Mapping Competition Oct-Dec 07 WINNERS DECIDED

[Survivor]

WINNERS

• Best overall         Gareth with Citadel
  
• Best looks           Gareth with Citadel
  
• Best gameplay     Supertanker with Station 15
  
• Judges’ Choice     Kaziorvb with Ethereal
  

Summary:
The theme for the first competition will be Service Facilities.
This will be an open competition with no strict limits except for the .map size limit of 10 MB.
Closing Date: 31 December

Submission Form:
Anyone can enter his submission any time before the closing date.
Submit either by pm a download link to either your .pk3 with the .map included or to both your .pk3 and .map separate. If you cannot do this you can pm me to obtain my mail address and send me the files and I will take care of distributing it to the other judges.
Must be in working .pk3 form.
.map must be included.
If judging you are exempted from judging your own submission.
Once you’re map has been submitted it can be released to the public. Any changes afterwards however won’t be accepted. As noted testers are exempt from belonging to the public but should all be mentioned in the readme.

Theme:
Service facilities. This is a wide theme to open it up. Further competitions might be more specific.
Examples:

• Water Cleansing Facilities
• Power Plants
• Oxygen Production Factories.
• Etc.

Judging process
Judges:

• Survivor
• Lava
• Ingar
• Dasprid

Points being judged:
All will be judged on a scale from 1 to 10 with their factoring in the overall score between braces.

• {0.15} Skill in building, judged from .map.
• {0.25}Bugs, inconsistencies, judged from playing and inspecting the map.
• {0.3}Gameplay, judged from playing.
• {0.3}Creativity, judged from looks.

Judges will address all these points on all submitted maps in an open post in the mapping forum. When all judges have posted their opinions they will gather and decide on the final scoring for the map. This means that maps could be judged shortly after they were submitted.
Gameplay will be stock tremulous. This means the standard player count you should balance for is 16(8vs8). BP will also be standard (100).
Final comparison between submissions will however happen shortly after the final submission date. Judges’ Choice is a special award aimed at rewarding that which has been done outside of the already mentioned judging points but inside the theme.

Final awards:

• Best overall
• Best looks
• Best gameplay
• Judges’ Choice

Setup:
Size limit .map: 10MB (10240 kB)
Textures: No limitations
Shaders: No limitations
Effects: No limitations
Models: No limitations
All assets must conform to the licences the original maps adhere to.

Endnotes
You are encouraged to use the trigger/target and func entities but remember that their use should be bugproof and work inside the gameplay. Also remember that sounds and effects can add a lot to the look and feel of the map.
Good examples of this are the meep’s teleporter, pulse’s door locks and meteors and thermal’s quake.
Bad examples are elevators that crush the players on them when anything lands on them.

You are allowed to have test sessions with selected players. The players having played it should be mentioned as testers in the readme. At any point you can ask for advice from mappers in the mapping forum.

For questions regarding the contest either post in this thread or pm me if you fear someone might steal your thunder. Any additional rules only become official when edited into the first post.

[Lava Croft]

Dopefish likes!

[gareth]

well pretty much any theme can be twisted into some sort of service facility

i take it you cant submit maps you already started/completed?

also you dont mention prizes.

also how can you judge gameplay with only 3 people?

also can you be more precise about the licenses? i dont see that it should matter at all what is used, given no licensing agreements are broken.

i may enter. maybe.

[Survivor]

well pretty much any theme can be twisted into some sort of service facility

i take it you cant submit maps you already started/completed?

also you dont mention prizes.

also how can you judge gameplay with only 3 people?

i may enter. maybe.

You can enter any map, started or not. But the fact is you have to finish it before the end

Price will probably remain icon although this has been fuzzy to me even in kaleo's mapping comp. But I promised to start it on tuesday and I can't get in touch with dasp atm.

Gameplay can be pretty well predicted by experienced players. I think having 10 judges at the start of a competition I know not many people will enter just to test gameplay is a bit much. At worst we'll end up inviting some other experienced players if we really need to.

[HamStar]

[adding to gareth's first sentence] Alien pr0n services?

[==Troy==]

.map file maxed at 10Mb. Does that mean that I can upload 500MB pk3 file? (having the source map file of size lower than 10MB ?)

Is the FPS drop judged? (not how good you visportal it, but the balance of visual quality/fps).

How much md3's can we use?

for what kind of gameplay do we need to adjust the map? Unlagged, non unlagged, N. of players, BP points. Etc.

[techhead]

[adding to gareth's first sentence] Alien pr0n services?

Hey, strip clubs are entertainment, not services. Prostitution, however, is a service industry.

[Survivor]

[adding to gareth's first sentence] Alien pr0n services?

Hey, strip clubs are entertainment, not services. Prostitution, however, is a service industry.

They are a service. No denying that. I made the first theme wide-open so people aren't really limited. Expect something more specific next time if there is one but be as creative as you can. I know an alien porn service would at least have a place at the judge's choice list for the sheer absurdity of it, but only if you do it well .

.map file maxed at 10Mb. Does that mean that I can upload 500MB pk3 file?

Is the FPS drop judged? (not how good you visportal it, but the balance of visual quality/fps).

How much md3's can we use?

for what kind of gameplay do we need to adjust the map? Unlagged, non unlagged, N. of players, BP points. Etc.

You could upload a 500 MB pk3 file yes. I was for a 20 MB overall max as well but I guess the bigger you make it the harder it is to make the construction part and gameplay work.

