Wondering about a contest ...

[Raithah]

Here's the dealie : the default maps in Soldat are sorely in need of some updates. Since the last one was added, multi-texuring was practicaly invented, and so was lighting, decent sceneries, 'atmosphere' ect. What I'm proposing is a competition to add or replace the beloved defaults with newly made counterparts.

Because there's no sure-fire way to add a map, it'd just go by overwhealming support. The winner will have to have been petitioned (voted) to the top by (possibly) many renound mappers/other people. Hopefuly the contest would attract enough attention from all corners of the forum to raise a real following.

The first time someone starts up Soldat, they want to try it's single-player mode. Or at least I (and a few other people) did. This competition is to insure that the first map they try will be a shining example of the community-made maps.

Opinions ?

[Toumaz]

No!

If there's something I like that would be the default style of mapping. I do agree that the maps of today are getting more and more visually pleasing, and that isn't necessary a bad thing. Though, back in the day I had a feeling that the focus of the creator of the map was to create a map that had the most awesome gameplay ever... and still, I am not saying that there are no maps made today with good gameplay - it's just me being a retroish dude in this case.

Also, if the maps were to be updated like that it might as well cause them to be too visually advanced to allow players with slower computers to play them... Meh, I guess I'm not a real mapper and that I shouldn't really stick my nose into this at all.

Final opinion: The old ways are the best.

[Raithah]

Forgot to mention in the first post (thanks for reminding me): there would be a limit on the max. sceneries, polys and texture size. In addition to that, because this is a contest for making playable maps, the map/maps that play the best on old computers while still looking pretty would win. So even if someone sent in the most bigass map known to man, it has a low chance of passing through the low size criteria.

[Keron Cyst]

I agree that Airpirates should be removed and Arena should reclaim its original position in first starting the game, but I hope none of these maps will ever get into Soldat. I'm with Toumaz.

[Toumaz]

I agree that Airpirates should be removed and Arena should reclaim its original position in first starting the game, ...

Oooh, seconded. I'd rather have the new players accidentally voting for Arena than that gameplay failure.

[Mr. Domino]

I would definitely like to see new maps added. After all, we're playing new default maps which were not part of the original Soldat release as it is. To keep the initial file size down, I'd like to see all the HTF maps scrapped and use the DM maps in their place, kill Airpirates, and add perhaps two or three new INF maps and one CTF map.

[Keron Cyst]

(Sorry to drag your thread off-topic, Raithah )

You can't use HTF maps in place of DM because the waypoints will be totally screwy; HTF waypoints are styled like CTF, and it and Inf. are completely different from DM's wypt. coding.

[Raithah]

Oh don't worry, I love off topic discussion. It's a breath of fresh air

//offtopic//From what I understood, Mr. Domino was suggesting to remove HTF from the default maps (as barely anyone plays it anyways ) and replace it with a couple DMs, which are, btw, the second most popular gamemode (after CTF).//offtopic//

Back on topic, I think some new defaults could be done with great gameplay and low sizes. On the CTF threads alone I've seen a much larger occurance of defaulty maps that still look very nice, and even some non-default style maps (the type I'd like included) that are very reasonably sized. The 'Old Computer' debate is getting a little silly, I had an old 800 mhz (finaly outgrew it) which contains over a hundred maps. I think. Anyways, every single, one of them (save ctf_Athletise) runs without a hitch. Even ctf_Explore and the Forum map.

And once again, if a contest does start I'd make sure that there'd be a way to test map's compatibilites with old computers. Other than that there's only the gameplay issues, and those are always easy-ish to settle out.

[Boxo]

I'm mostly handling the mapping stuff for the new version so I can talk for the beta team here.

We've been looking at tons of custom maps and there's a few strong candidates for new defaults, but most new maps are frankly unplayable and focus on visuals. Few maps worth playing have come out lately.

For the default maps, the only changes being done are gameplay fixes and bugfixes and some very minor visual changes. The default visual style works great and there's no reason to change it. I wouldn't trust anything decent to come out of this contest, all default remakes I've seen have been worse than the original.

Sure, if you have some suggestions for new 1.3.2 maps, you can post them here or PM me and we'll check it out/test it, but the standards are really high obviously so don't get yout hopes up.

[Avarax]

well then i'd recommend testing ctf_Ash2 and ctf_Naom as CTF candidates and htf_saw as a HTF candidate, boxo. they really deserved the MotW award and would deserve default status aswell

[Raithah]

I guess I didn't come across right, I didn't mean to remake the old maps. I meant replacing/adding on top of what we already have included. And I keep on trying to make this point, but the maps would be heavily analyzed for gameplay and size so there is an extremely low chance for a bad map to slip through. And even if the winner has a no-good map, the odds say that it will still be leaps and bounds above the median quality of any maps released recently. This contest would be to create candidates, not defaults. The final say would be left to people like Boxo or other Beta Testers who know what they're talking about.