run_three & run_flatland by borartr

[borartr]

hello guys!

when tried out teeworlds again after a break of aprox one year, i was very happy to see ddracenetwork still alive and developing. my latest years of activity in tw have mostly consisted of playing ddrace on your servers.

i was however completely astonished when i saw you revived good old classic longrace. guys i love you for that. classic longrace is my top favourite mod, only dying lately due to lack of popularity and maps.

i wanted to immediately offer my maps to you. Then i found out you already had my second race map, run_three. the version you have however is the very first one i published, it contains graphical glitches and even one part was doable in an unintended way. also the design is boring.
here is the actual, and hopefully final version of run_three, glitches+gameplay fixed, better design including doodads.
[see Map Bugs - Fixes]

i also want to add my third race, run_flatland. it is more simple, both in gamplay and difficulty, but the more innovative in terms of design. give it a try. note however, that due to the special design it is bad to have either nameplates of other player (confusing), or dyncam (really bad even gameplay wise), turned on.
let me know what you think of it.

run_three.map

(36.55 KiB) Downloaded 128 times

run_flatland.map

(2.54 MiB) Downloaded 138 times

[Index]

Hey,
it's always nice to see people return after a long break. So welcome back, we are happy as well that ddnet is still surviving lol

Yea, we decided quite some months ago to set up an own race server with mostly old and known mid- and longruns. So, we more or less just took the maps from other servers. Glad that you're fine with that.
And thanks for the updated version of run_three. I'll create a topic in the Map Bug section, so we will probably exchange the versions in the near future :)

About the other map.
Honestly, I'm really impressed by that map idea and the overall result :3 That's an awesome usage of the different editor features (and you didn't even use tune zones). However, the gameplay itself feels rather boring. Don't get me wrong, it's hard to create such an map and i like it, but just for the gameplay aspect its short and standard .__. So, idk same as I wrote in other race threads before. We probably won't release it, but it's not a strict decline right now.
Oh, and maybe you could do the background with just a colored quad. That would save more than 2MB mapsize and imo fits even better to the overall graphicstil of tw (attached file) :)

[borartr]

hi and thanks for the feedback, ill agree its more practical to use a colored squad, im not happy with the resolution of the background anyway, would have needed much more mb for that. i did choose it for the theme, which i wanted to look like ink drawed on a paper background (what you currently see is the closest i could do xD also considering the tradeoffs with picture size).

i also agree that the gameplay feels boring, its feels the same for me. but this was intended. i wanted everyone to be able to play the map, and a non tw playing friend of me finished it in somewhere above 10 min, which shows me i got the difficulty i wanted. you cant really do anything innovative and "not standard" gameplay wise at entry level difficulty. now you measure difficulty only by your own skill, or that of other experienced racers. for them, and me, the gameplay is necessarily boring.
i think, however, that it is very important to feature much more of this entry level difficulty. you missed the times when race started, very popular, and people who came in struggled with maps like run_forrest or run_dude. i myself needed something between 30 min and 1 hour for my first run on run_forrest. now its the lowest rated difficulty on your servers, and run_dragon comes right after that. most did not even got the first part of that map back then. managing double rocket jumps was very skilled. i think its a good way to offer more for the entry level, otherwise you end up like vanilla, newbies getting discouraged and pros leaving due to a lack of players. you need to be aware of how your current level of skill might affect your opinion.

but thats just my opinion. i would be happy for the map to be hosted on your server, because i like ddracenetwork, the choice however is not mine, and i will not try to influence it further than this post (and possible answers).

[Index]

Yea, it's always hard to get this 'realistic' look in teeworlds. But I feel like that's good, cause teeworlds should only consist of minimalistic looks. But that's just my opinon, doesn't belong here right now :)

Of course you are totally right, for a new player this difficulty is almost too high and it can certainly be entertaining to finish the map. So, it might be a good map for the first race experience. I'm just not sure if we want to archive that with our race servers right now :o

So, as always: Let's hear more opinions :)
If the map will be accepted, we should take the version with just the colored quad though .__.

[borartr]

I'm just not sure if we want to archive that with our race servers right now

thats the important question to ask. i hope i have convinced you that a steady flow of new players is really important, as some older always quit. it needs more than a small elite of players to be called an active playerbase. thus entry level difficulty should be the most featured, both in terms of quantity and care.

i dont even say this to feature my own map, but similarily easy maps of other player as well. my only goal is to give the race mod the attention and playerbase it deserves, and for that it needs new players.

you do it all right with you ddrace novice server, i honestly think they provide the most important maps for your success. simply give the same to race.

If the map will be accepted, we should take the version with just the colored quad though .__.

i would be fine with that, if its atleast a similar color (took something like F8ECC2 i guess)

[jao]

Checked run_flatland a while ago and agree that it doesn't really fit on DDNet. It might be released on the Unique servers tho.
Will move this to archive since run_three is released.