Quote from JeanPaulWell thats an interesting approach to level design. I find it real lame though, its almost like getting maps cheap without having to put up with extra employees. You also don't have to worry about hiring anyone for that department, so really you guys get a better deal out of this. But one question, how do you know how to tweek the gameplay if there is no maps available at launch? Anyways, best of luck with you guys and I cant wait to get my hands on that sick infestation tech.
Well truth be told both sides come out of the deal in great shape, as many of the guys on Mapcore can tell you NS has served as the bridge to jobs for several quite a few mappers. In addition to being featured in a commercial product and getting paid once you're map is purchased I imagine all the NS2 devs will be very familiar and supportive of your future NS2 maps. In turn Unknown Worlds who probably can't afford to pay for part time work gets to buy individual maps to pad their upstart dev game, which means that people working with Source tech get to make a few more great maps.
So its pretty much a win-win.