Huge Map Syndrome

The only time I really couldn't forgive using one of those big outdoor maps was when the author had something like four chained objectives in one mission. The map was absolutely huge, and I was very quickly getting sick of running back and forth trying to find the next objective.

You can have a lot of things happening out there to justify the space, but please please make all the objectives spawn from the very start. You can make things more complicated when the devs do a proper pass on all the maps and make sure that they actually do have a real front, middle, and back.

This is only the first wave, and there's a lot of features we don't have yet, so it's okay if you have to shelve an ambitious idea. I've got a few that are on hold until we can put down "Those two guys that are talking to each other" spawns.

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Arc #41077 - The Men of State
Arc #48845 - Operation: Dirty Snowball

Just want to add a thank ya to some of the other comments, was considering adding some really empty 'busy time' staged components to try to make the large map out of portal corp more interesting. Have decided against it, since well frankly I remember why I had it set the way I did to begin with.

Will wait for specific comments saying my map is boring .

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Let's Dance!

I guess I'm im the minority because I don't think the Portal Corps map is all that big. As has been said, it's only four levels and there are only 4-5 "rooms" in the whole thing. Unless it's a defeat all, that map shouldn't take all that long to navigate. I think the large office maps can be far more irritatingly mazelike.

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Well, bottom line is, a lot of people like to make arcs of 4-5 of the biggest maps they can find. And when they don't add Patrols or Rescues or Objects with guards, that makes for some very long and empty stretches of playing. On an outdoor map, it's forgiveable since you can always use the direct route to the next spawn, but on an indoor map I sometimes get bored just getting from spawn to spawn that way.

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I had a few surprise giant maps yesterday.

I think my favorite was a "Very Short" single mission arc. Looked promising, then I zoned in. It was the Atta map. Sorry, but no. I'm not doing that. There are several TFs shorter than the Atta map.

Personally, I've used a 5 floor map for a Defeat Boss and Rescue Captive, but it's five small floors. I just liked the idea of the map being set in a highrise. Seemed like a good place for a corporate HQ. I also set the Boss to "middle", causing her to spawn on the 4th floor. I wish it was the 3rd.

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Aegis Rose, Forcefield/Energy Defender - Freedom
"Bubble up for safety!"

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I may be the target of your wrath, MrCaptainMan, and I'm sorry. But the thing is, there are only two Portal Corp maps, they're both the same size, and in fact they're both the same map except for which end you start at.

The story makes so much SENSE to be taking place at Portal Corp, a regular tech map wouldn't quite match. I'd love to have a small one, just like I'd love to have smaller outdoors maps

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Looking at your arcs, I don't think it was yours, I did them on test. I guess i was maybe unlucky with playing three in a row that used it lol.

And I'm not immune from it either. The last mission in my arc uses a giant cargo ship map, largely empty except for 18 chained boss fights (they're essential, story-wise - honestly!). if the player doesn't realise that the happen in sequence from front to back (I do point it out in the briefing), he's in for some apparently pointless wandering lol.

I don't mind Huge Map Syndrome if the maps are linear, and there;s stuff to do on the way. Even patrols or non-req objectives, anything with some flavour text will do to break up the monotony.

Eco.

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MArcs:

The Echo, Arc ID 1688 (5mish, easy, drama)
The Audition, Arc ID 221240 (6 mish, complex mech, comedy)
Storming Citadel, Arc ID 379488 (lowbie, 1mish, 10-min timed)

It would be nice if we could remove unneeded floors from maps.

In reality my mission that uses that map only really needs 2 floors, with the top being back and bottom being front/middle.

Being able to shut off the unnecessary floors would help a bit.

I added a bunch of battles in the map, just so there is dialog as you are working your way up.

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I may be the target of your wrath, MrCaptainMan, and I'm sorry. But the thing is, there are only two Portal Corp maps, they're both the same size, and in fact they're both the same map except for which end you start at.

The story makes so much SENSE to be taking place at Portal Corp, a regular tech map wouldn't quite match. I'd love to have a small one, just like I'd love to have smaller outdoors maps

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Looking at your arcs, I don't think it was yours, I did them on test. I guess i was maybe unlucky with playing three in a row that used it lol.

