Mini-Game Mapping Contest #5 - Poll

[Vengeancekael]

Defense
Contestants are challenged to make a defense map.

• Each user can only vote once in the poll.
• You cannot vote for yourself. If a voter has the same IP as the author then the vote will not be counted and it may result in the disqualification of the entry.
• You cannot create multiple accounts to vote for an entry in the poll. If a voter has been found to be using multiple accounts none of the voters votes will count in the final result.
• You cannot bribe users for votes. Contestants who break this rule will be disqualified and given negative reputation.

• First Place: 45 reputation points and your entry on the award icon
  
• Second Place: 30 reputation points and an award icon
  
• Third Place: 15 reputation points and an award icon

• Apheraz Lucent
• baassee

Checking Field	Explanation	Points
Originality:	Map must be original, a simple copy of another map might get less points for the gameplay and originality, but if the terrain and everything are fine, then you would still have some points. We want to see unique things and cool ideas.	You can score up to 15 points here.
Map Presentation/Design:	Author name, map name, category, type, description, links ingame on loading screen, messages ingame are very important. How good the map preview or the loading screen image are, check tooltips, quest menu, icons all around (hero/unit stats, interface, tooltips etc). Same colored icons and spell effects as well as models (like green for poison hero) are better than random ones. Passive icons on active ones or vice versa are bad. Check UI and game constants as well.	You can score up to 10 points here.
Terrain:	Please take care, some maps use a generated terrain (created with triggers), thus the preview image may show an empty map. Negative things are empty, plain, single-tile terrains, without environmental doodads or any kind of terrain style. Good things are special effect doodads (to make the terrain a little animated), lighting, fog, terrain styles or custom resources.	You can score up to 25 points here.
Triggers/Efficiency/Performance:	Bugs, errors and performance issues will reduce your score. (Everything created with triggers is usually the case) However if there are just small bugs/errors, then you probably won't get a lower score. Memory leaks are the main problem, systems and spells should be more or less lag-free/errorless. Even protected maps can show how good the user's triggering skills are, for example check if there are any performance issues when units are spawned.	You can score up to 10 points here.
Object Data:	Units' size ingame, selection size, how good creeps look like. (small skeleton with sword, normal with bow and another one with axe is better than ogre, gnoll and murloc -> Creeps should not be completely random and very different from each other). In other words check how good abilities and stats fit to units. Maps with a huge file size are horrible, no one will wait 2 minutes long to download a map on battle.net. (unless single player) That's why we need to check imported resources. MP3 files can be edited, the quality can be reduced and thus a lot of space can be saved, simple effect sounds without voice can be reduced even to 32 kbps in some cases, for voices don't go below 50. Maps with a file size of 8MB and only 1 sound effect/music file are not acceptable. Also check if only a part of a song is used and if it has been cropped. Same thing goes for textures, if you can reduce the quality from 100-75% and thus the size will go down from 40-70% in some cases.	You can score up to 10 points here.
Gameplay:	The gameplay is the main aspect of the map. Game modes, game difficulties, special events, systems(not how well they are made, but if they make the map more fun) etc. Everything else that is left unchecked can go here. Please check how balanced the gameplay is, check how long the game lasts, if the map can be finished without any major problems.	You can score up to 30 points here.

• 70 % of the winner shall be determined by the contest's appointed judge(s).
• 30 % of the winner shall be determined by the results of a public poll.

Inviting your friends to vote for you, bribing random members with rep and otherwise cheating with the VB poll system will get you DISQUALIFIED, BANNED from future contests, -REPPED, and possibly INFRACTED. So don't do it!

This includes, but is not limited to, sending PMs out to various users, getting other people to send those PMs, advertising this contest on other sites with the intention to gain more votes (whether it is explicitly stated or not), and so on. If you are suspected of cheating, the staff will notify you and interrogate you (hopefully) over PMs. <3

Contest entries:

*Goblin Crush Ball - scorpion182
*Island Protection - Blazing_Legion
*Eliminate the Terrorist - DeathChef
*Dark Vestige - Tickles
*Wisp Tale: Preserve - Skasi
*MiniOaD - bowser499
*Worldshaper - Kino
*SOTR - mckill2009
*Block your Enemy - ltkp

 

[Vengeancekael]

Happy voting?

