[Ceeser1]

Hey guys,

The weeks/months of RMS v1 are now over and I want to make a conclusion about it.
I also want to give some infos about the concept I've thought about for RMS v2 (no announcement yet^^)
All upcoming votes you'll find below will somewhen be made in the RMS Discord server.

Warning: Alot of text


=== Contents ===

1. Conclusion of RMS v1

1.1. What went wrong?

1. Leavings

2. Delays

3. Not responding / not mapping

4. Unfinished maps

5. Special apology

1.2. What went well?

1. Communication / Problem solving

2. Special thanks / Backup mappers

1.3. Summary / Reasons for changes in RMS v2

2. Concept for RMS v2

2.1. Reason for changes 2.0

2.2. Idea: "Limits"

2.3. Idea: "Control"

2.4. Themes /Styles

3. Management and timing changes

3.1 Timing changes

3.2 Management changes

1. Conclusion for RMS v1

Alright guys, what can I say.. I hope RMS v1 was a lot of fun for you guys, because for me most of the time it was.
But most of the time means that it wasn't always fun - and that is what I would like to explain here.
But of course, after that I will also mention the positive things, this will not only be a "complain"

1.1 What went wrong with RMS v1?

1. Leavings:
In RMS v1 there was a total of 7 mappers who left. 3 more had to be kicked out, because they didn't map at all.. that's bad, and sad. (Almost 1/4, 10 out of 44 mappers!)
It's sad they left because they could have done a great job for RMS v1 with their maps and maybe several players would have liked to see their parts, too.
It's also bad for another reason: They disappointed me (Ceeser) and of course the other players/mappers too. And with their departure it wasn't done there just yet.
As you can see in the documentation file it was a lot of work trying to keep RMS running with all that stuff happening.
But in the end 2 maps had to get cancelled / removed because the start-mappers already didn't map or they already decided to leave. So yea, and that's only the first 2 weeks.
Later on many more players left which was even more difficult to handle. First there was only Gravity as a backup mapper, but he also cancelled that application later due to not having enough time.
After W1-2 I had to make a call out for backup mappers. And I'm grateful the players/participant listened, but I will write more about that later

2. Delays:
Each participant had 2 maps to work on. The task they applied for, twice. They had 2 weeks to complete each map.
I thought it sounded managable, but as it turns out: I was wrong.
During the whole event many (at the moment 17 at W7-8 start) maps (and with that, mapping weeks) got delayed. The biggest delay was 8 days.
Everybody applied for the task and preferred weeks they wanted to work on. So why was it so difficult for some mappers to get their task done?
I have to mention one example: ShondeX. Task: Track. Track is a thing that's easily possible to do within 2 weeks. Guess what? He didn't manage to even start his map in time during both weeks. I also ended up having to delay both of his maps with 5 days.
I wouldn't and didn't complain if a decorator took 1-2 days longer than expected. Deco can consume alot of time, but track? Cmon track mappers.
There's one thing everbody seemed to have forgotten about: Each day of delay you cause means one less day for your feat partner to work on the map

3. Not responding and not mapping:
As I wrote in the readMe.txt which got sent once with each map every mapper got, you had 3 days to confirm you will map.
You applied for the weeks I've sorted you in and you had 6 weeks (the whole application phase + first 2 mapping weeks) to think twice whether you can map or not.
So you should have known if you are available for the weeks you applied for. You should have known about this event since you applied for it.
So I wonder, how is it be possible to not be available for atleast one or even both weeks you applied for.
If you move to another city / country, or you start working or switch your job.. These are all planned things. You know about these weeks or even months ahead.
Sorry, but I just don't understand why you applied if you knew you might not have time at all.

4. Unfinished maps:
Due to not mapping / not responding we have a total of 7! unfinished maps in RMS v1 (35% of all maps!). Thats a sad thing.
We started with 22 Maps (44 Applicants) first. Several mappers left in the first 2 weeks so we came up with 20 maps at the end. Only 13 of these 20 maps got finished (8 of them in the planned time btw).
So for the mappers who didn't continue / finish their maps:
Your ft partners spent time and effort on the maps. It's a shame that you've wasted that time/effort and the map itself, sorry.

