So I 've spent over a month to make my museum level and yesterday it was the first time I tried it with others. When it was ready the patch installed and that delayed me a lot since I had to delete a ton of objects to match the new budgets, but let's leave that aside for now. So I played with others and in all instances of the map (both TDM and DM), I got 2 stars. Thing is, I dont know why. I dont mind a low rating, as long as I know how to improve upon it with constructive feedback. In this case, I have nothing to go on. In my mind things are looking good, with multiple ways to go from one team to the other, each team has its own area so there is no spawn kills, there is a middle area that is also shows as objective so you dont get lost, I made loadouts fair and even included the new rifle, every room is detailed and serves a purpose, there are rarely dead ends and those serves to have ammo caches. I dont understand. Its the first time that so much hard work has translated to so little fun when published. Even though I like what I make with the editor, I dont think there is purpose any more, at least for MP. Not to mention that I spent 3 hours yesterday to play my map once, because people chose the ship map.
What is your experience?
LOL.
I would say whats the point of making SP/coop maps. they will only ever get played once, maybe twice if you are lucky by one player.
MP maps can be played for years on end, the same map. MP is generally considered the replayable part of the game since you are not going to play the campaign 20 times in a row are you?
Making a MP map is much more complex than a story / narrative map imo. You need to balance it for TDM or balance it if its an objective based map. Its way more complex, you need to look at lines of sight, layout, flow, gun dynamics and ranges. Its not like you can just think up a lovely setting and its a winner. Quite the contrary.
There are plenty of blogs etc online about what makes a good MP map if you want to improve. Check out GDC on YouTube also. Of course some people say MP maps are subjective. I would disagree with that and I am a firm believer that there is a perfect MP map yet to be made through design.
It sounds like you spent alot of time making the map. Maybe put AI on it and see if it works as a story map? In previous Far Cry games we could host our newly made maps and just keep playing them so that players got used to the map, sometimes you need to play a map 20 times before you start enjoying it. Unfortunately in Arcade, you would have to invest alot of time trying to get your map even played a few hundred times.
While I can't play it myself to see how it plays (I'm on PS4), I'm surprised by the rating. Currently, one of your TDM versions of the map (this version: https://far-cry-arcade.ubi.com/en-gb...88ea416c2a64a8) has a rating of 3.
Seems to me that it should be a solid 4 at least.
Maybe if more people play your map, and as long as it plays well (and not just looks good), then maybe your ratings will improve.
I'm also on PS4.
I think there are 100's if not 1000's of great maps out there you know? I don't want to bang on about lobbies, but even if you made a half decent map back in 2009 / 2010, you could host it for a few days and get a really good feeling with people playing it.
There's just no chance of doing that now. And I really feel for the OP who spent hours and hours making his map and then either have idiots disliking it or just not getting the attention it deserves. And we can't put every map on Featured can we?
So I don't have the answer other than a return to how it was. Sorry.
Valuable feedback, thanks for sharing. @rioseven you bring lots of good points, truth is I am a beginner in developing deathmatch maps. What you said about the AI, unfortunately I have Objects, Lights/VFX and physical object budgets full, I wish there was a way to add those AI without deleting an entire room (iirc AI takes a lot of budget, I d assume due to pathfinding and multiple texture files that fill the memory).
Maybe I have to try the map a bit more and see where it goes. Now that I think about it, since its played very little, single ratings may affect its overall rating and that may be still subjective.
I am still editing the map while observing where players tend to gather, what is their most prefered set-up and so on.
One question I have though, since I have no experience with loadouts, if you see players preferring a single loadout for being more powerful, do you nerf it or do you power up the rest?
Talking in general of course, no need to think of the setting.
I have a pretty standard pre-set of loadouts which - depending on the map of course - is fair.
#1 - AR-C with 1911 - 3 grenades
#2 - AS-50 with 1911 or sub - 3 prox mines
#3 - shotgun (not the SPAS) with .44 dirty harry and either grenades or molotov
#4 - AK-47 or another non OP piece with pistol and 3 molotovs
Depends on your map of course. Don't give people too many weapons but give them plenty of choice There is a difference.
I lay a few OP weapons around the map in places I want them to go to. Simples. Same with ammo, not too much - maybe 120 rounds for rifles and SMGs, about 20 for pistols. About 20 for shotguns.
I give 5 medkits, body armour, unless I made a LMG loadout - they get no armour cos they are OP, and maybe if its a big map give them that run fast super flower thing.
Nice, your loadouts are very different than mine. So my idea was to make OP all loadouts together, so not a single one feels weak. I named them after 4 important gods so that you get the feeling that you are powerful (Farm Cry and the bazaar map do this and its very popular).
Also, I think that the game counts unique plays, so making a mp map doesnt guarantee you more plays. In fact I have a lot more plays in my SP map.
Score beginning with an 'average' 2 stars is pretty normal. If most maps started with 5 stars (because the first few will like them) there'd be no point to keeping score. Ubisoft does some magic in calculating the score, it'll settle after some more plays/days. Just wait longer than 1 day. :P
As for PC SP maps; they do have twice the object count budget of DM maps. So you may try to make it an SP map & see what will happen.
Interesting choices.Originally Posted by rioseven Go to original post
I tend to run the opposite gambit and tend to under-equip players, or equip them with a very specialized load-out. I've found that certain areas on my projects take on different importance so that it's more about map control than getting into duels.
Plus, I HATE bunny hoppers in shooters with a passion so giving them a weapon that requires greater aim/slower RoF/reduced mag, no armor, and 1 or 2 medkits tends to make people a bit more conservative about how they approach combat. Likewise, I'm a bit more selective when it comes to which weapons I give advanced optics to since simply spraying an enemy down is too easy.
One TDM project I abandoned that was centered around mid-long range combat had loadouts like this:
Gear for all classes was a grapple hook, binocs. No Homeopathics. Health Regen disabled.
Scout: Tactical 45/70, ext mag, suppressor, 2.3x optic/1 medkit/no armor. Throwables: Smoke grenade/bait
Scavenger: AR-C, ext mag/1911, ext mag/ 1 frag/1 medkit/no armor
Raider: MR-133 shotgun, red dot sight, 30 Slugs, 15 Shot shells, .44./ Armor/No medkits
Looter: Tec-9 Extended Mag/ 90 Standard pistol rounds/ 2 Pipe Bombs/ Armor/ 1 Medkit
Weapons I had placed around the map were: classic AK, .308, Classic 45/70, Bolt Action .50. Assorted grenades (dynamite, pipe bombs, frags)
Health kits and ammo piles were near 'secondary' points of interest (smaller sites that had a decent over-watching position over the main routes) to encourage peripheral fights for supplies and some team play.
Whole idea of these loadouts was to get an interesting dynamic going with the Scavenger/Looter being able to flush out the primary points of interest, while the raider and Scout classes could do some flanking/support and weaken an enemy held position from relative safety.
Is that level of complexity too much for your average player to quickly parse when choosing loadouts/routes to take?