Community interest in User Made Missions?

[Wiki 1558]

Ahah, funny, I prefer linear missions rather than dynamic ones.

[MavericK96 0]

If you're someone who has no interest in User Made Missions

Sooo what would that even mean? All you play is the SP campaign or the 3 base MP missions? :rolleyes:

[Variable 322]

OP Dude, we are playing community made coop missions for the past 10 years. What kind of a question is that?

[Alwarren 2767]

User made missions are the life blood of Arma, and have been so since almost 15 years. Just because public servers play things like Battle Royale or Altis Life, doesn't mean that most players in clans and in groups play user made missions.

At CiA, we regular play twice a week, and we play user made missions exclusively.

[BL1P 35]

I thought the Question was do you use Steam Workshop to get your mission.

Guess the Thread Title doesn't really match the Poll.

[Variable 322]

Yeah I guess my first reaction was misplaced. My apologies.

It's almost arbitrary how missions get a lot of subscribers and vote ups, as someone who uploads ALL coop missions that are published on the workshop I can tell you that most of great missions we played

has few subscribers and no stars. We made a habit if visiting the pages of good missions right after we play them to comment and vote. I hope it helps...

Edited August 4, 2014 by Variable

[swvn9 10]

This is my perferred way of getting missons, all in one place

[HotShot 0]

I only subscribe to singleplayer (MP missions download when you connect.... why bother with steam unless you host?). I wasn't sure about the Workshop at first, but I like it now.

And "only 5,000 subscribers" - that seems like a hell of a lot to me?!

[Variable 322]

I only subscribe to singleplayer (MP missions download when you connect.... why bother with steam unless you host?). I wasn't sure about the Workshop at first, but I like it now.

And "only 5,000 subscribers" - that seems like a hell of a lot to me?!

Yeah! It's a lot of subscribers.

[galzohar 31]

The main problem is that when you play the mission on a dedicated server, you can never know if that mission is even on the workshop at all, nor can you have an easy interface to vote it up, nor will the publisher be able to provide your server with automatic updates. Since most gaming happens on dedicated servers, that makes the workshop near-useless for missions.

[sxp2high 22]

I usually skip missions if no direct link is provided (workshop only), it's just too much of a hassle to put it up on the server. And I dislike the whole concept in general.

If I'm really interested in the mission, and workshop is the only option: Subscribe > Download > Upload to server > Rename mission to conform with our naming standards > Unsubscribe

Workshop is a plague, especially for dedicated servers. :dead:

[StrongHarm 13]

I only subscribe to singleplayer (MP missions download when you connect.... why bother with steam unless you host?). I wasn't sure about the Workshop at first, but I like it now.

And "only 5,000 subscribers" - that seems like a hell of a lot to me?!

Yeah! It's a lot of subscribers.

To put it into context my other mission of similar quality and type has over 30k subscribers. That's why I was wondering if there's been a shift in community numbers or interest... or if it's some other variable.

For the sake of comparison:

Close Air Support (Day2)

had over 20,000 subscribers last year in the same amount of time that..

Close Air Support (ECAS)

accumulated only 5,000 subscribers this year.

[Nicholas 5]

I've subscribed to some missions from the workshop. I don't usually browse through the workshop though, I typically find missions from other players, Armaholic, or news sites/blogs.

I don't have an issue with Steam at all.

[kilroy the nerd 14]

I personally quite like Workshop. I from time to time play with either FOLK ARPS, or just an Invade and annex server or an Altis Life kind of thing, although usually the latter gets boring with no sense of purpose. Mostly, I play singleplayer Workshop missions, but it can be tough to find quality ones, which is quite discouraging. So just people tired of trying to sift through a load of dirt to get to the gold might be why people don't subscribe as much or provide feedback.

[MavericK96 0]

I usually skip missions if no direct link is provided (workshop only), it's just too much of a hassle to put it up on the server. And I dislike the whole concept in general.

If I'm really interested in the mission, and workshop is the only option: Subscribe > Download > Upload to server > Rename mission to conform with our naming standards > Unsubscribe

Workshop is a plague, especially for dedicated servers. :dead:

Yeah, I have to agree. It's great for an end-user playing local missions, but for putting them up on a dedicated server it's a huge hassle.

If it didn't put the missions in such a weird place (somewhere buried in the Steam folder) it wouldn't be so bad.

[StrongHarm 13]

Poll pretty conclusively shows that 3 of 4 people on the boards who responded play single player user made missions from the Steam Workshop.

Also, the majority view is that dedicated server missions should be placed on armaholic or bi boards instead of the Workshop.

It occurs to me that there's a variable that will cause a large statistical deviation: how much of the Arma3 user base frequents the BIS forums?..

It would seem that the people that take the time to be part of the forum community would also be the people most likely to participate in user made missions.. which further complicates the deviation.

Results of question 'Why has there been an apparent decrease in WS UMM subscribers?': Inconclusive.

[.kju 3244]

People stopped playing.

[the_demongod 31]

I used to go on the workshop a whole lot more. Earlier in the game's development, the workshop was a place for talented mission makers like yourself, StrongHarm, to post their missions. I used to browse the workshop all the time, trying all sorts of missions out.

