Mapping survey results

Talk about anything related to Unvanquished.
Post Reply
User avatar
kharnov
Granger
Posts: 1851
Joined: Tue Mar 06, 2012 10:54 pm UTC
Clan: GT
Location: New York City

Mapping survey results

Post by kharnov »

Survey #4 is now closed. There were 14 responses total, which is decent I suppose. Here is the summary.

General

Image

No surprises here. People tend to like our mapping progress, and they prefer average-sized maps. As for what people want to see in future maps produced by us or the community?

  • Atmosphere.

  • Visual consistency.

  • Water, exteriors, lava.

  • Variety in layouts.

  • Elevators.

Now for the individual map results. I've approximated the average value the best I can, and if anyone really cares I can take shots of the graphs, but they're huge. Also, I picked out the three best comments for and against the map.

Plat23

Appearance: Neutral
Layout: Favorable
Navigability: Favorable
Performance: Favorable
Size: Favorable

What do you like the most?

  • "It's a good ATCS clone."

  • "Simple, not insanely big, two routes with clear advantages and disadvantages - basically nailed the core of what kind of maps this game needs"

  • "Easy to navigate."

What would you change?

  • "The area beneath middle is currently kind of useless. It also seems to cater more to the traditional Tremulous playing style of having a base to attack from, than the Unvanquished system of consistently moving up and expanding your base. Encountering forward bases always felt as annoying and interrupting the gameplay/fights on this map, which might be my own frustration, but might be worth taking a look at."

  • "More graphics detail/variance, more contrast/variance in lighting."

  • "Hallway widths - too wide, or not enough obstacles for smaller aliens to hide in i.e. basilisks"

Parpax

Appearance: Favorable
Layout: Favorable
Navigability: Neutral
Performance: Favorable
Size: Favorable

What do you like the most?

  • "It looks nice and has some really neat ideas, if a bit gimmicky"

  • "The non-symmetric layout"

  • "Very atmospheric, good layout."

What would you change?

  • "imho it focuses too much on the 'creepy'/atmospheric part of the game, instead of going for solid balanced gameplay. I also see no need for such a high number of different paths to take, I can see why you'd want to avoid a single chokepoint, but at a certain point it just becomes silly. Basically it's a huge map with a lot of fancy details, which is nice, don't get me wrong, but I feel it needs a lot of work if you want to create a setting for good matches, rather than a nice setting for bad matches. My points of improvement for this map and Perseus are very similar, so it might be worth reading what I wrote there too."

  • "The massive rooms with little interesting things"

  • "Make layout simpler and equal for both teams"

Thunder

Appearance: Favorable
Layout: Favorable
Navigability: Unfavorable
Performance: Unfavorable
Size: Neutral

What do you like the most?

  • "Lots of places to explore."

  • "Conceptual Grandness"

  • "Size, complexity, details, ambiance."

What would you change?

  • "I haven't played this map much so I can't judge. At first glance it seems quite large, which is something I noticed with most new maps, but considering the new building system that might fit the gameplay more."

  • "Outside area needs more detail. Engine needs a better minimap."

  • "Give me like, 12 more fps. Then I can actually move."

Yocto

Appearance: Favorable
Layout: Favorable
Navigability: Favorable
Performance: Favorable
Size: Favorable

What do you like the most?

  • "I like the aestetic of this map, and it seems to have some areas more fit for actual fighting, in terms of scale and props. A lot of the other maps have huge open areas, or huge areas with a lot of props because 'that's how you balance things for aliens right?', this map seems to have some nice spots fit for cool fights, which makes any game played on it instantly much more enjoyable. I also get the impression it isn't as huge as some other maps; though maps should be bigger than in Tremulous because of how building works in this game, I'd say this map nailed the 'not overdoing it' part. Looks nice and actually supports the core gameplay."

  • "Size, complexity, details, ambiance."

