Zephyr Contest?

[Blightsower]

Oh hi~ Just checking if there are any upcoming Zephyr Contest brewing.

 

[Rheiko]

Seems like there isn't any. Unless you have some ideas. if we're gonna have one, what will it be like.
What kind of theme we should go with.
If I'm not mistaken, we haven't had Zephyr Contest again since 2017? Man, that's a long time ago.

 

[Blightsower]

I'm sorry. I don't know the process of submitting contests. I hope somebody hosts one

 

[Rheiko]

I believe it's explained quite thoroughly over here: Arena - Rules And Guide
I am not sure whether or not a host may participate though.

On a side note, I think it should be fine to use this thread as a way to discuss the contest theme and idea, and also to see if people are interested for another Zephyr Contest.

 

[Daffa]

I'm cool for a Zephyr Contest. Definitely something that we need, though we need to be flexible to allow as many entrant as possible, with as many option (GUI Jass vJass Lua and so on) available.

Problem would be to find the necessary judges who can fit all of them...

 

[Chaosy]

Maybe that concept is backwards to begin with.
I know that traditionally it has been about coding quality but as Daffa points out we begin to run into some issues now that we have 5 languages. Sure they have things in common but I know that wurst has some unique features and best practices that are not possible in jass. I am not up to date on if similar toolsets exist for lua/typescript and whatever else people have somehow made work.

Perhaps a bigger focus on the design would be more reasonable to work around and this and have a lower barrier to entry.

 

[Blightsower]

GUI only zephyr? Lol. Theme "Reaction" - active spells that user can only activate when a condition is met.

Example: a passive spell that becomes an active when a unit is attacked.

I know, not the best idea and I know I won't have the time to participate but just tossing something out there to build upon.

 

[Daffa]

Maybe that concept is backwards to begin with.
I know that traditionally it has been about coding quality but as Daffa points out we begin to run into some issues now that we have 5 languages. Sure they have things in common but I know that wurst has some unique features and best practices that are not possible in jass. I am not up to date on if similar toolsets exist for lua/typescript and whatever else people have somehow made work.

Perhaps a bigger focus on the design would be more reasonable to work around and this and have a lower barrier to entry.

I think using the name 'Zephyr' for a spell contest that is aimed at spell design might be confusing and perhaps best we go with say 'Spell Design Contest'. The focus would be the design and coding would be secondary, though it must fulfill the basic MUI + Leakless rule from Spell Section (which the entries will be part of). Now, that might meant we need expert in each coding language, but I think we can circumvent that since MUI is detected via aggressive testings, while Leakless can be traced with multiple detectors and see for stray variables. The whole GPAG JPAG is not part of the contest for simplification reasons is what I propose.

GUI only zephyr? Lol. Theme "Reaction" - active spells that user can only active when a condition is met.

Example: a passive spell that becomes an active when a unit is attacked.

I know, not the best idea and I know I won't have the time to participate but just tossing something out there to build upon.

I like this "Reaction" idea, though depending on timeframe, I was lining for a "Adjustment/Duality" theme, where spells behave differently depending on certain states/conditions (say, heal during day and damage during night, deals more damage when low on health and travels farther on high mana and so on). We can also observe older proposals and see which theme might be suitable for a contest focused around design rather than coding.

 

[Chaosy]

I mean I don't really see the difference in compromise.

In my suggestion coding quality as a whole would take the backseat from the start while in the other it's just selectively enforced.
it sounds quite strange to me to claim that it's a coding quality contest and then ignore best practices.

This is not only variable naming rules and things of that nature that as somewhat "cosmetic" but there is also more functional best practices.
If you're using GUI you should probably use a universal unit indexer rather than coding your own because otherwise you risk clashes when people try to import the spell. Wurst has a pretty big Standard Library with a right tool for the right job mentality. You also have compile-time code which you can use to greatly improve the ease of importing your spell/system but you wouldn't know that if you don't use wurst.

Also it reduces the barrier to entry which I would be somewhat concerned about in current year, but I might be wrong as it's just a guess.

Not dying on that hill but I think it's food for thought.

 

[Kyrbi0]

I think Chaosy has the right of it; focus on design & de-emphasize (or even mostly ignore) the details of the coding language. The hardest part of running Contests is finding Judges, and finding a good Judge that can handle every coding language people might choose??... Buddy that Contest is never gonna end. xD

I don't even think you need to rename it; "Zephyr" is whimsical & non-specific enough to apply to this, it's just a modification of the rules in a way. It's been almost 10 years, a soft-reboot of how Zephyr Contests are run isn't hard to believe, IMO.