March/April 2012 Voting

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Mystic

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Welcome to the March/April 2012 SRB2 Official Level Design Contest voting topic! In this contest we have zero single player, two match, and three capture the flag entries.

To vote, play a few games of each stage in a division in the intended gametype for judging, and give each map in the division a vote from 0 to 10, no decimals and with 5 as average. You can not vote on your own map, but if you vote on the rest of the stages in a division the lowest score on your map for that division will be dropped. For votes to count, the voter must vote on every map in a division (excluding their own entry if they have one). Votes where the voter obviously did not play the level in its intended gametype, or where the voter did not play the multiplayer maps with other real players will be discarded. Please be as unbiased as possible for the author or the look of the map. It's all about how good the map plays, nothing else. For reference, the scale is as follows:

10 - Epic
9 - Awesome
8 - Great
7 - Good
6 - Decent
5 - Average
4 - Mediocre
3 - Bad
2 - Awful
1 - Horrendous
0 - Unplayable

Although it's not required for votes to count, it's very helpful to make comments about what you liked and didn't like about the map, so the author can improve his skill for future attempts. If your votes are dramatically different from the rest and you don't describe why, you may be asked to justify your reasoning.

Judging will end May 15, 2012 at 7 PM local time in the eastern time zone of the United States. Like the entry deadline, this counts the United States's daylight savings time between March and November. Votes submitted after this time by the forum timestamp will NOT be counted in the average, so if you want to be counted, don't vote at the last minute. After the deadline, the scores will be then averaged, and the person with the highest score in each division is the winner.

The entries are as follows:

Single Player:
None

Match:
Hexagon Heat Zone by Simsmagic
City Match Zone by Root

Capture the Flag:
Adjective Noun Zone by Scizor300
Icy Falls Zone by Kitoko
The Sacred Cradle by EternallyAries Red X

Finally, please read the following topic for important announcement about the future of the OLDC: http://mb.srb2.org/showthread.php?t=36968
 

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MATCH:
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Hexagon Heat Zone, by Simsmagic - 4/10
Plenty of space to run around, and competently placed weapons. My main complaint is how generic and dull this stage is; the most unique thing about it are hexagon-shaped sectors. When you want to do something new with ERZ, you really have your work cut out for you.

City Match Zone, by Root - 1/10
Wow, this was pretty disgusting. Nothing but square hallways, a water fountain that isn't water, and OH GOD THE HOTEL. The TEXTURES in that HOTEL!

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CAPTURE THE FLAG:
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Adjective Noun Zone, by Scizor300
- 6/10
Glad to see at least something in this contest is decent. Very nicely polished, with clear alternate paths between the bases. Nice job.

Icy Falls Zone, by Kitoko - 3/10
Another hallway-fest.

The Sacred Cradle by EternallyAries Red X - 7/10
I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but...EternallyAries, you have officially made the best map in the contest. This is a very nicely-built line symmetry stage with all kinds of detail. You're on your way.
 
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Wow... Just checked the wiki, and I believe that this is the smallest number of maps ever entered into an OLDC in the 2.0 era. That being said, I'll check it out when I get home.

Also, quick question: Has there ever been another OLDC where no SP maps were entered?
 
Match:

Hexagon Heat Zone, by Simsmagic - 3/10

This map's pretty dull, pretty flat, and kinda mazelike. All the walls have pretty much the same texture. There's also a little bit too many item boxes IMO.

City Match Zone, by Root - 1/10

What in the world is this... It's way too huge and you can get lost very easily. I found it absolutely hilarious when I found out that you could literally stand on the water in the water fountain. Some of your texture choices are very ugly, too.

CTF:

Adjective Noun Zone, by Scizor300 - 7/10

Looks kinda like the map I was working on for this OLDC (too bad I have huge school exams coming up, otherwise I would've had plenty of time to work on it.) Anyways, this is the first pretty good map that this OLDC has to offer. It's fantastic-looking, it plays pretty good, and there's plenty of paths between the bases.

Icy Falls Zone, by Kitoko - 4/10

The bases are a bit cramped and the outside area is kinda bland. It also don't help that there are a ton of hallways here.

The Sacred Cradle, by EternallyAries Red X - 6/10

The outside area here is completely unnecessary because the bases are literally just about next to each other. Other than that, it's a pretty decent map.

