As far as the discussion on looks vs play that's seem to have taken root in here, I feel that both are equally important, with out a good puzzle, even the most beautiful level gets boring and makes you wonder why you downloaded it, but if a great puzzle is hideous, I have a hard time focusing on the puzzle rather than wondering why it wasn't released as a WIP ready to be decorated. If you as a mapper don't care about appearance, partner with someone who loves to make things pretty, but generally doesn't do a lot of puzzle design, making something wonderful together. And what you said about there being only one or two truly wonderful maps out there, I agree, that's how many 5's should be out there, I would love to see a time when 5 is something to be driven for, and given to every map that get's posted with a puzzle and some lights. In my oppinion, 5's mean nothing on this forum right now, and that's just too bad.

Jexim wrote:
In my oppinion, 5's mean nothing on this forum right now, and that's just too bad.

Works fine for me.. generally I've enjoyed the maps that scored a 5; even if I wouldn't have given them a 5 myself, it's some sort of guarantee at least that the map's not a completely buggy POS. Perhaps a system rating different aspects would work, and maybe even the tiny accuracy boost in raising the max value from 5 to 10 would help. But as far as I'm concerned, it works fine for now =)

Jexim wrote:
5's mean nothing on this forum right now, and that's just too bad.

Well, indeed, I agree with your opinion of the meaning of 5 in the forum. I would also like this number would mean so much more, a certainly unusual and special consideration only for very unique and carefully chosen maps.

But again, I think the number 5 has a subjective meaning, it depends on each one's interpretation.

On the other hand, I respect what you say about mappers and a real feedback amongst us all, but even though the subtitle of this forum is "Portal2 Mapping Community", not all raters here are mappers, there are many players as well. I think they also have their rights to vote.

What leads to another idea: a rate system only for mappers / other for players...

sicklebrick wrote:
Perhaps a system rating different aspects would work, and maybe even the tiny accuracy boost in raising the max value from 5 to 10 would help

Hmmmnn.... Yeah! I also think so. This allows us a finer rating. I think this way there would be less 10's than 5's are now...

Lots of good ideas in this thread. You should let msleeper know if you or someone you know can and has the time to implement them.

post66172.html

Gameplay: 5/5
Puzzle: 4/5
Design: 2/5
Lenght: 3/5

Final: 3.5/5 (~4/5)

Just an idea, should post that to here.

Like LP said, there are only a few votes compared to the number of downloads. This obviously is the case because you have to be registered to vote but can download as an unregistered user. I myself have been downloading a lot of maps without being registered and unable to rate them. Even though the 5/5-maps usually are worth your time, the link "view topic" was always more important to me to read some detailed feedback before downloading a map.

Pitkakorvaa wrote:
Thats the point, if you can't vote all sections, then you can't vote at all, and that way we get rid of "worthless 5/5" rated maps.

And end up with only 2 people voting on a map...

Pitkakorvaa wrote:
Thats the point, if you can't vote all sections, then you can't vote at all, and that way we get rid of "worthless 5/5" rated maps.

Yes; but I agree with CaretCaret; 2 detailed votes are less interesting then 20 "junk" ratings. It would be great to see more feedback on maps. This way people can really improve their mapping skills and in the future this might lead to more "real" 5/5 maps

But I just wanted to say I think the database really needs an option to vote 0 out of 5. Because otherwise I have to scale down the 1-5 score in my head to get a true fraction. That said, we could also do with a couple of decimal places shown on the displayed score.

That is all

Pitkakorvaa wrote:
Thats the point, if you can't vote all sections, then you can't vote at all, and that way we get rid of "worthless 5/5" rated maps.

I don't understand. What do you mean by "if you can't vote all sections"? Do you mean "If you don't feel ready to vote for the puzzle section because you haven't solved it" for example? Because this would mean that everyone has to stick to this guideline voluntarily - which imho wouldn't happen in an anonymous rating-system.

Every single player will always have his/her own subjective opinion of a map no matter how many subcategories there are.

lpfreaky90 wrote:
It would be great to see more feedback on maps. This way people can really improve their mapping skills and in the future this might lead to more "real" 5/5 maps

The only way to get more feedback and also push the numer of votes would be to force people to register before they can download. On the other hand, that might cause a drop in number of downloads of course.

Or is it that you guys only want "pro-mappers" - whatever makes a pro-mapper - to rate the maps instead of everyone? Then, there'd have be some sort of committee of chosen members rating the maps. On the other hand - isn't that what the community round-up is supposed to be?

zivi7 wrote:
The only way to get more feedback and also push the numer of votes would be to force people to register before they can download. On the other hand, that might cause a drop in number of downloads of course.

Or is it that you guys only want "pro-mappers" - whatever makes a pro-mapper - to rate the maps instead of everyone? Then, there'd have be some sort of committee of chosen members rating the maps. On the other hand - isn't that what the community round-up is supposed to be?

Well I think detailed feedback isn't what non-registered users would give. It's more a request for mappers to help other mappers. And people who don't map but also have attention for detail and puzzles can of course also give detailed feedback. I would just urge all mappers here just to take a minute of their time to help other users by posting a bit of feedback!

And yes the community round-up is supposed to be the best maps; usually those are the 5/5 maps

NuclearDuckie wrote:
..we could also do with a couple of decimal places shown on the displayed score.

That's actually a pretty good idea, even a single decimal point would make it much clearer that a map has, say 4.9 or even 5.0 versus a 4.5 which might still be rounded up. It would be the easiest solution to implement, doesn't require any extra action or work on the part of someone who might otherwise not really bother rating all that much (Eg. me.), and make it a little clearer for all.

Even if a system rating the form vs function of a map, with multiple sections were implemented, you'd still get some of the same problems people have with the current rating system though. Fair enough, pretty is pretty, and if a map looks really damn slick, it'll probably get a 5/5 all round, but the puzzle element is likely to be the same mixed bag we already have owing to differing tastes.

I can't help but think some people are just pissed off that some of my crappy looking, 2-day maps for example are scoring 4-5, while they've put a fuckton of work and time into making them look really good - but can only possibly score a 5 as well. If I'd put weeks worth of work into a map and gave a damn about aesthetics, I might be pretty sour about the whole thing.

msleeper wrote:
I'm not sure what you want me to say. I can't fix it. I've tried, the voting code is all over the place. The download system sucks, we'll be rid of it soon.

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nufsaid