Custom Map Development

I imagine it must be rather taxing for developers to create as many maps as they do, so I think it would be a clever idea to allow both the tools and the means by which to submit new PvP maps.

The rules for map submission would be simple:

1. Must have account to be able to submit a map.
2. Cannot submit more than 1 map every 10 days.
3. Maps cannot introduce new textures (or at most, there are a maximum of new textures introduced per map to reduce download time).
4. Must submit to Guild Wars theme, which is to say, no spaceships themed maps etc.
5. Map is subject to a review before being accepted.

I think in doing so, you relieve a large burden from the development team and you make Guild Wars 2 a far more flexible game.

Thoughts?

Sounds like a good idea to me but :
- X players submitting a map every 10days : shitloads of map which will never be saw.
- There is a lot of pvp maps that have been removed but are working fine, why anet don't just let us play them (i'm thinking mostly about costume brawl maps) ? this point cleary shows that your map system will never be implemented and even discussed...

so instead of say a few hours developing a map they will have to spend 3-5 times as many hours checking and inspecting the maps that are submitted
it sounds like a good idea at first but when u think it out ur making more work for them not lessening it

There are plenty of examples of games that have player created content maps included.

What might work would be a place on line for players to store created maps the developers could take and use them if they wished.

It would also be essential for there to be a way for guilds and alliances to add a map and play test it within the game.

Only the developers know if this is possible in the current game.

However a number of blank areas where you could add a map of your own design for friends to play in would be a big plus for gw2

And editor to allow someone to create maps won't happen. That would provide info on the game engine that they won't provide. You are thinking of an offline RPG with an editor I believe. The ability to do what you are suggesting would be an extremely tough thing to implement. And as noted, it would not reduce the work the Anet employees have, it would increase it.

This. They ought to be careful what kind of mechanics they just throw out there.

I think it WOULD be a good idea though and it would have to follow this:

1. Only a handful of people lucky enough to have been chosen/signed up (because allowing all people to do it would put too much stress on the servers and a lot of maps would never be looked at).
2. Rough Sketches (aka no game/map editor would be given) instead, use PAINT or Photoshop or even a sketch on a piece of paper scanned and sent in.

Never played an FPS have you?

The big problem is that there would be no way to test and review the maps in a widespread way (e.g. by the community, as in FPS games), so it would be far too much work for ANet to review them all.

Oh... yes... letting players create maps crowded of monsters in disadvantaged locations to make them easily farmable...

Great ida. yes, great idea...

In a game with widespread connection, in which all characters will go to all areas in one game, this is not a good idea.

It may work in games in which characters are created for each game, like in Neverwinters Nights, but not in GW.

www.fpsbanana.com
nuff said i think
as long as the stuff is balanced when ur makin PvE stuff cuz i bet there would be some sick bastards who would make maps with mobs of roj monk and HB monks + aura of faith monks
oh the epic headbanging to the wall that would provide

PvP maps, folks.. PvP maps..

If you're going to bash my idea, at least make sure it's mine.

I suppose you'd be right about the headache, though some amount of careful reviewing of the maps is in order. Perhaps you would limit the amount of submissions possible per account per "contest" (people are more likely to submit serious maps if it's their only chance).

Allowing the community to support the game has worked many times before, such as making Boss names or weapon designs. They're even currently hosting a contest for henchmen builds allowing up to 3 submissions per account. If you consider how many accounts there are and how easy it is to submit a build, I think your average intelligence of someone who submits a playable PvP map to be far superior.

I dont' have that much faith in the player base. Considering the number of people who can't even run a build they picked up from PvX, much less make their own build, and the number of people who don't understand that shooting a bow at someone who is behind a wall will do nothing.... I doubt many people know enough about PvP and map development to do a job worth looking at. would guess that about 5% of the GW population knows enough about what needs to be done to make a map worth using. But of those 5%, not all would submit, and knowing HOW and actually being able to are different things.

I just see too many immature kids and idiots playing the game for an idea like this to be feasible.

Why not make this a task for a subgroup of the test Krew? They could become a vetted group of experienced players with modding skills to evaluate, coordinate and evaluate map submissions. They could sort through the chaff to find the viable map ideas and assist the contributors in refining them into something that ArenaNet staff could implement.

City of Heroes has recently released content creation tools. I don't want that a bunch of one-off missions, though. I'm envisioning a process in which the test Krew sets the parameters of what they are looking for in a map. To start off, they would accept only concept ideas for a new map with a given structure.

They could make the parameters like a GVG map using resources from the Realm of Torment, or create a pvp map with the structure of the 'Defense of the Ancients' map from Warcraft III, or the recent game Demigod.

Set a date 3 months from the announcement in which the krew will accept entries for a week. Select the best 3 and give them feedback on what they need to change. After a couple of iterations of feedback, have the krew give it to the arenanet staff.

good idea and bad idea.. believe it or not to make 1 map can take UP TO 8 months unless your considering on just taking an old map and moving stuff around.. Not a bad idea but its hard to say what can be really done...

havent seen this anywhere, link be nice

On the map building, they would have to build a tool (or release it if they allready have one) to have players build maps... i played around a bit on Ryzom and even there (maps are supplied, you can build missions) its easy to screw things up... also done mapbuilding for FPS, its not as easy as it looks and even harder to make it look good ...

Perhaps a contest of some sort would be better, Design and submit your PvP arena ...

How about have a system on where the players can test out new maps (but don't get faction, just in case the map is unfair and easy to farm), rate them. Then Anet looks at what maps the community likes the most?