Foundry Competitions

[samuelc812]

I love the idea oakie

[oaktown]

Having a Foundry Games subforum would also address edbeard's call for a place a for competition draft development.

1. create a competition subforum where people may create development threads three months prior to entry deadline

[wcaclimbing]

It'd be a dedicated forum for foundry and mapmaking contests.

But that could get a little too cluttered. If development threads for each map are allowed, they could get too mixed in with the other challenge threads and jumble up the forum.

To keep things organized, maybe you could use sub-subforums.
Have the main "foundry games" section, then have a subforum for each 'official' competition.
The main section would hold unofficial challenges, such as a 'My Coastline is Cooler Than Your Coastline' thread.
Each sub-subforum would contain an 'official' competition. All the map development threads that edbeard is talking about could go within that map's specific subforum.
It'd help keep things organized and would allow for multiple 'official' competitions to run at once without things getting too crowded.

That might be getting too complicated, but I can't think of an easier way to have unofficial games and multiple 'official' challenges in the same place, while still allowing for ed's development threads.

Another solution I can think of is to have only one 'official' competition going at once.
That competition is posted as an 'anouncement' within the Foundry Games subforum. Each map development thread would be stickied, so they stay above the rest of the topics. It wouldn't be as neat as having sub-subforums, but It'd still work.

[samuelc812]

People would also be able to run their own unofficial map competitions, saying i need an artist for this map or whatever.

My only concern for this, is that it would take away from what competitions have always been, official!

The Map/Ideas sub-forum has a lot of threads from people willing to do gameplay/xml but they need a graphics person. If you make this sub-forum then new people may not post their ideas in that forum anymore, they may go straght to Foundry Games to get an artist or something. We will have a billion unofficial competitions going of foundry newbies seeking an artist and the whole thing might get very confusing.

Competitions have always been a big thing in the Foundry, like they have drawn a lot of interest etc. I don't think anyone wants to see that die by having a billion stupid competitions happening at once... I am not sure if what i said made sense but it does to me

[wcaclimbing]

...We will have a billion unofficial competitions going of foundry newbies seeking an artist and the whole thing might get very confusing.

I'm not too worried about that happening.
I think there would be a few threads added like you said, but things will end up working out like regular map threads do.
The most popular comps would get the attention, the boring ones wouldn't get any support and would eventually be closed.

But yes, I think there would have to be some kind of limit on the number of 'this map needs good graphics' type competitions. A few would be ok, but things shouldn't be allowed to get too crowded in there.

[InkL0sed]

Competitions have always been a big thing in the Foundry, like they have drawn a lot of interest etc. I don't think anyone wants to see that die by having a billion stupid competitions happening at once... I am not sure if what i said made sense but it does to me

Same argument could be made for tournaments. I'm sure if there was only one tournament per month, and it was very official etc, then they'd be as popular as BR's. But tournaments are all unofficial, and still very popular in general.

But back to this idea: I like it in theory, but I'm not sure if it'd work in practice, or if there would be enough people playing that kind of game for it to be active. Maybe I'm wrong; I guess my reaction is that of reserved enthusiasm.

[sailorseal]

but i think there should be a new C.A brought aboard dedicated to Foundry Competitions,

Or even an unofficial C.A. that can do this would be sufficient

That is a good idea and I think people should just be able to make their own competitions without to much regulation until it gets out of hand...

[wcaclimbing]

But back to this idea: I like it in theory, but I'm not sure if it'd work in practice, or if there would be enough people playing that kind of game for it to be active. Maybe I'm wrong; I guess my reaction is that of reserved enthusiasm.

Even if things are a bit slow for the 'unofficial' challenges, it would still be nice to have the games forum to hold the 'official' challenges. It'd make things in those challenges run much more smoothly.

[WidowMakers]

Here is my suggestion as to how it could work:

-Beginning of the month a map theme is presented
-Territory count, location, theme, dimensions are possible restrictions (can vary per month)
-An entry can use any current XML feature
-2 weeks to do initial draft
-1 week vote/fix maps based on suggestions during voting
-1 week final vote (top 2 or 3 depending on # of entries)
-Winner goes to normal foundry process.
-repeat for next month

Examples:
Month #1

-45 territory map
-Asia based
-Can't use bombardments

Month #2

-At least 60 territories
-Abstract

Month #3

-Any territory count
-Zoo theme
-MUST use XML feature Capitals

[wcaclimbing]

I think including XML limits might be a bit too limiting (or unneccessary).
From the ideas you had, I think I'd prefer if the challenges were a bit more specific on the actual topic, but wide open on how you could complete that task.
Each month would be a theme of a map we don't have yet.

We could have one month be themed 'Zombie Attack'. All that the map needs is some form of zombies vs humans. The rest for that month would be up to the mapmakers, which would probably bring a few really awesome map concepts.
Or maybe a pirate theme. or a map of a specific region or event, such as Antarctica or the Revolutionary War.

Or for a bit of a niche competition for those of us that like realistic graphics, maybe a mountain range or a desert could come out as a nice map.

There are tons of ideas in the Map Ideas forum. All we'd need to do is find a good one that lots of people could work with.

[AndyDufresne]

Monthly competitions sound a little too much---at least for the start perhaps. But I like the idea of actually using the Map Ideas forum...perhaps the ideas could only come from there for our competitions.


--Andy

[wcaclimbing]

Monthly competitions sound a little too much---at least for the start perhaps. But I like the idea of actually using the Map Ideas forum...perhaps the ideas could only come from there for our competitions.


--Andy

Well, we could do it once every two or three or even six months. No real limit there on how long things are delayed between each comp.

I think every three months would be a good starting point.
It'd give one comp plenty of time to finish before the next one starts.

And there would most likely be a few unofficial comps active to carry us between official comps if people are looking for something to do (if the forum was open for the public to start their own comps, that is).

[bryguy]

I like that idea

[oaktown]

Not every "official" competition has to be as big as making an entire map - it could be more specific such as creating a new background for an existing map (Africa), or a Foundry banner. Obviously we'd have to put somebody in charge of Games and tailor the work to their workload. And hopefully folks would start up their own little competitions; design me an avatar, or a signature.

Foundry Games could also be a place for mapmaker call-outs - "My map just went live, and I've started some games for the Foundry-goers!"

We would have to put limits on this however - there's already a CC games subforum, and anything that doesn't belong in here would have to be moved.

[wcaclimbing]

I'm not sure about including Mapmaker game callouts, I think things would easily get too cluttered if people did that.They'd get mixed in with all the contest and game threads. I think using PMs works fine for map callouts. Its what I'm used to, anyway. If callouts were posted in the foundry it would be exactly the same as the regular Callouts forum, except the only people to post callouts will be mapmakers.
It wouldn't hurt to have one thread for everyone to post their callouts in. Just that when everyone can make their own callout thread, it essentially turns into the Callouts forum and would block out all the fun contests.

But for the actual graphics- related side of a 'Foundry Games' section, I think we should allow all kinds of graphics contests. 'make me an avatar,' as you said. and many other possibilities.
I think things would really get interesting if people can continue to come up with new, interesting ideas.