Completed Maps Vs Not Completed Maps

I find that one of the hardest things about making a map, is when your finished (even if your map is fairly good) is to get it out into the world. Thats one of the things i think is great about this site. However i just recently took a look through the 'maps completed' forum, and noticed that around half of the maps have 0 replies, and less than 100 views. It doesn't really help people if no body looks at their maps.
I'm just guessing that this is the reason for a lot of "check out my new map" spammers in the maps development forum. They know that people will actually look at their map if they put it here. I know taking out the maps completed forum, and just letting people post here, would greatly increase the feed back they receive and i don't believe there would be a lot of extra junk since, there is only a total of 27 threads and 101 replies.

Yes i'm aware this should normally go in the site discussion forum...however, since this only really affects map developers so thats why i put it here. I was just wondering what other's opinion on this. I imagine i'll be greatly overwhelmed with dissagreements, but thats ok.

Sounds good to me, a poll is in order

You're not the only one who's noticed that, Lynx. I'm conflicted on what to do; many members of this forum have been of immeasurable help (well, ok, I can measure it, but it'd be a pain) to me working on my RPG, but if nobody will download it when it's done...

I'm aware that if you want a project hosted by WC3C, it needs to be an exclusive, and I appreciate that, but as the map maker, I want as wide of a release as possible. I guess you could just leave your computer connected to B.net and have the map up for DL Only games - those seem to be fairly jumping from what I've seen. Still, if that doesn't generate any desired feedback, I dunno what would gather attention.

Perhaps separating a completed maps forum off of the main development forum is a bad idea? Or perhaps there can be some sort of glowing highlight thing in the forum list that takes you to completed maps. After all, the end result of any modding effort is getting the map out into the world - shouldn't that be highlighted by the mod community?

Dont takeaway the completed maps forum, we just need to encourage people to post in it. If the rating system was enabled there, a system where if you posted feedback, the map creator would rate your posts would mean a lot more people would give feedback.

well the best way to get ur map out to the world is to send it to 6-12 friends who will upload and play ur map for a whole day...

the reason why i dont bother to look at the completed maps is i need some screenies, history, gameplay and gamestyle....
if it dosnt introduce me to that i cant see why i should dl it ? it sont want to waste my time dl some map i have no interrest in...

That is true, the point of the mod community is to help modders, not slow them down by hiding their maps in a serparate forum! (not that this was done intentionally mind you)



I suppose any way to get people to post there or download more often would be great. Perhaps playtesting should be awarded with points, i'm sure that would encourage people.



I don't know about you, but i'm lucky to have 3-4 friends that are able to HOST games with any luck in getting players, let alone do it for a whole day.

As for screenies, they can really help or hurt a map. A screen will only capture visually pleasing things. Gameplay, and options, just can't be caputured in a screen. Screenies however do wonders if a map has awsum terrain and a few skins/models to show off, and not to mention a screen of just one really kewl trigger spell can really get attention. It all depends on what you have in your map.

Hey all.

About the "Completed Maps" forum, that was placed there for a reason, and ofcourse the grass is always greener on the other side of the river.

Firstly, if it would not be there, and people would spam here with map-information, it would VERY likely drown down in the pages of threads that appear here EVERY day. Only the best ones would get atention for people to bump it up every day, and currently...the best ones still get atention...even if they're "hidden" away in another forum, becouse the best ones are projects that are "hyped up", that people know about, that people have watched progress for awhile. F.ex. i think everybody know Zachs Heaven and Hell map by now, same with Vex's Hero Arena, as they hype up their maps in the "Maps In Development" (and also make people interested with posts here in map dev) with screenshots, gameplay information and so on and on. It makes people wanna follow its progress, and people will.

I do know that the "Completed Maps" gets little atention, and that is sad, i know, but the "Maps in Development" DOES get atention, and if you post up some interesting information about your map there (EDIT: a map that you are currently working on....no advertising old products), you will gain enough atention that people will want to play it when it's finished.

Also, about biflspuds comment. WC3C does not request full exlusive hosting of the map...far from it actually. It asks for its "hosted projects" not to have hosting elsewhere, like forums, sites and such, as it generally is rather silly, and that rule came following a project here on WC3C which was hosted on 2 other sites, including wc3 mofo.

But....we still encourage people to use all means (preferably not including spamming Map Dev with ad though) to get their maps to the player. F.ex. warcraftiii.net currently has the most gigantic WC3 map hosting ever, it hosts them for download, nothing else. There people will also comment on your map. There are also some other communities that will gladly host your finished map for downloads, and ofcourse it's highly reccomended to have a download server on Battle.Net as that works very well as a distribution system for people who don't even know of this site.

But generally, in short future, you won't be seeing the Completed Maps thread *removed, unless the upcoming Download Area will replace it (which btw looks very good at the moment, including comments system, image-hosting, description, map-updating and stuff). But instead we will likely be putting more attention on the "Maps in Development" forum, and encourage people to show off their maps there. We'll also likely be updating our "hosted maps" system in a near future to be bigger and more supportive, where a number of people keep close watch on maps in the "Maps in Dev" forum and pick out the most interesting maps to invite them hosting. This does not mean you are too be spamming posts there about getting your map hosted, as that's what we're trying to get rid of with this system (as currently, the way to get hosted here is to spam as many posts about your super-mod and try to catch the atention of a Admin).

But untill that time, you'll have to get used to the current Maps In Development forum and the Completed Maps forums.

Cubasis

ps. too tired to edit out grammar-errors.....

Ah, my mistake - thought that applied generally, not just to hosted projects.

I like the idea of "working the crowd" with good progress reports in the map dev forum - when is too early to do so? I'm about 1-2 months off of releasing a full beta, and I do have some completed "parts" of the RPG ready to show off - how much press would you advise? Perhaps a standard template for advertisements would be a handy thing to have as a guide for these sorts of things?

Erhm, talking about the "Maps in Development" forum?, you should deffinetely create a thread there, atleast if you're far in development.

There is always enough to present, atleast with RPG's, even if you don't show much more than innovative gameplay information and a WiP terrain screenshot or sumtin, it still gathers atention, and people will check out the next update you do...f.ex. including a Hero Concepts or sumtin. If your RPG has cool stuff, you'll without doubt have enough to talk about, f.ex. a special item system? a special difficulty system? Ofcourse it's ofcourse best to be able to show off some ScreenShots, but they aren't always neccessary.

Anyhow, i reccomend you to create a good thread there, as that's the best thing about these forums, your thread wont drown as darn quickly as it does here. As people are adviced to have only 1 thread for their projects. This ofcourse implies that they should have the main post up-to-date with the updates.

Cubasis

I'm well aware that the chances of the maps completed forum being removed are somewhere between zero and Nil, but i figured something should be done about it. I also realize the importance of the maps completed forum, i was just hoping i could stirr up some ideas as to what to do about it. I don't know anything about this new download area thats coming up, but i do hope it will help.

When the forum thread tags system is implemented, it's quite possible that it might be reasonable to re-merge the maps subforums with the main Map Development forum, and have a search feature to look for maps with the Completed Map tag on them, for example. But, the thread tags might not take that route, there might not be a search feature for that, and, most importantly, the maps will still rapidly fall off the first page and out of mind.

Then what would be the harm in allowing them to be posted there? Maybe a option that tags a post when it is made as being a map, and if it falls off the first, second, or third page (your discretion) then move it, or throw it away. And to get rid of those pesky ones that don't go away, have the same function if a map post gets more than 'x' number of replies or views.