Match was kinda bleh and CTF was pretty good IMO.
 
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[Post reserved, I'll play the levels and add the other reviews later.]

This contest hasn't SP levels... maybe was it a period of examinations for some people. Including myself.
This time, I would love to try to add a custom scale, accompanying the mark on 10. It could give you my general view of the levels.
I'll start with the CTFs.

CTF

Adjective Noun Zone by Scizor300 : 6 / 10

Gameplay : 2/5
Visual : 3/3
Fun, pleasure : 1/2

Although the visuals are great (the Arid Canyon theme is well respected, except for this disjointed sand bridge over the small currents of water), I'm surprised I have to run though the caves on the left/right to capture the flag, which is accessible via.. springs. Which means, if a bomber is here, the flag got a huge shield. What I mean is that getting the flag is pretty hard, because the way between the two flags is long, and the base contains springs. Especially, they're placed against a wall, so I can only jump near to the wall. At least, the escape is easier, from the cascade.
The middle looks a little empty and water holes are the only things, maybe adding some rocks to rebalance...
You could also use this :
2qvz2x4.png

...by adding a weapon pannel here, like... a rail ring ?
But the visuals are pretty, don't worry about them, through ~

Icy Falls Zone by Kitoko : 7 / 10

Gameplay : 2/5
Visuals : 3/3
Fun, pleasure : 2/2

Ah, so that's the map you showed me. I didn't examine the interesting points of the level when I was able to try it, I guess...
I think there are some problems in this map, which are the same as in Scizor300's. But also the advantages, of course : the theme just makes my eye melt, and I really had a lot of fun by traveling it.
The usual thing I could say about the gameplay is "the closer you get to the base, the worth gameplay is it". The flag looks waiting above all these stairs which go right, then left, like if it's a kind of temple/pyramid. I'm ashamed I didn't noticed that before.
The outside, which is, according to me, in CTF levels, important because it makes an area where you can...
- Hiding and waiting with the flag
- Collecting weapons or rings or shield
... is maybe a little too big. I'm sure you had a lot of visuals ideas that you wanted to extract from your mind (the clouds, the current + waterfalls, and... other great ideas), but that outside is maybe a little big. As big as a CTF level -

The Sacred Cradle by EternallyAries Red X : 9 / 10

Gameplay : 4/5
Visual : 3/3
Fun, pleasure : 2/2

Well dear Aries, I saw you also added some details to finish your work, and since I'm probably the tester who proposed most of the ideas, I could take some criticals. My job on this map was especially the idea of the outside part, which seems to... be useless, according to the firsts comments. Fine, let me just explain what I had in mind about that garden.

So, this castlevaniac level has the easier way to the flag, we tried it online together, and we had a lot of fun...didn't we ? Nothing really stopped the speed of the Sonic characters and nothing was really shocking. Also, I immediatly saw Jade Valley as soon as I saw these flying rings. Great reference which should be in more maps. And, these grey falling lights, which were your ideas, aren't too much solid, they're greatly translucent, so they don't disturb the players. Your level contains also lots of ways and secret, accessible by every characters. The water flood and the grey colormaps, as well as the original level name, are, in my view, some details which make your map different from other classical castle-themed levels.

The outside part was my idea, and it seems to be useless... well, I'll explain why did I suggest to add this garden. First, it was to expand the castle, and, like in Kitoko's map, have an additional area where you can collect the scatter pannel, the grenade pannel, and hiding with the flag when you're hunted with a thoking sonic with explosive rings for example ; I think it's better than running on the dangerous main pass. Also, I used it to expand the castle theme's visual, like in the level Metal Fighter did some contests ago, it was a castle theme level with vegetation, if I remember correctly. It is supposed to help the player by giving him an additional area where the player can collect rings. And why not relaxing with the landscape.

