Mapping contest for duel maps (idea)

Greetings fellow Xonoticians,

I was laying in bed yesterday when suddenly an idea came up in me: What if I get the Xonotic community to make a series of new duel maps and host a duel cup for those maps straight after? Pretty solid idea right?

Now, before I want to do anything in terms of organizing, defining rules, picking dates, picking judges etc, I want to know if people are interested in participating in this contest. Once enough people are interested, I'll create a more detailed thread containing everything you need to know to make a kick ass duel map =].

In my eyes, this event would bring more content to the game, which is always good thing. And to be honest with you guys, after dueling in Xonotic for over 9 years, at one point you'll start to grow tired of the countless of aerowalk duels =D.

Basic information
Gamemode
Duel

Judging
The maps created for this mapping contest will be judged based on these 3 factors: Gameplay, Appearance and Originality

Judges
Dodger
TBD
Note: I want the judges to have at least one year of duel experience as requirement.

Prize money
50 eu for both events (donations are welcome of course)

if you are interested in participating in this mapping contest, let me know in the comment section of this thread.

- 12 year old out

At this summer I've planned to make duel map for Xonotic (my previous purple one lost, because of formatting HDD, and forgetting to make backups), and this is absolutely interesting event, but not now, maybe little bit later. I'm interested in ideas how to create logic of level-design, because I have no idea how to develop my own level-design in duel way, only can reimagine already existing maps (and this is just a problem for me). Previous purplish map have nice design idea, but no idea how to make level-design. And I support the idea of creating new content for Xonotic. It may need more native maps in it's playable list, with different variations of design, but stylized with Xonotic ideas.

Hi Dodger,


Good idea! The last duel mapping contest was a while ago: https://forums.xonotic.org/showthread.php?tid=5450
More maps for XPM duels would be very welcome

I recently got back into mapping (with a non-duel map unfortunately) and I can try to participate, as long as the schedule isn't too short ^^ (making a map takes time).

2 people who are already interested, this is looking very promising!

NOTE
As mentioned above, this thread is just to share my idea and see what you people think. Once I'm happy with the amount of interest my idea has received, I will put a poll up with dates and see which date is most convenient for you guys =].

Will the maps be secret until the cup (like with XDWC)? Maybe release them one day before the cup. It might be interesting to see how people play with very limited knowledge of the maps. That might also mean that an additional rule has to be required: Mappers are not allowed to pick their own map. I guess this can be decided later on.
The issue with mapping contests is that they need a long time. Mapping is pretty time consuming. The last contest only had six contestants. The admins for XDWC always have to actively search for mappers. A big prize pool might be a good incentive.
The rules for the previous duel mapping contest are a good start, but maybe it's not a good idea to give the same weight to appearance as this is something that can take a lot of time.

That said, I will probably not participate.

Sounds interesting...But 50 EU total prize pool for something that takes almost 2 months to make is very little compensation. Will the judging and organizing team include some of the following: Antibody, z, sev, Smilecythe, Shogun, Mirio? To help organize, advertise and carry out the competition as well as the tournament takes a lot of time and effort. I am all down for some nice mapping but this feels a bit rushed.
Also - Where is Cortez?

Will the maps be secret until the cup (like with XDWC)? Maybe release them one day before the cup. It might be interesting to see how people play with very limited knowledge of the maps. That might also mean that an additional rule has to be required: Mappers are not allowed to pick their own map. I guess this can be decided later on.
The issue with mapping contests is that they need a long time. Mapping is pretty time consuming. The last contest only had six contestants. The admins for XDWC always have to actively search for mappers. A big prize pool might be a good incentive.
The rules for the previous duel mapping contest are a good start, but maybe it's not a good idea to give the same weight to appearance as this is something that can take a lot of time.

That said, I will probably not participate.

Keeping the maps a secret was an idea I also had. In my eyes it truly tests duelers of what they're capable of.

As for the mapping contest itself: I'll eventually put a couple of polls up regarding the development of the maps, e.g time to develop the maps, starting date etc.

In my eyes, this event would bring more content to the game, which is always good thing. And to be honest with you guys, after dueling in Xonotic for over 9 years, at one point you'll start to grow tired of the countless of aerowalk duels =D.

So no aerowalk remix as entry I guess... :C

I'm also interested And it seems this time I won't win because I'm the only participant ^^'
Having next to no experience in duel this should be an interesting learning experience at least.
I don't really care about a prize.

I think the maps shouldn't be secret. If the goal is also to get some good new content some feedback prior would be very helpful and maybe also attrackts some newer mappers and help them also have great entries. That way we would also have better maps in the long run. No mandatory progress updates tho. Like if you want feedback you're free to seek for it but you're also free to make it a surprise map.
But I can also see why keeping them secret in conjunction with the duel cup could be a fun idea and that's why I'd leave to the mappers themselves.

And please provide the configs (XPM) with the contest thread. Or a guide on how to use them if they are in xon already. So everyone can test properly.

I agree that the maps shouldn't necessarily remain secret until the deadline, unless that's what the mapper wants.

Having some feedback along the way would improve the overall maps quality imo. It definitely helped me during the last mapping contest (my final submission wasn't the best in the world, but was a nice improvement over my initial work).

And nothing prevents someone from sharing their map with a private group of people anyway, it doesn't have to be shared here in the forums ^^

@_para: the XPM configs are included in Xonotic already, you can execute ruleset-XPM.cfg: https://gitlab.com/xonotic/xonotic-data....et-XPM.cfg (you may need to restart afterwards).

I agree with @_para and @Spike. Map knowledge and familiarity have been a major part of the traditional skill set. And that's usually where we see very creative strategies.

Of course, you can always have a different type of contests in which we see how players explore new maps and quickly come up with ways to win.

Take movies, for example. It's one thing to see how actors perform/improvise when they just get the scripts. It's another thing to see them deliver virtuosic performances after they perfect their lines and body languages.

Both are fun to see though.

I would be willing to throw some money into the prize pool and possibly judge if needed. If this gains more traction I am interested.