Mapping competition time (£10 PayPal gift prize - not sponsored, affiliated or endorsed by UWE

Legend_Boss

This is not sponsored, affiliated or endorsed with or by UWE

I am wanting to give my map that polish and complete look to it. I have a great layout but feedback is always the same, that being the textures look ugly and rooms missing details. You can find the map here http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=477816599

Competition is simple. Select at least 1 room, not including Garden or stairway. Give that room character, details, good quality textures make it look complete and polished.

Rules are brief and simple. There should be at least 12 entrants with at least 14 different room submissions (may seem like a lot, but there are many rooms). Please message me directly which room(s) you are interested in mapping to avoid people knowing for when the poll is done. This is to ensure only the rooms are being judged. I will post the names with the room design after the poll so everyone gets credit where due.

When you have completed the room and ready for submission please send me a screenshot and/or video of before and after from same position, which I will upload to be part of a poll for people to vote the best room. This way the rooms are anonymous to those voting later.

Entrances/exits to rooms should remain located in the same place. Vents may be moved around slightly, but if out of reach for marine before, should be out of reach afterwards so to not affect map balance. There is no theme to the map. Spawn room size can be increased if necessary but door entrance locations should remain the same.

Biodome room can be opened like landing pad, but keep it reasonable the size.
Sewer control has two paths to Sewer. These should remain located how they are, but appearance and water effect may change if you want. You can add your own textures/models/entity to the room.
Keep in mind how the game will play, in particular if you mapping a spawn room.

Deadline will be two weeks from (TBC - see here, will likely be once its confirmed that we have enough entrants).

Entrants will need to upload onto steam or send me a copy of the room to be considered part of the competition for winning the prize. You agree for your submission to be used whether or not you win the prize. Prize will be sent within 24 hours from poll and the winners email address given to send the gift through PayPal

Prize will be by PayPal gift so you need a PayPal account. I will decide any draws on the poll as to the best room. My decision will be final.

Any questions or clarifications please ask.

This is not sponsored, affiliated or endorsed with or by UWE

Legend_Boss

Rules are as follows. I tried to be as detailed and precise as possible so that there is no confusion/dispute later:

1. Each contestant must select one room from the list below. You should say your first choice and include a second choice. Will be on a first come first serve basis at first, so post below which room you want below.
2. should all the available rooms be selected, then the list of rooms will be opened again for further participants and including those who have placed their name on the first list may chose further rooms to design and include as part of the entrant. This means that there may be multiple people designing the same room.
3. You will have 2 weeks to complete the improved map from TBC (date when all/most rooms have a participant)
4. Decision for best room will be decided by poll in forum provided at least a minimum of 24 votes (not including the entrants), otherwise I will decide along with any dev who has not created a room and is willing to participate. I will take into consideration the poll. My decision is final as to best room and winner.
5. Entrance/exits to other rooms should remain in the same place.
6. Vents may be moved around a bit but should keep the same access reach as before. So, if a vent was not accessible to a marine without a JP, then it should be the same as before - this is to ensure the map balance remains the same.
7. There is no theme to keep too.
8. You can use your own textures/models should you want.
9. by entering you agree for your entry to be included as part of the final design whether you win or lose the prize.
10. You must record video and screenshot of the room from before and after from the same general video movement and screenshot so that the changes can be compared side by side for when the poll is conducted.
11. ENTRIES MUST NOT BE POSTED ON THE FORUMS! Too keep the poll fair and avoid any potential favouritism, I will upload the video/screenshot of all the entries to keep it anonymous for when people vote.
12. If you have submitted an entry, you must not participate in the poll to decide the best map. any such votes will not be considered.
13. Only profiles on unknown worlds that have been opened before the post of this competition will be considered when voting for the best map. This is to avoid duplicate accounts being opened to create false/duplicate votes.
14. Room size should remain about the same size. Spawn rooms (apart from Sewer) can be increased in size if wanted)
16. prize will be £10 via PayPal gift so there is record of it being sent/received. PayPal account will be needed. prize will be sent within 48 hours of announcing the winner.
17. You must ensure that the correct email address is provided. Once the gift has been sent via PayPal to the given email address, I will not take any responsibility if its lost. prize may also go to nominated charity should you decide.
18. I will decide any split vote as to best room. My decision is final as to best room and winner.
19. each entrant may submit up to 3 selection from the list or 3 rooms.
20. Should you want to edit two connecting rooms, please specify in your post when saying your room, and I will let you know if that's an option.
21. This is not an exhaustive list of rules, which is here more to act as guidance as to what to expect and how things will work

