Demand for custom maps website?

[(TLL)ShdNx]

3) Instalability - (made that up) - Can I get the thing installed without needing to read an instruction manual? Any instruction with more than 3 steps is going to lose people.

Actually there are concepts that would make it easy to download and install any custom maps if we decide to implement this website, so don't worry about that.

[~SJ~ Blhurr]

1) Visibility - Are they easily discoverable and locatable?

Yep, if only anyone bothers to check the forum.

2) Reliability - Is it easy to figure out which maps are vetted and accepted by the broader community?

Nope. Even I don't know which maps were "accepted by the broader community" and which not, lol

3) Instalability - (made that up) - Can I get the thing installed without needing to read an instruction manual?

Nope. But there's hardly anything you can done about it without good, working, proper installer OR porting entire MWLL to Crysis Wars.

Those are all solvable.  You could be doing damage to (1) by creating another URL for map downloads, however.  If everything was kept in one source location then you could track # of downloads and maybe have map reviews Amazon style which would give newbies critical info on vetted maps. (3) If you could generate an installer that that was "DL and Execute" easy then that would solve that problem.  The worthiness of doing this is all dependent on the shifting scale of when the Wars port happens.  If it's far off then it is probably worth it to develop this.  If it's not far off then you're doing a lot for nothing.

[(TLL)Sky_walker]

(1) by creating another URL for map downloads, however.  If everything was kept in one source location then you could track # of downloads and maybe have map reviews Amazon style which would give newbies critical info on vetted maps.

That's the idea Shadow posted just at the beginning of this topic

The worthiness of doing this is all dependent on the shifting scale of when the Wars port happens.  If it's far off then it is probably worth it to develop this.  If it's not far off then you're doing a lot for nothing.

As far as I don't get what you mean by "shifting scale" - the Crysis Wars does have it's own installer and downloader of maps. Basically you stay in game, join the server, download begins... when it's downloaded game loads as usual. So it's simplicity beyond anything we'll be able to reach on our own.

Yes, we can develop something that would make downloads easy and simple (we Shadow can), only dilemma there might be is whatever work of people who would take part in it is worth for having additional source of maps downloading with scores and comments option.

Oh, and obviously - that's the recruitment topic as well so if anyone wanna help - PM (TLL)ShdNx

[SquareSphere }12thVR{]

NSIS registry search for the install path is a bust,  takes too long on search and doesn't find good reg entries for a crysis install path .  There is one more option, and that is to search using file directories.  Gonna play with that for a bit.

[~SJ~ Blhurr]

I mean the shifting development time scale since nothing gets done when it's planned. 

[Crashagn]

NSIS registry search for the install path is a bust,  takes too long on search and doesn't find good reg entries for a crysis install path .  There is one more option, and that is to search using file directories.  Gonna play with that for a bit.

Would something like this work?
http://www.createinstall.com/ci/index.htm

[Aidan]

No thanks. I am going to wait until MWLL is ported to Crysis Wars.

[HAARP]

No thanks. I am going to wait until MWLL is ported to Crysis Wars.

It's one thing that CW downloads maps automatically. But a "map central" can be more than just a place for downloads. It's where new maps can be released, rated, discussed and, yes, downloaded. I still think that this isn't such a bad idea.

[SquareSphere }12thVR{]

Would something like this work?
http://www.createinstall.com/ci/index.htm

Probably, but NSIS is very powerful and has an active development community http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page

It's funny about the crysis install path, most apps/games place install patch entries in the registries so they can find it quickly when trying to patch without worrying about if the user put their install in a custom location.

My search routine can find instances of cysis.exe and mwll laucher.exe with embedded data but not a clean install directory entry.  Trying to clean up those entries would be too variable as who knows what entry would come up first, and asking the user to confirm if it's the right location would be pretty moot cause if they knew that they could just extract a map there!

[(TLL)Sky_walker]

Keep it going Square - it's a great idea

No thanks. I am going to wait until MWLL is ported to Crysis Wars.

It's one thing that CW downloads maps automatically. But a "map central" can be more than just a place for downloads. It's where new maps can be released, rated, discussed and, yes, downloaded. I still think that this isn't such a bad idea.

Yep. Exactly.

Only doubt I have is: Isn't the forum a place for this?

To make it cleaner we could make a separate sub-forum called "Custom Maps" and let people post there releases, and releases alone. Put the rule that first post of the topic needs to contain screenshot from map, description,   and direct link to download of most recent version - so that everyone would have it easy to find. Than add sticky topic with install instructions of the map and bang - you are done.
Additional feature could be scoring topics, enabled only in this single forum. It'd allow people to score the map, not only comment it. Though I have no idea if that's possible on this forum... in phpBB it is

[~SJ~ Blhurr]

It would be nice to have some sort of star rating system for the forums.  Something might be able to be done using the vote scripts.

[SquareSphere }12thVR{]

I give this suggestion 4 smilies

[Seraph]

No thanks. I am going to wait until MWLL is ported to Crysis Wars.

And also Crysis Wars needs a HTTP download location for the map. It doesn't stream maps directly from the server but alternate locations somewhere on the interwebs. Not to mention that this won't tell you how good or bad a map is Having a map center for it will allow people to actually check what maps might be worth testing before hooking up their 56k modems and grabbing 300 MB files

[Aidan]

Having a map center for it will allow people to actually check what maps might be worth testing

IMHO, maps should be tested before being opened up to the public, just as MWLL does.

[(TLL)ShdNx]

All right everyone, thank you very much for voting and discussing this matter.

Your votes have showed that you would welcome the idea, which means that it will be implemented in some ways.
However, due to the lack of time we are unable to accept this additional task anytime soon.

We're considering our options and will keep you posted. Thank you!