Author Topic: 2013 HLP Modding Contest. Cash Prizes!  (Read 33999 times)

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Offline Black Wolf

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Re: 2013 HLP Modding Contest. Cash Prizes!
Judges and a basic breakdown of how the scoring will work posted. Please keep in mind that we did work pretty hard to get the scoring right, and that the descriptions don't cover every criteria that may or may not be used. Significant parts of the judging will be subjective.

The model and texture will account for half the score, the rest coming from other features. Specific details on the mechanisms of judging (e.g. points being lost from 100 vs gained from 0, or the weighting within categories) will be up to individual judges, so don't ask for specific answers for those kinds of questions - we don't have them. :)

This will probably be the last major announcement unless someone else comes forward like The Dagger did to fund another category (or we hit the targets for the "People's Choice" categories. From here on out, it's up to you guys - Good luck! :D
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Offline Raven2001

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Re: 2013 HLP Modding Contest. Cash Prizes!
Here's a question: the rules only mention about releasing a ship before the deadline. But what about WiP threads? Can\should we post them? Can we involve the community to participate, give input, etc?
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Offline karajorma

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Re: 2013 HLP Modding Contest. Cash Prizes!
My vote is a definite yes. WIP threads give us something to look at and encourage other people to work on their ships.
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Offline Black Wolf

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Re: 2013 HLP Modding Contest. Cash Prizes!
Yep, WiP threads are encouraged. :nod:
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Offline headdie

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Re: 2013 HLP Modding Contest. Cash Prizes!
not only that but WiP threads give the community a chance to suggest things you hadn't thought of and sometimes that input can make a huge difference on the quality of the outcome
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Offline Lepanto

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Re: 2013 HLP Modding Contest. Cash Prizes!
A question. What outside resources, exactly, can a modeler use in a valid contest entry? Say, Oddgrim's Vasudan pilot model, or bits of textures from a species' already-extant models incorporated into one's own normal maps?
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Offline Luis Dias

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Re: 2013 HLP Modding Contest. Cash Prizes!
I really vouch for that possibility, since everyone already knows where the Zod comes from there's never the idea of "plagiarism" or something of the sort, but rather the surplus of a nice implementation.

 

Offline mjn.mixael

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Re: 2013 HLP Modding Contest. Cash Prizes!
I would probably say something like "if you use an asset from an outside source, cite that in your release". But I'll leave the final word to BW.
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Offline Black Wolf

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Re: 2013 HLP Modding Contest. Cash Prizes!
Importing cockpits has a well established community precedent, so I'm a-OK with that - why reinvent the wheel after all? As far as importing other bits of texture, that's... trickier, and we may have to fall back on the "case-by-case" situation, as unfortunate as that is.

Certainly, I've used pieces of other people's textures (see the Abydos for a fairly shameless rip of pieces fo the Karnak) and I know a lot of other people have to - it's a great way to add detail and help a model fit into an already established species "look". But in this case, given that we're judging people on the quality of their texture, it becomes a bit iffy, especially if it's from a non Volition ship.

If I were forced to make some kind of definitive statement, I would say that a few details from other ships are fine, as long as they're credited (particularly if they're easily identifiable - you don't have to worry too much about a few pixels if you're grabbing them for the colour palette or something), more liberal sampling is acceptable from canon ships, but excessive sampling will lose you points at least in the technical side of the texture grade.

Basically, be reasonable about it and you'll be fine.
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Re: 2013 HLP Modding Contest. Cash Prizes!
Question RE: rule 5, "Ships must be original - i.e. HTLs of Volition ships are not acceptable."

Would a ship that was based on a Volition ship be acceptable? Say... a fighter that shares some similarities with a Perseus but also with significant changes?

Well, we'd assess it on a case by case basis, but the way you're describing it sounds like it would probably be OK.

The purpose of the contest is to promote the creation of new, high quality ships (particularly in the Vasudan and Shivan fleet) for campaigns to make use of. HTLs of [V] ships are disallowed because, while cool and often to a really high standard of quality, they don't advance that goal; the total pool of ships available to modders to use in campaigns doesn't increase. What you're describing sounds like it would be different enough to the Perseus that it would represent an increase to the total pool, and so would be a valid entry.

So just to confirm, if someone were to make a next generation ship of an existing ship it would be valid correct? Assuming it was distinct enough visually. Ie, as an analogy, if the Hercules Mk2 was a contest entry, it would be valid because despite being based on the FS1 Hercules, it is its own model? (Pretend for a second that the Herc Mk2 doesn't exist and is instead a fan ship).

 

Offline Black Wolf

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Re: 2013 HLP Modding Contest. Cash Prizes!
Question RE: rule 5, "Ships must be original - i.e. HTLs of Volition ships are not acceptable."

Would a ship that was based on a Volition ship be acceptable? Say... a fighter that shares some similarities with a Perseus but also with significant changes?

Well, we'd assess it on a case by case basis, but the way you're describing it sounds like it would probably be OK.

The purpose of the contest is to promote the creation of new, high quality ships (particularly in the Vasudan and Shivan fleet) for campaigns to make use of. HTLs of [V] ships are disallowed because, while cool and often to a really high standard of quality, they don't advance that goal; the total pool of ships available to modders to use in campaigns doesn't increase. What you're describing sounds like it would be different enough to the Perseus that it would represent an increase to the total pool, and so would be a valid entry.