Matches
I found something which appears on the two match maps, that feeling of "fightin' by running through the pass'". Well, it's like running through the passes... by running. That's all.
Hexagon Heat Zone, by Simsmagic : 4 / 10

Gameplay : 2/5
Visual: 1/3
Fun, pleasure : 1/2

I know you can do better maps, I guess you just made a simple and rushed map here. So, let's say rings are previsible, I knew I was supposed to face trails of rings on passes... and also, each weapon pannel has its own room... and nothing really important to say... ~ it's just a classical variation of platforms, with stairs, some electrical rooms : some passes and sectors in a Egg Rock Zone cartboard-style themed level. The lava cast I noticed in one of the room isn't really important, except to hurt people who don't see it / have too much lags.

City Match Zone, by Root - 3 / 10

Gameplay : 2/5
Visual: 1/3
Fun, pleasure : 0/2

I would love to give you high marks because I know you would be a good designer, but this takes time...
Anyway, it's by making you get better. So, let's face your level, you didn't put enough attention to it. Some areas are glitchy, some are empty. I had a small feeling of speed between some streets because of these longs ring trails, but it's still a level which isn't really good-looking. Also, I only found 3 weapons pannels, and they were all situated in the same cartboard. You must never add all the items in the same little room...
It's big, you probably had a lot of ideas in your mind, like the train trail or the park, but, even if I didn't played it online, I'm pretty sure it's confusing, there are a lot of streets without any symbols to recognize them.
Sorry.
 
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MATCH
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Hexagon Heat Zone, by Simsmagic - 2/10

This level had bad detail. Everywhere I walk to was just flat and boring and just a room with random lava. The level did have like little to no detail put into this as well. But at least there no errors in this map like the other maps.

City Match Zone, by Root - 1/10

This level was just god awful. I don't even know how you mess up the linedef in this level. Also all the textures were badly pick. Its like you added random textures to the map. It just hurt my eyes the whole time. As well some of the rings and weapons are not floating in this level. It kinda makes it look very bad.

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CTF
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Adjective Noun Zone, by Scizor300 - 7/10

This level was very well plan out. It had awesome places to go to like caves or on top of the area your able to see the level and snipe anyone out that you see. But of course this level has one problem. All I see is no things as in plants at all in this map. There no cactus anywhere as well. It felt kinda empty.

Icy Falls Zone, by Kitoko - 6/10

This level looks great and its huge. But the main problem is its HUGE. The level is so hard to find a player in it that it took me 2 minutes looking for players in this level. But other then that the level is great. Lots of details that I just fell in love with. The level has a lot of textures as well. And there is a lot of places to go to in this giant stage. I even explore it all.

The Sacred Cradle, by me - None

This level was in the works for 2 months. Took a lot of testing in this level to even finish it right. I focus on all the characters for this level. And there is a lot of detail in this level. As well there fog blocks in the castle. And there also color map on the outside. And lightning near the doors and windows that lead outside. Also Internet Explorer gave me wonderful ideas for the outside part of the map. And sure it might be a small level. But being small it needed more places to run to. If there only a castle part and no outside part. The castle be to small to be played in. But by adding the outside it lets the players a chance to run for cover or run for there lives to another place if needed.

Anyway that my review for this contest. I do say this contest kinda suck. But at least we had great CTF maps for this contest.
 
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MATCH...

Hexagon Heat Zone
- Simsmagic - 7/10
I actually liked this map best out of all of them. It has a cool Sonic 2 feel to it. I wouldn't change the textures for anything! However, the corridors did feel a little generic in shape and there could have been a little more heat.

City Match Zone- Root - 1/10
Worst map in contest. I would give it a 3 but I'm sure Root isn't 5 years old. This map is unpolished, unrefined, and I'm almost certain it was never tested. The layout of the streets is random and shows no forethought whatsoever. The cut and pasted cars everywhere (with their own ceilings overhead) are a joke. What I can only guess are the interiors of homes are nothing short of abstract and terrifying. The solid water fountain in the town square is... well, solid. The whole thing wreaks of laziness and carelessness.

CAPTURE THE FLAG...


Adjective Noun Zone
- Scizor300 - 5/10
Not bad! not bad at all. I like the use of the water and the twists and turns are a whole lot of fun. However, I found the ACZ theme to be a little dry:p

Icy Falls Zone- Kitoko - 6/10
I gotta say, and I know some wont agree but this is the best use of ice I've seen since classic Sonic. It doesn't feel like a generic cave zone painted in ice textures. It feels like it's made of ice, so congratulations on that. Downsides to this map would include the unnecessary water traps at the centers of the sanctuaries and most of the paths could have been wider.

