Duel Mapping Contest 2015

Yes. it would work much better in minsta ffa

1. Erbium by Justin - 8,14 - [100 EUR + Keyboard]

	antibody	Mirio	shogun assassin	Smilecythe	-z-	Final score
Gameplay	8	8	8	7	8	7,80
Presentation	10	10	10	10	9	9,80
Originality	7	6	8	8	7	7,20
Total	8,3	8,2	8,4	7,7	8,1	8,14

Comments

antibody: Justin has packed in a ton of beauty to this map, and lots of goodies for duel players. I especially like the little slit window in the MH room for taking peek shots on players going for the vortex. The duel gameplay is very good, but it is quite easy for players to hide from one another.

Mirio: It obviously looks amazing, I kinda wish the waterfall would pull you to the ground. The warpzone is a real mindfuck, but once you get the hang of it, it allows so many traps and crazy plays.

shogun assassin: Orgasm for eyes! Overall the gameplay is very good. While the opponent is collecting big items in high ground you can safely hoard little items in bottom corridors and even rest near waterfall for a while! I can't stress how much I like the Nature-themed futuristic theme. I only miss birds, butterflies and GlaDOS.

Smilecythe: Professional quality in visuals, but layout is more complex than it needs to be. Gameplay feels slow, isolated and due to numerous hiding spots, a potential camping fest.

-z-: Good flow, well presented and detailed brushwork.

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2. Cucumber by SpiKe - 8,08 - [75 EUR]

	antibody	Mirio	shogun assassin	Smilecythe	-z-	Final score
Gameplay	10	7	9	9	8	8,60
Presentation	7	7	7,5	6	7	6,90
Originality	6	7	9	6	6	6,80
Total	9,0	7,0	8,7	8,1	7,6	8,08

Comments

antibody: Excellent duel gameplay, with just enough corridors and rooms to keep things interesting. Opportunities for the down player to claw back control and to take peek shots. It could use some color variation, although this can be added later.

Mirio: To put the Mega Armor near a void area is quite unique and provides some scary moments for the controlling player. Also a lot of ways to cut off the opponent. Solid Duel map!

shogun assassin: Classic duel material. Very well balanced, many escape and surprise opportunities, … I can't really say much about this map, it's like good shoes for walking. I think any dueler will feel at home here.

Smilecythe: Although the map shrinked a bit from first release, it still feels like a TDM map rather than a duel map. Item control and chaining feels easy, perhaps it's due to the size.

-z-: Played like a duel map, made good use of available textures but nothing that makes this map really stand out with its own identity

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3. Luminar by Debugger - 7,54 - [25 EUR]

	antibody	Mirio	shogun assassin	Smilecythe	-z-	Final score
Gameplay	5	9	9	10	7	8,00
Presentation	5	8	9	4	6	6,40
Originality	7	6	9	5	6	6,60
Total	5,2	8,5	9	8,3	6,7	7,54

Comments

antibody: This map is convoluted and visually distracting. You can't find your opponent anywhere, and every corridor looks the same! This map would work out much better under FFA. The colors and contrast could be toned down a lot to let the architecture (the best feature, IMO) shine.

Mirio: The MG could be swapped with the Armor (Blood Run-esque place) to have nice fights about it (Eventually it is ok now, MG place is just not used). Like most of Debuggers maps it is fun to play and looks well.

shogun assassin: In my opinion this map has really unique gameplay because it allows for both long and short range fights almost everywhere. The trap at bottom near Armor is very clever! ))

Smilecythe: Messy texture work, but has a proper duel map scale and well restrained layout.

-z-: The brushwork is primitive, but the author has made good use of textures. I worry about the openness of this map

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4. Styrofoam by proraide - 5,04

	antibody	Mirio	shogun assassin	Smilecythe	-z-	Final score
Gameplay	5	5	8	3	6	5,40
Presentation	5	4	5	2	5	4,20
Originality	4	6	5	1	5	4,20
Total	4,9	4,9	7,1	2,6	5,7	5,04

Comments

antibody: This map is a bit simplistic. I appreciate the vertical gameplay, but the MH and MA are trivially close together. The map is also visually uninteresting and has few opportunities for interesting “fights”.

Mirio: A floating important item is interesting, but it's still a space map and I just can't enjoy the randomness they provide.

shogun assassin: Good ol' DM stuff. It's not as easy as I expected to push enemy into void so this map is a lot fun! I had many nice long range (air) laser pushes, air rockets and Electro traps. I think duels should be played even on unconventional maps such as this one because they allow unique qualities of Xonotic suppressed in conventional corridor duel maps to shine.

