2013-06-13 Map Cycle

New Map Cycle:
base47  (by request)
bremen_final
caen_4
castleattack_b5
crevasse_pe
eagles_2ways_b3
et_beach
et_mor2_night_final
frostbite
goldrush-gals
mlb_carnage
mlb_temple
mml_minastirith_fp3
nightmare  (by request)
outer_space
pirates
rommel_final
snatch3 (by request)
sp_delivery_te
supplydepot2
te_valhalla
venice
warbell

Obi, some time ago I recall you sharing the criteria for FBY maps: "maps that do not lag, are omni-bot compatible, cannot be rushed, due not have a choke point where one mortar or arty spammer can ruin the game, do not have three different versions of the same name out there with different sizes (this causes players to get kicked), and of course...the map has to be fun and interesting!" These are all sound criteria, and I haven't forgotten about them.

From time to time I keep an eye out for potential FBY maps on other servers. I spec the scenes and try to estimate their wall-jumpableness (not the easiest thing to do). Before I started visiting other servers I had thought only a handful of Wolf ET maps existed, and that they would be relatively easy to spec. Imagine my dismay to find that there are at least 818 maps out there: http://activegamer.net/et/maps/. 

The site lists Wolf ET maps by size, objective, and also contains a short description of each map. What do you think about adding to FBY from some maps in this list? If they don't work out, it should be easy to remove them out of our map rotation. 

So far, I've found three maps that may have potential for us: Axis Lab (Final), Transmitter (Final), and Over The Top. Also, I'd like to suggest adding a large, hideable sniper map to the mix. I'll keep searching for options, but I'd like to start bouncing these ideas off of you guys and collect opinions.

Beast

I'm full of opinions lol... honestly most maps aren't "good enough" for me. That's part of the problem with free software, they never get the time needed to iron out all the bugs since most people like to earn money for their hard work. Developers get bored with fixing bugs and go do something else.

It's like linux, there are 400 versions of linux and 90% of them are useless junk that will make you pull your hair out when you realize it won't work with your hardware after you spend two hours setting it all up.

When I look for a map, the first thing I do is see if it is in the newest version of omnibot. If not then forget it. Then I check several web sources to make sure the sizes are all the same. Multiple versions of the same map are bad news. Half your players will have the wrong version from some other server they played on and they will get a pk3 error when the other size is run on the server. Then I start it out on my home computer and see if there are any bugs - missing textures, lag caused by large open areas, and whether the omnibots actually follow the objective and don't get stuck against a wall somewhere or run the wrong way (xlabs is a great example of this). Another thing is the size of the file - over 15MB and I start looking for a good reason to get rid of it unless it is a really awesome map. Most players don't want a 15MB download especially on top of all the other junk they get from us.

Also I google it and see what other players have said about it. If no complaints that is a good sign too.

I play it a few times and see if there are ways I can rush the map with the low gravity. If it's easy to rush I usually get rid of it since it will be a big hassle trying to keep our regular players from controlling the unresistable impulse to rush the map.

Then I load it on the real server and see what happens.

This is one of my favorite sites to check out new maps:

http://www.harryhomers.org/et/download/etmain/

I use this as one of my comparison sites to make sure the publicly available sizes from different sources are the same.

I also use wolffiles.de, the F|A map download section, the UJE Clan map download section, Paparino's Clan map download section, and  Planet Wolfenstein.

I added two more maps for a nice set of 25 maps:

ga_el_kef
parisbastille_b3

Most of these maps should be familiar to our long-term players. Hopefully there will be enough variety to keep everyone happy.

there are now so many great maps that it will be much more fun

Obit, I've discussed the large map size download with Beth before.

It's 2013 man, a 1Gb download is no big deal for most people.
A 25Mb et map shouldn't be cause for concern.

There are some great maps out there that are big in size.
Den of Lions for example.

Even the map I did is big in the beta 1 version and I can't recall any complaints from downloading back 5 or so years ago.

I removed te_valhalla from Beginner due to choppy lag whenever it comes on.

Added mml_church_et_v1 and steelplant2.