Allow a Sortable Maps Option

[saxitoxin]

Concise description:

• From the "Start a Game" screen, create an option whereby users can choose from the drop-down menu, or, alternately select from one of several 'themed' drop-down menus which would group maps of a common type: Historic, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Abstract.

Specifics/Details:

• I just gave them.

How this will benefit the site and/or other comments:

• There are some ungodly number of maps now - I think like two or three hundred. I only play Historic maps but it's really hard to find new ones when I have to sludge through Patch Wars and the like. New maps are being created all the time that I never see.

[Dukasaur]

Totally in favour.

[saxitoxin]

I added a poll.

If this gets green-lit I might want to re-examine my request for sound effects.

[DoomYoshi]

All in all, game finder could use a bit of a revamp. I am not sure this is the direction the development team is moving in, though.

[saxitoxin]

All in all, game finder could use a bit of a revamp. I am not sure this is the direction the development team is moving in, though.

no no no, this isn't to find a game, this is to find a map - like if I want to start a game but I'm not sure what map I want to use

[saxitoxin]

BUMP

[Metsfanmax]

Can you please recommend a full set of categories?

[saxitoxin]

Can you please recommend a full set of categories?

STRATEGIC HISTORICAL
e.g.
Dark Continent
Dust Bowl
Eastern Hemisphere
Indian Empire
Italy

TACTICAL HISTORICAL
e.g.
1982
Austerlitz
Battle for Iraq
Berlin 1961
Waterloo

CITIES OF THE WORLD
e.g.
Classic Cities: Jakarta
Classic Cities: London
Philadelphia
San Francisco
Sydney Metro

SCI FI / FANTASY
e.g.
Gilgamesh
King's Court
Lunar War
Midkemdil
Oasis

ABSTRACT
e.g.
4 Star Meats
Conquer Man
King of the Mountain
Patch Wars
Woodboro

[Metsfanmax]

So in your mind, does each map belong to only one category, or can there be overlap? The former is easier to draw up sets for and implement, but it's not necessarily the most general way to do this.

[saxitoxin]

So in your mind, does each map belong to only one category, or can there be overlap? The former is easier to draw up sets for and implement, but it's not necessarily the most general way to do this.

ONE CATEGORY!

cross-category maps would only minimize the problem, not resolve it

[Metsfanmax]

Ok. I am fine with this idea in principle. To make this go forward, we need two things: a complete list of suggested categories and the maps that belong to them, and an idea for how we could add this to start a game/game finder without cluttering it up too much.

[D4 Damager]

Couldn't we rather have a sort of "map finder" where you can choose from various categories, such as:
- Theme (this is your proposed category: historical, cities, etc..)
- Size

• small (<40 terts)
• medium (40 <= terts < 80)
• large (>=80 terts)

- Bombardments: yes/no
- Objectives: yes/no
....

Ideally, you would be able to select random within your set of choices but that is more difficult

[BigBallinStalin]

Couldn't we rather have a sort of "map finder" where you can choose from various categories, such as:
- Theme (this is your proposed category: historical, cities, etc..)
- Size

• small (<40 terts)
• medium (40 <= terts < 80)
• large (>=80 terts)

- Bombardments: yes/no
- Objectives: yes/no
....

Ideally, you would be able to select random within your set of choices but that is more difficult

In other words, have a map filter within a game filter? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of making map selection easier?

[saxitoxin]

Ok. I am fine with this idea in principle. To make this go forward, we need two things: a complete list of suggested categories and the maps that belong to them, and an idea for how we could add this to start a game/game finder without cluttering it up too much.

I don't do heavy lifting, just big picture stuff. I'm gonna delegate this to bbs.

Bbs, please get this taken care of by eow next week. If you need an assistant, feel free to use Aog.

[betiko]

i want saxi to make the list. saxi makes great lists. if he does i will change my vote to yeS.

on a more serious note... sounds good, but i don't know which approach is the best cause they both make sense... number of terts or theme..

[BigBallinStalin]

Ok. I am fine with this idea in principle. To make this go forward, we need two things: a complete list of suggested categories and the maps that belong to them, and an idea for how we could add this to start a game/game finder without cluttering it up too much.

I don't do heavy lifting, just big picture stuff. I'm gonna delegate this to bbs.

Bbs, please get this taken care of by eow next week. If you need an assistant, feel free to use Aog.

I might do this if the site paid me.