 

[Bugz]

Good luck.

 

[Skasi]

Hmm, wasn't it 35 pts for gameplay sometime?

 

[bowser499]

I've designed my entry post. Enjoy ;}

 

[Apheraz Lucent]

Good Luck to all contestants.

 

[bowser499]

all the*

 

[Kino]

To be honest, I'm really disappointed with my own entry.

It doesn't feel either complete nor polished. It also isn't really what I set out to make, feels too standard combat and not enough "elementals are exploding in your face".

 

[Tickles]

I was bored

Worldshaper

The Worldshaper looked very intriguing in the zoomed out screenshots, but the gameplay didn't quite hit what I was expecting. I really liked the idea and concept, but I think it could have been a lot better with more custom imports (music, icons, etc.) to give it more of an enchanting and mysterious vibe. I did like breath abilities and how they combined with other skills.

Wisp Tale: Preserve

Wisp Tale is a unique style of defense. I like how you used the wisp's basic abilities to make an entire mini-game out of them. The terrain was pretty nice for how simple it was, especially with the rivers. The quest log and tutorial were very informative, and you made good use of resources. The only problem with gameplay was that the game became a bit too repetitive after some time, but I enjoyed it overall.

Looks like you left some disabled/obsolete test triggers in the map, and there's point leaks

Stags on the Run

Stags on the Run is a nicely-polished map with a couple of nice custom skills (especially Healing Arcs). The gameplay was alright. It was a bit repetitive, but I was always on the lookout for hunters I missed while trying to defend other stags (or myself). I think this map could have been much more fun with custom fast, upbeat music imported to get the players' hearts racing more. The multiboard was very descriptive and colorful, so that's definitely a plus. I also liked the variety of difficulties to make it really challenging.

Mini OaD

Mini OaD... No quest log, no real guidance in the beginning to tell players where to go (other than HELP ME! on terrain that can hardly be read), a silly intro while talking to the apparition, and creeps that just sit in two spots on the map waiting to be killed. I'm sure you could have made this map a lot better with more time or more work put into it, but it seems like most of your focus was on the heroes. The heroes did turn out pretty nicely. The skins, icons and skills go well with them (aside from the obvious overuse of skill name prefixes), and the effects are very useful for various purposes. The multiboard seemed a little unfinished, and it looks like you ran out of time to complete at least half the heroes you wanted to include.

Block Your Enemy

Block Your Enemy is a great concept, and I was a fan of it since you posted your first test version. Sadly, it looks like you only got around to your original two heroes, but they are quite fun and unique from each other. No quest log, no colored text, and no real use for stats. It seems like a lot more effort could have been put into this, but I hope you expand on this concept sometime in the near future. It has a lot of potential, even though it's so incomplete right now.

Eliminate the Terrorist

Eliminate the Terrorist's terrain is better than it was in the Mapping Madness contest, but it's still very flat. I think slopes and raised hills would have been a nice addition. Were you aware that you misspelled eliminate twice in the loading screen? The quest log gave some nice tips and command information. Skills were very simple and unappealing to read, there was no multiboard, and the overall gameplay would have been better with some apprehensive music. This map doesn't seem polished, but it might be a nice, quick and decent multiplayer map for people to play online with more time for you to work on it.

Goblin Crush Ball

Goblin Crush Ball seems like it could have been a great map if it were done on a larger scale. The small area combined with what feels like slow reaction time made it hard to catch up to balls. I think if you made the center area larger (and/or octagonal-shaped instead of just a box) with a much faster movement speed for players, the game wouldn't be as frustrating. Also, the small area makes just sitting in one place in the center as good or sometimes better than moving around to try to block balls (proven when I set myself up against computer players with no movement). Occasionally, balls would get stuck or glitch, but it didn't affect gameplay too much. The quest log was simple, but included important information along with colored text.

