[Black Wolf]

Well, the mods have been made, judged, scored and tallied and the winners can finally be announced*. But before we do that, I'd like to make a few mentions.

First, I want to thank every member of the community who got involved in the contest, be it by submitting a model, volunteering to judge, helping people in their WiP threads or over IRC or in any other way. While there was some controversy when this contest got started, I don't think there was ever any doubt that it would turn into a very inclusive, community driven endeavour, and it did exactly that. So, whatever your capacity, you helped make the contest a success, and I thank you for it.

Secondly, a couple of general comments about the submissions we received. We've all seen them by now, so I'm sure I don't need to describe each and every one, but they ran the gamut from tiny fighters to huge installations, came from new modders and established vets and for the most part hit a consistently high standard of quality. I was genuinely surprised by the closeness of the final result, with nine individual models surpassing 300 points (75% of a perfect score). Often, ships lacking a little in one category would gain big points in others, and, as you'll soon see, the net result was to produce a remarkable result.

Now, the part that really matters: the winners! A quick reminder - ships are scored by each judge out of 100 according to predetermined categories, and out of 10 based on their own subjective opinion of the model, meaning all scores are considered against a maximum possible score of 400/40.

So, without further ado... In overall first place, with a score of 342/33 we have the GVfM Duat by Oddgrim! Despite losing points for missing LoDs and debris, Oddgrim scored incredibly highly in the aesthetic categories (one judge gave perfect marks), and scored bonus points for identifying and filling a shipset niche, making great use of animated docking capabilities, and providing a full set of models (including a new asteroid and cargo container) to maximize the utility of the model. I have no doubt whatsoever that the Duat will rapidly find use in a multitude of upcoming campaigns in the near future, making it a very worthy winner of first prize.



Now, our runners up. These prizes are a little less straightforward. As Oddgrim was the only entrant in the Vasudan category, and according to the rules, cannot win twice, no prize will be issued for this category. In a similar vein, only fightermedic entered the Shivan category, and so wins by default. However, that doesn't take away from the quality of his achievement, as his winning Shivan entry - the SFg Beelzeboul - scored a very impressive and highly competitive 332/33! Although a few small areas for improvement were noted by the judges, we were all very impressed by the clear effort which went into the model, which made use of some very unique ideas like capship shielding, and some very old ideas like rotating submodels to produce a model quite different from standard Shivan fare - but in a broadly good way. One judge described it as "everything you could ask for in a ship creation contest". So while the win may be by default, that doesn't diminish fightermedic's efforts in any way.



Next, our newcomer prize, where we had a somewhat interesting result. On points, the winner was fightermedic's GTCv Mahal, which, like his Shivan entries, made great use of rotating submodels and an innovative capship shield system to produce a really fun, interesting and unique model. But since he had already won a category, and can't win twice, the prize goes to our second placegetter, with a score of 294/28, the GVB Ammit by Lepanto! The judges liked the effort that had gone into the tabling, with great balance and a very detailed tech description to set the scene, as well as praising the individual modelling of each scale. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what Lepanto can do with more experience in the future, which is, I think, exactly what we should want out of a newcomer's prize. congratulations to Lepanto, and again to fightermedic.



Finally, we come to the Terran category, our most contested and in some ways most interesting set of ships. Before I announce the winners though, I want to single out the GTI Castalia by Vasudan Admiral for an honourable mention. Although incomplete, and losing plenty of points as a result, every single judge who commented made mention of how good the model was, and how excited they were to see it finished and ingame. So, while it didn't win, the Castalia definitely deserves recognition in this category. However, at the end of the day, people are here to see who did win. I don't need to tell you that it was close, but I think everyone will be surprised to find out how close. At the end of the day, our judges managed to produce exactly equal scores of 333/32 for both the UEFf Murugan by Esarai and the GTI Europa by Shivan Hunter. We simply couldn't split them. Esarai's design was incredibly complex, well modelled, and clearly made with extreme attention to detail - even the debris was singled out for specific praise by one of our judges. By contrast, Shivan Hunter's model seemed a lot simpler, but that belied the complexity and cleverness of its implementation, and that earned it big bonus points from each judge. I don't think I need to tell anyone who's seen any of my previous modding efforts what I thought of combing modularity with a small civilian station. In the end, they couldn't be split, and I thinkk you'll agree that it's only fair that both Shivan Hunter and Esarai  be granted equal first prize in the Terran category. Well done to those two!





