Another Catch - No Custom Map Rotation

[Anarchy1]

A twitter conversation between our Community (in this case the CoD Mod creators blackmonkeys from Germany) and Treyarch's CoD: Black Ops developer, pcdev.

pcdev twittered : unranked = complete control over gamtypes/map rotation. ranked = playlists + map exclude list.

* blackmonkeysDE: ranked = playlists + map exclude list. Does this mean matchmaking and no control at all (exept Maps) over a server I am paying for?
* pcdev: no, this has nothing to do with matchmaking. you can run any officially supported ranked gamemodes on your ranked server.
* blackmonkeysDE: Ok thanks, but I can't decide about which map and gametype is running when?
* pcdev: you can decide, but with some constraints. some map+gamemode combos are not good for ranked matches.
* blackmonkeysDE: Ok, thanks again. So there will be no map rotation by admin on ranked. But we can decide between playlists whenever we want?
* pcdev: yes

Source: http://www.mapmodnews.com/article.ph...-CoD-Black-Ops

So here's another catch for the new dedicated servers. If you want a ranked server, you have to play by their playlists in their map rotation. You can only select to exclude maps. And you can't play all game modes on all maps.

[Spik3d]

Re: Another Catch - No Custom Map Rotation

Well, **** Black Ops, another game with this bull***t. It's a ****ing video game, just let us play what we want. The world won't end because we're playing custom maps on a ranked server (which the community pays for, not Activision or Treyarch).

I knew going to global ranks in games was bad.

[[Expletive Deleted]]

Re: Another Catch - No Custom Map Rotation

So they expect us to PAY them to run servers for them? That's what I'm seeing here. They have full control over the servers, but they don't provide them.

Awesome business model. Horrible way to run a PC game. They already know we're damned idiots and people will still buy truckloads.

[Scinto]

Re: Another Catch - No Custom Map Rotation

Well, **** Black Ops, another game with this bull***t. It's a ****ing video game, just let us play what we want. The world won't end because we're playing custom maps on a ranked server (which the community pays for, not Activision or Treyarch).

I knew going to global ranks in games was bad.

uhm the OP's news is nothing to do with Custom made maps hell no-one knows yet if the mod tools will be able to create them, I dont even think the CoD:BO Devs know yet as they havent made them.

The news is about Customizing the rotation but I can see why they've done it, imagine HQ on the smallest map possible, I'd see that as a fast track mode tbh.

[The_Eliminator]

Re: Another Catch - No Custom Map Rotation

Im understand what you are saying scinto but for once i actually agree with Spike (i know right!?).

Its a video game

The world isnt going to implode and peoples heads arn't going to explode if we customize the play style of maps etc. This is why i hate it when people complain about boosting. It doesnt really affect you in anyway as all the weapons are "balanced" anyway. As long as they do it somewhere out of the way i couldnt give a ****.

Playing online video games has become so controlled it can feel more like a chore than actual fun sometimes.

[iQue]

Re: Another Catch - No Custom Map Rotation

I can understand not allowing custom maps on ranked servers (even if it's not ideal) - but only allowing official player lists, really?

I too don't have a problem with boosters and stuff, who gives a **** really? As long as they waste their own time and don't ruin someone's elses game, go ahead I'd say. Does CoD games even have leaderboards?

EDIT: Heh, didn't read into the OP good enough. You can exclude maps, and not all maps have all game modes. My bad.

[Spik3d]

Re: Another Catch - No Custom Map Rotation

uhm the OP's news is nothing to do with Custom made maps hell no-one knows yet if the mod tools will be able to create them, I dont even think the CoD:BO Devs know yet as they havent made them.

If the mod tools don't have the ability to make maps, then someone really would have ****ed up at Treyarch. Every mod tool released for the CoDs have had a map editor included so far. I doubt they'd be changing that anytime soon.

The news is about Customizing the rotation but I can see why they've done it, imagine HQ on the smallest map possible, I'd see that as a fast track mode tbh.

unranked = complete control over gamtypes/map rotation. ranked = playlists + map exclude list.

Bolded means, "our playlists...", not, "your playlists". So if you want to play with community content, you'll have to play on unranked servers.

I'm sick of seeing community work get shafted like this. Unranked/modded/whatever servers never get as much traffic as ranked/pure/honor/etc servers. It's devs that think their game is sacred and make it so nobody can rank up playing with something created by the community over something they made that ruin it.

I know this is not what that conversation was about, but this is another thing that can be taken from it.

