Zephyr Contest #10 ~ The Poll

[Pharaoh_]

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"...and through the shadows, a circular entity emerged. I couldn't distinguish it's substance; one would say that it was a portal. What could possibly lie on the other side? Was it an entrance to another dimension or was it an exit to our dimension...?"

Create an ability that demonstrates a unique way of teleportation or summoning through a portal.

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Adiktuz___Almia____Cokem...__EliTe____Hell_Master Kyousu...__Kyrbi0___MasterT..._Mckill...__moyackx Pronto___Tank-C...__Contest___Arena___Archive

The poll will be closed on 27th of June.

 

[Kyrbi0]

F1rst P0st.

May the best entrant win! Good luck, everypony.

 

[Maker]

Are there any judges appointed so far?

 

[Pharaoh_]

Are there any judges appointed so far?

Nope, the slot(s) is/are free.

 

[Adiktuz]

oh cool, the poll begins... Good luck to us!

 

[mckill2009]

at long last, the poll is here, good luck guys and may the best well...spell wins!

 

[Almia]

@Pharaoh
I liked that new Entries UI I thought it was just a screeny XD

Good luck to us guys!

btw, nice avatar

 

[Orcnet]

Good luck to the Triggerables

 

[Vinz]

Fu--. I used the old indexing -_-

 

[Mr. Troll]

Wow ELiTe's Chaotic Deception is awesome as hell! Destroying your enemies in a straight line according to the hero's dexterity! EEEEPIC!!!

 

[Tank-Commander]

Ah finally, good luck to everyone and may the best spell win ^^

 

[Legal_Ease]

These all look great! All of you did great work.

 

[MasterTrainer]

Wow; good luck to the contestants

 

[Vinz]

Is voting for yourself uncounted?..

 

[Binsu]

Of course.

 

[Tank-Commander]

Voting for one's self will be discounted and creating multi's to vote for one's self will see one banned from entering contests and disqualified from the contest one does it in. Also just generally makes it irritating since calculating poll "points" will be more tedious later on.

 

[Vinz]

It is not multiple choice? Awww.

 

[Tank-Commander]

Think it's just simpler when you can only pick your favourite (even if it means making the choice harder) votes would be a bit diluted if you could make multiple choices

 

[MasterTrainer]

go tc!

 

[Almia]

All Zephyr contest and the others are default singular choice. They are made as multiple if it as a submission more than 20

 

[Dr.Killer]

Damn those exams that prevented me from joining this contest. It's an epic Zephyr with so many skilled coders

 

[HammerFist132]

Guess what, second place by public vote (so far), is really really badly coded, leaks, simple, I think moderators and administrators shouldn't ignore voting for frends and starting punishing them because contests are becoming eurosong, where only frends vote for you.

This is not agains creator of spell, he will gain skill over time, this is agains people who voted for him.

 

[Adiktuz]

@Hammer - it's always like that and will always be like that... it has been discussed so many times before but the problem is that it's hard to implement a rule that can stop that from happening... not unless they finally decide to remove the poll and just let judges do the judging... and its not just friendly voting, a lot of people vote only based on eye-candy...

IDK but right now, only TC's lead seem significant...

 

[Tank-Commander]

One cannot make the assumption that one particular entry was only voted for friends (or mercy voting i.e. voting for them because they have no/fewest votes) it's an inhereted flaw with public polling because these things can happen, and not all voters are coders. So nothing can really be done "about" it.

 

[Adiktuz]

yeah, just as I said... not unless we agree to remove the public poll...

 

[Kyrbi0]

Polls aren't all bad. Truly the ideal we should be striving for, though, are more meaningful polls. Polls that actually indicate preference for some entries over others, and why. Polls, when done correctly, can help give a reasonable indicator of the most powerful, engaging & creative entries.

There are several options for making polls more meaningful, but unfortunately they have not been implemented. I and others have campaigned for additions or modifications to polls here on THW; things like using the "preference-based" Schulze method, requiring Voters to leave comments indicating why they chose who they chose (with nonsense votes being disregarded), etc.

This & other proposed measures have been met with little or no response, unfortunately.

 

[Tank-Commander]

well, indicating a reason doesn't necessarily help, I can vote for a reason which is "true enough" to go through, even if the vote still wasn't meaningful. (i.e. chose to do it to devalue the votes of a competator to give me better chances of winning)

 

[HammerFist132]

@Adiktuz
If something means for you, I think spells is good, if it is well coded, and it can be used in real gameplay, while other spells that are just "sweet for eyes" are good only for some cinematics of "acolytes rituals". So yes for me good spell is one with many side effects (damage reduction, spells reduction, bonus stats) not just special/spell effects that just heal/damage target.

I will test all spells, and then will give my thinking of all spells and vote for best (in my opinion). You already know what do I like in spells.

