pants_down
22-08-2009, 21:15
Playing custom maps in general, one thing you will find is fairly consistent with custom maps the more popular they become, is streamlining them so one can get started fairly immediately once all players have loaded the map.
So I suggest you remove the pause with credits at the start (include your credits on your loading page), as well as the cinematics that take place just before hero selection is available.
I would even go so far as to remove all of the hero "statues", and make it so hero selection is done through a regular building menu (yes, just like DOTA, my apologies, but it is hard to argue with what works so well). Even though you have done a great job of being able to highlight each hero with a wisp and getting a really nice cinematic/info screen for the hero, all of this takes too much time, especially for new players, who can and DO take WAY too much time selecting their hero as a result. Instead, remove this and you will move the emphasis on playing the map, as that should be the focus instead...
Finally, removing the all-stop that takes place, forcing the players to view the short cinematic of each titan on arrival, is game-breaking, and should be reduced to a simple text notification of the titans arrival and global map ping you already have in place.
This is my suggestion, streamline these obviously game-breaking cinematics and triggers, and you will have a map people will be more likely to want to play again and again.
So I suggest you remove the pause with credits at the start (include your credits on your loading page), as well as the cinematics that take place just before hero selection is available.
I would even go so far as to remove all of the hero "statues", and make it so hero selection is done through a regular building menu (yes, just like DOTA, my apologies, but it is hard to argue with what works so well). Even though you have done a great job of being able to highlight each hero with a wisp and getting a really nice cinematic/info screen for the hero, all of this takes too much time, especially for new players, who can and DO take WAY too much time selecting their hero as a result. Instead, remove this and you will move the emphasis on playing the map, as that should be the focus instead...
Finally, removing the all-stop that takes place, forcing the players to view the short cinematic of each titan on arrival, is game-breaking, and should be reduced to a simple text notification of the titans arrival and global map ping you already have in place.
This is my suggestion, streamline these obviously game-breaking cinematics and triggers, and you will have a map people will be more likely to want to play again and again.