Map Design Contest 2017 - Rulebook

16th of March - 30th of March (Voting phase)

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noobmapmaker
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Map Design Contest 2017 - Rulebook

Post by noobmapmaker »

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Welcome to the second Map Design Contest!

This will be a contest to create awesome maps! Anyone is allowed to make maps and a jury + popular vote will choose the best maps and those get awarded real dollars: $45 for the nr1, $20 for the runner up, $10 for 3rd price and $20 will be for one of the category winners, randomly drawn during the SoScared stream. Also 7 maps from the previous contest made it to the official map pool! If you want your map to become an official map, then this may be your best bet (but no guarantees!).

Maprules
- Maps only for the Red Alert, C&C, Dune2000 and Tiberian Sun mod.
- The map can have any amount of players (even or uneven).
- Making changes to the .yaml and adding .lua files is allowed, but the creator has to explain exactly what the changes do to facilitate judging the map.
- Maps that are obviously very low effortmaps (full of visual glitches, random placed stuff, pointless maps, etc) will not be entered in the competition.
- Old maps from resourcecenter are not allowed, only new maps that work in the latest official release (v. 20161019).
- To prevent bias the players will enter their maps anonymously. When you create your map fill in "Anonymous" for the name.
- Extra screenshots of specific parts of the map are allowed, but not mandatory
- You may assign your map to one relevant category. It will be auto-assigned to the mod-category.
- You are allowed to make one revision to your map during the entryphase of the contest. The only exception to this rule are maps that are assigned to the Single Player (Mission) and Modded Multiplayer Map categories since those will have to be tested by the public. However, these extra revisions have to be substantial and related to debugging the map. I will not allow exceptions to this rule so please doublecheck your map before you enter it.
- You may enter multiple maps to increase your chance of winning.
- Send your map (.oramap file), the mapname, a relevant category, a link to the screenshot + (optional) explanation about the .lua/.yaml modifications to me and I will upload it to the resourcecenter and post it in the designated entriesthread.

The Jury and the Popular Vote

- A jury consisting of SoScared, Anjew and Kyrylo will judge all the maps and list them in their personal favorite order. Last year this scoresheet has been used to judge the maps. Judges however are free to alter scores to their own taste.
- After the Freeze Period the judges will get time to judge and the people can vote on their favourite maps. For this a topic will be posted where users can publicly vote by mentioning their 3 favourite maps in no particular order (= 1 point for each map). mapcreators are allowed to give one point to one of their own maps, the other two points have to be given to maps of other creators. Only Sleipniraccounts that are created before 1st of December 2016 are allowed to participate in the popular vote.
- The last map will get 1 point, second to last 2 points, etc.
- All scores from the 3 jury members + popular vote will be summed up and the maps with the highest scores win the contest.
- Jurymembers may not enter maps

Contest dates & times Information (all GMT)
Entryphase: 1st of January - 28th of February 23:59:59. Untill that date you can enter your maps and revisions.
Freeze Period: 1st of March - 15th of March. Those two weeks can be used by everyone to play the maps.
Voting phase: 16th of March - March 30th. People can vote on their favourite maps and judges get time to judge.
Results: 31st of March the winners will be presented.

Monetary rules
- $45 for the nr1, $20 for nr2, $10 for nr 3 and $20 will be for one of the category winners. The category winner ($20) will be randomly drawn during a SoScared stream from the pool of category winners that have not ended 1st, 2nd or 3rd.
- Categorywinners will be selected in the order that the categories are listed below, starting with Dune2000 and ending with the FFA category. The jury will also pick the most beautifull map. If this happens to also be a categorywinner then it will just be an honorary title, otherwise it's a categorywinner that joins the lottery.
- Prizes will be paid using PayPal. If we are unable to transfer it because the winner doesn't have PayPal or never responds (or refuses), the money will be used for future OpenRA contests/tournaments.

Categories
The creators of the maps may assign their map to a single category, and the map automatically joins their mod-category. In the overall ranking the maps that ended highest in their category will be entered in the lottery for the $20 during SoScared's livestream. Maps that allready won a 1st, 2nd of 3rd prize do not enter the lottery. Instead the next highest ended map in the category will enter the random draw.

