Melee Map Making Contest #1

[StoPCampinGn00b]

Awesome, I'll be watching.


*Slightly on topic*
I believe creating a separate discussion in melee nation was a better idea in this contest related discussion so the discussion doesn't keep going on and getting off topic. This is about the newly uploaded contest maps! http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/group.php?do=discuss&group=&discussionid=1935

 

[Ken-E]

It's safe to say that the contest has ended, we'll be waiting for the judge's score result.

 

[Arrr]

Any news?

 

[imforfun]

was going to ask the same thing : )

 

[Ken-E]

PKCrafty has been really inactive recently, let's hope the best for our only judge.

 

[imforfun]

hmmm, been two weeks since any activity from PKCrafty. aside from the contest, I hope everything is ok for him (hopefully just busy). : I

 

[Ken-E]

I'm thinking of moving the judging position to someone else, I'm really hoping PKCrafty's alright.

Not moving until I get approval from the other contestants...

 

[Filmting]

I want to make a video showcasing each entry. Just showing them, won't be going into details or doing any sort of reviews. Perhaps in another video when results have been published. Just want to make sure i get every map, I went back through the thread and got these maps, if yours is not here please let me know.

The Sanctum

Haunted Pumpkin Forest

Watchers in the Wild

Lone Paths

Drowned Kingdom

Warriors In The Underworld

River Skirmish

@Remixer your pastebin link does not work.

There are 13 contestants and only 7(8) maps found. Am i right to assume rest didn't finish their maps in time?

 

[PKCrafty]

Hello guys, sorry for being inactive and not being able to judge any of the splendorous maps created here by you guys, for I've been in the hosipital for the past 2 weeks due to a car acciddent... I am sadly still recovering, I probably will not be able to review any maps for atleast 5-7 more days... I understand if you do not want me to judge no longer.

 

[Ken-E]

@Filmting
A showcase would be spectacular indeed. And yes, unfortunately a lot of the other contestants didn't finish or even compete in the contest.

@PKCrafty
We are happy that you're okay. Honestly I was really worried with all the sudden inactivity like that.

Well you still have the judging position and I sincerely want you to judge the maps. Giving away your position just like that would be an insult really. If you want someone else to take your place, atleast for now its your call, but if you are up to it, we are all happy for you to judge the maps.

 

[imforfun]

Hear Hear Ken-E, I am glad simply to know that you are all right. not to sound weird being a stranger, but It is always good news to know that everyone is doing ok... especially with the long and abrupt sudden pause in activity.

may you recover soon and well : ).

 

[Ken-E]

While the judging phase is currently on pause. I'm already thinking of the next contest. And this time probably, I think we'll get a larger forum for this.

Any ideas for the theme of our next contest?

 

[normalice]

perhaps altered melee? like, melee but with custom 'rules' and scripts? perhaps even custom units?

 

[imforfun]

I think custom units will go too far unless they are custom units for a mercenary camp or hero for a tavern (so that way anyone can have them as an option and it won’t favor any race).
But it would be cool to do a melee map with not so melee optional objectives (like collect as many Easter eggs as you can with something special for the first to grab 100 or something like that as an example)

Dunno tho, as long as it does not outbalance melee game. : )

 

[Arrr]

This is a tricky idea but, maybe the the theme could be some sort of personal balancing of the game, where every partecipant makes some changes to the game/units to balance it the way he thinks it's better
(sry for bad eng)

 

[Ken-E]

Hmm... I was thinking of something more standard melee again since contest like this are just starting to become popular...

Although if a lot of people would vote for a new and different theme. I'd be happy to judge entries.

 

[normalice]

how about a 10 player FFA/5v5 map?

 

[Ken-E]

That's really great if you ask me. I did like the idea of 'Royal Rumble' theme in melee game, kind of an all FFA map with huge amount of players.

 

[normalice]

yeah, unfortunately 12 is the max for this game. Also unfortunately, you can't "observe" a game with 12 people playing. So, I think it's best for 10-player maps, which are chaotic enough anyway..

