72hr Mapping Contest - Summer 2014 - Prelim Stuff

[Fruity Snacks]

I have thought about that, but it's stressful enough to manage a single weekend by myself, let alone a week.

It's also easier on me because then I only need to be available actively for a weekend, not a whole week.

 

[Grizzly Berry]

Personally i like the sound of the first weekend of July. I like the sound of it because I am literally unable to do any other weekend for a month or so in either direction.

Might not work so great for us in the U.S. Independence Day is the fourth of July, so I'm sure at least a few of us will be out celebrating.

 

[puxorb]

3 days is a good time for mapping because it really pushes people to get their map done. If we gave them 10 days, pretty much everyone would wait until the final 4 or 5 to actually start. I think a 4 day mapping contest would be interesting. It would give you a chance to not sleep at all for the first 2 days, then take a break for a day and finish everything up on the last. Also, with the extra time we might see some maps other than koth and single stage payload.

Just some thoughts.

 

[Fruity Snacks]

3 days is a good time for mapping because it really pushes people to get their map done. If we gave them 10 days, pretty much everyone would wait until the final 4 or 5 to actually start. I think a 4 day mapping contest would be interesting. It would give you a chance to not sleep at all for the first 2 days, then take a break for a day and finish everything up on the last. Also, with the extra time we might see some maps other than koth and single stage payload.

Just some thoughts.

He was saying that you would map for 3 days out of 10 day period. So everyone would be mapping for 3 days, but it's just staggered throughout the 10.

 

[xzzy]

I'd just want rules clarification about doing a 72 hour map entirely in the 72 hours. I know it can't be enforced and it's totally an honor system thing, but I don't like the idea of people having sketches or test maps done beforehand and just "remaking" their concept once the 72 hour period begins.

It should be all shooting from the hip, you get the theme when the challenge starts, then create literally everything from scratch from that point on.

 

[LeSwordfish]

For a few years we didn't have a theme at all,and it all worked.

 

[ManBeaR]

For a few years we didn't have a theme at all,and it all worked.

Couldnt you just use a week to make a map without releasing it, and then do it on the contest?

 

[Fruity Snacks]

Couldnt you just use a week to make a map without releasing it, and then do it on the contest?

Rules are: You have to rebuild it if you do something like that.

It's semi-evident when people do that.

 

[Berry]

Rules are: You have to rebuild it if you do something like that.

It's semi-evident when people do that.

It'd still most likely be untested (or not properly at least) so you wouldn't even have that much headway. People would notice if you had a fairly well made map 20 minutes in so in the time you're sat waiting you probably could've just made a legitimate map.

 

[YM]

No finals, no weekends, July only

..

Final destination

 

[Sergis]

I'd just want rules clarification about doing a 72 hour map entirely in the 72 hours. I know it can't be enforced and it's totally an honor system thing, but I don't like the idea of people having sketches or test maps done beforehand and just "remaking" their concept once the 72 hour period begins.

It should be all shooting from the hip, you get the theme when the challenge starts, then create literally everything from scratch from that point on.

what about people thinking their maps thru in their head or bringing up an old idea that they never got around to? to be completely fair you'd have to forbid people to even think about their map once the contest is announced

this sort of line is a huge bitch to draw and to not step over, far huger than simply 'dont start hammering your map before deadline or you're an asshole'

beesides 72h contests so far have worked out great as far as i remember, if it aint broke dont break it

 

[YM]

Which map was it that had the entity setup done before hand, but then racked up votes based on the gamemode rather than the map? The saxton hale thing..
That was very far from the spirit of the 72hr maps. Let's not have anything else like that.

 

[Fruity Snacks]

Which map was it that had the entity setup done before hand, but then racked up votes based on the gamemode rather than the map? The saxton hale thing..
That was very far from the spirit of the 72hr maps. Let's not have anything else like that.

In Egans defense, he did completely rebuild the entities an hour before the start of the contest.

I don't expect something like this to happen again though.

