Summer 2007 Contest Results!

[RyokoTK]

Another pretty good year for us! Complete with a slew of playtesting (I'm posting this in the middle of the 7/7/07 meetup), these maps have now been examined thoroughly for proper scoring. As usual, the top 7 winners (those who scored 55 or more) will be compiled and posted into Victory Dance IV. Major congratulations go to Windbreaker for clinching a very narrow victory with the first-ever perfect score!


THE FINAL SCORES
01st [70]: Windbreaker [Newcomer]
02nd [68]: Treellama [1st in VD2; 2nd in VD3]
03rd [67]: Kinetic Turtle [Newcomer]
04th [62]: Drictelt [Newcomer]
05th [59]: Irons [2nd in VD2; 3rd in VD3]
06th [58]: King Kidtofu [6th in VD2]
07th [55]: Epstein [4th in VD2]
---
08th [49]: The Thug [Newcomer]
09th [48]: Shadowbreaker [7th in VD2; 4th in VD3]
10th [47]: Scrumie [Newcomer]
11th [34]: Nameless [Newcomer]


Map Name: The King of Infinite Space
Author: Windbreaker
Flow: 25/25
Balance: 20/20
Looks: 10/10
Fun: 10/10
Originality: 5/5
TOTAL SCORE: 70/70
Summary: This is a great map! Everything seemed to work pretty much perfectly here, from the architectural tricks to the layout of the map and the weapon selection. Really, I've played this map a few times, and I have never encountered a single problem with it.

---

Map Name: Werefrog
Author: treellama
Flow: 24/25
Balance: 20/20
Looks: 09/10
Fun: 10/10
Originality: 5/5
TOTAL SCORE: 68/70
Summary: Another fantastic treellama map. He does a great job with the sewage textureset, but the lighting is only passable. It doesn't exactly seal the deal. The sounds are also distinctly lacking by the sewage pits. The lifts are hard to find -- who expects them to be light panels? Other than that, this sprawling behemoth of a map worked exceedingly well and was a blast to play.

---

Map Name: Red Sauce on Pasta
Author: Kinetic Turtle
Flow: 22/25
Balance: 20/20
Looks: 10/10
Fun: 10/10
Originality: 5/5
TOTAL SCORE: 67/70
Summary: This sprawling, multi-story map is probably Kinetic Turtle's best work architecturally, and is just awesome to look at overall. The style is cohesive from the top of the map to the very bottom. The weapon choices are fantastic and the game we had was a blast. So where were points lost? There's no "main space" on this map, which really hurts it because it is so complex. While there are several points where flow does converge, there's no big battleground and you just have to hope you come across people. You can also get kind of trapped in a lava pit -- it looks like you should be able to get out in more places than you actually can. No big deal, though (you still can get out). Very, very good stuff.

---

Map Name: Shelob 15000
Author: Drictelt
Flow: 22/25
Balance: 18/20
Looks: 08/10
Fun: 09/10
Originality: 5/5
TOTAL SCORE: 62/70
Summary: This map was compact, but it was damn nice to look at. The lighting was particularly spectacular. On top of that, it actually flowed almost perfectly; the major issue with flow was twofold. Too many pillars and walls blocked shots and made navigating kind of difficult, and there were more than a handful of places that should have been lifts that weren't. Balance was primarily hurt by the top floor being distinctly more valuable than the bottom, but the majority of spawns were on the bottom (or so it seemed, anyway). A great map for a pretty fun duel.

---

Map Name: Chester
Author: irons
Flow: 24/25
Balance: 16/20
Looks: 06/10
Fun: 08/10
Originality: 5/5
TOTAL SCORE: 59/70
Summary: Irons did a pretty good job visually with the Pfhor textureset, though the cramped space and steep stairs don't help much with the flow (a trait not executed well here). The gimmicky method of getting the Rocket Launcher was extremely annoying, but vital in a 4-player game (our test group). While rockets probably wouldn't be a big issue in a duel, 4p was comfortable on this map, and the SPNKR held too much control then. Otherwise, it was a pretty interesting idea that worked out rather well.

---

Map Name: Show and Tell
Author: King Kidtofu
Flow: 18/25
Balance: 18/20
Looks: 09/10
Fun: 09/10
Originality: 4/5
TOTAL SCORE: 58/70
Summary: The big feeling I get with this map is that it's just a cluster of rooms, which didn't really help at all with navigation or flow. The weapon selection was awkward; pretty good overall, but it was every gun except for the SPNKR, and that got annoying having such a broad arsenal when only two guns were good anyway. Scenery impeded on flow. An originality point was lost because it was, as I said, a ton of rooms with no real cohesion among them. Bad execution. Each of them looked great, but he failed to seal the deal.

