TF2maps.net 72hr Winter Mapping Classic, January 17th, 2014.

[Ida]

I really hate to be a negative nancy but I'm very unhappy with the theme and here's why.

"Prep up, men" is so vague that it invites nothing but cop-out solutions to the theme, such as the examples you gave (restrooms/dinner). I asked Aly what she was doing with her map and her solution was to have setup time, and that was the best she could come up with after 3 days. I don't think I could do any better. I'm wracking my brain trying to come up with something for this theme that feels legitimate, like a proper interpretation of it, but all that comes to mind are really weird tangential puns that can't even be interpreted into a map. Like, uh... preppy? prep school? pre-pup? ??? It feels like no matter what interpretation I choose I'll be cheating the system.

The main problem here is that it's not inspiring. There's nothing in this saying that can be transformed into an interesting theme or gameplay variation or anything as far as I (and apparently the rest of the chat right now) can see. So right now I fear that I'm not going to be able to come up with a concept for a map that would feel like it has a real connection to the saying as a whole, and because of that the theme is effectively a restriction.

Edit: Also, I know I can just put male restroom signs in my map or something and it'll pass, but then I have to question why the theme exists in the first place.

 

[Berry]

SURPRISE THEME ANNOUNCEMENT!

As promised, there was a theme this year. I didn't want to be too restrictive, I didn't want to be too vague. So I decided to go with a simple phrase.

"PREP UP, MEN!"​

Interpret that as you wish. Does your map have a bunch of male restroom signs? Does BLU have to stop red from preparing dinner? Who knows! It's up to you!

The official start of the contest is 4pm EST on Friday, Jan 17th. You will have 72hr hours from that point to make a map from scratch, that fits within some interpretation of that theme. Gooooooood luuuuuck!

"Prep up, men!" reminds me of your post, which reminds me of the 72hr, which reminds me of my original unthemed idea for a map.

Themed.

 

[Prestige]

Making the theme somehow open to interpretation might work, but 'prep up, men' is pretty bad, all I get is bad ideas.

I really can't think of a a themestatement that would somehow be good......was a nice idea to try for a 72hr contest

 

[Ravidge]

This just confuses me to no end. I really have no idea how you'd incorporate that into a map as a gameplay feature. It feels like you have to construct some weird narrative story around your map... a map that will most likely have little to no detailing due to the nature of a 72h contest.

It doesn't help that I've never heard people use the phrase before. Maybe I could come up with things if I knew in what situations it's used, and how it's said. But right now I sit here trying to understand a (I assume) American saying without any context.
Even if I come up with something, I'm not sure it actually matches the definition of "prep up", or if I'm interpreting it wrong, or bending the meaning too far.

If you asked me to go look for a suitable theme phrase or proverb, I'd go with something a lot easier to understand and widely used.
"Between a rock and a hard place", "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery". With either of these I can imagine a lot of mapping options, and they don't limit theme or gamemode. And I just had a quick glance at some random website with a list of them.

 

[Zwiffle]

I have a pretty good idea what I'm going to be doing for the theme. Took me about 2 minutes to come up with it.

 

[Fruity Snacks]

So, clearly many people are not agreeing with this. Sorry, I was really worried about making the theme not suck, that I made the theme suck. I'm not going to change it now, so I'll honestly say just do your best and go from there. I'll make sure to adjust the notes related to judging to incorporate this.

So, quick backstory on this. Since I was worried about conflict with a potential Major contest, I didn't want to create a theme the would pigeon-hole people into a single game-mode, theme or state of mind. Making a theme that pushing into a game-mode makes testing boring. Making a theme also makes it that way. So I went with something vague. I want to emphasize, I really was worried about this, probably a bit too much. Anyways, I decided on a few things and came down to "Preparation" as the final voice. Okay, cool. At face value people could use set-up game-modes to get away. Maybe there was a preparation game mode (Hold-the-flag, defusal, Multi-stage). Cool, that worked for me, I could think of a bunch of things with that. The issue was, it didn't sound very 'fun,' which is what I wanted. I was playing MvM and heard the soldier say "Ready Up, Men!" I was thinking 'Sweet, Ready up and preparation work together! I'll just use a play on the phrase and say "Prep Up, Men!"' Awesome. And thats what I went with.

I thank everyone for their feedback and in the future I will do a whole hell of a lot better than this with the theme. Infact, I'm considering just making it a vote for one from a pool of suggestions.