 

[moyackx]

Good luck for everyone, and I hope all spells are decided by its usage in ANY kind of map and not for the eye candy and/or brutal mass kill it could provide. WC3 modding needs usable spells, not FPS droppers and OP.

I'll be voting this night hopefully, when I'm in front of my WC3 PC.

~suscribing.

 

[MasterTrainer]

Woah this is a sudden turn up of events in the poll... 0.0

 

[Tank-Commander]

What is?

 

[MasterTrainer]

You know, I never thought Hell_Master (I'm not judging on any part at all, don't get offended HM!) would be the (currently) contestant who was able to come closest to you; that's the sudden turn-up of events regarding the poll... =D

 

[Tank-Commander]

Ah right, yeah I wasn't really expecting it either, though, I was also not expecting to be leading on the poll.

Edit: Guys I must ask, what's the percentage of this poll in affecting the overall outcome? I don't see it posted anywhere.

 

[HammerFist132]

Tested 3 spells so far:
Adiktuz, Almia Cokemonkey:
Results so far:
Cokemonkey 1 - So unique way, never saw it before, I really like your idea, from beggining to the end, really good job, I guess you have spend a lot effort on it, Idea is great, I dont know about coding, and it looks really nice, except when medusa spawn, I hate that frost arror, also this skull distance indicators are really great idea.Effetc when the turn in stone are really nice to (my favourite part). So useful in real maps life some specific item. Good job
Adiktuz 2
Tested your spells, for me you are lot behind cokemonkey but still good too, damage that thunder does is too low, but I guess it can be edited, I like condition for additional moster spawn, also and mana drain, it may have too thunder effects, but it havent dropped my fps a lot.
Almia 3
Great job too, 3. place because I am not lover of such spells, it has too many effects, I guess you worker really hard to make them, well not many side/gameplay effects, but main power of this entry is it look, so who knows.
For me it was too rainbow/gay, but I guess that it was way to express energy. To I have made this it would leak 10 times more

Hope you agree with me and my bad english , that is done after 5-10 min playing. It is totaly objective and uneffected with any friend relationships(hope I spelled it right xD)

+Rep for you 3 for your hard work.
Will check 3 more tomorrow.

 

[Tank-Commander]

Hammerfist, I hope when you're reviewing all these spells you are checking the entire configurations for all of them at least (even for JASS and vJASS entries) if not the entire code - I'd think it a shame for somebody to miss out on a vote because their "main strength" of their entry being the code of it or other aspects which aren't seen on the surface.

Edit: i.e. Adiktuz's entry, prehaps has the effect numbers quite easily configureable or disused features with support for them to be used if so wanted (I don't know if this is the case, but a suggestion for why it's important to check for truely balanced analysis) wanted to edit because I felt I was being unclear.

 

[Kyrbi0]

Yeah, I definitely won't be winning any awards for 'fancy SFX', but I'm hoping people can see through the lack of shinies & lack of code to see what I was really shooting for; Creativity & Utility.

 

[HammerFist132]

@Tank-Commander
I am idiot for jass/vjass but will try, I guess they would put configuration in map init, in beggining of the trigger right.
I will take a look now.

EDIT:

Okay, just tested them (configuration), belive or not I didn't opened any of them because I was thinking to all were done in vJass, I was suprised to see that Almia have done his spell in gui, my god I have to learn that way or indexing, paladon's sux comparing with this.

Back to topic.
All have good configuration, cokemonkey don't have described what is what, but from variable name it is obvioun, for me this part is won by Almia.
Now I have to sleep

 

[Adiktuz]

Yeah, almost every aspect of my spell can be edited (like the number of "lightnings" or the damage)

personally I don't find the damage as too low though, because each "lightning" deals damage anyway so cumulatively, it can hit high... and the main purpose of the spell is the summon part, so I thought that if I make it have so much damage, then it will be overpowered...

and since this is a Zephyr, coding is a huge part [50% of judge's score bro] so you really should read the scripts... (and why I don't wanna judge Zephyrs)... unless this will be like the judging I did with one of the previous contest (I forgot which) where the main judge didn't know much about coding so he judged the other parts while I judged the scripting part for him...

 

[Almia]

@HammerFist
Don't tell that rainbow = gay.
Actually, If you searched for the colors, colors that are now more girly are tough colors in the old age(example : pink)

 

[HammerFist132]

@Almia
Just enter "rainbow flag pictures", you will see what will show up .

@Adiktuz
Just tested this spells once more, many times for more that 5 minutes constant casting. Fps didn't dropped for any spells, ofc I think it is immpossible for "Medusa's Head", because I need a lot of time to activate it. In trigger editor, even that I do not understand vjass a lot, I could (hardly) see that you have cleared all stuff, I am not sure (because I am not good in vjasss) but it looked fine for me.

