Map Design Contest 2018 - Rulebook

Jury and public vote commenced. Final results on September 10th.

Information and discussion for custom maps and mods.
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netnazgul
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Map Design Contest 2018 - Rulebook

Post by netnazgul »

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Rulebook The entries Popular Vote The Outcome

The time has finally come to unleash the Map Design Contest of 2018! Blessed by the guidance of NoobMapMaker, we hope to build up on the previous iterations and provide the means for map designers to do their best and create the best OpenRA mods maps for players to play on. Money prizes and fame (I’d try to do my best and push most interesting maps into the official map pool) are one of the motivational factors for mappers, together with the fun of mapmaking process.


Map rules
  1. Maps for officially supported mods (TD, RA, D2K) are accepted. Maps for unofficial mods (i.e. Shattered Paradise) may be accepted on an explicit decision of judges.
  2. Map can allow any amount of players (1-player missions are accepted too).
  3. YAML/Lua additions are allowed (separate “Custom rules” category, see below); map author may be asked to describe the implemented changes to simplify the judgement procedure.
  4. Trash/low effort maps are not accepted and will be premoderated.
  5. Maps can only be submitted to the contest by their author.
  6. Only new maps are allowed. Maps that were already present on Resource Center or anywhere else prior to the contest (July 7th; see below) are not valid to submission and may be taken off the list if the fact of that is known.
  7. Only the latest official release version (20180307) is accepted. In case of new pt/release cycle modded maps may require targeting for playtest rules instead as the maps will need to be updated anyway.
  8. Maps are to be applied for one and only one of the categories (see below).

The Jury and Popular vote
A jury consisting of Anjew, Blackened, FiveAces, SoScared, Unano and WhoCares will judge all the maps according to categories. Scoresheet for each judge includes 5 parameters that are used to assess amap: Innovation is how innovative the map is, Balance is how balanced it is, Aesthetics how pretty it looks, Playability is how playable is the map which would differ between the different categories (do the mods make it lag? Is it too chokey for competitive? Are there too many trees/bridges that cause lag in casual? etc), Replayability is how much is the map worth playing again. Worth noting that different categories will weight the scores differently.
People included in the jury list may not submit their maps for the contest (to preserve impartiality) and can’t participate in Popular vote (obviously).
Jury votes are to be anonymous; only the combined results will be posted.

After the freeze period the jury will have time to judge the maps; popular vote will also be commenced, serving as a completely separate category.

Separate thread will be created to hold the Popular Vote. People are free to choose up to 3 maps per category, giving 3, 2 and 1 points for their picks, arranging that in any way they choose according to the category. Only forum accounts created before July 1st are eligible to vote.
Note: Popular Vote will be run as a separate category, completely unaligned with 3 main categories that are picked by the jury.


Contest timeline
Map Submission Period: July 7th - August 10th
Maps can be submitted to the contest.
Freeze Period: August 11th - August 30th
New maps may not be submitted to the contest anymore; map revisions (up to the allowed limit) may be submitted.
Voting Period: August 31st - September 9st
Map roster and revisions are final. Jury and players cast their votes.
Results: September 10th

All dates are in UTC+0 timezone (i.e. if the end of the period is 10.08, that will mean 10.08 23:59UTC+0).

To help with observing and testing the maps, streams will be held, as frequent as possible (at least for me). Other streamers are encouraged to provide help and airtime.


Contest categories
  • Competitive map: 1v1 and 2v2 maps may be submitted. Maps are more thoroughly judged and tested on balance and playability here; 1v1 maps are likely to be picked for the longlist of RAGL map pool next season.
  • Modded map: custom rules, single player maps, total conversions and everything else you can do with YAML/Lua.
  • Casual map: any map layout/idea not fitting into previous two - team maps, FFA maps, asymmetric maps, works of art.
  • Popular vote: people’s votes combined across categories will decide the winner here.

Map submission procedure
All maps participating in the main contest are to be uploaded to Resource Center, and then you send the link to me (netnazgul) via forum, discord or other means.
Information should include the following:
  • Map name
  • Author name (in case there are different names on Forums/Discord/RC/whatever)
  • Contest category
  • Resource Center link
  • Map screenshot (on the Resource Center; alternatively, upload it to imgur.com and provide the link)
  • Description of yaml/lua changes (if applicable)
In case you update the map with new revisions, better provide the revision link via same channels as above, so that the entries list is updated with latest revisions (you may require updating the screenshot as well).

