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There's been expressed interest in another melee contest, a 4v4 "speed contest" (1-2 weeks time)
with the prize for the winner map being to be featured in the W3Champions ladder.
The exact format is not clear yet.
I'd like to know how interested Hive's melee mappers are in that.
Some thoughts about the idea of doing a 4v4 speed contest, since I suspect the speed part to be highly controversial. People assume that a 4v4 map requires 4x as much time to create as a 1v1 map. As the mapper of one of the most popular W3C 4v4 ladder maps (Wellspring Temple) and the new WGL 1v1 map (Tidehunters), I can assure that it's exactly the other way around. On Wellspring, I worked not more than 15 hours while I spent at least 60 hours on Tidehunters. The reason is that 4v4 allows way more suboptimal choices (often they make the games even more fun!). Contrary, 1v1 maps have very strict rules if they want to suffice the competitive environment. So you often have to do several iterations of mapping and playtesting before everything fits. In 4v4, the map will be fine if the layout is half-way decent. So I'd argue that 4v4 is by far the best mode for a speed contest.
My time investment for a 4v4 map would probably be sth. like
5 hours: drafting a layout
5 hours: designing one quarter of the map
5 hours: copy-paste and slightly vary the visuals of the other quarters
Also, my score distribution would be sth. like 50 - Layout(pathing, spacing, symmetry, neutral buildings) 20 - Creeping(creep choice, creep distribution, itemdrops) 20 - Visuals(terrain, doodads) 10 - Creativity & Uniqueness
Consequently, visuals wouldn't have to be perfect to reach a high scoring. If you don't have the time, just focus on the layout and polish the visuals after the contest.
Finally, looking at the last 4v4 contest, there seems to be a misconception that 4v4 maps have to be huge. Many of the entries had a size of ~180² and a total creep level of more than 700. As comparison, I compiled a list of the 18 current W3C 4v4 ladder maps:
Map popularity is derived by the games played within the last 3 weeks on W3Champions.
Total creep lvl is calculated without starting position creeps.
Certainly, large 4v4 maps have their appeal as well. I love Nerubian Passage and Northern Felwood. But honestly, if you are worried about the time, just do a 130²-140² map. Generally, small to medium 4v4 maps seem to be favored by the community, anyways.
Some more statistics. 4v4 is really kicking off lately on W3Champions with the average games per day going up from less than 150 in January to more than 250 in march. Also, I know that they are planning to implement AT vs RT soon which will probably increase the activity even further since that's the only remaining feature that b.net has to offer over W3C.
So, it's really the perfect timing to get our 4v4 maps actually played and appreciated.
I could do most of the organization, would offer to serve as a judge and could also recruit some additional judges from the 4v4 community. What I can't do is anything related to hive (website/forum) infrastructure.
Next W3Champions season starts in a week and it will be the first season without a new 4v4 map because we literally have nothing to add right now. So I think, even a low participation contest with 7-8 entries would be good enough to get some fresh content for the ladder.
Sorry, unespected RL stuff, I am going to be very very busy, and tired.
I had more free time before in march.
I wont be able to map anything decent being that tired.
I am not going to participate. again sorry
good luck
I think we don't need to make a speed contest. But following the discussion previous to the last 4v4 contest, there was the agreement that 4v4 mapping takes more time than 1v1 mapping and therefore the organizers extended the contest by 50% (6 weeks instead of the usual 4 weeks). I already explained that I find the assumption to be wrong, so I think we should just do the usual 4 weeks.
Another question would be if previous works are allowed. @mafe said that it's against hive rules? I personally think if we have 4 weeks time, it's not a significant advantage to start from one of your existing maps instead from the scratch. My only requirement would be that previous contest entries and maps that were already used in bnet/w3c ladder are prohibited.
I think we don't need to make a speed contest. But following the discussion previous to the last 4v4 contest, there was the agreement that 4v4 mapping takes more time than 1v1 mapping and therefore the organizers extended the contest by 50% (6 weeks instead of the usual 4 weeks). I already explained that I find the assumption to be wrong, so I think we should just do the usual 4 weeks.
Another question would be if previous works are allowed. @mafe said that it's against hive rules? I personally think if we have 4 weeks time, it's not a significant advantage to start from one of your existing maps instead from the scratch. My only requirement would be that previous contest entries and maps that were already used in bnet/w3c ladder are prohibited.
As someone who isn't used to making melee maps but is considering a crack at this, I'm much less intimidated by the 4 week deadline compared to the 1-2 week one.
At the same time, I understand if the big guns don't necessarily need that long.
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