Zephyr Challenge #4 POLL

Zephyr Challenge #4

Contest Theme: Link Each contestant must create a custom ability that links two or more units to share a property. Example: Spirit Link: Links units together in a chain and distributes some of the damage they take across other Spirit Linked units.

As stated in the submissions thread, 50% of your spell's judging points will be given through a public poll. Despite the fact that you have followed the rules of spell submission, you must know that you cannot vote for yourself and if you vote in any way against the site rules, you WILL BE DISQUALIFIED from the contest.

Here are the nine participants along with their final submissions:

• I Am Spam's Bonds of Thanatos
• XieLong's Hive Mind
• Bobo_the_Kodo's Battle Fury
• Just_Spectating's Lightning Chain
• BoneBreaker's Unholy Mirror Link
• hvo-busterkomo's Sonic Infection
• xXMephistoXx's Inner Strength
• Volvox's Mana share
• Jazradel's Spell Inflection

PS: Please add detailed comments and/or reasons as to why you voted for a spell. This is not obligatory, but I'm sure all participants (and I, for that matter) would like your opinion and your constructive criticism.

EDIT: Bobo_the_Kodo forgot to update his post with a renamed version of his spell. I've replaced the obsolete line of code with a working one. You can download Bobo's spell attached to this post.

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Judging Dates and Deadline

Each submission's points will be compiled 2 weeks from the end of Zephyr Challenge #4. Your vote must be in before the deadline.
The points will be given on

March 23 2008 0:00, GMT

Good luck to all contestants that are participating.

EDIT: My thoughts of your spells:

Lightning Chain:

Pros: Pretty good idea. Good Test Map.
Cons: I don't see it as a 'link', its more of a 'chain'. Also, it got bugged when I casted it for the second time, it wasn't dealing damage anymore. Done in GUI.

Hive Mind:

Pros: Very good idea. Done in JASS, follows the JESP standard. You spent alot of time perfecting it.
Cons: The script is very large, there are easier ways to the same thing that you did. The test map was laggy.

Battle Fury:

Pros: Done in vJASS. Good idea. Works well.
Cons: It's not really a link, its more of a 'roar'.

Inner Stregnth:

Pros: Pretty good for GUI.
Cons: Name of spell is already a Wc3 spell. Done in GUI.

Mana Share:

Pros: Good idea.
Cons: Used GUI, looks like a 10 minute job.

Sonic Infection:

Pros: Very advanced idea, a very good one. Good effects.
Cons: Very Minor Cons: Uses a generated global trigger variable. Major: Lags alot. Double free of location in Trig_Nova_Chance_Actions.

Spell Inflication:

Pros: Very good idea. Uses vJASS.
Cons: Did not work as said it would.

Bonds not getting reviewed... well, I guess I understand why, heh.

I already gave my thoughts in the other topic.
As far as which I like best, it boils down to three stellar entries:

-Lightning Chain: For its wonderful concept and good execution (I didn't notice the repeated instances problem that Bonebreaker had, though I would like ot know if it works on two units simultaneously.,.. hmm, didn't check that) wins big points in my book. Thematically, it's kind of weak, unfortunately.

-Hive mind: Excellent concept backed up by superbly competent execution of technical work. I do declare, some stunning stuff here. However, it's not quite as easy-to-use for a player some other spells. That is, It doesn't naturally fit into the average made-for-B.net map.

-Unholy Mirror Link: Lousy name, brilliant spell. Not only is the concept useful and intriguing, it works flawlessly (when it finally works, that is). This spell is PURE BEAUTY, and I can hardly overstate that fact!

So, really, while I liked the first two, Unholy Mirror Link blew me away in both artistic and technical aspects. Thus, my vote goes to Bonebreaker.

Thanks =), the reason I didn't review bonds is because you said it didn't work. =P

Bonds not getting reviewed... well, I guess I understand why, heh.

I already gave my thoughts in the other topic.
As far as which I like best, it boils down to three stellar entries:

-Lightning Chain: For its wonderful concept and good execution (I didn't notice the repeated instances problem that Bonebreaker had, though I would like ot know if it works on two units simultaneously.,.. hmm, didn't check that) wins big points in my book. Thematically, it's kind of weak, unfortunately.

