What makes a map bad?

1) Imbalances (the bigger the worse)
2) Lack of challenge to the players
3) Frustrating gameplay

A few more things that makes maps bad:

Stupid Bugs. I mean, having a bridge hovering five feet off-ground or some other simple bug that could have been fixed with minimal effort just screams: BAD MAP! DO NOT BOTHER! at the players. Stupid mistakes in text goes here, too (Highlighting the wrong hotkeys, etc...).


Bad language. Sure, some map makers don't have English as their first language, but I find that the most common cause for bad language is pure laziness. Besides, having English as a second or third language doesn't mean it has to be bad: It's my third language, for example, and I've had no advanced English education. Minor errors are okay, but when it passes in and out of the realm of unreadability, I just can't enjoy a map.


Unfathomably Stupid Edits. I found one of these recently, as I joined a random Xmaul game (Hey, it's a good enough way to waste time.) that had been edited to allow 11 players. Only problem was, there was no change except for starting locations: The new players got no starting units, and could therefor do nothing. Of course, they started leaving... but when they did, the units of one of the real players who actually had units were divided among the remaining players....

id say unbalanced games. This is a part of making a map that most World Editors get stuck on, and it really ruins the game if one character is completly out of the league of another. I'd also say No story line. Cause it sumtimes frusturates players when they dont know what the hell is going on ://// Great Topic for a poll:D

UNBALANCING! AHHHHHHHHHHHH! okay. I'm done.

The main point to make (other than unbalanced maps SUCK!) is that there is no need whatsoever for custom abilities, items, heros, etc. These can make a map more interesting, don't get me wrong. But you don't NEED them. If you are creative enough, you can certainly put together a very interesting, addictive map. No offence to all u AoSers and DotAers, but lately, i have found them to get more and more boring. Why? The maps are getting to LARGE for one thing. The first WC3 AoS was quite small, therefore you could move quickly from here to there, there was always something going on, and you would never tire! It was great! Now the AoS's are becoming just a big yawn. ToB has great custom abilities, heros, items, etc., but it bores me because the gameplay factor meant it took me 4ever to do nething.

Lastly, i would like to point out that short maps (game play time, not size) are generally better than long ones because it is much easier to keep one's attention over a short period of time.

Thank you for allowing me to babble your eyes out. Good day all!

I never realized it before, but Cronanius is absolutely right. I remember the classic AoS's fondly... even with its flagrant imbalances, it was still action-packed and FUN. It seems that mappers nowadays have lost focus of what makes a map great.

While that may be true, somtimes short is bad. If you play a short game and start to loose you might end up going "oh well il just go join a new game" sence it doesnt really get you attached to it. Long games make you acculy CARE about what happens so you go" Oh **** we are loosing c'mon guys we were wining for an hour, hold them off!".

Dude, I got a new theory:
It might be us who are bored, not the maps which is bad.
We are so bored that we are drunken. For a new warcrafter, these might be fun.
Yeah, I liked the custom campaign Lament, but now when I think about it... It is just another crapmap.

It was action-packed, so it is now too, but actiom gone so normal now we don't recognize it and get bored.
It was FUN because it was NEW, these today are just clones.

Bah, just play the completely new FT ones, like Enfo's Team Survival - Enfo TS doesnt suck, does it? Yea mon I know you can get bored, but..

Just drop Warcraft 3 and find another favourite game. Now we are bored and Warcraft 3 is out of date.
Rebember in the days before Warcraft 3? Weren't you a gamer then? Yeah just find new game.


Oops is this off topic?
Oh well, no matter. I'll suicide anything with Warcraft 3 and go play Nintendo or sumthing. Gonna defeat Metroid Prime...

actually i found a really well made map with awful terrain once. i nearly quit straight away, but i didn't.

okay, I'll admit that maps are not easy to make. However: There are a few basic things all maps should have, and they are as follows:
-Spelling, and grammar checks.
There is nothing more frustrating for me then being in the middle of a map where it displays a message that says somethign along the lines of:"nwo og hre n klil the eliv mage Hire'font", and it pings a spot on the map.Also troubling are: Unchanged, erroneous, falsely higlighted, or excessively colored tooltips.
-No false advertisements!:
If you say you're going to put custom skills in the game, and either: Edit current ones slightly, don't add custom skills, make ridiculously imbalanced skills, or only give a few heros custom skills and leave the rest to rot, guess what? You are guilty of fraud, and should be persecuted as needed.
If you say your map is new, it had best not be a clone of a current one with one or two changes. (If you do steal a map, atleast change all the triggers, messages, etc so they no longer say the map it was from: ie: the leaderboard title says POKEMAUL 99.43 and the map you are playing is FINAL FANTASY MAUL, hint messages refer to nonexistent units, etc)
-Don't hold flash over quality.:
Sure, when your skills look nice it's great. But when the map is 2-3 megabytes because of imported textures, mdx's, mdl's, blp's, etc it's nto really worth it.
-Balance is key.:
If I pick a ranged Javelin tossing head hunter with some decent skills, and another player picks a giant black illidan that has insta-kill skills for every player on the map, there is a serious problem.

WEll, I realize most of these comments have already been made but for some reason I have still posted here. Odd, isn't it.

if its bad terrain i dont get any playfeeling

It's definitely all of the above. They all make the game worse...or should I say, by having them you make a game good.

If you look at the votes, obviously unoriginal gameplay really hurts. But if you make a crazy game that makes no sense at all (ie bad instructions) its going to lose players too. In the same sense if a game has terrible gameplay, but awsum everything else I'm sure there will still be loads of people that will still play it. You have to take all of those into account when making a game :D

1. imbalanced
2. no new stuff

MfG
B~L~

THE PEOPLE WHO JUDGE IT BASED ON OTHER PEOPLES OPINIONS

Er... people other than who?

Ppl like u who have to ask this kind of stuff;)