June 2007 Mapping Competition: "Capture Arena"

Quin | 2007-06-01 00:00

The mapping competition is under way, so get your 'E' key ready for some heavy lifting!

We're looking for some amazing capture maps that we can hopefully convince the Sauerbraten developers to include in the release. So come on, dazzle us with your mastery of geometry, finesse with lighting, and ingenuity with design.

Read on for the competition details. You will also want to read the Guidelines which apply to all competitions.

Jurors

The jurors will evaluate all maps entered into the competition according to Scoring and Judging guidelines. If you would like to participate in the jury please contact Quin. This month the jury will be:

Quin
Drakas

Parameters

The parameters highlight the goal of the competition, which counts towards the entrant's Achievement score. These must be followed, in addition to the General Rules contained in the Guidelines for all competitions.

The current Sauerbraten release is: Spring Edition.

The map theme is "Capture Arena", it can be any type of arena from any period of time, and be fictional or not.
The map may not be symmetrical in any way, except optionally the outline of the edge boundary (eg. the Colosseum had a symmetrical seating pattern surrounding the Arena, but of course it doesn't anymore).
The map must be large enough and able to accommodate for eight to ten players, but be small enough to allow four to six players to play comfortably on it.
The map must contain a minimum of three and a maximum of six bases (one of which must be located underwater), and be designed for capture, but playable in other game modes by adding at least one of each powerup (except the pistol) to the map.
The map config may optionally contain; a maximum of two additional detail textures (small textures used for outlines), and a maximum of two other textures (any type, one of which must be an 'autograss' variant of another texture used in the map), both sets of which must be picked from the textures included in the current Sauerbraten release.
The map config may optionally use 'mapmodelreset' and define new mapmodels with 'mmodel', which must be picked from the models included in the current Sauerbraten release.
The map config may also contain the following variables; fog, fogcolour, watercolour, waterfog, waterspec, grasswidth, grassheight

Config

The config entrants must use for their map is:

// June 2007 Mapping Competition Entry
// 'Map Name' by Author

loadsky "skyboxes/morning" // The selected skybox may be modified

materialreset

texture water "golgotha/water2.jpg" // The selected water texture may be modified
texture 1 "textures/waterfall.jpg" // The selected waterfall texture may be modified
texture 1 "textures/watern.jpg"
texture 1 "textures/waterdudv.jpg"

texturereset
setshader stdworld
texture 0 "skyboxes/morning_bk.jpg" // The selected texture may be modified to match the skybox

exec "packages/aftas/package.cfg"

Comments

Acord | 2007-06-03 16:15

Entry: Crush Depth

Converted from a DM map I was working on. Figured I'd do something else for the community.

Quin | 2007-06-04 07:34

Achievement	 7/10	Not an arena, some features are symmetrical
Design		 8/10	Good use of terrain and buildings
Gameplay	 7/10	Some parts narrow/interfere
Skill		 6/10	Could have used a bit more thought and testing
Presentation	 5/10	Good use of Quad node, some package problems
		______
		6.6/10

A fairly nice map with a strong water theme. Better for a larger number of players (around 5-8). Fairly close to the competition parameters, and a decent effort.

I'm not sure you quite stuck to an "arena" theme.
A few inner areas were a bit symmetrical.
The use of water, while good, was maybe a little over done when compared to the amount of land.
Some parts were a little narrow.
Some of the decorative mapmodels clip strangely obstructing movement.
Fairly presented Quadropolis node
Relative directories ('packages/base', etc) not used in the package
File 'mapname.jpg' not provided

An ETZ containing basic waypoints for this map is now available in SauerMod's CVS.

Drakas | 2007-06-04 17:22

Achievement	 6/10	 
Design		 8/10	
Gameplay	 5/10	
Skill		 4/10	
			
Presentation	 7/10
		______
		 6/10

I like the graphical looks of this map, but gamewise - it is really not much to play there - too narrow, little space. This could be re-done to create a more specious map horizontally instead of having everything split up vertically. Map is fine to play in FFA, IMO.

Thanks, I would be happy to see more of your maps. Just two things - space and detail.

