Quality of Maps

[Jewmowrestler]

Just an idea here. I've played flash games where the quality of the picture can be set to high/medium/low. I don't have enough experience with computers, websites, etc. to know how y'all make the maps, but it seems to me that there ought to be a way to control the visual quality so majcom can be run on slower computers more easily. Apart from that, y'all have done a fantastic job with this game.

 

[ORBOTRON]

Thanks for the suggestion jewmo! I'm not an expert in that area either, but I'm sure one of the other staffers will chime in here soon. For what it's worth, I do know what you're talking about with the adjustable quality setting in Flash, and think it's a good idea, I just don't know how feasible it is with our system, or how beneficial it would be.

 

[Evan]

Thanks Jewmo. We are considering several options to speed up game load times. One of the ideas I've tossed around in my head is adjustable quality levels. I think we will try other things first though as map quality standards is one MajCom's defining characteristics. But this is certainly something we will consider. Thanks again.

 

[Incandenza]

Just an idea here. I've played flash games where the quality of the picture can be set to high/medium/low. I don't have enough experience with computers, websites, etc. to know how y'all make the maps, but it seems to me that there ought to be a way to control the visual quality so majcom can be run on slower computers more easily. Apart from that, y'all have done a fantastic job with this game.

It's actually not the maps themselves that take a bit of time to load, it's all the information (troops and highlights and what not). Having low-rez versions of the map wouldn't really help all that much in terms of loading time, I'm sorry to say. Plus one of the core missions of MajCom is to have the best-looking and best-playing maps humanly possible, and I'd say our cartographers have succeeded wildly.

Are your games loading particularly slowly?

 

[ComposerNate]

I'd say our cartographers have succeeded wildly.

I'd agree that the graphics are beautiful, but some of the spelling is atrocious. Sorry if that's been mentioned elsewhere.

 

[WidowMakers]

I'd agree that the graphics are beautiful, but some of the spelling is atrocious. Sorry if that's been mentioned elsewhere.

By all means if you see a spelling issue, please post it for us to fix.

 

[RjBeals]

My guess is he's referring to bado's site spelling issues.

 

[Jewmowrestler]

It's actually not the maps themselves that take a bit of time to load, it's all the information (troops and highlights and what not). Having low-rez versions of the map wouldn't really help all that much in terms of loading time, I'm sorry to say. Plus one of the core missions of MajCom is to have the best-looking and best-playing maps humanly possible, and I'd say our cartographers have succeeded wildly.

Are your games loading particularly slowly?

ok i understand. out of the different sites that i've played that are RISK-type games, this is by and far the best, with regard to map quality and interface. as for loading times, they vary wildly. at my high school, maps have loaded both incredibly slowly (even with the bandwidth essentially all mine, without any of the school techies doing server work) and incredibly fast. At my house, loading times tend to be slow simply because my connection is terrible. I wonder if you could do like what AOL mail box does, where it offers a different version that runs better on slow connections but without the nifty and cool features (e.g. highlighting).

 

[Badorties]

We have TONS of improvements regarding load times in the pipe. They will get better for sure.

 

[Jewmowrestler]

Sweet. That sounds awesome bro

 

[Shepherd]

Inc's right; the map files themselves aren't very big, it's all the other stuff - game data, troop count info, and the files that allow the cool highlights - that gunk things up. I don't know dickles about how Evan does what he does, but I trust him when he says that better load times are in our future. He's been right about just about everything so far!

The above comments are also spot-on about our desire to have maps of consistently high quality. RjBeals and Widowmakers both have a history of creating stunning work, and I'm both honored and humbled to present my work beside theirs. We aren't kidding ourselves into thinking we'll have the most maps of any strategy gaming site (at least, not right away!), but we do hope to have the best maps.

As for spelling, we're chipping in and buying badorties a dictionary for Christmas. If you'd like to get in on it I'll add your name to the card.

 

[Valdus]

Again beautiful maps (I would not mind having the British Isles as my background) and by all means call on my to review and screen them in any way.

I would be honored!

VI

 

[WidowMakers]

Again beautiful maps (I would not mind having the British Isles as my background) and by all means call on my to review and screen them in any way.

I would be honored!

VI

Well they are posted in the wiki.
Here is the BI map for ya.
http://www.majorcommand.com/w/images/b/b6/Britishislesnames.jpg