I feel that whoever is featuring levels is being a little lazy, because I keep seeing top rated levels being featured all the time. There are other creators out there that have astonishing levels and need the exposure and would benefit from the extra plays. That also counts for me, my only featured level was the MJ4 one and it was because all winning entries were to be featured. I am not saying feature me, but at least give me a level that I haven't played from the other lists, give me something that shows you pay attention to your social media when creators post content, or your level feature suggestion threads. I got so angry to see City Nights being featured, just because its the highest rated level. Ok its use of AI and difficulty control is astonishing, but it lacks in other areas like design, immersion, art, consistency.
Call this a rant thread if you wish, but we need featured levels that are unique, no matter their rating. Maybe we should post polls and vote on featured levels, more eyes are always more helpful in finding those diamonds in the rough.
Featured levels are meant to show what the editor is capable of, while giving a great experience. If someone simply puts some props together and uses the hottest search words as level name, doesnt mean he deserves to be featured. Raise the bar, please.
I have noticed that as well. Not saying those top rated maps are not well made for the most part, but there are a lot of very well made 4 star and under maps that could use the exposure much more. Top rated maps just does not need to be featured they get plenty of attention....
I am still also sore that Castle in the Sky was not featured after all even though I fixed it and it was on Friday Night Arcade!
Didn't they say they will feature Castle in the Sky? I thought I saw it somewhere.Originally Posted by IansaneArtist Go to original post
Ubisoft aired a playthrough on Friday night arcade a few weeks ago. They said many nice things about the map, but when I watched them play it, the extraction point (a tower that was part of a AC origin fortress asset) was removed in Patch 8. So when then they got there the extraction point was floating and there was a floating table and grail when there should be a tower for thoes objects to sit on. There are several videos of the map before the update showing the map with the correct ending. Anyway, I was excited and when they put up the new featured maps... Castle in the Sky was not there after all!Originally Posted by apapoutsas Go to original postI am frustrated because I had fixed what the update broke right away then opened a thread to tell them this. The thread was ignored and to my knowledge did not get passed on to whoever handles featured maps. So no it is not featured and I don't know if it will ever be featured even though it is fixed and ready to go! sigh
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I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not. I just make maps that I enjoy playing. I don't really think too much about those other things, but just a couple of quick pointsI got so angry to see City Nights being featured, just because its the highest rated level. Ok its use of AI and difficulty control is astonishing, but it lacks in other areas like design, immersion, art, consistency.
- Design. In the case of City Nights I think you can clearly see I chose a linear design. The level is unashamedly on rails and all I wanted was targets in front of the gun as much as possible. It's meant to be a fun, shooting romp. For a more multi-path, open ended approach I think Arctic Fox works better, as you can pretty much play that any way you want, forwards,backwards, in the helicopter, drive round and round the island in a boat, whatever.
- Immersion. As far as I can tell, the concept of 'immersion' is completely subjective. I felt reasonably immersed when I was creating the map. I hoped to evoke a kind of slightly film noir/ blade runnerish sort of atmosphere. It's highly likely that some people will be more "immersed" than others.
- Art. Working within the limits of texture and memory budget. I would have liked to have added more decals etc. but the overall scope and time constraints didn't allow for it. I was reasonably pleased with the look of "Chinatown" and the look of "Ozymandias in his tower", the street graffiti and the bespoke works of supposed 'modern art' on the office walls etc.
-Consistency. I like to think I maintained "internal consistency". The level tries to tell a story within the tight constraints of a Far Cry map. I almost named one of the loadouts "worried parent" but thought "vigilante" sounded better. You follow the drug connect from the seedy bar (money and dope on the table) , downtown to the main importers run by the sinister Tong Priestess (larger bales of dope, more money). She is in fact working for Mr.Big who has spent his vast illegal profits on his penchant for Egyptian antiquities, he remains in his ivory tower with his relics and his gold. I did attempt to stay consistent within the confines of the story I was trying to tell.
The contrast in styles is somewhat jarring I admit, but things have to move fast within the bounds of the medium. If you think about movies like "Big Trouble in Little China" one minute they're in a foggy back alley the next there's some sort of temple/ancient magic thing going on. This was the sort of feel I wanted.
If only we could write a short introductory description on our maps.
Ultimately the one rule I use to inform all of my map making decisions is "Is it fun to play?" if it's not it doesn't matter how much work I've put into it, I scrap it immediately and build something else. I always try to focus on whether or not the player is going to have a good time.
I played your airliner map btw and was very impressed with the painstaking effort you'd taken over constructing the plane. I love it when I look at someones map and think "how on earth did they make that?" nice work.![]()
I would imagine from Ubisoft's perspective, they simply don't have the time or resources to play countless random maps, wading through all the truly awful maps in order to find those hidden gems that perhaps didn't get enough play to make it into the "Top Rated". I could be wrong, but my guess is that it's far simpler for them to browse through the "Top Rated" and pick the ones they want to feature
I agree, they are not robots but there are solutions to this. Set a moderation for that and if you dont want to pay them make it a community poll for user map suggestions. There are maps suggested in the mediums I mentioned that they haven't considered yet, so I am not saying this without reason.Originally Posted by Brimtown Go to original post
Truth to be told I posted some twitter pics today and @ farCryGame and I got a reply within the hour, so their CR team is doing a great job. It's just those recent features that got me triggered, all in all they are on the right way. Sorry if I sound like I am ranting, I try to be constructive and give as much details as possible with posts like these.
I think it would be awesome if we got 1 weekly “Feature this Map” virtual coin in arcade (coin for arcade machine) that we can spend once weekly to nominate a map to be featured (cannot choose your own map). So on the vote screen at the end of a map we have the option to use our coin and nominate the map to be featured. At the end of each week the maps with the most votes get screened by Ubisoft and they choose from the 10 with most votes.
Pretty good idea CAFFEIN8TED... I'm all down for that, but I have a feeling that it would be somewhat broken or it would be a popularity contest. The famous people would have all the votes and the people who have like 100 friends will get them to vote for their maps and win over more deserving maps. At least that's what I think.