Contest idea thread!

[seth]

I'd really like to see a non-standard gametype contest. We are lacking in good, well thought out non-standard maps. There are so many crappy maps that get stuck in the rotation for VSH, dodgeball, and prophunt. I think it would be really fun as prophunt allows you to go wild with details and dodgeball requires no logic. It'd be nice to get some new maps in those rotations instead of all these stupid minecraft maps.

 

[Fruity Snacks]

Issue with the non-standard mapping for a major contest is that, it's not that good of a contest. Your semi-limited to whatever you can do with entities and dealing with those is horribly frustrating for a new mapper. With contests you want to have a dual-barrier of entry. You want a solid challenge for a new mapper to jump in with and you want something for the vet mappers to be challenged with without it being too easy or 'done already.' For a quality non-standard gamemode contest, that would cater to the vet mappers who really know the entities and what to do, (See, Booj's April fools map, or Egan's 72hr map. Those were new gamemodes, but had a bajillion issues getting set up entity wise). Without that knowledge, you're very likely to get very unthought out or just flat our bad game modes.


I would also like to point out, that the 72hr contest does NOT have a game-mode restriction (barring trade or any game-mode that specifically require server plugins).

 

[seth]

But I thought dodgeball maps weren't hard to set up because they use barely any logic. And the maps are relatively simple as you just want a flat space for 2 walls of teams to bounce a ball between. They can be made pretty fun, however: clever use of height variation, spots only accessible by reflect jumps, and an interesting setting such as an underground hotel like tfdb_catwalk. Prophunt maps are also just basically arena maps. They help educate new mappers on the importance of detailing and how details can effect gameplay. Veteran mappers probably already know how that works but finely detailing a map is still not something they can just blow through easily.

The 72hr contest is not something I feel like new mappers would want to do. Time constraints can be very stressful, especially if you don't know what you're doing or how to fix errors that will surely happen when you're rushing through a map.

 

[Grizzly Berry]

The 72hr contest is not something I feel like new mappers would want to do. Time constraints can be very stressful, especially if you don't know what you're doing or how to fix errors that will surely happen when you're rushing through a map.

I disagree. The most active the community has been was during the last 72hr contest, so it's a great time to ask questions. Being a beginner mapper, I don't think you're going into the contest thinking you'll win, so it's a pretty good excuse to get a lot of mapping in a short period of time.

Honestly, the most I've ever gotten done was during the 72hr contest, and I am by no means an experienced mapper. It's the perfect time to try it out, because if you don't like it, you only wasted one weekend.

 

[seth]

I disagree. The most active the community has been was during the last 72hr contest, so it's a great time to ask questions. Being a beginner mapper, I don't think you're going into the contest thinking you'll win, so it's a pretty good excuse to get a lot of mapping in a short period of time.

Honestly, the most I've ever gotten done was during the 72hr contest, and I am by no means an experienced mapper. It's the perfect time to try it out, because if you don't like it, you only wasted one weekend.

I've watched your videos, you say you've been mapping (albeit not altogether seriously and not in Hammer) for many years. Regardless of how much time you've mapped in Hammer, you still have the mind for it and some experience. Maybe I was speaking out of my point of view. I'm a new mapper and the 72hr contest would be the thing I would do when I've gotten at least a few solid maps under my belt or whenever I've fleshed out errors and things you can and cannot do in the Source engine and gotten experience. Participating in a time-constrained contest would stress me out and I would probably end up getting nothing done.

Anyways, I'd still think it'd be a cool thing to do. I'd enter it because I feel like making a dodgeball map is something I could do and something I could use to familiarize myself with Hammer and learn from mistakes while not having to deal with a big map and lots of logic etc.

 

[Fruity Snacks]

Should note, the first ever 72hr contest I entered (and won, mind you) was when I only had minimal experience after making koth_rundown (which was crap, gameplay wise).

 

[seth]

Should note, the first ever 72hr contest I entered (and won, mind you) was when I only had minimal experience after making koth_rundown (which was crap, gameplay wise).

OK, well that's just not how I feel but I'm not everyone and I am not experienced so you and Grizzly are probably right.

I still think it'd be fun.

 

[radarhead]

How about a contest where everyone makes a detail element like a building, bridge, or capzone and then you have to pick at least three and make a map with them.

 

[wareya]

What about a very short contest like the 72hr ones, but focused on a specific skill? Like how you could have layout, detail, comp, etc contests.

 

[Fantaboi]

What about a very short contest like the 72hr ones, but focused on a specific skill? Like how you could have layout, detail, comp, etc contests.

72 Hour layout contest sounds fantastic, or everyone detailing the same map in 72 hours.

 

[UKCS-Alias]

or everyone detailing the same map in 72 hours.

