27 Mar 12, 12:11AM
I come back after almost a year of inactivity to see almost the same flame wars and the same arguments about balance that caused me to leave in the first place. This argument is simply the vocal minority over the silent majority.
Why do I say this? because before the master server list was purged of unofficial map servers, the list was filled with servers that supported unofficial maps. I love unofficial maps just as I love official maps, and these can be quite a fun break from the old 24/7 dust2 grind. true they often lagged, but that was the price you had to pay to play these maps, and to me it was worth it.
Official maps were, at least to me, mostly the same. you always had your long range hallway, your mid game flanks, and the shotty corners. thats not to say these maps weren't creatively executed, the height field technique used to simulate missing floor tiles was ingenious in my opinion, and i used it on many of my maps. I had hours of fun on these maps, and even today when not too many new ones are added, I still love it.
Unofficial maps always had that jankidy look to them, and I think that was part of their charm. one of those skyscraper city maps was what introduced me to ac, and helped improve my sniping game significantly. there was a heavy focus on sniping, but close range was also covered. something i've noticed with all unofficial maps is that wherever there is a sniping spot, there is a route you can take with your shotgun or submachine gun. I guess the biggest reason I liked these maps was for the variety. you could be sniping someone from a tower miles away or storming the beaches of normandy. To this day I have never seen an fps that incorporated this level of variety in gameplay.
That isn't to say that all unofficial maps are gold. most of the time, pardon the french, they are shit. neon lights on a tile warehouse with piss yellow water isn't the most pleasing map. that doesn't mean i never gave those maps a chance. every map that i came across i give it a go, no matter how bad it looks from the outside.
the main problem i found with official maps these days is that only a handful have been added to the 'official' map rotation. ac_deltaforce is a breathtaking map that had actually well done mountains, but it never saw much action beyond the handful of akimbo posts. I suppose that there is always the argument of a map not meeting quality standards, but the game comes with a mapmaker built in. there should be a significant amount of maps in the average map rotation.
The move to make map restrictions is very controversial, and I don't know where I stand on it. the ones pushing for the move want more quality out of the thousands of maps churned out by assault cube mappers, while the ones against want to play their favorite maps. I like the ideas of those for the movement, but I think their solution is wrong. restriction does nothing for the community. what happened back when the master server list was purged? practically nothing. New official style maps came at essentially the same pace as before, and unofficial maps were slowed in distribution because of the lack of servers. If i want to experiment with the engine and make a cool map, I won't take my time to make a competitive ctf map, simply because I know it will never get played on. the people who like these types of maps have very high standards and one off corridor means your map is useless. I have tried making these maps, and they are tricky to do. In my opinion they are just not worth the effort. I would let someone that actually plays them make them.
Sure unofficial maps show little skill involved in the process, but it is a fact that the silent majority of the community accepts them, and they will always have a presence. people talk of how they want players to make maps like how AC was meant to be played, but these people don't realize the trouble, pressure, and commitment required to make these maps. failure happens 99% of the time, just look at all of the maps sitting in akimbo vaults that never get playing time. Its not the game engine that needs to be restricted, the community has to be willing to accept more and more maps into the map rotation, regardless of their competitive playability.
Weapon balance has been debated for years and to be honest, not much has been changed for the better. this is because people need to realize pubs and competition have different needs for weapons, and they should be seen as such. Look at TF2. hundreds of different weapons and several different classes, yet only a handful are added to competitive servers. seeing as the game is open source, perhaps a separate competitive client should be created to tailor to the needs of clan tournaments.
TL;DR
Community has to treat each other with more love if they want quality maps. Servers need to accept more maps into their map rotation. Competitive players who don't like this idea should make private clan servers with their own maps and modifications to weapon balance.
I suppose you can call this a rant or a flame, but really it is just my perspective of what the community is dealing with, from an old pubber who has seen the previous cycle.
Why do I say this? because before the master server list was purged of unofficial map servers, the list was filled with servers that supported unofficial maps. I love unofficial maps just as I love official maps, and these can be quite a fun break from the old 24/7 dust2 grind. true they often lagged, but that was the price you had to pay to play these maps, and to me it was worth it.
Official maps were, at least to me, mostly the same. you always had your long range hallway, your mid game flanks, and the shotty corners. thats not to say these maps weren't creatively executed, the height field technique used to simulate missing floor tiles was ingenious in my opinion, and i used it on many of my maps. I had hours of fun on these maps, and even today when not too many new ones are added, I still love it.
Unofficial maps always had that jankidy look to them, and I think that was part of their charm. one of those skyscraper city maps was what introduced me to ac, and helped improve my sniping game significantly. there was a heavy focus on sniping, but close range was also covered. something i've noticed with all unofficial maps is that wherever there is a sniping spot, there is a route you can take with your shotgun or submachine gun. I guess the biggest reason I liked these maps was for the variety. you could be sniping someone from a tower miles away or storming the beaches of normandy. To this day I have never seen an fps that incorporated this level of variety in gameplay.
That isn't to say that all unofficial maps are gold. most of the time, pardon the french, they are shit. neon lights on a tile warehouse with piss yellow water isn't the most pleasing map. that doesn't mean i never gave those maps a chance. every map that i came across i give it a go, no matter how bad it looks from the outside.
the main problem i found with official maps these days is that only a handful have been added to the 'official' map rotation. ac_deltaforce is a breathtaking map that had actually well done mountains, but it never saw much action beyond the handful of akimbo posts. I suppose that there is always the argument of a map not meeting quality standards, but the game comes with a mapmaker built in. there should be a significant amount of maps in the average map rotation.
The move to make map restrictions is very controversial, and I don't know where I stand on it. the ones pushing for the move want more quality out of the thousands of maps churned out by assault cube mappers, while the ones against want to play their favorite maps. I like the ideas of those for the movement, but I think their solution is wrong. restriction does nothing for the community. what happened back when the master server list was purged? practically nothing. New official style maps came at essentially the same pace as before, and unofficial maps were slowed in distribution because of the lack of servers. If i want to experiment with the engine and make a cool map, I won't take my time to make a competitive ctf map, simply because I know it will never get played on. the people who like these types of maps have very high standards and one off corridor means your map is useless. I have tried making these maps, and they are tricky to do. In my opinion they are just not worth the effort. I would let someone that actually plays them make them.
Sure unofficial maps show little skill involved in the process, but it is a fact that the silent majority of the community accepts them, and they will always have a presence. people talk of how they want players to make maps like how AC was meant to be played, but these people don't realize the trouble, pressure, and commitment required to make these maps. failure happens 99% of the time, just look at all of the maps sitting in akimbo vaults that never get playing time. Its not the game engine that needs to be restricted, the community has to be willing to accept more and more maps into the map rotation, regardless of their competitive playability.
Weapon balance has been debated for years and to be honest, not much has been changed for the better. this is because people need to realize pubs and competition have different needs for weapons, and they should be seen as such. Look at TF2. hundreds of different weapons and several different classes, yet only a handful are added to competitive servers. seeing as the game is open source, perhaps a separate competitive client should be created to tailor to the needs of clan tournaments.
TL;DR
Community has to treat each other with more love if they want quality maps. Servers need to accept more maps into their map rotation. Competitive players who don't like this idea should make private clan servers with their own maps and modifications to weapon balance.
I suppose you can call this a rant or a flame, but really it is just my perspective of what the community is dealing with, from an old pubber who has seen the previous cycle.