For those that have tried 1.8...Mapsets.. alphabetical poll

[Isolder]

UPDATE! Melekor has added a Toggle so thanks for voting everyone.

1.8 introduces a significant UI change in regards to plugin, tagset and mesh selection. Included is a screenshot showing the 1.8 Mapsets listing. Currently it is sorted by Mesh #. This poll is to find out if you think plugins should be sorted alphabetically instead.



I just want to know what other people think about the Mapsets listing.

Real world examples:

If you prefer this (alphabetical):

Code: Select all

ava4final
Axis vs Allies 2 Mappack
Axis vs Allies 2 Objectives
Axis vs Allies Exp Maps
CBI.BETA
ffaleaguemappackv1

over this (Plugins are sorted by # of meshes in plug - current method of sorting in 1.8 beta):

Code: Select all

Myth II: soulblighter
ffaleaguemappackv1
zffapackfinalv3
Magma - UTB Expansion Pack
Magma TFL Multipack

say YES.

If you like Plugins sorted by Mesh #, say No.

UPDATE! Melekor has added a Toggle so thanks for voting everyone.

[vinylrake]

YES.

Alpha rules!

[punkUser]

Man why did you have to make a perfectly valid poll and then invalidate the results with your biased posing of the question? :S

[GHOST®]

Though apparently *technically* invalidated by a question posed by Iso, i still vote YES to Alpha sorting of mapsets over the random mish mash of # of levels contained in a plugin.

For the record, after showing my 11 year old nephew Nathan how it is in 1.7.2 vs how it is currently in 1.8 and he stated that Alpha sorting is "way better than" the current setup, then gave me a "DUH !"

Anyways, that's my .02 cents worth, not that its actually worth anything.

[Isolder]

Man why did you have to make a perfectly valid poll and then invalidate the results with your biased posing of the question? :S

Well, the Poll question itself is completely unbiased.

[punkUser]

Well, the Poll question itself is completely unbiased.

Sure, but you should have just explained how each of the options was sorted in your post, not claimed that one is "random" (it is not).

[Isolder]

Well, the Poll question itself is completely unbiased.

Sure, but you should have just explained how each of the options was sorted in your post, not claimed that one is "random" (it is not).

Changed random as heck to # of meshes in plug.

[vinylrake]

Well, the Poll question itself is completely unbiased.

Sure, but you should have just explained how each of the options was sorted in your post, not claimed that one is "random" (it is not).

As a fairly logical programmer type person, I can see the logic behind displaying the mapplugs based on the # of meshes they contain, but I also see 3 rather large problems/cases against displaying them in #ofMesh order.

1. If someone new to 1.8 can't intuit (tell at a glance) why the list of maps is sorted the way it is then it's NOT a good way to sort maps. It's not helpful if it LOOKS random. If the reason isn't apparent for why it's sorted the way it is then there's no good reason to sort them in that order.

2. The number of meshes a plugin has doesn't have any direct correlation with how often maps are used, so sorting them in this order isn't putting most played plugins at the top. A well-loved plugin everyone plays that only has one mesh is going to be listed below maps with more meshes that are never played - how is that an improvement over A-Z? Sorting them in this order is NOT convenient it doesn't HELP someone find a map. This IS significant.

3. PRIMARY PROBLEM: 99% of players (myself included) have no idea how many meshes a plugin has so even though there is a scheme behind the sort order, the order LOOKS random. Even if I know WHY the list is sorted the way it is, so I KNOW it's not 'random', if I don't know how many meshes plugins have the order is MEANINGLESS, it's no longer 'random' but it IS meaningless. It's like if the list of maps were to be sorted in A-Z order based on the Country / State of the residence of the mapmaker. That IS an order, there is a logic to it - but the problem is (again) no one knows the underlying facts that cause the maps to be sorted in the order they appear in - there's no way to predict where a map is going to be without knowing information that isn't needed for playing or selecting a map. No one thinks "I want to play that map by that guy who lived in Detroit, MI, they think of what a map looks like or what it's called. Same for of # of meshes. No one thinks "I want to play that map that's part of a plugin that has 5 other meshes".

If there were a toggle one could use to switch back and forth between Alpha sort and #ofMesh sort that would eliminate the need for any debate or having to choose.

[£N]

I would add that alphabetical is intuitive. Sometimes plugins are not named what we expect. When we search for them, they won't pop up, because the plugin name is prefaced, for example, with the mapmaking team identifier, or it's abbreviated. I don't anticipate the situation will be improved when sorting by # of meshes. For mapmaker teams with several projects, such as Magma, their plugins will be grouped together when using the alphabetical ordering logic, making it easier to deduce the location of the desired plugin in those instances.

[Industry]

Sort by release date.

[vinylrake]

Sort by release date.

lol. +1

Either release date. or by the cumulative total # of units on every team on every mesh.

[GodzFire]

Who was the one originally behind the change to sort by map # in the first place?

[Industry]

Sort by release date.

lol. +1

Either release date. or by the cumulative total # of units on every team on every mesh.

Oh, alphabetical by mesh_id.

[Melekor]

There are several good reasons why one might want alphabetical sorting, and none of them have been mentioned in this thread

Anyways, I've added a toggle for build 420, so everyone can use it whichever way they prefer

[vinylrake]

There are several good reasons why one might want alphabetical sorting, and none of them have been mentioned in this thread

I've described in multiple topics why I think alphabetical sorting is useful, I can't speak for anyone else.

Anyways, I've added a toggle for build 420, so everyone can use it whichever way they prefer

That seems like a great compromise which will work for everyone, so thank you!

...now if we could just make that 'active plugins' window a little more prominent. First time I tried to host a game I spent 5+ minutes scrolling back and forth trying to find a tagset plugin in the non-alphabeticized list of 100+ maps. Oh wait --- THERE's a good reason why alphabetical sorting is useful !