Contest idea thread!

EArkham

Necromancer
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Aug 14, 2009
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I think with the wide variety of mappers we have here, there's always going to be some interested in being part of a contest.

That said, it probably couldn't hurt to go awhile without them. If only to make sure that when a contest does happen, it can get more hype.
 

YM

LVL100 YM
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Dec 5, 2007
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if you're planning a break, announce a start date for the enxt contest before the break. So if it's a 3 month no-contest break, we know that we have 3 months to get whatever we're working on wrapped up so we're available for the start.
 

seth

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May 31, 2013
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Going along with what I said in Berry's thread about basic spawn room design, I think it'd be neat to have a little mini-contest where each entrant design spawn rooms for blu in a payload map. Maybe we could make a basic layout that does not include blu spawn rooms, or use an orphaned payload map, and then have each entrant design the blu spawn room for it. Like I said in the post on Berry's thread, blu spawn rooms for payload are often interesting, big, and full of props to create some things for players to do during the setup time. So this contest could be judged on how fun and interesting the spawn room is to be in during setup, and how functional it is feeding into our predefined layout.

I dunno, I think it may be fun.
 

Dr. Sasha

L4: Comfortable Member
Aug 5, 2013
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What if we had a contest of retheming maps? Ex. koth harvest from autumn theme to winter theme or one of the showcase maps.
 
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HQDefault

...what
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Aug 6, 2014
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Okay... regardless of everything that has been posted lately, I'm going to share my idea now because reasons.

The premise is simple: Edit a map. It doesn't even necessarily have to be official, it just has to be well-known. For example, some guy could go and make cp_orange_pro or something like that.
 

puxorb

L69: Emoticon
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Dec 15, 2013
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Especially since halloween is only a few months away, I can see that being a great idea for a contest. But is it going to be something of our own, or a re-detailing of an official map?
 

puxorb

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Dec 15, 2013
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Oh I guess I worded that poorly. I meant that there are 2 things that we could do:

1: that we re-detail a map in halloween assets, and
2: that we make a small detail map (like the mini detailing contest) in a halloween style.

I think the second one would probably be a better idea since multiple people might all choose the same map to detail.
 
Apr 14, 2013
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Ok, I get you Frozen, but I didn't know harvest was originally made halloween themed, I thought it was farmland and when a halloween update came Valve made it halloween.
@Puxorb I actually prefer the 1st idea, because that way maps will be playable, which is IMO better. Maybe the contest rules should include something like "you can't take a map that's being re-themed by someone else", and then you will have to post your map selection in the contest thread.
There are plenty of official maps, and most of them are good. Besides, in the last contest (1oth contest stage 2) there where only 7 maps, made by 6 people. There are more arena maps than that!
 

UKCS-Alias

Mann vs Machine... or... Mapper vs Meta?
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Sep 8, 2008
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There are plenty of official maps, and most of them are good. Besides, in the last contest (1oth contest stage 2) there where only 7 maps, made by 6 people. There are more arena maps than that!
The main issue on that is that people want to detail a map that they know works well gameplay wise. You dont want to detail a bad map as then it never gets played.

If the results of phase1 were known at the beginning of phase2 im sure more maps would have been detailed. But thats talking after the contest. Im sure that the next contest in the same way with such gap will go alot better.

And even with redetailing a map, if its a valve map i actualy would call it a little bit of a waste (as then valve maps get even more attention, which they dont need compared to custom maps). There are many custom maps which to me actualy deserve more attention. And if the mapper is willing to submit their map for such contest then that actualy could be far more interesting to promote those maps.
 

Vel0city

func_fish
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Dec 6, 2014
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New idea: have a contest with only one rule: only lighting you can have is from a light_environment :)
 

UKCS-Alias

Mann vs Machine... or... Mapper vs Meta?
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Sep 8, 2008
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I dont think it would deliver good maps. maps with many large outdoor areas already provide issues by being too minisentry friendly. And the indoor parts are often good to break up some sections. It at most could work for a detail contest.

But i still like the idea of a 'just lighting' contest. It shows a specific skill, and maybe we could even go further:
For that i have an idea that could be supporting: A fullbright detailing contest. Just show off your quality brushwork and detailing. No light allowed - in fact, you at most could enforce a night setting using some of the props for night maps (which are simply dark). Light props in this case can only be used as placeholders for lights.
The winning map (or a randomly picked one) then could be used for the lighting contest. This at least would allow normal light entities to be used. And if its good brushwork it could still give quite some good lighting options. The only exception to entities is that you are allowed to move lights.
1: that we re-detail a map in halloween assets, and
A bit late since i commented on this thread already after this post... but:
Redetail a map that originaly was just halloween also is an option :p Skullcove for example is such map that originaly was only in halloween theme.

Its basicly just a theme conversion contest. And it can work in both ways.
 
Nov 2, 2010
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How about a competition where people have to make maps with moving control points? Like, points on trains and stuff. Might be interesting.

Traaainnssss.