So just to confirm, if someone were to make a next generation ship of an existing ship it would be valid correct? Assuming it was distinct enough visually. Ie, as an analogy, if the Hercules Mk2 was a contest entry, it would be valid because despite being based on the FS1 Hercules, it is its own model? (Pretend for a second that the Herc Mk2 doesn't exist and is instead a fan ship).

Yes, in that scenario, the Herc Mk Ii would be fine.
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Offline SypheDMar

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Re: 2013 HLP Modding Contest. Cash Prizes!
Now that it's been over a month since the competition opened, we've had time to observe the consequences of this community endeavor.

It's been a huge success. Many newcomers have picked up modeling for this project. Many veterans have been coming up with new and interesting designs and not just Terrans! I don't have any numbers to back me up, but there seems to have been a lot more ship threads now than months before, and new ship threads are created frequently.  And all of these are released freely to the community.

Congrats to Black Wolf and everyone else involved (including judges and ship creators as well as the rest of the community) for making this work.

 

Offline Black Wolf

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Re: 2013 HLP Modding Contest. Cash Prizes!
Yep, I've been really happy with the response so far - if everyone who's posted a WiP or about their intent to enter actually does get a completed ship in time, it'll be a huge numerical boost for us, plus some of the concepts have been really cool and original - it's going to be tough judging!
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Offline Black Wolf

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Re: 2013 HLP Modding Contest. Cash Prizes!
With 5 confirmed entires, we're now halfway to activating the People's Choice category, and less than half way through the submission period. Looking good so far. :)
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Offline Black Wolf

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Re: 2013 HLP Modding Contest. Cash Prizes!
So we are officially into September now, which means there's less than a month to get your entries in. While a few people have posted WiPs or told me that they intend to enter, so far entries have been a little lighter on the ground than I would have liked. And, given the makeup of the authors of those entries, at this point there are more prizes than there are entrants, which means, if nobody else enters, certain categories will inevitably go prizeless. In other words, if you were on the fence about entering, re-consider your odds! You might have a better chance of a win than you think, if you pick your category cleverly.

Anywya, hopefully we'll see some additional entries (and entrants) before the end of the month. Show us what you've got, guys!
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Offline SypheDMar

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Re: 2013 HLP Modding Contest. Cash Prizes!
Less than two weeks left! I'd like to suggest an addendum for future competitions:

If the number of participants is less than a certain number, then the number of prizes will decrease based on an arbitrary limit.

For example, suppose there are 6 prizes and the arbitrary limit the judges decide is 10:

If there are 10+ entries, the prizes will remain six.
If there are 9-6 entries, the prizes will be five (People's Choice gets dropped).
If there are 4-5 entries, the prizes will be two (Best Terran, Vasudan, Shivan model gets dropped).
If there are 3 entries, Best Newcomer gets dropped.
If there are less than 3 entries, the competition will be canceled or be delayed.

The numbers and prize restrictions I thought of can be changed based on your discretion, but I think that it would be more competitive if there are fewer prizes than there are people.

 

Offline Aesaar

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Re: 2013 HLP Modding Contest. Cash Prizes!
The biggest issue here is timeframe.  3 months or so isn't that long.  It's nowhere near enough for even a small capital ship unless you're Oddgrim.  Some of us had big models already in progress, and those three months just weren't long enough for us to finish them.  Me with the Erebus/Raynor and Esarai with the Horizon are examples here.  Hell, for Hades, it's not enough time for anything.

An extension is pretty unfair to those who actually made the deadline, I know, but push the deadline to, say, December, and you'll probably see more entries.  Honestly, making this a yearly or 6-month thing might not be a bad idea, but 3 months isn't enough time.
« Last Edit: September 28, 2013, 10:52:26 pm by Aesaar »

 

Offline Oddgrim

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Re: 2013 HLP Modding Contest. Cash Prizes!
The biggest issue here is timeframe.  3 months or so isn't that long.  It's nowhere near enough for even a small capital ship unless you're Oddgrim.  Some of us had big models already in progress, and those three months just weren't long enough for us to finish them.  Me with the Erebus/Raynor and Esarai with the Horizon are examples here.  Hell, for Hades, it's not enough time for anything.

An extension is pretty unfair to those who actually made the deadline, I know, but push the deadline to, say, December, and you'll probably see more entries.  Honestly, making this a yearly or 6-month thing might not be a bad idea, but 3 months isn't enough time.

Suppose a fair point is being raised here right at the end, and looking so far on the submitted "finished" models gives merit to issue raised.
Personally I would not mind at all if the deadline was extended to potentially allow more submissions.
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Offline The Dagger

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Re: 2013 HLP Modding Contest. Cash Prizes!
I agree with the points raised by Aesaar, but giving three months plus won't give much improvement (unless there's lots of people with half finished models around). I stoped development of my model for the contest given that I would have to use most of my three months for it and people really weren't liking it much, so I prefered to work in other stuff.
I guess that the best thing would be to wrap this one up and learn the lesson for the next time: we need more time next time.

 

Offline fightermedic

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Re: 2013 HLP Modding Contest. Cash Prizes!
a bit more time wouldn't hurt next time, agreed, i suggest something like 4 months, maybe even 5, but honestly, if you can't get a single ship done in 4 months, you probably wont be able to complete it in 5 or 6 either

also, i suggest a tighter focus of categories should this be repeated
something like: create a shivan craft! with only 1 category to start with, and should there be more entries than hoped for, just seperate the category into fighters/capitals etc.

2 cents
« Last Edit: September 29, 2013, 10:04:18 am by fightermedic »
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