Incandenza wrote:What kind of maps would I like to see? I think the large and huge map niches are quite underfilled, and I'm always amenable to more complex maps (tho it can go a bit far, I spent a decent while last night trying to work through cairns' cricket map, and the only result was a severe brain hemorrhage).
Large maps... hmm. Making them large just for the sake of being large doesn't really sit with me.
As for more complex maps... I've never really enjoyed the really complex maps. It takes too much time to learn all the nuances, let alone learn the gameplay in such a way that you can actually beat someone... I like the maps that are relatively simple, with a balanced gameplay. Good old-fashioned straight-forward kill or be killed. I don't enjoy the maps that seem to try to cram every possible XML/gameplay feature in them, just for the sake of using them...
If we're talking about maps in this general niche, the mid-sized basic-gameplay geographical map, I'd like to see more cities (especially cities outside of North America and Europe) and more under-represented regions of the world (as Andy has often said, some more Africa maps would be a nice addition).
Cities, eh? How about a large map with several cities, where each city would have airports or something that would connect to the other cities? Just an idea.
It's not that I don't like your map, and it's not that I don't think it can be a perfectly acceptable CC map with the requisite amount of work... it just doesn't really do anything for me.
You make an interesting point about the protein map: it is indeed an obscure and rather unorthodox subject, and abstract maps (or any map that doesn't lend itself well to the whole world domination concept) are a tough sell to the membership, especially when your map is fighting for eyeballs with 141 other maps. Similarly, pure geographical maps, especially medium-sized ones, can be a tough sell, simply due to the overwhelming number of extremely similar maps.
Look at Third Crusade, for instance. While it can be argued that it's just another Europe map, the theme is interesting and the gameplay is refreshingly complex without being overwhelming or confusing.
The unfortunate truth is that this is a difficult time to be a new mapmaker: many map niches have been (over)filled, there hasn't been an xml update in forever, and more and more longtime foundrarians are becoming frustrated and/or bored with the foundry. There's a sense of "been there done that" that can be tough to overcome. One of the reasons for the underwhelming response to Proteins from foundry vets is that there are a good half-dozen science/anatomy maps in the recycle bin, some of them in a pretty advanced state, that simply failed to find any sort of audience.
I know. I wonder why. A map of human anatomy would also be a fun thing to play. I don't believe we can ever have too many maps in CC. I mean, what's wrong with having lots of maps? There are so many people in CC, I don't see the issue of catering to just small parts of them. What does it matter if a map is "unpopular" if there is at least somewhat a fan base for them? Popularity changes over time, new people join the site all the time and they might have different map preferences...
And the greater Scandinavian area has been tried a few times as well. So neither of your map concepts are really fresh enough to make people sit up and take notice, thus increasing the onus on you to really blow people away with graphics and/or gameplay. And while I realize it's a bit early in the process for you to be bringing out the big guns for graphics, as a newish mapmaker you're unfortunately going to be judged guilty until proven innocent when it comes to matching up with the top geographical maps on CC (i.e. anything that RJBeals has done).
Yeah, it's hard for new mapmakers.
Don't let me be the final arbiter here, like I said before it's your map. CC has a pretty sizable contingent of players from the depicted areas that might very well flock to the map. Hell, you're one of them. And I've been kicking around the foundry a long-ass time, so it's the rare map that really gets me to sit up and take notice.
The problem with the foundry process, as I see it, is that not everyone even uses the forums, let alone visits the foundry. And too few people participate in the foundry process. So we can never get an accurate estimation of a map's popularity. Even if lots of people would like a map that's in development, we'll never know since they never visit the foundry... Then there's the old map makers, who can practically make any map and get it through, just because they have lots of friends who support any map that they make, and thus it's a lot easier for them to gather the "community support" for their projects. I'm not saying that the same standards don't apply to them, just that it's a lot easier for old mapmakers to get their projects approved.
However, at this point I have no idea how to fix the situation, so I'm just going to keep trying and hope that people like my maps. What else is there to do...