Posts from "Mapmaker 2014" Contest

Well, what can I say here... It's certainly unexpected that people still remember me and are even willing to vote for my maps. Thank you all; perhaps I'll be able to return to this someday. Overall, I'd like to say two things about the contest. First, the location of this section is completely inconvenient. I'm sure that if the organizers created a separate, pinned thread in the maps section, there would be SIGNIFICANTLY more voters. Second, and this is obvious, mapmaking, in my opinion, is slowly but surely dying out. And there's nothing surprising or terrible about that; it's a rather obvious and expected thing. Everything comes to an end sooner or later. Nevertheless, I'm very glad that there are creative people who are willing to spend their time, energy, and effort on such things; that's really great and wonderful. I express my enormous gratitude to the organizers of the contest, all the participants, and those who voted. The fifth installment of the game rests on your shoulders, as well as on the shoulders of a small group of online players. I apologize for writing this message before the official end of the event, but I might forget or not find the time later. All the best to everyone.

First of all, the location of this section is ABSOLUTELY inconvenient. I'm sure that if the organizers created a separate, pinned topic in the maps section, there would be SIGNIFICANTLY more votes.

Unfortunately, this section is designated for contests. But it's not convenient, that's true. It would be much better if it was always visible, like a beacon....

Secondly, of course, map creation, in my opinion, is slowly but surely dying out. And there's nothing surprising or terrible about that; it's a rather obvious and expected thing. Everything comes to an end sooner or later.

The game is quite old and not the most iconic in the series. There's not much to expect from it anymore.

Nevertheless, I'm very glad that there are creative people who are willing to spend their time, energy, and effort on such things; that's really great and wonderful.
I express my great gratitude to the organizers of the contest, all the participants, and those who voted. The fifth installment is currently being kept alive thanks to you and a small group of online players.

Thank you again to everyone!

Well, in the future, maybe I'll be able to tweak the system and either ask the Creator to help, or come up with something myself to make the map layout better.
Dushman voted for all the maps, haha.

Unexpectedly, of course, that people still remember me and are even willing to vote for my maps.

In 2014, you did a great job, as far as I remember, so… it all makes sense. I hope we’ll see more of your maps.
Now let's go.
You know, we made the polls incorrectly.) We should have forced people to vote for the best map in each category, otherwise, something strange happened with these two maps in multiplayer.) Naturally, both were liked by many people.
So, I haven’t played card games myself for a long time (except rarely), so I had to open both contenders in the editor (well, what can you do).
All roads lead to Rome. A huge map, with a very large number of objects, immediately consumed my memory and reduced the resolution of the textures ;) Nevertheless, judging by the corresponding thread, people didn’t have any performance problems on this map. Either everyone is silent like partisans... But knowing our people, unlikely.
I really liked the appearance of the map. The details are well-designed, there are a lot of them. Considering the size of the map... Yes, serious work was done. Also, the asymmetrical style itself is pleasing; that’s cool. Another question is how balanced the asymmetry of the map is... In my humble opinion, it’s not ideal. But… I didn’t calculate all sorts of paths and distances on the map; I might be wrong, and I also didn’t play this map, maybe then my opinion would change. And yet... If you look at Africa (a small piece of land in the Southwest, belonging to the Academy of Magic), you can see that the balance is not maintained for this faction due to the need for academy students to sail on ships. If there were some kind of portal there, we could argue, but as it is... Either the Academy will be too comfortable (no one bothers them, they develop, occasionally make sorties), or their opponents will quickly capture all of Italy and then go to “punish” the academics who have stagnated in development). This is a minus. Otherwise, the map is simply wonderfully good!
Heart of the Volcano. A conditionally symmetrical map with a dungeon. Slightly smaller in size, but the design is also excellent. The dungeon looks interesting, like a sea, and in the middle is a hole... Cool... But a little too grotesque, as well as on the surface. Although the original style... But I don't know, it seems a bit angular.)
The balance seems to be quite balanced. An additional plus is random cities, so such a map will get boring after fewer replays.
Additionally, of course, I’d like to think about the fact that Jass is an experienced cartographer, and I would like to finally give him a medal. But on the other hand, I would like to encourage a newcomer... In general, this is too complicated; let’s throw away subjective factors. We will evaluate based on what has been described above.
And…
And…
[Pompous music]
I choose "Heart of the Volcano", ta-da!
But in general, it’s a stupid situation that I am actually deciding alone who gets the medal; I don’t want this to happen again. For the future, we need to take into account such mistakes...
In the vote, I will give everyone 1 vote, imitating Durman. After all, most of the maps presented here would really appeal to me. And if something didn’t appeal to me, I still don’t have time to figure it out.

Since the final results have not yet been announced, I would like to express my gratitude to the organizers for holding this contest. The voting results showed how small the world of these five heroes is. To prevent it from shrinking even further, such contests should be combined with a common theme for the maps. References in the organizers' signatures are good, but many website visitors fall into the category of "a writer who doesn't read." Special thanks to **Ment** for his initiative – it was both beautiful and necessary. Now, about the voting format. Multiple choice is poison! This poison tainted the final document, as it was the choice that the person who advocated for it ended up with. In addition, the submissions were organized by map categories: campaign, single-player/multiplayer. The resulting table turned out to be completely without any distinguishing marks: the campaign was equated with a single-player map. There was no need to create such a mess. Every experience is proportional to the amount of material wasted. Let's hope for the best when conducting the next similar contest.

1) We barely managed to find one topic. If there were 3 topics, it would be a real disaster... (if the voting wasn't for Multiplayer).
2) Regarding the final table: after the contest, few people will visit this topic; it will get lost, so it won't be of much use.
3) However, badges in profiles will give us a hint that the maps by this author are good.
4) I agree with Heart of the Volcano.
5) Ment, I voted so that no map has 0 votes; according to the rules, the organizer can vote if there is a tie, and there was one. Also, we decided on the winner, albeit through a slightly different method.



So, let's summarize the results:

In the "Best Map Collection of 2014" category, Unicorn Empire by RedHeavenHero wins.

In the "Best Single-Player Map of 2014" category, Two Sisters by Heroist wins.

In the "Best Multiplayer Map of 2014" category, Heart of the Volcano by MasteR wins.

As a reward, the maps will be pinned in the Maps section, and the authors will receive badges in their profiles corresponding to their nominations.

P.S. The names of the categories may be changed.

Congratulations to the winners!

Thank you to all participants!

Badges in profiles will be added later.

Lastly, I wanted to talk about the awards.

• A request to award medals to the winners will be sent to our admin soon.
• I think it would be fair if the creators of the winning maps left a corresponding post in the thread for their maps, with a link to this contest. When the medals are ready, they can be attached as well. This should boost interest in the winning maps, and it will also look nice and impressive.

The medals are still in development; I'm a bit behind schedule with their creation. However, I should mention that the winning maps have been given the "important" status on their respective forums until the end of 2015, meaning they will remain at the top of the map section and be visible to everyone throughout the year. That's the plan.