[Anarchy1]

Re: Another Catch - No Custom Map Rotation

The news is about Customizing the rotation but I can see why they've done it, imagine HQ on the smallest map possible, I'd see that as a fast track mode tbh.

I understand their reasoning, but I just don't get why. What is their benefit from locking everything down like this? What changed from WaW where you could have servers where kills were 30,000 points to them making you play on playlists? If a server wants to play CTF on a small map, how do they benefit from stopping them? If people don't want to do it, then the server will stay empty and eventually the admin will change it. Let the population decide what they want to play. And what is the benefit from locking down map rotations? I am just confounded as to why. How will it hurt for a server to run with a map rotation (using CoD4 maps) of Crash, Strike, Backlot, Crash, Overgrown, Vacant, Crash compared to Crash, Strike, Backlot, Overgrown, Vacant, Crash?

[Kylee!]

Re: Another Catch - No Custom Map Rotation

Yea... this makes NO sense to me.

[Scinto]

Re: Another Catch - No Custom Map Rotation

I understand their reasoning, but I just don't get why. What is their benefit from locking everything down like this? What changed from WaW where you could have servers where kills were 30,000 points to them making you play on playlists? If a server wants to play CTF on a small map, how do they benefit from stopping them? If people don't want to do it, then the server will stay empty and eventually the admin will change it. Let the population decide what they want to play. And what is the benefit from locking down map rotations? I am just confounded as to why. How will it hurt for a server to run with a map rotation (using CoD4 maps) of Crash, Strike, Backlot, Crash, Overgrown, Vacant, Crash compared to Crash, Strike, Backlot, Overgrown, Vacant, Crash?

I would assume their thinking of the lengivitiy of the game and getting feedback from people who have experienced the game to the fullest, if people play on a map getting tens of thousands of exp/cash they will fly through their ranking system and probably only play 1 game mode, Which makes all the new and unique modes created pointless. You never know 6months down the they could abolish that.

They wont be adding CoD4 maps, CoD4 was made by IW and some of those maps were released for MW2.

[[Expletive Deleted]]

Re: Another Catch - No Custom Map Rotation

He wasn't talking about them adding CoD4 maps, just using those names as an example.

And who cares if some people like one map and mode and play it a lot? How would it hurt others if someone played the map/mode they considered fun on a server for which THEY PAY MONEY?

It's like telling someone they can't skip to the fight scenes on their Ong Bak DVD, that they have to watch it all the way through.

[Anarchy1]

Re: Another Catch - No Custom Map Rotation

I would assume their thinking of the lengivitiy of the game and getting feedback from people who have experienced the game to the fullest, if people play on a map getting tens of thousands of exp/cash they will fly through their ranking system and probably only play 1 game mode, Which makes all the new and unique modes created pointless. You never know 6months down the they could abolish that.

They wont be adding CoD4 maps, CoD4 was made by IW and some of those maps were released for MW2.

Someone can play on one game mode whether or not they do the playlists. I would only play TDM in MW2. I would only play TDM in WaW. I really don't see what you're trying to say there. The only new modes are the wager ones (as far as I know). That has nothing to do with dedicated servers...those are P2P games like WaW co-op.

And the CoD4 maps were just examples, like Expletive said.

[[Expletive Deleted]]

Re: Another Catch - No Custom Map Rotation

Those wager modes are really listen-server? I won't be playing those, then. That means lag and cheaters, seeing as it would be VAC combined with a host-with-the-most scenario OR artificial lag for low-pingers that makes high-pingers invincible with bendy bullets that go around corners.

[Anarchy1]

Re: Another Catch - No Custom Map Rotation

Those wager modes are really listen-server? I won't be playing those, then. That means lag and cheaters, seeing as it would be VAC combined with a host-with-the-most scenario OR artificial lag for low-pingers that makes high-pingers invincible with bendy bullets that go around corners.

Well, that's still a rumor. It was discussed on the BashAndSlash webcast the other week. The rumor arose because they said you can't order a wager mode server. They also said that to play wager mode, you join a lobby with 5 other people, and once the lobby is full, the game starts. And you can't join a game mid-match. So really the only options are that it is P2P or Gameservers will have some servers that you connect to in order to play wager mode, but that seems unlikely.

[[GCA]Tim270]

Re: Another Catch - No Custom Map Rotation

They just keep handing out reasons not to pay for this game.

Not sure why they dont bother to actually move towards a 'white-list' map model, where community/user created maps are approved by the dev team then allowed to be played in ranked rotation. Oh wait, it would mean they would actually have to work.