I would love to use this site to find new maps, but...

Dr Forrester

L2: Junior Member
Aug 15, 2008
60
23
...your map downloads sections is a bit of a mess.

Let me be clear on this; It would be very handy if I could sort through maps with a number of different filters. As it is, everything that isn't a contest project gets kinda lumped into the same bucket.

sort of like this

Gameplay mode (CTF, Attack/Defend CP, KOTH, Arena, PL, etc.)

Stage of development (Alpha, Beta, RC, Final)

Being able to filter out maps that do not have an associated screenshot.

Visual Theme (Night, Winter, Egypt, Alpine, Dustbowl, Swamp, Sawmill, etc.)

on a semi unrelated note, It would be nice if we could add certain authors to a favorites type thing and get an update count type thing near the PM notification, so we can quickly see "oh, nineaxis has uploaded a new map, let me go download it and check it out"

Also, a ratings system (wait for it!) is completely unneeded with a community like this, and I'm rather glad I've never seen you try to implement such a thing. (Aha! fooled you, didn't I?)

While these things might be outside the scope and/or capability of the site, I would love to see them at some point. TF2Maps is a great community that is very supportive of new and old mappers alike, and I would love to use you as a resource for maps as well as a mapping resource, but it's a little daunting to try to sift through everything. I would really like to finally be able to ignore the badly-coded fruit-themed site down the way, but unfortunately right now it's the first place I look just because I know where to look for what I'm looking for.

(and yes, I know there is a "Search" feature, but that doesn't really help me if, say, I'm looking for "New maps except arena at night with snow and screenshots"... although at least I can search by author)

Anyhow, keep up the good work!
 
Last edited:

A Boojum Snark

Toraipoddodezain Mazahabado
aa
Nov 2, 2007
4,775
7,669
Why would we need a poll? This is obviously good stuff that would be good to have, but it's a matter of the technical and logistics whether or not we can do it.
 

Dr Forrester

L2: Junior Member
Aug 15, 2008
60
23
Why would we need a poll? This is obviously good stuff that would be good to have, but it's a matter of the technical and logistics whether or not we can do it.

Agreed. As I said, I don't know if it's technically feasable for that kind of thing to be set up. If you could, it would be a great addition to an already great site. If the value of adding such things does not at least equal the amount of effort required to implement it, you lose nothing that you don't already have by leaving things be. I just noticed a bit of an analog between the way this site was setup, and the way some of the better MMO UI sites are, and sought to address one bit of functionality that would really add to someone like me, who has kind of gotten out of mapping myself, but I'm always looking for new maps to bring to my clan, and that would certainly make that a bit easier on me :D

Once again, though, I have to say, you guys are pretty awesome as is.
 

lana

Currently On: ?????
aa
Sep 28, 2009
3,075
2,778
The problem would be resorting all content, or shifting over to a new system.
 

Dr Forrester

L2: Junior Member
Aug 15, 2008
60
23
If the value of adding such things does not at least equal the amount of effort required to implement it, you lose nothing that you don't already have by leaving things be.

Ugh... re-reading that sentence keeps bugging the hell out of me... I'm gonna leave it as is, but for some reason it sounds like I'm spouting stupid manager speak.

Well at least my hair isn't getting pointy.
 
Jan 20, 2010
1,317
902
Really, as nerd said, the biggest problem I would think is taking all the existing maps, models, etc and putting them into the new categories. There's no easy way to do it so it'd most likely have to be done manually, which would take a long time. I'm guessing the easiest way would take the most popular ones, sort them by the new categories, and leave the rest as uncategorized. Any new ones can be fixed and if the author is still around, they can do their old ones themselves.
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
aa
Mar 4, 2008
5,441
3,814
There's a tag system. But hardly anyone uses it.

The tags allow searching by 5 keywords. Which could include author, environment, mode, size etc.

One issue is after some member abuse, additional tagging by secondary users was removed.
 

Pilk

L2: Junior Member
Jun 9, 2009
66
4
A forum is not a good system for organizing maps anyway. It needs a content management system designed specifically for cataloging maps...