Not much of an arena, cause everything is split up.
Map is too small for 6 players
Really lacks detail. You have put some nice features in the map, but it is really kind of empty to be in. I do really like the lighting, it is excellent. But the map itself should've been more proportional
Narrow to get through, takes a while for the underwater capture. For FFA, you might have added a bit more weapons, and the minigun location on the spikes is not the best idea
Apart from the graphical looks, I don't really find anything unique about this map.
I give the 4 for lighting and the nice use of mapmodels
Remember, this was said to be for distribution. It should've been packages/base/mymap.<cfg/ogz/txt>.
Nice screenshots, could have included a jpg thumbnail for in-game viewing too.

geartrooper | 2007-06-07 14:35

Entry: c_Lea_Stadium

Drakas | 2007-06-07 14:50

Achievement	 9/10
Design		 7/10	
Gameplay	 7/10	
Skill		 3/10
			
Presentation	 9/10
		______
		7/10

Bit too big for 6 players
I like the lighting, well done. You have some good design for the underground.
You could've added something to the middle of the map, it look REALLY boring and bland.
Maybe would be better to add more things just as accessories. Architecture nicely done.
Going through long hallways - hmm. There should be more space, it is too narrow, vertically for the underground. Where are the spawn points in the underground?
Going from the top to the bottom might get boring. You might as well just shoot your enemy in the top or something.
I don't really see anything challenging done there. You have good lights and good design.
Parts of the map are simply bland, there's nothing to look at.
The main screenshot really made me think that this map would really be bad, but it really isn't. Good directory structure. Map name might have been easier to write :-P

geartrooper | 2007-06-09 06:00

Here is the link to the content. http://www.quadropolis.us/node/651

Drakas graciously posted the map here after I posted in the wrong section.

Quin | 2007-06-09 21:27

Achievement	 8/10
Design		 9/10
Gameplay	 8/10
Skill		 8/10
Presentation	 7/10
		______
		 8/10

An excellent map with a great use of theme, which takes full advantage of the texture set. Nice for Capture, but a bit large for a small FFA battle.

The inner areas are a bit cramped, and the outer areas are a bit empty.
Greate use of capture, although some of the bases are harder to defend due to sight being obstructed.
There could have been some more variation (and perhaps geometry/texture detailing) in the map, some areas were still a bit symmetrical.
I know it's a pain, but as per the Guidelines:
- not having editing related commands (such as; mapmsg, skylight, ambient) in the config (re: the 'mapmsg' command inside your config, this information is saved inside the ogz).
- naming files (including the zip) with lowercase letters only (the exception being an underscore)

An ETZ containing waypoints for this map is now in SauerMod's CVS.

DrMiracles | 2007-08-02 16:45

Then where is my review(s)? How about whoever is responsible for this debacle explain yourself?

Quin | 2007-08-02 17:34

That would be me.

I accidentally deleted the comment thread containing your post when I was trying to remove "The Hole" which was disqualified for not providing a file. I've taken ill of late which is why the review took so long in the first place.

To be honest, I really didn't feel like writing it all over again from scratch as the map wasn't all that good to begin with. If you'd really like some feedback, then..

The geometry was very messy and too spaced out with either large useless areas or cramped with lots of points to get snagged on, the lighting was not detailed or subtle enough, the edges of the map were not closed in (nor any attempt was made to make the edge of the level visually pleasing), the water is out of place being against the edge of the map and above the ground level, also there were too many RPs (reflection planes) and particles which really makes a computer chug.

In addition to the map problems, your mapshot has JPG in uppercase, which will break on systems which care about case (like Linux), but your readme and quad node was very comprehensive and informative (which was one of the very few things that impressed me).

I know this may sound a little harsh, I can see you did try to be creative which is why you scored more than a 3. Apologies for taking so long.

DrMiracles | 2007-08-02 17:54

Thanks for your input and I hope you feel better.

You weren't the only judge. I hope the people who run this site don't attempt another one of these contests if they are not going to see it completed in a fair and timely manner. If it can't be done, then it should be explained and canceled.

Quin | 2007-08-02 18:04

Well, I organized and created the June contest all by myself, which is why without me it wasn't completed in a timely manner. I didn't expect to become ill and end up in hospital, but it was something I could not help.

I've tried something different this month, which I hope will be much more effective and less time consuming for me (as I am unable to spend long periods of time in front of my PC without immense pain).

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