Hive Workshop Updates & Changes

[Archian]

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Hello Community!

The Workshop forges are glowing hotter than ever! We have been hard at work since release and we still have a LONG list of things that needs doing. Our first priority is to fix any site breaking issues, after that we can move on to tweaking/adjusting things. We've heard a lot of feedback and many good ideas, which we will come to later.

We also want to tell you that we have multiple secret Hive projects in the works - which we can't wait to show you! Some features may take a bit longer than others, but all good things come to those who wait

For now, we want share some updates with you.

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The Substandard badge has been removed and replaced with Useful / Simple badge and the description has been changed. The old name and description were misleading.

We are bringing back Director's Cut!
A moderator can now award a resource with the Director's Cut Badge (High Quality) which also grants the author +50 EXP. Director's Cut is a quality filter option that can help members search through some of the highest quality user submitted resources. Thanks to @Mr.Goblin for the badge icons!

NOTE: There are 5 years of resources to look through to catch up. So please be patient.

Director's Cut / High Quality	Outstanding work of art and is considered amongst the community's best creations.
Approved	Satisfies submission rules.
Useful / Simple	Simplicity is bliss, low effort and/or may contain minor bugs.
Rejected	Inappropriate, illegal, stolen or broken beyond useful without update.

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Some changes to our EXP system. Members can now see how much EXP is needed to gain the next level e.g. 4500 / 5000 EXP. We've also adjusted the EXP values a bit.

• Posting messages +1 EXP
• Creating a thread +2 EXP
• Receiving a positive reaction +5 EXP
• Submitting a tutorial +20 EXP (Changed to 20 from 10)
• Submitting a resource +20 EXP (Changed to 20 from 10)
  • Submitting icons +10 EXP
• Winning a contest +X EXP
  • Entry +X EXP
  • Judge +X EXP
• Getting a 1-5
  
  Star Rating +1-5 EXP (Coming soon)
• Getting a
  
  Director's Cut Badge +50 EXP (NEW)
  • DC/HQ Icons +15 EXP

NOTE: We are still fine tuning the system, so the above values are subject to change.

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We've made some changes to our User Ranks. The following Rank Icons can no longer be unlocked by posting.

	Chaos Blademaster
	Chaos Hellscream

The following ranks have been added instead. See the revised Rank list for details.

	Orc Warlock
	Gul'dan

As we've stated previously certain features/customization will become available once you reach certain levels similar to Rank icons. Members can now unlock Chaos Orcs, by having the corresponding level.

	Level 10		Chaos Peon
	Level 20		Chaos Grunt
	Level 30		Chaos Wolf-Rider
	Level 40		Chaos Warlock
	Level 50		Chaos Taskmaster
	Level 60		Chaos Blademaster
	Level 70		Chaos Hellscream

NOTE: Other ranks will become available in the future (more info coming soon).

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Additionally getting your project hosted on Hive Workshop now unlocks a new banner and a special title with a link to your project. As well as many other perks! Apply for hosting to know more!

Example:

NOTE: Other banners will become available in the future (more info coming soon).

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Any resources that were Director's Cut in the past will be so again. Members can also ask for a re-review of their submitted resources in the Staff Contact.
Resources are reviewed on a case by case basis and it's up to the respective moderator to decide if a resource is DC worthy. If you disagree with a moderator review, then you can contact the administration.

To get an idea on what constitutes a high quality asset and what we are looking for - here are some criteria that must be met.

Note that these are guidelines and are not fully comprehensive. We reserve the right to evaluate each resource submission on case by case basis.