For that you would need a good map to start with. Picking a map people arent sure of to be succesfull is going to be less interesting or either is going to dissapoint them. And for that we had a contest that went a bit close to that. the 2 skillset contest.

Although its too late the next time they could however do a similar contest in 2 seperate moments. In part 1 the map shape gets made, then the voting comes and in part 2 all people are forced to detail only that map. That way you know you are detailing a map that works. And if its a complex map in entity work it adds a chalenge.

Still, for 72h contests i dont recommend full map projects since those take a huge amount of time. a 2k-2k-2k sized area already is quite some size. And those have proven to give much nicer detailed areas.

 

[puxorb]

I have always wanted to try doing something like this:

Take a map that you love that already exists in the game, change one area of it that you think can be improved, and then do an artpass on it to make it look completely different. So essentially, redesign a valve map as if you were creating it in the first place. It would be a lot of work, but I think it would be interesting to see how people can improve a map, or how a certain map might look in a different setting.

Example: Take dustbowl, make it more open and friendlier to newer types of gameplay, then completely change all the metal buildings detail into a wooden-upward style, and the out-of-bounds areas into cliffs. Make dustbowl feel like upward. Then everyone would judge the map on how much better/worse the gameplay is and if you managed to create a different art style from before.

 

[Grizzly Berry]

Although its too late the next time they could however do a similar contest in 2 seperate moments. In part 1 the map shape gets made, then the voting comes and in part 2 all people are forced to detail only that map. That way you know you are detailing a map that works. And if its a complex map in entity work it adds a chalenge.

This. I wish the 2SS contest had been like this. The official Artpass contest is what really got me interested in TF2 mapping, and that was because I really loved seeing everyone's take on a single map. To me, it makes the contest seem a lot more unified. Maybe that's a bad thing, I don't know.

 

[UKCS-Alias]

This. I wish the 2SS contest had been like this.

Same, or at least for a part.

I wouldnt have expected that many maps to enter in the first place not to mention that the voting process went slow and took the whole phase 2 time. Those things were something unexpected and did harm phase 2 a bit. After all, if you know the winner of phase 1, you know your work wont be wasted (or at least, has a higher chance).

It especialy would have helped if the results of phase 1 were known before phase 2 started. Even if there was a clear winner, the 2 maps below it most likely would still work very well. It at least would give the focus to maps that people know works in case they didnt want to do the design. And even then, if you did a map that lost you could still detail your own map. Phase 2 after all didnt care about gameplay.

But this is talking afterward. During the contest i wasnt even able to tell this since i didnt know the result of the number of contenders in phase 2.

For a first contest of this kind its a good attempt. It could have gone better, but thats nearly allways when you try new things. Lets just hope that #2 of these contests is going to get improved based on the feedback (and im sure it will).

I didnt take part into many contests. In fact, the 2ss is the first i did take part into. And i would have no issue taking part into a 2nd one.

 

[radarhead]

A contest where participants have to build and detail an area in an attempt to match a photograph or concept art. Only problem might be determining a winner.

 

[Smileytopin]

I have three ideas for contests, both of which are fairly dumb ideas, but would be interesting.

1. A 24 hour mapping contest. This would be completely a joke, and could work as a joke contest. Not much to be said about it, make a map in 24 hours.

2. Artpass 2. An artpass contest, or just a detailing contest, where one map is detailed by several people at once. It would be interesting to see what people could do and accomplish if everyone is trying to turn the same developer texture theme-less map into what they view the map as.

3. A junior mappers contest, or a novice mapping contest. This could help bring in new mappers to the community, and help newer and less experienced mappers improve their skills in a fun and rewarding way. This would be a contest where only less experienced or newer mappers who have never won a contest could join. A contest like this would last somewhere between 2 weeks and a month, and would require mappers to come up with unique and interesting ideas to hone their skills and claim victory in a contest with mappers around their own ability. While this is contest is running, a professional or experienced mappers contest could also run. This would be something similar, but only experienced and award winning mappers could enter. A contest between professional mappers would push limits and result in some very interesting, entertaining, and professional maps to be created for the Team Fortress 2 community.

 

[TheBestUsername]

@SmileyTopin: I like idea #3.

 

[TyeZenneth]

What is a novice mapper, though? Someone who's never gotten a map to RC?

 

[Smileytopin]

Tye, that's a question I'm trying to debate.

I'd say a novice mapper is someone who has't made it to rc1, hasn't topped in a contest, and doesn't have a mappers medallion for mapping related reasons.

 

[littleedge]

Smiley made this thread have 1000. Yeaaaah.

Also, I have a Mapper's Medallion, but have not topped a contest or released a map past alpha. Am I novice?