Custom Map Backlog

[Karsten75]

So I show the difficulty on the overview now.  I also changed the background color to match the difficulty.  I don't know if I'll keep this or not.... just trying it out.

Cool, thanks.  Much more useful this way. The use of color to grade maps is neat.  I would probably suggest hues - Eg.  start with a light blue for trivial, and then darker to perhaps black for "expert only" maps.  But even this way it is usable.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Awesome!
This is very handy indeed.
Where else can we get so much support?
You da' Man Virgil!

[Aurzel]

actually he's not da' man, he's a demi-god
either way, still some awesome changes :D

[zuzufan09]

I wish I didn't spend yesterday morning downloading every map before this new update came out.  Would have been a lot smoother.

[xing]

well now that you can release more maps at once ... we - the map creators - will endeavour to post more  ;D

[George]

Can you still organize the full list by rating? just wondering

[Siccles]

And while we`re at it --- a option to sort the maps by the number of comments would be nice too

[knucracker]

Can you still organize the full list by rating? just wondering

Not currently.  I left it out on purpose since I was trying to get rid of sorting altogether.  I also wasn't too happy with how the ranks worked out.  The ranks still have a purpose, I'm just not sure they are important enough to be a way to promote some maps above others.  I could be wrong and convinced otherwise, though.

[Sauffaus]

The ranks still have a purpose, I'm just not sure they are important enough to be a way to promote some maps above others.  I could be wrong and convinced otherwise, though.

You should do some math on the ranks... remove the highest quartil, the lowest quartil, and avarage the rest of the votes... then divide  "number-of-comments"(other than the map-makers) with "number-of-votes", and add that to the score.
That way you secure that odd-man-out-votes gets canned, and the final score also rewards a thread with many comments.

Bingo... a nice scoring-system, that is hard to mess with.

[Sauffaus]

... The ranks still have a purpose, I'm just not sure they are important enough to be a way to promote some maps above others.  I could be wrong and convinced otherwise, though.

I made this example rating-function in php... if you like it, you are welcome to use it as you please.

This function tries to take user-behavior into account, and filter out the most obvious attempts of tampering, while it rewards map-page-activity, and implements a more "democratic" calculation for the actual votes (Balance).

Code Select Expand

<?php
/*
$Votes = (array);//Fill this with all votes as integers between 1 and 5
$NumOfComments = (integer);//subtract map-creators own comments first
$NumOfDownloads = (integer);//subtract map-creators own downloads if possible
$DaysOld = (integer);//Number of days the map has been available
*/

function CalculateRank($Votes,$NumOfComments,$NumOfDownloads,$DaysOld){
sort($Votes,SORT_NUMERIC);
$NumOfVotes = count($Votes);
$VoteThreshold = 6;//minimum number of votes cast, to make them fully count

if($NumOfVotes < 3){//only 0-2 votes available, so just set rank to neutral
$Rank = 3.0;
} else if($NumOfVotes < $VoteThreshold){//Downgrade vote-importance if only a few votes have been cast.
$Rank = 3.0 + ( ((array_sum($Votes)/$NumOfVotes) - 3.0) / ( ($VoteThreshold+1)-$NumOfVotes) );
} else {//Enough votes, so do real statistics
$Votes = array_slice($Votes,floor($NumOfVotes*0.25),ceil($NumOfVotes*0.5),false);//Remove Low & High
$Rank = array_sum($Votes)/ceil($NumOfVotes*0.5);//Set Rank to avarage of remaining vote-values
}

$Balance = 0;
foreach($Votes as $Value){//Calculate "positive-/negative-vote count"
if($Value > 3){
$Balance++;
} else if($Value < 3){
$Balance--;
}
}
$Rank += ($Balance/ceil($NumOfVotes*0.5))*0.5;//Weighing for "positive-/negative-vote count", rather than actual voted values ( = max. ±0.5)
$Rank += $NumOfComments/$DaysOld/100;//Reward for many Comments per day
$Rank += $NumOfVotes/$DaysOld/200;//Reward for many Votes per day
$Rank += $NumOfDownloads/$DaysOld/400;//Reward for many Downloads per day

return round($Rank,2);
}
?>