I've noticed a trend

[Armadillo of Doom]

Was just browsing over all the new activity of the past week, and found something rather picular. Our wip section has tons of feedback, discussion, suggestions, etc. Yet in the map submission forum, it's practically deserted. I think this is part of the reason why our server has kinda failed. Everyone is more than willing to talk about the maps in progress, toss around ideas, etc. But reviewing the finished products simply isn't as interesting and/or noone cares. Is it the nature of us being the people who create all this stuff? Or does noone really play that much, and so cannot comment beyond 'sounds like a neat idea' or 'that looks good'? I'm curious to know your thoughts on the matter.

 

[phatal]

It's probably because maps stay in a beta stage for so long. TF2 appears to have lots of ways to have a bug or gameplay issue that people continue to update their level to the point it doesn't get finished or interest is lost in the project.

 

[Logo]

It's the focus of the site. This the place that people come to learn to map and to make maps. Almost everyone on the site is a mapper. We don't have a large population of 'consumers' on this site like say fpsbanana does. So you don't have many people downloading the maps from this site that play and comment on them.

Even a popular map like castle 3 only has 500 downloads from out site for example

 

[DJive]

We don't have a large population of 'consumers' on this site like say fpsbanana does. So you don't have many people downloading the maps from this site that play and comment on them.

I say its because we don't churn out as many crappy maps. tf2maps.net is a quality map site with quality members. a "REAL" map takes weeks upon weeks/months to make. 90% of the ...maps *uses term loosely* on fpsbanana.com is the "LAWLS I GOT BORED T0DaY!!11"

The fact that WIP and tutorial section is smoking and the MAPS section is little active excites me, to "me" it means people are taking pride in their maps and wanting to only release a finished, quality map.

 

[Scoobingsthe2nd]

the main reason is because I'm too lazy to go outside download a map put it into my bsp folder in steam and then load it up and try it. If I happen to run into the custom map on my fav servers then I'll intentionally go for that server, otherwise....

Plus it's kind of pointless to test a map if there's not other people in it. Game play is what's important... people forget that.

 

[Scotland Tom]

I was happy to hop on to the server to try out the maps that were there. I may have been there by myself, but I was still able to figure out some of the good and the bad in the 4 maps in the rotation. But with no one playing I couldn't very well stay there for very long, nor is it very useful for me to hop back in a second time without new maps to try.

As far as the map submission forum goes, I have to agree with DJive. I take it as a sign that only quality maps are bing submitted. We're all working on ensuring our maps are good enough for general public use. That means they need to be at least close to comparable to what Valve has released. That kind of work takes a lot of time and probably largely explains why the WIP section is very active and the submission section is little active at this time. Give it another few weeks to a month or two. You'll see the submissions pick up as those WIPs are completed.

 

[Rock]

Personally, I'm more than happy to give a look at a finished/almost finished product and give some objective feedback - both from the game play and the aesthetic aspects.

Maybe throw up some kind of notice as to what maps are being featured today/this week on the server.

 

[Kirko]

No one is on the server ever. I don't like to sit there by my lonesome for the 15-20mins a day I do get to play on the 5th beta of a map being made.

 

[trackhed]

personally I think that if we designated one day of the week as "testing day" on the server or had a weekly submission for the rotation, it would generate a lot more interest in the server and the maps as well.

Would give more of a structure to when and where people can test their maps out.

 

[MacNetron]

Good suggestion!
If I look to my serverlist when starting TF2, I see two kind of servers: full and empty. So a server needs some critical mass to get used often.

Further, I totally agree with Scotland Tom.
<mac sends everybody some postings back up...>

 

[Haas]

then put up some beta maps...
It is always the same map thats on this get no one anywhere. (except the 2/3 mapers that made those maps.)

 

[Armadillo of Doom]

Good stuff. I think the server will be going down for a bit, but we can always bring it back. Perhaps we can still have the once a week thing, but everyone does it on their own? Admitedly, this won't do much for reviewing the gameplay aspects, but it's a start.