Modcategories
- Dune2000
- CnC
- Red Alert (RA)
- Tiberian Sun

Mapcategories
- 1v1
- 2v2
- Big maps (3v3 and bigger)
- Single player (mission)
- Modded Multiplayer map
- FFA map (Free For All)
- Jury pick by deliberation: The most beautifull map

Map Entry Format sum-up
- Send me a PM (see button below this post or use this link)
- Attach the .oramap file
- State the name of the map
- Assign the map to one map category
- Upload the screenshot to www.imgur.com and send me the link
- If the .yaml is changed or a .lua file is added, state exactly what the changes do
- Make sure to replace your name with "Anonymous" when naming the map! (otherwise your name shows in the resourcecenter)

Extra information
To ensure anonymity NoobMapMaker will handle all the maps. This means that I will upload your map(s) to the resourcecenter, post them in the topic for the entries, check the validity of the popular votes, etc. I will not judge maps nor will I enter maps and I will not spill any information about the creators to judges. All maps will be deleted from the resourcecenter after the competition so the original creators can attach their own name to the map. If a situation arises that is not governed by the rules then I will be the one with the final say and try to come up with a solution within the spirit of the competition: creating new awesome maps.

Some ideas that a mapcreator can keep in mind when creating a map:
- It is advised (but not mandatory) that your map is equal for all players/teams. It can be symmetrical or asymmetrical, but players/teams should have (somewhat) equal chances.
- a map that looks nice: a variety in natural shapes of cliffs, water, placement of towns, trees, debris, etc
- the shape of the map does not feel like it is constructed specifically for the map, rather it happens to be some area in the world where a battle is fought
- symmetrical, but doesnt feel symmetrical because the symmetry is complex. Asymmetry that is balanced is an even higher achievement, but hard to actually achieve.
- the map allows many different viable strategies: expand, tech, sneak attacks, swarm attacks, naval
- the map does not force the players to go for a strategy (e.g.: you must build an engineer to capture all the oilderricks or else you're behind)
- a modification that really adds to the game. One that works intuitively and is fun. It can be a heavy modification or subtle. Incorporate it nicely: image for a new unit, add some introductionary text when the map starts so everyone knows what is up.
- a big plus is when a map is original (not an old map in a new jacket)
- balance chokepoints vs open routes.
- Need inspiration? See last years' entries.
- .... or ignore all this and do something completely different!


The prizes are presented to you by SoScared ($50), Moz ($25) and NoobMapMaker ($20)

Current entries: Map Design Contest 2017 - Entries

Have fun!! :)
Last edited by noobmapmaker on Thu Mar 16, 2017 7:04 am, edited 11 times in total.
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anjew
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Post by anjew »

Im looking forward to trying out all the maps again.
I hope we get a few more unique singleplayer maps.
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MustaphaTR
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Location: Kastamonu, Turkey

Post by MustaphaTR »

Well it was time to make another map. I'm in again, let's see how this one will go.

Declan
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Post by Declan »

Looking forward to some single player maps. Does anybody have links to some good custom made ones by any chance?

AmericanBlunt_
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Post by AmericanBlunt_ »

You can boot up the last release and play the one I made and won as part of the first contest. http://resource.openra.net/maps/15952/ :)

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Fortnight
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Post by Fortnight »

Nice, looking forward to many new awesome maps! :D

I hope to see some creative non-mirrored maps, mirroring is a cheap and boring way to obtain perfect balance. :lol:
(We love them but it really is though...) :shifty:

noobmapmaker
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Post by noobmapmaker »

AmericanBlunt_ wrote: You can boot up the last release and play the one I made and won as part of the first contest. http://resource.openra.net/maps/15952/ :)
That was an awesome mission! Has it not been added to the missions? It should be imo...
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SoScared
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Post by SoScared »

On we go again, on to unexplored territory! What map will bring forth new strategies, turn the game upside-down and blow us all away?

Thanks for doing this NMM, looking forward to see some new, fresh stellar A-grade maps!

