PWO Mapping Contest!

[Orean]

PWO Mapping Contest
July 30th, 2014 - August 11th, 2014

Hello, trainers of PWO!
After a few-year-long discontinuity of mapping contests, I proudly announce to you that PWO will commission another contest!

How to Participate:
Simply make your own custom map with our PWO Map Editor!
You can download the PWO map editor here—Donar's newly released version: http://www.mediafire.com/download/8p25a ... _1.1.4.rar

For both new and experienced mappers, we encourage you to read these guides:
1. Tips for new mappers: http://forum.pokemon-world-online.net/showthread.php?tid=21042
2. Mapping Tutorial and Guides: http://pwo-wiki.info/index.php?title=Mapping_Tutorials
3. In light of the newly publicized Map Editor, it's advisable for mappers—both novice and experienced—to refer to this guide for operational information on the Map Editor: http://pwo-wiki.info/index.php?title=Mapping_Tutorials
If you are relatively new to the realm of mapping, you should now be more surefooted with it after reading over these guides; even if you've already gotten your feet wet with mapping before, hopefully these guides can still help to polish, refine and developing your mapping skills and techniques further!

Assignment Criteria:
Theme: Forest
Minimum Size: 50 x 50
Maximum Size: 150 x 150
Deadline: August 11th, 2014.

Submitting Your Map:
- Submit your map in this topic, or in a PM to HitmonFonty or I; it'll be forwarded to the rest of the staff's attention either way.
- Your submission must have:

1. Screenshot of your map in a spoiler.
2. Your map download link (Save your map, then upload the files in any file-sharing website or client, and give the direct link in this topic)

- You can post multiple maps; no delimitation of entries. We will choose what is deemed to be the most map, but only that singular map will be accounted for when ranking the best entries.
- Pay attention to the map details, as outlined in the Assignment Criteria.

Rewards:
Your map will be live in-game for a 1-week period. However, should your map contain any errors, such as layering errors that may unignorably obstruct a player's movement through the areas, you will need to work with us in order to refine it.
The Judge(s):
All staff members will be your collective judges. We'll discuss the entrants with each other when the deadline comes to evaluate the best Map to go live in-game.

Your creativity, artistry and imaginativity will be our biggest parameters for evaluating your maps.

Also, we would exhort you to try working with layers logically. An errorless map won't invariably be the contest-winner—we are still judging maps primarily and predominantly on the notion of creativity—but we will appreciate effort towards using the proper selection of layers; it could be a factor in its own right, as it helps to exhibit how thorough of a mindset has been used to create the map, which is an important one to have when maps are added in-game. For those who don't know about layers, this guide also outlines tips for you.

Important:
If there are more than:
10 participants, we'll select 2-best maps.
20 participants, we'll select 3-best maps.

You can probably see the pattern this will extrapolate to; for every 10-extra participants, another map is selected.

Working with the Winners :
When we select your maps, we'll work with you in order to put your map in-game. Hereon we'll together correct your map if your map contains any fatal errors. (example : when your character can walk in the water, or when you can walk on the wall). You can test your map before letting other players explore it. After you're satisfied with it, you can tell us to open your map for public use—2-3 Days after the deadline.

Feedback
As this is our first Mapping Contest in years, and thus it's being viewed as a trial-run event, the participation, reception and feedback on this event will be determinant to how future iterations of this event will shake out. It is a contest archetype that, contingent on the turnout of this contest, we would like to have continuations of, therefore it will be important to determine how these can be handled and regulated better for potential future releases of this.

Please let us know if you have any questions, concerns or suggestions for future releases of this contest. What could be done to improve how the contest is ran, and how would you appraise your experience in this contest?

Enjoy, and good luck to all participants; we look forward to working with you!

 

[Belemuel]

If allowed I would like too help lend a hand on this.

 

[Buggot]

Excited to try this out. Good luck to everyone.

 

[EbeneezerScrooge]

Is the map just a secret area then?? (if it does get put in the game) or does it need 2 exits?

 

[Buggot]

I also have a question. How do we create borders? You know, the thing used to cover the black around the map. I want to do it like 13 tiles to the side and 9 tiles up and down, but I don't know how you can add borders (as in the place you cannot go to, but so it covers the black border)

 

[Nightmare!]

Goodluck to everyone

 

[Donar]

I also have a question. How do we create borders? You know, the thing used to cover the black around the map. I want to do it like 13 tiles to the side and 9 tiles up and down, but I don't know how you can add borders (as in the place you cannot go to, but so it covers the black border)

You either can plan in that border from the beginning or just make your map and determine how much tiles are needed to cover up the darkness afterwards. You can then resize your map (Map -> Resize Map...) and add those tiles.

So for example when you have a map that needs 13 tiles for the border left and right, you make the map 26 tiles wider and offset it by 13 tiles.

 

[Arnie]

id have a go except im absolutely no good at mapping whatsoever

 

[Julio~]

I've attempted to mapping lately and I'm excited to try but not sure if I'll have free time or creativity.

