Contest idea thread!

I've got a great big list of ideas for contests. They're in no particular order:

1: A Control Point Map Contest, except that traditional 5CP Push maps are not allowed. To add variety, mappers can have more or less points, play with which start off locked or unlocked and how they are unlocked, and change the positions of the points (for example, neutral points on the left, right, and center and one point for each team).

2: A Single Stage Payload Race Contest. My favorite game mode seems oddly overlooked by players and mappers alike, and instead plain old Payload is the focus. I enjoy Payload, of course, but I prefer Payload Race because players can choose whether to push their cart or prevent the enemy from pushing theirs. I like also that the levels are perfectly balanced due to their symmetrical layouts. There are only three official Payload Race maps (with Hightower being the best by far, of course), so there's definitely a market for more.

3: A Payload Tug-Of-War Contest. While I admit I have never played it, PTOW (if that's how you want to abbreviate it) seems like a really awesome custom mode. There must be a lot of tension with each team trying to push the same cart to their enemy's base. Unfortunately, the reason I have not played this mode is because there are so few maps for it, and no servers ever run the ones that are floating around. Perhaps part of the contest could be to make a grey or purple cart that does not appear to face a particular direction, as well as making an introduction movie so that players aren't confused by the mode. If we can't make this mode official, at least maybe we can garner it a bit more exposure and players (though I'm really rooting for an all-community update adding this).

4: Special Delivery Contest. This one should be a no-brainer. Doomsday is the only official SD map, and there are almost no custom maps for it out there. That's pretty ridiculous, honestly. We don't even know what kind of potential SD has, because no one's even tried to tap into it. Out of all of my ideas, this is the one I feel most strongly about.

5: Dynamic KoTH Contest. This was inspired by the Dynamic Payload Contest and this map: http://forums.tf2maps.net/downloads.php?do=file&id=5372 Nothing more to say about this, really.

6: Custom Game Mode Contest. I second this. It just seems like an all around great idea. A new mode that still fits the TF2 style would be a real breath of fresh air for mappers and players alike.

7: Custom Theme Contest. This one's a bit different from all the rest. Whoever hosts the contest will provide a map that's done gameplay-wise and ready for detailing. The point of the contest is to run an art pass on it using ONLY CUSTOM models and textures.

I think KOTH is too small and straight-forward to have it be very "dynamic".

A custom game mode contest would be interesting, but would probably end up with a lot of bad maps and a couple decent ones.

I like the idea of TC and SD contests because I just want to see more of those, and I'm sure someone could do something fun with them.

A custom theme contest would be pretty cool, but people would probably take existing texture packs and there would be a lot of duplicate themes. Either that or people will be required to make many of the materials and models themselves, and that would turn a lot of people away.

Train competition:

Take a map without trains, and add trains in the most annoying way possible.

Why does every single stupid map have a random out of place train in it?

Because environment deaths are the pinnacle of TF2 map design.

nightwatch said:

Train competition:

Take a map without trains, and add trains in the most annoying way possible.

Click to expand...

I have prepared for this day.

Crash wins by default lol.

Make a map based on your first result here: http://iostream.se/gamegenerator.php
Use it as the name of your map. All the usual aspects of your map will be considered, but also how effectively you implemented the name of your map into it will be important too. For example, if I got "Genetic Piano" I might make a map where red is using a piano store as a front for their secret genetic research lab. Would be a very unique and interesting contest.

My first attempt gave me "Gentleman Death." Which is a bit... too on-the-nose for TF2, perhaps?

You're totally making me want to do something with a piano store, though. Although that's probably too crowded to use as even part of a map... a piano factory, perhaps? Dunno, we need an excuse to do something with pianos, surely.

I got "revolution aquarium".

... How does that thing know about my pacific entry?

What are you supposed to do with 'Platonium Kneel'

stevethepocket said:

My first attempt gave me "Gentleman Death." Which is a bit... too on-the-nose for TF2, perhaps?

You're totally making me want to do something with a piano store, though. Although that's probably too crowded to use as even part of a map... a piano factory, perhaps? Dunno, we need an excuse to do something with pianos, surely.

Click to expand...

Isn't somebody making a KoTH map with a piano at the point?

That idea is cool and all, except that someone is going to get something like "Double Farm" or "Military Hut" while someone else gets "Garden Imps" or "Hunger Frog"

I always liked the idea of a contest where you have to take a terrible, terrible idea, like a 512 unit height advantage, which you have to build into your map in such a way that it works.

Limeaide said:

I always liked the idea of a contest where you have to take a terrible, terrible idea, like a 512 unit height advantage, which you have to build into your map in such a way that it works.

Click to expand...

This just in: Everything I know about level design is wrong.

Limeaide said:

I always liked the idea of a contest where you have to take a terrible, terrible idea, like a 512 unit height advantage, which you have to build into your map in such a way that it works.

Click to expand...

it can be done, but not many people will want to as proven by the BATT contest

whatever next ( or any ) contest is, it must be comfortable to map

Just throwing ideas out there for contests:

- Futuristic space lab contest
- Since its summer, lava and snowy mountain maps
- Island map contest, must have boats, sand and so on
- Elevator payload race. The payload doesn't go directly down, but slowly when no one is on the cart. << terrible idea
- Special Delivery

All start with the points laid out, and they are kept at fixed distances, the map is then built around those?

Limeaide said:

I always liked the idea of a contest where you have to take a terrible, terrible idea, like a 512 unit height advantage, which you have to build into your map in such a way that it works.

Click to expand...

That one's actually quite easy now: Just make it Mann vs. Machine. You no longer have to worry about it being "un-fun" to play as the team that's getting constantly owned by the team higher up, because they're computer-controlled (and much greater in number by nature, so that should balance out the height disadvantage).

Another art pass would be cool.