19 replies to this topic

[Phoenix Branson]

The audience of MWO is very passionate and wants to experience lots and lots of content. A good
example of this is the sheer amount of quality work done by MWLL mod community!

With the MWO Marketplace and MWO Map Editor, it creates the opportunity for the community to serve
itself with content. If you want to create a really cool map [MWO Map Editor], with all original content, you
can submit your work to PGI [MWO Marketplace], and if approved and published by the QA Department,
they will reward you with Mechwarrior Credits (MC). Once the MC is deposited into your account,
the ownership of said map will immediately be transferred to PGI (no exceptions and irreversible).
The MWO Marketplace and MWO Map Editor will be available when all legal issues are resolved.

This will ultimately lead to more innovative and creative maps fueled by potential MC rewards and the
sheer love of the game. This not only benefits the mapmaker, but also the community. “Fan made” maps
are an important way to keep MWO alive for years to come. Thoughts/Opinions?

Notes:
The QA Department will have very high standards for maps, and many will fall short on quality.
Once approved, the QA Department will polish, balance and remove any potential bugs on the map.
Once published, the map will be put into rotation and you can name the map (must follow PGI Rules).

Edited by Maverick01, 06 February 2013 - 09:14 PM.

[Kaspirikay]

It'll be nice to have user created maps, a lot more variety, and takes a load off the mappers in the dev team.

[Toong]

This would be a quality assurance and legal nightmare. Whether or not people want it is irrelevant, because if it ever happens, it won't be for a very, very long time.

Also, your poll needs an option for people who think this is a bad idea. Because I think this is kind of a bad idea.

Edited by Toong, 06 February 2013 - 07:35 PM.

[80sGlamRockSensation David Bowie]

I've brought this topic up in the past

--Link for quick read--
http://mwomercs.com/...76#entry1728276

The general concensus was that it would be difficult or all but the most dedicated map makers, but any amount of good content being added to the game would be a Godsend.

[Kaspirikay]

Toong, on 06 February 2013 - 07:31 PM, said:

This would be a quality assurance and legal nightmare. Whether or not people want it is irrelevant, because if it ever happens, it won't be for a very, very long time.

No it wouldn't. Well, maybe if they start giving out MC. But, look at maps from CS and Warcraft. The system works.

[80sGlamRockSensation David Bowie]

Kaspirikay, on 06 February 2013 - 07:36 PM, said:

No it wouldn't. Well, maybe if they start giving out MC. But, look at maps from CS and Warcraft. The system works.

The maps generated on CryEngine are much, much, MUCH more complex and GPU intensive (if done wrong) than maps on CS and Warcraft, which are both a decade old.

[Toong]

Kaspirikay, on 06 February 2013 - 07:36 PM, said:

No it wouldn't. Well, maybe if they start giving out MC. But, look at maps from CS and Warcraft. The system works.

Except both those games were released with full modding support, and neither of them had to deal with matchmaking or a persistent metagame. Since this game is going to feature a ranking system and community warfare as integral parts of the game, all user-created content would have to be kept to ridiculously high standards. That means developing a full modding API, and some sort of system that allows people to submit content for review. With the resources it would take to develop the system and pay people to run it (especially considering, most likely, only the tiniest fraction of the community would ever use it), it'd be far simpler and cheaper to just leave the development to the developers.

And what happens if, many months and patches later, a map is no longer balanced and needs to be reworked? This is where the legal headaches begin. Either PGI would have to track down the creator of the map and get him to change it, or they'd have to do it themselves, which becomes an Intellectual Property issue since they aren't the owners of the map. Even with things like releasing rights to everything you submit, it can still cause headaches.

So yeah, in summary, Warcraft and Counter Strike don't have problems with it because they're lobby-based games with open communities, not MMO's.

Edited by Toong, 06 February 2013 - 07:51 PM.

[River Walker]

If PGI Gave out the tool to the user of MWO and keep control of all content and update the Objects for map building I be in to building maps.

The fist one I would build would be a City map with underground rail system and river that can only be cross over on bridges.
Oh and all building would be 15 story hie or even more.

Edited by River Walker, 06 February 2013 - 07:53 PM.

