Issues with SCII Custom Maps.
I had a bigger reply but for some reason the quick post thing closed out on me killing my entire post. In addition to more lag and RAM taken to run Bnet in the background...there is a big issue with Custom Maps. Me and Eric talked about this a couple times and this is basically the jist.
Basically its this...Starcraft II has a bad Map making system.
1.) Map Censoring
SC2Mapster Forums - General - General Chat - StarCraft II Inappropriate Content Policies - StarCraft 2 Maps - SC2Mapster.com
Map censoring, with words like God or somehow African being censored. Anything reportable can get you banned and lose 60 dollars. This means we have to make maps with so much more discretion.
StarCraft II
2.) Blizzard Police
They are going so far as to police them:
Blizzard Deleting 'Inappropriate' StarCraft 2 Maps
Blizzard Community Manager Bashiok says this:
Quote
“Because we can. Literally. We have a support department now of size and ability to enforce these types of things. It simply wasn’t possible when our in-game support used to consist of approximately 20 technical support agents. We’re working on improving our processes to ensure the map maker has more information on why their map was removed, right now it is a bit vague and has obviously led to this misunderstanding.”
Thread:
http://forums.sc2mapster.com/general...m-bnet/?unread
Therefore, the entire custom map making community is in a freeze, nothing new or special is being made in fear of whats appropriate or not.
3.) Forced to publish on Battle.net.
Meaning you have to play these games while connected to internet. If for some reason BNet shuts down then you cannot play them anymore. This also means you cannot download off a site for a map that you want. You have to risk your map being put on BNet and also to play even single player Custom Maps, you have to be online.
This means even if we were to make our own maps (CCS and MK), we have to put it through BNet even if the intention is just for us to play it and risk your game.
4.) Finding Custom Maps
The current way to find things is through popularity (as in number of people joining). You cannot find them in any other way. Therefore games that are made first are on the top and newer maps are almost never found since they never got a chance to become 'popular'. The only other way is to 'search' and you cannot tell what map you downloaded before.
StarCraft II (the stupid part is people support blizzard anyways -_-).
5.) Finding PEOPLE to play them.
Just because you see a map on the list doesn't mean theres a game. If you click "Join a Game' and then click on a custom map, you might instead create a game instead. This is because all the maps you publish are on BNet and you just click on them in a list. That doesn't mean the game is actually made, just that the map is published. So you have to be LUCKY enough for someone to click on that same game to play with you. Therefore making new 'unpopular' games....never played.
In the old games when you create a game, no matter what it will appear at the top of the list...not anymore. Maps are published and hosted on BNet in a list. There no other way to join or create a game without looking at this list.
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Entire map making is at a standstill now due to bad software that they been working on for 7 years and draconian policies.
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