I get asked all the time how to create a custom game. Most people find it hard to understand there is no simple solution. The ONLY way you can host a custom game is if one of the following is true:
The map is one of the top 50 most popular maps
You recently joined someone else’s game who had the map
You published the map yourself
There is no other way to host a custom game. The maps in the top 50 are played plenty, and undoubtedly they will end up in your recently played list where you can host them. That is fine. The problem is the only way to get new maps that are not on the popular list is to publish them yourself.
To publish a map, you must exit the game, open the desired map in the map editor and click file -> publish and set any last settings (more on that later). Now the map will be uploaded to Blizzard’s server, and if there are no errors, you can exit the map editor and restart your game, then create the game from ‘Your Published Maps’ list. Unlike Warcraft 3, or SC1, when people join your game lobby, they will be downloading the file you uploaded to Blizzard's server, not directly from your computer.
There are a few problems with publishing:
On the last step of map publishing settings that I mentioned earlier, you can rename the map to whatever you want. This makes it very easy to steal someone else’s work. Or you could just turn their map name into an advertisement. Also, when you publish that map, everyone on battlenet will see your name as the author, not the person who actually made it. If you don’t believe me go try it.
You can only publish 5 maps at a time, which means for someone like me, who had over 4,000 custom maps in Warcraft 3, I have to plan out what I am going to play before I play it, and then keep my friends waiting while I waste a lot of time exiting the game, publishing each one, and re-entering the game.
Because there is no way to locally host maps from your computer, it means the publishing system will be used for temporary map hosting. Let’s say I wanted to try out 25 cool-looking new maps in a given night with my friends, I would need to exit the game, publish 5 at a time, play them and then remove them, repeating the process until I ran out of maps to try. This is not what the publishing system was designed for, but this is the only way I try out maps that are not yet on the popular list.
Due to the common practice of renaming other people's maps that I mentioned earlier, and the use of the publishing system for temporary map hosting, many duplicate copies of a map will be republished. Each time someone republishes a map, it will be under their name, and slightly different from every other version out there! The reason Blizzard claims to have removed the ability to create named-custom games was to prevent 100 different DOTA games – well they succeeded, except now there will be 100 different DOTA maps, each with a different author or map name. You can already see duplicates in the popular list, but this will get much worse once as soon as publishing abuse starts (more on that later).
Compared to the rest of the game, publishing a map quite difficult ad is not is not intuitive. The typical user has no idea what the map editor even is, much less how to publish a map. Past Blizzard games have trained people that if they download a map and put it in the right folder, they can host it – nowhere in Starcraft 2 is the user told this is no longer the case (or why the decision was made).
There are other problems with publishing, like the 10mb map limit. I will not go into those here, but I would encourage checking out the threads by IskatuMesk, and SCLegacy, both of which are excellent in-depth write-ups.
These issues taken all together bring us to a larger problem: because it is so difficult to host custom maps that are not already popular, most people simply will not bother hosting new maps at all. This leaves us with only the popularity system, which, as Blizzard poster Xordiah explains, it should work fine for discovering new maps:
I saw some concerns in this thread that you guys are afraid that a map that is published maybe five months after release but is really good will never get any attention. I don't really share this concern, because of the awesome sites out there that will start promoting good content. I mean, even today, when map publishing is still doing its first steps and while there is still quite a bit of work ahead of us, I have seen so many great maps that are featured on sc2mapster, on TL.net and many other community websites. There will always be a map making community like the Hiveworkshop were map makers will find support. And though all these sites, through the forums, through casters like Husky and especially through word of mouth good maps will be spotlighted and players will find them and make them popular. If a map is good, make a youtube video of it and it will spread if players think it is cool.
By this line of reasoning it is up to the map download sites to promote maps. While Xordiah is correct that sites have thousands of custom maps, he fails to understand that users have no way to play the maps they download, except by publishing. As if the limitations and difficulties of publishing were not bad enough, there is a good chance that by publishing you would be creating a duplicate and just adding to the popularity system’s problems, since any map author lucky enough to be featured on a site has probably already published. Further, without a good way to host unpopular maps, popular maps stay popular. With fewer people publishing, it easy to game the system, making maps popular that should not be or simply injecting fake maps in the popular list.
This is a nightmare for custom maps, but what can we do?
There has been much uproar over the lack of chat, lack of cross-region play, and lack of LAN support. Blizzard acknowledged all of these, but has remained quiet on custom maps. As SCLegacy points out, Blizzard knows the game-finding experience is not what was promised at BlizzCon 2009. Unfortunately the interface won't change the fundamental fact that you cannot host a downloaded map without jumping through ridiculous hoops.
Prototype Map Search Interface as shown at BlizzCon 2009.
Many of the people who are complaining about the custom maps are mistakenly focused on naming games or the popularity and filtering systems – none of that matters if you can’t easily play and host the maps you download.
Blizzard has some of the best modification tools and community of any game out there, and I am confident they can fix this. Please join me in helping to make Blizzard aware of the problem in whatever way you can.
Dude i was about to do a writeup on this, but yeah, we need to make a petition for blizzard to answer on custom maps. If blizzard lets activision pull their strings THIS much, I'm sorry but this is my last blizzard product. If all of these things were blizzard's idea, than lol, they are way out of touch.
How does the 10 mb limit and 20 mb overall limit make ANY sense? Sure it makes sense to the masses making maps "for fun," but not to ACTUAL MAP MAKERS. I dunno, make people pay $5 to have a "map maker" status and give them a 50 mb limit per map.
I am sure they are already "aware" of this problem, its just that we have to be sure not to let them get away with making a huge money grab, where any map worth half a sh** needs to be bought. If we get mad enough we can, if we don't, I can see custom maps dying, and it will be everyone's loss.
Can't you just search for the map you want to host it? For example, when I want to play on destination I just search destination and lo and behold, I'm playing on destination.
The barrier for new maps to gain traction needs to be lowered. Xordiah's post misses the point. Most players won't bother to go to a maps website to find out what maps to play. Players are lazy.
To throw in an analogy, Starcraft 2 is the restaurant, the players are the customers, and the meals are the maps. At the moment, they have 501982038181 pro chefs cooking in the kitchen, but only 50 items on the menu. If you want more, you have to request for more menus. Most people walking into the restaurant will only look for something to satisfy their belly, therefore they will pick from the top10 popular dishes, and look no further. Extremely few people will bother to look online, check reviews, and then specifically request by name an obscure chef's dish, which is what Xordiah imagines customers doing. The menu needs to have a different way to sort it, so that new and special dishes can be uncovered easily and spread about.
