Yet Another Community Project [BRANCH]

[Bacon Sandvich]

-[BRANCH]- sorry, no acronym yet

Im putting my management skills to the test and hopefully providing a different kinda of community/team map project thingy together.

To get to the point (as im horrible at explaining myself the first go around) Im just gonna explain simply the basic premise of the project and what i hope we can achieve.

We will start out by selecting a donated abandoned map or possibly a art concept or idea. I will post a submission thread soon.

From there each mapper can take the map and do what they like with it, change the layout, gametype, anything they wish and submit the vmf as a 'branch' of the original. Same goes for all the other mappers involved. map name examples: ctf_abandonedmap_a1_br1 with _br2 and so on to follow. The cool thing with this is we dont have to assign a week to each mapper, they can work at their own pace and if they like they can branch off another mappers branch.

Now with that said, some of you are going, awgawd, thats gonna be messy! Alas, I have a solution for this as well, every 3 - 4 branches we bring up a poll on which will go to the next stage of development (example: a1 to a2). The branches that dont make the cut wont be abandoned however, but instead will go to a seperate ftp site (owned by me with unlimited space) to keep the main workflow clean (that and dropbox has a space limit). Every update we do this way, will be made available to the public in the map thread and will also be submitted to gameday for testing.

Im trying to keep this from becoming too competitive, I would like if we can get team oriented mappers that will work with each other respectfully and not think of it too much like a competition. But hey, a lil competition doesn't hurt, judging by the awesome maps we get from them.

That about sums it up, the basics anyhow, any1 interested in this project plz join our steam group

We will need mappers, modelers, texture artists, etc. When we finish, Im hoping we have a 90% custom map or at least come close.

Stages of development are a WIP ATM but I have a rough idea

1. Map Salvage Selection
2. Gametype selection
3. progress through Alpha stage of map
4. Theme selection
5. progress through Beta stage of map
6. release stage of dev, finalize

Almost forgot to mention, we will test branch builds on my personal server, and the compilation builds on TF2M's gameday.

I have our forum set up over at my webserver turtlesecu.com

If you have an abandoned map or a complete one that you would like revamped post a zip of the vmf and/or bsp here

[tovilovan]

Looks really interesting, sign me up!

[Bacon Sandvich]

FleshGolem: splitting the map up into sections and everyone doing their own version of each section?
[TECU] LabelMaker: we select a map through a poll
[TECU] LabelMaker: now we have ctf_hole_in_wall_a1
[TECU] LabelMaker: each mapper takes a copy
[TECU] LabelMaker: once complete
[TECU] LabelMaker: they check the dropbox
[TECU] LabelMaker: if there is no other br# map
[TECU] LabelMaker: they name it ctf_hole_in_wall_a1_br1
[Φ] Randdalf + [Φ] Bird: LMFAO 7:20 http://g4tv.com/videos/42356/Left-4-...e-Walkthrough/
[TECU] LabelMaker: and each other mapper does the same adding br2 and so on
[TECU] LabelMaker: now a new mapper joins us
[TECU] LabelMaker: he can now either take the original a1
[TECU] LabelMaker: or he can take a1_br2
[TECU] LabelMaker: whichever he chosses
[TECU] LabelMaker: hes does some work to it and resubmits as a1_br3
[TECU] LabelMaker: you catching on
FleshGolem: you could have answered that a whole lot simpiler
[TECU] LabelMaker: if ya got something for me, any help would be great as ive said im horrible at explaining things

[J4CK8]

Hmmm, so we take one map, then all 'compete' to make a better version of it. Then the best version will be taken and 'competed' on again? I like it, but I think it will make too much work go to waste. 10 versions of one map, and only one is going to be used seems a waste.

If you want to take this in a contest style, you could state a theme and gamemode, and mappers can contribute one stage to the map. The top 3/5 or however many will be made into the final map. Becuase to me it sounds like it would be a contest idea really.

[Bacon Sandvich]

Originally Posted by J4CK8

Hmmm, so we take one map, then all 'compete' to make a better version of it. Then the best version will be taken and 'competed' on again? I like it, but I think it will make too much work go to waste. 10 versions of one map, and only one is going to be used seems a waste.

If you want to take this in a contest style, you could state a theme and gamemode, and mappers can contribute one stage to the map. The top 3/5 or however many will be made into the final map. Becuase to me it sounds like it would be a contest idea really.

You've got it to a degree while the 10 are being decided on, other maps will still be the works, plus previous branches below the newest alpha or beta etc will still be available for further development and possibly overrule a newer change.

[EDIT]I kinda over exaggerated the branch scale, so i see your point now. Reducing this to maybe 3 or 4 branches may prevent it from being more like a contest, plus we will see more playtests, thx

[Zwiffle]

So let me see if I understand this correctly: Poll chooses an unfinished map scrap, donated by the community members. Then, mappers take that scrap to their dimly lit corners, work on it for ... a week or so? then come back with what they have, submit it. Another poll pops up, asking the community which map to move forward with, and then that map becomes the scrap map, repeat process?

The rest of the maps go to an ftp, to collect dust? I can't imagine people would download these other branches, unless they just really liked them a lot better than what was selected via poll, so it seems like there would be a lot of wasted effort by other mappers.

I also would suggest to select a theme at the time of choosing the first map. That way everyone has sort of an equal footing when selecting the map at each poll. (And besides, if someone's ctf map is chosen during one poll, but I insist on 5cp I'm just going to undo all of that mapper's work anyway, so having everyone agree on a game type would just be better imo.)

Another suggestion would be naming convention - I would prefer something like this :

br_a1_zwiffle

over something like ctf_mapname_br1_a1 or something. br lets people know its a branch competition map, a lets people know what alpha it is, the mapper name lets people identify it with the mapper who worked on it, so each round should still be pretty clean when identifying each map and also pretty easy.

Anyhoo just some suggestions, sounds interesting and I personally love to see peoples' interpretations of the same thing, so I suppose you can sign me up.

[Bacon Sandvich]

Very good point(s). Looks as though everyone is pointing towards this being competitive. Ill put some more info up at the top thread to explain further and implement some of your ideas.

[gamemaster1996]

It's a good idea i like it :I

Sign me up and this time i promise no joke seizures

[midget31394]

I'd donate an old abandoned 3cp map of mine, if you guys want it...

It's a very simple map, with little to no detail whatsoever.

cp_bergspitze

[Bacon Sandvich]

Im setting up a seperate forum offsite for us, it will include sections for the donated maps and map ideas/concepts along with branch releases and so on. Ill have a link up soon.

forum setup here