Mapping Contest Discussion Thread - November

[Artesia]

well if you read what I posted carefully... I suggested a drop hatch you drop your WCC down, doing so opens a door with a fizzler behind it. but if you drop a normal cube down the hatch, nothing happens, it just destroys the WSC. so... this would let you use storage cubes in a puzzle. It would have a fizzler so you can't carry them to the next room. It would make it so you cannot possibly carry the WCC into the fizzler, instead it gives a required bypass for the WCC.

so it shouldn't be confusing, because the fizzler field could never touch the CC. and dropping a box down the hatch that is not the CC would give an error "incompatible weighted cube detected" and destroy that box.

I can draw a pic if you need me to

I'm just posting this to show that it is possible

[the0rthopaedicsurgeon]

do you have to start off the level with a cube? the rules say you need the cube for every puzzle, but i've started making a level where you have to do some puzzles first before you get the cube, then use the cube in those same puzzles on the way back. after that you unlock a new area that still needs the cube, it's just the first part that you can do on your own that i'm not sure is within the rules, although with the way i'm doing it, you do still need it to get through that first part, just on the return journey.

[Artesia]

thats why I don't like many rules... to me a "companion cube level" would be a level where the companion cube was highly integral, and after playing would be something you remember. I don't like the idea of 'requiring' it for every puzzle. besides, in what degree is it required? are you required to hold down buttons and redirect energy balls for every puzzle? or can simply using it as a stepping block good enough for one of the puzzles...

[msleeper]

the0rthopaedicsurgeon wrote:

do you have to start off the level with a cube? the rules say you need the cube for every puzzle, but i've started making a level where you have to do some puzzles first before you get the cube, then use the cube in those same puzzles on the way back. after that you unlock a new area that still needs the cube, it's just the first part that you can do on your own that i'm not sure is within the rules, although with the way i'm doing it, you do still need it to get through that first part, just on the return journey.

Sounds like the cube is required to complete the puzzle, so yeah, that is legit.

Artesia wrote:

besides, in what degree is it required? are you required to hold down buttons and redirect energy balls for every puzzle? or can simply using it as a stepping block good enough for one of the puzzles...

All 3 of those examples require the cube to complete. Again, play Chamber 17 again, and you will get an idea what I mean when we say "required for every puzzle". Exactly what role the cube plays, or how integral it needs to be, is entirely up to the mapper.

[Artesia]

My point msleeper, is about what the0rthopaedicsurgeon asked...
If you have 5 puzzles that require the cube, but at the start of the map you had one before you get the cube (perhaps one that rewards you with the cube) is that one puzzle disqualifying the map?

Id rather see the requirement say "companion cube being in a central role of the map", it's a bit more vague but more lenient

with the requirement as it is, you could make a normal puzzle map, where at the end of each room is a stair just high enough you need the CC to hop up.

whereas "companion cube being a central role of the map" would not allow something like that, and yet would allow more creativity in other areas.

Like, what about a map where there are clear tubes going through each room, with the companion cube in it, and you have to solve the puzzle to transport the cube to the next room, thinking that it will eventually give it to you. In the end, you solve a puzzle, it drops the cube on the other side of a window and door, instead of the door opening, the floor drops and the cube incinerates...

with that idea, you never touch the cube, but the level is all about the cube...

im just thinking stuff up
I have no intention of doing that. in fact I probably wont even enter

[msleeper]

You are right that, in theory, someone could make a whole room with a puzzle and you only needed the CC to hop up to an exit. I really doubt that puzzle or map would get my vote, though.

[Rivid31]

Wayyy too much thinking about the rules here. Make a map that focuses on the companion cube. Doesn't sound too bad.

Look at chamber 17. You use the cube in some way for (nearly) every puzzle. There is that one catcher on the slanted wall you don't need the cube for... I think it'd be appropriate to follow the example and not make the WCC needed to bounce every ball into its catcher, and not to use the WCC for EVERY button you have in there... just make a map that is centered upon the WCC and everything will work out.

Sure, there are ways to bend the rules the way they are stated now, but if you intentionally try to break the rules as much as possible without being 'disqualified' then why the hell are you entering the contest to begin with?

I guess I'm with Artesia here in that the rules sound too strict, but I think if you make a really good map, with lots of involvement of the WCC, msleeper isn't going to be a bitch about it and say "But you didn't have to use the cube to press that button... DISQUALIFIED!"

[Crooked Paul]

msleeper wrote:

You are right that, in theory, someone could make a whole room with a puzzle and you only needed the CC to hop up to an exit. I really doubt that puzzle or map would get my vote, though.

This is really more to the point. We don't need to pre-judge the maps that are allowed to enter, because the whole point of the contest is that all maps will be judged and rated by the community.

Any map that doesn't integrate the CC in a satisfying way won't get many votes. There's no need to compare the map to a rigid set of criteria in order to disqualify it beforehand.

[msleeper]

Crooked Paul wrote:

This is really more to the point. We don't need to pre-judge the maps that are allowed to enter, because the whole point of the contest is that all maps will be judged and rated by the community.

Any map that doesn't integrate the CC in a satisfying way won't get many votes. There's no need to compare the map to a rigid set of criteria in order to disqualify it beforehand.

[nickworks]

lol. nice

one more question... if my entry is very large, can I have it be multiple bsp files? Obviously, they would have to load properly as the player progresses.

cheers,
Nick

[msleeper]

Yeah go for it, that is completely legit.

[Bulska]

I'm a little confused now, the 4 maps I've downloaded with a mapping contest on this site said November, it's the map pack with Deep Within Aperature.

Is this the same contest, or another one?
Is it still going on and can people enter?

If its still going on but it ends at the end of November, then I'll probably be too late with finishing my map. Anyhow, where and when can I vote?

[Hober]

The November Map Pack came from the October Map Contest, because the October Map Contest entries were made during October. The voting began on 1 November, and when the voting was done, the maps were wrapped up into the November Map Pack by yours truly.

It seemed counter-intuitive to call the map pack being released in November the "October Map Pack", but it is also somewhat counter-intuitive to release the October Map Contest maps as the November Map Pack. Either way, you're not too late.

tl;dr wrote:

You have the right thing and you're not too late for the November contest.

[MrCow]

can someone please tell me when December 9th midnight EST is at GMT+1?

i don't really know when the last day is to submit it and i live in germany at winter time o.0

so darn complicated..

[youme]

MrCow wrote:

can someone please tell me when December 9th midnight EST is at GMT+1?

i don't really know when the last day is to submit it and i live in germany at winter time o.0

so darn complicated..

just submit it on december 8th