The Future of Compensation for TF2 Mappers: A Community / Valve Discussion

[UKCS-Alias]

Here's my idea: Turn map stamps into killstreak kits. Stamped weapons act as basic killstreak weapons on most maps and specialized/professional killstreak weapons with otherwise-unattainable effects on the matching map. Weapons can have multiple stamps applied (to a point), and applying more of the same stamp increases the "stamps applied" counter and does...something (maybe turn it from specialized to professional, or increase the effect's power). Selling a stamped weapon through Steam Market gives a cut to the mapmaker.

Can help, but even then a normal killstreak kit is often cheaper to buy. And people barely notice any specialized to begin with. People dont get 5 kills too often.

Sophisticated Killstreak Wrench
Greetings from Gullywash (15 stamps)
Has Time for Turbine (10 stamps)
Frontier Freedom (1 stamp)

Whatever stamp is most common would have its filter prefix displayed.

And this is totaly useless. People dont look at that window, they wont even care at all. So it still wont reward them for anything if they buy a stamp. Not only that, but on some weapons people wont even notice it. And when it can be a waste of money without any reward then its counter productive.
The list idea is good, but in that case... why not show it at all times on the killscreen and keep the old info? A special notification similar to the domination/nemesis icon which shows the total stamps on all maps (and explicitely also show the active map when its on) would be far more effective and better noticed.
The all map number might become common (unless its a high number), but its map specific one still will be noticed better.

The effect should be clearly visible on the map you supported. This effect should be permanent and maybe condinionaly boosted (the specialized kit part of you at least does this).
But globaly you get a problem if the effect is too strong. Killstreak kits only have 1 good noticed effect and that is the 5 kill moment and the number in the killfeed. They arent such a good idea for map stamps on its own.

So globaly you should have a unique effect to begin with, and it should be possible to boost it based on the total map stamp count.
I still keep to the part that the map stamp trail (which you now get after taunting) could have more potential.

And last... whenever i join a game the only window i did see is duel wins this season (which rarely changes). Why not show a random map and display the number of stamps for that map? And in that random pool also have the total for all maps? Showing it there could still work.

 

[Toomai]

And last... whenever i join a game the only window i did see is duel wins this season (which rarely changes). Why not show a random map and display the number of stamps for that map? And in that random pool also have the total for all maps? Showing it there could still work.

Was there not a stamps leaderboard at some point that displayed whenever you were going to the relevant map? Why/when was that removed?

 

[YM]

Was there not a stamps leaderboard at some point that displayed whenever you were going to the relevant map? Why/when was that removed?

Pretty sure it still exists (global version)

Oh what's that? Rexy is beating me for most mannor stamps!?!?!?!

 

[Zed]

Pretty sure it still exists (global version)

Oh what's that? Rexy is beating me for most mannor stamps!?!?!?!

It never actually shows up on the map loading screen though.

 

[xzzy]

It never actually shows up on the map loading screen though.

But those duels sure do. Revealing the results of a season that has lasted since September 2010!

 

[wareya]

Make stamps a particle effect whenever you do something.

 

[Pocket]

The idea of killstreak weapons only counting kills on maps you've subscribed to would have been a cool idea, except it's too late to go back and change that now. And we have pretty much run out of ideas for new things that could be tied to maps that way.

 

[radarhead]

Apparently this guy wants to just give you guys his money.

 

[BigBros]

What I think would be amazing would be if we, the map makers, could redesign the map hat and effect, as atm it does look pretty... Well, interesting. If we could redesign it and rerelease it, maybe that would give people another reason to buy it. I always hear about people who are buying stuff from the mann co store say there is no use buying the stamps. Give them a reason to.

 

[CommodoreKong]

Apparently this guy wants to just give you guys his money.

I feel the same way, I don't make maps myself but I would love to support more community map makers (though not really jump maps, but high quality finished or near finished PvP maps I enjoy playing on). Payload is my favorite game mode, and there are some high quality community payload maps like Swiftwater, Boundry, Borneo and Cashworks I would love to donate some money towards. I was also planning on spending $10 on map stamps for Snowplow when the map shipped since YM and Frozen would actually talk about the development of the map when it went public but of course that didn't happen.

