Report, edit, etc...Posted by Wing-of-no-Wing on 2006-09-07 at 13:53:50
QUOTE
Fall Flying Contest!
Over the next couple of months, I am going to be hosting a tournament of dogfighting maps. These are reflex maps based on skill at controlling a single air unit (and any map features that may be associated with the behavior and fighting method of that unit). This is both a map-making and a map-playing competition: for the first month of this competition (September), maps may be considered for use in the tournament. These do not have to be new maps, but in order for there to be any mineral reward, the map must be submitted by its creator. Existing maps from the DLDB or from battle.net may also be used. For any map chosen for the tournament that was not started before the beginning of the competition, the map-maker will be awarded 100 minerals, and for every map chosen that was begun prior to the start of the competition, the maker will be awarded 25 minerals (these numbers may change on the basis of donations). Prizes for the tournament itself will depend on the number of players (the number of maps accepted will also depend on this).
The map-making side:
Some rules:
1. You may submit as many maps as you would like, and you may participate in both the map-making and tournament parts of this competition.
2. Maps may be free-for-all or team-based, but must feature combat between players. Maps that consist entirely of the player(s) versus the game will not be considered.
3. Steal a map for the purposes of this competition and you will die.
4. Your maps must be submitted to me, either here or via PM, before the end of the month. After I receive your map, there will be a brief period of evaluation. Maps will be selected upon the conclusion of the evaluation period, and winners will be paid their 25-100 minerals. Following the selection of the maps to be used, there will be a practice period, for players to gain experience at the maps to be used. The actual tournament will follow the completion of the practice period.
5. Maps will be judged on the basis of how fun they are to play, from an action-gamer standpoint. Map complexity, triggering quality, “professionalism”, aesthetics, and all the rest will ONLY count insofar as they affect how fun it is to play the map. Your map may be of any size or filesize (if it is too big for SEN to handle, email it to me). Feel free to protect your map. That said, if I need to look at your triggers to get to know your map better, or if your map is very good, but needs a bug or bugs fixed in order to use it in the tournament, I may do so anyway.
Some guidelines: what makes a good flying map?
1. The player must be strongly associated with one air unit. There can be other units in the map that are controlled by the player, but the player should think of the air unit as “them”. As a general rule, if your map best fits the real-time strategy genre, it will probably not be accepted.
2. For the love of God, don’t use a transport unit as a fighter! If something is supposed to be a fighter, use a wraith or a scout (Corsairs may be marginally acceptable as fighters, but they’re rather strange looking; if you really want to stretch it, I suppose you could pass off a Valkyrie as a fighter, but it would take some doing). Your map doesn’t have to be only about fighters; heavier craft may be represented by larger units.
3. The unit should feel good to fly. By that I mean that any trigger systems associated with the unit’s motion or combat operations should run smoothly and have a sensible control system. Considering that we are talking about action maps here, fast input is a good thing, as is precise input. However, and this is an important point, for the purposes of this competition, the experience of playing the map at the pro level will be weighted far more than the experience of playing the map at the beginner level. It’s perfectly fine if your systems take time to learn and more time to become skilled with, so long as there is a payoff. Keep in mind that I generally consider dropship systems to be awkward. Maps where players simply fight with air units using Starcraft’s system of combat will not be accepted. Be creative! Find alternative ways for the unit to move, shoot, etc.
4. Have sensible gameplay. Consider what aspects of the game actually affect the outcome, and balance them. Make sure that your game is based on the player’s flying skill as much as possible. Likewise, it is better to match the skills of the players against one another directly than indirectly; it is infintiely more satisfying to know that I can kill them than to know that I can kill more random computer weaklings than they can.
5. Adrenaline is good! Try and make the game as exciting as possible in a purely visceral sense. As a general rule of thumb, anything goes with regards to making the map more exciting. Want a player to crash if they don’t eject immediately after being shot down? Go for it! This tournament is not designed to appeal to RTS players, but rather to action gamers who like to feel like they are “on the edge.”
6. You might want to put an antihack in your map, especially if it’s completely unnecessary…it will be more likely to catch hackers off guard that way. I won’t be testing this; it’s just a nice thing to do.
The tournament side:
The exact structure of the tournament will depend on how many players I get, and upon the game structure (team, FFA, 1v1, etc.) of the best maps that I receive. The tournament will be winner-take-all, with the pot starting at 800 minerals, though this may go up with donations, or down with low participation. The basic idea is that players will be told the map, the teams (if applicable), and the opponents, and will be given a certain length of time to get a replay to me. Hacking or exploiting map bugs will be grounds for immediate disqualification, though in the case of the latter, I regard clever strategies that clearly weren’t meant to be used on the map, but are highly effective, as fair play and not as “bugs” (if your map leaves an opening for such a strategy, though, it is not following advice point #4). Expect updates to this section as the competition progresses.
