Well, I don't mean epic, multi-map campaigns, just something small and quick, which will allow you to show off your entity-scripting skills in addition to design/gameplay skills.
Everts idea of a boss fight/battle map would be the best most likely. Something similar to the Strider battle in HL2, or the Gunship battle in HL2:Ep1 where you fought the gunship ontop of the hospital.
Quote from FMPONEI think we should avoid singeplayer personally, if this contest has shown us anything its that people don't have the time to take a close look at each map closely beyond screenshots and a quick run around (especially not for the entire duration of a single player mission), singeplayer would require that almost as a matter of fact.Besides, singleplayer maps are an enormous amount of work, I doubt people would be able to make nearly enough content in a matter of weeks.
I can't agree with that first part; the reason I haven't played these maps is because I can't play them by myself! I'd love to try people's SP map ideas; but 2 weeks does seem like a very short time to do some really cool things.
*edit*
Sorry ferret, I'll refrain from talking about this in this thread from here on!
Incidently, how are the contest winner(s) going to be chosen then? By vote or by scoring? Scoring seems fairer to me, as anyone can make a vote for any reason (ie, I vote X cos it looks pretty)
Were there never any playtests organised then? I thought testing groups of maps a day and then scoring them after by catagory was a good idea.
there were a number of playtests in which all maps were played.
But that is of no importance ;D
So the next contest should be "Make a map for a screenshot"
I actually think a screenshot contest is better 
But thats because I don't have the skill to make a real map in less than a year 
With regard to the contest, could we set a time for voting to end? Just so we have an objective judgement.
Quote from FMPONEWith regard to the contest, could we set a time for voting to end? Just so we have an objective judgement.
You had an objective judgement right there on page 15 by people who actually played it not just on their own but with at least 2 other people on an internet server.
It wasn't exactly ideal either though MrBaracuda - we had no idea how many people were gonna throw in their thoughts on that one (a few people did, then a couple more, then...were we waiting for more, or stopping there?), nor had we agreed on any sort of judging panel (without meaning to sound a bit of a dick, we had no idea who some of the people contributing numbers were). The voting should have been better organised, no doubt, but lets just put it down to experience, set a voting deadline, and get this map pack put together at last.
man the votes are rolling in for coex really fast
Well ya know, the maps have been voted on screenshots alone now, which was exactly what many said they didn't want to happen; and which suits guys like peris and reno who made pretty maps ;D. But the moderators with no forethought decided to just have a poll - like they have no better ideas or way of doing it. Kind dumb really. I can see why mapcore doesn't have many competitions really, no real incentive for trying to win, no organisation, no nothing, just a hijacking of an original thread to try and make it somehow official and then fucking it up?
I think before any other competitions happen the moderators (Or whoever is actually going to run the comp) needs to work out wtf is actually going on.
Have a look at this:
http://www.game-artist.net/forums/forum ... une=-1&f=3
Actual organised competitions that work well.
I'm with Rick on this one...a poll doesn't seem like an ideal way to judge the outcome. What was wrong with the original scored marks?
Ideally it would be nice to see some per-map feedback, such as Dodger/NZNexus was kind enough to post. Some more of that sort of feedback would have been great, better than simple scoring and infinately better than some anonymous 'what's your favourite' poll.
This is only a casual competition so it's not a huge deal of course, but it is nice for all entrants to receive customised feedback on their efforts.
It's kinda hypocritical of me to be saying this as I haven't made the effort to get some players together and try most of the maps out myself. The most I have managed is a two player game on rocketsilo (which was quite fun!).
like I said, we have many PHP coders here (Thrik, Tarky etc), we could ask one of them to create a simple rating system (it could even be in a separate page if it's too hard to implement it into phpbb..)
[hijack]Like mino said, if you are a good php coder and have time and would like to work / fix it up mapcore, please let me know[/hijack]
Also I don't know why the poll is listed twice
Since I can't try the maps I won't vote so its fair and shiz.
well, if you need help with php, i can help 
allthough i don't have much free-time, so say so if you need me
I've been debating with myself over who to vote for since the poll opened. It's been a tough decision, and I'll try and give some brief thoughts on all the levels for people to use as they wish. Please don't take offence if you feel I've been critical of your level - I was really impressed by the entries and people's different approaches, and I think everybody should be proud of their work as it was a challenging rule and not the longest of development periods. I hope this feedback will be of use to some of you.