5. Special apology:
Akeno! aka AKENISM applied to make track, but sadly I accidentally sorted him to decorate, which nobody (including him and me) noticed.
When I sent him a map he asked me why the map's track was done and he told me he couldn't make deco, that's how we noticed the issue.
So again, Akeno, sorry for that mistake which took away your chance to participate in RMS.

Alright now, enough with the crying. I hope you understand why it's so important for me to mention these circumstances.
I really hope these things won't happen again, or that they will atleast happen much less in RMS v2.
Now a bit about the positive things:


1.2 What went well during RMS v1?

1. Communication:
Yes, of course it doesn't apply to everyone (as you read above), but with most of you it went well.
There was a lot of stuff that we were able to solve by simple asking / writing.
Players asked me for tips and solutions instead of just trying / doing it on their own. Thank you for taking the rules seriously (let's not talk about the map-showing rule here xD).

2. Special thanks / Backup mappers:
At W3-4 I was kinda desperate due to the amount of departures, I didn't know how to handle it so I made a call out for backup mappers and several people applied for that.
So a special thanks goes out to the backup mappers:
Gravity, D4sJoker, GameX, Risky, Lacia, DarkyZ, budya and especially KarNikkl.
These guys have done a great and very important job by keeping RMS v1 running!


1.3 Summary

RMS v1 was of course the first time I planned and did an event like this, But trying helps learning.
Overall it was fun to manage and nice to see many nice maps getting done, but:
Due to the fact that so many players left, some needed replacement, some issues with players' applications (tasks/weeks) and some players not mapping, many backup mappers were needed.
I've come to the conclusion that some things have to be changed for RMS v2, which I will explain in more detail in the RMS v2 section below.


2. Concept for RMS v2

2.1 Reason for changes:
In my opinion RMS shouldn't always be the same. Because of that I have thought about a few changes I wanna make for RMS v2.
Due to the problems which happened in RMS v1 I wanna explain 2 ideas about what RMS v2 could be like.
I thought about either limiting maps or checking maps, which I will explain below.

2.2 "Limits" idea:
As the name already suggests, this idea is about limiting RMS. Setting a max amount of maps, and with that of course the amount of mappers, too.
Let's say for RMS v2 12 maps are going to be planned. This will mean only 24 mappers are going to be able to participate.
In RMS v1 everybody who had already done a map was allowed to apply.
The only way how applicants could be denied entry was if they only had dislikes or if they had more dislikes than likes on their applications.
In this idea the amount of mappers is limited, so that is going to change. Basically it will get reversed:
Everybody is allowed to apply, but only the 24 mappers with the most likes will get into RMS (12 track and 12 deco mappers with the most likes).
This should reduce the amount of leavings, since...:
1. The players voted you in = the players want to see your map.
2. The mappers are selected by the community, so there should be less bad track / deco to complain about, they voted for the mappers for a reason.
3. Slots are limited. You should only apply if you really want to be a part of- and have time for the event.

2.3 "Control" idea:
This isn't supposed to be as bad as it maybe sounds like, no worries. Actually it's more fair to everybody, because you don't have to select mappers you like and you want to be accepted.
In this idea everybody is still allowed to apply to RMS v2 (if they can prove they have mapped already) and the only way not to get accepted is the same as in RMS v1:
If you only have dislikes or if you have more dislikes than likes on your application.
But then, after the application phase ends this idea will make a change.
Since most of complaints during RMS v1 were about track (obviously, no matter how awesome the deco is.. if the track sucks the map is shit / unplayable), I wanna get in a few map testers.
These map testers can also be a part of RMS v2 as well, but they obviously wouldn't test their own maps.
So.. after W1-2 has passed, every map would be tested by these map testers and they will decide if the map is good enough. So badly mapped / buggy maps could be voted out by them.
With that vote, since it's the start of RMS v2 they would basically vote out participants whose maps are not playable and they would also reduce the amount of maps in RMS v2.

