Mapping Tournament 2 (AUG 2018)

[biass]

You have to the of 1st of SEPTEMBER AEST Which will be the end of august if you don't live in Australia
Create a 10km map and submit the name here. The best authors will be awarded prizes.
Coundown: https://bit.ly/2A3n8cj

1st Place: Tournament Winner Avatar (Or 2nd or 3rd Place Prize)
2nd Place: Factional Face Avatar (Or 3rd Place Prize)
3rd Place: Factional Logo Avatar

The map deemed to most original will be awarded the Winner of Hearts Avatar. you may not win both a podium prize and the WoH at the same time. You will be asked to choose between the two if this occurs.

(NEW!) For the WoH, ill be looking for maps that incorporate navy play, feel free to try your hand, but this task is of course optional.

You may only submit one map per author. (This rule has changed from tournament 1 to promote creating a single map of high quality rather then multiple maps of lower quality.)

While this contest is judged by an opinion panel. There are still objective requirements. Please make sure your content fits these restrictions before submitting. Any map found not following these will be instantly disqualified.
Both spoiler tags have received new content, I advise returning participants to reread the rules and the advices.

Restrictions:

Spoiler: show

10km.
Any theme/biome is permitted. (eg Ice, Evergreen, etc)
Any player count is permitted.
No Mass Deposit or Hydrocarbon Deposit limit
No decal, or texture (Strata Layer) limit.
(NEW!) Textures missing normal maps, or with an albedo map instead of a normal unless in very specific cases will be considered a "broken" map, and be disqualified.
Any map name is permitted. Remember to abide by the client rules.
The map must function correctly in the vault/lobby and be completely free of bugs.
- Furthermore, the Mass/Hydrocarbon Deposits must be placed on their decal correctly, and must not be misaligned.
The map must be balanced for competitive play.
- Minor misalignments will be overlooked. Intentional unbalances will result in a DQ.
- Already uploaded maps may not be submitted. Maps currently in progress can be submitted.
- Remasters/Remakes of existing maps may not be submitted.

Please monitor this post for updates to both the rules and the prizes. Ask any questions below.

Some advice from me, to you:

Spoiler: show

You should make sure your textures blend well together and revolve around a theme/biome.
Make sure they're not overscaled and look good from any zoom level.
You should decal your map, and make it very well detailed. adjust the LOD to make sure different decals appear only at certain zoom levels.
Make sure you don't overscale your decals too, and make use of the no decal limit.
(NEW!) Make sure your decals don't show a repeating pattern or are clearly identifiabl, you can use other decals to hide them.
Set up your lighting (I'll know if you don't.) and make it fit your textures and your decals.
If you have water, do the same as above (again, ill know)
You should make your reclaim look natural, and dont overuse it.
You should make your mass points look natural too, and distribute them to guide your players.
(NEW!) Use the time given to you to create a competitive entry, maps started and submitted in the first couple of days will most likely not win a podium position.

[Mad`Mozart]

Great, I've been waiting for this.

I have only but one complaint tho. Since this is a special kind of tournament, i really wanted to see a special avatar awarded for 1st place.
Could be some random creative stuff like with other tourneys, or a winner map icon (could use that for winner of heart instead). Pls? Generic tournament winner and face/logos are so lame in this one.

[Gorton]

You should send a message to FTX, I guess.
I agree that it would be nice to have it's own avatar.

Edit: Totally fine with it's own avatar. If anyone wants to make a nice one, go ahead.

[NoUnits]

The map must function correctly in the vault/lobby and be completely free of bugs.

Since the Game on its own is not completely 'free of Bugs'... this is a really hard assignment.

[TerrorSquid]

Reading the rules and the advices, so much focus put on making the map pretty. Shouldnt the focus be on the layout of the map? Of course its good to have pretty maps and you would expect them in a mapping tourney, but when you are talking about actual good maps, textures/decals/lightning are not really deciding factors. A super detailed astro craters will still be a shitty astro craters. Remove every texture and decal from setons, and it will still be setons.

[biass]

Since the Game on its own is not completely 'free of Bugs'... this is a really hard assignment.

Keyword is map, game bugs are of course irrelevant, map specific issues are commonly user error and are to be avoided/rectified.

I have only but one complaint tho. Since this is a special kind of tournament, i really wanted to see a special avatar awarded for 1st place.
Could be some random creative stuff like with other tourneys, or a winner map icon (could use that for winner of heart instead). Pls? Generic tournament winner and face/logos are so lame in this one.

I'm thinking about this, but you'll have to note a few issues

- One, if the tournies continue at this rate and avatars are removed from old winners, they'll only have it for at best a month.
- The difficulty is too low at the moment, we talked about this in chat kinda.
- poor biass cannot compete for unique mapping ava jk

I like making the special challenges for the WoH, i rather keep that one separate, i dislike the tourney winner one too personally so i would rather give a special one for 1st place.

oh, if someone makes one in advance for any reason, feel free to show it to me and if it's worthy ill pass it by goat

Shouldnt the focus be on the layout of the map?... textures/decals/lightning are not really deciding factors...

All parts of the map are considered, not just one part.
For example Tofina Night (By Sid, in the last tournament) was knocked down a few pegs by it's issues with reclaim.
Personally though, people who claim gameplay is worth chimping out on literally every other part of the map, don't usually make quality gameplay either.

If you manage to make something actually impressive with sub standard aesthetics, i'll personally guarantee you the 3rd place prize. If not - then you'll probably be far behind people who made sure every part was quality.

[FtXCommando]

Kinda like going to a BBQ contest and being served a salad.

The good gameplay should really be self-expalantory but for whatever reason people don’t expect the aesthetics to matter and then get upset because “aesthetics are subjective” and believe maps are picked for favortism, disliking author, [general salt]. The additional advice points you in the right direction for that.

[Mad`Mozart]

- The difficulty is too low at the moment, we talked about this in chat kinda.

I really dont get this arguement. What is difficulty related to?

Is it time frame and restrictions? If so, i am certain that if you push those it will result in a less quality maps. Reasons should be obvious there.

Is it the map size? Maybe 5km could qualify for low difficulty, i see 10km as a good enough challenge already (and 20km being only harder). There is enough room for creativity, mapping skills and game understanding to make a good map. Often those dont come together and we see either a good looking map or one with great gameplay, and sometimes it just so happens that a good looking map also plays great (like Regor). So i consider it enough of a difficulty/challange to make such a map already.

[biass]

I really dont get this arguement. What is difficulty related to?
Is it time frame and restrictions?

yeah, and i agree with you on the quality tbh

Is it the map size?

also yeah, but i personally dont really think bigger maps take too much longer

you could also for example say 15km and gatekeep anyone with a low enough skill so that they cannot set a play area

these both kinda suck, but basically im saying im in the early stages of thinking up a way to raise the bar for quality, tho i personally don't think it's very achievable

[Mad`Mozart]

Yeah i dont think you can do anything else for higher quality any longer.
The 1 submission per author is the best thing you could do.

Which sucked for me since i wanted to submit 2 maps (( Oh well