl Vickers]

Still asking PGI to do more than is needed, get the maps flowing in so we have more new places to play on.

[Roland Skinner]

I'm imagining a system where player-made maps can be uploaded for private play and testing.

If you want to contribute you could submit them, maybe with a MC "bond" that you'd get back if the player-base gives you the thumbs-up. PGI would do a preliminary QA, and if not terrible put them into the rotation as a "candidate". After playing on a candidate map players give it a star rating and can leave comments. Maps with too many glitches get booted quickly. Good, and the best get a final QA pass by PGI and go into the permanent pool.

I imagine the expensive part would be setting up the machinery for that, and possibly the initial QA pass.

Assuming you are re-using assets of existing maps, how big are maps ? Is it feasible to compress and transmit them after map selection but before kick-off, or are they way to big for that ?

[LordNothing]

i wonder if we can convince pgi to do an offitial port of mwll maps, granted the original developers of those maps approve. they can all get free mechpacks or something.

[Crockdaddy]

Guys, a CRAP load of games have been doing this for years. This stuff isn't rocket science here. It really comes down to whether or not PGI would be cool with the idea. The logistics involved while not entirely simple shouldn't be creating a bunch of new stuff from scratch (the ideas and basic mechanics have been done in many other places already). I suspect the only reason they do not has far more to do with their economic model than anything else. I don't know though, I am obviously not privy to design decisions. If you took this a step further and allowed for player develop mods ... I suspect in a fairly short amount of time you would see rudimentary builds of actual Mechwarrior Wars (think vehicles, etc) rather than just the 12 v 12 Solaris style combat we know and love of the last 5 years.

The real point ... is the game needs some strong creativity injection and a big injection of human capital (think in terms of free crowd development by players). The Mech models themselves are pretty awesome. Many of the maps are good too, it's just 5 years in we need some additional perspective / weight of the crowd development to push this game forward more. I think it is overdue. Maybe with the upcoming future release of MW5 based on the latest Unreal Engine we can see something more like that in the future.

[Xannatharr]

Yes, yes and yes.

There are plenty of creative people out there willing to invest their personal time into creating something for others to use.

PGI can turn this into added value for the game, which might inspire others to contribute..

..it's a virtuous cycle.

Xann

[metallio]

...man, makes me remember the first time I suggested this...so many years ago that I don't even remember anymore.

They're just not going to do it.