Change maps more often,plz

[Greebo]

I spent four years on my MA map, but that was in periods of a few weeks every few months, in-between skinning planes. A lot of that time was spent figuring out the TE, correcting my mistakes and redesigning the map to suit strat and terrain changes to the game. So if I was motivated (which I am not) and gave up skinning stuff for the game I could probably make another one to that standard in a few months.

[Babalonian]

The problem is that all the interesting and creative stuff can add enormously to the terrain's size, which is something HTC likes to avoid for MA terrains. Also custom objects and fields can create bugs in a terrain that could cause a player's FE or the host itself to crash. HTC absolutely can't afford to have the MA crash so they are very conservative about what can be put into MA maps.

If HTC were to create and bug test some new stuff that could be put into MA terrains (new types of fields, strats, bridges etc.) that might spark some interest from map builders.

RPM, most AH maps are player-created on an unpaid voluntary basis.

Hmmm... well, 10yr+ old regulations, and typical AH user now can download more than 10mb an hour....

How much of an impact in size are we talking, within reason (a couple/few custom textures/objects that is then stamped/copied many times over the map)?  10/20/50/100/200/500MBs?

[Gorf13]

TRINITY  all in favor thumbs

Yup, bring it back! Especially if we have an automatic reset as suggested.

[dedalos]

There are LOTS of different things to do in AH that don't involve picking and running.

whaaaat? 

[Easyscor]

Eh Greebo, let me know what you think of my updates to avachanl running in the AvA for the next two weeks. /endshamelessplug

Hmmm... well, 10yr+ old regulations, and typical AH user now can download more than 10mb an hour....

How much of an impact in size are we talking, within reason (a couple/few custom textures/objects that is then stamped/copied many times over the map)?  10/20/50/100/200/500MBs?

Taking your post as a request for information: At the default texture size of 512x512 pixels, a full set of LAND textures would add 12 textures x 257 KB = 3 MB, and double that for water textures. The good news is that it would be unnecessary over kill. A better answer is to select a few key textures like beach, grass, two farmland and possibly the two forest textures, and then create 'high res' 1024x1024 textures at 1MB each. That's 6 textures x 1 MB = 6 MB in additional size. Oops! Okay, you probably won't get a way with adding 6 MB to your MA terrain size.

For insight why you'd want to increase the texture size; each ground texture covers 4 square miles and a single pixel covers 20.6 feet. Using a 1024 texture covers only 10 feet of ground per pixel, and that works much better for drawing things like trees and clumps of bushes. The terrain can look pretty spectacular with that size texture.

Custom objects are a different story. If you can use existing textures to cover the surfaces, then their size is negligible. My arched stone bridge adds 20KB, then it's used repeatedly without adding more to the terrain size.

Custom objects are not allowed in MA terrains because of quality concerns. Concerns like missing texture mapping making them see-through from one side. Or surfaces that drop through the terrain, which can also cause a player to drop through the terrain.

[rpm]

RPM, most AH maps are player-created on an unpaid voluntary basis.

I guess I should have used [sarcasm]But that's what video game programmers are PAID to do. Oh, wait... [/sarcasm] to make that clearer.

[ink]

Making any map has a certain amount of creative stuff and repetitive boring stuff to do. Both types of map let you set up the coastlines, elevations and field placements which is interesting while you are working it out but a bit tedious to actually do. With an AvA or special events map the creator can also play around with lots of interesting stuff like changing terrain textures, adding objects or new field layouts and altering clutter and end up with something that looks completely different to anyone else's work.

However the creative side is very limited on an MA map, you can alter a few textures if they aren't too big  but that's about it. Also there is way more boring repetitive stuff to do on an MA map. There up to 255 fields and towns to place by hand, plus the strat cities. Then there are hundreds of spawn points to position. Then there are roads to route for every field, unless you like them running straight up cliffs etc. Once you are done you spend ages bug testing it and end up with a terrain that doesn't look or play a lot different to any other MA terrain. So basically making an MA terrain involves way more grind and a lot less artistic payoff at the end.

6

this is why I stopped trying to make MA maps.....

also if the TE was more user friendly and the restrictions in vertice count on the terrain itself were upped....it would be much better for map makers.

[ghi]

Making a new small good  map won't help, because with this reset settings we'll see it for few hours/month. They have plenty of small fun maps for low and high # of players,like Mindanao,Baltic,.....; but are getting reset in hours and MA is dominated in time by boring  large inactive maps: if the reset % for large maps would be reduced to 12-15%  and for small maps increased to 25-30% , both small and large maps would get reset in about same time.