Models - Nearly 100% original work (i.e. animations (flawless cycle, creative), mesh (execution, sculpting level, polies), texture (level of details, use of ingame textures, wrapping) etc. Mesh (/20) Coherence of polygon distribution, skill demonstrated in the shapes. Wrap (/20) Is it noticeably blurry or stretched from an in-game perspective? Do the textures have depth and definition? Animations (/20) Are they lively and fluid? Do they make good use of exaggeration and acceleration? How is the timing? SFX (/10) Are the effects properly saturated? Are they underwhelming? Are they appropriate for their animations and theme? Portrait (/10) Is the portrait visually pleasing and interesting, or is it an afterthought? Is it atmospheric? If applicable, can the model talk? Mechanics (/10) Selectability, footprints, sounds, collisions, attachments. Creativity (/10) Skins - 100% original freehand work (level of details, great lightning/shading, wraps perfectly, creativity, seamless, outstanding composition etc.) Icons - 100% original freehand work Maps - Outstanding map layout, terrain, assets, scripts, triggers, gameplay, story etc. Spells - Execution, script, visual, gameplay, creativity etc. Spell Criteria: Excellent usage of imported materials or in-game effects, if any. (I'd weigh it about 15% - 20%) High level of Configurability (10% - 15%) Creativity (10% - 15%) Importability (15%) Code Maintainability (25% - 30%) Game Mechanics (5% - 25%) System Criteria: Importability (35%) Code Maintainability (30% - 35%) User Friendliness (15% - 30%) Efficiency (5% - 15%)

 

[Rui]

Getting a 1-5

Star Rating +1-5 EXP (Coming soon)

1 star yields experience too?

Great job thus far!

 

[Deolrin]

Outstanding work. Keep it up y'all.

A mild suggestion: Since I am certain many users will feel rather awkward about recommending their own work for DC, how about an anonymous postbox or thread where users can suggest resources they think should be re-evaluated? That should save the mods some hassle and workload as they will have a collection of resources they might have missed that the community thinks is worthy. Of course, only a fraction of those recommendations will truly be DC material, but that's to be expected.

And another thing: with the new level-up awards, how about a notification informing the user that they have access to a new rank icon whenever they reach the appropriate milestone? If you want to truly go crazy with it, maybe even a whole damn Achievement system integrated with the site, but that would truly be going the extra mile (and I'm unsure if it's a worthwhile endeavor to begin with).

 

[Archian]

1 star yields experience too?

Yep. 1 star yields 1 EXP, 2 star yiels 2 EXP etc.

A mild suggestion: Since I am certain many users will feel rather awkward about recommending their own work for DC, how about an anonymous postbox or thread where users can suggest resources they think should be re-evaluated? That should save the mods some hassle and workload as they will have a collection of resources they might have missed that the community thinks is worthy. Of course, only a fraction of those recommendations will truly be DC material, but that's to be expected.

That's a good idea. We are actually planning something simillar.

And another thing: with the new level-up awards, how about a notification informing the user that they have access to a new rank icon whenever they reach the appropriate milestone? If you want to truly go crazy with it, maybe even a whole damn Achievement system integrated with the site, but that would truly be going the extra mile (and I'm unsure if it's a worthwhile endeavor to begin with).

That's already on our to-do list actually! Just like members get a notification when they level up!

We are also re-working the customize rank menu interface as it is rather dated. But that change will roll out with the next updates & changes post It's much like a whole damn Achievement system integrated into the site wait and see!

 

[Mister_Haudrauf]

Submitting a resource +20 EXP (Changed to 20 from 10)

• Submitting icons +10 EXP

Quick Question: Would i earn +30 if i would submit a Model alongside an Icon as a Bundle?

 

[Kam]

I'm exicted to see these changes rolling out!

 

[Med. MapGuy]

Could there be a tier below Director's Cut content, maybe like an honorable mention thing?

 

[Kyrbi0]

Very cool changes; gratifying to see the results of your hard work, guys.

I'm most especially chuffed that "Substandard" is no more; while I may someday nitpick about "Useful/Simple" & "Approved" (would've preferred the old Substandard to become "Approved" & the old "Approved" to be "Premium" (or Prime/Good Quality/Choice/Superb)), this nomenclature is a far sight better & more accurate.