 

[Ken-E]

sonofjay has officially working to judge the maps on PKCrafty's behalf. Hope to see results soon.

 

[Vinz]

Can the Contest #2 be started?

 

[Ken-E]

With the judging is probably taking forever now, Sonofjay has been inactive so was I, and pretty much the whole group is dead silent and seemed to have forgotten that this contest even existed...

While the entries are solid, we will await sonofjay's reviews for the following maps. Since it has already taken half a year now, I doubt we are seeing it anytime soon.

As for a contest #2, I am willing to set up and take part as judge to it. And this time it would probably be on a better forum outside our group. Please bear with me as we await and as always happy mapping guys

 

[Deleted member 238226]

can't wait for the second contest

 

[Ken-E]

Well, I'd like a second contest though. I'm willing to judge the next one. The reviews for the maps may be unlikely because we lost a judge and pretty much it went downhill from there.

Still hoping for sonofjay to release the result, but he's too busy to get around it so its unlikely that we'll hear something anytime soon. At any rate, I do say its somewhat a success, I was really surprised that many people actually participated.

 

[PKCrafty]

So sorry I failed this group as a judge for a contest that I never was around to do. Personal-life issues affected my capabilities to do so... :/

 

[normalice]

as you can see, PKCrafty, there's no rush. So if you want to take those reigns again at your leisure, I don't think anyone would object

 

[PKCrafty]

If you guys still want me too I can lol.

 

[Ken-E]

Welcome back PKCrafty, we are all happy for your return! Welcome back to the Hiveworkshop and Melee Nation. ^^

There's no rush on the maps, take your time!

 

[Ken-E]

[FONT=&quot]The results are out!

Congratulations and I thank you for joining our very 1st contest that lasted a year!

[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]The results are out!

Congratulations and I thank you for joining our very 1st contest that lasted a year!

Summary Ranking[/FONT]


[FONT=&quot]1st Placer - The Drowned Kingdom by Erkan[/FONT]

Summary Review

The map is just pure creativity, the effort that’s put up to make this an ‘underwater’ map theme is astounding! The use of custom doodads are genius, coral trees are doesn’t prove to be an overtone for the map and pretty much edited generic doodads are made larger or created to fit the overall environment. The description shines with originality and novelty stating; ‘Far beneath the sea, in the eerie silence of the deeps, lies a once mighty kingdom, full of dangers and treasure. You must claim these artifacts before your enemy, or you might never see the sky again.’ Er… What more to say?

This may look like too gimmicky, but it never forgets it plays like a professional melee map. It’s symmetric and terrain is well executed in the melee authenticity, so short to say; even without the custom import materials used, it’s still a gorgeous piece. While the absence of Blizzard cliffs may be something to consider for tactical advantage and the map does feel like a bit too big for a 1v1 map, it could’ve been a 2v2 map for all we know.
Neutral buildings are modest in population, there are no Market Places and Goblin Laboratory. The highest tier of neutral buildings are the Mercenary Camps but other than that, it’s too tame. And much like the buildings, creeps are really tame and the items drops are one of the low points of the map, Level 3 Permanent for most of the orange camps when it could’ve been more random of Level 4 item.
Other than a minor flaws, this is a must try for melee players who are seeking something new yet not to extravagant for their taste.