Available rooms:

• Alien spawn
• Marine Spawn (and delta)
• Right Spawn (please keep a vent running across the room, you may change the position of the vent or have it go through into Pass if you want?
• Prison (and delta)
• Sewer (vents/path to sewer control to remain as positioned but you may edit the appearance)
• Sewer Control (vents/path to sewer to remain as positioned but you may edit the appearance)
• East Wing
• West Wing
• Eye
• garage
• Corridor
• Alpha (and corridor leading straight up from Alpha should you choose)
• Bar
• Pass
• Drill Site (I do like the current appearance, its based from another great map so would like it to be slightly different
• Observation and storage (mainly the walkway leading to storage)
• Biodome (complete redesign of the room. It would be nice for an open out door area like landing pad but not too large of a place)
• Silo

If we have an entrant to all the above, then you may choose to do the connecting rooms in addition but you must at least submit the initial room you selected. Or if you want to do a connecting room also, please say ask beforehand. While it shouldn't be a problem either way, it’s just so that all the rooms are covered.

Garden is not listed as I like that room how it is, so will not be changed, but feel free to make improvements. Should you choose to edit garden, provided their is a significant and noticiable change, this too can be included as an entry but . Stairway seems complete to me, but can do with improvements if you like.

I am looking for originality and something new and interesting like what I consider can be seen in garden but mainly stairway and Observation. I am also looking for detailed texture as it’s something people keep complaining about the map. When designing the room, please take into consideration of the layout and how it may play in game.

If you room has a theme, you should name it so that it may be included as part of the new room name.

Kasharic

Wait... sooo... when the competition is over, you have a fully polished map made by 12+ people... where only 1 person was paid... and they were paid £10 for 10+ hours of work?

#pass

MoFo1

^^ it would make more sense if there was a winner for each room, so 12 people would win instead of one.. though that is quite a bit more money.

That being said I'd gladly design a room if I knew anything about mapping in NS2.. unfortunately the only real mapping i ever did was for CoD4.

Legend_Boss

it’s not pay. it's just a prize, more of an incentive to get people to participate.

A while back, there were "competitions" in which a theme was selected and people would spend time for building a room fit to that theme. the prize was recognition of the work they then forgotten about. This is similar principle except the only limitation is the current room size, with no theme to stick to and the possibility of 10 bucks at the end of it. And you will get the opportunity to see your work played in game – which I think is a better competition.

As I am not great with creating textures, my way for future recognition to those contributed, was by creating a pre-map load screen image with acknowledging all those that contributed (unless someone willing to create secret ready room to that affect).


Unfortunately, I can't afford to give 10 bucks for each individual room, so there will be just one prize covering the best room as voted by the people.

Archie

I mean atleast offer something that holds value :P

Kasharic

Here is my problem.

The offer of a cash prize feels like a bad influence of an incentive.

The beauty of this community is that if you said you'd like to do this as a community project with people working together to create an overall theme, help build rooms etc, it would "feel" more genuine.

Not only would experienced mappers be happy to help (here is an assumption, but i'm fairly sure a few would be happy to join in) and less experienced mappers would love to take part to learn from the more experienced mappers... add to that, the fact that they would then have (as you said) something to show for it that hopefully gets played... you have more than enough to build plenty of incentive without making it feel like a cheap bid to get someone else to build a pretty map for you.

Legend_Boss

@Archie if I had something like that maybe I would have. Thinking about it, maybe I should have gone for the gorge plushie

@Kasharic I am not trying to hide or deceive the fact of what I am doing. What you suggest is to guise other people completing my map and making it look polished as a "community project". What I am asking of others is in effect what you say but I am blunt and have a small thank you to whoever the community votes as the best improvement/room.