However, more recently I feel like the workshop has become a place where inexperienced mission makers can post their shitty missions that they made as a joke (or just totally suck or pay no attention to presentation). Seriously, I saw a mission where the only point was to mock Israel after the recent conflicts.

The issue is that because not a whole lot of people use the workshop regularly, shitty missions and good missions don't receive a big enough gap in ratings. For example, if someone posts a shitty mission at the same time a good mission is posted, the bad one will get a few downvotes, the good one will get a few upvotes. What we need is for the bad one to get shot into oblivion, and for the good one to get rated high. That way, the "most popular this week" (default workshop sorting method) page will show missions that have been widely liked. Instead, we have missions like "bunny infestation" trending on "most popular this week." And that is why people (at least me) don't use the workshop as often anymore.

Sure, there are still some good missions that are posted there, I'm sure. But the presence of bad missions makes the workshop a much less desirable place to go looking for missions.

I can honestly say that, for those reasons, I have not downloaded a single mission from the workshop ever since your ECAS mission came out.

My proposed solution would be for highly-rated mission makers (top rated all time worthy) would be marked as such (similar to how websites such as Twitter mark famous persons as "verified"), meaning that players could choose to see only content that is professionally presented and/or have great gameplay/storylines. This way, people like yourself and OksmanTV (who produced "Operation Cold Rising I," the best single-player infantry mission I have ever played) could be found more easily, resulting in more players feeling inclined to browse the workshop (as the likelihood of finding a great mission is much higher).

just my two cents. Cheers.

[StrongHarm 13]

the_Demongod.. that just makes too much damned sense. Well said.

I'm going to link your post to a few BIS Devs. It's really a Steam issue so I'm not sure what can be done, but those guys can deliver when it comes down to the wire.

It would be nice to see a mission with hundreds of hours of development like ECAS not get buried under missions like "Your Pizza Was Stolen By Enemy" (true story)...

[Jona33 51]

NOTE: I am not a major mission creator with huge talent so this post is based on my limited experience.

@the_demongod-sounds about right. I've released four missions on the steam workshop, three serious ones and one Karts one I did in a few hours for a laugh, incredibly at this point in time the Karts mission has 306 subscribers, the other three have a combined total of somewhere around 150 (admittedly the first two were a bit crap but even the decent serious mission has only 121 subscribers). It's as much to do with people not wanting to play serious missions as it is a problem with the way Steam handles missions.

On the other hand I do like your proposal for a "Excellent Mission Maker" mark, but how would that be decided, if you have x missions with y subscribers and a certain rating on each mission you get it, or should it be voted for (at which point people will inevitably vote for people who do make Operation Repetitive-Navy Seals HALO-kill taliban leader-blow up ammo-slaughter one hundred enemies and destroy a radio tower before escaping in a stolen tank).

[L3TUC3 32]

People's opinion on fun differ. Many, more perhaps can enjoy a lighthearted departure from typical milsim. That's the beauty of a sandbox.

Stupid fun is still fun. People want to be entertained, you must remember gaming typically is leisure time. If I had to pick between a meticulously designed (blisters included) foot patrol that takes hours to complete or mortar pooping goats I'd pick goats first because it sounds fun. I'd play the patrol when in the mood and I have time for it.

Both have their place. If it's just subs you're worried about, why not use your skills to create something outside the box for change-up? It might actually feel relieving and I know you can probably do something awesome. Playing around with silly ideas is good practice too.

[Jona33 51]

People's opinion on fun differ. Many, more perhaps can enjoy a lighthearted departure from typical milsim. That's the beauty of a sandbox.

Stupid fun is still fun. People want to be entertained, you must remember gaming typically is leisure time. If I had to pick between a meticulously designed (blisters included) foot patrol that takes hours to complete or mortar pooping goats I'd pick goats first because it sounds fun. I'd play the patrol when in the mood and I have time for it.

Both have their place. If it's just subs you're worried about, why not use your skills to create something outside the box for change-up? It might actually feel relieving and I know you can probably do something awesome. Playing around with silly ideas is good practice too.

Very true, and I don't have a problem with that (except it's not my idea of fun so it must be wrong! :D), I do think it is quite interesting though given how many people buy ARMA and don't use it for combat missions.

[galzohar 31]

Anyone who is still not tired of this game is probably playing on a populated server, and not Steam Workshop missions. No matter how many missions people make, you'll probably go through them faster than they make them. The only way to still be playing this game is either making missions yourself or playing multiplayer missions on a server (public or community based), and none of those options involve the Steam workshop.

[Variable 322]

The only way to still be playing this game is either making missions yourself or playing multiplayer missions on a server (public or community based), and none of those options involve the Steam workshop.

That's not true. There are dedicated servers that host workshop missions. CiA does that and some other ones as well.

---------- Post added at 13:42 ---------- Previous post was at 13:37 ----------

In addition, small group of players check the workshop and get missions that fit their player count, and host it locally or on dedicated servers.

Edited August 14, 2014 by Variable

[StrongHarm 13]

I've come to the conclusion that putting hundreds of hours into a mission only to have it buried deep in the Workshop due to poor ratings mechanics is not worth it. I had a thumbs down due to the fact that 30mm is underpowered in Arma3. If more people could enjoy my missions it would be worth my time, but that's not going to happen with the idiocy that's occurring in the Workshop.

I'm going to have to look for another creative outlet. Have fun, StrongHarm out.