***Mapping contest 05 - Payload map***

[Shadow Scythe]

Oh, neat. A payload mapping contest. This is a very good excuse for me to get pl_beachside to a state of finishedness. I'll be doing something with plenty of water, which is exactly where badwater basin failed to meet my expectations.

You guys will all help me test it right?

 

[Zeewier]

Voting will be split, a public vote and a moderator vote, then using Mangy's mathematical prowess the votes will be combined and a winner will be revealed.

I like to use custom textures models and particles in my maps but that increases the map size (ofc). Is there a max map (.bsp) size or will the moderator votes take the map size into account? (is this a correct English sentence? xD)

 

[AWESOME-O]

Nope i dont think, i think about 50 mb is a good size?
for fastdownload its about 20mb than to download i believe.
Not sure though

 

[Master of Spes]

Hmmmm....Interesting

I haven't made any full maps but rather a collection of different buildings and just started pieces, but I'll give this a shot (maybe) as I don't really care if mine is crap, but it gives me an excuse to complete something.

 

[YM]

Nope i dont think, i think about 50 mb is a good size?
for fastdownload its about 20mb than to download i believe.
Not sure though

Like I keep saying in chat....Get broadband!! anything under 100mb uncompressed is good which makes roughly 40mb in .bz2, which is also ok. However since this is a single stage payload map I'm not expecting anything mahoosive.

Size isn't an issue z33w13r (Where standard characters too hard for you? :glare::, Custom textures/sounds/menuphotos/props are fair game too but since custom particles need to be extracted from the bsp manually or packed separately they won't be seen by anyone doing any voting, that is until valve sort out the per-map particles they've hinted at doing.
Basicly we'll accept a .bsp only (or in .bz2 format) no extra files ofther than a readme So anything you can't get working by packing it into a .bsp wont aid your map in any way.
From what I gather you can modify existing particles and pack them in a .bsp and they work, if this is the case you may do that, since they're both inside the .bsp and work without extra stuff.

 

[UKCS-Alias]

I disagree with it. Even with broadband its sometimes a pain downloading a map from a server that has a poor upload speed. Some servers only get a limited speed for uploading maps (mainly with servers that are bought). They for example think 500kb/s for it is fast but dont realize that when 10 people are download from it that the speed drops to 50kb/s (and then try to download 50mb - takes over 15 minutes then and many dont want to wait that long).

I would say that 50mb (~20mb bzipped - at most 10 minutes downloading at 50kb/s) is the max. 100mb maps usualy are too big and when they have 60mb of extra textures and models it means you 'waste' 60mb of extra stuff just for that single map. btw, if 100mb was a good size. how come allmost no popular css server runs de_museum otherwise (which is about 100mb)? That map runs good after all, looks nice and plays nice.

 

[YM]

You can debate filesizes all day long, anything far over 100mb uncompressed is getting to be seriously large.
For this contest, filesize doesn't matter at all it will have no impact on voting unless the voters are too lame to download all of the maps because one is too big

 

[Inqwel]

I noticed the subforums have been added for each contest. Are we suppose to post WIP entry threads for the payload maps in this forum?

 

[Zeewier]

Looks like I started my first discussion

If the mods dont think it's an issue, but the (some of the) public voters (UKCS-Alias) think it is, it ís something i'll take into account. Cause all votes count

@Youme
btw if Z33W13R is to hard for you, you can also just call me Zeewier (dutch) S34W33D or Seaweed (English) (there is a reason for my name -> Weed isn't accepted as name @ GuildWars and Zeewier was taken on other games/fora -> Z33W13R was the best option) But maybe I'll change my name so ppl can remember my site

 

[AWESOME-O]

zeewiet

 

[grazr]

3 months, october, november, december..... (plus the remainder of september)

Doh! Who put 3 next to 2 on the keyboard?!

 

[MrAlBobo]

They for example think 500kb/s for it is fast but dont realize that when 10 people are download from it that the speed drops to 50kb/s (and then try to download 50mb - takes over 15 minutes then and many dont want to wait that long)

Whatever server you found that does this is epic fail...even free webhosts can handle multiple requests without a significant drop in download speed.

But yeah...this a mapping contest, filesize should be basically irrelevant.

 

[Dox]

Oh, neat. A payload mapping contest. This is a very good excuse for me to get pl_beachside to a state of finishedness. I'll be doing something with plenty of water, which is exactly where badwater basin failed to meet my expectations.

You guys will all help me test it right?

when you get it to a state you are comfortable with releasing but stuck for ideas or want a playtest, you can always submit it to one of our gamedays... one should be coming up next week I think...

 

[Zeewier]

zeewiet

sssstt.... das vast tegen de regels

ontopic:
Got a little start now, but I think my map could turn into an epic fail or a close win.

 

[UKCS-Alias]

Whatever server you found that does this is epic fail...even free webhosts can handle multiple requests without a significant drop in download speed.

But yeah...this a mapping contest, filesize should be basically irrelevant.

I know its all just about the map. I agree that thats the most important part of the contest. However, as the map should be better than a valve map it means it should be playable also (otherwise it would never be a better map). And for a playable map i find the filesize important to be small. A map with the size of 100mb can never be better than a valve map actualy as no one is going to run maps of those sizes (which is pretty imporant). At least there is a limit though, its better than saying all sizes are allowed.

Anyway, as more people find the map just important in its looks and vote the map only based on that the 100mb most likely will do better. It can give some nice artistic maps. Ill just hunt down the smaller maps (50mb is small for me btw) from the contest to see if they are realy playable. more maps after all is more fun

 

[grazr]

Valve maps are actually pretty large. The only reason you don't notice is because the maps are streamed with massive upload speeds in updates from Valve's personal servers, you don't download them when joining a server. Presuming the level designer has a working knowlegde of the game engine he is working with, larger file sizes will probably resultant in being better maps.

File size should not be an issue. Laziness is not a virtue. So jugding a map because you cba to dl it is, well.. It shouldn't happen. If you don't want to dl it from ingame then get it from a site. If a mapper pours months of work into it the least one can do is wait a few minutes to dl it, then you get to play it as much as you want.

 

[Username]

prizes this time!

your choice between a poster bundle, and or a tf2 themed shirt from the valve store!

<Posters>

or

<Pyro Tee>

It's sad, but I already own both of those. >_>

 

[MrAlBobo]

I know its all just about the map. I agree that thats the most important part of the contest. However, as the map should be better than a valve map it means it should be playable also (otherwise it would never be a better map). And for a playable map i find the filesize important to be small. A map with the size of 100mb can never be better than a valve map actualy as no one is going to run maps of those sizes (which is pretty imporant). At least there is a limit though, its better than saying all sizes are allowed.

im inclined to agree with you, but it takes effort to bloat the filesize to an undownloadable (so not a word) extent
and if the map can stay within the theme of the game, and not load it with a bunch of worthless crap, then an incredibly large filesize would be worth it

 

[Beetle]

So are we allowed to submit the WIP of the map to the WIP part of the forums for advice before the due date? Or is this suppose to be more of an all-of-it-on-your-own kinda thing?

 

[Midel]

I noticed the subforums have been added for each contest. Are we suppose to post WIP entry threads for the payload maps in this forum?

So are we allowed to submit the WIP of the map to the WIP part of the forums for advice before the due date? Or is this suppose to be more of an all-of-it-on-your-own kinda thing?

I'd like to know the answer to both of these.