Introduction
The SCMOTD program is a daily showcase of very fun, highly replayable, and well made UMS maps.
It is to teach players the diversity of StarCraft maps and show them the "hidden gems" beneath
battle.net's popularly homogenized game list. Personally, it is a place where I list my favorite
maps that would probably be liked by many others. You can browse the gallery here.

Summer is coming, and more people will be playing battle.net, and probably searching for more maps.
Since I plan to do this until Fall, it will be quite time consuming. The process of adding a map
takes playing a game on battle.net (usually full house), finding the most descriptive and intense
moment to take a screenshot, and opening the map to learn the features so they can be annotated to
help future players.

As I wrote more MOTDs, the process became easier, but finding a good map is the hardest because
I am very picky and only play in a few map genres. So what other place to find good maps than
a map making community? Even better, why not let the UMS veterans choose the map too!

The Proposal
Recommend fun maps!

You can even recommend your own maps, but you should honestly decide if it would be appreciated by
the average battle.net players. Also, if you are so helpful, you can write up a MOTD page or give
a clean screenshot of the game; I would be most grateful for that!

Please first view the MOTD index to see if your recommendation is already featured. I will play
every map you suggest, so please help the process by giving me the link to the map if it is not already
in my hard drive.

Here is the current MOTD format:



If that feels simple enough, great! go ahead and write a MOTD page here. If you got a good map in mind, tell me!

...

Read on for screenshot tips



This is a good screenshot because:

1. It shows action, drawing the viewer toward playing the map
2. It is engaging, the viewer feels as if he is there since red is the screenshot taker
3. It is representative, it shows what a typical moment in the game would be like and the apparent features (stacking)
4. It has photographic elements: it doesn't abruptly cut off objects (barracks), it shows all it can in its limited frame (red and the enemy)
5. You can see the mini-map

Note that there is a hack Heads Up Display on the top, if this picture weren't as intense, viewers would be distracted by the hack and feel the negative associations with hackers

Post has been edited 8 time(s), last time on Dec 6 2009, 11:19 am by Drant.

Whats that map called in the screenshot and where can i get it. Also, dont you think general starcraft would be a better forum to post this in.

The map is 10,000.000 Units Defense, a sandbox defense-survival map.

The screenshot is one I took in my own map; not to brag about the art of screenshooting, but I didn't have a good SS from other maps besides the one already in the MOTD pages.

...

Seeing that this thread is really 'showcasing' maps, I thought this subforum was more fitting. Though it can also be placed in the SC Gen section since it is also a discussion of maps in general. So mods move this thread if you think that's relevant.

I fully recognize the problem with battle.net and its homogenized set of maps.

I have tried to encourage more diversity with my own series.. the Monthly Map Digest.. but due to low response, my lack of knowledge of making a website, my lack of an image uploader website... and the difficulty of finding maps away from SEN, it has been unsucessful.
Also, my attempt on "showcasing" maps like what you're doing right now by putting the thread on "map showcase", was unsucessful, as it was moved to the null.
The next version i made, i was able to bargain for a place at the General Starcraft area...

Here's the link: UnholyUrine's Map Digest!

I encourage what you're doing right now.. and If you want, I'd love to review certain maps that you upload..
Hopefully, this won't be moved, and people will recognize your hard work

I definitely like the idea, but I think a map a day is a bit extreme. A map of the week would be good, or maybe two every week and people can vote on which is better or something.

Either way, you're getting new maps out, I just feel like most people will pass over them unless you provide some really top quality maps every day.

this

Replying to O)UnholyUrine

Only three replies in your thread, I can guess the turn out for this one, eh. Funny that you posted it on the same day I posted the first MOTD page (April 16), and you reviewed Archon Tag and SC Mario.

It's quite obvious in online experiences that people have short attention span, you have to grab them immediately... and in my case, screenshots. But you didn't include any I can recommend some good image hosts:

http://my.imageshack.us/registration - if you register, they'll store all your uploaded images to one folder, it's not organizable but it's still a fast and secure place for image storage
http://www.uploadhouse.com - almost exactly like ImageShack
http://tinypic.com - TinyURL + ImageShack = This
http://picasa.google.com - don't know if they let you upload non-Photos, but it's organizable
I use PhotoBucket because it has folders, but I don't recommend it unless you have an adblocker

If you need a webhost, view a list of free ones here, but since you don't know HTML well, you can easily make website using blog hosting services, such as http://wordpress.com and http://blogger.com

There are bunch of SC map host if you search with the 'scm' and 'scx' keywords. I'm archiving and categorizing thousands of maps, so you can check there if SEN's database isn't enough.