Repeater
One of my favourites. I played a 3 person match on it and it was really fun, and on top of that it ran well (minus one laggy hiccup, but I'll put that down to the server) and looked great to boot. Wasn't too sure about the really dark tunnel - a bit easy to camp at the blocked end and score a kill or two with an xbox/magnum/barrel before anybody realised - but otherwise it flowed fairly well and provided a nice space for combat. I could imagine this being a great fun 1v1 map.
North Facility
With the same group of 3 we had another close match for the most part, though I think I ended up going on a bit of a rampage and stealing the victory...muhahaha It felt like there was plenty of space for 3 people and we weren't in a constant gun fight, which I felt was the case in some of the other maps. In fact, despite not using the vertical dimension very much, it felt like one of the largest levels in the contest and so afforded more time alive than many others. It wasn't the best looking map but had some nicely done areas, from both an aesthetic and gameplay perspective. The exterior cliffs coulda used a bit more love though 
Grace
Grace played nicely - spacious rooms to move around in and a very easy to learn layout with easy to memorise weapon locations and obvious places to use for tactical decisions. It isn't getting my vote however because it is one of the most bland entries visually. I know some people are saying we should vote on gameplay and ignore looks but I'm going for the overall package, and while I think this delivered fairly well on gameplay (aside from the magnum/xbow being so close together when they are such similar weapons, and their ammo being there too) it didn't do it for me in visuals. There's a few nice touches, such as the lighting on the upper-area walls, but for the most part it is a boxy and lacking in details. The lighting on the floor in the main hall is just a total mess that I can't understand the cause of, and the basement is nice enough as a basic room layout but missing any sort of "spice" to make it more than a rather empty feeling, not-too-naturally-textured pillar-fest. I don't mean to be too harsh, but I fell I have to be to justify not voting for what was one of the nicer playing levels.
Post Office
Just all around lovely, to the extent that I think it's a shame it isn't winning. As you can probably guess from that, it got my vote About the only thing I would change about the map would be to make it slightly bigger, as at the moment our 3 person playtest was a little too hectic and resulted in some deaths occuring before the player really got a chance. The lack of spawn points didn't help, as you only ever seem to spawn in about 3 places. Granted there aren't many other places you COULD spawn in the map, but I think a few more could have been slotted in to make it less predictable. I liked the weapon placement a lot and the limited use of physics props - there are enough of both but not so many that it felt cluttered. The restricted weapon set suits the level perfectly. You've got beautiful use of subtle details, a great 3D skybox, varied lighting without feeling forced or busy (great and efficient use of lightmaps too), and a flowing layout that exposes you frequently to paths above and below you; what's not to like? It just feels so damn polished.
Tyr
An automatic lose because it is unplayable with those lifts, which is a shame as it's a fairly interesting use of the space and has some creative architecture. I've said before that it seemed quite Halo-esque, but it also reminded me of some great HL1 levels such as the work of Scary_1 and Gustavo. Sadly it didn't have the care put into lighting and texture choice/application of either of those - lots of painfully dark areas and questionable textures used in equally questionable ways makes it look much less impressive than some of its architecture deserves.
Conscript
Has a nice central courtyard, some neat use of hi-res lightmaps, and a couple of cool little "paths" like being able to jump through the warehouse windows from the green-horizontal-line building's balcony. On the other hand, I couldn't quite get my head around the weapon placement - one half of the map has almost no weapons, and yet the green-horizontal-line building seems to have the AR2 and xbow pretty much hanging out next to each other. Is there even a shotgun to go with the shotgun ammo? Useable doors is a no-no in multiplayer for me, as is the not so useable ladder leading from the sewers (though I guess more dev time woulda sorted the latter of these). Visually it wasn't bad, again giving a nod to the nice hi-res lightmaps used in places (a few too many I'd say, looking at mat_luxels 1!), but some of the interiors are a little too reliant on props as opposed to interesting architecture (yet you made the warehouse top floor pretty awesome!), some of the props make no sense at all (head height radiator? Melons?), and the absence of a 3D skybox makes the prominence of the sky a little jarring. All in all it just felt too unpolished really - finished, but unpolished. Gotta be honest though, I haven't played this with people, so take my opinions here with a pinch of salt.
