Rules for the Contest

[Wixen1 [Q2C]]

1 - Mappers must sign up by Feb 15th 2015.

2 - As long as we get at least X mappers signed up, the contest is on.

3 - Maps have to be completed by March 15th 2015. (This date is subject to change) and submitted to the Head Judge.

4 - Maps have to be new, not old touched up maps and the map has to be created so that it can be played on the original Quake 2. A Deathmatch map.

5 - You can use custom textures, env. & sound files may be used in this contest.

6 - The map shall be designed for use without a hook. That way it can be played by any MOD.

7 - Mappers shall submit the finished maps in the form of a zip file and files must be pointed towards your C:\Quake2\baseq2 (or equal) directory for easy installation. Judges should not have to guess where files should go.

8 - Mappers must supply Head Judge a download link or zip file for the maps on the completion date.

9 - All mappers will keep their maps secret until the deadline. At that point, the download links or zip files will be supplied to Head Judge in a private message. This way, the maps will all be released to the judges on the same day. At that point, Head Judge will forward all of the download links or zip files to the judges by private message or email.

10 - At this point the judges will have 1 week to test the maps. Then they will send Head Judge their results through email.

11 – Head Judge will then post the results on the Café. Every judges scores will be made public.

12 - Depending on how things go, the deadline may be pushed back in order to get everything done.

13 - Judges will also keep the maps secret until the end of the contest.

14 - Judges will score the maps on a 0 to 10 scale on the different categories, selected by the Café. Judges will then give the results to Head Judge at the end of the contest.

15 - In the event of a tie, each map will share that position. So we could end up with 2 first place maps or 2 second place maps, etc.

These rules should be followed by mappers and judges.
If anyone breaks these rules you could be disqualified from the contest.

[devilx4]

Just wondering how many players the map should cater for?

[Null]

That's a very good question. Your map should cater to the average amount of players on decent Deathmatch server these days. These numbers fluctuate so I'd say around 12 people +/- 6. Minimum being 6, if you don't want us docking any points.

We like things pretty spacious in DM for good measure. And you can make even larger maps (18+) if you can keep them compact enough. A general guide would be for your map's action to not stray too far from the central location, so that respawning players can quickly get back into it.

[thehappyfriar]

For zipping, is unzipping to "baseq2/maps, baseq2/textures, etc." good? Not sure if you meant to "quake2/baseq2/maps, etc.". I don't have a folder names "quake2" for example, it's "q2".

[Null]

Jan 30, 2015 12:52:33 GMT -5 thehappyfriar said:

For zipping, is unzipping to "baseq2/maps, baseq2/textures, etc." good?

Yes, this is fine.

[Deleted]

For the newbies..

When your map is finished...
make a new directory....name it baseq2

new textures,sound etc...throw it in your new baseq2 directory.

baseq2 ( tree )

- env .........background.
- maps .......your map.
- models ....... new models.
- sound ....new sound.
- textures ........new textures..

Done?....zip baseq2 for example ( margaal1.zip )

Easy....

[spirit]

I have a question on the rule set.

I am working on a new map from scratch for the contest atm. BUT, I've also had an old map that is not done yet sleeping on my hard disk for quite a while. It has not been published yet, of course (since it's not done). If I finish it for the contest, may I submit it? Or is it required that all work on the map has been done after the contest was officially started (within the 4 weeks)?

[Null]

As long as a map hasn't been previously released, I don't see a problem submitting it. We'll gladly accept all unreleased submissions, in order to provide and enrich the community with as much new content as possible. All is welcome! But just to be fair please also work on a fresh design, and focus most of your attention on this one.

If someone feels this is unfair, please state your objections, and in worst case we might dock a few points for maps which don't exactly fall within the 4 weeks. We'll not be too critical though, since this will depend on author's honesty anyway, without which there would be no way of knowing. So in conclusion, Spirit please feel free to complete your unreleased works and submit them as well.

[spirit]

Ok. I'll make it clear in the submission message and README file that the map was started before, then judges can judge.

If someone doesn't like this, I'll just release it independent of the contest, also fine with me. It would just be a pity to not publish it at all, because I already put a bit work into it.

[ace]

I play a bit of jump, so my gl_modulate and intensity are usually way higher than they need to be, what gl_modulate and intensity should the lighting be made for? I think gl_modulate 2 was standard but I can't remember.

[Deleted]

My setup Quake2

gl_modulate "3"
set vid_gamma "0.6"

[NIN-Kitsune]

Considering maps are no longer secret (perhaps that rule should be updated in the original post), what is the policy on play testing said maps prior to their finalization for the contest? It was often standard practice when I made maps before to give trial runs on a server I help admin before finalizing to see how they played with a few players.

[Null]

I think this should be allowed, since the map is designated only for this contest. Death-match performance is a big part of the map's overall success. So test away

[NIN-Kitsune]

If I may suggest, I think that the signup deadline may be a bit redundant as a whole or at least could use an extension, considering the map completion deadline is quite a bit after the signup period. Some map authors could be pretty quick about what they do even after finding out about this event past the 15th, they still have quite a bit of time to do something fairly impressive. After all, I learned to make my first map in under two weeks with pretty good results I did not expect, times have definitely changed for mapping! I think long as one can signup and produce a final result before the submission for judgement deadline, they should be eligible to take part.

[Null]

The signup deadline is there in consideration for the judges most of all.

According to Wixen, even a contest of a lesser size was a hefty logistical challenge and a real headache to judge. Mind you, the previous contests were tiny in comparison and we've broken all records for Q2 cafe at least. We're now in uncharted territory in terms of size and some judges might not feel comfortable taking any more mappers due to the added workload. One potential solution might be to randomly split the judges into two or more groups, and randomly assign maps to each group for fairness sake. Either way, we need to take necessary steps to ensure new procedures are put into place, to deal with a contest of this scale, before we continue on this path, and so we don't have any headaches this time around. I'm willing to listen to suggestions, but we need a resolution soon if we're to keep the signup door open.

Wixen has first hand experience with the last two contests so he'll be able to tell us more about his concerns and past experiences. He directly presided over the results from contests 8 and 9, so his input needs to be instrumental in forming a new structure if he feels we've outgrown (might strain) the old one. It'll then be up to us to revise and streamline the judging procedures in a way that ensures fair and unbiased ratings to be obtained from all judges. For example we'll need to instruct the judges before hand step by step and have them go through a sample map selection to ensure that they clearly understand the regulations and rate accordingly. Certainly they'll need to understand how to properly take r_speed measurements which will be tricky without prior training. We might need someone to come up with an instructional tutorial for that. It's important to do this all before the end of the contest, so that when we get there, our rating machine is nicely oiled up and ready to go. Ideally we want this to be like second nature to all the judges, so they produce fair ratings at the other end, ready for me to collect and put up as final results for contest 10.