Shopping malls, suburbs, hospitals, airports, sports stadiums, wild west towns. Yeah, there are a ton of things they could add, and I desperately hope they do. And I'm optimistic, because the devs who create missions would like to see a lot of the same things that we would like to see, but now there is more reason to include them.
Avatar: "Cheeky Jack O Lantern" by dimarie
I will sign this and double it. The MA only maps should have player-assignable spawn-points.
On Guardian!
Mike Halo
& a few dozen others.
Our SG: Stars of Paragon
Fiction: Training Day
That will never happen, I tell you what, the developers don't get assignable spawn-points, why would we?
I'd settle for having "front" spawn points which are reliably in the front, and "back" spawn points which are reliably in the back.
Avatar: "Cheeky Jack O Lantern" by dimarie
One MA-Only Map I'd love to see is one of Santa's Workshop!
Try my 3 MArcs: I.D.#67166:Protect the Artifacts!! I.D.#97724:Level-Up Time. I.D.#243803:Witch War! Salem vs. Croatoa!
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I'd settle for having "front" spawn points which are reliably in the front, and "back" spawn points which are reliably in the back.
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we really need just 2 - entrance, and special spot in last room.
Entrance would be first spawn you encounter. You can set an ally there or whatever.
Special spot is for those maps which have a platform or other special place in the last room and you really want the big boss to spawn there. Instead he spawns in a corner right now.
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I'd settle for having "front" spawn points which are reliably in the front, and "back" spawn points which are reliably in the back.
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we really need just 2 - entrance, and special spot in last room.
Entrance would be first spawn you encounter. You can set an ally there or whatever.
Special spot is for those maps which have a platform or other special place in the last room and you really want the big boss to spawn there. Instead he spawns in a corner right now.
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To either or both of those suggestions - Amen Amen Amen!
*looks around and quietly goes back to corner*
oh... and the original idea is very cool as well.
Even without assignable spawn points, please let us get residential tilesets: the insides and outsides of suburban homes and apartment buildings, for instance.
Story Arcs I created:
Every Rose: (#17702) Villainous vs Legacy Chain. Forget Arachnos, join the CoT!
Cosplay Madness!: (#3643) Neutral vs Custom Foes. Heroes at a pop culture convention!
Kiss Hello Goodbye: (#156389) Heroic vs Custom Foes. Film Noir/Hardboiled detective adventure!
unique maps is a great idea. Sign me up!
The only problem with that is most of those suggestions require a fairly large amount of Dev effort (they have to build textures, geometry, etc... for the mall), and the devs just don't have anywhere near the kind of time to do it. I mean look at the past few issues (and the upcoming one!), it's clear that they haven't had anybody on zone (map!) construction duty for a long time now, and all of the art resources appear to be directed towards costumes.
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it's clear that they haven't had anybody on zone (map!) construction duty for a long time now
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I don't think that's at all clear. Someone created Cimerora and all the maps to go with it. That was May 2008. I don't think the AE building took nine months to build. Whoever created Cimerora has been doing something for the past year, and I'm looking forward to seeing what it is.
And maybe when they're done with that, they'll see this thread. 
Avatar: "Cheeky Jack O Lantern" by dimarie
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The only problem with that is most of those suggestions require a fairly large amount of Dev effort (they have to build textures, geometry, etc... for the mall), and the devs just don't have anywhere near the kind of time to do it. I mean look at the past few issues (and the upcoming one!), it's clear that they haven't had anybody on zone (map!) construction duty for a long time now, and all of the art resources appear to be directed towards costumes.
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Developing new maps is expensive. The system already contains many square miles of fun and interesting maps that exist right now. I'm talking about all the exterior zones throughout the city and Rogue Isles.
You want a shopping mall? That little area in Faultline near the Skyway entrance where the trainer stands is a shopping mall. You want a nuclear power plant? There's one in Terra Volta. You need beaches and islands? There are lots in Talos and PI. Forests? Bloody Bay has tons of neat looking forest you can run around in. And who hasn't longed for a version of Atlas Park that isn't a smoking ruin and doesn't have an Arachnos flier?
There are already tons of maps that are just sections of existing zones which have been divvied up (the bank job maps, Statesman's TF locations, the Villain Eden mission, the Croatoa missions, etc.). This capability needs to be generalized.
I'd like the devs to figure out a way for us to demarcate a section of an existing outdoor zone and specify our own spawn points. This would give us an incredible amount of variety, for a relatively small investment.
I'd suggest they work on this before investing tons of money in new art.
Edit: Ah, boo, didn't even see the above post. >_>;;
Dungeoncleaners! (ID#125715): Slay the Adventurers! Rescue the Monsters! Return the Treasure!
Peppermint Cat-- Lv50 Mewtant Ice/Eng Bls
Rodion:
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I'd like the devs to figure out a way for us to demarcate a section of an existing outdoor zone and specify our own spawn points.
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You:
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What I'd like is the ability to make our own outdoor maps based on the existing zones. Basically, we'd choose a World Zone that currently exists, then select a size (small, medium, large), shape (square, rectangle), and then move that portion to wherever we want to on the real map.
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I think you basically just restated Rodion's suggestion.
And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines
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That will never happen, I tell you what, the developers don't get assignable spawn-points, why would we?
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Yes, they do, actually. There are plenty of missions, especially redside, where the required objectives always spawn in the same place.
"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty."
"Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man."
- Thomas Jefferson
I would like to see a few things:
1.Existing maps offered to MA. For example: Skyway City from Twilight Son's tf.
2.Sections of outdoor maps made into MA maps. For example the boathouse (plus it's interior) from Perez Park.
3. Simple modifications of existing maps. For example the "smooth cave" style maps could have ice features (like the Frostfire maps) or fires/lava like the Hellion maps.
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That will never happen, I tell you what, the developers don't get assignable spawn-points, why would we?
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Yes, they do, actually. There are plenty of missions, especially redside, where the required objectives always spawn in the same place.
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It's my understanding that the devs distinguish between mission creators and world builders. The world builders not only create the zones, but also the mission maps, even going so far as to place all of the spawn points. The mission creators do basically the same thing we do. They gave us mission creation tools, but not world creation tools. They have said, however, that they are thinking about the possibilities of letting us create our own maps. Unfortunately, the exploitation opportunities are enormous. Also, the bugs. How often have you seen a spawn get stuck in a wall? Or a glowie inside a crate or embedded in the wall? Those problems are related to spawn placement. I imagine that player designated spawn points would result in most missions being unplayable.
Avatar: "Cheeky Jack O Lantern" by dimarie
Would it be possible for the devs to make some MA maps of areas that wouldn't normally exist in the game?
Stuff like
desert
arctic
forests (with a snow covered variant)
wetlands
The desert and arctic ones could even just be texture swapped versions of each other.
It'd be a lot easier to make some maps like that rather than trying to create a whole zone to justify their existence.
Also might be a good place to throw in weather effects without having to put a lot of work into it.
They could also get around to switching some of the Portal Corp maps that are supposed to be taking place in another dimension. The war walls on some of those are kind of immersion breaking.