One of the reason I started showcasing like you did was because I saw so many good sites (like GeoCities ones) that hosted and reviewed SC gems, but are hidden and unread since they're buried by newer, impersonal databases. What I wish to emulate is this oldddd site I found while collecting maps http://angelfire.com/super/starmaps It has map downloads, full reviews, scoring, and screenshots.

I find it festive when people review maps (even if they're bad maps), it shows how strong the SC map making community is even after 11 years. Anyway, remember to add screenshots next time




Replying to FaZ-

Maybe you consider it extreme for the writer, but for the downloaders, this is a free lunch. I think it's appropriate to analogize the MOTD process with comics artists, in which many of them post new comics everyday.

So far most of the maps I selected are ones I played years before, I know they are good, and I know others knew they were good. All I'm asking here is for some to recommend maps they played before and know that they're good, too. And if they're enthusiastic, they can help make MOTD pages

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on May 17 2009, 5:37 am by Drant.

Thanks for those uploading sites... but it's not that I don't know how, I'm just too lazy to do it XD

I am wondering if it's possible for you to let me be your weekly (or bi-weekly, cause i'm a busy guy) Reviewer for your maps.
I will give a full in depth review for one map, or several maps, like the ones I gave in the map digest (but better )
I guess I will also provide screenies.

U can upload them to your site.. I think it'd help your site tremendously.. just send me some maps you want reviewed.. whether it's bad or good... (just not too many bad ones ><")

Are you referring to maps I made or battle.net maps? All the MOTDs are not made by me, I have a separate page for my maps.

I think it's best to let you choose the map you want to review, as you'd have better knowledge of and enthusiasm for it. But if you want suggestion, There are plenty of genres that I never play but are popular on battle.net, genres like:

(All these maps can be downloaded from the site)
- Siege (Heaven's Last Stand, Helm's Deep)
- Newer Defence maps after v1.14
- Tug of War (Overmind Defence, Desert Strike)
- Strategy (Diplomacy, Risk, Civilization)
- Madness (Zergling Blood, Magic The Gathering)
- Teams Micro (Nexus Destroyer, Team Micro Arena)
- Hero (Aeon of Strife, DotA)
- Role Player (RP) and Sims maps
- Mini Game, Arenas (Particle Arena, Falling Tiles)

Post your reviews here and I'll copyedit

someone should definitely review spellsword rpg. This is gonna be great.

Nice! A database with many good maps from the past!

Yea, the geocities one had about 8 that I didn't have so that was cool :-).

Will take a bit to sift through the other site and see what good stuff it has I am missing .

Anyways, I am sorting my 8,000+ maps and will be posting some of the better stuff on SEN soon, including nice map descriptions and stuff. So watch the new map list closely and be sure to check out when I upload some stuff.

EDIT: Since your folder system was similar to mine I was able to incorporate all of your maps into my collection fairly easily. Looks like I got another 4k or so new maps . Anyway good work on your project, it seems a little different from what I am doing. I've been trying to find the best versions of every map out of the ones I have and sorting them into categories keeping the crappy/outdated versions in separate folders so there is less to have to sort through.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on May 21 2009, 6:27 am by -BW-Map_God.

Replying to O)UnholyUrine

I don't play AoS/DotA type maps, but since Temple Siege is so popular, I assume it's just as good. So if you want it added to the MOTD, just give a screenshot of the game and the descriptions, features, and tips for it (like every other MOTDs). It's much better for someone familiar with the game (more so as being the creator of it) to write the descriptions than me who's never experienced with the genre.


Replying to -BW-Map_God


17,000 of them still need quality-checking and categorizing. I'll upload them all in zips if I finish.
Quantity vs Quality

Since IP just helped me fix the glitch i've been getting.. Now I can post here =D

I just wanted to say that your Database is simply far superior than any other map database that I've ever seen. Especially since you took the time (did u? I think u did ) to sift through and remove the crappy ones.
Srsly, THIS is what an SC map database should be like.
1. It has the old and obscure games that people won't find unless they DL it from a database
2. It puts the maps into categories.
3. Although there is no rating system, it is still possible to know what you're in for since there're descriptions for some of the map... And obviously the category that it is under already describes it somewhat.

Thank you~
This is so much better than that shit clusterfuck rather weird website Nibbits. I just have to rant right now.. rather than listening to the people that complained and gave critical (but constructive) criticism (Me, Excalibur, and dark marine), he just totally ignored us and never replied. He only responded to the people that liked or defended his website... His website is a lot better now, but compared to this, it sucks
Nibbits does not deserve the top list on google: Starcraft maps... but w/e.
To be really honest.. his database isn't THAT bad... but it's just that the creator pissed me off a little.

The maps bring back so many memories..