Solutions I would consider are modeled after the existing review systems on the internet. Going from simple models to complex structures,
- Something incredibly simple like the thumbs up/down system on facebook. An option to organize maps by what is "liked" the most as well as played the most. - Something more complex like a 5 star system and perhaps user review comments for the benefit of the map maker. - A point system, granting users power in their reviews. Maps will be sorted by number of points. Points are gathered through both by 5star reviews, as well as who is doing the reviewing. Players who write long comprehensive reviews of maps will have more "point power" to boost the map popularity. People can gain more "point power" by writing good reviews, publishing popular maps, or playing a lot.
Sure, each of these systems can be abused, but they have all be done before on websites (amazon, ebay, newgrounds, ect.) and those websites have turned out strongly, so I am sure there will be ways to stop abuse from happening.
The key is to have something that is simple in structure, but user moderated and user driven. Any rules that directly interfere too much with map publishing will choke the creativity and fun out of custom maps, and the longevity of sc2.
And after you publish the map and create a game, no one can join because its not one of the most popular maps. Also, recently joined game of someone else publishing a map means that it must have been in the top 50 for you to join in the first place.
Meaning, you can only play the map if its in the top 50.
In addition to what is suggested above maybe only display games that already have a host, as in you hit create game and end up at the list rather than the now popular section where you have no idea if the map you desire to play is empty or full.
Especially a problem on maps that require multiple users.
And a more interactive interface, not just "show more -> show more -> show more" when I could easily rule out 95% of the maps i'm not looking for by 1-3 filters.
God why isn't there a search bar in there. I HATE this custom game interface, its so horrid... And on the filters idea, even a categories filter would be sooo welcome.
I'm sorry guys. Maybe I don't understand the inquriery but my understanding is that all you can see is the popular maps top 50 right? But why not just use the show new maps only toggle?
Popular map listing is terrible. Listing by newest game room and genre categories would be a million times better.
Blizzard doesn't seem to want local hosting so that they can control things for whatever reason. Problem is that they don't give us anything that is remotely as good local hosting. Local hosting needs to be in sc2 unless blizz wants to allow unlimited map hosting and vastly improve being able to get the map.
On July 30 2010 07:31 ReketSomething wrote: And after you publish the map and create a game, no one can join because its not one of the most popular maps. Also, recently joined game of someone else publishing a map means that it must have been in the top 50 for you to join in the first place.
Meaning, you can only play the map if its in the top 50.
Yup - this is a great point. The only way to get around this is to have a full party that can join you, and for people that don't always have 10 close friends on-call to play with, it is a huge problem.
In warcraft 3 it was not a problem, the game list just showed the most recently created game, but even that is problematic.
On July 30 2010 08:32 CagedMind wrote: Popular map listing is terrible. Listing by newest game room and genre categories would be a million times better.
You need a way to see all maps that are uploaded, otherwise people are going to have a very hard time finding the map they want to play, especially if they know the specific map and have it downloaded already
If they did show all the maps, more dynamic filters would be necessary, but it would work
This issue is worse than anything else. Lack of lan, lack of any god damn thing, or all those anti-piracy measures... they don't mean a damn next to this.
This is completely killing custom games. Heck I won't even be able to simply play custom games with my friend like I thought I would unless I seek the most popular, published one.
I say two seperate maplist should help out. One list is a "popular maps" list and the other is our classic battle.net 1.0 style "recently created room/maps" list
On July 30 2010 07:12 Belegorm wrote: Can't you just search for the map you want to host it? For example, when I want to play on destination I just search destination and lo and behold, I'm playing on destination.
seriously why does this have to be so bad... i liked the old version where i can search the list and if i find a game with a name that sounds interesting i can join and play a game... it would be a million times better if they just took the old system and for their reasoning of there being thousands of dota games, maybe add a limit to the number of a certain map can be host or a filter system where i can say eliminate any map with dota in the game name or something so i can avoid maps i dont want to play.
also another problem i found with this is that some people will host the game under the default custom settings rather than the game specified settings which seems to screw up the teams and settings in game
also just a sidenote: is anyone annoyed with the 30 second autostart? or the fact that you cant move yourself to a different team or slot? this really pisses me off that if its a map like say from wc3 island defense or vampirism you have different people in different teams and if i want to be titan or vamp i need the hosts permission and the knowing he/she isnt afk or is just an idiot and will move me. and then if i dont get that and the game fills up i cant try and leave and get another game because the game auto started and instead i have to log off to do so and hope when i join another game i get the spot or can leave before it fills again, whereas before i could move there at my own will and i will actually have time to leave if i dont get it without penalizing the rest of the players or wasting their time by leaving while in a required spot meaning they go through this 30 seconds and into the game only to have to leave
It also bothers me that when you search by melee maps, every single one on the popular list is a blizzard map. Makes it impossible to play some of the good maps people have created since even if you host one, nobody is ever going to join since its not even on the list.
i have to say, when it comes to UMS, blizz really fucked this one up.
UMS is the primary reason for SC's popularity. sure we have seen the competitive scene in Korea but look at DotA, there are about 6M ppl playing DotA based on downloads from getdota.com and an additional 4M in China based on domestic estimates.
you may argue that DotA isnt SC, but there IS DotA for SC2 and DotA for War3 was based on AoS from SC.
On July 30 2010 17:31 saltydeeds wrote: It also bothers me that when you search by melee maps, every single one on the popular list is a blizzard map. Makes it impossible to play some of the good maps people have created since even if you host one, nobody is ever going to join since its not even on the list.
which reminds me the most popular SC melee maps -> Big Game Hunters and Fastest Possible.
I'll give them some grace time, maybe 1-2 months, to fix this. Since the majority of good maps will probably not even be polished until then.
But afterwards... if in 2 months they haven't managed to think of a better custom map system, custom maps can gg. Although that's wrong. More like an IdrA ragequit than a gg.
The current custom map search system is sooooooo BETA, it really sucks. A similar one to the one from wc3 would be enough to me; or even make that one better. But this one is even far inferior to the one from SC:BW imo!
On July 30 2010 17:39 dybydx wrote: i have to say, when it comes to UMS, blizz really fucked this one up.
UMS is the primary reason for SC's popularity. sure we have seen the competitive scene in Korea but look at DotA, there are about 6M ppl playing DotA based on downloads from getdota.com and an additional 4M in China based on domestic estimates.
you may argue that DotA isnt SC, but there IS DotA for SC2 and DotA for War3 was based on AoS from SC.
And those were far less played than the main game.
DOTA is played so much because WC3 wasn't as good as SC.
On July 30 2010 17:39 dybydx wrote: i have to say, when it comes to UMS, blizz really fucked this one up.
UMS is the primary reason for SC's popularity. sure we have seen the competitive scene in Korea but look at DotA, there are about 6M ppl playing DotA based on downloads from getdota.com and an additional 4M in China based on domestic estimates.
you may argue that DotA isnt SC, but there IS DotA for SC2 and DotA for War3 was based on AoS from SC.
And those were far less played than the main game.
DOTA is played so much because WC3 wasn't as good as SC.
