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A Mission Making Competition idea with a Twist

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This is an idea more for the Devs because you would need to have parameters set and locked in the editor for this idea so editors cannot go over the quota of units allowed etc.

 

For TLDR peeps;

A mission making contest where there are hard-limits for mission makers (Load the PREQ mission and edit it into a creative mission) each mission will look similar to one another, but how mission maker makes the most of assets given will be different. Same 'Mission Objective' for every mission maker. 48 hour competition (24hrs for Mission maker, 24hrs for voting/players), Forum Poll rating system. 

 

What if we had a monthly competition where a specific location/area is chosen and you have a limited amount of units and types inc static defenses.  If the location is going to be in an area with no fixed buildings some defenses can be added eg. a FOB there would be a preset custom composition that you have to use in the mission and perhaps a set number of sandbag walls you can add where you like etc, set up set number of static defenses etc.

 

The goal is every mission maker has the same limits, and make the best mission with those assets. The player limit could be 1-3. The objective could be given before the competition to edit a mission, and has to be the same for everyone, a SINGLE objective. Eg. Rescue VIP, Obtain documents, Steal X, Destroy Z etc whatever. 

 

A competition could be held over a weekend, Saturday for the mission makers and Sunday for the players. Player limit (Coop of 1-3) are to play. Missions have to be uploaded to workshop (perhaps a special filter tag for them) before the deadline.

 

An hour before the playing begins after the deadline to submit the mission, the uploaded entries are all listed on the BIS forums in Poll form (or something similar) where players can vote for their favorite mission or better still give a 1-10 rating. At the end, all the missions rated 10 will be played by some of the devs or judges to pick the top winning 3 (1st place, 2nd etc) or something a little more elab. eg. with ratings for creativity, fun and how easy/hard it was.

 

Even though the mission will look the same, eg. same location (within the set marker radius the PREQ mission file has as the AO) there might be a custom FOB used, it might be allowed to be placed differently with the AO) the mission goal will be the same, so it would be interesting as a player knowing everything will be similar and see how creative the mission maker got to make it as hard as he can for the player (within the rules). The ultimate goal for the Mission makers is to make the mission as hard as possible but winnable.

 

I think as a mission maker having a limit would be interesting and also might mean you get a mission made much quicker than your usual ones. There could be a 24 hour window for the mission to get made. You can't really cheat, because the rule-set and limits wont be announced until it starts.  

 

The editor would need to be set so the parameters are enforced, don't think this idea would work otherwise. And maybe no scripting is allowed?, because cheating could occur with that.  Perhaps the mission is made by BIS or select individuals in the form of all the units are placed on the location for the mission and any assets the mission maker is allowed to use also added, and this is saved as a standard editable mission. And the mission makers can just re-arrange them, setup waypoints etc..which would be a faster way to start.  Or maybe down the track if this idea takes, the competition could have a Build points added to the Eden Editor (when this mode is switched on) and you can choose what units you would like but each has a 'Build' cost, so you might have fewer units but better equipped etc. Not a new idea, but could make things more interesting...both for players and mission makers involved. 

 

Another idea to add on to this one, is having a series of competitions where the different competition missions are linked to a loose story line, after several competition events have passed (eg. 4 events) the all the top (1#) winning entries of each event/competition are connected together into a single mini-campaign.

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Way too limiting, imo. Make it easy and only define a location and a time / weather setting. Allows for more creativity and comes down to the same in the end.

 

A theme *could* be defined, but then you higher the risk of everyone doing the same thing again, which is kinda boring.

 

tl;dr - in my opinion, such a competition should be about creativity. Limits are necessary, but too many limits are just a turn-off.

 

 

That being said, I probably wouldn't mind a small competition in the style of MANW.

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Why not start one up yourself? Sounds interesting to me, and like lexx suggests, define some requirements that must be met but keep it slightly more open. An example:

Requirements for mission:

-Objective must be of the seek and destroy type

-Objective itself is open as long as it can be definitively destroyed (could be a radio tower, enemy officer, enemy vehicle, etc)

-Player and all friendly units must be OPFOR, enemies must be BLUFOR

-GREENFOR cannot be used, CIV use is optional

-Objective must be within "x" radius of grid 123456 on the map "y"

-Insertion point or mission starting point no more than 1.5km from objective

-Mission must start between "s" and "t" hours

-Weather is open

-etc etc etc

That way you have some defined structure, but the mission maker can be creative about meeting the requirements. Yes all the missions will be seek and destroy, but think about the variety of objectives you could create for that. If you really wanted to think outside the box, the objective could be to destroy the lunch table in the enemy's mess hall or something goofy like that. Or sabotage the enemy officer's personal quad bike because it will make him so sad he will surrender.

Even the classic "steal the car" concept still has a lot of room for creativity. Lots of different types of vehicles in the game to steal, and lots of different ways to go about it. Stealth, loud and fast, deception or distraction, etc.

24 hours is a bit of an extreme window, but if it was something like a week to submit the mission and then a week of playing and voting, I'd probably give it a try. If you don't want to organize one, maybe I will, I think it sounds like a fun idea.

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Maybe it would be an option to open up the overall Objective/Theme to a community suggestion and vote.

Run it from the general forum so there is more interest rather than hosting it here buried in the editing forums.

Then people who are not even interested in developing a mission can still have some input and may get a few missions to play of their suggested objective type.

Something like they do for Ludum Dare, 2 weeks for community suggestions, 1 week to vote on top # suggestions, then reveal the winning objective and any other rules with a week to get your entry in.

Run it every 4-6 months or so, so people have time to experiment and play the missions from the last event or do what ever they usually do without getting bored of a new comp coming around to quickly.

Sounds exciting i would be interested to see the kind of Objectives that get suggested, might even take part in one myself.

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I would be up for this one the rules are more defined.

Possibly limit the amount of addons that can be used as well.

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