Welcome to TF2Maps.net's major Control point contest. It's time to get creative again.
Standing on metal plates to secure victory has been a central part of Team Fortress 2 since it's release, and it has proven a strong and reliable method even to this day.
Instead of picking just one gamemode for the competition you are free to do (almost) any control point oriented map. Your choice of layout decides what other maps you compete against.
Presenting the Asymmetry vs Symmetry Control point contest.
Rules:
- Must be a Control point map.
- No Arena or KotH.
- No medieval mode.
- Must follow the same game mechanics/scoring system as set by official maps.
You are allowed to increase/reduce the number of control points.You are allowed to edit the control point capture order/prerequisites (elaborate gp-style maps).No custom modes such as Domination or similar.On Attack/Defend maps: Blue attacks and Red defends. - No Collaborations
- Must be able to spawn 32 players (16 per team)
- Maximum of two entries per author.
- No straight out copying or stealing content from other maps, official or otherwise. Inspiration and ideas are good, just make sure you built it yourself for this competition.
Maps that have been started but has not yet been released could enter the competition after approval from me (Ravidge). - updated!You can't recycle your previous maps into this competition. - updated!
Other things that should be mentioned to avoid confusion:
- Custom content is allowed, All publicly released content will not count towards collaboration, more than 'a few' from a single modeler specifically for your map will, the first 'few' wont be. This will be enforced on a case by case basis.
"Publicly released content" means content that is available for download and use by anyone, at least one month before the submission deadline. - updated! - You may submit multi stage and multi round (TC) maps.
- TF2M Staff and Officers are allowed to win, Contest judges are not.
- A forum thread is not required to participate (but encouraged).
Deadline:
The contest will end on May 25th, 8:00 pm UTC (Check your timezone!). Submissions will open 1 week before the deadline.
After the deadline closes there will be a 72 hour grace period to fix any critical errors and mistakes. This will be handled on a case by case basis. The grace period is not "extra time", it's a safety net to prevent crashing servers and broken map logic.
Late entries will not be accepted! Make sure you plan ahead and avoid the risk of having 5 months of work get disqualified.
Judgment Procedure:
Eligibility: Maps will be checked and disqualified when the contest submission deadline ends if they do not meet the rules.
Judging Categories
There are 5 judging categories, each one has a different weight on the final score of the map.
The Gameplay and Balance categories account for 25% each, Aesthetics and Performance account for 20% each while Technical is 10%.
Gameplay (25% of final score) - Does the map have a good flow, is the layout intuitive? Are spawn timers correctly adjusted to create battles in the right areas? Is the map scaled properly, are the walk times between points of interest too long or short?
Balance (25%) - Do RED and BLU stand an even chance of winning the map? Is there a fair contest for each control point? Can each class hold their own in the map? Is any one overpowered or underpowered? Is there a good distribution of health and ammo kits?
Aesthetics (20%) - Is the map intricate and beautiful? Is there a high level of polish to the map? Does the map fit the style of TF2? Do the individual detailing choices make the map feel put together, or discordant? Is the environment visually pleasing?
Performance (20%) - How well the map is optimized. Framerate, filesize, etc.
Technical (10%) - Does the map have bad clipping? Does any spawns leave you stuck in the floor/wall? Does capture blocking work properly for all CPs?
First component - Popular Vote
- One thread will be made where votes will be posted to. The first post will contain a template vote which voters will copy and paste as their reply, changing the numbers to reflect their opinions.
- In that thread, voters will have the opportunity to grade each map for all categories, from 1-10, as well as giving a short summary if they wish.
- The results of each vote, after the judging time is over, will be calculated together to get an average rating for each map.
- Users MAY NOT grade their own maps.
- The goal of the popular vote is to get an overall rating for each map based on everyone's impression of how fun it is. It prevents judges' votes from counting too much, and makes sure the winners are indicative of our entire community's feelings.
Second component- Judges' votes
- 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 (Ravidge) with a statement about what you feel qualifies you before May 10th. 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.
- Judges' own entries will be disqualified from winning; they will receive marks but will not be eligible to place in the final rankings. Judges may review their own maps but their rating will not be calculated into the map's total score.
- Judges will playtest each map considerably on their own, via the tf2maps.net server or private servers.
