|
Raising Awareness To 1.5 Melee
We have all been waiting for Starcraft 2's patch 1.5; the patch that would blow us all off our chairs in excitement for all of the new editor features, and the brand new custom game solution - the Arcade. You can now browse a big selection of custom maps using the Arcade's many options and filters, such as category, top played, top rated, newest, open games and fun or not. However, with 1.5, melee maps have now been moved to a seperate subsection, hidden deep inside the "Starcraft" section. And along with that, melee maps have gotten none of the new features that custom games got with the patch. This means, that melee map developers are now struggling even more with getting their maps seen and played.
I, among many others, am unhappy with these changes, and is now trying to raise awareness to Blizzard.
Our best shot at raising awareness, is to refuse to use the melee section, and instead publish our maps to the Arcade. If everyone contributes to this movement, Blizzard will soon know, and hopefully consider future changes.
In order to make this a sucess, we will need to flood a single category with melee maps, rather than multiple categories. And we will be using the "Strategy" category. Partly because it fits, and partly because it is a low-populated category. In this way, we will hurt the least UMS developers, and reach our audience the best. Perfect!
How do I participate?
You will need to follow these steps to publish your map to the Arcade.
1. Go to Map -> Map Options and enable "Arcade Map".
2. Go to Map -> Game Variants.
Select "Strategy" from the Genre dropdown. Uncheck "Use Default Variants", and add a new variant. This will be whats seen in the "Mode" dropdown on the Game Info page. In the "Game Type" tab, set the mode to Custom and add this information:
Name: 1v1
Description: Melee
Go to the "Player Attributes" tab, and set "Teams" to 1 v 1.
If your 1v1 map has more than 2 spawns, go to "Game Attributes" and set "Locked Alliances" to Value: Yes and Access: Locked. Then go to "Player Attributes" and set the "Team" of player 1 and 2 to Team 1 and Team 2 respectively. Please note that this technique may not work on some computers after patch 1.5.
If you want to add a 2v2 mode, create a new variant and repeat this step, skipping the above note.
3. Go to Map -> Arcade Info.
This is the Arcade's paradise. You can add all kinds of information and images.
+ Show Spoiler [Browser] ++ Show Spoiler [Overview] ++ Show Spoiler [Instructions] +
4. Publish
5. Update your TeamLiquid thread
You should put the folllowing in your thread, to indicate where your map can be found.
Uploaded to [EU] in Arcade (Strategy)
I hope that you will support this movement; we're doing this for the future of melee map development!
|
As a side note - maybe use the standard melee maps for melee maps during development and the -WIP suffix in the map name, for playtesting sessions.
If we all use the strategy category, however, the open games list (arcade - open games - strategy category) it will be full of melee maps. Or full of ESV melee maps.
|
On August 05 2012 06:38 Meltage wrote:
As a side note - maybe use the standard melee maps for melee maps during development and the -WIP suffix in the map name, for playtesting sessions.
If we all use the strategy category, however, the open games list (arcade - open games - strategy category) it will be full of melee maps. Or full of ESV melee maps.
And this list will exclude Blizzard maps
|
Actually, aside from trying to garner attention, having a section of specifically custom melee maps would be pretty cool considering how fun it can be to try all kinds of original, innovative maps that usually get buried in Blizzard maps. Good luck with this.
|
The arcade features are really sweet for showcasing a map's interesting features. I fully agree that Blizzard should be supporting melee maps in the same way directly. This has my support, I commend you for leading the way, good sir 
|
This sounds like a good idea. I've never tried, but couldn't you also publish something in 2 places? (change the name slightly or whatever). I guess this could be an issue if you have a ton of maps and are encroaching on your upload size limit. But one could buy another account if one had the necessary funds.
|
Since the whole game of publishing has been changed, I've wiped my published catalog clean. Since it's 1 of the 2 of my maps being used for the Mapper's Monthly tournament, I've decided to make Megafossil my first map to be tailored to the new interface. Check it out:
+ Show Spoiler +
It is, of course, under strategy. I think the extra room for detail and presentation can go a long way to showcasing a map, in addition to threads here on TL.
