The TR Ultimate Mod-Off

[Lady Nerevar]

So, my idea was that we could have a competition; the winner of witch would be crowned "t3h Ult1mat3 M0dd3r" (until the next competition)

This competition would involve making an interior for some exterior. The person whose interior is most creative, most lore friendly, and most generally cool wins.

Let the ideas begin!

[editz]

There will be 3 judges, and the time limit is one month. No, I haven’t come up with the claim yet.... The submission process will be done anonymously.

[Haplo]

And I will be judging from TR.

P.S., if you compete, you can't judge. So don't try.

Much love,
Slavedriver V. 2.01

[Lud]

Well there are a few basic approaches here:

1) everybody does the exact same int (fairest for judging, but most entries will be wasted)

2)everybody does a cave, which are easily inserted almost anywhre with Northmarker, etc.(no wastage)


3) Everybody does different ints, chosen form a pre-picked list (This way everybody's entry gets used and some people don't like caves, and would prefer a different type of claim. However, it wouldn't be as fair for judging)

A time limit of one month is far too short. I can work fast when I get a chance, but I mightn't even get a chance to use the CS by that time It would draw attention away from Map1 and such too. I say make it a long-term thing, with progress updates, discussion, etc.

[Massalinie]

Ok so, here's my opinion.
A claim should be picked and then everybody builds that claim, we have one month to do it.
Nobody knows who the judges are until the very end.
After the month is up, each claim is given a number and given to the judges. The claimers don't know their numbers and they don't know the judges. Then the judges decide together on the best, they can either do best claim, or top 3 or whatever.

I think this is a great way to get big claims moving, the only thing i dislike about it, is that all the work that the other modders did just gets wasted, and the only one kept is the winner. Seems like a waste of what could have been valuable modding time.

[Edit] Posted the same time as ludovic. I think that it would be best if we did, as lud said, a cave, so that there is room for creativity and all can be used somewhere sooner or later, or his last idea, where we each choose from a list.[/Edit]

[Lady Nerevar]

Everyone gets the same int, but something big that is extremely versatile. Since this is for fun, I don’t think it maters that the others are not included....

[Massalinie]

Well, I think it matters because it does use up valuable time. (that said, many of those big ints aren't going anywhere anyway)
Also, I see another problem, if the arcitecture if all the same, or the main frame of it anyway, that doesn't leave an awful lot of room for creativity. Caves and ruins have a lot of opportunity to express ones self and also people can learn from each other's good ideas.

[Edit] ok, heres another thing, if you have a month to do each of these competitions, that's an awful long time for everybody to be working on one claim. I guarantee that if we do this, there will be a large number of people wanting to participate, and that is going to mean that a huge chunk of the community if working on one claim for a whole month. That's a whole month in which those people aren't doing any other work, unless the finish it early, in which case, the deadline wouldn't need to be so long.

[Lady Nerevar]

well, caves and ruins are just that, caves and ruins. something like i3-59(for example) could be anything... from a museum, to an apartment, to a secret vamprire layer...

one of the chalanges of bieng a "teh Ult1mat3 M0dd3r" s bieng able to work with what your given.

[Lud]

Well, I wouldn't like to mod, thinking that my claim would more than likely be discarded.

I have to say again that a month is way too short.

Massie's way of doing things anonymously is fairer, but we wouldn't be able to give screenies or progress updates then. (unless we all got a new account specifically for this with a username like "Competitor 1", etc- technically this is against rules though)

EDIT: from the point of view of caves versus others, I would have to go with caves as they give the oppportunity for greater creativity

[Massalinie]

Lady N: ooh... that's a good point actually. I hadn't thought of that.

But we still have the problem of time.

Ludovic: there shouldn't be any screens posted anyway because that'd give away your ideas. In order for each one to be unique, the modders shouldn't discuss their ideas with each other. IMO, but we don't have to have the judges annonymous if we don't want to. That was just my first thought to make it fair. Our judges shouldn't have bias and we need to be certain that they don't.

[Edit] in response to Lud's edit: What lady N just said was that if we pick an int that hasn't got a description and allow the modders to choose and make it whatever they want, then they will have a lot of opportunity to be creative and make the int whatever they like. (it could even have a secret cave underneath it...[/edit]

[Lud]

Yes but then we're wasting work again. A lot fewer people will compete if their work could go to waste.

As far as giving progress updates goes, I have to say that it would undoubtably be more fun to watch people's claims in progress. I would take much less pleasure from secretly working on an esp. This way we could all improve our skills. Personally, I think having fun with modding is more imortant than winning at any cost. Anyway, I doubt anybody here would be so low as to steal somebody else's ideas in the competition. It would be pretty obvious to see, too.

[Vrenir]

Perhaps you could pick something that is not 100% unique. The exteriors for shops and I think some mansions in Morrowind were used multiple times. Perhaps you could pick a large exterior that can show up at least three or four times, that way (even though there is one winner) there are at least a handful of runners-up who can be used.

[Massalinie]

Which brings us back to square one.

It's an idea that's got to be ironed out a lot I'd say. Not a bad one, but it really needs some work.

IMO, the best solution is to all have different claims to work on, and have them judged. The only problem is that they become harder to judge when they are all different.

[Lady Nerevar]

indeed. i have seem many exelent claims during my year here, but its imposible to determine wich one is best because they are all different.

[Lud]

The problem with Vrenir's idea is that it works fine for small houses, but you can't vey well have 4 or 5 identical castles.

