Just a couple of suggestions for how the game deals with community maps

[Oqwert]

-It would be helpful if there was a way to go to the steam workshop from the in-game map selection menu, so you don't have to alt tab or search it manually in the overlay. If there is already a way, my apologies, but I have not found where it is.

-There is a huge issue with volume levels in community maps. Some of them are so quiet they need to be at 100 while others are loud even at 1. An in-game setting to normalize audio levels to a certain LUFS would go a long way in improving the overall experience.

-More of an observation than a suggestion, but it seems odd that a lot of community maps, even high effort ones, leave the cubemap reflections untextured and with no parallax. I don't know if the limitation is in the editor, the mappers themselves not wanting to bother with them or the tutorials not making enough emphasis in their creation but it is a bit sad to see.

[Iggy_Pine]

Hi there!

Thank you for reaching out. I'll do my best to answer your questions as clearly as possible.

1. Yes, community rooms are accessible from the in-game main menu. You’ll find a "Workshop" button there, which takes you directly to them. While community rooms aren’t integrated into the map selection menu, we’ve found the current setup to be straightforward and easy to use.


2. & 3. As for your other observations, it ultimately comes down to the room builders themselves. Some are more experienced, while others may just be starting out. As developers, we can’t directly influence how people create their rooms, but we fully support and encourage both seasoned creators and rookies alike. Everyone is welcome to share their creativity.

If you have any other questions or need further clarification, feel free to reach out.

[Oqwert]

As client I cannot find any button that lets me check the workshop page for a map someone else picked, all I can see is a non-interactable image, is it something on my end?

For 2, could this not be dealt with by an audio normalization filter like that used by video players? I am not a dev so I have no idea if this would be too painful to implement, but I cannot think of any other way to "standardize" audio levels.

[Iggy_Pine]

Originally posted by Oqwert:

As client I cannot find any button that lets me check the workshop page for a map someone else picked, all I can see is a non-interactable image, is it something on my end?

For 2, could this not be dealt with by an audio normalization filter like that used by video players? I am not a dev so I have no idea if this would be too painful to implement, but I cannot think of any other way to "standardize" audio levels.

Hi,

I’m not quite sure what you mean by a "non-interactable image," but you can access the Steam Workshop directly from the main menu (screenshot: https://i.ibb.co/Cn0HmVw/Qrp69vsufs.jpg) or from the Singleplayer menu (screenshot: https://i.ibb.co/MnpZsbM/Na-ALUecx-HP.jpg).

Additionally, from my experience, it’s pretty straightforward to open the Steam Workshop using the Steam overlay (Shift+Tab). This lets you easily download any community room, which will automatically appear among your downloaded rooms in-game.

Hope this helps!

Edit: forgot to answer to your observation regarding cubemap reflections being untextured. Yeah, that's a limitation in the editor. The builders don't have access to it.

[Oqwert]

Maybe my wording was bad, my apologies. I mean a way to directly open the Steam Workshop page of a specific map by, for example, clicking on its thumbnail. Neither of those options do the trick especially when you are in somebody else's lobby and want to quickly check out the map selected by the host (in fact there seems to be no easy way to open the Workshop at all?). All I can see is a thumbnail representing the map which cannot be clicked on.

Even as lobby host, it would also be very handy to have the option to go to a map's page when scrolling through the maps you already have installed and for example just want to check out multiple maps before selecting one, rather than having to first open the Workshop and then search for the map.

[Iggy_Pine]

Ah, I think I get it now! When you’re playing co-op with your friend and the host picks a room, you’d like to be able to click on the room’s thumbnail to see more info about it before playing, right?

If that’s the case, that’s an interesting idea. I’m gonna bring it up with the team and see if it’s something we can make happen.

[Oqwert]

Happy to hear that, appreciate the replies!

[Iggy_Pine]

Update: we've implemented your suggestion. You'll have a "Details" button as a client that opens Steam overlay with the room the Host is suggesting, so you'll have a chance to check what's the room all about.

Example: https://i.ibb.co/XXj68d2/room-preview.png

It's coming with the next update.

[Oqwert]

That was fast! Will it be available for the host too? It would also be quite handy there (so basically that same button which sends you to the page of the map you have selected), for example for checking the Steam page of a map in a best of list before you download it, or to check maps you have already downloaded.

Thanks for your work!

[Iggy_Pine]

Nope, it’s just for the client. If someone’s a host, you’d assume they’re already familiar with the rooms they’re gonna host.

[Oqwert]

You can download maps directly from the menu if they are in the "Trending", "Best of: 2024" and such lists when you're hosting, and go into the community tab. It would be impossible to be familiar with maps you have not downloaded yet, and there's no way to get information about them other than opening the workshop home page and manually searching the map names which sort of defeats the point of being able to download them in-game. It's not too dissimilar to the situation you face as client.

[Iggy_Pine]

Well, you can try it out with the next update and see if the changes we made based on your suggestions work for you. Fingers crossed they do work :-)

We appreciate your additional feedback about in-game Steam Workshop access for hosts. We're always looking for ways to improve the user experience, and we'll keep your suggestion in mind for future updates.

[Oqwert]

Will do! When I'm client the changes you showed definitely seem like they will do the trick for me, although my friend would definitely appreciate the host change. Thanks for the great game and sustained communication and even more so for actually getting a suggestion in-game!

[Iggy_Pine]

Hey, no problem at all! That's why we are here for :-)

Have fun!