And I'm not immune from it either. The last mission in my arc uses a giant cargo ship map, largely empty except for 18 chained boss fights (they're essential, story-wise - honestly!). if the player doesn't realise that the happen in sequence from front to back (I do point it out in the briefing), he's in for some apparently pointless wandering lol.

I don't mind Huge Map Syndrome if the maps are linear, and there;s stuff to do on the way. Even patrols or non-req objectives, anything with some flavour text will do to break up the monotony.

Eco.

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You're able to get the spawn locations to be ordered with the cargo maps? Nice, pretty much, I can not get anything [specifically] to routinely spawn in the last room. Which is pretty annoying to me , but I've just accepted it.

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Let's Dance!

How about a 15 minute timed, kill all mission, on a large warehouse map. Dropped the arc down some stars, just for that.
(If I hadn't been on my brute I never would have tried it. )

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Just curious, were you able to do that? And, yeah, that wouldn't make me too happy, either.

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Dec out.

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[ QUOTE ]
I may be the target of your wrath, MrCaptainMan, and I'm sorry. But the thing is, there are only two Portal Corp maps, they're both the same size, and in fact they're both the same map except for which end you start at.

The story makes so much SENSE to be taking place at Portal Corp, a regular tech map wouldn't quite match. I'd love to have a small one, just like I'd love to have smaller outdoors maps

[/ QUOTE ]

Looking at your arcs, I don't think it was yours, I did them on test. I guess i was maybe unlucky with playing three in a row that used it lol.

And I'm not immune from it either. The last mission in my arc uses a giant cargo ship map, largely empty except for 18 chained boss fights (they're essential, story-wise - honestly!). if the player doesn't realise that the happen in sequence from front to back (I do point it out in the briefing), he's in for some apparently pointless wandering lol.

I don't mind Huge Map Syndrome if the maps are linear, and there;s stuff to do on the way. Even patrols or non-req objectives, anything with some flavour text will do to break up the monotony.

Eco.

[/ QUOTE ]

You're able to get the spawn locations to be ordered with the cargo maps? Nice, pretty much, I can not get anything [specifically] to routinely spawn in the last room. Which is pretty annoying to me , but I've just accepted it.

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It took loads of testing, but eventually I got it as best as can be, which is that the first 6 bosses spawn in the first room, the second 6 in the middle two rooms and the last 6 in the final room. However, as there are 21 spawn points in the map as a whole, there are a few random spawns of mobs dotted around. They unfortunately cause that sometimes, the crossover points (bosses 6 and 7, bosses 12 and 13) intermingle, so that the player can defeat boss 5 and then find boss 6 in the middle room, and after defeating him go on to explore the middle two (apparently empty) rooms when boss 7 is back in the first. Its annoying, but after over a dozen different combinations of maps and placements and tearing my hair out, i had to settle for this being the best i could do.

THE one thing i'm hoping for in MA vs is the ability to pick spawn points (v1 is still totally awesome imo, I'm not complaining).

Eco.

EDIT Incidentally, the placements were backwards on that map. The bosses set as Front span in the back room, and vice versa :P

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MArcs:

The Echo, Arc ID 1688 (5mish, easy, drama)
The Audition, Arc ID 221240 (6 mish, complex mech, comedy)
Storming Citadel, Arc ID 379488 (lowbie, 1mish, 10-min timed)

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I guess I'm im the minority because I don't think the Portal Corps map is all that big. As has been said, it's only four levels and there are only 4-5 "rooms" in the whole thing. Unless it's a defeat all, that map shouldn't take all that long to navigate. I think the large office maps can be far more irritatingly mazelike.

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And the Portal Corp maps are pretty linear as well. The few branches that it has are very short and no backtracking to try a different elevator (I HATE that type of tech lab map).

It's the same with the Rikti Portal map that some people complain about. The branches are so short that you can just glance into it to see if there is anything there, and the one time the path splits they rejoin after a single room. How the heck can you get lost?

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Just curious, were you able to do that? And, yeah, that wouldn't make me too happy, either.

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Nearly... timer expired and I could see what I think was the last spawn about 70 yards ahead of me...

edit: 'yeards' to 'yards', cause really... what's a yeard?

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