What makes a map bad?

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12-03-2003, 07:53 PM	#46
Sucker	how can I vote 4 every thing?? Cu

12-03-2003, 10:34 PM	#47
Biflspud	Ugh, thread necromancers. Please, let this thing die; can't you see that the last post activity was nearly a month ago?

12-04-2003, 03:40 AM	#48
theVIB	BUGS! you forgot to mention BUGS! and I don't mean those hero arenas with overpowered crypt lords Ã”.o bugs are surelly the most annoying part of it all. Plz debug/test/whatever your maps!

12-05-2003, 11:10 AM

#49

Norwegian

Quote:

Originally posted by Plasma[Blade]
As said, it depends what kind of map you're talking about. Like the first option, if it's an RPG, that's bad, but melee maps and general maps like that aren't supposed to have a story, but assuming it's an RPG, here's what I say to all of those:

Bad story or no story at all

I've have to say that this is pretty annoying. I absolutely hate seeing RPGs with no story or a horrible story. In fact, I never play Open RPGs because of this, and whenever I see an RPG with a bad story or none at all, I just leave.

Lack of doodads/ Low-detailed or bad quality terrain

Well, I'd say these are more important as well. It horrifies me when I play an RPG map that looks like it has pretty much no terrain at all and very crappily done terrain and cliffs. Whenever I see a game with such horrible terrain, I usually leave as well, because if the creator can't even make decent terrain then I know the map's gonna be terrible.

Unbalanced game (very difficult of very easy game)

I think this pretty much applies to any map. I absolutely hate maps with one hero that's able to kill everything, and has insanely high stats compared to other characters. Also, I hate maps that are extremely easy. If you're gonna make it so you only fight a few creeps and then you win, I'd replan your map out.

Short or very long maps

Well, unlike most people, I actually prefer long maps over short maps. I like playing great maps for a long time and enjoy that it doesn't end too soon. However, if the map is really crappy, then it'd be worth it just to leave, because no one wants to play a long game on a map that looks like it was done by a 2 year old... so in other words, nobody wants to play a long game on pretty much most Battle.net custom maps.

Boring gameplay

I hate games with boring gameplay. I hate Open RPGs where you just go endlessly killing with no direction what-so-ever. I hate Progressing RPGs where you just kill everything in sight while advancing a bit, then buying a thousand tomes and beating the hell out of some overpowered in the first place final boss. That's the type of game I want to avoid.

Lack of quests/map instructions

In an RPG map has no quests, I personally lock it up in my "DON'T PLAY THESE GAMES" folder where I keep the crappy maps, and remind myself to never play it again. RPGs without quests shouldn't even be allowed to be hosted on Bnet. A lot of the FUN of RPGs are quests! Map Instructions are not really needed for RPGs, seeing as how they're pretty straight-forward, however, occasional tips are always good to make the map simpler to the player.

Nothing special in the map (no custom abilities, items, units or models)

If there's NOTHING custom in the map at all, then I leave as soon as possible. When I play a map, I expect to see tons of custom heroes with awesome custom abilities, and lots of custom items and units, as well as a few skins here and there. I'm not really a big fan of Custom Music or Models because they usually make the map very big and they're not really useful in particular.

Many cutscenes

Again, I'd have to say this is bad in RPGs, especially Multiplayer ones or ones in single-player RPGs that you can't skip. When I play an RPG, I actually want to PLAY it, not be swarmed with cutscenes every 2 minutes. I think they should just be as long as they have to be, and have them whereever they're needed. Not all over the place just commenting on the smallest of things.

Few cutscenes/ No cutscenes

I'm not a fan of too many cutscenes, but I don't like RPG maps that have too few cutscenes either. As I stated before, if one has no cutscenes, I just leave as soon as I can. As I stated before, I only think an RPG should have as many cutscenes as it needs without making the map crappy, or without overdoing it.

Other - Polishing it up

Okay, seriously, I've played some bad maps, but really, some maps I've played are so horrid that it looks like the terrain was done by randomly selecting terrain and just clicking the map all over the place, and the triggers look like they were all done in about 30 seconds with horrible cinematics, looping text that never ends, screwed up triggers which mess up the game and just bad unit placement and map arrangement in general.

Soo... basically you hate every single map on Battle.net, then?

Twin_Scimitars @ You rock.
Is that avatar for/from a game?

Quote:

how can I vote 4 every thing??

HAH! Spam!!! SPAM like hell! This dude needs to be banned! He bloody flyign everywhere postign useless spam like this! Hes bloody pissing me off!

12-07-2003, 08:57 PM	#50
Twin_Scimitars	i got avatar from internet but i think he is on baldurs gate dark alliance. but hes from my favorite books.

12-12-2003, 01:29 PM

#51

Dead-Inside

Okay, let's go trough the options...:
- Story,
First of all, I'd like to say that the story is important for Most maps. All maps don't have to have a story, or a good one. You might not even Want a story for the map. A footman wars map with a story would (When I think about it it would be good) be extremly odd, right? Thus they don't have a story.. Yet... Someone might make one just cuz I said this, lol.

- Doodads & Terrain,
Doodads are a big part of map making. As is terrain. However, I'd rather play a well balanced footman war with great replay valvue then to play a footman wars map with the most awesome terrain. But if we take a campaign instead, you'd need terrain and doodads to look at or you'd lose the intrest of playing. Basically this option *really* depends on what type of map you're having.

- Unbalanced Game,
This always ruins the game. It has to be balanced. If you have two forces that are supose to be 50/50 in power, and they're 60/40 or even more then that, it's not fun to play. It doesn't even have to be fun for the overpowered ones, since they're just killing the others off... Where's the fun in that?

- Time Consuming and Short maps,
This is also strongly restricted to what map you're creating. If you're creating a big-scale RPG, as Waugriff have done with his "Crisis of Time" rpg maps, you'll automatically want to play long games, if you like the genre. If anyone's hear of Extra Small (It's not a famous map), you battle on the smallest map ever, melee style. 4 Players, and that game takes 5-15 minutes depending on how long they/you hold on. Generally, dragging your map out too long will suck. Long waits is not appriciated. But having too short waits, and making the game be over too soon will make it suck equally much.

- Common or Bad style,
Well a bad style, is of course, bad. A common style is also often disliked. This is, ofcourse, if you do not change the map concept so that it actually brings something new to the gameplay. Basically, this is just bad all the way trough.

- Boring Gameplay,
This always spoils a map. Long waits often contribute to this as well...

- Lack of instructions,
Well, I see this is a lot of problems for many people. Usually they are given a lot more information then needed, and in return didn't pick up ANY of it. This is always a spoiler.

- Nothing Special,
This is not something needed for ANY map. This is just some extra spice.

Regards
Dead-Inside

03-24-2004, 07:02 PM

#52

13layde

Quote:

Originally Posted by theJ89

A lack of instruction is frustraiting. Even worse, instructions that aren't organized are horrible. I can remember playing Lands of Fate RPG, scanning through the quests and their text on some understandable material related to spawning. Eventually I gave up and contacted a friend :|

Hmmm.. maybe because LOF isnt an rpg its an rp.. if you don't know the dfference you shouldn't insult the game. RPG's are where you go around doing quests/creeping etc. with hero. RP's are where you create your own scenario/story/town etc. and then play it out. (kinda like dnd but jor all teh dungeomasters is the best way i can explain it) What it says in the quests were right bot mean nothing if your a noob at he game. :D

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