Rocket Silo
Is a pretty grand map to look at, and Nexus gets my respect for trying something different with his entry. Unfortunately I'm not a big fan of the killbox style of map, and I get the feeling Nexus isn't much of an HL2DM player as this map doesn't really work for the gameplay. Weapon placement is...well pretty much everywhere. The xbow and AR2 are right next to each other, and not only that, but the AR2 has FOUR of the bouncy balls right there with it - that is carnage. Armour is everywhere you look, which is probably a good thing given the constant damage you'll be receiving from the outright lack of cover. The single spiral path that leads to the upper area isn't exactly giving you gameplay options either. To top it off, you can fall into the space under the rocket, and have no way out bar suicide. Thats not a good idea any day of the week, and it appears to have been a concious decision as opposed to an oversight what with the 2 secret spaces you can get to from there (spaces with nothing in them). So yeah, not a great HL2DM map IMO, but it's a nicely realised rocket silo
Asgar
I really enjoyed playing Asgar, but I was torn between whether that was due to the map itself, or the fact it was the first game of HL2DM I'd played for 6 months or so! Regardless I was really taken in by the theme and the hugely ambitious use of space. It doesn't work entirely successfully - the majority of paths and rooms are far too cramped to lend themselves to great HL2DM gameplay - but the vertical nature of the layout, amount of partial cover, and loads of routes enemies can pop out from made it hectic and a great laugh. I'm sad this isn't getting votes because I think the creativity and effort that went into it deserve more recognition. It's just a shame it was forced into such a tight area - free of such confines I think it could have turned out a real winner.
Tobor
Ah, Tobor. Really not much you can say against this map. It doesn't feel anything like a typical HL2DM map; very clever use of the standard resources to create a theme that is neatly reminiscent of the HL1 "tech" maps like datacore, rapidcore, and of course the classic test chamber from the start of the game. Not entirely keen on forcing the use of a teleporter to get to the top floor, but that, along with the annoyingly snaggy floors, are really the only criticisms I could level at it. Lovely to look at and, I imagine, fun to play (sadly only had about 20 seconds game time on this with people). Great job
Capricious
I like the idea of the team based gameplay, but I'm not sure how well it would work in practice when you're confined to one giant cylinder. I think it's gonna be pretty impossible to stop people getting to those buttons when they are all so close together. I guess that is a bit of a non-issue though, as again this one is pretty much unplayable due to the elevators causing lag. I liked the entity work - the elevator shields were a nice touch, and the increasingly frequent electrical bursts hitting the outside walls as you destroy the different floors of the tower added a whole lot to the experience. The towering 3D skybox leading into bright white fog worked well too. Not the most architecturally interesting map, I feel that what there is to it could have been made a bit more detailed. Even giving the walkways trims would have been a start. All in all I think a room like this could be a nice centrepiece to a map if made a bit more spacious, and supported by some peripheral rooms and connections rather than laggy elevators.
Lock
And I thought my entry didn't make much sense! One hell of a strange and abstract concept, but it feels a bit forced and awkward as opposed to drawing a response of "hey, that actually kinda works!". It took me a while to find my way to certain places, like the top of the tallest tower, which is sort of nice in that there are lots of little nooks and crannies to explore despite the small footprint. Unfortunately the amount crammed in means everything is super cramped, and movement is deal-breakingly impeded. Every few steps you get yourself snagged on something - be it a physics prop, a slightly-too-tall step, a low ceiling, or a tiny-width doorway with working doors (ARGH no no no!). It doesn't look bad, and the nicely done skybox does a whole lot for the overall impression, but some of the architecture is a bit awkward and some displacements aren't too convincing. Too much in too little space, really, is my judgement.
Rockhill
I haven't played this one with people, which is something I'm looking forward to doing as I reckon it will be great fun. Hell, I had a good time on it just clay-pidgeon shooting with the grav-gun and some exploding barrels 
Those exploding barrels though? A little out of place and over abundant maybe! Love the theme and the 3D skybox supports it beautifully. Its a shame that suiciding off the edge of the map is so...glitchy - it pings you away from the mountain as you fall downward, and then once you hit the water it's... solid? Good job on offering opportunities to drop to lower areas while avoiding fall damage too, such as the central pool on the bottom floor and the jutting spikes of rock sticking out of the outside paths.
Tenements
Very generic theme, as I've already played a dozen maps set around City 17 tenement buildings. That said, this is easily one of the best realised, and lives up to Valve's standards. Some beautiful destruction going on here, really good job on that. Sadly the less destroyed side of the map doesn't meet the quality of the other, both in terms of gameplay options and visuals. I didn't like the huge stairwell it features, as getting from the bottom to the first actual room takes much longer than I'd like. I also wasn't sure about the weapon placement. Why place 3 boxes of magnum ammo next to the magnum when you can only ever pick up 1 ammo box at the same time as that weapon? And just over the bridge from that great weapon are 4 health kits, 4 batteries, and the AR2 with 2 bouncy balls - a little generous! That side of the level also houses 2 armour chargers nearly sat on top of each other (though very nicely placed at windows, love it ), the RPG, a shotgun, SMG grenades, and the xbow - pretty much everything you'd want in the game. The lower ground and the mostly intact building are therefore almost entirely redundant in terms of items. Still a very nicely done map though, I was hugely impressed by the destruction in it.
