Well.. For some reason I feel like writing a really long post. Hope you don't mind
I like maps that are:
-Quickly learnable
-Unique
-Fast-paced
-Replayable
-Strategic
These are based purely on my own personal preferences, but I think that a map like these would be the best type of map, and anyone who disagrees is either stupid or lying about their disagreement. That was a joke.
I love maps that are quickly learnable, not because I don't have the patience to learn maps that are complicated (many complicated maps are the most fun out there), but because you can't get the general StarCraft public to sit and learn a new UMS map. With that in mind, you just need to keep things.. obvious. Instead of having a series of units that move to pick between two options, have a couple factories, with the names of the factories labeled as what the units built from them does. Just keep things organized.
As for uniqueness. Something unique adds replayability to your map. Clones of other maps can be fun, but the appeal won't last as long as if the map were unique. As for replayability, there are a few ways to go about that. I think a good way to ensure that your map is replayable over and over again, is to force the player to choose an option or two out of a grand list of options, and construct your map so that a person CAN NOT use every option in a game. I.e. you could have an RPG where you choose a character, and you use that character for the entire game. But, there are also 5 other characters that you haven't played as yet! There you go! Your map just became more replayable by a factor of 5 in comparison to having only 1 available character with 1 set of spells/ups. So basically, give each player a lot of options to win, many different ways to kill each other, many different things to do. For a team vs team map, the most important thing would be being able to kill the other team in a grand variety of ways/strategies.
Fast-paced. Sort of self-explanatory. Tweak your map to make sure the players have to be always doing something.
Strategic. I already covered this, give your players as many different ways to win or kill each other as possible. Give the players counters to certain strategies, and defenses against counters, and so on.
And lastly, I prefer maps that are short. Temple Siege was fun for a time, but I stopped playing after my 5th game or so. Why? Because I think I'm better than TS? No, I just know what to expect from the game, and I don't think the funness of the game is cost effective to the amount of time spent playing the game. I love shorter games. A perfect example would be Bloody Marines. I love that game, because I am not going to be playing Bloody Marines for thirty minutes, just to found out that I spent too many attribute points on mana, and therefor I will not make it past the next boss, and will have to play through another 30 minutes in order to try a new tactic. Since the game is short, you can get good at it fast, and have no time to get bored of it. I prefer games that are fast-paced, addictive (strategic and replayable), and short.
I think you should make your map like something I described. I guess you can ignore the short part as long as you keep things fast-paced and everyone will be happy.
As for a specific idea......... You were on the right track. You took two kinds of maps that you enjoyed, evolves and RPG's, and decided to make a mix of them. In my opinion, bad idea. I like evos because evolves fills many categories that I just explained above. Most people hate the game because they think there is no way to be better than anyone else, and therefor too easy to become too good at. I guess I just like beating people at it. I also like RPG's, but I only like a few RPG's, as there are only a few RPG's out there [Edit] that are worth my time playing. Your map of a mix of these two things will either be something unique and fun, or self defeating. I think it's a bad idea. Mixing a fast-paced anti-strategic map with long, slow, strategic RPG-ness? I think you have to spend a long long time to perfect this map, and the overall product isn't going to be appealing because of the polarity in genres.. But then again it could be something great.
Just think of something you enjoy in a map, and think of how to use it a map of your own. Today I made a 3v3 map, and everyone that plays it enjoys the thing. You control a zergling in an arena, and it is invincible. You attack the other teams photon cannons (which are called Life Support) to win. If your ling hits an enemy ling, you enter into a battle with a few units including your ling. If you win the battle with the person, your ling returns to where you were and your enemy respawns. You gain 5 minerals, and your enemy gains 3. You spend the minerals on buying more units for the battles. An average game lasts 6 minutes, and I played it all day today without getting tired of it. The map is 64x64, and only has about 50 triggers.. You don't need to create an insanely long, complicated map in order to make a good map. The bottom line is, the thing needs to be fun, not necessarily epic.
As for some specific ideas, think of something you enjoy in a map. Now think of how you could use this single concept in a map of your own. I based the map I described on how I like RPG's that are "turn based" in starcraft, in that when you run into an enemy with your character, you enter into a battle in some other part of the map to defeat that one enemy you ran into.
So to conclude this long post, come up with something simple, fast-paced, replayable, and unique. As for the unique part, think of something you enjoy in a map, and then think of a way in which players can duke it out against each other with that certain thing.
Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 15 2009, 5:59 pm by CecilSunkure.
None.