Is the foundry dying?

[mibi]

I wish andy were around more... these days he seems to be more the 'main behind the curtain' rather than the 'wacky character you helps you down the yellow brick road to quench castle'... but i guess its understandable... as the man behind the curtain has more levels to pull.

[hulmey]

the maps you have mentioned were all here before my time Oaktown. The maps were all made in a hurry so that CC would have some maps to play on.

And yes dim's new maps and google earth have found their very own niche but that has more to do with 1 vs 1 and quick games rather than the quality of the map. Dim's new map is flawed and the game play sucks (check my games histroy coz im good on this map)!!

The foundry has to know what it wants? It puts out a map with horrid graphics like "puget", but then decides to revamp "the british isles"..WTF!! I think gimil has done a great job with the revamp by the way. But can anybody see what im trying to get at??

[Coleman]

I think complaining to the foundry as if it is some collective entity isn't going to work, individuals are responsible for most of your complaints.

British Isles was requested by the original author to be revamped so you need to complain about that to him, and I like the graphics on Puget.

[oaktown]

anyway, this is a conversation that has been had many, many times before, and it beyond the point of this thread...

edit: i amend the question i put to hulmey... see my next post

[gimil]

The foundry has to know what it wants? It puts out a map with horrid graphics like "puget", but then decides to revamp "the british isles"..WTF!! I think gimil has done a great job with the revamp by the way. But can anybody see what im trying to get at??

I understand what your trying to get at, but i believe thats becasue

**sorry for repitition**

you are in teh category that is resistant to change. You dont like what your used to becoming different.

As for the foundry process. I dont believe its slowing down, but there doesnt seem to be many NEW cartographers coming in, so the regular carto's are becoming better and quicker.

It also may seem slowed down because its being spread further. I always felt it had slowed down because of the introduction of sub forums. But theres more maps coming through so evidently there is an improvment somewhere. Then again the system runs on the level of feedback to determinie when to move maps. So if there is less feedback/intrest in a map can be moved to FF and quenched quicker than a map that generates alot of intrest and feedback. So that shows that maps may be moving quicker because less people are posting than they used to, i believe this point is worth investigating.

[AndyDufresne]

I wish andy were around more... these days he seems to be more the 'main behind the curtain' rather than the 'wacky character you helps you down the yellow brick road to quench castle'... but i guess its understandable... as the man behind the curtain has more levels to pull.

I wish I was around more too! Due to lots of various obligations all around it is sometimes difficult to find time for the Foundry. But I'll never abandon it. I'll always make time, even if it means waking up earlier or staying up later.


--Andy

[gimil]

I wish andy were around more... these days he seems to be more the 'main behind the curtain' rather than the 'wacky character you helps you down the yellow brick road to quench castle'... but i guess its understandable... as the man behind the curtain has more levels to pull.

I wish I was around more too! Due to lots of various obligations all around it is sometimes difficult to find time for the Foundry. But I'll never abandon it. I'll always make time, even if it means waking up earlier or staying up later.


--Andy

committment

[oaktown]

the original question was:

"Is the Foundry dying? ...everything used to be so much faster."

I still maintain that
• the process has become faster for those who have already quenched a map, in part because some of us have figured out how to move through the process smoothly, and in part because we have been unofficially 'vetted' by the foundry.
• the process has become slower for new comers, because their maps don't get as much attention
• the standards for graphics have gone up - maps don't get away with quite as much as they used to in terms of color use, army count placement, pixely borders, etc.
• there has been a significant rise in the number of map threads that get started, while the number of users providing feedback has increased only slightly... the result is that maps either die as a result of lack of feedback, or get pushed through faster than perhaps they should.

That said, I agree with Hulmey about game play on the recent maps. Most games in both Might and Duck & Cover are over by round 4, and it would seem that games in ConquerMan may never end. So while we are getting particular about graphics, it may be the case that we are forgetting to nit-pick the game play of new maps.

It has been suggested over and over again that perhaps we need a playtesting phase for new maps. This further slow the foundry process, ut it may lead to a better product. ???

[gimil]

It has been suggested over and over again that perhaps we need a playtesting phase for new maps. This further slow the foundry process, ut it may lead to a better product. ???

its harder to nitpick gameplay on the more complex maps, ive always maintained that a playtesting area is essential. There is nothing worst than a bunch of maps going up with loads of XML mistakes and gameplay issues.

I was online one time when a bunch of maps when up for live play (when my portugal went up =]) and i tried to help out fixing them as quick as possible, (i dont think anyone else who was competant was online) I ended up changng an older version of the italy XML and all hell broke loose with people getting +21 for cities etc.

THe moral of the story is, we want a testing area

[AndyDufresne]

Play-testing is a possibility...on down the road. I can't tell you what mile marker it's at though.


--Andy

[gimil]

Play-testing is a possibility...on down the road. I can't tell you what mile marker it's at though.


--Andy

How hard could it be? you can already have maps up for palytesting, wouldnt it be possible jsut to give playtesting rights to cartos and let them set up there own games.

[Qwert]

i was one of the posters that allegedly scared the crap out of people.

i was brutal in my post on the civil war map. elijah said he's quiting i was blamed i'm a bastard and so on. what happened in the end? i was right elijah got motivated and made the map way way better than he ever expected. now it's ready for quench. so who's afraid of posting bad things because he doesn't want the map maker's feelings to get hurt? certainly not me. and for sure there are others that post their true thoughts even if they are negative. too bad i retired from th foundry cause i'm itching to step on some map maker feelings and motivate them to do their best.


btw. in case you haven't noticed the foundry has promoting threads in general discussion and that's more than enough. putting big flashy banners on the site will do more harm than good to the foundry

I also put negative post on Civil War map,because i belive that Elijah can create better map,and he make better version.

Well i must say that all mine maps whas going very slow,even now i dont get new info for mine WWII EUROPE map,i send message to lackattack to give me some info but still i dont get any reply. I know that Coleman have some informacion abouth map size,but lack will give me some answer to know what to do-abandoning project,or to waith some time.