Idea Potentially EULA-friendly Donation Idea: CTF Map Selector

Okay, I admit this concept can potentially expand into other games as well, but I play CTF most often and I read about plenty of people who miss the out-of-rotation CTF maps - and I even occasionally witness old map rotation boosters being in effect...but whether it's new from me or repeated from someone who may have mentioned it in the past without me being aware of it, this idea is a bit different from enabling old map rotation boosters with regard to CTF map-related donation activity.

I predict that plenty of players who readily donate would love to benefit from the perks of being able to select a specific map of their choice, and the donation funds should witness a nice dependable increase as a result. This is hopefully well within EULA restrictions and guidelines (since selecting a specific map doesn't give an advantage, but it simply tailors to a player's personal preferences instead). I have no idea what the donation requirement should be, or if it should even scale differently for different maps based on how old or "broken" they may be deemed, but that's a great deal of why I'm mentioning it here...for ideas and feedback if enough people find this idea useful and helpful since I heard donations can be tricky to encourage overall.


As this suggestion stands so far (in case of discussion and ideas leading to changes and updates):

For the CTF player who has donated toward gaining a temporary "Map Selector" item, they would see a map icon only IMMEDIATELY AFTER a CTF round ENDS (so that the map selection isn't suddenly changed once it has already been randomly selected as normal). The Map Selector would have the exact map name in its description so when the player inspects it they're reminded of what level it relates to. Activating the map would display a confirmation message with the number of uses that remain afterward, or it would display a denial message with the number of uses that remain if circumstances cannot allow it to activate (whether it's used in a game that is some degree of an "official match" or whether another player had already locked in the next level by using a Map Selector that they gained by donating). A message would display to all CTF users that the map was selected outside the typical rotation (so that fewer players complain about a map showing up in what might otherwise seem like a normal rotation).

Once a Map Selector is purchased (and its specific map decided) from the Brawl Donations site, I think it should have 5 uses with a 1-hour-long cooldown after each successful use before completely vanishing.

To avoid abuse (as well as to grant lasting value), one Map Selector should be available at most per player, and all 5 uses must be successfully spent before another Map Selector can be purchased UNLESS the player opts to completely forfeit any remaining uses on a previous Map Selector that still has uses remaining to gain a replacement Map Selector that is assigned to a different map. THE 1-HOUR COOLDOWN BETWEEN MAP SELECTOR USES WOULD REMAIN REGARDLESS FOR THAT PLAYER. Obviously warnings about the previous Map Selector uses being forfeited and discouraging that choice should be displayed for absolute confirmation...but the impatient players with money and strong preferences for playing another map rather than the same map 5 times would be more likely to donate more toward Brawl to play another favorite map instead of waiting for all remaining uses to fully exhaust first.

If a player has an unused Map Selector (retaining all 5 uses), then they should be permitted to change the map that they selected somewhere on the Brawl site (perhaps on the Donations page) and get a replacement Map Selector assigned to the new map without requiring any additional donation (because sometimes people change their mind, or click on the wrong thing only to realize it much later). After all, it would be completely unused.

If a player uses the CTF Map Selector and then too many players leave to the point of having too few players to have the game begin, I'm thinking the easiest "solution" to this would be to allow the match to begin anyway (even though there are too few players). If the user of the Map Selector is the only player on the server, credits can be earned easily to serve as value for their item. If everyone (including the player who picked the map) is bumped off the map, it will continue unchanged and grant a chance to pick up where it left off...or the player can complain if they're completely unable to return to the map and be given a replacement or something if the complaint is legit with known server issues correspond to the timing of when the item was used and such.

Some of the balancers here are that the window of opportunity to activate the Map Selector is pretty narrow (the player would need to be on the server immediately after a round ends and before the next map loads in for players to prepare), plus only one can be activated per player each hour regardless, and only one player can choose the map for the round so nobody can override their pick as long as they had picked first.

Has anything like this been suggested before? What are the pros and cons? What are some more of the promises and problems with it? Don't be shy... Vote on the poll above! Let others know if you like or dislike the idea.

 

I was thinking of a way to have maps browsed in-game at first, but there are SOOOO many that it would take so much time to find the one you'd want...lol. On the site, screenshots and descriptions can make it far more obvious which map is being looked into and there would be much more time to look into it without being distracted by the next phase of the ongoing CTF rounds or being AFK in spawn not helping in the game in progress.

I do agree with you on allowing many players to contribute to which map should play next. Perhaps after some time it might be possible to have players who register here on Brawl.com be granted a single-use CTF Map Selector for a map of their choice every so often, or perhaps a CTF Map Selector can be offered as a reward for contributing helpful and friendly thoughts or recognizing and reporting exploits and glitches or that kind of thing.

 

I had given this a bit of thought too, but it has a few problems. At best, with every other detail working beautifully and fairly, it's difficult to think of a reliable way to deal with matches that may have multiple Map Selector users. At worst, you would have players discouraged from obtaining Map Selectors because their favorite map suggestions always get voted down enough to not go into effect while their donation reward decays more and more with each attempted use, essentially being a waste.

A menu could pop up saying that a player had suggested some specific version of "Opposites Collide" for example, and players can either type /y or /n, but would a second vote toward a later suggestion for the same round, like "Blackout X" override it, or would the player be told that they already voted for the round? What if someone changes their mind and wants to vote for the first option again? If they type /y for the first suggestion and the second suggestion pops up just before they hit ENTER, the vote would go toward the 2nd map (not to mention ALL of this /y and /n voting would interfere with the voting already in place for choosing whether or not each player cares for the current map in the rotation). Another possibility is to vote by grabbing an item out from the inventory that would represent each player's Map Selector pick(s) -- and looking different enough from any Map Selector each player might have so they don't mix up their "vote item" with their own possible Map Selector. Each "map vote item" could have names that correspond to the exact map so it displays when the item is pointed to with the mouse cursor. This way could be doable, but it's a lot of work and it has potential to be discouraging and frustrating for the players who use their Map Selector.

Imagine you donate for a Map Selector reward and you use it only to have others vote your map down each time. Should those (let's say 5) limited uses be burned up each suggestion? Will they remain unspent so that your undesired maps (and any undesired maps of other donating players) are suggested again and again each round until one finally goes through to activate the cooldown for awhile? Will an undesired request not cost any uses but still activate the cooldown before it can be used again even if the map pick is voted down? If no use is spent and the cooldown is activated, then unwanted maps that are suggested again and again by multiple players with Map Selectors that are never exhausted would mean the server would have to keep track of more and more cooldown timers for each unique account and that can get messy and possibly bog down the server.

I'm pretty sure what I have for the idea at the moment isn't the best way for it to work, but it allows the people who purchase the item to use it more reliably, and having a handful of annoying players who donated for Map Selectors to pick terrible maps would only be allowed to do so a limited number of times total with each account having to wait for the cooldown before they can use it again. Maybe the issue of having stalemate maps suggested can be avoided better by increasing the cooldown from 1 hour to several hours...or even a full 24 hours?