Techtree contest - Modernize (could be paired / in small group)

[FlameofChange]

Here we go. It's been a while we had no techtree contest.
Since they are one of the most time consuming, let's twist things a bit.
It would be a good opportunity to take a very crude, old, outdated and broken faction and greatly improve it.

Constraints
Take one custom faction on the hive which fulfills all the following
☼ Official Hiveworkshop techtree contest entry which is not from
► This very contest
► Any following contest
► Contest happening at the same time on the hive
☼ Not picked by another contestant in this contest
☼ Open source or having authorization from the creator
☼ Not made or co-made by the contestant (someone who just made custom resources for it is ok)
☼ Doesn't come from non-altered Warcraft lore (i.e. Syndicates, Highbornes, kobolds aren't ok)
☼ SD (since HD models are morbidly obese, uncharismatic and much less varied)
☼ Must be released as an entry, a WiP is not sufficient (unless a very advanced one)

Objective
Improve and modernize the picked faction up to Warcraft 3 scale & balance.
The base concept must be kept however it could be expanded to glow up its design !
Resulting faction may have a lot of changes compared to the original one, as long as it grasped the same core concept & fluff.
This means it must be balanced with the 4 other factions with no mid exploits, while being coherent with their content.
You also must polish the models, icons, special effects, juice, triggers, and take care of all of the small details (projectile launch, sounds, etc).
Simply replacing the imports by newer ones is fine ! Specifically custom made resources is not mandatory.
Of course it is not mandatory to remake all resources from scratch, but some factions are very old while a bunch of new better fitting models came out since !
Recreating everything from scratch is up to you, but that could make additional work !

Judgement
This one would be quite particular, because it's very hard to find active judges who doesn't want to enter.
Each contestant is also a judge, but cannot judge their own work.
There could be external judges too.
Here's the notation I suggest. Negative points would mean a retro-gradation from the original faction. A zero means it doesn't have any significant changes.
Additional penalty can be added if the result has nothing to do with the original one.
An entry can be disqualified if it doesn't fulfill all requirements.

Spoiler

Design -5 to 25 points How the core mechanics are improved at least on paper. The complex must be justified, carved up and ergonomic. The simple must be fatten. The unnecessary must be removed. This means a formerly simple/crude/minimalist faction could potentially get a lot of points there ; but a beefier one would be much harder to improve. The core concept could get reworks too if justified and direly needed.

Polish -5 to 25 points How all of the details are taken care off compared to the old one : object, data, memory leaks, performance, optimization, UI, descriptions, etc Hyper-compact LUA is not mandatory.

Balance -10 to 25 points How better it fares against other factions, and potentially custom ones. This means it must give a better challenge and options in its intended strategies. A simple roflstomp or fatal flaws can make the faction loose a lot of points there. Of course we do not expect ladder-level balance but it must be tested out in most situations. To give a reference, an average player with a bit of training would constantly beat normal AI if he doesn't make big mistakes or gaps. Punishment is also part of the notation !

Glow up -5 to 25 points How better the faction looks in terms of battle juice, appearance, fun and fluff. Do not neglect special effects and good feedback signs ! Everything must spiral in a circle of awesomeness. Non-existing resources are taken in account, this means if the faction is very specific you won't loose points by not having found good models for example.

Completeness -5 to 10 points How does it feels better complete than before compared to a Warcraft 3 scale : 4 heroes, custom items, unit types, quantity and usefulness of abilities, etc. Additional heroes & tavern heroes are a plus, mercenaries to a lesser extent. This means is content must be equivalent - if not better. On the contrary, an overkill or useless content might make you loose points there.

This makes a note from -25 to 110, truncated at 0-75. This means a judgement score cannot go bellow 0 or above 75.
The 25 remaining would be from the pool.
Voters would sort the entries from best to worse, the first getting 1 power, the second 2 and so on.
The one with proportionally less power would get 25 points, and the worse 0 points.

Settings
This contest can be teamed. Bigger the team, harsher the notation.
I could give a two month duration, which could be extended to three.
On one hand the faction map already exist so we save a lot of time, but on the other hand some faction might need to be remade from scratch.
Any map marked as pure melee are accepted as a basis.
Maps already having custom faction would completely ignore the other factions, as long as their trigger doesn't interfere by themselves with the concerned faction.
An HD faction can be used as long as its result is purely SD.
The reworked faction can be posted as a separate resource topic, or added to the original one ; as long as both are available.

 

[Kyrbi0]

Interesting... Hopefully some more thoughts later

 

[Daffa]

Wonder who can judge those metrics to be honest, because those are complicated metrics. The idea itself is wonderful, but I argue these particular points would put some at disadvantage:

☼ Doesn't come from non-altered Warcraft lore (i.e. Syndicates, Highbornes, kobolds aren't ok)
☼ SD (since HD models are morbidly obese, uncharismatic and much less varied)

The grading notation also looks overly complex and might be deterrent to potential judges and contestants that wants to judge, assuming

Each contestant is also a judge, but cannot judge their own work.

which can lead to a lot of bias and conflict, either during or after results are out.