So, that wraps up the competition for this year - it may be back next year, it may not, and if it is, it may take on a different form. Thanks once again to all of our entrants, including those who didn't manage to score a prize tonight - I promise it doesn't mean we didn't like your model! Everyone who submitted will get a feedback PM with the judges comments and thoughts in the next few days (waiting on a few comments right at the moment). If you did win, get in touch with me and let me know how you'd like to receive your prize - PayPal is probably easiest, but I'm also happy to buy gift vouchers for online stores if you have your eye on something specific, or more or less any other kind of online transfer. We'll also be arranging forum badges for our winners in the next several days.

The contest is over now, but there's still ways for people to get involved. I'd reccomend anyone who hasn't already to go here and check out all these great new ships - have a look, have a play, and decide for yourself whether you would have made the same call as our judges did. And if you're looking for high quality ships for your new campaign, you could do a lot worse than including some of these models! Finally, not all of these ships have made it on to the wiki yet, so if you have a spare moment, it'd be great to see them added. Thanks everyone!

* I know that this is a little early, but my schedule is going to get hectic over the next few days, and I wanted to grab the opportunity to write this out while I had it - better early than late, right?

[fightermedic]

if you want to see the ships in action (or get all the ships in one package, at least until updates arive) you can also go to this little mission i have created, that has them all in it
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=85882.0

in other news, i'm quite surprised by the high score my model received, with only 1 point less than the winning terran models, that's more than i'd given it myself
not that i'm complaining of course

gratz to Oddgrim for wining the 1st prize, you deserve it! the model is just superb

[Lepanto]

And so it's over. Thanks to everyone who helped set this up, and congrats to the other winners.

Even though I only won on a technicality, I'm still pleasantly surprised to actually win anything.

To be honest, do any of you campaign-makers already plan to use any models from the modeling competition in your campaigns? Was this endeavor really successful at giving campaigns more models to work with?

[Oddgrim]

Wow, did not expect to win "best overall model" , was concerned that the lack of lods/debris would be the deciding factor.
And big thanks to everyone joining in both new and old modders. It was a pleasure. c:

[Rodo]

Oddgrim being modest 

Congrats to all modders that participated, I've seen nothing but great pieces that could be considered works of art by their own rights.

[Axem]

To be honest, do any of you campaign-makers already plan to use any models from the modeling competition in your campaigns? Was this endeavor really successful at giving campaigns more models to work with?

Yes, yes. And yes.

[The Dagger]

Congratulations to all winners and big thanks to all involved! I look forward to the next issue.

[headdie]

Congrats to the winning contestants, commiserations to those who didnt, thanks to BlackWolf for organizing it and a nod of respect to the judges.

[X3N0-Life-Form]

To be honest, do any of you campaign-makers already plan to use any models from the modeling competition in your campaigns? Was this endeavor really successful at giving campaigns more models to work with?

Yes, yes. And yes.

Hell yes.

[fightermedic]

btw: what about the public choice prize?

[Black Wolf]

For the record, I'm yet to be contacted by any of the winners. PM me your chosen method of payment and I'll start sending out prizes ASAP.

As for the people's choice, well, it was intended to get people involved, and it kind of didn't really do that. We only got eight entrants, and it was supposed to be ten to trigger it. However, having re-read my posts, I seem to have said entries, not entrants, do I suppose I'm honour bound to do it. I'll start a thread soon.