Smilecythe: Mortar and Rocket launcher should swap places, void needs a kill trigger and crylink feels like a long shot decision due to the width ratio between pillars, ceilings and floors. Personally would prefer hagar replacing it.

-z-: I think this map could be very popular on a public DM server

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5. Curvature by Freddy - 5,00

	antibody	Mirio	shogun assassin	Smilecythe	-z-	Final score
Gameplay	6	4	6	2	6	4,80
Presentation	7	4	5	2	6	4,80
Originality	6	8	9	3	8	6,80
Total	6,2	4,4	6,1	2,1	6,2	5,00

Comments

antibody: This map is another one best suited to FFA. I like the extremely exposed MH and the different ways to get to it. I also appreciate the jump ramps in key locations for better movement. Unfortunately the many tight, looping corridors make for easy traps. The railings also prevent quick escapes when using the provided jump ramps on the bottom level.

Mirio: Being able to change the teleporter exit is really interesting and original. However it's not so useful here, as the megas are quite linear (chain them via the top level and control Nex) = no chance for other player) and you barely need to run in these curvy corridors.

shogun assassin: I like how the map is divided into Nex top ground with Mega and rooms with armors and other weapons but I think it's still unbalanced and favors too much a player who gets the Nex first.

Smilecythe: Way too long and many one way- corridors, awkward structures (see curve stairs) and flat level design. Not bad for first map though, but should study how duel works beforehand.

-z-: DarkPlaces doesn't like curves, it was ambitious to do a map based on them, so I credit the author here

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6. Clockwork by Melanosuchus - 4,50

	antibody	Mirio	shogun assassin	Smilecythe	-z-	Final score
Gameplay	4	3	1	1	7	3,20
Presentation	9	5	5	6	8	6,60
Originality	10	9	10	9	9	9,40
Total	5,6	4	2,7	2,8	7,4	4,50

Comments

antibody: This map is conceptually amazing! The player is put into a completely different and disorienting world with gears everywhere. The attention to detail is high and movement around the map was surprisingly fun. The duel gameplay is mediocre, however. All of the complexity leads to distracting games and all of the moving parts makes positioning difficult to impossible.

Mirio: The idea to play in a clockwork is fun, but this map is more suited for FFA respectively games with a lot of players.

shogun assassin: Unfortunately I played this map only once with bots. I couldn't test it with real players because it crashes for most. While original, I doubt such open space map would be good for duel.

Smilecythe: Visual theme is decent and original, but it's obvious the author was doing an artistic experiment with little to no regard for duel gameplay. Map has performance issues for some.

-z-: First time I've ever played inside a clock on Xonotic. I loved the complexity with the gears. Will probably make a good DM map as well

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Thanks to all participants for giving us these maps!

Congrats Justin!
You deserved to win this contest, your map is awesome and you obviously spent a lot of time on it!

Thanks everyone for your creations, I took a look at all the maps and played / spectated duels on most of them (especially during the duel cup).
Too bad there were not more participants

Thanks for organizing this contest, and thanks to the judges for their comments (and their ratings) about cucumber!

Spike, You never cease to amaze! Congratulations to everyone but Spike deserves congratulations the most for his hard work and amazing attitude. All of the submissions are the proof that Xonotic mapping scene is still alive and kicking!

I am super delighted that you like Erbium but also I am glad the contest and endless polishing are over... Big hugs to everyone who participated, organized and those who donated for the contest.

Congrats to every mapper involved. You each have done great - thank you, thank you, thank you!

Grab your bucket of popcorn and watch my walkthrough of all six submissions here:

these maps look amazing!!!
thanx for the video and for the amazing maps, xonotic-people <3

Hi.

Thanks to all participants! It resulted in good stuff.

I'd like to apologize for not testing all maps as extensively as others probably did. I was busy. But fear not, I tested them all and rated them honestly after deep thought.

I wish there could be more winners because for me the top 3 maps are all real real real good sh1t.



I enjoyed remaining ones too, but hey, we gotta have some winners.

Thanks to all who donated! It was the fuel for the engine. I don't consider myself as one because I merely gave away the thing I don't need. (Money is something I always need ^^).

Also, thanks monad. Pity you couldn't participate. Your map is great as well. I only played it once but I'm looking forward for more duels there.

And lastly, thanks Mirio The Manager.