Note: you can upload the map and its revisions anonymously by creating a separate account on Resource Center (or I can create a separate account for The Map Contest) and then telling me in submission that this is an anonymous entry. This will be the same as it was done in previous contests. The author identity will still be revealed after the contest.


Additional info
Contest prize pool donations: $150
$40 - netnazgul
$32 - eskimo
$28 - NoobMapMaker
$25 - wippie
$25 - Kernel Panic

4 winners of the contest categories will receive a share of the prize pool which is yet to be raised. Popular Vote category will have a smaller share. If there is enough money to finance the prizes, 3 categories may be split into 9 (per each mod).
Money transactions will be dealt with through the RAGL PayPal account (no, we don’t plan to mix everything up there, it’s just easier to have a settled and respected entity to handle the finances).
Last edited by netnazgul on Wed Sep 12, 2018 5:26 am, edited 35 times in total.

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MustaphaTR
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Re: Map Design Contest 2018

Post by MustaphaTR »

I'm in as usual. Will try to make 1 or 2. Good luck to everyone.

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Clockwork
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Re: Map Design Contest 2018

Post by Clockwork »

Looks good, but for the competitive section I pray for not a repeat of last years where all the aesthetics maps won and then were never seen again in lobbies due to their awful play-ability. This is the best map contest not the best-art-created-in-the-map-editor contest ^^

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netnazgul
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Re: Map Design Contest 2018

Post by netnazgul »

Happy wrote:
Sat Jun 30, 2018 12:02 pm
Looks good, but for the competitive section I pray for not a repeat of last years where all the aesthetics maps won and then were never seen again in lobbies due to their awful play-ability. This is the best map contest not the best-art-created-in-the-map-editor contest ^^
That's one of the purposes of streamlining the categories to just 3 (+1). What we had in mind regarding competitive maps is something similar to what Lorry did before The Foretaste Tournament.

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netnazgul
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Re: Map Design Contest 2018

Post by netnazgul »

Some points I'm not yet sure about are:
- limiting to only one map per category per mod for the author (target is all-mods contest, so this is one way of encouraging different mods maps and limiting the RA mod maps; but at the same time it might limit the roster all too much)
- up to 3 revisions per map (some thought processes might require more; but given that I'm to handle the uploads, that might delay stuff from happening)
- anonymous jury votes (that depends on whether people trust me on the matter; from author perspective it would be better not to know who dealt the low marks, judges won't know map authors anyway)
- separating popular vote from other categories

Would be great to have feedback on these until the Contest is started in a week on 07.07

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Clockwork
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Re: Map Design Contest 2018

Post by Clockwork »

netnazgul wrote:
Sat Jun 30, 2018 12:10 pm
Happy wrote:
Sat Jun 30, 2018 12:02 pm
Looks good, but for the competitive section I pray for not a repeat of last years where all the aesthetics maps won and then were never seen again in lobbies due to their awful play-ability. This is the best map contest not the best-art-created-in-the-map-editor contest ^^
That's one of the purposes of streamlining the categories to just 3 (+1). What we had in mind regarding competitive maps is something similar to what Lorry did before The Foretaste Tournament.
Perfect then, cannot wait to get stuck into some of these maps.
netnazgul wrote:
Sat Jun 30, 2018 1:28 pm
Some points I'm not yet sure about are:
- limiting to only one map per category per mod for the author (target is all-mods contest, so this is one way of encouraging different mods maps and limiting the RA mod maps; but at the same time it might limit the roster all too much)
- up to 3 revisions per map (some thought processes might require more; but given that I'm to handle the uploads, that might delay stuff from happening)
- anonymous jury votes (that depends on whether people trust me on the matter; from author perspective it would be better not to know who dealt the low marks, judges won't know map authors anyway)
- separating popular vote from other categories

Would be great to have feedback on these until the Contest is started in a week on 07.07
.
Great points. Especially the anonymous judge cards.

