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Draft of «Criteria: good and bad maps for competitive games»
[VVD - 2019-03-18 17:03:13]
Criteria of the good and bad map design for QuakeWorld duels we rely on when considering maps for competitive games.

All below is explained not in subjective terms like "like/dislike", "know/don't know", "want/don't want", "play good/bad", and do not take in account nostalgic feelings of players (i.e. there were a lot of games played in 199x on a 'start' map, but nobody consider this map as one of the maps for the main map pool now).
The goal of this article is to attempt to formulate the most objective criterias for the map selection for the duel tournaments, in the same way as the rules are adapted in the professional sport for more spectacular and competitive game:
1. The final scores shows the real skill level of the opponents;
2. It is engaging and fun to play for the layers of all skill levels;
3. Spectators with any skill level in QW could have fun watching the games;
4. New QW players who've just seen the stream with the game would like to play it and do not drop QW after 5 minutes due to the negative experience with duel maps in QW.

Levels of importance of criterion to be accepted/reject from the map pool.
* Critical - the failure to comply to at least one criterion of the critical level would lead to removal of the map from the pool, while new maps with it is a blocking condition to be added to the pool.
* Major - it is allowed for a map to fail to comply some of criteria of this level, but only then almost all other lower level criteria are complied and there are some additional advantages of the map.
* Minor - consider only then there are some more important criteria which are not fulfilled.

1. Randomness/luck.
1.1. On a strategic level - how the first spawn or frag affects the final result.
On a good map this shall be minimal.
Bad examples: dm6, dm2, dm4;
Good examples: aerowalk, ztndm3, bravado.
Milton's example with imaginary map with all the items on one side of the map confirms this criterion.

Level of importance: Critical.

1.2. On a tactical level - in the boundaries of one fight, jump, bunny hop small series of jumps, rocket jump, spawn.
On a good map the amount of randomness in this shall be adequate (not a lot but no nothing).
Bad examples: skull, dm4, travelert6;
Good examples: monsoon, ztndm3, aerowalk.
Justification: we play for fun, but sometimes the game could be quite stressful, and if during the nervous game failure to do something simple lead to tragic consequences it demoralizes the players and prevents them to take risks in the next time. At the end it would lead to the "walking" around teh map or mindless +forward, in both of these cases the game is as bad from the competition standpoint as for both players and spectators. The maps like this annoy more than provide an enjoyment from the game.

Level of importance: Critical.

2. Availability of the items.
2.1 From the spawns. It is necessary that fresh spawned player should be able to get to major item[s] (armor, RL/LG) in 2-4 seconds and the path shouldn't go through the main control points of the map, which could be covered by in-control player.
Bad examples: dm4, q1q3monsoon, e1m7;
Good examples: monsoon, bravado, toxicity_test2, aerowalk, ztndm3.

Level of importance: Major.

2.2. It should not be possible for the in-control player to easily block the 1-2 key items and build up the whole strategy on this.
Bad examples: dm4, dm6, e1m7;
Good examples: dm2, toxicity_test2.

Level of importance: Critical.

2.3. Amount and availability of the ammo.
It should not be a shortage of the ammo or extremely complicate way to get it. On a contrary the huge amount of ammo is not bad, however the LG ammo still should be limited.
Bad examples: dm6 (rl), skull (lg), q1q3monsoon (lg), ztndm5 (rl+lg);
Good examples: ztndm3 (lg), bravado, aerowalk, monsoon, toxicity_test2.

Level of importance: Major.

2.4. Amount of health packs. Should be a limited amount of health packs, and they should be evenly distributed around the map, and should not be extreme cases (too small amount or too big).
Bad examples: q1q3monsoon (too many), ztndm5 (too few), e1m7 (too few);
Good examples: ztndm3, aerowalk, bravado, monsoon, dm6, dm2, dm4.

Level of importance: Minor.

3. Spawns.

3.1. Amount. The optimal amount is 6-8.
Bad example: bravadob5.

Level of importance: Major.

3.2. Location. Spawns shall not be locked in small rooms without items and easily blockable entrances.
Bad examples: dm4;
Good examples: bravado, monsoon, aerowalk.

Level of importance: Critical.

3.3. Direction. It is have a good overview from the spawn so the decision where to go could be easily done.
Bad example: q1q3monsoon.

Level of importance: Minor.

3.4. Distribution. Spawns should be more/less evenly distributed around the map without major clustering at the same place or being easily "shootable" from one place.
Bad examples: dm2, dm4, ztndm3, q1q3monsoon;
Good examples: bravado, aerowalk, monsoon.

Level of importance: Major.

4. Optimal/best strategy.

4.1. Best strategy should not be based on a control of a tiny part of the map - room, item, hallway.
Bad examples: dm4, dm6, q1q3monsoon, ztndm4, pkeg1, e1m7;
Good examples: monsoon, dm2, toxicity_test2, shifter.

Level of importance: Critical.

4.2. Should be a possibility to control the map, but it shouldn't be too easy to reach and should require movement around the huge part of the map, and the cycling should have complications - i.e. route or ammo not on a cycle path etc.
Bad examples: dm6, dm4, q1q3monsoon, q1q3toxicity, skull, pkeg1, dm2, e1m7;
Good examples: ztndm3, aerowalk, bravado, toxicity_test2, monsoon.

Level of importance: Major.

4.3. The strategy should not be based on 100% +back with a tricky task to find or get from the back of the opponent. Also should not be a lot of easy ways to camp for the opponent around the corners - on a contrary there should always be ways to come the other way.
Bad examples: dm2, dm4, dm6, ztndm2, ztndm6;
Good examples: toxicity_test2, ztndm3, monsoon, bravado.