[titanic3]

Eh, I don't know how to feel about this. Ndisle and FesterMA are the two maps I love the most. Plenty of action due to the high usage of CVs, lots of NOE missions since it's mostly water which in turn leads to either a furball (yay) or a quick 5 minute flight consisting of rape the noobs (yay-er). Even better is a tank town with airbases, which means a constant source of action. I would hate to see the either map change because of a time limit since they are quite big, but then again, I would love to see maps like the last one (at the end of the last tour) go away forever.

[Dragon Tamer]

GHI can't "win ze war!" So he seems to feel the need to come here and whine about it.

If you can't find a fight, do what I do, gather up a few squadies and go harass a base for a while. They will eventually up to shoot you down and if you do it right you can end up with a good firball.

I personally like the larger maps because the bish are easier to stop when those idiotic P-38 missions start rolling. When you want a fight, you can find one or even start one. If you don't want to fight, there are plenty of places for you to go where you can avoid the fight for some easy perk farming.

So as to the OP, no.

[Zacherof]

Trick is to have a faster plane than a hog or 38.

J0ker will fight(or pick with style)
TKO will fight. But you need to seclude them from the group

As for the rest of them idk. Haven't seen hoagi, and a few others in a while.

Hoagi, bush and
cane I always run into

[rpm]

GHI can't "win ze war!" So he seems to feel the need to come here and whine about it.

If you can't find a fight, do what I do, gather up a few squadies and go harass a base for a while. They will eventually up to shoot you down and if you do it right you can end up with a good firball.

I personally like the larger maps because the bish are easier to stop when those idiotic P-38 missions start rolling. When you want a fight, you can find one or even start one. If you don't want to fight, there are plenty of places for you to go where you can avoid the fight for some easy perk farming.

So as to the OP, no.

Nobody could win the war. Personally I don't care for the, to borrow a few phrases from you, "idiotic" "whine" you "felt the need" to post. Get back to me when you've been playing AH as long a ghi. You may have a new perspective by then.

[TonyJoey]

Nobody could win the war. Personally I don't care for the, to borrow a few phrases from you, "idiotic" "whine" you "felt the need" to post. Get back to me when you've been playing AH as long a ghi. You may have a new perspective by then.

 

Small maps need 30-35% requirement, and large maps need 12-15% requirement to balance out up time in the MA, otherwise large maps completely dominate the rotation.

[BaldEagl]

Ummm... so, by your tone, you do?    
If you're mad now/before, wait until this:
http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,176625.0.html
http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,209609.0.html

I know nothing, and those lists/guidelines are quite extensive and created by someone who clearly knew what they were talking about, but you getting mad at me repeating what HiTech Creations has mandated...
        

I'll repeat it 500 times, Trinity as we used to know and love it, was the biggest insult ala the guidelines and standards set by HTCs for map creators to adhere to for MA map submissions.  A bar set very high, and Trinity was well below it, yet somehow it made it to the contenders table.

It's this similar ignorance you and others have that keeps that selective memory strong enough to keep comming to this forum like a 2-yo wishing for his bottle back.  You're too old, it's broken, get back to bed and over it.


Sorry if you don't like my attitude, you and others on that Trinity bandwagon before and after its removal are just ignorant of your insult to the hard working and dedicated map creators who strive to have their creations meet those guidelines and make it into the map rotation.  Go read up on it, think about it, and then stop asking for a piece of turd into the MA-map-rotation-sandwitch.

There were some things I liked about Trinity too, but those things I liked were bugged or not evenly represented across all three front lines (only two countries would get lucky, the third was SOL), per the guidelines.  There was a lot I didn't like about Trinity too, but those (surprise) too were terrain bugs, unevenly distributed resources, or features that were a deterant to promoting action across the fronts - all deliberatley spelled out and to be avoided in the MA map guidelines.

I call BS.  

Where exactly were all these major MA terrain violations on Trinity?  Second were they also major terrain violations when it was created/introduced?  Finally, if there were all these violations why did HT adapt it over many others to update for MA use again?  There are still a LOT of big maps that have never been updated and put back into use.  So why this faulty (IYO) map?

To set the record straight I always liked Trinity.  One man's pleasure is another man's pain.  I also know and respect the person who made the map; an in-game adversary and friend.  Where's yours?  Ahhh... that's right.

I get not liking a map (NDIsles for me).  Someone mentioned a 24/48 min max map rule further up... good idea.

Then bring back all the maps from the beginning.  Rules violations!  You haven't seen anything.  What a pup.  Maybe you're the ignorant one.

[Zacherof]

Oh the old maps