What? How on earth do people come up with such ridiculous conclusions?
Dota is played so much because WC3 is the first game that came out that had such an insanely powerful map editing tool. That map editor was far and away the most unlimited one for a game you could find, you could just about manipulate EVERYTHING. The map editor is so powerful that it SPAWNED ITS OWN GAME. Think about that for a moment.
SC2 map editor is even MORE powerful than that...but it has a ton more arbitrary restrictions that all but hamstring the entire thing. Since you're able to switch SC2 into a first person thing (supposidly) the whole sniper map genre in the starcraft UMS thing would take on an ENTIRELY new dimension.
If blizzard removes these stupid restrictions and fixes the way they host UMS games you could have some truly amazing maps come out of it.
On July 30 2010 17:39 dybydx wrote: i have to say, when it comes to UMS, blizz really fucked this one up.
UMS is the primary reason for SC's popularity. sure we have seen the competitive scene in Korea but look at DotA, there are about 6M ppl playing DotA based on downloads from getdota.com and an additional 4M in China based on domestic estimates.
you may argue that DotA isnt SC, but there IS DotA for SC2 and DotA for War3 was based on AoS from SC.
And those were far less played than the main game.
DOTA is played so much because WC3 wasn't as good as SC.
Defense of the Ancients is now played more than Warcraft III because Warcraft III is an unfathomably complex step up from Starcraft. Complexity is the number of game rules and depth is the amount of things you can do with those game rules. Starcraft gains its depth by taking very simple mechanics and allowing players do work all sorts of magic with them. Warcraft III takes its depth from the sheer complexity of the rule set, where you're balancing random damage, heroes, creeps, experience, gold, wood, food, items, completely unintuitive health and mana totals and then throwing them all into a blender.
It is impossible to dissect Warcraft III in the way that Starcraft players know two Zealot hits down a Zergling when your weapon upgrade comes into play. It's too complicated for most gamers. So when low-level (i.e. bad) Warcraft III players found they could play the same game and they wouldn't have to manage an economy and other units, they jumped at it. And even when you strip out the core mechanics of Warcraft III ladder play, Defense of the Ancients (with its individual hero vs. hero matchups, item recipes, and items) is still a ridiculously complex game.
Has nothing to do with quality. Defense of the Ancients is an easier game.
On July 30 2010 07:12 Belegorm wrote: Can't you just search for the map you want to host it? For example, when I want to play on destination I just search destination and lo and behold, I'm playing on destination.
Yea you can, but the issue is that there is no way for new maps to get recognized on BNET, the only way for a mapper to get people to search his map is to do so on a forum like TL or elsewhere.
I think the way they handled custom games is by far the worst thing about the new bnet, worse than chat or LAN....so much potential in the map editor but I just can't understand WTF Blizz is thinking with this horrible system. From the way the maps are hosted, to the ridiculous popularity system to the idiotic restrictions on uploading. It's like they thought of the most terrible ideas possible and threw them all in. Absolutely nothing about the way custom games are handled is in any way an improvement over the wc3/sc system.
On July 30 2010 17:39 dybydx wrote: i have to say, when it comes to UMS, blizz really fucked this one up.
UMS is the primary reason for SC's popularity. sure we have seen the competitive scene in Korea but look at DotA, there are about 6M ppl playing DotA based on downloads from getdota.com and an additional 4M in China based on domestic estimates.
you may argue that DotA isnt SC, but there IS DotA for SC2 and DotA for War3 was based on AoS from SC.
And those were far less played than the main game.
DOTA is played so much because WC3 wasn't as good as SC.
What? How on earth do people come up with such ridiculous conclusions?
Dota is played so much because WC3 is the first game that came out that had such an insanely powerful map editing tool. That map editor was far and away the most unlimited one for a game you could find, you could just about manipulate EVERYTHING. The map editor is so powerful that it SPAWNED ITS OWN GAME. Think about that for a moment.
SC2 map editor is even MORE powerful than that...but it has a ton more arbitrary restrictions that all but hamstring the entire thing. Since you're able to switch SC2 into a first person thing (supposidly) the whole sniper map genre in the starcraft UMS thing would take on an ENTIRELY new dimension.
If blizzard removes these stupid restrictions and fixes the way they host UMS games you could have some truly amazing maps come out of it.
DOTA is played so much because it is a good game and it's easier to get into playing one hero alone than a WC3 race.
On July 30 2010 17:39 dybydx wrote: i have to say, when it comes to UMS, blizz really fucked this one up.
UMS is the primary reason for SC's popularity. sure we have seen the competitive scene in Korea but look at DotA, there are about 6M ppl playing DotA based on downloads from getdota.com and an additional 4M in China based on domestic estimates.
you may argue that DotA isnt SC, but there IS DotA for SC2 and DotA for War3 was based on AoS from SC.
And those were far less played than the main game.
DOTA is played so much because WC3 wasn't as good as SC.
Defense of the Ancients is now played more than Warcraft III because Warcraft III is an unfathomably complex step up from Starcraft. Complexity is the number of game rules and depth is the amount of things you can do with those game rules. Starcraft gains its depth by taking very simple mechanics and allowing players do work all sorts of magic with them. Warcraft III takes its depth from the sheer complexity of the rule set, where you're balancing random damage, heroes, creeps, experience, gold, wood, food, items, completely unintuitive health and mana totals and then throwing them all into a blender.
It is impossible to dissect Warcraft III in the way that Starcraft players know two Zealot hits down a Zergling when your weapon upgrade comes into play. It's too complicated for most gamers. So when low-level (i.e. bad) Warcraft III players found they could play the same game and they wouldn't have to manage an economy and other units, they jumped at it. And even when you strip out the core mechanics of Warcraft III ladder play, Defense of the Ancients (with its individual hero vs. hero matchups, item recipes, and items) is still a ridiculously complex game.
Has nothing to do with quality. Defense of the Ancients is an easier game.
DOTA is a really awesome game, though. I gotta say that I love the DOTA-style level in the SC2 campaign.
DISCLAIMER EDIT: I've never played DOTA; I've only played Heroes of Newerth.
Gotta agree that the custom maps is horrible. One of the big reasons I bought SC2 was for all the upcoming custom maps, I spent so much time on WC3 just playing custom maps. However as said the new system seems so fucking stupid. Hopefully Blizzard will change it ASAP.
Haven't even played a custom game because of the broken system. Every time I've checked the gamelist, there's been the same five turret defence maps and one dota-clone, the rest just random Blizzard maps (of which there are way too few imo). Didn't know it was because of ridiculous restrictions until I read this thread. Popularity system is a huge failure, doing it the SC/WC3 way with recent games, and throwing in a filter/search function, would be enough. Getting rid of that goddamn "show more" button would be an astonishing improvement as well, just give me a scrollbar and I'm happy.
