Terraining Contest #16: Theme Discussion

[fladdermasken]

Considering the delay between TC#14 and TC#15 and the fact that terraining has picked up [some] speed recently I guess we should get theme discussion underway right now so we don't need to wait forever between contests. Try not to suggest themes we've already had (or themes that are crazy similar to ones we've already had).

Just so that theme suggestions aren't repeated:
Previous Terrain Contests:
#1 - Gloomy
#2 - Mountains
#3 - Four Seasons
#4 - Construction
#5 - Winter Wonderland /Playable
#6 - Ancient Mythology
#7 - Small World
#8 - Steam Punk
#9 - Cataclysm
#10 - Surrealism /Playable
#11 - Battlefields
#12 - Horror/Nightmare
#13 - Fictional World Wonder
#14 - Racial Settlement
#15 - Feelings/emotion

Suggested Themes:

- Destiny
- Scifi/futuristic
- Western
- Elemental
- Happy happy (bright colors, pansy fairies, you name it)
- Re-terraining (pick a terrain here on the hive that is not yours and remake it with your own touch)
- Light and Dark (double terrain; one showing light one dark)
- Uncharted land (terrain that has no sign of having ever been touched by people, basically a nature terrain in its purest form)
- Humour (conceptual lulz)
- Fairy tale (depict a scene from a classic fable/fairytale)
- Hermit (a house, tent, shack, whatever, isolated from the rest of the world)
- City (fully playable)

---

Sidenote: Also would you like the theme to be decided by a poll or popular opinion? The thing we discussed in prior contests is that a poll is too easily accessible for people who

• don't know what themes are appropriate for a terraining contest
• have no intention of entering the contest
• are completely retarded in general

Discuss.

 

[Azurot]

"Destiny"

Boom!


And in the event that this seems vague or lacking descriptiveness, let me give a few examples.
- Ship sailing off into the sunset. Sailors are following their destiny; what they believe to be their sole purpose in life, in short, their calling, their destiny.
- Knight slaying the dragon. He is fulfilling his duty to society. He is pursuing the destiny that has been given to him.
- The human race reaching extinction. This one is less about purpose and more about inevitability, but the principle is the same and should be pretty clear.


Sure, it's all pretty vague, but that's the point of interpretation, isn't it? And I'm interested to see how people express these kind of ambiguous themes.

 

[Chaos.]

Just so that theme suggestions aren't repeated:
Previous Terrain Contests:
#1 - Gloomy
#2 - Mountains
#3 - Four Seasons
#4 - Construction
#5 - Winter Wonderland /Playable
#6 - Ancient Mythology
#7 - Small World
#8 - Steam Punk
#9 - Cataclysm
#10 - Surrealism /Playable
#11 - Battlefields
#12 - Horror/Nightmare
#13 - Fictional World Wonder
#14 - Racial Settlement
#15 - Feelings/emotion



A few to add to the list of suggestions:
-Another playable?
-Co-terrain
-Scifi/futuristic
-Western
-Elemental

 

[Deleted member 212788]

Inverted? Something that takes a concept and fundamentally changes it in some manor?

 

[fladdermasken]

Inverted? Something that takes a concept and fundamentally changes it in some manor?

Hair's breadth from Cataclysm afaic. We had the same discussion with e.g. Evolution and fundamentally it is just two separate pictures showing a sizable change conceptually; the only difference is in the story behind it.

 

[Celaquil]

"Destiny"

I really like the idea of going abstract, but the former theme was in it's own way rather
abstract too. We could go simpler, or just more-to-the-pointer this round' about.

Co-Terrain would've been amazing, though I think we're currently too few actively
contesting terrainers to pull off a decent amount of entries with such a theme.

- For future reference, though, if we're doing Co-Terrain for a contest, what about a twist in regard that we make it random?
Basically, we publish the contest and people "apply" to be part of it, then we make a list and randomly pare together terrainers.
It'd make for interesting variation, and it'd make it so that whoever wants to enter the contest doesn't have to worry about
not getting to enter if they can't find someone to pare-up with.

