Reddit + Mapcore CS:GO Mapping Contest!

​aaaand also on sundays! :>

Ah uh, i didn't read properly! I thought that grey boxes were accepted for testing, and that would refer to the fact that they would not test two times a map that hasn't been altered according to feedback received during the first play test.

i understand the reason but uhm, sure that's the way to go down since the mapping process is known to anyone? I would understand enforcing that in the final phases of contest, not certainly at the first play test on calendar

Well, Reddit dropped the ball on that one then... It's unrealistic to expect people's first play test to be fully detailed. The aesthetics have very little to do with how the map plays. I would much rather play a successful greybox than something that is beautiful plays like turd.

Sadly, the greater population, and a lot of reddit (based on my own past feedback) are only interested in how a map looks, not how it plays. They then subsequently bitch uncontrollably about how unbearable the map is to play competitively when a map makes it to an operation...

Well, it doesn't say "fully detailed" to be fair, but "decent level of progress"…

I would think that a map with dev textures is perfectly fine, but you need to have put in place many elements that will give an understanding of the theme, in other words show that you are committed to the project. I can understand why, you don't want people to go fishing with this, as you can even submit more than one map…

But I think this is a bit of a clashing and counter-productive decision that has been made, cos allows people to dump half baked or complete but rough maps (read: beginners work) and occupy all the slots, while others with good intentions and competitive spirit are starting from scratch.

I hope that in final judgment process, the initial status of development will be taken into account

I pretty much got a similar response from JPon on reddit. I meant to reply back to him in an effort to shift his stance on playtesting greyboxes but I just went ahead with replaced the dev textures with base textures to see if that would be enough for them to test. I will fill out another form in the coming days to see if that will suffice. But regardless, I give them the benefit of doubt.. they probably don't understand how much time it takes to texture and detail a map properly. But for now I'm going to consider the reddit playtest group as level 2 playtesting. afaik, they keep it at 5v5 and honestly it will probably yeild great feedback when it comes time to start fine tuning competitive elements in a map. Am I a little annoyed by that rule, sure. Do I understand why they do it that way... yes.

Out of interest, how do the prizes work for teams? I would expect the money portion to be split accordingly, but how would it work regarding the "swag".

Please no one see this as an arrogant / presumptuous request, I was simply curious as it hasn't been covered to my knowledge.

Nothing wrong with asking.  I'll be handling the MapCore swag and there isn't budget to dole out separate pieces for each team member sadly, FMPONE would have to confirm but I expect that the same goes for Valve's contribution. The swag is sold at the same baseline price I pay though, there's no profit unless you go for the donation edition — so teams could always use a bit of that prize money to get some swag.  

​We understand it's not ideal for mappers to detail a map before playtesting and we do, at least in part, understand how laborious and time-consuming that stage of map development can be. Our restriction is in place for two reasons: 1) we want to ensure that every map we playtest, especially during the competition, has shown enough effort that we are confident the map will continue on its way to completion and 2) non-greybox maps are easier to get more people to playtest.  Is it ideal?  No.  Would we like to playtest greybox maps and do more than a weekly playtest?  Hell yes.  Unfortunately, given our attending demographic and limited volunteers, it's not feasible for us to do so.  At least not yet.  So for the moment, we will only playtest maps that have had a clear amount of effort put into them -- including ones that may not be entirely textured or detailed.

Considering us a "Level 2" playtest is not a bad way of putting it. The results of our playtests, I'd say, are quite nice.  You get a dozen or so 5v5 demos, heatmaps, and a good amount of written feedback.  We haven't had complaints from authors about how we conduct our playtests aside from the selection criteria, though we do welcome criticism and constructive feedback of course.

I hope my answer satisfactorily resolves any outstanding questions regarding the /r/GlobalOffensive playtest. If there are any questions, feel free to reply to me here, message me on Reddit, or add me on Steam.

I think Jpon9 said it perfectly there. There's pro's and con's on both playtesting services and a pro of Mapcore is pretty much a con of Reddit, and vice versa. So basically it would be ideal to take advantage of them both, but in the right order

​I think the disconnection here is that we forgot the contest passage describing Reddit as a supplemental testing facility, also due to the title of the contest. Offering such a service, I think everybody was thinking Reddit would be facilitating the contest, following its "rules" first and foremost (there are no rules about map state so guess most assumed greyboxes are fine), instead of giving a helping hand, but following your normal routine.

~

Just to be clear: a completely dev-textured map, but with architectural detail and some props (see: de_santorini) would be likely to be accepted? Could you refer to the roughest maps you are accepting, just as a reference?

​The "roughest" map that we've made a decision on and accepted is probably Copper, which is getting playtested this coming Tuesday. It has a lot of development textures, but a significant amount of work has obviously been put into it.  That's the best example I can come up with off the top of my head.  Santorini in its current workshop state would likely be fine for our playtesting (aside from that fact that I'm like 95% sure FMPONE has been in an operation).

​Oh we are 100% sure he's been in multiple  it was just a matter of reference, to properly understand what's admissible.

I'd love to enter this but since I've only really just started my map and I work full time I don't think I'm going to have enough time to build the full layout, detail it, playtest it and maintain it and everything else in that space of time, even with the deadline extension. Good luck to everyone submitting their maps, I look forward to playing some awesome new maps

​I know how you feel man, I'm working full time also while participating, it's hellish to maintain schedules  You should take part anyway, it's fun to make maps, so what if it's not finalized to the maxx, I'm sure people will enjoy playing a fun map 

​Yeah it is really hard to keep it up, especially if you have other things you want or need to do in your spare time as well. I'm definitely going to keep making a map even if it doesn't end up in the competition. But to be honest the map I was thinking of working on may not be the map I want to make after all if I'm not going to be constrained to a deadline since it was starting to look a bit too similar to other maps in terms of detail. Best of luck on your map I can't wait to go on a playtest marathon