Map originality – 28/30

Terrain/Layout- 24/25

Creep camp and neutral buildings – 15/20

Item drops – 11/15

Map presentation – 9/10

Total of 87/100

Reward Banner

[FONT=&quot]2nd Placer - Lone Paths by AYF[/FONT]

Summary Review

The terrain execution for this map is really outstanding! It’s neat and really flexible as there are plenty of paths to go on. Doodads are place modestly clean all over the map, strong emphasize on Blizzard cliffs as well as the terrain height, the shallow water portions of the map are really lovely. It’s really a cool map! Robust creep camps and item drops. Also, the Shade ‘trick’ is rather clever and has an ironic item drop.
However there are some questionable design flaws, such as the Goblin Shipyard; there is too little use for the neutral building, it’s nearly impossible to find any tactical advantage because shallows waters are walkable paths for land units, there is barely anything that the transport ship can reach which land units can. I guess it would’ve been more useful if it’s switched to a different neutral building such as a Goblin Merchant, with that changed, would change the middle into a Dragon Roost or something more substantial for territorial accessibility. Also, triggers are unnecessary for this melee set up, would suggest your remove it to garner a ‘Melee’ status for your map.
Finally though, you forgot to put Suggested players and description in your map. And calculate shadows for maximum fabulous effect.
Map originality – 26/30

Terrain/Layout- 22/25

Creep camp and neutral buildings – 18/20

Item drops – 13/15

Map presentation – 5/10

Total of 84/100

Reward Banner

[FONT=&quot]3rd Placer - Watchers in the Wild by normalice[/FONT]
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Summary Review

The overall presentation doesn’t seem to be interesting, with a title like ‘Watchers in the Wild’ you’d expect something that would be set on the Ashenvale, while it does feel irrelevant. The execution of the map is rather decent. Blizzard cliffs are well utilized at the beginning, water puddles creates a natural feel for the map, the terrain isn’t flat though some part may feel it was warped too much with terrain tweaking. The size of the map is really good, enough paths and space and it’s incredibly maneuverable.
However, the tileset combination is extremely modest and it’s kind of monotonous along with the rest of the randomly placed doodads that are messy than natural. Trees have spaces in between them small units can hide in between spaces. Also, boundary should not be merely be trees as it would looked ugly when they’re cut down, this is easily remedy by overlapping Blizzard cliffs or adding water space between boundary and shore trees.
But the biggest things that this map overlooks are the creep and neutral buildings locations, to begin with, the Fountain of Power is really out of place, it doesn’t pop up on the map as a neutral building would replace it with Health/Mana one, another one is that 2 Taverns on a 1v1 melee map feels like it wastes potential space for neutral buildings, I would place it on the middle replacing the fountain. Creep camps aren’t well thought out, Red Creep camps should have more substantial return other than item and bounty, usually, guard Dragon Roosts or Marketplaces. There are nearby Red camps on the starting building and what makes it worse is that Green camp guard Gold Mines? It doesn’t seem right. Finally ‘Items’, while it has a decent item drop set, it could’ve been more random though.
Overall, it’s a decent map I suppose, there are execution errors and many part of the map are unpolished.
Map originality – 22/30

Terrain/Layout- 15/25

Creep camp and neutral buildings – 6/20

Item drops – 8/15

Map presentation – 7/10

Total of 58/100

Reward Banner

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Runner ups:[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]The Sanctuary by Filmtin[FONT=&quot]g[/FONT]
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Summary Review

The map stands out from the rest because of its faithfulness to the classic Warcraft 3 ladder maps but as well as mixing things up. At first glance the tileset seems to be vanilla but it’s in fact a great combination of Ashenvale-Cityscape-Lordaeron-esque. The description is overall interesting, with centering ‘Fountain of Mana’ as its power-piece in gameplay, however, that’s where the map suffers from execution, the fountain on the middle misses its spot when in fact it should be on the pond/lake below it, the reason is that the pond/lake is actually a more eye candy than those surrounding the fountain, not to mention that it’s just a darn shame that the area below it is uncross able with basic land units. Other than the combination, this map falls into a generic melee with several execution flaws such as a lot of doodads are simply cluttered and most of them are underutilize, ahem, there’s actually a floating trees and coral on deep waters. It actually destroys something that would’ve been picture perfect. Moreover, the terrain is too flat, few river-like environment is somewhat appealing but it seems that this map feels like it’s trying to avoid Blizzard cliffs while on the other hand, it uses anyway. Blizzard cliffs would looked even better on the base starting for both players, this way defending team will have an advantage on fending off the attack team with 50% chance miss on range attacks and sight decrease from units.
On the middle far of both right and left of the map, you’ll able to see the boundary touchable by units which looks ugly, this would’ve been easily remedied by adding Water then boundary, this way, it will look far more natural than units unable to touch a walkable path with boundary.
Creeps emplacement is rather well done, much like the terrain, it mixes both from Ashenvale-Cityscape-Lordaeron creeps naturally, and they feel like at home. Creep levels are tame, with one ‘red’ camp on the mid to suffice an entire match of 1v1. Items are pretty so-so, only 1 drop for 1 camp except for the huge one, also would recommend that you randomize the drops a bit rather putting ‘Level 2 –Permanent’ it would be better if you but ‘Level 2 – Random’. However, it feels like its missing neutral buildings that would’ve been better place on other creep camps. And finally! You forgot to calculate the shadows…
Overall, The Sanctuary is an okay map, but it has a lot of way to go.
Map originality – 19/30