Island Protection

Island Protection's gameplay wasn't anything too unique, but having so many difficulties gives good replay value to it. Most of the skills were basic ones with additional levels and colored descriptions added, but the Death Mage was pretty nice. Life Drain doesn't seem to work properly. It lifted units (including corpses) up into the air periodically. Potions should have stacked with the amount of items we acquire throughout the game. There was no quest log. I really liked the item and weather events that happened from time to time.

As much as I'd like to vote for Block Your Enemy or Wisp Tale for originality and potential, they just weren't complete enough or contained too many errors. My vote goes to Stags on the Run.

 

[Apheraz Lucent]

Kael, the judges' names in the first post should be linked to our profiles, in case that anyone wants to ask us something. It's did in all other contests too.
Bugz... Your signature makes me wanna cry for half an hour and block you afterwards. Can't you cut it down a little? I have to scroll left and right just to read a single sentence.

 

[mckill2009]

good luck to all contestants!!!...gonna test some of it tonight and make my vote...

 

[bowser499]

@Tickles, these creeps are moving... o_o

 

[Ty3uK]

Voiting for MiniOaD, because i think this really beautiful map

 

[Tickles]

@Tickles, these creeps are moving... o_o

Yea, but they stopped in two locations just before the room with the fountain and waited there until I went near them every level. I would think they would be continuously hunting a target down, since it's a defense/protection theme.

Bugz... Your signature makes me wanna cry for half an hour and block you afterwards. Can't you cut it down a little? I have to scroll left and right just to read a single sentence.

Your browser might be zoomed in. I don't have any problems with his signature on my page with a 1024x768 resolution (which is small nowadays). I had the same problem you're having with some signatures before I realized my browser was zoomed in

 

[Skasi]

Tickles! What's "point leaks"? Do tell! Quick! edit: oh waiiit.. I found a good tutorial on memory leaks just now that I understand! Much better than the one I was having problems to understand and used as a reference before the deadline. Yay! Expect future versions!

And and Kino! What were you thinking! I was expecting the circles to be something special seeing them in the WIP shots. But then they were simple spawn points! Also, also.. soooo difficult!

 

[bowser499]

@Tickles, my bad, turn on all the AI triggers to see it in action ;}

 

[Tickles]

Tickles! What's "point leaks"? Do tell! Quick!

The triggers InstaDetonate, Detonation Damage, Spawn Unit, etc., all contain locations that aren't set as variables and removed. Offset positions are also considered point leaks. To make it easier to scan for leaks, you can try using Leak Check. I'm not sure if it catches all leaks (especially since it's outdated), but I use it on my own longer triggers when I'm feeling lazy to get at least most of the leaks found and taken care of.

And and Kino! What were you thinking! I was expecting the circles to be something special seeing them in the WIP shots. But then they were simple spawn points! Also, also.. soooo difficult!

Yup, I was hoping for those to be used for something special too. The aura model looked really cool with the rocks and runes around it.

@Tickles, my bad, turn on all the AI triggers to see it in action ;}

Oh, so it just wasn't used for that version? It seems like a lot of people needed more time even with the contest being extended.

 

[Kino]

Originally Posted by Skasi
And and Kino! What were you thinking! I was expecting the circles to be something special seeing them in the WIP shots. But then they were simple spawn points! Also, also.. soooo difficult!

Yup, I was hoping for those to be used for something special too. The aura model looked really cool with the rocks and runes around it

To be honest I wasnt thinking at all, the deadline was too close to do any serious planning. Basically I should have started this map weeks ago and not last friday.

If anything I dont think I deserve points in any area except possibly terrain.
Skasi's entry is IMO the closest to the original Worldshaper concept, my entry is disgrace to original idea.

 

[ltkp]

.... i had no time to finish =0 .... schools and other stuff took my time, and since they are more important couldn t finish this, but it was nice, a way to put on action my idea, i almost finished my new version, but just almost =D soon i ll post in the map thread the new vers i guess....