The Sacred Cradle- EternallyAries Red X - 5/10
The short, straight shots between the bases was a little off-putting. I found the exterior to be more of an addition than an actual part of the architecture. Not bad but not great.
 
Match

Hexagon Heat Zone by Simsmagic - 3/10
terrible but going to win anyways

City Match Zone by Root - 2/10
terrible but far worse than simsmagic's map


Capture the Flag

Adjective Noun Zone by Scizor300 - wait/what
I started working on this a bit after the last OLDC ended, I was planning on making it a different theme and making some improvements to the base, but never got around to it until it was too late. Cheers!

Icy Falls Zone by Kitoko - 5/10
To be honest, I thought this map was far better than what I made when I first played it, but playing it again has also led me to actually pay attention to the problems. There's far too many paths, making navigating the base for new players a confusing maze, and the outside is a bit empty.

The Sacred Cradle by EternallyAries Red X - 7/10
Well, I like it, but this one's also got a few issues as well. The most glaring is that all of the extra paths are completely ignored because the bases are so close together. Extend the path between them and give us some incentive to actually use the alternate paths.

srb20002h.png

You can thok through the corners, and the bottomless pit doesn't kill. Stick an invisible FOF in there to keep players from doing that or something.
 
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Match

Hexagon Heat Zone - 3

This map consists of several small rooms linked together with long, flat corridors. The problem with this is that it encourages scatter ring and bounce ring spam at all times. While it’s good to have a few areas where these rings are powerful, together they have dominance over most of the level.

I do like the placement of the SRM in this level though. By putting it on top of the tower of hexagons, you force the player to move slowly as they climb and expose themselves to fire from any other players in the room as they try to reach it, creating an interesting risk/reward mechanic as they try to grab the SRM.

The fact that all the corridors look exactly the same gives the player no sense of direction. Looking at the map in Doom Builder, I can see that it is incredibly simple in terms of layout but while actually playing I have no idea where I am going because most of the map is made out of these identical corridors.

The secret was good for a chuckle, but nothing more. I also couldn’t help but notice that your thok barrier was a hexagon. Oh you.

City Match Zone – 0

Oh dear, there are so many things wrong with this map it was more or less unplayable in practice.

The layout used is atrocious, it is a confusing maze of similar looking corridors and many of the interior sections end in fruitless dead ends, or contain hideous sector scenery objects that are a painful to look at.

You also desperately need to work on your item placement. A glaring example of where your item placement needs to be adjusted is in the room that contains 3 different weapon panels side by side, it’s normally considered a terrible idea to include more than one weapon panel in a room because it lets the player get too much power quickly.

Your use of textures in this level is extremely painful on the eyes, an example being the interior section which is an eye blinding sea of yellow and red, melting into itself and making it incredibly difficult for the player to see where he is going. Furthermore, while I’m on the topic of visual design, the cars with HOMs above them are ridiculous in every way.

If you haven’t done so already, I implore you to read level design 101 on the SRB2 wiki.

CTF

Adjective Noun Zone - 5

This level isn’t bad, but also leaves a lot to be desired.

The side paths in this map were largely unused in the rounds I played of this map, the players barely noticed they existed and as far as I could tell they weren’t even used. This is especially true of the upper pathway, I didn’t figure out how to access those as Sonic until I had already played several rounds, this is especially alarming as the entrance to this path is the players own base. Maybe this was just my own personal experience, but you might want to make sure that important features like alternate path entrances are in some way pointed out to the player, whether this is an eye catching use of textures or a trail of rings.

The spring up to the flag actually works very well, giving the player a fair chance at defending their own flag if they choose to do so, while if they fail to keep the enemy player from grabbing the flag, the opponent has several ways to make a quick getaway in contrast to the bottleneck entrance.

Icy Falls Zone – 4

This level is absolutely gigantic and that’s not a good thing. Even if it’s gigantic with a lot of content, it needs a large server to be remotely playable. In practice, I spent most of the round trying to find other players because this map is humungous. This wouldn’t be a problem if CTF games of SRB2 regularly consisted of 12 or more players, but without a large number of players the map is devoid of life.