Maybe everybody doing caves would be best. Just the description of "cave" and everything else up to the modder (within reason)

What do you think about secrecy, LadyN?
Screenies and discussion (the way I would prefer) or secretly modding and then unveiling (like Mass said)

[Massalinie]

Ludovic: we can put that sort of thing to a vote later and see who would rather do what

[Nanu]

Well, I would say that caves are a good choice, like Ludovic said, they can be put about anywhere.

Not being a reviewer, I don't know if there is some sort of grading scale, but if there isn't you might want to get one together. It would be more fair to the modders that way.

At any rate, if the judges aren't kept secret, I'd like to judge. I've been in the community for less than a week; therefore, no bias. I do have a taste for quality, so I'd be a good choice.

[Nomadic1]

I like this idea (I don't like that you SPAMmed up myh SPAM thread when you came up with it ).

One month sounds good. Three judges also good. I don't really see the point in anonymity, although I'm not sure if being a reviewer has made me look at the interior and not even notice / care who made it or not.

I like the idea of caves. But what happens if, say, 30 caves are submitted. That's a lot of caves to fit in, and they'd all be elaborate and fancy. Maybe a top number of caves or something gets selected, say a Top 5. It is far less likely someone's work is just going to be discarded then.

[Nanu]

I can't see any problems with 30 elaborate caves. You could just put them on hold, I'd say that the inside of a rock structure in High Rock or Black Marsh would look the same as in Morrowind. The contents would just have to changed a bit.

[Xui'al]

Why not use these in massive, complicated interiors for Morrowind? (ex: Firewatch Palace) That way the winner's work will be remembered, and we will be accomplishing something.

Or was that implied above?

[Nanu]

I was talking as if we were doing large caves, but I tend to agree with you Xui'al.

[Xui'al]

I just think that it is the best way to do it, as a modding competition within a mod project is a waste of time unless in contributes to the project. People might as well use their best work in the mod.

[Nanu]

Agreed, we just need the Lady's opinion on it, seeing as this is her thread.

[Nomadic1]

The problem is that there need to be small sized, medium sized, and non-complicated interiors in Morrowind too. The type of interiors which a project like this would produce would break the TR stance on doing what Bethesda would do since they would not make every interior extraordinary. Also, it is only in comparison with mediocrity that extraordinary shines.

[Nanu]

Also, it is only in comparison with mediocrity that extraordinary shines.

Wow, that was a good phrase, are you a professor of Theology?

No one ever saw a comment here did they?

[Saibot]

Except that the Morrowind is the only province being done in the TES 3 engine.

[Nanu]

Then I guess that I agree with Nomadic1.

[Haplo]

Now now, there's no need to reply when you've already edited your previous post in accordance with Nomadic1. Silly Nanu.

[Nomadic1]

Also, it is only in comparison with mediocrity that extraordinary shines.

Wow, that was a good phrase, are you a professor of Theology?

No, I just made it up. In my spare time I am 6th Century western European sage.

[Cyax]

I think the best way to do it would be to do something similar to the WSG in the concept art forum, just have a brief description of whats required(maybe some suggestions) and let the modders do the rest.

[Stalker]

The problem is that a month for a cave is a very long time period. Plus again, here comes the question of where to put all submissions. Oh and best interior doesn't necessary mean most scripted, with biggest waterfalls and sexiest loot.

[Lutemoth]

Ooh! ooh! Can I wave the flag to signal the competition?

[img]http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/852/race26wq.jpg[/img]
[/spam]

[Lady Nerevar]

oh, yes you do you know i want to see those sexy artist's muscles

[Swiftoak]

Not to be an ass or anything, but I think we should do the dwemer ruin comples of Arkgnthleft (in my claim 3-7).

It is very flexible, it's smugglers den AND ruin at the same time. This, you can work with diffrent tilesets cave and dwe (like Arkgnthand near Balmora)

Just a suggestion.

Aww Lute, I didn't need to see that j/k
[/spam]

[ENIGMA*]

this whole thing is deviating from our project at hand


Morrowind

finish map 1 along side the release of Oblivion or a little later then have your TES 4 CS mod off seems a better solution

[Lud]

I don't see this as diverting us from our goals at all. The awy I see it is that we spend a while making some nice and impressive claims, while continuing work with other stuff. After a defined period, we will all submit lots of high quality work. In fact, this competition will probably provide an extra incentive to work.

By the way Swiftoak, I don't see a half-bandit/half dwemer ruin as being a good choice for this. It may be a good claim, but it has a very unique and defined purpose and thus limits creativity. Also, due to the fact that dwemer/cave connectors are only available in one cave style, we would be stifled even further.

Maybe we could have a size limit so that the claims wouldn't be too overdone.

[ENIGMA*]

yes but why have a mod compition on a CS we know all to well?

why not do one on a new CS whe have no clue of?

that seems more logical as to determine "The Greatest Modder" as the gratest modder would realize interiors of diffrent designs on the fly without a key, ie: De, Imp, excetra.

[Nomadic1]

By the way Swiftoak, I don't see a half-bandit/half dwemer ruin as being a good choice for this. It may be a good claim, but it has a very unique and defined purpose and thus limits creativity. Also, due to the fact that dwemer/cave connectors are only available in one cave style, we would be stifled even further.

You just have no imagination. You can connect any two interior styles together. You just need to be creative about it, and work at it to make it seemless. And there is so much you can do with Dwemer ruins (I've made one) and the smuggling would add another level. Either a ruin or a cave would be great

[Swiftoak]

The ruin in question. Arkgnthleft.

[img]http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a331/Swiftoak/arkgnthleft.jpg[/img]