There's lots of ideas for map mods floating about but they're in random threads, lets make a list. If you have a good idea, write a short description here. Optionally link to a thread where it was first suggested, or where it can be discussed further. For the purpose of this thread, a map mod could be anything. Could be as simple as a handmade map, or a map with scripted elements, all the way to as complex a mod as you can think of (lets throw in galactic mods too). Try to keep things within the realms of possibility, although as we don't know enough of the game mechanics, feel free to daydream. Don't feel restricted to ideas that only work well in multiplayer. Broad genres of idea as well as specific ideas are fine. Please try to keep non-posts and discussion about specific ideas to a minimum (if you want to discuss an idea but there's no thread, create one and link to it here). Boldifying each idea header will also help keep the ideas visible if the thread explodes. Creative maps through creative orbits: Interesting orbits that affect gameplay. Discussion Apocalypse: Maybe the solar system is creeping towards a black hole, maybe all the planets are spiralling towards the sun, or maybe everything is on course to collide with everything else. Leapfrog: Possibly a subset of apocalypse maps. Most or every planet is on course to collide with something, but there is a time delay between each event. Asteroid highway: A setup where X players are on different planets a large distance apart, and for some stage of the game it's beneficial to hitch a ride on passing asteroids for transport or bombardment. Waves of enemies: Single player against ai, very large planet or system. Every x minutes another commander shows up, and it's everyone vs you. Oh dear. King of the hill type maps would be good to give you a chance. One type of unit only: Dictated by the map design or actively disabled by a mod. Heavily favouring use of one particular type of unit (land, air etc). Neutral enemy: An established neutral enemy who can be ignored or engaged. Perhaps turtling around some resource or advantageous ground to make the decision harder. Resources available at time x: I'm thinking a large scale resource like a planet or asteroid. Maybe an ancient shield or <insert justification here> means that it is only available for colonisation later on in the game. Recreating/changing history: Catch-all idea for any number of events from history. Using a map of earth+sun, earth+moon+sun, or the entire solar system. Obvious ideas: Any war or key event in war. WW1, WW2, ... Space race, win by building a unique superweapon on the moon Discussion Galactic war gameplay on map scale: Conquering all or owning a controlling share of planets/areas on a map. Lets say owning means having at least x units on a planet/area. It starts neutral, and goes back to neutral if multiple players have x units in the area Space race mkII (don't you remember when earth's population raced to claim ownership of all the planets? Shame on you, back to school ) Star wars, Battlefront's galactic conquest translated to a large map Dune. Arrakis as big as can be. Areas are the rocky plateau's. Perhaps every area has metal, and spice is reclaimable energy Galactic war mods: A custom set of maps that depict an unfolding event: Space race mkIII. A set of maps depicting our nearest conquerable whatever. Could be: Closest planets confirmed to exist (over a large distance) Oh-look-what-i-found, our local neighbourhood has as-yet-undiscovered planets Star wars, again Battlefront's galactic conquest, but translated to a small galactic war Fan service: No not that sort of fan service, I mean anything that pays homage to other games or media. Fan service that's part of another idea goes there instead: TA maps pasted on a sphere. Probably a square where everywhere else is impassable (anything else might end up being just another map) Freelancer, although the system highways and small asteroid fields may not translate X3 Insert franchise here
Re: Map mod ideas You should be careful with your thread title. For a few minutes, I was wondering what the difference between this thread, and neutrino's one from a few weeks ago was. Then I realised; this is for community made stuff, not what Uber plans-on/might ship themselves. So now I have to wonder, does the community need to think of gametypes for a game that isn't yet in alpha? I mean, let us play the base game before we venture off too far into 3rd party shenanigans.
Re: Map mod ideas What do you suggest? I don't see why not, a wishlist of fun map mods can be made at any point. Once we know a few of the engine specifics some of the ideas can be crossed off or altered, that's the only downside of compiling a list now and it's not a roadblock to doing it by any means. BTW this is for map mods, not game modes (completely different things, the thread you linked is about altering global variables before play commences, this thread is about custom maps which do fun things). Sure some things like waves of enemies could be implemented as a game mode, I'm suggesting a scripted map which does it.
Re: Map mod ideas I'm not sure what the title or the opening-post should be. It should be clearer that you're not making a repeat of neutrino's thread (and if you are; don't). It's your thread, you'll have a better idea than me. On the topic of map-mods; we have no evidence that PA will operate in a Starcraft-esque way for that. If I was a betting man, I would say that map-mods won't exist. And that there'll be mods, and there'll be maps. If you want to run two particular ones together; then you'll be most welcome to.
Re: Map mod ideas Like I said, it's not a repeat of neutrino's thread, and I don't see where the confusion is coming from so you'll have to tell me. This is a thread for custom maps and mods involving maps or collections of maps (not maps from uber, not mods which aren't linked to maps somehow). I think a lot of what I've suggested may be possible because they've stated that allowing users to create a single player campaign is in the design goals here. I don't see why a scripted map (what a single player campaign map is) would be limited to single player. edit: Changed the title, maybe it's less confusing?
it's unfortunate that blizzard dominates the RTS custom game scene. Even something as low-tech as the Brood War map editor would lead to some really impressive stuff on any other game.
It does so in Broodwar as well, some of the best total conversion Mods i've played were created for Broodwar... So as to gently bridge this back to the original topic: I do not recall what it was called, but there was a custom scenario in Broodwar where the map was divided into 64 sectors and everyone would start with a building in one sector that is spamming 1 marine every second. For every hundred kills you could choose another sector to occupy. The simplicity and strategic complexity had me playing this one scenario map with friends for weeks... So i think this kind of gameplay is a natural match for a PA Scenario...
yup, zonecontrol. a great example of a deep game with little complexity brood war also had proto-tower defenses and proto-dota games all of that was enabled with the very minimal script conditions and script actions blizzard designed for their own campaign. although ultimately user-made editors became much more powerful than the original blizzard editor.
