- Jul 30, 2021
- 760
- 474
I make these best at incredibly late hours while at work for some reason. Anyhow, felt like yapping again. (The yap will never cease)
Topic No. 1: Stack the Deck Woes
I don't think it's really any secret that Stack the Deck has been... rough. It's been rough on the voters, it's been rough on the staff, it's been rough on impers, rough on mappers... you get the drill. I can only really give my own perspective on this, seeing as how I am not in fact multiple different people, so here we go. I feel like Stack the Deck overall was pretty mismanaged. Even at the start, I was kinda like "ehhhhhh..." towards the whole thing, since I noticed that a good chunk of the cards were prompts from microcontests over the last couple years. I don't think this in it of itself is a bad thing, and honestly I think the cards being, well, cards, is cool, but I feel like it should've given me some signals that staff weren't planning to be as engaged as what I'd assume is "they usually are." I can't really speak from experience, since before this, I've never experienced a major contest myself before. I feel like there was a lot of communication failures between the contest team and the general public with this contest. Unclear card rules, a lacking of a fallback to go to for normal users when a question is asked, getting tests up and running effectively... it was really frustrating to watch.
I think one of the things that personally affected my outlook on the contest the most was the lacking playtesting. Idk if anyone cares or remembers, but I was essentially the only person who ran dedicated Stack the Deck tests the whole month of July. I will admit that I did have my fun, and it was rewarding to help mappers get extra testing data, but it was a lot of wear and stress on me personally. I understand it was a responsibility I placed on myself, but to not even be a staff member and be more active in testing the official major contest maps was a lot, and I think in retrospect it took some of the excitement out of Stack the Deck for me since it really did feel like nobody cared enough to even try helping the mappers out in a more like... planned way? Idk if that makes sense but oh well. I do appreciate @14bit, @AlrexX [she/they], and @half for doing gamedays especially towards then end, it was really cool of them and they didn't need to do that (okay well maybe 14bit did lol), so thank you very much. <3
Now, we come to "it." The source of near-constant discussion and heated debate for I think an entire week on TF2Maps; The voting. It was incredibly scuffed. I think the lack of the neutral vote option at the start of the contest affected the results a little more than I think most people would want to admit. I will also admit that sure, I may be a little biased, I've been told "No" on Cat Tower for what felt like silly reason and that I think a neutral vote in place of some of those would've at least maybe let us break even on it, but at the same time I think the way getting the finalist was also mishandled anyhow. I truly and genuinely believe that there should've been an approval rate system instead of a top 10. There were a lot of cool maps that came from Stack the Deck, and it really sucks that half of them essentially just won't get detailed feedback from most of the people who are supposed to, well, give that detailed feedback. I could say more about that, but this one topic is a bit lengthy and to be quite honest I'm already left pretty burned out of Stack the Deck anyway to want to talk about it. I might blab more about this in particular in another yap post, idk. Tldr, this contest really could've used a stronger background structure.
Topic No. 2: Cat Tower
Cat Tower was something I never thought would happen. It was just that "quirky little map idea" in the back of my head that I'd mention whenever someone on tf2m was like "Katsu you should make a map!" It was like that for probably two years, just lying alone as an idea. But then a glowing figure, @Nixxk, approached in the wildest roulette of chance imaginable and offered to build it in hammer. I honestly don't know what shocked me more, the fact that someone actually wanted to build one of my designs or the fact that the map in question itself was being faithfully remade from its Minecraft origin.
I honestly could not be more proud of a map. It's a silly map, even if it wasn't made to be one. I initially made the layout in Minecraft in I think 2020 while I was having some intense fever dreams from covid. Even now, I'm shocked how like... actually fun the map is in TF2? Sure if you make it unfun by being an annoying sniper then yeah it won't be fun, but that's not really the point of the map in my opinion. The point is to make a cool map, see how it played, and learn from it. And honestly I do think I learned a good bit from Cat Tower. I feel like the biggest thing I learned is just... being able to "let go" of set in stone design ideas. Cat Tower throws everything I really knew about level design out the window and yet manages to be fun, and I think it really helped me personally loosen up when it comes to making maps. It really gave me drive to start really making layouts of my own instead of just thinking about layouts if you get what I mean XD
Topic No. 3: Ye Olde Conteste
I am so, so, so excited for Ye Olde Conteste. I'm genuinely really looking forward to what happens with it, I'm excited to host, I'm excited to get to taking to people about their maps, I'm excited to problem solve!!! It felt really good getting like, actual live feedback prior to starting it and I really and truly do think it helped the overall contest pitch feel better than it was initially. I'm really thankful for the judge team, @half, @mousejumper, @Gruppy, and @Fiddleford being really effective communicators and team players in making decisions in a timely manner too, I think without them the contest would feel a lot less smooth than it currently does. I want to see the full potential Medieval Mode has unleashed upon TF2Maps with this contest, and hopefully get some more replayability with it! I firmly believe that with enough effort, Medieval can be a endearing gamemode to a lot more people than it current is. I've already gotten some really nice impressions from the two maps I've played, @Radial's Tour and @AlrexX [she/they]'s Feed, and it sets quite the positive expectation of what is to come from the contest later.
Wishing y'all the best of luck with this one, give it your all and don't be afraid to take risks!