They better fix this quickly, because I doubt many newbs will stay around on bnet getting trashed by the beta-players unless they have something in the UMS department to offer.
i recall the only reason why i ever played WC3 melee matches was because in order to visit the chat channel for Clan TDA, you need 25 wins. so i tower rushed my opponents for the 25.
and honestly, if it was not for the custom games, i would not have purchased WC3. in fact, i've completed the campaigns for WC3 before the game was released on shelf.
unless u know some programming or would love to learn some, i strongly advise against it. it is extremely time consuming and given the way things are, no one will play your map anyways.
Yall got your collective panties in a bunch about the RealID shit and flipped out over that, but this barely gets a peep comparatively? Something that actually affects the game! Jesus people should start flipping out more over this
There's been some pretty bad stuff going on with sc2 but this has been always the biggest. I don't think some people realized how significant the current problem has been with ums.
On July 30 2010 17:39 dybydx wrote: i have to say, when it comes to UMS, blizz really fucked this one up.
UMS is the primary reason for SC's popularity. sure we have seen the competitive scene in Korea but look at DotA, there are about 6M ppl playing DotA based on downloads from getdota.com and an additional 4M in China based on domestic estimates.
you may argue that DotA isnt SC, but there IS DotA for SC2 and DotA for War3 was based on AoS from SC.
And those were far less played than the main game.
DOTA is played so much because WC3 wasn't as good as SC.
Defense of the Ancients is now played more than Warcraft III because Warcraft III is an unfathomably complex step up from Starcraft. Complexity is the number of game rules and depth is the amount of things you can do with those game rules. Starcraft gains its depth by taking very simple mechanics and allowing players do work all sorts of magic with them. Warcraft III takes its depth from the sheer complexity of the rule set, where you're balancing random damage, heroes, creeps, experience, gold, wood, food, items, completely unintuitive health and mana totals and then throwing them all into a blender.
It is impossible to dissect Warcraft III in the way that Starcraft players know two Zealot hits down a Zergling when your weapon upgrade comes into play. It's too complicated for most gamers. So when low-level (i.e. bad) Warcraft III players found they could play the same game and they wouldn't have to manage an economy and other units, they jumped at it. And even when you strip out the core mechanics of Warcraft III ladder play, Defense of the Ancients (with its individual hero vs. hero matchups, item recipes, and items) is still a ridiculously complex game.
Has nothing to do with quality. Defense of the Ancients is an easier game.
DOTA is a really awesome game, though. I gotta say that I love the DOTA-style level in the SC2 campaign.
DISCLAIMER EDIT: I've never played DOTA; I've only played Heroes of Newerth.
he was prolly referring to Tosh's mission, where you only control the hero unit.
but one of the best things about DotA is that its one of the few games out there that promote teamwork. something the SC melee failed to adequately provide.
he was prolly referring to Tosh's mission, where you only control the hero unit.
but one of the best things about DotA is that its one of the few games out there that promote teamwork. something the SC melee failed to adequately provide.
On August 01 2010 02:04 PanzerDragoon wrote: so what do you call 2v2 then
look at what happened to 2v2 in SC:BW. they even had 2v2 in proleague but that died out pretty quick. lets admit it, 2v2 or nvn simply wasnt what the developers had in mind, the game wasnt balanced that way.
so ya, i m a strong believer that custom games will be a critical factor in determining the success of sc2 in term of longevity and brand value.
On July 30 2010 17:39 dybydx wrote: i have to say, when it comes to UMS, blizz really fucked this one up.
UMS is the primary reason for SC's popularity. sure we have seen the competitive scene in Korea but look at DotA, there are about 6M ppl playing DotA based on downloads from getdota.com and an additional 4M in China based on domestic estimates.
you may argue that DotA isnt SC, but there IS DotA for SC2 and DotA for War3 was based on AoS from SC.
And those were far less played than the main game.
DOTA is played so much because WC3 wasn't as good as SC.
Defense of the Ancients is now played more than Warcraft III because Warcraft III is an unfathomably complex step up from Starcraft. Complexity is the number of game rules and depth is the amount of things you can do with those game rules. Starcraft gains its depth by taking very simple mechanics and allowing players do work all sorts of magic with them. Warcraft III takes its depth from the sheer complexity of the rule set, where you're balancing random damage, heroes, creeps, experience, gold, wood, food, items, completely unintuitive health and mana totals and then throwing them all into a blender.
It is impossible to dissect Warcraft III in the way that Starcraft players know two Zealot hits down a Zergling when your weapon upgrade comes into play. It's too complicated for most gamers. So when low-level (i.e. bad) Warcraft III players found they could play the same game and they wouldn't have to manage an economy and other units, they jumped at it. And even when you strip out the core mechanics of Warcraft III ladder play, Defense of the Ancients (with its individual hero vs. hero matchups, item recipes, and items) is still a ridiculously complex game.
Has nothing to do with quality. Defense of the Ancients is an easier game.
DOTA is a really awesome game, though. I gotta say that I love the DOTA-style level in the SC2 campaign.
DISCLAIMER EDIT: I've never played DOTA; I've only played Heroes of Newerth.
The ironic thing is that I can't stand Defense of the Ancients, but my favorite level in The Frozen Throne was the ebb-and-flow Defense of the Ancients level.
Ever consider that maybe the terrible, terrible custom map system has something to do with Blizzard's vision for esports?
Back in SC1, basically everyone who would have been a copper-gold player equivalent was playing Fastest because it simply took less skill to play it. Some of those players got really really good at it, but the fact was that the majority of the bnet community chose easy over hard. Same thing with WC3 and DOTA, and this time it was to the extent that it was virtually impossible to play any other custom game after a while.
Maybe blizzard doesn't want the majority of the community playing the game in easymode, so they gave us a pretty decent matchmaking system for 1v1s and a piece of crap for custom games. It would definitely throw a wrench in any sort of competitive community evolving for games like fastest or DOTA.
On August 01 2010 09:25 SharkSpider wrote: Ever consider that maybe the terrible, terrible custom map system has something to do with Blizzard's vision for esports?
Back in SC1, basically everyone who would have been a copper-gold player equivalent was playing Fastest because it simply took less skill to play it. Some of those players got really really good at it, but the fact was that the majority of the bnet community chose easy over hard. Same thing with WC3 and DOTA, and this time it was to the extent that it was virtually impossible to play any other custom game after a while.
Maybe blizzard doesn't want the majority of the community playing the game in easymode, so they gave us a pretty decent matchmaking system for 1v1s and a piece of crap for custom games. It would definitely throw a wrench in any sort of competitive community evolving for games like fastest or DOTA.
Except that the problem is with all custom games, not just with FMP.
Blizzard is blocking users from playing what they want to. It's not intentional, they are just trying to create a good way of letting users pick among hundreds of thousands of games. Unfortunately, they are being way too restrictive.
