Unofficial maps that should become official

Actually, it's quite simple.

Just point people to a map pack that they can download. Then they download it all at once and have all the maps. yay uninterrupted playing experience!

And honestly, there have been times where I've stopped playing games because I had to keep downloading maps. The reason is that most of the time they aren't worth it, and I have better things to do with my time.

 

advertise the custom maps as community maps and include them in the installer

 

Couldn't agree more!

Says the guy who made money revisited.

 

No, it's not that simple.

We do that already anyway - Trickster has put together various map packs, but when someone complains about having to download maps, and we link them to a map pack (whereby we're suggesting they download something even bigger), they don't realize the benefit, and they persist in whining. Map packs also don't solve the problems of trying to determine whether to run some customs, all customs, or no customs in map cycles, because not everybody downloads map packs or even wants to download them.

It's both warped and naive to expect not to download maps for games such as Empires, or really any game using the Source engine, but most notably mods (which are driven by custom content in the first place). If you don't like it, and if you have better ways to spend your time, then you'll have to suck it up and download maps or leave and do something else. Those of us running servers have no intention of catering to the few and the lazy. We're on the receiving end of complaints no matter what we do.

We all have fast redirects, and that's the best we can do to accommodate those who do/don't mind downloading custom maps.

 

do it do it do it do it

 

what about some grading organ, deviding maps up into "types" of gameplay and scores on funscale

this way admins can add these maps more easily without having there server messed up

 

Omg you found me out, what do.

Sometimes Dubee....I worry.

Anyways, the biggest problem with map downloading is that the bar for it is pointless. The first 4-5 bars take about 10 minutes, then the rest does it in 2 seconds. People think that it's going to take that long for the entire thing. Gmod has a fairly good way around this.

 

or just throw all the maps in the installer

 

i have a slow internet connection, no map takes longer than 1-2 minutes to download.

 

ive never had to wait longer then it took to load the journal snips when the game loads

 

Yes... What do indeed.

 

So simple fix:
Add custom maps to offical list.
People doesn't need to download maps all the time.
More people play on custom maps.
Everyone is happy?

 

I totally agree that downloading maps is a silly excuse not to have custom maps on a server, but their are many custom maps available in Empires. Its not uncommon to get 5-6 custom maps in a row on Viper or G4TC. A newb who has just installed the mod may quit if he encounters such a map cycle and thinks that you have to download a map between each match.

This is by far the best solution. They don't need to be official but including them in the installer with a separate designation like 'community map' would pretty much solve a lot of the problem. There are a lot of great custom maps that may not be good enough to be official, but are definitely much better than the average custom map. I liked SIPs summary of the custom maps. Anything +++ that doesn't become official, ++, and + (based on a judgement call) become 'community maps'.

+++.emp_alpinerush_b3
+...emp_arid_new
++..emp_blah4
++..emp_bush_ob4
++..emp_delta_rc4
+++.emp_district402_alt3
+...emp_duststorm_225_b2
+++.emp_escort_alt5
+...emp_escort_nf2
....emp_fogtown_beta3
+++.emp_forest_ob
++..emp_frozensummit_b2
+...emp_glacial_b2
++..emp_hazard_rc6
+++..emp_homeland_b9
+++.emp_insurrection_rc3
++..emp_king_r5
....emp_megahill_jam_b4
+++.emp_mesa_b4
+++.emp_midbridge_b3c
++..emp_money_revisited_r1
++..emp_moors_b1
+++.emp_palmbay_b2
+++.emp_provinggrounds_b2
+...emp_rainbowroad_b2
+++.emp_research_1_2
+...emp_shadows_rc10a
+++.emp_silo_rc3
+...emp_smokies_rc2
++..emp_snowbound_1_2
++..emp_streetsoffire_working
+++.emp_traders_a8
+++.emp_tropicvendetta_rc1
++..emp_vehicletraining_ob2
++..emp_ward_rc2a

 

The final revision I will be making to district is on hold. First, I can't do any testing because my empires is crashing for some reason on startup again.

Second, there is the possibility that drummer is going to use the current map and remake the brushes to make some sort of sense, as the current brushes rip the map vis leafs a new one.

 

Don't need to remake, just go on a func_detail spree. You could even func_detail every single brush, and then put simple, rectangular nodraw brushes in appropriate places.

Also, I thought too many vis leaves is more of problem for compiling then ingame FPS?

 

The map takes about 2 hours to compile instead of 10 minutes.

Only a really bad issue when testing lighting.

The map should be constructed of large blocks with the defining features of the building func_details on the ourside, but instead, each section from top to bottom is it's own brush. the map needs to be redone tbh.

The vis leaf breakup makes the file size much larger than it should be.

There are also issues with the lag for some people which I have no idea what causes it. It may be the sound files that cause it.

anyhow, suffice to say that there are more issues than compile times with the map that could be redone.

 

a shit ton of visleafs cut from un func_detailed geometry can easily make the game laggy as hell

 

kill rainbow road with fire....