When a group of players finally congregated in one area, I had quite a bit of fun with this map, the flag room especially lends itself to some interesting battles. But none the less, those occurrences were quite rare and I spent the vast majority of my time travelling from base to base or hopelessly searching for a flag carrier.

The Sacred Cradle – 7

Oh wow, I had a lot of fun with this level. A lot of fun indeed.

There’s a problem with how the central path is just too fast compared to the other paths however. You’ve clearly put a lot of effort into making sure that the side paths are interesting, well balanced and fun to play in, but the extremely fast central path between the bases tops everything. Regardless, the other paths flow nicely and there are plenty of reasons to use them, so it didn’t detract from the map too much.

Because the players can travel from one base to the other so quickly, it is extremely difficult to defend your flag from an attack. Even an extremely small map like Icicle Falls keeps the player from making a bee line to the flag by forcing them to do more than run in a straight line until they reach the flag pedestal.

Fog doesn’t quite work as planned, in practice it looked quite clumsy to see the beams of fog falling down in what appears to be random locations. The fog worked reasonably well in the outside sections of the castle, but the beams of fog indoors were a clumsy form of decoration.

But overall I found this map to be a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it despite my misgivings. It's the enjoyable kind of hectic rather than the frustrating. For example, even in the lower section of the middle path as flag carrier, I still have escape options available in a pinch by jumping into the water and using the springs, or passing by using the underwater tunnel to try and get some distance between myself and my opponents.
 
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Yeah, I know this is a bit late. Also, I'm no expert on level design, so I'm not going to rate the levels, but I will give my opinions.

Hexagon Heat Zone: A boring map. Those hallways are too long, too empty, and too ugly.
City Match Zone: Bad...just really bad. Never put all the panels in one place. Make sure all those rings float. Make sure you don't have any missing textures. And what was with those weird things over the cars? And that hotel...to quote Fawfulfan, "OH GOD THE HOTEL."
Adjective Noun Zone: A good-looking level, a bit empty though. Um, cool name I guess? Haha. The layout is a bit confusing at first, but you get used to it.
Icy Falls Zone: I'm not really a fan of ice levels, but it's a good-looking level. I like all the different possible routes. Very nice.
The Sacred Cradle: Not perfect. The fog looked a little...odd. It was actually a little distracting to me.

That's what I think. Hopefully I might have something to submit to a future contest, it's fun to screw around in SRB2 Builder.
 
Hexagon Heat Zone - n/a
This is my first completed match map outside of a collab, if that wasn't obvious. Despite its flaws, I enjoyed making it and figuring out how to make the object layout work. It might not seem like it, but a lot of thought went into making this level work, and I don't regret submitting it. Maybe submitting it in its current state wasn't a good idea, but nonetheless I'm happy with how it turned out. I'm actually surprised that people ended up getting lost in it, considering how simple the layout really is. If I decide to improve upon this level for a rerelease, I'll likely add texture variation, put in more scenery, and spread the rings out a little more. But right now I'm actually fairly happy with the end result, flaws aside. I don't think I'll map for match again though, it's not really my forte.

City Match Zone - 1/10
Oh boy, where to begin. The immediate problem with your map is that it's just too big and too mazelike. I found myself running without a sense of direction for 99% of the match with only 1% dedicated to actual fighting. The second problem is the weapons are impossible to find. I came across I think scatter, bounce and bomb, and god knows where the rest of them are. The third problem is that your level is just simply ugly as sin. Weird blocky cars with things hovering over them, the same texture used EVERYWHERE, and very little idea of where I should go.
 
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Wait, what am I doing here? Aren't I supposed to be inactive? Well yeah, but I'm here to give a slight increase to everyone's scores (just like Kaysakado did back in the day) and to let people know that yeah, I'm still here and can come OLDC levels whenever I please.

Match Overall Score: 3/10

Hexagon Heat Zone by Simsmagic: 5/10
I'd like it more if it was scaled down a little and made less linear. Also, if you're going to put lava in one room, go ahead and put more lava in there. Make it more of a challenge to get the weapon rings that are more popular than auto rings. Given a little more effort, you might've had a real winner here, but still, it's not bad.

City Match Zone by Root: 1/10
Eh heh, no. This looks like one of those idiotic hangout levels with areas of ugly textures, plus... three different weapon rings in one place is a big no-no.