@Almia
you didn't null points after using them, isn't that needed, I think you are then one who told me why?
Correct me If I am wrong, I want to learn.

 

[Adiktuz]

Just make sure you check each one to the end... and of course, don't forget to include your reasons to why you gave us a certain score...

btw, Almia removed the points (locations) and the variables are globals so not much need to null them really...

 

[Tank-Commander]

if his was JASS he'd definitely need to null them, but in GUI normally you can get away with it (oh ho ho double standard) but no really it's fine that he doesn't (imo) but it is your opinion to make

 

[Adiktuz]

yeah, in the end it's all about what your decision is...

 

[Almia]

My Papa Mag didn't asked me to null variables.

My first Indexing method I used was a Linked List,though it bugged up my spell so I used an Indexer.

 

[Tank-Commander]

Though that does remind me to point out, using unit indexer, isn't necessarily better/faster than using paladon's method (remembering at the remark that paladon's "sux" by comparison)

 

[DESTROYER123]

Almia's spell is really awsome.
However Tank-Commander's is also nice.
Hell_Master's spell is awsome too.

Damn I hate choices.

 

[HammerFist132]

People bad new, I am going on village today, so I will have to check all spells now. I am sorry if I do double post but I will probably have to because I am on phone, lets start:

Kyrbi0 - your spell have 3 acting (entire spell) and none variable, leaking stuff. Man, I know we are in friendzone, but this, oh, man 3 actions. You could at least use call RemoveLoaction.

Mastr Trainer - First of all your configuration, in map init is even that it is gui, it is totaly unfriendly, I could only understand event for loop(forget this I just founded it ;p). Spell somehow have too many effects on start, laggying effects + far camera + rain = 10 fps, but okay they can be reduced. Also I dont get how much it have connection with Portal. Because of short time I couldn't test all details, also could you use set unit x,y(just asking)? When units die, well that animations look really bad, they stand and then instantly they become bones.

Kyousuke ^^ - probably best spell of this 3, effects are nice, a bit spammy, and my fps know to drop a lot, first testing was okay but second, it was laggy much more, I was thinking to crows are imported models, man that effects are really beautiful, really nice effects, reminds me on lol from some reason. About coding, for configuration, it is there but it is somehow unclear, also I think you are missing configuration for max lever that can be devoured. I dont understand why did you use negative values in hashtables?
So far this spell is really good, but not the best (in my thinking).

Mckill2009 - this spell is based on portal (what is missing to some of this), your spell uses a lot of coding, and sure I cannot test it now, also I dont like how spell looks like (effects), it is too holy/lighty and then I see skeletons and demons spawn, I would make it much more darker, purpler . Configuration is okay, but it could be better if you have added more description, coding as well I am not expert but I am starting to get it .
So far only thing I dont like are effects.

I will test rest today, just give me a break . So far cokemonkey leads for me, while kuyoruk (spelled wrong?) is second.

+Rep for you guys. Hope you agree.

 

[HammerFist132]

I go on village in 10 min, so fast review:

Pronto: Not even mui, use w8 didnt destroy any special effects, points and location leaks, no configuration, pauses caster, laggy spammed effects, maybe you can get few points on looks like, but that is all.

@moyack - Configuration is there, well coded, spell is well based on theme, but for me somethings is missing, I dont know maybe, more side effects (not special effects, that like, slow, aoe mana/damage drain or such).
Also I think I can order then to move so I think that is minus(at least for me). Spell is not totaly tested.

@Tanky
Good job, variable creator is good thing for gui coders, making it more friendly, you have put a lot effort in it. Your gived detailed description for almost everythingg, and this is probably my favourite spell that you have done. Nice configuration, I couldnt check entire coding (5 minutes until I go to village), but what I checked was okay, it was good to see that this spell didnt dropped my fps, and that hrowing all that units away was so fluently. Cannot write too much but really good spell.

Unknown - Charge spell with kitabatakes model.
This is much more like charge then portal, configuration is too short, coding looks well but I dont know does all this variables need to be array? Also effects are too spammed and my fps easily goes so low. Too many test units so my hero dies so easily, and I have restart map. Personal thinking, it could be much better.

Now my result
1Cokemonkey
2 tank-commander
It was really big fight whom will I choose, but at the end idea of cokemonkey fon the battle, at least for me.
3 For third place it is really big problem, because I have no idea whom to choose, Almia, Adiktuz, or Kyousuke and Mckill2009.

Sorry that I havent shared rep, I have no time but I will do it. Gj all.

 

[MasterTrainer]

@HammerFist132 believe me, thanks to Maker, Almia, and the others that gave me feedback regarding my spell when I uploaded it in the Spells Section, have gave me so many tips and fixes to make the spell better. I managed to do most of the fixes, but right now my spell ceases to work properly.

 

[HammerFist132]

As I said review was really fast, I have to go now, hope I havent insulted anyone