koukouz
zhady
7D
Submit Maps
Why was a change needed?
One of the major reasons the old system ceased to exist was that all of the recently recruited map admins went inactive and didn't really bother to test the maps at all anymore, nor did they actively take part in an internal discussion about a solution to this issue. This pretty much states that checking maps became a kind of work nobody wanted to do any longer, at least not on an unpaid and volunteering level as it currently is. Another indication for this was the small number of applications we got during the last attempt to recruit new admins.
Furthermore it is obvious that this was not solely the fault of our admins, nowadays mappers seem to completely misunderstand the map check system, which was originally meant as a quality-judging process. This process was used to find out if the quality of the submitted maps was good enough to make it into the XJ map pool and/or if the quality was good enough to receive the kz_ tag. A lot of people abused the fact that we explained our decisions with references to various bugs and other issues/problems in the map to get a feedback for their work - which means they used the map check system as a way to get people to (beta)test their maps. After the voting was done and the result announced most maps were re-submitted with only a few changes made and without a real changelog at all, which caused the map check team to check the map for every single bug over and over again.
This pretty much explains why the old system wasn't work any longer for either side, the admins and the mappers - and why we had to find another solution. Another aspect is, however, that a lot of people in the community didn't seem to agree with the decisions made by the map check team and their criteria how to judge and define "quality maps" any longer. We hope that these people will be happy to get a lot more influence (if they want) in the new system.
How does the new system work?
The new system is trying to solve the old system's problems in their roots. It was very hard for 5-6 selected mapadmins to represent the opinions and the wishes of a whole community, but it was almost impossible for those selected people to find every single bug and issue in the map - and especially every possible shortcut or glitch that may have caused problems in the future. So this is the point where the new system starts involving everyone in the community (who is interested at all), without former application. Mappers post their map in the public-beta check forum where everyone can and should play the upcoming maps and test them for bugs, problems, issues and also post his or her overall opinion.
After this period of time mappers should get a lot of feedback and a lot of issues were hopefully found, stuff that used to be revealed AFTER map releases in the past, therefore they have another chance to fix everything they want and then finally submit the map.
Once the map is submitted to XJ, the map admins will take a look at the map to ensure it is of decent quality and no major bugs are left (in case no one in the public-beta check noticed) and then take a deep look into the public-beta check thread, if people liked to play and test the map, if they think it could be a popular map to record and play. After they looked at all these facts the admins will give their vote and we announce the result in the accepted/denied maps forum. Furthermore, new XJ map check admins won't be recruited via applications any longer, instead of that the most active checkers of the public-beta check threads will get a chance to "rise up" and work as a XJ map admin.
However, we are aware of the fact that some mappers might not want to "give away" their maps and put them in a process like that, that's why we offer an alternative/backup solution. Mappers who don't want their maps to be tested by everyone in the community have the right to submit their maps to the XJ team directly, but if you use this "wild card" you should make sure you have the map tested properly by persons you trust - because the XJ map admins are NOT beta testers at all. Therefore these direct submissions will be handled a bit stricter than the other submissions, re-submissions will only be possible as an exception.
People choosing this way of submitting their maps should know that the map check teams major function is to judge the quality of the map and see if the map would fit into our map cycle, not helping to test the map. Of course we will explain why your map was denied (or what could be still improved if it was accepted), but don't expect a detailed feedback documenting every single issue in the map anymore (this was one of the reasons that led to the old systems stagnation).
Mapsubmission process:
1. Public beta-test
Using the process described under "How does the new system work".
1. Post your map in the public-betacheck forum.
2. Every user in the community can test and comment the map (bugs, glitches and shortcuts).
3. Mapper decides if he wants to fix the issues/bugs/shortcuts that were found in the thread.
4. Real mapsubmission (step2).
5. XJ team will play the map and take a final look at it as well as evaluating the public-beta check thread and all the opinions and comments posted in there and check if the bugs were fixed.
6. Result will be announced in the accepted/denied maps forum.
7. Chance to resubmit a denied map (only when a proper changelog is included!)
8. Map will be released
2. Mapsubmission only
If mappers do NOT want to put their map into the usual process for any reason, they have a chance to skip the whole public-beta test process and submit their map directly to the XJ map admins. This, of course, should be the exception, and when people use this "wild card" they should make sure that they had their map tested properly by persons they trust. To ensure that this is really happening, re-submissions for maps submitted this way will only be possible under very rare circumstances (decided at admins discretion).
1. Post your map in the public-betacheck forum.
2. Every user in the community can test and comment the map (bugs, glitches and shortcuts).
3. Mapper decides if he wants to fix the issues/bugs/shortcuts that were found in the thread.
1. Mapsubmission (step2)
2. XJ team is taking a detailed look on the map, testing the map for bugs/issues or other problems and is rating the overall quality of the map.