Capture the Flag Overall Score: 5/10

Adjective Noun Zone by Scizor300: 5/10
This looks like it has a really good design to it, plus there's good detail with the waterfalls at each base. If only it was scaled down a little bit...

Icy Falls Zone by Kitoko: 3/10
There's a lot of platforming on the outside that's just not necessary and makes the map needlessly large. It's nice on the detail side of things, but I think you just needed to make people explore a little.

The Sacred Cradle by EternallyAries Red X: 7/10
I like this one. It's appropriately sized, and the outside platforming is very nice. I just wish that 1) it wasn't a short, straight shot between the bases and 2) that the rail and explosion rings weren't next to each other and in the very middle of the map. Fix those, and I'd give 8s, maybe even 9s for future versions of this level.

Overall: 4/10
I'm surprised, no SP or race levels, and low turnouts for match/ctf levels, plus there's only one map that scored above a 5. Again, I haven't been here to witness it, but if Mystic's pushing an ultimatum on you, then things have gotta be bad here. Maybe sometime I'll get SonicMaster to come out of hiding so he can churn a noteworthy level or two.
 
Folks, it probably comes down to this: if you don't care enough right now to submit maps any better than rush jobs and crap, just submit nothing and come back for 2.1. It can wait.

== MATCH ==

Hexagon Heat Zone by Simsmagic - 2/10
Pacman Zone Zone had the advantage of being good old fashioned spammy fun (by accident). This is just as bland as bland can be and isn't any fun either.

City Match Zone by Root - 0/10
I'm not even going to justify this with any commentary apart from "stop submitting shitty RP maps".

== CTF ==

Adjective Noun Zone by Scizor300 - 7/10
I remember testing this. Doesn't seem to have changed any since months ago either :p Fun stuff, but there's something profoundly dull about the entire middle of the map. Pretty much a flat expanse of nothing besides a river. Come up with anything more interesting; it doesn't have to be a straight open path either.

Icy Ugly Falls Zone by Kitoko - 4/10
Hideous texture job. I realize vanilla SRB2 is short on texture variety, but I got lost a couple times because everything looks the same. That, and due to the map being stupendously bloated. A good 75% of the map is useless filler. But it is actually a relatively solid layout - just extremely oversized. Don't put regular rings in the bases, it makes it almost impossible to force enemy players out.

The Sacred Cradle by EternallyAries Red X - 6/10
A similarly ugly map that is actually not bad, but it all goes to waste because of the middle path. It is so easy to ignore everything else and just spend the entire round running straight down the middle. I suspect the map might be substantially improved if you wall that section off and force people to use the side routes.
 
Well, contest's over. Hopefully my math is right on this...

Code:
N = author vote
( ) = dropped vote

Match:
[B]Hexagon Heat Zone       4 3 3 4(2)7 3 3 N 4 5 2    [/B][B]Avg: 3.80[/B]
City Match Zone         1 1 1 3 1 1 2(0)1 0 1 0    Avg: 1.09

CTF:
Adjective Noun Zone     6 6 7 6 7(5)N 5 7 5 7    Avg: 6.22
Icy Falls Zone         (3)3 4 7 6 6 5 4 6 3 4    Avg: 4.80
[B]The Sacred Cradle       7(5)6 9 N 5 7 7 8 7 6    [/B][B]Avg: 6.89[/B]

[B]Contest Avg:  4.56[/B]
CTF was pretty good despite the low turnout, and match was pretty horrible.
 
City Match and Icy Falls didn't get vote nullification. Corrected:
Code:
N = author vote
( ) = dropped vote

Match:
Hexagon Heat Zone       4 3 3 4(2)7 3 3 N 4 5 2    Avg: 3.80
City Match Zone         1 1 1 3 1 1 2 0 1 0 1 0    Avg: 1.00 (lol)

CTF:
Adjective Noun Zone     6 6 7 6 7(5)N 5 7 5 7    Avg: 6.22
Icy Falls Zone          3 3 4 7 6 6 5 4 6 3 4    Avg: 4.63
The Sacred Cradle       7(5)6 9 N 5 7 7 8 7 6    Avg: 6.89

Contest Avg:  4.51
 
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