[koontz1973]

This has being discussed in the foundry and has been done for the last year or so in a couple of different threads. It is something that thenobodies80 has put a lot of work into and is quite vocal in the need for getting something like this done. A lot of ways have been suggested to organise maps but no one way will suit them all. Like saxi suggested, one of the ways is themes, but a couple more to through into the mix here would be size (number of territories) and difficulty (easy to extreme).

But yes, please something like this is needed now.

Mets, I will let nobodies know of this thread but can I ask you to discuss this with him as it is something he will want to weigh in on as he has put a great deal of time and effort into this.

[Kabanellas]

I'm totally for it! Actually I did start a thread a few years ago,suggesting it:


http://www.conquerclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=127&t=96017

[Metsfanmax]

This has being discussed in the foundry and has been done for the last year or so in a couple of different threads. It is something that thenobodies80 has put a lot of work into and is quite vocal in the need for getting something like this done. A lot of ways have been suggested to organise maps but no one way will suit them all. Like saxi suggested, one of the ways is themes, but a couple more to through into the mix here would be size (number of territories) and difficulty (easy to extreme).

But yes, please something like this is needed now.

Mets, I will let nobodies know of this thread but can I ask you to discuss this with him as it is something he will want to weigh in on as he has put a great deal of time and effort into this.

OK, I'll definitely discuss it with him. My preferred method would be to have basically a set of XML tags, and let mapmakers decide which tags to apply to their maps. These would then put those maps in whatever categories the tags corresponded to.

[Dukasaur]

This has being discussed in the foundry and has been done for the last year or so in a couple of different threads. It is something that thenobodies80 has put a lot of work into and is quite vocal in the need for getting something like this done. A lot of ways have been suggested to organise maps but no one way will suit them all. Like saxi suggested, one of the ways is themes, but a couple more to through into the mix here would be size (number of territories) and difficulty (easy to extreme).

But yes, please something like this is needed now.

Mets, I will let nobodies know of this thread but can I ask you to discuss this with him as it is something he will want to weigh in on as he has put a great deal of time and effort into this.

OK, I'll definitely discuss it with him. My preferred method would be to have basically a set of XML tags, and let mapmakers decide which tags to apply to their maps. These would then put those maps in whatever categories the tags corresponded to.

Agreed on both. Multiple tags would allow the maximum flexibility for sorting according to what a player wants. And the work that TNB and others have already done in the foundry should not be ignored -- there's no need to reinvent the wheel.

[Fewnix]

Tags sound the w way to go.

This has being discussed in the foundry and has been done for the last year or so in a couple of different threads. It is something that thenobodies80 has put a lot of work into and is quite vocal in the need for getting something like this done. A lot of ways have been suggested to organise maps but no one way will suit them all. Like saxi suggested, one of the ways is themes, but a couple more to through into the mix here would be size (number of territories) and difficulty (easy to extreme).

But yes, please something like this is needed now.

Mets, I will let nobodies know of this thread but can I ask you to discuss this with him as it is something he will want to weigh in on as he has put a great deal of time and effort into this.

OK, I'll definitely discuss it with him. My preferred method would be to have basically a set of XML tags, and let mapmakers decide which tags to apply to their maps. These would then put those maps in whatever categories the tags corresponded to.

Agreed on both. Multiple tags would allow the maximum flexibility for sorting according to what a player wants. And the work that TNB and others have already done in the foundry should not be ignored -- there's no need to reinvent the wheel.

[MoB Deadly]

I agree with the tags. It would be nice to be able to just type Conquest, and get a list of conquest maps.
Or Standard, and then filter by size or theme.

[callmenorcal]

So does this mean we can start a game and instead of it being random of ALL maps, it will be random from just the maps we choose? Could we also add in there a choice for maps that have > X amount of territories and < than X amount of territories? or maybe 3 sections. so < X terts and > X but < Y terts and > Y terts. Does that make sense? I LOVE playing random but not on the small maps so would like to make it random large maps

[agentcom]

This suggestion has come up many times in many forms. Koontz beat me to the punch of pointing out that there are current (though possibly currently ignored) projects in the Foundry that would help to accomplish this.

Saxi, you say that this is only for a Start a Game screen, but I think that any efforts at categorization should have effects beyond the start a game screen. It would be nice if the same options could be used on the Game Finder screen (an example that someone brought up here) or for the purposes of having a limited random option (which callmenorcal just pointed out). Both of those ideas have also been suggested before.

Basically, nothing in this thread, except maybe some cooperation between metsfan and nobodies on this particular issue, is really anything new. It's a great idea, but it's all been fleshed out to a greater extent elsewhere. It's one of those projects that has been a long time coming. It would be nice to see it actually happen, though.