If Valve actually started adding more community maps like they told zpqrei they were going to do this wouldn't be as much of an issue. I honestly got really excited when I saw this thread, thinking that Valve would be adding more maps and I would get to donate to more map makers, but it's been more then half a year and Valve hasn't added a single community map to the game, not even Snowplow which was developed for a community update. I'm honestly starting to feel that maybe not everyone on the TF2 team actually feels the way that Corey Peters feels about adding maps, and that's why we aren't getting any.

I'm hoping that when Valve ships Spy vs Engie update it will be a really big update like the old days and we'll get a couple of community maps made official to help supplement any Valve made maps in the update, but honestly I've found that the last couple of years it's better to expect disappointment with the current TF2 team.

 

[veng]

29 pages of comments

Perhaps Valve should work with this community months before an update ships. To Give ample time to create and test maps. And for the modelers to do what they do. When the update ships combine all the money and distribute it accordingly. Mappers and modelers all getting a small cut of the bigger pie.

 

[takabuschik]

But IMO we shouldn't think of ideas that support mappers just by getting Valve to buy more maps and get the mappers better income Valve-wise. We should think of ideas of how to make the unofficial, custom maps more popular and gain more attention in the community. What was said so far in the subject so far was mostly concluded in these points:

1) Valve checks beta custom maps, and put them too in the beta "official" rotation (the "play beta maps" option), thus helping the mappers gain data and feedback, popularity and valve's attention

2) Map workshop

3)Valve mentioning best maps of the month or something like that

 

[xzzy]

Anything that depends on engagement from Valve should be avoided, they have a horrible habit of announcing things and then never touching it again.

Any system that gets implemented needs to be community driven, so when Valve decides they need some new content they can quickly see what kind of cream rose to the top and hit their "accept/deny" button.

 

[BigBros]

Well, I think a system that works really well and could work well could be the operation system from CS:GO, where new maps are featured every couple of months, and passes can be bought to support the maps, but also play missions. This gives extra incentive to support the mappers, and each map, with 6 posted, usually make around $20000-$25000. And the maps that they do post sometimes go official as well, getting put into the map pool.

 

[takabuschik]

But that will never work in tf2 because people would just download the map for free from a community site (like tf2maps). tf2 is f2p and should stay so

 

[Zed]

There's already been a discussion at length about why CS:GO's way of handling community maps is bad.

I'd say adding an option to quickplay to play custom maps for a given official gamemode would work well enough.

 

[iiboharz]

There's already been a discussion at length about why CS:GO's way of handling community maps is bad.

I'd say adding an option to quickplay to play custom maps for a given official gamemode would work well enough.

I disagree, I don't want to choose to quickplay custom control point maps and end up on cp_orange.

 

[Fruity Snacks]

I disagree, I don't want to choose to quickplay custom control point maps and end up on cp_orange.

but there are people who do.

So how do we come up with a simple solution for everyone (or, as many people as possible)

 

[nightwatch]

but there are people who do.

So how do we come up with a simple solution for everyone (or, as many people as possible)

What if quick play only chose from servers running maps that are white- listed by reviewers that each client can select herself? Then you could simply subscribe to a reviewer whose tastes coincided with your own. And it would encourage participation in the map workshop/whatever with people trying to review quality maps.

 

[Kube]

What if quick play only chose from servers running maps that are white- listed by reviewers that each client can select herself? Then you could simply subscribe to a reviewer whose tastes coincided with your own. And it would encourage participation in the map workshop/whatever with people trying to review quality maps.

I can see something like this being tied into the Curator options Valve has implemented recently, and their starting to really enforce the power of player reviews and such. I also thought that maps can have tags, just like in the workshop. One problem that comes up with Valve supporting unofficial maps, however, comes with .bsp's with the same name. Valve would have to edit the .bsp system to support maps with names that some clients might have installed.

Edit: Oh, there would have to be a way to verify that popular tags happen in popular maps. Maybe the tags of the most popular 50 maps of th week are verified officially by Valve? idk...