The lack of easy maps for the beginners

[Fifi]

This post is a response to this discussion, which brought a very serious problem to the daylight. I created a separate thread for it, because I think it deserves a serious consideration without being off the topic there.

The most maps are unplayable for noobs (in novice). Because the most mappers cant imagine what kind of techniques nubs are able to play. E.g. dd-through-freeze with teles is pretty hard becuse they can't rehook in the right way. Hookthru is mostly better.

There are few basic techniques nubs are able to play:
* walking
* jumping from platform to platform
* climbing a not freezed wall
* HF at a wall
* drag somebody down while the partner is hooking the wall
* I probably forgot something

Multimap or kobra 1 is a better map for beginners for example

Make more than one way (one easier but longer and a short but harder way)

But there a things what mappers shall avoid!
* solo parts as rare as possible
* do not make parts where people have to do fast different things in a short time (bad example: wallhammer part in "introduction" )
* ...


At the moment "Introduction" is novice 2 or 3 because novice is NOT for nubs.

I agree that even nowadays, it's rather hard to begin playing DDRace, because most of the Novice DDNet maps are extremly hard for the newcomers. The lack of "/r" doesn't help either - maybe we could create a Training server with some easy maps and "/r" command available? I remember that one of the two reasons why I didn't dropped DDRace, no matter how hard it was to learn it, was some servers which allowed rescue mode. I know that sounds lame, but from the newbie point of view, the absence of "/r" is a danger of spending 2 hours trying to finally finish some map and then failing miserably, having no chances of rescue (as the Novice servers have less successful teams which one can wait for), thus feeling like all that struggle went for nothing. It's very encouraging if you know that no matter how many times you'll fail, you can retry and finally succeed at some point. It's also very good for training purposes - you can focus on the hard part, instead of senselessly repeating the ones you know as well.

The second reason why I still played, was some maps which were nice for the beginners, although they were - and are - rare and could've been much better. I'll try to remind the maps which I started from, it should shed some light on the proper contents of an easy DDRace map:

• I started playing DDRace on BLMapV3 - it's a very easy map if nobody blocks, and it's great for training, as it shows most of basic DDRace features with very few places where the player may fail it (actually there's only one place, where a tee can fail beyond the possibility of rescue, and no such places, if you play with 3 or more tees). It also have a huge advantage of being relatively short, therefore allowing a newbie to feel the satisfaction of finishing a map, even if the lack of skill resulted in every part taking much longer. Maybe somebody could get a few ideas for parts from it and create a slightly bigger, non-block version?
• One of the maps I remember as a challenging, but not faily one, is the Multimap. It's an easy, yet interesting course, designed with a lucid tileset - which really helps the new players understand this map. Obviously, it has some flaws too - like the teleports, which prevents tees from coming back and helping the ones left behind, and faily ending (maybe Multimap was purposedly made for the servers with a rescue mode on? I haven't asked the mapper, so I can only speculate, as it seems possible), but overall it's probably the best non-solo map I can advert to new players. We should take it as an example of good learning curve, lest we may lose the players who are not resistant to a difficulty shock.
• No_Stuck is another perfect example of a map, which is easy, but may greatly improve basic skills. I have played it countless times and always find the impossibility of failure as a relief. Maybe we could use a teleports instead of the freeze tiles more often?
• AiP_Gores - this map is a bit too hard for a beginner, but a shorter and easier version of it might be great for training. The atmosphere of hybrid multi-solo racing is also very comforting for every tee, which is still not sure about its skills.
• I think another easy map which motivates people to learn is xyz_ddrace2. It's very short, so people won't get bored or tired, but combines some interesting elements, without relying on faily or difficult parts. It actually got only one hard part, which may be easily removed, so taking some ideas from it and combining with stuff from the other maps I've mentioned might be a good idea.
• Warch - another not-so-hard map with great, self-explaining tileset. It has plenty of classic parts, which might be obvious to skilled players, but which are great for new ones.
• The last one, run_guy_25, is probably one of the greatest training maps I've ever seen. Even the tileset gives the feeling of a training course. The final parts are unfortunately not so easy, but the rest of it might be used as a source of simple, yet useful parts.

Aside from that list, there are also two maps, which are a bit too hard (the first one) or too long (the second one), but after some adjustments they should also be inluded - Epix and Atticus Compilation. They include a lot of classic elements, rely on a simple tileset and avoid forcing players to do a lot of things quickly and without a rest.

It's a bit hard to explain why those maps are good for training, but it's probably the "one thing at a time" approach mentioned by Kamillentee combined with making parts, which are easy to do, but very distinct from each other (so the player learns something new or trains some skill in a new configuration every time). The length and ability to easily recover tees is also a great factor in creating a good training map. And of course the avoidance of long hooking parts, where an unexperienced player may easily drop the other one.

Sorry for relying so much on my personal experience, but I think that I'm on the stage when I still remember how I learned, while already having some skill and therefore the ability to do some analysis of it.

[hi_leute_gll]

Multimap is extremly faily and bad playable for real noobs. There are reasons why it's 3 Star and not 1...

[Ama]

We just need mappers to make 1 star maps thats it

maybe make a tournament for mappers best 1 star map gets a server for a month

or whatever make something so GOOD mappers map something easy

[Fifi]

Multimap is extremly faily and bad playable for real noobs. There are reasons why it's 3 Star and not 1...

Yeah, but with the rescue mode on most of it is really easy, so the non-faily parts seems ok for Novice players - maybe they should become a pattern for other easy maps? ^^ It should of course go after very easy maps (like BLMapV3), but it appears to be the first "real" map for new players on the learning curve (at least that's how I perceived it), so I had to include it.

But anyway - I think we really need easy maps, because I was playing those maps I mentioned a lot, before the DDNet was created (back in DDRaceMax times), and when I arrived at DDNet for the first time it took me some time to finally finish any map. So it's probably too steep for new players. :c I also observe it for new players or people I invited to play DDRace.

[kamillentee]

Multimap is extremly faily and bad playable for real noobs. There are reasons why it's 3 Star and not 1...

Thats your point of view. OK let's say its not easy but its noob friendly because it contains the points I mentioned in my post. Yeah its true there could be better maps but right now its one of the best learning maps IMHO.

Multimap was my very first ddrace map. And from my own experience (and a lot of others) it was very funny even if i couldn't do not one of the parts without help. Thats btw a big advantage of this map: You can help people in every part while this nub is still having fun because he does something on his own even with help.

Hi_leute I'm with your point the map is extremely faily but it is playable for real noobs.
With help but still ya. Help is not bad I mean isn't help the main idea of ddrace. That means a nub needs help anyway. So its not really important if a map is faily or not.

I was sure and I'm glad there are people with my point of view like Fifi depending multimap

[Gridwyn]

bhtddrace nice map for real noobs!
http://forum.ddnet.org/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1031

[Soreu]

Which cannot be released.

[Fifi]

Och, I forgot about Skynet, it's also a great map.

Have anybody tried asking Tsin for permission? :c Maybe he'll let us release it, especially now, when DDRaceMax is unfortunately down. :c

[Lady Saavik]

No, he's working on new ddmax

[Fifi]

Oh. :c But maybe we'll ask for allowance to use some of the classic maps?

Btw. I recalled another two easy, yet interesing maps - FEAR and SainTMaP. FEAR is really good for training, as far as I remember.