Future contests: types, rules & recommendations (looong)

General discussions pertaining to the Armadillo Run Forum Contests should go here. Also contains the classic contest threads.

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Postby BioDroid » Wed Aug 09, 2006 10:51 pm

I dont like the fact you split up in two categories. Because we are not enough players...
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Postby PeterT » Wed Aug 09, 2006 11:07 pm

Have you downloaded the last .zip?

Anyway, there's nothing stopping everyone from participating in all the contests. :twisted:
But realistically, I believe that around 5 participants are all that is necessary to make a contest meaningful. Additional ones on top of that are of course great!

Also, even if every particapant in the last classic contest only does either A or B in the future, that's still 8 per contests. However, as I'm certain that I will play both A and B, and that many other people will as well, there should easily be around 10 participants - and that's if the forum just stops growing. All in all, I don't think that it will be much of a problem.
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Postby dudiobugtron » Wed Aug 09, 2006 11:27 pm

Just a question - for the A contest, does the winner of the Sun-wed one make the level for wed-sun, or for the following sun-wed?
Having a level prepared to go when you are trying to tweak your winning solutions seems a bit of a tall order!

Same with the B contest - shouldn't there be a day or two's grace for the winner to come up with the next level?
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Postby kingofthespill » Thu Aug 10, 2006 7:59 am

Back to your "A" time description, I like 1.5 hours for a average player. That seems about right to me. My recent level seems underneath that :?.
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Postby kingofthespill » Thu Aug 10, 2006 9:14 am

dudiobugtron wrote:Just a question - for the A contest, does the winner of the Sun-wed one make the level for wed-sun, or for the following sun-wed?
Having a level prepared to go when you are trying to tweak your winning solutions seems a bit of a tall order!

Same with the B contest - shouldn't there be a day or two's grace for the winner to come up with the next level?


Good questions and points. Perhaps we need to encourage people to have something in reserve, or have a fallback plan like volunteer hosting.
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Postby BioDroid » Fri Aug 11, 2006 4:45 am

Personally I like void or semivoid (with minimal amout of material) levels best. (like most of the classic contest levels)
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Postby PeterT » Fri Aug 11, 2006 5:22 am

kingofthespill wrote:Back to your "A" time description, I like 1.5 hours for a average player. That seems about right to me. My recent level seems underneath that :?.

I agree, updated the draft. The only point that remains totally unresolved is the score-posting regulation. Unless more people speak up in favour of one of the alternatives, I'll just continue with the current rules regarding that for now.

Any strong objections to anything else in the updated first post?
I plan to make the definitive rule threads before sunday, so tell me sooner rather than later ;)
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Postby BFC » Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:09 am

About the score posting:

Can we perhaps entertain the ability for the level author to implement a "black out" rule for type B levels if they desire? Purely as an optional and implementable rule for B type levels only.

That should allow some future testing of the idea as well without making it a concrete rule now.

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Postby kingofthespill » Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:11 am

Maybe the "B" would be a good place to try out the 100 increment approach. That is intended to be more difficult, and that seems like a realistic compromise between saying nothing or so much that you influence people. Chatting is a community activity, something that I suppose isn't that much about competing.

Sometimes people are silent because they really have a chance of winning, and that wouldn't change. I knew not to post about my last dark-force contest solution. It was so economical that one could deduce what I used in terms of parts. Going from that to an identical solution seems possible :?
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Postby BFC » Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:53 am

It was so economical that one could deduce what I used in terms of parts.


Yep, I am guilty of figuring things out from this in the past. As you get more used to playing I think it becomes quite easy to deduce what "the other guy" is doing from scores.

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Postby kingofthespill » Sat Aug 12, 2006 8:41 pm

It might be good to create an archive zip of the Euro Gamer contests as a reference. At this point there are many user created levels, more than the game's built in supply :). The problem is that it's getting easy to make a level that is really close to one that has already been made and solved.

If it is close to another level, I think people need to be encouraged to add a twist.

Something about the design contest occurs to me. We could run a "most inventive solution" contest where everyone solves the same level. Not that different from regular contests, but using voting rather than not the cheapest solution.
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Postby BioDroid » Sun Aug 13, 2006 3:29 am

Im sure there is lots of new problems that can be invented, or alikes with material restrictions..
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