Map Battles - Suggestions

[Gamercat]

Best looking themed place, like maybe a restarant, or a gas station.

[Rocket_Robinhood]

I think we should stick with the regular battles, i mean you don't wanna scare away noobs... (like me -_-)

making the best canyon, etc... might be made a tad unfair by this tuturial http://interlopers.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4597 (which btw has anyone tried it?)

and another idea could be have a start of a map, than have it passed around to everyone who wants to be involved to add their own addition like for instance u start out with a small hill, one mapper might add a bunker, another might add a secret nuke silo, another might go and add a house, another throw in a river/lake, and have it continue like that till either everyone has added something or a time limit is reached...

ive tried doing that a few times, it works fine, but the program that makes the hammer files is absolute ball (not saying i could do better), but your 10 times better off just doing your own displacements

[ghost|con]

So Displacement Eye candy Battle (with some farmhouses optional) isit agreed say i I!

[Shr3d]

I'd say like that guy up above me mentioned, best themed place. No custom models allowed, textures allowed. It is a map battle after all.

[p1nkfl0yd1an]

not that i know how to make custom models but it really makes a map outstanding when someone uses models in an awesome way. Its the difference between your usual arch of blockness and a neat looking arch that players appreciate when they run through it... ahh that was sappy.

[BaRRaKID]

Ok so my toughts on everything said so far.
First we will never make people not use costum content, a mapper shouldn't be limited to working only in hammer, and everyone should take some time to learn how to texture and model, since the default content limits alot the style of a map.
Landscapes battles are on my list, but maybe not in the way you'r thinking,something a bit different and more original.
The "pass on the map" as been done hundreds of times before, and it usually fails, so we won't even try to go there for now.
My tournment idea, would work like i said in the same way has CS tournments, let me explain:
First all the mappers interested would have to do a pre registration, then we could either do a seeding, or a group stage, and then distribute the mappers into a double elimination bracket(wich means that if you loose twice your out) having a winners and loosers bracket, and all battles would be in a one on on format. But this would have to be a massive event, so off course first i want to restart the usual battles and try to get more people into it. I think i'll have to start the next battle before posting the results of the spaecial battle.

[tr0mb0ne]

Ok so my toughts on everything said so far.
First we will never make people not use costum content, a mapper shouldn't be limited to working only in hammer, and everyone should take some time to learn how to texture and model, since the default content limits alot the style of a map.
Landscapes battles are on my list, but maybe not in the way you'r thinking,something a bit different and more original.
The "pass on the map" as been done hundreds of times before, and it usually fails, so we won't even try to go there for now.
My tournment idea, would work like i said in the same way has CS tournments, let me explain:
First all the mappers interested would have to do a pre registration, then we could either do a seeding, or a group stage, and then distribute the mappers into a double elimination bracket(wich means that if you loose twice your out) having a winners and loosers bracket, and all battles would be in a one on on format. But this would have to be a massive event, so off course first i want to restart the usual battles and try to get more people into it. I think i'll have to start the next battle before posting the results of the spaecial battle.

What about HDR? Some people can't use it, so should it be allowed in the battles?

[ghost|con]

Yeah just give the map to someone who has hdr

[BaRRaKID]

just because some1 can use a feature and others can't, it's not a reason for not ban it form the battles. It's all about resources, some have more then others, and every mapper should try to have as many as he can since those usually make their work be much better.
About HDR, there really isn't any discussion, you can turn it on or off every time you want to, so every map should be compiled using it in my opinion. Even if in your computer it will run at 5fps or wathever, that's the player responsibility to decide if he wants to use it or not.

[Jest@]

just because some1 can use a feature and others can't, it's not a reason for not ban it form the battles. It's all about resources, some have more then others, and every mapper should try to have as many as he can since those usually make their work be much better.
About HDR, there really isn't any discussion, you can turn it on or off every time you want to, so every map should be compiled using it in my opinion. Even if in your computer it will run at 5fps or wathever, that's the player responsibility to decide if he wants to use it or not.

He means we ddon't all have computers good enough to compile HDR cubemaps.. No reason to disallow HDR, but it should be taken into consideration when judging.

[Meotwister]

or just give it to someone with hdr capabilities. Before I had a crappy computer that couldn't do pretty water on that template house competition. I gave it to someone else to take screens and that was good enough.

[Deckaux]

Yeah, here's my offer:

Send me your map and your favorite compile parameters and I'll compile it for you. I have so much other things to take care of (on my mac or my flat) that I'd glad to see my PC working while so am I. Afterwards I'll take a few nice looking screenshots and send everything back to you via YouSendIt.

BaRRaKID, how's the contest going?

[Something]

How about trying to mimick a picture? Like try to copy the entire part of the picture over to source. I tried to do that with in my Urban Ruins thread Level design help.

[Spas12]

How about trying to mimick a picture? Like try to copy the entire part of the picture over to source. I tried to do that with in my Urban Ruins thread Level design help.

I think that is the best theme. Map battle judges give us a shitty office building and we have to fix it up and make it as good looking as possible. Or a photograph of a very plain street and we do the same thing, fix it up a bit. The one that looks the best is the winner.

[InvestmentBanking]

Best Re-Design, and Innovation of a 1.6 map to Source?

The only problem with that is the amount of time it would require.