Maps chosen so far:
None so far, pending a look through the DLDB and my downloads folder.
Maps rejected so far:
None so far, pending submissions.
Donors (will be refunded if tournament is cancelled):
O)Matt_Burch: 150 minerals
Tournament Participants:
IanMM
Tdnfthe1
Practice Sessions: Want to practice? Just let me know.
Over the next couple of months, I am going to be hosting a tournament of dogfighting maps. These are reflex maps based on skill at controlling a single air unit (and any map features that may be associated with the behavior and fighting method of that unit). This is both a map-making and a map-playing competition: for the first month of this competition (September), maps may be considered for use in the tournament. These do not have to be new maps, but in order for there to be any mineral reward, the map must be submitted by its creator. Existing maps from the DLDB or from battle.net may also be used. For any map chosen for the tournament that was not started before the beginning of the competition, the map-maker will be awarded 100 minerals, and for every map chosen that was begun prior to the start of the competition, the maker will be awarded 25 minerals (these numbers may change on the basis of donations). Prizes for the tournament itself will depend on the number of players (the number of maps accepted will also depend on this).
The map-making side:
Some rules:
1. You may submit as many maps as you would like, and you may participate in both the map-making and tournament parts of this competition.
2. Maps may be free-for-all or team-based, but must feature combat between players. Maps that consist entirely of the player(s) versus the game will not be considered.
3. Steal a map for the purposes of this competition and you will die.
4. Your maps must be submitted to me, either here or via PM, before the end of the month. After I receive your map, there will be a brief period of evaluation. Maps will be selected upon the conclusion of the evaluation period, and winners will be paid their 25-100 minerals. Following the selection of the maps to be used, there will be a practice period, for players to gain experience at the maps to be used. The actual tournament will follow the completion of the practice period.
5. Maps will be judged on the basis of how fun they are to play, from an action-gamer standpoint. Map complexity, triggering quality, “professionalism”, aesthetics, and all the rest will ONLY count insofar as they affect how fun it is to play the map. Your map may be of any size or filesize (if it is too big for SEN to handle, email it to me). Feel free to protect your map. That said, if I need to look at your triggers to get to know your map better, or if your map is very good, but needs a bug or bugs fixed in order to use it in the tournament, I may do so anyway.
Some guidelines: what makes a good flying map?
1. The player must be strongly associated with one air unit. There can be other units in the map that are controlled by the player, but the player should think of the air unit as “them”. As a general rule, if your map best fits the real-time strategy genre, it will probably not be accepted.
2. For the love of God, don’t use a transport unit as a fighter! If something is supposed to be a fighter, use a wraith or a scout (Corsairs may be marginally acceptable as fighters, but they’re rather strange looking; if you really want to stretch it, I suppose you could pass off a Valkyrie as a fighter, but it would take some doing). Your map doesn’t have to be only about fighters; heavier craft may be represented by larger units.
3. The unit should feel good to fly. By that I mean that any trigger systems associated with the unit’s motion or combat operations should run smoothly and have a sensible control system. Considering that we are talking about action maps here, fast input is a good thing, as is precise input. However, and this is an important point, for the purposes of this competition, the experience of playing the map at the pro level will be weighted far more than the experience of playing the map at the beginner level. It’s perfectly fine if your systems take time to learn and more time to become skilled with, so long as there is a payoff. Keep in mind that I generally consider dropship systems to be awkward. Maps where players simply fight with air units using Starcraft’s system of combat will not be accepted. Be creative! Find alternative ways for the unit to move, shoot, etc.
4. Have sensible gameplay. Consider what aspects of the game actually affect the outcome, and balance them. Make sure that your game is based on the player’s flying skill as much as possible. Likewise, it is better to match the skills of the players against one another directly than indirectly; it is infintiely more satisfying to know that I can kill them than to know that I can kill more random computer weaklings than they can.
5. Adrenaline is good! Try and make the game as exciting as possible in a purely visceral sense. As a general rule of thumb, anything goes with regards to making the map more exciting. Want a player to crash if they don’t eject immediately after being shot down? Go for it! This tournament is not designed to appeal to RTS players, but rather to action gamers who like to feel like they are “on the edge.”