3. Result will be announced in the accepted/denied maps forum.
4. Chance to resubmit a denied map if admins think it is appropriate or necessary (at admins discretion).
5. Map will be released
Livechecking
In some cases it might be appropriate that mappers or the XJ map admins request a live checking. In this case the mapper and some of the XJ map admins will play the map on one of the XJ servers (pw protected of course) together and issues will be pointed out to the mapper immediately on the server. Such cases can be maps that have potential but a lot of issues to fix (and it would be unreasonable for the map admins to make 100 screenshots) or other special occasions. Of course the live checking should be and stay the exception since it is pretty time consuming and needs further coordination (mapper and XJ admin need to be online at the same time, map needs to be uploaded - and later deleted - on the server).
Resubmitting denied maps?
As mentioned in the chapters above, resubmitting maps will only be possible if you use the public beta-test way of submitting your map. A change to this had to be made because a lot of mappers were submitting their maps to get feedback by the XJ map admins, feedback they usually should have gotten by consulting beta testers or could have seen themselves by playing the map a few times. However, the XJ map checkers' job is NOT beta testing the maps for the mappers, they merely judge the quality of the map and see if it would fit into the XJ map cycle. Therefore: If you decide to submit your map to the XJ crew directly, you should recruit your own beta testers (people you trust) and make sure your map is free of bugs, because in this case re-submissions will only be possible in very rare exceptions.
No more custom map submisions
A big problem regarding custom maps was that everyone had a different idea about what a custom map is about; also the differences to the normal kz_ maps became more and more blurred. To work against that phenomenon we tried to put up a definition into the mapsubmission form, that fun and the jumps would matter more than quality when it comes to custom maps, but that resulted in a flood of unfinished and buggy maps.
As a consquence to all these problems in the old system, XJ won't be accepting and releasing custom maps any longer.
Mappers should feel free to release their custom maps everywhere and at any time they want. XJ offers a maprelease forum as a lobby/central place for that releases to happen, though.
Once the maps are released it is up to the community to figure out which of the custom maps have the potential to become popular and will be played frequently. Such popular maps (or older popular maps that weren't submitted to XJ yet) can be nominated in the map nominations forum. If there are enough nominations and votes the XJ mapteam will take a short look on the map to see if there are any outstanding problems and then the map will be added to the XJ mapcycle.
One of the major reasons the old system ceased to exist was that all of the recently recruited map admins went inactive and didn't really bother to test the maps at all anymore, nor did they actively take part in an internal discussion about a solution to this issue. This pretty much states that checking maps became a kind of work nobody wanted to do any longer, at least not on an unpaid and volunteering level as it currently is. Another indication for this was the small number of applications we got during the last attempt to recruit new admins.
Furthermore it is obvious that this was not solely the fault of our admins, nowadays mappers seem to completely misunderstand the map check system, which was originally meant as a quality-judging process. This process was used to find out if the quality of the submitted maps was good enough to make it into the XJ map pool and/or if the quality was good enough to receive the kz_ tag. A lot of people abused the fact that we explained our decisions with references to various bugs and other issues/problems in the map to get a feedback for their work - which means they used the map check system as a way to get people to (beta)test their maps. After the voting was done and the result announced most maps were re-submitted with only a few changes made and without a real changelog at all, which caused the map check team to check the map for every single bug over and over again.
This pretty much explains why the old system wasn't work any longer for either side, the admins and the mappers - and why we had to find another solution. Another aspect is, however, that a lot of people in the community didn't seem to agree with the decisions made by the map check team and their criteria how to judge and define "quality maps" any longer. We hope that these people will be happy to get a lot more influence (if they want) in the new system.
How does the new system work?
The new system is trying to solve the old system's problems in their roots. It was very hard for 5-6 selected mapadmins to represent the opinions and the wishes of a whole community, but it was almost impossible for those selected people to find every single bug and issue in the map - and especially every possible shortcut or glitch that may have caused problems in the future. So this is the point where the new system starts involving everyone in the community (who is interested at all), without former application. Mappers post their map in the public-beta check forum where everyone can and should play the upcoming maps and test them for bugs, problems, issues and also post his or her overall opinion.
After this period of time mappers should get a lot of feedback and a lot of issues were hopefully found, stuff that used to be revealed AFTER map releases in the past, therefore they have another chance to fix everything they want and then finally submit the map.
Once the map is submitted to XJ, the map admins will take a look at the map to ensure it is of decent quality and no major bugs are left (in case no one in the public-beta check noticed) and then take a deep look into the public-beta check thread, if people liked to play and test the map, if they think it could be a popular map to record and play. After they looked at all these facts the admins will give their vote and we announce the result in the accepted/denied maps forum. Furthermore, new XJ map check admins won't be recruited via applications any longer, instead of that the most active checkers of the public-beta check threads will get a chance to "rise up" and work as a XJ map admin.
