Shooters: Why so few maps?

[Tharwen]

its true that even when given a choice most people will play the same few maps over and over, 2fort anyone?

Atacama desert, anyone?

 

[Vrach]

I think it's just a money making device.

This and agreed, it's both ridiculous and irritating. Fortunately, Black Ops is giving out a map editor so at least we're likely to see a buttload of user-made maps (and trust me, users can make some REALLY good ones, given time) so anxiously awaiting for the game...

 

[LightOfDarkness]

MW2 players paid $10+ for 5 maps, 2 (or 3) of which were maps from MW1.

Multiply that by 4/5 of those that bought MW2.

 

[Jupsto]

well most these map packs are free on PC, like the bc2 and mw1 ones were anyway, even for free they suck. even after DLC map packs, I feel most games could have 5 times more maps, I see no reason why they shouldn't. I would never buy a map pack unless it had at least 10-20 maps in it.

 

[Geekosaurus]

Monies. Lots and lots of monies. It's all about DLC nowadays.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Once the textures and models are made by someone else all your really doing is re-arranging them in different combinations. Ubisoft must have realised this when they made far cry 2. they had the right idea; it had a proper map creator. not like halo forge where you can edit a few maps, and move some scenery and boxes around. some of the player created maps I played in far cry 2 were good, shame the multilayer gameplay was not.

Is there a shortage of map makers in the industry and if so why? or are do companies purposely make so few maps so they can grab more cash from DLCs?

Have you played Halo Reach yet?

The map editor in it is like the Far Cry 2 one times a thousand, it's absolutely amazing.

 

[JonnyZOMG]

4) To be honest, many developers do want to get money out of DLC. It's just bussiness, don't take it personally. Check videos of the maps to see if they are good.

That's one of the problems though, charging for maps means that they become somewhat exclusive, you move a majority of the player base onto a different cluster of maps and away from the default maps. When I was playing Halo 3, I chose not to buy the Heroic or Legendary maps, basically because if I was putting Microsoft Points on my account, there'd be better things I'd want to spend them on. In turn, it meant that playing Halo 3 with friends wouldn't happen, because I didn't have the maps.

Regardless of quality, people will buy new maps for a game they love, simply because otherwise, they'd get left behind.

 

[L4hlborg]

4) To be honest, many developers do want to get money out of DLC. It's just bussiness, don't take it personally. Check videos of the maps to see if they are good.

That's one of the problems though, charging for maps means that they become somewhat exclusive, you move a majority of the player base onto a different cluster of maps and away from the default maps. When I was playing Halo 3, I chose not to buy the Heroic or Legendary maps, basically because if I was putting Microsoft Points on my account, there'd be better things I'd want to spend them on. In turn, it meant that playing Halo 3 with friends wouldn't happen, because I didn't have the maps.

Regardless of quality, people will buy new maps for a game they love, simply because otherwise, they'd get left behind.

Heroic came free after a while and legendary didn't really have anything interesting in it. The IW CoDs can be played without map packs perfectly fine, since most people think that 1200 ms points (15 euros) is too much for a few maps that don't look like anything special. So yes, you will be slightly left behind, but it's nothing you can't survive from.

 

[migo]

Let me ask you this
name a game you played every map all the time
.

Unreal Tournament

 

[LandoCristo]

Because it's harder to make a map that doesn't have cheap spots, glitched walls, or broken level design in general for a FPS then for something like Starcraft. In SC, you can make it fairly symmetrical, and call it good, but games like BC2 and CoD don't often do symmetrical maps, so they have to find a way to make it that one side doesn't have any advantages.

 

[oranger]

Because every map is always the same damn thing.
There are only so many choices for each fps player to make, thus the maps are always the same.
And thus there is no need for more than a dozen or so.
Perhaps you're coming up to your genre saturation point? Try a hybrid next, or shift to a completely different style of game.

 

[Jupsto]

Once the textures and models are made by someone else all your really doing is re-arranging them in different combinations. Ubisoft must have realised this when they made far cry 2. they had the right idea; it had a proper map creator. not like halo forge where you can edit a few maps, and move some scenery and boxes around. some of the player created maps I played in far cry 2 were good, shame the multilayer gameplay was not.

Is there a shortage of map makers in the industry and if so why? or are do companies purposely make so few maps so they can grab more cash from DLCs?

Have you played Halo Reach yet?

The map editor in it is like the Far Cry 2 one times a thousand, it's absolutely amazing.

necro but just wanted to say its all 1 map in that video. yes editing maps in forge is cool but its still editing maps not creating maps.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

You just need to find a strong custom map server on TF2.

Checkout Fugworld.com and look up the Mixed Bag server. A metric fuckton of maps.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

necro but just wanted to say its all 1 map in that video. yes editing maps in forge is cool but its still editing maps not creating maps.

Nope...

You can start entire maps from scratch in Forge World. It's all in the same location but there are many areas in it for you to build your own smaller maps.

I've built race tracks that go across the entire map, and Shipment from COD4.

 

[Pumpkin_Eater]

The Valve shooters all have a lot of maps, some of which add entirely new game types, like vs Saxton Hale mode or prop hunt.