 

[Kazeon]

I have this idea of job/class system, where user gets to chose their custom text title, like it used to be, only this time those are pre-defined titles such as "map maker", "coder/triggerer", "3D modeler", etc. And the title will be shown next to the level text, so it goes like "Level 35 - 3D Modeller" or something. But to unlock each title there must be some requirements to meet. Well it's a very raw idea, might be way too complicated. I planned to make a whole thread to brainstorm about the idea but never got the time.

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As for this update, my only input is to significantly increase the EXP reward for the DC rewardee to like 500 or more. As it is the absolute pristine reward only the highest-skilled individuals combined with incredible amount efforts to reach absolute perfection, which are quite rare occurrences. 50 is very underwhelming.

As for the exp system update, I don't think my exp level gets updated/adjusted correctly, maybe? Or is it not supposed to be recalculated?

EDIT:
Now I just got leveled up lol

 

[Misha]

director's cut, huh? i might have missed those.. Ouo

 

[Ralle]

Yep. 1 star yields 1 EXP, 2 star yiels 2 EXP etc.

Coming to think of it. I think we had discussions about ratings from 3-5 would give EXP, not 1-star.

A mild suggestion: Since I am certain many users will feel rather awkward about recommending their own work for DC, how about an anonymous postbox or thread where users can suggest resources they think should be re-evaluated? That should save the mods some hassle and workload as they will have a collection of resources they might have missed that the community thinks is worthy. Of course, only a fraction of those recommendations will truly be DC material, but that's to be expected.

I get it. Makes sense.

And another thing: with the new level-up awards, how about a notification informing the user that they have access to a new rank icon whenever they reach the appropriate milestone? If you want to truly go crazy with it, maybe even a whole damn Achievement system integrated with the site, but that would truly be going the extra mile (and I'm unsure if it's a worthwhile endeavor to begin with).

That's already on the list

I have this idea of job/class system, where user gets to chose their custom text title, like it used to be, only this time those are pre-defined titles such as "map maker", "coder/triggerer", "3D modeler", etc. And the title will be shown next to the level text, so it goes like "Level 35 - 3D Modeller" or something. But to unlock each title there must be some requirements to meet. Well it's a very raw idea, might be way too complicated. I planned to make a whole thread to brainstorm about the idea but never got the time.

That sounds pretty cool actually.

 

[Archian]

Could there be a tier below Director's Cut content, maybe like an honorable mention thing?

We did have an idea like that. But we felt there wasn't a clear distinction between High Quality and Director's Cut. So we merged the two into DC.
Plus we didn't have any resources pior with a High Quality badge and we have a TON of assets that would need remoderation for High Quality. We did, however, have a list of old DC resources, so that was easier to do.

Also we didn't want to "lessen" the status of the Approved badge. Getting an asset approved is an achievement in itself. We also plan on making it so that getting an asset approved also grants +X EXP.

Old "High Quality" badge examples.

(would've preferred the old Substandard to become "Approved" & the old "Approved" to be "Premium" (or Prime/Good Quality/Choice/Superb))

The way that the new moderation system works, is that a Useful / Simple asset is Approved, but marked as Useful / Simple.
"Approved" basically means good quality, decent effort and no bugs.

 

[Standhaft]

Definitely appreciate the change to the badge system. The old designations were just unnecessarily harsh to noob mapmakers.

 

[Deleted member 247165]

All of these are amazing, though I wonder when those awesome themes will be available? You know? The ones you posted about back before when Hive 2 was made and you mentioned a lot of awesome things and even posted screenshots related to the respective content. Though I suppose you already have them on the "to do list", eh?

 

[Ralle]

All of these are amazing, though I wonder when those awesome themes will be available? You know? The ones you posted about back before when Hive 2 was made and you mentioned a lot of awesome things and even posted screenshots related to the respective content. Though I suppose you already have them on the "to do list", eh?

Are you getting impatient for more themes? I don't blame you. I miss the Night Elf theme, that's for sure.

