Map Maker? - Page 2

SargusBane · #11 September 15th, 2005, 11:46 PM

Moderated by Andre

It seems like you are willing to try and do what we are asking. That is cool enough for me. The eight races are very easy to play and can be used in incredible complex fashion. Couple with the fact that the patches you are making also comes with more maps makes it re-playable for many hours to come. All I can say is keep the patches coming and when is LOL 2 coming out?

Hiro_Antagonist · #12 September 16th, 2005, 02:55 PM

Quote:

SargusBane said:
When is LOL 2 coming out?

Way in the future. LOL itself hasn't even come out yet. =)

Our tentative plan is to work on a new game (based in the Land of Legends world) as our next game, and then possibly/probably implement LOL2 after that. But things could very well change...

-Hiro_Antagonist

Seravajan · #13 September 18th, 2005, 09:19 AM

The missing of a map maker hits this game very hard!

And some more units (2 to 4) per race would be nice too.
Some possibilities to build town upgrades would be interesting also. (2 town upgrades per town out of 6 or 8 choices)

Hells_Kitchen_Gamer · #14 September 21st, 2005, 10:50 PM

I've never used the map makers in any games I've played. I agree that it would have been a waste of development time that was better spend enhancing the AI or the internet play.

I find it extremely unlikely that someone would not buy the game on this basis.

Pips · #15 September 22nd, 2005, 06:44 PM

Shrugs...I know at least 1

I'm a big Advance Wars fan, and for me most of the fun is creating and playing on new maps I and my friends create. Maybe I'm spoiled.

There's a free web version of Advance Wars at http://www.amarriner.com/awbw/ that lets you build maps for internet play if anyone is interested.

Hiro_Antagonist · #16 September 22nd, 2005, 07:21 PM

We do recognize that a map-maker is something that some players want, and we know you're not alone. And while we want to give players everything they could possibly want, we just haven't had the budget or time to implement everything, and we have to take into account how many players will *really* use the feature compared to how much it will cost us to implement.

We *are* still looking at the idea of letting people make their own maps, but if we implement that feature, players would most likely have to make their maps the same way we did -- by editing XML files by hand. This isn't as bad as it would seem. My own process for making maps was to draw them on graph paper or in Paint Shop Pro, and then copy/edit the template map file to fill in the new terrain. That process typically took about 10-15 minutes for each map once the map was designed. If we did implement this feature, it wouldn't surprise me at all if someone made a tool to help with this process, but anyone can roll up their sleeves and edit XML with little hassle.

Anyway, there are all sorts of other complications that come from allowing user-made maps that wouldn't be obvious to players. So we're looking at the problem closely to see if there's any cost-efficient way we can develop it.

-Hiro_Antagonist

Combat Wombat · #17 September 22nd, 2005, 09:26 PM

Quote:

Hiro_Antagonist said:
We do recognize that a map-maker is something that some players want, and we know you're not alone. And while we want to give players everything they could possibly want, we just haven't had the budget or time to implement everything, and we have to take into account how many players will *really* use the feature compared to how much it will cost us to implement.

We *are* still looking at the idea of letting people make their own maps, but if we implement that feature, players would most likely have to make their maps the same way we did -- by editing XML files by hand. This isn't as bad as it would seem. My own process for making maps was to draw them on graph paper or in Paint Shop Pro, and then copy/edit the template map file to fill in the new terrain. That process typically took about 10-15 minutes for each map once the map was designed. If we did implement this feature, it wouldn't surprise me at all if someone made a tool to help with this process, but anyone can roll up their sleeves and edit XML with little hassle.

Anyway, there are all sorts of other complications that come from allowing user-made maps that wouldn't be obvious to players. So we're looking at the problem closely to see if there's any cost-efficient way we can develop it.

-Hiro_Antagonist

I can finally play the map I made

Please find a way.

SargusBane · #18 October 4th, 2005, 01:47 AM

With a map maker the game would be just be that much better. However, the game itself is worth buying and playing without it. Advance Wars is different/better/worst than LOL in many aspects. But LOL does have a new spin on this type of game play. I do look forward to a better AI in future patches and/or versions.

nullpixels · #19 October 4th, 2005, 04:13 AM

Quote:

Hiro_Antagonist said:
We *are* still looking at the idea of letting people make their own maps, but if we implement that feature, players would most likely have to make their maps the same way we did -- by editing XML files by hand. This isn't as bad as it would seem. My own process for making maps was to draw them on graph paper or in Paint Shop Pro, and then copy/edit the template map file to fill in the new terrain. That process typically took about 10-15 minutes for each map once the map was designed. If we did implement this feature, it wouldn't surprise me at all if someone made a tool to help with this process, but anyone can roll up their sleeves and edit XML with little hassle.

Anyway, there are all sorts of other complications that come from allowing user-made maps that wouldn't be obvious to players.

-Hiro_Antagonist

A map maker for this game is a topic I've been thinking about quite a bit lately. I looked, and it seems everything is rolled up into a WAD file. I'm guessing that is where the complications lie. If I could just see how the XML files were structured I would love to take a shot at creating a browser-based utility that outputs an XML file.

If Hiro or anybody wants to contact me about this, please don't hesitate to shoot an e-mail to ben@nullpixels.com.

Hiro_Antagonist · #20 October 4th, 2005, 08:35 PM

well, the data files are basically XML. The problem has basically nothing to do w/ the wad files.

The problems stem from things like UI, data integrity, etc. There are many, many subtle issues that make it a lot more difficult than it may seem from the outside. This is why we had to cut this feature from the original release, despite how much we wanted to offer it.

Yes, these issues are surmountable, but they will take a large amount of development effort that we just can't afford. We're hoping that LOL 2 (quite a ways off) will allow for modability, but we'll have to see. And we're hoping that we can find an affordable way to patch a custom map feature into LOL 1. But when I'm forced to decide between catering to the vast majority of users by having a better core game or building in modability for the minority of users that will take advantage of that at the expense of having a better core game, I'm always going to opt for having a better core game... =)

-Hiro_Antagonist