- Each judge will rank each category on a scale of 1-10 and include a write-up of their decision making process per map. The judges' ratings will be averaged for each map. Each step of this process will be publicized.
- The goal of the judges' vote is to get a professional look at each map, with a high degree of scrutiny that the mapmakers can use to improve their skills in the future. It prevents a tyranny of the majority, wherein people vote on maps in a popularity contest, thus making the rankings fairer.
- The judges' average ratings will be multiplied by a factor of .5, and the popular average ratings by a factor of .5. This means a 50%-50% split. They will be added together to achieve the maps' final ratings.
- The maps' ratings will be published, the ineligible maps (like the judges') removed, and then the final rankings posted. The final rankings will determine the winners.
Prizes:
As always, spoils for the champions.
There will be First, second and third places for both categories of maps.
First Place
3 months of TF2Maps.net donor status.
Steam game of your choice.
Second Place
3 months of TF2Maps.net donor status.
Valve store Poster bundle.
1 x random class TF2 keychain + 1 x TF2 card pack
Third Place
1 month of TF2Maps.net donor status.
1 x random class TF2 keychain + 1 x TF2 card pack
Preemptive F.A.Q:
Q: Multi stage and single stage in the same competition, how is that going to work?
A: Hopefully it will work just fine. There's no doubt that a multi stage map takes a lot more time to complete and polish than a single stage map. In a competition like this we are looking for high quality maps to be produced and as such you should know that entering a multi stage map will require a lot of hard work on your part, you will compete against single stage maps created in the same timespan. It's been proven in past competitions that it's very much possible to create great multi stage maps in roughly the same timespan as this competition.
Q: I want to make a multi stage map for TF2 and this competition seems great! I don't think I can finish a map of that size in time though. Can I cut off one of my stages and submit that as a entry in the competition?
A: Yes. Don't give up ahead of time though, a complete multi stage map can offer players a lot of variation and gameplay experience, which smaller maps can't.
Q: I can submit two entries, right?
A: Yes, but two entries from the same author must be significantly different. You are not allowed to take half your asymmetrical map and flip it and enter it into the symmetrical division too.
Submitting two cut off individual stages from the same map is possible, but as stated earlier, they need to be significantly different from each other, in gameplay, design and aesthetics.
Q: Why can't I do Arena?
A: Arena maps are tiny and the gameplay does not focus around the control point.
Q: Why can't I do KotH?
A: KotH maps tend to be very small and 99% of the time they are symmetrical. It's also obvious that all the entries in the competition would be koth maps if they were allowed.
Q: Why can't I do Medieval mode?
A: Maps of this type was never considered when designing the contest. It's basically a very selective weapon filter and it alters the gameplay so much that it can't be considered just a mode for the control point setup. It's more like an alternative to the game TF2.
Q: How can maps with different gamemodes be judged fairly against each other?
A: With a lot of judges and voters individual gamemode preferences won't matter and quality maps will rank higher no matter what their mode may be.
This is all theory craft of course, but even so we have made the decision to take this gamble to provide a more dynamic and free spirited competition for everyone.
Q: Can I make a symmetrical attack/defend map?
A: Yes.
Q: Can I make a Asymmetrical linear 5cp map?
A: Yes.
Q: Can I make a gp-style map but with a (A-B-C-D)>(E-F-G)>(H) capture layout instead of just (A-B)>(C)?
A: You can. But I'd suggest not diverging too far from the default/official modes unless you're really confident about your map idea.
Q: This thing is scheduled to run for 5 months? That is a long time!
A: I extended the planned deadline by a month because I know people will call for an extension later on, this way you don't have to go through all that trouble. Unless there is a major breakdown in hammer or similar there won't be any time extensions!
Q: Who do I contact if I have questions about the contest?
A: Ravidge, through forum PM.
Real F.A.Q:
Q: Can I have a modeler make many props for my map and then release them exactly 1 month before the deadline, to make them count as publicly released?
A: No, The "No collaboration" rule is still in effect no matter when you release your content.
You may still request a 'few' (there is no set number, deal with it) props to be made specifically for your map, This is to help people who can not model props themselves. Please stop trying to use this as a loophole for collaboration.
Q: Can I make 3CP a/d like the artpass map?
A: Yes.
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