2.4 Themes / Styles:
I know, RMS only had one volume so far, but I think it wouldn't hurt to change something to also offer something new with RMS v2.
For that reason I wanna explain you something I would like to base RMS v2 on: Themes / Styles.
So I've thought about creating maps, random or not fully random (we will see later) assignments based on styles.
Btw: I wont decide "we will take this!", we can ofc discuss about it.

Style examples:
[Style] [Difficulty to pass]
Tracks: "WFF" (Easy / Medium / Hard)
"Normal" (Easy / Medium / Challenging),
"HDM" (Challenging / Hard / Is this even possible?),
"Speed" (Easy / Medium / Challenging)

[Style] [Difficulty to create]
Deco: "Nature / Tropical" (Easy)
"Desert / Canyon" (Easy / Medium)
"Industrial / City" (Medium / Medium / Hard)
"Night / Fancy" (Medium / Hard) -- by fancy I don't mean the mapper Fancy, I mean a non-style decoration or compilation / fitting mix of styles
"Themed" (Medium / Hard) -- With themed I mean based on a game / movie / fiction - example mappers: Disaster, Jakob

If we mix up these styles it could perfectly mix up with the Limits idea (2.2) - If we take 4 Track styles, each with 4 deco styles we have a total of 16, completely different looking maps like this:

Show Example

v2.1: WFF - Nature/Nature/Tropical, v2.2: WFF - Desert/Canyon, v2.3: WFF - Industrial/City, v2.4: WFF - Night/Fancy
v2.5: Normal - Nature/Nature/Tropical, v2.6: Normal - Desert/Canyon, v2.7: Normal - Industrial/City, v2.8: Normal - Night/Fancy
v2.9: HDM - Nature/Nature/Tropical, v2.10: HDM - Desert/Canyon, v2.11: HDM - Industrial/City, v2.12: HDM - Night/Fancy
v2.13: Speed - Nature/Nature/Tropical, v2.14: Speed - Desert/Canyon, v2.15: Speed - Industrial/City, v2.16: Speed - Night/Fancy

I think this would bring something new. Maybe it would even helps mappers finding a new style


3. Management and timing changes

3.1 Timing changes:
Since several players told me that the application phase was too long I decided to change that.
RMS v2 will be announced 4 weeks before the applications start and the application phase will only be a week long.
Like this you will still have enough time to think twice and decide if you have time to participate.
After applications start you won't have to wait ages like you had to in RMS v1. (sorry about that once again xD)

Also it will be discussed whether there will be changes about the mapping weeks:
In RMS v1 track and deco mappers had 2 weeks each to complete their task on the map.
This is kinda unfair actually, because track can be done within a few hours (of mapping time) while decoration takes quite more.
Because of that I will also make the community / mappers decide if it should:
A: Stay the same as in RMS v1 (2 weeks for track mappers and decorators)
B: Reduce time for track mappers (1 week for track mappers and 2 weeks for decorators)
C: Expand time for decorators (2 weeks for track mappers and 3 weeks for decorators)
D: Reduce time for track & expand for deco (1 week for track mappers and 3 weeks for decorators)


3.2 Management changes:
The management in RMS v1 was sometimes a mess and chaotic because of 100 things happening at the same time, while at other days there was nothing going on.
So I want to get a second RMS manager for RMS v2 who can help solving problems, recieve / check / send the maps.. so basically everything ^^

In addition to that I would like to:
1. Get some backup mappers in advance - I've noticed what happened in RMS v1 and this time I would like to play it safe and be prepared.
2. Get some dedicated map testers who are allowed to check / test maps, meta, scripts.
These map testers are not allowed to participate, except if RMS v2 will include the "Control" idea, where every map will be tested, or atleast in W1-2.
3. Get some mappers or nice players who would like to provide mapping servers, so that every participant will have the opportunity to map on his "own" server.
I know, everybody could map in their local editor.. but during RMS v1 there were several mappers in a "group" of participants, mapping on just a few servers which shouldn't happen.

I hope you enjoyed RMS and join us (again) in RMS v2, whenever it will start.
Let me know your opinions about the ideas for RMS v2 and the idea with Styles/Themes.

Sincerely, Ceeser.