I know it can be time consuming, but people created rooms before as part of a competition and their designs have since been lost in the forums amongst all the other posts.

I am asking the community for their help and mapping and afterward to select the best map with a thank you prize at the end. I am blunt and to the point with what I ask, I will not sugar coat my request as a community project as I will consider that an attempt to mislead others. If you don't want to partake, then I really don't know what you want or are doing on this thread. If you are saying you will like to partake without the small gratitude of my appreciation afterwards that's fine. While 10 bucks may be very little to you that you consider it cheap that's not necessary the case for everyone else and its better than nothing.

So which room will you be selecting?

RevanCorana

Some new good maps are always welcome and the prize isnt deceptive, that's a good idea.

The potential problem worth considering however is with adding polish to a map before having playtested the layout extensively as you will almost garanteed want to change things later.

Legend_Boss

RevanCorana wrote: »

Some new good maps are always welcome and the prize isnt deceptive, that's a good idea.

The potential problem worth considering however is with adding polish to a map before having playtested the layout extensively as you will almost garanteed want to change things later.

The map has had over 200 recorded rounds which can be found on wonitor http://apheriox.com/wonitor/. The win rate is 104 win for aliens and 97 win for marine which is approx. 51:49 win ratio.

I've once seen the map being played on a standard rookie server (a long time ago) when I joined I noticed the round was going on for at least 50 minutes. I spectated the play of the map many back and forth. That is also often the case with large server play.

I am satisfied that the map is very balanced and that is something everyone that played a few rounds agrees with.

IronHorse

But balance changes with room changes.. from props to color pallet to effects.

Also I wouldn't go by win rate. Players might be crushing/exploiting knowledge of the map in certain rounds that makes up for typical play losses. Producing a 50/50 win rate in a potentially unbalanced work.

You need to know how the map plays in the moment, room by room, for every portion of the round.
But you probably know that already

I'd love to see a new map detailed. Just hope there's some sort of consistent theme shared between the rooms

Legend_Boss

I defintily agree that props and room layout will have an impact on how the room plays out and it's balance particular the spawn room (I'm think mainly right spawn).

Currently, all vents have been strategically thought and placed to deal with map balance, which is why I don't want those moved, or if moved, kept in the same reach distance from marine. I admit that knowledge of the map can and provably does advantage some, but that's the same with all maps. How many regulars do you think are aware of the area above locker rooms which they can go gorge as and bile from?

Any such balance impact I will have to address myself at a later date to ensure balance maintained.

Others have also been wanting a consistent theme through the the map. While personally that never bothers me, I think I have an idea, but it will still have a few themes in different sections.

Centre of the map to be sewer related and water works theme as I really like the current sewer theme there. This would mean completely replacing bar and train room.

Right side of map, from biodome to observatory including storage, to have an obaervatory/research theme in line with the current observatoey room. With biotope being an open area similar to landing pad.

Top left of the map from marine spawn to cave to be prison related theme, with marine spawn being similar design as storage. Cave would have small glass boxes/containers with aliens in transport them and some sort of alien experiment/torture theme in line with prison.

I like stairway and garden how it is for its uniqueness. Perhaps stairway could have a plant infestation from garden simile with left spawn.

I've always wanted to see a truly alien map/spawn as if marines went to attack alien world. So alien spawn should be replaced with everything alien related as if it was from an alien world/map or they had crashed from a meteorite and had taken over the room with infestation naturally everywhere and burning debris from the crash. While this is not consistent, it's fixed alien spawn so it just should be truly an alien spawn.

This will therefore have a consistent theme within sections of the map. Sewer control will be modern looking and fancy to fit in with observation theme, where as sewer is accessible through those tunnels which should be gritty looking to clearly distinguish entering a different area. The tunnel makes a nice transition into that. Marine spawn will be a weapon cache area to make the transition between prison and research/observatory side of the map. Garden can fit in with sewer are via West Wing have combination of dead (orange) plants which I think I've already seen the models for, along with pipes and and leaks from sewer theme.

Legend_Boss

Once I've narrow down everything and see if I get any more ideas from anyone. I will have to create a new thread making everything clearer and the themes for certain room. Think I'll also instead do a gorge plushie prize to keep it more ns2 themed.