Terrain/Layout- 10/25

Creep camp and neutral buildings – 15/20

Item drops – 7/15

Map presentation – 6/10

Total of 57/100

[FONT=&quot]Haunted Pumpkin Forest by imforfun
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Review Summary

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[FONT=&quot] Like its namesake, Haunted Pumpkin Forest has a Halloween gimmick, while some of the custom doodads are well placed and black fog rivers are actually a nice touch but that’s about it. It follows plenty of execution errors in both game and terrain aesthetics I’m sorry to say. The tileset feels ugly and follows an unnatural pattern, most doodads are awkwardly placed randomly and a lot of the spaces are underutilized. Other than the custom doodads, tileset is excruciatingly monotonous at best, it left a lot of spaces feel incomplete or even rushed. The map lacks eye candy from basic melee aesthetics. Trees has some spaces in between enabling some small units to shimmy through. Custom units are a nice touch, cosmetically speaking, but gameplay wise, it’s pretty much run on a mill edit, also, ghost units are supposed to be Undead but not targeted as, Holy Light can’t hurt creeps and Death Coil damages them. Changes made towards the creeps is unnecessary, it would’ve feel more creative if melee creeps were fully utilize such as skeleton, skeleton orcs, furbolg (it’s a nice touch imo), and etc.
Blizzard cliffs are poorly utilized too, boundaries are surrounded with blizzard cliffs with pretty much a formation to separate tree lines, and there is no natural formation or whatsoever.
Luckily enough though, the map is symmetric. Item drops could’ve been more random, and the unneeded additions of custom items.
The map should’ve felt like an interesting event map but its more like a half-baked gimmick.

Map originality – 13/30

Terrain/Layout- 9/25

Creep camp and neutral buildings – 12/20

Item drops – 5/15

Map presentation – 4/10

Total of 43/100
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[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]Warriors In The Underworld by BaiLang (DISQUALIFIED)

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Review Summary

[FONT=&quot]Unfortunately, this entry is subject to disqualification as it didn’t follow the proper melee aesthetics, this map is barely playable with one way and unfinished in many ways, creeps are scattered and pathing is unreachable for many instances such as in the Goblin Laboratory, it’s a shame though, the name of the map is actually promising…[/FONT]

FINAL NOTE FROM JUDGE: One of the common things that everyone seems to majority share is that people forget to 'Calculate Map Shadows' located at 'File'. Also reviews will be individually be posted on the respective map. Good day to everyone! It was a fun week reviewing your maps, it was also hard to judge who's better. However note to self, next contest will be more specific, no custom import map and with import maps are hard to compare therefore it will be more one sided.

 

[normalice]

pretty cool. But could you provide links to these maps?

 

[Ken-E]

The Sanctum

Haunted Pumpkin Forest

Watchers in the Wild

Lone Paths

Drowned Kingdom

Warriors In The Underworld

Here are the maps, ty for Filmting for adding them.