Apologies beforehand for any ignorance in the map crew I show, and my laziness to check whether this topic has already been discussed; but could we possibly stop the constant protection of maps with ambiguous grounds? By "ambiguous grounds" I am primarily talking about grounds where it is unclear whether it is solid or not, but also include grounds where it is unclear whether it is ice/chocolate/normal/bouncy although this seems less common and cant recall the last map this was the case. Overlooking the recent influx of shit "arty" maps which I can only assume have been protected by members of the map crew who are friends with the map's creator, it is a constant annoyance for me to jump onto a ground which is seemingly there only to fall to my death, or be in the lead on a map and then go to walljump around an object which, unknown to me, is part of the background then to be overtaken by someone who sees me fail and does not make the same mistake. I realise you may argue that this adds a luck element to the game, but I feel that this luck element is plentiful enough in the non-protected user made maps and that the purpose of the map protection should be be to remove this luck element for high quality maps where one is not jumping into the unkonwn.

In my opinion it is not a hard task to implement features in the map to reduce the ambiguity in the map, such as darkening the colours of the ground which are not solid so as to separate them from the foreground, and having a slight dark brown outline on grounds that are chocolate, light blue for ice, and purple for trampoline grounds.

Any opinion on this topic is appreciated

Do you have any specific examples of these maps? Are they just protected (P1) or given a higher perm (P3+)?

I've seen several art p1s where the art has no collision at all and it's disappointing? lol

About the outlining grounds, I think nickeldelta did something like making light grounds tangible while dark grounds not, but you can see that on some of his art maps. Also, I am pretty sure that the art maps you see that are ambiguous are made from viprin's editor and I also want to assume that the majority of deaths happen are because of the creator being lazy and not adding collision (it is time consuming). Adding outlines to some of the art to differentiate grounds can ruin the art I believe. The wjing nonexistant grounds is gonna happen in art maps maybe where there's a hat on something and the hat is too weirdly shaped to put collision, but usually if that happens, you can jump on the hat attempting to wj while still continuing left/right and not lose a lead.

I've only seen it on P1 maps iirc, but it is usually something like the ear on a mouse (or hat like epalk suggested) is not collision whereas the face is and there is no real distinction or change of colour between the two. I agree with what nickdelta is doing with the lighter grounds being tangible and darker not as it does make it a lot easier to discern and have never had a problem with the ambiguity in his style of maps. Laziness in my opinion shouldn't be an excuse, if it's getting into the official rotation it should be finished to a high standard.
Outlines I understand can sometimes ruin the aesthetic of a map and I can't really recall having too much of a problem with the ambiguity of the ground type with the artistic style map, but I can remember very infrequently jumping onto a ground i think might be wall-jumpable and then sliding to my death as it turns out to be ice.
I sadly haven't written any of the map codes I've come across down to give for examples, and being a bit behind on who is/isn't in the map crew and which of them is online, I have never been able to contact anyone with regards to bad maps when I see them pop up in rotation. It isn't something that I feel the map crew should go through all the old maps and correct, more of something I think they should look out in the future when protecting a map.
I also agree with epalk on the P1s where the art has no collision at all and it is very disappointing, especially when they have no other game play and it's simply just a map 0 style map. I feel these maps should be both nice to look at and fun to play, not just pretty.

On a side note, is there a possibility of having a new type of perm for those maps which are not intended to have a shaman but are not considered racing maps? It is always disheartening when you wait 20 minute to shaman only to be stuck with a map where you're not needed. On those occasions I tend to block (and often kill mice in the process) the obvious route, just so I can have the chance to build and actually be a shaman whilst leaving a lot of other mice unhappy due to the fact I stopped them potentially claiming a first.

I'm completely with you on this, I agree that some art maps get confusing with what's collision and what isn't, and I always try to get that fixed when it comes to higher perm art maps (P5).

The type of perm you're referring to however (P1/Protected) isn't up to the higher standards of P5 art maps, and as such some things manage to slip by. It's not even necessarily mapcrew who are perming these maps, mods are free to P1 any protected map they like too. Each P1 map plays so rarely that a higher level of quality on them would take far more time than its worth, and we can't deperm them unless they break any of the rules for the category.

You can read the Map Category Definitions and Guidelines here, to see what each perm type requires and the rules that we go by when perming these maps.

Regarding your request for a "non shaman category", that already exists as P7, although it's also up to the higher standards the Map Crew go by, not everyone exporting their map can just set it to a non-shaman map, that would be better as a map editor option than another perm category in my opinion.

[size=6]Shameless double post.

Who's ready for a party? I didn't hear you, I said WHO'S READY FOR A PARTY?! We have 6 wonderful new members today, so spam them as much as you can!

Give a warm welcome to the Beautiful Betelgueze, the Amazing Abandoned, the Killer Kinhusxd, the Cool Celeius, the Majestic Mumich, and last but not least the Dashing Demhax!

Welcomee

Wooooooo!

Congrats everyone!

So many new people I can bully now! Welcome!

Welcome new people!

Welcome!

I like your alliteration. Congrats and welcome to hell the team new folk.

Welcome!

Kinhusxd <33333

[size=8]Whoa I'm cool now?

Thanks everyone! I'll do my best~

Welcome all

WEEEEEELCOME!!!!
WELCOME KINHUS! :D
AND WB TULEOOO \Õ/

omg! welcome

Welcome

Kinhusxd and Tulio :33

Beem vindooo Kinhuuss <3 :DD

Holy shit, good day for map crew. :P Congrats everyone!
mumich sucks