Looking at the list, playable does seem right if we're looking at the order of things.
Playable terrains often require a hell of a lot more work, though, and I'm again not sure
we've got enough terrainer-power to cover the grounds required for such a theme, sadly.

What about... Cheerful, or Bright, or Vivacious, whichever word is most fitting as a contest title. Basically to
contrast the first theme ever for a terraining contest (Gloomy) and to counter the general darkness
that seems to occupy terrainers of late, rather to force us to make something bright, pink and gay.
- Happy time!

 

[2-P]

The problem I see with abstract themes is that you can do pretty much whatever becuase you can interpret it in a way so that it fits to the theme. Even though they were legitimate, half of the entries from the last contest had like a 1/10 on a cleverness scale in relation to the theme.

 

[Azurot]

if we're doing Co-Terrain for a contest, what about a twist in regard that we make it random?
Basically, we publish the contest and people "apply" to be part of it, then we make a list and randomly pare together terrainers.
It'd make for interesting variation, and it'd make it so that whoever wants to enter the contest doesn't have to worry about
not getting to enter if they can't find someone to pare-up with.

Yes.

What about... Cheerful, or Bright, or Vivacious, whichever word is most fitting as a contest title. Basically to
contrast the first theme ever for a terraining contest (Gloomy) and to counter the general darkness
that seems to occupy terrainers of late, rather to force us to make something bright, pink and gay.
- Happy time!

And yes.

 

[fladdermasken]

The problem I see with abstract themes is that you can do pretty much whatever becuase you can interpret it in a way so that it fits to the theme. Even though they were legitimate, half of the entries from the last contest had like a 1/10 on a cleverness scale in relation to the theme.

Actually, this. With well defined themes we provide oldfags with a challenge and newbies with new horizons to explore. And it's not like it cramps your style to no end (not more than a contest is supposed to anyways).

Also it is nice to be able to have some basis for judging criteria e.g. an orc and his pet goldfish swimming in the ocean is clearly not steampunk. Unless it's an orc gizmologist with his copper-coated buzzsaw fish with brass goggles and a khacki vest being attacked by robot snakes etc, yadda yadda you get the drift.

What about... Cheerful, or Bright, or Vivacious, whichever word is most fitting as a contest title. Basically to
contrast the first theme ever for a terraining contest (Gloomy) and to counter the general darkness
that seems to occupy terrainers of late, rather to force us to make something bright, pink and gay.
- Happy time!

Could work.

 

[Chaos.]

Not saying that these are all good ideas. Just trying to get the creative juices flowing.

Re-terraining - Pick a terrain here on the hive that is not yours, take the essence of that terrain, and remake it with your own touch
Light and Dark - Double terrain, one showing light one dark...obviously
Uncharted land - A terrain that has no sign of having ever been touched by people, basically a nature terrain in its purist form
Humour - Haha...you know...humour. It's late so everything is funny to me at the moment
Fairy tale - Pick a fairytale, give it a unique take on the landscape
Hermit - Show a house, tent, shack, whatever, isolated from the rest of the world.

City - Playable

 

[Gilles]

As a huge fan of LotR, and being that Wc3 fits in so well, what about Middle Earth?

I've also been thinking that having a small contest on recreating an actual landscape could be fun. What if
A) There is one chosen photo that everyone has to recreate? Possibility of adding one element (what that means idk, I don't like the idea anyways)
B) There are multiple photos to choose from
C) People pick their own photo.
D) Participants must sign up by _ and will receive a photo. Photo from a hat if you will.

 

[Celaquil]

B) There are multiple photos to choose from

That there will be the next mini-contest.

 

[tobyfat50]

I really like the idea of a Western, Don't think that it was done before as a theme but the people who have been here for longer should know...