AmericanBlunt_
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Location: Mars

Post by AmericanBlunt_ »

Thanks! I don't know why it hasn't been added to the missions. I think it should too imo. :)

Matt
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Post by Matt »

noobmapmaker wrote:
AmericanBlunt_ wrote: You can boot up the last release and play the one I made and won as part of the first contest. http://resource.openra.net/maps/15952/ :)
That was an awesome mission! Has it not been added to the missions? It should be imo...
I agree, please submit it at https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA

AmericanBlunt_
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Post by AmericanBlunt_ »

Ok :)

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KOYK_GR
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Post by KOYK_GR »

May the best craftsmanship win!

noobmapmaker
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Post by noobmapmaker »

We've passed the first month of the Map Design Contest! You have got untill the 28th of February to enter your maps!

The first month learned a couple things:

> When you send me your map, do not forget to actually click "Attach map", this is easily overlooked resulting in people sending me messages without maps :)

> Some map creaters would like to revise their maps more often as map creation is a proces of several iterations making the map better with every step. In general I agree, but for now we'll have to do with the current set of rules. In order to still be able to test your map without revealing your identity I recommed to first submit your map to the competition. After it was added you download your map and you go online and play games on it against others. To conceal your identity you can download a couple more of the map competition maps and/or change your name when you play online. With the testresults you'll have the single revision to finalize your map.

> We like to keep things as anonymous as possible to prevent bias from judges and the popular vote. However, some people will be able to guess who made a map. This is not a disaster and if the identity is known it will not lead to retraction of a map. It just makes the judging a tiny bit more biased. But let's try to keep the names as secret as possible.

> Maps that have been uploaded before to the resource center are not allowed to participate and I'll try to keep an eye on that rule as much as possible. This to reward the creation of new maps and to prevent people from deleting old maps and resubmitting them.

> You may enter more than one map, yesh no problemo! You may enter 10 maps if you want. If you think the map is a good map and worthy to compete in the contest... submit it!

But most of all: enjoy creating your maps! And if you want to have a chance to actually win some money: go for some of the categories/mods that don't have many submissions yet.

A couple stats for the submissions sofar

13 Map Creaters submitted a total of 25 maps.

Mods:
RA = 19 maps
TD = 5 maps
Dune2000 = 1 map

Categories
1v1 = 19
2v2 = 2
Big Map = 2
Modded multiplayer map = 1
Single player Mission = 1
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RadicalEdward2
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Post by RadicalEdward2 »

I'm really new to the OpenRA community and I heard there was a map contest so I thought I'd register.

noobmapmaker
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Post by noobmapmaker »

Allright people the entryphase has come to an end!

First of all a big thanks to all who have created the maps! You have come in great numbers and the maps look great and all have elements that make them unique. Also a big thanks to SoScared for the streams, a pleasure to watch.

Next up: the phreezephase! Download the mappacks and play those maps! Upload fun replays to Gamereplays.org/Openra (don't forget to link the map in the resource center in the comments and use a smurfname), discuss what you like and dislike about maps (in a respectfull manner) and play them maps to shreds.

Map Packs

These are the mappacks for the specific mods. They contain the latest revisions for each map.
- Red Alert maps
- Tiberian Dawn maps
- Dune2000 maps

Some stats

27 Map Creaters submitted a total of 64 maps.

Mods
RA = 48 maps
TD = 14 maps
Dune2000 = 2 maps

Categories
1v1 = 40
2v2 = 7
Big Map = 8
FFA = 5
Modded multiplayer map = 3
Single player Mission = 1

Upcoming phases

Freeze Period: 1st of March - 15th of March. Maps can no longer be revised. These two weeks can be used by everyone to play the maps and find out how good the maps really are.
Voting phase: 16th of March - March 30th. People who have been a member on Sleipnir before 1st of January 2017 can vote on 3 of their favourite maps and the judges get time to judge.
Results: 31st of March the winners will be presented.
Evaluation: 1st of April and after
Playlist with ALL games of the Dark Tournament Youtube.com/CorrodeCasts
Consider supporting OpenRA by setting a bounty or by donating for a server

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