Nimrod
Beautiful, but not a great use of the available space IMO. I wouldn't want to play this as anything more than a 1v1, but in that scenario it could work pretty well. Lovely 3D skybox on all but one of the sides of the map, and tragically that is the side that needed it the most Obviously this leads to the disappearing into nothing edge looking pretty daft, but the overall impression of the map is still one of "wow". The ladders aren't particularly well done which is a shame given their importance in the layout of the map, but they are useable once you figure out how. Also didn't like the pink blob of light above the 2 chargers, but I guess the deadline removed the opportunity to tweak it and that is really the only visual issue besides the missing skybox section. Good level.
Coex
A very solid level. Well built, and again up to Valve quality in a lot of ways. Loved the way you used the spotlight through the grate on the "blue" side of the level, and the overbright lighting on that side in general was really atmospheric. On the other hand, I didn't like your unrealisticly blue prop shadows, and the way the white tower met the roof with a zig-zag edge. The walkways on the sides of the buildings leading from a window to the roof also felt a bit tacked on as opposed to natural components of the buildings, and jumping out of those windows isn't the easiest thing to do in the heat of combat either. The windows did provide a nice way to jump from the roof of one building into the rooms of the other, however. The jump pad in the middle should make things interesting, and its easy enough to use that you shouldn't be suffering from falling damage due to accidental take-offs too often. You can also use it as a cushion for dropping off the roof, which is a nice feature Again, no points of originality here though - pretty textbook stuff for HL2DM which makes it not so standout.
Thanks for the comment ReNo, these are the pending issues I want to fix in _v2 since I pretty much rushed some thing at the end, I will surely consider all of Your thoughts. Thanks
We had a barrel fight on Northfacility 
Aye, a 2nd thankyou from me! My glitchy water glitches glitchily. But hell, I joined the competition 9 days before the deadline and didn't have time to sort out a solution to that problem!
*I* haven't even played dm_rockhill yet, and I bloody made it.
I can't really say much useful stuff on other peoples maps from a gameplay perspective, and haven't played any at all for a while now. Tobor is probably my visual favourite because I 
curves, and the lighting is so very very nice. It actually reminds me a lot of Quake2 for some reason; perhaps the warm orange flood lighting is the culprit.
I had one game on rocketsilo and had fun on that, even though I was getting my arse kicked. It felt pretty unique whilst playing and I enjoy things like the hidden doors and such.
Lock is an interesting mix of spaces...I haven't played it but I can't see it working too well as everything is so cramped and with very little oppourtunity to move from 'path to path', so to speak. That is, if you're on a path, you're pretty much going from A to D without getting a chance to stop off at a B or C. The green exposure is also just plain weird! It would really be better if the level were stretched out in the X/Y axis and with more opportunity to move to different paths. The best section I think is the small hallway with the lights on all sides and pipes in the ceiling, which reminds me of Alien quite a bit. It'd be sweet if that design were placed in a map that enforced that style with a bit more consistency rather than just being a pit-stop amongst all the more, may I say, dull areas! (hey, I'm a sci-fi/fantasy nerd!) I also like the crossbow-drop, but the cramped space really hampens the fluidity of it.
Gotta say I love the bathtub in the water too.
ok so no one wins? awesome.
Yeah OBE, since the voting was suppose to end today, I'm posting the current votes results, it's lot easier to read it than the pool.
1st - dm_weaver by ReNo - 13 votes
2nd - dm_tobor by Pericolos0 - 11 votes
3rd - dm_tenements by Buddy the Designer - 5 votes
3rd - dm_postoffice by INSTA - 5 votes
4th - dm_grace by PS_Mouse - 3 votes
5th - dm_rockhill by Merkaba - 2 votes
5th - DM_Nimrodby Thiago "Minotaur0" Klafke - 2 votes
5th - dm_rocketsilo by NzNexus - 2 votes
6th - dm_Tyr by Kakburk - 1 vote
6th - dm_capricious by OnboardError - 1 votes
7th - dm_repeater by spacer - 0 votes
7th - dm_northfacility by Rokusho - 0 votes
7th - dm_conscript by Gorion - 0 votes
7th - dm_asgar - 0 votes
7th - dm_lock by MaMuS - 0 votes
7th - dm_coex by zete - 0 votes
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