TF2Maps.net Major Contest #9 - Mann vs. Machine

[Idolon]

There will be a panel of judges. Anyone who feels they have the expertise to provide a higher-than-standard level of feedback should send a PM to me (Seba) with a statement about what you feel qualifies you before February 11th, 2013. Once the site staff have decided on whether or not to accept your application you'll be contacted and will gain access to a new judges-only forum when signed in.

1char

 

[Seba]

For those of you who are working on a contest entry, whether you're ready or not: in what state will your map be by the deadline?

 

[Ælement]

Turbo and I expects to have a decently detailed beta ready by the deadline.

EDIT: Includes a pretty much finished mission.

 

[EArkham]

Detailed beta (the easy part, considering that MvM is underdetailed to begin with), with mostly untested robots/waves. Maybe a test in the next six days, depends on if I'm lucky enough to spot a game day thread in time.

 

[phi]

Turbo and I will most likely finish RC1 by the deadline. The pop file will be nearly refined by then (if we can get enough tests!)

 

[Seba]

Testing has been happening more and more often lately, EArkham and PDT. I suggest dropping into chat during a stale period (aka not around gamedays or other impromptus) and suggesting an MvM test.

 

[LeSwordfish]

Originally Posted by Seba
There will be a panel of judges. Anyone who feels they have the expertise to provide a higher-than-standard level of feedback should send a PM to me (Seba) with a statement about what you feel qualifies you before February 11th, 2013. Once the site staff have decided on whether or not to accept your application you'll be contacted and will gain access to a new judges-only forum when signed in.

Ah, oops?

 

[Vaconcovat]

I hope to be in late beta, i wanted to get to more of a release stage but i lost a week or two because of reasons

 

[Freyja]

I honestly don't know, as I continue to have the most obscure issues with ventus

 

[goosmurf]

Not sure where I should be posting this but I've setup a server in Sydney, Australia, running the 7 contest entries in rotation.

smurfy MvM #3 - TF2Maps Contest Maps 103.4.17.198:27045

 

[Seba]

Doc was kind enough to set up the Cafe MvM server for us to use:

cafeofbrokendreams.com:27666 pw:dogmeat

Thank him when you get the chance!

 

[Pocket]

What happened to the server listings on the contest page? Is it just going to be just the Café from now on?

EDIT: Oh, and speaking of which:

A looooot of these maps have a ton of technical problems, its almost like people don't know there's places to get maps tested easily, I was almost brought to tears by the complete lack of testing most of these seemed to undergo.

FYI your site is down.

SECOND EDIT: Does the Café server have any mods in place to accommodate potential issues with a map, like being able to vote to skip to the next wave and automatically award ourselves the money if we decide there's no way we can beat it? Because if a map happens to have a too-hard wave early on, I'd hate for the rest to be effectively disqualified because no one could even see them. I've already encountered one map with that problem, and I suspect this is part of why there's been almost no testing for this contest.

 

[lana]

SECOND EDIT: Does the Café server have any mods in place to accommodate potential issues with a map, like being able to vote to skip to the next wave and automatically award ourselves the money if we decide there's no way we can beat it? Because if a map happens to have a too-hard wave early on, I'd hate for the rest to be effectively disqualified because no one could even see them. I've already encountered one map with that problem, and I suspect this is part of why there's been almost no testing for this contest.

Negatory.

If a wave is too hard, it's an issue of balance, and if it's so impossible as to prevent advancement, then the wave should be rectified before further testing is done. Balance is not achieved through a single test, but through multiple iterations. If you skip the wave or give yourself money to advance, the rest of the testing is moot because you no longer have the upgrades you were intended to have at that point. It's not as if the map itself changes between waves, so the testing can be concluded after several runs of the same wave.

 

[Sel]

Negatory.

If a wave is too hard, it's an issue of balance, and if it's so impossible as to prevent advancement, then the wave should be rectified before further testing is done. Balance is not achieved through a single test, but through multiple iterations. If you skip the wave or give yourself money to advance, the rest of the testing is moot because you no longer have the upgrades you were intended to have at that point. It's not as if the map itself changes between waves, so the testing can be concluded after several runs of the same wave.

Except the problem is generally when a wave breaks (read bots getting stuck outside the map), not so much a wave being too hard.

 

[Pocket]

Exactly. Plus, the maps are locked down to their current state, so they can't make any more fixes at this point. One bad wave being an automatic failure just because that wave happens to be one of the early ones, even if they've had time to tweak the balance (which they sort of haven't, since there's been so little testing before the submission deadline), doesn't seem fair.

 

[fubarFX]

and from what I heard you can pretty much edit pop files on the fly which can be quite useful

 

[Seba]

Beep bop boop results!

 

[Bloodhound]

I did some tracking for the voting page, and I'm very happy to announce, that
the map pack has been downloaded 457 times.

All in all, the page had 7781 visits by a average visit duration of 2 min and 51s.

Clicks on the map images

Map | Clicks
Atomgrad | 1445
Ventus | 1180
Isolation | 856
Destruct | 792
Sludge | 727
Maelstorm | 649
Plateau | 579

 

[Freyja]

Hooray ventus being pretty amounted to something

 

[Ælement]

Do we have to do something to activate the VIP period?

Also, can we decide what point the VIP period should start? c: