Techtree Contest #4

[Pharaoh_]

Improved Melee Race
Contestants are to create an improved or at least an alternate version of the current Warcraft 3 races, be it Human/ Orc/ Undead/ Night Elf/ Naga. The race created must fit the name of the race you picked and must have many similarities to the original one (lore- and concept-wise).

• No submission may violate any of the site rules.
• If a submission does not follow the map submission rules the creator will be disqualified.
• All submissions must follow the current theme. If any model does not fit, a moderator will tell you as soon as possible as to avoid confusion.
• Your submission must be posted before the deadline. The post containing your final submission must also contain the following:
  • Several screenshots of race in action.
  • The file in the appropriate format.
• You must show at least one unfinished preview of your submission (WIP), before the deadline, as proof that it’s yours.
• Your final submission must be bug free enough to test and play.
• Teamwork is not allowed.
  • Finding testers to help you with your submission is not considered teamwork.
• Imports may be used in the map, however they must all be credited.
• The features that may be edited are:
  • Gameplay constants
  • Game interface
  • Object editor
  • Trigger editor
• The map's terrain may not be edited. The current four melee races may not be edited.
• Participants must download the template map (which is found on the bottom of this post), edit it and then resubmit it as their entry.
• The resulting map may not exceed 3MB in size.
• Your submission may not be started before the official launch of the contest.

• First Place: 50 reputation points and a special award icon
  
• Second Place: 35 reputation points
  
• Third Place: 20 reputation points

• Pharaoh_

Gameplay	How fun the gameplay is; does it introduce a new way of playing? Is it too complicated? (If yes, is it still playable?)	/10
Strategy	This is what Wacraft 3 is. Does the race offer dynamic and various types of strategy or does it look like a simple race editing?	/10
Philosophy	Does it follow the theme of the original race? //Although the points are 5 here, having a score of 0 means elimination from the contest.	/5
Appearance	Does the final output look better than the original race?	/5

• 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.

• The contest shall begin on 3rd January 2010 and conclude on 7th Feb 2010, 11:59 GMT

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Thanks to Lich Prince for creating the contest layer.

For questions about the contest, don't hesitate to ask.

 

[M0rbid]

This sounds really nice. I would consider joining, even though I won't have any chance to compete, only for the fun of it. Really nice, good job Pharaoh

 

[Wazzz]

Ah, I see we're doing 30% public again, that worked nicely last time =)

And the things considered in the judging also looks very good, although perhaps we should make it clear to the public voters that those are the guidelines (a lot of unexplained votes can occur publicly).

Just as an idea to prevent any anger in the judging part, perhaps it could be made that the public has to post a valid reason for making the choice(s) they made before they vote, otherwise their vote gets discounted.

Now to think about what race I would like to do.... thinking Bandits based off of the Humans or a Naga race...

OH, that's an interesting point. You say in the strategy section that the race must differ from the original race in terms of strategy as opposed to being a simple race edit. How do you make different strategies occur from doing the Naga race? After all, there are no real original strategies to compare to.

 

[Pharaoh_]

Well, that is something you decide for. Most races share the same strategy in Warcraft III. Try finding an alternative, either by creating systems of your own, either by creating custom resources, anything. The standard map itself, on which you are going to perform the editing of your race, must not be altered terraining-wise.

We can't control who's voting with no reply nor they should be forced to. This is why it is called Public poll; if it was restricted to specific rules, then it would look like Medivh's Tower forum. Plus, I don't think Pyritie or the judge would like to search through the votes that were not followed by a reason.

 

[Wazzz]

This intrigues Wazzz.
Extra resources, eh? A unique way of getting lumber would be cool... or even a unique way of getting gold... hmmm................... I think I have an idea of how2gold, although it's not good yet

 

[Pharaoh_]

You will have 3-5 weeks for that, plenty of time to come up with something innovative! ;]

 

[supertoinkz]

Started already?

Also, can we create any number of units/structures?

 

[Wraithling]

I think it hasn't started yet, seeing as there are no dates and the thread still being in the contest submissions section. I could be wrong though.

Oh and one question Mr. Pharaoh_, who or what authority will decide on the judging criteria of 'philosophy'? And if it is so important that 0 points for philosophy would result in disqualification, might want to bold that part a bit there and put it on the front. I missed it the first time I read the rules.

 

[Wazzz]

Nah, the contest hasn't started yet, still needs to be improved which may take up to a couple of monthes (hopefully less, but it still means plenty of time to think about what we're going to do before the deadline is put into place ;P)

I think the philosophy itself is sort of like the old 'Gestalt' thing that Chrome had. As in, does everything fit together. But the key difference is that the final creation must also be philosophically based off of the race of your choice.

I think I will go with Bandits. Naga will no doubt be done to death

 

[Pharaoh_]

Wazzz is right, he combined the 'philosophy' with the 'Gestalt'. Philosophy is the conceptual aspect of the race, the way the lore is combined with the combat and the gameplay. It's the general (gestalt) appearance that identifies it.

The contest hasn't started yet, because we need more interest.

supertoinkz, you are allowed to add many unit-types, so that you seemingly have a vast army to pick from, but if they are too many, you doom your points in Strategy and Gameplay, because Strategy gets ruined, since there are way too many options to choose from, which blocks the player from deciding, while Gameplay becomes complex.

Wraithling, I will bold it up

Wazzz, we don't need two months to get attention, we need less than a week.

 

[VeljkoM]

By the time it starts I can bet I'll have no time to join...Still was looking forward to this contest for long time.

 

[Pharaoh_]

Well, keep the thread active and alive to get things started as soon as possible

 

[VeljkoM]

Well this is second thread and there was also that other Teach-tree submission that lacks any race making. And should we count threads started moths ago?

 

[RED BARON]

Well, keep the thread active and alive to get things started as soon as possible

We'll do our best

 

[Wazzz]

Something to talk about, what races are we all thinking of doing atm? I'm thinking of doing Bandit Humans, cause Bandits are cool and I have a few ideas for them (and I'm avoiding the Naga cliche that is bound to occur )

 

[Pharaoh_]

@Wazzz, since you mentioned it, you won't call them "Bandit Humans", they will be normally named as "Humans". You will only alter their attrbute to more evil, as you already pointed out, nothing else (conceptually) altered. :]

 

[supertoinkz]

I'll be doing Night Elves...again. If this fail, I have plan B.

I wish this wont be approved until next week, damned exams.

 

[Lich Prince]

I'm thinking about doing the Old Horde.

 

[Wazzz]

@Wazzz, since you mentioned it, you won't call them "Bandit Humans", they will be normally named as "Humans". You will only alter their attrbute to more evil, as you already pointed out, nothing else (conceptually) altered. :]

This is true
Mind you, bandits don't have to be 'evil' so to speak, they can be classed as neutral in a way, but yea, I think I have a few ideas already of what to do for them, I just hope I can get them to work

 

[RED BARON]

I have a half idea, but now it is going to be exciting if I have the time

 

[VeljkoM]

Undead primary then maybe orcs. I have some ideas to make undead actually to be like "undead". Tho I bet I'll eventually scrap more then half ideas duo to lack of idea how to actually do it.

 

[Freyleyes]

Cool, count me in.

 

[Wazzz]

I too have ideas for making the Undead more Undead, but that's for a completely different gameplay lol (mind you, could work in the melee.... but I'll stick with Bandits =D)

But yea, it's been a while with little to no new posts, what's the go Pharaoh? =)

 

[Freyleyes]

Can we use any race like the gnoll or centaur, or must be from the main races that can be playable, like naga or night elf?

 

[Wazzz]

Firstly, Naga aren't really a playable race so to speak, although we are allowed to use them.
Secondly, the specifications are one of the four melee races or Naga, but you can make them however you want (so long as it makes sense and the main race is the same as the race you chose)

ADDITIONAL: Interesting thought just occured to me. What if you took, for example, the Orcs and used General Franks Space Orc models to make a futuristic version of the Orc race, still calling them Orcs? Although I wouldn't be one to do this, I'm just wondering if it's a possibility, as it certainly seems like it could well be according to the given guidelines (although I could have missed someting which negates this craziness )

 

[Freyleyes]

Firstly, Naga aren't really a playable race so to speak, although we are allowed to use them.
Secondly, the specifications are one of the four melee races or Naga, but you can make them however you want (so long as it makes sense and the main race is the same as the race you chose)

ADDITIONAL: Interesting thought just occured to me. What if you took, for example, the Orcs and used General Franks Space Orc models to make a futuristic version of the Orc race, still calling them Orcs? Although I wouldn't be one to do this, I'm just wondering if it's a possibility, as it certainly seems like it could well be according to the given guidelines (although I could have missed someting which negates this craziness )

The naga can be played in campaign, but yeah, they aren't realy a playable race.

Thanks

 

[VeljkoM]

Wazzz that's where lore part comes in. You can't use space technology that doesn't exist in fantasy world.

 

[Wazzz]

Wazzz that's where lore part comes in. You can't use space technology that doesn't exist in fantasy world.

I thought we've been through this already, the lore itself doesn't matter, the race itself just has to have fitting aesthetics. After all, if you needed 'lore', the emphasis wouldn't be so much on using the World Editor.

 

[Pharaoh_]

Although Space Orcs have one-two models within the Warcraft III engine, their lore is not existent, this is why they are not accepted. Nothing modern, I'm afraid.

 

[Wazzz]

So there has to be lore involved now? Although it would be absurd to include anything modern/futuristic as options for races, I was not aware that we were limited to there being any actual lore. For example, how come Humans with a bandit theme are allowed?

 

[Lich Prince]

For example, how come Humans with a bandit theme are allowed?

There are some of them in Warcraft lore dude. (Syndicate, Defias Brotherhood, Ravenholdt, etc...)

 

[Wazzz]

Oh cool, did not know this :O
But what Im saying is we're not strictly limited to actual warcraft lore, are we? As this could limit creativity a little too much (doing alternative races based on the specified 5 races would be enough of a limit, wouldn't it? Other than no modern stuff, of course )

 

[Lich Prince]

Well, I don't think we're only limited to Warcraft lore. You can make an alternative Human race I guess, but don't make it too alien from the Human race.

 

[Wazzz]

Yea, that's what I thought
Cool =D
Mind you, Space Orcs wouldn't be all the alien from the Orcs... just sayin'

But srsly, anything futuristic would be very strange, even if it were allowed I reckon it would be rated low just because of the fact that it's not all that creative. After all, you have all the resources just handed to you on a silver platter

 

[Pharaoh_]

Like I said, the lore can be extracted from Warcraft and World of Warcraft, nothing more, nothing less. Space orcs and/or Zerglings seem to represent Starcraft's universe, which is totally off of Warcraft's one.

As for the Bandits, adding a "bad" twist into humans isn't out of theme; life can have many twists, I don't see why humans could never be corrupted, especially for a race that tends to be very curious and greedy.

You know, WIPs will save you. I'll be visiting this thread every day, once the contest begins, so that I let you know whether you are moving towards the right direction or not.

 

[Wazzz]

Yea, WIPs will be awesome =D
But we can't do any until the contest starts
Which is also good, as I have exams coming up lol

 

[Pharaoh_]

Really? And I was about to pm Pyritie, letting him know that the contest seems to have a decent amount of interested people.

 

[VeljkoM]

Well yea this contest is kinda to late made...If it was during summer vacation but now...

 

[Wazzz]

It's almost summer vacation for me =D
But I should be able to manage it, it's just the first week of exams that will be a real slugfest, after that I'll be fine, and it doesn't matter too much if you start the contest during that period as I'll have plenty of time to catch up ;P

 

[VeljkoM]

Well for me summer vacation was over 2 moths ago and now I have college stuff.

 

[Freyleyes]

So, when is this gona get aproved?, can't wait to start my race

 

[Wazzz]

Yea, I'll be all set to go after tomorrow, so starting any time now-ish is a-okay with me. We're still waiting on Pyritie, tho, aren't we?

 

[Pyritie]

uh...

 

[Wazzz]

Contest approval by Pyritie? That's what I thought we were waiting for, correct me if I'm mistaken :O

 

[VeljkoM]

If "Uh..." means that contest finally started then 'yay' (and don't think I will not be in the contest cuz this time I am aiming for first three again).

 

[Wazzz]

I like horses

 

[Reaper51]

start the contest already!

 

[Freyleyes]

I agree

 

[VeljkoM]

Its not like submission will really even attract people. At least started contest send to all message that it actually exist.

 

[Pharaoh_]

I also believe that the contest seems to have some attention received. It's also sure that when it officially starts, more people will try their luck/skills ;]