On August 01 2010 09:25 SharkSpider wrote: Ever consider that maybe the terrible, terrible custom map system has something to do with Blizzard's vision for esports?
Back in SC1, basically everyone who would have been a copper-gold player equivalent was playing Fastest because it simply took less skill to play it. Some of those players got really really good at it, but the fact was that the majority of the bnet community chose easy over hard. Same thing with WC3 and DOTA, and this time it was to the extent that it was virtually impossible to play any other custom game after a while.
Maybe blizzard doesn't want the majority of the community playing the game in easymode, so they gave us a pretty decent matchmaking system for 1v1s and a piece of crap for custom games. It would definitely throw a wrench in any sort of competitive community evolving for games like fastest or DOTA.
I think you're confused. SC ladder wasn't popular because it wasn't set to fastest, it was set to fast. It wasn't because people wanted to play money maps (i think that's what you are getting at?)
Besides, SC2 has matchmaking and even if you dont like the divisions the ladder is much more attractive to players than playing custom games, they don't need to conspire to ruin custom games so that people will play ladder. They just need to support the ladder, which they do.
The fact is, the custom map system sucks for the same reason so many other parts of bnet2 sucks. It was poorly thought out and implemented.
On August 01 2010 09:25 SharkSpider wrote: Ever consider that maybe the terrible, terrible custom map system has something to do with Blizzard's vision for esports?
Back in SC1, basically everyone who would have been a copper-gold player equivalent was playing Fastest because it simply took less skill to play it. Some of those players got really really good at it, but the fact was that the majority of the bnet community chose easy over hard. Same thing with WC3 and DOTA, and this time it was to the extent that it was virtually impossible to play any other custom game after a while.
Maybe blizzard doesn't want the majority of the community playing the game in easymode, so they gave us a pretty decent matchmaking system for 1v1s and a piece of crap for custom games. It would definitely throw a wrench in any sort of competitive community evolving for games like fastest or DOTA.
How is any of this supposed to stop people from playing fastest?
SC and SC2 melee are meant to be 1v1 games. I know there is 2v2, 3v3 and 4v4 but the game wasnt designed or balanced for that.
DotA on the other hand is no less competitive than SC or SC2 melee, but it is meant to be played as 5v5 with teamwork involved. Top DotA players top 280 APM easily.
Bnet2.0 is screwed up and tons of ppl are raging about it.
Prototype Map Search Interface as shown at BlizzCon 2009.
They fucking need this, when a map has multiple playing modes. (like Marine arena, pick: classic, fast, fast double income, fastest triple income.) Same with Dota. Just fucked up joining a pubic game without knowing what mode you will be playing. They should bring back individual game room with their own title.
On August 01 2010 09:25 SharkSpider wrote: Ever consider that maybe the terrible, terrible custom map system has something to do with Blizzard's vision for esports?
Back in SC1, basically everyone who would have been a copper-gold player equivalent was playing Fastest because it simply took less skill to play it. Some of those players got really really good at it, but the fact was that the majority of the bnet community chose easy over hard. Same thing with WC3 and DOTA, and this time it was to the extent that it was virtually impossible to play any other custom game after a while.
Maybe blizzard doesn't want the majority of the community playing the game in easymode, so they gave us a pretty decent matchmaking system for 1v1s and a piece of crap for custom games. It would definitely throw a wrench in any sort of competitive community evolving for games like fastest or DOTA.
I think you're confused. SC ladder wasn't popular because it wasn't set to fastest, it was set to fast. It wasn't because people wanted to play money maps (i think that's what you are getting at?)
Besides, SC2 has matchmaking and even if you dont like the divisions the ladder is much more attractive to players than playing custom games, they don't need to conspire to ruin custom games so that people will play ladder. They just need to support the ladder, which they do.
The fact is, the custom map system sucks for the same reason so many other parts of bnet2 sucks. It was poorly thought out and implemented.
I'm not confused, it just seems highly unlikely that the same company that made a pretty functional ladder system would make a custom map system that put roadblocks in the way of competitive custom map playing without at least thinking about what it would do. If we give blizzard even a little credit with how they designed bnet, custom games are supposed to be like facebook games. You play the ones that boatloads of people have thumbed-up but if you want to be serious you should be playing blizzard's maps on blizzard's ladder.
I'm not saying that it was intentional sabotage, but as someone in business, I know what it looks like when companies try to direct traffic, and bnet 2.0 has 'casual' branded all over custom maps and 'esports' branded all over quick match leagues. I can't claim to have a big sample size, but from my own group of friends, it appears to have worked. More people are opting to ladder in lower divisions than to play money maps or spend all day UMSing, and I rarely see someone do custom games more than a few times in a row before going back to playing starcraft on regular starcraft maps.
If you consider leagues, the fact that you no longer have to play too many games where you get stomped, the inefficiencies of custom maps and the setup of bnet 2.0, Blizzard really has done a decent job streamlining players in to just playing games like they'd do on xbox live. Obviously this has merits to it, but I personally disagree with the general sense of things and so do a lot of veteran SC players. But the fact is that bnet is working pretty close to how blizzard's views on competitive gaming have been, and I doubt these issues are just oversight.
you are seriously confused. if all Blizz wanted SC2 to be was melee scrims only, they would have given us a map editor that only place doodads, terrains and start locations.
ever since the days of SC1, there have always been strong demands from the community to increase the power of map editor. the only benefit of it was for custom games.
If you consider leagues, the fact that you no longer have to play too many games where you get stomped, the inefficiencies of custom maps and the setup of bnet 2.0, Blizzard really has done a decent job streamlining players in to just playing games like they'd do on xbox live. Obviously this has merits to it, but I personally disagree with the general sense of things and so do a lot of veteran SC players. But the fact is that bnet is working pretty close to how blizzard's views on competitive gaming have been, and I doubt these issues are just oversight.
So you think they made a shitty custom map interface so people have to play ladder? ...
On August 01 2010 09:25 SharkSpider wrote: Ever consider that maybe the terrible, terrible custom map system has something to do with Blizzard's vision for esports?
Back in SC1, basically everyone who would have been a copper-gold player equivalent was playing Fastest because it simply took less skill to play it. Some of those players got really really good at it, but the fact was that the majority of the bnet community chose easy over hard. Same thing with WC3 and DOTA, and this time it was to the extent that it was virtually impossible to play any other custom game after a while.
Maybe blizzard doesn't want the majority of the community playing the game in easymode, so they gave us a pretty decent matchmaking system for 1v1s and a piece of crap for custom games. It would definitely throw a wrench in any sort of competitive community evolving for games like fastest or DOTA.
An interesting point. I can only hope that you're right, in my dreams I envision the designers being as elitist as us, but I doubt it's the reality.
In truth, as their other games have shown, they are much more interested in the casual gamer.
Those of us who are hardcore will always be the minority, and minorities don't bring in the dough.