 

[Fish 2.0]

Everyone here is such a downer and needs to get an imagination, k

 

[xzzy]

Theme is fine, themed challenges are usually quite vague and half the fun of the judging process is seeing what unique solutions people come up with. You're all, in theory, creative people who haunt a forum dedicated to making TF2 maps out of nothing but boxes.. the instant you read those words something should have popped into your head. Even a stupid idea can be made great.

 

[Prestige]

make the theme imagination/your dreams. Ayn Rand libertarian paradise map here i come.

 

[LeSwordfish]

terwonick is that you?

Whilst i liked this theme, i was thinking about the chances of playing about with gameplay it gives. Have a 5cp map where doors between the points lock to give 30 seconds setup time on each cap. Make a mvm map using my buildables. Put the spawn on a train that pulls into a station.

I DO agree that a vote would be better.

 

[Penguin]

bro u srs

 

[Pocket]

All I think of when I hear "prep up" is MvM. So thank goodness that's allowed.

 

[mint onion]

i love that the contest is encouraging people to stream. i'd love to watch and learn from more experienced users.

 

[YM]

Anyhow, getting back onto a track of positivity, here's a write up of pl_haste's creation a couple years back, quoted from my blahg

Hourly breakdown:
1-8 – Blocking out layout, laying down the track, basic spawn entities
Sleep #1
8-10 – Finishing up to first alpha level
11 – First test with bots
12-14 – Detailing Blu respawn room
15-20 – Detailing up to control point A and Red respawn
21 – First test with human players
Sleep #2
22-24 – Finishing up detail around control point A
25 – Second test with human players
26-33 – Detailing the interior stretch between control points A and B
34-38 – Detailing between control point B and Red respawn
39 – Sealing and clipping
40 – Fixing leaks
41 – Lighting checks
42 – 3D skybox
43-44 – Final hours of tinkering
45 – Threw in satellite dish as a focal point, final compile, package, submit!

These are hours spent working, not since the start of the contest. I can't remember how long I had left on the clock when I submitted.

To go along side that hourly breakdown, I took screenshots at the end of most hours, so here's the full album of those screenshots: Right here on Flickr

 

[Fruity Snacks]

So it is known, the only people I have given OK's to start early with their mapping are these two: Eleryn And Littleedge. Anyone else who is starting early and doesn't have my permission will be instantly disqualified and will have my eternal angry rain down upon them.

 

[Fish 2.0]

i love that the contest is encouraging people to stream. i'd love to watch and learn from more experienced users.

I'm streaming and this will be only my 2nd really "released" map - take tips from me I have what they call 'the pro'

 

[Geit]

Anyone who is streaming and would like the countdown in their stream you can do it with Open Broadcaster Software (OBS), it looks something like this:

(Forgive my ugly mug)

Some steps

• Download & Install & Setup OBS
• Install this plugin for OBS: http://obsproject.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=6714 using the guide here: http://obsproject.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4912
• Start OBS
• Right click your sources section and press Add->CLR Browser
• Name it whatever you like and click OK
• The URL is http://magic.geit.co.uk/countdown.html , width 140 and height 85 -- all other settings are as normal
• Click OK
• You can press "Edit Scene" to modify its position, scale and clipping.

The countdown currently resets to 72 hours on every page load, I'll make sure the countdown is correct a few hours before it starts tomorrow, this is so you can test to see if it animates correctly.

 

[Fruity Snacks]

Awww Geit, you're adorable.

 

[FiLi]

This may be a bit of a silly question, but it's something I'm not entirely clear on:
Along with the naming scheme, can there still be the version suffixes? I mean, if you test your map before the end of the 72 hours, does the naming scheme apply to all those versions or just the one you submit at the end?

 

[Fruity Snacks]

It does, but remember your final entry will need to be <gamemode>_<forumname>_72 (with a _2... 3... 4 or whatnot at the end based on your previous contests).

If you are doing versions for testing, please do NOT use _72 at the end of the TESTING version. Use _a1 or _2 or something, something that isn't _72. I usually get 1-2 people a contest asking "Heeeey, my map, cp_something_72 is already on the server, can you delete it so I can upload it again?" ... This is extremely annoying for me and the server folk, so don't do it.

Simply: Do not name your testing file name <gamemode>_<forumname>_72 until the submission version. Everything else for testing should be <gamemode>_<forumname>_a1, etc.