TDM Beginners Contest

[Xarg]

I think I just calculated mine at 18 rooms for the city portion then probably another 10-15 for the [redacted], but most won't have too much in them, and 10 "real" rooms is probably what I'll end up with (with a bunch of smaller "not real" rooms for decoration).

[Sir Taffsalot]

That's fine Xarg. I'll add you to the list. I'll edit my first post and keep a list of the people who enter.

[Sixx]

I'd like to participate.

[RPGista]

Pretty cool Sixx and Xarg! Yes, I would say I'm in the same situation as Xarg, a few "rooms" that are mostly extras, to add detail to the mission, and then around 8-10 that are in fact the important ones.

Edited December 11, 2011 by RPGista

[RPGista]

Another good resource for people looking into patches and their general understanding:

 

http://www.wemakemaps.com/patchmesh.htm

 

A few differences here and there with Dark Radiant, but the general mechanics apply and there's good info in there.

[Sir Taffsalot]

I'd like to participate.

 

The more the merrier. Jump in!

[Sixx]

Mind updating the participants list? and a criteria would be nice, would give me ideas on what to emphasize, etc.

[SiyahParsomen]

RPGista,acolyte6,Xarg and Sixx good luck on this!

[Sir Taffsalot]

I think four people is enough to make this contest official. I've edited the first post with the requirements and participants. If any one has any suggestions or recommendations then please let me know. As some people have already started I don't see why the contest can't officially start today. It goes on for four months so if anybody wants to join in later and can get their map finished before the deadline I see no problem in adding them to the contest.

 

Best of luck gentlemen!

[Sotha]

Cool! This is starting to look like a real contest. Nice to see people rollin' in. Few more and we'll have an epic contest.

I got the impression the theme was free? I'll drop a few free ideas, just to help out.

 

Locations:

• A Bank or other high-security location
  
• A standard mansion heist, with multiple entries
  
• Sneak in a harbour warehouse
  
• An Underground lair
  
• Blacksmith's forge.
  
• A library. Look for a valuable tome.
  
• Forgotten ancient ruin with a twist. (monsters getting out. Builders getting into. Player triggers something horrible.)
  

Few themes with a few twists:

• A Blackmail mission: plant evidence in the location, do not be seen. Low alerts are allowed. Twist: mission turns out to be something else, the target changes as evidence is reached.
  
• An Intercept mission: catch and BJ/pickpocket a courier before he leaves the location. Or KO a thug paid to beat up your pal while he is on the move. Twist: You're not allowed to kill nor KO the thug or courier. Unseen, you must hinder his progress by closing gates city section gates or bridges. Maybe you must lure the city watch to take care of the baddie for you.
  
• Capture someone for ransom. Get in BJ, get out with the body. Twist: target is well guarded, need cleverly placed equipment to capture.
  
• An Assassination mission. Gloves are off for this one. Twist: target is well guarded, need cleverly placed equipment to eliminate.
  
• Sneak in the Alchemist's lab, make a concoction and get out. Preferrably unseen. Twist: making a mistake in brewing the potion causes an explosion, alerting everyone.
  
• Hideout Assault. You're at your hideout, when suddenly city watch comes crashing through the door. Escape. Twist: pickpocket the leader to know who sold you out.
  
• The Race. There is something valuable in a derelict location. You and someone else (AI) are competing who gets the valuable first. AI will walk steadily towards the goal. The player must beat the AI to it. Twist: AI reaching the objective first does not automatically fail the mission: it just gets more difficult: undead gets spawned, etc.
  

[SiyahParsomen]

If any one has any suggestions or recommendations then please let me know.

 

I have a suggestion in general which is critical for starters. You better check all available assets(models,sounds,prefabs...) before starting. For instance you may want to build a ancient temple, but there isn't enough assets for that.

Edited December 12, 2011 by SiyahParsomen

[Melan]

Good luck and lots of creativity to the participants! And don't be afraid to ask!

[RPGista]

At Sotha: Some pretty brilliant ideas over there, that's going to be a perfect reference for this contest! A shame I already had my mission all plotted out, or I would definetly pick up some of those suggestions. I specially liked the hideout idea, and I generally like assassination ones, so I wont complain if someone goes for that.

 

I also agree anyone willing to join anytime is welcomed, as long as they feel they can finish it inside the time frame.

 

Just as a matter of interest, you might want to know that my mission is roughly about finding and breaking into a chapel, though the interesting part is (hopefully) going to be what happens in there (I also plan on making the path worthwhile).

[Springheel]

My advice: Keep it simple.

 

Not every mission needs a twist or a dark secret to be interesting and fun. And trying to do complicated things when you're just learning the editor is a recipe for frustration and dropping out.

 

The Outpost, Thieves, Too Late and The Parcel are all straightforward missions that are small, fun and challenging. I'd strongly recommend using them as a guidepost.

[SiyahParsomen]

My advice: Keep it simple.

 

Not every mission needs a twist or a dark secret to be interesting and fun. And trying to do complicated things when you're just learning the editor is a recipe for frustration and dropping out.

 

The Outpost, Thieves, Too Late and The Parcel are all straightforward missions that are small, fun and challenging. I'd strongly recommend using them as a guidepost.

 

Absolutely. If you don't want to fail, you should pay attention to this advice. When you created something finishable, later you can polish it until deadline.

[brethren]

Just one quick thought - some U.S. taffers might see that 12/4/12 date and think we have until next December. Maybe just state that the contest runs four months for clarification.

 

And, I know it's not an exact science, but how are you defining a "room?" Would you consider, for instance, the large open area by the docks at the beginning of "Too Late" to be a room?

[Sir Taffsalot]

Thanks for pointing that out Brethren. I've put British calender in the original post. I forget that us Brits put the calender dates the right way around lol.

 

What I mean by room is a group of brushes creating a cube with content inside. That content can be anything such as a city street or even the docks like in Too Late. I said they can include city streets in the original post. I hope that makes sense.

[demagogue]

Once you start to get how visportals work (and all newbies should read the wiki page for visportals right away), you can imagine a room is basically a leaf, which all the area enclosed by brushes & visportals, everything inside of which is given over to the rendering system (or something like that) while that leaf is open. Then I think it'd just include the larger leafs (like bedrooms and street sections), not small ones like bathrooms and street corners.

[SeriousToni]

Hey there - nice to hear about this contest. As I was playing around with the editor for several times, reading some tutorials (and quit reading, and start rereading, ...) I think I need something like this, to finally create my full first mission. My skills the same as a map beginner, since I never finished even the "Beginner's Guide" (despite it is a very well written tutorial wich is fun to follow along).

 

So entering the contest would give me a deadline and forces me to start all over and create something complete.

 

You can count me in if you update the participant list and if someone can help me along with the english texts I would use in books and the mission briefing

 

Great idea - I'm in!

[Sir Taffsalot]

5 people already. That's awesome. Your added to the list.

[SeriousToni]

Cool

 

Do we open a thread for the questions of the mappers and for general exchange, or is this done via PMs?

[Sir Taffsalot]

I don't see why we can't use this thread for the mappers to communicate. You can still use PMs if you like. If you have a technical question I think it would be best to put it in the newbie DarkRadiant questions thread in the editors forum. Your more likey to get helpful response there more than anywhere else.

[nbohr1more]

Feel free to post in the Newbie Dark Radiant thread in the Editor's Guild. Or create your own questions thread there.

[SeriousToni]

Okay, thank you very much. I didn't know if it's allowed to do that in this thread. But yes.. mapping section - of course!

[SiyahParsomen]

What about posting this over ttlg? Maybe some people over there are looking for a reason to start learning darkmod mapping.