Next major contest discussion

[Auwi]

I think we really need to wait until the 72 hour contest is completely over, that is voting and having winners. We have over 65+ maps to test and I don't think we should have something else important going on. Having another contest too soon will just make things a complete mess for us.

 

[Freyja]

If we push the major contest back to 2016 won't we run into the same problem with the winter 72h contest. We have to start it sometime.

 

[Grizzly Berry]

I don't like the idea of using the 72hr as a springboard for major contests mainly because if you decide not to map for the major, you're wasting your time. I like it as a standalone contest.

On top of that, I don't want to playtest a bunch of 72hr maps for a month and then when that's over, continue testing them because people carried them over to the major. That's one of the things I didn't really like about the Tale of Two Skillsets contest. It didn't feel like it had its own identity because it was a bunch of maps from the 72hr.

It comes down to personal preference, but that's how I feel about it.

 

[tyler]

If we push the major contest back to 2016 won't we run into the same problem with the winter 72h contest. We have to start it sometime.

Why not skip it, or rethink how the 72hr works entirely, or just push it to spring as a destress after the major?

 

[Vincent]

At this point we should be considering the 72hr to be a major contest. This clearly isnt something we can just stick between major contests for fun.

 

[Crash]

Why not skip it, or rethink how the 72hr works entirely, or just push it to spring as a destress after the major?

We only recently switched to two a year and you see how popular it is. We definitely need to overhaul it, as it's become a colossal beast on its own, but it's a really big draw to the site now, so I think reducing it now would be a bad idea.

 

[tyler]

Then Vincent is right: we need to stop treating it like something to tide us over. The winter 72hr is not going to magically get less than 60 entrants like it did years ago.

 

[Crash]

I don't disagree

 

[Fruity Snacks]

I don't disagree

Same.

 

[Lain]

72hr is a minor contest?? LOL

Ever since that first crash hype video I was under the impression that the 72hr was a massive thing

 

[Fruity Snacks]

72hr is a minor contest?? LOL

Ever since that first crash hype video I was under the impression that the 72hr was a massive thing

Back in they day, we used to only get 30-40 entries.

 

[takabuschik]

The Major contest before the last one (the 2 skills one) got just 7 maps for phase 2. I just thought that it's worth mentioning.

Also, if some people want to have another contest and some really don't, why not have another minor contest, like the detail contests, where you don't need to have a server for testing, as everybody tests the map for themselves?

 

[Pocket]

Would it be required to make both detail and a Popfile, or would one or the other be acceptable?

I like the idea of making it essentially two separate contests running concurrently, since the layout would be locked in before we start and the gamemode inherently allows mix-and-match. The detailing maps wouldn't be populated or playtested, and the popfiles would use the unaltered source map. If someone wanted to enter both — which should be easy enough even under a short deadline since most of the time-intensive work involved in making a good popfile is playtesting, which would be crowdsourced to the community — they certainly could. In the end, maybe the two winners would be combined into a single map or something.

 

[UKCS-Alias]

I like the idea of making it essentially two separate contests running concurrently, since the layout would be locked in before we start and the gamemode inherently allows mix-and-match.

The problem is that in the 2nd part people will just go for 1 layout and mostly ignore others unless they made it themselve.
Thats why the 2ss contest only had 7 maps. All the ones who showed to be less good were often just ignored. And of the 2 winners intercept was obviously too hard for most to detail on because of the entity work in it (and its sensitivity on breaking).

Focussing on 1 map for detailing is just better.

The detailing maps wouldn't be populated or playtested, and the popfiles would use the unaltered source map.

They must be playtested with the #1 popfile. That popfile has proven to work so if the map breaks anything it will be shown fast.

Idealy you just pick 1 map and set that one as the target. And better would be if that map has a certain reward aswel. The valve one for example was ensured to be in the game which is a good motivator. But still, mapping should be done because its fun anyway, so to me the medal was enough (with mvm_intercept i went for 1 before)

Also, i made a quick mockup shape of an mvm map that i wouldnt mind giving for the artpass contest (note that this was just 1h of work):

 

[Pocket]

The problem is that in the 2nd part people will just go for 1 layout and mostly ignore others unless they made it themselve.
Thats why the 2ss contest only had 7 maps. All the ones who showed to be less good were often just ignored. And of the 2 winners intercept was obviously too hard for most to detail on because of the entity work in it (and its sensitivity on breaking).

I don't think you understand. There will only be one layout, because we'd be starting with a single un-artpassed map, just like in 2010. Navigation stuff would have to be included, and the artpass entrants would be expected to keep them in their versions. You're right that they'd have to undergo some rudimentary testing to make sure they didn't mess up the navigation, but I don't know if they'd even need human players for that. Either way, nobody would be designing around anyone else's content in particular; it should be possible to mix and match any popfile with any artpass and still have a working MvM map.

 

[YM]

After the Artpass contest:
I don't want to see any more contests where multiple people are working on the same thing. It's just a waste. All those awesome artpass maps that have never seen a single play session since the contest ended. UGGHH.

Let's not repeat that.

Let people make their own maps, and their own popfiles to go with them.

 

[Pocket]

At that point it's just another standard MvM contest.

 

[YM]

Of which we have had none... soooo yeah, that sounds perfect thanks

 

[tyler]

Uh, yes we did.

 

[Zed]

Everyone knows YM's memory is fried from all the dank kush he smoked in uni.