The 6 step plan to create a map pool system that actually represents player’s map interests

Age of Empires II: DE II - Discussion
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  1. No dev picks (and maybe even no fixed maps): Basically, the more maps we get to vote on, the more accurate I personally believe the results are going to be. Dev picks should instead be in the „Map Pool Vote".

  2. Improve the voting UI: hide the voting percentage and show all maps. Take a look at this example!

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Screenshot taken from: The AoE2 Map System is Cool, but Could be Better - YouTube

And improve the map icons. Comparison between AoE2 map selection icon and AoE3 map selection icon: note, the resource counter in the bottom right corner of the AoE3 screenshot is a feature of the website however, the mini map itself is the exact same in Ao3. As you can see the AoE3 mini map is much more detailed by showing exactly what resources can be found on the map while the mini map in AoE2 simply fails to do that.

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aoe3_arabia_mm
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  1. Or even add an in-game-map-viewer, which lets us open up a map within the „Map Pool Vote“ section and lets us choose between 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, to more easily show how this map actually looks generated for different team sizes.

  2. Ranked Choice Voting: Let us rank the maps instead of being limited to vote for three maps.

  3. Ranked Coice Queueing: Let us rank the maps when queueing. The problem with the current system is that it sorts 7 maps (1v1) or 9 maps (team games) into 3 categories:

  4. I want to play this map.

  5. I am ok with playing this map.

  6. I do not want to play this map.

The system, however, is unable to differentiate within these categories and can therefore almost never accurately determine a player’s interest in playing them since most players do not feel exactly the same way towards the maps they have not banned.

  1. Maps should not be in the map pool two consecutive times: This has not a lot to do with the title, but if we seriously want to promote map variety, then having the possibility of maps being in the pool consecutively seriously hinders that.
3 Likes
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ehh. i mean like if u exclude arena, arabia, and maybe Megarandom. And nomad and whatever is always there for teamgames then sure. There needs to be consistent maps that will be there no matter what. This is so people who want to try hard more can consistently play and improve on these maps. Like imagine not having arabia in 1v1, people would riot.

i mean nice but not that important.

I disagree with some of the general ideas. Sure, if devs give us bog Islands, most people are going to hate it but if we always have every map in the voting pool, then the voting pool is going to have like the same 12-15 maps with no new maps bc people arent used to the other maps/don’t even know what the other maps are and dont want to try/aren’t good on them since they havennt played them before so they’ll never get a moment to shine. Whereas, someone who might’ve not voted for bog islands learns after the week that they like it and want to play it more. Since there is not other good match making system (unranked sucks) its kinda where most people learn about niche maps as well.

But i also hate when u get good at a niche game and then it leaves and u drop 300 elo or smth.

Other suggestions: randomize order during voting for each player so decrease biases of people picking maps near the top. Although this could frustrate people since they cant find there maps.

I really like 3-5 though. Although if there were a ton of maps 4 would have to a have a limit of number of votes or something.