-Hive mind: Excellent concept backed up by superbly competent execution of technical work. I do declare, some stunning stuff here. However, it's not quite as easy-to-use for a player some other spells. That is, It doesn't naturally fit into the average made-for-B.net map.

-Unholy Mirror Link: Lousy name, brilliant spell. Not only is the concept useful and intriguing, it works flawlessly (when it finally works, that is). This spell is PURE BEAUTY, and I can hardly overstate that fact!

So, really, while I liked the first two, Unholy Mirror Link blew me away in both artistic and technical aspects. Thus, my vote goes to Bonebreaker.

i agree entirely with you..."Unholy Mirror Link" was really awesome...good work Bonebreaker...keep at it XD

*BUMP*

More reviews/votes pl0z?

I'll play these on the bus ride home after school. Then I'll review them.

People don't seem to be interested in voting anymore...

Okay, a bunch of reviews. A few I couldn't play because they have vJass and JNG isn't working for me right now.

bobo the kodo - battle fury

I don't really see how it "links" the units together, but meh. Also, when, for example, a grunt attacked, sometimes the blademaster image showed up. Is this a bug?

bonds of thanatos

Uhh... what was it supposed to do? The tooltip was missing. Also it made a bunch of ugly text appear everywhere.

lightning chain

Nice and simple, although the lightning timer could've been a little shorter.

spellcontest

uhh... where's the spell?

I grow tired of repeating this... Spellbreakers have the spell! Once again i advise you not to cast it on your heroes until their mana is below pool average, the reasons are clear i hope.

i wish i could see those Vjass things macs cant really do that.

-.-' Just don't open the map in the World Editor then... open it up using a Wc3 custom game (if the spell makers adjusted player slots and stuff, it should work fine).

I Am Spam's Bonds of Thanatos
-20 points for GUI
-50 points for lack of polish
+2 points for cleaning leaks
-3 points for causing a "Double free" error.

XieLong's Hive Mind
-5 points for not using vJASS
+10 points for JESP
+10 points for a decent level of polish
-10 points for not really impressing or enthralling me at all.
-10 points for what I believe is not that good a spell concept.

Bobo_the_Kodo's Battle Fury
-10 points for having a lot of unrelated code to your submission alongside it
-20 points for using the custom script header
-30 points for not using librarys or scopes
-40 points for ... are you using 2 triggers for the same spell?!
+10 points for being a somewhat decent idea for a spell

Just_Spectating's Lightning Chain
-20 points for GUI
+15 points for a decent spell idea
-30 for a lack of MUI or even PUI...

BoneBreaker's Unholy Mirror Link
-10 points for no JESP
-10 points for having the dummy aura icon visible
-5 points for not using enough constant variables for easy configuration
+2000 points for a good spell idea
-2001 points for using my idea
+10 point for decent implementation
+5 points for polish

hvo-busterkomo's Sonic Infection
-5 points for no vJASS
-10 points for massive SFX spam
-20 points for causing "Double free" errors when a sonic wave happens
-10 points for no JESP
-10 points for no configuration
+1 point for not crashing WC3

xXMephistoXx's Inner Strength
-20 points for GUI
-10 points for a not too awesome spell idea
-10 points for a tooltip that size

Volvox's Mana share
-20 points for GUI
-50 points for a Divide by 0 error every second
-10 extra points for a divide by 0 error before the spell is even cast
-10 points for turning on a trigger which is on
-10 points for designing a spell which can cause my 800 mana spellbreaker to instantly loose 600 mana...

Jazradel's Spell Inflection
-10 points for vJASS yet no JESP...
-20 points for not telling people to remove an object merger line after the first save
+10 points for a decent spell idea

The Results
I'm going to vote for BoneBreaker. His spell is rather polished (In relativity to some of the others) and the idea is good. However, its not the best implementation on earth.

I hope you have all learned something from this contest! :) Maybe for the next spell contest, someone can score a 0 on my arbitrary scale of hate!

Lol now i see i forgot to set that trigger to be initially off... I learned jass, next time i'll do better.

This time, I didn't credit the coding and leaksso much, rather the idea of the spell. Therefore I voted for I Am Spam's spell. The spell may wipe out entire armies if used strategically, but it may be for no use at all!