Level of importance: Major.

4.4. The strategy of the map in a map pool should not duplicate the strategy of another map in the default pool.
Any new strategy (not contradicting to the previous points) is beneficial.
Bad examples: shifter in the presence of ztndm3+bravado+monsoon;
Good examples: shifter_td, toxicity_test2.

Level of importance: Major.

5. Complexity of the studying.
The new map should be easily understandable, should not be the one-colored labyrinth (maze).
Bad examples: dm2, doomed, dropout;
Good examples: toxicity_test2, monsoon, bravado, aerowalk.

Level of importance: Major.

6. The map should be playable in all skill divisions.
On some maps (dm2/4/6) lower divisions players could not understand what to do on a map, and in higher divisions their result largely affected by the luck given the comparable skill of players.
Bad examples: dm2, dm4, dm6;
Good examples: bravado, aerowalk, ztndm3, monsoon, toxicity_test2.

Level of importance: Major.

7. Appearance.

7.1. A NEW map should look good - textures at first place, lighting, decorative elements.
Bad examples: subterfurge (one-colored), doomed (one-colored), monsoon (without 24bit texture pack), bravadob5 (lighting);
Good examples: toxicity_test2, shifter, bravado.

Level of importance: Minor.

7.2. Absence of fps-drops.
Bad examples: dm3, bravadob5, aerowalk, toxicity (all variations);
Good examples: bravado, ztndm3, dm4, dm6.

Level of importance: Major.

8. Geometry.

8.1. The map should not be too vertical - in QW vertical angles are limited.
Bad examples: skull, rf2, dm4, q1_q3dm13;
Good examples: spinev2, monsoon, pkeg1, ztndm3, aerowalk, toxicity_test2.

Level of importance: Major.

8.2. The map should not be too big or too small.
Bad examples: dm2, dm3 (and other 4on4 maps), ztndm2, womov, dmm4 maps;
Good examples: bravado, ztndm3, aerowalk, toxicity_test2, monsoon, dm4, dm6.

Level of importance: Critical.

8.3. The map should not be too open.
Bad examples: e1m7, womov, skyhigh, dmm4 maps;
Good examples: Most of the other maps.

Level of importance: Critical.

8.4. The map should not have hiding places or it should be hard/not reliable to hide in them.
Bad examples: ztndm6, spinev2, ztndm4, dm2;
Good examples: ztndm3, aerowalk, bravado, monsoon, toxicity_test2.

Level of importance: Major.

8.5. The geometry should not be too limiting for the player to quickly move around the map - like barriers/bricks on a floor/walls/ceilings, low ceiling hallways, huge amount of stairs, which is not possible to jump over and without ramps.
Bad examples: dm4;
Good examples: toxicity_test2, aerowalk, ztndm3, bravado, monsoon, ztndm5, ztndm6.

Level of importance: Major.

9. Popularity.
It is extremely hard to remove the map from the default map pool even if it has failed to comply to the majority of the above criteria. In the mean time it is practically impossible to find the new popular map without major problems.

Level of importance: Critical.

10. Conclusion
Failure to comply to different criteria:
* Critical:
- dm4 (5), dm6 (3), e1m7 (3), dm2 (2), womov (2), skull, travelert6, q1q3monsoon, dm3, ztndm4, pkeg1, ztndm2, skyhigh;
* Major:
- dm4 (7), dm2 (6), dm6 (4), skull (3), q1q3monsoon (4);
- bravadob5 (2), q1q3toxicity (2), ztndm6 (2), e1m7 (2);
- ztndm5, ztndm3, toxicity_test2, pkeg1, ztndm2, shifter, doomed, dropout, dm3, aerowalk, rf2, q1_q3dm13, spinev2, ztndm4.
#1 madmax (78.10.204.xxx) 2019-03-30 23:09:45
DM4, SKULL maps - are definitely bad for championship combats, by the criteria described in the article, and should be avoided from be played on a map pool on competitions, alike ongoing TD11 ...
#2 Sokea (88.193.185.xxx) 2019-04-14 15:40:15
With the little experience I have, toxicity_test2 seems a little problematic with the current item placement. Or that is my gut feeling. I have liked all other maps in the pool (even dm4) but I can see the point about dm4 on higher skill levels. aerowalk, ztndm3, bravado, shifter atleast should definitely stay in pool! Monsoon is a bit of an unknown, it seems it could be locked down a bit too easily? Skull I like but I haven't played it a lot and have no idea how it plays in tournaments.

#3 Nutter (92.239.87.xxx) 2019-06-13 18:22:34
4.4. The strategy of the map in a map pool should not duplicate the strategy of another map in the default pool.

This criteria has been observed in quakeworld for a long time in my opinion, and I hope it should be respected down the line. This is one of the beautiful things about quakeworld and i hope thunderdome will continue to observe this tradition in the map pool.
#4 !phil (184.153.103.xxx) 2019-08-26 04:55:49
I liked reading this... After discussing some on discord, I think a lot of these problems stem from our time honored "timelimit 15" (or 10) default dm game mode, which generates lots of spawn rape which appears to be the fault of the map.

Solution? Perhaps hoonymode (best of 3/5/etc of fraglimit 1 rounds) or something similar to tennis score keeping, to make the pacing of the game (and the map) more deliberate
#5 VVD (217.26.10.xxx) 2019-08-30 15:47:36
It's not the solution - it's just different mod…
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