 

[Deleted member 247165]

Are you getting impatient for more themes? I don't blame you. I miss the Night Elf theme, that's for sure.

I mean those glowy red and green themes with various skins and so on ( I will really search the post and show you), and yes I also miss the night elven theme.

 

[Wlizer]

Its pretty great but I hope it wont make some users just to create maps to get better ranks and icons.. I always prefer quality over quantity.

 

[stein123]

Nice

 

[ShadowMidas]

Great Updated

 

[deepstrasz]

So then, a experience recalculation will proceed so that past ratings would count to the fold?

 

[Deolrin]

So then, a experience recalculation will proceed so that past ratings would count to the fold?

It has happened I believe.

 

[Kyrbi0]

The way that the new moderation system works, is that a Useful / Simple asset is Approved, but marked as Useful / Simple.
"Approved" basically means good quality, decent effort and no bugs.

shrug I gotcha but it's still it's own separate badge & visible nomenclature. I rankle a tiny bit at "Simple", especially for stuff like Ujimasa's work (which in terms of quality is assuredly "simple", but in terms of quantity & utility is far from "simple" (and yes I know that's why it's "Useful/Simple" but "Simple" is still there and like I said, this is a minor nitpick : P)).

It's tricky, though, because if I'm not mistaken the vast majority of "approved" models we have are just straight up "approved" (vs. "substandard" "useful/simple"), which makes naming them all a bit difficult.

 

[deepstrasz]

shrug I gotcha but it's still it's own separate badge & visible nomenclature. I rankle a tiny bit at "Simple", especially for stuff like Ujimasa's work (which in terms of quality is assuredly "simple", but in terms of quantity & utility is far from "simple" (and yes I know that's why it's "Useful/Simple" but "Simple" is still there and like I said, this is a minor nitpick : P)).

Well, then the renaming of Substandard to Useful/Simple is insufficient. And the point, from your perspective, would have been to make another section for the Useful stuff. Then, the renaming of Substandard to Simple as its own forum would have made even less sense.

 

[Rui]

A mild suggestion: Since I am certain many users will feel rather awkward about recommending their own work for DC, how about an anonymous postbox or thread where users can suggest resources they think should be re-evaluated?

If I may offer a tertiary option, this could be implemented as a button you can click once a year directly on resource pages. "Nominate this resource for director's cut". Periodically (e.g. once a year), you can go to each resource section, sort by number of nominations, and decide whether the top nominated resource will earn director's cut.

EDIT: Oh, I like the professions too, but I'm afraid it could get confusing and cluttered.

 

[Archian]

If I may offer a tertiary option, this could be implemented as a button you can click once a year directly on resource pages. "Nominate this resource for director's cut". Periodically (e.g. once a year), you can go to each resource section, sort by number of nominations, and decide whether the top nominated resource will earn director's cut.

That's a good idea about a button that sends a notification to the moderator team.

 

[Rui]

You may want to keep it as non-intrusive as possible. I reckon people are going to click the button as soon as they spot it. Hence why I suggested a long cooldown period (which the user should be warned about) and do an analysis only sporadically.

This could come with a few extra limitations such as requiring the resource to have been submitted at least e.g. 2 years ago to be ellegible. Makes sense for maps, because they can improve much over time, perhaps not so much for icons? In any case, it would be better for assets to gain notoriety over time. The point here is that director's cut doesn't become something trivial.

 

[Deolrin]

The button is a bit too "easy", so to speak, and Rui is right about users clicking it as soon as they see it with literally any resource. I think an anonymous postbox is still the better way.

 

[deepstrasz]

I think the nomination to Director's Cut should be made by competent people in the said resource's field not by popular vote/demand.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I think the nomination to Director's Cut should be made by competent people in the said resource's field not by popular vote/demand.

Very hard disagree.

We're not talking about people voting on what gets the DC, but about nominations, i.e. suggesting a resource to be looked at by the mods. I see absolutely no reason why this should only be possible for "competent people", when regardless of who made the suggestion the resource will still have to be reviewed by sufficiently knowledgeable people.