---

Map Name: Residue Theorem
Author: epstein
Flow: 22/25
Balance: 17/20
Looks: 05/10
Fun: 06/10
Originality: 5/5
TOTAL SCORE: 55/70
Summary: This behemoth of a map was pretty solid. The main detraction I have for it is that it was hideously ugly; the lighting was solid, but the texturing was extremely bad. Other than that, the only problem I had with it is that ammo is not always clumped with a gun -- i.e. there are SMGs paired with Shotgun Shells. Flow points were lost for a couple minor issues, most notably some lifts being hard to find, but it wasn't a supreme issue.\

---

Map Name: Deserted Lobby
Author: The Thug
Flow: 18/25
Balance: 14/20
Looks: 06/10
Fun: 06/10
Originality: 5/5
TOTAL SCORE: 49/70
Summary: The flow on this level, for the most part, is alright, except there are so many little things that add up against it that it brings it down considerably; most notably in this regard is that it's low-gravity. Given the very low ceilings, this leads to a lot of headbanger stairs and plenty of floating. There's a decent amount of ammo for four people (the size of our group), but 4 was not enough people for the map and the ammo was scattered all around the map. The lighting and texturing was extremely inconsistent; in some rooms it was painful to view, but in others it was actually very pleasing. A good idea ruined by piles of little things.

---

Map Name: The Afterparty
Author: Shadowbreaker
Flow: 21/25
Balance: 10/20
Looks: 09/10
Fun: 03/10
Originality: 5/5
TOTAL SCORE: 48/70
Summary: This map would have looked even better and would have flowed well if it wasn't so goddamned dark! Low ceilings also ruined flow and made aiming difficult and a lot less fun. Balance (and fun) were completely ruined by a devastating tag-team combination of a staggering lack of ammo, very few guns (much like Jjaro Juice), and a 1x recharger out of the way of combat. The map was difficult to maneuver around, but that's not necessarily a bad thing; coupled with the lack of stuff, it really didn't help though.

---

Map Name: Jjaro Juice
Author: Scrumie (El Twixxo)
Flow: 21/25
Balance: 07/20
Looks: 08/10
Fun: 04/10
Originality: 5/5
TOTAL SCORE: 47/70
Summary: This map actually looked pretty damn good at first, but there are some very bizarre visual glitches ("clipping") that bring it down a bit. The architecture is also pretty high-quality. The only problem is that the map is extremely small and cramped, so even with a small group (4 was too many) we were constantly crowded. The major issue is the horrendous weapon imbalance. There's basically one of each weapon on the map -- that is, one SPNKR, one TOZT, and one of each of the crap weapons. This led to some serious problems with one person having huge control over the map and really ruined the game for me.

---

Map Name: Arena 51
Author: Nameless
Flow: 21/25
Balance: 10/20
Looks: 00/10
Fun: 01/10
Originality: 2/5
TOTAL SCORE: 34/70
Summary: This bland arena map really only gets any points at all for flow because it's an arena, and it's exceedingly hard to mess that up. However, multiple untextured sides, practically no ammo at all (including horrendous respawn rates), and just a stupid layout to begin with bring this map down to the pits.

[Windbreaker]

Hope you had fun at the 07/07/07 gathering!

And congrats to everyone else! I'm sure all of the maps included will be great, thanks!!

[Scrumie]

awesome.

[Shadowbreaker]

More ammo next time.

[Drictelt]

OOOOOOOOAAAAH

I would have been happy to be in the pack...

Congratz everyone!

[Shadowbreaker]

Well I am still perplexed about how darkness and a few low ceilings scrrewed me over, but if anyone wants it:

[attachment=715:theAfterparty.zip]

[RyokoTK]

Victory Dance IV

[Drictelt]

Lol if you open my map in forge you see some notes to myself

btw, really, congratz windbreaker. Great map.

[Windbreaker]

Lol if you open my map in forge you see some notes to myself

btw, really, congratz windbreaker. Great map.

Thanks a lot Drictelt! Your map is awesome as well.

By the way, are you going to put this on Fileball as well, Ryoko? Or is it just in queue?

[RyokoTK]

I don't really want to fuss around with Fileball, but I probably will just so more people can see it.

[Windbreaker]

I don't really want to fuss around with Fileball, but I probably will just so more people can see it.

That's what I was thinking. My guess is that about 4/5 of the players still only use FB. Most don't even know about Simplici7y (yet).

[treellama]

Finally got a chance to download this and have a look. Great work all, congratulations on a great map pack.

[Drictelt]

What about a link to simplici7y on marathon.bungie.org and the aleph content page?