|
I'm not sure that this would be very effective, seeing how active melee players tend to stick to either the ladder page, or the generic customs page (to search for a common tournament map for 1vs1, etc). The majority of the people who frequent the arcade don't care about melee maps. You might have some luck sticking new maps into the 1vs1 Peepmode map rotation, though, since you DO see a strangely high number of below-diamond players there, despite it being melee.
|
On August 05 2012 09:58 Ooshmagoosh wrote:
I'm not sure that this would be very effective, seeing how active melee players tend to stick to either the ladder page, or the generic customs page (to search for a common tournament map for 1vs1, etc). The majority of the people who frequent the arcade don't care about melee maps. You might have some luck sticking new maps into the 1vs1 Peepmode map rotation, though, since you DO see a strangely high number of below-diamond players there, despite it being melee.
The whole point of this is to make players
Who wants to try out new melee maps go to the arcade rather than going to the custom "starcraft" section and get flooded with blizz maps, hopefully this will in the end force blizz to give melee map makers a better choice!
|
Keep the maps rolling in! We've already got quite a few maps on EU
|
Great idea you have there! Added my humble 2v2 map aswell (Processing plant)
If this threat gets more attention over time maybe you should send it to blizzard to make them more aware of the problem.
|
|
|
Updated step 2 to include 1v1 maps with multiple spawn scenarios.
|
Is this a rally to get 1v1 (and team games) maps to open custom games list?
|
On August 08 2012 02:34 nucLeaRTV wrote:
Is this a rally to get 1v1 (and team games) maps to open custom games list?
It's an attempt to bring the melee map community in line with the UMS community feature-wise. I see no reason to cut all of the nice stuff for melee.
|
Yeah, melee maps definitely need a boost in popularity.
Only way you can get your map played is by inviting friends or people from channels and playing them in private. Only few melee maps are popular and being played, most of them are blizzard so no chance for mapping community.
|
I've just tried to address the subject in the EU forums on battlenet as I have no NA account. The only threat that seemed to be fitting (it was created by a blizzard admin) never got any reply from an admin. It actually is 7 or 8 pages of people showing real issues with the editor and arcade system, in a mostly objective and manner way, but no replies.
I felt like blizzard put up a wall and said" hey! Maybe there's someone behind that wall, maybe he's even listening, maybe your claims will be heard in the dev departement but for sure no one is going to answer! So go ahead and say what you have to say..."
I'm not the ranting type but this made me upset. I didn't post it on battlenet because there was only a wall with maybe someone sitting behind it!
So yes please someone do that, tell them the arcade mode needs a melee section. I dont see any reason why there shouldn't be one, they did great work on the other custom games they just somehow oversaw it?!
/rant
*edit: rage typos 
|
On August 08 2012 05:35 Bobnoble wrote:I've just tried to address the subject in the EU forums on battlenet as I have no NA account. The only threat that seemed to be fitting (it was created by a blizzard admin) never got any reply from an admin. It actually is 7 or 8 pages of people showing real issues with the editor and arcade system, in a mostly objective and manner way, but no replies. I felt like blizzart put up a wall and said" hey! Maybe there's someone behind that wall, maybe he's even listening, maybe your claims will be heard in the dev departement but for sure no one is going to answer! So go ahead and say what you have to say..." I'm not the ranting type but this made me upset. I didn't post it on battlenet because there was only a wall with maybe someone sitting behind it! So yes please someone do that, tell them the arcade mode needs a melee section. I dont see any reason why there shouldn't be one, they did great work on the other custom games they just somehow oversaw it?! /rant
The EU forums are completely barren. A blue post is a rare ocassion there.
Although I already talked to Blizzard, posting in that thread as well wouldn't hurt.
edit: Also added examples of arcade map pages in the OP.
|
I'm having trouble setting an Obs after using this method. How can I do that?
|
On August 12 2012 05:01 Gfire wrote:
I'm having trouble setting an Obs after using this method. How can I do that?
I am aware of that, and is working hard to solve it. I'll let you know when I figured it out!
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/T1YaB.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/hroFJ.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ay3N6.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Y0DXQ.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Tb1Q8.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/HLKbY.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ajAp0.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Ume7M.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/efC4h.jpg)
