Guild of Writers

Hi all, its been a while since we've had a contest here, and since the last one, a few interesting things have happened...

Cyan has released the 3dsmax plugin.
MOUL has started back up, as MOULagain.
RAWA has posted his guidelines, as well.

So, with these things in mind... I'd like to suggest a new contest, similar to the RAD and DAWN contests, but,this time, with the theme of locations in D'ni.

Lately, on the MOUL forums, there has been some suggestion that fan authors cannot be trusted with the ability to create locations in D'ni, for they would destroy canon. However, there has also been Lehm's "Guild Hall" model. I'd suggest that this contest could be a good opportunity to show we can, indeed, manage to produce good/inspired/canon-friendly/immersive locations in D'ni.

I'd like some suggestions on rules, etc. I'd go for Cyan textures/some cyan models would be allowed, for one thing, as Cyan has mentioned they'd prefer their textures for the cavern, at least. and, seeing as how this is themed around D'ni location, it should be alright.

But, yeah, what do you all think of this?


EDIT: Contest is now closed.

End Date:
End of August.

Cyan Content:
1. You may use Cyan's artwork (It's textures) when it falls to staples of D'ni and when the textures are part of a staple of D'ni.
2. You may use Cyan's models ONLY when those models are a staple of D'ni. Basically if the model has been used in one or more locations In D'ni it becomes a staple of D'ni life. It's like a lamp post on a street corner. Most of them will look the same regardless of what city you go to.

Theme:
D'ni locations.

Explorable Size:
Hood Size or Smaller.

Prizes:
Bragging Rights.

Clarification:
Locations must be in the Age of D'ni (aka Earth) and MUST be D'ni-related.

EDIT2: Updated cyan content rules, at request.

EDIT3: updated formatting.

EDIT4: Seems I have not included some of the discussion further down.

EDIT5: Entries are now CLOSED!

EDIT6: The winner has been decided! Congratulations to Rustee for the winning entry: Vothol Gallery!

Thanks to everyone who participated!

Sounds like a great idea, kaelis - but we already have 2 ages in the cavern that are amazing.. You and Chloe IMO have already shown that fans are very capable of creating D'ni areas that - if someone visited them without knowing they were fan-made they wouldn't know the difference. Nuff said about that, but contests are always cool.

Time to get working on that Opera House I sketched a month ago

I like the idea of another contest and was thinking about bringing it up myself (though I was thinking of just throwing the rules out there and saying go do it) over the summer.

D'ni locations puts a pretty interesting twist on things. I would like to propose that there be a limit on how many Cyan textures can be used however. If I were Mr. Judge wandering though these ages, I would get pretty bored of seeing the same textures over and over again. Perhaps we could extract and provide the "staple" textures (cavern wall, a few floor textures, and some common D'ni floor symbols) and require no other Cyan textures be used? I like to see creativity, and I'm a little afraid that it would be all too easy to make a cavern location out of 90% Cyan textures without even realizing it. The Writers' Niche is a perfect example of this (I went through the textures PRP and discovered that there were maybe only 5 non-Cyan textures).

That sound like a good idea. Previous contests were always a good occasion to push people to produce great new Ages.

I'll add a twist to the idea though: wouldn't a contest be a great occasion for Cyan to designate the first fan Age to be added to MOULa?
It is a far shot; but the discussion of how to choose the 1st Age(s) to be added has been going on since the Max plugins were released and a contest seem like the perfect solution to me. Such a contest would need to last a while off course, probably enough time for Cyan to put a couple necessary things in place on their side. And what better prize for such a contest than to be integrated in the game? If anything it would push people even more to produce wonderful Ages.

But that would require people to use 3DS Max to build the age for the contest, which - judging from thread activity - only two or three people currently do.

Diafero wrote:But that would require people to use 3DS Max to build the age for the contest

Currently yes. But as I mentionned such a contest would last a while and would be a long term project.
Again, previous contests have proven great occasions to foster productivity here. And that could be true for Drizzle, PyPRP or other tools as well. Designing/Modelling/Mapping/Lighting an Age is what takes the most time. Integration & wiring issues can be put on the back burner for a bit if we are confident that the necessary tools can be written in due time before the end of the contest. (I agree it's a big if )

Tsar Hoikas wrote:I like the idea of another contest and was thinking about bringing it up myself (though I was thinking of just throwing the rules out there and saying go do it) over the summer.

D'ni locations puts a pretty interesting twist on things. I would like to propose that there be a limit on how many Cyan textures can be used however. If I were Mr. Judge wandering though these ages, I would get pretty bored of seeing the same textures over and over again. Perhaps we could extract and provide the "staple" textures (cavern wall, a few floor textures, and some common D'ni floor symbols) and require no other Cyan textures be used? I like to see creativity, and I'm a little afraid that it would be all too easy to make a cavern location out of 90% Cyan textures without even realizing it. The Writers' Niche is a perfect example of this (I went through the textures PRP and discovered that there were maybe only 5 non-Cyan textures).

Well, technically, Cyan has expressed that they would rather we use /their/ textures for cavern locations. That, and not all of us are texturers, yet can still create decent ages. We are a /modding/ community, after all, and personally, I think its time we at least accepted that side of us.

Regarding the writer's niche, I personally find the issue there, is the /way/ the textures are used, rather than the issue being the textures that /are/ being used. That, and the d'ni numbering signs are... waaay off.

I'd participate in such a contest, provided it doesn't start until I'm done with school.

Regardless of possible MOULa implication I still think that a new contest is a good idea.