On August 01 2010 16:46 dybydx wrote: @SharkSpider,
you are seriously confused. if all Blizz wanted SC2 to be was melee scrims only, they would have given us a map editor that only place doodads, terrains and start locations.
ever since the days of SC1, there have always been strong demands from the community to increase the power of map editor. the only benefit of it was for custom games.
I'm not 'seriously confused', I'm just pointing out the fact that nothing about the custom map system says 'custom games are serious business' and that blizzard isn't incompetent enough to design a random system that doesn't work for what it's supposed to do.
I'm saying that maybe it's not an oversight by blizzard, and that many community members have a view on custom maps that differs from what blizzard things about them. Blizzard appears to have designed the custom map system based on having players play a few of the most popular custom maps casually. Players who want to be able to play them seriously just aren't part of that picture, and it shows.
I know i am supposed to contribute to this forum and all and not just copy paste, but this sums it up
Maybe they could just copy Bnet 1.0 system and it get it over with.
have 2000 people tell that to blizzard and they might get the message Bnet 2.0 takes 5 steps backwards for a single step forward oh and the step forward was the HD graphics
On August 02 2010 03:50 SharkSpider wrote:Blizzard appears to have designed the custom map system based on having players play a few of the most popular custom maps casually. Players who want to be able to play them seriously just aren't part of that picture, and it shows.
While it is true that some of the issues, like the popularity system, are by design, some of the other issues I pointed out, like the publishing system, are more likely unanticipated outcomes by Blizzard. It could be caused by rushed development or a focus on other areas, but these seem like bugs to me, not intentional design decisions.
I doubt Blizzard intended the average user to quit the game, load the editor and publish a map that someone else made every time they want to play a downloaded map. There is no reason they would make it intentionally hard, not when they created such a great editor. The publishing system is new too, and no matter how convoluted it is for non-authors to host maps, developing something like that is not free.
Even if you do not believe that, Blizzard was very excited about offering paid map content in the future. The worse off free custom content is, the harder it will be to convince users to pay. You could argue that they are crippling the system intentionally, with plans to roll out a better system for those who pay. I think that would just make it harder to sell though - not only would they be charging for something that was previously free, but they would be crippling the system before it reached critical mass.
I can't really see any motivation for Blizzard to cripple their system, not after investing so much into it.
On July 31 2010 19:38 QuothTheRaven wrote: While I do agree that the system is messed up right now, you need to add this as a possible way to host a custom map:
4. Know the name of the map that you want to host and use the search bar to find it.
This works even when conditions 1, 2, and 3 are all false.
When hosting a custom game the search ONLY searches within
Blizzard Maps Popular Recently Played My Published
Correct me if I am wrong, but I see no way to search "All" maps when creating a game. If the map is not in one of those 4 lists, but it is on your computer, there is no way to host without republishing.
Edit: I did not mention in the original post, but has anyone else noticed the search seems very bad? If I type in Defense or TD I get no results, even though there are clearly maps with that in the name.
On July 31 2010 19:38 QuothTheRaven wrote: While I do agree that the system is messed up right now, you need to add this as a possible way to host a custom map:
4. Know the name of the map that you want to host and use the search bar to find it.
This works even when conditions 1, 2, and 3 are all false.
When hosting a custom game the search ONLY searches within
Blizzard Maps Popular Recently Played My Published
Correct me if I am wrong, but I see no way to search "All" maps when creating a game. If the map is not in one of those 4 lists, but it is on your computer, there is no way to host without republishing.
Edit: I did not mention in the original post, but has anyone else noticed the search seems very bad? If I type in Defense or TD I get no results, even though there are clearly maps with that in the name.
The two boxes on the left don't limit or restrict your search.
For example, when I select "My Published" on the left, and then search "iCCup," it comes up with all of the maps made by the iCCup mapmaking team, even though I didn't publish any of those myself.
The search engine is a little strange, though. When you search for a term, it only looks for maps whose name STARTS with that.
For example, there is a map called "Vexal Tower Defense" on the US server (arbitrary example). Searching for "Vexal" will show the map, as will searching for "Vexal Tower" and "Vexal Tower Defense." However, searching for "Tower" or "Tower Defense" will NOT show the map.
Likewise, if I want to find the map "iCCup Fighting Spirit" (which is a pretty popular map to begin with), the searches "Fighting," "Fighting Spirit," and "prodiG" (map maker's name) all come up empty; only the searches "iCCup," "iCCup Fighting," or "iCCup Fighting Spirit" will display the proper result.
(This is why "defense" as a search term comes up empty, since no map names START with the word defense).
I have no idea why the search engine is operating this way. It's a horribly designed search, but it DOES work IF you know exactly what to search for.
Another thing that irks me about the custom games is the mapmakers themselves. All we've had so far seems to be crappy TD's and other remakes. We haven't started getting any creative custom games which uses the full potential of the editor. Is it too early, or are they just hidden under all the piles of TD shit?
posting because the current system really sucks ass. It has some merits, but overall the old wc3 system was way better. I really hope they will change it, but I also highly doubt it.
On August 02 2010 10:36 Shauni wrote: Another thing that irks me about the custom games is the mapmakers themselves. All we've had so far seems to be crappy TD's and other remakes. We haven't started getting any creative custom games which uses the full potential of the editor. Is it too early, or are they just hidden under all the piles of TD shit?
Mappers created over 2000 custom maps before beta ended, I don't see how you can blame them. Of course, you'll never see these maps, because no one can host them. I have hundreds of maps from beta, and try to republish 5 per night, but it takes so dam long that I just given up.
Mappers will stop making maps if there is not a better way to host maps. I mean, what motivation do I have to make a map when the fate of whether my map is among the 50 visible maps (out of the thousands that are created) depends entirely on a goofy popularity formula? I can't email the map file to my friend, or post the file on my blog, or on a map site, because no one can download it and host it. None of my friends can host the map, but even if they did republish the map, no one can join their game.
Your question should not be
"Why have mappers not made anything good?" but instead it should be
"Why would mappers bother investing time into a map with this system?"
I suspect that mappers, like the rest of community, simply had no idea it was this bad.
This needs to be fixed up quickly, both the publishing and search/filter issues.
Ever since beta started, the top of the list has been the same games. For about 4-5 months there has hardly been any variation to the popular list (TD, Nexus wars etc...). What makes it worse is that these are just rehashed games from SC1/WC3, no different games at all.
Btw what happened to that mario kart game? Is it currently published?
Okay here is an idea - what if we could get this message to Blizzard directly by "using" the very system that is broken??
Because I can't host the maps I download, I am forced to republish them every time. But when I republish I have the option to change the title, and from now on I will be republishing with something special in the title...