 

[Belgarath]

hello there
thought i might drop in

first off seeing as i am gilles's largest fan i support his excellent ideas because a. LotR is the shit b. landscapes are cool. i'll even upload a few of my photos to show the excellence that this could be/just get the imagination running for other shit
also + to playable city, that'd be pretty cool too.

other than that:
[Epic] Landscape - surprisingly hasn't been a theme, i guess it might be shaving it a bit close to other themes and lacking in imagination. but really, feelings/emotions? dropped the ball there a bit
Cathedrals/Castles - quite specific, somewhat similar to construction, but also noone did either of these I think. it's a kinda cool thing, cathedrals are badass let's be honest
Historic Events - recreate something cool from history e.g. battle of waterloo or one of those Napoleonic paintings, this would be somewhat crappy since wc3 units just stand around and shit though
The Human Mind - show us how you think the human mind "works" in a graphic representation. i'll be honest, it's a mildly retarded theme and abstract as shit

well this has been fun!

 

[Heinvers]

That could be a good idea indeed.

 

[Chen]

History...Seems like a good idea, I'll join if it's accepted...

 

[Gilles]

I like the historical events. We could include fiction as well. It simply has to be a recreation of an event in history or fiction.

 

[fladdermasken]

I second Historical Events. <3

Although I would also really like to see Confined Environment as a theme. I think Azurot suggested it at some point. Basically a shift from the classic terraining approach, i.e. not open plane/landscape and broad horizons.

 

[Belgarath]

also i think it would be a good idea to have a clause of the event having to be a) an actual physical/visible event and b) being in a humanoid (or the human) race's past/memory/lifespan since otherwise there is a lot of wriggle room for "the first cell" / "the birth of the earth!" / "when humans got souls"

 

[Celaquil]

Really?

You guys want a theme that almost certainly makes the terrain have to include units?
- You're insane.

 

[Gilles]

We like challenges.

 

[Heinvers]

I'm not liking the idea to put units in terrains too much:/

 

[fladdermasken]

I'm not liking the idea to put units in terrains too much:/

So get creative.

 

[Heinvers]

So get creative.

I would if someone would kick my ass a bit

 

[Celaquil]

Units aren't challenging, they're ugly.
- Mostly.

 

[N.Knight]

Ideas:
1. Desolation: not same as gloomy. Can depict a neutral or simply detached emotion. Can also be done with closed spaces.
2. Post apocalyptic: can be sci-fi or fantasy. In other words need not be Fallout or Mad Max styled. eg: Medieval apocalyptic

 

[Heinvers]

alien scenery, maybe those historical events are not bad (I'm not sure about western though). Isolation, other things don't come up to my mind x(

 

[Celaquil]

Somehow Medieval Post-Apocalyptic has a very nice ring to it.
- Probably mostly because it's very similar to Cataclysm. >.>

I'm not entirely sure I follow your exact meaning with Desolation
Knight. And I'm not sure about Sci-Fi, yeah we've gotten some
good sci-fi doodads with that Sc2 conversion pack, but not nearly
enough, I'd say, to merit a new theme.

Though, it could be good for variation's sake, not to mention the
challenge in making a sci-fi terrain look good.

I still stand by my Smiley theme, or Happy theme, with a randomly
pared cooperation twist, regardless.

 

[fladdermasken]

It's only that the happy theme is a subtheme to emotions, i.e. a subcontest to the last one.

My first picks would probably be historical events or humour.

 

[Heinvers]

My first picks would probably be historical events or humour.

then could we stick with historical events?
I can't see much choices right now (either that or I'm brain dead :\).

 

[Celaquil]

It's only that the happy theme is a subtheme to emotions, i.e. a subcontest to the last one.

My first picks would probably be historical events or humour.

How does "humour" not fall into the same category as "happy"? >.>
- Being a sub-theme for the former contest.

And I still detest the historical events idea, but hey, if that's what people
want.

 

[Heinvers]

I don't know if this counts but would the Plague theme fit here?
I'm still not sure. You know like diseased lands and environment. (or does that fit into the cataclysm category?)

 

[Gekigengar]

I wanted to do a moon-space-sci-fi-colony themed terraining.

 

[N.Knight]

Somehow Medieval Post-Apocalyptic has a very nice ring to it.
- Probably mostly because it's very similar to Cataclysm. >.>

Lets think out of the WoW sand box for a change.

I'm not entirely sure I follow your exact meaning with Desolation
Knight.

Agreed totally Desolation as a theme is pretty vague but so is any other emotion because different folks have different interpretations. What I meant by desolation is a feeling of being lost in a vast-vast space\area. Like a lone tree on a top of a cliff in the middle of a desert or something on these lines.
Totally vague I know.

And I'm not sure about Sci-Fi, yeah we've gotten some
good sci-fi doodads with that Sc2 conversion pack, but not nearly
enough, I'd say, to merit a new theme.

Though, it could be good for variation's sake, not to mention the
challenge in making a sci-fi terrain look good.

I have to admit that is a problem I never thought about. We have to work with only sanctioned doodads, am I right?
But then I have seen people make giant robots and stuff by joining many doodads.

I still stand by my Smiley theme, or Happy theme, with a randomly
pared cooperation twist, regardless.

'randomly pared cooperation twist'. Sorry didn't catch you there.

 

[Celaquil]

Lets think out of the WoW sand box for a change.

I don't know that I wasn't, and furthermore, I don't know if we didn't
during the contest. The "Cataclysm" had nothing to do with WoW,
albeit the theme idea came from there, but the execution of the idea
was to make a terrain of some sort of natural location, and then change
it, in form of a "cataclysm" having taken place - Cataclysm is a word,
not just the title of a WoW expansion, you know

Agreed totally Desolation as a theme is pretty vague but so is any other emotion because different folks have different interpretations. What I meant by desolation is a feeling of being lost in a vast-vast space\area. Like a lone tree on a top of a cliff in the middle of a desert or something on these lines.
Totally vague I know.

Totally, totally vague.
- I like it.

'randomly pared cooperation twist'. Sorry didn't catch you there.

As a response to that, I'll quote my first post in this thread:

- For future reference, though, if we're doing Co-Terrain for a contest, what about a twist in regard that we make it random?
Basically, we publish the contest and people "apply" to be part of it, then we make a list and randomly pare together terrainers.
It'd make for interesting variation, and it'd make it so that whoever wants to enter the contest doesn't have to worry about
not getting to enter if they can't find someone to pare-up with.

Anyway, when I wrap up the mini-contest over at the Terraining Board, I'll
dish out a poll with all the suggestions we've hoarded thus far, or more, if
anyone's got any more brilliant ideas. Suffice to say, though, it's probably
going to be a little while.

 

[Azurot]

I fully support "Desolation".

 

[Chen]

Maybe an icy/snowy terrain or a terrain representing an element, but I support desolation.

 

[Heinvers]

So, will Desolation remain or what?

 

[Kazeon]

"in-door" theme would be cool, I would love to see (as example) castle decoration, or perhaps any house. I haven't seen any /awesome/ in-door decoration so far, just curious how good it can be possibly done..

just a reference:
Church

isn't that cool? it's aerith's (ff7) church btw

 

[Heinvers]

Then what's this? no indoor?
http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/terrain-board-267/hollow-hearted-248586/

 

[Kazeon]

I think, making in-door decoration is not easy, that's what makes a contest interesting. just like the current mini-mapping contest

EDIT:
also perhaps adding some constrains would make it more interesting. As example: decoration may not have "ruined" theme

 

[Heinvers]

Agreed totally Desolation as a theme is pretty vague but so is any other emotion because different folks have different interpretations. What I meant by desolation is a feeling of being lost in a vast-vast space\area. Like a lone tree on a top of a cliff in the middle of a desert or something on these lines.

I fully support "Desolation".

So, will Desolation remain or what?

Pointing that out AGAIN!!!

 

[fladdermasken]

Pointing that out AGAIN!!!

Talked to Keiji about it a couple days ago. He wants to wrap up the mini contest before driving this forward.

Also I am still for Historical Events.

 

[Deleted member 212788]

I'm with fladder on this one. I'd love to do something from my favorite historical periods.

 

[Celaquil]

What I said in this thread applies here too.

The exception being that in this case the next step is making a poll and battle it out for
which theme to go for. My eyes are on you fladdermasken, if they ever wasn't.

Also, I apologize to those still waiting for my judgings over at the mini-contest, as I
mentioned in the Story and Lore contest discussion I've got a pretty tight working
schedule currently. Suffice to say, it won't be too long till I spring my condescending
thoughts on you unlucky participants, stay patient my friends.