TDM Beginners Contest

[SeriousToni]

Touché.

 

Heh!

[Xarg]

I think I am going to have to withdraw from the contest. Other events in life, all stacked together, have served to rob me of a lot of valuable mapping time and now I am coming up against some hitches with objectives that are giving me a fair amount of grief. It's possible that I could release the mission on time, but I fear for the quality of it, and am not sure I would want it (in its current state) to my name. If I can get this all sorted in the next day or two, it will go out for a shortened beta testing duration, but I believe that I simply no longer have enough time left before the deadline to deliver a result that I would be proud of. If so, this map will come out possibly a week or two after the deadline, as I do intend to release it when it is at least completable. Best of luck to the other contestants, I look forwards to seeing what you guys can deliver!

[RPGista]

Thats kind of a bummer. I was actually in the same situation a couple of days ago but in a strike of luck (and help from some knowledgeable guys around here (Sotha *cough* Grayman *cough* Fidcal)), I was able to solve a bunch of problems that were really blocking my progress to a large extent, so I can now see the end quite clearly. As for the quality standards, though its important to feel happy about your work and to be proud of your achievements, this is also the first try, so care must also be taken not to demand too much from a first experience, and just get it out there. But if you feel it wont be finished by the date, there's really not much a problem, just realease it as soon as possible, to me you would still be a part of the competition if you do it in time for people to vote, if not, who cares about actually winning, its just an excuse to map, we want to play missions, so just dont take too long.

Edited April 6, 2012 by RPGista

[Xarg]

Haha, thanks. I AM going to release it, I promised you guys a mission, and dammit you're gonna get one. I've asked one of the resident wizards to look at the issue, hopefully it's something really easy and it can be fixed with little effort, but after an hour of testing stuff while constantly consulting the wiki, and using another FM that had a similar objective as a basis for comparison, I still can't get it to work. A release candidate could be ready in the next day or two, but the beta test period would be so short, and I understand that the people who've offered to beta test have lives of their own, so they would have to have eyes like hawks to spot all the issues before a release. I'm gonna check back in probably 18 odd hours after Easter dinner with the relatives, and see if my salvation is waiting in the inbox, before I issue a final statement on whether or not I will be withdrawing. So far it is "most likely", though I may be able to scrape together an initial offering before the deadline. Same bat time, same bat channel etc..

[RPGista]

Exactly, you could always release the mission if possible inside the time frame, and then later carry on tewaking it to you liking, for a 1.1 later version, thats also a possibility. Im joking around but this is going to be pretty tight for me too, a lot of professional work right now, but its always like this, the last part is always the hardest. Good luck. (That reminds me that I just broke something on my map yesterday and I need some more help!)

[Xarg]

I thought about that, but this problem actually makes the mission uncompletable. Would be different if it was just shoddy brush/patchwork or a huge perf killing leak, but the mission is actually unable to be completed at the moment. If that can be resolved shortly, I can see about releasing during the time limit. Worst comes to worst, I'll just have to abandon the beta-testing phase (I test most of my stuff out as I implement it to make sure it works, so the only thing I'd be missing by skipping beta-testing would be difficulty feedback - not sure how this show-stopper made it through though :| )

[Carnage]

Besides working on my own FM now and then I do have the time to beta test on short notice Xarg, so I'd be happy to do so.

[Xarg]

Thanks Carnage, I'll probably make use of your services as a beta-tester in the near future, though it'll be after contest deadline.

[Sir Taffsalot]

Who's ready for the deadline in 2 days?

[SeriousToni]

Me - can't wait! :)

Let me guess - the players neither can't wait :P

[jysk]

Who's ready for the deadline in 2 days?

Me. ~ Edited April 11, 2012 by jysk

[BlueSkyBullet]

If you are ready then why not go ahead put out your FM now? It's close enough that you won't be forgotten (you might even benefit from the current hunger rather the the possible fatigue that 4-in-a-row could bring).