 

[SapphirePhoenix]

This looks really fun but I don't have the time this week to participate so I can't join x.x But good luck to all the participants! I love seeing contests like these!

 

[Orean]

Heads-up: the deadline is currently slated on August 11th, midnight in GMT standard time—11 days from now. The durations of (potential) future iterations of this contest may vary, but I'm hoping the two weekends to precede this deadline will provide ample to garner many participants.

 

[EbeneezerScrooge]

I finished mine- do we just PM it to creobis or fonty on the forums? (I dont want to post it publicly here incase of copycats)

 

[HitmonFonty]

I finished mine- do we just PM it to creobis or fonty on the forums? (I dont want to post it publicly here incase of copycats)

Yes, you can PM me or Creobis.. Just don't PM 'Fonty' as I don't use that forum account.

 

[Cooer]

Is there any way to test out the maps? I'd like to see if it is working the way I expect it to.

 

[EbeneezerScrooge]

Is there any way to test out the maps? I'd like to see if it is working the way I expect it to.

yeah id like to know the same, I sent mine in but theres atleast 1 fatal error I know of and I need to test for others

 

[Pokemongym]

Ohh wow I'm excited how this'll turn out

 

[drago68575]

Hey Creo, I wanna ask,the tile or tiles of the right side of the right house of Littleroot Town are in the Tilesheets?

 

[maryj]

Is this suppose to happen when you open the map editor after downloading?

help?

 

[Donar]

Is this suppose to happen when you open the map editor after downloading?

help?

Sorry for the latish reply. The download only includes the Windows version of the Editor and the sourcecode, so if you know how to, you can go ahead and compile it yourself. Nevertheless, I'm currently trying to setup my configuration to be able to cross-compile so we can provide a pre-build version for MAC too.

Update: There is now a MAC and Linux version available here

 

[Orean]

Apologies for the belated responses; I have been away for the past few days in an internetless realm.

Is there any way to test out the maps? I'd like to see if it is working the way I expect it to.

yeah id like to know the same, I sent mine in but theres atleast 1 fatal error I know of and I need to test for others

At this present time, no; there is no testable platform to test out the layering structure of your map. We are hoping to have this mode of testing incorporated in future releases of the Map Editor, however—pehaps if the Map Editor is configured to emulate the client's own engine for how the map-layering system is parsed, and allowing you to control an avatar's movement throughout the map.

Meanwhile, it is still distinguishable as to which layer your tiles have been placed on by deselecting top, mid or bottom layers in the Map Editor; this will cause it to only display the tiles of the layer(s) that has/have been selected. This may lack the user-friendliness and first-handedness, but it still serves as a method to help clarify whether or not the tiles have the correct placement on the map. To further delineate some guidelines to ascertain whether you have proper layer placement for tiles:

• Top layer - it's strictly used for tiles that are above the player's level, but ones that players will not collide on. Perhaps the most conspicuous examples are trees and rooftops at the tail-end of a building—tiles that you walk under, and thus ones that overlap your character's avatar.
• Mid layer - the layer wherein your character will collide with an object, such as a wall or interactable objects (especially invisible NPCs—signs, doors, etc.).
• Bottom layer - tiles that you can walk over.

For a more explanatory guide: http://forum.pokemon-world-online.net/showthread.php?tid=21042

Notwithstanding, I would not focus too intensively on blemishless layering structures at this present time. It is definitely appreciable that effort is being intensively done on working with layers; but even if it turns out to be imperfect, it isn't going to critically mar what we're mainly looking to evaluate in this showcasing: creativity and artistry. Even if there turnout to be some imperfections with the layering, that will not end up scrutinized as much as the creativity and imaginitivity exhibited in the maps—as long as there isn't a dire inadequacy of effort put into working with layers.

Hey Creo, I wanna ask,the tile or tiles of the right side of the right house of Littleroot Town are in the Tilesheets?

Donar may correct me if I've overlooked it, but from my examination of the tilesheet section used for Hoenn houses of that archetype, as well as my cursory of the tail-end tilesheets—I presume missing/late-added tiles, such as these, would be added there—no; it appears that those tiles have not been added at this time.

The Hoenn subset of tiles are not ones that we have extensively dabbled with at this present time, as they have not been required for our most intensively focused-on mapping projects as of lately, therefore some Hoenn tiles are missing. Once we look to add in missing Hoenn maps, in addition to refining what Hoenn maps have been worked on (there is much else to be added before any of these maps are near a releasable state, mind you), we will focus on collating any missing Hoenn tiles—for both the map editor and the client—to ensure we have all we need to work with.

Regardless, you are still welcome to map a similar home using other tiles. Even if it is an inexact replica of the Hoenn home used in LittleRoot Town, in the official games, it won't be problematic as long as it structurally makes sense (there are other tiles for that house that can be used for the right-end edge, as you may have noticed), and the grander-scheme creativity is still there.