2 MB CHALLENGE RESULTS

[ShadowRunner]

Playability covers a wide range of things.

A broken door or elevator would reduce playability.
Having a spawn room that can be blocked by a noob with feigndeath would reduce playability.
Having a map with spawn exits facing each other, would not be very playable.
Having a map with a lot of dead ends.
A map that you are getting lost in, every five seconds.
Some issue with space and maneuverability perhaps.
Horrible choke points that annoy some players.
Putting free lams in a spawnroom.
No ammocrates.
Could write a 1000 examples...

As it has been mentioned, I use smuggles as the example. Two of the spawnrooms exit onto a large killing ground with no cover, which is dominated by a gallery above stacked with evil weps like 20HE, LAW and Lam. To make things worse, the mapper added windows, so enemy can see which spawn the player is spawning in. To finish off the screw-up, they added one tiny door, that gets blocked by noobs every day of the week for the last ten years. So for me, the map fails badly on gameplay. It has appeal in other areas though, but not enough for me to ever host it. I'm left numb watching people exploit those spawnrooms, year after year.

Ste's drydock is ten million times better. Notice his spawns are very similar to Deja Vu and Sike's spawns, double exited, with very large spaces inside the spawnroom to maneuver around players who are slow or afk or to fight incoming enemies.

Score?
I looked at the map in SDK, looked at the theory side of things, was the design sensible and sound. Then I played them. Then I played with Face. Then I played on Chin's server. Most things were obvious though before public play. Most people were pretty good on playability I think, just some minor oversights here and there.

Sometimes a map gets away with things, Silo has some terrible gameplay design, but it plays well and is popular. Same with this challenge, the winning maps may not be the most popular in a month's time.

[[DXA]avatar]

:O K ty ^^!

[anax]

MANIX, FITSG and some other dude blocking a spawn on DX Studios map.
somebody should lose a point on spawn viability for this?

[[FGS]Chees]

My map was Disqualified now you post a pick of an oversight on a spawn room Leave Chees alone I suffered enough!
I will change it to double doors and add vents if people sill want to host it?

[[FGS]Kalman]

Bad Luck Chees - Tries to enter the challenge - Disqualified
I like our map Chees, looks really detailed

[[FGS]Chees]

I thought I would give you a chance this time Kalman
Strong Chees = Kalman no win

[~][FGS][Nobody~]

Ye but a +10MB Chees was unsuitable this time!

[anax]

I like the map a lot though Chees i have to say! but adding more spawn exits will be mint ennit I'm gona do likewise for DXMP_Ikea, and make it more colorful for all the fools moaning how gray it is, lol what- gray like most other dxmp maps?! gg ns.

[~][FGS][Nobody~]

Your sarsasm between the lines still smells in my nose.

[[FGS]Chees]

Ye but a +10MB Chees was unsuitable this time!

I explained my massive oversight with the stupid Tnag file I failed to spot! I will not fail next challenge that's a Stilton Chees promise ......bring it

[ShadowRunner]

and make it more colorful for all the fools moaning how gray it is, lol what- gray like most other dxmp maps?! gg ns

"make it more colorful " Don't ffs do this. Fix the gameplay errors and stop *loving* whining. The map is beautiful, don't touch it, just fix gameplay.
1. So I don't get confused in corridors that all look the same.
2. So I can get out of spawnroom.

Please don't get confused with art direction and detail. It needs detail. The art direction is perfect. It needs detail because people are getting lost. You need to make it a little more lifelike.

Take Ste's map for example, the corridors are different, have different textures, you know where the hell you are.

[[DXA]avatar]

add a picture saying the 'NO U' spawn in 1 area !

[anax]

add a picture saying the 'NO U' spawn in 1 area !

I do agree Shadow, it's not the lack of color I was complaining about, but rather the fact itself that some dudes were whining about color rather than the issue with gameplay.

The actual gameplay problems, lack of locatability /signage /extra solids /narrow tunnels, etc. I agree with them and can try to fix them.

[[DXA]avatar]

MANIX, FITSG and some other dude blocking a spawn on DX Studios map.
somebody should lose a point on spawn viability for this?

this opened anax's eyes lol ... thank them xD!

[Face]

I do agree Shadow, it's not the lack of color I was complaining about, but rather the fact itself that some dudes were whining about color rather than the issue with gameplay.

The actual gameplay problems, lack of locatability /signage /extra solids /narrow tunnels, etc. I agree with them and can try to fix them.

Anax, just to repeat a couple of things in the review:

Pros
~ Nice use of light with a varied colour scheme and actual light sources...


DXMP_Ikea Sum Up

With a little more work DXMP_Ikea could be a really solid map...

I've held back from replying sooner simply because I didn't think you would listen, so now you've dropped the self pity [no offense intended] and are willing to do something beneficial I just wanted to say a few things:

1. Nobody likes to be told when things suck but to be honest it's what you do afterwards that counts .
2. Neither Shadow or myself said your map was a disaster. It needs some work, big deal! You can quite easily turn Ikea into an excellent map by examining the weaknesses and working on them.
3. When Chin announced the contest he detailed the 7 areas that each map would be judged by. Each area was scored between 1 and 10. By using sound in a very limited way you lost massively in the final percentage score. In fairness we had to judge each map based on the criteria.
4. I'm looking forward to the next version.

Good luck with the revisions. I'm more than happy to check out any changes if you want a second opinion, just as I know Shadow is too.