That link goes to this thread. Given how messed up the system is, sooner or later one of the maps I republish will make it into the popular list. A single map with a single link would be good and jolly, but if we ALL started republishing maps, and all played each other's republished maps, well then we could get A WHOLE BUNCH of maps with the link on the popular list. If successful, Blizzard will definitely notice this!
I realize this would essentially be turning the map name into an advertisement, which is one of the problems I mentioned in the original post. Realistically though, people are stealing map names for advertising every day. It does not make it right just because other people are doing it and it is totally legal to do and Blizzard does not seem to care at all, however it would be for a good cause. Sacrificing a few map names for the potential future of thousands is worth it.
There was one map that made it to popularity on day 1 of release it was called "how to host a custom game". If a map like that gets to the top, I think as a collective group we could get MANY maps in the top 50 if we all act!
So please, when you find yourself republishing maps, or are just pissed off at this whole system, consider adding http://bit.ly/SaveSC2mapping to the map title when you republish. If you happen to see a map on the popular list with the URL, just take a few minutes to join the game and leave after it starts so that it can become popular. Maybe someone can take this one step further and coordinates times where we can get all online and join a couple of these republished maps with the link.
The more maps we can get with the URL on the popular list, the more likely Blizzard is to see the issues outlined here. In case Blizzard does find this, here is a summary of the main pain points:
people need an easy way to host maps they download, without entering the map editor
people need the ability find and join custom maps other than just the top 50
luxx Hello I am CEMEH_CEMEHbl4 the author of Battle Ships (2005-2010 versions) and BattleCraft maps. I specially registered on TL, to quote your post.
Well if you do so u will be banned! Links in titles is not allowed. You will get 48h ban and lost your 1 publish slot. If you re publish - u will be banned for lifetime.
So DO NOT do this or you will be banned - and will start to HATE BLIZZARD like me! XD
The Story: When i was in beta test i uploaded popular map, where on loading screen i was talking to people, that UMS system is a shit and a joke etc. They blocked my map (in beta test). So i re uploaded map without background picture because i was thinking it was the case. They banned me for lifetime.
So THEY banned beta key - JUST FOR TEXT on loading screen.
Advice:
I recommend to put link on map preview pic, not in title. It should be ok.
The Good News: However i have good news. Of course Blizzard will fix this shit crappy custom games system. But... we need to wait 2 years. (first add on)
Activision multiplayer technology is based on cloud calculations. Which is a shit and fail of humanity. But its very popular in Silicon Valley.Their dreams is to make a new INTERNET based on cloud calculations. So no wonder they use this shit in games IWNET - BNET2.0 - etc.
However its will be pretty big patch and a lot of code to convert custom games into old one.We can expect it only with next add on. Be realist.
The Bad News: Add on will be released after 2 years. Its a default Blizzard time for an add on. Plus new add on will include a lot of cinematics. If you dont believe me go in wikipedia and calculate. Only WOW addons does not fit 2 years.
So we will have working UMS system after D3 release. Which have no sense.
Map making: I was making maps for wc3 like 6 years... NEW custom games is awful, map publishing work only in your region! What? No motivation for me to make a good map because, Europe its only 1/6 maybe of all players on globe... SO B.NET 2.0 just LIMITED ME BY 6 times!!! RETARDED.
No motivation for me to make a map because i cant play my own map... simply no players... ITS a fucking joke! Soon top will be invaded with 4 player TD maps. And maps which can be played alone.
I seriously wanted to make a good balanced Battle Tanks style map. And I have canceled all work. Its a waste of time. Fuck it. Fuck Blizzard.
Conclusion: BLizzard have failed to deliver the game! First time. Its because of Activison but i hate Blizzard much more because they have betrayed me, not Activison.
Blizzard == Traitors.
[ So leave Activision alone! Its a good old douchebags!! ]
Youtube: I recommend whole TL community to spam their youtube channel with mass critics. Like I do. Just copy paste your posts. http://www.youtube.com/user/blizzard
PEACE and good luck! This world is corrupted we should fight!!
I'm sorry to hear about your experience :/ Used to play your maps quite a lot in WC3 and sadly this is something that most likely will happen to more map makers. I mean whats the point of a new super neat map editor if no one will be able to play your maps...
See this is exactly what blizzard wants though, since this quashes any possibility of using unofficial maps for laddering and in general for anything, you will have to buy their map packs rather than playing with the maps that awesome non-blizzard map makers have made.
On August 04 2010 10:38 Tdelamay wrote: Why do you publish the map when you want to play it? Can't you just find it in the list of available maps and pick it?
Only if it's popular. That's the problem. If a map is new / not popular and you want to play it with your friends you have to publish it, join the game to get it in your favorites, and then leave and remake with your friends.
On August 04 2010 09:19 GMarshal wrote: See this is exactly what blizzard wants though, since this quashes any possibility of using unofficial maps for laddering and in general for anything, you will have to buy their map packs rather than playing with the maps that awesome non-blizzard map makers have made.
I'm not sure you understand what the problem is.
In the current system, let's say you buy a map pack, you still have to open them up in the editor and republish them in order to host them!
Likewise, if they didn't want you to play custom maps, why did they release the map editor?
On August 04 2010 09:19 GMarshal wrote: See this is exactly what blizzard wants though, since this quashes any possibility of using unofficial maps for laddering and in general for anything, you will have to buy their map packs rather than playing with the maps that awesome non-blizzard map makers have made.
I'm not sure you understand what the problem is.
In the current system, let's say you buy a map pack, you still have to open them up in the editor and republish them in order to host them!
Likewise, if they didn't want you to play custom maps, why did they release the map editor?
not rly. iccup will find ways to publish on all 3 servers, and promote their maps with tournaments on them. Maybe that will be enough.
While I have to agree that the custom map interface is complete shit, have faith that it will get fixed for one simple reason. Money.
Blizzard is aware that the buckets of money they've made off of their strategy games are directly related to the success of the custom map community. There's a reason that the WC3 battle chest would occasionally be in the top ten games sold a month many years after release and it not wasn't due to melee play.
On August 04 2010 09:19 GMarshal wrote: See this is exactly what blizzard wants though, since this quashes any possibility of using unofficial maps for laddering and in general for anything, you will have to buy their map packs rather than playing with the maps that awesome non-blizzard map makers have made.
I'm not sure you understand what the problem is.
In the current system, let's say you buy a map pack, you still have to open them up in the editor and republish them in order to host them!
Likewise, if they didn't want you to play custom maps, why did they release the map editor?
not rly. iccup will find ways to publish on all 3 servers, and promote their maps with tournaments on them. Maybe that will be enough.
As long as they are in the list of popular maps, people will be able to play them without republishing.
Having grown up on sc1 and wc3 custom maps I am appalled by the current state of custom maps in sc2. Just a few questions for anyone who might have more information than me:
Is there any hope on the horizon?
I've been messing around on the editor quite a bit lately and the latent power it has is ridiculous. After playing nexus wars I am astounded as to how many easy fixes could make it a better game. How in the world is that at the top of the popularity list?
