Christmas "Connections" Contest 2021 - [ Winner "Iris" ]

[thebigh]

Christmasy enough for the Christmas contest?

 

 

The local Watch guard kicked his head off for being right on his patrol route, but it's the thought that counts right?

[Mezla]

On 10/4/2021 at 6:49 PM, thebigh said:

Join the contest Mezla! The more the merrier.

Thank you for your kind words, but I'm 'too small' to compete and lost in the real world* recently, so... 
I'm sure there will be lots of amazing missions created by the great minds of this community! 

*not 'nuff taffin' observed, rawr

Edited October 13, 2021 by Mezla

[jonri]

The backstory to my still-WIP warehouse FM contains a few loose connections already, so I've decided to flesh it out a little more and turn the story into its own little FM for the challenge.  I've given myself a cap on the number of "rooms" to avoid feature creep, and I'm about 80% done with the blockout.  Hopefully the deadline will help me push this one over the finish line, plus having a prequel will let me cut back on the intro and readables in the following FM.

[thebigh]

Sounds like you're making good progress. I'm about 80% of the way through making the layout as well. As for the connections, I already refer to my only released level as well as the one that was 60% complete before I shelved it to work on the Christmas contest.

[Dragofer]

It's very much looking like I won't be able to make a contest FM with what's going on in RL - but I'll be happy to help out any participants with scripted setups (just describe what you want to do and it can probably be done) and advise on implementing new 2.10 features:

- advanced security cameras

- "x-ray" screens that can change the appearance (skin, model, render order) of things seen through them (not documented yet)

- official support for tracking secrets

Note that the contest deadline currently ends about 1-2 months before the expected 2.10 release date, so apart from x-ray screens (which have just been updated in 2.10 to support AIs) dev builds would be required until then.

[thebigh]

Sorry to hear you have to drop out.

Of the cool new 2.10 features I already used tracking secrets.

Do you know if there's a complete list of new stuff added for each version?

[Dragofer]

20 minutes ago, thebigh said:

Do you know if there's a complete list of new stuff added for each version?

A while back I made a rough summary of what's been added in recent versions:

• 2.10: security camera overhaul, xrays expanded to AIs, official support for secrets, new furniture, subtitles
• 2.09: animated prefab of the steam engine, new assets (furniture, fireflies, ambient AIs, blue fire elementals, Eve statue, naval clock)
• 2.08: xrays, new monsters (beastmen, running zombies, rudimentary werebeast, flamebearing skeletons), new assets (body bags, scientific instruments/papers, covered furniture, various Dragofer's stuff including decorative ship models)
• 2.07: more Springheel modules, a few new assets

 

[Anderson]

1 hour ago, thebigh said:

Sorry to hear you have to drop out.

Of the cool new 2.10 features I already used tracking secrets.

Do you know if there's a complete list of new stuff added for each version?

https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/changelog_page.php

Edited October 27, 2021 by Anderson

[thebigh]

Yeah, I found stuff like that. But "some new modules" isn't super informative if I want to put in one that was specifically added in 2.08. I don't know how to find that out. Oh well, I suppose it doesn't really matter.

[Dragofer]

Yeah, the most detailed lists currently are the update changelogs on the Wiki, which are what my rough list was compiled from, together with my recollection. Would need someone to go through the SVN log to get a more precise list.

[nbohr1more]

1 hour ago, thebigh said:

Yeah, I found stuff like that. But "some new modules" isn't super informative if I want to put in one that was specifically added in 2.08. I don't know how to find that out. Oh well, I suppose it doesn't really matter.

Did you check out the Moddb release articles?

https://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dark-mod/articles

[kingsal]

@nbohr1more A few of us have been discussing a deadline extension on this. I know for me, its going to be pretty tight to get my mission tested and ready, especially with holidays and traveling

What are peoples thoughts? Maybe push the deadline until mid - late January?

[Amadeus]

9 minutes ago, kingsal said:

@nbohr1more A few of us have been discussing a deadline extension on this. I know for me, its going to be pretty tight to get my mission tested and ready, especially with holidays and traveling

What are peoples thoughts? Maybe push the deadline until mid - late January?

I second this. The deadline is getting extremely tight, especially with the holidays, so a few more weeks would be super helpful

[Dragofer]

@Goldwell@thebigh @jonri@DeTeEffare further confirmed/possible contest participants I'm aware of - what's your stance on a deadline extension past the original Christmas deadline?

Personally I think the most sense would be if the deadline were aimed at the 2.10 release date since part of the contest idea is to reward use of 2.10 features. But this is 1 1/2 months later (middle of Feb) than the original deadline, so it might be unfair if some of the entrants designed their mission on a small scale to be sure to meet the original deadline.

[kingsal]

3 hours ago, Dragofer said:

But this is 1 1/2 months later (middle of Feb) than the original deadline, so it might be unfair if some of the entrants designed their mission on a small scale to be sure to meet the original deadline.

Thats a good point.  An extra 1 1/2 months might be too much, but moving it a couple weeks to avoid the holidays would be nice. 

[Goldwell]

3 hours ago, Dragofer said:

@Goldwell@thebigh @jonri@DeTeEffare further confirmed/possible contest participants I'm aware of - what's your stance on a deadline extension past the original Christmas deadline?

Personally I think the most sense would be if the deadline were aimed at the 2.10 release date since part of the contest idea is to reward use of 2.10 features. But this is 1 1/2 months later (middle of Feb) than the original deadline, so it might be unfair if some of the entrants designed their mission on a small scale to be sure to meet the original deadline.

I am in favor of extending the release date as well.

 

It makes more sense to have the contest deadline after 2.10's release so we can use the new features from day 1 of releasing our missions.

[nbohr1more]

I have no objections to extending the release but whatever is decided please keep in mind that the 2.10 features are

a "risk \ reward scenario"*

This means that you can release a mission that only works on the 2.10 dev builds:

but voting will remain open until the a few days after the 2.10 release.

The idea being that we are providing extra incentive for players to test 2.10 beta.

[Wellingtoncrab]

I would definitely make use of the time if the deadline was as close to the 2.10 release as possible! I imagine a lot of missions with February releases would be in the beta testing phase in the months prior to the 2.10 release, which hopefully would still mean more 2.10 testing get’s done as result of the contest.

[jonri]

I'll make use of however much extension time is decided upon.  I think being closer to the 2.10 release makes sense, maybe add the month of January to the contest.  This would still leave a couple post-deadline weeks before the 2.10 release.  If beta testers for the contest maps shake out additional bugs that get fixed during January, it might work out that an official beta or release candidate build could be timed to coincide with the contest deadline.

 

[thebigh]

I think extending the deadline to around the middle of January makes sense.

[DeTeEff]

Not gonna participate in this one I'm afraid. Still working on my mission though

[nbohr1more]

So, since I do not work on Friday and Saturday, how about a January 28th dead-line?

Any objections?

[Amadeus]

No objections from me

[Wellingtoncrab]

I will take any extension on the table so it sounds good to me!

[kingsal]

Works for me! Thanks