Help.
Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2005 11:00 pm
I'm looking for a collaborator - someone to help with some maps, and to take appropriate credit as a co-author. Or, more generally, I'd like people to feel free to modify any of my maps as they see fit.
I've been going through my old maps, mainly to update them to the new standards. In a map like Minas Tirith, there are a lot of improvements that could and should be made - not just changing the water into, well, water, but in modifying the design to result in a cleaner, more efficient map. When I first wrote it I did some rather excessive things (like trying to make the tree really look like a tree, with *lots* of objects), it was intended more for fun than as a solid playable map.
Many of my maps were explorations of ideas, and a co-author might well bring in some different perspectives, changing them significantly. I would strongly encourage this if it results in a better and more playable map. Real experience of players on the maps also suggests changes.
I'm not suggesting that all of my maps deserve updating - only the ones that people seem to have enjoyed playing. I'm afraid this request will not sound right - that it might inadvertently seem self-serving in some way. That's not my intent at all - I feel I've got some stuff that is about 2/3 of the way to be solid, and I just can't find the time for that last 1/3.
Let me put it this way: my favorite map was the modified MadCity map. The original MadCity was OK; whoever modified Grape of Wrath's original really made it exceptional (in my opinion). (And I'd be very interested in finding out who that was, if anyone knows). That second author added as much as the first author did, and really brought out the best in the initial map.
The reason I'm looking for help is that I'm running out of time. I've just been accepted into a Ph.D program (in Artificial Intelligence), plus I'm involved in a bunch of other things. I hope to keep making maps from time to time, but only when I have enough uninterrupted time to not lose the thread.
Mechanics: I use MS Visual Basic 6.0 (I've resisted .net as much as possible on 'religious grounds'), and code in that environment to generate the maps; ideally a co-author would have that, and could change the scripting that I've used to produce maps. Of course direct BZEdit changes are fine too. I've put all my code on the web, and I'd be happy to send it to anyone who wants it.
I do fear that I'm suggesting something unrealistic - somebody would have to get over the learning curve of the code I use, and then might feel awkward not being an author from scratch. I'd want to encourage them to really take ownership of the maps they like, and change them as they see fit. Perhaps I should just say "hack away" on anything I've written, and know that I strongly approve of experimentation on anything I've got out there.
I've been going through my old maps, mainly to update them to the new standards. In a map like Minas Tirith, there are a lot of improvements that could and should be made - not just changing the water into, well, water, but in modifying the design to result in a cleaner, more efficient map. When I first wrote it I did some rather excessive things (like trying to make the tree really look like a tree, with *lots* of objects), it was intended more for fun than as a solid playable map.
Many of my maps were explorations of ideas, and a co-author might well bring in some different perspectives, changing them significantly. I would strongly encourage this if it results in a better and more playable map. Real experience of players on the maps also suggests changes.
I'm not suggesting that all of my maps deserve updating - only the ones that people seem to have enjoyed playing. I'm afraid this request will not sound right - that it might inadvertently seem self-serving in some way. That's not my intent at all - I feel I've got some stuff that is about 2/3 of the way to be solid, and I just can't find the time for that last 1/3.
Let me put it this way: my favorite map was the modified MadCity map. The original MadCity was OK; whoever modified Grape of Wrath's original really made it exceptional (in my opinion). (And I'd be very interested in finding out who that was, if anyone knows). That second author added as much as the first author did, and really brought out the best in the initial map.
The reason I'm looking for help is that I'm running out of time. I've just been accepted into a Ph.D program (in Artificial Intelligence), plus I'm involved in a bunch of other things. I hope to keep making maps from time to time, but only when I have enough uninterrupted time to not lose the thread.
Mechanics: I use MS Visual Basic 6.0 (I've resisted .net as much as possible on 'religious grounds'), and code in that environment to generate the maps; ideally a co-author would have that, and could change the scripting that I've used to produce maps. Of course direct BZEdit changes are fine too. I've put all my code on the web, and I'd be happy to send it to anyone who wants it.
I do fear that I'm suggesting something unrealistic - somebody would have to get over the learning curve of the code I use, and then might feel awkward not being an author from scratch. I'd want to encourage them to really take ownership of the maps they like, and change them as they see fit. Perhaps I should just say "hack away" on anything I've written, and know that I strongly approve of experimentation on anything I've got out there.
(thx Purple Panzer!)