If there's one thing we need, it's more quality maps. I'm talking at least another dozen. There are a ton of maps out there with potential, and I know there are quite a few highly skilled and passionate mappers hidden within this community. Seeing your creative work in action with hundreds of people enjoying it is incredibly rewarding. The ability to create custom content is easily one of UT's defining characteristics, and it's probably the main reason it remains active today.
It's GlobalUnreal's First Annual Mapping Competition! Since iCTF is clearly #iPug's bread and butter, the competition will be to create the best maps possible for iCTF pugs and leagues.
A designated signup page would probably be overkill for this, so just create a thread in this subforum with as much info on your map as you'd like to include. Feel free to include download links, descriptions, walkthroughs, screenshots, videos, or any ideas you may have.
The idea is for it to be an iterative process; that is, submit your map(s) early on, gain feedback, make changes, resubmit, and repeat until you think the map is good enough to win. This will be highly community driven. There won't be any drafts or anything like that, and no official streams are planned, but as always, streaming gameplay yourselves and contributing to threads is amazing. I expect a wide range of opinions and some intense discussion.
Map submissions end Sunday, March 16th @ 7:00 PM EST, and the following 2 weeks will be for play-testing and rating.
The winners will be announced Sunday, March 30th @ 7:00 PM EST!
A week-long poll will be open where everyone can rate each map. Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals (with prizes!) will be awarded to the top three maps with the highest average rating on a scale from 1 (bad map) to 5 (perfect map). Expect a handful of various other awards to be given out as well!
The community! Anyone who has played (pugged) the maps can judge them. Any map you haven't played, you will NOT be allowed to cast a vote for. It would be ridiculous for anyone to judge a map they've never played. So it's in everyone's best interests to pug up and provide some feedback!
People can submit as many maps as they want, but only completely new maps or major edits will be eligible for the competition. Admins will determine the eligibility of major edits. If you've created or made major edits to maps in the past and they are not yet being used anywhere, you can enter those maps into the competition as well. If you've already put the time in, you deserve a slightly higher chance to win!
For now, captains can choose the maps in pugs, but when we have enough quality maps, the "beta" pug will be brought back specifically for testing out all the new maps. I'll handle updating all of the servers, compression/redirect, and mapvote.
Minor edits to existing maps (stuff like adding invisible ramps on top of the stairs on Duku to smooth them out), while not eligible for the competition, can be tested out in pugs with the possibility of replacing the originals for normal pugs, and after which point, they'll be removed from beta pugs.
Of course! You can work with as many people as you want or you can fly solo.
Custom-coded actors are NOT allowed on any map. Mappers should try to keep everything as native as possible. I can't think of a single map in our rotation here at GU that uses anything out of the ordinary. If you're relying on some gimmicky addition to the map rather than focusing on map flow and gameplay mechanics, you almost certainly won't win the competition! You can use custom sounds and textures, but try to keep it all under 10 MB. Anything more than that is probably necessary and usually indicates focusing on the wrong ideas. If you do use any custom sounds or textures, please provide the compressed (.uz) files when you submit the map. Remember, this competition will be judged by highly skilled (and highly opinionated!) instagib CTF players for compatibility with iCTF pugs and iCTF leagues.
Seeing your creativity in action in pugs and leagues is a prize in itself, but a six pack at the very least would be nice too eh?! The top 3 (maps) will receive a prize from the funds we are currently raising for this mapping competition (see also: "How do I contribute to the prize?).
The way the amount will be divided is as following:
First place: 50% of amount raised
Second place: 30% of amount raised
Third place: 20% of amount raised
For those interested, the amount raised at the moment is:
That would mean that you would be able to win these amounts with your mapping hobby!
-- Updated on 23 Feb 2014
(Note from Chica: I'll keep updating this)
If you'd like to donate something that would be wonderful! Every amount, no matter how little, is appreciated.
We have set up a PayPal donation account specifically for this mapping competition - the amount raised will be divided amongst the top 3.
If you'd rather contribute hardware or would like to give a gift card, that is also possible.
I'll be personally adding some maps of my own to the pool so that I may garner feedback and hopefully contribute some nice maps to the rotation. Although, my maps won't be eligible to win since I'm running this thing. I do love making maps. Coding all day makes Timmy a dull boy. Mapping can be an art and an excellent outlet for creativity.
I'm open to any and all suggestions to make this awesome, so feel free to speak your mind. Let's get this thing started and keep activity up!