Mo
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Re: Map Design Contest 2018

Post by Mo »

netnazgul wrote:
Sat Jun 30, 2018 1:28 pm
Some points I'm not yet sure about are:
- limiting to only one map per category per mod for the author (target is all-mods contest, so this is one way of encouraging different mods maps and limiting the RA mod maps; but at the same time it might limit the roster all too much)
- up to 3 revisions per map (some thought processes might require more; but given that I'm to handle the uploads, that might delay stuff from happening)
- anonymous jury votes (that depends on whether people trust me on the matter; from author perspective it would be better not to know who dealt the low marks, judges won't know map authors anyway)
- separating popular vote from other categories

Would be great to have feedback on these until the Contest is started in a week on 07.07
Thanks for organising this, can’t wait to put in some submissions. Regarding feedback:

- I’d prefer no limits imposed. I’m only keen this time around on submitting a number of maps for the smaller categories as they take up less time. So either you see a few maps in that category, or 1 and none in the others.

- 3 revisions sounds good (is that to mean 3 versions of 1 map including first release?). Usually a revision deals with chokiness for playability, and ore count for balance and longevity. What might require multiple revisions is getting the ore count right, but that can be easily revised privately before being submitted for competition.

- not fussed either way. Sometimes it’s interesting to see how each judge’s personality affected the scores. But it’s for interest only.

- don’t understand what you mean by separating popular vote.

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netnazgul
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Re: Map Design Contest 2018

Post by netnazgul »

Ditched the map limit; if there will be enough money (and enough submissions), I'll also provide minor prizes for "category winner per mod".
Also updated the prize pool.
- don’t understand what you mean by separating popular vote.
Previously popular vote was accounted as another judge entity, adding to judges' votes. Now it will be a completely separate category, not mixed up in judges votes. Would also be interesting to compare popular votes to jury votes this way.

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KOYK_GR
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Re: Map Design Contest 2018

Post by KOYK_GR »

Count me in. Tho in the RAGL webpage There are 2 accounts for me, 1 that was created by the owners and 1 that i made because they wanted the users to make their own accounts, but they never linked\merged mine. probably forgotten.
Last edited by KOYK_GR on Wed Jul 04, 2018 12:03 am, edited 2 times in total.

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netnazgul
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Re: Map Design Contest 2018

Post by netnazgul »

KOYK_GR wrote:
Tue Jul 03, 2018 1:12 pm
Count me in. Tho in the RAGL webpage There are 2 accounts for me, 1 that was created by the owners and 1 that i made because they wanted the users to make their own accounts, but they never linked\merged mine. probably forgotten.
I meant "RAGL paypal account", not "RAGL account", fixed that ;) Sorry for confusion.

As a side note, check on the judges roster update as FiveAces himself has joined the ranks!

noobmapmaker
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Re: Map Design Contest 2018

Post by noobmapmaker »

Great to see a new edition! Added €25 and I'm surely going to build a map.

Alley
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Re: Map Design Contest 2018

Post by Alley »

I just made one new stage where the landscape is by Westwood Studios and all other rules and choices should be the same as in OpenRA but where the rules are related to a new AI player and a requirement to take down this AI. :) This map can be played from Skirmish and a human player or team that is the last alive in the map will be successful. You can play alone, take some allies or also some enemies and no matter if they are humans or bots with an exception of that AI who can't be taken to a team of someone. This is an AI that has a flag not listed on the lobby, a new faction, it's own technology level no matter what tech level you choose for your own players, and 3 difficulty choices that make a new AI act differently. If you capture its building then you can see everything that this AI could build.
For example, if you choose Tech Level 1 then you have no Radar Dome but Turkey, however, has. Actually a common Tech Level but from an old and original version of RA vs OpenRA players.

If something like this would be accepted then I would like to give this to you. :)

010010
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Re: Map Design Contest 2018

Post by 010010 »

How can i use my modmap to show other my great skillz. XD
Made a modmap, but its still not finished. Some issues will not work like that have to work. Its try hard sometimes to use the OpenRA Script Lines. But i wanna upload it. Unfinished or finished is anyway for modmaps.

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netnazgul
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Re: Map Design Contest 2018

Post by netnazgul »

@Alley, @010010
As per rules, only new maps are allowed to be submitted for the contest. So if your maps are already somewhere on the Resource Center or otherwise known - they are violating the regulations. Also note the anonymity thing - you submit the map to me and I upload it via anonymous account, so until the contest is finished noone knows who the author is.

010010
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Re: Map Design Contest 2018

Post by 010010 »

Hah new. We dont have enough games to show all days new maps or so. Its my mod for fixing issues i have to upload it and play it. Makes not sense for me that rule. Ai is not helpfull for tests. I have someone who is testing sometimes.The work is still running. OpenRA is not much Fun when it comes to things like my try with second ability power. Saw other people made it, but in a different ways. Well a bit different.

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