 

[xzzy]

what about people thinking their maps thru in their head or bringing up an old idea that they never got around to? to be completely fair you'd have to forbid people to even think about their map once the contest is announced

You're just being silly. There's a massive gap between having an idea floating around in your head and blocking it out in Hammer.

 

[Egan]

Which map was it that had the entity setup done before hand, but then racked up votes based on the gamemode rather than the map? The saxton hale thing..
That was very far from the spirit of the 72hr maps. Let's not have anything else like that.

In Egans defense, he did completely rebuild the entities an hour before the start of the contest. I don't expect something like this to happen again though.

To be factual, overall what happened was I started working on a gamemode on wednesday night (the contest started friday 4pm est) that involved people getting spawned flags for them that gave them buffs, if you lost your flag you could re-pick it back up or steal another player's flag from ingame and take whatever buff they had. I worked on this from wednesday -> thursday 10pm where I realised I was a bit over my head so close to the start of the contest, especially considering I had school on friday as well which would eat up most of the day anyway. On friday morning I was on the bus at 8am and was thinking what else could I do with the addcond trigger, I thought of the juggernaut mode from halo 2, and started thinking up how it could be done in tf2. In math class friday (10:30am) I drew up all the plans for how the entities would work together. I cut my last class on friday to get home early at 2:30pm where I began work shifting the flag gamemode into a juggernaut mode where the juggernaut picked up a flag and if he died anyone could then pick up his juggernaut flag and become the next juggernaut - like how it is in the halo games. This wasn't working for me though, and at 3:30pm - half an hour before the contest started - I thought up a different way, just making hardcoded triggers that hit the randomly chosen juggernaut at the start of the round and when he died the round would end. I started work on the entities probably soon after and finished them to a stable point 2 hours into the contest[/URL]. Throughout the contest it was worked on and refined from its basic form, difficulty adjusting to player counts, capture points added in, fixing various bugs from the player selection to targetting players correctly (watch this, skip to 30 mins in). I was also even hit with this ridiculous bug at 55 hours into the contest that blew out all the lights in the map and only went away after I binary searched for it with cordon and remade a brush of world geometry (that took 5 hours to find at least).

Just defending my name a little bit here, cause no one seems to remember beyond 3 months?

 

[Sergis]

You're just being silly. There's a massive gap between having an idea floating around in your head and blocking it out in Hammer.

depends on how good your 3d imagination is

 

[littleedge]

Any weekend, that isn't the next three., (Late June: 21-23?) Also, I'd love to say "Give me two weeks notice" but that's unlikely. So give me the most notice you can!



And I, too, remember when the 72 Hour Contest had no theme. And worked well. Without a theme.

There wasn't a theme back then. Nope. No theme.

 

[fauks]

Why not make it a week-long event?

I think the concept of a 72 hour contest promotes an unhealthy habit of sitting on the computer for long periods of time, getting little sleep, and has an impact on participant by requiring a long weekend and flow effect on the following week.

It's also more flexible for people with other commitments.

Mappers would gain experience planning, developing, testing and revising to a deadline that isn't so ridiculous. Invaluable skills for anyone working in the software industry.

 

[Ælement]

I can't participate unless it's placed somewhere between july 6th and july 11th, or some time after july the 22nd.

Narrow times.

 

[RubbishyUser]

Why not make it a week-long event?

I think the concept of a 72 hour contest promotes an unhealthy habit of sitting on the computer for long periods of time, getting little sleep, and has an impact on participant by requiring a long weekend and flow effect on the following week.

It's also more flexible for people with other commitments.

Mappers would gain experience planning, developing, testing and revising to a deadline that isn't so ridiculous. Invaluable skills for anyone working in the software industry.

I think the principle is that by giving a "ridiculous" 72hour deadline, people can work on a map without worrying about spending whole weeks on it. It's really easy to slip into the mindset of perfectionism about "your baby" and spend months and years getting it done. With a 72h map, you cannot afford to. That's why the 72h contests often have larger numbers participating - one weekend is less of a commitment than a whole week.

Plus, anyone in the software industry will tell you that it's the experience of designing for long periods of time with little sleep that typifies crunch time.