=D .. I'm happy that Random Fighters, Clock Def, Sunken Clock Def, and Virus arena made it in your EDIT:list Database I mean....
..
I'll try to make a screenshot for Temple Siege... =D

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on May 21 2009, 5:03 pm by UnholyUrine.

Ah nice Drant...looks like you have my database beat . I assume some of those files are replays and other random stuff but still probably well over 20k maps for sure. Mine is sitting on about 13k maps right now...all sorted in categories. I still have to keep sifting out some old versions and putting all the crap versions/outdated in separate folders...only about 2,000 of those sorted out so far. I've also sorted all my bounds putting the ones that don't work in 1.15 into separate folders until I find someone to try and name fix them or bother with it myself (not sure if I will since not a huge bound fan anyway).

Any chance when you do future updates if you can have a download for that day/week/whatever so that as you sort in more maps I can easily try to fit them into my system without having to sift as much.

Lol I just read the first post again, and Realize that this post was to recommend some good maps to him .. which we are all not doing

here're some for you

• Particles Arena
  
• A Day at School
  
• Falling Tiles
  
• Temple Siege
  
• Firebat Tag (yeah I made "Tag elements", which is a spinoff of Firebat tag with all 3 races, and 8 different Its, but it kinda sucked, and your database doesn't have it )
  
• Oozing Blob
  
• Froggercraft 2000 (the original frogger for SC..)
  
• Crash RPG
  
• Sunken Defense 2 ways
  
• Sunken Defense 6 ways (these 2 are very hard dispite their ancient-ness)
  
• Random Micro Challenge X
  
• Penguin Warz
  
• Worms
  
• Mario Party SC 1 and 2
  
• Nuke the Whales (v perfection)
  
• Battle.net Experience
  
• Spellsword RPG
  
• Galactic Gunnerz (u NEED to DL this and play it NOW)
  
• Competition Bound 1 or 2
  
• Hydra Arena
  

and Now 3 of my maps that I feel is good enough for MOTD

• Random Fighterz Chaos
  
• Virus Arena v1.3
  
• Fuel Tactics Arena
  

I tried to mostly pick out the ones with High replayability.. .. However, it may not be very fitting to your MOTD list as my list would be biased... it'd be best to get others to give you a list too (maybe ask people to pick their top 10) and use maps that has been listed more than once.

You could download Galactic Gunnerz, but you could never play it on b.net, unless you were willing to wait like 30 minutes for every player to dl it.

These are the best maps.

Texas Hold'em Poker 1.11
Fútbol EUD 1.16.1
ScourgeBall 2.3
devilesk's Volleyball 1.1
ScVz FB ToURnEY FiNaL

Kerrigan's Fall From Grace, Battle Of Raccoon City 1.3, RE: Raccoon City 1.08 or 1.44.

Replying to O)UnholyUrine

Every features you listed are being done and have been done by Maplantis and SEN, save for lack of subcategories and quantity of popular battle.net maps (as opposed to obscure pro map makers' maps). The reason you see obscure maps at all is because one of its sources is SEN and Maplantis' database . However, I don't profess the archive to be a database, as I consider such to be websites where users can submit files. What it focuses on is categorization, as I can see from most torrents that people's maps folder are very unorganized. Hopefully as they use the map packs, they'll understand more about the complex evolution of StarCraft maps, and will sort their own maps when SC2's battle.net begins.

Regarding the quality of the archive, I have only done a surface check. All the maps' names were removed of special characters so they can be alphabetically arranged, names too long for SC to recognize are trimmed, and some maps that have pre-1.14 overlapped titles were internally renamed. Most of the sorting is done by searching for keywords like 'def' or 'rpg', while the rest is by opening the map up and interpreting its genre--this takes the chunk of the process. All in all, the process goes through the renaming stage, validation stage, categorization stage, and finally quality assurance stage. I have yet to finish that stage as it requires either playing the game or opening every unchecked map to see if it is an alpha version full of incomplete terrain, a prank map that crashes players, or a melee map where one player has more minerals than another!

On to your comment about Nibbits, I don't think there should be hard feelings between SEN and it, as one is foremost a map maker's resource site, while the other is a pure map database. However, SEN does deserve a better spot on the results list considering its comprehensiveness, reputation, and seniority in StarCraft maps. And on the bright side, it's nice to see competition of fansites in this old RTS


Replying to -BW-Map_God
Since we're doing the same thing, I really wonder what are you going to do with all of them when you're done. Is it a personal service to have a neat \maps folder, later a generous offering to SC players, or something else?


Replying to O)UnholyUrine
Recommendations are bound to be biased! As long as your recommendations aren't all the maps you ever made, then I will consider them.


Replying toOo.Dem0nS1ayer.oO, (NH2)2CO, Excalibur[MM]
Thanks for the recs., I'll try to predict which maps would have more people joining (can't host a game without players).