  • "Looks good. Decent size. Nonsymmetric map."

What would you change?

  • "The layout is bad. There is a to change. First of all, Aliens have no alternative base locations, humans have only one. Human default base is a joke, while alien default base is quite strong. Find a way to equalize default path distances to the bases."

  • "Performance is absolutely horrible, with machines normally running 60+ fps dropping to 10-20. Provided your machine can run it to the point of it being playable, it's a lot of fun in my experience, so I'd say to focus on that."

  • "You can't move your base anywhere. Alien base is too strong."

Chasm

Appearance: Favorable
Layout: Favorable
Navigability: Favorable
Performance: Favorable
Size: Favorable

What do you like the most?

  • "Performance is surprisingly good for such big areas, I expected FPS to drop in some areas but they don't seem to. It seems to not be a case of 'putting too much in', which I appreciate"

  • "Good small map, I like the snow."

  • "Simple and fun map."

What would you change?

  • "The outside area is a bit lame now, and unbalanced to boot. It's a huge open area. Assuming the teams all have decent players, going outside is simply not viable for aliens. I assume this means they could very easily get sandwiched in the tunnel thing, though I haven't seen it happen. I have to admit I haven't played too much of it, but enough to get an impression."

  • "Play around with the snow more and the glow maps on things since they're a little too bright."

  • "Quality of detail is somewhat inconsistent across map"

Perseus

Appearance: Favorable
Layout: Favorable
Navigability: Neutral
Performance: Neutral
Size: Favorable

What do you like the most?

  • "The staircase/potential building layout areas, although there aren't much for aliens"

  • "Ambiance, size, complexity of the layout."

  • "Cool but only as good as it was in trem"

What would you change?

  • "It has bad performance. Furthermore, the bases aren't very good. The bases are spread too far apart and the lengths of the paths to the two bases are too different, so one path ends up being taken far more. The middle area between the two ledges is generally wasted space since very few skirmishes take place there. Most skirmishes take place in the ramp and box room with the double ledges and outside the alien front entrance. That should be adjusted. Add more interesting stuff to that room or maybe partition it into several different rooms to make it more appealing to do stuff there."

  • "Same as with parpax, I think it has nice ideas in places, but it seems too much of everything. It's huge, areas tend to be grotesque, a lot of attention to detail which is generally good, but ends up putting too much random stuff in places that doesn't really add too much to the gameplay, or is just plain annoying to play on. In my opinion, both this map and Parpax provide a really cool environment to play bad matches in. I'd rather have any environment to play good matches in - and for that I'd say to focus on the core gameplay and the core elements of the map, instead of just adding more and more stuff. I completely understand that you get cool ideas and want to add them, but I'd rather have all those cool ideas coming to full fruition, rather than putting so many on a single map, creating a bit of a mush of them on a really big map with more areas and more stuff in general everywhere."

  • "The geometry... There are fine details but the actual hallways seem somewhat boring"

User avatar
kharnov
Granger
Posts: 1851
Joined: Tue Mar 06, 2012 10:54 pm UTC
Clan: GT
Location: New York City

Re: Mapping survey results

Post by kharnov »

Note: mappers will be given access to the raw survey results so everything will be read, not just the picked responses.

User avatar
StalKermit
Dragoon
Posts: 260
Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2012 6:05 am UTC

Re: Mapping survey results

Post by StalKermit »

I wanted to respond to the survey but I haven't played any of those maps. Perhaps a survey for those who don't actually play?

User avatar
Viech
Project Head
Posts: 2139
Joined: Fri Aug 03, 2012 11:50 pm UTC
Location: Berlin

Re: Mapping survey results

Post by Viech »

We do like to know what people who do not yet play are waiting for, so that would indeed be interesting.

Responsible for: Arch Linux package & torrent distribution, Parpax (map), Chameleon (map texture editor), Sloth (material file generator), gameplay design & programming, artistic direction

Post Reply