[RPGista]

Im not against this. To be honest, my hands are really full right now with work and im still getting my objectives to function (and some other things like sounds and readables) so you should expect me to be one or two days late. If nobody minds you guys should start without me, while i get this finished.

Edited April 11, 2012 by RPGista

[SeriousToni]

Oh dear! First there were many people participating for the task to build about 10 to 15 rooms for learning DR in 4 months. Now half of the folks retrieded and even the last remaining struggle to finish their maps. I mean, what were you guys doing? Did you build 150 rooms instead? o_O

 

I looked forward excitedly to the day when everyone releases his/her missions so that the community has lots of options to pick them out and play a nice TDM day. Now that's not gonna happen and it makes me feel kinda sad. I'm gonna releasing my FM tomorrow at the deadline.

[Sir Taffsalot]

Im not against this. To be honest, my hands are really full right now with work and im still getting my objectives to function (and some other things like sounds and readables) so you should expect me to be one or two days late. If nobody minds you guys should start without me, while i get this finished.

 

I have no problem if your FM is a few days late. Heh this contest needs all the entries it can get.

[Melan]

I think people ought to be given an extra week or two if they need it. And even if that's not enough, better a late map than a map that's gathering dust on someone's HD.

[RPGista]

No need to worry boys, its simple lateness due to bug fixing and bad timing. I could release it tomorrow, but id rather take a bit more time to get this right and have at least one more beta test. No need to be sad!

Edited April 11, 2012 by RPGista

[SeriousToni]

Nah!

Hope all works fine and everyone gets happy again

[Xarg]

I'm recovering from 3 weeks of nonstop mapping (and the tournament for the other mod), so in a day or two I should be "rested" enough to get back into my mission.

[SiyahParsomen]

Actually thief reloaded contest is on 2 weeks grace period too.

[Sir Taffsalot]

As the whole point of this contest is to get new mappers on board I think the rules of this contest should be less strict than the regular ones. If the other contests are fine with this I don't mind giving Xarg an extra week. Plus the contest is suffering from low entries unfortunately.

[Xarg]

It's up to everyone, as my list of stuff to do just kept expanding, I was putting in up to 6-7 hours a day in DR, and getting burnt out to the point that even with a clearly visible checklist of stuff to do, I was just flying laps in the editor trying to get my brain to work, sometimes up to 5 minutes straight, before doing 1 item then going back to aimlessly flying around, or just loading the map and looking at it ingame - which reminds me, I found some z-fighting to fix

[SiyahParsomen]

I was just flying laps in the editor trying to get my brain to work, sometimes up to 5 minutes straight, before doing 1 item then going back to aimlessly flying around, or just loading the map and looking at it ingame - which reminds me, I found some z-fighting to fix

 

you are definitely burned out. I know it from myself.

[Xarg]

Yep, losing the month of Feb really hurt, I could have been sitting on a tested and finished mission by now.

[RPGista]

Worry not my friend, nothing was lost, you just had a learning experience. That sympton can happen in any creative task that is up entirely to you (I got that in fatal moments in university); its very important to never do and invest too much on just one thing. Always have your mind busy with something else at the same time, to balance your concerns (drawing, jogging, making music, studying something completely different). If you have to work on it for very long, or feel excited about it and dont want to stop, dont stress on a single subject (say in this case, geometry building, or coming up with spaces creatively); writte a nice and interesting readable instead, or work on your briefing, how its going to be important to set the mood for the mission, or maybe devote some time to create an interesting route for a character, he will stop in front of the fire, warm hands, then he will go to a crossroads where he will choose between going to the bedroom or eating something in the kitchen, etc.etc.etc. This process often relieves the pressure from a certain part of your mind and you'll feel refreshed afterwards. Also important is to NOT let the hardest part for last (exactly what I do everytime and did here too), like its natural to feel like; knowing that you have a montrous task still not even started and the fact that you'll have to learn, test it, fix it, come back to it, all that near the end of the time, can be pretty stressful (more than used to it by now though) and makes you prone to errors.