About the poll , when i have time i ll play everygame and then vote , but i think i already made my mind =D

Good luck everyone, this was pretty fun =D

 

[Skasi]

Tickles, I had enough time, I have added everything I planned for a playable release. Of course it's nowhere near feature complete, but that's not something I will ever accomplish. The leak thing was just bad luck. I didn't want to ask anyone for help before the end of the contest - "Teamwork is not allowed." - and it was pretty low priority anyway.

 

[Apheraz Lucent]

That pretty low priority, Skasi, can break you down. Leaks are the main part of judging when the triggers are in question. Teamwork considers only allowing other players to work on your map. Asking someone "Can I have your opinion?", asking someone "What is this?", or, last but not least, asking someone "Hey, got an idea that could match this one?" is not teamwork. That's Brainstorming, and it's allowed.
And I really hope that the Map Development section will get at least half of these maps.

 

[Skasi]

I don't care for my triggering score. I already told you.
Asking someone "You there! How do I fix my leaks?" ain't brainstorming, or is it?

 

[SA Dashie]

Eliminate the Terrorist's terrain is better than it was in the Mapping Madness contest, but it's still very flat. I think slopes and raised hills would have been a nice addition. Were you aware that you misspelled eliminate twice in the loading screen? The quest log gave some nice tips and command information. Skills were very simple and unappealing to read, there was no multiboard, and the overall gameplay would have been better with some apprehensive music. This map doesn't seem polished, but it might be a nice, quick and decent multiplayer map for people to play online with more time for you to work on it.

Fist thing is that the Terrain is not actually flat but it isn't easy to notice but I actually added a bit more realistic effect to the tiles and it does look more realistic than an actually flat terrain and as said it adds a bit more realistic effect.
I made the abilities simple to learn so that the game doesn't have to be explained by anything and can be played the first time you play it and still does require alot of skill in the game play.
Also I noticed a couple of grammar errors as well after the deadline and there is a multiboard but the multiboard is also the countdown timer xD (I guess that I didn't make it obvious enough).

Also note that the terrain that I did was the first terrain type of that type and also first time with terraining with custom models

 

[Apheraz Lucent]

Asking someone: "You there! What are leaks? How to fix them?" is brainstorming. Leaks are a global thing, and I don't see why would you get dropped from contest for asking something most of wc3 modding community doesn't know.

 

[Tickles]

I hope you get all those leaks fixed soon, Skasi. Tickles is looking forward to playing the polished version

Fist thing is that the Terrain is not actually flat but it isn't easy to notice but I actually added a bit more realistic effect to the tiles and it does look more realistic than an actually flat terrain and as said it adds a bit more realistic effect.

Oh, what I meant by the terrain being flat is that it was all buildings, cobble, and trees without much actual terrain variation. This is kind of a simple example of what I meant:

Height Variation Terrain

I don't think it would really be necessary to have layered hills and cliffsides in a defense map, but it does add some eye-candy, and terrain does count for quite a bit of points in this contest.

 

[SA Dashie]

oh that type xD.
I am still new to this kind of terraining and didn't want that kind hieght using in that terrain but I may consider it in a later vertion.

 

[Skasi]

I hope you get all those leaks fixed soon, Skasi. Tickles is looking forward to playing the polished version

Oh, I did fix all those leaks the very same hour I asked you what point leaks were, Tickles. Posted the reply at 01:08 PM, edited at 02:09 PM, that was when most of the leaks were gone and I didn't even know you replied at 01:34 PM when I edited my post, didn't realize there was a 2nd page already.

Anyway! I'm too lazy to release a new version just because of a few fixes. There has to be something new and exciting. A-levels in two days, guess I'll have plenty of time after that to add all the ideas you probably already read about. (the disabled triggers are not obsolete, they're reminders)

I didn't even have time to test all the entries yet, including yours.

 

[Apheraz Lucent]

Everyone had few hours over the deadline to get the map entry uploaded - in case if someone works, sleeps or has some private issues.
Anyways, the poll is open for a week, from beginning, right?

 

[Vengeancekael]

That's right.

 

[Kino]

Im gonna lean towards Dark Vestige right now, but wont vote yet just incase I change my mind.