As long as the staff can give the DC without needing to have the resource suggested by the community first, this is completely reasonable - if a lot of people really like a resource, it absolutely should be given another look.

 

[deepstrasz]

if a lot of people really like a resource, it absolutely should be given another look.

Likes often have nothing to do with competence. So, again, it's not dependable on resource popularity but on objective quality. It doesn't matter if 1 million users or more like something they consider useful for themselves.
Also, how many looks would it be proper to consider if something should or should not be given the DC award?

 

[MasterBlaster]

I don't understand why you're against this.

You say that DC should be given based on quality - and I agree. It will be given based on quality, because ultimately it will be up to the staff to decide if the resource is worthy of a DC title or not. All that the nominations are meant to do is give everyone else a way to suggest a resource to be looked at.

Again, there is absolutely zero harm in that.

P.S. Something being liked by a lot of people doesn't mean it's of high quality, but chances are that if something is of high quality then it will be liked by a lot of people and as such should pop up as a suggestion for the Director's Cut review.

 

[Archian]

Regardless, for the time being members are welcome to contact the staff and send us links to resources they would us to take a closer look at.

Friendly reminder, please be patient with us

 

[MasterHaosis]

The Workshop forges are glowing hotter than ever!

Of course, it is, when I finally joined Discord

But seriously, I like those improvements very much. I like Director Cut back, and new level system, and especially chaos orc icons. As a demon, I can approve that! Just keep good work guys!

 

[Shido]

you seem left out there. Gotta miss the scale more than hand insult your bottom.
sorry, i didn't read the upperline

 

[Knight of Arsford]

Love the new Useful/Simple rating. Not everything has to be an complex/complicated map to be added in the Hive. If someone creates a simple map, but with good replayability, fun content, and those good bits of detail squeezed in, I don't see why they don't get approved. I've seen maps with great terrain, impressive triggers, but feel empty because either they lack enough fun content, or the mapmaker just didn't bother writing a decent story in it.

Custom models do not guarantee a fun map. Full vanilla/little custom content maps can still be fun and have quality.

 

[deepstrasz]

If someone creates a simple map, but with good replayability, fun content, and those good bits of detail squeezed in, I don't see why they don't get approved.

Useful/Simple is just the renaming of Substandard. The section is still separated from Approved. And people still regard Useful/Simple as Substandard by the way. The want for Approved is still there. There is no difference from my point of view now from as it was before. I'm referring to the Maps forum where I perform.

 

[MasterHaosis]

Love the new Useful/Simple rating. Not everything has to be an complex/complicated map to be added in the Hive.

Exactly! Also for models. Some people need simpler, reskinned models with weapon changed or such for their maps/projects, but due to current approval standards they are not enough, and people in past had to share models in different ways.
And that substandard helped lot when introduced. But the name was kinda..... meh. This new name is much better and suitable for section.

 

[Kyrbi0]

Well, then the renaming of Substandard to Useful/Simple is insufficient. And the point, from your perspective, would have been to make another section for the Useful stuff. Then, the renaming of Substandard to Simple as its own forum would have made even less sense.

I wouldn't necessarily say "insufficient", and I definitely don't want to suggest adding another (sub)section to the mix (even if I wanted to, I recognize that would be too high a barrier for the management).

What I'm saying is I don't really have a problem with the sections as they exist, just what they are called/considered. I'm very grateful for the change from 'Substandard' to 'Useful/Simple', and think it's a big step up.

Personally I was pushing for something like this:
from

Rejected - Pending - Awaiting Update - Substandard - Approved

to

Rejected - Pending - Awaiting Update - Approved - Premium/Prime/Good-Quality - (Director's Cut/High-Quality)

That's all.

Useful/Simple is just the renaming of Substandard. The section is still separated from Approved.

Technically, as Archian mentioned above, the 'Useful/Simple' section is a part of the 'Approved' section, but with an additional tag.