Wah, I've run out of time at work again already qwq
Is okay, that means I get to sleep soon. Thanks again for listening to me ramble like this, I feel like it's a nice mix of getting hype, getting things off my chest, and just... well, yapping for the sake of it lol. Seriously, good luck for YOC if you're participating! (Please do <3)
Topic No. 1: Stack the Deck Woes
I don't think it's really any secret that Stack the Deck has been... rough. It's been rough on the voters, it's been rough on the staff, it's been rough on impers, rough on mappers... you get the drill. I can only really give my own perspective on this, seeing as how I am not in fact multiple different people, so here we go. I feel like Stack the Deck overall was pretty mismanaged. Even at the start, I was kinda like "ehhhhhh..." towards the whole thing, since I noticed that a good chunk of the cards were prompts from microcontests over the last couple years. I don't think this in it of itself is a bad thing, and honestly I think the cards being, well, cards, is cool, but I feel like it should've given me some signals that staff weren't planning to be as engaged as what I'd assume is "they usually are." I can't really speak from experience, since before this, I've never experienced a major contest myself before. I feel like there was a lot of communication failures between the contest team and the general public with this contest. Unclear card rules, a lacking of a fallback to go to for normal users when a question is asked, getting tests up and running effectively... it was really frustrating to watch.
I think one of the things that personally affected my outlook on the contest the most was the lacking playtesting. Idk if anyone cares or remembers, but I was essentially the only person who ran dedicated Stack the Deck tests the whole month of July. I will admit that I did have my fun, and it was rewarding to help mappers get extra testing data, but it was a lot of wear and stress on me personally. I understand it was a responsibility I placed on myself, but to not even be a staff member and be more active in testing the official major contest maps was a lot, and I think in retrospect it took some of the excitement out of Stack the Deck for me since it really did feel like nobody cared enough to even try helping the mappers out in a more like... planned way? Idk if that makes sense but oh well. I do appreciate @14bit, @AlrexX [she/they], and @half for doing gamedays especially towards then end, it was really cool of them and they didn't need to do that (okay well maybe 14bit did lol), so thank you very much. <3
Now, we come to "it." The source of near-constant discussion and heated debate for I think an entire week on TF2Maps; The voting. It was incredibly scuffed. I think the lack of the neutral vote option at the start of the contest affected the results a little more than I think most people would want to admit. I will also admit that sure, I may be a little biased, I've been told "No" on Cat Tower for what felt like silly reason and that I think a neutral vote in place of some of those would've at least maybe let us break even on it, but at the same time I think the way getting the finalist was also mishandled anyhow. I truly and genuinely believe that there should've been an approval rate system instead of a top 10. There were a lot of cool maps that came from Stack the Deck, and it really sucks that half of them essentially just won't get detailed feedback from most of the people who are supposed to, well, give that detailed feedback. I could say more about that, but this one topic is a bit lengthy and to be quite honest I'm already left pretty burned out of Stack the Deck anyway to want to talk about it. I might blab more about this in particular in another yap post, idk. Tldr, this contest really could've used a stronger background structure.
Topic No. 2: Cat Tower
Cat Tower was something I never thought would happen. It was just that "quirky little map idea" in the back of my head that I'd mention whenever someone on tf2m was like "Katsu you should make a map!" It was like that for probably two years, just lying alone as an idea. But then a glowing figure, @Nixxk, approached in the wildest roulette of chance imaginable and offered to build it in hammer. I honestly don't know what shocked me more, the fact that someone actually wanted to build one of my designs or the fact that the map in question itself was being faithfully remade from its Minecraft origin.
I honestly could not be more proud of a map. It's a silly map, even if it wasn't made to be one. I initially made the layout in Minecraft in I think 2020 while I was having some intense fever dreams from covid. Even now, I'm shocked how like... actually fun the map is in TF2? Sure if you make it unfun by being an annoying sniper then yeah it won't be fun, but that's not really the point of the map in my opinion. The point is to make a cool map, see how it played, and learn from it. And honestly I do think I learned a good bit from Cat Tower. I feel like the biggest thing I learned is just... being able to "let go" of set in stone design ideas. Cat Tower throws everything I really knew about level design out the window and yet manages to be fun, and I think it really helped me personally loosen up when it comes to making maps. It really gave me drive to start really making layouts of my own instead of just thinking about layouts if you get what I mean XD
Topic No. 3: Ye Olde Conteste
I am so, so, so excited for Ye Olde Conteste. I'm genuinely really looking forward to what happens with it, I'm excited to host, I'm excited to get to taking to people about their maps, I'm excited to problem solve!!! It felt really good getting like, actual live feedback prior to starting it and I really and truly do think it helped the overall contest pitch feel better than it was initially. I'm really thankful for the judge team, @half, @mousejumper, @Gruppy, and @Fiddleford being really effective communicators and team players in making decisions in a timely manner too, I think without them the contest would feel a lot less smooth than it currently does. I want to see the full potential Medieval Mode has unleashed upon TF2Maps with this contest, and hopefully get some more replayability with it! I firmly believe that with enough effort, Medieval can be a endearing gamemode to a lot more people than it current is. I've already gotten some really nice impressions from the two maps I've played, @Radial's Tour and @AlrexX [she/they]'s Feed, and it sets quite the positive expectation of what is to come from the contest later.
Wishing y'all the best of luck with this one, give it your all and don't be afraid to take risks!Wah, I've run out of time at work again already qwq
Is okay, that means I get to sleep soon. Thanks again for listening to me ramble like this, I feel like it's a nice mix of getting hype, getting things off my chest, and just... well, yapping for the sake of it lol. Seriously, good luck for YOC if you're participating! (Please do <3)