[Alymbic]

If it were possible for someone like me to do maps, then sure. No mc reward required, nor recognition needed.

But in all honesty, I dont like the odds of anything like that ever happening, and lets face it, I could spend weeks learning and working on a single map which would most likely be inferior to anything the design team would do, extremely unbalanced, poorly optimised and so on. And now I think about it, it would probably be a bad idea on multiple levels.

Maybe an option down the track for custom maps for custom game lobbies which would have to be downloaded seperately by the user, but in the meantime I'll keep daydreaming

[mekabuser]

I would bet you there are at least 10 individuals with the chops, time and dedication just rearing to go for this opportunity.

Maps really are desperately needed and the more creative input the better.

[Wolf Clearwater]

User maps would be awesome, I would want no reward (MC or otherwise), should be done for the love of the game.

[anonymous175]

Maps N Mods plz.

[Phoenix Branson]

Wolf87535, on 06 February 2013 - 07:57 PM, said:

User maps would be awesome, I would want no reward (MC or otherwise), should be done for the love of the game.

You realize it could take you months to make a good map? A small MC reward would be nice for your hard work.

Edited by Maverick01, 06 February 2013 - 08:18 PM.

[shintakie]

Maverick01, on 06 February 2013 - 08:18 PM, said:

You realize it could take you months to make a good map? A small MC reward would be nice for your hard work.

It took months to make really good maps in Warcraft and Starcraft and people didn't ask for monetary rewards. The most you saw were people askin for donations.

Edit - Toong has it 100% right.

The amount of time an energy PGI would have to put in to allow random people to make maps for MWO would far exceed any benefits they could get from the system.

Edited by shintakie, 06 February 2013 - 08:24 PM.

[Ashnod]

Great idea, as long as PGI can double check maps before sent into the public as well as polishing

[Alymbic]

shintakie, on 06 February 2013 - 08:23 PM, said:

The amount of time an energy PGI would have to put in to allow random people to make maps for MWO would far exceed any benefits they could get from the system.

Hence why in my post I suggested maps that the users have to download themselves and can only be used in custom lobbies. I could imagine a few of such map designs which could be custom built for unit/clan training sessions, or casual, story driven battles. I'm sure they could work out a way to balance them c-bill and xp wise, they could even remove c-bill, xp and stats from custom games altogether, I wouldnt mind.

[Phoenix Branson]

shintakie, on 06 February 2013 - 08:23 PM, said:

The amount of time an energy PGI would have to put in to allow random people to make maps for MWO would far exceed any benefits they could get from the system.

I disagree.

Once they have all the legal issues resolved, why not try it out for a few months and see what happens. You don't give the community enough credit as they are extremely dedicated people. I believe the community could put out stellar maps if given the chance. What's the harm in trying?

Edited by Maverick01, 06 February 2013 - 08:31 PM.

[Corvus Antaka]

+1 great poll

[Reggimus]

Conquer club (basically an online version of RISK.. with all the hasbro copyright stuff that went along with it) has a system that may work for something like this..

Basically, a user generates a map and gets input from the community on whether or not they should continue with it.

After tweaking it to a stage where it may be viable it gets elevated to the next level buy the mods, the idea is locked in and the maps starts getting developed.

After development the map then get evelvated to the de-bug stage by the devs, errors are looked for and fixed and the final polish is put on. (community give constant feedback during development)

Map goes into BETA for play testing, any major issues and its pulled until fixed, once its receives the final ok and sign off its put up for use.

Basically, the Devs don't get involved until the map proves its own feasibility and most of the QA is done by the community (from the gameplay perspective) with the dev team only getting involved at the last point.

Something like that might work, yes this system will take a f@#k-load of time to create a map, but the quality will be higher.


Edit ..

Im keen on making maps, been making specialised customised maps since Quake 2

Edited by Reggimus, 06 February 2013 - 08:36 PM.

[Phoenix Branson]

Ashnod, on 06 February 2013 - 08:25 PM, said:

Great idea, as long as PGI can double check maps before sent into the public as well as polishing

Yeah, the QA Department at PGI would polish and remove any potential bugs on the map.