TF2Maps.net Major Mapping Contest #10: A Tale of Two Skillsets

Fruity Snacks

Creator of blackholes & memes. Destroyer of forums
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Sep 5, 2010
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Breaking me from my vacation to respond to this, just to note.

While we have had an art pass in the past, it is not something that we hold often, so we really didn't have a solid precedence to follow. On top of that, we never had a contest like this before, that is, we have not held a phased contest like this before. The rule was left the way it was written to provide some leeway for you, the mappers and to allow myself and swordfish a chance to see how entrants interpret the rule. I am constantly talking to Aly on a daily basis and knew what she was entering. If I had felt it was too detailed, I would've ask her to remove details or be DQ'd. Keikoku's detailing is basically what Swordfish and I thought as being the just under maximum allowed detailing for phase 1.

I apologize for the confusion on the rule. As an entrant into any contest we hold, you can report any rule breaking you suspect at any time. That being said, as an entrant, if you want more clarification on a rule, you must ask for it as soon as you want it, if you don't, it is open for interptation until someone questions it. I hope that for our next contest, if you have any question on a rule, please ask for clarification on the specific rules.


As a side note, Aly is a she.

Also wrote this from my phone, sorry for any issues in grammar.
 

Freyja

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Jul 31, 2009
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I still don't see the problem. What about it having textures on it's displacements and some copy and paste brushwork stops it from being detailed?

That minimal detailing is how I alpha. If that's litereally stopping you from detailing it for some reason that's *your* loss. Sword said it was okay within the first week of the contest.
 

GameDev

L1: Registered
Apr 9, 2012
6
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I still don't see the problem. What about it having textures on it's displacements and some copy and paste brushwork stops it from being detailed?

That minimal detailing is how I alpha. If that's litereally stopping you from detailing it for some reason that's *your* loss. Sword said it was okay within the first week of the contest.

I wasn't trying to get you DQ'd, and I didn't say it was stopping me either; I was just mentioning that it had more than what I noticed with other submissions

I was intending on using your layout, just making a comment on the side.
 

UKCS-Alias

Mann vs Machine... or... Mapper vs Meta?
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Sep 8, 2008
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Same as gamedev i also didnt go for a disqualification. I just wondered if it was accepted as to me the map looks far more detailed than others. While for me its still clearly alpha. And especialy as frozen said: its the first of these contests.

The only thing i wanted to make clear is that because people werent sure on what is going to be allowed they most likely are going to be more secure at adding textures or props.

And even if it was more detailed. It barely should matter since the voting criteria dont say ANYTHING about how the map looks. So for stage 1 there is no argue about it being allowed. And the map did keep enough options open for stage 2 of detailing. Imagine if dustbowl had all its ground textures shaped as they are now and textured as they are now but all walls and such without details. It would be somewhat equal to how his looks are and allow alot of options.

The post on my previous page was a suggestion on how to improve the criteria of what is allowed to people are more likely to make their maps at least look a bit more interesting and give an indication of what was the original idea. I was confused to see the map more detailed but once swordfish said to me that its realy the requirement to have it a clear alpha map i accepted it and moved on.

His map compared to the old artpass is overdetailed. But its still clearly alpha. And as they wanted alpha maps i can understand it was approved. Next time the requirements should simply be more accurate on what is accepted and im sure people are going to leave more detailed (higher prop usage and some basic textures) but still clearly alpha maps. Im looking forward to that one as I loved participating in this one :)
 

UKCS-Alias

Mann vs Machine... or... Mapper vs Meta?
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Sep 8, 2008
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It was the first contest so there is no reason to feel sorry. You couldnt know that people would be more carefull on what would be accepted. Especialy since the old artpass was barely having any details at all.

You cant realy know that 1 small requirement out of a list of 20 requirements can have such impact. The diffirence between 'low detail/mostly dev' and 'clearly alpha' might not seem alot at first. And initialy i thought to also see more maps than keikoku that had higher details.

And its also not just you, in fact... All of us didnt do our work of asking you about those rescrictions in the first place so you couldnt even be aware that we were confused and adjust the rules to be more accurate.

Your rules were good for this edition of the contest. And even if it wasnt exactly what you wanted to see happen, the results actualy are more interesting because even you didnt expect them. The next time results will already be diffirent when the rules are more accurate so this contest is going to be even more unique.
 

Fruity Snacks

Creator of blackholes & memes. Destroyer of forums
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Sep 5, 2010
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Just as a clarification on the "Changing the layout during the artpass" rule.

Removing little things, like this fence below, is fine. This is a little thing that doesn't majorly impact gameplay. Removing the WHOLE fence would be bad; but that tiny little jutting-out fence is okay.

2014-03-12_00002.jpg
 

Fruity Snacks

Creator of blackholes & memes. Destroyer of forums
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Sep 5, 2010
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Quick question: is everyone feeling comfortable with being able to judge? There is less than a week left to vote and I feel like I didn't give enough time for everyone to safely play all the maps and judge.

So: Do you feel like you'd like more time? If so, how much more?
 
Sep 7, 2012
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I would appreciate an additional week. I've been super busy with school recently and have had a hard time getting on the server when others were on. This is even more difficult for the mvm maps.
 

Waffe

L5: Dapper Member
Dec 2, 2012
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I second this ^

Also, how are the mvm maps going to be tested? Are they tested on another server?
 

UKCS-Alias

Mann vs Machine... or... Mapper vs Meta?
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Sep 8, 2008
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I second this ^

Also, how are the mvm maps going to be tested? Are they tested on another server?
A few days ago i did put both intercept and callous on my server so people were able to test it. But thats just ~7 people per map (teams have changed during the rounds allowing more people) so it has to be tested a bit more.

I however cant keep running the server as it isnt a dedicated one but localy hosted. If i run the server all i can do is play on that same map or i would make the server lag badly.
 

UKCS-Alias

Mann vs Machine... or... Mapper vs Meta?
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Sep 8, 2008
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And i just did another test on my map. Sadly on map completion it crashed (it does this on every map at random).

Ill probably do a callous test later this week to get more people to test that map aswel.
 

UKCS-Alias

Mann vs Machine... or... Mapper vs Meta?
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Sep 8, 2008
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Your last post in this thread still had the old date which can confuse people.