Contest idea thread!

Belli

L69: Deviant Member
Jan 21, 2012
69
1
The dynamic payload contest was pretty good.

I'd like to see one for all standard game modes, with the chance to win in your respective category as well as a "top 3 overall" rating.

Seeing a contest with all kinds of maps, from TC to MVM, sounds pretty promising.

And it probably should be focused a bit more around the "dynamic" part, rewarding maps that add it as a crucial element rather than a gimmick.
 

Ravidge

Grand Vizier
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May 14, 2008
1,544
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The dynamic payload contest was pretty good.

I'd like to see one for all standard game modes, with the chance to win in your respective category as well as a "top 3 overall" rating.

Seeing a contest with all kinds of maps, from TC to MVM, sounds pretty promising.

And it probably should be focused a bit more around the "dynamic" part, rewarding maps that add it as a crucial element rather than a gimmick.

This is not a realistic suggestion, for a number of reasons.
1) This community doesn't have enough active/willing mappers to fill out all categories of maps.
2) We don't have the budget to award prizes to something of that scale.
3) Setting the timelimit to accommodate both TC sized maps, as well as arena is impossible to make "fair".
4) Most importantly: the judging and rating period would last for 8 months.

And that's just what I can think of at the moment
 

henke37

aa
Sep 23, 2011
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Badly, it would work badly.
 

stegarootbeer

L2: Junior Member
Jan 15, 2012
78
100
The issue I see with random partners is time zones. Unless the randomness was restricted to people in the same time zone.
 

fubarFX

The "raw" in "nodraw"
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Jun 1, 2009
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The issue I see with random partners is time zones. Unless the randomness was restricted to people in the same time zone.

well that's one way of seeing this but having only 1 person at a time working on a vmf is actually more beneficial I think. having different time zones would be a plus imo.

but I think it's a bad idea in general. collabs are always a touchy subject.
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
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The only collaborations i've ever seen work are those where you have a mapper and a model asset creator. Having 2 people work on a single map always results in time table conflicts, differences of opinion, and general delays, etc.
 

Fruity Snacks

Creator of blackholes & memes. Destroyer of forums
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Sep 5, 2010
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The only collaborations i've ever seen work are those where you have a mapper and a model asset creator. Having 2 people work on a single map always results in time table conflicts, differences of opinion, and general delays, etc.

Mark and Irish Taxi Driver collab'd on Upland. Turned out pretty well.
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
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Mark and Irish Taxi Driver collab'd on Upland. Turned out pretty well.

It turned out OK in an environment with no deadline. Personally i still think it needs a lot of aesthetic work for a map that's been in development for as long as it has, but then that's kinda predictable for map authors who've focused their demographic as competitive players, who don't care for that sort of thing.

I concede it as a point, but you're talking about 1 point vs countless failed collaborations both here, at interlopers and various other mapping sites. I still hold that the superior collaboration setup is that which we've seen with the likes of YM and Rexy as an obvious example.

With that in mind, unless we can find willing asset creators i think there are more solid contest ideas waiting to be tried.
 

fubarFX

The "raw" in "nodraw"
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Jun 1, 2009
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imho, you should be able to do collabs in any contest. the best map wins, no one cares who made it. I know I don't care.
but of course some individuals will call this unfair. so let's just hold back the potential of our maps by not authorizing collabs. sounds good to me.
 

tyler

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Sep 11, 2013
5,102
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Selentic and I were talking about a reverse artpass, where we make a layout and Valve details the one they like the most.
 

Belli

L69: Deviant Member
Jan 21, 2012
69
1
Selentic and I were talking about a reverse artpass, where we make a layout and Valve details the one they like the most.

I'd love to see that happen. There's so many variations of the basic, centro-symmetric or mirrored 5CP/KotH maps; a few new and unusal layouts could really benefit the mapping community and the game as a whole.

Nothing against the proven and tested, straight forward 5CP and LKotH maps, but it's nice to see something unique like Nucleus every once in a while.
 

Fruity Snacks

Creator of blackholes & memes. Destroyer of forums
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Sep 5, 2010
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Selentic and I were talking about a reverse artpass, where we make a layout and Valve details the one they like the most.

We'd have to find a Valve artist who is willing to commit a lot of time to detail a map.

And seeing as Artpass can take a lot longer than layout development, I wouldn't be surprised if no one was free to do it (or would want to commit the time). It'd just be time that could be used on something else more important to the company (recently released game, Un-announced games, etc).


Also, when you're designing a layout, you have a specific theme in mind. With that theme in mind, you design your architecture and geometry around it. When you try and use another theme on it that wasn't originally intended, things just start to look weird. The original artpass was nice, because the layout was just really generic enough, it could be artpassed as anything. But, getting a generic layout like that is a lot harder than it appears.


I'd also suspect that Valve would be more cautious with the layout, since thats the finicky bit. You can detail it however you want, but the gameplay really needs to be GOOD ... really good .. and generally that is tough.

tl;dr: Reverse artpass is a neat idea, but I don't think valve would want to commit the time to artpassing ... and it'd be risky on the actual quality of the gameplay.