However, we are aware of the fact that some mappers might not want to "give away" their maps and put them in a process like that, that's why we offer an alternative/backup solution. Mappers who don't want their maps to be tested by everyone in the community have the right to submit their maps to the XJ team directly, but if you use this "wild card" you should make sure you have the map tested properly by persons you trust - because the XJ map admins are NOT beta testers at all. Therefore these direct submissions will be handled a bit stricter than the other submissions, re-submissions will only be possible as an exception.
People choosing this way of submitting their maps should know that the map check teams major function is to judge the quality of the map and see if the map would fit into our map cycle, not helping to test the map. Of course we will explain why your map was denied (or what could be still improved if it was accepted), but don't expect a detailed feedback documenting every single issue in the map anymore (this was one of the reasons that led to the old systems stagnation).
Mapsubmission process:
1. Public beta-test
Using the process described under "How does the new system work".
1. Post your map in the public-betacheck forum.
2. Every user in the community can test and comment the map (bugs, glitches and shortcuts).
3. Mapper decides if he wants to fix the issues/bugs/shortcuts that were found in the thread.
4. Real mapsubmission (step2).
5. XJ team will play the map and take a final look at it as well as evaluating the public-beta check thread and all the opinions and comments posted in there and check if the bugs were fixed.
6. Result will be announced in the accepted/denied maps forum.
7. Chance to resubmit a denied map (only when a proper changelog is included!)
8. Map will be released
2. Mapsubmission only
If mappers do NOT want to put their map into the usual process for any reason, they have a chance to skip the whole public-beta test process and submit their map directly to the XJ map admins. This, of course, should be the exception, and when people use this "wild card" they should make sure that they had their map tested properly by persons they trust. To ensure that this is really happening, re-submissions for maps submitted this way will only be possible under very rare circumstances (decided at admins discretion).
2. Every user in the community can test and comment the map (bugs, glitches and shortcuts).
3. Mapper decides if he wants to fix the issues/bugs/shortcuts that were found in the thread.
1. Mapsubmission (step2)
2. XJ team is taking a detailed look on the map, testing the map for bugs/issues or other problems and is rating the overall quality of the map.
3. Result will be announced in the accepted/denied maps forum.
4. Chance to resubmit a denied map if admins think it is appropriate or necessary (at admins discretion).
5. Map will be released
Livechecking
In some cases it might be appropriate that mappers or the XJ map admins request a live checking. In this case the mapper and some of the XJ map admins will play the map on one of the XJ servers (pw protected of course) together and issues will be pointed out to the mapper immediately on the server. Such cases can be maps that have potential but a lot of issues to fix (and it would be unreasonable for the map admins to make 100 screenshots) or other special occasions. Of course the live checking should be and stay the exception since it is pretty time consuming and needs further coordination (mapper and XJ admin need to be online at the same time, map needs to be uploaded - and later deleted - on the server).
Resubmitting denied maps?
As mentioned in the chapters above, resubmitting maps will only be possible if you use the public beta-test way of submitting your map. A change to this had to be made because a lot of mappers were submitting their maps to get feedback by the XJ map admins, feedback they usually should have gotten by consulting beta testers or could have seen themselves by playing the map a few times. However, the XJ map checkers' job is NOT beta testing the maps for the mappers, they merely judge the quality of the map and see if it would fit into the XJ map cycle. Therefore: If you decide to submit your map to the XJ crew directly, you should recruit your own beta testers (people you trust) and make sure your map is free of bugs, because in this case re-submissions will only be possible in very rare exceptions.
No more custom map submisions
A big problem regarding custom maps was that everyone had a different idea about what a custom map is about; also the differences to the normal kz_ maps became more and more blurred. To work against that phenomenon we tried to put up a definition into the mapsubmission form, that fun and the jumps would matter more than quality when it comes to custom maps, but that resulted in a flood of unfinished and buggy maps.
As a consquence to all these problems in the old system, XJ won't be accepting and releasing custom maps any longer.
Mappers should feel free to release their custom maps everywhere and at any time they want. XJ offers a maprelease forum as a lobby/central place for that releases to happen, though.
Once the maps are released it is up to the community to figure out which of the custom maps have the potential to become popular and will be played frequently. Such popular maps (or older popular maps that weren't submitted to XJ yet) can be nominated in the map nominations forum. If there are enough nominations and votes the XJ mapteam will take a short look on the map to see if there are any outstanding problems and then the map will be added to the XJ mapcycle.
#1 Xtreme-Jumps.eu - Public
Talk #1
Reygan