Is it entirely foolish right now to try and create a map? I'm reasonably confident that with time I can put together a better map than most of those in the top 50 but if there is no way to introduce new maps would the effort be entirely in vain? Is there hope that in the coming weeks they might make the few simple changes they need to greatly improve the system?
StarCraft 1's system is outright better. The most popular maps are seen more because they are the most popular maps. It's really, really, simple. If a game is popular then it gets made constantly and you will see other users make it far more often. You don't need an artificial system to display popular maps: the very definition of "popular" ensures that it will be seen! But in SC1 if you wanted to play something unpopular, you just made it and everyone saw it. In SC2? No one will ever see it.
Blizzard surely sees how utterly broken their current custom map system is... right?
On July 30 2010 08:33 0neder wrote: Why don't they have a filter like Wii Shop Channel so you can browse maps by newest, name, tileset, size, type, creator, etc?
" We know it sucks. We're working on solutions but because of the potential for those solutions to not work out, or be delayed, for whatever reason, we're not ready to share details or timelines. But we do appreciate the feedback and agree with a lot of the concerns being raised. Once we are in a place to share some information about what we're doing to address the concerns we'll let you know." - Bashiok
i think the issue isnt with custom maps per se. its blizz want to somehow turn this into a money making process, so they dont want things to be free.
activisionblizzard recently released their financial results. in Q2 2010, their online revenue exceeded their box sale of games. so yes, they know the direction they are headed and bnet2.0 is gonna a cash cow to be milked.
CEMEH_CEMEHbl4 - Thanks for the warning. I think I saw some of your work in wc3, and it is a real shame when community is brushed aside to test out a new system that even a days of testing would have exposed.
Sadly I think you are right that it will take some time. Part of the problem is everyone is complaining about LAN and cross region when the death of custom maps should be the real concern.
bakedace - have you tried to host an unpopular map? I have done this many times and not once does a single public player join unless the map is already in the popular list. In WC3 when I hosted a game it filled up instantly, because every 30 sec or so it moved to the top of the list.
On August 07 2010 03:15 SnOw. wrote: We know it sucks. We're working on solutions but because of the potential for those solutions to not work out, or be delayed, for whatever reason, we're not ready to share details or timelines. But we do appreciate the feedback and agree with a lot of the concerns being raised. Once we are in a place to share some information about what we're doing to address the concerns we'll let you know." - Bashiok
Yep, but the popularity system is only part of the problem. It will make joining games easier, which is what most people care about, however there is still the issue of getting new maps in the system in the first place. Short of opening their entire map catalog, I don't see how fixing the popularity system will let you CREATE custom games that are not popular.
Too bad they won't just let us play sc2 on battle net 1.0... would be so nice
Good luck map makers, I primarily play melee, but I enjoy an ums break now and then. Really sucks that they adopted such a poorly thought out system. If it ain't broke....
As a direct result of how lame the custom game interface is me and my friends now rarely play customs if at all(unless you count melee custom games ;p, but at least those are easy to host)
I doubt this will change within the next 6 months as they already have tons of stuff that needs to be fixed. I think this is easily one of their last priorities in terms of SC2 fixes and I think SC2 is probably one of their last priorities as well b/c they'd probably rather just rush cataclysm their cash cow out to market ASAP.
luxx Hello I am CEMEH_CEMEHbl4 the author of Battle Ships (2005-2010 versions) and BattleCraft maps. I specially registered on TL, to quote your post.
Well if you do so u will be banned! Links in titles is not allowed. You will get 48h ban and lost your 1 publish slot. If you re publish - u will be banned for lifetime.
So DO NOT do this or you will be banned - and will start to HATE BLIZZARD like me! XD
The Story: When i was in beta test i uploaded popular map, where on loading screen i was talking to people, that UMS system is a shit and a joke etc. They blocked my map (in beta test). So i re uploaded map without background picture because i was thinking it was the case. They banned me for lifetime.
So THEY banned beta key - JUST FOR TEXT on loading screen.
Advice:
I recommend to put link on map preview pic, not in title. It should be ok.
The Good News: However i have good news. Of course Blizzard will fix this shit crappy custom games system. But... we need to wait 2 years. (first add on)
Activision multiplayer technology is based on cloud calculations. Which is a shit and fail of humanity. But its very popular in Silicon Valley.Their dreams is to make a new INTERNET based on cloud calculations. So no wonder they use this shit in games IWNET - BNET2.0 - etc.
However its will be pretty big patch and a lot of code to convert custom games into old one.We can expect it only with next add on. Be realist.
The Bad News: Add on will be released after 2 years. Its a default Blizzard time for an add on. Plus new add on will include a lot of cinematics. If you dont believe me go in wikipedia and calculate. Only WOW addons does not fit 2 years.
So we will have working UMS system after D3 release. Which have no sense.
Map making: I was making maps for wc3 like 6 years... NEW custom games is awful, map publishing work only in your region! What? No motivation for me to make a good map because, Europe its only 1/6 maybe of all players on globe... SO B.NET 2.0 just LIMITED ME BY 6 times!!! RETARDED.
No motivation for me to make a map because i cant play my own map... simply no players... ITS a fucking joke! Soon top will be invaded with 4 player TD maps. And maps which can be played alone.
I seriously wanted to make a good balanced Battle Tanks style map. And I have canceled all work. Its a waste of time. Fuck it. Fuck Blizzard.
Conclusion: BLizzard have failed to deliver the game! First time. Its because of Activison but i hate Blizzard much more because they have betrayed me, not Activison.
Blizzard == Traitors.
[ So leave Activision alone! Its a good old douchebags!! ]
Youtube: I recommend whole TL community to spam their youtube channel with mass critics. Like I do. Just copy paste your posts. http://www.youtube.com/user/blizzard
PEACE and good luck! This world is corrupted we should fight!!
I have been looking everywhere for the Battlecraft map in the release version. I'm very sorry to hear that you wont continue to work on it (I would be more than happy with the version I played in beta, though). It's one of the few custom maps that are both fun and have replay value.
I wouldn't get too excited about blizzard fixing this anytime soon at all. I would bet anyone here $20.00 that we won't see a full completion of any adequate custom map system until January 1st, 2011.
Wow four months? But wait, thats not much time at all for blizzard, who has historically delayed really important updates like this one unbelievably long.
We can especially tell that it'll be a while by all of the bureaucratic mumbo jumbo about "We're working on solutions... ...we're not ready to share details or timelines" its just a bunch of crap. I dont mean to sound too hostile toward blizzard, but i mean seriously, your CEO boasts about being a "very profitable company" while acting super smug, meanwhile crap like this goes on.
EPT
![[image loading]](http://sclegacy.com/features/sc2beta/b.netconcerns/Join-Custom-Game.jpg)