Wisp Preserve and Stags Tale
come a close second, both have great concept and polish but gameplay is a little problematic. Wisp Preserve doesnt really seem to escalate in difficulty beyond the first few minutes. (Not that I noticed). Stags Tale was incredibly slow to play, kinda felt the whole thing was going in slow motion.

Block your enemy was somewhat fun but really "wtfish" in execution. You couldnt tell what the hell was happening at all, the abrupt end was also kinda "wtf".

I didnt get into Island Protection, just didnt find it intresting at all.

The Mini OaD page wont load for me so until ive tested that I wont vote yet.

 

[mckill2009]

Okay, I can only give a brief review of 2 entries coz I didn’t play others coz
it cannot be seen in the map folder even though I reduce their filename size ( I dont want to open the WE either to view this)...

Block Your Enemy:

A nice idea to defend something without the attack but I think you should have considered enabling it. This game lacks a lot. I played the druid and tinker’s voice set doesn’t match at all. DISBTN of the overgrow is missing, terrain is flat, creeps has a default DOT when enters the map instead of ‘dies’ when it reaches the target, no quest or more info log, if there are no more trees the overgrow ability is useless, multiboard is not well polished and many more, sorry dude.

Rating: 3/10

Wisp Tale: Preserve

A good map. Terrain and gameplay is OK, I enjoyed it. Floating text is working, has quest information (although a multiboard is a plus), creeps spawns OK, spells OK, but the Detonate ‘target point’ and ‘target instant’ is the same so it should have been another spell or random spell. Wisp should have level up as a hero coz enemies are getting stronger. I don’t like the camera bird’s view and the tutorial is really not needed.

Rating: 8/10

My vote goes to

Wisp Tale: Preserve

 

[Magtheridon96]

My vote goes to Tickles for having the best map (No offense guys)
But, there were some coding issues:

• Resources
  • Events
    • Time - Every 0.01 seconds of game time
  • Conditions
  • Actions
    • Player - Set Player 1 (Red) Current gold to Resource[0]
    • Player - Set Player 1 (Red) Current lumber to Resource[1]

>.>
This is totally inefficient.
0.03 will do.
But, you really don't need to be doing this. You could set the resources
directly instead of storing the amounts in variables.

You used waits in other places making your map prone to errors like 'Bad-Timing'
(TriggerSleepAction pseudo randomly adds a value to the given wait time.)

Other than that, everything was sound.

 

[Skasi]

I'm glad you didn't call them "Wisps on the Run" and "Stag Tale: Preserve", Kino.

FINALLY someone who's giving any feedback on difficulty, I never received just a single comment on that and was starting to worry.

So you think Wisp Tale's too easy for too long, correct? Both, game speed and other difficulty effects grow steadily, making for exponential growth. I totally forgot to separate difficulty increase from game speed and base it on real-time. It's on my ToDo now!


mckiller, I hate multiboards. I hate hate hate them. They are ugly. All of them. Always. In any map. Also they are in the way. Always. All of them. In any map. No exceptions!
The two detonates are not the same. One's instant, you use it when you're off gathering wood and want to qickly spawn at the Tree of Life to be able to kill enemies that just arrived, or when you just realized there's a Ghoul very close to the tree already. I expect some people to prefer instant over target-detonation for regular use and want to be flexible. If wisps leveled up then the whole point of "Difficulty increases over time" would not make sense.

Also how much did you reduce filenames? They should be 10 letters or less, you had that? You should try reducing the names of directories linking to the file. (eg. I'm using Maps\Download\Deff\Mini5, that's many directories, I had to shorten four files names)

 

[Kino]

Does anyone know how to start mini OaD?

The game is just a black screen.

 

[Vengeancekael]

Oh god WHAT DID YOU DO BOWSER
Anyways, if more people complain about it, then he's disqualified.

 

[bowser499]

Uhm... That's a black screen BUT I left a hint for you to select a game mode (-new, -med, -pro). WTF? 0__0

 

[Kino]

Setting a game mode does nothing, its still a black screen after that.

 

[Ty3uK]

The hints really are! So what's the problem?

