: You can have a scenario without a story - not a great one, but one you can
: play and maybe enjoy. You absolutely cannot have a scenario withoug
: maps, however. We all complain about scenarios that seem to be cobbled
: together from a bunch of maps with a crappy story to try to pull it all
: together, but at least it's something. My very strong advice is that if
: you have a good group of dedicated mapmakers , toss the plot around until
: it really sounds right, then make the maps to go with it. Once you have a
: purpose and once you have maps, then you can think about new textures,
: new weapons and new monsters to kill. Everyone seems to get it backwards.
: They come up with a rather contrived story, then start thinking about all
: the neat things they can do with it, put up a website, dream up new
: weapons, etc. They put so much energy into sprite, texture and map
: development that they're burned out before they ever get to the real meat
: of the scenario - the maps. Maps can always be retextured and repopulated
: later, but they won't build themselves from your beautiful textures and
: sprites. And don't start work on the website until the scenario's in the
: hands of the beta testers - that's the time to start building hype.
: Once again, if you have a story but don't have the skills or the time to turn
: it into a scenario, flesh out the story fully and submit it to MaraFF.
: There's some great stuff over there and you'll be helping to keep the
: dream alive. Or give serious thought to combining your scenario with
: someone else's - how do you think that Rubicon ended up with two disparate
: planks?
Speaking only as a player, I wish this post was required reading for all scenario authors. When you read a post of what someone has completed for their scenario and "maps" isn't at or near the top of the list...well, that's kiss of death time.
I have never understood the desire to focus so much energy on new weapons, textures & monsters. The map's the thing! Many, many great scenarios have no (or very few) new elements beyond great maps. When I want to play Marathon I want to play MARATHON. But, I'm a hopeless purist...
Ryan