6. You might want to put an antihack in your map, especially if it’s completely unnecessary…it will be more likely to catch hackers off guard that way. I won’t be testing this; it’s just a nice thing to do.
The tournament side:
The exact structure of the tournament will depend on how many players I get, and upon the game structure (team, FFA, 1v1, etc.) of the best maps that I receive. The tournament will be winner-take-all, with the pot starting at 800 minerals, though this may go up with donations, or down with low participation. The basic idea is that players will be told the map, the teams (if applicable), and the opponents, and will be given a certain length of time to get a replay to me. Hacking or exploiting map bugs will be grounds for immediate disqualification, though in the case of the latter, I regard clever strategies that clearly weren’t meant to be used on the map, but are highly effective, as fair play and not as “bugs” (if your map leaves an opening for such a strategy, though, it is not following advice point #4). Expect updates to this section as the competition progresses.
Maps chosen so far:
None so far, pending a look through the DLDB and my downloads folder.
Maps rejected so far:
None so far, pending submissions.
Donors (will be refunded if tournament is cancelled):
O)Matt_Burch: 150 minerals
Tournament Participants:
IanMM
Tdnfthe1
Practice Sessions: Want to practice? Just let me know.
Report, edit, etc...Posted by IanMM on 2006-09-07 at 13:56:18
Looks cool. Count me in.
Yay first post!
I'll make a map for this too.
Yay first post!
I'll make a map for this too.
Report, edit, etc...Posted by Tdnfthe1 on 2006-09-08 at 15:21:02
QUOTE(Wing-of-no-Wing @ Sep 7 2006, 11:53 AM)
[right][snapback]556915[/snapback][/right]
I'll play, sounds like fun. Might I suggest guardians of the sky and millenium army's airfighting game(i forget the name). But those sounds like good ones. Anyway sign me up.
~Tdnfthe1
Report, edit, etc...Posted by Wing-of-no-Wing on 2006-09-08 at 16:27:44
I've never played Guardians of Sky; I'll have to check it out later if I'm around. As for Aerial Combat, I'm not going to use the shuttle version. I might use the older, traditional version or some variant thereof; I'd just like to see how things go with the map-making side of the contest first.
Report, edit, etc...Posted by Killer_Kow(MM) on 2006-09-08 at 17:46:48
Guardians of the sky is a defence map 
Report, edit, etc...Posted by Wing-of-no-Wing on 2006-09-08 at 18:11:39
Then I don't really need to try it, now, do I? One less thing to worry about.
Report, edit, etc...Posted by Vi3t_X on 2006-09-10 at 15:49:03
Maybe, if i have time to make one. Ill have Millions of locations, and the abbility to colide into ships (OMG AN ASTERIOD TOO!) (OMFG WE DOING INTO THE STAR!) *all of a suden a comp launches 15 nukes, and ur stuck in an asteriod belt...*
Report, edit, etc...Posted by Wing-of-no-Wing on 2006-09-12 at 11:54:25
Well, I was hoping for somewhat greater participation...there wouldn't be so much of a tournament with only a couple people playing. I'll keep trying to get people, but if nobody else joins before the next phase starts, I might have no choice but to cancel the competition.
Report, edit, etc...Posted by O)Matt_Burch on 2006-09-12 at 11:56:58
I have bad uploading stuff.. so it will be corrupted if i upload it, when are you online and where??? It would work then.
Report, edit, etc...Posted by Wing-of-no-Wing on 2006-09-12 at 12:21:43
I usually check onto USEast a few times in the afternoon. I don't always stay for a game; depends on whether anyone I know is on, and if there's anything good being hosted.
And we don't just need mappers, we need people to actually play the maps, too...
And we don't just need mappers, we need people to actually play the maps, too...
Report, edit, etc...Posted by O)Matt_Burch on 2006-09-12 at 16:12:27
Well whats your hotmail?? I will make a map that should be an awesome tournament stylish..
6 players..
EV'ish
i see you like EV using the Lightning as your avatar..
[quote=]
2. For the love of God, don’t use a transport unit as a fighter! If something is supposed to be a fighter, use a wraith or a scout
[/quote]
I will use a transport as a fighter, you just watch me and it will be a fighter.. I will make a shuttle attack, and a dropship will attack. Wait n see.
6 players..
EV'ish
i see you like EV using the Lightning as your avatar..
[quote=]
2. For the love of God, don’t use a transport unit as a fighter! If something is supposed to be a fighter, use a wraith or a scout
[/quote]
I will use a transport as a fighter, you just watch me and it will be a fighter.. I will make a shuttle attack, and a dropship will attack. Wait n see.