For me FPS isn't that much of an issue. I know Lava likes eyecandy but he has a sucky system. I guess if the FPS drops to unplayable levels on lava's machine we'll call it bad.

There is no limit to the amount of models so use as many as you like.

Gameplay will be stock trem. This means you should aim for 8 vs 8 teams but if you make it well playable at the range 3 vs 3 to 12 vs 12 this can only add to your gameplay score.
(Un)lagged is not really an issue for the mapper when it comes to building but do take consideration in not making an entirely human or entirely alien sided map.
BP points will be standard. Do take into account your maps will probably be played in 1.2 when it gets released and as such take care in the start layout of the slow spin-uptime of turrets.

[==Troy==]

In my opinion FPS have to be judged along with the skill of map making. If you see a cube, and it drops your fps to unplayable level.. its one thing. If you see a perfectly well-done waterfall, with fps drop only about 10%, its completely different thing.

*.map file is easily compressed. unlike texture files. Dont see a reason for that other than reduction in map details (lower polies - smaller map file).

Also, if you take map file, why not shader files and other source files?

I am personally not taking a part in this comptetition, since it takes about a year for me to do a good map, due to time restriction and just a likehood to release a "complete" maps, rather than betas.


Unlagged plays a huge role in the gameplay. Having unlagged off, greatly reduces the effective range of the humans. Unlagged on is a completely different story.

[p0m]

I know I said this already on IRC, but count me in.

[Survivor]

In my opinion FPS have to be judged along with the skill of map making. If you see a cube, and it drops your fps to unplayable level.. its one thing. If you see a perfectly well-done waterfall, with fps drop only about 10%, its completely different thing.

This falls under the mapping skills. Like said If anything makes it unplayable, even the most gorgeous eyecandy there is, you'll probably use points. If you do however make a beatiful waterfall with very little performance loss you're winning points. It's probably wrong to say it is judged only on .map.

*.map file is easily compressed. unlike texture files. Dont see a reason for that other than reduction in map details (lower polies - smaller map file).

Pulse.map itself is below 10 MB. No need to fret about this.

Also, if you take map file, why not shader files and other source files?

shader files are included in the .pk3s if you want to have a working pk3.

I am personally not taking a part in this comptetition, since it takes about a year for me to do a good map, due to time restriction and just a likehood to release a "complete" maps, rather than betas.

Unlagged plays a huge role in the gameplay. Having unlagged off, greatly reduces the effective range of the humans. Unlagged on is a completely different story.

The basic setup remains the same and no mapper can account for all the ping variations. There will simply be human and alien friendly areas, which like you said long LoS areas being human friendly, both in unlagged on and off.

[Lava Croft]

I guess if the FPS drops to unplayable levels on lava's machine we'll call it bad.

Take into account that I can play fine with 25-30fps on this 700mhz machine.

[TRaK]

I'll probably make something for this one. 3 months is enough to make something decent, and there aren't any stupid texture rules.

[Kaleo]

i want in!

Count me in!

[doomagent13]

I think I'll make an attempt.  But dont be expecting anything amazing.  Only problem is that my first real mapping attempt (which I would probably build this off of) was going to be a starship-style thing.

[mooseberry]

This is a great idea, I won't be able to TRY to make anything for this because I am busy, but maybe in the future.

By the way, for some of the next competitions, could we please have something more original than a "Service facility?" Just getting a little tired with those maps. But I like the idea of making maps with and idea/story, compared to just a random spot for a battle.

[Taiyo.uk]

Best of luck to all those participating. I would sign up myself but I have other commitments (and other WIP maps) right now.

I like the idea of service facilities, image searches for "water works" turns up some nice pipespam. This one even looks realisable in radiant:


Or even better do an oil refinery. Try optimising this map:

[Johnpp]

Of course, you wouldn't add ALL of the detail shown. even with area portals and hint brushes, that would be very FPS costing.

[mooseberry]

Of course, you wouldn't add ALL of the detail shown. even with area portals and hint brushes, that would be very FPS costing.

Orly?

But that looks like it would be really fun to play.  

[ShadowNinjaDudeMan]

Thar she blows!!!

There be a Tyrant in the works!!!

[Survivor]

By the way, for some of the next competitions, could we please have something more original than a "Service facility?" Just getting a little tired with those maps. But I like the idea of making maps with and idea/story, compared to just a random spot for a battle.

Oh I already have harder stuff in mind. But you don't start off with difficult stuff until you have people who can follow.

[CreatureofHell]

Someone must make this! It already looks good. I wish you could import photos into radiant and then it forms what it shows in the photo.

[Lava Croft]

For the last time, stop quoting entire pictures.

[Thorn]

Pfft, we don't all run in 640x480.

[Lava Croft]

Pfft, we don't all run in 640x480.

It has nothing to do with desktop resolution. but with the speed at which the page loads and the entire thread being fucked up by 10 times the same image.

[doomagent13]

You must have a silly browser if it bothers to load every copy of a pic from the pic's host, rather than copy&paste it from one download.

[Samurai.mac]

Hmm, I think I might have a go at this. Anyone fancy a nice swim through a sewage processing plant?

[hitchen1]

ye plz

[ShadowNinjaDudeMan]

I may as well have a go too.

But in the end if I dont hand anything in, dont cry (rejoice!)

[CreatureofHell]

Hmmmm. If everyone is contibuting I might as well throw something in.