 

[bowser499]

uhm... this is that weird thing about player start locations. I've already fixed this and done 0.05b but I can't upload that due to the deadline.
Try to stand in another player slot. Or are you the creeps?
Tht's the only problem that was cause some of another reviewers have played successfully.

 

[Kino]

uhm... this is that weird thing about player start locations. I've already fixed this and done 0.05b but I can't upload that due to the deadline.
Try to stand in another player slot. Or are you the creeps?
Tht's the only problem that was cause some of another reviewers have played successfully.

You realise that your map requires player 1 red to start the game, hence you tell me how the map is supposed to start if one uses another position.

 

[bowser499]

Will that help?

 

[Vengeancekael]

I have just tested his map (not the one above) and it works. Although I ran the map through the editor.

 

[Kino]

Well something must be horribly wrong with my wc3, i cant start the game through any method.

Scratch that, I got it work.
Ok well didnt really expect it to turn out that way. Starting was kinda awkward since there was no way of knowing what to do other than wander around and eventually find a way to trigger the waves.

Im currently stuck since the boss cast some strange move, turns invulnerable and just sits there.

 

[bowser499]

> Starting was kinda awkward since there was no way of knowing what to do other than wander around and eventually find a way to trigger the waves.

That helps you feel that you've really locked inside the strange temple and you must deduct your way how to get out of there.

> Im currently stuck since the boss cast some strange move, turns invulnerable and just sits there.

That's the end of the demo version of the game for the contest. Much more will come up.

 

[Tickles]

But, there were some coding issues:

• Resources
  • Events
    • Time - Every 0.01 seconds of game time
  • Conditions
  • Actions
    • Player - Set Player 1 (Red) Current gold to Resource[0]
    • Player - Set Player 1 (Red) Current lumber to Resource[1]

>.>
This is totally inefficient.
0.03 will do.
But, you really don't need to be doing this. You could set the resources
directly instead of storing the amounts in variables.

Ah, I've been waiting for someone to point out some triggering issues to fix. Thanks. The resources are set as variables to prevent the use of cheats, though. Infinite stats and Phantasm would be crazy

I didn’t play others coz
it cannot be seen in the map folder even though I reduce their filename size ( I dont want to open the WE either to view this)...

I have just tested his map (not the one above) and it works. Although I ran the map through the editor.

I had the same problem with some of the entries. They all work when tested through the editor, but not all of them show up in the game list when trying to play directly through Warcraft (regardless of the name length). Anyone know what's going on with these maps and why they aren't showing up in the list?

 

[Vengeancekael]

Some of you didn't happen to have used WEU, right?

 

[Tickles]

Nope, all of them can be opened with the regular editor without any issues. What's strange is I just replaced all the entry maps in my Maps>Download folder with the same maps from another folder, and now they all show up in the game list.

 

[mckill2009]

mckiller, I hate multiboards. I hate hate hate them. They are ugly. All of them. Always. In any map. Also they are in the way. Always. All of them. In any map. No exceptions!
The two detonates are not the same. One's instant, you use it when you're off gathering wood and want to qickly spawn at the Tree of Life to be able to kill enemies that just arrived, or when you just realized there's a Ghoul very close to the tree already. I expect some people to prefer instant over target-detonation for regular use and want to be flexible. If wisps leveled up then the whole point of "Difficulty increases over time" would not make sense.

Also how much did you reduce filenames? They should be 10 letters or less, you had that? You should try reducing the names of directories linking to the file. (eg. I'm using Maps\Download\Deff\Mini5, that's many directories, I had to shorten four files names)

Imo, it's the same, look at the description...I always use point target and NEVER used the instant one, if enemies are near and Im far, I can point target where I stand, still the same, my point is you should have added a different ability like blink and alike...anyway I voted for your entry didnt I? ...

I reduced file size by 2 letters, folder 3-5 letters only, still nothing happened...

 

[SA Dashie]

I think the reason to the maps not showing up is that if you copy and past so many maps at once.
I had the same problem during the last couple of contests as well xD

 

[Vengeancekael]

However there is a bug with JNGP that if you save the map and your trigger editor is open, the map may not work. So always close the trigger editor and then save it.