Map Ratings

[knucracker]

I've updated the map download page to support a 5 star rating system for the maps.  I'll give this a go to see how it works out....
So step one is to log in and rate your own maps as "5" :)  Then rate the other maps honestly.

[Aurzel]

hahah i never rate my own maps, you should have a sort by rating option too

[knucracker]

Yeah, I'm working on that sort....

[Qbear]

Well, after you rate it, it shows 1-10, whereas when you voted it was 1-5.  I'm talking about the text on the page.  Small bug there.

[knucracker]

Piece of junk.... cuss... cuss.... grumble....
That's what I get for grabbing some open source thing and thinking I could use it on the website.  The star rating thing I used apparently doesn't render right in IE6+ after you have voted.  I only tested in FF and Chrome....

I've removed the rating stars for now until I can get something that works better.....

[knucracker]

Ok, lets try this again.  Totally different rating system this time.  It pretty much looks the same, but appearances can be deceiving.  This one should work across different browsers better.  I've also implemented a sort by ratings as well.

The database is different (it is better too).... so I lost the few votes that were recorded yesterday.... sorry about that.  You'll have to get out your gavel and be judge again

[jecowa]

Step 3: make over 9000 accounts to rate all your maps with.

Maybe some kind of verification could be used to prevent people from doing this. Like requiring the online accounts to be linked with unique game registrations.

[knucracker]

Currently, the ratings limit is the standard "one vote per IP address".

[Argent009]

Honest opinion, ratings aren't very useful, what would be useful would be comments for the maps so people could give their feedback on what might make a map better, rather than coming into the forums and asking "did you think my map was any good" every time you make a new one. Also if you could make it so you could sort maps and include the option to sort by your own maps so you could see your feedbacks. That'd be really helpful and we'd all benefit from what others have to say about how to improve our map making skills. For instance, I think my maps are probably easier than I think they are because I've only been playing the game for 4 days now so to me, what's "medium" might be easier than heck for a pro and what might seem easy to a pro might be too darned hard for a newcomer. So the option to change your own choice of difficulty level based on those feedbacks would be good too.

[Aurzel]

argent's post gets the Aurz seal of approval d(^.^)b
great ideas

[knucracker]

I'm implementing a commenting system for each map first, then a search next.  The commenting system will be live in the next few days.

[Xylnalya]

I might have missed it over the last week(s), but the new (a few days old) sorting system by downloads/rating/etc was a good enhancement in my opinion.

[Argent009]

Awesome man! Thanks!

[Tero]

What I would like to see next to the custom map's description is some kind of indication ( check box, etc.) that the author has played and beaten the map.  Or, generally accepted definitions for "Trivial", "Easy" and so on.  Perhaps drawing a parallel to worlds in the full version.  Like Tucana, in my opinion would be an "Expert" type map.  Challenging, but winnable.   Some of the maps I have downloaded are, in my opinion, unwinnable.  Like emitters set to 100.  A dozen spores every minute, after 4 or 5 minutes.  No real estate to build. Granted, the map editor can fix these things. 
Thanks for reading!

[Argent009]

Maybe make it so the map maker can post a screen cap in the comments section to prove that it's beatable if it comes into question?