Report, edit, etc...Posted by Wing-of-no-Wing on 2006-09-12 at 17:01:24
2. For the love of God, don’t use a transport unit as a fighter! If something is supposed to be a fighter, use a wraith or a scout
[/quote]
I will use a transport as a fighter, you just watch me and it will be a fighter.. I will make a shuttle attack, and a dropship will attack. Wait n see.
My main problem with shuttles and dropships as fighters isn't that they don't have a built-in attack (since I expect triggered attacks, at the very least, in addition to the basic attacks, or else the map would be pretty boring and not require much skill), it's that they feel heavy and sluggish when you're flying them. If they're going to be heavy fighters, that's fine, but for general fighter purposes, wraiths and scouts are better looking and feel more fighter-ish.
Report, edit, etc...Posted by O)Matt_Burch on 2006-09-12 at 23:22:44
QUOTE(Wing-of-no-Wing Posted Today @ 03:01 PM)
QUOTE
QUOTE
2. For the love of God, don’t use a transport unit as a fighter! If something is supposed to be a fighter, use a wraith or a scout
I will use a transport as a fighter, you just watch me and it will be a fighter.. I will make a shuttle attack, and a dropship will attack. Wait n see.
My main problem with shuttles and dropships as fighters isn't that they don't have a built-in attack (since I expect triggered attacks, at the very least, in addition to the basic attacks, or else the map would be pretty boring and not require much skill), it's that they feel heavy and sluggish when you're flying them. If they're going to be heavy fighters, that's fine, but for general fighter purposes, wraiths and scouts are better looking and feel more fighter-ish.
err.. well you buy your guns
, is it okay if its a space game, and in jungle or so to have the correct attack type? so if i wanted a wraith to attack using a laser, not the 2 rockets, i could use burrowed zerglings and stuff.. to have both types of dmg.. I don't know any other way of making it..Report, edit, etc...Posted by Wing-of-no-Wing on 2006-09-12 at 23:38:40
QUOTE
is it okay if its a space game, and in jungle or so to have the correct attack type? so if i wanted a wraith to attack using a laser, not the 2 rockets, i could use burrowed zerglings and stuff.. to have both types of dmg.. I don't know any other way of making it..
Sure, go for it! If it plays well (and this includes general "feel", which can be influenced by aesthetics), I'm not very particular how you go about doing it. Just keep the general guidelines for this map type in mind and you should be fine.
Report, edit, etc...Posted by O)Matt_Burch on 2006-09-13 at 09:45:07
and this way i dont have to keep having 100 wraiths following 1 unit to have its hp 
Report, edit, etc...Posted by JaFF on 2006-09-13 at 10:53:23
Can I submit "The Thing" map ? It's not flying units, it's a ground unit only map.
Report, edit, etc...Posted by O)Matt_Burch on 2006-09-13 at 11:24:58
er.. thats not flying related?? so it would go in the "rejected maps" ???
???Report, edit, etc...Posted by Wing-of-no-Wing on 2006-09-13 at 13:43:38
QUOTE(Jammed @ Sep 13 2006, 09:53 AM)
Can I submit "The Thing" map ? It's not flying units, it's a ground unit only map.
[right][snapback]559996[/snapback][/right]
[right][snapback]559996[/snapback][/right]
Sure, feel free to submit it. I'll delete it as soon as it arrives, and it will not be used in the contest, but if you feel that submitting it anyway would make you feel better about yourself, then by all means, go right ahead.
Report, edit, etc...Posted by O)Matt_Burch on 2006-09-13 at 13:45:26
[quot=Wing-of-no-Wing Posted Today, 11:43 AM]
Now.. that is so freaking hilarious.
QUOTE(Jammed @ Sep 13 2006 @ 09:53 AM)
Can I submit "The Thing" map ? It's not flying units, it's a ground unit only map.
[/quote
Sure, feel free to submit it. I'll delete it as soon as it arrives, and it will not be used in the contest, but if you feel that submitting it anyway would make you feel better about yourself, then by all means, go right ahead.
[/quote
Sure, feel free to submit it. I'll delete it as soon as it arrives, and it will not be used in the contest, but if you feel that submitting it anyway would make you feel better about yourself, then by all means, go right ahead.
Now.. that is so freaking hilarious.
Report, edit, etc...Posted by Wing-of-no-Wing on 2006-09-30 at 13:47:56
Well, september is basically at an end, and there aren't enough people to actually play a tournament...if you made a map for this, send it to me and I'll do the whole rating thing (and give you 100 minerals if it would have been used in the tournament); that will be the end of this.